Week commencing 9th July 2007
 Pay-TV
service Top Up TV is launching a new advertiser-funded channel
on Freeview called Showcase. The channel goes live on 17 July with
its first sponsors, Audi and Camelot, who will be the exclusive
providers of content for the channel. If successful, further partners
will be brought on board from February 2008. Showcase will be available
to all viewers who have the new Top Up TV+ Digital Television Recorder
(DTR) - a set-top box that can be used to receive Freeview and paid-for
extra programming, as well as record and time shift programmes.
Source: Mediaweek
 Westminster
Council has passed new rules ordering free afternoon newspapers thelondonpaper and London Lite to clean up discarded
copies. The new rules, which will come into effect in one month
unless News International and Associated Newspapers come to an agreement
over cleaning up, could see distribution points in Westminster cut
by 30%, with freesheet distributors also required to sweep up within
a 100 metre radius at the end of each shift. As part of the measures,
both companies will have to apply for distribution permits within
the borough of Westminster. Individuals or organisations distributing
free literature will require a permit at Charing Cross and Embankment
stations; Leicester Square/Charing Cross Road; Oxford Circus and
environs; and Victoria station and its surroundings. The council
says that the clean up bill for the freesheets is £111,000
a year, with up to 25% of waste in the West End coming from free
newspapers. The latest ABC figures, for May 2007, show thelondonpaper
ahead of its rival with a total circulation of around 486,600, whilst
the London Lite had a circulation of over 400,000. Source: Mediatel
Music weekly NME is to undergo a redesign in a bid to boost
the long-running title's circulation amidst a generally depressed
market. At the most recent ABC concurrent release, for July to December
2006, the title recorded around a 5% year on year dip in its total
figure, and a 1.6% loss period on period. It now holds a circulation
of around 73,000. IPC Media says it will introduce a host of new
elements to the print offering, including a new logo, as a result
of "extensive reader research", including more interactive
elements and a "radical modern look and feel to switch on NME's
design-savvy audience". Innovations include a 'Your photos'
section to run alongside the letters page; a 'Weekly Planner' catering
for younger readers; 'Stuff We Love' that extends coverage to fashion,
gadgets and band merchandise, and 'Behind NME Lines', coverage which
takes readers into the NME office and introduces the staff. Existing
sections are also being shaken up with the cover feature being brought
to the front of the title; an overhaul of the news pages for deeper
analysis, comment and opinion, and the review section being boosted
by 60%. Readers will also now have album reviews published. "Our
readers are the magazine so when it's time to innovate we allow
them to lead the process," said editor Conor McNicholas. "Development
at NME is continuous and with these changes we've really nailed
an essential weekly value for money package for the passionate British
music fan." Publishing director, Paul Cheal, added: "The
media landscape for 15-24-year-olds is moving at breakneck speed
and it's vitally important that NME continues to evolve its contact
and design to reflect this." Source: Mediatel
The Economist is launching an online audio version of every
issue of the magazine, to meet the needs of subscribers with no
time to read. The weekly said it was the first leading international
publication to offer a full audio edition. From this week listeners
will be able to scroll through the Economist and download audio
versions of articles by section or in its entirety. The magazine,
which has a worldwide print circulation of 1,197,712, said the audio
service would be free to subscribers. Non-subscribers can buy each
issue for £4. The idea of giving Economist readers news and
features to digest while they are on the move follows a move by
all the major newspapers into podcasts, quasi-radio programmes that
can be downloaded to a computer and transferred to a player. With
demand for premium financial news high, as reflected in Rupert Murdoch's
$5bn (£2.5bn) bid for the Wall Street Journal, the Economist
is hoping to open up another way of reaching readers. It said feedback
from a soft launch to a selected group of subscribers had been "very
positive", with many users choosing to download the full edition.
