16 Apr 10
Weekly Broadcast News
16th April 2010
10m watch The First Election Debate on ITV1
The First Election Debate on ITV1 last night had a peak of 10m viewers - a 38.6% share of the total TV audience. On from 8.30pm to 10pm, the Election Debate had an audience average of 9.4m viewers (a 37% share). As part of its online offering around the event, ITV tracked a focus group's reaction to the debate live online with a new tool called The Worm, as well as using Facebook and Twitter to gauge opinion. The debate was easily the most viewed programme yesterday, beating the soap powerhouses of EastEnders (a 6m peak), Coronation Street (an 8.2m peak) and Emmerdale (a 6.8m peak). It was a big night for politics on TV, with Question Time also performing well. An average of 2.4m viewers (18.9%) tuned into the show, on from 10.35pm to 11.35pm, peaking at 2.9m. Figures released yesterday by online measurement firm UKOM show that the Conservatives had the most popular political party website in the UK last month. The site had a 150,000 unique audience, with the Liberal Democrats (115,000 unique audience) overtaking Labour (114,000 unique audience) for the first time since last summer.
Premier League confirms Ofcom challenge
The Premier League has confirmed its intention to launch a legal challenge against Ofcom's price cut for Sky's premium sport channels. Following a three-year review of the pay-TV industry, the media regulator has ordered Sky to reduce the wholesale price of Sky Sports 1 and 2 by 23.4% for rival operators. Ofcom believes that the resulting increased competition would bring fresh investment in services and a wider range of innovations for consumers. After taking legal advice on Ofcom's 655-page pay-TV report, Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore has now decided that there is "no option other than to mount a challenge to their proposed action". The league will officially lodge a legal filing at the Competition Appeals Tribunal. In a statement, Scudamore said that the consequences for UK sport from Ofcom's new pricing model are "too serious and fundamental for us to ignore".
ITV hits 52-week high as Goldman Sachs predicts media upturn
ITV's share price has hit a 12-month high today after a bullish analysts' report from Goldman Sachs about the media sector upgraded its forecast for TV ad revenue growth to 10% year on year. Goldman Sachs, which produced a 32-page report on the health of listed media stocks today, highlighted ITV, the newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror and Vincent Bolloré's French marketing and advertising group Havas as "top picks" in their sectors. ITV's share price hit a 52-week high in early trading today following publication of the note. At 9.30am, ITV was at 69.2p, up 1.7% on last night's closing price. The report said that UK TV advertising is recovering "more strongly" than anticipated, "with the most positive surprises from ITV". The strength of the ad recovery, coupled with positive structural, regulatory and competitive developments meant that it now expects ITV's revenues to be up 10% year on year, it added. Goldman Sachs had previously forecast ITV's TV ad revenue to be up 7% year on year. The new forecast translates to 15% year-on-year growth in ITV's advertising revenues in the first half of 2009, boosted by the football World Cup in South Africa in June only. This will be followed by 5% year-on-year growth in the second half of 2009 as annual comparisons become tougher. In 2011 ITV's TV ad revenues are forecast to be up a further 6% year on year, the Goldman Sachs report said. Today's Goldman Sachs note is the latest in a stream of positive analyst news for ITV, and an upgrade from media agency expectations and an RBS report last month that the broadcaster would be up 8% year on year. Goldman Sachs said it expects the UK TV ad market is up more than 20% year on year in the second quarter.
TalkSport launches iPhone app
UTV, owner of national radio station TalkSport and the channel three broadcaster in Northern Ireland, is launching iPhone apps across its 14 radio stations in the run up to the World Cup. An agreement with audio content provider UBC Media Group will also see the formation of a new iPhone advertising network which UBC will operate. UBC's advertising network will launch in April with the TalkSport app in the build up to the World Cup, while other UTV stations will follow over the following weeks. Unique Interactive (UI), UBC's software division, will develop and supply the apps for free in return for UTV using UBC's internet advertising business Lynx Content to sell advertising within the apps. The agreement will be part of a revenue-sharing deal between UBC and UTV. The apps will allow users to listen to their radio station wherever they have wifi or a mobile signal and provide a wide range of additional features, such as instant programme reminders, listen again and social network interaction.
BBC Scotland agrees SPL rights deal
BBC Scotland has agreed a new two-year deal to broadcast action from the Scottish Premier League (SPL) on radio, television and online platforms. The agreement, which secures SPL coverage on terrestrial in Scotland until the end of the 2011/12 season, will see BBC Radio Scotland broadcast live commentary from every SPL match. BBC Radio 5 Live will also be able to air coverage from a selection of league games across the UK. An SPL highlights programme will be aired every Monday night on BBC Scotland over the next two seasons. Highlight clips will also be shown on BBC Online. ESPN and Sky jointly own television rights to show 60 SPL matches per season across the UK and Ireland, which runs until the 2011/12 season.
Sky Player coming to Humax Freeview boxes
Sky has agreed a deal with Humax to bring its Sky Player web-TV service to the firm's new range of IP-enabled Freeview HD set top boxes. Under the agreement, Sky Player will launch "soon" on a range of Humax receivers, including the Humax HD-FOX T2 and the firm's forthcoming Freeview HD DVR. Sky's IPTV service offers access to a selection of live TV channels, including Sky Sports 1 and Sky 1, along with a library of video-on-demand content. As with Sky Player on other platforms, existing Sky TV customers will be able to access the service on Humax boxes, dependent on their core Sky product subscriptions. Non-Sky customers will need to sign up to a range of monthly subscription packages."
UK iPad release delayed by unexpected US demand
Apple's UK release of the iPad could be delayed by a month because the company is struggling to keep up with higher than predicted demand in the US. The iPad was initially scheduled to go on sale in the UK and elsewhere before the end of April, but Apple has announced it will not start taking pre-orders until 10 May for deliveries by the end of May.
Apple claims to have sold 500,000 iPads in the US in the first week after the device's 3 April launch, which has exceeded forecasts of initial sales of between 100,000 and 400,000 according to reports.
Twitter claims 105m registered users and announces ‘Promoted Tweets’
Twitter has more than 105m registered users, co-founder Biz Stone said Wednesday. The announcement, at the micro-blogging site's Chirp conference for developers, marked the first time Twitter has announced the number of its member accounts. The tally - 105,779,710, to be exact - is significantly more than outside analysts had estimated. The company also says it's adding 300,000 accounts per day, with much of its growth coming outside the United States. The number, of course, doesn't address how many of those accounts are active. It comes after months of outside speculation that the number of monthly visitors to Twitter's main page had peaked – after astronomical growth in early 2009. Web analytics company Compete estimates that Twitter's number of unique monthly visitors has stayed roughly the same since June 2009. Twitter is launching 'Promoted Tweets', allowing advertisers to write Tweets which appear at the top of results when users search for a particular word. The micro-blogging site said that it is launching the first phase of Promoted Tweets with a handful of advertising partners including Best Buy, Bravo, Red Bull, Sony Pictures, Starbucks, and Virgin America. The most recent UKOM data, for February 2010, shows that Twitter.com had around 3.7m users during the month, down 12.5% on January.
Snippets usually taken from the following sources: MediaGuardian.co.uk / BBC / MediaTel / WARC / Digital Spy / brandrepublic.com / nma.co.uk / broadcastnow.co.uk / Ofcom / T3 / FT