NTL opens another door into youth market with E4

ADVERTISING/MARKETING: NTL subscribers got their first taste of E4, Channel 4's entertainment channel on May 1st and Irish advertisers will be able to buy into the breaks from June 1st.

For advertisers chasing the very picky youth market, particularly the lower reaches of the Dublin 15-34 age group, it looks like an attractive proposition as the station is pitched squarely at that market. The timing, however, is problematic for the British station.

NTL only announced five weeks ago that it was replacing TV 5 with E4, which meant a less than ideal lead time for a station that has to fill every break with Irish-placed advertisements. RTÉ's new sales system has already tied up the bulk of Irish advertisers' television budgets for the year and most advertisers, particularly in that demographic, are throwing any extra spend at World Cup promotional activities.

"The lead time is certainly problematic," says Mr Joe Toomey, television sales director at Media Link, the company that sells Irish opt-out space on Channel 4 and E4. "But our expectations are realistic and we're not looking for huge amounts of revenue."

It is thought that the station hopes to pull in €1.6 million in its first year and a daily audience level averaging around 60,000 viewers. Sky's 232,000 subscribers already receive E4.

The station's big calling card is Big Brother 3, which starts on May 24th. Channel 4 shows edited highlights, but E4 broadcasts up to 16 hours a day of live action from the Big Brother house. It's difficult for older television viewers to imagine anything more tedious but the previous two seasons of the reality television show have been enormously popular.

"We've just completed the latest round of our Decode research, which looks at 15-24 year olds, and the words 'Big Brother' mean something very different to them than they do to an older age group," says Mr Peter McPartlin, managing director, Irish International OMD. "It's hugely popular in that age group."

The challenge, particularly for RTÉ and TV3, will come in September with the autumn schedules. RTÉ has been able to show guaranteed audience pullers such as ER, Friends, Ally McBeal and the Sopranos ahead of British terrestrial channels. However, E4 is currently ahead of RTÉ with ER and Friends and if it manages to stay ahead on these and other popular series, it could prove problematic for the national broadcaster. It will also concern TV3, which currently shows Sex and the City first here.

"It's a natural assumption that RTÉ will lose viewers but that's not automatically the case," says Mr McPartlin. "If there is to be a loss, it will be small and evenly divided among the stations and could even be on a programme by programme basis."

He cites Network 2's Monday schedule as an example of how RTÉ planners have been able to put together an evening's viewing that attracts and holds younger viewers.

Aidan Dunne at MCM suggests that, as E4 will not be carried through MMDS or by Chorus, the Irish E4 will have a very significant Dublin bias. The programming, which includes daily broadcasts of Sex and the City, twice weekly ER and Ally McBeal, also has a female bias. Young male viewers are, he says, also catered for with Scrap Heap Challenge, Celebrity Death Match, Banzai and Trigger Happy TV.

The arrival of E4 into the homes of the 365,000 NTL subscribers represents yet another example of media fragmentation in a small market. It's unlikely to grow the television viewing market. According to MCM, it will cannibalise the other stations' market share, including its parent, Channel 4.