Media release: The audience potential for Australia’s famed Take 40 Chart® has leaped by more than a million following a strategic partnership between mcm entertainment and News Limited’s digital flagship, NEWS.com.au.

The partnership will enable visitors to NEWS.com.au’s entertainment pages to enjoy the latest audio and video music tracks from mcm’s weekly Take 40 Chart, pre-programmed playlists and access to the Take 40 tracks from the past 25 years – all free.

Take 40 content will now be available beyond its own website, signaling a shift in mcm’s digital strategy that takes its high-quality audio and video portfolio across the web in partnership with major media and content companies, who are keen to offer consumers rich streaming content. This will continue to widen mcm’s audience reach, thereby increasing the appeal to advertisers.

NEWS.com.au publisher Sigrid Kirk said: “The Take 40 Australia brand is synonymous with music in this country, with most people growing up listening to the countdown on radio each Sunday. Take 40 is the leading digital streaming music brand in Australia and we are proud to be the only news, information and entertainment site in Australia to offer the music video and audio track functionality to its users.”

At the super bandwidth settings*, the Take 40 Music Player on www.NEWS.com.au offers near-DVD quality videos and significantly higher audio quality than standard iTunes downloads and other rival music sites here and abroad.

mcm’s Digital Sales Manager, Paul Blackburn said: “This is good news for advertisers; with such engaging, rich content and the added reach of News.com.au it means advertising messages will have greater impact and efficiencies. We will be offering unique targeting mechanics via specific artists, genres and themes that will ensure display or TVC placements work harder for the client.”

Simon Joyce, National Sales Director, said the new partnership will dramatically increase the scale of mcm’s digital media offering. “Whether it’s within our own sites or across our growing network of online channels, mcm continues to provide superior quality, targeted advertising environments for our clients.”