Cable company Telewest Communications has this morning announced partnership with a raft of High Street and online businesses to drive the ecommerce facilities of its interactive television service. Thirteen companies, including Abbey National, lastminute.com, Hertz and Thomas Cook, are already on board for the roll-out of the service in the first quarter of next year.Available… Continue reading Telewest Builds Interactive Service To Rival Open
Following its AGM yesterday, the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) has decided on the new members for its Council. Competition for places on the Council was strong this year, particularly in the business press sector where nine candidates competed for just three seats (see Publishers Vie For Place On ABC Council). Similarly, the three regional… Continue reading ABC Announces New Council Members
Channel 5 has signed a £12.6 million deal with Warner Brother International Television securing exclusive rights to the terrestrial premieres of the studio’s 1999 film output. The contract is a boost for Channel 5, which has agreed with the Independent Television Commission (ITC), as part of its licence, to show a feature film every evening.Warner’s… Continue reading C5 Takes Exclusive Warner Films Terrestrial Rights For £12.6m
Advertisers have lashed out at the proposed merger plans of Carlton and United News & Media, announced last week (see Carlton And United News & Media Set For £7.8bn Merger). Ad agency executives and managers from the two ITV groups are set to meet in the next few days to raise their concerns about the… Continue reading Advertisers Call For Halt To Merger
The Independent Television Commission (ITC) upheld complaints about ONdigital’s suggestion that its set-top boxes are free in recent television ads. The complainants said that the “Get your free box today” strapline was misleading as the boxes were only available on loan while the viewer subscribed to the service.Although the digital broadcaster tagged the ads with… Continue reading ONdigital Ads Receive Complaints
Anglo-Dutch publishing group, VNU, has separated its internet publishing activities from the main company to create a pan-European online business publishing operation. The web publishing division, currently called VNU Business Publishing Europe, will become VNU Business Online Europe under the new structure.The company’s internet publishing activities centre mainly on the IT and business information markets,… Continue reading VNU Creates Dedicated Internet Division
The Planet On Sunday has postponed its relaunch date until Sunday 5 December. The new national Sunday newspaper with an environmental bent was due to go on sale last week (see Planet On Sunday Set To Relaunch).Speaking to Newsline today the paper’s deputy editor Tony Donnelly said that the delay to the launch was due… Continue reading Planet On Sunday Relaunch Delayed
Regional newspaper publisher, NEWSCOM, closed down 5p at 995p yesterday. The company yesterday announced the acquisition of the Hampshire Chronicle Group of newspapers for £16 million (see Newscom Acquires Hampshire Chronicle Group).Radio groups Capital Radio and GWR continued to be boosted by bid talk. Capital closed up 67˝p (5%) at 1,427˝p and GWR rose by… Continue reading Sharewatch
The proposed merger between Carlton Communications and United News & Media (UNM), announced last week (see Carlton/UNM Merged Group Plans For The Future), has sent the media world into frenzy, as the ITV network moves further towards consolidation. In particular, the advertising industry is fearful that when the six ITV franchises owned by the two… Continue reading IPA Concerned Over Carlton/UNM Merger’s Effect On Airtime Sales
Classic FM is to launch a £45,000 awareness campaign with Swiss chocolate brand Lindt Swiss Tradition. Starting next week the GWR station will run themed competition throughout the day beginning with Henry Kelly’s 8am show.Listeners are challenged to identify the classic tunes yodelled by Mary Schneider and answer questions about Switzerland, with the chance to… Continue reading Classic FM Gets Swiss Treatment
