New Media Age articles from January 2003

New Media Age archives from January 2003

Media buyers seek end to ad metrics confusion.(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Media buyers are tackling one of the biggest obstacles to the growth of Internet advertising with an initiative to remove the discrepancies between ad-serving statistics they produce and those of media owners. The digital marketing group...

MMS freed from network limits.(Now Wireless)(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... UK mobile subscribers can send MMS messages to users on any other network following the launch of NowMMS from Now Wireless. The service is provided free, supported by advertising. In return for free inter-operator MMS connectivity,...

ISPs face huge fees with arrival of new legislation.(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... The UK ISP industry is bracing itself for a bill of several million pounds as a result of the communications regime which will come into effect this summer. At present the ISP industry is not subject to specific regulation, although ISPs...

E-tail set for shake up with streamed shop assistants.(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... The face of online shopping could be given a shake-up thanks to new technology that enables customers to receive a live streamed personal shopping assistant on their browser. Interactive agency Humansand-machines has signed a deal with...

3 launches first TV and cinema marketing push.(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... UK operator 3 tomorrow starts its first TV and cinema ads, despite still being unable to set a launch date. The multi-million pound push, with the tag line 'You aren't watching TV' positions video as the core consumer offering of the 3G...

Commission to aid London's Web creative sectors.(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... The London interactive industry has been given a boost by a special commission established by the Mayor of London, with a brief of focusing on the creative industries in the capital. Aboard of fifteen executives will lead the Commission on...

BT unveils plans for paid-for online education resource.(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... BT has revealed plans to launch its first paid-for education service, BT Learning Centre, next month. The new service, which comes under the auspices of BT Retail's New Ventures division, also home to Dotmusic and Gamesdomain, is being...

Monstermob and Jester plan mobile gaming venture.(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Mobile content distributor Monstermob has formed a partnership with games publisher Jester Interactive in order to launch mobile versions of Commodore gaming hits. The firm has also boosted its distribution channels via content deals with...

DCMS set to approve BBC online education scheme.(Department for Culture Media and Sport)(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Speculation is rife that the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) will this week approve the BBC's digital curriculum plans. News reports at the weekend suggested that the DCMS was preparing to act at the same time as the...

Thomas Cook arrives on broadband.(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Travel firm Thomas Cook has become the first high street chain to launch a dedicated broadband channel. Thomas Cook Broadband aims to support Thomas Cook's dTV presence and will let viewers watch 300 clips of a number of destinations. ...

Easycar to launch first European online ads. (Breaking).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Online car rental company Easycar.com is launching its first ever Internet advertising push across Europe. The campaign follows the appointment of former eBay UK manager, Jennifer Mowat, to the role of Easycar's commercial director. After...

Coca-Cola inks sponsor deal for Ant & Dec TV show and site. (Breaking).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Coca-Cola has struck a deal with ITV to sponsor the second series and official Web site of Ant & Dec's new show, Saturday Night Takeaway. The agreement covers broadcast sponsorship of the prime time show through a series of break bumpers and...

Government begins campaign to warn of online paedophiles. (Breaking).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... The Government has launched its first TV advertising to highlight the possible dangers of online paedophile activity. The [pounds sterling]1m advertising campaign, which was first revealed by NMA in November (28 November 2002) will run...

AOP expands membership with ANM and Independent Digital. (In Brief).(Association of Online Publishers, Associated New Media)(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... The Association of Online Publishers (AOP) has strengthened its membership with the addition of Associated New Media (ANM) and Independent Digital to its board. The organisation was formed last July and grew out of the old Periodical Publishers...

Loot.com adds adult-only services to offering. (In Brief).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Loot.com, the online arm of the classified advertising newspaper giant, has launched a new section covering adult services including escort agencies, adult Web sites and saunas and massage parlours. The move has come as a result of the...

Freeserve launches bingo service with Victor Chandler. (In Brief).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Freeserve has continued its online gaming drive with the launch of a bingo service in partnership with Victor Chandler. The launch of the browser-based bingo service follows Freeserve's online casino launch two months ago, which is being...

Tribal DDB designs new toy sites for Hasbro. (In Brief).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Toy manufacturer Hasbro has launched two Web sites, for Action Man and a new game called ProJaX. Both were created by digital marketing agency Tribal DDB. The Action Man site is designed as an interactive showcase for the 2003 range and...

