Newsletter archive

Week commencing 19th July 2010

Government considers cutting licence fee due to 'outrageous' BBC spending. According to culture secretary Jeremy Hunt, the new government is considering cutting the cost of the TV licence fee, based on the 'extraordinary and outrageous' waste of the BBC. In a recent interview, Hunt claims that they have to "make tough decisions like everybody else", and that "there are a huge numbers of things that need to be changed at the BBC". This would echo the 50% budget cuts that government departments have warned about; part of the government's plan to help the UK's debt problem in the current economic climate. Source: MediaTel

Virgin Media has joined in the advertising battle between rivals BSkyB and BT Vision with its own campaign to support the addition of Sky Sport HD 1 and Sky Sports HD 2 to its line up from 2 August. The campaign, includes print ads in national newspapers and UTV's Sport magazine as well as online activity on football sites, news outlets and social media. Source: Campaign

VOD forecast to reach 65.4m US households by 2016. Magna Global's latest On-Demand Quarterly forecasts that US video on demand will reach 65.4 million households by 2016. Source: MediaTelk

The Times and Sunday Times websites have been charging for access for two weeks now, with early unofficial statistics reporting 15,000 paying users. Although Times Newspapers stopped reporting their web traffic in April, Hitwise reports that the paywall resulted in site visits declining significantly. Visits were reduced by 58% even during the free registration period, and down a further 9% after the first week of payments being required. Source: MediaTel

Daily Express is readying an Apple iPad app with an upfront cost expected to be £1.79, offering free online content as well as a subscription-based replica of the paper. The newspaper group is launching iPad apps for its Daily Express and Sunday Express titles, along with its Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday national newspaper brands. It will become one of the first British national newspapers on the iPad, which is expected to be on sale in the UK by the end of the month. Express Newspapers, parent company of the newspaper brands, is to charge £1.79 for the Daily Express app, which will give free access to its website content. There will be a subscription charge to read the e-edition of the newspaper, which will be free in the first week after download. Source: Mediaweek

Haymarket Consumer Media is revamping What Car? magazine with the introduction of a new buyers' guide section that makes the title 40 pages thicker. The relaunch is tied to its September issue, on sale on 29 July. The magazine will offer a new 40-page A-Z which rates and pictures every car currently on sale in the UK. What Car? claims to be "the UK's biggest car-buying advice brand", with over 1.5 million consumers consulting it each month. Source: Brand Republic

Apple has reported record revenue of $15.7bn for its fiscal 2010 third quarter, ending 26 June, with Mac, iPhone and iPad sales helping to drive the company's profits up 77%. The technology giant recorded net quarterly profit of $3.25bn, up from $1.83bn on the equivalent quarter in 2009. Revenue was also up 61% from $9.73bn. Apple said international sales accounted for 52% of the quarter's revenue. The company shifted 3.47 million Macs during the quarter, a new record, and a 33% increase on the same period last year. It also sold 8.4 million iPhones, a 61% increase. Source: Brand Republic

The BBC has seen mobile requests for the iPlayer rise by 1m in June, taking the total to 7m. In total, the iPlayer received 117m requests for shows across all platforms and devices, a drop of 13m from May. The number of requests for the iPlayer via computers fell 9m from May to 86m as a result of seasonal fluctuations. During June, the iPlayer notched up an average of 3.3m requests each day: 2.3m for TV programmes and 1m for radio. On average, the catch-up service attracted 1.3m users a day, with each streaming an average of 178 minutes of radio content and 71 minutes of TV. The most popular live show was the England vs Slovenia World Cup match, which attracted 317,000 requests. Source: NewMediaAge

Facebook reaches 500 million global users. An online campaign is being launched by Facebook to celebrate reaching 500 million global users. This means that one in every twelve people in the world now has a Facebook account. Facebook have chosen a TV interview in America to mark the occasion, with Mark Zuckerberg being interviewed by Diane Sawyer this Wednesday at 18.30 ET (22.30 GMT), on ABC News. Not only this, but Facebook are introducing "Facebook Stories". Source: MediaTel

A fifth of smartphone users have downloaded a radio app, according to new research from radio audience measurement survey Rajar. The Measurement of Internet Delivered Audio Services (Midas) research is conducted every six months using respondents from the main Rajar survey. The latest research in June is the first to include data from people who listen via a mobile phone. It found that 20% of smartphone owners, equivalent to 1.4 million people in the UK, have downloaded a radio app and 53% of them use their radio apps at least once a week. In addition, 13% of adults have listened to the radio via their mobile. Of those, 54% select the station using specific FM preset and 14% run an app for a specific radio station. Source: Mediaweek

Outdoor media is forecast to lead recovery with 9.8% lift in ad spend. The overall UK ad market is now expected to rise 2.9% year on year in 2010, up from the 1.3% predicted in April. Outdoor media owners suggest the rise is due to the return of advertising and brand campaigns. Outdoor is not the only sector to see a rise; the TV ad market is expected to be up 7% year on year, from 6% in April, and spend on internet advertising is expected to be up 4.6% year on year, from 4% in April. Source: Mediaweek

UK digital out of home advertising is expected to grow 20% in 2010, according to new figures from Screen Digest. Source: MediaTel

Total Media are sponsoring Alicia Proud and Charlotte Burrough (http://twitpic.com/27km6i) who will be driving from Goodwood, West Sussex, to the capital of Mongolia, in the MONGOL RALLY 2010 in order to raise money for the Christina Noble Children's Foundation charity www.cncf.org. For more information about the charity drive please visit: http://www.justgiving.com/vicious-and-delicious

Edited by Ashley's Team

Week commencing 12th July 2010

Five's high-definition channel, Five HD, will be available on both the Virgin Media and Sky platforms from 13 July. Five programmes to be broadcast in high definition include the new entertainment series 'Don't Stop Believing' and the Australian soaps 'Neighbours' and 'Home and Away'. Five revealed that the channel is now available to Virgin Media's 3.7 million customers in addition to Sky's 9.77 million subscribers, as previously announced. Source Media Week

ITV is to rebrand GMTV as Daybreak when former 'One Show' hosts Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakely join the broadcaster in September. The rebrand will reflect the refresh of the network's "creative renewal". Source Media Week

ITV has confirmed that controversial BBC presenter Jonathan Ross is to host a new chat show on ITV1 in late 2011 and early 2012. The show will air in a peak-time slot, understood to be on either a Friday or Saturday night. Source Media Week

Bauer Media has unveiled the findings of a new research study focused on men's motivations, needs and pressures. The '4D Men' study gathered consumer insight through focus groups, online blogs, video diaries and Bauer Media's ongoing men's brand-tracking studies, speaking to over 1,500 men aged 15-40. Bauer said that the key outcome of the research was recognition of an emerging generation of confident and individual '4D' men of substance, with varied interests and passions, who live by a more individual interpretation of masculinity than their predecessors. Source: Mediatel

Children's publisher Egmont is launching a Toy Story magazine on 21st July to tie in with the release of 'Toy Story 3' from Disney/Pixar in the same week. It will be targeted at four to seven-year-old boys and will have an initial print run of 100,000. Published monthly, each edition will comprise 24 pages (although there will be 28 pages in the launch edition) priced at £3.50.The magazine also contains four pages of advertising featuring 'Toy Story' related products sold by Tesco, Mattel, Disney and Lego. Content will include original comic stories featuring characters such as Sheriff Woody and Buzz Lightyear, as well as games, puzzles and colouring.There will also be content to educate readers about the real world. The first edition features a fact file about the moon, introduced by Buzz. Egmont's portfolio of Disney titles include Disney Princess, Disney Tinkerbell and Playhouse Disney. Source Media Week

Future has revamped its movie magazine Total Film and announced the development of an iPhone app for the brand. It said it is attempting to increase the magazine's reach by increasing its exposure to 18 to 34 year old cinema-goers, through existing print and digital offerings as well as forthcoming mobile and event spin-offs. The title has had a full front-to-back redesign, with a new size format and increased pagination, and new regular sections. Future said that the new layout will increase opportunities for advertisers. Source: Mediatel

BT is calling on the public to decide and vote online for their own ending for the storyline of its long-running Adam and Jane TV ad campaign, which airs on 17th July. The ad will premier to Facebook fans before it is aired, enabling them to vote on the ending. The most popular ending will be aired in late August. The Adam and Jane storyline, staring TV actors Kris Marshall and Esther Hall, first appeared on screens in 2005. Fans of Adam and Jane have set up groups on Facebook to campaign to keep the couple together. Matthew Dearden, BT's marketing director, said, "Thousands of people follow the storyline on Facebook, and they are already debating what should happen in the run up to the wedding, so this campaign is giving them and others the chance to decide what happens next."This is a first for BT, so we are really excited to see how people respond and to find out what they decide should happen next to Adam and Jane." Source: NMA

Ed Vaizey, the culture minister, has said that the government will not switch off the FM signal as he outlined plans to encourage the takeup of digital radio. The commitment to keep FM stations on air is likely to be welcomed by listeners concerned that their analogue radio sets would be obsolete following digital switchover, which is likely to take place in 2015. Vaizey said the FM frequency will be available for use even after digital switchover. "We do not intend to switch off FM. FM will be available to local listeners as long as is necessary," he said. "There is a fear that when the majority of listeners listen to digital, FM will somehow become a ghetto. This will not be the case. Even today, digital radios allow a relatively seamless transition between digital and FM." Vaizey also confirmed that the new government will stick to the 2015 target for switchover, maintaining the position taken by the previous Labour administration, but emphasised it would only enforce the deadline if consumers have migrated to the new technology in five years time. Source: Guardian.co.uk

Rick Astley will host a new summer slot on London radio station, Magic 105.4. The 1980s pop icon will host every Sunday from 2pm until 4pm. The initial contract will run for eight weeks from the 11th July, with a view to a possible extension. Astley takes over from fellow popstar Ronan Keating, who has taken a temporary hiatus from presenting. Astley states: "I am delighted to be joining Magic 105.4 over the summer. This will be my first time in the hot seat as a radio DJ and I'll be playing my top tracks from today, my favourite hits from the 80s and the songs that have influenced my music when I was growing up." Source: Guardian.co.uk

CBS Outdoor has become the official outdoor advertising supplier to the London 2012 Olympic Games ahead of a major marketing drive. The deal with The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) sees CBS Outdoor become a tier-three sponsor. CBS will be responsible for supplying outdoor media space to support marketing campaigns over the next two years. CBS Outdoor's media space includes national bus and tram networks, the entire London Underground, National Rail, and major retail space in London. The media space will become a major part of LOCOG's marketing plans and will be used to support future London 2012 campaigns. These will include the launch of the volunteering programme later this year and the launch of ticket sales in spring 2011. LOCOG aims to recruit up to 70,000 volunteers and sell 10 million tickets. LOCOG has seven domestic tier-one partners - adidas, BMW, BP, British Airways, BT, EDF and Lloyds TSB. There are seven domestic tier-two supporters - Adecco, ArcelorMittal, Cadbury, Cisco, Deloitte, Thomas Cook and UPS. Source: Brand Republic

Edited by the Pedro's team

Week commencing 5th July 2010

There will be no merger between Channel 4 and Five in the foreseeable future, according to C4 chief executive David Abraham. Abraham said: "A merger with Five, or anyone else, is certainly not on my immediate agenda for the future of Channel 4.There are many other things I want to look at - we need to invest in commercial innovation. It's a challenging but exciting time."The former boss of UKTV, the satellite and digital joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Virgin, was talking after his first public speech as C4 chief.He added: "I'm delighted with the UKTV deal, obviously I know both businesses well and feel like they are perfect partners. "Abraham's comments will be sure to disappoint Five's owner RTL, following speculation the two broadcasters had already held cursory meetings, involving both Abraham and Channel 4 chairman Lord Burns.Five's future, led by chief executive Dawn Airey, is far from certain, with RTL still actively looking for a buyer. At just 13-years-old, the terrestrial broadcaster has had its value slashed by more than half after RTL reported losses of £37m for the recession hit 2009. In January 2009, regulator Ofcom recommended that C4 merge with either Five or BBC Worldwide to provide an alternative national public sector broadcaster. (source: mediaweek)

Thinkbox is set to return to TV screens later this year with a new ad campaign reminding advertisers of the power and effectiveness of the medium. It follows Thinkbox's first ever TV ad campaign in May 2009, which ran as a "roadblock" across 70 TV channels. It featured a hypnotherapy patient unleashing his stream of consciousness and impersonating famous lines from much loved TV ads that are part of popular culture. The new ad will be screened across a variety of broadcast and on-demand TV channels represented by Thinkbox's shareholders and their partner channels. Thinkbox's shareholders are Channel 4, Five, GMTV, ITV, Sky Media and Turner Media Innovations. Lindsey Clay, marketing director at Thinkbox, said: "We have so much evidence proving how effective TV advertising is, but there's nothing quite like seeing it work for yourself - as we did last year - to convince you to have more." (source: campaignlive.co.uk)

Alexander Lebedev's London Evening Standard made a loss of £28.3m in the 10 months to early 0ctober last year, according to the latest figures filed at Companies House.The figures, for the period from 10 December 2008 to 4 October 2009, include £9.9m of exceptional restructuring costs including redundancies and moving from a paid-for title to a freesheet. Lebedev acquired the Evening Standard from Daily Mail & General Trust in February last year and shifted to a free distribution model on 12 October. The Evening Standard reportedly broke even for the first time under Lebedev's ownership last month. (Source: mediaguardian)

Google's YouTube is launching a global social film-making project called 'Life in a Day', sponsored by the electronics company LG. YouTube is asking its users to upload short films of their experiences on a single day, chosen as 24 July, which will feature in a special section of the YouTube site.Kevin Macdonald, the director of films including 'The Last King of Scotland' and 'Touching the Void', will then edit some of the best user-generated films into a feature film, which will premiere at next year's Sundance Film Festival. YouTube is hoping that at least 10,000 users around the world will upload content to feature in 'Life in a Day' and it has teamed up with the US production company Against All Odds to provide people in more remote parts of the world with access to filming equipment. Google will promote the project with mastheads on YouTube's websites around the world, and with a countdown ticker on the sites that will start three days before the filming day. (Source: campaignlive.co.uk)

Travel reviews site TripAdvisor is launching a challenge for travel companies to design an ad campaign to run on the site, offering exposure with a media value of €250,000 to the winner for free. The winner of the challenge will have their ad campaign displayed on TripAdvisor between August and September. The competition is open to all European travel brand and advertising agencies in Europe. The winner will receive €250,000 in CPM advertising media value which amounts to about 10-15 million page views depending on the advertiser's overall objective and target audience. Martin Verdon-Roe, director of sales at TripAdvisor, said: "The challenge gives travel brands the freedom to develop an engaging campaign that tells a story and shows what their brand really stands for, rather than just focusing on ROI." (Source: Brandrepublic)

The BBC Trust has ruled that BBC Radio 1's Harry Potter Day last year breached the editorial guidelines relating to product prominence but did not amount to an endorsement of a commercial product, following a complaint from commercial radio trade body RadioCentre. The BBC Trust Editorial Standards Committee concluded that even though each of the individual programmes complied with guidelines, the timing of the coverage on the day of the film's release combined with the cumulative effect of so many mentions resulted in a breach of the provisions relating to product prominence. Andrew Harrison, chief executive, RadioCentre, said the Harry Potter Day was the "latest example of the BBC falling under the spell of celebrity and being hijacked for the promotion of an already successful commercial product". (source: mediaweek)

The Coca-Cola Piccadilly Sign will act as a live score board and news ticker for the final four games of the World Cup, in the first activity run out of the North West Europe & Nordics (NWEN) region. Coca-Cola says the activity aims to give consumers up-to-the-minute football results and updates as they pass through the capital, and will build on the brand's "What's Your Celebration" World Cup campaign. The animated sign will display personalised messages calling for people in London's Piccadilly Circus to perform live dramatisations of their unique goal celebrations on a pop-up Astroturf pitch. Films of those who join in the celebration will then be displayed up in lights on the iconic sign. (Source: marketingweek)

Edited by the TV team

Week commencing 28th June 2010

According to the latest AA/Warc report, TV will be the main driver of UK advertising expenditure growth for 2010, with revenues to increase by an estimated 9.1% across the year. TV is expected to outperform online, which is forecast to grow by 7.7%. It also predicts overall market growth of 3.3% in 2010, up from the previous forecast of 2.3%. Following six consecutive quarters of decline, UK adspend grew by 3.4% in Q1 this year, much faster than previously expected. Most media performed well in the first three months of the year. Out of home (+14.6%) was the strongest performer year on year, with big gains also registered for TV (+9.8%), internet (+9.2%), radio (+8.7%) and cinema (+3%). Source: MediaWeek

Ofcom has published proposals which could allow product placement and paid-for references on TV and commercial radio from the beginning of 2011. The proposed rules would allow product placement in films, TV series, entertainment shows and sports programmes but will not allow it in children's or news programmes or in UK-produced current affairs, consumer affairs and religious programmes. Programmes which include product placement will have to show a new symbol at the start and the end of the show to alert viewers, and advertisers will not be able to influence editorial content. Product placement of tobacco, alcohol, gambling, foods or drinks that are high in fat, salt or sugar, medicines and baby milk will not be allowed. Source: MediaWeek

STV, Scotland's ITV franchise, has signed a content deal with YouTube to make more than 2,500 hours of new and archive content available to users. The content will be served via the STV Player channel and will launch later this summer. STV follows Channel 4 and Five in signing a deal to make its catch-up service available via YouTube. However, ITV at present has not signed a deal with Google-owned YouTube. Source: MediaWeek

Rupert Murdoch's News International is proposing to establish a new advertising pricing regime as it claims it is trading at a discount to rival national newspapers - the move would affect its tabloid brands (The Sun & the News of The World) and its quality titles (The Times & The Sunday Times). The publisher is mooting a controversial plan to scrap the long-standing method of trading advertising space based on single-column-centimetre (scc) rates, which it and other national newspapers currently use to negotiate with media agencies. The proposal is to replace scc trading with a model more similar to television and radio ie based on cost per 000 by trading against a fixed range of audiences. Source: MediaWeek

The London Evening Standard is set to boost its distribution by an extra 100,000 copies from October. Alexander Lebedev plans to increase the title's distribution across existing points in London, a year after he dropped the Evening Standard's 50p cover price. Reports suggest the move comes amid positive signs in the advertising market. Last week, newspaper's predicted that the Evening Standard is even close to making profit. At the moment, it costs around £1.1 million to produce the Standard a week, and it is thought that the title brings in roughly the same amount in advertising revenues now. Lebedev bought the loss-making paper for £1 from Daily Mail & General Trust in January 2009, when it had a circulation of around 237,000 and losses as high as £20 million. Less than a year later, Lebedev announced plans to distribute more than 600,000 copies of the then re-launched Standard across London for free - a move that saved the paper around 50% in distribution costs. Now, the Standard has managed to increase its readership to more than 1.3 million, according to NRS Oct09-Mar10. Source: MediaTel

The Times website has seen its share of UK newspaper web visits fall from 4.37% to 2.67% since registration was introduced, and average session time has fallen from 5½ to 3 minutes - according to the latest data released by Experian Hitwise. With News International preparing to put the Times and Sunday Times websites behind a paywall, new look sites were launched at the end of May followed by compulsory registration introduced in mid June. The paywall is expected to go up anytime soon, with users charged £1 a day or £2 a week to access content. According to the research there has been a notable change in the demographic profile since the launch of the new look site, with more female visits and less male visits than before. More older people are also signing in to the new site, as younger readers drop off. Meanwhile new research from YouGov Sixth Sense is throwing further doubt on whether consumers will pay for online content. Source: MediaTel/MediaWeek

Online audiences in the UK have grown by 5% over the past year, fuelled by increasing take-up by the over 50s, according to new research. Almost two million more Britons are online than last year. Figures have swelled from 36.9 million in May 2009 to 38.8 million in May 2010, research by UKOM reveals. Those aged 50+ now account for 31% of total people online. Men over 50 were responsible for most of this growth, accounting for 722,000 and 38% of new internet users followed by women over 50 who accounted for 284,000 and 15% of new users. Following the 50-plus age group, women aged 21-34 accounted for 14% of new users and "tweenage" girls aged 12-20 accounted for 12%. Source: BrandRepublic

The BBC will share some of its online video news content with four national newspapers for the first time, in a landmark deal. The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent and the Daily Mail will be able to use the content free of charge. The newspapers may choose video material on subjects including UK politics, business, health and science and technology. However, certain core public service genres will be restricted. Other national newspapers could follow suit. Newspaper publishers have previously railed against the BBC and its use of the licence fee to move into new media. They claimed the BBC's dominance was stifling its own online growth. The move by the BBC follows the publication of the Digital Britain report last year. As part of the Digital Britain review, the BBC opened access to its news content. Source: BrandRepublic

Children's TV channel Nickelodeon has relaunched its website to create a more distinctive and interactive experience for users and offer advertisers more commercial opportunities. The website will now include 62 new games for users to play, allow viewers to vote for shows or episodes they would like to watch on Nickelodeon, and enter a competition to find the UK's number one fan of Nickelodeon character, iCarly. Source: MediaWeek

The first dedicated FM radio station for the lesbian, gay, bi and transgender communities, Gaydio, is set to take spot advertising and sponsorship by the end of July, as it bids to compete with digital station Gaydar. Gaydio will offer targeted spot ads, sponsorship, event partnerships and online display and bespoke ads for local and national advertisers wanting to reach a LGBT audience in Manchester on FM, and nationally online. Gaydio launched last Friday with five foundation partners, comprising Manchester Airport, marketing body Marketing Manchester, Manchester City Council, the Lesbian & Gay Foundation, and Manchester Pride. Source: MediaWeek

GMG Radio is set to merge its Smooth Radio regional stations into a single national broadcaster. The five easy-listening regional stations will be replaced by a Manchester-based operation, which also will broadcast on the national digital audio broadcasting (DAB) platform Digital One, as well as Smooth's current regional frequencies. Source: MediaTel

Edited by Annie's team

Week commencing 21st June 2010

Ofcom has paved the way for BT to offer Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 on digital terrestrial TV by approving the use of spectrum capacity freed up by the digital switchover for the two sports channels. In March the broadcasting regulator ruled that BSkyB must cut the price it charges competitors for its premium sports channels Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 following a long-running investigation, which meant BT can offer Sky Sports 1 and 2 for the first time. Sky, Virgin Media and BT are all appealing the judgement and a case hearing at the Competition Appeal Tribunal will take place this Friday. In April Virgin Media, Top Up TV and BT agreed a compromise with Sky which will enable them to offer the channels while the appeal is ongoing and in time for the 2010/11 football season. Source: MediaWeek

ITV is set to incorporate social media into its news bulletins in a bid to interact directly with viewers. From this week, ITV news bulletins will feature social networking links, encouraging viewers to ask questions during the early evening news bulletin. ITV also plans to extend this to its News of Ten programme at a later date. The move to incorporate social media comes as ITV launches its one-year strand 'The Cuts: Your Stories', which will follow a panel of viewers as they deal with the impact of the government's new budget. Source: MediaTel

IPC TV channel NME TV is now available to 800,000 homes with Freesat, the free-to-air digital platform, as well as through a Sky subscription which reaches 9.77 million households. NME TV provides music charts, including the Club NME chart, as well as the latest news from the NME newsroom, video-led programming as well as exclusive interviews and footage from music acts. Source: MediaWeek

Metro continues to report increased profits as it boasts the highest volume of weekday display ads in May. The morning freesheet, which distributes around 1.3 million copies a day across 16 UK cities, is enjoying its seventh successive year of profitability despite the recession. Metro posted the highest volume of Monday to Friday display advertising. Source: Mediatel

The Financial Times has launched its biggest brand campaign to-date to promote its recession-defying luxury lifestyle supplement, How To Spend It, and its accompanying website. Economic recovery may still be tentative, and unemployment in the UK continues to rise, but Howtospendit.com, and its mix of unashamedly indulgent lifestyle content, continues to grow in popularity. Ever since its launch last October, the website has attracted a host of high-end sponsors and advertisers around themes of holidays, dining, fashion, health and grooming and jewellery, including Rolex, Krug and Harry Winston. Source: Campaign

The Daily Star's cover price will be slashed 50% to 10p from 1 July, the Independent reports. The move is planned in a bid to increase the title's circulation, which currently stands at 823,000 copies - a year on year fall of around 2%. This could well start a price war with rivals the Sun (currently 20p) and Daily Mirror (currently 45p). Source: MediaTel

Over a million people used ITV Live, ITV's online social platform launched for the World Cup, during the first week of the tournament. A total of 90,000 people used the service during the England vs USA match, according to the broadcaster, rising to 121,000 for the England vs Algeria match. They have reported an average of 130,000 people using it across all ITV games. Despite the fierce criticism the broadcaster has faced for a series of World Cup blunders, including people not being able to access ITV Live, it said its online activity has been a success. Source: New Media Age

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg committed to increased support for UK brands and content providers at the social network's first official London Developers' Garage event yesterday. Speaking at the event, CEO Zuckerberg stressed the importance of the UK to the company, and highlighted personalisation and its virtual currency Facebook Credits as key themes for the year ahead. Source: NewMediaAge

Vice Media Group, the youth-orientated media company, has launched an online fashion and lifestyle site. As the extension of its style magazine, Vice, the site will be aimed at the youth generation and aims to capitalise on Vice's six million monthly users. Vicestyle.com will feature global fashion shoots, news and features from 30 countries, and aims to be a global youth fashion hub for an international perspective on the next generation of fashion. Source: MediaTel

Global Radio, the UK's largest commercial radio group, is launching ads across its smartphone apps for its brands, including Heart, Galaxy and Capital FM, as it looks to mobile as the key point of audience engagement. The move is part of a drive by Global Radio to use smartphone apps as a key way to interact with listeners. The company said 3m people listened to its stations via smartphones in April, an increase of 500% on the previous six months. Source: NewMediaAge

Global Radio is to halve the number of stations in the Heart network with the loss of up to 200 jobs following changes made to local radio regulation by the Digital Economy Act. The Digital Economy Act provides for local radio stations to co-locate and share programming within defined territories. Global Radio will now create 15 new "centres of broadcasting excellence" which will incorporate the 32 Global-owned Heart stations as well as Mercury Radio and Ten.17 FM. In addition to broadcasting network content, such as Toby Anstis' late-morning slot, the 15 stations will have their own breakfast and drive-time shows as well as local news on the hour throughout the day. Source: MediaWeek

CBS Outdoor has teamed up with Grand Visual to develop a new outdoor media platform that combines augmented reality, touch screen and image recognition technology. The new digital advertising platform, which was showcased in London last week, integrates social media to allow customers to virtually try on clothing and share images with their friends on Facebook."Face and torso tracking software fed by a HD camera in the LCD pod allows consumers to see how items of clothing will look without stepping into a changing room," CBS said. Source: MediaTel

Edited by Ashley's team

Week commencing 14th June 2010

Football fans watching England's game on Saturday on ITV1 HD, including many in pubs throughout the country, missed England's first goal of the tournament when coverage inexplicably cut to an ad for car manufacturer Hyundai. The blunder at the weekend follows ITV being forced to pay significant compensation to Nike after cutting short the premiere of its three-minute World Cup ad last month. In better news for the broadcaster, viewers for England's first World Cup match peaked at 20.1 million at 21:15, representing 73% of the TV watching audience and ITV's biggest TV moment since England played Sweden at the 2006 World Cup (watched by 20.9m). Source: Brandrepublic

Budweiser is rolling out an ad campaign to promote responsible drinking during the World Cup, encouraging groups to "designate a driver". James Watson, marketing director at Budweiser Western Europe, said: "Our new 'Designate a driver' campaign is intended to bring our responsible drinking message to life during this time of excitement and celebration. Backed by significant resources, we'll take our message to millions of consumers over the coming weeks." Source: Brandrepublic

The latest ABC's have been released and the daily national newspaper market was down by 5.6% year on year, but managed a slight 0.2% period on period increase in May. Not one single title in our analysis was able to boast a year on year increase, although the Quality titles all increased month on month. It was a mixed period for the Sunday newspaper market too, with just four titles posting month on month increases in May; Observer (2.5%up), Sunday Telegraph (0.5%),Daily Star Sunday (2.6%) & Sunday Mirror (2.1%). All titles in the Sunday market recorded year on year declines. Source: Media tel

The Evening Standard is thought to be close to making profit, nine months after Alexander Lebedev made it free. The Russian tycoon bought the loss-making title when it had a circulation of around 237,000 and losses as high as £20 million. Less than a year later, Lebedev announced plans to distribute more than 600,000 copies of the then re-launched Standard across London for free - a move that saved the paper around 50% in distribution costs. Despite initial doubts over his business model, Lebedev and his new team have managed to turn the ailing paper around. The Standard has increased its readership to more than 1.3 million, according to NRS figures for October 2009 to March 2010, and in turn has boosted advertising revenue. Source: Mediatel

Sainsbury's Magazine have launched a new handbag-sized version of the title to supplement the main print run of its standard size. As one of the largest circulation titles in the UK and with more than four million readers, Sainsbury's Magazine has had a longstanding appeal to advertisers wanting to reach large numbers of women. The new format launch should boost sales of the title in Sainsbury's Local outlets and ensure it maintains its strong readership going forward. Source: Campaignlive.co.uk

Associated Newspapers is preparing to launch a standalone annual fashion and beauty magazine, currently being touted to media buyers as "Project Inspire". The free glossy will be bagged in with copies of The Mail On Sunday and has an initial print run of 500,000 copies, which will be targeted at AB1 women within the London area during September's London Fashion Week. After launch, Associated will make a decision on whether to run Inspire as a bi-annual product, taking in the Spring London Fashion Week running from 19 to 24 February next year. The indications are that the magazine has already attracted a series of luxury advertisers snapping up most of the inventory for the launch issue. Source: Campaignlive.co.uk

Condé Nast Traveller has unveiled a series of iPhone app-based city guides covering Rome, New York, Barcelona and Paris. Emanuela Pignataro, country manager for Condé Nast Digital Britain, said: "Reflecting the brand values of the magazine, this is a natural extension for audiences that are connected, media savvy and want to arrive in a city armed with all the knowledge they need to make the most of their time there, as if they were a local." Source: MediaWeek

News Corporation has launched an iPad app for its tabloid brand The Sun, with a monthly cost of £4.99.It's following the same strategy it adopted for it's Times-branded iPad app last month. The Sun iPad app will feature editorial content from the print edition of the newspaper plus breaking news. The publisher also launched two Sun-branded iPhone apps earlier this week - the free Sweepstake Shaker, and Sun Football World Cup Edition priced at £2.39 - to coincide with the FIFA World Cup. The Times iPad app launched late last month, coinciding with the Apple device's launch in the UK, and costs £9.99 for a 28-day subscription. Source: NMA

RadioCentre, the industry body for commercial radio, has called for "a fundamental repositioning of Radio 1 and Radio 2" in response to the Corporation's strategic review. According to the trade body's two-part review, Radio 1 should aim at listeners aged 25 and under, while Radio 2 should focus on listeners aged under 45. A Review argues that "the proposed changes from BBC Management fail to set out a vision for BBC Radio that recognizes its true public value potential and as such are a missed opportunity to reshape the BBC's portfolio of radio services in the interests of listeners." Source: Mediatel

NME Radio will stop broadcasting on national DAB and on digital television on Sky, Virgin Media and Freesat, but an automated service will continue online at nme.com/radio. Paul Cheal, publishing director of NME, said: "We will continue to develop ways in which NME's audience can engage with both audio and visual content, utilizing our in-house studio facilities, while maintaining an online music service via our website NME.COM." According to the latest Rajar audience-measurement figures for the first quarter of this year, NME Radio had an average of 226,000 listeners a week, up 16.5% year on year and 27.7% quarter on quarter. Media agencies expressed disappointment about the decision, citing the gold award the station won in the best use of branded content category for its Skins Radio work for Channel 4, as evidence of the station's progressive approach. Source: Media Week

The UK out-of-home media industry took revenues of £204m between January and March this year, up 14.6% when compared with the first three months of 2009, according to figures from the Outdoor Advertising Association.The Central Office of Information (COI) was the biggest outdoor advertiser during the quarter, spending £8m, followed by McDonald's and Sky, which each spent £3.6m. Large-format roadside and small-format retail enjoyed the steepest rise in revenues, with the approach to the general election boosting political advertising. The buoyant start to 2010 follows a tough period for the out-of-home sector, which saw nine consecutive quarters of revenue decline from Q4 2007. Mike Baker, chief executive of the OAA, said: "It is good to see out-of-home on the rise after a tough year in 2009, where the recession dragged spending down, especially in the finance sector. Strong double-digit growth puts us back on the right track." Outdoor's performance compares favourably to the wider media industry. The Nielsen Company estimates total ad revenue rose 7.8% over the quarter, and radio and TV are estimated to be up around 8% up year on year. Source: Brandrepublic

Edited by Pedro's Team

Week commencing 7th June 2010

BSkyB has bought Virgin Media TV for £160 million. If the deal is given the all-clear, Sky will assume responsibility for selling advertising for VMtv channels from January 2011, taking over from Virgin's sales house IDS. The acquisition expands Sky's portfolio of basic pay TV channels and eliminates the carriage fees it pays for distributing Virgin channels on its TV services. The Virgin channels include Living, Livingit, Challenge, Challenge Jackpot, Bravo, Bravo 2 and Virgin1. Source: MediaTel

Almost 6 million British adults intend to watch more World Cup TV coverage than they did during the 2006 tournament. According to new research 5 million more adults intend to watch World Cup games through the internet at home and 2.6 million adults intend to watch more coverage over the internet at work compared with four years ago. More than 1 million 16-34 year old men intend to watch more coverage on their mobile phones. Source: MediaTel

A peak of 15 million viewers watched gymnastic troupe Spelbound win the final of 'Britain's Got Talent' on Saturday night, down from a peak of 19.2 million for the 2009 final. The 15-million peak was reached at 9.51pm and the show had an average audience of 12.3 million between 7.30pm and 10pm, a 54.6% share of the available audience. According to ITV, Saturday's audience makes 'Britain's Got Talent' the most watched entertainment show of 2010. Source: MediaWeek

Cosmopolitan hits the newsstands this week with a new look that "reflects the brand values of fun and positivity", according to the magazine's publisher, the National Magazine Company. The redesign comes as the title battles a difficult women's magazine market. According to audited figures, Cosmpolitan recorded a circulation of 430,353 copies in the period July to December 2009, down 4.5% on the year. The revamp of the monthly title includes new features including: 'Man Manual' - a dedicated man section, which reveals what really goes on in men's minds; 'Cosmo's Happy List' - 10 hot and relevant trends for the month, which replaces 'Cosmo News'; 'Cosmo Upfront' - key fashion, beauty and celebrity stories positioned at the front of the magazine, and 'Sex and the Single Girl' and 'Sex and the Not So Single Girl'. Real-life stories will now be tagged 'Cosmo Confidence' and 'Cosmo Inspiration'. Source: BrandRepublic

The Financial Times has launched its biggest brand campaign to-date to promote its recession-defying luxury lifestyle supplement, How To Spend It, and its accompanying website. Ever since its launch last October, the website has attracted a host of high-end sponsors and advertisers around themes of holidays, dining, fashion, health and grooming and jewellery. The £2m ad campaign is being touted as the FT's "most significant investment in a supplement yet", and comes as the publisher hopes to build upon its position in the luxury sector. Source: BrandRepublic

DMGT-owned Teletext Mobile is attempting to build up an app advertising network by striking commercial partnerships with iPhone and iPad developers. The mobile publishing division of Associated Northcliffe Digital (AND), which has launched apps for Metro, Travel Tip-Off and Findaproperty.com, has set up a competition to lure developers. Each month one developer will be offered a publishing deal by Teletext Mobile that will provde promotional opportunites and investment. Source: MediaWeek

Apple's chief executive Steve Jobs unveiled the latest fourth-generation iPhone at the company's Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco this week. The iPhone 4G (also known as the iPhone HD) boasts a five-megapixel camera with flash; a smaller, lighter, and slimmer handset; a glass back with improved reception; micro-sim cards similar to the iPad; a faster A4 processor (like the iPad); a larger, sharper 960 x 640 pixel screen; improved battery life and iChat software. Users are likely to have a choice between a 32GB and 64GB handset. The Apple 4.0 operating system has a number of new features including multitasking, folders to organise apps, iBooks, Apple's mobile ad system iAD, improved mail options and gaming options. Source: MediaTel

UTV-owned national radio station TalkSport will be the only radio station in the UK to have the rights to broadcast commentary on the Rugby World Cup 2011 in New Zealand. It claims this is the first time a UK commercial radio station has acquired exclusive radio commentary rights for an international sporting event of this stature. The win for TalkSport means BBC Radio 5 Live will not be able to run commentary on the tournament. TalkSport has increased its investment in official broadcast rights since it first won a commentary package for Premier League football three years ago. Source: MediaWeek

UK Top 10 Films

1 Sex And The City 2
2 Streetdance 3D
3 Prince of Persia
4 Death At A Funeral
5 Robin Hood
6 The Tooth Fairy
7 4,3,2,1
8 She's Out Of My League
9 Iron Man 2
10 Space Chimps 2 3D

Total Media work experience intern Reuben has written a report giving his perspective on media consumption amongst teenagers. Please click here if you would like to view the presentation.

