BSkyB’s complaints to the Independent Television Commission (ITC) that ITV is acting anti-competitively in refusing to supply its channels to the Sky Digital service have not been upheld by the watchdog.ITV’s new digital channel, ITV2, is not available through Sky Digital because the Network is refusing to make a deal with Sky for carriage of… Continue reading BSkyB Fails To Gain Access To ITV2
Express Newspapers’ SportLive website has been redesigned and relaunched this week, following feedback from its users and a ‘rethinking’ of presentation.The format of the site, which was launched originally in June last year (see Express And ITN Launch Sports Website), was found to be too unclear according to Anne Mollen, head of business development at… Continue reading Express Newspapers Revamps SportLive Website
The Independent Television Commission (ITC) is to investigate claims that some parts of the Channel 4 Guns On The Street documentary were faked. The programme, shown the day after the Dunblane massacre in March 1996, claimed to show the video diaries of two people in Manchester who were concerned about the local arms trade.However, an… Continue reading ITC Investigates Claims Of Fake C4 Documentary
Pay-TV channel and content supplier, Flextech, has this morning reported its preliminary financial results for the year ended 31 December 1998. Pre-tax losses at the group have been reduced to £5.1 million, from £6.2 million in 1997, although this is still greater than the £4.0 million anticipated by broker Merrill Lynch.Turnover at the company rose… Continue reading Losses Reduced At Flextech
The Barbican last week, Quaglino’s this week. It’s a hard life but somebody has to go to all these programme schedule launches. Tim Garden, director of programmes at Channel 4, today unveiled the channel’s output for Spring to Summer. He began by saying that the channel had ‘woken up’ and would be setting out its… Continue reading C4 Goes For Talking Point TV With Spring/Summer ’99 Schedule
Newsquest’s acquisition of two Yorkshire-based advertising freesheets from Adscene drove shares up by 30p to close at 397˝p. Newsquest released its annual financial results on Monday this week (see Newsquest ‘Cautiously Optimistic’ For 1999). Share in Adscene remained static at 154˝p.The announcement that Granada is to buy an 18.6% stake in Scottish Media Group from… Continue reading Sharewatch
The Television Corporation, the production company behind all Channel 5’s sports coverage, is set for rapid growth after winning a succession of large contracts in 1998.The company’s biggest coup of the year was landing the contract to produce the England Test match and NatWest trophy cricket for Channel 4, which analysts estimate to be worth… Continue reading Cricket Coup Boosts TV Corporation
The Guardian has today announced the details of its spring revamp, promising, amongst other things, increased sports and business coverage in the main broadsheet newspaper. There is also to be an increase in colour throughout the paper.The changes, which begin on Monday 19 April, will see the G2 tabloid supplement published on Fridays, as well… Continue reading Guardian Reveals Spring Changes
Granada is set to take an 18.6% stake in Scottish Media Group (SMG) off the hands of Mirror Group for approximately £110 million. The deal is conditional upon agreement from Mirror Group shareholders at its Extraordinary General Meeting on 30 March.Mirror said it wished to dispose of the holding, described as a non-core asset, earlier… Continue reading Granada To Buy Mirror’s Scottish Media Stake
Telewest Communications strengthened yesterday, closing up by 16p at 253˝p. The telecommunications company this morning announced that it is offering Senior Discount Notes to institutional buyers in the US, in order to raise £300 million to reduce amounts drawn under the company’s credit facilities.Despite some positive financial results and outlook (see Newsquest ‘Cautiously Optimistic’ For… Continue reading Sharewatch
