UR TV CAST

KPNQwest’s cables make up more than 80 per cent of Fibernet’s network infrastructure in Europe.The pull-out from these territories will see the company write down the value of its assets in each country, resulting in a total exceptional charge, including restructuring fees, of £75m this year. It expects to save about £9m a year.Nevertheless, Fibernet, which has about £46m of cash, was upbeat on its prospects in the UK, saying it had won orders worth £18.1m in the three months to 31 May. It won new business from companies including Citigroup, HSBC, The Co-operative Bank, NTL, Fujitsu and Verizon.. Trinity Mirror, the newspaper group, has seen a drop of 10 per cent in advertising revenues in the first half of the year at its national titles and its regional publications have also remained in negative territory. The Mirror titles have also been repositioned editorially, with a more serious news agenda.The first four months of the year saw circulation declines of 2.4 per cent, compared with 2001. In May, after the brand relaunch and the introduction of price discounting, the drop in the Daily Mirror’s circulation eased to 0.5 per cent down on last year.Philip Graf, the chief executive, said: “We are pleased with the very early results of the price strategy. These are very early days in terms of this whole strategy, because it is not designed to produce instant results …

we don’t expect to see significant results until next year and the following year.”During the first five months of the year, the Sunday Mirror’s circulation declined, year-on-year, 2.5 per cent and the Sunday People 5.1 per cent.Mr Graf said having tackled the Mirror, the group was reviewing its strategy for the Sunday People. There has been speculation it may be sold.At the regional titles, Trinity Mirror suffered from its presence in London and the South-east – in this region there was an ad sales decline of 11.6 per cent Elsewhere in the country, there was growth of 1.7 per cent. Across the regional business, the net decline was 2.3 per cent in the first half.Analysts pointed out that rival regional publishers, Daily Mail & General Trust and Johnston Press, which are both less exposed to the South-east, reported slightly positive overall ad growth this year.Despite the improving trend in advertising in the first half, Trinity Mirror said it believed it “prudent” to assume year-on-year ad revenue declines will continue for the rest of 2002.”However, our trading performance to date, the continued successful implementation of the Group’s strategic objectives and the realisation of cost savings ahead of expectations provide considerable support to the group’s financial prospects in 2002,” it said.. The BBC could save £50m of licence payers’ money if it abandoned its bid for digital terrestrial television licences and signed up with a rival proposition from ITV and Channel 4, it was claimed yesterday.

It is due to award the licences by 4 July.Under its scheme, the BBC is working with transmission group Crown Castle, which will physically broadcast the 24 free-to-air channels envisaged, for a fee per station. The BBC would pay Crown Castle to broadcast four of its channels.Crown Castle will charge carriage fees of £3.8m per channel per annum, according to ITV/Channel 4, which offered the BBC carriage at £2.7m per channel per annum instead. The £1.1m saving per channel gives a £4.4m total saving per year or £50m over the 12-year life of the DTT licences. ITV/Channel 4 are understood to have separately told the ITC that Crown Castle’s charges – which they would have to pay if the BBC won the contest – are excessive.A source close to the ITV/Channel 4 bid said: “This offer means that the BBC can join a bid with an almost identical free-to-air line-up and save the licence payer £50m.”. Shares in Avis Europe, the car rental group, lost nearly a third of their value yesterday after the company revealed an unexpected further slump in corporate business.