MediaCommunications

MediaCom View: The knives have been out for a while within the city and finally Charles Allen has succumbed. Following the announcement of his departure both criticism and praise have been heaped on his tenure; criticism for his redundancies and his programming record but praise for overseeing the merger of Carlton and Granada and also for bringing ITV into the digital arena. Allen himself was happy to point to improved profits during a period of declining ad revenues but ultimately the depressed share price and lack of programming success led to his downfall. The hunt is now on for his successor and improving the programming will certainly need to be a key focus in ITV’s future, unfortunately the first step involved appointing an interim Chief Executive and ITV have put in place yet another accountant. It remains to be seen who and how they will proceed as we head toward 2007.

MediaCom View: Up until last year, ITV were promising us that they would not be cutting their minutage - and that they were dedicated to CITV terrestrial. However, with the launch of CITV Digital in March, it was very clear that ITV1 were likely to want to reduce their output aimed at children and replace it with programming that will generate higher revenue streams on the terrestrial channel. Even though it is currently school holidays, and is therefore a key time for advertisers, ITV are currently airing adverts 1515-1600 only during weekdays (the children’s strand runs 1515 to 1700). In addition there is no output aimed at children on Saturday morning and there are only a limited number of shows (such as Sabrina repeats) on Sunday mornings. ITV are likely to direct advertisers to their digital offering, and will push OFCOM to allow them to schedule a quiz show in the after school slot as of next year.

MediaCom View: After just five months as a paid-for stand alone title, Associated Newspapers is to cease distribution of You magazine on the newsstand. After a £7m investment, the London retail spin-off only managed to shift 22k copies in the last issue, a far cry from the 50k target circulation.

The revamped magazine, which was printed on Grazia-style paper, was targeted at a younger female audience. With a cover price of £1 the main purpose of the news-stand launch was to entice new readers into The Mail on Sunday and promote the value of ‘You’ as a free supplement. Despite the newspaper gaining around 45k copies since the paid-for version launched, it was not enough to keep this venture going.

With the women’s supplement market becoming increasingly competitive, with titles such as ‘Observer Woman’ and the Sunday Telegraph’s ‘Stella’ launching, You magazine is under increasing pressure to keep the title fresh. The next steps are the development of You online. Mail on Sunday Managing Director Stephen Miron said “substantial investment” was planned for www.you.co.uk in the coming months.

MediaCom View: BBC radio controller Simon Nelson has warned that the UK radio industry needs drastic change in order to survive. He says the development of new digital technology is vital in order for radio to adapt and compete against other media in the future. He criticised commercial radio specifically for not taking a risk with new opportunities for fear of losing listeners.

It is clear that developing new technology is paramount to the survival of radio as a medium and commercial radio is gradually embracing this - with new digital stations and investment in mobile phone technology such as BT Movio.

However with new entrants to the market such as Channel 4, there is increasing pressure on current commercial radio players to invest further if they are to survive.

MediaCom View: The big question is: how do we talk to people in the Myspace environment? The key is to find the influencers. Christina Dolce (aka ForBiddeN) is arguably the most successful brand to emerge from Myspace. ForBiddeN has 982,085 “friends”, basically other Myspace members who choose to link to her page. She is therefore an influencer – so much so, that she has launched a line of clothing and perfume range. Earlier this year, Unilever collaborated with ForBiddeN to promote its Axe deodorant brand. An interactive game was built, and the Axe brand was subtly promoted - over 75,000 Myspacers signed up. Ms Dolce is loved by both boys and girls, so she has become an intriguing and significant marketing vehicle. Check out her web page here