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City analysts do not share the optimism of senior executives at Carlton and Granada and have downgraded the ITV companies following the release of their full-year results this week. The media research team at Morgan Stanley marked down the stocks from “equal weight” to “underweight”, essentially a recommendation to sell shares in the two companies.… Continue reading Carlton And Granada Hit By Downgrade

Merrill Lynch expects that advertising at the FT Group of newspapers will fall by around 13% on underlying basis in the second half of the year. The decline will be driven largely by a 15% fall at the Financial Times, a 13% fall at Les Echos and a 5.5% decline at Recoletes, excluding Argentina. Circulation… Continue reading FT Group’s Ad Forecasts Are Optimistic, Says Merrill Lynch

Advertising revenues at Associated Newspapers fell by 9.6% during the year to 29 September 2002, contributing to a fall in operating profit from £83 million in 2001 to £80 million this time. However, the Daily Mail and Mail On Sunday titles both increased their share of the national newspaper market, despite their cover price increases… Continue reading DMGT Sees National Newspaper Revenues Up 5% By Christmas

Advertising group WPP has confirmed that it has bought the Italian agency Media Club for an undisclosed sum. The deal, which is subject to competition authority clearance, will result in Media Club becoming part of WPP’s Mediaedge:cia operations in Italy. Media Club is based in Milan and Rome and is the country’s leading independent media… Continue reading WPP Acquires Top Italian Agency

Granada has announced the appointment of James Crosby, chief executive of respected bank HBOS, as a non-executive director. Crosby, who is also a non-executive director at St James’s Place Capital, has had a long and distinguished career in the financial services sector and it is believed that he is being brought to the board to… Continue reading Granada Hopes To Woo City With New Appointment

Granada today announced full-year losses of £164 million but the commercial broadcaster was encouraged by results in the second half and remains confident about the future of ITV. The company announced that pre-tax profits for the year to late-September came in at £176 million, 10% less than in 2001, but ahead of many analysts forecasts… Continue reading Granada Unbowed Despite Fall In Profits

Pace, the UK set-top box manufacturer, has today issued its fifth profits warning of the year and is not optimistic that sales will pick up in the near future. The company said that the slow take-up of digital television in Europe and the US meant that targets were being missed and second half losses are… Continue reading Pace Issues New Profits Warning

Pan-European broadcaster, RTL Group, is proposing to cancel the admission of its shares to the official list of the UK Listing Authority and to trading on the London Stock Exchange. In a statement released to shareholders this morning, the group said it expects that the delisting in London will become effective on 31 December 2002.

Vivendi Universal’s third quarter results show revenues down by 2% at E14.6 million, whilst consolidated operating income was up 7% at E1.2 million. The results are slightly below expectations, although the outlook was not negative, with a number of disposals helping to ease the group’s debt. Vivendi is currently in a battle with Vodafone to… Continue reading Vivendi Revenues Dip 2%, Disposals Ease Debt

Carlton Communications has reported continuing pre-tax profits up by 76% to £53.3 million, although losses after tax and including discontinued operations stood at £156 million, down 60% year on year. The majority of losses came from the closure of the ITV Digital business, jointly owned with Granada. The company also indicated that advertising conditions are… Continue reading Carlton Sees Improving Ad Trading As Loss Hits £156m