The BBC’s new food and travel magazine, Olive, has announced an exclusive deal with London’s prestigious Harrods department store to provide the retailer with a glossy, 24-page supplement promoting its latest Made in Italy range.The partnership will see the supplement distributed with the October issue of Olive, on sale from 8 September, giving readers details… Continue reading BBC Stuffs Olive With Harrods Supplement

Sky One has announced that its all new autumn schedule will focus on ‘distinctive, high quality and high concept’ programming as the broadcaster shuns previous lowbrow offerings and moves to clean up its image.The starring role in Sky One’s schedule will once again go to American imports with HBO’s historical drama Deadwood being hyped as… Continue reading Sky One Cleans Up Schedule In Bid For More Viewers

The Olympics have helped the BBC’s red-button interactive services to achieve unprecedented success, with new figures showing that a record breaking six million viewers have accessed them for more than one minute since the games began earlier this month.The highest figure previously was recorded during this year’s Wimbledon, when 4.1 million people used the BBC’s… Continue reading BBC Scores Record Interactive Audiences With Olympics

Channel 4 looks set to provide viewers with increased betting opportunities through their televisions, following a deal with Sky Bet, BSkyB’s wholly-owned betting business.Sky will provide the broadcaster with interactive betting services for its live coverage of horseracing events. The service will run alongside a range of interactive services provided by Channel 4, including information… Continue reading Channel 4 Bets On Sky For Interactive Gambling Service

Channel 4 has announced a massive boost of £20 million to its programming budget in a move that clears the way for more high-quality drama and entertainment series to be shown this year, rather than in 2005 as had originally been planned.The increased investment raises the broadcaster’s forecast annual programme budget for 2004 to a… Continue reading Channel 4 Boosts Programme Budget By £20 Million

Websites dedicated to this year’s Olympic Games in Athens have seen a massive 400% increase in the number of visits from UK internet users over the last week, according to the latest data from web-statistics firm Hitwise.The research group has revealed that visits to Olympics websites have increased four-fold since the start of the games,… Continue reading Research Shows UK Surfers Warming To Olympic Websites

Commercial radio group GWR has this week revealed the name of its proposed station for Edinburgh, unveiling 107 FM The Rock as the format it hopes will win over both listeners and advertisers in the area.GWR’s Edinburgh Chooses project asked residents of Edinburgh for advice on what they would like from a new local station… Continue reading GWR Prepares To Rock Edinburgh With Licence Bid

Essential Publishing has acquired Real magazine from H Bauer Publishing for an undisclosed sum, in a move that marks the company’s third major purchase within the last eighteen months.There had been wide-spread speculation that H Bauer was preparing to close the fortnightly women’s lifestyle magazine in July. However, the German magazine publisher has now sold… Continue reading Essential Reals In Fortnightly Women’s Title From H Bauer

BSkyB has secured a deal with The Walt Disney Company to launch a Disney branded games service on its Gamestar interactive platform.The venture will see the new service, dubbed Disney Channel Play, being made available to all of Sky Digital’s 7 million customers through the Disney Channel, or via Sky’s existing Gamestar service.Content will be… Continue reading Sky Selects Disney For Interactive Games Service

Internet giant MSN has announced its first foray into broadcast sponsorship with a wide-ranging deal to promote its instant messaging service via MTV’s new Icon 2004 programme strand.The deal will see MSN’s widely used communication software featured on MTV’s latest range of programmes, based around a particular band or recording artist and honouring their significant… Continue reading MSN Lands First Broadcast Sponsorship With MTV