Week commencing 26th May 2008
 TV viewing during the first quarter of 2008 was at its highest
level since 2004, averaging 3.97 hours per individual per day, according
to the latest TV trends report from the Institute of Practitioners
in Advertising. However, terrestrial channels' share of TV viewing
fell from 65.4% in the first quarter of 2007 to 61.9% in the first
quarter of 2008, with declines in share of viewing for all the terrestrial
channels. Non-terrestrial channels increased their combined share
of viewing from 34.6% to 38.1% for the first quarter of 2008. Channel
4 and Five improved their share of viewing since the final quarter
of 2007, while the BBC and ITV lost share. The IPA survey was released
as new Barb figures for April show that commercial impacts in April
were up 13.5% year on year, with ABC1 impacts up 16.2%. According
to the Barb data, UK viewers watched an average of 2.35 hours of
commercial TV a day in April, the highest figure on record for April
in five years. According to the IPA data for the week ending 30
March, among all terrestrial channels, BBC1 captured the most ABC1
and 16 to 34-year-old individuals, while ITV (plus GMTV) was the
channel most watched by children. Source: Media Week
Rupert Howell is selling ITV ad opportunities directly at
chief executive level into some of the UK's biggest advertisers,
including Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury's. The broadcaster's
managing director of brand and commercial operations is keen to
revise the profile of ITV at boardroom level to persuade advertisers
to spend more with ITV. The move comes against the backdrop of a
challenging TV ad market and the recent departure of ITV customer
relations director Nicky Buss. An ITV spokesman said executive chairman
Michael Grade and Howell were "meeting senior clients on an
ongoing basis" and had built a strong client-facing team. Source:
Media Week
Five is to launch a spin-off of its Rough Guides series
in which celebrities including comedian Dom Joly and Green Wing
actor Stephen Mangan will undertake adrenaline-fuelled adventures.
Rough Guide to Ultimate Escapes will see four celebrities - the
others are Olympic rower James Cracknell and Sin Cities presenter
Ashley Hames - push themselves to the limit in a "thrill-seeking"
adventure. The four hour-long programmes, which are due to air later
this year, will see Joly attempt to climb an active volcano and
then ski down its volcanic ash slope in Nicaragua. Source: Media
Guardian
 Irish
tycoon Denis O'Brien has increased his stake in Independent News
& Media (INM) for the second time in two days, to 23.61%,
edging him closer to the 25% threshold that would hand him a major
say in the running of the company. O'Brien, who previously held
a 22.67% stake the company, is rumoured to be planning a takeover
bid of the company, which owns UK titles The Independent and The
Independent on Sunday. as well newspapers in India and Ireland.
INM chief executive Anthony O'Reilly remains the group's biggest
shareholder with a stake of more than 27%, having recently increased
his holding. The increase in O'Brien's stake comes ahead of the
company's AGM on 11 June. If O'Brien reaches the 25% shareholding
by that time he would have powers to call an EGM (emergency general
meeting) and block key company decisions at the AGM. O'Brien, who
has been deemed a dissident shareholder by the INM board, has in
the past called for the group to sell off its two loss-making UK
newspapers. Source: Mediaweek
 A
total of seven million DAB digital radios have been sold
in the UK, according to the Digital Radio Development Bureau. Citing
the latest figures released by GfK, the industry's marketing service,
the DRDB said that at the end of April, cumulative DAB set sales
stood at 7.05 million. At the end of March the figure stood at 6.94
million, with the total number of DAB sets sold during the first
three months of 2008 totalling 489,000 - 7% above the DRDB's forecast
for the period. Currently, there are more than 300 DAB products
on the market, including handheld MP3/DAB radios, docking stations
with DAB and Wi-Fi radios with DAB.Nearly 11% of all radio listening
is via a DAB radio, according to Rajar Q1 data. The DRDB figures
reveal a growing demand for digital radio, which is expected to
be boosted further by communications provider Orange, which has
just launched Liveradio, a wireless internet radio device giving
broadband customers access to more than 4,000 internet radio stations.
