Week commencing 6th October 2008
 A
new channel slot is to be auctioned off on Freeview, the
UK's most popular digital TV platform, in a move that is likely
to spark a multimillion-pound bidding war between broadcasters.
Arqiva, which operates two of the six multiplexes that make up Freeview,
said the new channel would be available for use by February. The
deadline for bids is 22 October. Arqiva expects to award the new
channel before the end of the year. Unlike cable and satellite,
channel slots on Freeview are scarce because of a relative lack
of bandwidth on digital terrestrial TV.The channel opening
will be a 24-hour slot and will be in addition to and existing services
on Arqiva's multiplexes, thanks to improvements in compression technology.
Source: Media Week
FIVE has enlisted a new brand spokesperson
in the form of a man dressed as a hotdog. The hotdog character features
in a TV campaign for the channel, featuring its new brand line:
"We are FIVE." The TV spot, produced by Grey London, will run with
60-second and 30-second versions that highlight to viewers the fact
that "the night is your oyster". But rather than encouraging people
to paint the town red, the ad suggests viewers should be spending
their night in front of the television. The man dressed as a hotdog
explains this through an impassioned monologue, delivered while
running around a sports ground. Source: Campaign
Ofcom's latest digital television update, for the
second quarter of 2008, reveals that take-up of multichannel television
on main sets in UK households increased by 0.8%, from 87.2% to 88%
in Q2. The report found that over 22.5 million households had multichannel
television equipment connected to their primary set by the end of
Q2 2008. Ofcom also revealed that over the past year more than 11.7
million digital terrestrial television (DTT) units have been sold,
compared to only 7.6 million in the previous year - around two million
DTT devices were sold in Q2 alone. Integrated digital television
sets (IDTVs) accounted for around 1.4 million units of these, up
54% compared with last year, while set-top boxes accounted for over
0.8 million. The report found that more than 40% of households,
around 10 million, now have some form of free-to-view digital television
on their main set. Source MediaTel
Insight UKTV will be relaunching UKTV People
as Blighty, and UKTV Documentary as Eden early next year, as part
of the broadcaster's continuing rebrand strategy. This week, the
broadcaster debuted Watch and rebranded UKTV Drama as Alibi, following
last year's rebrand of UKTV G2 as Dave. Eden will focus on showing
documentary series such as Planet Earth and Superstorm, while Blighty
is to carry shows such as Louis Theroux Meets… and Who Do You Think
You Are? The channel's strapline will be Bloody Brilliant Britain.
Source: Media Week
 The
Guardian has once again cemented
its position as the UK's most popular newspaper website, according
to August's ABCe figures, although The Times Online reported the
highest growth of 20.1% month on month. Guardian.co.uk increased
its unique users by 12% month on month, to 23.1 million. It also
had the highest number of unique users in the UK at 8.7 million.In
contrast, MailOnline was the worst performing newspaper website
in the market, with unique users down 6.6% to 17.4 million. Its
number of users in the UK was also among the lowest at 5.2 million.
Source: Media Week
The Daily Mail is to raise the cover price of its Saturday
edition for the first time in five years, from 70p to 80p, making
it 20p more expensive than its mid-market rival The Daily Express.
