Sara Jane Wai O’Flynn, frontwoman of ‘The Dirty Epics’ didn’t let the rain stop her from practicing in preparation for the Xbox LIVE stage which makes its European debut at Oxegen 2008 music festival. The massive 46 square metre, high quality LED screen will feature live performances from the likes of MTV’s Eclectic Method, as well as screenings of popular movies and TV shows. Fans will also be able to try their hand at Rock Band or arcade classics like Pacman over the course of the weekend. Xbox will also be bringing the popular karaoke game, Rock Band, to the main stage where fans will be able to sing along with popular tunes between acts.
Coverage announcing the Xbox LIVE stage presence at Oxegen appeared in the Irish Independent, Irish Daily Star, Metro and Irish Times.
RTÉ’s Belfast office has moved to new studios in the city centre.
The Irish Times reports that TV3 has “added to its growing portfolio of live sports coverage yesterday by outbidding RTÉ for the exclusive terrestrial rights to the Uefa Cup from September 2009.”
Paparazzi boss Darryn Lyons is now offering regular consumers cash for mobile phone pics of celebs according to the Guardian.
Stephen Conmy has left ShelfLife to take up the position of editor with Mount Media, publishers of the Irish Marketing Journal. Caroline Byrne has become editor of ShelfLife since his departure.
The Sunday Business Post reports that “Half of the decisions published so far by the Press Ombudsman relate to model Katy French, 24,who died last December after taking cocaine.”
The Irish Times has removed the paywall and is now available to read online on www.irishtimes.com. Ireland.com has become a lifestyle portal.
Joe O’Shea will not be returning for a third series of Seoige and O’Shea, following planned changes in the presenter’s role on the programme. According to the Irish Independent he will be looking for other broadcast opportunities in the future.
The 2007 eircom PhoneWatch burglary report revealed that one third of burglaries occur during the summer months. However, a new survey from eircom PhoneWatch has revealed that despite 70% of people planning their holidays two to seven months in advance, 49.5 % of Irish people are not taking the time to introduce simple security measures before departing. In fact, 57% do not use timers on lights, something which can dramatically increase security within the home while on holiday.
The recent survey also revealed interesting insights into current perceptions regarding a sense of neighbourhood and community. Though 32% of respondents would involve people they knew to check on their homes whilst on holidays, only 10% would be happy to tell neighbours they were going away. Only 30% described their neighbourhood as close knit with an almost equal number (27.4%) citing they felt little sense of community in their neighbourhood.
Edelman helped eircom Phone Watch to launch the report and coverage appeared in the Irish Sun, Irish Mirror, Herald AM, Metro, Spin FM, FM104, 98FM and Q102.
Pictured at the launch of the survey was Roberta Rowatt and a home burglar. Photo credit - Photocall Ireland.
Recognising that dog lovers hate leaving their pets in kennels when they go on holiday, and are fed up with braving busy, polluted roads when taking their dogs on walks, Pedigree and Irish travel writer Karen Creed teamed up to research and create an innovative guide to dog-friendly, activities in Ireland - the Pedigree® JointCare+™ RUFF GUIDE.
To order a free copy of the JointCare+ RUFF GUIDE, dog owners please write to: Pedigree JointCare+ RUFF GUIDE, PO Box 7808, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin or e-mail JointCare@edelman.com
Edelman helped to launch the travel guide and coverage appeared in the Evening Herald, Sunday Independent, Irish Times, Irish Examiner and Irish Sun.
Pictured at the launch are Karen Creed, travel journalist, and her dog Figo. Credit - Photocall Ireland.
The Irish Independent reports that RTE recorded net profits of €26.4m last year, up 45pc from the 2006 figure of €17.9m.
NewsTalk is set to be punished by the Broadcasting Complaints Commission due to breaching the rights to privacy of civil servants by putting them live on air without their permission according to an article in the Irish Times (subscription required). The incidents occurred when the Your Call programme began to air live conversations with civil servants after interview requests were turned down. The Government subsequently boycotted the station due to its conduct, but the Times reports that this boycott finished six weeks ago and Government officials have since appeared on the station.
