Week commencing 25th August 2008
 ITV has signed a deal with Premier Rugby and Guinness to broadcast a new weekly Guinness Premiership rugby highlights show. The hour-long Guinness Premiership highlights will air on ITV4 at 6.30pm on Sundays, covering all 22 rounds of the new season, the Guinness Premiership semi-final and final. The show will be repeated on ITV1 on Tuesday nights. Source Media Week
 Independent News & Media's 'dissident shareholder' Denis O'Brien has said the publishing company must examine the contribution of its Independent newspapers following the firm's disappointing interim financial results released yesterday. O'Brien was "alarmed by the results" and said that decisive moves were needed, which included taking a close look at whether the Independent and Belfast Telegraph are contributing "anything worthwhile" to the firm. IN&M's results revealed revenues at the firm's UK division, which includes The Independent, The Independent on Sunday and the Belfast Telegraph, dropped by 14.1% year on year to €115.6m in the six months to June 30. The firm's total revenues were down 3.7% to €780.4m during the same period. O'Brien said: "Revenues have declined and the performance of the UK operations, in particular, seems to be in freefall. More worryingly, the state of the balance sheet has deteriorated with net debt increasing in the period by €88m." There was no comment from IN&M on the new attack from O'Brien. Sir Anthony O'Reilly, chief executive of IN&M and its largest shareholder, said INM would achieve profits in line with forecasts for the year, "assuming a continuation" of first half advertising trends. Source MediaTel
 Xfm Scotland will be completely rebranded to become a part of Global Radio's Galaxy network in the autumn, following Global's £375 million takeover of GCap Media. The indie music station is expected to see a radical change of it's music output as it joins the dance network, which currently has stations in Birmingham, Manchester, Yorkshire and the north-east. Darren Henley, the managing director of music brands Xfm, Classic FM, and Choice FM, told staff the transition would take a couple of months and in the meantime they will continue to broadcast Xfm Scotland as normal but with a focus on the launch of the new station. The network programme director for Galaxy, Mike Cass, is expected to go to Glasgow to oversee the process. Global radio now own three of the four Xfm indie rock stations nationwide - the fourth was sold to Town and Country Broadcasting in May. Richard Park, executive director at Global Radio, said: "Central Scotland can prepare itself to receive Britain's fastest-growing radio station aimed at young people and the prospect of the output from the Glasgow studios is an exciting one." Source MediaTel
 Online archive shows will make up a fifth of all TV viewing within five years time, according to Ashley Highfield, speaking at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival (MGEITF). Highfield, Project Kangaroo's chief operating officer, claimed that archive content would make up half of all video-on-demand services in five years time. Highfield, who previously fronted the development of BBC's iPlayer, also predicted that on-demand will account for 40% of all TV viewing by 2013. Speaking about the multi-broadcaster venture Project Kangaroo, he said the biggest challenge would be to "weave a journey" through its range of both catch-up and archive content. Highfield said: "We want to take you from Life on Mars into the Sweeney, or use a cast member - say Stephen Fry in Blackadder - and help you find content you hadn't thought of." Project Kangaroo is expected to include 10,000 hours of BBC, ITV and Channel 4 content when it launches early next year. The video-on-demand service has had a number of set-backs recently, as The Competition Commission delayed publishing its findings into the project until mid-January 2009. Simon Nelson, controller of portfolio and multimedia at BBC Vision, said Kangaroo will need to offer a range of additional material, such as exclusive behind the scenes footage, in order for it to be successful and stop users going to pirate sites. He said: "If you don't do this, it won't be found in an online environment, and it won't be talked about on blogs. For every episode of every programme we do from now on, we'll provide a web page and everything we do will be findable on Google." Source MediaTel
New figures from the Office of National Statistics show that 16.46 million UK households currently have internet access, representing 65% of households and an increase of 1.23 million households since 2007. Of all UK households, 56% have broadband internet access, an increase from 51% in 2007, while of the UK households with internet access, 86% have a broadband connection. Great Britain has seen an average increase of over one million households per year connecting to the internet since 2004, reaching a total of 16.05 million this year. The South East has the highest level of internet access, at 74%, with those in the North East least likely to have access. The proportion of adults who were recent internet users who accessed the internet every day or almost every day was 69% (23.5 million adults). The 16-24 age group used it most, with 77% using it every day or almost every day, while 73% of men now use the internet every day or almost every day, compared with 66% of women. Earlier this year online research firm eMarketer released a forecast predicting that 42.8 million Britons will go online in 2012, accounting for about 70% of the population. Source: MediaTel
Facebook is set to kick-start its new interactive ad service trial in the UK next week. The trials - with eight unnamed partners - are expected to last for just over a month, before the platform becomes open to all advertisers. The new engagement advertisements will allow site users to send brand-related virtual gifts and become a fan of the product or service, while on the same page. Black Chandlee, Facebook's EU commercial director, said: "We're doing it in a way that is consistent with consumer expectations."
He added: "This adds the element of engagement, something closer to making brands part of the conversation." Paramount Pictures' promotional clip of Ben Stiller's new comedy started the ad trial in the US, although it has received a number of complaints after controversial words were used in the video footage. Adidas and Betty Crocker are among other companies set to use the ad service on the US Facebook site. The trial is said to be Facebook's latest attempt to refine its advertising policy, following criticisms over its previous Beacon ad programme. Source: MediaTel
Schoolmates networking website Friends Reunited attracted a record 5.5 million unique users during July, according to Nielsen research. The figure was just two million in April - a month before the site relaunched, abandoning its subscription model to broaden its appeal. Across the ITV-owned group, which also includes Friends Reunited Dating and family tree site Genes Reunited, unique users doubled to 6.6 million overall after the relaunch. Source: Media Week
 UK Box Office Chart
1)Hell Boy 2: The Golden Army
2)Mamma Mia
3)Get Smart
4)The Dark Knight
5)You Don't Mess With The Zohan
6)The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor
7)Wild Child
8)Wall-e
9)Star Wars: The Clone Wars
10)Space Chimps
Source Pearl and Dean
Newsletter edited by Kevin Tomkins |