 

Edited by Caroline Siveyer and Craig Blyth

Week commencing 31th May 2010

Virgin Media is upgrading their karaoke on-demand service. The deal will allow viewers to sing lead vocals on tracks by artists including Lady Gaga and Michael Jackson and will enable them to choose from a paid-for on-demand playlist of over 100 karaoke songs and videos, spanning genres such as pop, country, disco and rock. (Source: mediaweek)

BBC1's Last of the Summer Wine, believed to be the world's longest-running sitcom, is to end this year after nearly 40 years and 31 series. BBC1 will mark the end of the sitcom with special editions of Countryfile and Songs of Praise from Holmfirth, where Last of the Summer Wine has been filmed since it was first broadcast as an episode of Comedy Playhouse in 1973. (Source: mediaguardian)

Cadbury's Flake is to retire its "Only the crumbliest, flakiest chocolate..." strapline after 50 years for its new TV campaign. Flake is also dropping the idea of the "Flake girl" who has sensually nibbled on the bar since the brand first hit TV screens in 1959. The new campaign aims to focus on the "beauty and delicacy" of the Flake bar, as opposed to the Flake girl "succumbing to the mouthwatering chocolate". (Source: Mediaguardian)

Richard Desmond's Daily Express is readying an Apple iPad app with an upfront cost expected to be £1.79, offering free online content as well as a subscription-based replica of the paper. The newspaper group is launching iPad apps for its Daily Express and Sunday Express titles, along with its Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday national newspaper brands. Express Newspapers, parent company of the newspaper brands, is to charge £1.79 for the Daily Express app, which will give free access to its website content. There will be a subscription charge to read the e-edition of the newspaper, which will be free in the first week after download. The online news can be customised according to personal preference for different sections such as world news and sport. Video content may be part of the app in the future. (Source: mediaguardian)

Barrister and writer Tim Kevan has withdrawn his popular Baby Barista blog from The Times's website in reaction to its paywall plans. He explains: "I have absolutely no problem with the decision to start charging. They can do what they like. But I didn't start this blog for it to be the exclusive preserve of a limited few subscribers. I wrote it to entertain whosoever wishes to read it. Hence my decision to resign which I made with regret." But it emerged within days of announcing his move that Kevan did indeed have a problem with the paywall. He now writes: "I think the decision will prove to be a disaster." and that it "makes them look like a big lumbering giant, unable to cope with the diversification of the media brought about by online content, blogging, Facebook, Twitter - the list is endless." Baby Barista is a fictional account of a junior barrister. The stories he tells appeared on The Times website for three years. He can still be followed on his new website, and also on Facebook and Twitter. (Source: mediaguardian)

The gay lifestyle magazine Attitude and Women's Fitness has been sold to Financial One Securities after the titles' publisher lost £1m in revenue because a magazine distributor went into administration. Interactive Publishing, the parent of Vitality Publishing, which owns Attitude and Women's Fitness, received notification late last month that the magazine distributor Magazine Marketing Company was unable to trade due to financial difficulties and had been placed into administration. (Source: mediaguardian)

The Times iPad edition, which went on sale along with the tablet's UK debut Friday morning, has sold 5,000 copies in three days. At the app price of £9.99, that's £49,950 income in just a few days, before Apple's commission. But whether significant numbers of iPad users will renew the £9.99 subscription each month, after that first-week flurry of app excitement, remains to be seen. The Wall Street Journal app now has 10,000 customers, paying $17.29 a month or free to those already subscribed to the website/newspaper. And yesterday, Financial Times product development manager Steven Pinches told a separate conference the FT has seen 130,000 downloads of its free-to-download iPad app since it was made available to the device in the U.S. two weeks back What is unknown is whether the app is actually enticing iPad users to subscribe to the FT for the first time. Unlike the Times, the FT's app is free for two months thanks to a sponsorship deal, but will then offer access only to readers who pay the title's platform-agnostic annual subscription. (Source: Mediaweek)

Facebook's vice-president of global sales Mike Murphy has said that it more than quadrupled the number of its advertiser clients since the start of 2009 and claimed it has become "absolutely core to marketing campaigns". The world's biggest social networking site, which has offices dotted around the world to serve its advertising customers - including in the UK - did not divulge actual figures. But Murphy did say that it has doubled its number of sales people over 2009 compared to 2008. In an interview with Bloomberg, Murphy said: "We're very well positioned as people come out of this current economic situation. What we've become is absolutely core to marketing campaigns." According to US advertising data supplied by ComScore, it ran 176 billion display ads in the first quarter of 2010 in the US alone, up from 70.7 billion in the previous year's quarter. It also grew its share of the US display market from 11% in the fourth quarter of 2009, to 16% in the first quarter of this year, putting it ahead of rival Yahoo!, whose share fell from 13% to 12% in the same period. Examples of global brands that have exploited the social network's extensive consumer base include Adidas, Procter & Gamble, Barbour and most recently Coca-cola. (Source: marketingmagazine)

Insurance brand LV= is rolling out a staff recruitment campaign, using image-recognition technology with photos of its call handlers.The ads will run on poster sites, bus shelters and on taxis and feature different staff members holding LV='s green heart logo, with different slogans such as "Work to feel good about". People can choose the LV= call handler they would like to hear from by taking a photo of the ad, and texting in the picture. The chosen handler then calls them back. For each text received, 10p will be contributed to Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital. (Source: brandrepublic)

Mariella Frostrup, the Radio 4 presenter, has made an apology, in a letter to the BBC in-house magazine Ariel, for calling the Today producers "misogynist". Frostrup, who described her use of the word misogynist as "careless" and "inflammatory. She said in an interview in The Lady published last week the reason there are not more female presenters on the Today programme is because the show is run by a "bunch of misogynists". "As a woman who deals primarily in words for a living, my choice of one in particular was careless when last week, in an interview, I described the producers of the Today programme as 'misogynists'," she wrote in Ariel. "It was an inflammatory choice, based on no factual evidence and it did nothing to further necessary discussion about the absence of mature women in key broadcasting positions and as role models in public life generally." Frostrup, who presents Radio 4's Open Book, said that Ceri Thomas, the editor of Today, and his team are "obviously not the demons in this debate and I regret making them seem so". (Source: mediaguardian)

UK Top 10 Films

1 Sex and the City 2
2 StreetDance 3D
3 Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
4 Robin Hood
5 Tooth Fairy
6 Iron Man 2
7 Space Chimps 2: Zartog Strikes Back
8 The Losers
9 The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans
10 Four Lions

(Source: britinfo.net)

Edited by the TV team

Week commencing 24th May 2010

Google has unveiled its Google TV offering, which transports internet services including access to the vast archive of programmes available online into the television-viewing experience. The system will have the Google Chrome browser built in, allowing users to surf sites such as the Google-owned video-streaming site YouTube and Facebook. It will use the company's Android operating system, which also powers mobile phones. Google Android smartphone users will be able to wirelessly connect video from their phone to Google TV, and use their phones as a remote control. Broadcast through a television set, Google TV uses search, not dissimilar to the company's online offering, to navigate television channels, websites, apps, shows and movies. Source: Media Week

RTL has appointed a team to prepare a "tender process" for the sale of Channel Five, according to reports in The Telegraph. Since hinting at an uncertain future for Five last year, the broadcaster has been linked with Channel 4, although C4 has been reluctant to enter into talks of a possible merger deal. Spot ad revenue at the Five portfolio, which also includes Five US and Fiver, was down by 23.6%. This decline represents a substantial fall, even in the context of the overall TV ad market, which was down by 12.5% year on year. As a result, reports suggest RTL may struggle to instigate a bidding war. Competition laws surrounding mergers may also prevent UK-based companies from investing in Five. Source: MediaTel

Most consumers (91%) would be unwilling to pay £1 a day or £2 a week to access the Times Online, according to research, with only 5% saying they would fork out £2 for a week's digital subscription. Another 4% said they would pay £1 for a day's access, which is the other price point News International will introduce along with paywalls around its online content in the next month. The research, conducted by Entertainment Media Research, found that it was not just The Times that the public would be unwilling to pay for. Give or take one or two percentage points, the proportion unwilling to pay was the same for The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail and The Independent. Source Media Week.

Men's Health is bidding to expand its magazine brand by launching its first food bookazine, called Men's Health Fuel. The standalone bookazine is on sale now at £5.99 and will have a distribution of 80,000 copies. Men's Health Fuel will feature 228 pages of cooking advice, eating plans, recipes, nutrition tips and cookery skills. It has been compiled by the editorial team at Men's Health, which has proved a publishing success story in recent times. Publisher NatMag Rodale is looking at launching follow-up issues of the standalone title. Source: Brand Republic.

The BBC has unveiled a new version of its on-demand video service iPlayer, that enables users to share content via social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as link to content on ITV, Channel 4 and Five's own players. The new and improved iPlayer adds a host of features to what is currently available. They include better quality video, more easily navigable content, and personalisation options that enable users to create their own content profiles. The player's new social functions let viewers recommend content to friends on Facebook, Twitter, as well as within iPlayer itself. The BBC has also signed a deal with Microsoft to enable users to log into their Windows Live messaging service via their iPlayer. Source: MediaWeek

Stephen Fry, BMW, The FT and Ministry of Sound are among the first major publishers and brands to roll out UK iPad apps ahead of the device's much-anticipated European launch. Apple, which shifted 1m iPads in its first month on sale in the US, has garnered support from key publishers looking at the tablet media player as the next evolution in online content distribution. Source: Newmediaage

The Internet Advertising Bureau has backed Office of Fair Trading's calls to provide consumers with clearer information about how online personal data is used. The IAB has branded the OFT's review of the £64m behavioural advertising market a "step forward for the industry". The study published earlier this week concludes the online industry "could do more" when it comes to behavioral targeting and provide consumers with more comprehensive information about how personal information is collected and used, to avoid the misuse of data. Source: Brand Republic

The London Evening Standard has launched its British Airways sponsored mobile app. The mobile news service is available free-of-charge on most handsets, including the iPhone, Blackberry and Google Android smartphones. As with the popular Guardian app, users will be able to browse through sections of the title such as sport, business, showbiz and style. Source: MediaTel

News International launched its much-anticipated new-look Times website on Wednesday, ahead of its move to put all of the Times online content behind a paywall. Its new "all or nothing" strategy has the strap-line - "Don't just read The Times - listen to it, watch it, shape it, be a part of it" and will see its content almost entirely removed from search services including Google News. Users are required to pay £1 for a day's access or £2 for a full week's subscription to the Times plus site. Source: MediaTel

Network Rail has awarded its railside and roadside outdoor advertising contracts, worth £260m over five years, to JCDecaux and Primesight. JCDecaux will handle Network Rail's internal inventory within stations on a five-year contract worth £160m. The railside contract includes all rail-facing ad sites across the Network Rail estate, including six-sheets, Transvision screens and large-format sites across the 18 Network Rail-managed stations. Primesight has landed the £100m contract for external sites and billboards around high-profile rail stations including London Euston, Kings Cross, Manchester Piccadilly and Glasgow Central. Source: Media Week.

Commercial radio grew its share of the total display market from 5.8% to 5.9% during 2009, the first annual growth for radio since 2004, according to figures from WARC and the Advertising Association. Radio industry sources suggest the upward trend has continued into 2010 and the radio market is estimated to be around 8% up year on year in the first quarter, with national advertising up 15% year on year. Source: Campaign

UK Top 10 Films
1. Streetdance 3D (PG)
2. Prince Of Persia (12A)
3. Robin Hood (12A)
4. Iron Man 2 (12A)
5. Kites (12A)
6. Four Lions (15)
7. A Nightmare On Elm Street (18)
8. Hot Tub Time Machine (15)
9. Bad Lieutenant (18)
10. The Back-up Plan

(12A) Source: Pearl and Dean

Edited by Ashley's Team

The Total Media Insight team recently got together and debated what role media played in General Election 2010 and how it had changed. Click here to find out more about it and discover 7 insights that could improve your media plans' poll rating in the future.

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Week commencing 17th May 2010

An advert offering abortion advisory services will be screened on British TV for the first time next week, provoking opposition from anti-abortionists and religious groups. The advert will be shown on Channel 4 on Monday and run through June. It has already been banned in Northern Ireland and the anti-abortion Society for the Protection of Unborn Children said the advert would trivialise abortion. It was taking legal advice and called on the Secretary of State for Culture to intervene. Britain's independent advertising regulator, the Advertising Standards Authority, said the advert had been cleared by the relevant body, and that it could only act once it had been aired, passing judgement on whether it was misleading or offensive. Source Reuters.

ITV has earmarked an in-house detective drama as a successor to A Touch of Frost and is taking the format to a full eight-hour series before the pilot has even aired. ITV Studios completed the pilot of Vera, starring Brenda Blethyn, earlier this year. Director of television Peter Fincham and director of drama commissioning Laura Mackie were sufficiently impressed to order three additional instalments before scheduling the test episode. The 120-minute pilot episode will now form part of a 4 x 120-minute series of self-contained stories, which will TX in a primetime slot on ITV1 next year. They are keen to appoint a different director to each episode to ensure they are distinctive. Source Broadcast Now.

IPC Media's Nuts magazine has published a special 3D issue in what it describes as a 'first in the UK weekly men's lifestyle market'. The 18th May edition included a covermount of a pair of 3D glasses. Readers are prompted to wear the glasses to view the special cover and an additional 20 pages of 3D content.The Sun will enter the 3D arena on 5 June, just before the start of the Fifa World Cup. The News International red-top will be the first national newspaper to run ads and editorial content in the format. Source Mediaweek.

The Guardian is undertaking a major sampling exercise in London, and for the first time is calling its freesheet "the mini Guardian", as it hits backs at a recent initiative by The Independent. Guardian News & Media, is distributing copies of the "mini guardian" for one day a week in a three-week run.Distributors are handing out thousands of copies across key London stations, including mainline stations like Waterloo. The move by The Guardian comes just weeks after the Independent hit commuters with free sampler copies of its newspaper. Source Brand Republic.

The Independent could go free within the M25, owner Evgeny Lebedev said in his first interview since buying the paper. He told the Financial times: "We will have to do something. The Independent can't stay in its present form because it will continue losing money."He added that this could include merging some of the Independent's operations with the London Evening Standard, which he bought in 2009.The Independent and its sister title on Independent on Sunday made a combined loss of £12.4 million in 2009. Lebedev also indicated that the decision to take the Evening Standard free last year could be paying off.Source MediaTel.

Social networks command 23% of all internet time according to figures from UKOM. A sharp rise in the use of social networks in the UK means one in every four and a half minutes online is now spent on sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and blogs. The report also highlights how Britons are spending 65% more time online generally than they did in 2007. Source Campaign.

Starbucks has teamed up with Foursquare (the location based i-phone app that allows users to keep track of where there friends are and learn more about their city) to offer their 'Majors' discount Nationwide. Starbucks is officially turning on the rewards side of its experimental Foursquare loyalty program with the first-ever nationwide mayor special. Starting from 18th May, mayors of individual Starbucks stores can unlock the Mayor Offer and enjoy a money-saving perk for their frequent store check-ins. It's a first for both Foursquare and the coffee retailer, and will likely bring mass attention to the marketing possibilities of the location-sharing trend. It's also an important development in light of pending Facebook location features. Starbucks - which is one of the most "Liked" brands on Facebook - is making a conscious choice to go with Foursquare, which should serve to legitimise Foursquare as the key player in the space for now. With the mayorship rewards, we expect competition to heat up on Foursquare more so than ever before. Source: Mashable.

The Office of Fair trading has launched a review of the outdoor advertising sector to scrutinise the concentration of buying and selling power. The review will look at the structure and competition within the sector and will "consider whether there are any distortions of competition or barriers to entry". The OFT says: "The outdoor advertising sector has a complex, multi-levelled structure, with advertising agencies, specialist buyers of outdoor advertising space, outdoor media owners who provide the space, and site owners such as local authorities." Source Marketing Week.

JCDecaux will handle the £160m railside outdoor account which includes all rail-facing ad sites across Network Rail's 18 managed stations including London Waterloo and Liverpool Street. The company says the contract offers the potential for the roll out of new outdoor advertising products and digital innovation. Source: Media Week

 

The UK radio industry is launching a radio scrappage scheme offering consumers a discount on a new digital radio in exchange for their analogue radio, which will be reconditioned and given to needy children in Africa. The Radio Amnesty has been developed by the BBC with the support of Digital Radio UK and the scheme runs from 22 May to 26 June 2010. Source MediaTel.

Rajar released their figures this week to show that the number of people listening to all types of radio is on the increase and radio ad revenues are showing signs of stabilising. Alongside the massive increases in listeners for the BBC's Chris Evans show, commercial stations Classic FM and national networks such as Heart and Magic shared in the increase in listening. Absolute Radio's core station had another disappointing quarter as its weekly reach dropped 6.5% period on period to 1.4 million listeners and its total number of listening hours fell to 11 million a week. Source: Mediatel

Edited by Pedro's team

Media Insight – Election Special

Want to know what role media played in Election 2010? Click here to discover 7 insights that could improve your media plans poll rating in the future.

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Week commencing 10th May 2010

BT is launching a new film subscription service, doubling the number of on-demand films it currently offers BT Vision subscribers. Over 60 films will be available to choose from each month on BT Vision Film Club, with 14 films refreshed every week. The new service brings together offerings from major Hollywood studios, including Sony Pictures Television, Picturebox, WarnerFilms and Fim4OD. Souce MediaTel.

ITV has announced its flagship long running drama Coronation Street will be broadcast in high definition from 31 May, ahead of the soap's 50th birthday in December. ITV has made a multi-million pound investment, including upgrading the filming and editing facilities and some of the sets, to enable its production arm ITV Studios to shoot 'Coronation Street' in native high definition for the first time. Source BrandRepublic.

Publisher H Bauer is set to close its listings title TV Quick after 19 years. H Bauer said that it had started a consultation with staff in its TV editorial and listings departments over the future of the magazine. The weekly saw its circulation drop 27% year-on-year to 122,847 copies in the second half of last year, according to the latest set of ABCs. The title, which has a cover price of 80p, has suffered continuous double-digit declines in its circulation and saw the biggest drop in its ABC circulation in its sector last time round. Source Media Week.

The Daily Telegraph has launched a Best British Recipes strand sponsored by Morrisons, which will comprise print and online activity leading to a book sold in the supermarket. Source Media Week.

The Mail on Sunday is to launch a new standalone upmarket fashion supplement later this year as it looks to trump rival titles from the Sunday Telegraph and The Times. The as yet unnamed glossy title will be included as a supplement with the Mail on Sunday, which is the second biggest-selling Sunday title with a circulation of nearly 2m. The title is scheduled to launch in September, initially as an annual offering with a pagination of around 60 pages. Source Media Week.

ShortList, the men's free weekly title, is undergoing its first relaunch since it hit the UK's streets two and a half years ago. The revamped title is due to be unveiled this week featuring a raft of changes, including new sections, 'more masculine' fonts, and the axing of its celebrity guest list page. Source Media Week.

The Sunday Telegraph is replacing The Independent as the ad sales partner and distributor of Red Bull's monthly sports and lifestyle title, The Red Bulletin. The Independent started distributing the title with its Saturday issue in January 2009. The last issue was published this month. Source BrandRepublic.

The Financial Times has released details and a video demo of its iPad app, which subject to Apple approval will go live in the very near future. The app, currently in beta, takes its navigational lead from the FT's website rather than the print edition, but in a nod to the feel of the newspaper it uses the same font. SourceMedia Week

The Office of Fair Trading has cleared JCDecaux's purchase of the assets of fellow outdoor media owner Titan Outdoor, and will not refer the deal to the Competition Commission. JCDecaux purchased the assets in January after Titan entered administration. The addition of the Titan assets means JCDecaux controls approximately 29% of the outdoor market and therefore the OFT asked interested parties to comment on the sale by 24 March. Following a review of the evidence, the OFT has cleared the purchase of any competition issues. Source Media Week.

UK Top 10 Films
1 Iron Man 2
2 Furry Vengeance
3 A Nightmare On Elm Street
4 Hot Tub Time Machine
5 The Back-up Plan
6 Four Lions
7 How To Train Your Dragon
8 The Last Song
9 Date Night
10 Clash Of The Titans
Source: Pearl and Dean

SunTalk, the online radio station from News International tabloid The Sun, is going to almost treble its broadcasting hours during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Source Media Week.

Edited by Annie's team

Week commencing 3rd May 2010

BBC One won the primetime ratings war for the last of the 'The Prime Ministerial Debate' programmes, attracting 7.6 million viewers during the crucial peak-time slot of 9pm to 10pm. Across the four TV channels, there were more than 8.4 million viewers, with an average of 7.5 million watching on either BBC One or BBC HD between 8.30pm and 10pm, equivalent to a 28.7% share of the TV audience. Source: Media Week

Virgin Media has recorded over 200 million on-demand views for the first three months of the year. Over 2.1 million homes are now using Virgin's VoD service, which hosts catch-up content from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Virgin1 and LIVING as well as music videos and films. The other catch up services also recorded strong Q1 2010 performances with Channel 4's 4oD enjoying nearly 19 millions views of on-demand content and BBC iPlayer recording over 50 million views. Source: MediaTel

UK consumers watched an average of four hours and 18 minutes of linear broadcast TV a day during the first quarter of 2010, up 8% year on year. A report from Thinkbox, the marketing body for commercial TV, shows that in the first quarter of 2010 the UK public watched an average of 30 hours, four minutes of linear broadcast TV a week, an increase of two hours, 29 minutes when compared with the same period of 2009. The report uses Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB) figures, which include non-live, time-shifted viewing watched through a TV up to seven days after the original broadcast. Commercial impacts in Q1, the number of ads watched at normal speed, were up 4.9% on the same period last year and 22% over the last five years. The average viewer watched 48 ads a day in the three months to the end of March compared with 45 ads in the same period last year. Source: Brand Republic

IPC Media is set to review its niche and specialist titles following the company's restructure in January. The strategic review will be conducted over the next few months and could spell the end of certain titles in IPC's 80-strong consumer magazines portfolio. IPC publishes over 85 print and online brands, including World Soccer, Amateur Gardening, and the Railway Magazine. In January, the publishing group announced plans to reorganise its business in a bid to create an audience-facing structure, reducing its five divisions to three: Connect for mass market women, Southbank for upmarket women and Inspire for men. Source: MediaTel

Newsweek, the embattled news magazine, has been officially put up for sale by owner Washington Post Company, following sustained advertising and circulation losses. The international edition of Newsweek, which was first launched in 1945, has an official ABC circulation of 200,000 for its EMEA edition, while its circulation in the UK and Republic of Ireland averaged 49,364 in the six months to December 2009. Last year, the loss-making magazine underwent a drastic revamp in the face of competition with the Economist and the recently revamped Bloomberg Businessweek. This however did not prevent advertising revenue from slipping 37% in its last reported year and in February 2009, the magazine made a decision to cut its global circulation by almost half in an attempt to keep it afloat in the financial downturn. Source: Brand Republic

Online music streaming services are strengthening their position in the market to prove they're a viable platform for advertising, after gaining momentum in user numbers and revenue this year. Spotify has boosted its UK team with its first director-level appointments as the music streaming company sets out to show advertisers and agencies it can deliver scale and engagement - coming as Apple prepares to close streaming service Lala ahead of a rumoured iTunes streaming platform. Last week, ad-funded music service We7 said it had its first month where streaming costs were fully covered by ad revenue, while new streaming social service mFlow launched with a major ad campaign last month. Also last month, Spotify unveiled a social media platform in the first significant change to its service since it launched in October 2008. Source New Media Age

Apple has sold a million iPads in a month, despite delays to its international launch. The company said iPad users have already downloaded more than 12m apps from the Apple App Store and over 1.5m e-books from the new iBookstore. Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, said, "One million iPads in 28 days: that's less than half of the 74 days it took to achieve this milestone with the iPhone." Source: New Media Age

NME has launched a new social network in a bid to connect bands and music fans. The NME Breakthrough site allows groups and individual artists to upload their own content to a customised profile, which other artists and fans can see. The new site will be fully integrated with NME's editorial, with the magazine's new music editor Jaimie Hodgson using the network as a way to find new talent and recommend music to readers. Source: MediaTel

A new face-tracking research study has found that consumers are more open to engage with digital out-of-home ads in shopping centres. Results of the Clear Channel Outdoor and Kinetic Worldwide research showed that shopper's relaxed mindset allowed them to pay more attention to adverts, especially at the weekend. The new face-tracker technology, which followed eye and face contact with advertising displays at the Westfield shopping mall in Tunbridge Wells, also revealed that shoppers are three times as likely to be happy than sad in that kind of environment. In addition, younger audiences seemed to look at advertising for longer over the 3-week trial period, while older audiences were more expressive when looking at ads. The new research, which used a HD camera on Clear Channel digital ads to measure contact numbers and duration, age and gender as well as mood expression, also found that men were more engaged by animated marketing campaigns. Source: MediaTel

UK Top 10 Films (30th April - 2nd May)
1 Iron Man 2 (12A)
2 How To Train Your Dragon (PG)
3 Date Night (15)
4 The Last Song (PG)
5 Clash of the Titans (12A)
6 Dear John (12A)
7 The Ghost (15)
8 Kick-Ass (15)
9 Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang (U)
10 House Full (12A)
Source: Pearl and Dean

Edited by Ashley's team

Week commencing 26th April 2010

Commercial TV viewing continued to grow in March, up from an average of 16.76 hours a week in March 2009 to 17.45 hours, according to the latest TV viewing figures from the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB). Of the key advertiser audiences, ABC1 adults watched 14.36 hours of commercial TV a week in March, down from 14.49 hours last year; 16-34s watched 14.42 hours a week, down slightly from 14.57 hours; and men watched 17.18 hours a week, up from 16.58 hours. Total broadcast TV viewing in March (including BBC channels) was 28.19 hours a week, up on March last year (26.33), and up on the representative ten year average for March of 26.91 hours a week. Commercial TV's share of viewing in March stood at 61.9 per cent, up by 4.7 year on year. Source: Thinkbox

Virgin Media is to offer customers the ability to watch films streamed on demand via the internet, with the launch of Virgin Media Online Movies. The service will allow consumers to stream films from laptops, PCs and TVs on a pay-per-view basis. Recently released films will cost around £3.99, while older films will be cheaper. Virgin Media will revamp its online movies site to celebrate Virgin Media Online Movies. The new site will aim to help consumers find films they will enjoy and will include trailers, reviews, user ratings, box office information and movie trivia. Source: Media Week

The Sun is set to unveil a special 3D issue with 3D colour ads and editorial in the lead up to the World Cup. The one-off edition, which will be the first of its kind, will be published on June 5 along with a 3D World Cup fixtures wall chart giveaway. Sun readers will be given 3D glasses to view the special content. A TV ad campaign will promote the 3D issue in May, ahead of its launch. News International is expected to increase its print run by hundreds of thousands of copies on the day of its release. Around 25 of the 2010 World Cup matches in South Africa will be filmed using 3D cameras for the first time. Source: Mediatel

The Independent relaunched last week, with a new daily magazine section, Viewspaper, and a masthead promise of political and proprietorial freedom. The relaunch follows the paper's purchase by Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev for £1 in May. The 20 page Viewspaper section, which includes "opinion, award-winning commentary, more space for your letters, the finest writing on cultural matters, a daily essay and in-depth features". Towards the back of the main paper there are Living and Business sections, while arts reviews, TV listings and obituaries can now be found in the Viewspaper. Towards the beginning of April, editor Roger Alton quit the Independent, and was replaced by managing director Simon Kelner until a new editor is found, probably after the general election. According to ABC figures for March 2010, the Independent has a circulation of around 184,000 copies, down by around 10% on March 2009, although it remained relatively static month on month. 300,000 free copies are being distributed nationally daily of a special 64-page edition of The Independent on Monday to Friday, until the day of the General Election. Source: Mediatel

Yahoo! has secured exclusive UK online highlights for the English Premier League for the next three seasons. The deal will put five-minute highlight packages of every match on Yahoo.co.uk. Yahoo! will also own the rights in the UK to syndicate all or part of the Premier League highlights content to third parties, allowing Yahoo! to put together advertising packages for major brands. Richard Scudamore, chief executive of the Premier League, said: "The way fans access Barclays Premier League action is growing ever more diverse and sophisticated. The online highlights package is an important medium for supporters of all our clubs to be able to follow match action." Source: Media Week

Bauer Media has rolled out 38 new online radio media players across its network, which allows users to buy tracks from the playlist. The new players are part of a major upgrade to Bauer Media's existing online streaming service and include the national Kiss, Magic and Kerrang! brands as well as regional stations in the Big City Network. In addition to offering users a better audio experience through improved streaming quality, the player is easier to use and users will be able to click on affiliate links through the interface to buy tracks currently being played through either iTunes or Amazon as well as share the tracks through social network Facebook. Bauer Media will generate income through the affiliate links and expects to see a 15-20% uplift in listeners online as a result of the move. Source Media Week

Mobile Ad spend rose by 32% between 2008 and 2009, with brands from the entertainment, media and telecoms sectors spending the most, according to the IAB and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Figures showed mobile ad spend in the UK rose to £36.7m despite the contraction in the wider advertising market and grew consistently throughout 2009. Entertainment and media contributed 61.5% of all mobile ad revenues and traditional telecoms contributed 17.7%. Search accounted for 54% of all mobile ad spend in 2009, seeing a 41% rise from 2008.The burgeoning mobile ad market has been under increased focus in recent months following significant moves by major companies including Google and Apple. Google is hoping to ramp up its mobile ad offering through the £467m purchase of mobile ad network AdMob (subject to a possible anti-trust challenge from the US) while Apple launched its own mobile platform iAd earlier this month. Source New Media Age

Neilsen BrandLift and Facebook partnered this year to drive research showing ads on Facebook work better with a social element. Ads with a social context within the ad format increased ad recall by 16%, awareness by 8%, and purchase intent by 8%. For those consumers who had seen a home-page ad and also a post within their news feed about a brand, ad recall increased by 30%, awareness by 13% and purchase intent by 8%. Jon Gibs VP of media analytics for the Neilsen Company said "Companies try to create and nurture brand advocates. We now have evidence that sites like Facebook can help achieve that…. It's critical we understand advertising in terms of the impact of paid media, but also how earned media and social advocacy impact campaigns." Source New Media Age

Twitter will allow brand to pay to post'promoted tweets' - updates that will feature in search results as well as in the brand's feeds - so they can reach a wider audience than just their followers. The first brands to use this format include Best Buy, Bravo, red Bull, Sony Pictures, Starbucks and Virgin America. Users will begin to see sponsored tweets at the top of some Twitter search pages. These will take the form of an ordinary tweet from the brand, but will be clearly labelled 'Promoted' to distinguish paid-for tweets from normal ones. Source New Media Age

Edited by Pedro's Team

Week commencing 19th April 2010

MTV Networks has launched the first in a series of two-minute daily bulletins, aimed at raising social and political awareness among its 18 to 35-year-old demographic. MTV News' 'Got Issues' bulletins will broadcast across its music video networks for the remainder of 2010 and will highlight current affairs, starting with a focus on the election. The broadcast shorts will drive viewers to further reports on MTV's website, where they can watch extended bulletins and participate in polls. The series begins with current musicians voicing their opinions. 'Vote 2010: Register, Research, Remember the date' will follow group NDubz as they encourage the general public to get involved in politics. Cameras will follow the group during one busy day and capture band members talking about the General Election and some of the issues they feel are most important for their generation. Source: Media Week

Sky's appeal against the Ofcom-imposed price cut to its premium sport channels will be heard by the Competitions Appeal Tribunal (CAT) on Friday, it has been announced. The satellite broadcaster officially lodged its application on April 16 against Ofcom's ruling that it must reduce the wholesale price of Sky Sports 1 and 2 by 23.4% for rival operators. Source: digitalspy

The Daily Express is readying an Apple iPad app with an upfront cost expected to be £1.79, offering free online content as well as a subscription-based replica of the paper. The newspaper group is launching iPad apps for its Daily Express and Sunday Express titles, along with its Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday national newspaper brands. It will become one of the first British national newspapers on the iPad, which is expected to be on sale in the UK by the end of the month. Source: Mediaweek

Microsoft has been discussing the possibility of a television channel for its Xbox Live service, according to reports. Raising the Xbox Live Gold subscription would pay for the service, which currently stands at £4.99 per month. Aimed at the console's predominant audience of young males, the channel would offer reruns and original programming. Source: Digital spy

Yasmina Siadatan, winner of the 2009 series of 'The Apprentice', is to speak at this year's Media Week DOOH Media Summit on 6 May. Siadatan, a business development manager at Sir Alan Sugar's digital outdoor company Amscreen, won the fifth series of the hit BBC show and as winner was offered a job working as a business developer for Amscreen. At the day-long summit, to be held in London's Earls Court, Siadatan will talk about how Amscreen has brought brands such as HMV, Lloyds Pharmacy, BP, Whitbread, Guardian Media Group and the FT into digital out-of-home. Source: Media Week

Top Gear presenter James May and Gordon Smart, editor of the Sun's Bizarre showbiz column, are to turn DJ on the BBC's threatened digital radio station. The Channel Five presenter Matthew Wright and Channel 4's Ruth Watson will also host 6 Music shows as part of a series of "takeovers" of its normal schedule. May will present the Friday Night Rock Show on 23 April; a day earlier, Smart will present the Roundtable discussion show normally hosted by Steve Lamacq. Watson, who presents Channel 4's Country House Rescue, will present Craig Charles's Funk & Soul Show on 24 April. Wright, who has previously presented on Radio 2, will host the Sunday afternoon Freak Show programme usually fronted by Stuart Maconie on 25 April. Source Guardian.co.uk

STV, the channel three broadcaster in Scotland, has sold the cinema sales house Pearl & Dean Cinemas to a new company backed by the owner of Empire Cinemas for £1. In a statement, STV said the sale represents the final step in the board's plan to dispose of legacy businesses which it inherited and refocus the group on its core businesses. Pearl & Dean was sold on a cash free, debt free basis and the £1 consideration will be adjusted on a £1 for £1 basis to reflect the debt and cash remaining within Pearl & Dean on 30 April. Source Media week

Uk Box Office Chart
1.Dear John
2. Clash of the Titans
3. How to train your Dragon
4. Kick Ass
5. Nanny Mcphee and the Big Bang
6. The Ghost
7. Cemetery Junction
8. Alice in Wonderland
9. The Blind Side
10. Remember me
Source Pearlanddean.co.uk

Edited by the TV team

Latest forecasts for 2010 TV advertising revenue show anticipated growth, rather than the decrease predicted at the turn of the year. Recent predictions range from 3.5% to 10% growth year on year - a marked change from the initial forecasts when the general consensus was a picture of decline. Source: Brand Republic

Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, threatens to rip the value out of content creation and manipulate and distort the UK's TV marketplace, according to Sky's chief executive. At a recent conference he railed against Ofcom's decision in March to force the broadcaster to sell its premium sports channels to rivals at a 10.5% reduced rate. Source: Media Week

BSkyB has signed a deal with a third manufacturer to offer its internet TV service Sky Player through integrated set-top boxes this summer. The Sky Player service allows both Sky satellite customers and dedicated Sky Player TV subscribers to access a range of live channels and video-on-demand services through the internet. Source: Media Week

The UK arm of Reader's Digest has been bought out of administration by private equity company Better Capital in a management buyout deal worth £13m. Reader's Digest magazine will continue to be published under the Reader's Digest brand through a licence agreement with former US parent company Reader's Digest Association. Better Capital stated that Reader's Digest UK, which went into administration in February, will now have no bank debt. Source: Media Week

The Lady, the weekly "journal for gentlewomen", is certain to raise a few eyebrows amongst its old guard of readers with its choice of cover girl this week - Tracey Emin, the controversial artist graces the front of the 125-year-old title. Emin is a marked departure from The Lady's traditional cover stars prior to its revamp last July. The title's circulation in the second half of 2009 was 28,782 copies, up 9.3% year on year. Source: Media Week

Dennis Publishing is launching a new bi-annual title called Prosper, which will be distributed alongside its flagship weekly title The Week. Prosper will be sent out free to more than 150,000 subscribers of The Week twice a year. The title will provide readers with an investment guide to the world of finance in a tie-up between Dennis and MoneyWeek Limited, the publisher of MoneyWeek. Source: Media Week

Radio Times has had a redesign and upped its pagination in its first revamp under editor Ben Preston. The BBC Magazines TV listings guide has been given an updated cover design and will carry a new weekly guide to the best of catch-up TV and radio on iPlayer and other video-on-demand services. Source: Media Week

Apple has delayed the launch of its iPad in the UK and other markets until the end of May due to high levels of demand in the US, while O2, Vodafone and Orange have said they will offer pricing packages for it. Source: Media Week

Meanwhile, Express Newspapers is launching iPad apps for its Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star & Daily Star Sunday national newspaper brands. It will become one of the first British national newspapers on the iPad. They will charge £1.79 for the Daily Express app, which will give free access to its website content. There will be a subscription charge to read the e-edition of the newspaper, which will be free in the first week after download. Source: Media Week

Google has made its first UK acquistion, picking up visual search start-up Plink for an undisclosed sum. Plink's first product was called PlinkArt, a mobile app which scrutinises pictures of well-known paintings and artworks, and identifies them. The company's two founders, are joining Google to work on search company's visual search applications. Source: Media Week

The owner of national radio station TalkSport and the channel three broadcaster in Northern Ireland, is launching iPhone apps across its 14 radio stations in the run up to the World Cup. An agreement with audio content provider UBC Media Group will also see the formation of a new iPhone advertising network. The network will launch in April with the TalkSport app and other UTV stations will follow over the following weeks. The apps will allow users to listen to their radio station wherever they have wifi or a mobile signal and provide a wide range of additional features, such as instant programme reminders, listen again and social network interaction. Source: Media Week

Glam Media, operator of women's website network Glam.com, is opening international headquarters in the UK as it looks to expand in to Italy, Spain and Asia. Source: Media Week

Easter weekend significantly outperformed last year's Easter box office takings, up 53% on 2009, with the top 15 films grossing £22.3m compared with £14.6m last year. It was also the seventh consecutive weekend to see cinema takings up on the same weekend the previous year, thanks to a raft of top releases appealing to a wide demographic. Source: DCM

UK Top 10 Films (9th-11th April)
1 Clash of The Titans 3D
2 How To Train Your Dragon 3D
3 Kick Ass
4 Nanny McPhee 2
5 Alice In Wonderland 3D
6 The Blind Side
7 Remember Me
8 Whip It!
9 Shutter Island
10 Bounty Hunter
Source: DCM

Edited by Annie's team

The Digital Economy Bill is set to receive approval from both Houses of Parliament before the General Election, after clearing its second reading despite MPs raising objections. It will now enter the fast track process, known as the 'wash up', to complete the Parliamentary process needed for it to become law before the end of the week. Some of the most controversial parts of the Bill include provision to suspend the internet connection of file sharers, support for a 2015 target date for digital radio, independently funded news consortia delivering regional news on channel three, and a £6 annual broadband tax on landlines. Source: Media Week

ITV1 and BSkyB will both launch marketing campaigns to promote ITV1 HD and Sky News HD respectively, as competition in the high definition TV market builds up. ITV will launch a campaign called "The brighter side just got brighter", featuring TV presenters Ant and Dec, across its family of channels to promote the new ITV1 HD channel. Sky News will highlight its coverage of the upcoming election in high definition, initially focusing on the upcoming Sky News Debate between the parliamentary party leaders, which will be shown in HD. The debate is a prelude to the launch of Sky News HD, which Sky said was imminent. Source: Brand Republic

Channel 4 has signed up Waitrose for a year-long sponsorship of food programming, with activity kicking off around Heston's Blumenthal's new series, 'Heston's Feasts', and also includes other C4 food shows such as 'Iron Chef' and 'Gordon Ramsay's Best Restaurants'. The sponsorship creative features the reactions of young children trying unusual or strongly flavoured foods for the first time, including anchovies, pomegranates, Stilton cheese and dragon fruit. Source: Media Week

IPC has relaunched their indie music mag, NME, with a complete redesign featuring a new logo and new layout, more words on the page and supplementary breakout information. The magazine's most recent ABC figures were down by almost 21% year-on-year with a total circulation of 38,486 copies. The relaunch is supported by a large print and online marketing campaign running within IPC brands including Nuts, Loaded, Uncut, Now, Look, and Marie Claire, as well as on NME TV and NME Radio, It is estimated the campaign will reach eight million 15-34 year olds. Source: MediaTel

The Sun has reported its most lucrative Easter trading week for display advertising today. Among trading highlights for the week are a 50% year-on-year increase in spend from the big four supermarket retailers as they focus on Easter dining as well as their expansion into new categories such as electrical and gaming. The Easter weekend also gave home improvement retailers the opportunity to talk to consumers eager to refresh their homes. Among the biggest spenders for The Sun, in a sector reported to be up 50% up year on year, are B&Q, DFS, Argos, Wickes and Furniture Village. Source: Media Week

AOL has informed employees that it will either sell or close down Bebo, the social network it paid £417m for in May 2008. The company has said it will work to find bidders for the business and expects to complete its "strategic evaluation" by the end of May. Employees were told that Bebo was a declining business which required significant investment to compete in the social networking space, and AOL was not in a position to fund and support it. Bebo's global unique visitors in February totalled 12.8 million, which was down 45% year-on-year, compared to Facebook's 462 million visitors, MySpace nearly 110 million, and Twitter 69.5 million. Source: Media Week

Apple has confirmed that more than 300,000 iPads were sold during the product's first day in US stores. Users downloaded more than a million apps for the iPad in the first 24 hours, along with 250,000 ebooks from the iBookstore. Reviews on the whole were positive, although some users complained that they were struggling to connect to wi-fi networks, which suggested that the product contained a weak wi-fi antenna. Apple has yet to comment on the issue. The first-day sales total for the iPad easily topped the number of sales recorded by the first generation iPhone, which recorded 270,000 sales in its first weekend in 2007. Apple will launch the iPad in the UK later this month; however a specific date or price structure has yet to be confirmed. Source: Brand Republic

Sky Sports has lost the exclusive rights to distribute highlights of the Barclays Premier League via mobile phones to ESPN. Disney-owned ESPN now has the exclusive rights to broadcast highlights of all 380 games from England's top-flight football league over the next three seasons, beginning with the 2010/11 season. Specific price plans and products that will use these rights will be announced in the forthcoming weeks. The highlights package joins ESPN's mobile web sites for ESPN.co.uk, ESPNSoccernet, ESPNCricinfo, ESPNScrum and ESPNF1, as well as apps. Source: New Media Age

JCDecaux is to expand its outdoor media network at Waitrose to a further 15 branches of the high-end supermarket. It won the contract to manage and develop six-sheet advertising at Waitrose in November 2007 after a competitive tender and will now have outdoor media at 85 Waitrose sites across the country. The expansion means JCDecaux will now offer scrolling six-sheet panels at additional stores in Bishops Stortford, West Byfleet, Beckenham, South Harrow, Sudbury, Tonbridge, Newmarket, Lichfield, West Ealing, Alcester, Haslemere, Leigh on Sea, Saxmundham, Torquay and Headington. Source: Media Week

CBS Outdoor has retained the five-year contract to manage the advertising on Go-Ahead Group buses in the UK. Go-Ahead is the largest operator within Greater London, and also has an extensive footprint across the South Coast and the North East, carrying 1.6 million passengers per day, according to CBS. Source: MediaTel

UK Top 10 Films (2nd April - 4th April)

1. Clash of the Titans (12A)
2. How to Train Your Dragon (PG)
3. Kick-Ass (15)
4. Nanny McPhee and The Big Bang
5. Alice in Wonderland (PG)
6. The Blind Side (12A)
7. Remember Me (12A)
8. Shutter Island (15)
9. The Bounty Hunter (12A)
10. The Spy Next Door (PG)

Edited by Ashley's team

Week commencing 22nd March 2010

Some of you will have seen our latest research into Social Media and the Travel Industry. However, if not please click here to find out more.

