Industry headlines:
Week ending Friday 5th February
Television:
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05/02/10 Channel 4 fails to win gagging order in libel battle
Channel 4 tried and failed to win an injunction to prevent reporting of a hearing in a multimillion-pound libel battle in the high court in which the broadcaster has been accused of faking elements of a documentary purporting to show members of Michael Jackson's family moving to Devon. The station wanted to ban coverage of part of a case brought against it by Michael Jackson's former bodyguard, Matt Fiddes, it emerged. It insisted that the legal move was not an attempt to gag the press, but had been motivated by concerns that reporting could influence a jury at trial.
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05/02/10 Last King of Scotland team reunited for Channel 4 people-trafficking drama
Channel 4 is reuniting the makers of its award winning film The Last King Of Scotland to make a new drama inspired by the evils of people-trafficking. The film, currently untitled, will bring together the writer Jeremy Brock and producer Andrea Calderwood on their first project since The Last King of Scotland, with which Forest Whitaker won the best actor Oscar for his portrayal of Idi Amin.
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05/02/10 TV Overnights: ITV1's Live FA Cup coverage scores 6.8m viewers
ITV1's Live FA Cup Footballcoverage secured the top spot with a high of more than 6.8 million viewers during the peak-slot last night. The Leeds v Tottenham game, which ended 3-1 to Spurs, attracted over 5.6 million average viewers and a 23.1% audience share between 7.30pm and 10pm. However, BBC One's popular Inspector George Gentlycame a fairly close second with 4.2 million peak viewers and a 16.4% average audience share between 8.30pm and 10pm.
Press:
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05/02/10 Early NRS figures reveal big increase in Evening Standard readership
The London Evening Standard's readership has shot up to 1.37 million from 556,000 since its move to free distribution in October, according to new NRS figures. Recording a figure of 556,000 in April to September 2009, the latest total - for the period 12 October to the end of December - represents an average 2.3 readers each copy from its 600,000 ABC circulation. Of the 1.37 million, the proportion of ABC1 readers is 76.7%, with the proportion of 15-44 year olds reading the paper growing from 56.7% to 62.0%
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05/02/10 News of the World loses battle over secret phone hacking evidence
The News of the World lost a court battle to keep secret evidence which, it is claimed, would reveal widespread use of illegal methods by reporters to obtain personal information about celebrities. A high court judge ordered that the evidence should be handed over to Max Clifford. The celebrity publicist has begun a legal action seeking to prove that the Sunday newspaper unlawfully intercepted messages on his mobile phone.
Radio:
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05/02/10 RAB appoints Linda Smith as executive chairman
The Radio Advertising Bureau has appointed ex-StarCom MediaVest CEO Linda Smith to the newly created role of executive chairman. Smith, who takes up the role with immediate effect, will report to RadioCentre chief executive Andrew Harrison. Her primary role will be to help drive radio's profile with advertisers and agencies.
Digital:
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05/02/10 Facebook leaps to fourth for news content
Facebook has quietly become the fourth largest distributor of news content on the web as people spend more time on social networking websites. Facebook sits behind Google, Yahoo! and MSN as the place where people get their news online, according to research from Hitwise. Last year Facebook overtook Google News rising from just over 1% in January 2009 to 3.5% last week. Google News accounted for only 1.39% of visits to news and media sites last month while Google Reader, the search giant's RSS reader which has never gained mass appeal, accounted for 0.1% of visits. The growth in Facebook as a traffic driver to news sites has come hand in hand with other research that shows the time spent on social networking sites overall has risen significantly in the last 12 months.
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05/02/10 LoveFilm appoints Lesley Mackenzie to head up digital efforts
LoveFilm has appointed former Kangaroo chief executive, Lesley Mackenzie, to the newly created position of group digital officer at the film and game delivery company. Mackenzie, who was most recently chief executive at 123WebTV, an online search engine providing access to video and TV programmes, will now lead LoveFilm's digital activity as well as head up its expanding streaming services. Her appointment comes as the widescale deployment of IPTV is creating new possibilities for LoveFilm's subscription-based streaming services in the UK and Europe.
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05/02/10 Teens prefer reading news online to Twitter
Some 62% of US internet users aged 12 to 17 are going online for news and political information or find out about current events, said a study conducted by the Pew Research Center published yesterday. During special events such as general elections news consumption rose to 77%. This is an impressive number, even more so if you compare it with the 73% of teens who use social networking websites or the 89% of boys and 70% of girls who report they have a game console. It also stands up well compared with the 72% of adult internet users who get their news online, a number that has held fairly constant since 2002 according to Pew. In general, it says the use of online news has increased dramatically since its first analysis, in 2000, when it found just 35% of online adults were reading political news online.
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05/02/10 TGI: Online habits
Latest TGI Net Europa data shows that internet use remains highest in Britain where approaching 80% of adults went online at some point in the past year, compared to 70% in France and around 55% in Germany and Spain. British internet users are 70% more likely than the four-country average to make charitable donations online. In contrast their counterparts in France are twice as likely to play the lottery online while those in Spain are 140% more likely to download films or film trailers. Meanwhile German internet users are 70% more likely to have sold something at an online auction.
Outdoor:
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05/02/10 Digital screens to increase in malls
Clear Channel Outdoor and digital screen owners VMG, have extended their extensive network of digital six-sheets bringing the total network to 120 screens. The Digital six-sheets are 65" high-definition, full-motion screens, which are positioned at major walkways and intersections of many shopping centres. The new editions to the network are; Festival Place in Basingstoke, Telford Shopping Centre and Frenchgate in Doncaster.
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05/02/10 London Bus to stay with CBS
A new five year contract has been drawn up between CBS and Transdev London United and London Sovereign bus services. The contract, which is said to be worth £12m, will cover both bus networks which represents 10% of the London bus market, transporting 195 million passengers a year.