— Sony may be going to buy out Bertlesmann's half of their recorded music joint venture that is home to Neil Diamond. But so far, so slow, as neither board has yet met to approve any deal. There is some talk that Rob Stringer, the brother of Sir Howard Stringer, the Sony chief executive, will emerge with some sort of “global” role, but that could prove controversial internally.

— ITV shares have been testing record lows this week but TV advertising has not yet fallen off a cliff. ITV1 bookings are down 2percent in June, and 4percent in July and August. Add in the digital channels and the decline softens. It's bad, but not (yet) really bad.

— Who needs enemies? After meeting the bosses of Universal Music, analysts from Citigroup described EMI as “over-levered” as they praised the Big U. Citi ought to know - it lent Guy Hands the money to buy the British music major, which the bank can't syndicate. But was it really necessary to add that EMI has “non-music people running the business and is losing artists at a rapid rate”?

— Consternation at Glastonbury last weekend, where organisers of the Left Field tent - where Tony Benn and Billy Bragg were appearing - were dismayed to find that The Guardian excluded Left Field from its festival guide. Those on the ground were convinced that the decision was not accidental, as the newspaper said, and that the paper had dropped Left Field because it wanted to appear more centrist to addled festivalgoers.

— Jason King and Joel Ross (aka JK and Joel), the Virgin Radio duo and presenters of BBC2 children's show Hiders in the House, gave outgoing Virgin Radio chairman Richard Huntingford a surprise send-off. At his leaving do, they screened a video of JK & Joel sneaking into a house, wearing the owner's pyjamas and later showering in his en suite. It was not until the video had played for two minutes that Huntingford realised that it was his home they were in.

Times Recommends

• US stocks fall below 9,000 mark
• House price fall smallest in seven months
• Wary investors opt to keep cash in safes