13° January | Digital Literacy Campaign | Grooveshark | BBC | Facebook | CES

13 January 2012

Happy Friday 13th, I hope your day’s been lucky so far.

New Initiatives

The Guardian today, starts its £9.99 monthly subscription for its iPad app content. It is unlike its iPhone app, which allows 3 stories to be read for free before requiring a monthly subscription. However there is some speculation at the success of this new paid content, since the guardian.co.uk website is still free for all content, which may drive iPad users to their site instead of their app.

There has been a lot of talk around The Guardian’s Digital Literacy campaign, launched this week, which aims to improve teaching of IT and computer science to bolster digital skills in the UK.

After weeks of waiting, Netflix finally launched in the UK this week with a streaming only service, free for a month then £5.99 per month after. However the hope that they would be opening an office in the UK was unfoundered as, for now, they will manage it remotely from California. With LoveFilm an established brand offering DVDs and a £4.99 streaming only package, Netflix will have a lot to contend with.

Company Structures

In the battle of the streaming service, LoveFilm has taken another step signing a deal with BBC Worldwide, covering popular shows such as Doctor Who and Life on Mars. It has also signed with ITV.

Another streaming service facing problems at the minute is Grooveshark, the music service who is being sued by EMI. However they are not the first as Universal Music Group, Sony Music and Warner Music have all filed suits against Grooveshark. EMI is also suing ReDigi - a MP3 re-seller that calls itself “the world’s first online marketplace for used digital music,” –  due to copyright infringement.

Wall Street Journal has said that Yahoo is now looking for new Board Members to replace the current board that are often criticised. Mindshare, the global media network, has started restructuring its online team, after Claire Valoti moved to O2 Media as MD.

Steam, the digital game service, has seen a 100% increase in sales for its 7th year in a row, reaching 5m users at one time over their Holiday Sale, leading their data transfer of that year to over 780 petabytes (780,000 terabytes).

In acquisitions this week, Shine Group is buying ChannelFlip an Online TV and video producer, strengthening the multi-platform and direct to consumer offerings.

Just-Eat the online fast-food ordering service, is working its way through Europe working a deal to acquire Alloresto the French online ordering leader.

Sky has bought a 10% stake in Zeebox, the social TV start-up. The deal will allow Sky to add Zeebox to its app portfolio, whilst helping to expand the proposition internationally.

Industry moves this week:

Gavin Gordon-Rodgers & Gemma Butler have been hired by LBi as Creative Directors. Gordon Rodgers comes from Wieden and Kennedy and Butler from Agency Republic.

Rufus Olins, the ex-CEO of Warc, has been appointed CEO of The Newspaper Marketing Agency.

Clare Chamberlain, previously of Immediate Media, has been poached by Bauer Media to become Sales Director across print & digital.

Joanna Ellis has been announced as joining The Literary Platform as Associate Director. She was previously Marketing Director at Faber, where she worked for 7 years.

Jo Hagger has been appointed to lead and develop AAR’s digital practices. Hagger was formerly MD and Chief Integration Officer at Glue Isobar.

Claire Hey, ex-freelance editor at Harper Collins has joined Simon & Schuster as senior commissioning editor. She has set up her own digital publishing house Shortfire Press.

David Kang, former Creative Director at Hearst, is joining Wenner Media as Chief Digital Officer. He will be replacing Michael Bloom.

Donna Hindson is to become Director of Trade Marketing for UK ads & online at Microsoft. Hindson joins from the BBC’s  Future Media Group, where she was Head of Marketing and Partnership.

Damon Lafford has been hired by Channel 4 as the Head of Agency Sales. He joins from Sky Media where he is Head of Trading.

Ian Armstrong, Honda’s Head of European Marketing, has been appointed Global Communications Director for Jaguar.

Christopher Dean, Skype’s Chief Strategy Officer, has left to join Urban Airship as Chief Revenue Officer.

Yoko De Souza has been appointed by Amscreen digital outdoor media as Director of Client Sales. De Souza has formerly been Director at Titan Outdoor and JCDecaux.

Katie Coteman, Associate Director at Aegis media agency Carat, has been appointed Director Brand Solutions and Advertising at Discovery Networks UK. Coteman has been at Carrat for 11years.

Giles Delafeld has been hired to head up VoucherCodes.com. He formerly led Irisa (previously known as Alexon).

Gareth Abel has been appointed as Marketing Director at Samsung UK & Ireland. Abel replaced Batyr Bulat who was only in the role for 3 months before announcing his resignation.

Laura Jordan Bambach has left her role as Executive Creative Director at LBi to join Dare. She was awarded  the Greatest Individual Contribution prize last year.

Albert Read, of Condé Nast Britain, has been promoted to the new role of Deputy MD.

Jill Styring formerly of Everything Everywhere, has been appointed Marketing Director for Devices UK for Huawei.

Social Media

BBC Worldwide have banded together with Stardoll, the teen virtual world, to create a social community for Strictly Come Dancing fans. It will be free to join but £5.95 subsciption will get the user exclusive items. It is an opportunity to boost their teenage audience.

Google has announced that it will be integrating its Google+ network with its natural search results. This means that if you’re logged in and you search for something it will come up along side photos and posts from Google+ circles.

Facebook has launched today a new service ‘listen with friends’ so that you can see what your friends are listening to and click a ‘Listen with’  button to hear it too. They have also been challenging the British Radio Industry to get more social with the site, in a similar way to Spotify & Deezer.

Digital Product

There was a lot going on with the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas happening this week. However it is far too much to be able to comment on in our News in Degrees. So take a look at the official site and look at some the exciting products at the show this year.

The Rest

To end with this week, in honour of the CES here is an infographic showing how digital is changing our living rooms (though its based on the US).

Have a wonderful weekend.