ITV revenues fall further as dividend cut August 7, 2008 ITV, the largest commercial broadcaster in the UK, has halved its interim dividend, lowered online and production growth targets and will strip out another £35m a year in costs after sinking £1.5bn into the red in the first six months of 2008. Shares in the company fell as much as 10 per cent following revelations [...]
Advertising slump dents Trinity sales August 1, 2008 Trinity Mirror revealed an 8 per cent fall in first-half sales to £460.8m, with heavy falls in advertising revenues continuing to take their toll The parent company of the Daily Mirror was further rocked by a 15 per cent slump in advertising sales during the month of July. Advertising comprises nearly 51 per cent of [...]
Cheer Up: Not all media companies are preforming badly August 1, 2008 Look: it’s time for all this generalised gloom about the state of the media to stop There is nothing anyone can do about the state of the economy or the severe downward pressure on advertising revenues. Not even Gordon Brown can do anything about that. But this week there has been more good news than [...]
Informa receives second full takeover approach July 30, 2008 Informa shares spiked after the publisher and events organiser revealed it had received an approach from another potential suitor. Informa said it is still in discussions with a Providence Equityled consortium, but it has also now provided information to the new bidder. It stressed the approach was preliminary only. Buyout firms Providence Equity, The Carlyle [...]
Pearson gains buck Media sector gloom July 29, 2008 Financial Times owner Pearson Group brought some much-needed cheer to the media sector after beating analysts’ first half revenue forecasts by posting a 14 per cent rise in sales to £1.965bn, in what chief executive Marjorie Scardino described as “tough economic conditions.” Pearson shares climbed 2.85 per cent to 612.5p after the group said it [...]
Hg Capital considers bid for magazine publisher July 28, 2008 Wilmington Group, publisher of the journalists’ magazine Press Gazette as well as many other business titles, will today confirm that it is in preliminary talks with Hg Capital about a possible takeover by the private equity firm. While informal talks have been held with Hg Capital, it is understood that a formal offer would be [...]
How the big channels are defying the odds to prosper July 25, 2008 Anyone who wants to understand something fundamental about the media just has to hold a single number in their head – 38,000. It’s a decent size for most football crowds or those willing to watch a Wagner opera the whole way through. But it doesn’t exactly pass muster as the ratings for a top US [...]
Advertising revenues dip at Daily Mail July 24, 2008 Newspaper publisher Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT) yesterday warned of a sharp fall in advertising revenues in the third quarter, with property and recruitment sectors performing particularly badly. But the Daily Mail and Evening Standard owner also said that overall performance had been good, with revenue growing by 5 per cent due to strong [...]
Harley Street might help steer ITV back to good health July 18, 2008 At least you can’t accuse ITV of not trying. The colour advertising spreads promoting its new drama Harley Street were everywhere yesterday. We will know today whether ITV has managed to engineer that increasingly rare phenomenon, a new drama hit. At least the Radio Times made it Pick of the Day and noted that while [...]
Auntie’s problems run deeper than executive bonuses July 11, 2008 The case of “trebles all round” for top BBC executives, after a year in which viewers were deceived and trust damaged, rightly dominated news about the Corporation’s annual report this week. But an eyebrow should be raised at the scale of the bonuses. The overall pay of director of vision Jana Bennett rose by 24 [...]