Week commencing 25th June 2007
 Internet
advertising in the UK will increase to £4.5bn and account
for nearly 30% of all UK advertising in 2011, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers
report released today. Globally, the internet will remain the fastest
growing advertising medium, with a projected 18.3% annual growth
to $73bn (£37bn) in 2011. The report also suggests the internet,
TV distribution and video games will be the fastest-growing segments
of the global entertainment and media industry. Nearly half of the
total global growth is expected to be generated through online and
wireless technologies within the next five years. During the same
period, broadband households will grow by 300m, to 540m subscribers,
and wireless subscribers will increase by 1.1bn to 3.4bn. PWC's
stated that the UK is the largest entertainment and media market
in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and is forecast to grow from
$95bn in 2006 to $124bn in 2011. Source: Brand Republic
 Five has said it is "disappointed" at the "very high level"
of the record £300,000 fine imposed on it today by Ofcom following
breaches of the broadcasting code by its phone-in quiz Brainteaser.
However, the broadcaster said it would not appeal against the fine
and would pay it itself. Brainteaser will also not be returning.
A spokesman refused to comment on whether it would seek compensation
from the quiz's maker Cheetah Productions, a subsidiary of Big Brother
producer Endemol UK, although sources have confirmed discussions
are underway on the issue between the two firms. Source: Media Guardian
ITV has pulled three underperforming shows from the ITV1
peaktime schedule including Tycoon, Peter Jones' heavily promoted
business reality series. The other two ITV1 shows being dumped from
peaktime are 24 Hours with... and Tough Gig, which go out at 10pm
on Monday and Tuesday nights, respectively. Tycoon - in which Dragon's
Den star Jones invested £10,000 in six wannabe entrepreneurs'
business ideas - will be moved from its current 9pm slot and shelved
for a week before returning on Monday July 9 at 10pm. The hour-long
show will also be cut in half, to fit the 30-minute 10pm ITV1 slot
running up the network's late news bulletin. Source: Media Guardian
Tiscali, the broadband internet company, has struck a deal
with BSkyB to add the full set of Sky's basic channels to its offering.
Sky One, Two and Three, Sky Arts, Travel, News and Sports News,
will be added to the portfolio of channels already available to
Tiscali TV customers, which include Sky Movies and Sky Sports. US
shows like 24, Lost and The Simpsons will now be accessible to Tiscali
TV viewers as well as Prison Break, which was recently acquired
by Sky from Five. Source: Media Week
 The
Sun is dropping its star film critic Johnny Vaughan as part
of its cost-cutting drive. Vaughan's last film reviews for the paper
will appear on Friday. The departure of Vaughan - who has been the
paper's film critic since December 2002 - shows that the Sun is
willing to sacrifice high-profile contributors as well as staff
positions to meet budget cuts imposed across its parent company,
News International. Source: Media Guardian
Emap has touted its
men's lifestyle title Arena around a number of potential buyers
including Development Hell, Factory Media and Dennis Publishing.
The struggling publisher, which is on the hunt for a new chief executive
following job cuts, is also believed to have approached companies
about New Woman and Top Sante. Development Hell, the publisher of
Mixmag and The Word, said the title would be a good fit within its
portfolio, but declined to confirm that it was in sale talks. Larger
publishers such as The National Magazine Company is thought to have
declined approaches by Emap. Having been hit by the increasingly
tough men's magazine market conditions, Arena has been struggling
to achieve viable circulation scale, although its fashion spin-off,
Arena Homme+, has fared better. Industry observers suggest the title
could be more suited to a smaller company that could cut production
costs. An Emap spokesman said: "We are always reviewing the
portfolio as part of our strategy to position the business for growth,
but talk of selling off these titles is speculation." Source:
Media Week
The TVTimes is publishing
a Princess Diana commemorative issue, which will have four different
covers, each depicting a key aspect of her life. The special issue
goes on sale on 26 June and the four covers depict Diana the mother,
the icon, the charity worker and the princess. The issue includes
a six-page feature that relates readers and celebrities' memories
of the princess, as well as details of the forthcoming Concert for
Diana at Wembley Stadium on 1 July. The issue will also flag up
the following week's issue (3 July), which will include a promotion
offering readers a free copy of Diana, The Story Of A Princess by
Tim Clayton and Phil Craig. Source: Media Week
The National Magazine Company
is to fold teen title CosmoGIRL in August after six years
of publication. The company has also reorganised its senior team
and said it will continue trials of digital-only magazine Jellyfish
into its second stage, although it will be aimed at women aged 18-25
rather than its original teen market. Source: Media Week
 Giant poster contractor BlowUp Media has won the contract
to install and sell advertising on a new site leading directly to
the Manchester United football ground at Old Trafford. The site
has United's stadium, the "Theatre of Dreams," and the
Salford Quays commercial an upmarket residential area close by.
