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Recruitment ad spend has led the growth of ad revenues of regional newspapers in recent years. Declining recruitment ad volumes in Q2 2005 and weak outlook for H2 2005 will significantly reduce ad revenue growth in 2005 from the 4.9% of 2004. This outlook will adversely impact groups that are more heavily reliant on recruitment ad spend, such as Northcliffe Newspaper Group and Trinity Mirror Group, and both have confirmed the challenging nature of the current trading environment in their results.

GCap Media's first financial results last week were described as "extremely disappointing” by Chief Executive Ralph Bernard. Formed earlier this year from the merger of GWR plc and Capital Radio plc, the industry’s two former heavyweights, GCap owns one national radio licence, 55 local radio licences and 100 digital radio licences.

The recent results from Vodafone’s competitors in Europe show it experiencing a clear performance lag, with growth dipping in the December quarter at Vodafone but its competitors maintaining their previous pace

3G datacards slot into laptops to provide Internet connectivity when on the move. They make good use of the current patchy 3G networks: demand is likely to be concentrated in areas that are currently covered, while GPRS is a good back-up outside these areas and the ‘bursty’ nature of their usage does not put an unsustainable load on the 3G networks. However, they are far more expensive and much slower than fixed line broadband, and they are likely to remain so for the foreseeable future, leaving their appeal as a ‘last resort’ rather than a genuine alternative.

The resulting outlook for C&W UK’s performance in the short term is uncomfortable

Longer term, the strategy looks feasible, but better implemented under private ownership

Bulldog’s strategy is unchanged and remains dubious

The liberalised ownership provisions in the Communications Act 2003 have facilitated consolidation of the commercial radio sector in the past year. Two top-tier groups have emerged in GCap Media and Emap, following its acquisition of Scottish Radio Holdings. The pressures for consolidation have become more acute in the past year due to the structural problems of the commercial radio sector and the advertising downturn. But assets have become more difficult to value due to the uncertain timing of the recovery in advertising and the prospect that radio will be edged out of national budgets by online. UK radio groups are increasingly cautious to buy and anxious to sell, and we also discount the prospect of a bid from a major US group, expecting instead keen competition for the 35 new licences Ofcom will be allocating in the next few years.

Freeview recorded its strongest monthly increase of 694,000 homes in December 2005 according to BARB survey estimates, with 6.393 million digital terrestrial television (DTT) homes projected for the beginning of 2006.

UK broadband network operators have begun full-scale deployment of video-on-demand (VOD) services. NTL/Telewest have almost completed the upgrade of their networks to enable homes in their footprint for VOD, hoping to achieve similar success as the US cablecos in the past five years. In 2006, BT is to launch its hybrid Freeview/VOD device to BT broadband customers and VOD will also be a part of the IPTV offers from Bulldog and Wanadoo UK. Is this enthusiasm for VOD in the UK warranted?

IPWireless’s TDtv technology offers an intriguing alternative, using otherwise spare spectrum, but it is the most costly technology to roll out, and the most underdeveloped in handset terms

As predicted by Enders Analysis in August 2005, global recorded music sales declined by 2% during 2005

The UK’s first two trials of broadcast mobile TV, run by Arqiva/O2 and BT Movio/ Virgin Mobile, reported results in the last week. 3G-based mobile TV is already available in the UK, but its one-to-one nature severely limits the number of simultaneous users; for a mass market service, a broadcast network is required.

The arrival of 21CN, possibly in 2008, will see the launch of rate adaptive ADSL2+ services (up to 18Mbit/s) which should allow around 50% of customers to receive downstream data rates of 8Mbit/s

Vodafone announced last week a new extension to its range of music services that will offer European subscribers interactive mobile radio through a collaboration with Sony NetServices

More prominent profile of media in Free's mix of broadband, telephony and IPTV to improve customer retention and attract content owners to Free's broadband distribution channel, while VoIP remains the principal driver for non-access revenues