New Year texting on the up. (In Brief).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Over 100m text messages were sent on New Year's Day, according to the Mobile Data Association. The total number sent was 102m, up 59% on last year. text.it

Flextech puts iTV at heart of broadcasting strategy.(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Digital TV broadcaster Flextech has unveiled a number of revenue-generating initiatives which will put iTV at the heart of its broadcasting strategy for most of its major channels. Flextech already has a major iTV interest with its games...

W3C usability standards put developers to the test.(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Web developers are under renewed pressure to make Web sites accessible following the acceptance by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) of a new accessibility standard. The User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (UAAG 1.0), written as part...

MMTV raises over [pounds sterling]700,000.(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Multimedia Television, the iTV content and solutions company, has raised over [euro]1m ([pounds sterling]700,000). The company operates two subsidiaries: the iTV design and build company MMTV and the digital recruitment TV channel The Job...

Habbo and BT in broadband deal.(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Habbo Hotel, the chat and games environment for teenagers, has signed a deal with BT that includes marketing the telco's broadband products as it moves to develop its own broadband services. BT is listing Habbo Hotel as a partner on its...

HSBC pilots plan to handle e-tailers' anti-fraud systems.(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... HSBC is launching a one-stop shop to tackle online fraud which will see e-tailers outsourcing their antifraud systems to the bank. The system is being pilot tested in the UK at the moment and will place the bank between the retailers on one...

First Direct trials 3D Internet agent.(Cara 3D interactive animation)(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... First Direct, the Internet and phone bank, has launched an interactive online agent to guide users through complex financial products. The agent, named Cara, is a 3D interactive animation who moves, talks and gestures as she responds to...

Sun Online to launch Web version of racing game.(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... The Sun Online is continuing its drive for revenues from online by launching its 'King of the Punters' fantasy horseracing game online for the first time. The game, which has been running in the newspaper since 1995, is the first of a...

Durlacher sells off further tech shares.(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Investment bank Durlacher has continued its policy of offloading its technology holdings by selling most of its shares in kVault Software at a significant premium. This follows the sale last month of its stakes in online share dealing...

Diary.(Brief Article)(Calendar)
January 9, 2003... 20 January 2003 Game On: Capturing the New Consumer Pound in UK Gaming and Leisure London +44(0)20 7713 0302 ateonline.co.uk/conferences 20-22 January 2003 Wireless Java Implementation Strategies London +44...

Boursot Wines delays results as it awaits announcement. (Finance).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Boursot Wines, the on and offline wine retailer, has delayed the release of its results and had its shares suspended on Ofex ahead of an expected fundraising announcement. The company says it's at an advanced stage of talks to raise the money...

Intellexis raises [pounds sterling]500,000 in new finance for training. (Finance).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Online financial training firm Intellexis has secured [pounds sterling]500,000 in new finance. The company has also said it's still committed to the US market, despite the resignation late last year of Bob Gulick, who headed its operations...

Logica and CMG complete merger at close of 2002. (Finance).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... IT and wireless services firms Logica and CMG have completed their merger, with the new company officially launched on 30 December 2002. The combined group is called LogicaCMG, and its shares are traded on the London and Euronext Amsterdam...

Hot Group directors pick up 16% of new shares. (Finance).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Directors of Hot Group, the AIM-listed recruitment firm, have picked up almost 16% of the shares sold in its recent placing. The company, which operates the Jobtrack and Jobsearch Web sites, was hoping to raise [pounds sterling]1.25m through...

Media Square buys up Fi System UK for [pounds sterling]200,000. (Finance).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Fi System, the UK arm of the French Web agency of the same name, has been bought by marketing communications agency Media Square for [pounds sterling]200,000. The acquisition follows the decision by the French parent company to pull out of...

Anystream raises further [pounds sterling]7m in third funding round. (Finance).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Anystream, a streaming software provider, has raised a further $11m ([pounds sterling]6.9m) in its third-round of funding. The company's software is used by several of the UK's largest media companies, including BSkyB, which uses it to post...

Splashpower secures fresh backing. (Finance).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Splashpower, a start-up which has developed technology to allow wireless recharging of mobile devices, has raised a fresh round of venture capital finance. The money came from Pall Mall Technology Ventures, a fund based in Splashpower's...

Share placing for Intelligent Environments. (Finance).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Intelligent Environments, the AIM-listed credit card software firm, has raised [pounds sterling]230,000 though a placing of new shares. The shares were sold to its chairman Olive Richards and investment bank Singer & Friedlander. The 6.6m...

