ITV1’s new three part documentary series, about life inside Holloway women’s prison in north London, pulled in the highest ratings during the all-important 9pm to 10pm slot last night.More than 4.3 million peak viewers tuned in to get an insight into a day in the life of officers and medical staff, as they cope with… Continue reading ITV’s new Holloway secures the peak-time ratings

Google has promoted Matt Brittin from his UK client sales chief position to head up its UK operations, replacing Dennis Woodside, who is set to become the search giant’s head of ad sales in the US.Woodside, in turn, will replace Tim Armstrong who is joining AOL as its global chief executive, according to reports.However, Google… Continue reading Google promotes Brittin to head up its UK operations

The BBC plans to extend its HD service to nine hours a day, the maximum amount of output allowed under its current BBC Trust service licence.The corporation’s HD channel was previously airing around six to seven hours of high definition content a day, but now plans to extend its hours from 4pm to between 12.20am… Continue reading BBC extends HD offering

The Advertising Association has appointed Tim Lefroy as its new chief executive, to replace Baroness Peta Buscombe, who is set to join the Press Complaints Commission next month.Lefroy will take up his new role on May 5, after stepping down from his current position at the management consultancy Radical Communications.At Radical, Lefroy has worked on… Continue reading Advertising Association appoints new chief exec

BBC Magazines is set to launch a new pre-school title called Waybuloo Magazine, to fall in line with the launch of the Waybuloo TV series on CBeebies this summer.The new title, which will be published fortnightly, will be targeted at three to five-year-olds and have a cover price of £2.35, according to reports.BBC Magazines has… Continue reading BBC Magazines to launch new kids title

GMG warns that the proposed tie-up between BBC Worldwide and Channel 4 would have a “damaging effect” on the commercial market.In its response to Lord Carter’s Digital Britain report, the Scott Trust owned company urged ministers to dismiss the idea – “put simply, we believe that the market should be given the opportunity to deliver… Continue reading GMG warns against C4 and BBC Worldwide tie-up

The National Readership Survey is currently putting together a development programme which, if it works, will see the body release a multi-platform report including readers’ interaction with media owners’ websites for the first time in 2011.The research body outlined the proposed programme to the NRS Board, whose members include the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising,… Continue reading NRS hopes to publish online data by 2011

ITN has appointed John Hardie, a senior executive at Disney and former ITV commercial director, as its new chief executive.Hardie is expected to take up his role with ITN in June, after he leaves Disney, where he has been executive vice-president and managing director across Europe, Middle East and Africa for eight years.Prior to that,… Continue reading ITN appoints ex-ITV director as chief exec

WPP’s chief Sir Martin Sorrell predicts an L-shaped, or prolonged, recession until 2010.Speaking to the Stationers’ and Newspaper Makers’ Company in the City last night, Sorrell said: “The first half of 2009 will be very tough, and the second half relatively better … relative to the first half.”Economists define an “L-shaped” recession as protracted periods… Continue reading Sorrell predicts L-shaped recession until 2010

Virgin Media TV is set to close its pay-TV channel Trouble within the next few months in a bid to start off-loading its content business.The broadcaster’s parent company Virgin Media will close the teenage-oriented channel, which is well-known for shows such as Veronica Mars and Kyle XY, and launch a new version of Living in… Continue reading Virgin is set to close Trouble and launch new Living channel