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PRESS

UTV is kicking off plans to market Sport magazine globally, following the lead of sister radio station TalkSport. The publisher has appointed Tim Hudson as international director to market Sport overseas. TalkSport won international broadcast rights for commentary of Premier League football matches earlier this month. Now Hudson will work to develop international licensing deals for Sport magazine too. The free weekly magazine covers global and British sport and has a circulation of 300,000. It is distributed to commuters in London city centre and in airports and health clubs. Hudson said that despite Sport having competitors such as ShortList in the UK, there were very few free magazines distributed internationally. He said: "Sport has a strong track record of success in the UK market, but the ‘'freemium' concept hasn't really been tried globally. Freemium magazines are an undeveloped sector outside of the UK. We're keen to try and exploit this." Hudson aims for the magazine to be published in Asia, Africa, South America and central Europe. Cities with large metro systems will be targeted for distribution, along with those where people take an interest in UK sport. (Source: Media Week)

More than £1.6m of premium advertising running in the London Evening Standard during the Olympics has failed to attract a single bid in the newspaper’s much-trumpeted e-auction. The London Evening Standard’s e-auction kicked off this week with an overall reserve price of £3,538,350, which included a number of commercial packages for advertisers during the Olympics. On offer were advertising slots including cover wraps, front and back page strips and page two and page three ad slots. The Evening Standard has been widely applauded for introducing an e-auction, which has previously been used in outdoor media, to newspapers. The paper believed it would be able to drive up commercial revenues by e-auctioning commercials packages, as opposed to the conventional way of trading through a media agency. The first slot on offer to advertisers was the cover wrap on the opening day of the Olympics on July 27, which had a reserve price of £120,000. The auction for the Olympic opening day ran for four hours and attracted no bids, according to a number of media agency sources. But the e-auction is still open to possible bids. Subsequent packages offers totalling £1,691,250 have failed to attract any bids, say media agency sources. One media agency source said the reason for its failure to attract bid was because the reserve price was too high. It is unclear what will now happen to the advertising inventory. The e-auction has been run by MediaEquals, which specialises in online bidding. The London Evening Standard declined to comment. (Source: Media Week)

TELEVISION

BSkyB has reported a 27% surge in pre-tax profits to £899m in the nine months to March 2012, fuelled by a rise in customer numbers to 10.55 million, while underscoring that it remains a "fit" and "proper license holder". The satellite broadcaster on the 2nd May reported its financial figures for the nine months to 31 March 2012. Pre-tax profits in the period grew 27% from £705m to £899m, while revenues were up from £4.83bn to £5.08bn. Its average revenues per user (ARPU) were £546 in the first three months of the year, up £9 from the previous year. The company's financial results also make pertinent reference to the Ofcom probe into whether BSkyB is a fit and proper broadcaster, which has been questioned as a result of the News of the World phone hacking scandal. BSkyB said: "The company is engaging with Ofcom in this process and continues to believe that it remains a fit and proper license holder, as demonstrated by its positive contribution to UK audiences, employment and broader economy, as well as its strong record of regulatory compliance and high standards of governance." The company said it added 159,000 to its much-trumpeted High Definition (HD) TV in the quarter, compared to 138,000 in the previous quarter. BskyB said its growth in HD numbers was helped by the launch of its Sky Sports Formula 1 HD channel. Other highlights, according to BSkyB, include the addition of 212,000 broadband customers, which means it now has a total of 3.6 million to its telephone services. The company said it now had 3.2 million triple play customers in Brittan, up 24% on the year. The financial results also reveal that News Corporation paid out a £31m break fee to BSkyB for its failed bid of the satellite broadcaster. (Source: Media Week)

