Week commencing 23rd June 2008
 ITV is to revamp its digital channels ITV3 and ITV4, enhancing
their respective identities and increasingly using the two channels
to build audiences for programmes that could be moved to core channel
ITV1. Source: Media Week
Channel 4 is expected to launch a 4Music-branded TV channel,
at V Festival in August. 4Music will be one of the main sponsors
of V Festival 2008, which takes place on 16 and 17 August in Hylands
Park, Chelmsford, and Weston Park, Staffordshire. Channel 4 is believed
to be planning to use the event to market the 4Music rebrand. Source:
Media Week
ITV is looking to slash £150m from its budget for
public service broadcasting, such as news, regional and children's
programmes, by 2012, when the analogue signal is switched off. ITV
is calling on the regulator, Ofcom, to permit a sharp dip in ITV's
license requirements over the next three years. Source: Media Week
 Specialist
luxury and travel publisher Illustrated London News is to
launch a quarterly, high-end lifestyle magazine that will be distributed
at exclusive hotels around the world. Sphere magazine will feature
a mix of culture, travel, and lifestyle news and features. It will
be distributed within hotels such as Orient-Express Hotels and The
Dorchester and Claridges in London, along with distribution among
travel operators such as Virgin Atlantic and British Airways. Sphere
will be accompanied by the planned launch of a website, spherelife.com.
Source: Media Week Bulletin
Rumours are being quashed by News International following speculation
that James Murdoch was considering axing the londonpaper.
The loss making paper has had rumours growing around it over the
last two weeks, but News International issued a public statement
supporting the freesheet. A spokesman said: "The londonpaper
has established itself as the capital's leading afternoon paper
with an audited daily circulation of over 500,000 and strong advertising
revenue." Despite being the number one evening paper in London,
the paper has lost £17 million in its first ten months. Source:
Mediatel Newsline
The Independent On Sunday has slashed its cover price to
£1, according to a report in the trade press. The Sunday title
has reduced its price from £1.80 after rolling out a campaign
of regional discounts this year. Since it relaunched as a new slimmed-down
version in June 2007, the newspaper has seen various price-cuts
and now intends to keep to the £1 price, which initially accompanied
the two week relaunch period. At the last ABC release in May 2008,
The Independent On Sunday dropped by 4.1% year on year. Source:
Mediatel Newsline
A new global style magazine geared towards creative professionals,
headed by the former publisher of style magazine Wallpaper, is set
to launch in August. Distill, which takes its inspiration
from Dennis Publishing's The Week and features a digest of fashion,
will be a bimonthly title that the publisher claims will show "the
best of the global and style press". Source Media Week
Which? Is launching flagship publication Which?Car as a
news-stand title for the first time in the consumer organisation's
51-year history. It will be free to Which? members and will be sold
at supermarket chain Sainsbury's for £3.99 from this month.
Source: Media Week
 Media
regulator Ofcom is investigating a Capital Radio competition
called London iTest that had to be reopened after the winner was
found to be ineligible. The GCap Media station brought the issue
to the regulator's attention as the winning entrant had breached
the terms and conditions. Ofcom is considering details of the competition
but is not making a formal investigation. Source: Media Week
SMG shareholders have approved the £53.2m
disposal of Virgin Radio to Times of India. Incoming owner,
Absolute Radio, backed by the Times of India, did not purchase the
rights to the Virgin brand and will be relaunching an entirely new
national radio brand in the UK. There will be £15m investment
to create and market the new brand. Source: Media Week
 IPC is expanding its digital presence with the seven-figure
acquisition of online gaming portal mousebreaker.com - with plans
for further buys in the digital arena. The gaming portal will be
used to ramp up its offering across IPC Ignite, its men's lifestyle
and music division, which is suffering from falling magazine sales
of core brands such as NME and Loaded. Source: Media Week
NBC Universal-owned women's portal iVillage is to launch an online-only comedy drama series aimed at new
and prospective parents in autumn. Following the success of Bebo's
Kate Modern and Sofia's Diary, and YouTube's Lonelygirl15, iVillage
is to target internet natives up to the age of 30 with interactive
drama Parentshood. Source: Media Week
Dennis Publishing is extending its portfolio of digital
titles with the launch of motoring title iMotor. Launching on 17
July, iMotor will be a free fortnightly delivered to readers' inboxes.
Source: Media Week
Digital agencies are warning that social networks need to develop
more innovative ad offerings if they are to start realizing their
oft-stated commercial potential. News that LinkedIn, the
social network for business executives, is now valued by investors
at $1bn, following a $53m funding round last week, has again raised
the question of whether social networks can generate returns for
their investors. Source: Media Week
Mail Online leapfrogged Telegraph.co.uk and Guardian.co.uk
to become the UK's most popular newspaper website last month. According
to May ABCe data, Mail Online attracted 18.7 million users, up 3.7%
from April. Telegraph.co.uk's May ABCs stood at 18.4 million, while
Guardian.co.uk's dropped to 18.3 million, from 18.6 million in April.
Source: Media Week
Google-owned video-sharing site YouTube plans to allow professional
content owners to distribute long-form videos on its site for the
first time - part of a move aimed at ramping up its ad revenue from
the site. Currently, it allows professional content partners to
post items that last up to 10 minutes. Source: Media Week
Microsoft has unveiled plans to establish a search technology
centre in Europe in 2009 - possibly in the UK - to bolster its search
engine market share, following the firm's failed bid for rival Yahoo.
Source: Media Week
Northcliffe Media has launched 10 new websites under its
"This Is" brand as it expands its regional network. A
further 79 will go live mid-September, part of the company's plan
to roll out 90 revamped This Is websites. Source: Media Week
Interactive Media's worldwide share of advertising spend,
including internet, mobile and gaming, is expected to reach 15%
in 2009, according to a new study by GroupM. This is almost double
the amount recorded only four years ago and, according to the study,
the trend will continue, interactive remaining the principal source
of advertising growth. Source: Brand Republic
 Primesight is expanding into the shopping mall market with a new landscape
format (measuring 1ft x 4 ft), which they claim is the biggest mall
ad space available to premium advertisers. Primesight Mall 2 is
launching in 20 UK shopping centres including Bluewater on June
30th. Source Media Week
Major Outdoor firms are confident of a return to growth in Q2,
following the 6.7% decline in outdoor ad spend in Q1. It was the
biggest year on year fall in Outdoor ad spend for 6 years. Smaller
operators are less positive about prospects for the sector however.
Source: Media Week
The outdoor advertising industry is increasing its support for
digital screens in an industry-wide push, with the Outdoor Advertising
Association (OAA) and Posterscope launching separate
campaigns to promote new sites. Posterscope is kicking off the campaign
with two websites to promote digital advertising to clients. An
online gallery called Screengallery will contain photography and
videos of all available screen sites. An accompanying blog, Electric
Avenue, will combine imagery from new campaigns with the new developments
in the market. Meanwhile, the OAA is considering launching its own
website to promote digital. Source: Marketing Week
 UK
Box Office Top 10
1 The Incredible Hulk
2 Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
3 Sex and the City
4 Adulthood
5 The Happening
6 Superhero Movie
7 Teeth
8 Gone Baby Gone
9 The Edge of Love
10 The Ruins
Edited by Anna Kilborn,
Sze Yeung, Andy Travis and Craig Blyth |
