15th July
Channel 4 and Living TV have secured the rights to new US programmes.
MediaCom View: Living TV have won the rights to broadcast Too Close To
Home, the new drama from the CSI stable; the deal with Warner Brothers also gives them rights to new programmes
including Veronica Mars and Four Kings. Meanwhile, C4 have secured Invasion from the makers of West Wing
and ER, plus the comedy War at Home.
A DART survey claims nine out of ten PVR owners are fast-forwarding through ads.
MediaCom View: Naturally the press will always speculate over PVR usage.
In fact only 3% of Homes have PVRs and 60% of their viewing is still live Therefore, only 40% of viewing is
recorded, meaning that a maximum of only 1% of commercial impacts are affected by PVRs.
ITV confirms November 1 launch date for ITV4.
MediaCom View: The new entertainment channel will broadcast new US drama,
British dram, comedy movies, sport, sci-fi and factual programming as ITV target a more male based audience. They
have confirmed that the channel will replace Men and Motors on cable and satellite and will also be broadcast on
Freeview as the ITV channel portfolio look to offset falling ITV1 figures.
Emap acquires DeHavilland Information Services for 18m.
MediaCom View : Information service business DeHavilland will now become part
of Emap Communication, their B2B division. DeHavilland supplies public affairs information, which Emap believes will
fit in with their current portfolio of titles. With public sector titles such as Health Service Journal, Local
Government Chronicle and Nursing Times, Derek Carter, the chief executive of Emap Communications, believes that
This is a good example of our strategy to bolt-on acquisitions for our B2B business.
Dennis to launch second gambling monthly in August.
MediaCom View : The success of online poker has led to Dennis Publishing to
launching a second gambling publication, after Inside Edge 18 months ago. Total Gambler will launch in August with
a planned 650,000 print run, seeking to target a broad 18-40 year old male audience wanting to learn more about
betting. The 28 page sample first issue will be given away free with Maxim and Denniss other mens titles such as
Bizarre, Mens Fitness and Evo. In addition to this, Dennis also plan to back this up with a poker magazine later
this year. Total Gambler will hit the market ahead of The Sportsman, a daily gambling newspaper planned to launch
in spring 2006 and backed by former Telegraph chief executive Jeremy Deedes.
RAJAR tenders for listener survey.
MediaCom View : Eurisko, Ipsos and Arbitron are all contenders and
RAJAR expects to announce a winner in the first half of 2006 to give them time to run a parallel system
alongside the existing diary-based survey. The new system will go live in 2007 and will measure radio audiences
across digital radio, analogue, TV and internet platforms.
GCap Media has threatened to sue Ofcom.
MediaCom View : Ralph Bernard, Chief Exec of GCap is angry that Ofcom
is considering awarding new digital radio licences which would be in direct competition to the GCap digital
brands. GWR invested heavily in Digital One at a time when no other radio company was prepared to and Ofcom
had apparently promised that their licence would be the first and only.
London 2012 will bring in 2.5bn in sponsorship.
SponsorCom Live comment : Sponsorship investment will certainly rise, but
interestingly we expect the existing profile of sports sponsorship investment to shift. Commercial demand and financial
support of the UKs major sports (football, rugby union, cricket etc) may stall or fall in favour of Olympic sports
(e.g. gymnastics, swimming, paralympic disciplines, hockey etc) that traditionally enjoy relatively little external
funding. These sports may benefit from grassroots programmes that encourage participation and develop excellence.
Furthermore, personal endorsements of sportsmen/women should also increase.
Brands will want to be visibly associated with contributing to the Olympic effort and Olympic success. The centralised
sponsorship programme of the British Olympic Association (BOA) should enjoy further investment as brands seek to
associate themselves directly with Team GB. Additionally, UK-based companies with a global outlook may invest in
the International Olympic Committees TOP programme, which gives more extensive rights.
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