Jeff Henry, chief executive of Granada Sky Broadcasting, is to leave the company in the near future, after assisting shareholders in finding a replacement. After his appointment to the company he created a strategy for the redefinition of the Plus, Breeze and Men & Motors brands. He now says he wants a new challenge. Colin… Continue reading Appointments Brief
Channel 4’s new digital entertainment channel, E4, is still awaiting board approval but expectation of its launch has already forced other major broadcasters to look carefully at their digital entertainment offerings. BSkyB decided to reposition Sky One after it lost the rights to Friends and ER to the new venture (see Sky One To Compete… Continue reading E4 Forces Broadcasters To Consider Digital Entertainment Offerings
An announcement made yesterday that Elisabeth Murdoch is quitting her post at BSkyB to pursue other ventures (see Elisabeth Murdoch To Quit Sky) helped shares in the company drop by 32p to £17.06.Meanwhile Pearson which, along with other media companies, had seen a jump in shareprices on Tuesday (see Sharewatch) yesterday fell again, by 174p… Continue reading Sharewatch
The new publishing company set up by former editor of Loaded and GQ, James Brown, is believed to be seeking a stock market listing as it unveils its first magazine launch. I Feel Good is planning to float on the Alternative Investment Market to raise money for its publishing ventures.Details of the company’s plans are… Continue reading Ex-Loaded Editor Plans To Float New Venture
In a national newspaper first, the Observer is to launch a standalone magazine title. Observer Sport Monthly will be free with the Sunday newspaper from 7 May but will also be available separately from June.The 68-page title aims to break with the conventions of sports writing and widen the readership by focusing on the social… Continue reading Observer Rewrites Sport With Monthly Title
A consultation document has been issued to look into ways of improving the take-up of digital television in the UK. The ITC, OFTEL and the OFT have joined together to determine which factors could improve the affordability, accessibility and availability of the medium, as the Government attempts to meet its deadline for a switchover to… Continue reading Consultation Launched To Improve Take-Up Of Digital Television
Elisabeth Murdoch is to leave BSkyB at the end of June. Currently managing director of Sky Networks, into which Sky Entertainment was merged last year (see St Luke’s Handed £50m Creative Account Following Sky Restructure), she said “It is with some lament that I leave such a winning team.”The daughter of media mogul Rupert Murdoch,… Continue reading Elisabeth Murdoch To Quit Sky
This week sees the launch of ONrequest, the world’s first digital terrestrial pay-per-view service. A joint venture between ONdigital and SDN, the service went on air on Bank Holiday Monday with the screenings of Shakespeare in Love and The Rugrats Movie.Deals have been signed with Paramount and Universal to bring top movies to DTT viewers… Continue reading ONdigital’s PPV Service Unveiled
The number of residential internet users in the UK has risen by 17% in the past half year and once logged on, people are spending more time online than ever before. In addition to this, the idea that most users are young ABs no longer holds true. These are the latest findings of research company… Continue reading UK Internet Population Grows One Fifth In Six Months
There was a rebound yesterday amongst media and internet stocks in the FTSE 100 index. BSkyB ended up 163p at £17.38, Reuters rose 51p to £12.00 and Pearson jumped 123p to £23.34. Cordiant rose 43p to £3.47 while Telewest Communications rose 19½p to £4.09.As the news emerged that Taylor Nelson Sofres will not be involved… Continue reading Sharewatch
