Shares in United News & Media and Carlton Communications fell as the two groups continue to move forward in their merger plans, announced in November (see Carlton And United News & Media Set For £7.8bn Merger). United fell 7˝p to 781˝p; Carlton slipped 16p to 587p.The Guardian Media Group announced today its decision to sell… Continue reading Sharewatch
Guardian Media Group has announced that it has sold its shareholding in breakfast time broadcaster, GMTV. The 15% stake is to be divided equally among three other shareholders in the station, Scottish Media Group (SMG), Carlton Communications and Granada; each will pay £5.6 million in cash and £500,000 in loan notes for the 5% share.As… Continue reading Guardian Media Sells Stake In GMTV
The three main shareholders in Channel 5 have confirmed today that they are to take up their shares of the stake currently owned by Warburg Pincus. The US investment bank began formal proceedings to sell its 18% stake in the channel in November (see Warburg Pincus To Sell Stake In Channel 5) and United News… Continue reading Warburg Pincus Sells Channel 5 Stake To Shareholders
Guardian Media Group confirmed today that it is lining up a bid for a regional radio station in the Yorkshire region. Under the Variety FM banner it will broadcast a mixture of music and speech.The station will begin a test broadcast in Selby on 1 February, to be ready when the licence is advertised in… Continue reading Guardian Media Group Plans Yorkshire Radio Bid
Greg Dyke, the incoming director general of the BBC, is set to take up his post full-time at the end of January, two months earlier than had originally been planned (see Dyke To Be Next BBC Director General).The Corporation’s current director general, Sir John Birt, has decided to step down on 28 January after receiving… Continue reading Dyke To Take Control Of BBC Two Months Early
Worst performing media company of the year was Reed International which opened trading on New Year’s Eve down 15p at 463˝p. The publisher failed to respond quickly enough to the internet in 1999 and spent most of the year trying to find a new chief executive.Granada entered 2000 on a good footing, rising 28p over… Continue reading Sharewatch
The Guardian is to expand its Monday media section with the introduction of New Media Guardian. From Monday 10 January the new section will explore the impact of the internet and digital technology on the media industry.Edited by Kamel Ahmed, the paper’s media editor, the three additional pages of comment and analysis will answer vital… Continue reading Guardian To Add New Media Section
The eve of the turn of the millennium was characterised, in the media industry, by a flurry of mergers, takeovers and consolidations; by internet start-ups and new media millionaires; by a scrabble to grab the new Premier League football broadcasting rights contract and, tragically, the demise of Live TV and the News Bunny… JanuaryAs 1998 began… Continue reading A Look Back At 1999…
The Independent Television Commission (ITC) has imposed a £20,000 fine on the Christian Channel, which broadcasts to the UK via cable and satellite. The channel faces the penalty for a number of breaches of the Advertising Code in relation to political impartiality and denigration of other beliefs, as well as a number of further infringements… Continue reading Christian Channel Fined £20,000 By ITC
The last Christmas Day of the century saw ITV take the majority of peak-time television viewing as BBC1 lost the battle for the first time in fifteen years. The commercial network’s decision to broadcast three editions of the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? gameshow paid off, with two of the three programmes appearing in… Continue reading ITV Wins Christmas Day Peak-Time Battle
