Week commencing 12th May 2008
 Project Kangaroo, the video-on-demand service from ITV, BBC
Worldwide and Channel 4, is expected to launch under the name of
SeeSaw. However, it has emerged that the launch, mooted for late
summer, may be delayed until next year. BBC Worldwide's involvement
in SeeSaw has yet to approved by the BBC Trust. Source: Media Week
ITV is working on
launching a price-comparison website that will allow users to find
out details of products advertised on TV. ITV Consumer, the division
responsible for the broadcaster's interactive, mobile and call-TV
operation, has applied to the Intellectual Property Office to register
Priceterrier as a trademark for the service. The move is part of
ITV's growing online focus as it strives to more than quadruple
its 2007 online revenues, to hit a target of generating £150m
by 2010. Source: Media Week
ITV is expected to launch
its content on Virgin Media's video-on-demand service in
the coming months, with Five also in talks to join the VoD offering.
It is thought the launch of ITV's content on the VoD service is
being held up by negotiations over who will control ad sales around
ITV content. Last week, Channel 4 started carrying ads around its
content on the Virgin Media VoD service, despite having its content
there since last year. Source: Media Week
ITV has been fined
£5.68m for breaching Ofcom rules on premium rate phone-in
services. The fine is by far the highest imposed by Ofcom or any
of the previous regulators. The highest fine previously imposed
by Ofcom was £2m on GMTV last year, for a breach of premium
rate phone-in rules. The fines covered breaches of regulations during
Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, for which Ofcom has imposed
a financial penalty on LWT of £3m and has directed the company
to broadcast a summary of Ofcom's findings on two occasions on ITV1.
Ofcom said the charges on ITV reflected the "seriousness of
ITV's failures, but also their repeated nature". ITV has pledged
an additional £7.8m to compensate viewers who called numerous
ITV premium rate phone-ins. Ofcom also charged LWT £1.2m for
Ant & Dec's Gameshow Marathon, and Granada £1.2m for Soapstar
Superstar. ITV apologised for its actions and said it has put new
measures and procedures in place since the phone-in issues were
identified. Source: Media Week
 Britain's
national daily newspapers suffered a downturn in circulation of
almost 1% year on year in April, according to the latest ABC data.
Only two daily titles managed to buck the downward trend on display,
with The Sun boosting its circulation by almost 3% year on
year. There was a relatively large decline for the Daily Express,
down by nearly 4.5% year on year. Source: MediaTel
All of the Quality daily titles saw their circulations fall in
April, with the Guardian experiencing the greatest percentage
downturn in the sector. It fell by just over 4% year on year, leaving
its total at around 351,000 copies. The Daily Telegraph was
down by 3% year on year, or more than 27,000 copies, to leave its
circulation at almost 872,000. The Financial Times and the
Independent were down, by 1% and 2.5% year on year respectively.
The Financial Times now has a total circulation of more than 448,000
while the Independent's stands at more than 243,000. Meanwhile, the Times shed almost 11,000 copies from its total in April,
giving it a circulation of just over 618,000. Source: MediaTel
In the Mid-Market, the Daily Express was down by almost
33,000 copies for the month to give it a circulation of around 727,000.
There was good news for the Daily Mail though, as it added
24,000 copies to its total, giving it an ABC figure of over 2.3
million. Source: Mediatel
 Virgin
Radio has launched an initiative aimed at improving the creative
quality of ads on the station. Entitled "Virgin Radio's favourite
Ad of the Moment", the scheme will encourage listeners to vote
online for their favourite ad. The Virgin radio team will shortlist
ads deemed to feature the best creative, and listeners will be encouraged
through on-air promotions to vote online for their favourite ad.
Source: Media Week
GCap's decision to increase its ad inventory by scrapping
its "two-in-a-row" ads policy has not provoked a significant
uplift in advertiser demand. As part of chief executive Fru Hazlitt's
strategy presentation on 11 February, the company unveiled plans
to scrap the controversial two-in-a-row policy, under which no more
then two ads would be aired in succession. It argues that the increased
inventory would prompt a £2m increase in revenues for 2008/09
and £4m in 2009/10. However, agencies are not reporting a
significant increase in demand from clients for the extra slots.
Source: Media Week
The latest RAJAR figures, for Q1 2008, reveal that 17.8%
of all radio listening is now done via a digital platform, up from
16.6% in the fourth quarter of 2007. DAB digital radio, meanwhile,
makes up 10.8% of all radio listening, an increase on the 9.9% recorded
last quarter. The internet now makes up 2.1% of all radio listening,
up from 1.9% in Q4 and DTV 3.2%, up from 3.1%. Total hours of digital
listening in the quarter reached 184 million, up 15 million hours
on the previous quarter. Source: MediaTel
 Billionaire investor Carl Icahn, the corporate raider who specialises
in shaking up under-performing companies, has purchased a 3.5% stake
in Yahoo since Microsoft withdrew its offer to buy the company,
and is reportedly looking to pressure the company into reopening
talks with the software giant. Source: Media Week
Times Online has launched a test version
of its digital archive, which will open up 200 years'-worth of newspaper
content, and expects to launch the service within the next two months.
Times Online last week launched a test version of the free digital
archive, which will provide content produced by The Times, The Sunday
Times and Times Online published since 1785. Source: Media Week
Google has made a play to become a leading
social network provider by launching Google Friend Connect, an application
that enables media owners to create social communities by embedding
a piece of code on their website. Websites signing up to Google
Friend Connect will be able to offer users access to social network
features such as profiles and message boards. It will also enable
users to access personal profiles they have built on other social
networks, such as Facebook. In a statement, Google said that Google
Friend Connect aims to break down barriers to social media spreading
across the internet in two ways: firstly, the technology barrier
preventing media owners from building their own communities and
secondly, the nuisance for users of having to create profiles on
multiple sites. Source: Media Week
 UK Box Office Chart: Fri 9th May - Sun 11th May
1: Iron Man (12A)
2:What Happens In Vegas (12A)
3: Forgetting Sarah Marshall (15)
4: Speed Racer (PG)
5: Nim's Island (U)
6: Doomsday (18)
7: Made Of Honour (12A)
8: In Bruges (18)
9: 21 (12A)
10: The Eye (15)
Source : Pearl and Dean
Edited by Bex Cunnah, Anna Kilborn, Andy Travis,
Craig Blyth |