ITV's 'Britain's Got Talent' out sang the BBC's 'The Voice' on Saturday night in what is shaping up to be one of the most hotly contested battles on television. Both are vying to be the UK's top talent show and also to take the mantle of the most popular programme in the country at the moment. According to unofficial overnight figures, ‘Britain’s Got Talent’, which is sponsored by Virgin Media, had an average audience of 9.42 million on Saturday night. It recorded a 38.9% share between 8.30pm and 9.30pm on Saturday night, while an additional 478,000 watched the show on ITV1+1. The ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ peak audience of 10.67 million was achieved towards the end of the show at 9.25pm across ITV1 and ITV1 HD. When ITV1+1 is included the peak was 11.3 million. The figures mean ITV’s ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ has turned the tables on the BBC’s ‘The Voice’, which last week beat ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ in both its average and peak audience for the first time. On Saturday night ‘The Voice’ had an average audience of 9.33 million viewers between 7pm and 8.30pm on BBC One and BBC One HD, a 41.8% share. The show peaked at 10.30 million viewers at 8.20pm. TV impresario Simon Cowell returned to ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ to judge the auditions this year but the show has come across tough competition from ‘The Voice’ and its panel of  judges, which includes Will.i.am and Jessie J. The second helping of ‘The Voice’ on Sunday night had an average audience of 8.62 million viewers, a 35.1% share, between 7.30pm and 8pm on BBC One and BBC One HD. (Source: Media Week)

DIGITAL

Microsoft has stepped up its rivalry with Apple and Amazon with a $300m (£185m) investment in a new subsidiary of bookseller Barnes and Noble's digital reader business. The deal will involve Microsoft taking a 17.6% stake in the subsidiary and rolling out the "Nook" ebook platform, based on Barnes & Noble's service, across its operating system Windows 8. Windows 8 is expected to launch in the autumn and will be available across a wider range of tablet devices and Microsoft attempts to muscle in on the Apple's market share. Nook has not yet reached the UK. The deal could help the bookseller expand the product and brand to international markets. Last year Amazon, whose digital reader Kindle has enjoyed strong sales over the years, launched its first tablet device Kindle Fire, designed for reading content. It is yet to be launched in the UK however. In January Apple stepped up its digital publishing play, launching interactive textbooks for its iPad devices and an iBooks Author app. (Source: Brand Republic)

RADIO

Spotify, the online music provider, has launched its long-awaited iPad app, which has been designed to display high-definition cover artwork and make browsing through the service's catalogue of 18 million songs easier. The app launched on iTunes on the 2nd May and is free to download for users with a Spotify Premium account. The app's 'Now Playing' screen allows users to view cover artwork and search for playlists, other users and music, in the same window. Social media integration is key to the new app, enabling users to discover trending playlists and songs among their friends, and share what they are listening to on social networks. The launch on tablets is part of Spotify's plans to be on as many platforms as possible. A spokeswoman did not disclose whether an Android tablet app was on the horizon, but said the company was working on new apps all the time. Spotify, which has three million subscribers and 10 million active users, currently has a service across all the major mobile operating systems, including Android, iOS, Symbian, BlackBerry and Windows Phone. It also has hardware integrations with devices including Sonos wireless stereos, Logtech Squeezebox and Virgin Media. Although the app is ad-free, Spotify has stepped up the opportunities for brands on the service – first through the launch of apps and, more recently, with the launch of brand pages. Spotify has also introduced a 'Play Button' that allows online publishers to offer the ability to play songs in Spotify on their website for free. Spotify's iPad debut comes shortly after LinkedIn's similar move, which was also hotly anticipated. (Source: Marketing Magazine)

OUTDOOR

Paramount Pictures and Mont Blanc have become the first advertisers on Outdoor Plus's City of London Gateway, the outdoor advertising structure in Aldgate, East London. Outdoor Plus said the City of London Gateway will give advertisers access to 649,000 vehicle impacts and 75,00 pedestrian impacts per fortnight. The structure has an ABC1 audience of 59%, split almost 50/50 between males and females and similar to the audience of Outdoor Plus's Spire on Western Avenue, which launched in January. This new high resolution digital screen, will target traffic near Fenchurch Street and Leadenhall Street and the surrounding roads, reaching both a local commuting audience as well as City of London workers. Prior to the live launch, Outdoor Plus has been using the site to showcase photographs taken around the City of London by award–wining aerial photographer Jason Hawkes. Hawkes has specialised in aerial photography since 1991 and has worked with global brands including Nike, Coca-Cola and Nokia. (Source: Media Week)

