Emap Brings Magic To Sky

Emap Performance has launched Magic TV, a music channel aimed at “music loving adults in their late twenties.”

The radio brand will be broadcast on Sky Digital round the clock and will be based on the same “video jukebox” format as Emap’s existing The Box brand.

Emap has signed up Butlins, Columbia Tristar and Nestle to accompany the launch of the channel, which lines up next to Emap’s other TV channels; Kiss TV, Smash Hits and Kerrang!

Butlins will run a £100,000 cross media package across the Magic television and radio platforms and will sponsor promotions and break bumpers on The Box from the end of September.

Director of TV sales at Emap Advertising, Darren Khan, said: We are very pleased with the activity we have booked to support the launch of Magic on Sky Digital and believe that the brands involved are an accurate reflection of the values of the Magic brand.”

Emap Elan has also confirmed that a pilot of a programme based on the celebrity magazine Heat is in production. Elan’s head of TV, Steve Buckley, was tight lipped about the launch, but confirmed that Elan is working with independent production company Monkey, with a view to creating a series of thirty minute programmes.

He said: “The pilot will not be a slavish copy of the magazine but an intelligent content led programme. Heat struck a chord with readers and this led to its fantastic success. TV viewers are essentially the same as magazine readers and will recognise the Heat brand.”

Buckley could not divulge a completion date for the pilot, but confirmed that Elan, which owns brands including FHM, Arena and The Face, is “pursuing other TV opportunities.”

Emap: 01733 568 900 www.emap.co.uk

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