Week commencing 29th October 2007
 Virgin Media plans to start carrying advertising around its video-on demand service and electronic programme guide next year for the first time. Malcolm Wall, chief executive of Virgin Media's Content Division, said testing is currently underway for pre-, mid- and post-roll ads to be placed in VoD content. However, he said that other advertising models are more likely to "see the light of day" first, such as the carrying of targeted advertising around sections of the EPG. For example, advertising for travel companies could be placed around the lifestyle section of the cable operator's EPG. Wall noted that Virgin plans to continue testing VoD advertising to build a "body of research" that will enable it to sell the inventory more effectively to advertisers. VoD will remain the focus for much of Virgin Media's strategic efforts in the coming months, with Wall revealing an upcoming expansion of the service, led by the addition of more than 2,000 hours of additional content. (Source - Mediaweek)
Sky has started unveiling plans for its new interactive "green button" service to agencies - amid mixed views from the industry towards interactivity. The service, which is due to launch next summer, will allow viewers to download ads on demand via the green button on their remote control. Chloe Smith, head of interactive advertising for Sky Media, said: "Green button is cheaper than red button, as advertisers won't need to buy any bandwidth, just as many hours as they would like from a hidden channel. We will take this channel and split it up into small chunks." Agencies often complain of the costs involved in crafting such campaigns and note that response rates do not always warrant the fees involved. (Source - Mediaweek)
A closely fought battle saw 60s medical drama The Royal narrowly edge out Antiques Roadshow and Top Gear for Sunday night's 8pm slot. The spin-off show managed to grab an average of 6.2 million adult viewers for its duration, with a 25% share of the available television audience. Over on BBC One, Antiques Roadshow pulled in 5.5 million adult viewers (a 22.3% share), while Jeremy Clarkson and the other petrolheads managed a very impressive 5.8 million (a 23.5% share) on BBC Two. Elsewhere on Sunday night, one-off drama Half Broken Things starring Penelope Wilton as a house sitter who makes friends with a young couple on the run, lost out to the ever dependable Michael Palin's New Europe. The ITV1 drama attracted an average audience of 4.5 million viewers, over 800,000 viewers less than the final instalment of the ex-Python globetrotter's documentary series. Fellow globetrotter, the irrepressible Ewan McGregor, drew an average of over 3.5 million adults (15.5%) to BBC Two for the start of his new series, Long Way Down, during Palin's adventures. Saturday night saw the usual ratings battle between The X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing, with the BBC One dance show again topping the singing competition. This week's Strictly Come Dancing, featuring the celebrities performing American smooth or samba dances, attained 7.5 million adults on average, while Simon Cowell's two-hour extravaganza averaged 6.2 million. Viewing for The X-Factor actually rose to 8.2 million when it wasn't in competition with the BBC One show, which should give some consolation to the commercial broadcaster. (Source Mediatel)
 Emap's struggling men's magazine Arena relaunched today as a lifestyle magazine for "urban playboys" and the "me generation". The new-look magazine has been overseen by Giles Hattersley, the former Sunday Times chief interviewer who was appointed editor of Arena in March. Hattersley said Arena would be the "authoritative monthly bible that arms its readers with both the sharpest looks and opinions." "It will resonate with and reflect the lifestyles of young men today - the 'me generation' - who earn more, dress better, party harder and are better educated than at any other time in history," he added. Arena's sales fell to 30,886 for the first six months of this year, down 10.6% on the previous six months and 23.1% on the same period in 2006. Emap said the relaunched magazine was aiming to be the premium men's lifestyle magazine for "urban playboys" in their late 20s to mid-30s. (Source Media Guardian)
Rupert Murdoch has opened the Eurocentral printing plant in Scotland - declaring it the largest and fastest in the world. The chairman and chief executive of News Corporation unveiled the first stage of UK subsidiary News International's £650m printing press modernisation programme, accompanied by Alex Salmond, first minister of Scotland. News International's new high-speed, full colour presses will publish the Scottish editions of its four national titles the Sun, the Times, the News of the World and the Sunday Times. The Eurocentral plant near Glasgow is the first stage in a £650m investment in new print facilities across the UK by Mr Murdoch's News International company that will allow all the newspapers to print in full colour. News International has signed a long-term contract to print the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph and the Glasgow Solicitors Property Centres Property Guide at Eurocentral. The company's other new press, in Broxbourne in north London, will come fully online early next year while the plant at Knowsley, near Liverpool, is already online. (Source - Media Guardian)
