Sky has this afternoon said that it is delighted with the Restrictive Practices Court’s decision not to alter the way Premier League football TV rights are sold (see Premier League TV Rights Given All-Clear By Court). The Court rejected the claim from the OFT that BSkyB’s exclusive agreement with the Premier League is essentially against… Continue reading Broadcasters Welcome Court’s Decision On Premiership Football Rights
The Wireless Group, previously TalkCo, has announced a number of management changes following its acquisition of The Radio Partnership this week (see Talk Radio Buys The Radio Partnership). Jonathan Goodwin, previously chief operating officer at Talk Radio, becomes group managing director of the Wireless Group. Ashley MacKenzie, moves from commercial director of sport at Talk… Continue reading Radio Appointments Brief
Telewest Communications performed badly yesterday as investors reacted to the cable company’s failure to seal a merger deal with Cable & Wireless Communications, itself snapped up by NTL this week (see NTL Spends £8.2bn On Cable & Wireless Communications). Telewest finished down 13žp at 270˝p; CWC closed up 10p at 700˝p.Rumours of a possible takeover… Continue reading Sharewatch
Trinity is understood to have received six offers for its Irish title Belfast Telegraph, which it is required to sell in order to complete the £1.3 billion merger with the Mirror Group (see DTI Approves Mirror Group Takeover Bids). Bids have come in from Independent News & Media and Daily Mail & General Trust as… Continue reading Trinity Receives Offers For Belfast Telegraph
Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail, has acquired a 50% stake in Zoom.co.uk, the ecommerce and internet service provider launched by the Arcadia group last month (see Arcadia And Associated New Media Zoom Online). Associated is to pay £15 million to become a joint owner of the company.At Zoom’s launch, Associated’s internet division, Associated… Continue reading Associated Newspapers Takes 50% Stake In Zoom.co.uk
Like the cable and television industries, the UK’s regional newspaper industry is currently undergoing a period of ownership concentration. A series of takeovers and mergers in the last few years has seen the creation of a number of very large regional publishing groups.According to figures recently released by the Newspaper Society (NS), Trinity is currently… Continue reading Mirror Takeover Would Further Consolidation In Regional Press Industry
The Advertising Association (AA) today told a London conference that a pan-European ban on children’s television advertising would be unworkable. The evidence is drawn from an interpretation of legislation in Sweden which currently prohibits TV advertising to children.The AA believes that the guidelines interpreting the Swedish model show the legislation to be ‘knotted with detail’;… Continue reading Advertising Association Claims Ban On Children’s TV Ads Is Unworkable
Despite closing the sale of Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) to NTL yesterday (see NTL Spends £8.2bn On Cable & Wireless Communications), parent company Cable & Wireless dropped back 20p to 745˝p by the end of trading. Investors did not favour the deal for CWC either, which also finished down 8˝p at 690˝p. Conversely, Telewest,… Continue reading Sharewatch
The Guardian Unlimited network of websites has received its first official ABC //electronic audit figure for June 1999 which shows the sites received 9,746,873 page impressions. The network, which includes Jobs Unlimited and News Unlimited, was launched by Guardian Newspapers in January this year and has been expanding its portfolio since (see Website Of The… Continue reading Guardian Unlimited Nets Almost 10m Page Impressions
Talk Radio has today announced that it has acquired The Radio Partnership Limited (TRP). The takeover will mean that the new radio company will become the fifth biggest in the UK and will give Talk control of: 96.4FM The Wave, Swansea Sound and Valleys Radio in South Wales; The Wave 96.5 FM in Blackpool; Pulse… Continue reading Talk Radio Buys The Radio Partnership
