PR Newswire loses market share to smaller PIP rivals, finds latest quarterly survey by Knowledge Tec

24/02/2003

PR Newswire loses market share to smaller PIP rivals, finds latest quarterly survey by Knowledge Technology Solutions PLC

PR Newswire, the biggest competitor to the London Stock Exchange’s Regulatory News Service (RNS), has seen its share of the market for company regulatory announcements fall by over 1.5% in the last three months. This is the largest change in market share of any of the primary information providers (PIPs), according to the fourth survey of the PIPs market by live financial data technology company Knowledge Technology Solutions PLC (KTS).

PR Newswire, the biggest competitor to the London Stock Exchange’s Regulatory News Service (RNS), has seen its share of the market for company regulatory announcements fall by over 1.5% in the last three months. This is the largest change in market share of any of the primary information providers (PIPs), according to the fourth survey of the PIPs market by live financial data technology company Knowledge Technology Solutions PLC (KTS).

The survey also found that RNS has remained the clear market leader. It carried 83.5% of the 43,271 company announcements issued between November 2002 and February 2003. Since KTS started surveying the PIP market in May 2002, a month after it was liberalised, RNS has lost only 1.47% to its rivals (84.96 to 83.49%).

The survey found that the other five PIPs shared just over 7% of the market between them. Waymaker led share with 3.6%, Business Wire followed with 2%, PIMS had 0.7% and Hugin and Newslink around 0.5% each.

A number of the PIPs are introducing price changes this year. PR Newswire will offer all new clients the option of paying a flat-rate annual subscription or a pay as you go service. From 7th April RNS is dropping its annual administration fee. However, it is also increasing the charge for issuing company results’ statements from £150 to £220 per announcement. Hugin, which had the lowest market share, has also increased its annual charges. KTS monitored regulatory announcements on its live financial information product QuoteTerminalª to identify how many were made using each of the PIPs.

Dr Marc Pinter-Krainer, the chief executive of KTS, said:

“Although RNS’s market share is continuing to fall slowly, it still remains the dowminant player. And its leading position is strengthened since its main competitor, PR Newswire, has lost market share. Our most recent survey shows that the other five PIPs all benefited from the falls experienced by RNS and PR Newswire. But, it’s clearly going to take a long time, if ever, before the other PIPs threaten RNS’s market leading position.”