ITV expected to blame Brexit for dip in advertising sales February 26, 2017 ITV is expected to cite the Brexit vote as the cause for its first decline in advertising sales since the financial crisis. The broadcaster will unveil a drop of around 7 percent in advertising sales when it publishes full-year results on Wednesday, The Sunday Times reported yesterday. The first advertising decline since 2009 will be [...]
HMRC hits back at suggestions by Andrew Tyrie of heavy handed tactics in cracking down on tax avoidance February 25, 2017 Tax authorities have dismissed claims by the chairman of the Treasury Select Committee that it acted in a heavy handed manner, causing people "very severe financial distress". Andrew Tyrie has written to chancellor Philip Hammond to highlight concerns about the way HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) cracked down on people who had arranged their financial affairs by using tax [...]
Here’s what analysts are saying about Pearson’s full-year results after a “challenging” year February 24, 2017 Pearson did its best to prepare investors for today’s full-year results with a January trading update. The former Financial Times publisher’s share price jumped up at the open, before falling slightly later in the morning. Read more: Pearson lays bare 2016 results after "challenging year" Here is what analysts are making of the figures… The [...]
Former FT publisher Pearson lays bare 2016 results after “challenging year” February 24, 2017 Pearson’s share price jumped three per cent at the open this morning before falling away after the struggling education business reported its full-year results. Although the figures reflected a “challenging year”, with sales down eight per cent and operating profit falling 21 per cent, investors had already been briefed on the damage in a January [...]
FTSE 100-listed Farmers Weekly publisher Relx reports growing revenue February 23, 2017 FTSE 100 information business Relx, formerly known as Reed Elsevier, reported revenue growth of four per cent in 2016 today. The figures Relx, which owns legal database LexisNexis and medical journal the Lancet, reported a 2016 turnover of £6.9bn. Underlying adjusted operating profit, meanwhile, was up six per cent to £2.1bn. The group increased its [...]
MP committee tells press industry: Toughen up regulator or face feared Section 40 February 23, 2017 A group of MPs has called on the press industry to toughen up its regulator or face the much-feared Section 40. Parliament's Culture, Media and Sport committee today published a report calling for the industry’s preferred regulator, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso), to make itself compliant with recommendations set out by Lord Justice Leveson after [...]
Baffling people into buying works – but drop the jargon, say it like it is February 23, 2017 According to a recent study conducted by Britain Thinks, women are wary of investing their cash in financial products, because they are turned off by the jargon the industry employs in its ads. Not just women, I’ll wager. Last year the Financial Conduct Authority warned banks against their persistent use of jargon. “All too often [...]
Amazon, Confused.com and Just Eat help TV advertising market grow February 23, 2017 Online companies like Amazon, Just Eat and Moneysupermarket are spending more and more on TV advertising. In total, TV adspend crept up 0.2 per cent in 2016 to £5.3bn, the seventh successive year of growth. Read more: News Corp posts second loss in a row amid print advertising headwinds A Thinkbox analysis of Nielsen figures shows [...]
BBC to launch new TV channel for Scotland with £30m budget February 22, 2017 The BBC has announced plans to launch a new TV channel for Scotland, with a budget equivalent to that of BBC4. Director general Tony Hall said today that the channel would launch in the autumn of 2018. Read more: Fake news and echo chambers help BBC Radio 4's Today hit audience record It will have [...]
YouTube’s double standards in banning PewDiePie February 20, 2017 If you've ever wondered what on earth a PewDiePie is, you’re not alone. He’s a man, Felix Kjellberg, who reviews video games online. In the YouTube world, he’s as famous as James Corden, as influential as Nick Robinson, and as we found out last week, as funny as Jim Davidson. “Very rich Swedish man pays [...]