We will be sending through more detail in the not too distant future, so watch this space for interesting highlights…or contact us directly if you can't wait.

ITV will show the first two England games of the 2010 World Cup in June as well as the opening game between host nation South Africa and Mexico on 11 June. Under a deal with the BBC, ITV will show the England vs. USA game at 7.30pm on Saturday 12 June as well as England's game against Algeria at 7.30pm on Friday 18 June. Source: MediaWeek.

Independent News & Media has not been able to announce a deal with Alexander Lebedev for its Independent and Independent on Sunday titles, before publishing its financial results. But the company said discussions with the Evening Standard owner are continuing with an announcement expected "very shortly". The results today (24 March) revealed it made an operating profit of €177.2m, but took charges on exceptional items of €145.8m, which led to a pre-tax loss of €31.4m. Source: MediaWeek.

Grazia magazine, the Bauer Media women's weekly, and GQ, Condé Nast's men's monthly, are both launching "Augmented Reality" (AR) initiatives. Grazia readers can hold up the cover of the issue to a webcam or iPhone to watch Florence Welch perform her hit song 'You've got the love' in 3D, readers will also be able to view spring's fashion trends in 360 degrees via AR, and there is a make-up demonstration. Sources: MarketingWeek & MediaWeek.

Hitwise confirmed that Facebook's web traffic passed Google's last week in the US. Facebook received 7.07% of all US web traffic compared to Google's 7.03%. Source: www.contagiousmagazine.com

CBS Outdoor launches illuminated ads on buses. The electroluminescent panels are paper-thin, triple-laminated panels, illuminated by the phosphor crystals within them, which charge and emit light when an electrical current passes through them. Source: MediaWeek

Clear Channel Outdoor will be turning off the lights at offices and landmark sites at 8.30pm for one hour this Saturday as part of a global campaign to raise awareness of climate change. In the lead up to Saturday, Clear Channel will be promoting the WWF's Earth Hour event on its roadside Digital LED network, Piccadilly Lite site and digital panels in shopping malls across the UK. Source: Meditel

The latest Rajar results proved a mixed bag for most radio operators in the UK. Quarterly gains were often offset by annual falls, or vice versa, while overall listening via digital platforms has dropped since the previous report. Some of the main points are as follows: TalkSport's weekly reach was down slightly year on year to average 2.5 million listeners, but the talk radio station recorded total listening hours of 20.4 million a week, up 13.6% year on year and 4.4% quarter on quarter. Absolute Radio, which operates national AM and London FM licences, reported a decline in both listeners and total hours year on year. Heart 106.2 FM surged into the lead above Capital & Magic with an average 1.88 million listeners a week up 4.8% yr on yr. The Hearty Network gainsed both listeners and total hours yr on yr but saw a slight decline in the six months since the rebrand was completed. Source: MediaWeek

UK Top 10 Films (19th - 21st March)
1. Alice In Wonderland (PG)
2. The Bounty Hunter (12A)
3. Shutter Island (15)
4. I Love You Phillip Morris (15)
5. Green Zone (15)
6. The Spy Next Door (PG)
7. Avatar (12A)
8. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (18)
9. Hachi: A Dog's Story (U)
10. The Princess And The Frog (U)
Source: Pearl and Dean

Edited by Jenna Stopforth

Week commencing 15th March 2010

Auto Trader, the media car brand owned by Trader Media Group, has released an iPhone app that uses image recognition technology to read car number plates. The new app enables users to search for information on vehicles designed to help consumers before making a new purchase, such as make and model records and performance figures. Source: MediaWeek

 

Virgin Media is offering its new high definition box, V HD, to customers for a one-off charge of £49 from 22 March. The box is 3D-ready, ahead of the launch of 3D TVs at the end of April, and features multiple ports and a power saving function. Source: MediaWeek

 

The Lady, the 125-year-old women's weekly, is the subject of a new Channel 4 documentary called 'The Lady and the Revamp'. The documentary is part of Channel 4's Cutting Edge series and will be broadcast at 9pm 18 March. Source: MediaWeek

Seperately, the owners of The Lady are believed to be one of 9 organisations bidding for Readers Digest. Source: MediaWeek

Unanimis is testing a new tool measuring online advertising visibility and engagement. The new product, currently being tested with publishers ahead of a summer-roll out, will enable measurement of seconds an ad is veiwed on screen, allowing publishers to charge advertisers for exposure time rather than impressions. Source: MediaTel

Google is trialling a new television search service, letting users find TV shows and online videos, and personalise a lineup of their favourites. It is testing the system with US satellite TV provider Dish Network through set-top boxes running Google software. Source: MediaTel

We7, the ad-funded music streaming site, has appointed Yahoo! to handle its display advertising inventory and is in talks to be featured on the internet giant's homepage. Under the agreement, Yahoo! will serve advertising to brands wishing to engage with we7's core music streaming audience of 16- to 25-year-olds. Source: MediaWeek

Twitter is to launch @Anywhere, a tool that will allow third parties to tap into its functionality and content. It has announced plans to roll out a set of frameworks enabling third-party sites to allow their users to log in using their Twitter accounts, pull information and content from Twitter and add functionality that lets people tweet or share from other sites directly onto Twitter. The functionality, similar to Facebook Connect, isn't yet ready for launch but Twitter said participating sites will include Amazon, AdAge, Bing, Digg, Ebay, The New York Times, Yahoo and YouTube. MediaWeek

Apple have confirmed that the iPad will read books out loud to you with audio dictation, a controversial feature that caused some trouble for Amazon's Kindle last year. Also, Apple indicated that you'll be able to use the iPad to read EPUB titles from sources outside of the iBooks store. The new features are described in the iBooks overview page on Apple's website. In the section titled "Change your reading habits," Apple says its VoiceOver functionality - an accessibility tool that works in other parts of the iPad's interface to help visually impaired users - will also work to dictate e-books. Source: Wired

Relentless, Coca-Cola's energy drink brand, is launching its lifestyle magazine, This Is The Order, online for the first time later this month. The free quarterly magazine has previously been available in participating stores and venues, but it will now also be available to readers as a digital publication. Source: MediaWeek

Look, IPC Media's weekly fashion magazine, has overhauled its UK website to improve user experience. The site, which targets high-spending, fashion-obsessed 18 to 44-year-old women, has been in development for six months. Users can find rolling news on fashion and hair and beauty, a shop powered by lynku.com and what the magazine claims to be the largest photo gallery of any UK fashion magazine website. Source: MediaWeek

Ryanair, has started to carry third-party advertising on its boarding cards. The airline, which launched a 100% online check-in service last year, said advertisers would be able to reach its estimated 73 million passengers who are expected to print their own boarding cards over the next 12 months. Source: BrandRepublic

 

UK Top 10 Films (12th - 14th Mar)
1. Alice In Wonderland (PG)
2. Shutter Island (15)
3. Green Zone (15)
4. Avatar (12A)
5. Hachi: A Dog's Tale (U)
6. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (18)
7. The Lovely Bones (12A)
8. The Crazies (15)
9. The Princess And The Frog (U)
10. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (PG)
Source: Pearl and Dean

Edited by Lucy Gaskin

Week commencing 8th March 2010

Ofcom is likely to force satellite broadcaster BSkyB to sell its sports and film channels at a wholesale fixed price to its rivals within the month. This obligation would force Sky to make its premium content available to all interested parties, including Virgin Media and BT Vision. If passed, the cost of watching live football, rugby, boxing and cricket on TV is set to fall in the UK, as it would bring an end to Sky's dominant position since 1989. At present, most operators are unable to agree terms with Sky over its premium content, and those that have, most notably Virgin Media, have complained that they are charged rates which make it impossible for them to compete effectively. Source: MediaWeek

BSkyB is set to show 3D demos in shopping centres across the UK to promote its new Sky 3D channel.Sky will show 3D content to shoppers, including footage from last month's London Fashion Week and the Arsenal v Man United match, ahead of its new channel launch next month.Shoppers at London's Westfield centre will be given 3D glasses to view the content this Friday, which will also include 3D tennis, golf, boxing, film and music footage, according to reports. The satellite broadcaster plans to complete more than 100 3D demonstrations in shopping centres over the next 12 months to promote its 3D film, sport, entertainment and arts content. BSkyB will roll out Sky 3D in pubs in April, broadcasting a live Premier League match in 3D every week. 25 matches from the upcoming World Cup finals in South Africa will also be produced for the channel. Source: MediaTel

Associated Newspapers' Metro has virtually secured distribution on the London Underground and London bus stations until the end of 2017, after Transport for London said it planned to award it the contract. The original 11-year deal the Metro landed in 1999 comes to an end on 2 April this year. The new deal will last for seven and a half years.It appears unlikely Metro has had serious competition for the contract. News International, publisher of the defunct thelondonpaper, is not believed to have been interested, while Northern & Shell has previously been unable to confirm or deny speculation that it was planning to launch a free daily. Source: MediaWeek

Microsoft is set to launch its UK video on demand service tomorrow with content including Skins, Faking it and Waterloo Road. The new MSN Video Player, which has been in testing phase since last summer, features around 300 hours of programming from BBC Worldwide and All3Media, including Peep Show, Shameless and Midsomer Murders. Microsoft has increased the service's total hours of content to 1,000 in the last few months following deals with Shed Media, RDF Media and the Digital Rights Group. Users will be able to watch full-length TV shows, films, trailers, news and clips on the new player. Source: MediaTel

The Advertising Association has submitted the industry's recommendations to the Committee of Advertising Practice for the extension of the non-broadcast Advertising Code to digital media.The recommendations, if accepted, will bring companies' marketing communications on their websites and other non-paid-for space online, such as brand activity on social networks, within the scope of the CAP Code. All other marketing activity in paid-for space online, such as search marketing and display advertising, is already under the Advertising Standards Authority's remit and subject to the CAP Code.The Ad Association claimed this was a "landmark move for advertising self-regulation [which will] address societal concerns and increase protection for consumers and children". Source: NewMediaAge

National Magazine Company has launched a cross-platform campaign to support its 30 Days of Food and Drink festival throughout May which includes launching a website as the hub of the festival. Content will include events, offers, reviews and giveaways from participating NatMag titles Good Housekeeping, Country Living, House Beautiful, She, Prima, Zest, Reveal, Best and Esquire. Each title will have its own unique landing page which can be accessed by clicking on the logo from the home page. The site is part of an integrated marketing campaign to support the month-long festival and is targeting NatMag's 10m readers. Source: Marketing Week

JCDecaux has reported a 77% fall in profits for 2009, to £22 million, with revenue down 11.5% year on year to £1.7 billion. Operating profits were down by 28.7% to £357 million, with organic revenue down 10.9%. The group's operating margin was 20.4%, down from 25.4% in 2008. The company's billboard business saw operating profits fall 46.1% year on year,while transport fell 32.6% and street furniture down 24.8%. Jean-François Decaux, chairman of the executive board and co-CEO, said: "Faced with the worst advertising downturn on record, JCDecaux implemented a successful cost reduction program which helped reduce the impact on our margin and coupled with a selective investment strategy also ensured that the group delivered improved free cash flow for the year. Source: Mediatel

Outdoor media owner Admedia is offering brands the opportunity to sponsor Town & City Pub Company venues throughout the Fifa World Cup 2010. As part of the sponsorship, brands will be able to name their own World Cup cask ale, which will be served in all Yates's 70 venues across the UK, in branded pint glasses. Over the five weeks of the football tournament in South Africa, the sponsorship can include beer mats, drinks holders, branded information and branded glasses in all of Town & City Pub Company's 140 venues, which covers the Yates, Litten Tree and Hogshead chains, and can be maximised by offering free pints through their websites. Source: Media Week

Absolute Radio is partnering with content management specialist ipercast to develop a range of new services to help deliver and monetise content online and via mobile devices. Effective immediately, ipercast will take over and manage Absolute Radio's Content Delivery Network (CDN) to develop the services. Absolute Radio's IP network, the Golden Square Network (GSN), spans a number of markets, covering London, Manchester, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, New York and Los Angeles . Source: MediaTel

Cinema ad sales house Pearl & Dean has donated space for hard-hitting ads from child trafficking charity Stop The Traffik. The films, which will only be shown alongside 15 and 18 certificate films, form part of Stop The Traffik's 'Start Freedom' campaign, which aims to highlight that human trafficking is a global issue that affects everyone. Source: MediaWeek

Edited by Ashley's Team

Week commencing 1st March 2010

Eurosport has announced that its TV coverage of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games drew 120 million viewers, while its online audience reached 23 million. The broadcaster said that 120 million viewers watched the Games on Eurosport and Eurosport HD for an average of more than 11 hours each. More than 50 million of these were women, making the female audience share 41% compared to Eurosport's typical 33%. In addition women watched the coverage for four minutes longer than men, according to the broadcaster. Source: Mediaweek.co.uk

ITV1's new Saturday evening gameshow, 'Ant & Dec's Push The Button', got off to a good start by drawing in more than a quarter of the audience, according to unofficial overnight figures. The channel put in a stronger performance than last Saturday night thanks to the debut of the show. In 'Push The Button' two families begin the show with £100,000. Throughout the programme they complete a series of challenges which can potentially take slices of the money away. Airing at 7.45pm-8.45pm, the show was up against stiff competition from BBC One, which garnered 6.5 million viewers with 'Let's Dance for Sport Relief' and 6.1 million with 'The National Lottery: In It To Win It'. Source: Mediaweek.co.uk

The Independent has further restructured its commercial operations and will now offer agencies a joint sell across its newspapers and magazine supplements. The changes apply across The Independent and The Independent on Sunday. Independent News & Media, the owner of The Independent newspapers, is in long-running negotiations to sell the titles to Russian businessman and Evening Standard majority owner Alexander Lebedev. Mediaweek.co.uk

The London Evening Standard's readership more than doubled to 1,391,000 after its conversion to free distribution, according to the latest NRS data. The Standard's move came on 12 October, the middle of the July to December 2009 readership period. Rather than report the average readership for the whole period, the NRS technical committee opted to disregard the data from the Standard's paid-for days prior to 12 October. The figure provided for the Standard's readership in the last six months of 2008 is 595,000, and this is across the whole period. The most recent figure available for a whole period before the Standard dropped its cover price is 556,000 for the six months from April to September 2009. The readership figures follow the publication of circulation figures yesterday which show how many copies the Standard distributed after going free. It handed out 427,310 copies in October, 596,100 in November and 608,533 copies in December. Mediaweek.co.uk

Nuts and Zoo recorded dramatic drops in readership in the second half of last year, according to the latest National Readership Survey. IPC's weekly lads' mag Nuts lost on average 26% of its readership from the second half of 2008 - when it had 1,064,000 readers - dropping to 793,000. Bauer Media's weekly title Zoo suffered a 24% fall, leaving it with 608,000 readers. The monthlies were also affected, with IPC's Loaded down 19% to 580,000 readers, and Bauer Media's FHM down 15% to 1,490,000. Mediaweek.co.uk

NatMags' Company magazine has launched a bi-annual spin-off fashion magazine called the High-Street Edit. The standalone title is in a large format and showcases high street fashion, designer fashion news and insider information from fashion PRs. It goes on sale from March 5th with an initial print run of 110,000 copies and a cover price of £3.99. The first issue carries 132 pages of fashion and is produced by the same editorial and fashion team as Company magazine. The launch of the High-Street Edit will be supported by cross-brand ads in NatMag titles Company, Cosmopolitan, Reveal and Harper's Bazaar. Mediaweek.co.uk

Online TV service SeeSaw has sold its entire ad inventory until May this year, only weeks after its launch in mid-February and without having to resort to discount selling. High-profile comedy and drama programming has proven the most popular content with advertisers. Source: NMA

It was reported this week that Twitter is close to launching a model for serving ads in search results on the site. A report on The Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital site said Twitter was briefing companies about plans to implement ads tied to search results, meaning they won't appear in users' regular streams. Source: NMA

With 71m Europeans accessing the internet via their mobile each week, research by the European Interactive Advertising Association found that an average of 6.4 hours is spent browsing mobile websites, compared with 4.8 hours reading newspapers and 4.1 hours reading magazines. Source: NMA

CBS Outdoor has retained the FirstGroup rail stations account for the next five years, valued in the region of £30m. The outdoor specialist said it has kept the rail advertising business after a competitive pitch against other undisclosed media owners. CBS Outdoor will continue to manage on-station advertising across all FirstGroup's rail franchises, which include First Capital Connect, First Great Western, ScotRail and First TransPennine Express. In addition, CBS Outdoor will also manage the on-train advertising on ScotRail. Source mediaweek.co.uk

JCDecaux has installed six large-format billboards in the Trafford area of Manchester, after winning a competitive tender for the sales, design and marketing of the structures. The winning bid for the contract included a specially designed scrolling billboard, which is unique to Trafford and incorporates Trafford branding and LED lighting that can change colour to suit advertisers. Six scrollers have now been installed across Parkway Circle, Village Way, White City Way and Bridgewater Way across the Greater Manchester borough and two special-build structures are to follow at a later date. Spencer Berwin, managing director of sales at JCDecaux, said the Trafford Council contract complemented JCDecaux's contracts with the public transport provider GMPTE, and would "strengthen JCDecaux's offer to advertisers reaching audiences en route to Old Trafford, Trafford Shopping Centre and Manchester City Centre". Source mediaweek.co.uk

The BBC will close its national digital radio stations BBC 6 Music and Asian Network and rebrand its archive comedy and drama station BBC Radio 7 as "Radio 4 Extra", under proposals published today. The review said 6 Music delivered "relatively few unique listeners to BBC radio". The BBC would review how some of 6 Music's "most distinctive programs can be successfully transferred to other BBC radio stations, and how its support for new and specialist music can be sustained across the BBC". With an average listener age of 37, the report said, 6 Music "competes head on for a commercially valuable audience". Closing it, and refocusing BBC Radios 1 and 2, would "recognise the lead role that commercial radio plays in serving popular music to 30- to 50-year-old audiences". The review proposed that the Asian Network should be closed as a national service, but could possibly be replaced by a network of part-time local services with some syndicated national programs on digital audio broadcasting (DAB) and medium wave in areas with large British Asian communities. In a wide-ranging shakeup of the BBC's digital radio offerings, it said the spoken-word station BBC Radio 7 - its most successful digital-only station - should broadcast more new content and develop closer ties with Radio 4, "culminating in the re-branding of the station as 'Radio 4 Extra'?". Source: Guardian.co.uk

Digital Cinema Media (DCM) is ramping up its commitment to 3D cinema as figures reveal that box office smash Avatar raked in over 75% of its UK takings from the 3D format. Last year witnessed a revival in 3D viewing but critics question its long-term appeal and its aesthetic qualities. The industry is continuing to back the format, though, and this year sees the arrival of high-profile 3D films Alice in Wonderland and Shrek Forever. Source: Medaweek.co.uk

Edited by Pedro's Team

Week commencing 22nd February 2010

The next update on Touchpoints (the multi media planning database) to be released in July will include research about conversation catalysts. This will allow quantitative insight into the efficacy of individual media to deliver value in the important area of 'word of mouth'

Studies in the USA have already shown that the overwhelming majority of word of mouth (90%) takes place offline (face to face or by phone), not online. This does not negate the growing opportunities that social media affords, but it underscores the importance of taking a holistic approach to word of mouth planning - giving careful consideration to the full range of consumer touchpoints that are available to activate consumer conversation. In the USA, close to 50% of word of mouth conversations include references to media and marketing, with advertising leading the way! Source Mediatel

The Nielsen Company has launched a new system to measure how viewers engage with television advertising. They aim to monitor how closely viewers are paying attention to TV programmes and adverts, in order to provide a quality metric to support traditional TV ratings. The first UK data from the new system shows that Colgate's tooth-sensitivity test ad was the most memorable, while Mr Muscle's superhero ad made it the most recalled advertiser. Source Mediatel

Business and financial news channel CNBC is to launch on the subscription-free satellite platform Freesat this week as part of a free-to-air strategy to widen its distribution. Source mediaweek.co.uk

The UK company behind Reader's Digest has filed for administration after a deal on its pensions deficit collapsed. Source mediaweek.co.uk

The Times is to publish another wave of discount packs for subscribers to The Times newspaper as it looks to generate fresh revenue stream amid falling sales of the national newspaper title. Times Food+ website will launch in March , following on from the Culture+ and Travel+ websites launched in October last year Source mediaweek.co.uk

The European Commission has launched a preliminary inquiry into Google's dominance of the online search market. The investigation is expected to focus on complaints in online search rankings. The Commission has sent out formal questionnaires to three companies who made the allegations against Google - the British price comparison site Foundem, French legal search engine eJustice and Mircrosoft owned shopping site Ciao. The complaints suggest that Google demotes competing websites to a lower ranking on users search results. Source mediaweek.co.uk

The Guardian iPhone and iPad app has been downloaded more than 100,000 times since its launch in December 2009 and has generated over £240,000 income for the publishing group. Source mediaweek.co.uk

Twitter has hit the 50 million tweets per day mark to pass MySpace's daily status message updates for the first time. Source mediaweek.co.uk

BSkyB has signed a deal with Nokia that will make available live coverage of Sky Sports and Sky News on selected mobile phones Source mediaweek.co.uk

TV and radio requests on BBC iplayer broke records once again in January with a total of 120million requests across all platforms Source mediaweek.co.uk

Outdoor media owner CBS Outdoor's profits were hit hard in the fourth quarter of 2009 with a 97% year on year drop in global operating income leading to a $96.9m operating loss for 2009. CBS does not split out UK figures in its results but revenues in Europe and Asia were down, in constant currency terms. by 15% in the fourth quarter. Source mediaweek.co.uk

Revenue across UK commercial radio is expected to be up 8% year on year for the fourth quarter of 2009. The growth follows a 12% drop in the third quarter revenues. The first quarter of 2010 is expected to show continued signs of recovery with predictions of year on year revenue growth of +14% in January and +11% in February. Source mediaweek.co.uk

Source: Pearl and Dean

Edited by Kirsty Hutton

Week commencing 15th February 2010

Investment in TV advertising by online brands has grown by a total of £170 million in the last five years (a total growth of 1,997% over five years at an average annual growth of 172%). TV advertising now accounts for 71.5%* of online brands' measured advertising investment, according to data from Nielsen Media Research. The growth underlines online brands' first hand experience of TV advertising's ability to create online traffic. 94% of the UK claims to have gone online as a direct result of watching TV in the last 12 months, according to Thinkbox research. Source: www.thinkbox.co.uk

ITV has stated that spend on product placement on TV will build steadily from the autumn before settling at about 5% of the spot ad market, or about £160m a year. Last week's confirmation of the Government's U-turn on product placement has cheered the media industry, which has been given the green-light to introduce brands into TV shows from later this year. Rupert Howell, ITV's director of brand and commercial, is unconcerned that sidelining anti-social advertisers may dilute the revenue for broadcasters. He declares: "This is a victory for common sense. The extra restrictions are over-cautious, but it is a step in the right direction." Source: www.mediaweek.co.uk

Newspaper groups have attacked the BBC's plans to launch a range of free news and sport apps, after the BBC announced it was developing news and sports apps for the iPhone, set to roll out before this summer's FIFA World Cup. The apps will then be adapted for the BlackBerry and Android operating systems. The Newspaper Publishers Association (NPA) has claimed it will undermine commercial publishers in a "potentially" important' sector and said the move did not constitute an extension of an existing service, but rather an "entirely new service" and should therefore be subject to a Public Value Test. Source: www.mediaweek.co.uk

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is launching a high-definition interactive TV show for gamers Called First Play, the show is said to be the first of its kind in Europe. It will be available through Sony's Playstation 3 consoles, connected to the PlayStation Network. First Play episodes will be available to UK gamers every week from March onwards, followed by a roll-out across Europe. The show will contain previews of the latest games and access to exclusive downloadable content. Source: www.mediaweek.co.uk

Mouthwash brand Listerine is using outdoor media owner CBS Outdoor's new illuminated bus panels to complement the brand's TV and radio activity in a campaign launching this week. The electroluminescent panels are paper-thin, triple-laminated panels, illuminated by the phosphor crystals within them, which charge and emit light when an electrical current passes through them. Listerine is the first advertiser to use this format with CBS Outdoor. Peter Charlton, national sales director at CBS Outdoor, said Listerine had "pushed the creative boundaries, and their continued use of the medium, coupled with this new technology, will deliver them huge stand-out on London's streets. Source: www.mediaweek.co.uk

UK Box Office Chart
1. Valentine's Day (12A)
2. Avatar (12A)
3. The Wolfman (15)
4. The Princess And The Frog (U)
5. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (PG)
6. My Name Is Khan (12A)
7. Invictus (12A)
8. A Single Man (12A)
9. Alvin And The Chipmunks The Squeakuel (U)
10. Astro Boy (PG)

Source: Pearl and Dean

Edited by the TV team

Week commencing 8th February 2010

Cable TV operator Virgin Media has confirmed it is to offer content from the Discovery channel in HD from this spring. A selection of Discovery programming in HD, such as 'Deadliest Catch' and 'Miami Ink', will also be available on demand. The addition of Discovery means Virgin will now offer nine HD channels as part of its XL TV package: Eurosport (which is the most recent addition to be announced), BBC HD, 4HD, ESPN HD, Nat Geo HD, MTVNHD, FX HD and LIVING HD. Source: MediaWeek

The government has set out plans for introducing product placement on British television, following a consultation by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The policy will include a warning to viewers at the beginning and end of relevant programmes, as well as after ad breaks, that feature product placement. There will also be a ban of certain brands and products from running product placement campaigns, including alcohol, high fat foods, high sugar and salt foods, gambling, smoking, prescription medicines, and infant formula products. Source: MediaTel

BBC and communications infrastructure operator Arqiva have been given approval to launch two new national terrestrial digital TV channels. This has come about through the BBC's spare capacity which will become available ahead of the digital switchover. Combined with Arqiva's growing spare capacity would enable two additional national TV channels to be broadcast in the near term, rather than only after the completion of digital switchover. The BBC capacity became available after it removed the red button and BBC News Multiscreen interactive streams, ahead of the terrestrial launch of BBC HD. Source: MediaWeek

Future, the specialist interest publisher, has reported a 12% drop in year-on-year revenue to £36m in the last quarter of 2009 and warned trading will remain "under pressure throughout 2010". The publisher of titles as diverse as Simply Knitter and Total Film said trading in Q1 of its financial year had been in line with expectations: highlighting the performance of titles in its active, technology, music and movie categories and pinpointing the games market as being particularly difficult. Future has launched new titles in the past two years, including Triathlon Plus and an ad-free subscription-only title, World of Warcraft. Source: Brand Republic

Associated Newspapers' revenues dropped 12% year on year in the last quarter of 2009 to £208m, in part due to the closure of London Lite in mid-November. Advertising revenues from newspaper operations - the Daily Mail, Metro and The Mail on Sunday - and their associated websites were down 8% while AN Digital revenues were down by 13%. DMGT, Associated's parent company, the Daily Mail & General Trust held out hope of improvement for the current quarter by pointing to an uplift in December 09. ABC figures partly bear this out: the Daily Mail enjoyed a slight increase of 0.17%, faring better than the bulk of the national dailies market. Source: MediaWeek

Global Publishing Group's The London Weekly became the latest title to hit London streets on Friday. The new free newspaper, which aims to be a "light hearted paper for light hearted Londoners", boasted 32 full-colour pages. The first issue offered a mix of sports, music news, and going-out info. Advertisers included promotions for West End shows Wicked and Thriller, display ads for Sea France, The Big Snow Festival, Southern Comfort as well as a page of classified recruitment ads. The paper will be handed out across London on Fridays and Saturdays, and aims to distribute around 250,000 copies to reach a readership of 1.5 million, according to the publishing company. Source: MediaTel

Google will build on social elements already available on its search by adding social media features to Gmail, calling it Google Buzz. It will allow users to automatically follow the people they regularly email and chat with in Gmail as well as set their privacy settings to control how much they share. Users will get notified of new activity via their Gmail inbox, be it a photo added by a Gmail contact or a new blog post that a user follows with Google Reader. It can also connect with the user's other social networks such as Flickr and Twitter. Google plans to rollout Buzz to all 176 million Gmail accounts over the next few days, with a mobile version also an option. Source: Brand Republic

The UK Online Measurement Company (UKOM) and The Nielsen Company have revealed the first set of data from their industry-agreed online Audience Planning System, which was created to help brands plan online campaigns by delivering the same targeted reach and frequency measures given by TV (BARB), radio (Rajar) and print (NRS). The first set of data reveals a regional breakdown of audiences, the proportion of ABC1 user a website has and what share of the audience is a household's main grocery shopper. The January data shows that Google was the top ranking site for traffic, with 60% of its audience ABC1 and 38% being the main grocery shopper. The site with the highest proportion of ABC1 audiences was the BBC (64%), followed by Wikipedia and Amazon (both 62%). Amazon also boasted the highest proportion of main grocery shoppers (50%), followed by Microsoft (47%). Source: New Media Age

Dennis Publishing has launched a consumer technology review site that mixes expert advice with user product reviews. Expertreviews.co.uk aims to provide a definitive online technology buying guide for the increasing number of shoppers who buy, research and compare technological products online. It has secured Toshiba as the first advertiser on the site. The site has been developed to enable users to find the products that match their needs, compare them with other products and read aggregated reviews from previous buyers of the product using buyer reviews provided by Reevoo to find the best price. Source: Brand Republic

The latest Rajar results proved a mixed bag for most radio operators in the UK. Quarterly gains were often offset by annual falls, or vice versa, while overall listening via digital platforms has dropped since the previous report:

- Absolute Radio, which operates national AM and London FM licences, recorded an average weekly reach of 1.49m listeners, down 5.9% quarter-on-quarter.
- TalkSport's weekly reach was down slightly year on year to 2.5m listeners.
- Global Radio's Heart 106.2 FM and 95.8 Capital FM performed well in London, with the former recording 1.88m listeners per week, pushing Bauer Media's Magic 105.4 off the top spot for the first time in nearly three years.
- Global's Classic FM, remains the biggest commercial station with an average of 5.13m listeners per week, but its weekly reach is down 10% year on year. - Although digital listening was up 14.2% year on year to 20.9% share of all radio listening, it was down 0.9% quarter on quarter. Source: MediaWeek

Absolute Radio is to launch its first ad campaign since promoting its rebrand from Virgin Radio in 2008, as it tries to claw back almost 1m listeners. The push, which launches on 1st March, uses the strapline 'Faces for radio' and aims to highlight why its breakfast slot is different from other stations. Frank Skinner, Dave Gorman and Christian O'Connell, who host Absolute's breakfast shows, will all star in the ads. Since its rebrand, Absolute Radio has shifted its focus from being a radio station to a 'music and entertainment brand with audio at its core'. The latest push will use outdoor, digital and print media, which Absolute hopes will help it better reach its core audience of 25- to 54-year-olds. Source: Brand Republic

Clear Channel Outdoor UK and VMG Global have doubled their digital mall estate to create the UK's largest digital mall network, made up of 120 digital screens in 12 malls nationwide. Following the announcement of a 10 year contract and the installation of 23 digital screens in The Trafford Centre in Manchester at the end of 2009, CCO and VMG Global have since installed additional screens in Festival Place, Telford and Frenchgate in Doncaster. Source: MediaTel

Edited by Ashley's Team

Week commencing 1st February 2010

Sports broadcaster Eurosport is to offer an HD channel to Virgin Media customers from April, the first of several new HD channels planned by Virgin over the coming months. The Eurosport HD channel will simulcast the same content as the Eurosport channel, including coverage of the Tour de France and the French Open, in HD. With the addition of Eurosport, Virgin Media now offers eight HD channels at no extra cost as part of its "XL" TV package including BBC HD, 4HD, ESPN HD, Nat Geo HD, MTVNHD, FX HD and LIVING HD. Eurosport HD launched on Sky in July 2008: Source: MediaWeek

Royal Mail's Adam Crozier has been appointed as chief executive of ITV, this has raised eyebrows in certain quarters of the media industry, with one City source describing the appointment as "a double-edged sword". The source said that while Crozier had made Royal Mail profitable and effectively saved the company, a cost-cutting strategy was not what ITV needed. Crozier has a media background, rising from a humble beginning as a graduate trainee scheme, through a sales job at the Telegraph, to join Saatchi & Saatchi, initially as a media planner. In 1995 Crozier was swiftly promoted to joint chief executive with Tamara Ingram in the wake of the fallout from Maurice Saatchi's acrimonious departure from the agency. It was a baptism of fire and the consensus is that he and Ingram held the agency together under extreme pressure, and both emerged with enhanced reputations. Some TV executives question Crozier's lack of digital experience as he takes the helm of a business that is in dire need of structural reform to keep pace with technological change, while others question his weak broadcast background. Source: Mediaweek

Guardian News & Media is to relaunch The Observer on 21 February, backed by a TV campaign aimed at boosting the title's circulation The title recorded a circulation of 351,019 in December 2009 - a fall of 16.5% year on year. However, much of this was down to GNM's decision to stop distributing free and discounted bulk editions. It is also understood that the company will move away from marketing campaigns centred on DVD and CD giveaways. The redesigned paper will now comprise four sections: news, sport, a review section and the Observer Magazine. TV listings have been added to an expanded review section, which will also include some of the title's most high-profile writers, such as the comedian David Mitchell, whose column was previously in the main section of the paper. Source: Brand Republic

Readers Digest's UK business may be placed in administration. Its US parent company, the Reader's Digest Association, has warned that it may be forced to put the UK business into administration in a matter of weeks, unless it can secure a last-minute deal with the Pensions Regulator. The US business filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August last year and had been hoping to come out of bankruptcy and restructure the business in the next few weeks. Reader's Digest is one of the UK's highest-selling magazines, with an average ABC audited circulation of 541,282 in the first six months of 2009, and a current cover price of £3.49. However, most of its copies are sold on subscription deals and its circulation is down 11.9% from the first six months of 2008. Source: Media Week

Sony PlayStation Network (PSN) is preparing a renewed assault on rival gaming platform Xbox Live via a content deal with Future Publishing. An interactive weekly magazine, First Play, is slated to launch in the spring and will be available to all PSN users to download for a weekly fee or an annual subscription. Future and Sony are close to signing a final agreement for First Play, which will feature a range of exclusive game videos, demos and content with pre-roll ads and sponsorship opportunities. Source: NMA.co.uk

Tesco, Reuters and Yell are among the brands exploring opportunities on the iPad, Apple's new tablet device. All three have identified the iPad as a viable mass-market tool for increasing customer engagement, despite criticism following its launch announcement last week that it'll never achieve the same take-up as the iPhone or iPod. On revealing the device last week, Apple said content from publishers including the New York Times and Penguin Books would be available when it becomes available to the public in March, although no UK-specific apps were mentioned. Source: NMA.co.uk

Nearly half the adult population of the UK purchased goods online during the last quarter of 2009, according to data from the British Population Survey. Some 48.7% of adults shopped online during the final three months of the year, up from 45.4% for the same period in 2008. Searching for information on purchasing goods and services also increased to 54.5% from 52.7%. Online grocery shopping was up to 13.6% from 12.4%, while all other online shopping was up from 44.1% to 47.5%. The increases follow a rise in the overall percentage of the population who have access to the internet. Of the adult population, 73.9% can now go online at home, up from 70.1% in the final quarter of 2008. Source: NMA.co.uk

The radio industry is set to introduce an analogue radio scrappage scheme in a bid to persuade people to take-up digital. The scheme, which will work in a similar way to the government's recent car scrappage scheme, will allow listeners to trade in their old analogue set in exchange for a 20% discount on a new digital set. Radio executives hope this will encourage FM radio listeners to trade in their old sets and move to digital, ahead of the planned 2015 switchover. Source: Mediatel

UK commercial radio revenue fell 10% to £500m in 2009, following a 6.4% fall the previous year, a Lords committee was told last week. Andrew Harrison, chief executive of the commercial radio trade body, the RadioCentre, said, in these circumstances, it was critical that commercial broadcasters were relieved of the burden of broadcasting on both analogue and digital radio, which he said was costing the sector £70m a year. He added that UK commercial radio revenues had fallen to £500m from a peak of £620m. Source: The Guardian

BBC Radio 1 is to break with more than 40 years of tradition by broadcasting a midweek chart rundown for the first time. The Official Chart Update will feature in a 30-minute slot in Greg James's Radio 1 afternoon show, highlighting the biggest new entries and highest climbers in the top 40. Radio 1's Wednesday afternoon rundown, which will air between 3.30pm and 4pm, will be based on the same day's update already issued by chart compiler the Official Charts Company. The chart will launch on 10 March and comes nearly a year after commercial radio introduced a new Sunday afternoon chart, The Big Top 40 Show, with a top 10 based entirely on Apple's iTunes download chart. Source: The Guardian

Outdoor media owner CBS Outdoor has signed a new £12m five-year contract to sell the advertising on Transdev London United and London Sovereign buses. The contract means CBS Outdoor will continue to sell the advertising on the inside and outside of the bus fleets belonging to the two operators. According to CBS Outdoor, Transdev London United and London Sovereign represent 10% of the London bus market and carry 195 million passengers every year. Source: mediaweek.co.uk

Edited by Pedro's Team

Week commencing 25th January 2010

SeeSaw, the online TV service born of the remnants of Project Kangaroo, will launch in full at the end of February, following a month's beta trial starting on 26 January. The video-on-demand (VoD) service will include content from popular programmes such as 'That Mitchell & Webb Look', 'Doctor Who', 'Cranford', and 'Lark Rise to Candleford', following a deal SeeSaw struck with BBC Worldwide last month. SeeSaw aims to offer the best of British content free to users, supported by pre-roll and mid-roll advertising, as well international and US programming, which will be a paid-for service. The VoD service is backed by Arqiva, the transmission infrastructure outfit, which acquired the technology from the now-defunct Project Kangaroo. Source: Media Week

Broadcasting regulator Ofcom should relax advertising timing restrictions for terrestrial TV, according to Andy Duncan, the former chief executive of Channel 4. Speaking at the Institute of Public Policy Research's Oxford Media Convention on 21 January, Duncan blamed the current hourly requirements for suppressing the cost of advertising air time, unlike newspapers, which can "run less ads and keep prices up". He said: "All key broadcasters have to run [a certain number of ads] yet newspapers can run less ads and keep prices up. In case of TV it's incredibly restrictive. Ofcom could relax requirement to fill all the minutes." Source: Media Week

ITV1's National Television Awards, which saw the commercial broadcaster winning more gongs than the BBC, was watched by 7.4 million viewers on 21 January. The show, which awarded ITV programmes such as 'X Factor' and 'Coronation Street', drew a 29.5% share. It beat BBC One's live coverage of the Carling Cup tie between Aston Villa and Blackburn, which was watched by 4.4 million, giving the channel a 17.2% share. The last in the series of 'Gordon's Great Escape', which follows Gordon Ramsey journeying through India, brought Channel 4 an audience of 2.1 million and a 10% share (which includes the ratings for Channel 4+1). BBC Two's 'Horizon' documentary 'Pill Poppers', which also aired at 9pm-10pm, attracted 1.8 million and a 7.1% share, but failed to beat the two million viewers and 7.8% share Five managed with 'NCIS'. Source: Media Week

The BBC should sell its stake in commercial venture BBC Worldwide, according to a House of Lords report on the UK film and television industries. The report from the Lords Communications Committee argued that BBC Worldwide should expand to become a global distributor of UK programming from the BBC and other broadcasters.This is in contrast to the BBC Trust's view that expansion could harm the Corporation's reputation. Last month, the government put BBC Worldwide on a list of assets it could sell, which prompted a strong response from BBC director general Mark Thompson, who warned that without Worldwide, the BBC brand could be in danger of becoming "an empty vessel" with a huge fall in its inherent value. Source: Mediatel

IPC-owned lads mag Nuts is rolling out a new look, backed by a ad campaign and with a focus on sport, following the addition of The Sun's Striker comic strip. New editorial features include 'Nuts about Sport', a humorous take on the week's sporting highlights, a revamped news section, a new fashion feature called 'Nuts 10 Must Haves of the Week', bolder visuals throughout the title and more content on the title's website Nuts.co.uk. Nuts was down 24.6% down year on year to 188,532 for the half-year to June 2009, according to the latest ABC figures. Source: Media Week.

