NEWSLETTER

The Total Media weekly newsletter brought to you by Ashley's Team

PRESS

Rupert Murdoch has taken to social network Twitter to deny a report relating to his company, which claimed the launch of a new Sunday tabloid had been put on hold because of the arrest of four Sun journalists. Murdoch has dismissed as "100% wrong", a report that News International has put on hold the launch of a Sunday newspaper to replace the closed News of the World. Last night he took to Twitter to deny the report, marking the first time that the chief executive and chairman of News Corporation, the parent company of News International, publisher of The Sun, has denied a story relating to his company, on the social network. Murdoch's tweet reads, "FT Financial Times or Fawlty Towers? Sun on Sunday story today 100 per cent wrong." He was reacting to a report that claimed the weekend arrest and suspension of four journalists from The Sun would hamper any possible launch of a Sunday tabloid, called the Sun on Sunday. The four journalists were questioned under suspicion of making illegal payments to police officers. The FT report also played down suggestions in other reports that a launch date for the title had been set in stone for April 29. However, other sources spoken to by Media Week agreed with the report in the FT. Source: Media Week

News International (NI) is trialling a new publishing model with the launch of its first "social media magazine" on Facebook for its Fabulous magazine. On the 1st February NI launched its Fabulous for Facebook app, which will distribute original fashion and beauty content on the social networking site every day. The content will appear in users' timelines and can be shared with their friends on the social network and Twitter. The app enables users to create and share Spotify playlists and a weather app, which recommends clothing and accessories, based on weather conditions. It will also feature a fashion blog, gallery and competitions. While the publisher will not receive any revenue from ads served around the app, it has been devised to build a following for the Fabulous brand on Facebook and drive sales of the weekend print edition of the magazine, which appears inside The Sun every Saturday. News International plans to run sponsored content opportunities with brands in the future, although it currently has none lined up for launch. Source: Brand Republic

TELEVISION

TV viewing in 2011 maintained levels set the previous year, but is expected to plateau over the coming 12 months, according to a report by the UK commercial broadcasters' marketing body, Thinkbox. Figures from BARB showed the average viewer watched four hours and two minutes of linear TV a day, or 28 hours and 14 minutes a week, matching 2010's record levels. Commercial TV accounts for 64% of UK linear TV viewing, up 1.3% year on year, due to successes such as ITV's Downton Abbey. Thinkbox attributed the figures to consumers staying home because of the difficult economic conditions, as well as innovations such as 3D TV. It claims that linear TV, as opposed to time-shifted viewing, still accounts for more than 90% of all TV viewed in the UK. It also claims that the viewing of TV ads is up by 2.6% year-on-year, with the average viewer watching 47 TV ads a day. The body admitted linear viewing is likely to 'stabilise', but expects the daily figure to stay near the four-hour mark. Lindsey Clay, Thinkbox's managing director, said: 'These figures explain why so many tech companies want to join the TV industry. Many companies are flocking to launch new TV services or social media services that feed off people's love affair with TV. 'It is obvious that people want to watch TV programmes on the best screen in the home if they can and 2012 will bring more opportunities to do that with the sale of connected TVs and more catch-up TV services to the TV set.' Source: Brand Republic

RADIO

DAB's long haul to widespread penetration has passed a mini-milestone, with four in 10 adults now claiming to own one at home, although its share of radio listening is only at 19.4%, according to the latest Rajar results. Eight years ago just one in 20 adults owned a DAB radio at home. Penetration doubled in the next year, then again within two years, but it has taken the ensuing five years to get from 20% to 40%. The number of DAB sets (including DAB/IP sets) sold in December rose 8% on the previous December to hit 446,000, according to GfK. Despite DAB's rise, analogue remains entrenched as the platform through which most listening occurs, with a 64.1% share of all listening in Q4 2011. However, the increasing ownership of DAB sets at home, where most listening takes place, does appear to be having an impact on the popularity of listening via the digital platform. DAB took a 19.4% share in Q4 2011, which is up from 15.8% in Q4 2010. DAB's growth helped digital radio (including digital TV and internet) grow its share from 25% to 29.1% over the same period.
Source: Brand Republic

Another Good Quarter for Digital Listening! This Quarter saw an increase in Digital Listening with 300 million listening hours and 23.1 million people tuning into the radio via a digital platform. RAJAR shows 46.7 million adults (15+) in the UK listen to the radio every week. Commercial Radio reaches 32.8 million listeners and achieves a listener share of 42.4% versus the BBC's 55.5%. On a local level commercial radio completely dominates the BBC delivering 26.2 million listeners compared to the BBC's 9.6 million for local and regional services. Source: Radioworks

OUTDOOR

Outdoor advertising sites near the Olympic Park are to be sold to non-sponsors, marking a shift from previous rules. This will allow brands from categories such as film, theatre and tourist boards to advertise near the Games' venues. Originally, only official sponsors of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games were allowed to advertise on outdoor media close to the Olympic Park, but this has been expanded to include some other sectors. Outdoor media in the "vicinity" of the Olympic Park can now be sold to film companies, theatres, music labels, book publishers, colleges, tourist boards and other organising committees, such as that for the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games. As part of the bid for London 2012, outdoor media owners agreed to sell their inventory to sponsors only, and an online auction took place last year. At the time, media industry sources suggested that less than half the outdoor sites available during the London 2012 Games were bought by official sponsors. It was estimated that £31m out of £72m worth of inventory had been snapped up. Source: Brand Republic

DIGITAL

The UK pages went live on Twitter on the 1st February. Companies can now post a branded banner and a permanent tweet containing media or a promotion, at the top of pages. Asda has posted a YouTube clip of its latest TV ad in its permanent tweet. Its branded banner includes its "10% cheaper or we will give you your money back" price guarantee. Cadbury's is using its brand page to promote its tier-one sponsorship of the London 2012 Olympics, offering Twitter users the chance to win tickets to the event by clicking on its banner. It is also promoting its latest TV ad for the Creme Egg Goo Games with a YouTube clip in its permanent tweet. Electronic Arts has set up a brand page for its Fifa Sports game, while Sky has a page for its Sky HD service, promoting the customer service it offers on Twitter.

Twitter unveiled the first raft of brand pages in December last year, from US advertisers including Coca-Cola and Red Bull as part of a revamp of the service. In the UK brand pages are free, but there is also a minimum media spend required, understood to be in the region of £25,000. Sky was the first brand to roll out UK-targeted Twitter ads, back in September. It was shortly followed by Electronic Arts with a campaign for the Fifa 12 game. The gaming company claimed to have seen an engagement level of 11% for its promoted trend, which is well above Twitter's average "benchmark" for promoted trends, of 3% to 6%. Source: Brand Republic

EDITED BY Ashley's Team