Culture Secretary Chris Smith, yesterday told the Commercial Radio Companies Association (CRCA) that the Government will seek to act to promote ‘the emergence of new services’ in the commercial radio industry rather than ‘consolidating existing positions of industrial dominance.’ He spoke of a light-touch in Governmental regulation and said that the fundamental aims were plurality,… Continue reading Chris Smith Warns Radio Industry Against Industrial Dominance
US telecoms giant AT&T announced yesterday that it was to merge with even larger US cable television company TCI. As a result, two TCI part-owned UK cable companies, Telewest and Flextech, both saw their share prices rise.Telewest Communications rose 29˝p to 159˝p and Flextech saw an increase of 62˝p to 551˝p.
Jim Chisholm has been appointed as commercial director for the two Scottish titles, Daily Record and Sunday Mail.Chisholm also runs his own media consultancy and has worked at a number of newspaper publishers in his career. He will be responsible for driving commercial development at the two Mirror Group titles.Mirror Group: 0171 293 3000
Agency estimates for May 1998 put total terrestrial TV ad revenue at £250.38 million, a rise year on year for all the channels but GMTV.ITV’s total revenue was up 19% to £177.10 million, C4’s rose 16.1% to £54.00 million and C5’s once again saw the greatest relative gain – up 19.8% to £13.18 million. GMTV… Continue reading TV Revenue – May 1998
The much sought after Talk Radio (see Talk Radio Management Submits Bid) has launched its own website which is sponsored by Nationwide Building Society.The site, at http://www.talk-radio.co.uk/, is dubbed ‘the site of two halves’ and its entrance is divided between those who ‘Love Football’ and those who ‘Hate Football’.Talk Radio: 0171 636 1089
The data gathered by the Quality of Reading Survey (QRS) (see Quality of Reading Survey Launched Today) has now been fused with that of the National Readership Survey (NRS). The resulting magazine and newspaper readership information is held in a database which is accessible by agencies and publishers who subscribe to the NRS through the… Continue reading Merged QRS And NRS Readership Data Now Available
Digital One, the GWR-led radio consortium which offered the only application for the digital national radio licence yesterday (see RA Receives One Application For National Digital Multiplex), will be able to reassess the stake held by Talk Radio if the station is bought by Kelvin MacKenzie (see Murdoch Backs MacKenzie’s Talk Project). Digital One is… Continue reading Digital One Can ‘Reassess’ Situation If MacKenzie Gains Talk
The Guardian Media Group (GMG), publisher of The Guardian and The Observer, has announced annual pre-tax profits before exceptionals of £53 million; a 76% increase year on year.As with other newspaper publishers which have reported profit gains recently, GMG attributes the increases to strong advertising growth and lower newsprint costs.Turnover at the Group was £367… Continue reading Guardian Media Group Pre-Tax Profits Up 76%
Commercial radio station of the year was awarded to Talk Radio at this afternoon’s Commercial Radio Companies Association (CRCA) Congress and Awards ceremony.The award for technical excellence was given to Capital Interactive for its work on the network of Capital websites. The judges said that the Capital work “was a great example of the use… Continue reading Talk Radio Awarded Commercial Station Of The Year At CRCA Awards
The Independent Television Commission denies that it is set to ‘backtrack’ on its proposals to ‘unbundle’ cable and satellite television channels (see ITC Recommends Smaller Channel Packages For Pay TV).Since the Commission announced that it planned to remove the minimum carriage requirements (MCRs), which ensure that smaller cable and satellite channels are distributed to the… Continue reading ITC Denies Backtracking On ‘Unbundling’ Strategy
