EMI Music Publishing (www.emimusicpub.com) has selected digital entertainment specialist HUGE Entertainment (www.hugeentertainment.co.uk) to help develop innovative and revenue-generating services using its songs and lyrics and delivered via digital platforms.  HUGE's newly-launched 'joint venture' style business model will see the company establish a long-term partnership with the UK's most creative music publisher.

Part of the EMI Group, EMI Music Publishing owns the copyright on more than one million songs, and has contracts with many of the best songwriters working today including Amy Winehouse, Arctic Monkeys, Kanye West and Take That.  A significant part of its business involves generating revenue from this intellectual property through licensing its use in advertisements, films and television programmes.  The joint venture style partnership with HUGE Entertainment will enable it to expand its income streams through maximising the potential offered by digital platforms such as online, mobile and digital television.

HUGE Entertainment specialises in building digital entertainment services and businesses around brands.  It uses its industry expertise and contacts to facilitate bespoke deals between content owners, producers, digital platforms and advertisers. This enables organisations to take advantage of the significant changes in consumer behaviour brought about by the mass adoption of digital services to create their own income-generating digital offerings.

Jonathan Channon, EVP, Media & Business Development at EMI Music Publishing UK explains:  “The digital landscape provides an infinite number of new possibilities to earn extra revenue and extend the reach of the EMI brand.  But to do this we recognised the need to combine our music industry knowledge with the specific expertise of a specialist player in the digital entertainment arena.  HUGE Entertainment's unique offering fitted our criteria and the company is proving itself to be an excellent 'fit' with our culture.  As such it has become our 'digital innovations unit' – an integral part of the business”.

Mark Bradford, co-founder and executive director at HUGE Entertainment, comments:  “As CD sales continue to decline, it is tempting to be pessimistic about the music industry and regard 'digital disruption' as a threat to its future.  However, because of its creative culture, EMI Music Publishing has recognised that digital channels enable it to extend its distribution networks and therefore offer an opportunity to introduce new services that provide additional revenue streams.”

Channon concludes: “The new digital entertainment services created by the synergy between EMI Music Publishing and HUGE Entertainment is also good news for brands and consumers.  They will be able to enjoy an increasing number of music-based offerings, and choose whether they want to access them on their mobile phone, their computer or via television.”

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Notes to editors

About HUGE Entertainment:

HUGE Entertainment helps companies and brands find new and profitable ways of connecting with their audiences, using digital entertainment. The company specialises in building digital entertainment and services around brands.

The company delivers successful marketing projects for its clients, across a wide range of digital platforms – from mobile to TV video-on-demand. HUGE Entertainment brokers bespoke relationships between partners, including producers, advertisers and content owners, to help clients grow their businesses and brands.  Established in October 2006, HUGE Entertainment is one of nine businesses that form part of the Engine Group.

About EMI Music Publishing

EMI Music Publishing is the world's most creative music publisher with more than one million copyrights including some of the best known songs ever written, including “New York New York”, “You’ve Got A Friend”, “Lady Marmalade”, “Always On My Mind”, “Three Times A Lady”, “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” and “Singin’ In the Rain”.. Its current hit-making writers and producers include Arctic Monkeys, Natasha Bedingfield, James Blunt, Cathy Dennis, Gorillaz, Calvin Harris and My Chemical Romance.

Media contacts:

Publicite Limited

Katrina Walker/Kate Alexander

Tel: 020 8543 6582; 07809 028711 (Katrina); 07788 584413 (Kate)

Email: k.walker@publicite.co.uk

Dylan Jones

EMI Music Publishing

Tel: +1 212 492 1230

Email: djones@emimusicpub.com

Charles Burdick has been appointed a non-executive director to the Board of HUGE Entertainment, www.hugeentertainment.co.uk, a digital entertainment company that specialises in building digital entertainment services and businesses around brands.

Burdick will support the international expansion of HUGE Entertainment’s client base within the TMT sector. He will also provide investment advice to HUGE Entertainment as the business increasingly looks to partner with media companies to launch next generation digital entertainment businesses.

Burdick has an extensive background in telecommunications and media, with over 25 years experience in the industry. Until July 2005, he was Chief Executive Officer of HIT Entertainment plc, a publicly listed provider of pre-school children's entertainment. From 1996 to 2004, he worked for Telewest Communications serving as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Executive Officer. Burdick has also held senior finance roles with Time Warner, US WEST and MediaOne.