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PRESS

The Sun on Sunday has lost a quarter of its sales since launch, according to ABC figures, with the tabloid newspaper averaging a circulation of 2.43 million in March. News International made the announcement on 19^th February that it was going to launch a Sunday edition of The Sun, and the one edition that was sold during the ABC's February audit had a circulation of 3,213,613. Although the Daily Star Sunday recorded the biggest year-on-year rise in circulation in March, the launch of The Sun in February appears to have hit the paper’s circulation. Both the Sunday Mirror and The People have also lost around a third of their circulation between February and March. (Source: Media Week) 

The Independent is to raise its cover price by 20p to £1.20 next Monday, stating that the pressures of increasing costs for transportation, production and newsprint are the cause of the increase. The change will bring The Independent in line with The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph, which recently raised their cover prices to £1.20. The cover price of the Independent's Saturday edition will remain at £1.60. (Source: Media Week)

Amuse, a free monthly fashion lifestyle targeting affluent women readers in London, is launching on 30^th April with a print run of 120,000. The magazine will be distributed to commuters at 75 central London tube stations, and 20,000 copies will be available for self-selection in a variety of health clubs, city offices and first class airport lounges. Amuse will offer a mixture of arts and culture, fashion and beauty, shopping and lifestyle, all with a focus on what's happening in the heart of the city. Alongside print, the offering will include digital and social media, as well as an app due to launch in September. (Source: Media Week)

TELEVISION

GMG Radio closed its Manchester-based local TV station Channel M this week, blaming the Government's plans for local TV for failing to provide a structure that would have enabled it to provide a "commercially viable" service. GMG Radio said in a statement that it had closed Channel M after 12 years of broadcasting, after concluding it "could not provide a commercially viable quality service within the new Government structure for local television within the UK". There has been no new content on Channel M since GMG Radio took over the channel in March 2010, following the sale of the bulk of GMG Regional Media, including the Manchester Evening News, to Trinity Mirror. Instead, the channel has been broadcasting archive material, content supplied by the Community Channel, material supplied by local academic institutions, and video and audio feeds from GMG Radio's Real Radio, along with text news, travel and weather. (Source: Media Week)

BBC talent show 'The Voice' had a bigger average audience than ITV and Simon Cowell's 'Britain's Got Talent' for the second week running on Saturday, although 'Britain's Got Talent' had a larger peak audience. The Voice’ attracted an average audience of 10.68 million viewers, a massive 45.5% share of the TV-watching public, between 7pm and 8.20pm on BBC One and BBC One HD on Saturday night. The programme is gaining momentum, having attracted an audience of 9.54 million last week and 8.43 million on its launch on 26 March. A new take on the talent-show format, ‘The Voice’ judges Tom Jones, Jessie J, Will.i.am and Danny O'Donoghue decide whether to take the contestants through to the next round without seeing what they look like. (Source: Brand Ocean)

DIGITAL

Google Currents, the internet giant's social reader application, has launched in the UK. Google Currents can be downloaded through Google Play (previously known as the Android Market) and the Apple App Store. Users then subscribe to receive updates from a range of publishers. New content is only downloaded when a user opens Google Currents, saving battery and storage, and users can also choose titles to read offline. Popular magazines Google Currents’ will include breaking news and style advice, videos and picture galleries, reviews and event updates. (Source: Media Week)

RADIO

TalkSport has won the international rights to broadcast commentary on the 380 games in the Barclays Premier League season to countries outside Europe. Previously, the only way people outside Europe could listen to the audio commentary was via the BBC World Service, which broadcast from two games a week. The deal means TalkSport will be the audio partner of the league outside of the European Economic Area and will provide commentary on 380 games a season in a range of languages, including English, Spanish and Mandarin. People outside Europe will be able to listen to the commentary over the internet and through mobile apps as well as on the network of global radio. (Source: Media Week)

