Week commencing 19th March 2007
 Virgin Media has been confirmed as the sponsor of the next series of reality
behemoth Big Brother, taking over the reigns from Carphone Warehouse
who dropped their deal following the allegedly racist bullying row.
The news puts an end to speculation that rival company, BSkyB, would
outbid Virgin with an 11th hour swoop to sponsor the programme.
Source: Media Tel
Major advertisers
could ask for refunds on deals agreed with BSkyB after the
broadcaster's channels were removed from the Virgin Media cable
service. According to the Sunday Telegraph, Sky has lost 3.3 million
customers who watched the basic channels on the Virgin Media cable
service, which will result in a 10% decline in audience share. In
addition to the threat from advertisers, Sky is facing opposition
from television broadcasters to its plan to take its free channels
from Freeview later in the year. The broadcasters, which include
the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, are all set to begin lobbying Ofcom
over Sky's plans to remove Sky News, Sky Sports news and Sky three
from Freeview. Sky intends to replace the channels with four pay-to-view
channels. Source: Media Tel
Five has
launched a video-on-demand download service on the back of hit US
hospital drama Grey's Anatomy. The broadcaster is running a free
promotion on the first two episodes and will charge viewers 99p
post-transmission or £1.99 pre-transmission to download the
remainder of the series. Source: Media Week
 So London,
a new weekly glossy magazine, has been launched in London by a former
Mail on Sunday journalist. The title will have an initial print
run of 75,000 and will include stories on art, property and "shameless
luxury." Source: Media Tel
Monthly men's
magazines faced their worst month on record in February, with
Emap's FHM and Arena losing around 40% of their news-stand sales
in the year-on-year figures, and IPC's Loaded down almost a third,
according to wholesalers' estimates. The falls continue trends revealed
in the most recent ABCs, in which FHM, Loaded, Maxim and Arena all
posted year-on-year declines of more than 25%. Source: Media Week
 Almost 70% of women
claim that they could not live without the internet, according to
new research from IPC Southbank, publisher of women's monthlies
such as Marie Claire and In Style. Southbank's Web Wise Women
research questioned more than 4,000 ABC1 women, finding that
they are spending more time on the internet than ever before. The
research says that the majority of 'premium' women (86%) have shopped
on the internet, and last year they spent on average £840.
It adds that many ABC1 women (68%) also use the internet to research
products before buying them elsewhere. The top products bought online
by ABC1 women are books, CDs and DVDs, travel tickets, hotels and
holidays. IPC SouthBank launches the new website for In Style in
April, with a focus on fashion and beauty and celebrity style. Source:
Media Tel
Virgin Media is the surprise
frontrunner to buy broadband provider Pipex, one of Britain's
largest independent operations. According to the Daily Telegraph,
expressions of interest in Pipex, valued at £335m, have come
from Virgin Media and BT Group,. Virgin wants to expand its reach
beyond its cable network, which covers 55% of UK households. Source:
Media Guardian
 The government is to introduce
new regulations covering illegal outdoor advertisements which are
put up by motorways and main roads. It also intends to create a
national database to keep track of companies which have broken the
law. Coming in force from April 6, the regulations will give councils
more effective powers to deal with advertisers who break the law.
Source: Media Tel
The outdoor advertising industry
is significantly outperforming display advertising in other traditional
media, new analysis from The Outdoor Advertising Association has shown. Whilst outdoor revenue grew 7.1% in the last three months
of 2006, revenues in display advertising fell by 8% for television,
10% for cinema and 12% for radio. The industry has also hit the
"magic figure" of a 10% share of display advertising revenues
for the second quarter in a row. Source: Media Week
 Channel 4 has signed Emap,
SMG, UTV and Disney to its bid for the second national digital radio
licence. Channel 4 has also teamed up with CanWest, Universal Music,
Sunrise and Gaydar for the bid, with applications for the license
due by March 28th. Channel 4 is the clear favourite for the license,
with National Grid Wireless, operator of nine out of eleven national
radio networks, the only other party to have gone public with its
interest. Source: Media Tel
GCap Media is "not
in a strong enough position" to participate in any imminent
consolidation of the radio industry, chief executive Ralph Bernard
has admitted. Bernard predicted that strategy reviews being carried
out at the Chrysalis and Emap radio groups, along with the collapse
of the SMG/ UTV merger, would definitely result in imminent consolidation,
but he ruled his company out of any part of that process. Source:
Media Week
GMG Radio launches a multi-million
pound advertising campaign this week to push the re-brand of Smooth
Radio, which is expanding further into the regions and changing
its music focus and presenter line-up. GMG bought the radio arm
of Saga last year and is re-branding the regional radio stations
as Smooth Radio. The Smooth brand will replace Saga in Glasgow,
the East and West Midlands and the North West of England, and 102.2
Smooth FM in London will also alter its name to simply Smooth Radio.
A fifth Smooth station will be launched in North East England later
this year. The newly re-branded stations will now be targeting the
40 to 50-something age range. Source: Media Week
TheJazz GCap Media's new
digital station is to adopt the two-in-a-row advertising policy,
controversially launched by Capital 95.8 last year, when it introduces
advertising at Easter. As well as introducing commercials next month,
TheJazz will welcome a range of well-known presenters to front shows.
Source: Media Week
 UK Box Office Chart
1. Norbit (12A)
2. Premonition (12A)
3. Hot Fuzz (15)
4. Becoming Jane (PG)
5. Ghost Rider (12A)
6. Outlaw (18)
7. Charlotte's Web (U)
8. The Illusionist (PG)
9. The Number 23 (15)
10. Stomp the Yard (12A)
Source : Nielsen EDI
Edited by Katharine Summers
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