The Outdoor costs cause controversy in Ghana Advertising Association of Ghana (AAG) has rejected calls for a 600% hike in the price of permits for outdoor ads.

CNN International leads the international TV players in the inaugural EMS Africa survey results released by Synovate today. CNN leads the pack with a weekly reach of 49%, followed by National Geographic's 39.9% reach which narrowly beat out BBC World News' reach of 39%. Discovery and Sky News round-out the top five with reaches of 35.9% and 32.2%, respectively.

Press freedom has returned to Zimbabwe with the news that the government has decided to issue licenses to four new dailies.

In an effort to counter the inevitable drop in tourist numbers after the World Cup, South Africa Tourism is planning to launch a trade campaign after the final whistle has been blown.

Zimbabwe has recorded its first year of economic growth for 11 years, according to figures from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Gross domes products rose 4% in the last twelve months, with prices up 6.5%. The results bring an end to years of hyper-inflation and shrinking economy by 5-10%.

Asia Pacific and Africa are benefitting from a rise in global tourism during early 2010, according to a report from The World Tourism Organisation (UNTWO) . Figures for the first two months of the year show global arrivals rose 7% to 119 million in January and February with Asia Pacific seeing the biggest rise of +10% followed by Africa +7%. Europe and the Americas also saw growth but on a smaller scale with both registering +3%.

WPP's research arm Youth Dynamix is teaming up with EXP to provide market insights into young African adults. 'Snapshot of Africa' will focus on 18- to 25-year olds in seven sub-Sahara countries across the continent.

Ghanaian radio continues to dominate the communications medium despite the steady rise of mobile phones, according to new research from InterMedia.

The Africa Development Research Series: Ghana highlights the fact that radio continues to be the most widely used information source, followed by TV. However, the reach of TV is concentrated in more urban areas.

The African pay-TV company DStv has launched a mobile TV network in Nigeria, in partnership with the local pay-TV company Details Nigeria. The network will allow DStv to broadcast 12 of its channels to subscribers' mobile phones. This service, which will be rolled out commercially in December, is the first mobile TV service in Africa.

The Irish public broadcaster RTE has started trial broadcasts of six new digital radio stations. They join the 11 stations currently broadcasting digitally in the test area of Dublin and the North East of Ireland. The new stations are the first digital-only stations in the country; the other 11 are simulcasts of existing analogue channels. The trial will last until November.

Meanwhile, the first digital terrestrial television (DTT) transmission in Africa took place at a trade show in Johannesburg on Tuesday.