The New York Times is to charge readers for full access to its website from next year. The title is introducing a meter system which will give users free access to a certain number of stories each month before charging. Subscribers to the print edition will have full access to the website. Several publishers are planning on charging for online content this year, with News Corporation one of the most vocal backers of the idea. Last August, Rupert Murdoch announced plans to charge, saying "quality journalism is not cheap". Source: Mediatel.

Radio advertising boosts brand browsing online by 50% according to new research from the Radio Advertising Bureau. The research measured the actual browsing behaviour of respondents who heard 23 live radio campaigns from the travel, telecoms, motors, insurance and high street sectors. The radio campaigns which delivered the highest effect on internet behaviour clearly communicated a simple proposition, used strong brand linkage and directed listeners to go online to a straightforward and self-evident web address. Source: Media Week.

Global's 95.8 Capital FM is to launch an updated version of their current phone app, with improved audio quality and availability on other smartphones. The Global Radio iPhone apps have achieved over one million downloads since their original launch. The new app will be available on Android and Nokia phones as well as the iPhone. Source: Radioworks.

UK Top 10. (Fri 15-Sun 17 Jan 2010)

1. Avatar
2. Sherlock Holmes 2
3. Alvin And The Chipmonks II
4. It's Complicated
5. Up In The Air
6. The Book Of Eli
7. Daybreakers
8. The Road
9. Did You Hear About The Morgans?
10. St. Trinians 2k

Edited by Sze Yeung & Bex Cunnah

Week commencing 18th January 2010

On-demand programming will account for less than 10% of the amount of television content watched this year, according to a new report by accountancy and consulting firm Deloitte. The report predicts linear television will remain the norm and a slow shift towards on-demand consumption. It does not predict a surge in internet enabled TV sets or an explosion in the use of television widgets. Instead converged web and television consumption is expected to be based on existing televisions and devices. Users will combine their existing TV sets with standalone browser-enabled devices, most WiFi enabled laptops and netbooks, smartphones, MP4 players, and portable game consoles. Source: Brand Republic

The Competition Commission has given the green light for ITV to introduce a new time-shifted (+1) digital channel and its own HD channel, after ruling audiences for both will be accredited to ITV1's commercial impacts. In a provisional decision released today this week, the Competition Commission said it recognised that the UK's largest commercial broadcaster had been deterred from launching new ways of delivering ITV1, because of the way media buying is currently conducted under the established contracts rights renewal (CRR) mechanism. Source: Media Week

Alexander Lebedev's purchase of The Independent and Independent on Sunday is likely to go ahead but will not be completed by the 15 February deadline, with taking the daily paper free being one of the options currently being considered, according to sources close to the deal. The owner of the London Evening Standard has been in talks with Independent News & Media since December last year, where one of the sticking points in negotiations is resolving printing contract issues between the two parties, along with the transfer of staff. Source: Media Week

Guardian News & Media (GNM) is set to revamp The Observer. The new-look Sunday title, which currently has a circulation 351,000 copies, representing a 16.5% year-on-year decline will be relaunched on February 21 with the same £2 price tag, according to reports. The redesign will see the paper split into four-sections, which will be made up of news, sport, a review section and the popular Observer magazine. The revamp comes after GNM was forced to slash the Observer Music Monthly, Observer Sport Monthly, and Observer Women in a bid to cut costs after reporting a £57m pre-tax loss in the year to March 2009. Source: MediaTel

The Daily Mail has enjoyed a stronger December than its rivals on the back of its popular 'X Factor' gamecard, according to the latest newspaper ABC figures. It recorded a circulation of 2,113,134 copies in December, only a slight increase of 0.17% on the year. But it fared better than the bulk of the national newspaper daily market, which dropped 3.99% in circulation over the year. The ABCs also show the daily tabloids failed to benefit from the Tiger Woods controversy, which ran through December. However the big fallers in December, were the qualities: The Times and The Guardian lead the way with double-digit declines of 13.22% and 12.38% year-on-year respectively. Source: Media Week

Apple has sent out an invite to an event based in San Francisco on 27 January, widely thought to be the occasion it will use to unveil its tablet computer. The invite only says "Come see our latest creation". Details of the next generation of the iPhone, dubbed iPhone 4, are also speculated to be on the agenda. Source: Brand Republic

ESPN, the Disney-owned sports broadcaster, has launched its first UK-focused online sports site, espn.co.uk with coverage of football, cricket, rugby union, rugby league, golf, tennis and F1. It aims to be a one-stop portal for fans and as well as news and information, will feature original commentary and analysis, exclusive video and audio and fantasy sports. Espn.co.uk marks the company's first online destination created specifically to serve UK sports fans and will play an important part of ESPN's multiplatform approach. Source: Brand Republic

Jeremy Hunt, the shadow secretary for Culture, Media and Sport, has promised to relax regulations that govern the UK media industry. In an interview with the NMA Hunt claims the Conservative government will encourage self-regulation if they get in at the election, which he believes will enable digital media to thrive. In addition, the minister insists he will make sure that the BBC does not have a negative impact on the online commercial market. Hunt also expressed support for a new structure for online copyright and IP, ensuring privacy concerns do not become a problem for commercial models, and create an environment that will be sought after by global digital media companies. Source: New Media Age

JCDecaux has completed its purchase of rival Titan Outdoor, after Titan failed to raise the financial backing to ensure the independent future of the company. It is understood the deal has been structured as a pre-packaged sale out of administration, after Titan formally entered into administration on Monday. The acquisition consolidates French-owned JCDecaux's lead in the UK out-of-home advertising industry, giving the company about 29% of the market. Under the terms of the deal, JCDecaux will take over the majority of Titan Outdoor's UK advertising inventory, broadening its transport media portfolio with the addition of rail sites and strengthening its retail and mall offering. Source: Media Week

The UK radio industry has announced a commitment to work with manufacturers to develop an integrated station list which will enable listeners to tune between FM and digital frequencies more easily. At the moment listeners must navigate between FM and Dab using a switch which means non-digital stations may lose the listeners who fail to switch between platforms. An integrated station list will ensure the local and commercial and community stations which stay on FM will remain as accessible as those stations which are digital only. Digital Radio UK, the organisation preparing the country for digital radio switchover, is working with receiver manufacturers and technology suppliers on the integrated list. Source: Media Week

Edited by Ashley's Team

Week commencing 11th January 2010

Dancing on Ice returned to ITV1's Sunday evening line-up last night with a high of more than 9.5 million peak viewers filling the gap that the The X Factor left behind since its grand final on December 13 (which pulled in over 17 million viewers). The first show, attracted 8.8 million average viewers and a 30% audience share between 6.45pm and 8.30pm. Source: Media week

BBC One also had a new addition to its Sunday evening line-up. The period drama Lark Rise to Candleford returned with 6.8 million average viewers and a 22.5% audience share between 8pm and 9pm. Source: Media week

Channel 4's daily coverage of the Celebrity Big Brother household pulled in a high of more than 2.8 million viewers and a 9.2% average share. Source: Mediatel

Simon Cowell has announced he will leave his reported $36m-a-year position on 'American Idol' at the end of the current series to launch a US version of rival talent show 'X Factor' The new 'X Factor' will make its debut on Fox TV - the home of 'American Idol' - in the autumn of 2011 and marks Cowell's first major initiative with British billionaire business partner Sir Philip Green. The US talent show will be produced by Cowell's established Syco TV but becomes part of the newly formed Greenwell Entertainment.In addition to 'The X Factor', Syco also owns the rights to 'Britain's Got Talent' which launched the international career of Susan Boyle in 2009. Source: Mediaweek

Dennis Publishing has bought Health & Fitness magazine from Hubert Burda Media. The female-orientated magazine, with a circulation of 35,436 boosts Dennis' portfolio, which already includes Men's Fitness magazine. The change-over comes less than a month after Wild Bunch Media launched a women's monthly fitness title named Women's Running, with a print run of 60,000 copies and a cover price of £3. Source: MediaTel

IPC has launched a new monthly women's magazine - goodtoknow Recipes - a brand extension from the www.goodtoknow.co.uk site. The food monthly is set to target "busy mums aged between 25 and 44, providing them with cooking inspiration, plus tips and advice to feed their families cheaply, quickly and healthily". Source: MediaTel

The Times has upped its cover price from 90p to £1, aligning itself with the cost of rivals, The Telegraph, The Independent and The Guardian. It is thought the decision to up the title's cover price was made in a bid to counter declining ad revenues. The title's six-month average circulation is 576,211, down 7.24% year on year. Last year witnessed a raft of cover price rises across the quality national newspaper market, as publishers grappled with the recession and falling newspaper circulations. The Guardian, Financial Times and The Times have all increased their cover prices over the past 12 months. To offset the impact of cover price rises, publishers including News International and Telegraph Media Group have been pushing discount subscription schemes. The Independent, meanwhile, has launched a home delivery service. Source: Media Week

Investors Chronicle, the weekly financial investment magazine published by the Financial Times, is celebrating its 150th anniversary with a revamp, including a new logo and strapline. The logo will incorporate 150 into its masthead, while the anniversary will be supported by a year-long marketing campaign to generate new subscriptions. Using the strapline '150 Years of Trusted Advice and Tips' the campaign will target current and prospective subscribers with direct mail, emails and alerts encouraging them to sign up to the title. Source: Mediaweek

IPC's men's titles Nuts and Loaded have extended their brands into online poker, courtesy of a partnership with online gaming company PKR. The partnership sees the launch of online Nuts and Loaded branded virtual poker rooms. Users register by making a deposit that is effectively their stake at the table. They then have the option to personalise their poker-playing avatars with Nuts and Loaded T-shirts.The partnership will be backed by a marketing campaign, including display activity across both brands in print and online. Nuts and Loaded readers signing up to the poker rooms will also receive a free copy of the book, How to Win at Online Poker. Source: Mediaweek

Coca-Cola and Unilever are shifting their digital focus away from traditional campaign sites and towards community platforms, such as Facebook and YouTube, as social media begins to dictate their marketing activity in 2010. Coca-Cola will position its official Facebook and YouTube pages as the lead online channels for upcoming international activity for its Coke Zero and Fanta brands. Source: NMA

Recent research revealed that 80% of marketers don't believe that social media currently has a significant impact on their brand although 88% said it would have an impact on their brand's reputation in the future. Source: NMA

Clear Channel Outdoor has designed two offerings for brands wanting to take advantage of marketing potential around the 2010 football World Cup. The two so-called audience solutions are "The Road to World Cup", which will be available from now until May, and "World Cup Fever", which will help advertisers target consumers around the games between 10 June and 10 July. The Road to World Cup package allows advertisers to highlight sponsorship and associations with the tournament by advertising on six-sheets and 48-sheets close to football stadia, bars and areas that are traditionally football heartlands. The World Cup Fever solution is designed to allow brands to target consumers watching the tournament in pubs, bars and public screening areas, and fans watching the football at home by using six-sheets in close proximity to fast-moving consumer goods shops and off-licences.Source: Media Week

Johnny Vaughan and Lisa Snowdon have signed a new two-year deal to continue presenting Breakfast on 95.8 Capital FM, as the show picks up new sponsor Monster.co.uk. Snowdon joined Vaughan as his permanent co-presenter in August 2008 and the duo have since increased the show's weekly listeners from 944,000 (Q2 2008) to more than one million (Q3 2009). Source: Mediaweek

Insurance brand More Than has become the first sponsor of Heart FM's 10am to 1pm national radio show, presented by Toby Anstis, in a year-long seven-figure deal which includes weekend shows on sister Global Radio station Classic FM. The show, which regularly attracts over three million listeners, is Heart's biggest-rating national programme, as the Global Radio-owned station has separate regional broadcasts for its breakfast and drivetime slots. Source: Marketing

Edited by Pedro's Team

Week commencing 14th December 2009

Channel 4 and ISP Talk Talk have signed on to become official partners in Project Canvas meaning all national broadcasters are now involved in developing the online TV platform. Project Canvas aims to give TV audiences open access to a wide range of internet-based services through Freeview and Freesat. Source: MediaTel.

The opening night of the seventh and final series of 'Celebrity Big Brother', will air on Sunday 3 January. Channel 4 is billing the show as 'Celebrity Big Brother - Hell Lies In Others' and has created a firey eye logo to match. Source: Media Week.

November saw the daily newspaper market fall by 1.9% period on period and by 4.9% overall on the same period last year. All titles in the daily sector reported period on period falls, however the Daily Star managed to increase its circulation over the year. Source: MediaTel.

According to analyst firm, Gartner, the mobile device market is expected to see an upturn in fortunes next year, with a forecasted sales increase of 9% year on year, compared to 2009. Source: MediaTel.

Guardian News & Media has launched its paid-for app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Readers will now be able to read content from the Guardian newspaper on the Apple devices for a one-off fee of £2.39. Source: MediaTel.

Advertisers have more than doubled the amount of money they are spending on social networking websites since last year according to recent analysis from The Nielsen Company. Source: MediaTel.

Google-owned video site YouTube is looking at introducing a paid-content model for long-form content in order to attract more film and TV studios. Source: MediaWeek.

Ocean Outdoor has unveiled the second in a series of bespoke new digital advertising towers in the capital. The double-sided tower, P10 Hammersmith Broadway, will be located at the junction of Hammersmith Road and Hammersmith Broadway. Source: MediaTel.

Listening to radio via the internet is up 3% since May. More people are now listening to radio through the internet and online music-streaming services such as Spotify, according to Rajar research. The bi annual research shows the number of consumers listening to radio in this way has increased steadily over the past two-and-half years. Source: MediaWeek.

UK Box Office Chart
1. A Christmas Carol (PG)
2. Where The Wild Things Are (PG)
3. Planet 51 (U)
4. Paranormal Activity (15)
5. The Twilight Saga: New Moon (12A)
6. Nativity! (U)
7. Law Abiding Citizen (18)
8. 2012 (12A)
9. The Box (12A)
10. A Serious Man (15)
Source : Pearl & Dean

Edited by Lucy Gaskin

Week commencing 7th December 2009

E4 HD, Channel 4's second dedicated high definition channel, is to launch on Monday 14th December on Sky+HD. E4 HD will provide access to popular Channel 4 shows such as Glee, Misfits, Hollyoaks and Peep Show. It will be incorporated into Sky's HD Pack and brings the number of HD channels available through Sky+HD to 36 and will reach 1.6million subscribers. Sky recently confirmed its Sky+HD set-top boxes would offer a "pull" video-on-demand service from 2010, to provide customers with additional content. The broadcaster will also launch 3D TV services through the Sky+HD platform next year. Source: MediaWeek

ITV's football World Cup coverage will be jointly sponsored by Hyundai and Lucozade Sport. The packages run across broadcast, online, interactive and mobile, with the month long tournament starting on 11 June. Hyundai is the official car partner of the FIFA World Cup 2010 and Lucozade Sport is the official sport drink of Team England. Previously, ITV1's coverage of the 2006 World Cup peaked with 21.3 million viewers for England vs Sweden. The sponsors, in a deal estimated at more than £5 million, were EDF and Budweiser. Source: Brand Republic

News Corporation is set to join forces with Time Inc, Hearst, Condé Nast and Meredith to launch a new paid-content consortium. The companies are thought to be investing in a new digital newsstand that will act as a storefront for a wide range of magazines and newspapers, according to reports. Although details of the venture are still to be confirmed, it is expected to focus on developing digital editions of magazines and newspapers in a bid to make money from online content. The publishers are also understood to be considering launching their own e-reading platform, similar to the likes of Amazon's Kindle and Sony's eBook. Source: MediaTel

MySpace has opened up its API to allow developers to create tools and apps for the social network. It is making real-time data, such as status updates, music, photos and video, available to developers in order to help boost the creation of social tools on the web. MySpace has launched a new developer area on the site, which will be updated with information on creating social apps. A competition has also launched to encourage developers to start using the data. MySpace has also announced a deal in which it has acquired assets of social music service imeem, where MySpace will integrate imeem technology into its MySpace Music service in order to increase the social functionality on the platform. Source: New Media Age

Bauer Media has signed a non-exclusive worldwide deal with online video advertising network Tremor Media, which will sell its inventory in the UK, US and Germany. Tremor sells on reach and claims to have a 20%-25% market share. Bauer will still sell its inventory direct to advertisers and can deal with other online video ad networks. Christian Baudis, the European head of Tremor, said he expected a lot of television advertising money to be allocated to online and that Tremor would benefit by being able to help major advertisers achieve reach for their campaigns. Soure: Brand Republic

The screening of the FIFA World Cup draw on 4th December was promoted through ads on Titan Outdoor's Transvision screens as part of a deal between creative and experiential agency Brand Influence and Titan Outdoor. 20-second ads ran on Titan's 20 screens in London termini as well as Brand Influence's screens in Trafalgar Square, where the World Cup draw was broadcast live on a 46m screen. The tie-up between Titan and Brand Influence is expected to be the start of a larger project between the two companies, which will encompass activity around future events. The activity launches Titan's World Cup ad opportunities which include solutions across Titan's rail and retail portfolio, with flexible digital options which allow advertisers to change messages as the competition progresses. Source: Media Week

Radio listeners will be able to tag songs, ads or news stories they hear on the radio by the end of next year as part of the joint industry initiative, Radio DNS. The technology is expected to trial with an advertiser in the second quarter of next year and will provide extra information for advertisers because radio stations will know who tagged particular ads and whether they followed up on it. Advertisers will also be able to compare the responses to different ads and change forthcoming ads accordingly. Source: Media Week

 

UK Box Office Chart
1. Paranormal Activity (15)
2. A Christmas Carol (PG)
3. The Twilight Saga: New Moon (12A)
4. Planet 51 (U)
5. Law Abiding Citizen (18)
6. 2012 (12A)
7. Nativity! (U)
8. The Box (12A)
9. The Descent: Part 2 (18)
10. A Serious Man (15)

Source : Pearl & Dean

Congratulations to Maurice Walker from Renault Retail Group Limited for winning the charity prize draw for responses to the Total Media Client Survey. A donation of £100 has been made to Cancer Research UK, Maurice's nominated charity.

Edited by Kelly Fung

Week commencing 30th November 2009

Clear Channel creates football World Cup ad packages
Clear Channel Outdoor has designed two offerings for brands wanting to take advantage of marketing potential around the 2010 football World Cup.
The two so-called audience solutions are "The Road to World Cup", which will be available from now until May, and "World Cup Fever", which will help advertisers target consumers around the games between 10 June and 10 July.
The Road to World Cup package allows advertisers to highlight sponsorship and associations with the tournament by advertising on six-sheets and 48-sheets close to football stadia, bars and areas that are traditionally football heartlands.
The World Cup Fever solution is designed to allow brands to target consumers watching the tournament in pubs, bars and public screening areas, and fans watching the football at home by using six-sheets in close proximity to fast-moving consumer goods shops and off-licences.
A spokesman from Clear Channel said the 2010 World Cup is expected to inject £1.25bn into the UK economy and these packages are designed by the company to enable brands to reach the millions of football fans watching.
Advertisers can also use Clear Channel's digital portfolio to interact with the public during the tournament and deliver branded updates in line with England's performance.
www.mediaweek.co.uk

Ocean Outdoor installs digital tower in Hammersmith
Outdoor media owner Ocean Outdoor has installed a bespoke new digital advertising tower on Hammersmith Broadway in London following a competitive pitch with Hammersmith and Fulham council.
The double-sided LED tower is located at the busy junction of Hammersmith Road and Hammersmith Broadway and one of its launch advertisers is electronics giant Sony Ericsson with its Spark Something brand campaign.
A spokesman from Ocean said the site will create a premium showcase for brands to engage with thousands of daily commuters both heading out of the capital to the A4/M4 and travelling into central London as well as the large volumes of pedestrians using public transport.
www.mediaweek.co.uk

Freeview claims top spot in 10 million homes
Freeview, the digital terrestrial TV service, has announced it is now the main TV service in 10 million UK homes.
Freeview said its recent expansion has been boosted by the recent switchover of thousands of homes from analogue terrestrial to digital TV in various UK regions.
In the West Country, which completed its switch to digital TV in September, 80% of analogue terrestrial TV homes chose Freeview for their main TV set compared to 12% for Sky and 8% for Virgin, the statement said.
In total, more than 18 million UK homes use Freeview on at least one TV set in the home.
Freeview+, the PVR service, continues to increase with 1.8 million recorders purchased since launch in 2007, with sales on track to hit two million over Christmas.
The announcement comes as Freeview launches high-definition TV signals in London and Manchester.
Freeview expects 50% of UK households to be able to access Freeview HD by the World Cup in June 2010 and the first new Freeview HD receivers will go on sale early next year.
www.mediaweek.co.uk

Virgin Media launches dynamic ads for on-demand TV
Virgin Media has launched its first foray into dynamic advertising across three of its biggest on-demand TV brands.
Ads around Living, Virgin1 and Bravo on-demand will become dynamic, meaning they can be inserted before and after any content in real time, allowing campaigns to be more flexible and contextually based.
Thirty-second pre and post-roll ads will be matched to the programme being watched.
Virgin Media's on-demand TV service is available in 3.7 million households and the rollout of the dynamic ads will begin in 300,000 homes.
www.mediaweek.co.uk

UK online retail market to hit £25bn in 2010, research claims
Nearly seven in 10 people will buy some of their Christmas gifts online this year, new research claims. The research, carried out by accountancy firm Deloitte, claims the online retail market, worth £9bn in the UK in 2005, will leap to £25bn by 2010, as more consumers switch to the convenience of online purchasing.
 Deloitte also found that 46% of people buy more products online now compared to the previous year. However, there is still room for improvement, with 61% saying retailers need to offer a more flexible service, such as in-store collection.
 The research also claims that about 75% of retailers say online sales have increased compared to this time last year, while 85% expect them to increase over the next 12 months.
www.mediaweek.co.uk

Google makes concession to Murdoch – Search engine to limit access to stories behind paywalls
Google has taken a step towards reconciliation in its war with Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. The search engine has offered to give publishers a little more control over how users access their stories.
In a post on the Google News Blog, the company announced an update to its "First Click Free" software that currently allows publishers to limit users to only seeing one page before being asked to pay or subscribe. However, users can get around that by just accessing the site through a Google search each time.
The update allows a little more fine-grained control for publishers, letting them opt to limit users to five pages in total each day before registering or subscribing. It's unclear how "each user" will be defined - sorting by IP address would cause problems at large institutions, and limiting by Google Account would exclude the many users who don't have one.
Google has also offered to crawl, index and list in search rankings "preview" pages for stories, which contain the headline and first few paragraphs. Sites with this setup, or the aforementioned "five clicks" solution will be labelled as "subscription" in news listings, but otherwise treated like any other site.
Google says: "We're going to keep talking with publishers to refine these methods. After all, whether you're offering your content for free or selling it, it's crucial that people find it. Google can help with that".
www.pocket-lint.com

MySpace to launch music download and streaming service
MySpace is launching MySpace Music, its long-awaited music download and streaming service in the UK, as it looks to head off increasing competition from rivals including Spotify.
Having already launched in the US, MySpace Music will enable users to access free, ad-funded audio and music videos.
The new service aims to reposition MySpace as a social media music service, following increasing competion in the social network space from rivals such as Facebook.
MySpace Music will provide music fans with unlimited free streaming and unlimited free playlisting from artists such 50 Cent, Kasabian and Alicia Keys. The service will also enable users to download, stream and personalise their music content, creating and sharing their playlists.
www.mediaweek.co.uk  

Amazing Radio, the DAB radio station that plays new music from unsigned artists, is to continue broadcasting on national DAB multiplex Digital One. The station, which joined Digital One for an initial six-month period, will now broadcast on DAB permanently with a new schedule featuring additional presenters at evenings and weekends. The presenters have yet to be announced.
Source: MediaWeek

Absolute Radio has more live online listening than either BBC Radio 1 or Radio 2, according to figures published by the commercial music station.
The national commercial station claims that it recorded 6.3 million streamed live listening hours in October. The latest figures for Radio 1 and Radio 2, for September – when Absolute also had 6.3 million – were 5.58 million and 4.61 million respectively.
These figures also suggest that the official radio audience measurement body, Rajar, may underestimate Absolute's total audience.
Source: Guardian.co.uk

The London Evening Standard has confirmed that is it considering a boost to its free distribution, but said it is yet to take a final decision.
Doug Wills, the Evening Standard managing editor, responded to industry speculation that the paper could boost its distribution from 600,000 copies a day to 800,000 or even 1m by saying an increase was an option for late 2010. There were no figures for the size of the possible distribution increase, he added.
Source: Guardian.co.uk

DCM, which currently provides 3D viewing in 260 of its 2,300 screens nationwide, will ramp up the digital capabilities of its
cinemas, which include Odeon, Cineworld, Empire and City Screen across the UK.
By the end of this year, DCM will have 3D screens in all of its 174 multiplex cinemas - those with five or more screens.
It then aims to have 3D screens in half of its 2,300 screens by 2010, with the rest converted by the end of 2011.
DCM will also offer a new digital ad package to clients at the same rate as non-3D ads.
Source: Media Week

UK Box Office Chart

1. The Twilight Saga: New Moon (12A)
2. Paranormal Activity (15)
3. A Christmas Carol (PG)
4. 2012 (12A)
5. Law Abiding Citizen (18)
6. Nativity (U)
7. Harry Brown (18)
8. UP (U)
9. De Dana Dan (PG)
10. A Serious Man (15)

Source : Pearland Dean

Edited by the TV Team

Week commencing 23rd November 2009

Freesat is to feature the BBC iPlayer and ITV's catch-up TV service following a deal with the broadcasters. The digital TV service, which is a joint venture between the BBC and ITV, will be the first free-to-air service to launch the ITV Player. The BBC's iPlayer will be made available on the service next month, allowing viewers to catch up on Christmas specials such as Doctor Who and Strictly Come Dancing, however, the ITV Player's launch is expected to be on hold until next year. Source: Mediatel

After four years preparation and two years setting up, today saw the official launch of the new BARB 2010 contract. The new measurement panel takes over from 1st January 2010, comprised of 5,100 homes with new meters already in place, which is managed by TNS. A parallel run has been happening over the past few months to provide data to BARB and ensure consistency in reporting. Overall viewing to BARB reported channels is tending to be around 4% higher with the new BARB panel compared to the existing BARB panel. There are a few changes to the structure and methodology for 2010, with one of the main ones being that the two different panels, "terrestrial" and "multi-channel" have been replaced by one "network" panel, which will be the base for all trading. This means that there will no longer be any overlap between ITV regions. The new panel will also provide better representation of multi-platform homes, ethnic profiles, metropolitan, urban and rural population distribution. In addition, the new meters will provide comprehensive capture of seven day catch-up services on digital cable and Sky Anytime when viewed via TV sets. Going forward, BARB plans to incorporate a separate "pilot" non-linear database to enable additional reporting of content which falls outside the core BARB output. Initially this will relate to material viewed on a TV set. Source: Mediatel

Virgin Media has launched advertising on its on-demand TV platform. Ads will appear around on-demand Living, Virgin1 and Bravo content from today. The initial roll-out will see advertising launch on Virgin's platform in around 300,000 homes this month, before being launched in all 3.7 million Virgin Media households over time. Source: Mediatel Archie Norman, the new chairman of ITV, is understood to be considering charging viewers for access to some of its digital TV channels. According to reports, ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 could all be switched from Freeview to subscription-only. Souce: Mediatel

The regional publishing industry has launched what it claims is the first integrated print and online planning currency, which proves websites extend local newspaper audience net reach by an average of 14%. The planning tool, Locally Connected, shows regional newspaper websites have a more upmarket audience than their print versions and that more than three quarters (75.7%) of users of regional newspaper websites are from the AB socio-economic group and 16.3% more are C1. Locally Connected extends the print JICREG tool, using ABCe data with research by research firm Survey Interactive, to provide robust data about the net reach of regional newspapers and their websites offer online. Mediaweek.co.uk

Outdoor media owner Eye has launched a tool to allow agencies and specialists to use their Eye Tracking research online when planning and developing campaigns. The study used real-time respondents wearing glasses with built-in cameras that recorded the participants' eye movement and field of vision, which allowed Eye to monitor what caught the consumers' attention. The tool allows agencies to compare different formats, sizes and environments and determine which combination provides maximum viewing engagement and frequency. The Eye Tracking research launched in June. The results showed participants in Manchester looked at every second panel they passed for just less than two seconds, which a spokesman from Eye said is significantly longer then the time necessary for exposure to be remembered. The research also found that though panels along corridors, where there was less distraction, tended to attract more attention, panels in busier areas offered longer overall viewing times. Source: Mediaweek.co.uk

The advertising industry yesterday launched Digital Adwise, a national programme to raise children's awareness of online advertising. Digital Adwise comprises a set of free online lessons which allow children to learn about digital content and teach them to think critically about online advertising. All primary schools will be able to access the programme at www.digitaladwise.mediasmart.org.uk. The programme has been funded by Mars, Kelloggs, McDonalds, BTHA, Ferrero, Lego, Mattell and Hasbro, and is supported by the wider advertising industry, including the IPA. Source: Mediatel

Music streaming service Spotify has increased its potential reach on mobile after launching an app for the Symbian operating system. Spotify subscribers can now download the app by visiting the m.spotify.com site via their mobile handsets. The move means that a wide variety of Nokia phones, as well as the Samsung GT-I8910 Omnia HD and the Sony Ericksson Satio, will now be able to download the app. Spotify is already available on the iPhone and Google Android operating system but with many smartphones using Symbian this is an important step for the music-streaming service. Source: Mediatel

UK Box Office Chart
1. The Twilight Saga: New Moon (12A)
2. 2012 (12A)
3. A Christmas Carol (PG)
4. Harry Brown (18)
5. UP 3D (U)
6. The Fantastic Mr. Fox (PG)
7. The Men Who Stare At Goats (15)
8. A Serious Man (15)
9. The Fourth Kind (15)
10. The Informant! (15)

Source : Nielsen EDI

Edited by Rebecca Wilson

Week commencing 16th November 2009

BSkyB's sales house Sky Media is set to boost its scale in the TV advertising sector from around 12% to 16% of the market following a shock takeover of MTV Network's portfolio of TV brands. The new five-year deal, valued in the region of £350m, will result in BSkyB's sales house handling the advertising airtime for MTV, VH1, Viva, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and BET. It is also expected to include VBS's third-party sales for E! Entertainment. The move has taken the market by surprise, not least those within the senior management team at Viacom Brand Solutions, led by managing director Nick Bampton since 2004. The sales house has developed a reputation for offering a different proposition since its inception in 2001 and generated £80m of ad revenue for MTVN this year. Source: MediaWeek

Haymarket Publishing is to restructure its marketing and advertising trade titles and close Media Week. Media Week will cease publishing immediately after 25 years, although Haymarket will hold on to its website and awards portfolio, according to reports. The closure will result in 18 editorial jobs being axed and put a further 58 roles at risk in Haymarket's Brand Media group. Revolution will also be reduced from a monthly publication to a quarterly supplement within Marketing magazine under the restructure. The publishing group today launched a consultation with the affected editorial staff. A new editorial structure at Brand Media is expected to be in place from January, which will involve a central group of reporters to cover Campaign and Marketing, as well as the magazines' websites, which all come under Brand Republic. Haymarket said Brand Republic will undergo a redesign early next year. Source: Newsline

Associated Newspapers' evening freesheet the London Lite hit the streets for the final time on Friday 13th November. On October 27, the publisher announced that it would be entering a period of consultation over the paper's future after the Evening Standard took the decision to go free. At the time, the managing director of Associated Newspapers Free Division, Steve Auckland, said: "The latest development in the London afternoon free newspaper space dictates that we look again at the future of London Lite. Despite reaching a large audience with an excellent editorial format, we are concerned about the commercial viability in this highly competitive area." However, the future of the title was already under question. Associated have been reviewing the Lite since the closure of its fellow freesheet thelondonpaper in September, three years after it launched. Source: Newsline

Clear Channel Outdoor has identified sites for advertisers wanting to target consumers heading to outdoor ice rinks and Christmas events in London this winter. Clear Channel has earmarked 100 six-sheets within 1km of outdoor ice rinks in Hyde Park, Canary Wharf, Somerset House, Natural History Museum, Tower of London, Kew Gardens, Alexandra Palace, Hampton Court and Trafalgar Square. The offering also targets Christmas parks across the capital, such as Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, which hosts Christmas markets, observation wheels, funfair rides and a Santa's grotto. A spokesman for Clear Channel said planning resource YearAhead.co.uk predicts more than one million people are expected to go to an outdoor ice-skating rink in London this winter. Source: MediaWeek.co.uk

Regional airport outdoor media owner Airport Partners has launched its first multi-airport digital ad product across seven of its airports. The 77-screen digital network includes the departure lounges and arrivals areas of Glasgow Prestwick, Newcastle, Leeds Bradford, Norwich, Bristol, Exeter and Plymouth. The offering has been developed by Airport Partners managing director Paula Oliver, who joined the company from JCDecaux Airport where she was involved in developing its digital portfolio. Andrew Walker, chairman of Airport Partners, said the network is the "next generation of advertising" at regional airports. Airport Partners, founded in 2006, now sells across 20 airports, including Blackpool and Gloucester-shire, and is part of AdGroup, which offers airport, ferry and sponsorship opportunities. Source: MediaWeek.co.uk

UTV Media, owner of TalkSport, has restated its opposition to the Government's planned digital radio switchover in 2015, claiming it "sidelines those stations that are more closely connected to their local communities". The Government's 2015 switchover plans have caused a division within the radio industry, with UTV Media, UKRD and The Local Radio Company opposed to the plans. UKRD claims the Government's planned switch-off of analogue radio is an "Alice in Wonderland approach".UTV Media has today (4 November) responded to Ofcom's latest consultation on commercial radio and urged the regulator to shift its focus to ensuring the future developments of smaller local commercial radio stations. Source: Media Week

UK Box Office Chart
1. 2012
2. A Christmas Carol 3D
3. Harry Brown
4. UP 3D
5. The Men Who Stare at Goats
6. The Fantastic Mr. Fox
7. Michael Jackson's This Is It
8. The Fourth Kind
9. An Education
10. Jennifer's Body

Source : Pearl and Dean

Edited by Pedro's Team

Week commencing 9th November 2009

Total Media won an Effectiveness Award at the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) Effectiveness Awards 2009 held this week (09th November). The award was for our work on the Maximuscle campaign in which we demonstrably used media to normalise the sports nutrition category, changing non users' negative perceptions of sports nutrition whilst effectively redefining the Maximuscle brand. The success of the campaign generated a payback of £2.85 for every £1 spent on the campaign.

