A new forecast from GroupM predicts that the UK will be the first major economy where advertisers spend more online than on TV ads. According to the GroupM forecast, UK internet adspend will overtake TV adspend in 2009. In addition, the media planner and buyer said that Sweden will this year become the first country… Continue reading UK Online Adspend To Overtake TV In 2009

The number of UK consumers searching for post-Christmas sales online more than trebled during the 2007 holiday period, according to new research from online intelligence service Hitwise.Hitwise said that there were 249% more UK internet searches for the term ‘sales’ for the week ending 29 December 2007 than for the comparable week in 2006.There was… Continue reading Searches For Post-Christmas Sales More Than Trebled In 2007

IPC Southbank is relaunching its leading kitchens title, 25 Beautiful Kitchens, with a new look and amended title – Beautiful Kitchens.The new version shall be available from the February 2008 edition, and will include more pages of real-life, high-end kitchens together with at least 20 case studies per issue and an informative news section.Commenting on… Continue reading IPC Relaunches Beautiful Kitchens

IPC Southbank has announced that it is to sell Practical Parenting magazine to Magicalia.The latest ABC figures, for January to June 2007, show that Practical Parenting had a total circulation of 38,945 copies, down from 43,465 for the same period a year earlier.Jackie Newcombe, managing director of IPC Southbank, said: “Southbank’s strategy is to appeal… Continue reading IPC Southbank To Sell Practical Parenting

ITV1 has announced a major schedule overhaul, starting from 12th January, which includes Coronation Street now having two episodes on a Friday evening.As a result, the channel’s most popular show will no longer air on a Sunday. Fellow soap Emmerdale will also be dropped from Sundays and will instead run for 60 minutes on a… Continue reading ITV1 Overhauls Schedule

BBC1 easily won the battle for Christmas day viewing with nine of the ten most watched programmes. The second episode of EastEnders featuring the fallout from Max and Stacey’s affair proved to be the most enticing programme of the day with 13.9 million viewers and a viewing share of 55.3%.Second place went to the festive… Continue reading BBC1 Wins Battle Of Christmas Day Viewing

The BBC is going to reintroduce premium rate phone-in competitions gradually during January, following the suspension of the service in July.A limited number will be reinstated during January, starting with Goal of the Month on Match of the Day and Popmaster on Radio Two.All phone-ins were suspended in July following an inquiry that unearthed several… Continue reading BBC Reintroduces Premium Phone-Ins

Emap has sold its B-2-B magazine and exhibitions business to a joint venture between Guardian Media Group (GMG) and private equity firm Apax Partners.The £1 billion ($1.98 billion) sale comes soon after the £1.14 billion deal for its consumer magazine and radio assets to Bauer in December 2007 (see H Bauer Buys Emap’s Magazine And… Continue reading Emap Sells B-2-B to GMG

The past year has been an exciting one for the radio industry, and just before Christmas there was a major move when Fru Hazlitt was appointed as the new chief executive of GCap Media.Hazlitt took over from Ralph Bernard, the man who oversaw the merger of Capital Radio and GWR in 2005, creating a single… Continue reading A Fresh Start For GCap With Hazlitt

The BBC’s lavish new dramatisation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility was pipped on New Year’s Day by a new episode of ITV1’s Midsomer Murders.The most dangerous village in the UK proved a popular choice with 5.7 million adults on average tuning in to the new Midsomer Murders, while Andrew Davies’ sexed-up interpretation of the… Continue reading Midsomer Beats Austen