News Corporation’s first-quarter profits down 30% after drop in television advertising revenue

News Corporation, parent company of The Times, reported a 30 per cent drop in first-quarter profits, as falling revenues from television advertising and declining film studio sales hit the bottom line.

BSkyB customers pass 9m amid profits rise

BSkyB added another 87,000 pay-TV customers, its highest growth during its first quarter for five years, bringing its total customer numbers to more than nine million.

US television revenues hit says Rupert Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch, the chief executive of News Corporation, parent company of The Times, gave warning yesterday that a deterioration in the US economy was dragging down television advertising revenues.

BSkyB customers rise, but profits fall

BSkyB said fourth quarter net new customers rose a better than expected 92,000 and is confident of further growth despite economic uncertainty, although profits fell as the satellite broadcaster's investment in ITV took its toll.

How do you view?

Sport and the media are natural bedfellowsBRISTOL, jokes Chuck Pagano, lies in a "demilitarised zone": halfway between Boston and New York, in territory shared by Red Sox and Yankee fans. Sport is a serious business there--pretty much the only business, in fact. The town of 61,000 people is home to ESPN, a company that has become synonymous with sports broadcasting. With little modesty but no little justification, it styles itself "the world leader in sports".ESPN began life in 1979, when American television was ruled by three networks, ABC, CBS and NBC. "Cable television wasn't even cable television," says Mr Pagano, ESPN's head of technology and one of its first employees. Its founder, Bill Rasmussen, wanted to show Connecticut sport to Connecticut people, but discovered a much larger market. ...

Posh values of BBC present one-sided picture of UK

Go to Glastonbury and it is tempting to conclude, while watching bands perform in the Somerset countryside, that this is the real England. It is easy to believe that you have found the essence of a nation when there are large crowds around, a hint of rain in the air and hills in the distance.