Orange launches Liveradio in the UK this week, having already secured
a foothold in the French market. Source: Media Week
 Ocean
Outdoor has sold a stake in the company to private equity outfit
Smedvig Capital in a £5.5m deal that the outdoor operator
claims will help fund the acquisition of new sites. Ocean, which
specialises in large-scale advertising sites across the UK, such
as the Imax cinema and Centre Point in London, was founded two years
ago. Chief executive Damian Cox said additional capital was now
required. He added: "There is a big opportunity in what is
now a deflationary outdoor market. "We can now go out and do
deals with landlords of sites on better terms. This capital is expansion
capital and it lets us go out and develop existing sites and target
new areas". Johnny Hewett, chief executive of Smedvig Capital,
claimed the outdoor advertising market has "huge potential".
He said: "Outdoor already possesses a highly attractive portfolio
of premium sites and we look forward to working with the team as
it further expands the existing strong pipeline of new locations."
Source: Mediaweek
 IPC's flagship music title NME has relaunched its mobile
website with a range of new services - less than a year after the
site first launched. New features include music news, album reviews,
video downloads and a fully searchable guide to gigs across the
UK, as well as mobile vouchers offering discounts to Club NME nights
across the country. The site, which is being hosted and managed
by mobile content provider InfoMedia, boasts a strong emphasis on
up-and-coming acts, with a members' area giving users access to
video clips and audio track downloads from new bands. Microsites
for bands and artistes such as Artic Monkeys, Bloc Party and Foo
Fighters, will also be present on the mobile site. Miles Ross, head
of mobile development at IPC Media, said: "We took the decision
to redevelop the off-portal [mobile] service so that we could build
in the mechanics which would enable us to provide more value to
both users and advertisers." Source: Media Week
Time Warner-owned AOL has become the latest
online group to throw its support behind OpenSocial, the Google-led
initiative that plans to make it easier to develop applications
for social media websites. AOL said it plans to support OpenSocial,
beginning with the adoption of Google Gadgets on myAOL.com, which
will allow users to add the web-based applications to myAOL pages.
Eric Staats, principal software engineer for AOL, said: "Over
the next few months, we will implement the Gadget specification
on myAOL, and eventually we will support OpenSocial across our products
and platforms." AOL's announcement is the latest boost for
OpenSocial. In March, Yahoo announced plans to join the initiative,
which already counts Google and MySpace among its backers. With
AOL set to join the initiative, the pressure will be on Facebook,
which has yet to join and has continued to develop its own social
media standards. Source: Media Week
ITV is to more than double the size of its
online ad sales team by July as part of moves to hit an ambitious
target of generating £150m in online revenue by 2010. Currently,
the team comprises 22 people in sales and sales operations The plan
is to expand this to more than 50. ITV aims to boost ad revenues
for its online activities, including Friends Reunited and ITV.com.
ITV head of online revenue Gary Cole said the broadcaster is making
"people and product a big focus" as it strives to hit
its revenue target. Meanwhile, ITV is expected to appoint a full-time
managing director of ITV.com to replace Dominic Cameron, Lastminute.com
co-founder, who has been working on a six-month acting basis in
the role following the departure of Annelies van den Belt in April.
Cole said ITV consumers would "increasingly buy into on-demand
video", with Kangaroo, the planned service from ITV, BBC Worldwide
and Channel 4, expected to be a "massive" opportunity
for ITV. Cole added that further improvements to ITV.com were "always
on the cards". ITV is also developing a new price-comparison
site called Priceterrier. Cole said it would "explore opportunities"
with ad networks or other media owners to expand its online reach.
Cole added that ITV was taking a partnership approach to building
online ad revenue. He said: "CRM is a pillar of our strategy
in terms of not just getting coverage in scale, but in offering
a long-term dialogue with consumers." Source: Mediaweek
 UK Box Office Chart (Friday 23 - Sunday 25 May 2008)
1 Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
2 What Happens In Vegas
3 Iron Man
4 Forgetting Sarah Marshall
5 Nim's Island
6 Speed Racer
7 Made of honour
8 Doomsday
9 Caramel
10 In Bruges
Source :Carlton Screen Advertising
Edited by Alistair Munday
and Leila Gould |
