Virgin Media set to sell its stake in UKTV August 8, 2010 VIRGIN Media is poised to sell its stake in UKTV, the digital broadcaster it jointly owns with BBC Worldwide. Chief executive Neil Berkett expects to net at least £350m from the sale of the firm’s 50 per cent share, as he seeks to offload non-core assets and focus on Virgin Media’s cable business. Berkett is [...]
Advertising rebound helps News Corp and T Warner August 4, 2010 TWO of the world’s largest media companies reported buoyant quarterly earnings yesterday amid signs of resurgent income from advertising. News Corporation, whose portfolio includes satellite broadcaster BSkyB and The Times newspaper, swung to a profit of $875m (£550.7m) or 33 cents per share in the fiscal fourth quarter. It lost $203m at the same point [...]
NICK BOOTHTECH TALK August 4, 2010 I’VE seen the future of British youth – it’s half man, half desk. Why? They can’t relate to anything unless it’s writ large on a glowing screen at chair level. But now the school PCs and whiteboards have been powered off, could we entice our next generation humans into the garden of real-life high definition? [...]
THREE TOP-RATED US EQUITY FUNDS August 3, 2010 NEPTUNE US OPPORTUNITIES FUND Launched on 31 December 2002, Neptune’s US Opportunities fund has been managed by Felix Wintle since August 2005. Although it has underperformed the S&P 500 over the past year due to manager caution – 14.99 per cent compared to 25.96 per cent for the wider market – it has enjoyed robust [...]
How to pull off a last-minute holiday body August 2, 2010 NUTRITION IT MAY be tempting, but crash dieting isn’t to be recommended. Any nutritionist worth their salt will tell you how, at best, it may give you the impression of quick weight loss but you’ll feel awful, put the weight back on quickly, mess with your metabolism and risk doing more serious damage. But there [...]
ITV to unveil strategy shift August 1, 2010 ITV’S new management team is set to use tomorrow’s interim results presentation to unveil plans to move into pay-TV, as part of a radical new strategy to turn the broadcaster around. Advertising revenues are expected to have improved sharply on 2009, thanks to Britain’s exit from recession, the World Cup, and the continued success of [...]
Pity these fools – The A-team flops July 29, 2010 Film THE A-TEAM Cert: 12A Rhys Griffiths A quarter of a century years after the finale of the TV show, the A-Team blunders its way into the twenty-first century – and what should be a film providing two hours of nostalgic, action-packed fun falls short of even the simplest of tasks. Instead it’s lengthy and [...]
BSkyB profit jumps thanks to HD customers July 29, 2010 SATELLITE TV group BSkyB has reported a sharp jump in annual profits, fuelled by customers siging up for high definition (HD) services. Profit for the year to the end of June wass £878m, That was almost treble the £259m the broadcaster made in the previous 12 months. Revenue jumped to £5.9bn, up more than ten [...]
Ad sales buoy Daily Mail firm July 27, 2010 Publisher Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT) said yesterday its flagship newspaper business rebounded strongly after the advertising crisis. Underlying advertising revenues rebounded 13 per cent at its national newspaper division, led by the Daily Mail. Sales for the third quarter rose six per cent, also helped by subscriptions to its publications maintaining pace. Advertising [...]
Pace in £300m deal for 2Wire July 26, 2010 PACE, the world’s largest set-top box maker, has agreed to buy US broadband technology firm 2Wire for £306.6m to broaden its customer base beyond cable and satellite into the Internet TV market. The British company, which overtook to claim the top spot in May, said 2Wire had an established relationship with North American telecoms providers [...]