The audio project follows the magazine's "This week in the
Economist", a five-minute podcast of selected stories available
on Economist.com and at Apple's iTunes store. Source: MediaGuardian
 Gaydar is rolling out its latest attempt at a mobile service on 23rd July
across the UK which will be followed by the service going live in
Europe, Australia and Japan with six months. Social networking and
user generated content will initially run without advertising and
gain its revenue through subscriptions. Source: Media Week
Mansized, the online men's magazine will
be launching a personalised news service. They will be able to read
stories from a range of sites around the web and choose from various
themes. It is due to launch in the next couple of weeks. Source:
Media Week
Monster, Europe's largest job site will
be offering advertising opportunities for the first time. Monster
has localised sites in 17 European countries and they believe they
can offer advertisers great value by being able to target via location.
It will offer simple opportunities such as banner, buttons and skyscrapers
with further formats developed at a later stage. Source: Media Week
Piczo, the teen social site is looking
to involve users in the content and advertising on the site. It
has launched Piczo insiders which will use the frequent users to
make the site more relevant. The Piczo insiders will work with advertisers
creating campaigns and suggesting appropriate ways to engage with
the online community. Source: Media Week
 Emap
Radio has boosted its client focus with a reorganisation of
its advertising division. Within the new structure, five agency-facing
teams are to be created, tasked with getting closer to planners
and clients, rather than simply dealing with one part of a campaign.
Under the previous structure airtime, sponsorship and promotions
were sold by separate people, who each met with the client to plan
that stage of a campaign. In a further development, a six-figure
sum has been invested in Emap Insight. The investment, which will
be divided up among client briefs, will fund the creation of pieces
of work tailored to each customer to show them how radio advertising
could work for them. Source: MediaWeek
Channel 4 has beaten
off competition from National Grid Wireless (NGW) to be awarded
the licence for the second national digital multiplex, and will
now launch ten new national stations. Beginning in July 2008, 4
Digital Group, the consortium that includes partners such as Chrysalis,
Emap, UTV and SMG, will launch three 4-branded stations - E4 Radio,
Channel 4 Radio and Pure4 - as well as Talk Radio, Virgin Radio
Viva, Closer, a station based on the women's magazine, and a rolling
news channel from Sky. Radio Disney and Sunrise Radio will also
broadcast on the multiplex. Nathalie Schwarz, director of Channel
4 Radio and chairman of 4 Digital Group, said the group would now
"work together to deliver our commitments and live-up to our
vision of securing the future of commercial digital radio".
Source: MediaWeek
Ofcom does not have
a date in mind for the switch off of analogue radio, according to
chief executive Ed Richards, but the regulator does have plans to
develop a potential timeframe for the transition to digital. Richards
said there were reasons why radio could not immediately follow the
lead of the television industry, which is to have its analogue signal
switched off region by region between this autumn and 2012. "There
are some here who would like to see a specific time scale to the
end of analogue radio," he told delegates at the Radio Festival
in Cambridge. "But we do not believe that the government announcing
a swift, forced march to analogue switchoff today would be in the
interests of listeners or the industry," he said. "We
must recognise there are clear differences between radio and TV,
in particular that digital terrestrial television could not achieve
universal coverage without analogue switchoff." Richards also
pointed out that there were up to 150 million analogue radio sets
in Britain, and no equivalent TV set-top box to convert analogue
equipment into digital without buying a new digital receiver. But
he said in spite of these obstacles there were "very good reasons
why we should consider how to take things forward", adding
that the cost of dual transmission is a "very real and significant
burden". This money could be spent on content and on attracting
listeners, he said. He said there was value in the analogue radio
spectrum that would be freed up by switchoff, and suggested the
setting up of a working group between Ofcom and the industry to
identify the key issues in transition from analogue to digital.
Source: MediaTel
 UK
Box Office Chart (6th-8th July)
1. Shrek the Third
2. Die Hard 4.0
3. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
4. Ocean's Thirteen
5. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
6. Hostel 2
7. Apne
8. La Vie en Rose
9. Tell No One
10. Vacancy
Edited by Lucinda Norris, Mark Dix, Abi Ward
and Tony Oakley |