The Guardian reports on ITV’s soaring web video figures, with Euro 2008 driving visitors to their web offering this month.
654 primary schools from across Ireland will receive Awards of Science Excellence through the Discover Primary Science programme at ceremonies over the next fortnight, representing an increase of over 30% on the number of schools that received awards last year. The awards acknowledge the efforts of primary school children and teachers, who have demonstrated an increased knowledge of science and its many applications.
Pictured at the launch of the Awards of Science Excellence were Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation Dr Jimmy Devins and students from St Josephs CBS, Fairview - from left Loughlan O’Brien, Matas Galinas and Aaron Paul.
Coverage appeared in the Irish Independent, Herald AM, Irish Times and RTE’s News2Day are scheduled to film at one of the awards ceremonies.
Maeve Dineen has been appointed as business editor of the Irish Independent, replacing Tom McEnaney who is leaving the publication to establish a private equity firm. Dineen had been the editor of the Independent’s farming supplement for the last five years and had previously worked in the agri-business sector as a communications manager.
Adam Maguire has an interesting post off the back of an article about The Guardian’s move to consolidate its varying newsroom into one entity. Maguire ponders the implications for various Irish media outlets.
The Irish Independent reports that RTE’s Joe Duffy Show was strongly criticised by a prominent judge for interviewing family members of a victim after his attacker was convicted but before he was sentenced.
According to the Guardian, Channel 4 and Channel Five have collaborated on a programme-makers’ handbook designed to stamp out the TV deception incidents that dogged the industry last year.
Honda got a lot of publicity last week for a live prime-time advertisement break broadcast on Channel. The Times reports that the advertisement which consisted of a skydiving team lasted spelling “out a message to viewers from Honda before pulling their parachute cords. The revival of ‘live’ adverts, once a common feature of soap operas in the Fifties, is seen as a weapon in the battle against apathy to advertising in the television audience. The spread of personal recording systems now allows viewers to speed through the commercial breaks at 30 times normal speed.”
According to the Irish Times (subscription required) the broadcasting regulator plans to review the radio licences held by billionaire businessman Denis O’Brien, after he increased his stake in Sir Anthony O’Reilly’s Independent News & Media (IN&M) to 25 per cent.
We helped to launch Power of One Street II last week. This year, Power of One Street II has not only five householders taking part in the energy makeover, but also two businesses and one school. So far, each resident has successfully completed their first challenge, and have all achieved great savings.
In the unique Power of One Street “energy makeover” Challenge 2007, eight families throughout the country demonstrated without a doubt that behavioural changes in regards to energy usage can truly make an extraordinary difference to both bank accounts and CO2 emissions. Power of One Street II is designed to show us all how easy it is to adopt energy-saving habits not just at home but in work and even in school.
YouTube isn’t simply about videos that make you laugh, it is also an invaluable educational platform for consumers. For example, one of the recently featured videos on YouTube is a juggling tutorial. Draitube’s chops tutorial currently has approximately 30,000 views and counting, highlighting the fact that there is an opportunity for brands to step in and educate consumers.
Guitar tutorials on iTunes are a good commercial example of this. iVideosongs sell tutorials for $5 or $10. iVideosongs also sell drum and piano tutorials.
With an abundance of niche activities like Parkour becoming more popular, it an obvious opportunity for brands to educate consumers whilst maintaining credibility. Rather than go for the hard sell, empower communities eager to take up new activities but who are often put off because of the knowledge barrier to participate.
SiliconRepublic reports that RTE.ie has launched a text service for consumers of business news.
Adam Maguire gives a good roundup of the week’s other stories including Setanta Sports winning the rights to broadcast the FA Cup Final in the United States and Johnson Press’ debt burden.
The Labour Party wants students from 2nd and 3rd level to create short YouTube videos to engage the Irish public in learning about and supporting the Lisbon Treaty. Students can win a €1,000 prize for the best entry promoting a ‘Yes’ vote on the Lisbon Treaty. The deadline for entries is June 1st
The latest edition of the Irish Media Contacts Directory has been launched by Mediacontact.ie. The latest edition has seen some changes including listings of advertising agencies, web design consultancies, conference venues, etc making it far more comprehensive. The directory costs 90 euro and is available from the mediacontact.ie website.
