London will gain nine more digital radio stations tonight, as Switchdigital launches its range of services just eleven weeks after winning the second digital radio multiplex licence for the capital (see Switch Digital Wins Second London Licence).Three of the stations will be existing London stations Heart 106.2 FM, Jazz FM 102.2 and BBC London Live… Continue reading Second London Digital Radio Multiplex Prepares To Switch On
GWR has called for a raft of reforms to radio legislation in a submission to the Government’s Communications Reform White Paper team. The group wants a lighter, more flexible system of regulation with the UK radio ownership threshold raised to 25%, in line with conventional competition law.In its submission, GWR said, “UK commmercial radio struggles… Continue reading GWR Calls For Lighter Regulation In Communications White Paper
Bright Station ended an otherwise steady week by dropping 5½p to 86½p. Reuters also fell 7p to £12.50, despite having the third highest percentage increase of media shares over the week.Granada rose 28p to £6.48 on Friday. Granada Media, due to be floated shortly (see Granada Group To Float Media Arm), is expected to be… Continue reading Sharewatch
Talk of a court battle between ITV and the Independent Television Commission (ITC) was in the air today after the industry watchdog told the broadcaster to move its Nightly News programme to an earlier slot. The culmination of a year-long tussle between the two, provoked by slumping audience figures for national and regional news on… Continue reading ITV’s Battle With The ITC Could End In Court
Designer feathers have been ruffled in the editorial offices of UK style bibles by claims that self-regulation will result from Tessa Jowell’s “Body Image Summit”. A terse open letter has been released by the editors of some of the top fashion magazines denying that any such commitment had been made.Yesterday press coverage of the summit,… Continue reading Editors Deny Self-Regulating Body To Be Established
Telewest shares suffered along with other telecommunications companies yesterday, dropping 14p to £2.78. Cable & Wireless managed to buck the trend following news that it had received clearance from the government to dispose of its Hong Kong Business (see Sharewatch). Shares ended up 19p at £12.06.Pearson shares fell £1.40 yesterday, to end at £20.87. This… Continue reading Sharewatch
Natmags is to team up with the owners of the second most visited women’s portal in the US, www.women.com to launch a version in the UK. The site, www.uk.women.com will include content from Natmag brands including Good Housekeeping and Cosmopolitan and will be up against existing women’s web offerings like IPC’s www.beme.com and Daily Mail… Continue reading Launches Brief
This year’s cinema admissions for May were higher than they have been for 25 years. According to Carlton Screen Advertising, 11.3m people went to see films including the blockbuster Gladiator and Final Destination, representing more than a 50% increase on the same period in 1999.Gladiator which opened over here following great success in the US,… Continue reading May Days Prove No Emergency For Cinema Box Offices
ITV has revealed the details of the second proposal it put to the ITC in the hope of improving news audiences. The proposal, which included an increased budget, was once again rejected yesterday (see ITC Tells ITV To Bring Forward Nightly News) as the ITC stuck to its guns and said the broadcaster must move… Continue reading ITV Reveals The Measures That Weren’t Enough For The ITC
Programmes May comes along and the viewers start melting away quicker than England’s back four. With a dearth of decent new programmes in the schedules, terrestrial television is beginning to resemble UK Gold with its output. In times of crisis programme makers always rely on the safe, tried and tested programmes to grab big audience… Continue reading TV Viewing Round Up – May 2000
