Interactive Digital Sales, the sales house for Virgin Media Television, has negotiated the first ad break for the launch night.
ZenithOptimedia brokered the deals on behalf of its clients L'Oreal, Lexus and British Airways, all of which will be appearing in the first advertising slot after the 9pm launch. Stephen McHenry, IDS's agency sales manager, worked on behalf of the sales house.
The agency also brokered the first ad break in the channel's US import show, The Riches, starring Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver. The first episode is scheduled to screen at 10pm on launch night.
In another deal for Virgin 1, Vauxhall Tigra is to sponsor America's Next Top Model for two full series. This is the first time the show is being made available to Freeview audiences. The six-figure sponsorship deal will start on 7 October and was negotiated by Carat and Davina Barker, IDS's commercial development manager. Vauxhall already sponsors the show on Virgin Media TV's pay-TV channel, Living.
James Wildman, managing director of IDS, confirmed that there has been "an incredibly high volume of advertiser inquiries about the channel ever since the plans for launch were unveiled".
Virgin 1's website will launch on the same day, but no commercial online partnerships have yet been announced.
The channel will air on Freeview and Sky, as well as Virgin Media. Virgin 1's repeat channel, Virgin 1+1, will launch on 1 October on Sky and Virgin Media only, due to bandwidth restrictions and expense on Freeview.
.jpg)
.jpg)