HUGE Entertainment is one of nine businesses that form part of the Engine Group, one of the UK's fastest growing integrated communications groups and the largest privately owned marketing services group in the UK. 

Commenting on the appointment, Mark Bradford, co-founder and director of HUGE Entertainment, said: “I am delighted that Charles has agreed to join the board of HUGE Entertainment as our first non-executive director. Charles will provide us with invaluable counsel based on his wealth of experience in the TMT sector as we seek to grow the international reach of our business and launch new digital entertainment services and businesses in partnership with our clients.”

Charles Burdick added: “In the fast changing world of how companies connect with their customers, HUGE Entertainment and the Engine Group have shown an innovative understanding of how to harness the power of digital entertainment, and I am thrilled to be part of HUGE Entertainment’s next stage of growth.”

In line with his non-executive role for HUGE Entertainment, Burdick currently holds a number of other non-executive board positions, including: CTC Media, Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander, Comverse Technologies and QXL Ricardo plc.

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Notes to editors

About HUGE Entertainment:

HUGE Entertainment helps companies and brands find new and profitable ways of connecting with their audiences, using digital entertainment. The company specialises in building digital entertainment and services around brands.

The company delivers successful marketing projects for its clients, across a wide range of digital platforms – from mobile to TV video-on-demand.

HUGE Entertainment brokers bespoke relationships between partners, including producers, advertisers and content owners, to help clients grow their businesses and brands.

Established in October 2006, HUGE Entertainment is one of nine businesses that form part of the Engine Group.

Media contacts:

Interviews, photography and customer case study available on request. Please contact Publicite at:

Publicite Limited

Katrina Walker/Kate Alexander

Tel: 020 8543 6582; 07809 028711 (Katrina); 07788 584413 (Kate)

Email: k.walker@publicite.co.uk

HUGE Entertainment, www.hugeentertainment.co.uk, a digital entertainment company that specialises in building digital entertainment services and businesses around brands, is pioneering a new business model. The ‘joint venture’ approach will enable organisations to tap into HUGE’s expertise, and to create long-term partnerships from which both parties can extract revenue.

Today, media companies increasingly want to take advantage of emerging digital platforms and technology to extend the distribution networks for their content and services. HUGE has responded by launching a low-risk, revenue-generating business model, which focuses on using digital entertainment to reach and engage clients’ target audiences across the fragmented media market place.

HUGE Entertainment’s digital practitioners have significant ‘hands on’ experience in designing and launching cross-platform digital entertainment businesses, enabling the team to create unique and bespoke deals between content owners, producers, digital platforms and advertisers.

Mark Bradford, co-founder and executive director at HUGE Entertainment, commented: “Today's market is seeing constant 'digital disruptions' – that is, significant changes in consumer behaviour brought about by the mass adoption of digital devices. But rather than regarding this upsetting of the status quo as threatening, the HUGE approach creates value from it, therefore turning it into an opportunity.

“Many media businesses are keen to develop new revenue streams from emerging media and technology, but lack the skills and resource in-house to explore these opportunities. As a result, they are keen to venture with us to identify and pursue opportunities in this space and share in the revenues we generate.”

HUGE Entertainment is one of nine businesses that form part of the Engine Group, one of the UK's fastest growing integrated communications groups and the largest privately owned marketing services group in the UK. 

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Notes to editors

About HUGE Entertainment:

HUGE Entertainment helps companies and brands find new and profitable ways of connecting with their audiences, using digital entertainment. The company specialises in building digital entertainment and services around brands.

The company delivers successful marketing projects for its clients, across a wide range of digital platforms – from mobile to TV video-on-demand.

HUGE Entertainment brokers bespoke relationships between partners, including producers, advertisers and content owners, to help clients grow their businesses and brands.

Established in October 2006, HUGE Entertainment is one of nine businesses that form part of the Engine Group.

Media contacts:

Publicite Limited<p>

Katrina Walker/Kate Alexander<p>

Tel: 020 8543 6582; 07809 028711 (Katrina); 07788 584413 (Kate)<p>

Email: k.walker@publicite.co.uk