MediaCommunications

MediaCom View: Recently created publishing house Bristol Magazines, the specialist arm of BBC Magazines, is planning to launch three new titles by the end of April next year, with one planned before the end of 2006.

Having target circulations of between 30,000 and 70,000 the new titles will be aimed at an upmarket 40 to 55 year old audience and be themed in a similar way to other BBC publications like BBC History, namely being tied to a BBC programming strand.

Having sold the titles it acquired from Origin Publishing to a management buy-out, the BBC have plans to also move BBC Homes & Antiques to Bristol, to join up with publications such as BBC Music and BBC Wildlife, with a new editorial team led by Gail Dixon, formally the editor of Essential Publishing’s Real and Emap’s Gardens Answers, however all sales staff will remain in London.

MediaCom View: Will NRS make a significant difference in helping us to understand the increasingly exploratory surfing habits of the UK web population? No. Of much more interest is Hitwise’s panel of 8.43m UK consumers. Hitwise (privately owned) tracks British people’s surfing habits across over 500,000 web sites – critical data as this medium continues to fragment, and while web pages multiply. Unfortunately Hitwise does not deal with agencies – yet. Watch this space.

MediaCom View: Channel 4 became the first major broadcaster to start simulcasting content on the web this week when it launched Channel4.com/livetv. At present only commissioned programmes will be available although talks are ongoing regarding acquired shows and films for future, currently a loop of C4 promos will air whenever the broadcast stream cannot be simulcast online.

BSkyB already offer a Video on demand service for Sky Sports and Movies subscribers whilst the BBC has been broadcasting its World Cup games via broadband in the last month.