Week commencing 30th June 2008
 Almost
half of TV sets sold in the first half of last year were analogue
despite the fact that the digital switchover is occurring
in 2012. The government are already preparing for the switchover
but have been criticised for allocating £800 million to the
BBC to assist elderly viewers with new digital equipment in advance
of the analogue switchover. Source: Media Week
Ambitious plans for an online
video on demand service offering more than 10,000 hours of classic
TV shows from the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 were
hit yesterday by a decision to refer them to the Competition Commission.
When the launch was announced last year, BBC Worldwide's chief executive,
John Smith, said the development was partly motivated by a fear
of repeating the mistakes of the music industry, when big labels
allowed Apple to corner the market in online sales. Source: Guardian
Media
 The
Financial Times has launched a Chinese-language magazine aimed
at the country's growing business elite. Rui, a Chinese character
that means "wise" or "farsighted" is available
in China from today. Rui will be a quality lifestyle and wealth-management
title that takes some of its inspiration from the FT's luxury goods
magazine How to Spend It and the newspaper's quarterly supplement
FT Wealth. It will feature both original articles and re-purposed
content taken from the FT. Source: Guardian Media
City AM could go national at the end
of 2009. City AM's managing director, Lawson Muncaster said that
the way forward for the industry is creating good content, packaging
the content properly so that it transcends platforms and making
it readily available to audiences. The morning business free sheet
saw its circulation grow by 2% month on month in May according to
the latest ABC figures. Source: Mediatel
 Jazz
FM the radio station re-branded as Smooth three years ago is
being resurrected by its former management team, now at the Local
Radio Company. It will broadcast on DAB, online and digital TV through
Sky. Under a three-year licence agreement with brand owner Guardian
Media Group, Jazz FM will operate from studios throughout the UK.
It will run a DAB service in London, the West Midlands and the North
West. Jazz FM will also be broadcast through the Sky satellite television
platform and stream via the jazzfm.com website, previously the world's
biggest online radio website. Source: Marketing Week
 Brands
will soon be able to register their names in place of 'dotcom'.
A radical plan to shake up the world of top-level domain names will
mean that companies, brands and even cities will be able to have
their name instead of .'com' or.'co.uk' etc. This will have a big
effect on the internet with industries such as adult entertainment.
Source: Media Week
Sky News has relaunched
its website in an attempt to make it a "dynamic, video-rich
site for breaking news and information". The new look site
includes an online community allowing users to set up profiles and
blogs from presenters Eamonn Holmes and Dermot Murnaghan. There
is also a feature called Choose Your News which allows users to
select a category from a list including the most popular stories
and recent video clips. Key features on the site include more opportunities
for personalisation, original journalism and interactive graphics.
There will also be an interactive map of the world that can be searched
for five-day weather forecasts. Source: Mediatel
National commercial speech
radio station talkSPORT is to launch a digital magazine aimed
at extending the brand beyond radio. Titled talkSPORT Magazine,
the weekly online-only publication will be delivered to subscribers'
in-boxes once a week. The title has been under construction for
the past year and has a provisional launch date of summer 2008.
TalkSPORT will be the first radio station to create a digital magazine.
"News stand titles have recently been using the strength of
their brand to launch radio stations so it makes perfect sense for
one of the UK's biggest radio brands to create its own magazine
title." Source: Mediatel
 CBS
Outdoors' new cross track projections have launched on the London
Underground. From Monday giant cross-track screens (the equivalent
of 14 ft TV screens) will beam soundless commercial content in full
motion and HD quality at 23 sites at five of the busiest stations
in the capital's centre. Piccadilly Circus, Bank, Liverpool Street,
Euston and Bond Street have all been fitted with the projectors
and giant screens, each linked to a new digital advertising network
enabling partners to remotely update their messages on a 120' loop,
at the touch of a button. The launch partnerships will run for a
minimum of six weeks from 30th June. Tim Bleakley, managing director
sales & marketing of CBS Outdoor, said: "The introduction
of XTP is a landmark event for London media - I have no doubt in
my mind that it is the single most significant media launch since
channel Five". Source: Mediatel
 UK
Box Office Top 10
1. The Chronicles of Narnia
2. Wanted
3. The incredible Hulk
4. Adulthood
5. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
6. Sex and the City
7. The Edge of Love
8. The Happening
9. Superhero Movie
10. Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic
Edited by Jamie Dunlop
and Abi Ward |