The cover price of the weekday issue of the Daily Mail will remain
at 50p, as will the £1.50 cover price of The Mail on Sunday.The
Saturday edition of Associated's flagship national paper last increased
its price from 60p to 70p in October 2003. Sorce: Media Week
Magazine publishers will soon be able to publish official half-yearly
website figures alongside their print circulation figures, following
a change in operations by industry auditor ABC. Following the successful
introduction of the new reporting standard for regional media owners
last month, the scheme is being extended to all media owners who
will now be able to receive six-month website figures. Source: Media
Week
 Capital
Radio is undergoing its second
rebrand in under a year, changing from Capital 95.8 "London's
Hit Music Station" to 95.8 Capital FM "London's Number
1 Hit Music Station".
The station is also launching a new logo created by GCap Media's
in-house team working with design agency, Social UK. The
new look incorporates the name, frequency and FM wavelength of the
station in red, white and blue, to create what owner Global Radio
termed a bright, bold and more dynamic logo, which represents the
energy of the station. The new 95.8 Capital FM logo represents the
people of London and their hit music station. The simplistic and
vibrant design reflects the iconic status of 95.8 Capital FM as
it moves forward as an important part of Global Radio. According
to Rajar data for the first half of 2008, Capital Radio has retained
its position as the third most-listened- to station in London, with
an overall listening share of 4.6%. Source: Brand republic
After 15 years and five months of continuous broadcasting, Virgin
Radio ceased operations at 7.45am on Monday 6th October and officially
became Absolute Radio. Announced with a medley of classic
rock and pop music on Christian O'Connell's Breakfast Show, the
relaunch follows the station's £53.2m acquisition by Times
of India owner TIML Golden Square in May. Absolute Radio will continue
to be based in London's Golden Square and will broadcast across
all Virgin Radio's old frequencies, including medium wave and DAB
nationwide, and on 105.8 FM in the capital. The rebranded station
is also available on Virgin Media (channel 915), Freeview (channel
727), Tiscali TV (channel 620) and Sky Digital (channel 0107 National/0202
London) and the free-to-air service Freesat (channel 724). Its new
Indian owners will be able to listen to the radio station via satellite,
cable or through the internet. The rebrand has been supported by
a £5m advertising campaign, which plays off its new slogan
"Discover real music". Source: Brand republic
 Jean-Charles
Decaux, joint chief executive of JCDecaux and chairman of
the executive board, has said the current economic crisis will not
affect the company's bid to buy Rupert Murdoch's News Outdoor company. Decaux is reported to have said though the current crisis
is severe, it does not challenge the analysis it is conducting with
News Outdoor and the News Corp team in Russia. JCDecaux announced
last month that it was in exclusive talks with News Corporation's
outdoor division, which operates mainly in Russia and Eastern Europe.
Decaux added, according to Reuters, that he expected the economic
climate to prompt mergers and acquisitions in the media sector and
that JCDecaux is well placed to take advantage of the difficult
climate. He also said he expects the media sector to rebound in
2010 as a result of a number of major sports events. Decaux is reported
to have said the company's global growth for the first half of the
year was around 9.5%, but slower sales in the second half of the
year mean that, as a whole, growth should stand at between 6% and
7% unless there is a major deterioration in the economy. Source:
Media Week
 BBC
Worldwide has redesigned its 'Top Gear' website to include more
relevant content for prospective car buyers, as well as extra videos
and blogs.The new site, which relaunched today, features
nearly 300 videos that users can view, share or embed into their
own sites. 'Top Gear' hosts Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard
Hammond will regularly contribute to blogs on the site, as will
the show's magazine team.The new website, which was designed by
London digital agency Airlock, also includes a huge index of information
on every car on sale in the UK and a "Car Chooser" tool
that helps users select their next vehicle.The changes come as BBC
Worldwide seeks to increase ad revenues generated from potential
car buyers. Chris Mair, strategy director at Airlock said: "A
key challenge for us was to create a clear and intuitive site that
was a useful resource for potential car buyers but at the same time
was not dry and boring. "By incorporating much of the brand's
personality into tools such as the 'Car Chooser', we think we've
managed to create a site that is both useful and entertaining."
Source: Brand Republic
Trader Media Group, the owner of car sales magazine Auto
Trader, will be the first media owner to publish an enhanced ABCe
certificate for its website, Autotrader.co.uk, which will provide
agencies with new data such as users' country of residency.Digital
auditor ABCe launched the new certificate in September, offering
digital media owners the opportunity to indicate more detailed data
for their web traffic, including which country or UK region users
are from, their age, gender and social class, as well as unique
user breakdowns. The traffic data and visitor information, gathered
from an on-site survey, has obvious benefits in terms of selling
highly targeted advertising space, but Matt Thompson, marketing
director at Trader Media Group, also highlighted the value of the
enhanced certificate data for media owners looking to improve their
product. Separately, the company is reorganising its online display
sales team from sector-specific groups into agency-focused units.
