Week commencing 5th March 2007
 Advertising revenues
at ITV1 fell £181m year on year in 2006 as an unholy trinity
of a tough ad market combined, a falling share of commercial impacts
and the ongoing effects of CRR (contract rights renewal) hit home.
According to ITV plc's financial results statement for the
12 months ending 31 December, ITV1's net advertising revenue (NAR)
stood at £1,281m, down from £1,462m in 2005. However,
this reduction was partially offset by the strong performance of
ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 which, together with Men and Motors and Citv,
contributed 41% year on year growth of £46m. Total NAR across
the digital channels was £157 million. Ad revenues across
ITV as a whole fell 8% during the year to £1,494m. Source:
Intellagencia
Lisa Opie, Five's
managing director of content, has launched an initiative to enable
viewers to directly pitch programming ideas to commissioners in
a bid to reconnect the channel with its dwindling audiences. In
an RTS speech last night, entitled 'What is the point of Five?'
Opie said: "There has never been a way the viewer can pitch
an idea directly to a broadcaster."We hope that by flinging
open our door to the viewers we will discover the sort of rare and
unpredictable talent which will enable us to produce distinctive,
surprising programming which will set us apart from our rivals."
Five's commissioning editors are currently setting up MySpace pages
to enable this. Source: Mediatel
Virgin Media is offering
discounts to customers threatening to defect to rival BSkyB following
the row that saw Sky's basic channels removed from its cable TV
service. In a presentation to City analysts, Virgin executives said
they were offering money off bills in a bid to hang on to customers.
Virgin also told analysts it expected to add to its 3.35 million
TV customers in the three months between January and March, despite
the effect of the Sky row. The chief executive, Steve Burch, predicted
the number of customers who would defect to Sky would be "in
the thousands" - but so far churn had been "in the low
hundreds". Source: Media Guardian
 The Guardian, the
Observer, the Daily Mirror, the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday
have been shortlisted for the newspaper of the year award at the British Press Awards. The shortlist was compiled by 100 members
of the British Press Awards academy. Each member ranks newspapers
by giving them a score between one and five points. The academy
then adds up the scores. Source: Media Guardian
The Trinity Mirror chief executive,
Sly Bailey, today derided The Sun's price-cutting strategy
in Scotland as a "pointless exercise" that had failed
to damage the Daily Record's share of the advertising market. The
Sun has overtaken the Record's circulation in the past year on the
back of selling four out of five copies at a heavy discount. But
Ms Bailey said that had not translated into advertising success.
"They spent many millions of pounds cutting the price to 10p,
going precisely nowhere," Ms Bailey said, as Trinity Mirror
reported annual results today. Source: Media Guardian
Archant Specialist has
launched a free magazine for trainee pilots. Go Flying, which launches
next week as a sister title to Archant's established title Pilot,
is aimed at flying clubs, schools and young amateur and professional
pilots. The 68-page bi-monthly magazine has a circulation of 20,000,
of which 12,000 copies will be distributed to the UK's 200 flying
clubs and a further 8,000 sent directly to aircraft owners. Advertising
will be cross-promoted across the titles, while Archant Life's county
magazines will promote it with an offer of trial flying lessons.
Source: Media Week
 NatMags will
launch its digital magazine for teenage girls on 20 March with the
name Jellyfish. Based on the same page-turning technology as Dennis'
digital men's magazine Monkey, Jellyfish will be emailed to its
target audience at 3pm every Tuesday. NatMags said it would pitch
Jellyfish at 11- to 19-year-old girls, a slightly broader audience
than CosmoGirl's readership. Jellyfish's content will be drawn from
websites such as YouTube, MySpace, Bebo and NatMags' own Cosmogirl.co.uk,
and will include celebrity gossip, funny videos, games, fashion
and competitions. Source: www.mediaweek.com
Nokia has announced that
it is to launch two mobile advertising services. Nokia Ad Service
is a service for advertisers to conduct targeted advertising on
mobile services and applications. Nokia Ad Service consists of a
group of mobile publishers forming a mobile ad network and a platform
to deploy, manage and optimise mobile advertising campaigns. Nokia
has also introduced Nokia Advertising Connector, a private label
service for third party publishers and advertising aggregators that
want to extend to relevant mobile advertising. Nokia Advertising
Connector is intended to operate as an intelligent switch, selecting
between text, visual, audio and video ads - depending on the user's
context - and feeding the ad to the device. Source: Mediatel.co.uk
A "labelling" system
for media content is under way to help parents protect their children
from unsuitable content in the digital age, Gordon Brown revealed
today.
The chancellor said that Ofcom, the industry regulator, has
agreed to back a system similar to cinema classifications that would
provide better information about websites, TV programmes, computer
games and other media content. Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Babelgum, a new global
broadband internet TV network, has invited professional programme
makers and distributors to submit content prior to its launch later
this year. The network, which unites traditional television with
the global reach of the internet, aims to free users from the constraints
of linear broadcasting and create a global platform for programming
distribution. All content will be available free-of-charge to anyone
with a PC and broadband connection. Babelgum, which will confirm
its first programming and distribution deals next month, will fund
the venture entirely by advertising. Source: Media Week
 CBS Outdoor has launched an audience targeting system that will enable advertisers
to reach specific groups of consumer as they move around London
. The GMap system - first unveiled last August - uses census and
Thomson Intermedia data to create a detailed picture of where different
audience types congregate, revealing which types of consumer use
which Tube stations, for example. Audiences can be segmented according
to their demographic make-up, their characteristics and their preferences,
and can also be matched to a profile of the local retail and leisure
amenities provided in the local area. To launch the system CBS Outdoor
has created a 'congestion charge pack' for advertisers to take advantage
of the increase in passengers using stations within the newly extended
zone. The pack will include retail orientated six-sheets to target
new commuters using the Tube. All of its so-called 'precision six-sheet
packs' will feature 50 to 100 sites within pre-selected Tube stations
which will reach groups such as students, affluent professionals
and the Afro-Caribbean community. Tim Bleakley, managing director
sales and marketing, said: "CBS Outdoor is committed to developing
a more audience-centric approach within out of home advertising.
The launch of precision packs will give advertisers a level of sophistication
in their targeting which has not been available until now."
Source: Intellagencia
 Former Radio 1 DJ Mark Goodier
is joining Smooth Radio to present the station's mid-morning
show from March 26. GMG Radio's Smooth FM changes its name to Smooth
Radio on March 26 and Goodier is just one of several presenters
lined up for the relaunch. Source: www.mediatel.co.uk
Web radio sites are facing
substantial rises in the royalty rates they pay for broadcasting
music in the US. The Copyright Royalty Board has said that royalty
rates should be set at .08 cents per song, per listener. It might
not sounds much, but it could be curtains for Pandora. The industry
claims more people are encouraged to buy music after hearing it
online. Around 50m people in the US listen to web radio compared
with 14m satellite radio subscribers. Web radio serves more niche
channels and audiences, and there's real growth in this part of
the industry. Source: www.guardian.co.uk
 UK Box Office Chart
1. Hot Fuzz (15)
2. Ghost Rider (12A)
3. The Number 23 (15)
4. Charlotte's Web (U)
5. The Illusionist (PG)
6. Music and Lyrics (PG)
7. The Good Shepherd (15)
8. Material Girls (PG)
9. Arthur and the Invisibles (U)
10. Epic Movie (12A)
source : Nielsen EDI
Edited by Lizzie Thomas and
Rebecca Wilson
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