15th April
Associated Newspapers, who own Metro, are to lose the tube and rail distribution monopoly.
MediaCom View: Its taken the OFT two years to rule on this, with disastrous
results for Associated. Meanwhile, other newspaper groups, such as Richard Desmonds, are looking forward to getting a
share of London media budgets.
The Independents revamped look is unveiled this week.
MediaCom View: The paper has moved from a 6 Column grid to a 7 Column grid, giving
it a similar look to a tabloid, rather than a quality compact. Whats more, many of the smaller fractional ads now look
squashed. Agencies are once again wrangling with the Independent sales team over the rate implications.
H Bauer relaunches Bella to strengthen its position in the real life market.
MediaCom View: With the success of Closer and the launches of Reveal, Pick Me Up and
Full House, the real life market looks like it still has future growth, hence Bellas greater emphasis on it. The latest
covers are also looking younger and cleaner, perhaps again in reaction to increased competition from other titles.
IPC is planning a rival to EMAPs weekly glossy, Grazia.
MediaCom View: Project Gloss will be sampled as a supplement, distributed through
six of IPCs womens titles. Aiming to reach over 1 million AB Women (2.7 million Women in total), the magazine could give
Grazia a serious run for its money when it is fully launched. However, rumours suggest Grazia is not doing that well in terms
of circulation or revenue, so it will be interesting to see how readers react to this new title.
Oasis get off to blinding start.
MediaCom View: Channel Fours exclusive preview of Oasiss new single Lyla drew an
impressive 1.3m viewers on Wednesday night. The promo followed Desperate Housewives. Lyla was also played on Chris Moyles
Radio One breakfast show and picked up enough radio exposure to leap into the airplay Top 20 on its first day exposure.
Special Report: The Future's bright, the future's Digital"
The MediaTel seminar on 'The Future of Digital Television' threw up some interesting points
earlier this week. Current estimates place 144 million digital homes in the world by the end of 2005, rising to 370 million
(34%) by 2010. Within these numbers, the UK has heavy penetration compared to the rest of Europe , with 59.4% of all TV
households currently utilising digital television as their primary set and this numbers is expected to rise to 82% by 2010.
The rise of digital TV also points towards the further success of Multi-channel Television, which continues to gain share
from its terrestrial neighbours and which should further gain as digital penetration increases. Current estimates expect
BBC1 and ITV1 to be the losers in the share battle, although they will split these losses evenly between them and will
inevitably try and offset them by increasing their digital offerings.
However, the general consensus bodes well for the Governments proposed switchover date of 2012. Bob Wootton of ISBA points
out that even with the acceleration of digital penetration as we get closer to switch-over date, there will be the
inevitable small number who only switch at the last minute, and so we should be close to 100% penetration by 2012.
