This week’s two-part Lifetime Original, Human Trafficking with Mira Sorvino and Donald Sutherland, became basic cable’s most watched original movie of the year, averaging 5.5 million viewers and a 4.6 household rating, Media Life reports.
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A lawsuit filed by its principal lender claims The Source, which covers the hip-hop industry, has lost more than $11 million over the past four years, has failed to file state and federal income tax for two years and has skipped mailing issues of its magazine as its financial crisis has mounted, The New York Post reports.
The Source was selling 500,000 copies per month in 2002 and 2003, and is now selling about 250,000 copies a month, the suit claims. Part of the reason for the decline was that the company did not put out the January 2005 issue and has failed to mail at least 140,000 subscriber copies this year.
Martha Stewart Living and Everyday Food saw growth in per-page-revenue in the third quarter, a 24 percent increase over the same period last year, AdAge reports. The company expects fourth quarter ad pages at Martha Stewart Living to double year over year, and in the third quarter they were up 48 percent.
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Britain’s largest cell phone network, “3″, is the first mobile phone company in Britain to run video ads on its network, and response has been good, writes Media Life. One ad has achieved 160,000 downloads - a number that has convinced the company the idea is viable. Now 3 has appointed a mobile media selling agency, the “first time in Britain that a mobile operator has appointed someone to be out there actively selling the space,” said a spokesperson for 3.
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WPP Chief Executive Martin Sorrell said that leading media companies like News Corp. are on the verge of panic over the Internet, Reuters reports (via YahooNews). Singling out the recent Internet acquisition spree by News Corp., he said the company has been making internet acquisitions “almost willy-nilly.”
This year, News Corp. has spent about $1.3 billion to buy MySpace.com owner Intermix Media, gaming Web network IGN Entertainment, and online sports company Scout Media.
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UNICEF and Clear Channel Outdoor have launched a global outdoor ad campaign, which will be seen on donated billboards and street furniture in 65 countries worldwide. This is the first phase of the U.N./UNICEF’s global campaign to raise awareness for the affects HIV/AIDS has on children around the world. According to the companies, this is the first ever global ad buy.
Cingular hopes to broaden its position as the largest U.S. wireless service provider by reaching out more emphatically to the Hispanic market, AdAge writes. The company has created a new Hispanic marketing department and has shifted resources to focus more intently on that demographic.
Fox News Channel pulled its programming off Sirius Satellite Radio for two hours Thursday, forcing Sirius to pull the feed from a TV set in order to keep the content flowing, reports Reuters.
The quarrel began Tuesday night when the Alan Colmes radio show didn’t stream on Sirius during its normal 10 p.m.-1 a.m. time slot in favor of a show from Stephanie Miller, another liberal talk-radio program. Sirius said it was an administrative error, but the next night Miller again was in Colmes’ spot. Fox executives decided it would stop feeding Sirius the Fox News Channel.
Chicago’s four-game sweep of the Houston Astros averaged an 11.1 national rating with a 19 share on Fox. That’s down about 7 percent from the previous low, an 11.9 with a 20 share for the 2002 World Series between the Anaheim Angels and the San Francisco Giants, AP Reports (via SI.com). This year was a drop of almost 30 percent from last year’s series, in which the Boston Red Sox swept the St. Louis Cardinals for their first title in 86 years. That had a 15.8 rating with a 25 share.
Interpublic Group’s Draft has cut about 7 percent of its New York office staff as a result of its ending relationship with Bank of America, Adweek reports. Though 16 of the holding company’s agencies had worked on portions of the BofA account, sources have said that the largest piece of the $65 million pie went through Draft.
The account was awarded to Omnicom Group in August.
Scion has a new Halloween-themed outdoor and online campaign promoting the 2006 Scion, with the headline “Trick and Treat,” Adrants reports. Billboards and wild postings can be seen in Atlanta, Austin, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, and Portland, and wild postings are also appearing in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia, and Sacramento. The ads feature an orange Scion with a black, spread-winged bat over the hood and sides of the car. “Trick” in the headline refers to the tendency of Scion buyers to “trick out” their vehicles, while “treat” refers to the brand’s extended options.
Online banners will run through Halloween. The campaign was created by ATTIK.
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Email service provider Silverpop has integrated RSS into its offerings via a proprietary tool, RSSDirect, which tracks subscriptions and dynamically generates individualized content for each subscriber, reports ClickZ (via MarketingVox). Marketers can assess how subscribers interact with content and use that data to tailor offers. “You can start to understand the behavior of the user base and you can offer much more relevant targeting to customers versus purely generic content,” said Silverpop CEO Bill Nussey.
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