• Finland To Get 'Angry Birds' Park In April
    Looking to provide children a fun way to exercise, the creators of the popular mobile and web game are opening an activity park at the Sarkanniemi Amusement Park that will feature animal spring riders, swings, sandpits and climbing towers with slides. Users will be able to get new features in the mobile game as well. The concept will be rolled out across adventure playgrounds, shopping centres and other recreational spaces in the UK later this year.
  • Regional Publisher Adopts 'Digital First' Plan
    Speaking on Wednesday at the Guardian Changing Media Summit in London, Johnston Press CEO Ashley Highfield says the UK's largest regional newspaper publisher hopes to get 25% of its revenues from digital within the next three years, up from the current 5%. To that end, the new strategy looks to bring new readers to the local press and halt declining print revenues.
  • Sky Announces Now TV, First Internet TV Offering
    It will let users access its movies and sport through any broadband Internet-capable device and compete with the likes of Google TV, Apple TV, LoveFilm and Netflix. Major pay-TV players have struggled to compete with VoD the latter offer full packages at GBP5-7 per month. Some customers find that more appealing than paying Sky TV GBP30+. This may plug that marketing hole.
  • Beta Roll-out Of BBC's Mobile Homepage Begins
    On Wednesday, the Corporation launched a new version for the testing public, with one in seven visiting the homepage via a mobile device. The beta version will appear alongside the current page for a month. Features such as podcasts, travel news and things to do are set to be added over the coming months.
  • In-Bev Puts 'Friends First' At Top Of Its Media Plan
    At the ISBA Annual Conference on Wednesday, Anheuser Busch In-Bev CMO Chris Burgraeve said the makers of such brands as Stella Artois and Budweiser "have no digital or media strategy; we just have a connections strategy called 'friends first'. He defended the decision by saying that it was working to segment its social media audience via traditional means, working out where fans or Likes fit into each part of the sales and advocacy funnels.
  • London Olympics May Slow Internet Speeds
    The Internet Service Providers' Association is warning of a "massive hit on the infrastructure" this summer as many are forecasting a deluge of data as events get under way. If businesses allow employees to watch the games at work, they could struggle with bandwidth, it said. The events are already being hailed the "Twitter Games."
  • FMCG, Retail Behind Soaring Mobile Ad Spend
    Follow the money? How about follow the people. Or, better still, follow the mobile devices. That is what big brands in FMCG and retail have been doing as they push mobile ad spend to an astounding GBP203.2m in 2011. It is a 157% surge over the previous year, according to the IAB and PricewaterhouseCoopers. These brands are out to reach what comScore claims are the 58% of Britons who get content via apps or the mobile Internet each months.
  • Finally, Xbox 360 Users Can Access iPlayer
    With this launch, the BBC's popular web player is now on all major gaming platforms in the UK. It is a move that took three years to come to fruition because of conflicting content strategies between Microsoft and the Corporation. Xbox 360 users will now be able to control the iPlayer using hand gestures and voice commands.
  • Manheim Buys Motors.co.uk
    Although the amount paid was undisclosed, it was confirmed that the online classified website has been bought from the Daily Mail and General Trust. Manheim is the marketing leader in the US, where it operates US Autotrader.com. CEO John Bailey says, "In just five years Motors.co.uk has built up a substantial presence and great reputation in the UK."
  • Video Games: Propaganda, Military Training Tools?
    "It's Monday night, the kids are in bed, and I am trying to kill Osama bin Laden. I stalk through his Abbottabad compound and I aim my rifle at the first person I see ..." The writer examines the shadowy and lucrative relationship between video-game developers and various military outfits and wonders how it affects the games we play.
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