ITV heavyweights, Carlton and Granada, have been formally warned by the Independent Television Commission (ITC) for ‘unreasonable discrimination’ against rival broadcaster BSkyB.A spat between ITV and BSkyB has been developing for some time now, mainly because the two groups are competing in the world of digital television. Carlton and Granada’s ONdigital service is going head… Continue reading ITV Companies Reprimanded Over Discrimination Against BSkyB
VNU Business Publications is launching a new promotional TV campaign for its Computeractive magazine, beginning on 7 April. The campaign continues the theme of the ads which were shown last Autumn (see Computer Magazine Activates Advertising).As part of the £650,000 push, issues 30 and 31 of Computeractive are to have free booklets distributed with the… Continue reading New TV Campaign For Computeractive
Northern newspaper publisher, Regional Independent Media (RIM), yesterday announced a jump in operating profits of 22.5% to £31.4 million. RIM has tabled a takeover bid for the Mirror Group (see Trinity Offers £1 Billion For Mirror Group) and has applied to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission for the go-ahead to acquire the group.Mirror has also… Continue reading RIM Sees 23% Rise In Operating Profits
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
