Rough Guides to...

Following on from the acquisition of Lonely Planet by BBC Worldwide, Rough Guides has tied-up with TV broadcaster Channel Five to air a series of travel shows next year that are to be made by independent production company, Lion Television.

The shows will be weekly, based on the Rough Guide books and explore the top five destinations in a number of holiday categories. Each episode will be branded ‘The Rough Guide to ...’ and is planned to be 30 minutes long.

TV is becoming a place for publishers to build brand, extend reach and develop content.

Mobiles continue to offer Digital Content

That ubiquitous mobile continues to attract different publishers as they experiment with digital delivery. Hundreds of travel books and maps on European cities are to be preloaded onto Motorola phones. The books from Rough Guides are complimented by maps from ViaMichelin and packed as Rough Guides Mobile by Creative Software Ltd.

Swedish mobile users will now be able to enjoy over 100 HarperCollins English language audiobooks via service provider BOKiLUR. Users will get 2 minutes of free sample and then purchase a title for around 15 euros. The download is streamed to the phone and thereby obviates downloading to a pC. The system if successful will be rolled out to a number of other European Countries in the next 12 months.