Sunday Times Launches The Month On DVD

The Sunday Times is launching its entertainment guide, The Month, on DVD on March 20, hoping to boost circulation figures and attract a “young and entertainment savvy audience.”

The new promotion is cashing in on the rise of DVD households and follows the success of The Sunday Times’ previous innovation of being the first paper to publish a digital newspaper section when it launched The Month on CD-Rom.

Commenting on the new initiative, Andrew Mullins, marketing director for Times Newspapers Ltd said: “The Month CD-Rom has been an effective circulation driver. Although the CD-Rom format was popular and had a loyal following, we have reached the point where more Sunday Times readers have DVD players at home than access to CD-Rom.”

Mullins continued: “It is clear that the future is with DVD and we are convinced that the new format will help to extend out market even further.”

The DVD will continue to preview the most anticipated entertainment events, with the addition of a wide variety of new features, made possible by the additional capacity offered by DVD. Each edition will include an exclusive Sunday Times documentary feature, a 30-minute magazine programme highlighting the best in music, film and games with comment from a line-up of critics and hosted by XFM presenter Eddy Temple-Morris.

Mullins added: “The Month DVD is a further leap forward in bringing The Sunday Times content to life. As well as giving a critical overview of the best in entertainment, The Month DVD is entertainment in itself with original features shot exclusively for The Sunday Times.”

The launch issue of The Month is packed with three and a half hours of entertainment viewing, with highlights including a preview of the forthcoming release Be Cool, the much anticipated sequel to Get Shorty, as well as an extended pilot episode of the award winning American comedy Arrested Development.

The Month will be produced a minimum of six times a year and will continue to be edited by the Sunday Times Culture team, with Initial, Endemol UK’s production arm, producing the DVD.

Heavyweight advertising on national television and radio will accompany the launch, including a special promotional campaign with the Capital FM Group running across Capital FM, XFM and Red Dragon FM from Thursday, March 17 to Sunday March 20.

Recently the newspaper signed a media partnership with film channel Turner Classic Movies (TCM), for The Sunday Times to sponsor TCM’s month long “28 Days of Oscar”. The deal saw a DVD of Howard’s End given away with every copy of the paper (see Sunday Times Signs Promotion Parnership With TCM).

The February 2005 ABC figures show that The Sunday Times benefited as a result, with circulation increasing by 4% year on year, bringing the paper close to 1.5 million(see ABC National Newspaper Round-Up – February 2005).

The Times: 020 7782 5000 www.timesonline.co.uk

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