Imagestate sees losses of [pounds sterling]22.1m. (Finance).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Imagestate, the AIM-listed digital stock photography company, made a loss of more than [pounds sterling]22.1m last year in what it admitted was a "disappointing" set of results. The main problem for the company is in the US and it says it's...

Market watch.(Industry Overview)
January 9, 2003... It's been a fairly subdued time for the markets, with investors taking a while to get back into gear following the Christmas and New Year break. However, several large acquisitions in the final weeks of last year, with the likes of AvantGo and...

Essential reading for the individual. (Investor Speak).(Column)
January 9, 2003... If your Christmas was anything like mine you received a lot of books as presents. This caused me to reflect on books that have changed my life, and how many of them I reread. With the 24 hours that most managers and entrepreneurs have, they...

Eckoh to move into iTV with interactive response system. (Technology).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Eckoh Technologies, the speech application developer that emerged from 365 Corporation, is to make its first foray into iTV by offering a one-stop response service to broadcasters and content owners. In a bid to cash in on the booming...

SecureAttachment and Veridis merge delivery services. (Technology).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Digital rights and content delivery firm SecureAttachment has signed a deal with clearing technology and services company Veridis to integrate its service into Veridis's ICP SafeMail service. The tie-up between the companies aims to create...

Jobserve launches SMS alerts callback service. (Technology).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Recruitment portal Jobserve is launching an SMS alerts service inviting users to call back to listen to the details of vacant posts. Subscribers will receive an SMS with a phone number to call and a unique job ID number. When they...

Comverse launches developers' kit. (Technology).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... SMS technology provider Comverse has launched its first developers' kit in a bid to take advantage of the MMS messaging boom. The software developers' kit will enable firms to build MMS applications that run with other mobile standards,...

Digital Bridges to supply Sky SMS and Java mobile games. (Technology).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Sky has signed Digital Bridges to supply SMS and Java mobile games to its Sky Active Interactive service. Launch games include Space Invaders and Scooby Doo. digitalbridges.com

Adobe launches digital camera-focused image tools. (Technology).(Photoshop Album)(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Adobe has launched its latest digital picture software in a bid to cash in on the burgeoning digital camera market. Photoshop Album, which targets the consumer market, will let users tag photos, organise them and send them on. It's based on...

Telecom One and Supanet to roll out mobile content range. (Technology).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Wireless services provider Telecom One has partnered with ISP Supanet to provide users with a range of mobile content. As part of the deal, Supanet visitors will be able to access a range of Java games, logos, screensavers and polyphonic...

Thus waives connection fee for Demon broadband. (Technology).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Telecom giant Thus has revealed that it'll waive the connection fee to its ISP Demon's entire broadband portfolio for at least the next three months. The promotion will cover both Demon's residential and business packages and could see...

Softwrap teams with Altnet to distribute wrapped content. (Technology).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Digital rights specialist Softwrap has partnered with P2P digital content network Altnet to enable it to distribute its wrapped content to global Web users. Altnet's TopSearch will enable users to search for Softwrapped games and software and...

Rubus to act as consultant to Blackwell Publishing. (Agencies).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Blackwell Publishing, the journal publisher, has appointed technical agency Rubus to advise on the design and implementation of a more efficient journal production and content management process. Rubus, acting as a consultant, will work with...

Framfab to develop adult-oriented sites for Kellogg's. (Agencies).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Internet consultancy Framfab has expanded its collaboration with breakfast cereal manufacturer Kellogg's. Framfab has been commissioned to design and develop an online platform for Kellogg's adult-oriented brands, including a series of brand...

Black Pig site to be included in Virtual Teacher's Centre. (Agencies).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Web design agency Black Pig has had one of its Web sites included in the Government's National Grid for Learning (NGfL) Virtual Teacher's Centre (VTC). The As Cedric site provides resources on consumer education for teachers and is accessible...

Agency wins.(GR/DD)(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Graphic and interactive design consultancy GR/DD has been appointed following a two-way pitch to create a Web site for Fountain Studios, the TV studio that hosted Pop Idol, Winning Lines and The Kumars at Number 42. The site will be built in...

Ogilvy develops SMS tool in multi-channel approach. (Agencies).(SMS Manager)(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Advertising agency Ogilvy has made its first foray into SMS marketing as part of a new multi-channel drive across the group. It has developed an SMS management tool in-house which will enable it to send SMS marketing messages on behalf of...