OUTDOOR

ECNlive, the digital outdoor network, has launched a new pure-play digital media network for corporate office environments in the UK. The network aims to deliver a mix of live content and digital full-motion display advertising. Content is updated in real-time and includes global and national news, financial and sports up-dates, weather and travel information, in addition to localised information relevant to audiences within individual buildings. ECNlive claims that its displays are located within the receptions and lobbies of more than 100 of the largest corporate buildings in London, and reach more than 300,000 business people. In London, ECNlive is situated within landmark buildings such as, Tower 42, CityPoint, The Broadgate Tower and Tower Bridge House. (Source: Media Week)

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GENERAL

In New York, consumer trust in television and print advertising has declined over the last four years, but perceptions of digital alternatives are improving.

Nielsen, the research firm, polled 28,000 web users in 56 countries, and found 92% had high levels of confidence in "earned media" like word of mouth and recommendations, an 18% increase since 2007. Online shopper reviews were regarded with similar approval by 70% of interviewees, a 15% leap in the last four years. Just 47% of participants held TV, press and magazine ads in the same esteem. Within this, scores for television dropped by 25%, newspapers were down by 20% and magazines slid 20%. Returns dipped to 42% for radio advertising and 41% for the cinema equivalent. Meanwhile, product placement in television shows registered 40% on this measure. Looking to the web, another 40% of the panel trusted paid search, up from 34% in 2007. Banner ads recorded 33% here, bettering the 26% they scored in the previous survey. Online video advertising also generated 36%, matching the total for "sponsored" ads on social networks. Mobile banners and display received 33% here, and SMS marketing secured 29%.

Elsewhere, Nielsen's analysis revealed that 58% of respondents viewed "owned media" like brand websites as credible information sources, and 50% agreed with the statement for opt-in emails.

A further 50% of the sample saw TV spots as "personally relevant" when seeking details about products they "want or need". This total rose to 65% in the Middle East, Africa and Pakistan, but fell to just 30% in Europe. Ratings on this metric fell to 42% for paid search, 36% concerning social networking and video ads, and 33% for internet banners. (Source: Warc, Nielsen)

Total advertising expenditures increased 0.8 percent in 2011 in the USA and finished the year at $144.0 billion, according to data released today (March 12, 2012) by Kantar Media, the leading provider of strategic advertising and marketing information. Ad spending during the fourth quarter of 2011 dropped 1.0 percent versus the year ago period, the first quarterly decline since the end of 2009. Since reaching a post-recession peak in Q3 2010, advertising growth rates have slowed sequentially for five consecutive quarters.

"The contrast of resilient TV spending and waning budget allocations to other traditional media was plainly evident at the end of 2011," said Jon Swallen, SVP Research at Kantar Media Intelligence North America. "Some mature digital media formats were also touched by the year-end tide of reduced spending. Whether this is an isolated occurrence or an early sign of digital dollars moving more quickly towards emerging and unmeasured digital platforms bears watching as 2012 unfolds." Ad expenditures for measured digital media declined in the fourth quarter. Paid Search budgets were 6.4 percent lower versus a year ago with continuing reductions from financial, insurance and local service advertisers. Display investments decreased 5.9 percent in Q4, dragged down by smaller budgets from auto manufacturers, telecom providers and travel companies. For the entire year, Paid Search declined 2.8 percent and Display increased 5.5 percent.

