Media&Marketing Emmet OliverAs the Premiership season moves into its second month, NewsTalk 106 has signed an unusual broadcasting deal with BBC Five Live.

The Dublin station owns the rights to broadcast Premiership matches on Sundays and on Monday nights (Today FM owns the rights to Saturday coverage) and has found an innovative way to broadcast the Five Live coverage. Ger Gilroy, who hosts Off the Ball every evening on the station, said NewsTalk contacted Five Live and the BBC channel agreed to syndicate its coverage.

"It would cost us a lot and be a major logistical challenge to send our own people over to the various matches. So we asked ourselves why not relay the BBC Five Live coverage, which I certainly regard as arguably the best in the world," he said.

He declined to reveal the value of the BBC deal, but said NewsTalk was seeking a €120,000 sponsorship fee from companies who want to be associated with the new link-up. He said two or three companies were interested at this stage.

The arrangement is scheduled to run for the duration of NewsTalk's Premiership programme, which is over three years.

Meanwhile, NewsTalk chief executive Dan Healy told a meeting of the Marketing Institute yesterday that the station wanted to sign Marian Finucane a few months ago, but the deal did not go ahead.

He did not elaborate on why negotiations proved unsuccessful, but admitted the station was still very keen to attract female listeners, especially those aged 25-44.

But he warned that independent commercial broadcasters were in danger of having their talent "mopped up" by RTÉ.

He told the audience: "You can't run a radio station profitably with less than 4 per market share in Dublin."

He also revealed that NewsTalk was hoping to get Sky to broadcast its output on the Sky Digital platform.

Magazine spending falls

Advertising spending on magazines fell by 20 per cent in the first six months of the year, according to the latest figures from the Institute of Advertising Practitioners of Ireland (IAPI).

Its BASE report, which examines spending based on published rate cards, found spending on the Irish magazine sector to be sharply down, whereas spending on national press was up 23 per cent and regional press was up 33 per cent. Overall advertising spending rose by 17.5 per cent.

However, the group, which represents magazine publishers, the Periodical Publishers of Ireland (PPAI), said the figures were not a true reflection of what was going on.

Gerry Daly, deputy chairman of the PPAI and editor of the Irish Garden, said one reason the figures were down was that publisher Mike Hogan was no longer in the market.

He also questioned whether the IAPI figures were in-depth enough.

"These figures from IAPI's BASE are grossly misleading because they are not comparable to the previous period - a significant publisher is no longer part of the analysis.

"In any case, BASE analyses only a tiny fraction of the 400 magazine titles published in the Irish market and it presents an inadequate summary of the true position of magazine advertising. PPAI members report very satisfactory increases in both advertising volume and revenue," he said.

Today FM ad wins prize

A Today FM advertising campaign featuring the station's stars, including Ian Dempsey, Ray D'Arcy and Matt Cooper, has won the main advertising prize of the year at the Sharks advertising festival.

The ad campaign was made by Dublin agency Cawley Nea, which won the Irish grand prix award for the advert.

Its sister agency, TBWA London, won the cinema grand prix award for a PlayStation 2 advert.

The festival grand prix award was won by BBH for its "getting dressed" commercial for Lynx.

Radio stations deny sale

Two radio stations reported to be for sale - Highland Radio and LMFM - have denied they are in active sales negotiations.

Charlie Collins, Highland chief executive, said he was very surprised by reports linking his station to a sales process.

Mr Michael Crawley, managing director of LMFM, said no offers had been made for his station, which serves Co Meath and surrounding areas.

"Obviously, if someone made an unbelievable offer we would have to consider it," he said.

Accounts for LMFM have recently been lodged in the Companies Office. These show the company that owns LMFM, Independent Broadcasting Corporation Ltd, reporting accumulated profits of €389,153 for the year to August 31st, 2003, down slightly from the year before.

The company's net assets were valued at €453,515.

DCU campaign

Hats off to one of the cheekier outdoor advertising campaigns of the week.

DCU, the only university on the northside of Dublin, is launching a new campaign on September 20th. The campaign was put together by DCU's marketing officer, Deirdre Wynter, in conjunction with agencies DDFH&B and Mindshare.

It focuses on the accessibility of DCU by bus and DART. One of the university's biggest marketing challenges has been convincing those on the southside to take a trip to the college's Glasnevin campus.

A big part of the campaign are bus shelter adverts bearing the strapline "DCU: Your Global Departure Lounge".

The university has decided to place some of the adverts in the middle of Dublin 4 at Morehampton Road, the main thoroughfare for students to and from UCD.

Emmet Oliver can be reached at eoliver@irish-times.ie