One of the strangest things about Irish media is the lack of mens publications. Plenty of comers have tried to launch them but failed, due in large part to the influence of UK imports like Nuts, Maxim and Loaded, and more recently because of the Internet. Even still there has always been a gap in the market, so our ears perked up when the Irish Daily Star on Sunday announced the launch of A-Men, Ireland’s weekly glossy men’s magazine. The 52 page magazine is packed full of in-depth sports features, superstar music & movie interviews, gadgets and web clips, city breaks for the boys, motors, jokes, fitness, health, fashion, games and a 7 day tv guide. The first issue hit shelves on Sunday, 11 May. We were lucky enough to have the magazine editor, Des Gibson, come in to tell us all about what to expect in A-Men just prior to the launch.
Ever dreamed of becoming an astronaut? It might not be such a dream after all. We helped the European Space Agency launch their recruitment drive last week. Applications opened on Monday so log onto the ESA website to see if you’ll be blasting off into space anytime soon.
Coverage appeared in the Irish Independent, Irish Examiner, Irish Times, Irish Sun, Irish Daily Star, Irish Mirror, RTE1’s Six One news, TV3 News, TV3’s Ireland AM, Today FM’s Last Word, Spin FM’s The Spin, INN, Highland Radio and radio news bulletins on RTE, NewsTalk, 98FM and Today FM.
Pictured at the launch of the ESA astronaut recruitment drive are Suzanne Foley, PhD student of astrophysics, UCD; Gerhard Thiele, ESA head of the European Astronaut Corps; Dr Jimmy Devins, Minister of State for Science, Technology and Innovation; and Gary Melady, PhD student of astrophysics. Photo credit - Maxwell Photography.
We recently helped to launch Challenge Science, Discover Science & Engineering’s annual science roadshow, in IT Tallaght. The launch was covered by the Irish Independent, Irish Examiner, Irish Times, Herald AM, Metro and on RTE 2’s News2day.
Pictured at the launch of Challenge Science are students from Deansrath Community College. Photo credit - OSD.
RTE Business reports on the latest JNLR figures. The biggest surprise perhaps was the strong performance of most stations, with the phrase ‘everyone’s a winner’ encapsulating the statistics. Cian Ginty has a quick round up and links on his blog, pointing out that RTE’s Drivetime won out in the battle of the three main drivetime radio shows. While the Irish Times provides a detailed breakdown.
The Irish Times broke a news story (subscription required) on Friday that it was in discussions about possibly buying TV3 for 10 million euro. The Sunday Business Post follows up on the story this weekend, reporting that should the deal go through the station would be made available on its proposed new digital television platform if it succeeds in buying the loss-making Irish station.
In a separate report, the same paper reveals that RTE plans to launch a third television channel, provisionally called RTE 3, as part of a free-to-air digital terrestrial television (DTT) service which is likely to be on air by 2012.
TV3 launched the lineup of its live GAA championship coverage. The Irish Times reports (subscription required) that it marks the first time a terrestrial broadcaster has been assigned a share of the rights held exclusively by RTÉ for the past 46 years.
In a busy Irish media week, the Irish Independent reports on plans for a new free-to-air Irish film TV station which is expected to be launched in 2009. The Independent reveals that “the operating cost of the low-budget channel…would range between €3m and €4m a year [less than the cost to run each year than one series of RTE medical drama ‘The Clinic’.] A decision has not been made on where the new station will be based, or whether it will show Irish, European and world films around the clock.”
The biggest news of the week was the announcement of the new Broadcasting Bill. The main premise of the bill is that the “RTÉ Authority and the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland are to be replaced by a single regulator under new legislation” (via RTE.) The Irish Independent reports that “TV and radio stations will have to give people who are damaged in a broadcast a right of reply.” The same paper also goes on to point out that “bad language and fast-food ads targeting children are being banished from the airwaves as part of a dramatic revamp of Ireland’s broadcasting landscape.”
