Week commencing 29th September 2008
 Top Up TV, the pay TV provider on Freeview, is beefing up its video-on-demand service, Top Up TV Anytime, with the addition of Disney programming such as Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy. Top Up TV's deal with Disney-ABC-ESPN Television extends the range programming available to Top Up TV Anytime customers by more than 400 hours a year. Shows that will be included in the programme line-up are the first seasons of ABC Studios-produced hit series Lost, Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy and Ghost Whisperer. The Top Up TV Anytime subscription-based service offers viewers hundreds of hours TV shows across a range of channels, including programmes for £9.99 per month. Top Up TV Anytime is accessed via a Top Up TV Digital Recorder. Earlier this month, Top Up TV joined forces with mobile company PlayPhone to launch a TV channel, called PlayPhone Hits. The venture, which launched on 6 September, is the first time a mobile entertainment brand has launched its own branded television channel. Source: Media Week
ITV is trialling new overlay ad technology, which will allow ads to be embedded into blank space during TV programmes. The technology, developed by Californian start-up Keystream, uses complex computer algorithms to find clear space such as sky or blank walls to display company logos or messages. It is currently being tested during local news footage on ITV's website but if successful the broadcaster plans to transfer it to the television screen. It is not yet known how the new technology will fit within current broadcasting regulations or how Ofcom and the Advertising Standards Authority will react. The embedded ads could help ITV to hit its advertising targets. Source: Brand Republic
Five has unveiled a new look for its main channel for the first time in six years. The new look is meant to reflect a "constantly evolving, energetic and enthusiastic brand and tone of voice" and features the new strapline, We are Five. The new-look logo is now in capitals with a different font, and will appear in several different colours. It will be supported by an off-air marketing campaign and on-air 60-second brand film for Five. Five has also changed the way it runs promotions and idents around ad breaks and programmes. It has broken its usual one promotional spot between programmes into two parts called "brand bursts" and "content bursts". The brand bursts will start rather than finish with the station's logo and then go straight into the next programme. The content bursts are 10 seconds long and will be related to TV shows, but won't necessarily use content from them. Source: Media Week
 Conde Nast is to launch a bi-annual style magazine in the UK as it looks to build on its strong performances in the women's glossy market, as highlighted by the most recent ABCs. Conde Nast has yet to reveal the name of the new magazine, which will arrive on newsstands in March 2009. Former POP editor-in-chief Katie Grand will edit the new title. Prior to launching POP, Grand worked on Dazed & Confused and The Face. She also works as a stylist and consultant with brands such as Louis Vuitton, Loewe and Giles Deacon, among others. While women's weekly titles have continued to decline in circulation, glossy monthlies have been performing well, with increases across the board of more than 12% for the first six months of this year compared with the same period in 2007. Source: Marketing
IPC fashion title In Style is relaunching from its November issue, featuring a new-look cover and new editorial content. IPC said the new look emphasises In Style's access to celebrities and fashion expertise. Key new developments in the revamped title include "Where style starts", which charts key moments in the history of a fashion trend, and "The shoe charts", which showcases the top 10 shoes each month. New shopping section, The List, showcases premium items while "Go to work in..." shows readers how to wear one of the latest trends to the office. In Style's new-look cover features a bigger masthead for increased standout and there is greater focus on the celebrity cover star, which is Rachel Bilson in the November issue. Coverlines and copy throughout the magazine feature new fonts. In the latest round of ABCs, In Style delivered an average circulation of 180,879, up 1.2% year on year. The number of subscribers to the magazine has increased 21% year on year, IPC said. Source: Media Week
Business and finance TV channel CNBC Europe is rebranding, removing Europe from its name and logo to reflect the increase in its global coverage. The business channel will continue to broadcast over nine hours of Europe-focused programming every day from its London headquarters, as well as additional content from its Asian and American channels. Mick Buckley, president and chief executive EMEA, CNBC, said there was no longer a need to separate the European programming and now was an appropriate time to switch. Paul Maraviglia, vice-president sales director EMEA, said CNBC's clients were increasingly looking for global advertising opportunities and the name change reflected CNBC's ability to offer this. The removal of "Europe" puts the channel in line with CNBC in the US and CNBC Asia, which dropped the "Asia" in 2005. At the beginning of September, CNBC joined forces with professional network LinkedIn to share content and develop new products.