Modem Media takes on De Kare-Silver as Euro MD. (Agencies).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Full service marketing agency Modem Media has appointed the former PA Consulting head of e-business as its new European MD. Michael de Kare-Silver has joined the agency, filling the role vacated by Tim Sexton in June last year. De...

Reading Room designs Energy Saving Trust site. (Agencies).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Web development agency Reading Room has completed work on a new site for the Energy Saving Trust to encourage people to save energy. The site, which links from the main saveenergy.co.uk Web site, features a series of pledges people can make...

2Cs starts new year with new clients. (Agencies).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... London-based Web agency 2Cs has picked up two new clients this year. It has been appointed by Binatone Telecom to handle all aspects of its design communication activity, including brand management and Web site development. 199...

Virgin.net waives [pounds sterling]40 sign-up fee for new broadband users. (Marketing).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... ISP Virgin.net has dropped its [pounds sterling]39.99 activation fee for all customers who sign up to its broadband service between 10 January and 31 March. Peter Tuomey, Virgin.net sales and marketing director, said, "We were the first and are...

Oxy renews Mykindaplace sponsorship deal. (Marketing).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... GlaxoSmithKline consumer brand Oxy has renewed its marketing partnership deal with teen girl portal Mykindaplace.com for another year. The six-figure deal, brokered by Media.com, includes sponsorship of the site's Showbiz channel, editorial and...

Outrider runs push for Talkster audio e-card service. (Marketing).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Agency Outrider is running an online media push to promote an audio-enabled e-card service from provider Talkster set to launch in the UK, Belgium, France and Holland. At voicepostoffice.co.uk users can attach voice messages to e-cards by...

Virgin hosts microsite for 'Back to the Future' DVD launch. (Marketing).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Universal Pictures is promoting its Back to the Future trilogy DVD set on portal Virgin.net. Agency New Media Maze brokered the deal, which includes a Virgin-hosted microsite, linked from the home page and entertainment channel. Content...

Travel sites up marketing over busy new year period. (Marketing).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... The UK's leading travel sites are find-tuning their biggest cross-media ad campaigns of 2003 in a bid to capture customers in one of the year's busiest booking periods. Expedia.co.uk is launching a multi-million-pound campaign this week to...

Columbia puts alternative rich-media formats to test. (Marketing).(Columbia TriStar)(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Film distributor Columbia TriStar is contrasting the effectiveness of Eye Wonder online video with Eye-blaster animated ad formats as part of its campaign to promote the film I Spy, released on 24 January. It'll run two virtually separate...

Airlock to push FlyFrames after Ford ad success. (Marketing).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Agency The Airlock is planning fresh campaigns with its new 'FlyFrames' format, after a successful debut execution with the online push for the Ford Fusion. The FlyFrames format, based on Airlock's proprietary AdShadow rich-media...

uDate plans branding events for 2003. (Marketing).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Online dating service uDate.com will kick-start its 2003 offline branding with a line-up of 12 UK events. The first will be a Valentine's Day party in Nottingham. Other events will be in Manchester and London. Global communications VP...

Human rights group attacks travel site support of Burma. (International).(Burma Campaign UK)
January 9, 2003... A human rights group has accused Iglu.com and several other travel sites of having "blood on their hands" and helping the Burmese military regime stay in power. UK consumers are being urged to press these companies by Burma Campaign UK, a...

US digital content buying levels double during 2002. (International).(Online Publishers Association report)(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... The number of people paying for digital content in the US doubled to nearly 15m in the year to Q3 2002, according to new research from The Online Publishers Association. The study, carried out by ComScore Networks, also showed that the US...

Casema to boost broadband offering. (International).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Dutch cable TV firm Casema is set to expand its broadband operations after being sold by France Telecom for [euro]665m ([pounds sterling]433m). VCs Carlyle Group, Providence Equity Partners and GMT Communications Partners have bought...

BT pulls out of Hong Kong with sale of SmarTone stake. (International).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... BT is pulling out of the consumer mobile phone market in Hong Kong in an effort to reduce its debts. The telecoms firm is selling its 21% stake in SmarTone, Hong Kong's third-largest mobile operator, to local corporate finance house Sun Hung...

Icann confirms creation of sponsored content domains. (International).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Icann has confirmed it intends to set up a handful of new 'sponsored' domain names next year, which will be restricted to particular types of content provider. The organisation agreed the new .aero, .museum, .coop and .pro sponsored domains in...

