More Media Business articles

Analysts claim that the cable television company NTL is set to announce a major fund raising exercise that will net around $650 million and increase the possibility of a merger with UK rival Telewest. According to a report in The Observer, NTL is planning to ask shareholders to subscribe to new shares with the cash… Continue reading UK Cable Merger Still Viable

Following an extensive bidding process, the satellite broadcaster BSkyB has secured exclusive live television rights to Premiership football for a further three years in separate deals totalling £1.024 billion. The free to air highlights package has been awarded to the BBC for £105 million, paving the way for the return of Match Of The Day… Continue reading BSkyB And BBC Big Winners In Premiership Bidding Contest

Trinity Mirror is on track to achieve its objective of £25 million of annualised savings by 2005, following a spate of cutbacks throughout the company, according to analysts at Merrill Lynch. The broker asserts that Sly Bailey’s appointment as chief executive (see Bailey Leaves IPC To Replace Graf At Trinity Mirror) has stimulated activity at… Continue reading Trinity To Reap Rewards Of Cost-Cutting, Says Merrill Lynch

Radio station operator and production company, UBC Media, said that it has managed to boost commercial airtime revenues in June and July, after taking ‘remedial action’ earlier in the year. In June, UBC said that airtime sales for the first two months of its financial year were below expectations (see UBC Moves Into Profit In… Continue reading UBC Sees Radio Revenue Turnaround After Weak Start

Another survey of broadband internet users has found that whilst they want more compelling, premium content, very few are actually willing to pay for it. Strategy Analytics questioned 525 US broadband households on which kinds of services they would be interested in and whether they would be willing to subscribe to them. The response was… Continue reading Broadband Users Want Premium Content, Few Willing To Pay

Newspaper executives are to get an insight into how lucrative mobile services can be on a two-day study trip organised by the World Association of Newspapers (WAN). The trip to Oslo on 1 and 2 September will feature case studies of profitable news and information services from around the world, an explanation of how newspapers… Continue reading Press Bosses To See Benefits Of Mobile Services

Reed Elsevier today reported a 3% increase in pre-tax profits for the first half of 2003 and expressed confidence that full year revenue growth targets will be reached. The Anglo-Dutch publisher outperformed analysts’ expectations and the market as a whole partly as a result of a 4% rise in revenues at the science and medical… Continue reading Reed On Target As Profits Rise In H1

The emergence of the ‘multichannel consumer’ – an evolutionary descendant of the online consumer – is leaving media companies with the costs of providing integrated cross-channel content with virtually no associated upswing in revenues. Forrester Research has identified this new consumer profile after tracking the changing behaviour and demographic of the online consumer that was… Continue reading Multichannel Consumers Demand More Content But Offer Little Revenue

Guardian Media Group has agreed a deal to take full control of Trader Media Group, publisher of the car magazine AutoTrader. TMG which owns 70 publications in the UK and Ireland also has operations in Italy, Holland and South Africa. As the company is valued at £1.14 billion, GMG will pay almost £600 million for… Continue reading GMG Buys Up AutoTrader Publisher

The sale of ITV’s two airtime sales houses is the most likely outcome of the Competition Commission’s ‘remedies’ for the merger of Carlton Communications and Granada, according to analysts at Morgan Stanley. The Commission has already presented a number of possible restrictions which would allay its concerns over a single ITV’s share of the television… Continue reading Divestment Of Sales Houses Will Cost ITV, Say Analysts