Online adspend up, Microsoft + ITV play catch-up

Jonathan Bowers, May 21st 2007, 3:07PM

For the first time since Internet adspend began its dizzying climb, television advertising spend has dropped. A new report into online adspend shows that in the UK internet advertising has now broken the £2bn mark. When I began watching these figures in early 2005, internet was catching up with radio spend. In the UK, we now spend almost 4x more on online ads than we do on radio advertising and display advertising has also been dwarfed.

So it is no surprise that Microsoft has just gone all out, spending a reported $6bn on online advertising company aQuantive Inc. But it's still playing catch-up with both Google and Yahoo! having made similar acquisitions previously.

I'm interested in the fate of TV adspend. Until now, overall marketing budgets had been increasing with TV spend increasing also. Now this trend has slowed and actually reversed, the future of Independent television is evolving. In the UK, ITV is the broadcaster that feels slow to respond to such changes. The new website does not live up to the hype and the other major stations appear to be drawing ahead in the IPTV race.

Interesting times ahead.

Tags: advertising, broadcasters, microsoft
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Back tracking on YouTube

Jonathan Bowers, March 2nd 2007, 12:44PM

Literally moments after I posted the last blog, I noticed a story on the UKFast website which reveals another big content provider deal for YouTube. The BBC has signed a deal to create at least 2 dedicated channels on the site.

They plan to show short clips from top rated programmes such as Dr Who and Life on Mars but also create dedicated content such as tours of the Dr Who set by star actor David Tennant.

I'm interested to see who opts in and who opts out over the next few months as in many ways this could dictate both the fortunes and direction of YouTube.

Tags: broadcasters, youtube
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Convergence and keeping your traffic

Jonathan Bowers, December 7th 2006, 10:20AM

We're experiencing the early stages of convergence and the big players are doing their best to bolster online offerings so that once they've got visitors, they keep them as long as possible.

SKY is a good example, having just announced a new deal with Google, which extends News Corp's relationship with the Search giant into the TV online arena. The deal allows them to have that little bit more control over the choices users make while on their sites.

We've looked at News Corp before and Murdoch's about turn on the Internet. I'm interested to see how the public debate over SKY's stake in ITV will develop considering last night's meeting of MP's at Parliament.

Elsewhere, Richard Branson has called it undemocratic and C4 are equally unhappy. Of course, the debate is about much more than just TV. ITV has been diligently developing an online offering including it's acquisition of Friends Reunited a year ago this week. Couple this with SKY and you have the most comprehensive network of online content in the UK.

It's no wonder they're all a little unhappy. Only the BBC will be able to compete and I wonder how much they'll struggle.

Tags: broadcasters, convergence, tv
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The world's content providers no longer?

Jonathan Bowers, August 14th 2006, 12:50PM

While Disney is currently ruling out big Internet partnerships, Viacom is trying to gain ground on Murdoch as he continues to gallop away in the broadcasters online race. Not only is Viacom looking closely at Bebo, but Techcrunch tells us that the media giant is buying Atom Entertainment, home to Atom Films, which highlights short films and also has a series of gaming sites.

And with new surveys telling us that the younger generation spends less and less time watching tv and more and more time online, it's no surprise that the world's content providers are no longer the world's content providers.

But can they pull back the mantle? News Corp seems to be having a go. It's about a year since Murdoch brought MySpace and he's about to start selling his broadcast content direct to its users.

What is Viacom waiting for? And what does Disney have up its sleeve?

Tags: disney, viacom, broadcasters
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