ITV is attempting to deliver Michael Grade’s pledge of more drama programmes following the unveiling of its winter schedule for the broadcaster’s flagship channel.Modern comedies and drama seem to be largely the focus, with a fictional drama called Rock Rivals in which viewers call in and vote for their preferred ending.The programme, from the makers… Continue reading ITV Delivers More Drama For Winter

Publicis Groupe is to launch the Insight Factory, a collaborative “open architecture” advertising model that will pool services from ad agency network Leo Burnett, media operation Starcom MediaVest and digital operation Digitas.Tom Bernardin, the chairman and chief executive of Leo Burnett Worldwide, said the idea would be to create a central resource for clients.“The Insight… Continue reading Publicis Launches New Ad Model

Sky Anytime, Sky’s VoD service, is to expand via PCs and television sets, with the possibility that the PC service could carry ads.Anytime currently spans TV, PC and mobile, but the company is said to be preparing several initiatives to build its on-demand presence, as VoD services from rival TV players start to become popular.According… Continue reading Sky Anytime PC Service Could Carry Ads

ITV has launched a music section on its newly revamped itv.com website, in a bid to attract more viewers to music-related shows such as The X-Factor.ITV.com/music combines exclusive footage from programmes with the site’s seven-day catch-up service, and a downloads service that promotes tracks related to ITV content.The music store has been established in partnership… Continue reading ITV.com Ads Music Arm To Site

American digital video recording service, TiVo, is to offer advertisers demographic information on TV viewers, in a move to help companies track who is fast forwarding ads.The firm’s new Power||Watch service provides data such as age, income and ethnicity, and so far has more than 22,000 TiVo users signed up to share this information with… Continue reading TiVo Now Able To Reveal Demographic Data To Advertisers

More than 16 million TV households in the US may be using their broadband service more than they use their TV sets in the next three years, according to a new report from In-Stat. “Today’s stable and profitable subscription TV services are facing new competition from online and mobile entertainment services, and from new, high-quality… Continue reading Broadband Could Become More Popular Than TV In The US

Google’s purchase of online ad-serving company, DoubleClick, is to be investigated more extensively, after the European Commission announced it was taking the rare step of instigating a second-phase review of the $3.1 billion deal. The European Commission’s Competition Unit will investigate in greater detail (see Google DoubleClick Deal Under Pressure From Consumer Group) whether a… Continue reading DoubleClick Purchase Under Further Scrutiny

Emap has reported that pre-tax profit in the six months to the end of September fell 16% year on year to £80 million while revenues were down 1% on an underlying basis to £386 million. However, Emap executive chairman Alan Cathcart said the company was “on track” to deliver against expectations for the full year.… Continue reading Emap’s Pre-Tax Profits Drop 16%

Which? has once again called for a 9pm watershed on foods high in salt, sugar and fat, following research from the consumer watchdog that suggested children were still being exposed to these ads during ‘family’ programming.The research reveals that more than half of the 20 programmes most watched by children under 10 are not covered… Continue reading Which? Renews Call For 9pm Watershed On HFSS Food Ads

Bebo, the social networking website aimed at younger internet users, is to offer content for free from broadcasters such as the BBC following the launch of multiple media channels for the site.The Open Media platform will also feature content from major record labels as well as programmes from the BBC, ITN, Channel 4, BSkyB and… Continue reading Bebo In Major Free Content Launch