John Madejski, the multi-millionaire chairman of Reading Football Club, and his partner Paul Gibbon have sold Hurst Publishing to BC Partners, an investment group specialising in company buy-outs, for £260 million.Madejski held a 67% stake in Hurst, publishers of Auto Trader, and was apparently hoping to get £300 million for the company. He shall remain… Continue reading Auto Trader Goes For £260m
Commercial radio group, GWR, has welcomed the Government’s Green Paper, Regulating Communications: Approaching Convergence In The Information Age, which was published yesterday (see Government ‘Green Paper’ Sets The Scene For The Fundamental Restructuring Of The Information Superhighway).GWR chief executive, Ralph Bernard, said: “The broadcast and communication industries are developing rapidly – it is essential that… Continue reading GWR Welcomes Government’s Communications Green Paper
The Radio Authority issued a new directive today in response to several complaints regarding wind-up calls. The new trend involves presenters making ‘hoax calls’ on air posing as someone else to unsuspecting victims.Complaints have revealed, however, that unwitting victims may suffer some distress. For example, an incident on Viking FM in Hull in which a… Continue reading Radio Watchdog Stands Guard Over Hoax Calls
George Howarth, the UK’s Home Office minister, has outlined the future of casino deregulation and changes in gaming machine stake and prize limits in a written answer to a Parliamentary question. He also acknowledged the role of the UK Advertising Association in the formulation of the proposed changes. For casinos, deregulation will focus on the… Continue reading UK: Government to deregulate
The Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) has carried out a survey on the station/listener dynamic, prompted by concerns voiced by chairman of advertising agency Banks Hoggins O’Shea, John Banks, that barriers to radio amongst advertising industry people could be based on their own listening prejudices.The survey illustrates that the industry underestimates the way in which people… Continue reading RAB Study Shows Listener Reality Contradicts Industry Views
TIE – the body representing the major toy industries across Europe – has complained to the European Ombudsman about what it says “appears to be a serious maladministration by the European Commission” in its failure to take action over the banning by Greece in October 1994 of the advertising of toys on Greek TV between… Continue reading EU: Greek toy case protest
Immediately following the conclusion of 1998’s soccer World Cup, public service broadcasters across the EU appealed to FIFA (football’s governing body), national governments and European institutions, for all matches of the next World Cup to be accessible to the European public as a whole on non-pay channels. After record viewing figures for the 1998 event,… Continue reading EU: New soccer row brewing
Following pressure from the Periodical Publishers Association (PPA) (see PPA Seeks To Clarify Magazines’ Masthead Restrictions), the ITC has revised its codes for masthead programming. The ITC recently decided to allow masthead programmes (programmes which are made or funded by a magazine or newspaper and have the same style and name) onto terrestrial television; previously… Continue reading ITC Revises Masthead Programming Code
A joint working party of the BBC, the Broadcasting Standards Commission (BSC) and the Independent Television Commission (ITC) have come together for the first time to announce new guidelines for the warning and description of violent programmes on television.The report, Violence And The Viewer has created a Statement of Common Principle, that forms guidelines within… Continue reading Clearer Warnings For Television Violence Planned
BSkyB’s sports channels suffered a significant decline in viewers during the World Cup as Sky did not have rights to broadcast any of the matches. BBC1, ITV and Eurosport, however, all benefitted from their coverage of World Cup matches.In cable and satellite homes Sky Sports 1’s average weekly viewing (hours:minutes) fell from 1:02 in June… Continue reading BSkyB Hit Hard By World Cup Viewing
