23rd November 2009

FBD takes stake in INM
Insurance group FBD has taken a 3.3% stake in Independent News Media (INM) as part of the debt for equity swap agreed in the restructuring of the media group’s borrowings. The insurer, a bond investor in INM, took 51.4 million shares in the group through a transaction on 11 November after bondholders agreed the first element of the restructuring agreement. FBD is among a number of investors, which includes Pioneer, Aviva and Invesco, in the €200 million INM bond that has been due for repayment since last May.

Ireland match attracts highest viewing figures this year
Ireland's controversial defeat to the French last week attracted the highest television audience of the year to date and the highest audience for any sporting event since 1995, knocking Ireland's Grand Slam decider against Wales into second place as 1.07 million people watched RTÉ 2 for the entire four hours of coverage of the game including pre and post-match analysis.

No impact on Thierry deal with Gillette
Calls to boycott Gillette, virals and diplomatic protests are all among the ramifications to come from French football player Thierry Henry's goal-producing assist in the World Cup qualifier against Ireland. Although Henry, an ambassador both for Gillette and Unicef, has admitted his error the furore has grown from Irish supporters over the resulting French win. One consequence was a campaign by fans via social networking sites to call for a boycott of Gillette products. Regardless of the financial ramifications of this, Gillette-owner Procter & Gamble was forced to deny Henry's actions would affect his £5m deal with the brand.

UTV revenues slump
UTV Media has blamed a difficult economic environment for a 12% slump in total revenue during the first 10 months of 2009. The Belfast multimedia group, which operates the ITV franchise in Northern Ireland, said the like-for-like decline in revenue was most sharply felt by its core television division. The group’s television advertising revenue in the 10-month period to October fell by 21 per cent, dragged down by a 25% drop in sales in Ireland.

Microsoft and LikedIn sign partnership
Microsoft and LinkedIn have signed a partnership that will integrate the business network into Microsoft's Outlook email service. LinkedIn is the first professional network to be integrated into Microsoft Outlook, which will allow users to maintain their professional LinkedIn network from their email inbox. The Outlooks Social Connector will automatically show the latest activity from any LinkedIn connection that sends a user an e-mail. They can then send emails to their LinkedIn connections.

US ad revenue drops 28%
Newspaper advertising revenue in the U.S. plunged 28% in the third quarter to $6.4 billion. The figures released last week leave little doubt newspapers will have to manage through the fourth year of a slump that has already killed some publications and wiped out thousands of jobs. Advertising sales are the main source of newspaper income, and that revenue has declined year-over-year for 13 straight quarters. About the only good news to emerge from the July-September period is that the erosion wasn't quite as bad as the previous quarter when newspaper advertising revenue dropped 29 percent rather than 28 percent. Still, U.S. newspapers collected $2.5 billion less in advertising revenue during the quarter than they did at the same time last year.

AOL to shed third of workforce
AOL will shed approximately a third of its work force in the coming weeks and months, as it seeks to shave $300 million in operating costs and restore the company to financial health. The company said it will incur restructuring charges up to $200 million, nearly all of which will occur when it spins off from Time Warner on 9 Dec. AOL will initially ask employees to volunteer for severance under a program that runs from 4 Dec until 11 Dec. If the company doesn't reach its target savings during that time frame, involuntary layoffs will also take place.

Oprah's retirement signals disaster for advertising
For America’s television industry the retirement of Winfrey’s show in 2011 is nothing short of a disaster: the programme has been one of only a handful able to hold its advertising rates steady in spite of the recession. The publishing industry will also suffer: Winfrey’s book endorsements resulted in many authors becoming overnight millionaires. However like other mass-market television programmes The Oprah Winfrey Show no longer attracts the audience it once did — it was 33 million at its peak — but over the years has remained a remarkable force in modern broadcasting, holding its No 1 position in the ratings for 23 consecutive seasons.

Coca Cola adopts social media
Coca Cola is making increasing use of social media as both a brand-building and PR tool, as it seeks to find new ways to actively engage with consumers on digital platforms. The beverage maker recently announced the details of Expedition 206, which will see three bloggers travel to the more than 200 countries where its eponymous cola brand is sold over the course of 2010.

Children should be taught to be more media savvy
Primary school children should be taught to understand the language of advertisers and spin doctors to stop them becoming too susceptible to sophisticated campaigns, it has been claimed in the UK.Steve Fuller, a professor of sociology at Warwick University, believes that media literacy should be taught to children from the age of five beside maths and English. Fuller, who is leading a major academic programme into why people copy behaviour, argued that lessons could help young people – and adults – be less gullible by understanding how advertising works and how to criticise it. They would also be less susceptible to subliminal messages.