Big albums jostle for attention in packed November schedule. (News).

The autumn season kicks off in earnest this week, with the five biggest albums of the week shipping a total of 1.5m units.

Leading this week's schedule is the debut set from Gareth Gates, which has shipped in the region of 550,000 copies, along with new studio albums from David Gray and Christina Aguilera, and greatest hits sets from Manic Street Preachers and Nirvana (see table for ships).

"It is an exceptional release schedule in the next three to four weeks, the strongest it has been for several years," says HMV product director Steve Gallant. "In fact, it is so strong there is always the danger that one or two of the albums will underperform and get trampled on in the rush."

The coming weeks have albums from Craig David, Robbie Williams, Blue and U2 on top of a slew of other priority releases.

"Unfortunately, there is a bunching effect in November with four or five major releases each week," adds Gallant. "We only have so much racking space and, if everyone has a major release, it means something won't get as much profile as it could do in another period."

The surge in major releases is also proving a boost for broadcasters, as labels jostle for the highest-profile TV advertising breaks. Mediacom associate director David Swannell, whose company handles media buying for Universal's Polydor, Mercury, Universal Island and UMTV arms, says the task of finding key slots which are not already booked with music ads is already getting harder.

"Last year Cold Feet was the slot every label wanted their product in, but it hasn't been scheduled this year which puts pressure on other ...