Magazine ad spending eroded at year end. Consumer Magazines declined 5.2 percent in the fourth quarter due to deep cutbacks in auto, food and pharmaceutical advertising. Total year expenditures were level compared to prior year. Outlays in Sunday Magazines fell 9.8 percent in Q4, the sixth consecutive quarter of year-over-year declines, and were down 7.2 percent for all of 2011. Local Newspaper ad expenditures fell 3.9 percent during the fourth quarter, hurt by the reallocation of retailer advertising budgets to other media channels during the key holiday shopping season. Full year spending was 3.8 percent lower. The losses in Newspaper spending are consistent with reductions in the amount of space sold. (Source: Kantar Media/USA)

DIGITAL

The impact of social media on how tech products are bought and sold is growing. Some technology vendors are using social media such as Twitter to promote products and special offers to end users and generate leads for partners. Some vendors are using LinkedIn and Twitter to communicate with reseller partners en masse. And solution providers are developing social links with customers to keep them abreast of technology development. There are also some solution providers experimenting with Twitter as a support notification mechanism.

The real game changer are the working tools with social media capabilities to target a niche b2b target audience. In finance this might be a Bloomberg terminal or within the IT sector this might be a tool such as Spiceworks. Such functional media is something actively engaged by the user for long periods of time, which increases the potential for exposure to marketing messages. Within the tool’s social media aspect, vendors, solution providers and end users are enabled to interact with each other in real time on a level field. This is a far different dynamic than conventional media where interactions typically wait until the sales process begins. If there is also a transactional part, where the communications medium is also the sales channel it completes the full circle.

Tools which embrace all 3 of those elements, these being functional, social media and transactional, have a certain advantage when running marketing messages on them as they simplify the marketing process; make more direct connections between vendors, partners and customers; provide a streamlined process for acquiring product and services and also have high dwell time. In other words, converged media can be more cost effective and productive than conventional media. (Source: Forbes)

In New York a wide range of companies are now using mobile apps to tap into changing consumer habits and accelerate the trends resulting from the rise of social media.

Facebook's recent $1bn acquisition of Instagram, a photo-sharing mobile app boasting only a relatively limited formal online representation, has sharpened attention on this channel.Foursquare, a location-based mobile service offering shoppers "rewards" for checking in to certain places, now retains 15m members, It has also pursued tie-ups with marketers like PepsiCo and Red Bull."Mobile-first is the direction that many social networks are headed," said Holger Luedorf, head of business development at Foursquare. He added that these tools should feel "baked into" handsets. Path, a mobile-specific social network set up by Dave Morin, who previously worked for Facebook on platform development, is already attempting to exploit this trend."Because you take your smartphone with you everywhere, you can quickly and easily take a photo or video, map your location or jot down a note or a thought," said Morin.

One core advantage for companies pushing apps is the straightforward model for reaching consumers through app stores, few meaningful alternatives to which exist on the internet. The success of Catch's note-taking app exemplifies the efficiency of these distribution channels. "In February we had close to 900,000 downloads. How would we do that on the web?" Andreas Schobel, Catch's CEO, said. "When you're on the phone you need the experience to be instantaneous. You just can't do that yet on the web."Angry Birds, a popular game developed by Rovio, was first made available on the iPhone, and has since moved online, with a related movie also currently in the pipeline. "Businesses that are thinking that way are planning for the future," said Ben Lerer, of Lerer Ventures, the investment group which took an early stake in OMGPop, a gaming firm bought for $200m by Zynga. (Source: Warc, NY Times)

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TELEVISION

James Murdoch has stepped down as chairman of BSkyB after concluding it would be too damaging to stay on and risk a critical verdict from a British parliamentary inquiry into phone hacking. By stepping down, it will mean that no Murdoch occupies a top position at the satellite broadcaster for the first time since 1999. By quitting from the chairmanship of Sky, James Murdoch will be left with a reduced area of responsibilities in his new role in New York with responsibility for News Corp's non-US television interests. His remaining remit leaves him with responsibility for News Corp businesses such as smaller pay-TV businesses in Italy, Sky Italia, and Star in Asia. In a statement, the board of BSkyB, which is controlled by News Corporation through a 39.1% stake, said James Murdoch would continue as a non-executive director. He will be succeeded by Nicholas Ferguson. (Source: Media Guardian)

