BSkyB’s complaints to the Independent Television Commission (ITC) that ITV is acting anti-competitively in refusing to supply its channels to the Sky Digital service have not been upheld by the watchdog.ITV’s new digital channel, ITV2, is not available through Sky Digital because the Network is refusing to make a deal with Sky for carriage of… Continue reading BSkyB Fails To Gain Access To ITV2
Express Newspapers’ SportLive website has been redesigned and relaunched this week, following feedback from its users and a ‘rethinking’ of presentation.The format of the site, which was launched originally in June last year (see Express And ITN Launch Sports Website), was found to be too unclear according to Anne Mollen, head of business development at… Continue reading Express Newspapers Revamps SportLive Website
The Independent Television Commission (ITC) is to investigate claims that some parts of the Channel 4 Guns On The Street documentary were faked. The programme, shown the day after the Dunblane massacre in March 1996, claimed to show the video diaries of two people in Manchester who were concerned about the local arms trade.However, an… Continue reading ITC Investigates Claims Of Fake C4 Documentary
Pay-TV channel and content supplier, Flextech, has this morning reported its preliminary financial results for the year ended 31 December 1998. Pre-tax losses at the group have been reduced to £5.1 million, from £6.2 million in 1997, although this is still greater than the £4.0 million anticipated by broker Merrill Lynch.Turnover at the company rose… Continue reading Losses Reduced At Flextech
The Barbican last week, Quaglino’s this week. It’s a hard life but somebody has to go to all these programme schedule launches. Tim Garden, director of programmes at Channel 4, today unveiled the channel’s output for Spring to Summer. He began by saying that the channel had ‘woken up’ and would be setting out its… Continue reading C4 Goes For Talking Point TV With Spring/Summer ’99 Schedule
Inflation has fallen below the Government’s target of 2.5% to 2.4% in February according to figures from the Office for National Statistics released this morning. Inflation has been steady at 2.6% for the last two months.The fall is expected to raise hopes of a further cut in interest rates by the Bank of England when… Continue reading Inflation Down To 2.4%
BSkyB has expanded the transmission space available on its Astra satellite through two ten year contracts with SES, the satellite operating company. The deals give Sky six additional transponders on its current Astra 2A satellite along with 3 more transponders on the upcoming Astra 2B satellite.This means that BSkyB is able to augment its digital… Continue reading Sky Makes Space For More Digital Channels
The BBC’s spring and summer schedule, released yesterday, signals the Corporation’s capitulation in the battle with ITV for high ratings. Perhaps the recent strong performance of ITV during peak time (see Goldeneye Nets 52% Share For ITV), since the Network dropped the News At Ten, has led the BBC to rethink its position in the… Continue reading BBC Surrenders In The ITV Ratings Battle
Granada is set to take an 18.6% stake in Scottish Media Group (SMG) off the hands of Mirror Group for approximately £110 million. The deal is conditional upon agreement from Mirror Group shareholders at its Extraordinary General Meeting on 30 March.Mirror said it wished to dispose of the holding, described as a non-core asset, earlier… Continue reading Granada To Buy Mirror’s Scottish Media Stake
Telewest Communications strengthened yesterday, closing up by 16p at 253˝p. The telecommunications company this morning announced that it is offering Senior Discount Notes to institutional buyers in the US, in order to raise £300 million to reduce amounts drawn under the company’s credit facilities.Despite some positive financial results and outlook (see Newsquest ‘Cautiously Optimistic’ For… Continue reading Sharewatch
