United News & Media has acquired Two-Ten Communications from the Press Association. The sale is believed to be worth £17 million, and Two-Ten, the UK based distributor of corporate news releases, will be combined with United’s New York based PR Newswire (PRN) distribution service.Ian Capps, chief executive at PRN, is confident that the alliance of… Continue reading United News & Media Buys Two-Ten News Provider
The Scottish Media Group (SMG) has announced the acquisition of UK cinema advertising contractor, Pearl & Dean, for £22.2 million. SMG purchased Pearl & Dean from French cinema ad company Mediavision (45.1%) and private investors (53.5%). The further 1.4% will be retained by Circuit A, another of France’s cinema advertising companies.Pearl & Dean has more… Continue reading SMG Acquires Pearl & Dean For £22m
Reed International, the London listed arm of Anglo-Dutch publisher Reed Elsevier, released its second profit warning of the year today, predicting that this year’s profits may be substantially lower than those achieved in 1998 (see Newsline).Reed, which publishes New Scientist and Computer Weekly, revealed that it has been hit hard in the online business information… Continue reading Online Competition Forces Second Profit Warning From Reed
According to Digital One, the GWR/NTL-run national digital radio group (see Digital One Advertises Three Channel Tenders), a raft of major media and radio companies have applied to run the country’s first national digital radio stations. The national digital service is scheduled to launch in the last quarter of 1999; the closing date for application… Continue reading Major Media Companies Show Interest In National Digital Radio
Granada, which at the end of last week was rumoured to be interested in the Mirror Group’s Live TV, fell 34p to 1,261p (see Newsline). The group releases its interim financial results on Wednesday.EMAP dropped 32p to 1,305p, and Capital Radio climbed by 25p to 890p. CE Digital, the groups’ digital radio consortium, was awarded… Continue reading Sharewatch
Wednesday Granada releases its interim financial results. It is understood that the media company is about to unveil details of a free internet service provider (ISP) containing interactive programming information and ecommerce.Bristol United Press, publisher of the Bristol Evening Post, releases year-end financial results.Thursday Radio audience listening figures for quarter one 1999 are released by… Continue reading The Week Ahead
Pearson has redesigned its Financial Times website, ft.com, as part of an increase in its online activities. The new-look, augmented website is accompanied by an advertising campaign which breaks this week.ft.com is to introduce new online services later this year in line with plans for the site to become part of a business portal. The… Continue reading ft.com Gets Redesign And Marketing Push
Dixons has confirmed that Freeserve, its free ISP which it launched last year, is to float as a public offering on the stock market (see Newsline). Freeserve, which currently has more than 1 million users, is expected to be valued at between £500 million and £2 billion by the floatation.John Pluthero, chief executive at Freeserve,… Continue reading Dixons To Float Net Subsidiary Freeserve
The offer of free set-top boxes has failed to create a significant demand for digital television, as around 50% of people are either not interested in converting to digital at all, or do not intend to do so within the next three years. These are the findings of the latest Digital TV Monitor survey produced… Continue reading Digital TV Offers Still Leave Many Cold
More people feel that there is too much sex on television this year than last year, and the amount of violence portrayed on TV is still the principle concern amongst audiences. The Broadcasting Standards Commission’s (BSC) annual monitoring of public opinion, out today, shows that the number of people who feel that there is too… Continue reading Public Concerned Over Increase Of Sex On TV
