Media&Marketing Emmet OliverThe long-running dispute between NTL and Sky over the transmission of Irish advertising on Sky's two sports channels has ended, The Irish Times has learned.
NTL Ireland for the last few months has been running the standard British advertisements during breaks on Sky Sports 1 and 2. Sky wanted the cable company to broadcast Irish adverts as part an "opt out".
An "opt out" is where a television company inserts regional advertising into its normal advertising line-up. NTL and Sky were in disagreement about the payment for running Irish opt-out adverts, but this has now been resolved, according to sources.
Advertisers will welcome the development. Up to now, adverts they wanted broadcast on Sky Sports 1 and 2 in Ireland were not accessible to NTL viewers.
The Sky Sports channels are popular with certain advertisers because of their heavy male bias. Viewing figures are especially high for matches involving some of the more popular English teams. NTL confirmed yesterday that within days Irish-orientated advertising will be broadcast on the two Sky Sports channels.
Cinema triumph
Cinema admissions in the Republic have hit a new high of 1.9 million in July, up 18.4 per cent on the same period last year. There are now a staggering 434,000 cinema admissions a week here, with family movies such as Shrek 2 helping to drive box office sales.
The figures from Carlton Screen Advertising - which controls about 90 per cent of the cinema advertising market - show that despite the attractions of DVDs, the internet and games systems, cinema has managed to retain the loyalty of the public.
Northern Ireland also had a strong month in July, with admissions totalling 596,000, up 35 per cent on July 2003. Average weekly admissions reached 135,000. The July total is the highest on record.
Shrek 2 was July's biggest film, taking an estimated €4.7 million at the box office. This made it the top film of 2004, knocking Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban off the top spot. Another sequel, Spider Man 2, was the second-highest-grossing film of the month. The movie, released mid-month, had taken in €1.9 million up to the end of July.
Tourism shortlist
Tourism Ireland has shortlisted several large players for its global advertising and media account. The tender attracted significant international interest, with a total of 27 agencies responding. The contract involved is valued at €50 million over three years.
The shortlisted agencies are: McCann Erickson & Universal (incumbents); Young & Rubicam and Mindshare; Euro RSCG & Media Planning Group and JWT & Mindshare.
Final selection will take place in October and the successful agency will be appointed to develop new creative material in 2005 for roll out in 2006. Tourism Ireland's advertising campaigns typically focus on key markets, including Britain, the US, France and Germany.
Tourism Ireland's current advertising campaign, "Ireland - the island of memories", received two major European accolades last year.
Radio winners
Last week's radio listenership figures continue to pre-occupy people in the advertising industry. Paul McCabe of MCM Communications (an arm of McConnells) has strongly denied press reports that the main national stations got "slaughtered" by local stations.
"Such sensationalist reports are based on a reading of stale data. True, the national stations did take a beating at the hands of regional stations, but this happened in the second half of last year," he claims.
Mr McCabe is also upbeat about Today FM's national performance. "Evidently, the recent investment by Today FM in advertising their brand on TV has paid off - they have stemmed the gradual audience decline of recent JNLR reports. They will take reassurance in the fact that they are reconnecting with 25-to-34-year-old adults".
He says 2FM is getting more listeners, but its problem is keeping them. "While more people are tuning in, the station is less sticky and not keeping them tuned in for as long."
Along with most commentators, Mr McCabe acknowledges the ground gained in the latest figures by youth station Spin FM. He says Dublin stations 98FM and FM104 "appear to be losing their under-24 listeners to Spin FM".
The results for NewsTalk are mixed. "NewsTalk are slowly attracting younger listeners, but are beginning to lose their older audience. They are not capitalising on the Dublin audience who are tuning out of RTÉ Radio One," said Mr McCabe.
The most intriguing part of his report concerns Q102, formerly Lite FM. The station, which is licenced to serve over-35s, is attracting a large number of under-34s, not to mention under-24s.
"Their 15-to-24 audience is up by 185 per cent over the last six months. Expect complaints to the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland from the more 'yoof' orientated stations in the capital over the successful music policy of Q102," predicts Mr McCabe.
Yesterday, the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) said the JNLR figures only covered four months of Q102's existence and it only intended to review the station's output after 12 months.
Emmet Oliver can be reached at eoliver@irish-times.ie
