Week commencing 18th February 2008
 Broadcaster Five is to relaunch its video-on-demand service Five Download as a mixed paid-for and free ad-supported service within 2 months. The channel made its first foray into on-demand in 2006 with a service offering paid-for downloads of hit show CSI from its website ahead of broadcast. However Five has lagged behind rivals in VoD development, who have operated broader services for several years. The new service will offer catch up viewing and archived content, with a mix of streamed ad funded and paid for content. Source: Media Week
UK broadcasters are not expecting a rapid resumption in the production of some of their US shows following the Hollywood writers strike. Broadcasters are being warned that it will take months for production schedules on major US series to return to normal. 20th Century Fox has warned that '24' cannot be screened until next year. That leaves Sky One with a major gap in its scheduling. Sky One said it was unclear when 'Lost' and 'Bones' would be delivered and that it had fast tracked other programmes into production. Virgin Media has also said that 'Criminal Minds' and 'Grey's Anatomy' have been affected. Source: Media Week
 The two key auditors of magazine/newspaper circulation and readership, ABC and NRS, plan to appoint a joint chief executive as part of moves that could see the bodies merge in the long term. National Readership Survey (NRS) and Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) council members will meet next month to decide whether to go ahead with the move. Source: Media Week
Morrisons, the supermarket chain, is to launch its first regular in-store magazine with a distribution of one million copies. Entitled Morrisons Magazine, the advertiser-funded publication, which will be free of charge, will be launched on 3 March across the supermarket's 375 stores in the UK. Source: Media Week
Music magazine publishers will be regrouping after the latest ABCs showed falling sales almost across the board. Q retains its market lead, but with circulation dropping 6.4% year on year to 131,330, Bauer Consumer Media is now boosting its focus on radio. IPC's NME was also down by almost 9,000 copies (12.3%) year on year, which incorporated a 6% fall period on period, despite a redesign in July. Source: Marketing
The battle-scarred men's magazine market was buoyed in the ABCs for July to December 2007 by the October launch of free title Shortlist, which fell just short of its 500,000 circulation target, bringing 462,731 copies to the market. Most of the paid for titles appeared to have halted their circulation slide with the period on period figures, but heavy losses in the 1st half of 2007 still show an annual decline. Worst hit was Maxim, falling 27% p/p bringing its annual loss to -40%. Source: Marketing / Media Week
Condé Nast's Glamour held onto the top spot of the women's lifestyle titles in spite of losing 6.5% y/y. At 550,066 it is still nearly 90k copies ahead of Good Housekeeping, which held firm y/y at 464k - and Cosmopolitan close behind GH at 460k. Notable increases in this sector included Woman & Home (+6.3%), Grazia (+8%), She (+16%), Psychologies (+21.5%) and Essentials (+28.9%). Apart from Grazia, Bauer's titles brought less than good news with Yours down 15%, More down 26.4% and the closure of NW (New Woman) last week. Source: Media Week
The success of Doctor Who's latest incarnation on TV was reflected in the children's magazine sector, where BBC Magazines' Doctor Who Adventures posted 44% year-on-year growth to take the top slot with 155k average sales. The Simpsons Comics take second place, holding pretty steady y/y with 133k sales. Source: Marketing
 RAJAR figures for Q4 2007 were re-released due to marginal errors on stations that report new results half yearly. A RAJAR spokesman blamed the mix up on a software glitch and says that measures have now been put into place to ensure that this wouldn't happen again. Source: RadioWorks
Exeter FM, a new station for Exeter launched on Monday, broadcasting on 107.3 FM. The station is specifically targeting adults 35-54 years and is owned by the London Media Company and Riverside Radio. The station offers a commercial alternative to GCap owned Gemini FM and Gold. Source: RadioWorks
Bauer Radio is preparing to launch Closer, the celebrity-oriented digital station on Freeview to bring the station to market more quickly. The station had been due to launch on the 4Digital multiplex later this year but as there are now doubts about the timetable that this is running to, Bauer are considering introducing the station as a stand alone service on Freeview. 4Radio was due to launch in July but with a number of key appointments not yet made it's expected that this will be happening later in the year. Source: RadioWorks
 CBS Outdoor has warned that they are tightening the policy regarding late poster delivery. They have yet to issue a formal statement, but Total Media are advising clients to adhere to the stated deadlines, to ensure campaigns are posted. For most formats printed posters should be delivered to CBS 2 weeks prior to the in-charge date. Artwork is normally required 2 weeks prior to poster delivery, ie artwork is due 4 weeks prior to in-charge. We strongly advise that delivery dates and times should be recorded, together with a name/signature that confirms receipt at that time, so if necessary it can be proven that the poster delivery deadline has been met. Please contact your account team if you need further information about this.
