The British commercial broadcaster ITV, is not going to buy out TV3, which means that the Irish station, (which also broadcasts on SKY Digital in Ireland) will now be sold to European private equity group Doughty Hanson.
ITV already owns 45% of TV 3 and CanWest owns 45% also, the move comes after a decision by CanWest to see its shares.
Tags: TV3
It seems that Channel One TV has lost it’s licence. The channel has become part of an investiagtion against it byP Ofcom, as has some of it’s customers have reported that they did not get the items they ordered, or that orders were not flled correctly.
The Chanel lost it’s licence after it failed to pay 2,000 GBP for its frees. Ofcom revolked the licence last week. Tags: Channel One TV
The company says "[Public Service Broadcasting] commitments represent almost a third of ITV1’s schedule but only 11% of ITV1’s impacts. Currently our ITV1 PSB slots are targeted by competitors with commercially attractive programming. We believe that there are opportunities in the medium term to modernise our PSB commitments including, for example, adjusting the balance of children’s programming across ITV1 and our newly launched CITV channel; available to 90% of families with children."
ITV plc revenue up 3% to £1,077 million
Financial Highlights
* Revenues outside ITV1 net advertising revenue (NAR) up 25% to £423 million
* Operating EBITA* up 1% to £205 million
* Operating profit up 9% to £163 million
* Profit before tax up 12% to £173 million
o Basic EPS up 7% to 2.9 pence
o Adjusted EPS# down 3% to 3.4 pence
* Interim dividend up 2% to 1.35 pence
* Before exceptional items, amortisation and businesses disposed of (principally Granada Learning)
# Before exceptional items and amortisation
Operating Highlights
* 3% Revenue growth in H1
o ITV1 plc NAR down 8% to £654 million
* Viewing performance in H1
o ITV1 SOCI cumulative % share in H1 34.2% vs. 37.5% in 2005
o ITV family SOCI cumulative % share in H1 40.2% vs. 42.2% in 2005
* Multichannel performance
o ITV2, 3, 4, CITV and Men and Motors NAR up 46% to £70m
o ITV’s digital channels multichannel viewing increased by +12.3%
o 44% of all revenue growth in multichannel in H1 from ITV’s digital channels
o Two channels launched in H1 2006 – CITV and ITV Play
o ITV2+1 planned before end of 2006
* Exploiting our content
o Production/Worldwide revenue up 9% to £127 million
o Three new big hit returning series for ITV1 developed in-house: Lewis, Dancing on Ice and Soapstar Superstar
* Growing new consumer revenues
o Consumer revenue up over 300% to £69 million
o ITV Play delivers £9 million profit in H1
o Friends Reunited H1 revenue up +50%, margins over 50%
o ITV Broadband portal full launch Q1 2007
o Live streaming of Champion’s League from Q4 2006
o ITV Local broadband service to roll-out across ITV regions
o ITV1 will be the UK’s first live streamed channel over mobile operator 3’s network.
* Continuing disposal of non-core assets total contribution of £108 million in first half
o ITV will have returned £1.1 billion to shareholders by the end of 2006
* Outlook
o Near term weakness in advertising market
o ITV plc total NAR 9 months to September -8%
o Continued growth outside ITV1 NAR
o Strong autumn schedule
o Strong programme delivery slate
Commenting, Charles Allen, Chief Executive of ITV said:
SKY has bought an online publishing company Mykindaplace.com. Brand Republic reports "The business will become part of Sky’s multi-platform content division, Sky Networked Media, which will use its web design expertise to launch specialist sites, with the first expected before the end of the year." Tags: Mykindaplace
Business week on line is reporteing on the decline in 4Q for Sky thye note from the report "Numis Securities said it expected BSkyB’s 2007 profit forecasts to be broadly similar to 2006 due to the ongoing broadband investment. "BSkyB is one of the (very) few business-to-consumer media companies that has really come to terms with the digital age and we remain supportive of the company’s long-term positioning," it said." Tags: BSkyB
The Guardian Unlimited website is reporting on the 23% pay rise James Murdoch secured this year they website writes "Mr Murdoch, who joined Sky in November 2003, was paid a basic salary of £825,000 and also received benefits of £208,600. With a pension contribution of £66,000, his overall remuneration was £2.75m.In the course of last year he also received 382,500 shares - currently worth £2.07m - which he can cash in in 2007 if Sky outperforms the FTSE 100 index of Britain’s top companies." (more…)
There is plenty of talk about the new Sky by mobile aplication, which allows you to have the following key features:
* The latest news stories and video updates from Sky News and Sky Sports.
* Live scoreboards giving play-by-play accounts of top sports events.
* Tables, fixtures and results for key sports.
* The ability to personalise a “My Sports” section, to follow the sports, teams and events of your choice.
* Weather forecasts from the Sky News Weather team, including regular video updates and a 24-hour outlook for around 100 UK cities.
* The ability to check odds and place bets with Skybet.**
Stephen Nuttall, BSkyB’s Director of Business Development, said:
“Sky Mobile brings customers the latest news, sport and weather in a convenient and easy-to-use format. This application allows us to build on existing customer relationships and reach consumers wherever they want to access Sky content.”
It looks good on paper but will people bother?
Source: SKY Press Release
Tags: SKY Mobile
