Independent News and Media PLC., the Irish newspaper publisher, has revealed that it is in "exclusive but nonbinding talks" with the Alexander Lebedev, the Russian billionaire owner of London's Evening Standard, over the possible takeover of its non-profitable UK publications, the Independent and its Sunday supplement.

As has been confirmed by Independent News and Media, a Dublin-based group, it is currently tied in exclusive talks with Russian tycoon Alexander Lebedev over the sale of its publications the Independent newspaper and its Sunday section.

According to the group, it has entered into an "exclusive, non-binding agreement", with the Russian mogul regarding the publications and discussions are scheduled to take a final turn by 15 February.

It is a good day for Andrew Barron, the strategy development head of Virgin Media, as he has been promoted to the post of the chief operating operator after the company's decision to reshuffle its management.

Barron holds the credit for the reorganization of the customer operations at all levels of this company and he is all set to become the main man for Neil Berkett, the chief executive in the month of January.

Britain’s leading CD retailer HMV Group expressed optimism about Christmas sales after posting a narrowed half-year pre-tax loss of £24.9 million as compared with £27.5 million loss in the same period of last year.

UK-based HMV said sales at HMV stores in the UK and Ireland jumped 1.6 per cent during the six-month period ended October 24.

Sales across the group stood at £797 million, up 5.6 per cent, however like-for-like sales plunged 2.1 per cent.

iViewer, a new TV set which will offer people the opportunity to gain access to and view the BBC iPlayer directly, was recently launched. Introduced by Cello, a leading British firm, the iViewer boasts built-in internet access and users who have a broadband connection can use it to view channels offered over the net.

The iViewer also supports Wi-Fi connectivity, and till March 1, 2010, the gadget will be exclusively sold in all Marks and Spencer outlets.

Freeview HD transmissions are now available across some British areas, but a good box for the service had been missing till now, but the Freeview HD revolution has once again been thrown into the spotlight over the announcement that 3view is all set to release the world's first HD set-top box which will offer built-in internet connectivity.

A 5.2% hike in the number of job advertisements across the country has been recorded for the month of November, leading experts to stress that this is by far the most prominent sign of a recovering economy. The rise has come after a 1.7% fall recorded last month, but is still 12.3% higher than the lowest figure registered for July this year.

A forecast posted by GroupM, the media agency owned by WPP, has estimated that advertising revenues across UK, which have shown a slight rise after a long gap of 18 months, will continue to rise as confidence among marketers has started to come back.

For the current year, the forecast expects the country's ad spending to slip by 11.6% to 11.3 Billion Pounds ($18.6 Billion), an improvement on the earlier set prediction of 14%. The outlook for the coming year has also improved by 0.1% as compared to 2009.

The UK ad market is expected to recover earlier than expected as Group M foresees a year-on-year rise of 0.1 per cent in ad spending in 2010.

The Media buying agency Group M said that the UK would be one of the first nations, which would emerge from ad recession in 2010.

It also predicted that ad revenues for the final three months of this year would be better-than-expected.

UK and Ireland's popular Channel Five has signed a deal with Google's YouTube under which the channel's programming will be freely available online to all users of the video sharing site. A similar deal was signed by Channel 4 and YouTube earlier this year.

Lately, Google has been trying to make the most of the popularity of its YouTube videos portal, which the search engine giant acquired in 2006, and in what seems to be a step towards the same goal; Google has entered into "preliminary discussions" on the subject of charging users who want to stream full episodes of television sitcoms.

Responding to the newspaper industry's concerns that their content is being exposed to various undesirable sources through Google's search result listings, the search engine giant on Tuesday announced that it would soon let publishers set a daily limit on the amount of free content that users can view through search engine listings.

Virgin Media introduced a new mobile broadband dongle that increased the speed up to 7.2Mbps. Virgin’s previous dongle was providing a speed of 3.6Mpbs.

Virgin claimed that its new dongle would allow its mobile broadband customers connect quicker and anywhere.

Virgin further added that improved speed would allow consumers to get access to their favorite TV shows as well as Youtube clips in much shorter time.

News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch has recommended that the rest of the media industry should start charging for their online content.

Mr. Murdoch was speaking at a U. S. Federal Trade Commission workshop on the Internet's effect on journalism.

He said good journalism is expensive and should not come free of cost.

Speaking on the issue, Mr. Murdoch said, "We need to do a better job of persuading consumers that high-quality, reliable news and information does not come free."

Johnston Press, a British publisher of local newspapers, has started charging for online access to some of its contents, a move that could be followed by others.

Johnston Press will charge £5 for providing online access to six of its titles for three months.

Three-month subscription will include titles such as the Whitby Gazette and Northumberland Gazette in Britain and the Southern Reporter in Scotland.