CBS Outdoor is poised to win the internal advertising contract for Westfield London, the £1.6bn shopping centre due to open in West London this year. CBS has been confirmed as the preferred bidder for the shopping centre's internal ad sites and is expected to sign a contract shortly. The contract is understood to be worth at least £60m, over a minimum of seven years. In the UK, CBS has to date focused on transport advertising, such as buses, trams and the London Underground. It will manage all traditional and digital media sites inside the new centre. The internal sites will be almost entirely digital, including a network of LCD screens in major walkways. The shopping centre's car parks, also part of the internal contract, will feature traditional outdoor formats. Source: Brand Republic
POSTAR has announced a significant increase in its investment in audience research for out of home. For the first time, POSTAR will measure all OOH media and use GPS technology to accurately record consumers' travel patterns and exposure to out of home. The new POSTAR research will provide a unified currency for audience measurement across all the major OOH platforms. Buses, rail, taxis, retail and leisure will make their debut on POSTAR, alongside all roadside formats and the London Underground. Source: MediaTel
 Research firm comScore figures for December 2007 show that the Sky Digital Media portfolio reached 14.7 million unique visitors, around four in ten UK internet users. The Sky Digital Media sports network reached 8 million unique users in the same period. Sky Digital Media represents 174 different sites and works with Sky media - Sky's TV advertising sales house - to offer campaigns across Sky's owned and third-party content portfolio. Source: Media Week
Gamespot, the UK gaming website, attracted a record online audience of more than 3.5 million unique users, according to December ABCe data. The data also showed that 99.8% of its users during December were from the UK, leading it to claim that it offers advertisers a "pure" UK audience. GameSpot UK attributed the increase in users to the growth of the gaming industry over the past 12 months. Websites owned by CNET Networks UK, which owns GameSpot, now have more than 29% reach into the total UK online population, according to internet research firm comScore. Source: Media Week
An increasing number of luxury goods purchases are being made on the back of online advertising, according to research carried out by the Internet Advertising Bureau and design magazine Wallpaper. The joint research project found that 72% of consumers who purchased premium luxury goods did so as a result of seeing an internet ad. This suggests online advertising is as effective as other media terms of promoting luxury goods. The report also discovered that 70% of people who purchased premium luxury goods did so after seeing advertising in a magazine, while 62% did so after watching a TV ad. The research further found that consumers will carry out research into luxury goods online, regardless of whether they then go on to make that purchase over the internet. The research consisted of an online questionnaire sent to 1,007 respondents, which enquired about consumers' attitudes towards luxury goods and services, purchasing habits and attitudes toward such advertising. All respondents had a salary exceeding £40k pa and were in the socio-economic group A or B. Source: Media Week
Yahoo plans to offer two new online ad formats following its $160m (£82m) purchase of Maven Networks, one of the world's leading online video services. The online giant now plans to sell so-called interactive units, 3" commercials that begin before videos are played back and retreat into a banner during the video's playback. Users can click on the ad banner, pause the video and bring up a microsite. Should they choose not to view the ad, it will appear as a post-roll ad. The 2nd new format will allow advertisers to include click-through text links within videos being shown on websites. The formats are currently only available in the US, but it is anticipated that they will be introduced across Europe soon. Source: Mediaweek
 Cinema ad spend last year was up 10% on 2006 figures. Nielsen Media Research reports ad spend in 2007 totalled £170m. Source: Carlton Screen
1. Jumper (12A)
2. National Treasure: Book Of Secrets (PG)
3. Juno (12A)
4. The Water Horse:legend Of The Deep (PG)
5. Cloverfield (15)
6. The Bucket List (12A)
7. There Will Be Blood (15)
8. Definitely, Maybe (12A)
9. Penelope (U)
10. Jodhaa Akbar (12A)
Source: Pearl and Dean
Edited by Anna Kilborn, Andy Travis, Craig Blyth & Sze Yeung. |