BlowUp has installed a 250 square metre advertising panel at the
location, which is on a three-lane carriageway leading to Old Trafford.
It is estimated that the site will generate over 1.2 million contacts
every 28 days (according to the Department of Transport Annual Average
Daily Traffic figures matched with average vehicle occupancy).The
site is expected to attract entertainment and leisure advertisers
as well as business and finance brands. BlowUp currently has more
than 50 prime sites in the UK's major conurbations, including 10
in London. Source: Intellagenica
 The Channel 4 and Facebook websites made significant gains
in users during May, according to a report. However, the Weather
Channel's website posted the largest proportional increase in user
numbers - 36% - between April and May. Internet research firm comScore
found that Channel 4 posted the second largest month-on-month increase
in unique users among UK media websites in May, thanks to the launch
of Big Brother 8. Social networking site Facebook continued its
inexorable rise in UK popularity with a 30% growth in visitor numbers
from April to May. The website, which was the third biggest gainer
in terms of the percentage increase in UK unique users, has now
grown by more than 30% for three months in a row. Source: Media
Guardian
The BBC's on-demand
TV service, BBC iPlayer, is launching on 27 July. The player
will allow viewers to download TV programmes online for free for
up to a week after transmission. "This is a significant moment,"
said director of BBC Vision Jana Bennett. "It heralds a new
era when viewers will have the freedom to watch programmes from
the BBC's linear TV channels when they want."Once a programme
has been downloaded, viewers will have up to 30 days to watch it,
after which time the files are automatically deleted.The BBC said
that later this year the player will become accessible via links
from YouTube and other potential distribution partners including
MSN, telegraph.co.uk, AOL, Tiscali, Yahoo!, MySpace, Blinkx and
Bebo. The BBC also says it is working with Virgin Media towards
a launch on cable later this year, as well as developing a version
of the player for Mac and Microsoft Vista.BBC director of future
media & technology Ashley Highfield said that the iPlayer would
become available not just over the internet but also on cable and
other TV platforms and eventually on mobile. Source: Brand Republic
Trinity Mirror this
week re-launched its regional news web presence, with the debut
of improved versions of the Liverpool Daily Post and Liverpool Echo
sites. The redesigns have richer coverage of breaking news, including
video and audio, extended reader blogs and user-generated content.
The internet versions of Trinity Mirror titles the Evening Chronicle,
the Evening Gazette and the Journal in the North East will be upgraded
in the coming months. Sites affiliated with papers in South Wales,
North Wales, Huddersfield and Scotland will follow. The publisher
has set up a series of week-long courses to teach its journalists
how to tell their stories in video. It also sponsored day-long multimedia
workshops. More than 70 journalists have already taken the training.
Source: Media Week
Google has opened
up a new revenue stream by launching a paid for search model based
on users' actions. The model, which has been tested in the US, and
has started rolling out in the UK and Europe, means advertisers
only pay Google when a click-through results in a transaction on
their website. Through the pay-per-action system an action can be
a number of activities, including signing up to a newsletter, buying
products or requesting information. Through hosting the ads publishers
can add an extra revenue stream by receiving a payment when advertised
sites acquire a new customer. The model is similar to many employed
in affiliate marketing where websites host adverts for companies
including retailers and gambling firms and get paid when the advertised
site gains business. Source: Media Week
 Chrysalis
Radio is to be sold to Global Radio, an investment operation
chaired by former UTV chief executive Charles Allen, for £170m.
Chrysalis Group has been under strategic review since February and
it was always thought its radio and publishing divisions would be
broken up, with private investors the most likely buyers. Chrysalis
have confirmed the proposed sale of the radio division, which includes
stations Heart, LBC and Galaxy and they are expecting to make a
£95m profit on the deal, while overall savings of £3.5m
will be made from the termination of the group management structure.
Source: Media Week
UBC Media, the programming,
content and digital radio company, has invested £1.6m in 'Cliq',
its new digital download service, according to the company's financial
results released today. Cliq will allow radio stations to offer
music for instant download at the press of a button, as the song
is playing. UBC has spent the last year developing technology and
has poured £1.6m into the service, which has been transmitting
live, 24-hours a day, since March on Heart in London. The service
has previously only been available on Virgin Media's 'Lobster' digital
radio enabled mobile phone but UBC has today also announced an agreement
with Imagination Technologies to incorporate Cliq on a variety of
its forthcoming digital radios, including a new generation of radios
that will be Wi-Fi enabled. Source: Media Week
 UK
Box Office Chart (22nd June - 24th June)
1. Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer (PG)
2. Ocean's Thirteen (PG)
3. Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End (12A)
4. Captivity (18)
5. Vacancy (15)
6. La Vie en rose (12A)
7. Are We Done Yet? (PG)
8. Tell No One (15)
9. Jhoom Barabar Jhoom (12A)
10. Wedding Daze (15)
Source : Nielsen EDI
Edited by Lizzie Thomas and Mark Halliday |