Splitting into three teams, Trader Media Group expects the new structure
to help it forge a closer relationship with media agencies. It is
the latest sales team to rearrange into agency-focused hubs, with
other advocates of the system including News International, after
a restructure in July this year. Alanna Tyminski, who has just arrived
from Sky, will be joining Ryan Carter and Al Mottram as online sales
managers. Each will head an individual agency account team. Tyminski
will primarily be working across the OPera account, Carter will
look after GroupM and Mottram will work on Aegis Group. Trader Media
Group, owned by Guardian Media Group and private equity outfit Apax,
will hope the new moves boost its commercial performance following
a lacklustre set of ABCs during 2007. Auto Trader's circulation
during 2007 averaged 251,252 copies, down 9.6% from 2006. In February,
Auto Trader announced plans to launch five new supplements to broaden
its advertiser appeal to women and upmarket readers. The supplements,
each branded Auto Trader Extra, were designed to attract specific
key audiences, including 25 to 34-year-old females, 25 to 44-year-old
male motoring enthusiasts, 45-year-olds with families and 45 to
65-year-old high-income earners. Source: Media Week
Online ad spend increased by 21% to £1.68bn in the first
half of 2008, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau. Guy
Phillipson, IAB chief executive, said he was positive about the
sector's growth prospects, attributing the accountability of online
advertising as a key factor in persuading clients to increase their
investment in the medium. Phillipson said: "Online is not immune
from the economic downturn, but the growth in advertising spend
is healthy as advertisers focus on efficiency and to maximise their
budgets. "With a year-on-year increase of 28%, paid search
continues to drive online ad spend growth and was worth £981m
during the first half of 2008. Its market share was marginally up
to 58.3% of total online advertising, compared to 57.8% in the first
half of 2007. However, the growth in overall ad spend has slowed.
Between January and June 2007, online ad spend increased by 41.3%,
but slowed to 21% during the same period this year. Total spend
on online display advertising rose 16.3% to £333.8m during
the first half of 2008, boosted by a 36.6% increase in spending
on embedded formats including rich media, banners and video. By
sector, technology was the biggest-spending online category with
a 17.3% market share, followed by finance at 11.9%, entertainment
and media at 10.7% and recruitment at 9.9%. Source: Media Week
Condè Nast is planning to relaunch its celebrity-focused
Glamour.com website by introducing a greater emphasis on beauty
and fashion. The new-look site is scheduled to go live in early
November and will offer advertising formats currently unavailable,
such as double skyscrapers. The revamp marks the first time Condè
Nast has invested in the site since its launch seven years ago.
In the most recent magazine ABCs, for January to June 2008, Glamour
boosted its position at the top of the women's magazine market and
recorded a circulation of 551,351 - a period-on-period increase
of 0.2%. Glamour.com is not ABCe registered. However, according
to a spokesman, it attracts eight million page impressions and 500,000
unique users per month. Source: Media Week
 More
people went to the cinema this summer than at any time in the past
40 years, according to the latest figures produced by the Cinema
Advertising Association. UK cinemas attracted 53.6m visits between
June and August this year, an increase of 5.6% year on year, or
three million more people than the same period during 2007. Mamma
Mia! was the highest grossing film of the period, generating nearly
£63m for UK cinemas, followed by The Dark Knight at £45m.
Source: Media Week
UK Top Ten -
Week commencing 3rd October
1. How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2008)
2. Taken (2008)
3. Tropic Thunder (2008)
4. Mamma Mia! (2008)
5. Death Race (2008)
6. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008)
7. Righteous Kill (2008)
8. Brideshead Revisited (2008)
9. Fly Me to the Moon (2008)
10. The Women (2008)
Source: IMDB
Newsletter edited by The Direct Team |