Three "webisodes" of Coronation Street, the soap opera broadcast by ITV, have been produced exclusively for the web, in a tie-in with one of the show's most dramatic storylines ever. ITV, which last week celebrated an upturn in ad revenue, believes that its three-minute online videos are an innovative way of boosting advertiser and viewer interest in the show; which currently revolves around a murder confession. Source: Warc

MTV has launched Viva, a music and entertainment channel to replace TMF (The Music Factory) in the UK. Viva is catering for teenage skins fans who spend their time flicking between Dave and E4 - and has targeted its programming accordingly. There is a mix of comedy, reality shows and US imports. Source: MediaWeek

Virgin Media's ad revenue declined in Q3, although its pay-TV cable offer continues to add subscribers, reaching 3.71 million by the end of the period. Source: MediaWeek

Steve Auckland, managing director of Associated Newspapers has confirmed: "Following a lengthy consultation with London Lite staff, we've together decided to produce our last issue on Friday 13 November." Source: MediaWeek

The Observer is to close three of its monthly magazines and become a four section paper as part of a redesign that will hit newsstands next year. Guardian News & Media's redesigned Sunday title will have four weekly sections - news, sport, an expanded Review section and the Observer magazine - and the award-winning glossy supplement Observer Food Monthly. The other three supplements, Observer Sport Monthly, Observer Music Monthly and Observer Woman, will close. Source: Guardian.co.uk

NatMags is launching a spin-off of Company magazine in March called The High Street Edit. Published biannually with a print-run of over 100,000 copies, The High Street Edit will be a slightly larger format than Company. Pagination will reportedly run to more than 128 pages, with features on fashion and style and regular competitions. Source: MediaTel

Yahoo is expanding its music video search function to compete with Onebox, Google's music service that launched last week. Yahoo has introduced a tool that allows users to search for their favourite band's music videos. Another feature means that when, for example, users search for a U2 music video, the search results will be displayed alongside U2's albums. Source: MediaWeek

Facebook has changed its privacy policy in order to share more user information with advertisers. The social networking site has amended its policy in a bid to make the site more user-friendly and extend the types of user data it can share with advertisers. A Facebook representative said the new information would mean advertisers could benefit from "conversion tracking", which is a system that measures the effectiveness of their ads and helps to make them more relevant. Source: MediaTel

Google has acquired mobile ad technology provider AdMob for $750m in a bid to increase its mobile advertising presence. The AdMob acquisition will enable Google to develop new tools for creating, serving and analysing emerging mobile ads. The acquisition will also mean Google's clients will be able to target mobile users with its various ad formats. Source: MediaWeek

Sky has launched a mobile TV app on the iPhone and iPod that allows users to stream live TV for £6 a month. The application includes content from Sky Sports, Sky Sports News, Sky News, ESPN and At The Races and means users can watch coverage of live games from the Barclays Premier League, Guinness Premiership Rugby and breaking news bulletins from their iPhone handset. Source: MediaWeek

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion is to allow developers to include advertising in BlackBerry apps as it looks to break into the growing market. Two new application programming interfaces (APIs) have been developed to let developers integrate rich-media ads and premium services into their apps. A BlackBerry Payment Service will enable developers to further monetise their apps by selling monthly or annual subscriptions, premium content and upgrades for games. It will allow consumers to buy an app through their monthly mobile phone bill. Source: NewMediaAge

Global Radio's nationwide rollout of the Heart brand - one of the biggest moves in commercial radio history - is proving a success according to the latest RAJARs. Global Radio completed the nationwide changeover by rebranding nine local radio stations as Heart on 22 June. According to Q3 RAJARs, most of the newly rebranded Heart stations increased their reach and listening hours. Source: Media Week

UK Box Office Chart
1. A Christmas Carol (PG)
2. Michael Jackson's This Is It (PG)
3. UP 3D (U)
4. The Men Who Stare At Goats (15)
5. The Fourth Kind (15)
6. The Fantastic Mr. Fox (PG)
7. Jennifer's Body (15)
8. Saw VI (18)
9. An Education (12A)
10. Couples Retreat (15)

Source : Pearl and Dean

Edited by Lucy Gaskin

Week commencing 2nd November 2009

Project Canvas, which brings on-demand programming to digital TV viewers via Freeview and Freesat, will cost its partners - BBC, ITV, Channel Five and BT - more than £115 million over the next four years. This includes development, launch and its first few years of running. During this time, the BBC has estimated a marketing budget of £48.8 million, however, with a predicted cost recovery of around £17 million, this will leave the four partners with a bill of £24.7 million each. If the BBC signs up two more partners, which it is currently trying to do, the cost per partner would be reduced to £16.4 million. In addition to the new figures, the BBC has also revised the original plans, making it possible for non-public service broadcasters to become partners. Souce: MediaTel

Ofcom has changed the rules governing television phone-in competitions following the scandals that rocked the industry in 2008. New broadcasting code will be introduced early next year, which will stop the use of premium rate telephone services in TV and radio programmes, unless they are directly related to the show. A number of channels are expected to be affected by the changes, including participation TV channels that are based on the promotion of premium rate services such as quiz, adult chat and psychic channels. Source: MediaTel

News International has confirmed plans to scrap bulk copies of The Times and The Sunday Times. The Murdoch-owned company said "it has served notice on partners and wholesalers with whom it has an agreement to supply bulks". The move, which will have a substantial impact on the titles' audited circulation figures, is expected to take effect from January 2010. Source: MediaTel

MSN is set to revamp its homepage with new direct links to Twitter and Facebook. Microsoft's de-cluttered homepage, which now has 50% fewer links, highlights Bing search, news and entertainment stories, as well as giving users the chance to personalise the page with local information. The new-look site is currently only available as a preview but it is expected to be rolled out gradually in the US before becoming fully available some time next year. Source: MediaTel

Twitter has joined forces with handheld messaging company Peek to launch its first mobile device. TwitterPeek, which is available exclusively on Amazon, will enable people to tweet on the go without needing a smartphone or a data plan from their mobile phone network. It will offer consumers unlimited tweets and direct messages, as well as Twitpic images and an instant tweet delivery service. Source: MediaTel

Emap plans to start charging for all of its online content from as early as next week. The business-to-business publisher plans to implement a paid-for model for all the sites within its Inform division, including Drapers, Screen and Construction News. The company is expected to bundle web access into existing subscription packages, according to reports. Source: MediaTel

JCDecaux's UK revenue dropped by double digits in the third quarter. Organic revenues earned by its UK billboards, street furniture and transport services were down by double digits compared to Q3 2008. Between July and September, it posted a 12.1% global revenue decline, falling to €431.8 million from €495.6 million during the same period last year. Source: MediaTel

Absolute Radio is set to launch a new 80s DAB station in early December. Absolute 80s will broadcast via the internet and London DAB, in a slot that is currently used by Absolute Xtreme, which is due to be axed. The new station hopes to be a "nostalgia trip" for its 30 to 54-year-old target audience and will operate as a jukebox with a playlist of 80s pop music such as Duran Duran, Bon Jovi and Human League. The new station will add to Absolute's portfolio, which features its main national station Absolute Radio and its digital station Absolute Classic Rock. Source: MediaTel

UK Box Office Chart
1. Michael Jackson's This Is It (PG)
2. UP 3D (U)
3. The Fantastic Mr Fox (PG)
4. Saw VI (18)
5. Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (12A)
6. Couple's Retreat (15)
7. 9 (12A)
8. An Education (12A)
9. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (12A)
10. Dead Man Running (15)

Edited by Kelly Fung and Tony Oakley

Week commencing 28th October 2009

Five has released an application on Apple's App Store giving UK football fans the opportunity to watch live UEFA Europa League matches on their iPhone and iPod touch devices. Beta tested earlier this month, the app goes live in time for tomorrow evening's (1 October) match between Celtic and Rapid Vienna. For a one-off fee of £3.99, fans are able to watch every one of Five's Thursday-night fixtures, plus highlights of each week's competition, for the entire duration of the 2009-10 tournament. Source Mediatel

Sports broadcaster ESPN is bringing live basketball to the UK after sealing a deal with sports and entertainment giant NBA. ESPN, which was awarded the exclusive rights to 46 live Barclays Premier League matches for the 2009-10 season after the collapse of Setanta this summer, will also air the show NBA Fastbreak, NBA Action and all-time classic NBA games as part of its new basketball package. The broadcaster's coverage begins on 6 October with Utah Jazz taking on Chicago Bulls in London's O2 arena. Source Mediaweek

Dennis Publishing has signed a new deal to expand Men's Fitness magazine, which will add to its existing 300 international licenses. It will be working with Americn Media Inc. to expand the consumer magazine further abroad, targeting key areas where fitness and active persuits are fast growing sectors. Dennis has published the men's title in the UK and Ireland since 2001, but will now have the full rights over the magazine content and any Men's Fitness brand activity. Source: MediaTel

Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT)'s overall advertising revenue has fallen 9% in the 11 months to 31st August 2009, which breaks down 16% decrease in national newspapers and a more significant 31% for regional titles. Source: MediaTel

Online has overtaken TV for the first time to become the UK's biggest advertising medium, up £82 million in the first half of the year to £1.75 billion, according to new figures from the IAB. The study showed that internet advertising grew by 4.6%, despite the overall ad sector contracting by 16.6% during this period. - The UK remains the world leader in terms of market share for online, with the medium accounting for 23.5% in the first half. - Paid-for search enjoyed a 6.8% year-on-year increase, where marketers invested £1.05 billion in search during H1, equating to 59.8% of all online adspend. - Classifieds were up by 10.6% to £385 million - or 22% of all online adspend - despite the property market crash and stalled automotive and recruitment sectors, due to the continued migration of advertising from print to online. - Online display fell 5.2% year on year to £316.5 million, with the lowest share of all online advertising revenues at 18.1%. Source: MediaTel

The BBC is set to overhaul its portfolio of websites to include "next generation" social media tools. The changes to the homepage and underlying hosting platform are expected to be unveiled next March. Among the innovations is a plan to enable users to comment on particular moments while watching and see what other users have said about the same moment, or simply rate moments with 'Boo!', 'Good!' or 'Gosh!" The BBC is also planning to launch an open version of the iPlayer, which will enable third-party platforms to embed BBC content while it remains on the BBC site. Source: Mediatel

About 70% of digital publishers in the newspaper, magazine and TV industries will charge for content online, according to the annual survey by the Association of Online Publishers. This is in marked contrast to the 46% of respondents who were considering charging in 2007. The survey also found that more than half of media companies use social media platforms to publish content with 57% using Twitter, 48% through Facebook and 45% through YouTube. Source: Media Guardian

Absolute Radio has launched its digital radio station called Dabbl, which will focus on live-music programming. This will add to its portfolio of the 3 other stations: Absolute Radio, Absolute Radio Classic Rock and Absolute Radio Xtreme. Dabbl will broadcast from 7pm to 7am on DAB and online at dabbl.co.uk. The station will not carry spot advertising at launch. However, it is exploring a range of commercial models to generate revenue, including spot ads, sponsorship, promotions and ad-funded content. Source: Media Week

UK Box Office Chart
1. Fame (PG)
2. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (U)
3. Surrogates (12A)
4. District 9 (15)
5. The Soloist (12A)
6. 500 Days of Summer (12A)
7. The Final Destination (15)
8. Dorian Gray (15)
9. Gamer (18)
10. Creation (PG)

Source: Pearl & Dean

Edited by Tony Oakley and Kelly Fung

Week commencing 19th October 2009

BSkyB plans to offer 3D advertising opportunities when it launches its new 3D TV channel next year. The new service will be made available on Sky+HD set-top boxes and 3D-ready television sets and will feature 3D entertainment shows, films and sports content as well as advertising capabilities, according to Sky. Source: Mediatel

Virgin Media TV is planning a revamp of its male-oriented TV channel, Bravo. Sources say the planned revamp is the company's "next major project in 2010" and will focus partly on the programming of Bravo, which targets a younger, mainly male, audience with action, crime and gaming programming. It is understood there are plans for more commissions and acquired content, as Virgin looks to build the channel's "scale". The sale of VMtv, is understood to be continuing, with BSkyB and Time Warner competing to buy the company. Source: Mediaweek

Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw has said talks between Channel 4 and BBC Worldwide over a commercial tie-up are "encouraging." Speaking at a House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select committee hearing, Bradshaw reiterated the Government's support for a tie-up between the two to secure Channel 4's future. State-owned Channel 4 has warned that it faces a funding shortfall of up to £150m a year, as it grapples with lower advertising and a fragmenting audience wrought by digital TV switchover. However, talks between Channel 4 and BBC Worldwide have been shadowed in recent months as it seeks to appoint a chief executive to replace Andy Duncan and a new chairman to replace Luke Johnson. Source: Mediaweek

The overall daily newspaper market dipped by 1.2% in September period on period, with just two titles bucking the overall downward trend. The Financial Times and The Guardian both reported period on period increases, of 3.2% and 1.1% respectively. The Sunday Times and Daily Star Sunday were the best- performing Sunday newspapers. Source: Mediaweek & Mediatel

Trinity Mirror has just announced a series of landmark changes at its Midlands unit in Fort Dunlop, Birmingham. The Birmingham Post, is to go weekly; the Birmingham Mail will become an overnight, morning title; both editors are leaving; and there will be about 80 redundancies across the group. Source: Mediaweek

Absolute Radio is set to launch a new unbranded website to allow listeners to compare radio stations. Comparemyradio.co.uk displays UK radio stations "now playing" information and lets users search for music via a specific station, artist or track. The system counts how many songs have been played, how many times a song has aired and the top 40 most played tracks on each station over the past month, so that listeners can work out which station is best suited to their musical tastes. Once a user has found the station or music they are looking for, the site produces a direct link to the radio station's website with a listen live option. The new site, which lists a number of stations including Absolute, Capital, BBC, Kiss, Heart and Xfm, has been designed to encourage more people to listen to radio via the internet. Source: MediaTel

Facebook now accounts for one in every seven internet page views (14.5%) in the UK, according to new research. The director of research for this project, said: "During September Facebook was the second most visited website in the UK after Google UK, but because users view a much larger number of pages per visit, Facebook is the clear leader in terms of page views. Facebook received more page views than Google UK, eBay UK and YouTube combined [in September]." UK internet visits to Facebook have increased by a substantial 86.1% over the last 12 months and have more than doubled over the last 14 months. During September, Facebook accounted for almost half of all social networking visits in the UK. Source: MediaTel

Clear Channel Outdoor UK has retained the contract to sell advertising at Sainsbury's stores across the UK. The new long-term deal will see CCO increase its point of sale estate by 50%. CCO and Sainsbury's have worked in partnership since 1998. Source: Mediatel

Titan Outdoor is launching a network of digital six-sheets at leading shopping centres across the UK. The roll-out of over 100 screens follows last month's sale of its roadside estate to rival firm Primesight. Beginning in October, the D6 format will be situated in 18 of the top 30 ranked shopping centres in the UK, including Bluewater in Kent and Lakeside in Essex. Following a trial, screens are already up and running at Centre:MK in Milton Keynes, with the full network expected to be completed by November. Source: MediaTel

UK Box Office Chart
1. UP 3D (U)
2. Couples Retreat (15)
3. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (12A)
4. The Invention Of Lying (12A)
5. Zombieland (15)
6. Fame (PG)
7. Triangle (15)
8. Halloween II (18)
9. Love Happens (12A)
10. Blue (12A)
Source: Pearl & Dean

Edited by Sarah Halliday & Jenna Morton

Week commencing 12th October 2009

TV advertising has an instant effect on online sales and has been significantly undervalued as a direct response medium due to lack of appropriate research, according to a Thinkbox study released this week. The econometric research, analysed more than 175,000 ads over three months for seven leading consumer brands.Its findings are reported to underline the "direct and complementary relationship TV advertising has with online media" A key finding is that when TV's "correct share" of online responses is accounted for, it is responsible for about 30% of all ad responses. Of this figure, more than a third (35%) of responses to TV ads occur within 10 minutes, with 15% via the phone and 20% via the internet. Source: Media Week

ITV1 enjoyed a bumper September, thanks largely to The X Factor, significantly outperforming Channel 4 and Five year on year in terms of its share of commercial impacts. The return of the Simon Cowell-fronted talent contest helped ITV1 maintain its share of impacts year on year among adults aged 16 to 34. Meanwhile, it suffered only a 1% year-on-year drop in its share of all-adult impacts and a 2% drop in its share of impacts year on year among adults aged 35+.The performance was partly boosted by the broadcaster's decision to air a second X Factor show on Sunday evenings. The Sunday shows have helped ITV1 pull in significant new impacts - the 4 October show peaked with 13.9 million viewers, said ITV. Source: Media Week

Telegraph Media Group and Times Newspapers are thought to be considering scrapping their bulk sales. The move, which follows Guardian Media Group's decision to stop selling bulk copies of The Guardian and The Observer in August, would have a substantial impact on their audited circulation figures. In the past, the two companies have sold bulk copies to airlines and hotels at heavily discounted rates on the basis that they were samples. However, the cost of producing and distributing extra copies with little return has made publishers question the value of bulk sales. If TMG and Times Newspapers go ahead with the plan, they would make significant bottom line savings and it would have no effect on advertising revenues because buyers already ignore bulk copies when buying ad space. Source: MediaTel

Shortlist Media has finally realised there is a big gap in the market for a female version of its successful male-counterpart, Shortlist magazine. The aptly named Stylist title is predictably aimed at affluent 20 to 40 year-old female commuters with content "written with a zip and style that will make it stand out in the market". Unsurprisingly, style is a big factor but is far from the magazine's focus. Having attracted top-end advertisers style certainly matters in Stylist but the editorial team, headed up by former More! editor Lisa Smosarski, have done well to include more substantial content. With an initial circulation of 400,000, which have been handed out via a network of street vendors in London, Manchester, Glasgow, Brighton, Birmingham and Leeds it's bound to have attracted some attention. Source: Newsquest

YouTube and Channel 4 have signed a content deal that will make the broadcaster's long-form programmes available on-demand for free via YouTube in the UK in the coming months. The three-year partnership with YouTube will mark the first time the broadcaster has made its schedule available on a third party site anywhere in the world. Channel 4 said its long-form content will begin appearing on YouTube UK "in the coming months" and be fully available in early 2010. All programmes will be available only in the UK, free-of-charge supported by advertising. Source: Media Week

Condé Nast Digital UK is launching its first stand-alone paid-for dating website, Trulymadlydating.com on 14 October. The site will charge from £19.99 for one month to £59.99 for six months access to profiles of single men and women. Condé is trialling an introductory free trial offer, giving new members' unlimited use of the service for seven days. Source: Media Week

Guardian News & Media will launch a new service next year, Guardian Local, in Leeds, Cardiff and Edinburgh. The publisher said it was looking to hire qualified bloggers who could cover "community news and report on local developments". Emily Bell, director of digital development at Guardian News & Media, told Guardian.co.uk today: "Guardian Local is a small-scale experimental approach to local newsgathering. We are focusing on three politically engaged cities and we expect to launch in early 2010." GN&M joins a number of national publishers who are looking to tap into the local market. Mirror Group Newspapers has looked to bolster its regional offering with the launch of more than 100 hyper-local websites which serve specific postcodes, with community and user generated content. Source: Media Week

YouTube has launched a new auction-based ad platform to attract new advertisers to the site. Dubbed Promoted Videos in the UK, the service will use AdWords to allow advertisers to create a campaign that is keyword-targeted and priced on performance. Similar to sponsored links on Google, advertisers will only pay for an ad when a user clicks on it. Advertisers will also be able to add a "Call-to-Action" clickable overlay to their ad, allowing them to drive viewers to a third-party website. Suveer Kothari, YouTube UK head of sales, said that with one billion videos being shown daily on the video-sharing site, there was "massive potential for advertisers to find their audience" Source: Media Week

JCDecaux has devised two new networks from its StreetTalk portfolio of phone box panels to target fashion brands. The networks, London Couture and High Street fashion, enable advertisers to target upmarket, image-conscious shoppers on the high street and close to fashion outlets. London couture includes 100 StreetTalk boxes that JCDecaux has selected in proximity to high-end fashion outlets, including Harvey Nichols, Hugo Boss, Versace and Harrods. The High Street fashion network includes 5,000 kiosks on pedestrianised high streets and shopping precincts across the UK and can be flexible to offer London and national campaigns. Source: Media Week

In a three-week-long promotion entitled "Step Up to the Mic", which starts this week, MySpace users will be able to upload images and messages of up to 50 characters each, to be broadcast on Titan screens in cities including London, New York, Chicago and Dublin. Celebrities and musicians will also be invited to take part to publicise projects or communicate with fans. A Titan spokesman said the company wanted the project to act as a barometer of the mood of people and to find what they were passionate about right now. Bill Apfelbaum, chairman of Titan, said the ability now existed to create and connect communities through Titan's digital signs around the world, and for advertisers to interact with their target audiences on a real-time basis. Source: Media Week

Edited by Pedro's Team

Week commencing 5th October 2009

Virgin Media TV plans to drop its Living2 channel because viewers think it is a time-shifted version of its sister channel Living. The Living2 brand, which was launched in 2004, focuses on factual entertainment and reality, while Living is aimed at young females who are interested celebrity and style. Source: MediaTel

Freeview, the digital terrestrial TV service, underwent a nationwide upgrade on 30 September. Following the upgrade, the coverage of Five will increase, allowing about 500,000 Freeview homes to receive Five for the first time. Further changes scheduled for next year will allow for the launch of high-definition TV channels from the BBC and ITV. Source: MediaWeek

The London Evening Standard is to become a free newspaper from 12 October, with its circulation more than doubling from around 250,000 to 600,000 copies per day. The move raises fresh questions about the long-term future of the London Lite, the free newspaper owned by Associated Newspapers, which also has a 25% stake in the London Evening Standard. Source: MediaWeek

The first issue of Stylist, the free women's weekly magazine, hit the streets this week. Around 400,000 copies of the new title were distributed in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow and Brighton. Stylist, which has been edited by the former More! editor Lisa Smosarski, is aimed at ABC1 women in their 20s and 30s. Stylist will be handed out across the six UK cities every Wednesday, the day before the free men's magazine Shortlist, which is owned by the same company Shortlist Media. Source: MediaTel

The Sunday Telegraph is launching a magazine aimed at parents of children aged five and over, to be published twice a year. The glossy magazine, called ST Kids, will be the fourth title in the ST supplements series, joining ST Fashion, ST Men's Style and ST Design and Interiors. The title will have a circulation of 300,000 and be available to Telegraph readers in London and the south east. Source: MediaTel

The Times and The Sunday Times are set to launch a new membership scheme in a bid to retain customers and generate direct revenue streams. Times+ will give members access to exclusive events, offers, gifts and rewards that reflects readers' interests, according to the newspapers' parent company News International. The new scheme, which will be open to everyone at a charge of £50 a year but is complimentary to subscribers of the two titles, follows on from Culture+, a similar programme that focuses on arts and entertainment. Culture+ has attracted 90,000 members in the one year since it launched. Source: MediaTel

The Times will launch its new monthly magazine, Eureka, covering science, life and environment on Thursday (8 October). Source: MediaWeek

News group ITN has signed up Midland News Association as the first regional media partner to its Premium News Network, an ad-funded online video news player. Midland News Association, publisher of the Express & Star, the UK's biggest regional paper by paid-for circulation, will use ITN's video news content on its websites. ITN's multimedia news division, ITN On, will provide video clips and a bespoke video player to Midland News Association. ITN On's Premium News Network provides publishers with a video product at no cost. Source: MediaWeek

England's World Cup qualifier against Ukraine this weekend will only be screened on the internet following the collapse of Setanta.The media company Perform will stream the match on a pay-per-view basis after the international agency Kentaro failed to agree rights offers with another British broadcaster when the pay-TV platform Setanta collapsed earlier this year. As a result, football fans will be forced to pay £4.99 to watch the match on Saturday, which will be broadcast on the internet for the first time at www.ukrainevengland.com. Source: MediaTel

The Financial Times is to launch a standalone site for its luxury lifestyle magazine, How To Spend It. The site will include videos, such as a behind-the-scenes footage of an underwater fashion shoot, a gift guide and exclusive interviews. The site launches on 3 October. The print and online operations will be produced and edited by a single team. Source: New Media Age

The Spectator has launched an iTunes App. It gives users access to the complete magazine on the iPhone for 59p, which buys a seven-day subscription to the magazine and provides access to more than 200 back issues. Source: MediaWeek

Clear Channel Outdoor has retained the exclusive, multimillion-pound long-term contract to sell advertising at 800 Sainsbury's stores across the UK without a pitch. Under the terms of the contract, which Clear Channel first won in 1998, the outdoor firm is to add 900 six-sheets to the current 1,800 estate it claims serves 18 million customers a week. Source: MediaWeek

UK Box Office Chart
1. Fame (PG)
2. The Invention Of Lying (12A)
3. Toy Story (Disney Digital 3d) (PG)
4. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (U)
5. Surrogates (12A)
6. District 9 (15)
7. Pandorum (15)
8. 500 Days Of Summer (12A)
9. The Soloist (12A)
10. Aliens In The Attic (PG)

Source: Pearl & Dean

Edited by Lucy Gaskin

Week commencing 28th September 2009

Five has released an application on Apple's App Store giving UK football fans the opportunity to watch live UEFA Europa League matches on their iPhone and iPod touch devices. Beta tested earlier this month, the app goes live in time for tomorrow evening's (1 October) match between Celtic and Rapid Vienna. For a one-off fee of £3.99, fans are able to watch every one of Five's Thursday-night fixtures, plus highlights of each week's competition, for the entire duration of the 2009-10 tournament. Source Mediatel

Sports broadcaster ESPN is bringing live basketball to the UK after sealing a deal with sports and entertainment giant NBA. ESPN, which was awarded the exclusive rights to 46 live Barclays Premier League matches for the 2009-10 season after the collapse of Setanta this summer, will also air the show NBA Fastbreak, NBA Action and all-time classic NBA games as part of its new basketball package. The broadcaster's coverage begins on 6 October with Utah Jazz taking on Chicago Bulls in London's O2 arena. Source Mediaweek

Dennis Publishing has signed a new deal to expand Men's Fitness magazine, which will add to its existing 300 international licenses. It will be working with Americn Media Inc. to expand the consumer magazine further abroad, targeting key areas where fitness and active persuits are fast growing sectors. Dennis has published the men's title in the UK and Ireland since 2001, but will now have the full rights over the magazine content and any Men's Fitness brand activity. Source: MediaTel

Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT)'s overall advertising revenue has fallen 9% in the 11 months to 31st August 2009, which breaks down 16% decrease in national newspapers and a more significant 31% for regional titles. Source: MediaTel

Online has overtaken TV for the first time to become the UK's biggest advertising medium, up £82 million in the first half of the year to £1.75 billion, according to new figures from the IAB. The study showed that internet advertising grew by 4.6%, despite the overall ad sector contracting by 16.6% during this period. - The UK remains the world leader in terms of market share for online, with the medium accounting for 23.5% in the first half. - Paid-for search enjoyed a 6.8% year-on-year increase, where marketers invested £1.05 billion in search during H1, equating to 59.8% of all online adspend. - Classifieds were up by 10.6% to £385 million - or 22% of all online adspend - despite the property market crash and stalled automotive and recruitment sectors, due to the continued migration of advertising from print to online. - Online display fell 5.2% year on year to £316.5 million, with the lowest share of all online advertising revenues at 18.1%. Source: MediaTel

The BBC is set to overhaul its portfolio of websites to include "next generation" social media tools. The changes to the homepage and underlying hosting platform are expected to be unveiled next March. Among the innovations is a plan to enable users to comment on particular moments while watching and see what other users have said about the same moment, or simply rate moments with 'Boo!', 'Good!' or 'Gosh!" The BBC is also planning to launch an open version of the iPlayer, which will enable third-party platforms to embed BBC content while it remains on the BBC site. Source: Mediatel

About 70% of digital publishers in the newspaper, magazine and TV industries will charge for content online, according to the annual survey by the Association of Online Publishers. This is in marked contrast to the 46% of respondents who were considering charging in 2007. The survey also found that more than half of media companies use social media platforms to publish content with 57% using Twitter, 48% through Facebook and 45% through YouTube. Source: Media Guardian

Absolute Radio has launched its digital radio station called Dabbl, which will focus on live-music programming. This will add to its portfolio of the 3 other stations: Absolute Radio, Absolute Radio Classic Rock and Absolute Radio Xtreme. Dabbl will broadcast from 7pm to 7am on DAB and online at dabbl.co.uk. The station will not carry spot advertising at launch. However, it is exploring a range of commercial models to generate revenue, including spot ads, sponsorship, promotions and ad-funded content. Source: Media Week

UK Box Office Chart
1. Fame (PG)
2. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (U)
3. Surrogates (12A)
4. District 9 (15)
5. The Soloist (12A)
6. 500 Days of Summer (12A)
7. The Final Destination (15)
8. Dorian Gray (15)
9. Gamer (18)
10. Creation (PG)

Source: Pearl & Dean

Edited by Tony Oakley and Kelly Fung

Week commencing 21st September 2009

Freesat, the subscription-free digital satellite TV service, is bucking the economic downturn by reporting a 50% increase in sales in the past four months, reaching 600,000 customers just over a year since it launched. In the past quarter, 200,000 of its set-top boxes were sold as the service readies itself for the imminent launch of BBC's iPlayer on Freesat. According to Freesat, Barb viewing figures reveal that nine of the 10 top multichannel programmes between January and June 2009 (non-sport) were available subscription-free on free-to-air TV platforms such as Freesat. Emma Scott, managing director of Freesat, said its results were partly due to innovations such as high-definition TV and Freesat+, its digital recording product. The service was launched by the BBC and ITV in May last year and is aimed partly at the hundreds of thousands of homes unable to access Freeview, cable or satellite. Freesat offers 140 TV, radio and interactive channels, including the BBC's and ITV's high-definition services. Source: www.mediaweek.co.uk

BT Vision has launched a new on-demand, 24-hour shopping channel service in association with Canis Media. Hosted by Gaby Roslin, the Vision Shopping channel is available at position 960 on the BT Vision EPG. Programming is split into five categories - Sport and Fitness, DIY, The Home, Beauty and Baby and The Kitchen - so that viewers can select the area which interests them most. All shows are available to watch multiple times without charge. BT Vision chief executive Marc Watson said: "Now Vision customers can shop from the comfort of their sofa in the new world of on-demand. "Our customers can browse each Vision shopping department for a selection of great offers and clever gift ideas. All customers have to do is select the department that they want to explore." "BT Vision has recognised the potential for an on-demand service to complement their programming and benefit from increased engagement with audiences." Source: Media Week

The Observer will continue to be published, but there will be further integration between the editorial teams of the Sunday newspaper and its sister title The Guardian. In an announcement to staff, following a review of its operations, Guardian News & Media, said: "GN&M will develop its current weekend offering and introduce a greater degree of integration between the editorial teams of The Guardian and The Observer." The announcement quashes speculation that The Observer is to be closed as GMG looks to cut costs. The group is now working on developing the Saturday issue of The Guardian and a new-look Observer, which is expected to hit newsstands later this year. However, sources suggest the overhaul of The Observer will not be as radical as some expect. In a statement, Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief of GN&M, said: "A new-look Observer produced by John Mulholland and his team, and new ideas for the Saturday Guardian, were extremely well received. "As a result of the review, we will be publishing a formidable weekend package- with two papers that complement each other, each retaining a distinctive tone and voice." In July, GMG, which has earmarked cost savings of £20m across the editorial and commercial operations of GN&M, reported plunging profits at its national newspaper division. Operating losses rose to £36.8m in the year to the end of March, while turnover fell from £261.9m to £253.6m. Source: www.mediaweek.co.uk

Guardian News & Media's (GNM) diversification into new revenue streams is continuing apace with the launch of a price comparison website for consumers looking to save money on broadband, digital TV and landline services. It will promote the new service to the readers of The Guardian, The Observer and guardian.co.uk, with in-paper advertising and a free phone number. The site enables customers to easily compare thousands of different packages in terms of both their price and their quality, and check their current broadband speed, alongside relevant editorial content on guardian.co.uk. In August, GNM pushed ahead with plans to create a club for its most loyal readers offering exclusive content and invites to events. Source: www.brandrepublic.co.uk

Clear Channel Outdoor has created two advertising products for brands to target consumers aged 50-plus. The two offers target either "active indulgers" or "comfortably off seniors", but can also provide bespoke solutions to target the estimated 20 million over-50s in the UK who, claims Clear Channel, control 80% of the nation's wealth. The "active indulgers" who agree with the statement "I prefer to be active in my leisure time" are aged between 50 and 64, love food and enjoy travelling. Source: Media week

Primesight faces having to renegotiate the contract for almost half its recently purchased portfolio of roadside billboards within months. The Network Rail contract, estimated to be worth £5m to £6m, includes about 3,500 of the 7,630 48 and 96-sheets Primesight bought from fellow outdoor media owner Titan Outdoor at the end of August, for £6m. Source: Mediaweek

Outdoor advertising specialist JCDecaux is expecting the largest ever spend on outdoor from retailers this Christmas, following a 25% year on year rise in the first half of the year. In response, it has adapted its advertising packages to give retail advertisers more flexibility. Source: Mad.co.uk

Advertisers can now use pictures to advertise on digital radio sets using the same technology as iPhones and Google Android. Radio manufacturer Pure Digital recently launched "Sensia", its first DAB and WiFi radio, which is able to show artist and track information, station schedules and promotions, and advertising, using the same technology as the iPhone. Source: Media Week

Digital Radio UK will represent the BBC and commercial radio as well as multiplex operator Arqiva to help the industry meet the timetable for the digital radio upgrade set out in the Digital Britain report earlier this year. Source: Mad.co.uk

Cinema sales house Digital Cinema Media is launching a new sponsored entertainment slot for potential advertisers in the form of a bite-sized entertainment show called 'From The Red Carpet.' The show will run first thing in the advertising reel ahead of film screenings. Source: Mad.co.uk

UK Box Office Chart

1) Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (U)
2) District 9 (15)
3) Gamer (18)
4) 500 Days Of Summer (12A)
5) The Final Destination (15)
6) Dorian Gray (15)
7) Julie & Julia (12A)
8) Sorority Row (15)
9) The Firm (18)
10) Away We Go (15)

Source: Pearl and Dean

Edited by The TV Team

Week commencing 14th September 2009

Ofcom wants video-on-demand services to be regulated by a specialist industry body, the Association for Television on Demand from December. Launching a consultation process on the regulation of VOD services, Ofcom said that advertising will be regulated by the Advertising Standards Authority. The new regulations will cover services such as Channel 4's 4oD and ITV's ITV.com. The broadcasting code which applies to television channels will not apply to VOD services, with Ofcom saying that services will have to adhere to "minimum" standards covering the broadcasting of suitable content and sponsored programmes. The regulator will retain some powers to intervene should problems with the new system arise. The regulations are due to come into effect on 19 December. Source: MediaTel

The government will this week announce that product placement is to be allowed on British TV shows. Culture secretary Ben Bradshaw is expected to announce a three month consultation period on changes to the current rules at a Royal Television Society speech later this week. According to Ofcom the move could be worth up to £35 million to commercial broadcasters over five years. The news was welcomed by ITV. It said in a statement: "If the Government does decide to permit product placement, it will be warmly welcomed by the commercial broadcasting industry and advertisers alike. "ITV plc has led the campaign for product placement in the UK, which could be an important new revenue stream - as it already is in Europe. Source: MediaTel

CBS is to launch its first branded TV channels in the UK after striking a deal with pay-TV broadcaster Chellomedia. Under the terms of a 50/50 joint venture, the six as-yet-unspecified CBS-branded TV channels will replace Chellomedia's six channels: Zone Romantica, Zone Thriller, Zone Horror and Zone Reality, Zone Horror+1 and Zone Reality+1. The new channels will have access to CBS programming such as Dynasty and Star Trek. Details of the new channels will be announced shortly. Source: Media Week

The Daily Telegraph unveied its new Saturday Review section last weekend. The new magazine format is edited by the former arts editor of Review, Tom Horan. The revamped section will feature a 'What's on' guide, which focuses on art, music, books, film and theatre, with a seven-day television and radio listings guide. However, film will make up a large part of the magazine, with reviews of current cinema releases, as well as DVDs and a guide to films on TV. There will also be a critic's choice of national and regional theatre performances, music events and book reviews. Source: MediaTel

The National Readership Survey is to introduce a new tool to measure the readership of free publications after ShortList and CityAM failed to register a minimum sample size. The NRS, headed by chief executive Mike Ironside, is looking at a number of options, under the working title of "distributive on the street", with a market research group. Free men's magazine ShortList joined the NRS last year but, like free business title CityAM, it has been unable to achieve a minimum sample of 175 respondents in the readership survey, so NRS has been unable to publish an estimate, despite ShortList having a UK distribution of more than 510,000. The new tool is in its embryonic stage. It would bracket free titles together, using a new methodology, separate from paid-for magazines and newspapers.

