BBC radio has taken a greater hit to its year-on-year audience size than its rival commercial stations, according to the latest Rajar listening figures for the quarter to 14 December 2014. Overall, the BBC stations lost 3.9% of their weekly reach compared to a year ago, while commercial radio also saw a decline, but a smaller dip of 1.6%. With BBC radio attracting just fewer than 34.8 million listeners on average each week in the final quarter of 2014, and commercial radio drawing in around 34.4 million, the gap is closing.

Sainsbury's head of own brand marketing Kirstin Knight has left the supermarket after 20 years to take up the role of head of grocery retail at Kantar Worldpanel. The supermarket giant says Knight will be replaced internally and her role is likely to be broken up. "We are in the process of changing our marketing structure as part of a broader business effort to streamline our central operations," a Sainsbury's spokeswoman told "Marketing Week." "We are recruiting for all current vacancies internally at this stage."

Oculus Rift's possible launch of an affordable customer product this year means it's time for marketers to consider what VR will mean to brand, according to Mel Exon, managing director and co-founder, BBH Labs. "If your eyes are rolling at the mere sight of the words 'virtual' and 'reality' in one sentence, I understand. But forget Rapture of the Nerds and that early archetype of headset-less virtual reality, Second Life, this is for everyone," she writes in "Marketing" today.

Tensions between Omnicom and Channel 5 ratcheted up last week when the broadcaster sent an uncompromising letter to all of the agency group's clients, asking them to seek "independent advice" about their media. Dust-ups between media's trading boys are not new. However, the situation between Channel 5 and Omnicom appears to have taken the industry into uncharted waters. Omnicom shops spent nearly GBP50 million on Channel 5 in its last full year. The broadcaster has not received any advertising since last summer and now feels it has nothing to lose.

Android users have been warned to be on the lookout for suspicious pop-ups on their devices after several popular apps on the Google PlayStore were found to contain malicious coding. Apps including card game 'Durak' which has reportedly been downloaded a total of 10 million times, 'IQ Test' (five million downloads) and 'History app' (50,000 downloads) were found to contain malicious coding. The adware reportedly lies dormant in the system for a month before activating deceptive pop-ups claiming the device's software is out of date.

The agency worked with Ryanair in 2014 on a project basis and created the Irish budget airline's first pan-European campaign in April. Ryanair had previously not used an ad agency for more than 20 years. Last year's campaign, called "low fares. Made simple," included three TV spots as well as press, outdoor and digital activity. Ryanair's media account is handled by MediaCom. The company spent GBP6.7 million on media in 2014, according to Nielsen.

BT has completed its move for mobile operator EE after agreeing on a price of GBP12.5bn comprising a mixture of cash and shares. Under the terms of the takeover, existing EE shareholders Orange and Deutsche Telecom will sell its entire holdings although both will retain influence through a stake in the combined business, set at 4% and 12%, respectively. BT calculates the tie-up will generate an additional GBP1.6bn per year in sales, particularly in the 4G arena where EE is market leader.

Six months after buying the subscription music service Beats Music, Apple is actively working to launch a completely new paid streaming music service that will compete with Spotify and Rdio. Yet to be named, the new service is entirely Apple-designed, yet leverages Beats' technologies and music content -- a collaboration that has thus far led to personnel challenges and delays. Multiple sources within Apple and the music industry have provided the first in-depth details of Apple's upcoming streaming service.

"OK! Mum and Baby" will be published twice-yearly and bagged with "OK!," the celebrity and entertainment title. The project aspires to be "the destination for exclusive celebrity mum and baby news, tapping into and expanding on "OK!" readers' love of all things baby," according to Northern & Shell. The magazine will be supported with a new section on the OK! Web site, featuring celebrities and their babies, an app, and an "OK! Mum and Baby" club card, offering incentives and offers.

Sky's highest customer growth in the UK in nearly a decade helped the satellite broadcaster post a 16% rise in adjusted operating profit in its first results since its GBP5bn acquisition of Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland. The pay-TV company, which now has a customer base of nearly 25 million across Europe, reported first half adjusted operating profits of GBP675m in the six months to the end of December last year, ahead of forecasts of GBP644m. Sky added another 204,000 domestic customers in the final three months of 2014.