Email viruses increase to 1 in every 200 messages. (Trends).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Email viruses continued to have a significant effect on UK business in 2002, according to an end-of-year report from email security company MessageLabs. One in every 212 emails contained a virus, compared with one in every 380 in 2001. In 2000...

Broadband users more willing to pay for online content. (Trends).(Jupiter Research)(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Internet users with a broadband connection are more likely to pay for online content, according to a new report from Jupiter Research. It reveals that 25% of broadband users would be prepared to purchase music via the Internet compared to 18%...

Euro broadband users near 8m. (Trends).(Parks Associates report)(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... The number of broadband customers in Western Europe reached 7.8m at the end of Q3 last year, according to Parks Associates. This compares to 4.4m at the end of 2001. Parks sees this rise as an opportunity for home networking deployments. ...

Majority of US surfers would ban spam. (Trends).(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Three-quarters of US Web users would like spam to be made illegal, according to research from Harris Interactive. The poll found that 80% of consumers find spam very annoying. Unsolicited pornographic emails are seen as most annoying by 91% of...

FTSE 100 companies slow to make site improvements. (Trends).(Interactive Bureau's second annual survey)(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Almost three-quarters of the FTSE 100 corporate Web sites are in dire need of attention, finds Interactive Bureau's second annual survey. While the survey reports an overall rise in standards from last year, 72 of the companies vary from...

GPs see limited benefits to broadband. (Trends).
January 9, 2003... Over a third of England's GPs are not aware of the Prime Minister's commitment to connect all surgeries to broadband by 2005. According to research from NOP World, four out of five GPs say they are aware of what broadband means and that...

Major offline advertisers lead advance in Web ads.(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Almost all (97%) large traditional advertisers in the US ran online ads in 2002, finds a recent Techstrategy report from Forrester. The report shows that of the 250 largest online advertisers, 73 are leading traditional advertisers,...

Google wins Site of the Year award.(Brief Article)
January 9, 2003... Google.com and google.co.uk have together clinched the position of Website of the Year in Nielsen//NetRatings' top Web sites of 2002. The joint audience share for the two sites rose from 18% to 28%. E-commerce Site of the Year went to...

Mobile Java gaming has too many players. (Analyst Speak).(Column)
January 9, 2003... The central problem with mobile gaming in the past has been text games using SMS and black-and. white WAP games, neither of which has provided a compelling user experience to gainers, and both of which have suffered from an inability to...

Advertisers prepare to raise the auditing game: while the debate still rages about the value of online auditing, the COI has given traffic verification its full support. (Analysis).
January 9, 2003... Christmas came early for ABC Electronic when the digital director of the COI -- effectively the Government's marketing arm, and one of the biggest spenders in new media -- attacked major Web sites which aren't yet submitting their site traffic...

Don't expect a sudden switch to online advertising. (Leader).(Column)
January 9, 2003... A recurring theme of the past year was people within new media wondering when the wider world of marketing was going to wake up and realise what a great communications channel the Internet industry had built, and start using it. The Internet...

Getting the number of mobile operators. (Letter to the Editor).(Letter to the Editor)
January 9, 2003... Anil Malhotra, VP alliance and marketing, Bongo. net Daniel Lopez's Investor Speak 'Take the muzzle off mobile applications' (Finance, NMA 28 November 2002) points out how different the mobile world is from the PC Internet if you have content...

Why ad agencies won't survive integration. (On Advertising).(Column)
January 9, 2003... The Economist recently carried an article entitled 'High Hopes in Adland'. It asserted that the ad industry is levelling out of a shrieking nosedive into a slightly less sphincter-loosening glide. This should be badly needed good news for...

Pop-ups should prepare to pop-off. (Opinion).(Column)
January 9, 2003... Not long ago, pop-up ads were the darling of the Internet ad community. Now they're viewed with increasing irritation by consumers, and the agencies that still peddle them to clients are nothing but pop-up tarts. AOL's decision to...

Nigel Sheldon managing partner, m-digital. (Ad Watch).
January 9, 2003... Online advertising had a mixed press in the final months of last year. Banners continued to attract comment on their perceived diminishing efficacy, rich-media treatments were greeted with varying degrees of approval, and pop-ups spawned their...

Independent state.(Esther Dyson)
January 9, 2003... The Internet is the ultimate democratiser, giving access to information to a degree unprecedented in history, and decentralising power. So believes Esther Dyson, who's passionate about maintaining the Web's state of freedom. Profile Fiona...