Week commencing 1st October 2007
 The
Competition Commission has judged Sky's acquisition of an almost
18% share in ITV to be against the public interest and restricting
to competition. Murdoch's company could be forced to sell its stake
in the commercial broadcaster at a substantial loss, which must
have come as welcome news to Sir Richard Branson's Virgin, which
has been involved in a battle with Sky since the purchase. Sky bought
the stake for £940 million November 2006. Based on ITV's current
share price, the holding is worth £717 million. In a provisional
ruling, the commission said that the shareholding would allow the
satellite broadcaster to weaken ITV or prevent it competing fully
with BSkyB. "The acquisition has made BSkyB ITV's largest shareholder
by some margin and while our provisional view is that this would
not necessarily affect day to day operations, BSkyB would be able
to influence ITV's key strategic decisions, particularly relating
to investment, whether in content, capacity or new technology,"
said Peter Freeman, chairman of the commission. Ofcom and the Office
of Fair Trading both launched investigations into the acquisition
last year. On their recommendation, the Department of Trade and
Industry referred the issue to the Competition Commission in May.
The commission is aiming to send its final report to John Hutton,
secretary of state for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform,
in December. He will then decide what action to take. ITV said:
"We will be reviewing the commission's notice of possible remedies
in detail and look forward to working with the commission so that
the issues arising from BSkyB's stake can be addressed." (Source:
Mediatel)
Sky has revealed its plans for a pay-tv service, branded
Picnic, on freeview. It will incorporate broadband, fixed line telephony
and premium TV sport and film content with customers being able
to choose what they want in their Picnic package. Customers will
require a new set top box which will eventually use MPEG-4 technology,
allowing the launch of further channels including Sky News, and
HD broadcasting. No price structure has been announced yet, and
the service requires clearance by Ofcom, whose assessment is due
to be concluded in the early part of next year. The picnic service
will offer Sky Sports 1, broadcast 24 hours a day, Sky movies airing
a selection of recent and library films from 6am to 6pm and Sky
One airing from 7pm to 6am. During the day Sky Movies will air children's
content and Sky One factual content. Sky released the details of
Picnic on the same day Virgin 1, the entertainment channel set to
rival Sky 1 was launched by Virgin Media TV. (Source: MediaWeek)
 The Evening Standard will begin to undergo an £8 million
relaunch of its street vending operation. The money will be spent
on rebranding street furniture, new uniforms for vendors and the
Eros cashless payment card that launched on Monday. It is understood
that £3 million of the money will be spent on a broadcast
ad campaign promoting the changes. From Monday, sixty of the paper's
300 sites will display new livery, with 200 revamped by November.
90 of these units will eventually be fitted with remotely updateable
32" LCD screens, with six of them ready to go live on Monday.
As well as the relaunch of its street vending operation, the paper
will be getting a refresh including a redesigned front page and
closer interaction between the paper and the Standard's new web
site. The paper underwent a full redesign last year, with a "more
stylish" use of colour throughout the title intended to attract
more affluent, working Londoners. Last month, the Evening Standard
recorded a month on month circulation increase of almost 2,400 copies,
although it was down by more than 11% year on year, to leave it
with a total of 277,555 copies. (Source: Mediatel)
 CBS
Outdoor has retained the £40 million contract to manage
the advertising on National Express buses in the UK for a further
five years. Under the terms of the new contract with National Express,
CBS Outdoor will continue to manage all advertising opportunities
on the company's bus fleet including Travel West Midlands, Travel
Dundee and Travel London subsidiaries. Travel West Midlands is the
largest bus operator in the West Midlands covering the cities of
Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton and operates a fleet of 970
double deckers and 725 single decks. The contract also covers Midland
Metro, the tram network in the West Midlands. Midland Metro operates
over 20kms of tram network including 23 stations between Birmingham
and Wolverhampton. Advertising will be sold on and in trams as well
as at tram stops and roadside sites alongside the bus and national
rail propositions. This fleet combined with the Travel West Midlands,
Travel London and Travel Dundee is estimated to generate over £8
million worth of revenue per annum. The five-year contract includes
management of all the interior and exterior advertising on National
Express' buses but excludes the coach fleet. (Source: Mediatel)
JCDecaux is to create the largest network of digital roadside
billboards in the UK, following a £20 million investment into
its outdoor sites. The media owner's 20 x 48-sheet Primetime billboards
will be unveiled from next Spring, located in high-profile, central
London locations. The network of digital billboards follows Decaux's
digitisation of the M4 Torch earlier this year. The Primetime billboards
will use the same LED technology which is being implanted across
all Decaux's national billboard campaigns. One of the main advantages
of digital billboards is the ability for advertisers to take advantage
of topicality and day-part messaging. "This brings the critical
mass of digital screens to the roadside sector and crucially provides
digital opportunities to all our advertisers as part of their national
48-sheet campaigns. It's digital for all, rather than digital for
the few." Recently, JCDecaux announced its results for the
first half of the year, showing a pre-tax profit of €162.7
million (£110.8 million), down 0.3% from €163.2 million
the previous year. The outdoor giant said that the growth reflected
improvement across all three divisions with a very strong progression
in transport and a solid performance from billboard. The company
has also said it plans to cease its paper and paste billboards in
the UK by replacing all 10,000 sites with a high-quality, environmentally-friendly
one-piece poster. (Source: MediaWeek)
Clear Channel Outdoor UK could become an acquisition target
after shareholders of Clear Channel Communications gave approval
for a $20bn private equity buyout of the US-based company. JCDecaux
is thought to be the most likely trade buyer, although a management
buyout and private equity bids may also emerge. The contractor has
also created a shopping package, The Ultimate Shopper Pack, made
up of its mall portfolio and 6 sheet presence on leading high street,
offering 400 national panels across the UK. (Source: MediaWeek)
 Genie
Group, the British start up technology company, has launched
an online advertising tool offering brands personalised online ads
to web users. Genie Group will use its strategic ad technology,
adGenie, to promote Honda's latest range of cars, said a report
on netimperative.com. adGenie allows advertisers to create several
ads based on a web user's online profile, such as age, gender and
household income through a single insertion. The campaign, which
will first run on www.AutoExpress.co.uk, relies on information provided
by the site's users when they register. Martin Connolly, Genie Group's
commercial director added: "adGenie solves the problem of how
brands can communicate with consumers on an individual basis. We
are confident that this will become the de- facto method for online
advertising and we are currently working with advertising clients
from all sectors including travel, leisure and entertainment."
(Source: Mediatel)
Facebook prepares for overseas expansion as it is working
on translating its website into languages other than English. Facebook
users spend a total of nearly 1bn minutes on the site in August
which is now the most popular social networking site in English
speaking countries outside the US. (Source: MediaWeek)
The online ad sector looks in very good shape as the Internet
Advertising Bureau published its UK online ad spend figures for
the first half of 2007. The first half of 2007 saw an increase of
41.3% in ad spend compared to the first half of 2006 to more than
£1.6bn. Online share of total UK advertising also rose, reaching
14.7%. All major ad formats also exceeded expectations the IAB said.
Classified advertising grew 72% year on year to £227m claiming
just over a fifth of all online spend, display advertising grew
33% to £287m and paid for search grew 44% year on year to
£762m giving just under a 60% share. (Source: MediaWeek)
 UK
Cinema Top Ten:
1. Run, Fat Boy, Run
2. Atonement
3. I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry
4. Superbad
5. Halloween
6. Michael Clayton
7. The Brave One
8. Mr. Woodcock
9. The Bourne Ultimatum
10. War
Source: Pearl and Dean
Edited by Chris Morgan |
