Advertising expenditure in Europe is expected to grow by 3.9% in 2008, despite real economic growth slowing to just 1.8%, according to a new forecast published by the World Advertising Research Center in association with the Advertising Association.UK adspend is expected to rise by 3.5% this year, while adspend in the US is set to… Continue reading European Adspend Forecast To Grow 4% In 2008

Last week in the City, UTV, the owner of talkSPORT, reported a 2% increase in group revenues for 2007, to £115.6 million.The company’s operating profit, including associate income and before exceptional charges was up 5% from £24.8 million in 2006, to £26 million (Full Story).JCDecaux reported worldwide revenues of more than €2 billion (£1.5 billion)… Continue reading Media In The City: UTV Reports 2% Increase In Revenues

ITV has signed a deal to show all of this season’s Formula 1 races live on its broadband TV service.Beginning with this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix, the broadcaster will be offering new and exclusive interactive action and news plus post race highlight packages, located at itv.com/F1.As part of the deal, itv.com will stream live simulcasts… Continue reading ITV To Show Formula 1 Online

Last night saw BBC One air a special edition of The Apprentice in aid of Sport Relief, featuring celebrities such as Phil Tufnell and Kirstie Allsop.It was pretty good viewing too, as the boys clashed over who should be team leader while the girls went ahead and got on with things.The hour long show, on… Continue reading BBC One Bags The Viewers With Apprentice Special

AOL is to buy leading social networking website Bebo in an $850 million (£417 million) cash deal.Bebo, founded by Michael and Xochi Birch in 2005, claims to have 11.4 million unique users in the UK and a worldwide membership of more than 40 million.In a statement released this afternoon, AOL said that the deal would… Continue reading AOL To Buy Bebo For $850m

thelondonpaper‘s circulation remained relatively static period on period in February, with a total figure of almost 501,000 copies.The London Lite‘s circulation increased by around 0.5% period on period, to more than 400,000 copies.The paid-for title, the Evening Standard, suffered a minor drop, of almost 2.5% period on period, leaving its total circulation at over 288,000.Morning… Continue reading thelondonpaper Remains Ahead Of London Lite

Digital only magazines have the potential to be hugely successful, but it is imperative that publishers get the distribution models right for their audiences.This was one of the themes at today’s MediaTel Group seminar on the ‘Future of Consumer Magazines’, with e-zines such as Dennis Publishing’s Monkey and the National Magazine Company’s Jellyfish, which was… Continue reading Digital Magazines Could Be Hugely Successful

Magazines should not just duplicate their content online, but rather use the medium as an opportunity to engage differently with users, according to one of the panellists at today’s MediaTel Group seminar on the ‘Future of Consumer Magazines’.Duncan Edwards, chief executive of The National Magazine Company, said: “Our perspective is not to put our content… Continue reading Magazine Websites Should Not Just Duplicate Print Content

Last week in the City, Gcap Media turned down a revised takeover bid from Global Radio, which valued the company at £333 million.GCap said that the revised proposal “significantly undervalues the company because it does not reflect the value that would be created by implementing the strategy of the new chief executive, Fru Hazlitt” (Full… Continue reading Media In The City: GCap Turns Down Revised Global Radio Bid

The latest regional ABC figures, for July to December 2007, show that all of the top ten paid for regional titles recorded declines in their circulations.Within the free regional newspaper groups category, there was a big increase for Northcliffe Newspapers Group, up by around 21.5%, or 502,000 copies year on year.Paid Regional Newspaper GroupsNone of… Continue reading ABC Regional Newspapers: July-December 2007