Titan Outdoor is launching a network of digital six-sheets at leading shopping centres across the UK. The roll-out of over 100 screens follows last month's sale of its roadside estate to rival firm Primesight. Beginning in October, the D6 format will be situated in 18 of the top 30 ranked shopping centres in the UK, including Bluewater in Kent and Lakeside in Essex. Following a trial, screens are already up and running at Centre:MK in Milton Keynes, with the full network expected to be completed by November. Source: MediaTel

Twitter has changed its terms and conditions to allow it to implement targeted advertising across the site. In a u-turn, Twitter founder Biz Stone, said: "In the terms we leave the door open for advertising. We'd like to keep our options open as we've said before." The new T&Cs say the service can include ads on the site, which can be targeted according to information either submitted by the user or others. The move comes after Stone said the microblogging site needs to generate revenue through corporate accounts. In the past, Stone said advertising would be obtrusive to users. Source: MediaTel

The BBC has announced plans to open the iPlayer to third-party broadcasters. Open iPlayer will allow third parties to run their own version of the iPlayer, according to reports. Formerly known as Project Marquee, the BBC has designed a system to act as a publish-anywhere specification for the iPlayer. Erik Huggers, the BBC's director of future media and technology, unveiled the plans at a recent conference. "It is not a concept of aggregation, but federation," he said. However, the plan still requires approval from the BBC Trust. Source: MediaTel

TalkSport has signed a deal with FIFA to be the exclusive UK commercial radio broadcaster for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. TalkSport will be the only licensed commercial radio broadcaster in the UK and will provide live commentaries of each of the tournament's 64 matches, along with team press conferences and briefings. BBC Radio 5Live also holds rights to provide match commentary. TalkSport said the programming schedule had yet to be finalised, but it was committed to bringing as many shows as possible live from South Africa and would be unveiling new talent to anchor its coverage. Source: Media Week

Pearl & Dean is to start selling digital ads as a separate buying package, GAP Digital, for the first time. The cinema advertising contractor aims to have digital advertising across all its digital screens within four to nine months. The GAP Digital package will be available in 87 of Pearl & Dean's 119 digital screens across the UK, including the majority of Vue digital screens, Showcase, Apollo, Everyman and Curzon cinemas. Pearl & Dean claims moving away from 35mm film to digital formats will give advertisers a two-week turnaround on campaigns instead of three to four weeks, assuming approval of ads from the cinema and ad authorities. In addition, digital formats entail lower production costs. Source: Media Week

UK Box Office Chart
1. District 9 (15)
2. The Final Destination (15)
3. Dorian Gray (15)
4. Sorority Row (15)
5. 500 Days Of Summer (12A)
6. Julie & Julia (12A)
7. Inglourious Basterds (18)
8. Aliens In The Attic (PG)
9. Funny People (15)
10. Adventureland (15)
Source: Pearl & Dean

Edited by Sarah Halliday

Week commencing 7th September 2009

ITV1's share of commercial impacts was in freefall in August, dropping 14.7% year on year across all adults, according to unofficial data. The figures, which cover the period 1-29 August, showed falling shares for all terrestrial channels, despite the UK population watching more TV in total. ITV1's grip on the 16 to 34-year-old market faltered to a 13.68% share, while Channel 4 (including its +1 channel) led the category with 15.5%. Source: Mediaweek

Five has become the first British broadcaster to make its programming available via Sony's new Bravia VoD platform. From early 2010, viewers will have access to episodes of Five shows as Neighbours, Home & Away and The Hotel Inspector. Viewers will be able to access the programmes by plugging their Sony Bravia TV sets into their existing broadband connection. The Bravia Internet Video platform will also offer free on-demand video clips from websites such as YouTube and Wired. In the US, where the VoD service is already available, users can access content from the likes of Sony Pictures. Five's agreement with Sony is the broadcaster's latest move to make its content available on multiple platforms. Source: Mediaweek

Independent owner rejects O'Brien call for sale of Indy titles. Dennis O'Brien, the second-biggest shareholder in Independent News & Media, has reignited his feud with the company by calling for a vote on the future of its UK-based Independent newspapers. In response, INM said its priority is to deal with its ongoing financial restructuring adding that "it is difficult to see how Mr. O'Brien's actions assist in the resolution of the financial restructuring". O'Brien, who owns 26% of the company, called for an extraordinary general meeting which among several issues would also consider stopping the sale of the company's South African outdoor assets. He also wants a vote that would propose the sale or closure of its London-based Independent newspapers. And he wants INM to cease annual payments of €300,000 to former chief executive Anthony O'Reilly for his position as president emeritus of the group. Source: Mediaweek

The Economist is to charge for news content across its website, mirroring the recent move made by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation to introduce a paid-for model for its online news content. Economist.com currently offers its readers free access to news content on the site, including the news copy from its £4 cover price weekly magazine. However, editorial copy more than a year old is charged for. The move is being driven through by Ben Edwards, publisher of Ecomomist.com, and the brand is understood to be looking at a number of payment options, including an iTunes-style micropayment model. Source: Mediaweek

Ocean Outdoor has installed the third site of its £70m, 10-year contract for the Westfield shopping centre in London's White City. The site comprises a set of giant LED screens across a four lane arterial route that Ocean Outdoor claims is the first such placement of its kind. The screen is located on the West Cross Route, a short, dual carriageway section of the A3220 route in central London. Damian Cox, chief executive of Ocean, said the company is determined to "build the best panels with whatever technology allows our clients unparalleled standout". Ocean secured the contract for the external advertising at Westfield last October and has so far unveiled three 12x3m digital screens at the Holland Park roundabout and a banner above the car park entrance. Further sites are currently in the planning stages. Source: Media Week

Outdoor media owners have continued to cull the poorer quality sites in their portfolio over the past year, but have improved the quality of their billboard estates, according to official industry figures released this month. Audience research body Postar's quarterly out-of-home audience measurement figures show the total number of 48-sheets in the UK dropped 15% between August 2008 and August 2009, while the total number of 96-sheets declined 14% over the same period. But as out-of-home media owners are cutting the total number of panels, the proportion of 48-sheets that are illuminated rose from 49.8% to 53.7%, and the proportion of illuminated 96-sheets rose from 70.3% to 74.3%. Source: Media Weeksight's inventory of outdoor sites, across malls, gyms and roadside, taking them to nearly 20,000 panels. (Source: MediaWeek)

Regional publisher Newsquest is planning to launch a network of community websites for towns, cities and villages across the North East. Initially, 13 "Your Community" websites have been launched by the Darlington-based The Northern Echo and content is generated by citizen journalists recruited through advertising in the newspaper. Users can use the sites to search for travel news, house prices and homes for sale by area or postcode, compare local schools and get information about local amenities. Source: MediaWeek

Thousands of music videos will return to YouTube after the Google-owned, video-sharing site struck a new payments deal with the main songwriters' royalty body. The two organisations previously had a deal, but it ran out at the end of 2008. In March, YouTube blocked access to thousands of music videos after it opted against agreeing to a deal with the Performing Rights Society for Music, which collects royalties on behalf of nearly 60,000 British songwriters, composers and publishers. However, YouTube and the PRS have now struck a new deal covering the period January 2009 to June 2012. The agreement means YouTube moves away from a pay-per-view model of paying for every music video viewed. It is thought it will instead pay a lump sum to PRS for the three-year period. Videos from major labels such as Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment will soon be accessible to UK users on YouTube. Source: MediaWeek

Bauer Media is to network a new evening show across five of its Big City Network radio stations and its digital station Heat Radio, in a move away from reliance on local content. The show, Late'n'Live will follow Big City's only other networked shows, one each for Scotland and England, which broadcast between 7pm and 10pm, from Monday to Friday. Late'n'Live will be presented by Magic 105.4 presenter Steve Priestley and will be broadcast on Radio Aire, Viking FM, Hallam FM, Rock FM, CFM and Heat Radio, on Sundays to Thursdays between 10pm and 1am. Source: MediaWeek

Edited by Pedro's Team

Week commencing 31st August 2009

ITV1 is getting its own +1 timeshifted channel in October after being given the go ahead by regulator Ofcom. The channel will launch on digital satellite and Virgin Media, although it will only air from 10.25pm to 7am, meaning that breakfast show GMTV will not be timeshifted. (Source: MediaTel)

ESPN has acquired the rights to show the new Uefa Europa League - which replaces the Uefa Cup - previously held by Setanta. The three year deal, beginning this season, will see matches air on the channel from 17 September when the tournament starts. Matches will be shown on Wednesday and Thursday evenings throughout the season. (Source: MediaTel)

The multimillion-pound TV ad sales contract for Discovery Networks UK is poised to leave Sky Media and is heading for Five. A deal between Discovery and Five has not yet been formally signed off, but an outline agreement is in place. Discovery has been in dispute with Sky Media over the amount of ad revenue Sky pays Discovery under its current contract, and is understood to account for about 10% of Sky Media's total commercial impacts. (Source: MediaWeek)

Virgin Media-owned channel Living is to offer a new on-demand service, Living Player. It will feature a content library and a seven-day catch-up service for the channel's content, including Criminal Minds, Ghost Whisperer, Grey's Anatomy, Next Top Model and Most Haunted. With the imminent launch of Living HD, the player will also offer Virgin Media customers a range of programming in HD. Living Player is available free to Virgin Media's XL customers. Living expects the player to be available later in the year. (Source: MediaWeek)

Bauer Media's biannual style magazine, Pop, has been revamped, with the new-look title debuting with two different covers designed by artist Damien Hirst. The magazine, boasts several new features, including a pull-out fashion book-a-zine, and will be published on new paper stock as part of its effort to woo readers. Bauer is also publishing a new website to support the brand, with a focus on regularly updated fashion blogs. The magazine, priced £5, has been supported by advertising from brands including Louis Vuitton and Gucci. (Source:MediaWeek)

BBC Magazines is set to launch two overseas titles in Australia and Singapore during the next month. In the Night Garden, a monthly magazine based around the pre-school TV series, will launch in Australia at the end of this month. BBC Magazines has also licensed the factual magazine BBC Knowledge to Regent Media, a publisher based in Singapore, which will launch the title across Asia next month. BBC Knowledge, which mainly features science, nature and history content, draws on the existing group of factual titles produced by BBC Magazines, including Focus, BBC History Magazine and BBC Wildlife Magazine. The factual title is also sold in the USA and Brazil. (Source MediaTel)

Titan Outdoor has sold its entire roadside estate of 8,600 billboards to fellow media owner Primesight in a deal estimated to be worth about £6m. The portfolio, which includes 7,900 48-sheets and 700 96-sheets, was transferred to Primesight from 1 September, making it the second largest billboard player in the outdoor market. It will almost double Primesight's inventory of outdoor sites, across malls, gyms and roadside, taking them to nearly 20,000 panels. (Source: MediaWeek)

MailOnline was the most popular newspaper website in the UK for the second consecutive month, according to ABCe figures for July, achieving a further lift in unique users while rival sites contracted. The website, which incorporates content from the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday newspapers, attracted 29,872,465 users last month, up 1.7%, including 8,748,334 from the UK. It marks the best ever performance by any UK newspaper website, pipping the previous record set by Guardian.co.uk with 29,811,671 uniques in January 2009. (Source: MediaWeek)

Facebook will give users greater control over information given to third-party applications following pressure from the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. Specific changes include an update on Facebook's privacy policy to give better clarity on subjects such as reasons for the collection of date of birth and how its advertising programme works. It will also be encouraging users to review their privacy settings to make sure the default selections reflect their preferences. The social network will also introduce a new model for third-party apps that will require applications to specify the categories of information they wish to access and obtain express consent from the user before any data is shared. (Source: NewMediaAge)

More people visited Twitter in the UK last week than MySpace, according to Hitwise, marking the first time the microblog has overtaken one of the major social networks. Last week Twitter was the 27th most visited website in the UK, one place above MySpace. In Hitwise's social network category, Twitter ranked fourth behind Facebook, YouTube and Bebo and one place above News Corp's social network. As well as displaying the remarkable growth of Twitter, the statistics show a drastic decline in MySpace's populariy in relation to rival social neworks. MySpace recently cut back on its global operations after admitting that its expansion plans were too ambitious. Meanwhile Twitter has yet to set up offices outside the US. (Source: BrandRepublic)

Ebay has agreed to sell a 65% stake in its internet telephony company Skype to private investors for $1.9bn (£1.17bn). The purchase of Skype, which allows voice and video calls over the internet, is set to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2009. Ebay will retain a 35% stake. (Source: NewMediaAge)

Web searches increased by 41% over the past year, with Google enjoying the most significant growth of the main engines, according to ComScore. Global search queries increased from 80.56bn to 113.69bn between July 2008 and July 2009, with Google searches up from 48.67bn to 76.68bn, giving it 67% of the global market. In contrast, Yahoo saw minimal growth, increasing from 8.70bn to 8.90bn searches year on year - just 2% growth and 7.8% of global share - while Chinese search giant Baidu was up 8% from 7.41bn searches to 7.98bn (7% of global share). (Source: NewMediaAge)

Channel 4 is to launch an interactive experience based on a fictional social network to raise awareness of online privacy among teenagers. Smokescreen is a 13-part adventure game launching this week. It aims to educate its target audience of 14-16-year-olds about the opportunities and threats posed by social networks. Players will engage with widgets, instant messages, false profile pages, emails, voicemails, CCTV footage, twitch games and puzzle games as part of the story, which will unfold online over eight weeks. (Source: NewMediaAge)

The largest ever US online video audience was recorded in July. New research has found that almost 160 million US internet users watched online video during July, the largest audience ever recorded. (Source: MediaTel)

Bauer Media's London stations Kiss 100 and Magic 105.4 are to become available on The Independent website - their first third-party ad revenue share distribution deal. From last week, visitors to Independent.co.uk will be able to listen to Kiss 100 and Magic 105.4 via an embedded widget on the homepage, which launches Independent-branded radio players that stream both stations. Bauer Media spokesman said Kiss has benefited from a substantial rise in listening hours from online sources, accounting for up to 7% of listening time, as well as helping lift Totalkiss.com's audience to more than 400,000 unique users per month. (Source: MediaWeek)

Absolute Radio has unveiled plans to launch a new live music station under the name Absolute CTRL. The new DAB station, which will broadcast live music events, will be funded through sponsorships and promotions, according to reports. The radio group said Absolute CTRL will air "a selection of rock and pop music aimed at a broad adult audience, featuring sessions and music performed before a live audience and tracks chosen by listeners". Absolute plans to test the platform internally over the next few weeks, before launching a test version to a small number of listeners. Absolute hopes to launch the new station, which will reportedly allow listeners to choose content, within the next few months. (Source: MediaWeek)

Edited by Lucy Gaskin

Week commencing 24th August 2009

Channel 4 confirmed Big Brother will be axed after next summer. As part of a wide-ranging shake-up of its programming, Channel 4 has opted not to renew its rights deal for Big Brother with Endemol when its contract ends in 2010. Channel 4 said it was not looking for a like-for-like replacement for Big Brother but "for lots of new ways to refresh the schedule". Source: Media Week

BSkyB has signed a five year sponsorship deal - thought to be worth about £3 million a year - with AEG Europe to become a "founding partner" of the O2 Arena. The deal will see Sky get first refusal on TV and online broadcast rights for most of the events at the venue. All screens at the arena will be converted to High Definition and used to demonstrate Sky+HD, with Sky also getting access to the 3D cinema, from the beginning of next year. Source: MediaTel

Channel Five's revenues fell 35% in the first half of the year as the advertising recession hit hard, making it the worst-performing part of RTL Group's pan-European broadcasting and production business.The UK broadcaster's revenues were €138m (£121m) in the six months to June, down from €212m for the same period last year.This 34.9% year-on-year decline was far worse than the 18.5% fall RTL recorded in Germany and the 16.5% in the Netherlands.RTL, majority-owned by German company Bertelsmann, also said today that the Five family of channels - including the digital channels Five USA and Fiver - lost market share in the first half of 2009, accounting for 7.9% of the TV advertising market, down from 8.9% in 2008. Source: Media Guardiank

News International has announced plans to close thelondonpaper, its free evening newspaper, just three years after it launched. The company has started a 30-day consultation on the proposed closure with approximately 60 staff, during which the paper will continue to publish. According to accounts for the year to 30 June 2008, NI Free Newspapers posted a £12.96m loss. Source: Media Week

IPC Ignite has joined forces with Mainline Menswear to launch Loaded and Nuts branded fashion sites from September. The new partnership will see their respective online sites link directly to fashion pages powered by the Mainline Menswear's website, which features products from 80 designer menswear brands. Both magazines will support the launch with promotions, including tagging across its fashion pages with 'buy now' referrals and offering discounts for a selected on-trend product each week. Source: MediaTel

News International has confirmed that Dominic Mohan will replace Rebekah Wade as editor of The Sun. Mohan will step up from his current role as deputy editor of the paper from September, as Wade assumes her new role as chief executive of News International. Source: MediaTel

Marie Claire has joined forces with Pearl & Dean and Vue Cinemas to launch a series of monthly film preview screenings for its readers in a bid to promote the recently revamped magazine, following the appointment of a new editor-in-chief, Trish Halpin, earlier this year. The previews will kick off with Sony Pictures' Julie and Julia on September 8. In addition, five of the twenty cinemas hosting the previews will also be holding extra "pamper parlours" for readers attending the screenings, where people can get the hair done by stylists. Source: MediaTel

Yudu Media is set to launch an online magazine service to allow publishers to host digital versions of their magazines. It has already signed deals with The Big Issue and distributor Newsstand to host publications on Yudu Store, which will sell print and online packages for titles including Nuts, Zoo, Inside Soap and Heat. The new service will also feature forums and polls as well as subscribers' clubs alongside the magazines' back catalogues. Source: MediaTel

Internet service providers could be given more powers to clamp down on piracy under new Government plans to tackle unlawful file sharing. ISPs would have the power to take action against individual repeat offenders under new ideas outlined by the Government today (26 August). Under the direction of Ofcom, the providers would be able to block access to certain sites, reduce broadband speeds, or temporarily suspend individuals Internet accounts as a last resort. Previously, it had been proposed that Ofcom would undergo a detailed process in order to ascertain that technical measures were required. However, the earliest these measures could come into play would be in 2012, which the Government has deemed could be too long to wait, given the pressure put on the creative industries by piracy. The new measures outlined would potentially allow action to be taken earlier. Source: Media Week

IPC Media is creating a central digital advertising operation called IPC Media Digital Sales.The new department will bring together all the digital advertising and ad ops functions from across the company, made up of 27 advertising personnel and a 12-strong ad ops team. Sam Finlay, currently IPC Ignite's group advertisement director, will take the new role of head of digital sales. Harry Harcus, currently head of ad ops for AOL Advertising, takes the new role of ad operations director across IPC Media, reporting into Finlay. Source: mediatel

Commercial radio has launched a stinging attack on BBC Radio 2, accusing corporation management of having "an obsession with youth". The Radio Centre, the industry trade body for commercial radio, said Radio 2 was "prioritising popularity not public purposes" by shunning older listeners and failing to provide sufficient news and current affairs coverage. Radio 2 is accused by the Radio Centre of changing its programming to target younger listeners over the past decade, a policy that had been "disastrous" for the commercial radio sector, which has seen its share of the market plummet in recent years. The Radio Centre also questioned Radio 2's £50m a year budget and the programming policy of its digital sister station, BBC 6Music, which it said had also drifted towards a younger audience. "Over the last decade, Radio 2 has shifted its programming policies - nobody has intervened and this has been disastrous for commercial radio's heartland audiences and for the plurality and diversity of the UK's fragile radio ecology," said the Radio Centre chief executive, Andrew Harrison. Source: Media Guardian

Edited by Kelly Fung and Tony Oakley

Week commencing 17th August 2009

VoD service Blinkbox has struck a significant content deal with BBC Worldwide, handing its users access to full-length TV shows and movies totaling more than 5,000 hours. BBC Worldwide has licensed the rights to offer Blnkbox customers British TV shows including Hustle, Hotel Babylon, and classic Doctor Who, which will be available for free on an ad-supported basis. Shows such as Top Gear, Gavin and Stacey, Spooks and Planet Earth will be available to purchase. Source – Media Week

Virgin Media-owned sales house IDS has struck a deal for upcoming Universal Pictures movie Funny People to sponsor Dave for a week. The cross-platform deal breaks on Saturday and runs until 29 August. At its centre is sponsorship of Dave, the UKTV-owned, male-oriented channel, for the duration of the deal, using more than 50 hours of programming and specially created three-second stings. Source – Media Week

Singer Peter Andre's take on life following his split with wife Katie Price pulled in 1.7 million viewers for ITV2 last night, Monday 17 August. The 90-minute special, Peter Andre: Going It Alone, drew an average multichannel share of 8.9% between 9pm and 10.30pm, according to unofficial overnight figures. A further 325,000 watched on ITV2 +1 an hour later. Source - Media Week

The men's magazine Esquire is preparing to launch in Dubai, with an initial print run of 15,000. Esquire's English-language Middle East edition will be the 18th international version of the magazine, and is to be published by ITP, the privately owned group chaired by the BBC presenter and former Sunday Times editor Andrew Neil, under licence from Hearst International. ITP hopes to have the first issue on sale in November. Source – Media Guardian

MySpace, the News Corp-owned social networking site, has struck a deal to acquire music discovery service iLike for an undisclosed sum. Founded in 2006 by brothers Ali and Hadi Partovi, iLike claims to attract 55 million total users and 1.5 billion impressions a month. The entire iLike team, including the founders and chief technical officer Nat Brown, will remain in place and be based in Seattle. Source – Media Week

'X Factor' viewers will be able to issue 'Gladiators'-like "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" ratings on contestants as part of the redesigned website, launching to coincide with the start of the sixth series of ITV1's Saturday night hit. The talented, the deluded and those just seeking their moment in the spotlight will be back on screen on Saturday night, but this time viewers will be able to dispense judgement not just within their own home and by phone vote but also online. Source - Brand Republic

Titan Outdoor has sold its entire roadside estate of 8,600 billboards to fellow media owner Primesight in a deal estimated to be worth about £6m. The portfolio, which includes 7,900 48-sheets and 700 96-sheets, will be transferred to Primesight from 1 September, making it the second largest billboard player in the outdoor market. Source – Media Week

Absolute Radio is launching a new radio station, under the working title of Absolute CTRL, which will broadcast live music events. In a departure from the traditional radio-funding model of spot ads, the new station will be funded mainly through sponsorship and promotions. Source - Mediaweek

Twentieth Century Fox has begun a major push for James Cameron's $247m (£149m) blockbuster 3D film 'Avatar', taking out ads to flag up a 15-minute teaser trailer which will run online today and in a 3D version in cinemas tomorrow. Free screenings are being offered in 14 UK locations, including four in London, to see the trailer ahead of the film's December 18 release.

Source – Brand Republic

Edited by the TV team

Week commencing 10th August 2009

ITV is preparing to launch a high definition simulcast of ITV1 on Freeview by the end of the year. It has leased bandwidth from the BBC for the new channel, which will join its existing HD offering on the Freesat platform. Source Mediatel

The Financial Times is to follow News International's lead and launch a pay-per-view model for access to the FT.com website. This will be implemented by summer 2010. The Guardian's digital director is however ruling out a pay wall. She has said 'They are a stupid idea in that they restrict audiences for largely replicable content. Murdoch no doubt will find this out - even rudimentary math suggests he will struggle with a completely free model to meet advertising revenue levels across the NI offerings' Source Mediatel

The Guardian is however asking readers' views on a proposed pay-for 'members club' to "support The Guardian financially". It has sent out a survey suggesting that in return for a fee, readers would receive benefits such as welcome pack, exclusive content, live events, special offers from partners and the opportunity to communicate with journalists. Source Media Guardian

Express Newspapers has been found to have disguised advertorials as features in a tactic the advertising watchdog the ASA said aimed to intentionally dodge the advertising code. The Advertising Standards Authority heavily criticised the company following an investigation the watchdog undertook after it noted that the paper on several occasions ran almost identical features about certain products on the same page as regular adverts for the same products. Source Mediatel

Regional newspaper publisher Archant has revealed a 61.6% drop in operating profits for the first six months of this year. Revenues were also down by 24.4% . Competitive publishing group Newsquest suffered a 36.9% year on year fall in advertising revenue in the second quarter of 2009. Source Mediatel

Latest 6 month circulation figures published by the ABC show the recession hit men's magazines and women's glossies alike during the first six months of this year, with OK!, Men's Health and specialist titles among the few to increase circulation. TV Choice remains the biggest UK consumer magazine selling 1,335,894 copies per week. The Radio Times on the other hand saw its circulation fall to below 1 million. Saga Magazine remains the most subscribed to title with an average net circulation steady at 652,055 The magazine with the largest UK distribution remained SkyMag, mailed each month to Sky subscribers, which distributed 7.55m copies, up 1% year on year. Source Media Guardian

Future Publishing has closed PSW (Playstation3World) magazine. Source Mediatel

Google has unveiled a new version of its search engine which it says will be faster and more accurate than ever before. The upgrade dubbed 'caffeine' by insiders has been opened up to for web developers. It is intended to replace Google's main search engine afer tests have been completed. Although little about the surface appearance of the new verion has changed, Google claims that it will significantly improve user experience - although it will also send shockwaves through the community of marketers who try and otimise their results to appear higher up in Google's Index. Source Mediatel

Facebook is launching a 'Lite' service which it says is intended for mobile phones and countries with limited bandwidth . Source Mediatel

Facebook has acquired real-time search engine FriendFeed. FreindFeed lets users access their social media accounts from one place , bringing together updates from sites such as Facebook and Digg. Source Mediatel

The slump in advertising expenditure can clearly been seen in the last figures from Clear Channel Outdoor who reported a 24% year on year fall in worldwide revenue for the second quarter and from CBS Outdoor whose worldwide Q2 revenue fell 27% year on year. In a separate company filing, CBS said it had suffered reduced revenue on its London Underground contract, which it conceded had "project delays". It would not, however detail the actual revenue reduction from the contract. Source Mediatel / Media Week

Global Radio's nationwide rollout of the Heart Brand which started in January 2009 appears to have been a success with the latest figures from Rajars showing Heart had 7.5 million listeners per week in quarter two 2009, up 219,000 quarter on quarter . Heart network's reach - the number of UK adults who listen to a station for at least five minutes in an average week - increased 119% year on year Source Media Week

Edited by Kirsty's team

Week commencing 3rd August 2009

Discovery Networks UK is to make its Freeview debut in September with the launch of generalist TV channel, Quest, four months later than originally planned. However, the company confirmed today (5 August) that the channel would now launch on 30 September. Discovery secured its first channel slot on Freeview in October, striking a deal to licence capacity from ITV-owned digital terrestrial multiplex operator SDN. It has been tight-lipped about the specific audience positioning and programming line-up of the channel, although the company said the channel would draw upon its library of factual, entertainment and lifestyle programming, while also including scripted acquisitions. Source: Media Week

The BBC's TV viewing share is gradually diminishing, with commercial television accounting for 63.7% of total broadcast viewing in the first six months of the year, up by 3.2% in the past five years, a new study reveals. Commercial broadcast TV viewing had a record first six months of 2009, according to new figures from the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board presented by Thinkbox, with commercial viewing up 9.9 minutes a week year on year. The average UK viewer watches 16.7 hours of commercial TV a week, up 42 minutes a week from the past five years. Total broadcast TV viewing in the first half of 2009 was 26.2 hours a week, in line with the same period last year, but up 18 minutes a week on the five-year average for the period. The results have impacted on the number of ads being watched, with figures up 2% year on year and 16% over the past five years, with the average viewer watching 43 ads a day. Source: Media Week

ESPN, the Disney-backed sports broadcaster, has secured carriage for its new Premier League-focused sports channel on Virgin Media and has picked up live broadcast rights for top flight German, Portuguese, Russian and Dutch league football, as well as US Major League Soccer. Virgin Media and ESPN today announced the new ESPN channel will be available in both standard and high definition to Virgin Media's 3.5 million digital TV customers from 3 August. ESPN already had a deal for its channels to be available on BSkyB's satellite platform. Customers who subscribe to Virgin Media's XL TV pack will be able to watch ESPN and ESPN HD at no additional cost. Source: mediaweek.co.uk

National Magazine Company is launching a hard-cover edition of men's monthly title Esquire. The magazine will go on sale this Thursday, 6 August, at its usual price of £4.25, despite the extra costs involved in its production, according to a report on MediaGuardian.co.uk. NatMags is also producing a special "super size" edition of Harper's Bazaar, also available from this Friday, focusing on "female resilience". Tess Macleod-Smith, publishing director of the titles, said: "The special issues reinforce our commitment to pushing boundaries, to being one step ahead of the competition, to offering exciting and fantastic platforms for advertisers and to making sure that our readers are constantly inspired by the amazing content that these magazines offer." ABC figures for June to December 2008 show that Esquire had a total circulation of 60,000 copies, a year on year increase of 0.4. Source: MediaTel

Lads' mag Front and movie mag Hotdog have been sold by Sport Media Group, publisher of the Daily Sport, to a new startup for £87,500. Kane, controlled by 24 year old entrepreneur Dominic McVey and managing director of talent agency Money, Francis Ridley, acquired the mags after SMG decided to focus on its core businesses of the Daily and Sunday Sport. McVey said: "Front is the rarity in its market, it is confident and resonates with its audience, which is why it has enjoyed an increase in popularity whilst its peers have all declined. "As an independent we believe we can be nimble and opportunistic, empowering the team to build on the success to date and collectively realise the brand's ambitions both in print and online." Front is not currently audited by ABC but according to independent distributors COMAG its latest July edition had a sale figure of 39,658. Source: MediaTel

Guardian News & Media is reportedly considering options for the Observer, including its possible closure. According to reports across the broadsheet press, GNM is working on a three-year plan which includes ensuring the future of the Guardian. This follows Friday's trading statement where the company revealed a pre-tax loss of £89.8 million for the year to the end of March. It is thought that if the Observer does close it could be replaced by a mid-week magazine of the same name. According to several reports, a mock up of the magazine was shown to members of the Scott Trust, the sovereign body of GNM, which "exists to secure the financial and editorial independence of the Guardian in perpetuity". The trust holds no such brief for The Observer, which GNM bought in 1993. The latest ABC figures for the paper show that its circulation was down 6.4% year on year in June to around 410,000 copies. Source MediaTel

Google is poised to expand its online video presence, having agreed a deal to acquire video compression technology outfit On2 at the end of the year for $106.5m. Google: will buy On2 at the end of the year. The video compression technology will allow YouTube viewers to download large video files more effectively and will work as part of Google's efforts to up its video-on-demand presence. Google has already made it clear it is looking to expand YouTube's offering by hosting long-form content on the site as soon as possible, as demand and competition in the VoD market heats up, following the launch of Microsoft's online Player and US-based Hulu's expected imminent launch in the UK. In March, YouTube allowed content providers the opportunity to sell advertising around their own content for the first time. Under the terms of the agreement for On2, each outstanding share of On2 common stock will be converted into $0.60 worth of Google class A common stock in a stock-for-stock transaction. Source: Media Week

AOL Advertising's ad-serving platform, Adtech, is launching an analytics solution that details insight into the performance of ad campaigns, ad placements, banner sizes and sales trends. Adtech: launching analytics solutionAdtech Analytics is aimed at agencies, publishers and ad networks and will be integrated into Adtech's existing ad-serving platform. For agencies, Adtech Analytics will able to analyse the performance of campaigns, while for publishers, the service is able to highlight any unused potential in the range of marketing services. Ad networks will be able to use the service to track the delivery of ad impressions, as well as the level of usage of ad space throughout their network and the performance of each individual website in the portfolio. In addition, data analysis allows agencies to optimise campaign management and conversion rates. Source: Media Week

Jean-Francois Decaux, boss of outdoor giant JCDecaux, has said he is interested in buying the US assets of rivals Clear Channel or CBS Outdoor to become the biggest outdoor company in the world. Decaux, chief executive of the world's third biggest outdoor advertising company, told Dow Jones Newswires he would be particularly interested in the assets of Clear Channel, should they come up for sale. A purchase of either company's assets would give JCDecaux a major presence in the huge US market. The troubled economic climate has led to a decline in advertising that has hit profits at both CBS Outdoor and Clear Channel, the biggest outdoor company in the world. Decaux's comments came as his company reported a 96% fall in profits, from €108.1m in the six months to the end of 2008, to just €4.4m in the six months to end of June 2009. Source: Media Week

Global Radio's 95.8 Capital FM breakfast show, fronted by Johnny Vaughan and Lisa Snowdon, attracted 89,000 more listeners in the second quarter of 2009 to secure its position as the most popular commercial radio show in London for the fourth consecutive quarter. Capital's breakfast duo averaged 1.16 million listeners per week between 6am and 10am, according to Rajar figures for the three months to 28 June, equating to a 22% rise year on year from 944,000 listeners per week in the same period of 2008. Source: mediaweek.co.uk

Commercial radio's share of total audience rose to 42.7 per cent in the second quarter of this year, a rise from 41.6 per cent on the last quarter, according to the latest set of Rajar figures, released today 6 August. Overall, radio listening showed impressive gains with a record 46.3 million adults, (just over 90 per cent of adults in the UK) tuning in at least once a week in Q2 this year, up from 45.8 million in the previous quarter and 45.1 million in the same period last year. Global Radio had a 40.3 per cent share of the commercial radio market with a weekly audience of 19.06 million listeners. The UK's biggest commercial radio group recorded a 17.2 per cent share of the total radio market, a rise on 16.9 in the previous quarter. Bauer Radio had total audience of 12.65 million and a 10.7 per cent share, a rise on the 10.6 per cent recorded for the previous quarter. Source: campaignlive.co.uk

Edited by Pedro's team

Week commencing 27th July 2009

BT Vision is set to introduce Sky Sports on its on-demand platform next year in a bid to bolster its paid-for content. This will allow BT customers to access the full Sky Sports package - a step up from the limited Setanta football package BT previously offered. Source: MediaTel

Five has been forced to slash its programme budget by 25% this year as a result of the ongoing advertising downturn. The commercial broadcaster has reduced its budget to £165 million, down from £220 million last year, which is the biggest percentage fall of any broadcaster in the UK. However, Five's newly reduced budget still sits above Sky One's budget of £140 million, though Sky is expected to up its programming investment in the coming months. Source: MediaTel

Television revenues are still struggling and are yet to show signs of recovery, with all terrestrial channels recording double digit percentage falls in June. Five was the worst affected last month, dropping 23.5% year on year, taking its total commercial revenue down to £15.95 million. However, Five's commercial impacts bucked the general downward trend among rival terrestrial broadcasters, with all featured audiences improving year on year. Source: MediaTel

London Evening Standard owner Alexander Lebedev has hinted that he is "in the picture" to buy the Independent and Independent on Sunday. Lebedev, who acquired a 74.9% share in the London Evening Standard earlier this year, openly expressed an interest in the loss-making titles but said "I don't want to multiply my problems. It would be interesting and we are inside the picture but they have certain issues to be resolved." However, the Independent MD has since reported that Alexander Lebedev is not close to buying The Independent and Independent on Sunday because the titles are not on the market. He also said that the publishing group hasn't identified the loss-making Independent titles as an asset to sell, despite rumours to the contrary. Source: MediaTel

Telegraph Media Group is set to launch a new glossy style children's magazine with The Sunday Telegraph. ST Children's Style, a perfect bound 52-page supplement, will launch on October 11 with an initial circulation of 300,000, according to reports. The new bi-annual title, which will be distributed across London and the South East, will feature clothing trends for kids, as well as a number of high-profile contributors with accounts of their childhood. Source: MediaTel

IPC Southbank is set to redesign its fashion monthly Marie Claire to be "a glossier, smarter and sexier magazine". Marie Claire's September issue will unveil the title's new-look and new content, which includes a fresh shopping section 'Straight into Style', a new section on sex and relationships, more in-depth features such as 'How to Look Expensive' and the return of the food pages. Source: MediaTel

FT Publishing, the publisher of the Financial Times, recorded a 40% drop in profits in the first half of the year, which it blamed on "tough" market conditions for financial and corporate advertising. Adjusted operating profit fell from £30m to £14m at the division, while sales fell 13% from £188m to £176m in the first six months. Source: Media Week

Free newspaper rivals London Lite and thelondonpaper have signed a deal with Camden Council to provide 70 recycling bins across the borough. The bins, branded "Please recycle your newspaper here", will be placed in busy commuter areas and stations, including Euston and Tottenham Court Road. Source: Media Week

A new 10 year partnership will see Microsoft's Bing search engine power Yahoo! search while Yahoo! will provide the worldwide sales force for both companies' premium search advertising. Under the terms of the deal, Microsoft will acquire an exclusive 10 year license and have the ability to integrate Yahoo! search technologies into its existing search platforms. Source: MediaTel

Subscribers to Virgin Media's XL pack will be able to receive the new ESPN sports channel for free from 3 August. The new channel, available in standard and High Definition, will feature live Barclays Premier League and Clydesdale Bank Premier League football and a range of other sports. As an introductory offer, Virgin is also making the channels available to all of its 3.5 million digital TV customers for free during August. Source: MediaTel

Yahoo! Buzz, the online firm's news recommendation site, hits the UK this week following its US launch two years ago. Like sites Digg and Reddit, Buzz lets users vote on and share online news stories from around the web. Its UK debut will come alongside a relaunch of Yahoo! Mail and follows last week's redesign of the company's homepage. Source: MediaTel

Twitter is set to host its first ever live gig, of sorts - next week the Twitgigs Experiment kicks off, a battle of the bands competition, which will be streamed through Twitter, with the winner chosen by Twitgigs followers on the night of the event. Source: Brand Republic

Titan Outdoor is believed to be in talks to sell its roadside billboards to Primesight in a £40m deal. It is thought to include all Titan's road-side inventory other than its Network Rail billboards. Source: Media Week

UK Box Office Chart
1. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (12a)
2. The Proposal (12A)
3. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (U)
4. Bruno (18)
5. The Hangover (15)
6. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (12a)
7. Public Enemies (15)
8. My Sister's Keeper (12a)
9. Moon (15)
10. Antichrist (18)

Source: Pearl and Dean

Edited by Anna Kilborn and Craig Blyth

Week commencing 20th July 2009

The future of contract rights renewal (CRR) and the sale of Virgin Media's content operations are keystones to an anticipated wave of consolidation within TV ad sales, according to leading executives. The Competition Commission's decision to free up CRR is expected to open the way for tie-ups within various sales houses, which has fuelled current speculation over a deal between Sky Media and Channel 4 sales, as well as a tie-up between IDS and Five. The outcome of Virgin Media's sale of its VMtv operation (home to channels such as Living and sales house IDS) and the sale of its 50% share in Dave owner UKTV is also key to consolidation in the sector. Source: Media Week

England's dominance of the second Ashes test helped Five's weekend coverage of the cricket set a new audience record for the channel. Cricket On Five's Friday figures averaged 1.36 million viewers, a 6.7% audience share, beating its previously high of 1.2 million set by the highlights show on day one of the first test at Cardiff, according to figures released by the broadcaster.The channel's Saturday evening coverage attracted 1.3 million viewers, a 7.3% viewing share, while Sunday's coverage attracted 1.1 million.Over the course of the first four days, 6.8 million viewers tuned in to Five's highlights, averaging 1.21 million a day for the second test, and England's improved performance looks poised to set a new record for average audiences across an entire test for Five. Last summer, Five's live cricket average reached 836,000 viewers for England's final test of the series against South Africa. Source: Media Week

The London Evening Standard has pulled out from ABC's monthly national newspaper audit, repositioning itself as a regional title for future circulation reports. However, the newspaper plans to continue reporting monthly circulation figures, despite regional titles normally recording data on a six-monthly basis. In June's ABC release, the Standard's circulation was up by around 12% month on month, taking its total to 236,075 copies. Source: MediaTel.co.uk

