British Channel 4 is "not expecting to bring in more ad revenue" than it would normally take during the time period of the Paralympics, according to Mark Sweney of the London GUARDIAN. Channel 4 is regarding the venture instead as a chance to promote its brand and burnish its public service broadcasting remit." Channel 4 Sales Dir Jonathan Allan said that his sales team has been "selling Paralympic packages to the advertisers," but the underlying expectation when the TV rights deal was done was for a "commercially neutral" end result. Media buying agency sources claimed that the Paralympics "has not seen exceptional demand from advertisers seeking to buy special TV packages offered by Channel 4 for the event." Allen said, "I can't find anyone in the industry who has rushed to buy specific Paralympic packages beyond sponsors. No one is saying 'get me the Paralympics.' It will not be a massive success from a financial point of view." The big question is what the Paralympics "will deliver in terms of the audience scale and type, and what that means for Channel 4 heading into the TV trading season later this year" (GUARDIAN, 8/23).
ONLINE SUCCESS: In London, Josh Halliday wrote that the Olympics "helped traditional newspaper websites to a bumper month in July," with the Daily Telegraph and Independent enjoying the biggest online readership boosts. With only five days of the Olympics falling inside July at the end of the month, newspapers "can look forward to an even bigger traffic boost when the August figures come out." Telegraph.co.uk topped 50 million average monthly browsers in July, up 13.59% on the previous month. Independent.co.uk reported a 21.42% rise in daily users, to 741,995, compared with the previous month (GUARDIAN, 8/23).