TV viewings for some big shows this week so far have had their fair share of ups and downs, with some programmes literally stealing the show whilst others seem to be unfortunately dropping off. Despite the fanfare, Mad Men has so far failed to win over substantial numbers of British viewers, with the third episode on Sky Atlantic attracting just 47,000 on Tuesday night. However, it’s not all bad news for Sky Atlantic as this week’s Game of Thrones season opener attracted a huge 522,000. Channel 4’s much anticipated documentary Undateables which follows a number of people with disabilities who are looking for love drew 3.3 million as viewers tuned in to catch the first airing of the series. Competing at the same time was BBC 1’s new drama The Syndicate, of which the second episode managed 5.4 million viewers (up 200,000 viewers from its debut last week) and a 23.1% share, making it the most popular TV show on Tuesday 3 April. Elsewhere, the Champions League tie between Barcelona and AC Milan peaked at 1.3m viewers on Sky Sports 2. Kiefer Sutherland’s Touch improved week-on-week with 606,000 tuning in on Sky 1, whilst JJ Abram’s US drama import Alcatraz, aired on Watch, drew in an impressive 501,000 viewers. (Source: Media Guardian) 

DIGITAL

UKOM, the UK's industry-recognised online media measurement for advertisers, is ending its partnership with The Nielsen Company in favor of a new three year deal with rival ComScore in 2013. ComScore came up against five other research specialists including incumbent Nielsen in a competitive pitch that saw Com Score be awarded its third national contract. Established in February 2010 to provide a common, credible measure for advertisers online, the initial three year contract with Nielsen which raised the eyebrows of some in the industry who believed ComScore had stronger credentials, particularly in the US. When Launched, UKOM was widely welcomed by the industry for its ability to enable seamless cross-media planning and was acclaimed as a significant step for online advertising as it looked to expand display and video advertising alongside the now ever-growing search market. More than 70 media owners and agencies are full subscribers to UKOM, along with governing bodies such as the IPA & the ISBA. (Source: Media Week)

PRESS

What with Sarah Sands taking over the Evening Standard, rumours have been flying that the Standard and the Independent may face a closer relationship, if not a possible merge. However, the incoming editor of the London Evening Standard has reassured staff that any integration with the Independent will be handled sensitively. Sarah Sands has moved swiftly to reassure London Evening Standard staff that the newspaper has a "strong and distinct" future, and she will not be in the office to edit for most of April while she works on a strategic plan for the London freesheet. Sands, who takes over from Geordie Greig as editor of the Standard at the end of April, attempted to calm staff with an email fired off within 90 minutes of proprietor Evgeny Lebedev's publicly planning for integration between the Independent, i and Standard. Lebedev tweeted at 11.41am on Monday that Chris Blackhurst, the editor of the Independent, had been named group editorial director given the task of handling future integration. Sands then hurriedly fired off an email at 1.17pm in a bid to reassure staff, who interpreted the tweet as a potential precursor to cutbacks and job losses, that any integration would be sensitive to the Evening Standard. "I wanted to reassure everyone that the Evening Standard has a strong and distinct future and we shall continue to operate as a successful newspaper," said Sands, who was promoted from deputy editor on Friday. "Any integration will always be sensitive to the separate and vivid journalistic personality of the Evening Standard." (Source: Guardian.co.uk)

RADIO

Richard Keys and Andy Gray have been nominated for a Sony Radio Academy award for their TalkSport show, just over a year after their ignominious departure from Sky Sports. The presenters are up for best sports programme at the UK radio industry's annual awards, facing competition from Kicking Off with Colin Murray for BBC Radio 5 Live, Absolute Radio's Rock 'N' Roll Football, TalkSport's My Sporting Life and Gerr'um On Side, from TalkSport owner UTV Media stations 102.4 Wish FM and 107.2 Wire FM. TalkSport hired Keys and Gray in February 2011, two weeks after they were engulfed in a sexism storm which began after they made disparaging comments about a female football official off air that were leaked to the Mail on Sunday. (Source Gurdian.co.uk) 

