TV industry insiders believe the pace of terrestrial digital TV will be dictated by BSkyB when it launches its own digital satellite broadcasting next year… …Terrestrial broadcasters are understood to be in talks about developing digital receiver equipment so as not to rely on pay-TV technology controlled by Rupert Murdoch (Torin Douglas, page 17)… BSkyB’s […]

Telecoms giant BT will introduce voicemail for the home to encourage consumers to use the phone more often. BT has just finished filming a new ad featuring Bob Hoskins, which will air in the autumn. The ad introduces call minder – a telephone-answering service based at the local telephone exchange. The service, which costs 7 […]

To stem the present rush of speculative customers, building societies are hiking their minimum investment levels. But freezing out small account holders now could spell trouble for the future. Sean Brierley investigates

The mobile phone market has an image problem. While handsets can be cheap, users are often shocked by the running costs and the length of contracts they are tied into

Saatchi & Saatchi is searching for a long-term successor to chairman and chief executive Ed Wax. Wax is contracted until the end of 1997 but wants to appoint a number two – the role previously held by Bill Muirhead.

MEDIA Mars Confectionery is expected to replace Kellogg’s Frosties as the new sponsor of the Gladiators programme while BT is to sponsor Granada TV’s This Morning, presented by Judy Finnegan and Richard Madeley.

Consortia fighting for digital terrestrial TV multiplexes will overshadow those that won ITV licences. Can such big players unite to sell the concept?

EURO RSCG Institutionnel has been appointed by Microsoft to handle a forthcoming campaign aimed at combating youth unemployment in France. McCann-Erickson Frankfurt is to resign the Spalt analgesic account, blaming ‘strategic differences’ over the current campaign. The agency will continue to handle other brands marketed by Much Pharma, including Clear Blue and Fibrosine. The Publicis […]

Britain’s largest fridge manufacturer, Lec Refrigeration, is about to appoint Banks Hoggins O’Shea as its advertising agency. BHO and Cowan Kemsley Taylor fought for the account, which is worth 4m over three years. BHO is reported to have won the account, although Lec says it will not announce its decision until September 4. BHO creative […]

Channel 4 this week launched what it claims is its strongest autumn schedule to date, with new investment in late night and daytime programming as well as new drama. Alan Bleasdale’s six-parter Jake’s Progress will be the channel’s flagship drama for the season. Channel 4 is also planning to put out a teenage soap from […]

Can anyone spot the odd one out from Mellors Reay, GGT, Butterfield Day Devito Hockney and Walsh Trott Chick Smith? All were on the pitch list for the 3m Burton Menswear account which Mellors Reay won; two of the agencies were created this year. But only one of them failed to turn up to the […]

Coca-Cola UK marketing director George Bradt has publicly rubbished PepsiCo’s heavyweight Pepsi Challenge promotion as a flop, three months after its launch. Market research figures from Nielsen suggest Pepsi’s market share has fallen since the promotion started on May 1. The high-profile campaign includes TV ads, 2 million coupons and a roadshow covering 60 cities […]

The apparent recovery of Radio 1 overshadowed the steady growth enjoyed by many commercial radio stations, according to the latest Rajar radio audience data. Commercial radio accounted for 50.1 per cent of all radio listening for the first time in its history, adding 25.9 million listen- ing hours per week compared with the second quarter […]

Procter & Gamble has been forced to ditch its TV campaign for recently launched dishwasher detergent, Fairy Traditional, because its claims about rival brands were misleading and unfair.

Having mingled with the best of them, the Diary is not easily impressed with displays of affluence by those in the marketing industry. But even the Diary takes its hat off to David Prais, former European marketing manager at PC maker Gateway 2000, who has a new job at the US headquarters. Apparently, Prais was […]