US West, the regional telecoms company which covers 14 midwestern US states, has increased its stake in the UK telecoms market with the purchase of Thomson Directories, for about £70m.This pitches US West into competition with BT for UK business directory services; it views the purchase as an important means of gaining access to businesses… Continue reading Multimedia Business Directories
KP Foods is to sponsor the foremost athletics meeting in Britain; the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA) Championships at Sheffield on June 11-12. KP Foods is also to sponsor the match between Great Britain and the United States on July 20 at Gateshead.The agreement lasts for two years, and is worth £2 million. Three events are… Continue reading KP Foods To Sponsor Athletics
ITV yesterday issued a statement of Best Practice, covering factual drama on ITV; the statement was issued by Stuart Prebble, Controller of Network Factual Programmes, and is a voluntary supplement to the ITC’s Programme Code.The categories covered by the statement are drama documentaries, where matters are examined from a journalistic angle, and dramatisation of a… Continue reading ITV Issues Guidelines On Factual Drama
The winner of the consortium chosen to run the £4 billion a year national lottery will be announced on Wednesday 25 May at 10 am. Favourites are Camelot, the Cadbury Schweppes consortium, and Lotco, Rank Organisation’s in-house bid.
Hollinger, the Canadian publishing group controlled by Conrad Black, has cut its stake in The Telegraph, holding company of The Daily Telegraph, from 66.2% to 57%. Hollinger maintained however, that it was committed to retaining control of The Telegraph and had no further plans at this stage to reduce its stake further. Shares were sold… Continue reading Conrad Black Cuts Stake In Telegraph
Sky’s head of news and sport left yesterday, after two months of tension with BSkyB’s new managing director, ex-Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie. Ian Frykberg had been head of news and sport for 15 months.The dispute was over MacKenzie’s desire to take Sky news downmarket, with more human interest stories and less foreign coverage.NEW SUBSCRIPTION CARDSBSkyB… Continue reading Sky News Chief Leaves
REVENUEThe combined TV Revenue share for April, based on agency estimates, came in at £157.89m, an increase of 5.6% on last year’s April figure. The ITV share was £125.55m, with Channel 4 at £32.33m. ITV’s figure is up 2.1% on last year’s figure; Channel 4’s figure is up 22.1% on last year’s revenue. This is… Continue reading Television Round-Up – April
Procter & Gamble UK Head of Media, Bernard Balderston, has vehemently denied today’s story in Campaign, which states that P&G is to cut conventional TV advertising in favour of advertiser supplied programming. Bernard’s reaction was, “That is the most unbelievable story I have ever heard”, suggesting that the source of the story, the chairman’s speech… Continue reading P&G Deny Abandoning Television Advertising
Newspaper and Magazine publishers yesterday launched a new code of practice governing standards of cross-media promotion.The Cross Media Promotion Code has been drawn up by the Newspaper Society, the Newspaper Publishers’ Association, the PPA, the Scottish Daily Newspaper Society and the Scottish Newspaper Publishers’ Association. The publication of a joint code of practice comes three… Continue reading Publishers Launch Cross Media Code
The BBC is to undergo a programme strategy review, to examine whether it is adequately serving its audiences. Programme makers have been told that the BBC should shed its exclusivity image, and regain a reputation for popular drama to attract both a less exclusive and a younger audience. Alan Yentob told Ariel, the BBC staff… Continue reading BBC To Attract More Popular Audiences