OUTDOOR

A digital poster ad featuring David Beckham in his underwear has been cleared by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after complaints that the images were offensive and irresponsible. The ad, created in-house, featured three images of Beckham modelling his H&M underwear range. Three complainants claimed the ad was offensive, while two complaints called it irresponsible and not fit for children to see. However, H&M claimed that the outdoor sites booked for the campaign were chosen to reach a target audience of 18- to 39-year-olds, and were planned away from schools. The ASA said that the ads did not show any nudity, nor were they overtly sexual, and dismissed the complaints. (Source: Brand Republic)

CINEMA

 UK Box Office Chart this week: 

1.       The Hunger Games

2.       Wrath Of The Titans

3.       The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists (U)

4.       21 Jump Street (15)

5.       StreetDance 2 (PG)

6.       The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (12A)

7.       The Devil Inside (15)

8.       We Bought A Zoo (PG)

9.       Contraband (15)

10.   Into the Abyss: A Tale Of Death, A Tale Of Life

  (Source: Pearl & Dean) 

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TELEVISION

Britain’s Got Talent returns with 9.3 million viewers compared with BBC1 newcomer's 8.4 million, but The Voice fares better head-to-head. Simon Cowell's Britain's Got Talent claimed victory over BBC1's new talent show rival The Voice in the Saturday night ratings war – but lost out when the two shows went head-to-head. Britain's Got Talent returned to ITV1 with 9.3 million viewers between 8pm and 9.20pm, rising to 9.87 million when the catch-up channel ITV1+1 is included, a 41.1% share of the audience. BBC1's The Voice, which featured a judging line-up including Sir Tom Jones, Jessie J and Will.i.am, launched with 8.4 million viewers, a 37.6% share, between 7pm and 8.20pm. But when the two shows were briefly on air at the same time, between 8pm and 8.20pm, the BBC1 show had a substantial lead with an average of 8.9 million viewers against Britain's Got Talent's 6.6 million. Excluding soaps, Britain's Got Talent was ITV1's highest-rating programme of the year to date. It was also the highest-rating programme on any channel so far this year, beating the 9.3 million who watched BBC1's Call The Midwife. (Source: The Guardian)

DIGITAL

Mobile advertising expenditure more than doubled in the UK last year, a process driven by the rising uptake of smartphones and tablets, according to a new report. The IAB, the trade body, reported that spending through this channel rose by 157% to £203.2m in 2011, having allied with PricewaterhouseCoopers, the business services firm, to track such activity. Within the overall figure, mobile search revenues expanded by 145% on an annual basis to £134.3m, equivalent to 66% of the total. Display logged a 186% uptick to £68.9m, a 34% share. Standard formats like text links and banners saw a 196% lift to £59.4m, SMS and MMS surged by 241% to £2.5m, and video grew by 400% to £0.8m. Applications were responsible for 54% of display advertising, measured against the 46% attributable to browser inventory. The fact smartphone ownership now stands at 53% has fuelled this trend. Entertainment and media contributed 23.2% of all display sales in 2011, versus 32.9% in 2010. These amounts hit 14.9% and 14.3% in turn for telecoms, and reached 14.4% for FMCG, up from 11.8%. Tablets also delivered £2.4m in revenues last year. Estimates from comScore, the insights provider, suggest 4.1m Britons currently own one of these appliances, with uptake set to rise going forward. More broadly, previous research from the IAB found 35% of UK smartphone subscribers watch television when using their mobile handset, coming in at 51% for combining slate and PC usage. The organisation also revealed 90% of ad agencies anticipate that mobile will be the fastest growing media channel in the next five years, and 98% are already allocating resources to this medium. (Source: Warc)

