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
The Food Advertising Unit of the Advertising Association has published a new study by Dr Brian Young, of Exeter University, of the attitudes and modes of comprehension of children of food advertising. Called ‘Children’s Categorisation of Foods’, it examines the responses of almost 800 children aged 7-13, and finds that children are not unduly influenced… Continue reading UK: Children understand advertising
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
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
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
EU ministers have decided that there should be no new or additional tax applied to electronic commerce. This was the result of a decision taken by the EcoFin Council on 6 July in Brussels, in anticipation of the OECD Conference on electronic commerce in Ottawa 6-8 October. In taking this decision EU ministers have largely… Continue reading EU: No new taxes
ITV, the UK’s leading commercial broadcaster, wants the activities of its publicly-funded rival, the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) to be critically examined. In a report handed to the main political decision-makers of the European Union, ITV questions the transparency of the BBC’s accounting and refers to an inadequate separation between the Corporation’s commercial activities and… Continue reading UK: ITV complains about BBC
National Magazine Company’s House Beautiful has appointed Ian Adkins as its new advertising director.Adkins has a history of 5 years with IPC magazines, working on women’s weeklies and TV listings, as well as having worked at Times Newspapers for four years prior to that.House Beautiful 0171 439 500
