Week commencing 16th April 2007
 Virgin Media has filed legal proceedings in the High Court aimed at resolving the heavily publicised channel carriage dispute with Sky. Virgin Media has said that it is upset over Sky's dominance in the UK Pay TV market, claiming the company has "engaged in a strategy to stifle competition by using its dominance against Virgin Media". Earlier in the year, the two companies became locked in battle, after Sky withdrew its basic channel package - including Sky One and Sky News from Virgin Media after talks broke down over the increase in the cost of carrying the channels on the platform. Source: MediaTel
Five has renewed its first-run rights for its top-rated shows Grey's Anatomy, House and the Law & Order franchise. The deals include screenings on digital channel Five US as well as the terrestrial station. House, currently in its third series, pulls in around 2 million viewers in its Thursday slot at 9pm and is screened before legal drama Shark as part of a block called Genius Thursday. The second season of Grey's Anatomy, peaked at 1 million viewers on its first airing on 25 March, whilst Law & Order's trio of series - Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: Criminal Intent - regularly features in the top ten US programmes in the UK. Source: MediaWeek
 Westminster Council has told Associated Newspapers and News International that it will ban their afternoon freepapers, the London Lite and thelondonpaper if the companies cannot reach an agreement on the cost of recycling. The council says that free newspapers generate three to four tonnes of waste every day and it wants the publishers to contribute to the cost of recycling, which will run to £500,000 over two years. Source: MediaWeek
The Scotland On Sunday newspaper has launched a new 40-page magazine to sit alongside the two existing magazines in the title's package, AtHome and Spectrum. Review magazine will include films, books, television, arts news and features, building on the paper's existing Review section. It is said to be younger, fresher, and more energetic, whilst continuing to offer week-long coverage of the arts. The section has doubled in size and has new critics contributing to its content. Source: MediaTel
The nation's Daily newspapers suffered further declines in circulation in March, with the overall market down 3.3% year on year. The largest actual loss of the Dailies was felt by the Daily Mirror, while the greatest percentage lost was seen by the Daily Record. All titles in the Quality Daily sector recorded a year on year downturn in the circulation, with the exception of the Financial Times, which rose 3.4% to leave its total at a little over 460,000. The Times recorded the greatest actual loss of 30,426. The title now holds a total ABC of a little shy of 640,000, after a 4.5% year on year decline for the month. The Guardian suffered a downturn of around 13,600 editions, leaving its total at just over 366,000. The Independent and the Daily Telegraph also saw their circulations shrink, by just over 3,000 and around 5,300 respectively. The Indy now reports a circulation of almost 253,000, whilst the Telegraph has recorded a total of just over 896,000. Both titles in the Mid-Market recorded significant losses in their total circulation for March. The Daily Express suffered a decline of over 73,000 copies year on year, whilst the Daily Mail shed just under 55,000. All titles in the Popular Daily sector also saw their circulation slide year on year for the month. March also saw the Sunday Newspaper market record an overall drop in circulation of 5.5% year on year, with all titles recording a year on year decline for March. The smallest percentage decrease was recorded by the Mail On Sunday, which was down 0.8% year on year. The largest year on year decline in real terms in the Sunday market was felt by the News of the World, which fell by more than 149,000, although it remained the Sunday title with the highest circulation. Source: MediaWeek / MediaTel
 Digital advertising specialist Screen FX has won the contract to supply digital flat screen networks across 13 of property company Land Security's shopping malls. Land Securities owns and manages 30 shopping centres and has awarded the advertising business to ScreenFX's MallFX division following a competitive pitch. The contract represents a combined footfall of 206 million consumers a year, extending ScreenFX's total annual footfall to 720 million. Source: MediaWeek
Simply Media has acquired 400 hairdresser salon sites from Vision TV, giving it the rights to broadcast on 2,000 screens nationwide. The acquisition makes Simply Media, which aggregates and distributes video content over multiple digital platforms, the largest salon TV operator in the UK. Simply Media operates more than 25 digital TV channels, including five satellite channels, and an out-of-home network managed by its Simply Digital Networks division. The latest acquisition adds to the company's existing portfolio of health clubs, post offices and garden centres. Source: MediaWeek
 Sky News has announced that it is to introduce a new-look website this Thursday, heralding the first phase of the redevelopment of sky.com/news as a video-rich site. The design changes are intended to provide a synergy between the look of Sky News channel and sky.com/news, thus creating a user-friendly, easy to navigate site with a focus on breaking news. Source: MediaTel
A new report claims that the UK's current and planned broadband infrastructure may not meet the future needs of the most intensive users and could harm the UK's competitiveness. The report from the Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG) says that the UK could be left behind as several key competitor nations are in the process of deploying networks that are capable of delivering much higher access speeds than are currently available in the UK. Source: Mediaweek
 Radio groups will be granted greater freedom in what they broadcast and the number of stations they are permitted to own, according to communications watchdog Ofcom, which today published its consultation on the future of radio. Other findings from the report indicate that AM radio could be switched off in two years, whilst the regulation of small radio stations will be relaxed. Source: MediaTel
The national commercial digital radio network operator, Digital One, has announced plans for ten new transmitters. Digital One says that the project will result in the UK digital radio network extending to 90% of the British population. This will be achieved by adding sites in the Scottish Borders, Cumbria, the Yorkshire Coast, Derbyshire and the South Coast over the next two years. The expansion will bring new or improved coverage of the national commercial stations (Classic FM, Virgin Radio, talkSPORT, Core, Planet Rock, Capital Life, Oneword and theJazz) to approximately 1,894,000 people. Source: MediaTel
 CINEMA
UK Box Office Chart - Fri 13th Apr - Sun 15th Apr:
(1) Wild Hogs
(2) Mr Bean's Holiday
(3) Blades Of Glory
(4) Shooter
(5) 300
(6) Sunshine
(7) Curse of the Golden Flower
(8) Meet The Robinsons
(9) Perfect Stranger
(10) The Lives of Others.
Source: Pearl & Dean
Edited by Mark Dix
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