As newspaper groups announce alarming losses, publishers are under increasing pressure to make their digital offerings pay without alienating their vast online audiences. To date, only a few publishers have tinkered with subscription models, putting content behind paywalls or introducing subscription fees. Yet this has only compounded how significantly less loyal online audiences are compared to traditional newspaper readers. After more than a decade of trial and error, there are concerns that neither of these models is providing sufficient answers. Newspaper insiders believe 2009/10 could be a make-or-break year for newspapers, with the total UK newspaper sector is set to fall 26% year on year by the end of 2009. Source: Media Week

The untimely death of Michael Jackson confirmed a media shift, with the internet and microblogging driving the global news agenda. But once the story was out, traditional media took control, with detailed comment and insight. Pops titles made the most of the event with The Sun's 28-page pullout on 27 June and The Mirror dedicating half of the paper to Jackson on the same day. OK! magazine, which took just two days to get its tribute title onto news-stands, sold more than 900,000 copies. Rival publisher NatMags circulated 200,000 copies of a one-off tribute issue, while Bauer revived Smash Hits with a 100,000 one-shot. Source: Media Week

Dennis Publishing has acquired global entertainment portal Kontraband.com, adding it to its portfolio of online brands such as Monkey, Maxim.co.uk and autoexpress.co.uk. Launched in 1999, Kontraband.com is an entertainment portal for 18 to 34 year old men, featuring viral video and pictures, games, blogs and forums. The acquisition is the third for Dennis Publishing in 12 months and extends their reach to over 10 million unique users a month. Source: MediaTel.co.uk

Yahoo, the global internet company, is claiming a "solid performance" in the second quarter of the year, despite revenue falling 13% to $1.573bn and profit tumbling by a quarter to $76m year on year. The group has been particularly hard-hit by contracting advertising revenue from both search and display. Marketing services revenue from Yahoo-owned and operated sites were down 16% compared to the same period in 2008, to $858m.The shortfall was fuelled by a 15% drop in search ad revenue and a 14% decline in display.In addition, the company's total revenue was reduced a further 5% by the effects of currency rate fluctuations.The sale of the Paris-based online shopping and price comparison website Kelkoo at the end of last year was also said to have contributed to reduced revenues.However, Carol Bartz, chief executive of Yahoo, said she was "pleased" with the results and cited the company's new homepage as an example of "efforts to create innovative products aimed at increasing user engagement, while offering the most compelling advertising proposition in the industry". In contrast, last week, Google, the world's leading search specialist, reported an 18% lift in profit during the same quarter, despite group revenue remaining largely flat.Yahoo's inability to generate better efficiencies in the tough climate comes despite co-founder Jerry Yang stepping down as chief executive at the start of the year to be replaced by Bartz, who has followed a strategy of streamlining the business.Earlier this week, Yahoo was reported to be looking to sell HotJobs and Yahoo Small Business as part of its drive to shed non-core assets. Source: Media Week

SunTalk, the News International-owned online-only radio station, has expanded its remit to include Spain, as the brand looks to tap into the large number of holidaymakers and expats living in the country. This week's expansion comes two months after its launch in the UK. It will now be aired on Spain's Bay Radio and Spectrum FM between 11am and 2pm Spanish time.The show will be the same as the one aired in the UK, which has already attracted high-profile guests including David Cameron, Jack Straw, Terry Leahy and Boris Johnson.News International has set itself a target of 150,000 listeners within its first year, but says it has immediate plans to launch in other countries.Rival groups such as Telegraph Media Group, which has invested heavily in its Telegraph TV, and Guardian News & Media produce podcasts, but no other newspaper brand has an online-only radio station. Source: Media Week

Cinema ticket sales for the first half of the year have reached 83.4 million, the UK's highest box office figures for seven years. Films such as Slumdog Millionaire, which has taken an incredible £31.6 million in the UK so far this year, Monsters Vs Aliens and Star Trek, have contributed to the success of ticket sales this year. Cinemas expect this trend to continue through the second half of 2009 with the release of highly anticipated films such as Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Source: MediaTel.co.uk

UK Box Office Chart
1. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (12a)
2. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (U)
3. Bruno (18)
4. The Hangover (15)
5. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (12a)
6. Public Enemies (15)
7. My Sister's Keeper (12a)
8. Moon (15)
9. Year One (12a)
10. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (PG)

Source: Pearl and Dean

Edited by Kelly Fung and Andy Travis

Week commencing 13th July 2009

A joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Channel 4 is due to sign off within weeks. The formation of a joint venture is key to both parties, with Channel 4 seeking to plug a funding gap of as much as £150m from 2012. Meanwhile, it is thought the BBC is keen to be seen to be partnering with the commercial media sector at a time when questions over the future of the licence fee are growing. In Lord Carter's Digital Britain report last month, the Government proposed using part of the licence fee currently used to help the elderly and disadvantaged pay for digital TV switchover to fund regional news provision. Source: Media Week

Future, the special interest publisher, is overhauling Jetix Magazine and renaming the kids' offering as Nitro!, with a broader remit to include all major children's TV content while retaining its focus on five to 13-year-old boys. The new-look magazine will go on sale from 3 September and retain its cover price of £2.99. Future's decision to rename the title follows Disney taking on full ownership of Jetix Europe in 2008 and subsequently deciding in the UK to replace it with a new channel, Disney XD. Source: Brand Republic

This week, Shortlist revealed they will be releasing 'Stylist'. ShortList Media chief executive Mike Soutar believes he has identified a gap in the market to target the 4.2 million-strong "breakthrough generation" of 20 to 40-year-old women who enjoy 11 years of freedom and career building before starting a family. The theory is that most quality women's titles are monthlies, such as Glamour, Marie Claire and Vogue - and Grazia is the only existing upscale women's weekly. Source: Media Week

The National Readership Survey, the body that monitors newspaper and magazine readership, is setting up a new advisory panel to help advertisers and agencies become more involved in its strategy. The User Advisory Panel is made up of members from three NRS stakeholders - the Newspaper Publishers Association, the Periodical Publishers Association and the Institute of Practioners in Advertising. The NRS, under the direction of new chief executive Mike Ironside, is looking to become more inclusive and modern and overturn the criticism that its methodology is outdated. Source: Media Week

Eye has relaunched a portfolio of ad sites at Manchester Airport, following a £50m overhaul of the terminal. Free-standing inventory, designed to capture footfall in new shopping and eating areas, has been introduced. The firm has held the contract for nearly 50 sites since 2006. Opportunities include six-sheets, digital screens, large formats and ambient. Source: Media Week

Zoopla.co.uk, the property website, has acquired Guardian Media Group-owned Thinkproperty.com for an undisclosed sum. Under the deal, Zoopla will take over the Thinkproperty brand and website that attracts more than 200,000 unique users a month. It will also become the exclusive property search partner on the Guardian.co.uk website. Thinkproperty.com was launched by GMG in 2006 and focuses primarily on delivering leads to UK estate agents, which, with the new deal, will increase their exposure to a wider audience and offer a broader range of services. Source: Media week

According to the latest Superbrands survey of the top 500 brands Google is the UK's most popular media brand. The online giant was knocked off the top spot, however, by Microsoft, which regained its position at the top of the list after being toppled by Google last year. Source: Brand Republic

Technology blog TechCrunch has published one of the hacked Twitter documents which shows the microblogging service expected to begin making money in the current quarter. A financial forecast document dated February shows Twitter expected to make its first revenues in the third quarter of this year.It put that quarter's figure at just $400,000, but expected subsequent strong growth to have recorded cumulative revenues of $140m by the end of 2010. Source: Brand Republic

Global Radio has refreshed its Gold Network with new on-air imaging and presenters, and is launching an exclusive album range with HMV to go on sale next Monday (20 July). To complement Gold's refocused music policy, Global Radio has created a new imaging package with jingles and on-air sound. Classic FM presenter Simon Bates is to present a Sunday morning show on the network and David Andrews will host the weekday afternoon show. Source: Media week

Independent radio station Jazz FM has signed a 12-month sponsorship deal with musical instrument manufacturer Yamaha. Under the five-figure deal, Yamaha will sponsor Helen Mayhew's weekly show, which will be renamed the Yamaha Weekly Jazz Jam. The show will include a guide to live jazz events around the country and will feature new UK musical talent. Source: Brand Republic

UK Box Office Chart
1. Bruno
2. Ice Age III: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
3. Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen
4. The Hangover
5. Public Enemies
6. My Sisters Keeper
7. Year One
8. Night at the Museum 2
9. Kambakkht ishq
10. Shortkut

Source: Pearl & Dean

Edited by Jessica Smith & Sam Olive

Week commencing 6th July 2009

Total Media was very interested to hear from Thinkbox CEO Tess Alps this week when she came in to present the latest Thinkbox research - TV & Online: Better Together. It highlighted several key findings:

• 61% of respondents now watch TV whilst using the internet on a regular basis
• Entertainment and relaxation are now significant motivators for each medium
• Both TV and online ads can trigger offline and online search and purchase
• This concurrent behaviour now means that TV can almost be considered a point of sale medium

Total Media’s Head of TV Leila Gould explains that clever targeting means that this is achievable even on smaller budgets, illustrated in upcoming case studies.

Word-of-mouth marketing, opinions posted by consumers online and brand websites are the most trusted forms of advertising globally, according to a new report.

The Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey of more than 25,000 internet consumers from 50 countries revealed that 90% of internet users trust recommendations from people they know, while 70% trust opinions posted online and brand websites. The trust in advertising element of the survey was first conducted in April 2007. Since then, brand sponsorship has achieved the greatest increase in consumer trust, at 64%, up 15% from 2007. Trust in cinema ads was the second-biggest rise, from 38% in 2007 to 52% in 2009.

Newspaper ads were the only media to drop in terms of consumer trust, down 2% to 61%, but were still more trusted than magazine ads, which achieved 59%. Although brand websites scored highly among internet consumers, the survey showed other forms of digital advertising are trusted less than ads in traditional media, such as TV (62%), billboards (55%) and radio with 55%. Text ads on mobiles was the least-trusted form of advertising with 24%, but still achieved a greater level of increase than TV, magazines, radio and newspapers, which increased 6%. Source: Mediaweek.co.uk

US broadcaster ESPN is launching a new UK channel on 3 August to show its 46 Premier League football matches. ESPN bought the rights for the games after Setanta failed to keep up its payments to the league. The channel, which will also show some US sports which ESPN owns the rights to, will be available in standard and high definition on Sky, with the broadcaster in talks with other pay-TV platforms about carrying the service. It will cost existing Sky Sports subscribers £9 per month and other Sky customers £12 per month. Source: Mediatel.co.uk

Telegraph Media Group has unveiled plans to trial a new free newspaper in a bid to attract younger, more upwardly mobile readers. The Friday, which will have a distribution of 150,000 copies and will launch in conjunction with Gordon's gin, is Telegpraph Media Group's first free title. The Daily Telegraph publisher plans to hand out copies of The Friday during the afternoon at 25 UK railway stations, including some in London, for a six week period from 7 August. However, TMG, which has linked up with Gordon's as an exclusive sponsor for the trial, hopes for a full launch of the tabloid-sized Telegraph-branded product if it proves to be a success. The Friday, which will also be distributed with Friday's issue of The Daily Telegraph, will be lifestyle and feature-focused, with food, home, lifestyle, trends and fashion content. It is aimed at high-spending women and men aged between 30 and 55. Source: Mediatel.co.uk

IPC is testing the home-cooking market with the distribution of a one-off Woman and Home sub-brand title Dinner Tonight in September. The move comes amid a growing trend to cook “from scratch” and have dinner “occasions” at home in response to the recession. It follows Bauer Media’s April launch of monthly title Eat In and several retailers efforts to tap into the home-cooking trend via instore and direct marketing sales promotions. The 156 page title will be priced at £2.99 and will feature recipes, cookery advice and celebrity content. IPC has refused to comment on speculation the title may be rolled out as a stand-alone monthly title if the September issue does well. Food titles appear to be selling better than other mainstream mass market sectors during the recession. Circulation of the BBC’s Easy Cook title rose by 20.4% to 88,692 in the six months to December 2008, according to Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) figures. Source: mad.co.uk

Online Radio listeners hit 17m. The Rajar survey of radio audience measurement has shown that one third of adults now claim to have listened to the radio via the internet, which is up 5% to 16.9 million, from 16.1 million in October 2008. Seven million people said they’ve heard of personalised online radio, with 3.9 million people using services such as Spotify and Last FM at least once a week; a 34.5% rise since October 2008. The research has further gone to demonstrate that 76% of people who use “listen again” services said that this has no impact on their live radio habits; in fact over half are listening to radio programmes they would otherwise miss, and did not listen to previously. In other findings, one million adults said they owned a stand-alone radio that connects wirelessly to the internet to play internet services. 7.1 million adults had heard of these radios. Source: Rajar

Shares in behavioural targeting company Phorm have plummeted after BT pulled out of launching its controversial tracking technology. Phorm's shares were down 40% by lunchtime on Monday as news about BT's decision to drop Webwise, a system that tracks the internet habits of customers to deliver targeted ads, started to spread. Source: Mediatel.co.uk

UK Top 10:
1. Ice Age III: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (U)
2. Public Enemies(15)
3. Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen (12A)
4. The Hangover (15)
5. My Sister's Keeper (12A)
6. Year One (12A)
7. Kambakkht Ishq (12A)
8. Night At The Museum 2 (PG)
9. Terminator Salvation (12A)
10. Sunshine Cleaning (15)

Source: Nielsen EDI

Edited by Rebecca Wilson

Week commencing 29th June 2009

Supermarket brand Iceland is to sponsor ITV's I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here, for a fourth consecutive year.The integrated two-year deal includes broadcast sponsorship on ITV1 and ITV2, interactive, mobile, online, off-screen licensing as well as on air marketing.
In addition, I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here...NOW! returns to ITV2, offering viewers action plus interviews with the celebrity evictees. Fans will also be able to share views and chat about the show through itv.com, twitter, facebook and other social media. ITV said the most recent series on ITV1 attracted an average audience of 8.8 million viewers and a 35% share, peaking with 10.2 million and a 40% share. Source: mediaweek.co.uk

IPC scored highly at the PPA Awards, with its women's monthly title Woman & Home named consumer magazine of the year. Also from the IPC stable, lads’ title Nuts was named Consumer Media Brand of the Year by the judges, who said that the title responds at every turn to the needs and desires of its audience. In addition, IPC’s online music title nme.com picked up Interactive Consumer Magazine of the Year. BBC Magazines’ Top Gear was awarded International Consumer Magazine of the Year and The National Magazine Company’s Coast won the PPA’s Specialist Consumer Magazine of the Year. Sainsbury’s Magazine, the 15-year-old Seven Squared title which had a revamp last year, won Customer Magazine of the Year at the awards. UBM’s Property Week won Weekly Business Magazine of the Year and Creative Head from Alfol scooped Monthly Business Magazine of the Year at the awards. Source: campaignlive.co.uk    

IPC is set to unveil a new look to its women's real life weekly magazine Pick Me Up on 2 July, including a new cover design and more sections. The facelift comes as the title attempts to battle news-stand rivals such as Bauer's Take a Break and That's Life. It posted double-digit declines in sales in the February ABC figures, to 374,268 for July to December 2008 - down 12.2% year on year. The new-look Pick Me Up will retain its 68p cover price and will be supported by a three-month sponsorship of TV programmes Jerry Springer and Maury Povich on Virgin Media's Living 1 and Living 2. Source: mediaweek.co.uk

Absolute Radio have launched a new application for the iPhone. The app from Absolute Radio, LiveAmp, will showcase premium content from live music events partnered by Absolute Radio, such as the Isle of Wight Festival and Hard Rock Calling.The first version of LiveAmp is not sponsored, but Absolute Radio is now working on version two, which will be able to carry sponsorship.
Source: Mediaweek

High Wycombe station, Mix 107 is to close on the 1st July and owners, The Local Radio Company will hand the licence back to Ofcom. It has also been announced that they are to sell Arrow FM and Sovereign Radio!
Source: Radioworks

Titan Outdoor has won the multi-million pound, four-year contract to handle outdoor ad sales on the London Overground rail network after a competitive pitch against CBS Outdoor. The new outdoor contract, will run from 1 July for four years and includes all advertising on the stations across the London Overground network. The combined value of the total London overground ad sales contract - which includes ads inside the trains themselves, on the platforms and experiential - is understood to be worth £5m over four years.
Source: Media Week

Hulu, the US online video giant backed by several Hollywood studios, has confirmed the service will launch in the UK soon, adding the UK is the company's "number one" priority for international expansion. It is understood Hulu's launch plans have been affected by a disagreement with potential content suppliers, such as the BBC and ITV, over ad sales. It is thought Hulu wants to control ad sales around content on its platform, while the broadcasters are thought to want to retain full or partial control. Source: mediaweek.co.uk

Glam Media, operator of women's website network Glam.com, is launching an ad-funded micro-blogging network, Tinker.com, in the UK to capitalise on the commercial potential of social network Twitter. Tinker to get UK roll-outTinker.com, launched last month in the US, will roll out in the UK over the next few months following a trial. The site aggregates real-time conversations on social networking sites Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed and will be funded by advertising. No revenue-sharing deal with Twitter has been agreed. Unlike the live search function on Twitter that shows the top 10 subjects of conversation, Tinker allows users to follow real-time conversations on Twitter by selecting areas of interest to follow. Users and publishers will be able to create, post and share live Tinker streams on their social networking profiles, blogs or websites. Source: mediaweek.co.uk

Box Office top 10
1. Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen (12A)
2. The Hangover (15)
3. Year One (12A)
4. My Sister's Keeper (12A)
5. Night At The Museum 2 (PG)
6. Terminator Salvation (12A)
7. Blood: The Last Vampire (18)
8. Angels And Demons (12A)
9. New York (15)
10. Sunshine Cleaning (15)

Source: Pearl & Dean

Edited by Pedro Martins, Amanda Turberville, Tom Bailey, Lizzie Thomas, Raluca Efford & Soe Choudhury

Week commencing 22nd June 2009

The objectives for Lord Carter's Digital Britain report have now been finalised. This is the Government blueprint on future communications policy. The report provides actions and recommendations to 'promote and protect talent and innovation in our creative industries, to modernise TV and radio frameworks and support local news, and introduce policies to maximise the social and economic benefits from digital technologies.' There are a wide range of different objectives for each media type, these include ensuring broadband in all households by 2012, creating next-generation, super-fast broadband networks, completing a digital radio switchover by 2015 and securing Channel 4's future. Source: Mediaweek.co.uk

ESPN lands Setanta's Premier League football rights in £250m swoop. Last week (19 June) Setanta lost its rights to air 46 English Premier League games next season, after failing to make a rights payment to the English Premier League. It is understood that Sky Media, with whom Disney already enjoys an established sales relationship, will handle ad sales around ESPN's English Premier League coverage. ESPN said it plans to make its Barclays Premier League coverage "widely available" across multiple pay-TV platforms. It did not detail how much it intends to charge for the coverage, or, the name of the new Premier League channel. Source: Brand Republic.

Disney has launched a new UK channel, XD, aimed at boys aged 6-14, following an initial US launch in February. The channel, which features a mix of live-action and animated programming, replaces Jetix, formerly Fox Kids Europe, which Disney acquired on February. Source: Mediatel.

MTV is set to rebrand its MTV One channels as MTV and MTV+ from July 1 as part of a wider overhaul of the brand. MTV One, features programmes including Kerry Katona: What's the Problem?, The Hills and My Super Sweet 16. MTV One+ is its time-shifted sister channel. MTV confirmed the recent rebrand but failed to unveil any details about the upcoming launch. The broadcaster's international arm is also thought to be planning to launch a major new online music video archive initiative in the UK later this year. Source: Mediatel.

The London Evening Standard has struck a content-sharing deal with the New York Daily News, allowing the two to share editorial in print and online. The Standard said the deal builds upon a similar deal with Novaya Gazeta, the Moscow-based daily owned by the Standard's majority shareholder, Russian Alexander Lebedev. Source: Brand Republic.

Half of the UK's local and regional newspapers could close within the next five years, according to Claire Enders, chief executive of Enders Analysis. Speaking to a commons committee, which has launched an investigation into the future of local radio and newspapers. Enders said that newspapers would close as revenues will collapse by 52%, or £1.3 billion, between 2007 and 2013. Source: Mediatel.

JCDecaux has launched nine new packs for advertisers wanting to target London commuters, including a Domination network on Tottenham Court Road, which includes weblink. The Tottenham Court Road network incoporates 53 sites, which claim to reach 65,000 daily visitors in the heart of the media, telecoms and design district. Another pack called the "Wealth Corridors" will to bring together the capital's four tower structures, the A40 tower, the M4 torch, the A3 tower and the M3 tower, with a combined 6.5 million impacts. Other developments include an "International Capital" network, incorporating 450 of its Heathrow Première sites, and "The London Spread" package, which includes 10 Première 500 billboards, 20 PrimeTime digital screens and 50 day-part, 48-sheet scrolling billboards. Source: Mediaweek.co.uk

Ditto.net, the planned film and music consumer venture from Bauer Media, has been shelved following about £1m of development costs. The service, which was due to launch in April last year, never came out of testing due to the "shift in the media landscape", according to Bauer Media. The launch was due to be a major digital initiative for the publishing group following its acquisition of Emap's consumer magazines and radio businesses last year. Hailed as a combination of music recommendation site Last.fm and online retailer Amazon, Ditto.net was positioned as a social network for film buffs and music enthusiasts that would act as an "entertainment matchmaker", introducing people who share the same tastes and preferences. A Bauer Media spokesman said the site had not been shut down completely. She said: "It was due to be a consumer-facing brand, but the best way now is for it to be used to support commercial partners." The site will now be used by clients as a testing ground to measure how their brand interacts with each of their audiences. Source: Media Week

Youth magazine Vice has relaunched its video site VBS.tv to capitalise on the growing demand for full-length video content online. VBS.tv, which launched in March 2007 with film director Spike Jonze as creative director, has overhauled the service to build on strong consumer and commercial growth. Interstitial ads have now been added into longer shows, along with existing pre-roll inventory. Source: New Media Age

This week saw the re-branding of the last nine Heart stations taking the total to 33. 2CR, Buzz 97.1, Champion 103, Coast 96.3, Essex FM, Invicta FM, Marcher Sound, Ocean FM and Southern FM now all join the others completing the massive re-brand that has spanned over the last few months making Heart the largest UK commercial radio network. Source: RadioWorks

Oxfordshire's radio station Jack FM are looking to increase their stations output as they switch on their sixth transmitter. Now covering Wallingford, Jack FM are getting closer and closer to their aim of broadcasting in every town in Oxfordshire. Source: RadioWorks

Box Office top 10
1. Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen (12A)
2. The Hangover (15)
3. Night At The Museum 2 (PG)
4. Terminator Salvation (12A)
5. Angels And Demons (12A)
6. Drag Me To Hell (15)
7. Star Trek (12A)
8. Looking For Eric (15)
9. The Last House On The Left (18)
10. Last Chance Harvey (12A)

Source: Pearl & Dean

Edited by Sze Yeung, Anna Kilborn and Bex Cunnah

Week commencing 8th June 2009

Viacom Brand Solutions, Pearl & Dean and MySpace are combining to launch Screen, a new cross-media commercial venture, offering brands a tailored TV, cinema and online advertising service. The three companies - which each hold a strong footing among youth audiences - are not merging, nor is a combined sales force being established. The three firms will collaborate on specific projects using their separate, existing sales teams. Screen will be managed by Dan Salem, director of partnerships, VBS, Mike Hope-Milne, enterprise director, Pearl & Dean and Katie Morrison, group head of engagement, MySpace. The partnership will present advertisers and agencies with a one-stop-shop for cross-platform ads across TV, online and cinema. Source: Mediaweek

Project Canvas is still on track despite delay of a formal review. The backers of Project Canvas, which aims to launch video-on-demand services on Freeview and Freesat, are confident of a start-up in the first half of next year and anticipate it will, ultimately, be taken by several million TV homes. Last week, the BBC Trust announced a delay in its formal review of the venture, which is backed by the BBC, ITV and BT. It has asked the BBC to provide more detailed information on its plans for Project Canvas before making its final decision. The Trust asked the BBC to provide details on areas such as Canvas' choice of technical standards and the way in which the BBC will work with industry bodies. It initially planned to deliver a formal assessment of Project Canvas by 24 July, but last week's request for more information means this date is now pushed back. The Trust declined to give a new timetable, although, according to sources, it is expected to deliver its formal decision no later than early autumn, meaning that Canvas should still launch next year. Once started, it expects to be popular with consumers, with Canvas-enabled set-top boxes costing about £150. Meanwhile, it is understood that Canvas' backers are open to broadening the service beyond a free model by offering consumers paid-for services and is in talks with BSkyB and Virgin Media about supplying content. It is thought that ITV will independently lead its own commercial activity on Canvas, with plans to deploy ad formats such as linear, as well as pre, mid and post-video rolls around ITV content. According to sources, ITV is also planning to use Canvas to deliver targeted advertising via TV - long held to be the Holy Grail of TV advertising. If approved, Project Canvas, which is only a holding company and a non-profit vehicle to oversee the venture, plans to launch a single brand to position the service to consumers. Its backers accept, however, that the new brand's positioning will be key so as not to confuse it with the successfully established Freeview and Freesat brands. Source: Mediaweek

Channel 4 has launched a new ad package, Sun Seekers, aimed at advertisers wanting to capitalise on the expected hot weather this summer. The Sun Seekers package allows brands who sell more products during warmer weather to move airtime booked in July and August to hit the hot days. Through Sun Seekers, a maximum of five advertisers will be able to book campaigns across the network of Channel 4 channels, which defer booked airtime free of charge if the peak temperature in London is forecast by the Met Office to be less than 23°C. Chris Braithwaite, strategic sales group manager, Channel 4, said Channel 4 is always looking at ways to make the TV medium "more flexible and immediate" and the Sun Seeker initiative is an example of this. All advertisers are welcome to apply for the Sun Seekers package, as long as the campaign is in addition to any existing contractual commitment. Source: Mediaweek

The Daily Telegraph benefited from its high-profile revelations about MPs expenses in May, with the title outperforming its quality rivals and adding nearly 20,000 copies a day. The revelations have regularly led the news agenda across all newspaper titles during the month and helped both the quality and red-top titles record an overall uplift in circulation, according to May's ABC figures. TMG, the owner of The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph, also launched its first major advertising campaign in three years during the month. TMG claims sales of the two titles have risen by more than a million since they first exposed the scandal at the beginning of May. Murdoch MacLennan, chief executive for Telegraph Media Group, said: "It just shows what a great news story and good journalism can do for newspaper sales." The ABC figure reveals the daily title's average circulation in the month was 836,410, up 2.29% from April, but down 3.08% year on year. Source: Mediaweek

H Bauer's new monthly cookery title, Eat In, posted an inauspicious debut with its first issue, recording news-stand sales of fewer than 30,000 - half its target circulation. The first issue hit the shelves on 31 March. Bauer had told media agencies it was expecting a target circulation of about 60,000 for a title that has a print run of about 100,000. A company spokesman said: "The circulation figure Eat In has achieved at the news-stand is on a par with other magazines in this sector and, as such, the title is performing well, given that these titles will be bolstered by volume subscriptions, which will take longer for a launch title to accumulate." Source: Mediaweek

Channel 4 is relaunching its catch-up service, making its archived programmes available free on Channel4.com for the first time. From July, the 4oD service will allow users to access archived Channel 4 programmes, such as Queer As Folk, Trigger Happy TV and Drop the Dead Donkey, free of charge via Channel.4.com, with the site being purely ad funded. Channel 4's 4oD on demand service was relaunched on 1 April and has since seen a 111% increase in viewing compared with the previous month. Currently, the service only allows users to watch the past 30 days of Channel 4 programming, including Big Brother, Hollyoaks and Come Dine with Me. US programmes, such as Ugly Betty and Big Bang Theory, will still only be available for up to 30 days after airing. Archived US programmes such as Desperate Housewives and ER that previously cost 99p will not be available on the site. Films that currently cost £1.99 to view will not be available either on the new ad-funded service. The relaunched 4oD service on Channel4.com means Channel 4 is the only UK broadcaster to make all its archived content available to PC, Mac and Linux users on a free, streamed basis. Channel 4 will close its 4oD desktop application once all the archived content is available via Channel4.com. Channel 4's 4oD service available via Virgin Media, BT Vision and Tiscali TV, which also allows viewers to watch archived content, remains unchanged. Source: Mediaweek

Clear Channel has devised five summer ad packs that include a bonus to clients if the temperature reaches more than 30°. The propositions include packs for summer health and beauty, summer drink, summer festival, summer leisure attractions and seaside, and summer London tourist. As part of the packages, advertisers who book a campaign will receive a free slot on either Clear Channel's Piccadilly Lite installation on Piccadilly Circus, its digital roadside network or on its digital mall portfolio, when temperatures exceed 30°. A spokesman for Clear Channel said the campaigns offer a prime opportunity for advertisers to exploit the UK holiday market. Source: Mediaweek

Sir Alan Sugar's Amscreen has signed up Digicom, former CBS International chief executive Tom Goddard's digital out-of-home sales house, to handle its media sales. In a deal with the potential to be worth seven figures, Digicom will now handle the media sales for the expanding network of Amscreen digital outdoor screens. These include sites in BP petrol stations, GP surgeries and hospitals and in Powerleague five-a-side football centres. Plans to launch the digital sales house were revealed in Media Week last year and the company officially launched in January. Amscreen is the first official client for Digicom, but it is understood to be in talks with other screen owners. Source: Mediaweek

The Local Radio Company has sold Bournemouth-based radio station Fire, in the first major move since William Rogers' UKRD beat TLRC chairman Anthony Gumbiner in its bid to buy the radio company. TLRC said it disposed of its 80% holding in Fire Media Limited to Westward Broadcasting Limited, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Triple Media Communications Group, for an initial £1. TLRC, the former owner of Jazz FM, will receive a further minimum deferred payment of £40,000, which will be based on sales in the year ending 30 September 2009. William Rogers, chief executive of TLRC and UKRD, said TLRC was "reviewing its portfolio" and did not rule out the sale of further stations. Source: Mediaweek

Box Office top 10
1. Terminatior Salvation
2. Night at the museum 2
3. Drag me to Hell
4. Angels and Demons
5. Star Trek
6. Last Chance Harvey
7. Coraline
8. The Hannah Montana Movie
9. 12 Rounds
10. X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Edited by Leila Gould and Samuel Olive

Week commencing 1st June 2009

Sky is launching a new green-button service this week. The service will allow Sky+ subscribers to download ads directly to their PVR by pressing the green button on their remote control. Roll out of the on-demand service begins this month across all 50 channels in the Sky portfolio, joining the broadcaster's existing red button offering. Early examples of its use include recipes demonstrations and premiere preview clips of the new Harry Potter movie. Source: MediaTel

Now the women's weekly has relaunched with a redesign and new content. The new look is being supported by a £1.5million marketing investment. The magazine has a redesigned cover and new white-out-of-blue masthead, as well as a renewed focus on celebrity fashion and beauty with one third of its editorial pages devoted to fashion and beauty. Source: MediaTel

NatMags' women's monthly title Good Housekeeping is launching a travel-sized edition on a trial basis for its July issue. The travel-sized version will be available from WH Smith and at train stations and airports from 4 June. Source: MediaTel

The Face, the iconic style magazine is set to be revived five years after the title was closed down. Former FHM editor Anthony Noguera has been brought in to oversee the proposals, which are likely to result in the brand resurfacing next year in a new format. According to sources, the publisher is contemplating a number of options for the new brand, including relaunching it as a digital-only proposition, a free magazine or a subscription-only title. Bauer Media has ruled out reviving The Face in its previous incarnation of a monthly, paid-for news-stand title. Source: Media Week

News International is planning to launch a standalone Sunday Times website with paid-for content. The new website plans, which are still under discussion, but are thought to include charging readers for online content, come less than a month after Rupert Murdoch said he wanted to test the pay model on British titles. Murdoch is keen to build of the success of the Wall Street Journal's pay model. Last month, he said he would trial the model on elements of his stronger titles, in a similar way he charges people for the WSJ's online business news. He said "You can expect to see something in the next 12 months. We are planning to introduce a pay model across all our properties but we will test it first on some of our stronger properties". Sunday Times content is currently published online with its daily sister title The Times under the umbrella of the Times Online website brand. The new standalone site is expected to launch this year once plans of how to charge readers - either by subscriptions or micropayments - have been finalised. It is understood that News International will not make its current Sunday Times subscribers, or readers who have the paper delivered, pay for online access. Source: MediaTel

Google has launched a new version of YouTube which makes the video site accessible on large TVs or computer screens. YouTube XL features simplified navigation and large text, and will run on any browser providing Flash is installed. In addition, as it has a simpler interface, there are no comments, suggested videos or ads. Last month, Google integrated its Analytics software into YouTube brand channels, giving brands and content publishers access to previously unavailable information. Source: MediaTel

Titan Outdoor has unveiled a number of packs that aim to capitalise on people staying in the UK over the summer months. The nine bespoke packs have been designed to target festival-goers, sports fans, seaside visitors and consumers considering buying cosmetics and toiletries for the summer. The packs were designed to allow advertisers to capture the "huge variety of audiences" travelling to British entertainment destinations or shop in malls this summer. The beauty pack targets consumers making their summer purchases and the seaside pack targets consumers heading to British beaches such as Brighton and Bournemouth. There are individual sports packs around Wimbledon, The Ashes, the start of the Premier League and people watching the Lions tour of South Africa from the UK. The three Titan festival packs target music fans heading to V Festival, the Isle of Wight Festival and T in the Park. Source: Media Week

CBS Outdoor has retained the £4m five-year contract to manage the advertising on Merseyrail stations and trains after a competitive pitch with Titan Outdoor. The contract starts this month when the previous contract expires. CBS will continue to manage the majority of advertising across the Merseyrail estate, including standard sites on stations and panels on trains. CBS Outdoor said Merseyrail carries 100,000 people per weekday across its network of 66 stations, including the 75-mile routes on the Northern Line and Wirral Line and the core Liverpool city-centre underground network. CBS Outdoor also manages advertising on the Manchester Metrolink, Tyne & Wear Metro, Sheffield Supertram and the Midland Metro. Source: Media Week

Amazing Radio a new interactive radio station, has launched on Digital One's national DAB radio network on a six-month pilot with a host of new music and new presenters. Amazing Radio claims to be the "world's first station playing 100% new music" and launches with a line-up of presenters who are new to radio in a bid to bring something different to the digital radio network. The station will focus on brand new indie, urban, rock, jazz and pop music, with songs written and recorded by unsigned artists. Artists featuring on the new station have been uploading their music to Amazing's website over the past four years, as a means of promoting and selling their songs. The site launched in 2006 and now has more than 15,000 tracks and a global audience of around 35 million people, according to The Amazing Media Group. The station also aims to promote upcoming presenters, called 'unsigned voices', and let listeners decide what they want to hear by selecting their own playlists. Source: MediaTel

Emma Bunton the former Spice Girl has been signed by Global Radio to present two weekly shows on its Heart network and its flagship London station, Heart 106.2. She will host a Friday drivetime show in the capital, and a Saturday afternoon show to be syndicated across the country on the 24-station Heart network. Global rolled out its Heart brand in two stages this year, with another nine stations due to switch to the Heart name on 22 June. Bunton's first Friday show will be on 12 June. She will make her Saturday network debut the following day. Source: Media Guardian

UK Top 10:
1. Night At The Museum 2 (PG)
2. Drag Me To Hell (15)
3. Angels And Demons (12A)k
4. Star Trek (12A)
5. 12 Rounds (12A)
6. Coraline (PG)
7. The Hannah Montana Movie (U)
8. X-men Origins: Wolverine (12A)
9. Obsessed (12A)
10. Jonas Brothers 3-d Concert... (U)
Source: Pearl & Dean

Edited by Sarah Halliday

Week commencing 25th May 2009

Ofcom, the broadcast regulator, has announced it will not increase the amount of advertising allowed on television until at least spring 2010. In a ruling today (26 May), Ofcom said the total amount of advertising shown in any one day would not change, meaning it would not exceed an average of seven minutes per hour of broadcasting. There will also be no change to how much advertising can be scheduled during peak viewing time, between 6pm and 11pm, on public service broadcasting channels. However, the watchdog will allow more breaks in programmes (not including films) on PSB channels, ITV, Channel 4 and Five, that run longer than an hour, bringing the rules into line with those applying to non-PSB channels.All transactional gambling on TV that invites viewers to pay to take part or place bets will now be treated as teleshopping, and will be governed by its regulations, which include preventing gambling providers targeting young people and preventing the use of misleading claims. Source: Brand Republic

Discovery Networks UK is delaying the launch of its first Freeview channel, Quest, until the fourth quarter of this year, postponing a start date originally scheduled for this month. Discovery secured its first channel slot on Freeview in October, striking a deal to license capacity from ITV-owned digital terrestrial multiplex operator SDN. It is tight-lipped about the specific audience positioning and programming line-up of the channel, although Discovery said the channel will draw upon its library of factual, entertainment and lifestyle programming, while also including scripted acquisitions. Discovery launched its first channel in the UK in 1989. The UK business has since increased to 12 pay-TV channels that are available through BSkyB, Virgin Media and other platforms. Source: Brand Republic

London Underground is set to cut the length of its freesheet newspaper contract from 11 years to 7.5 years when it expires in March 2010. Newspaper groups are expected to start bidding for the contract to distribute free newspapers on the underground, which is currently held by Associated for its morning title Metro, this week. Transport for London officially issued a tender today asking bidders to compete for the contract, which allows the concession holder to distribute freesheets at 250 tube stations and 20 bus stations across the capital. The transport body confirmed that the tender would only allow distribution from 6am to 11.30am on Monday to Friday, despite rumours that TfL would split the contract into separate morning and afternoon slots. Source: Mediatel

Kent Messenger Group is to relaunch free weekly paper, the Gravesend, Dartford & Swanley Extra; which will be re-launching as the Messenger Extra. Messenger Extra will be a single-edition title, replacing the two editions distributed in Gravesend and in Dartford and Swanley. The old door-to-door delivery distribution model will be replaced by a mix of free-to-home delivery, local shop pick-ups and an online edition. The move is part of a revamp of the eight titles in Kent Messenger Group's Extra series, which includes plans to trial user-generated content in its Canterbury edition. KM Group said that the Extra series will continue to be used to create awareness and drive sales for the Kent Messenger's paid-for titles, as well as promoting its online and radio offerings. Source: Mediatel

