26th August
ITV has unveiled new on-screen idents to mark its 50th anniversary.
MediaCom View: ITV are marking the milestone of 50 years as the Nations
favourite commercial channel, with an all-star promotion starting on Bank Holiday Monday. State of the art
technology is used to include stars from all eras, including some long departed to the great goggle box in
the sky. ITV is well overdue for a revamp of its station idents, and this new format will be a refreshing
change from the tired old yellow and blue.
BSkyB has announced the initial line-up for its HDTV launch.
MediaCom View: High Definition TV is the next step in the
digitalistion of TV, allowing much more information on screen and a big improvement in picture
quality. BSkyB are to launch HTDV in 2006, in time for the World Cup in Germany . Sky are confident
of success with this new product and consumers can sign up next week to be in line for the new
Sky+ boxes with HDTV capability, which will be available at launch.
ITV is launching the UK s first free-to-air digital commercial kids channel.
MediaCom View: CiTV is to timeshare a frequency with ITV4,
allowing it to broadcast on freeview with a daily childrens line-up. GMTV will handle airtime sales.
It will be interesting to see if the demand is there for another free-to-air kids channel, given that
it will be competeting directly with CBeebies which is of course non-commercial.
The Mail on Sunday is launching a male-specific lifestyle supplement.
MediaCom View : The Mail on Sunday has announced it will be
closing Night & Day, replacing it with a male-orientated magazine as of the 9th October. Last months
departure of Night & Days editor Christina Appleyard is understood to be because of this change in
direction. At present the MOS is the only Sunday national paper with a female bias in readership.
The aim of the new launch will be to increase the male readership up to 50%, without compromising on
the papers female offering. A circulation increase of between 3 and 5% is speculated as the necessary
figure to merit the 8 million investment into the title. Like Night & Day, the currently un-named
magazine will carry TV listings but will now feature more male-focused editorial on film, music,
travel, cars and gadgets.
Special ABC Report:
Mens Weeklies
Emaps weekly title, Zoo, saw the largest year-on-year increase, with a 30% rise in circulation. Zoo now
rests on 260,317, just over 40,000 behind Nuts, who posted a circulation of 304,751.
However Emaps flagship title, FHM, saw its circulation dip by 2.4%, but it still remains Britain s
largest selling mens title with 560,167. IPCs Loaded managed a slight year-on-year improvement, posting
237,083; this was added by its relaunch in May. Loaded has now regained second spot in the monthlies race
by overtaking Maxim.
Elsewhere Highburys Front seems to be seriously struggling, with a decrease of 12.1%, taking it to
88,154.
Womens Glossies
The latest set of ABC figures revealed mixed results for the womens monthlies. Hachettes B enjoyed the
strongest rise with an increase of 30.6% year-on-year to 167,371.
Haymarkets Eve continued its good run by gaining 8% year on year, with its circulation hitting 162,077.
She magazine saw the biggest circulation drop, slipping by 18.2%, to 148,262. However, NatMags are throwing
their weight behind the relaunch of She in the autumn.
Elsewhere, Good Housekeeping saw the largest physical increase in the sector, up by nearly 60,000 to 475,838.
Womens Weeklies
A number of the classic weeklies saw major decreases, with Woman and Womans Own down 9.5% and 4.9% respectively.
However, the overall market was up substantially, with Pick Me debuting with a circulation of 503,950.
The celebrity sector enjoyed a good performance year-on-year, with Heat up 3.7% and Hello up 8.7%. However, Emaps
Closer showed the greatest increase, gaining 12.5% year-on -year to 540,044.