PRESS

The Sun on Sunday has lost around one million in sales since its launch five weeks ago, according to unofficial figures from rival newspapers. Early estimates suggest that the Sun on Sunday reported sales of 2.22 million in its fifth week (March 25), compared to its debut sales of 3.22 million. Publisher News International would have been expecting a drop off in sales, partly because its marketing support behind the 50p Sun on Sunday has dropped off since launch. The Sun on Sunday's first full month's audit will be for the month of March and published on April 11. It is expected to publish a debut ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulations) figure of 2.43 million. Early estimates across the rest of the mid-market and tabloid market for last week include the Mail on Sunday remaining about level week-on-week with sales of 1.8 million. The Mail on Sunday has bared up well since the arrival of The Sun on Sunday. Its circulation before the launch of The Sun on Sunday was 1.88 million, according to ABC. Richard Desmond's Daily Star Sunday, also priced at 50p, is thought to have recorded sales of 467.000, down from 480,000 the previous week. (Source: Media Week)

CityAM, the free business paper, is to ramp up its distribution by 30%, to around 130,000 copies, to increase its footprint in Kent, Surrey and parts of south London. Senior executives from CityAM are visiting media agencies to gauge potential advertiser response to the extra copies, which will also include a small increase in its advertising rates. The expanded distribution is set to be introduced at the start of May, and will also involve increasing its distribution in south London. According to Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABCs), CityAM's latest distribution was 98,573 in February. It will now increase this to around 130,000. The business paper is currently distributed in 47 stations in Surrey and 20 in Kent. But this will be upped significantly because of the increase in distribution. CityAM's readership is made up of professionals in the City, Canary Wharf and other high business concentration areas. Its advertisers tend to be high-end advertisers. This week the paper introduces a modest redesign to its pages. In the past, CityAM has considered launching in a number of other cities across Britain, but has yet to do so. (Source: Media Week)

RADIO

Spotify has partnered with 20th Century Fox to launch the first "advertiser page" on the digital music service, promoting the launch of the film 'Titanic 3D'. Advertiser pages are a new initiative by Spotify to enable brands to create their own page on the platform, where they can post content and use them for campaigns. This particular campaign enables visitors to create personalised 'Titanic' film trailers, featuring three of their Facebook friends. Visitors to the site can also listen to the 1990s Titanic playlist, access the 16 million-track music library to share tunes that they listened to when the film was first launched, upload videos of when they first watched it, and watch videos of people who attended the 3D screening of the event. Spotify has been stepping up the opportunities for brands on the site, beyond paid-for media. At the end of last year, it launched the first tranche of branded music apps, including one from The Guardian and Rolling Stone magazine. Twitter has also moved down the brand-page route and, in December last year, launched enhanced pages for brands. (Source: Media Week)

OUTDOOR

Less than 2% of Europeans have used Near Field Communication (NFC), according to new research, which found the benefit offered by interactive ads was more important than the way people could connect to them. The research, commissioned by CBS Outdoor, found that despite being one of the most high-profile forms of interactivity within the media industry, only 5.8% of respondents had heard of NFC in the context of outdoor advertising and only 1.4% of them had actually used it. More than 9,000 people across six European countries were questioned about outdoor advertising. They were asked which forms of interactivity (including augmented ads, Bluetooth and QR codes) they had heard of and, separately, used. The most well-known form of interactivity was QR codes, which 39.8% of people said they had heard of, but the most widely-used form was a promotional text code in an ad, which 14.5% of respondents said they had used.

The research was conducted online by Kantar Media on behalf of CBS Outdoor and at least 1,000 people were involved from each of the UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands. Qualitative research sessions with 25 people from each of the six countries found that audiences wanted more than just information and expected incentives for interacting with outdoor advertising, either monetary or entertainment. The benefits of successful engagement were demonstrated by the fact 55% of people with a social media profile said they had used social media to share information or offers while they are out of home. This rose to 74% among early adopters with a social media profile and smart devices. The study also found that 51% of all respondents said they were more likely to pay attention to out-of-home media than any other form of advertising and 74% of the respondents said they expected big brands to advertise out of home. (Source: Media Week)

EDITED BY Ashley'sTeam