Source: Media Week
 Capital Radio is undergoing its second rebrand in under a year, changing from Capital 95.8 "London's Hit Music Station" to 95.8 Capital FM "London's Number 1 Hit Music Station". The station is also launching a new logo. The new look incorporates the name, frequency and FM wavelength of the station in red, white and blue, to create what owner Global Radio termed a bright, bold and more dynamic logo, which represents the energy of the station. The simplistic and vibrant design reflects the iconic status of 95.8 Capital FM as it moves forward as an important part of Global Radio. According to Rajar data for the first half of 2008, Capital Radio has retained its position as the third most-listened- to station in London, with an overall listening share of 4.6%. Source: Media Week
After 15 years and 5 months of continuous broadcasting, Virgin Radio ceased operations at 7.45am on 29th September 2008 and officially became Absolute Radio. Announced with a medley of classic rock and pop music on Christian O'Connell's Breakfast Show, the re-launch follows the station's £53.2m acquisition by Times of India owner TIML Golden Square in May. Absolute Radio will continue to be based in London's Golden Square and will broadcast across all Virgin Radio's old frequencies, including medium wave and DAB nationwide, and on 105.8 FM in the capital. Its new Indian owners will be able to listen to the radio station via satellite, cable or through the internet. The rebrand has been supported by a £5m advertising campaign, which plays off its new slogan "Discover real music". Source: Media Week
 Titan Outdoor has landed contracts worth more than £9m to handle outdoor advertising in key shopping centres in Bristol and Milton Keynes. It is understood that Titan won the contract for Bristol's Cabot Circus shopping centre after a competitive pitch against Clear Channel and CBS Outdoor. It is also thought that the contract for thecentre:mk in Milton Keynes was awarded following a pitch with Clear Channel. Cabot Circus is a new development. It has 70 six-sheets with a proportion of digital. The site's opening advertisers include Ford Fiesta, Orange and the DVD of CSI: Las Vegas. The contract will be worth £6m over the next 10 years. Titan will also provide 24 digital sites, which rotate three times to give 84 faces in thecentre:mk in Milton Keynes. This deal is worth £3.3m over five years from 1 November. Previously, thecentre:mk only had three six-sheet sites. Titan said it now controls the advertising contracts of 90 shopping centres across the country. In July, Titan Outdoor unveiled plans for a £2m roll-out of more than 100 digital screens across its rail estate, as well as plans to extend digital to its shopping malls. Previously, Titan's digital presence comprised 17 Transvision digital screens in 16 UK rail stations. However, by November the company plans to have installed 106 digital six-sheet screens across London railway stations, including Victoria, Charing Cross and Waterloo. Source: Media Week
 The Guardian has once again cemented its position as the UK's most popular newspaper website, according to August's ABCe figures, although The Times Online reported the highest growth of 20.1% month on month. Guardian.co.uk increased its unique users by 12% month on month, to 23.1 million. It also had the highest number of unique users in the UK at 8.7 million. In contrast, MailOnline was the worst performing newspaper website in the market, with unique users down 6.6% to 17.4 million. Its number of users in the UK was also among the lowest at 5.2 million. Meanwhile, Times Online reported a record high of 19.6 million unique users, up 92% since August 2007. Of those users, six million were based in the UK. The number of unique users at Telegraph.co.uk was up 17.6% month on month, to become only the second newspaper site to break the 20-million mark, with 22 million. The Mirror Group's digital online audience grew 7.6% month on month, recording 5.5 million unique users in August, with 56.7% of those, about 3 million, coming from the UK. Elsewhere, the Independent's website saw a slight 0.6% rise to 6.6 million unique users. Source: Media Week
ABCe is launching an enhanced certificate that will provide new data such as users' country of residency, age, gender and media consumption alongside existing unique user traffic data. Media owners will now be able to undertake a web traffic audit that will give agencies a richer understanding of their target audiences, with information also including social grade, postal code and marital status. Publishers can now choose between the basic ABCe certificate, focused around unique user figures, and the enhanced ABCe certificate. Publishing the basic or enhanced certificates remains optional - currently only a handful of magazine websites reveal ABCe data. However, there is a mandatory rule that if publishers decide to provide an enhanced certificate, they must disclose at least four datasets: country of residency, age, gender and social class. Source: Media Week
Regional publisher Archant is to launch its first website allowing users to access neighbourhood-specific news by the end of the year, adopting the so-called "hyper-local" strategy adopted by Trinity Regionals and Northcliffe Media. Archant's new chief executive, Adrian Jeakings, said the company is looking at a new system that "will be able to geo-code sites to give targeted content" to viewers. If successful, Archant intends to expand the facility to all of its news websites. The feature will allow advertisers to target consumers at a highly local level. The vast majority of Archant's four daily, 26 weekly paid-for and 33 weekly free papers have their own websites. Jeakings said each site reflects the readership of the local paper and is run by the same management team. He said there were no plans to merge the publisher's sales or editorial teams at present because their "business is about local publishing" and they will be "sticking to that". Source: Media Week
VideoEgg, the online advertising network, has launched AdFrames, a new model for online rich media ads based on consumer engagement. Promoted as an alternative to the cost-per-impression model, AdFrames builds interactive video advertising units which encourage user-participation. It also uses a unique pricing model based on cost per engagement. Ads are served free of charge, and advertisers pay when a consumer interacts with the content. Since launching in the US earlier this year, some of the world's biggest brands have used the AdFrames format, including Samsung, Nokia, Microsoft, Nike, Coke, GM and Mazda. On average, users shave spent around 20 seconds on campaigns run to date. Source: Mediaweek
 UK Top Ten for w/c 26th September:
1. Tropic Thunder
2. Taken
3. Righteous Kill
4. Death Race
5. Mamma Mia!
6. The Women
7. The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas
8. The Duchess
9. Pineapple Express
10. Disaster Movie
Source: Pearl & Dean
Newsletter edited by Pedro, Dennis, Lizzie, Raluca and Soe |