 CBS Outdoor is to launch an interactive version of the London Underground Tube map to provide advertisers with a unique planning tool to help identify the different types of consumers that use each of the stations. The new map, titled 'The People's Map of London' www.talk2london.com, has been developed to accompany CBS Outdoor's GMap system that uses multiple data sets, including census and Thomson Intermedia data to create a detailed picture of where different audiences congregate across London. Using the iconic Harry Beck map as a template, CBS Outdoor has created an interactive version that provides advertisers with a profile for each and every station on the network. Users can simply click each Tube station to reveal a wealth of information regarding anything from audience profile data, footfall and recommended restaurants. The map will be used in conjunction with CBS Outdoor's 'Precision Six-Sheet Packs' that offer advertisers pre-selected six-sheet sites to target specific demographics at the most relevant Tube stations. Examples of the Precision Packs include the 'Family Pack' or the 'High Earners Pack', which brings together those stations that have the greatest coverage of families or high earning individuals. The new map will act as a visual aid to show advertisers the location of the stations included in the packs. CBS Outdoor can also offer advertisers bespoke Precision Packs where advertisers can match audience or location data to the relevant stations to fit in with their target market. (Source - Mediatel)
 GCap Media has won the national airtime sales contract for GMG Radio's Smooth, Real and Rock Radio brands. GCap already manages the national revenue for GMG Radio's two Century FM stations in the North West and North East of England and will take on the contract for the additional nine stations from 1 January next year. Stuart Taylor, the new group commercial director for GMG Radio: "This greatly simplifies our sales arrangements, both nationally and regionally. Our new partnership with GCap Media will provide an extremely powerful sales offering to clients and media agencies." In addition, the new contract will also lead to the restructure of several other sales services which will streamline the number of contact points for agencies. National Sponsorship and Promotions activity for all GMG Radio brands, which has been managed by Global and GCap, will also move in-house within GMG Radio from 1 January 2008. (Source - Mediatel)
 Brands are channelling ad spend into social networks without any means of measuring return on investment, according to a major new report published today. The report, JupiterResearch's Social Marketing in Europe: Creating and Measuring User Engagement, found that a third of online advertisers in Europe plan to use profiles on social networks to engage customers. However, its revealed that less than a quarter of those using such tactics plan to measure their effectiveness. The rise of social networks including Bebo, Facebook, Hi5 and MySpace has offered brands a new way to reach online audiences, and for the audience to engage with them. The survey found that more than 50% of online advertisers in Europe have run advertising campaigns that encourage user interaction and two thirds will do so in the next 12 months. Viral marketing campaigns are the most common form of engaging an online audience but profiles on social networking sites and interactive websites are growing fastest, according to the report. (Source - Mediaweek)
Two of the UK's leading media groups, Guardian Media Group and the BBC, are to launch environmentally focused websites. The Guardian will launch an eco-store on its website in conjunction with the Natural Collection from today. The site, Guardianecostore.co.uk, will sell more than 1,000 different eco-friendly, organic and fair-trade products online, ranging from fashion to office and gardening equipment. Meanwhile, BBC Worldwide, the public broadcaster's commercial arm, has revealed plans to launch a major eco website, where users can access information on subjects including climate change. It is understood the BBC site will be launched towards the end of the year or early next year. It is thought that the venture will tie in with the BBC's environment related programming - such as the recently launched loveearth.com. More details will be released over the next month. (Source - Mediaweek)
 UK Cinema Top Ten:(weekend 26-28 October)
1. Ratatouille
2. Saw 4
3. Stardust
4. Eastern Promises
5. Rendition
6. The Heartbreak Kid
7. Resident Evil: Extinction
8. Run, Fat Boy, Run
9. Seeker: The Dark is Rising
10. Sicko
Source: Carlton Screen
Edited by Tony Oakley
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