Beamups, an online marketplace for buying and selling news content has gone live in the UK, acting as a platform for cash-strapped news broadcasters to buy and sell unused or breaking stills and video. The service provides international, local and online new outlets with a trading space for news content, which can be purchased from around the globe. A range of news stories in categories such as political, sports and celebrity are available to buy per item, at a sliding scale of prices and rights, from exclusive to non-exclusive. Other international news content providers including local reporters, freelance photographers and video journalists, news agencies, and production companies can upload, package and price their content for free. Source: Brand Republic

Yahoo chief executive Carol Bartz has said the company is still talking with Microsoft over a possible deal to sell part of the company, although she insisted that a deal is not close. Yahoo announced in October it would cut about a tenth of the workforce. And, unveiling Yahoo's results in April, Bartz warned the company "is not immune to the ongoing economic downturn". Globally, Yahoo posted revenue of $1.58bn in Q1 2009. Excluding the impact of currency rate fluctuations, it said revenue for the first quarter of 2009 would have declined 8% from the first quarter of 2008. Source: Media Week

IPC has overhauled the website for its fashion magazine, InStyle. The redesigned site will offer fresh commercial opportunities, including leaderboards and larger-sized multiple purpose units (MPUs). Editorial changes to the website include enhanced fashion coverage and extended video content, plus new hair and news channels. Other new features include mircrosites dedicated to key events and a third party-powered online shopping section offering designer and high-street products. The new-look site will be promoted across a number of IPC's women's magazines, including Marie Claire, Essentials and Now, along with advertising on websites such as Marieclaire.co.uk and Nowmagazine.co.uk. The InStyle.co.uk website was launched in May 2007 and the change is its first major overhaul since its creation. Source: Media Week

The recession hit the outdoor industry particularly hard in Q1 2009 as it posted a 19.3% year on year fall in ad spend to £178.4m, according to the Outdoor Advertising Association. The retail, point-of-sale and transport sectors increased their share of the outdoor medium at the expense of roadside, which declined to under 50% of the total market. Outdoor ad spend fell, by volume, in many ad categories. Finance spend, by volume, was down 33.6% in Q1 to £16.2m, while telecoms companies' spend was down 40.5% to £13.2m. However, some categories, such as entertainment/media (13.1%) and food (23.9%) increased year on year. Digital outdoor revenue totalled £16.9m in Q1, up 29.4% year on year. Source: Media Week

Vatican Radio, the voice of the Roman Catholic Church, is to accept advertising for the first time in its 80-year history. The radio station, which is available by satellite in 61 countries across 5 continents and by download from its website, is opening up its content to advertisers in a bid to bring in revenue to pay for new programming. A spokesman for Pope Benedict XVI is reported as saying that Vatican Radio costs £19 million a year to run and needs to generate more funding to stay on the air. Ad revenue is expected to attract between £175,000 and £260,000 for Vatican Radio. Source: campaignlive.co.uk

UK Top 10: (22-24 May)
1. Night at the Museum 2
2. Angels and Demons
3. Star Trek
4. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
5. Coraline
6. Hannah Montana - The Movie
7. Fighting
8. Tormented
9. The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
10. State of Play

Edited by Pedro's team

Week commencing 18th May 2009

Channel 4 could cut its News at Noon and More4 News programmes in an attempt to reduce budgets by 10%. Although the broadcaster said that no decisions have yet been taken, it is understood that several programmes are under threat. Earlier this month, Channel 4 chief executive Andy Duncan said that it would probably cut 10% from its £600 million programming budget. More 4 News is a half-hour bulletin shown weekdays at 8pm. Source: MediaTel

Discovery has delayed the launch of its Freeview channel Quest for a second time. In a statement, the network said: "The challenging economic environment and a number of other commercial factors have made a delayed launch more financially prudent." Quest was due to launch this month after previously being postponed from launching earlier on in the year. Source: MediaTel

The Sun has cut its cover price from 30p to 20p in London, making it the joint cheapest national newspaper in London, equal to the Daily Star. The News International paper's cover price will remain at 60p in the capital on Saturdays. ABC figures for April show that the Sun had a circulation of just under three million copies, down 5.6% year on year. It is thought that the price-cut could add around 50,000 copies to the paper's circulation in London. Source: MediaTel

The Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph's circulations have been boosted between 25,000 & 87,000 copies a day by the MPs' expense claims scandal, according to unofficial figures. Drip-feeding the story has boosted figures every day since the story broke. (Also see Digital Story re their website). Source: Media Guardian

BBC's Good Homes magazine has been saved from closure by Kelsey Publishing. The title, which the BBC announced it planned to stop publishing last month, has been sold to the Kent-based publisher. It will publish its first issue of the magazine in August. The title will now be entirely independent of the BBC and not carry its branding. Source: Brand Republic

The north Kent free weekly title the Gravesend, Dartford & Swanley Extra is re-launching as a single-edition title named Messenger Extra. Distribution will be a mix of free-to-home delivery, local shop pick-ups and online. Source: MediaTel

Future, the specialist magazine publisher, has reported an 11% fall in revenue for the six months to the end of March. The company's revenue was £76.6 million for the period, a 2% year-on-year fall, or 11% when the effects of currency exchange are removed. Source: MediaTel

YouTube is in talks with content owners including ITV, Channel 4 and Sony Pictures to stream long-form video in the UK as the battle to own online TV heats up. The Google-owned video-sharing site is drawing up plans to go head to head with Hulu and TV.com, both of which are reportedly preparing UK launches. Source: Marketingweek.co.uk

AOL has partnered with Bauer Media to launch a parenting site. ParentDish offers blogs written by parents and has categories on pregnancy and birth, eating and nutrition, and babies. Bauer Media will provide editorial content from its parenting site Askamum. The site follows the launch of a US version in May 2008. Source: Marketingweek.co.uk

Online recruitment specialist Fish4 has launched a dating site, fish4love, in partnership with White Label Dating. The site, targeted at men and women looking for either friendship or love, can be accessed through the main Fish4 portal. Source: New Media Age

The Telegraph's newsprint success re MPs' expenses scandal (see Press section) has been replicated online with Telegraph.co.uk enjoying a big boost in traffic according to new data from Hitwise. The research shows 1 in every 756 page views in the UK last week went to a Telegraph property, meaning the newspaper's market share of UK pages views (0.13%) was the highest it has ever been. Souce: MediaTel

Twitter chief executive Biz Stone has announced that the microblogging site will not be running ads. Instead, the company wants to generate revenue by developing applications and add-on tools for business users. Speaking at a summit in New York, Stone said that there are plans to launch an analytics system by the end of the year, allowing users to collect data such as how often a user tweets and to whom. A report from Nielsen published last month found that over 60% of Twitter users abandon the site after the first month. Source: MediaTel

Clear Channel is offering targeted opportunities to reach sports fans during the forthcoming Ashes cricket series, which attracted more than 400,000 spectators the last time it took place in the UK in 2005. The contractor has identified more than 100 panels, including phone boxes, 48-sheets, 96s and digital roadside 48s close to the stadia where the test matches will be played. The digital 48s allow highly targeted messages eg uploading a congratulatory message at Vauxhall Cross, close to The Oval immediately after the event. The 10 digital screens across London can also be used for updates on play using RSS feeds, and schedule different copy for different times of the day. Clear Channel's mobile services division provides the opportunity to target consumers through a branded cricket game. By texting a keyword, consumers receive a link to download a game that has a mobile site with video, live content and sport reports and analysis. Source: Media Week

UK Top 10: (w/e 15th May)
1. Angels and Demons
2. Star Trek
3. Coraline
4. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
5. Hannah Montana - The Movie
6. Fighting
7. The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
8. State of Play
9. Monsters vs Aliens
10. 17 Again

Edited by Craig Blyth, Anna Kilborn and Bex Cunnah

Week commencing 11th May 2009

UKTV is set to complete the rebranding of its channel portfolio by relaunching UKTV Food as Good Food. Good Food, a name which comes after a licensing deal was agreed between UKTV and BBC Worldwide, is due to launch at 9am on Monday 22 June. Good Food's launch, which will be accompanied by a new website, follows on from UKTV's set of new-look channels including Dave, Watch, Eden, Blighty and Yesterday. The channel's strapline "We have fun with food" looks to build on UKTV Food's offering by targeting upmarket 25 to 44-year-olds. (Source -Mediatel)

RTL Group would not detail its actual UK ad revenue or financial performance but said that Five's ad spend decline was above 17% year on year in Q1. Looking ahead, RTL Group was reluctant to give guidance for the rest of 2009. However, the company did say it expected Five to continue to underperform the UK TV ad market in Q2, which, it said, would decline by more than 17%. STV plc, operator of ITV franchises in Scotland, warned recently that TV ad spend would decline by 20% year on year in April and May. Europe-wide, RTL Group said it had to cope with a tough economic environment in the first quarter of 2009. As first announced in March, RTL Group said it was reviewing "all costs and structures in response to the substantial slowdown in advertising bookings". (Source - Media Week)

Channel 4 has warned it faces damaging cutbacks if the Government does not sanction a partnership deal with BBC Worldwide, or hand it part of the TV licence fee to help address the broadcaster's funding gap. The warning came as Channel 4 revealed it hopes to form a joint venture with BBC Worldwide to coincide with the publication of Lord Carter's Digital Britain report next month. Faced with a funding gap of about £150m in the near future, Channel 4 has been negotiating with BBC Worldwide about the formation of a joint venture, based around non-BBC branded assets. It is hoped the venture would go some way to addressing the anticipated black hole in C4's finances. (Source - Media Week)

The Evening Standard is launching the next stage of its advertising campaign in support of this week's relaunch as the London Evening Standard. The activity includes a 60 second TV ad and a print and outdoor campaign featuring the words "we promise", with the next stage set to feature outdoor and bus-side ads using bold colours and two-tone prints. It follows last week's Standard ads saying "sorry" to its readers for its previous behaviour. Monday's relaunch saw 650,000 free copies of the paper handed out across the capital, while additional marketing activity includes offering the paper half-price to Oyster card-holders and selling left-over titles for just 10p to late-night travellers. The most recent ABC figures, for April 2008, show that the paper had a total circulation of 263,312 copies, down more than 6% year on year. (Source - Mediatel)

Trinity Mirror is warning that ad revenue at its national titles will fall by 10% year on year this month, and by 35% at its regional division. The alert was sounded as Trinity revealed group ad revenue plunged nearly one-third (30%) year on year in the 17 weeks to 26 April. Unveiling an interim management statement, Trinity said "early indications for May" were that group circulation revenue was expected to fall by around 5%. Group advertising revenue in the period to 26 April fell by 30% year on year, reflecting, it said, a decline of 30% for January and February and a decline of 29% for March and April. (Source - Mediaweek)

The backers of Project Canvas, the proposed range of video-on-demand services from ITV, the BBC and BT, have hit out at BSkyB's recent criticism of the venture. Project Canvas will combine Freeview and Freesat with broadband capability in a next-generation set-top box, to combine TV, radio and high-definition services with on-demand catch-up and archive programming provided by the BBC's iPlayer and ITV Player, as well as web content. BSkyB criticised the BBC Trust's decision not to conduct a full market impact review of Project Canvas. It said Project Canvas was "likely to qualify" for an investigation by the Office of Fair Trading as a "relevant merger situation". It has also called on the BBC Trust to assess the likely risk of the project falling foul of European Union state aid rules. However, the backers of Project Canvas said its services should come to fruition to ensure that not just those consumers who take pay-TV can access VoD in the future. (Source - Media Week)

Outdoor media owner JCDecaux and BAA, the owner of Heathrow and Gatwick, are to terminate their £500m pan-airport ad contract in April 2010, seven years ahead of schedule. The announcement follows the final decision from the Competition Commission in March, which concluded BAA had to sell Gatwick and Stansted, as well either its Glasgow or Edinburgh airport. In a joint statement, the companies said the move would give both organisations an opportunity to restructure their businesses to reflect BAA's new airport portfolio. It is expected the ad contracts for outdoor advertising in BAA airports will now be decided on an airport-by-airport basis. (Source - Media Week)

BBC Radio 5 live has unveiled its new weekend schedule with a fresh new look to its Saturday and Sunday morning slots. Danny Baker is set to host the Saturday 9-11am programme, with a focus on the day's sport, which will include listener stories, comedy, fans on the road, interactive games, special guests and supporters' issues ahead of the weekend action. Christian O'Connell will also return to 5 live in September with a 15-part topical news comedy programme, which will air on Sunday mornings from September 6. (Source - Mediatel) IPC-owned NME Radio has launched on DAB radio in London this week. NME Radio, operated under licence from IPC by Xfm founder Sammy Jacob's audio-visual company DX Media, has previously been available in London on FM on a short-term basis. The presenter-driven alternative radio station will also be available on 87.7FM in Manchester during May. The station launched on Sky, Virgin Media and through NME.com in June and has been available on Freesat since August. (Source - Mediaweek)

UK Top 10: (w/e 8th May)
1. Star Trek
2. Coraline
3. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
4. Hannah Montana - The Movie
5. The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
6. State of Play
7. 17 Again
8. Monsters vs Aliens
9. I Love You, Man
10. Fast & Furious

Edited by Tony Oakley and Andy Travis

Week commencing 4th May 2009

Channel 4's TV ad revenue fell 4% in 2008, outperforming the total UK TV ad market. However, the broadcaster warned of further cutbacks as it looks to deal with a predicted 18% slide in ad revenue in the first half of 2009. Overall, the broadcaster posted a surplus of £1.8m, up from £0.5m in 2007, thanks to cutbacks and reduced programme spend. Spend on programmes and content fell by 4% to £598.6m, in response to a £35.5m reduction in its TV advertising revenue to £789.7m. Despite the squeeze on its finances, Channel 4 posted its best share of peak TV viewing, with a 12.7% audience share between 5.30pm and midnight, while maintaining its share of total viewing at 11.9%, close to its historic high. (Source: Media Week)

ITV's share of commercial TV impacts fell in Q1 of 2009, dented partly by the continued erosion of its viewing share by multichannel broadcasters. According to the IPA's Trends in TV report for Q1, including its digital channels, its share from GMTV and ITV1, ITV captured 38.6% of all commercial impacts, down from 39.9% a year earlier. Sky Media and IDS, however, posted a rise in their shares of commercial impacts, from 12.3% to 13.5%, and 10.7% to 11.2% respectively. In terms of audience shares by demographic, non-terrestrial channels picked up more 16 to 34-year-olds than terrestrials, while more ABC1s (62.1%) watched terrestrial TV than non-terrestrial channels. (Source: Media Week)

News Corp's group-wide profits took a hit in the first quarter of 2009, with sharp falls at its newspaper and digital operations, led by a 21% decline in ad revenues at its UK newspapers, with pre-tax profits plunging 47% to $755m. News Corp's newspaper operations were among the hardest hit by what News Corp chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch termed "the continuing weakness of the global economic climate". Overall, its newspaper division, which includes its UK newspaper assets plus titles in Australia and Wall Street Journal owner Dow Jones, pre-tax profits fell to just $7m, down from $216m in the same period a year ago. It blamed lower advertising revenue, the strengthening of the US dollar against the British pound and unspecified restructuring charges. The decline prompted Murdoch to warn of a re-think in the newspaper model. He suggested that one of News Corp's main newspaper assets, for example The Sun or Australia's The Daily Telegraph could start charging for online access within a year or so. (Source: Media Week)

Carolyn McCall, chief executive of Guardian Media Group, has revealed that the newspaper publisher is considering charging for content in some specialist areas of Guardian.co.uk. McCall said that MediaGuardian.co.uk is one of the specialist areas that GMG should consider charging for. McCall said: "More people are looking seriously at how they can make money charging for content that costs a lot of money to make. I don't think we will be doing much content online in B2B unless we get money for it". (Source: Brand Republic)

Palm's highly anticipated new smartphone, dubbed the Pre, has a partner in Facebook for its initial marketing launch, after leaked studio photographs depicting a life-size Facebook homepage hit the web. A filmmaker from the Warner Bros studio where the campaign is being developed errantly leaked a photograph from the set through Twitter, calling the new smartphone an 'iPhone for chicks'.The picture shows a manmade, large-scale Facebook homepage, suggesting Palm will rely heavily on the social networking website to promote its new smartphone, as it faces an uphill battle to convince consumers its Pre can trump the iPhone. (Source: Brand Republic)

Promotion Space Group has won an exclusive deal with sports out-of-home media owner Sports-Revolution to manage promotional activity in football grounds and rugby stadia across the UK. They will manage promotional activity across 69 football grounds and 13 rugby stadia, with a reach of more than four million men a month; and will also sell seat-back sponsorship at the rugby sites, including seven Guinness Premier League grounds. (Source: Media Week)

Commercial radio regained audience share from the BBC in Q1 2009, with its overall share rising 0.5 per cent year on year in the period to 41.6%, following a slight dip in Q4 2008, according to the latest Rajar figures. In Q4 2008, commercial radio's audience share fell by 0.2 percentage points year on year to 42.2%, after posting year on year audience share increases in the previous two quarters. (Source: Media Week)

CBS Corp-owned social media music site Last.fm is launching a new personalised music player. The new personalised Visual Music player, will, when accompanying music, offer a continuous stream of photos of the artist being played. In addition, users will be able to create multi-genre stations by mixing music tags - "'80s" and "soundtrack", or "French", "60s" and "female" for example - to fine-tune their music channel. In addition, a multi-artist radio service enables users to create stations based on combinations of their favourite bands and performers: for example, by listening to a music stream featuring artists such as Radiohead, Rachmaninoff and Rage Against the Machine. Last.fm said the new player provided advertisers and sponsors with new branding opportunities, "enabling them to reach Last.fm's highly engaged audience in a much more immersive manner than that offered by audio advertising". (Source: Media Week)

UK Top 10: 1st - 3rd May 2009
1. X-men Origins: Wolverine (12A)
2. The Hannah Montana Movie (U)
3. State Of Play (12A)
4. The Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past (12A)
5. 17 Again (12A)
6. Monsters Vs. Aliens (PG)
7. Fast & Furious (12A)
8. I Love You Man (15)
9. In The Loop (15)
10. The Uninvited (15)

(Source: Nielsen EDI)

Week commencing 27th April 2009

Thinkbox is to launch its first ever TV advertising campaign to remind advertisers of the continuing power and effectiveness of TV. The TV ad will hit screens in May and will pay affectionate tribute to some of the greatest and most effective TV ads, both current and from previous years, all of which are still returning value for their brands. In the last 18 months there have been two major studies into advertising payback by PricewaterhouseCoopers which have underlined TV's unrivalled contribution to the bottom line. One study was of an analysis of 880 IPA Effectiveness Awards case studies from the last 27 years, and the conclusion was that TV is becoming more effective over time. Source:thinkbox.co.uk

Virgin1, Virgin Media TV's rival to Sky1, has acquired a new Freeview slot to take the general entertainment channel 24 hours and launch a one-hour time-shifted service. VMTV, has secured a new 24-hour presence on ITV-owned multiplex SDN. (mentioned in last weeks Newsletter) Source: brandrepublic.co.uk

The National Federation of Retail Newsagents (NFRN) has revealed that 510 of its members went bankrupt in the last year - a rate of ten a week - as they struggled to compete with other retailers selling newspapers and magazines, including supermarkets and coffee shops. Source: springfair.com

Supermarkets such as Tesco & Asda have hiked their ad spends in a bid to woo value-conscious shoppers. Food retailers have shifted the bulk of their media spend into deal-based advertising and are waging relentless price campaigns through newspapers and 10-second TV ads. The supermarket chains are credited with propping up the declining revenues of tabloids such as the Daily Mail and The Sun over the past six months, with retailers accounting for an astonishing 80% of the papers' ad revenues on some days. Source: mediaweek.co.uk

According to the latest internet figures, by the year 2010, 413 million households worldwide will have a broadband connection. That means that the market for online entertainment and information, so called content services, will be offered to over 130 million people. By 2005, that figure had already past 13 million. Right now 12.8 percent of all households already watch online content. Video-on-demand, Youtube, and Myspace. Source: mediaplanet.co.uk

Setanta is launching a live and on-demand online video service, Setanta-i, across six territories, which will replace its Setanta by Broadband offering. The online service, currently in test phase, will allow subscribers and non-subscribers to access Setanta's channels, such as Setanta 1, 2, Setanta Golf, Setanta Sports News and LFC TV. Source: mediaweek.co.uk

Primesight is set to buy beleaguered outdoor company Streetbroadcast's retail park businesses from its administrator for a six-figure sum. Should the sale go ahead, Primesight will take on Streetbroadcast's static and digital outdoor formats in retail parks across the country. The digital sites would be Primesight's first digital products, although it is not known whether Primesight intends to maintain them in the long term. Source: mediaweek.co.uk

CBS Outdoor has launched a new digital escalator panel format, the mega DEP. The mega DEP combines a vinyl wrap with digital ads on the screens on London Underground escalators. Source: mediaweek.co.uk

The BBC and commercial radio will join forces to set up a cross-industry body, the Radio Council, to help secure the medium's future in the digital age. Among the BBC/commercial sector projects the new council will work to establish are a shared online live radio player, multiplatform electronic programme guide and a range of exclusive digital-only content to help boost struggling digital audio broadcasting (DAB) stations. Setting up the Radio Council reflects concern that the industry is in danger of being left behind in the digital age. Source: guardian.co.uk

UK Top 10: 20th - 26th Apr State of Play Monsters Vs Aliens Fast & Furious 17 Again I Love You Man In The Loop The Uninvited Observe & Report Race To Witch Mountain The Boat That Rocked

Source : Pearl & Dean

Edited by The TV Team

Week commencing 20th April 2009

Michael Grade is to step down as executive chairman of ITV to become non-executive chairman and allow the company to bring in a chief executive. Grade's decision follows reports last month that ITV shareholders wanted Grade to step back from his executive role in return for pumping more money into the channel. However ITV said today it had decided it would not need to raise money from shareholders as it is confident of securing alternative funding. Instead it will sell off its Freeview slot leasing business SDN and has agreed covenant-free financing to raise an additional £58m. Source: Media Week

In the latest ABC release, The Independent suffered the largest decline in the Quality Daily market, shedding over 41,000 from its circulation year on year, leaving it with a total of around 205,000 copies. The Independent on Sunday was also hit hard falling by 24.3% - or almost 54,000 copies - to leave its circulation at around 168,000. Source: Mediatel

The Guardian has raised the cover price of its Saturday edition by 10p to £1.70. The Guardian's last price rise came in September 2008, when it increased to £1.60. In the rest of the Quality market, the Saturday Times costs £1.50, while the Saturday Daily Telegraph and Saturday Independent cost £1.60. Source: Mediatel

The Evening Standard is planning a major relaunch in a bid to turn around its fortunes and position the paper as an essential read for upmarket London readers. Editorial changes to the title, overseen by the new editor, Geordie Greig, are likely to involve a move to make the Standard politically unbiased and more pro-London and pro-Londoners in its stance. There will also be design changes aimed at making the title easier to navigate and an increased emphasis on integrating web and mobile content with the newspaper. The Standard's new owners are also considering a major relaunch of the title's Eros loyalty card, with the likely introduction of Oyster card functionality. Source: Brand Republic

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has pledged to support the media industry's efforts to invest in high-quality content in the coming years and to protect it from piracy. Speaking at the Digital Britain Summit in London, Brown said: "We need to support the creation and availability of high-quality content. We will support the legal framework that enables the private sector to create content." Source: Media Week

Titan Outdoor has renegotiated the two ad contracts for Network Rail's railside and roadside portfolio, previously worth up to £80m a year, following a period in which Network Rail sought proposals from rival outdoor players. Titan now has exclusive rights to sell the inventory across the Network Rail stations, in key trackside locations and roadside ads on Network Rail land. The station contract includes exclusive rights to sell advertising, including Transvision screens, static sites and D6s (digital six-sheets) across 17 stations including London Euston, Victoria and King's Cross. The roadside ad contract covers 3,100 poster sites, mainly 48 and 96-sheets, across the UK. Source: Media Week

Global Radio is expected to imminently confirm the sale of eight stations in the Midlands to Bauer Media in a deal thought to be worth about £30m. Last August, Global Radio proposed selling stations to appease competition concerns by the Office of Fair Trading over Global's £375m purchase of GCap Media. The eight stations are BRMB, Mercia FM, Beacon FM, Wyvern, Gold Birmingham, Gold Coventry, Gold Wolverhampton and 106FM Heart East Midlands. Earlier this month, Bauer Media emerged as the preferred bidder for the stations and has been holding exclusive talks with its rival in a bid to agree a deal. Source:Media Week

The BBC must take a lead role in extending the reach of digital radio around the UK, a key report feeding into Lord Carter's Digital Britain work by former GMG Radio chief executive John Myers has concluded. His independent review warns that the radio industry is facing "perilous times", with UK radio ad revenue expected to fall below £500m in 2009 for the first time in a decade. He warns that potentially in excess of 50 stations around the country could be forced out of business without radical measures. Referring to the need for DAB coverage to be extended, Myers believes the BBC must "demonstrate far greater creativity in its relationship with the sector, developing radio for the good of all consumers and, indeed, for the long term health of the sector". Source: Media Week

UK Top 10: Fri, 17th Apr - Sun, 19th Apr Monsters Vs. Aliens (PG) Fast & Furious (12A) 17 Again (12A) I Love You Man (15) Crank 2: High Voltage (18) The Boat That Rocked (15) Race To Witch Mountain (PG) In The Loop (15) Knowing (15) Marley & Me (PG)

Source : Nielsen EDI

Edited by Raluca, Soe, Dennis, Lizzie, Tom & Pedro

Week commencing 13th April 2009

Virgin Media is to roll out targeted ads across its VoD service, following the conclusion of its first trial of VoD advertising to 100,000 Virgin Media-subscribing homes in north London. More than half (54%) of the triallists reacted positively to the VoD ads, while 65% preferred to view ads before VoD clips. VoD advertising trial ran for three months across north London to establish how Virgin Media should effectively place ads on its VoD platform. Having collated the results, it is now considering options for rolling out insertion ads across all content on its VoD platform. Source: MediaWeek.co.uk

Sport magazine, the men's free weekly magazine, has suspended publication after its French parent company, Sport Media & Strategy, went into administration. The company said that it had decided to suspend publication while "the company rethinks its business model". Source: MediaWeek.co.uk

The Daily Mail has become the latest newspaper to launch a subscription service to increase reader numbers. The mid-market newspaper's offering will mirror subscription services launched by rival newspaper groups, including The Daily Telegraph, Daily Express, The Times and Independent. Unlike the Express, the Daily Mail will not promote its subscription service in the daily newspaper due to concern about cannibalising paid-for sales. The service, which will launch in test form within a month, will run across the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday. Source: MediaWeek.co.uk

City AM increased its circulation by 7.4% year on year, according to the ABC figures for March. Profiting from interest in the financial crisis, City AM handed out an average of 104,493 copies a day in March. The paper has recently expanded its distribution to train stations around Surrey and Croydon. Source: MediaWeek.co.uk

The Evening Standard posted a circulation drop to 280,461, down 1.26% year on year. Russian owner Alexander Leberdev bought a 75.1% stake in the Evening Standard from DMGT in January and his editor Georgie Greg has vowed to make the paper more "optimistic". DMGT's free evening paper, London Lite, which still shares some editorial with the Evening Standard, increased its circulation slightly, by 1.2%, to 400,547 copies a month. Thelondonpaper held its circulation, handing out an average of 500,949 copies a day in March. Metro distributed 1.2% fewer copies in March 2009 compared with March 2008, but posted the highest circulation of any of the London free papers at 733,284 copies. Source: MediaWeek.co.uk

Bliss, the teenage monthly magazine for girls, has been redesigned with a new logo and new columnists. The new-look title, priced at £2.50, will go on sale on 22 April. The changes will run though the magazine and include new page layouts and two new columnists: girl band The Saturdays and hip hop group N-Dubz. Bliss has suffered a big fall in circulation in recent years. The magazine, which boasted a circulation of more than 400,000 in 1997, registered a circulation of 90,767 in the period July to December 2008. Source: MediaWeek.co.uk

Universal Music Group is teaming with Google to launch a new ad-supported music and video online service, Vevo. In addition, YouTube has renewed and extended its partnership with Universal that allows users to watch user-generated videos containing Universal music on YouTube around the world. Launching later this year, Vevo will be a premium online music video hub. The two companies will also share advertising revenue on YouTube and Vevo. Source: Brand Republic

MySpace Music, the social network's ad-funded music service, claims it's still on target to launch a UK site this year despite a false start. MySpace Music will aim to rival a growing list of ad-funded music services, such as Spotify, Last.fm and We7. It also comes as the online music sector hots up with the arrival of services from Yahoo Music, MTV and Universal Music Group (Vevo). Source: NMA

Clear Channel Outdoor has started the rollout of 300 new ad panels in Glasgow as part of a new pedestrian tourist sign system in the city. When complete in June, the new system will include 149 maps and information panels along with the 300 ad sites. The signs replace the existing blue tourist signs in the city and will be situated on key routes including London Road, Gallowgate and Moir Street, as well as George Square, Buchanan Station and Howard Street, though ads are not permitted in the conservation areas of the city. Source: MediaWeek.co.uk

TalkSport has signed Russell Brand and Oasis front-man Noel Gallagher to create a two-hour "no holds barred show" on Sunday 19 April. Source: MediaWeek.co.uk

The directors of Jazz FM have agreed terms to buy the radio station from owner, The Local Radio Company. The agreement has the support of Guardian Media Group, which is selling the name and intellectual property rights to Jazz FM. Alongside Jazz FM chief executive Richard Wheatly, shareholders in the new venture include fund management company Herald Ventures, corporate finance advisers Kinmont, and a number of private individuals. Source: MediaWeek.co.uk

UK Top 10: (Fri 10 - Sun 12 April 09) Fast & Furious Monsters Vs. Aliens 17 Again The Boat That Rocked Knowing Race To Witch Mountain Marley & Me The Haunting In Connecticut Dragonball Evolution Paul Blart: Mall Cop

Edited by Craig Blyth, Sze Yeung and Bex Cunnah

Week commencing 6th April 2009

A portion of the BBC's licence fee should go to the corporation's rivals to allow them to create more public service content, such as current affairs and regional news programming, according to a parliamentary report. The House of Lords Communication Committee said that an element of "contestable funding" should be created for broadcasters and programme makers who are willing to produce PSB content. "Consideration may ultimately need to be given to redirecting an element of the licence fee to support public service content provision outside the BBC," the report said. The committee also said that it does not see a case for Channel 4 merging with the BBC's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, as a means to plug its £150 million funding shortfall, as suggested in Lord Carter's interim Digital Britain report. "Although we believe that the BBC must make a substantial contribution to tackling the general problems of public service broadcasting, that does not necessarily mean a merger between BBC Worldwide and Channel 4," the report said. "We believe that it would be wise for the government to look at other options." The BBC, which is funded by the guaranteed £3.4 billion fees paid by all households with televisions in the UK, has said it is willing to form partnerships with commercial broadcasters, such as Channel 4 and ITV, in a bid to ensure the future of PSB content. (Source MediaTel)

On the 2nd of April Sky successfully broadcast the UK's first live event in 3D TV to a domestic 3D TV set. The broadcast, a performance by the band Keane, was part of a 3D music event co-produced by Sky, to coincide with Keane's performance at London's Abbey Road studios. The three-screen 3D event involved Sky broadcasting a simulcast of the gig and displaying the event on a 46-inch high-definition 3D TV screen. It also comprised a 3D webcast using anaglyph (red/green) glasses, as well as a live test broadcast via a satellite downlink to a Vue cinema kitted out with 3D equipment. Sky said last night's broadcast did not mark the launch of a 3D TV product, but was "another stage in Sky's ongoing research and development into the technical possibilities and potential demand for 3DTV in the UK". The broadcaster added that it was working with TV manufacturers, broadcasters, studios and other content owners to establish the potential for commercial 3D TV services. (Source Media Week)

The Daily Star's price-cutting strategy enabled the Richard Desmond-owned newspaper to outperform its tabloid rivals in March, driving its circulation up year on year by more than 13%. The title, which cut its cover price from 35p to 20p last November, recorded a circulation of 819,880 in March - up 5.01% on February and an uplift of 13.52% on the year. It was the biggest riser across the entire newspaper market. The tabloid titles had a better month than their quality counterparts, with The Sun's circulation back up above the 3 million mark, benefiting, like the other tabloids, from its coverage of Jade Goody's death. The News International-owned tabloid recorded a circulation of 3,068,035 in March, up 3.85% from February, but down 0.91% year on year, and regained its title of the biggest-selling UK newspaper from its Sunday sibling, the News of the World. Across the mid-market, Richard Desmond's Daily Express outperformed its rival the Daily Mail year on year, only falling 0.81% to 725,841 while the Daily Mail fell 6.32% over the period, to 2,162,462. The Independent continues to suffer, slumping 16.74% year on year to a circulation of 205,308. The Daily Telegraph and Pearson-owned Financial Times both suffered year-on-year declines of about 5%, outperformed over the year by The Times - down 3.53% to 600,210 - and The Guardian, down 4.80% to 340,952. (Source Media Week)

Rupert Murdoch has warned newspapers will have to start charging for their online services to survive, as he predicted the recession will continue for several years. Speaking at The Cable Show in the US, Murdoch said the increase in free content online is damaging the newspaper industry. He said: "Nobody is making money with free content on the web, except search. People are used to reading everything on the net for free and that's going to have to change." Murdoch also suggested the New York Times, a rival of News Corp's Wall Street Journal, might have to charge for its online service. He said: "The inventory of display advertising on the web is doubling every year. They're never going to make money on an advertising model to replace what they're losing." (Source: Media Week)

Yahoo is moving into contextual-based advertising across its mobile homepage for the first time, as it launches Yahoo Mobile in eight markets worldwide. Yahoo Mobile will include a new homepage browser, an application for the Apple iPhone, with an application launching for the Smartphone in May. The homepage will be available on more than 300 handsets across the UK, Germany, France, US, Canada, India, Indonesia and the Philippines. For the first time, the new browser and application will include targeted advertising, such as banner ads, across content such as news. The site will continue to include its search function, but will now allow consumers to customise the rest of the homepage by adding bookmarks, RSS feeds or news from other websites, based on their individual interests. Advertisers will then have the opportunity to sponsor or affiliate themselves with stories or content based on consumers' personalised updates. Yahoo Mobile is also aligning itself with nine social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter and Bebo, by allowing consumers to simultaneously access their social networking page through the consolidated Yahoo Mobile portal. The homepage will also feature e-mail, instant messaging and address books. (Source: Media Week)

New UK search engine Oparla is offering web users the chance to pre-register to its site, ahead of its official launch next week, in order to get a month's free ad space. The site, which has been created by internet entrepreneur Daniel Jupp, is due to launch next week after more than 12 months development. Oparla lets users rank sites according to relevancy and usefulness - registered users can also comment on results and message other Oparla members requesting information and recommendations. In a bid to attract corporate users, Oparla will offer advertisers a one month free introduction for businesses, followed by a fixed monthly fee. Publishers will be able to advertise for a single payment each month, rather than taking a cost per click and keyword bid approach. Jupp said: "Oparla rewards advertisers and users alike by offering monetary incentives to users and affordable, accountable and transparent advertising to publishers. "Those who register and comment on the search results will be helping to shape the development of a search engine in way that previously, was unheard of." Users can pre-register on the site for free, creating an account similar to a social media profile. (Source: Media Tel)

Bauer Media is currently in talks with Global Radio to buy five of its Midlands stations. Global Radio offered to dispose of the five Midlands stations in a bid to appease the Office of Fair Trading, after its £375 million acquisition of GCap Media in April 2008. At the time, senior director of mergers at the OFT Simon Pritchard, said: "The divestment remedies in the Midlands, where efficiencies were not sufficient, are about restoring competition to make sure customers will not be harmed." Bauer Media has emerged as the preferred bidder for Heart 106 in the East Midlands and GCap's BRMB, Beacon, Mercia and Wyvern in the West Midlands. The Kiss FM owner is thought to of faced competition from former Chrysalis Radio chief Phil Riley and Midlands radio entrepreneur Mike Owen. However, a period of exclusive talks is now set to take place between Bauer and Global. The five stations are estimated to be worth between £15 million and £20 million - a substantial fall from its first pricing of approximately £40 million, due to the current economic climate. (Source Media Tel)

UK Top 10: Friday 27 - Sunday 29 March, 2009 Monsters Vs Aliens The Boat That Rocked Knowing Marley and me The Haunting in Connecticut Paul Blart: Mall Cop The Damned United Duplicity Grand Torino Watchmen

Source: Pearl and Dean

Edited by The Digital Team

Week commencing 30th March 2009

Virgin Media has agreed to sell its home-shopping broadcaster Sit-up TV to Munich-based investor Aurelius for an undisclosed sum. Sit-up TV operates three digital home-shopping channels - bid tv, price-drop tv and speed auction tv. Virgin said the company's live programs are available to viewers in more than 20m homes in the UK. Launched in 2000, Sit-up TV, generated revenues of £242m in 2008. Virgin Media wrote down the value of Sit-up by £54.8m in February, reflecting, it said, the impact of the recession and the loss of one of its two Freeview channels. Virgin Media would not confirm whether the sale means its other content assets such as its 50% stake in UKTV and its Virgin Media TV arm, owner of channels such as Living and Virgin1, are now formally up for sale. (Source: Mediaweek)

Daily Mail & General Trust chairman Lord Rothermere has sold about £540,000-worth of shares in the group. According to a statement released to the London Stock Exchange, Rothermere sold 325,295 shares at a price of £2.29 per share. According to the stock Exchange, Rothermere still holds nearly 76 million shares, equating to 21.05% of the company's stock. Rothemere's selling of the shares follows the group's sale of the Evening Standard to Russian oligarch Alexander Lebedev. (Source: Mediaweek)

BBC Magazines is to axe three of its children's titles, including the 10-year-old flagship Tweenies, due to falling circulations. The publisher is closing Balamory magazine, together with Amy, the lifestyle title aimed at girls aged five to eight. BBC Magazines, which has about 80 editorial staff across its entire children's portfolio, says staff working on these titles will be redeployed within the group. (Source: Mediaweek)

Trinity Mirror is set to close four of its free weekly regional titles and redeploy staff to other publications in the area. The Black Country Mail Extra, Wolverhampton Adnews, Daventry Post and Ashby Herald will all be axed, however, Trinity has confirmed that it will concentrate on other titles in the Midlands region. Trinity will keep running the Walsall Observer, the Warwickshire and Leamington Times and the Ashby Trader and Echo to cover the regions that are affected by the closures. (Source: Mediatel)

Clear Channel Outdoor has sold its taxi operation, Taxi Media, to independent taxi ad company Taxi Promotions in a deal worth several million pounds. The Taxi Media brand is being retained and Taxi Promotions managing director Asher Moses wi