Latest Media News
Week commencing 26th July 2010
ITV has fought off strong competition from BSkyB to secure the UK broadcast rights for the Rugby World Cup 2011 in New Zealand and host broadcast rights for the Rugby World Cup 2015 in England. The terrestrial broadcaster successfully pitched against Sky and three unknown broadcast rivals for the business. Sources close to the deal confirmed the contract was approximately twice the size of the last £30m contract between ITV and RWCL for the 2003 and 2007 World Cup tournaments. Source: Media week
Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB has bought the exclusive rights to the entire HBO TV catalogue, which includes a huge range of American shows such as The Wire, True Blood, The Sopranos and Martin Scorsese's eagerly-awaited crime drama Boardwalk Empire, MediaGuardian can reveal. The deal will give Sky access to HBO's archive and all forthcoming shows over the lifetime of the agreement. It is believed to be worth around £150m over five years. Source: Media Guardian
News International is scrapping The Sun's Saturday television guide, TV Mag, and replacing it with a glossy TV magazine aimed at female readers. The magazine, which does not yet have a name, will launch later in the year. NI has been promoting a more upmarket magazine proposition to media agencies and is aiming to attract higher-profile brand advertisers, rather than focusing on direct response ads. Source: Brand republic
Amazon unveiled two lighter, more advanced versions of the Kindle e-reader today, alongside a new UK ebook store that it claimed will send sales of the device soaring in Britain. Faced with growing competition in the e-reader market, Amazon has redesigned the device and has made it available directly from its UK site for the first time. In another change, Amazon also announced that the new Kindle will be available with just Wi-Fi connectivity, rather than using a 3G mobile connection to download electronic books. Source: Media Guardian
Mail Online remained the most visited national newspaper website in June for the sixth month in succession as it also increased its lead over its nearest rival.
Figures released today by the Audit Bureau of Circulations reveal that Daily Mail & General Trust's website drew an average of 2,485,431 daily browsers last month.
The website's audience increased 3.99 per cent from the 2,390,095 that visited the site on average each day in May. Source: Press Gazette
NME Radio will return to being a presenter-led service in September after its publisher IPC Media signed a licensing arrangement with regional radio company Town & Country Broadcasting. NME Radio became an online-only automated service in June after DX Media, the company led by XFM founder Sammy Jacob, terminated its contract to produce the radio station for IPC. Source: Media week
Outdoor media owner JCDecaux Airport has retained the multimillion pound five-year ad contract for London Luton Airport after a competitive pitch process. As part of the new contract JCDecaux will introduce digital panels into the departure lounges and large format digital screens elsewhere around the airport. Source: Brand republic
UK top 10 films
1. Toy Story 3 (£21.19m)
2. Inception (£4.17m)
3. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (£1.44m)
4. Shrek Forever After (£1.22m)
5. The Rebound (£0.36m)
6. Predators (£0.31m)
7. Khatta Meetha (£0.12m)
8. Get Him To The Greek (£0.12m)
9. Splice (£0.11m)
10. Leaving (£0.04m)
Source: Pearl & Dean
Edited by the TV team
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