11 March 1999

At last year’s Barcelona TV Conference all eyes were on the media owners. How would they take their first steps into digital TV, and how would the established terrestrial channels such as ITV put a brake on declining audiences? One year on, most of the basic questions surrounding digital TV – how will it be […]

I have lots to say about the Budget, but there are plenty of people saying it elsewhere. Rather, I take this week as an opportunity to urge Chancellor Gordon Brown to raise his eyes from the Despatch Box and focus on the European horizon. As business people know, it won’t matter in the long term […]

Whoever it was that thought that J Walter Thompson’s “Brand Dating” venture might be one of the UK’s first specialists in brokering brand alliances – “JWT sets up branding partnership company” MW March 4) is rather behind the times. While it may be ungentlemanly to knock such fledgling competition, and while arranging to give chocolate […]

The Internet is full of success stories, from the dramatic rise to 6.2 million users a week over five years to individual companies with large market shares and outrageous share prices. A majority of the leading UK brands are now investing budgets in the Internet to capitalise on this success. Unfortunately, most of the investment […]

Boots the Chemist is testing a 24-hour, seven days a week healthline to assess consumer demand for out-of-hours information. The company believes it is the first retailer to offer a healthcare phone information service. The Boots Heathcare Line is being tested in three areas – Newcastle, Preston and Milton Keynes – operated by Reigate healthcare […]

Roche Consumer Health has dropped WCRS from its 5m Sanatogen vitamins account and re-aligned the UK business into global roster agency DMB&B. The switch comes just four months after WCRS retained the business following a repitch against DMB&B and Roche’s other roster agency, Bates Dorland. The move follows the appointment of a new international president […]

Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe has won a 4m account to promote the Energy Saving Trust’s Energy Efficiency brand. Saatchi & Saatchi, the incumbent agency on the account, and TBWA GGT Simons Palmer also pitched for the work. The Energy Efficiency brand was launched two years ago by the government-funded Energy Saving Trust. The brand is […]

ITV’s average rating among upmarket adults shot up 35 per cent in the first post-10pm slot cleared by the axing of News at Ten. Between 10pm and 11.30pm on Monday, March 8, when for the past 32 years ITV’s peaktime schedule has been broken up by the news, the station achieved an average rating of […]

Retail chain WH Smith and mobile phone operator Orange are planning to blitz selected London Underground stations this spring with posters announcing a joint initiative. They will promote the sale of JustTalk mobile phones and pre-pay vouchers in WH Smith stores by advertising on every escalator and four-sheet poster site at London’s mainline Underground stations. […]

Whenever football is criticised, it is usual for the game’s authorities to spread their palms wide, and declare with a shrug that it’s not their problem, guv, soccer is merely a reflection of society. I have always thought this hard on society, but now I’m not so sure. A well reported incident during a recent […]