Week commencing 23rd April 2007
 ITV has announced an unveiling ceremony for its delayed broadband video-on-demand service, ITV.com. The delayed launch which was originally scheduled for March 31st has seen Channel 4 win the race to become the first major broadcaster to provide advertising around its video-on-demand service, 4OD. The ITV service is set to offer more than 1000 hours of archive content online free of charge. Viewers will be able to catch up on shows like Coronation Street within a 30 day window and watch live streamed content from its portfolio of channels. Source: Media Week
 Emap is considering launching its first free magazine for men, buoyed by the success of Sport, the independent free weekly title distributed in London, as part of a shake-up of its underperforming magazines. Senior members of the media owner's male lifestyle team are meeting agencies this month to gauge their perceptions of free magazines, particularly the recently launched Sport, to determine the strength of the business model. Emap is also promising agencies radical overhauls of its monthly titles, including women's fashion title NW, which could go weekly. Source: Media Week
The Audit Bureau of Circulations will launch a full investigation if allegations of London freesheet dumping are upheld. In a statement released, ABC said that it took any transgressions of the reporting standards very seriously, but did not currently know the truth of the allegations. Yesterday's release by Associated Newspapers of a video appearing to show News International distributors dumping thousands of copies of thelondonpaper provoked an aggressive retaliation from the latter. Source: Media Week
Pro Publishing, a company set up by a former ad manager of She and Prima at Natmags, is to launch Utopia, an upmarket monthly home interest magazine next month, billed as "the Vogue of Kitchens and bathrooms". The title will target 30 to 55-year-old AB homeowners earning more than £100,00, who are looking to spend half their annual salary on a new kitchen or bathroom, as well as architects and design professionals. Source: Media Week
Trinity Mirror has rebranded a free weekly series to build on the "iconic" Newcastle Evening Chronicle, with a new audience package available. The weekly Herald & Post has been redesigned and renamed Chronicle Extra, to tie in with the daily paid-for title. A new edition, for Derwentside, will be added to the current five editions serving Newcastle, South Tyneside, Northumberland, North Tyneside and Gateshead. This will provide an extra 30,000 copies, bringing the full distribution to 360,000. Source: Media Week
Top brands such as Tony & Guy, Fred Perry and Nicole Farhi are said to be involved in the launch of the new quarterly high-end fashion and culture mag, Plastique. The launch edition of the publication, which could potentially take the place of the now defunct The Face and compete with the likes of Vogue, goes on sale on 28th April with a target circulation of around 160,000. Source: Media Tel
The Financial Times has undergone a redesign backed by a multi-million pound marketing push in order to make the newspaper more accessible and modern. The title now has a new masthead and more colour to its salmon pink pages, whilst The People section has been expanded and the Business Life and Arts pages have been moved to the final spread in section one. Source: Media Tel
 Poster specialist Big Sky Banners is to install a new landmark advertising site in Birmingham city centre to add to its portfolio of giant sites that includes Birmingham Town Hall and George Square in Glasgow. The canvas measures more than 500 square metres and will be placed on a scaffold on the front elevation of the council owned Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, facing four lanes of traffic. The site has 2 panels allowing twin creative treatments to work in tandem. Source: Media Week
 Associated Newspapers is launching a travel site to sit with the Daily Mail, www.travelmail.co.uk, which will offer holiday research and bookings. The publisher will only allow firms already advertising in print to advertise on the site. The site will launch in May with destination guides, news, maps, videos and blogs. There will be an emphasis on user-generated content and the possibility of moving into social networking at a later stage. Advertisers will be offered MPUs, banners, skyscrapers and contextual advertising around each article. Source: Media Week
Advertisers are embracing "entertaining" online ad formats as a way to interact with and engage consumers, according to research by the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA) and the Online Publishers Association Europe. The research shows that use of the super banner and MPU formats rose substantially across Europe in the last six months of 2006, compared to the first half of the year. The latest EIAA Euro Ad Formats Report explores the usage and popularity of specific ad formats on members' networks across Europe, combines with figures from OPA Europe. While the percentage of traditional banner ads in those networks surveyed has slumped to 13% form 21%, the larger super banner is up from 28% to 35%, and the MPU now accounts for third - 33% up from 27%. The OPA Europe figures show super banner and MPU accounting for 86% of formats delivered. Source: Media Week
 GCap Media has bought the 18 AM and digital radio licences for the Classic Gold network for £3.95m from UBC Media, and will merge Classic Gold with its Capital Gold network. With the AM signal expected to be switched off in the next few years, GCap and UBC believe the best way to maintain the stations' profitability is to create a single classic hits network ultimately transferring to digital platforms. The Classic Gold network, featuring Tony Blackburn in the breakfast shift, currently has a 0.7% share of listening, as does Capital Gold. Source: Brand Republic.
Chrysalis, the music and radio group, is under pressure to sell individual stations after it failed to attract key buyers for the whole radio division in the first round of bidding. Source: Media Week.
 UK Top 10 (Friday 20th - Sunday 22nd April 2007)
1 Wild Hogs £954,553
2 Fracture £851,289
3 Mr. Bean's Holiday £827,106
4 Blades of Glory £659,421
5 Alpha Dog £452,232
6 Shooter £427,276
7 300 £313,756
8 The Reaping £310,591
9 The Lives of Others £293,598
10 Meet the Robinsons £238,986
Source: Carlton Screen Advertising
Edited by Craig Blyth, Andy Travis, Sze Yeung and Anna Kilborn
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