Sharewatch: ITV Rises As Ad Research Nears Completion

ITV enjoyed a rise of 0.47% on its share price yesterday, closing at 107žp. The broadcaster was preparing to publish the results of research into the effectiveness of television advertising on sales, forming part of its recently launched Values of Fame marketing campaign.

The results mark the culmination of eight years of research by ITV, which has invested £3 million in the single source research project, equipping a nation-wide panel of 3,000 homes with a set-top meter to record television viewing and a bar code scanner to record purchases (see ITV To Publish Research Into Television Advertising).

Rival commercial broadcaster BSkyB performed less well, losing 1.03% as expectation mounted that the company will announce significant falls in subscriber figures later this week. City analysts predict a 70% year-on-year drop in the number of new digital customers (see BSkyB To Unveil A 70% Drop In Subscriber Figures).

DMGT also saw a slight decline, losing 0.7% to close at 732p. Subsidiary company Associated Newspapers yesterday confirmed plans to corner the the secretarial recruitment market with the launch of new women’s weekly magazine with Metro branding to be distributed free to readers from January (see Metro Plans Recruitment Magazine For Women).

Fears over slipping subscriber figures at telecoms group Vodafone pushed the FTSE 100 down yesterday, with the mobile phone giant contributing eight points to its decline of 23.2 to 4,716.6. The FTSE 250 also suffered, losing 41.7 points to close at 6,474.4.

The closing prices of media company shares on Monday were: