ITV’s programming woes are not a direct result of the Contract Rights Renewal mechanism, but rather a lack of investment in the 1990s, according to Jim Marshall, chairman of Starcom Mediavest Group, who was speaking at MediaTel Group’s ‘Future of Television’ seminar in London yesterday. “The company spent a decade sorting out the business of… Continue reading Panellists Show Little Sympathy For ITV’s CRR Woes

Stuart McDonald, head of advertising insight at News International, dissects last week’s NRS release for the free London papers, explaining why NI is not totally happy with their ‘second place’ result and why the company believes the NRS must change…Last week the NRS released the first readership figures for the free evening newspapers in London,… Continue reading NRS – In Second Place But Still Dabbling In Performance Enhancers

The Office of Fair Trading has announced that it is to conduct a review of the imposed contract rights renewal (CRR) on ITV.The review, to be conducted in partnership with Ofcom, is scheduled for early next year.The OFT said that further information will be published “when the review commences”.ITV responded to the news in a… Continue reading OFT To Conduct Review Of CRR

Aegis Group has reported a first-half pre-tax profit of £41.3 million, up 8.7% from £38 million a year earlier. The group also reported organic revenue growth of 9.6%, whilst its revenue was up 7.7% to £499 million. Aegis Media and its market research company Synovate both delivered revenue growth ahead of their markets, at 9.8%… Continue reading Aegis First-Half Profits Up

Vincent Bolloré, chairman of Havas, has increased his stake in Aegis, the UK media buying group, to almost 30%. Bolloré Group, Bolloré’s holding company, has increased its holding in Aegis from 29.15% to 29.86%, almost reaching the threshold where it would have to make a bid for the company. So far, Bolloré has made four… Continue reading Bolloré Increases Aegis Stake

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has begun an investigation into Virgin Media following claims that its broadband advertisements are misleading customers.The ‘Truth, Lies and Broadband’ campaign featuring ads in national newspapers, on radio and online, state that the cable company’s broadband is “delivered via a fibre optic cable – meaning that it is officially the… Continue reading ASA Investigates Virgin Media Ads

In May, a study carried out by StrategyOne for Motorola’s Connected Home Solutions Division revealed that almost half of Europe is now regularly watching TV over the internet. France emerged as the most enthusiastic nation for consuming video on demand, with 59% watching previews and episodes of their favourite shows over the web, while the… Continue reading INSIGHTanalysis: Media Healthcheck – May 2007

Aegis has recorded a total revenue increase of 10.8% at constant currencies for the first quarter, 4.6% at reported rates. The group’s organic revenue growth (excluding currency movements and the impact of acquisitions) has increased since 2006, to 8.5% in the first quarter, and Aegis says that it continues to achieve the fastest organic revenue… Continue reading Aegis Announces Q1 Revenue Increase

BSkyB’s 17.9% stake in ITV has been referred to the Competition Commission by the Department of Trade and Industry.The decision to refer the case to the Competition Commission follows recommendations from Ofcom (see NewsLine) and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) (see Sky’s ITV Stake Raises Significant Competition Concerns)that the matter should be referred.In an… Continue reading Sky’s Stake In ITV Referred To Competition Commission

A new report from Media-Screen says that US broadband users are spending 48% (approximately one hour and 40 minutes) of their spare time online in a typical weekday, with the trend increasing across all age groups. Additionally, the report entitled Netpop | Play, finds that when users are online, 54% of that time is spent… Continue reading US Broadband Users Spend Almost 50% Of Spare Time Online