Media&Marketing: It looks like David Harvey's City Channel is now going to hit the airwaves ahead of Channel 6, the TV channel which is believed to be backed by several venture capital funds.

Harvey's channel is now due to come on air on September 5th on NTL digital, which means it should reach over 100,000 homes. The channel will air 24 hours a day, seven days a week and be accessed on channel 123 of NTL's digital service.

According to Dublin advertising agency Initiative, the new channel will be supported by a TV advertising campaign on E4, Setanta, Paramount, MTV and Nickelodeon. There will also be advertising on local radio, a press campaign, direct mail to all NTL customers and some PR activity.

"Initially broadcasting to 100,000 homes will give City Channel a potential audience of 400,000 individuals in an area stretching from Dundalk to Greystones. Audience growth will benefit as NTL continues its digital rollout," said Initiative yesterday.

Instead of using Nielsen research, City Channel will use a different research firm, Interactions Limited. While the exact details have yet to be finalised it will take the form of phone interviews. City Channel has been granted a BCI licence in principle and negotiations for a permanent licence are continuing.

Channel 6 is also aiming to be on air in September, but one of its main backers Pat Donnelly, formerly managing director of advertising agency Carat Ireland, said yesterday this was now unlikely. He said some logistical issues still needed to be resolved.

Mr Donnelly said the two channels were very different, with City Channel carrying a large amount of advertorial, whereas Channel 6 would be concentrating on programming for younger viewers. According to reports, Delta Partners and ACT Venture Capital are set to invest in Channel 6.

David Harvey, for his part, told The Irish Times yesterday that television was set to become like the telecoms market of a decade ago. He said with a €500,000 investment he was able to put together a service for the NTL platform. He said programming on property, cars, the gay community, health, job advice, clothing and eating out would be included in the schedule, with many of the programmes sponsored by private firms.

Google value

Its official... Google is now the most valuable media brand in the world.

In just 10 months trading as a public company the internet search company has passed out the previous number one, Time Warner. With a current stock market capitalisation of more than $80 billion, Google is now worth more than any other media company in the world.

While Time Warner remains a global giant its share price has been on the slide since the dot.com bubble burst and this week its market capitalisation stood at $78.1 billion. It owns CNN, Warners Brothers, TV company HBO, Time Magazine and America Online.

Several more traditional media companies are also far behind Google. This week Viacom had a market capitalisation of $54 billion, while the Walt Disney Corporation is worth $55 billion. Yahoo, once the main rival to Google, is now worth $53 billion.

Setanta ratings

Setanta's acquisition of this year's Formula 1 series has seen the ratings for the race drop sharply.

An average of 1,160 individuals have tuned into each race so far this year on Setanta Sports compared to 80,000 per race for the same period last year on RTÉ.

According to advertising agency Initiative, the low ratings from Setanta has provided a boost for UTV which has increased its Formula 1 viewing figures by almost 20 per cent, with an average of 34,000 viewers watching the recent races.

While these viewing figures are not bad for a sporting event, they are nothing compared to the audiences Big Brother is getting on Channel 4.

While many TV critics have predicted its demise over the last three years the latest series of the programme is confounding them once again.

For example an average of 160,000 Irish adults tuned into the first night between 9 p.m. and 10.15 p.m. on Friday May 27th.

According to Saor Communications, this level of viewership is up by 5 per cent on last years opening night, which was shown at the slightly later time of 10pm.

"This gives further evidence that public popularly for this type of celebrity programming, is still yet to diminish," it said.