Channel 4 has confirmed that it is in talks with a number of digital platform owners regarding the carriage of its planned subscription film channel (see C4 Claims Successful Year).BSkyB is currently being touted as the likely winner of the contract to carry the C4 film service, although a spokesperson for the channel said that… Continue reading Channel 4 Examines Options For Digital Film Channel
Cable & Wireless Communications (C&W) has bought a 50.1% stake in interactive TV services company, Two Way TV, for £13 million. Two Way TV’s technology will allow C&W’s digital television service to include interactive quiz and game shows that allow contestants to link-up with the programmes’ live broadcasts.Two Way TV has been testing its services… Continue reading C&W Communications Takes Stake In Two Way TV
The Guardian Media Group (GMG) has appointed Liz Forgan as its non-executive director with immediate effect. Forgan is currently chairman of Arrowhead Productions and of Channel Earth.Between 1993 and 1996 Forgan was the managing director of Network Radio for the BBC during which time she oversaw the launch of Radio 5 Live and the repositioning… Continue reading Guardian Media Group Appoints Non-Executive Director
The Radio Authority (RA) has awarded small-scale local radio licences for Tayside to the following two groups: Discovery FM (Tony Dewhurst, 01942 777 666): a fluid mix of easy listening and soft adult contemporary artists together with locally focused speech content targeting the 35-64 year old market with a proposed music to speech ratio of… Continue reading Radio Authority Awards Local Licences
IPC Magazines’ Sporting Gun is to relaunch with a major redesign with effect for the August issue.A new 8-page pull out section is to be added and will feature a round-up of all clayshooting results and fixtures.Associate publisher, Allison Ganley, says: “The redesigned Sporting Gun has more energy and a contemporary design. It offers improved… Continue reading Sporting Gun Gets Revamp
Chief executive of Portsmouth & Sunderland Newspapers, Charles Brims, was elected president of the Newspaper Society (NS) for 1998/9 at the Society’s Council meeting earlier this week. He succeeds Chris Oakley, chief executive of Regional Independent Media.Whilst chairman of the NS’ marketing committee, Brims oversaw the launch of NS Marketing.Newspaper Society: 0171 636 7014
New figures from the Advertising Association (AA) show that more money is being spent on consumer magazines than ever before: expenditure on the sector has increased by 81% in the last five years.According to the new Advertising Statistics Yearbook, people spent £1.69 billion on magazines in 1997, a growth of 17% year on year.Source: Advertising… Continue reading Consumer Mags Market Is Booming, According To AA Figures
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has asked News International to provide detailed information about its two newspapers, The Times and Sunday Times, as part an investigation into alleged predatory pricing.The Guardian, Independent and Daily Telegraph have all complained to the OFT that News International is acting anti-competitively by subsidising the prices of its papers… Continue reading OFT Requests Pricing Information From News International
The takeover of Review Free Newspapers by regional publisher Newsquest has been cleared by the DTI and will not be referred to the Monopolies & Mergers Commission.Newsquest announced the takeover of Review Free Newspapers for £6.07 million in May this year (see Newsquest Buys Heartbreak Newspaper Group).This week Newsquest is also launching two new titles,… Continue reading Newsquest Takeover Of Review Free Newspapers Cleared
As we all know the World Cup ended on Tuesday when, thanks to the actions of one silly little boy, England were knocked out in Round Two. The sad thing is that interest in the World Cup had steadily been growing during the opening matches, with games involving Scotland and Norway, Brazil and Morocco and… Continue reading TV Viewing Summary W/E 21/06/98
