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ITV Digital, the defunct pay-TV operator, has been put into liquidation and the trail of creditors which includes BSkyB, the Football League and Crown Castle International will see little of the £1.25 billion due to them. Liquidator Grant Thornton has valued the company’s remaining assets at £27.3 million, a paltry sum compared with the £1… Continue reading ITV Digital Creditors Lose More Than £1 Billion

Advertising network, Interpublic Group, last night sent tremors through Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange, after indicating that its 2002 earnings will be much lower than had been anticipated. To add to its woes, Interpublic, the world’s second largest network of advertising companies, is also implicated in America’s recent flurry of corporate accounting… Continue reading Interpublic Earnings Warning Shocks Markets

The media and publishing sector will be forced to lay off more workers in the final quarter of this year than any other industry, according to a report out this week. The recruitment group Reed surveyed 800 UK companies across the board and found that the number planning to downsize had fallen from 10% in… Continue reading Media Workers Set To Feel The Pinch, Says Survey

David Montgomery’s venture capital-backed bid for SMG’s Herald and Sunday Herald publishing business is understood to be out of the running, possibly because the tabled offer was too low. If the reports are correct, the 3i Group-backed bid from former Mirror Group chief executive Montgomery will be the third major bidder to drop out of… Continue reading Montgomery May Be Out Of Herald Papers Bid

Shares in Reuters, the financial information group, plunged to a twelve year low this morning after the company revealed disappointing results for the third quarter. Total revenue fell 7% from £924 million to £857 million, with Instinet, the group’s electronic share trading service suffering a 25% drop in sales in the three months to September… Continue reading Reuters Stock Sinks Following Profits Warning

The creation of a single ITV company took another step forward this morning, as its proponents, Carlton and Granada, announced further details of an agreed merger plan (see Carlton And Granada Enter Advanced Merger Talks). The two companies claim that a single ITV entity will “help to create a virtuous circle of maximising investment in… Continue reading Carlton/Granada Move Closer To £2.6bn Single ITV Company

The optimism that permeated the UK advertising industry earlier this year appears to have diminished with marketing budgets being revised downwards for the first time since Q4 2001. The Bellwether Report from the IPA indicates that confidence among media and marketing professionals has declined in the last three months. However, the third quarter is traditionally… Continue reading Insight Analysis – Has The Bell Tolled For Ad Recovery?

Granada, which last week announced plans to merge with fellow ITV powerhouse, Carlton (see Carlton And Granada Enter Advanced Merger Talks) has indicated its intention to take full control of Ireland’s TV3, according to a report in today’s Independent. The Irish commercial broadcaster is part-owned by Granada, CanWest Global Communications and a group of investors… Continue reading Granada Seeks To Increase Influence In Ireland

The quarterly Bellwether report from the IPA has dampened hopes that the marketing communications industry might see an early recovery by revealing that the majority of advertisers surveyed revised down their marketing budgets during the third quarter of 2002. The report, which gauges the opinion of more than 200 of the UK’s top advertising agencies,… Continue reading IPA Report Dampens Hopes Of Early Recovery

Charles Allen, chairman of Granada, has reportedly pledged to radically overhaul ITV and to revitalise the network’s programme making arm if its merger with Carlton gets the go ahead (see Carlton And Granada Enter Advanced Merger Talks). According to yesterday’s Observer, Allen, who will become chief executive of ITV if the two companies are allowed… Continue reading Granada Chief Vows To Overhaul ITV