Michael Crick: Is Lambert angling to move from CBI to BBC?

Was Sir Richard Lambert's speech on Monday something of a job application It must have come as something as a surprise kick-in-the-teeth to ministers, as previously they regarded the CBI boss as being on their side. The question of who becomes BBC Chairman is a subtle game. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Sky 3 to relaunch as Pick TV | News | Broadcast

It takes just 2 minutes and offers full, instant access to the Broadcast website along with a copy of the magazine delivered every week. - broadcastnow.co.uk

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

ACS:Law ceases claims against illegal filesharers | Technology | guardian.co.uk

ACSLaw says it will no longer be chasing alleged copyright infringers. Andrew Crossley, the founder and lead solicitor at ACSLaw, announced in a statement to the patents county court in London yesterday afternoon that his firm would no longer be chasing alleged copyright infringers. The Solicitors Regulation Authority is currently investigating its practices as hundreds of the accused claim to have been wrongly identified. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

News Corp lays ground for judicial review of BSkyB verdict | Media | guardian.co.uk

News Corp branded Ofcom 'one sided' in its submission to culture secretary Jeremy Hunt. In fact, on 7 January Ofcom fully disclosed all relevant communication between Ofcom and BIS in a freedom of information response. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

Can News Corp salvage the Sky takeover?

News Corporation has a couple of weeks or so to come up with a scheme to overcome the objection raised by Ofcom that the full takeover of BSkyB would reduce the number of providers of news and current affairs services to an unacceptable extent. To be clear, selling Sky News would not be easy, because it is a consumer of cash, not a profit centre. Finding a buyer with deep enough pockets to guarantee that Sky News could thrive in the long term would be quite a challenge. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

BRITISH SKY BROADCASTING GROUP PLC (BSY.L) Key Developments | Reuters.com

Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests. - reuters.com

www.reuters.com

Sky takeover bid decision delayed by Hunt - Business News, Business - The Independent

In the wake of findings from media regulator Ofcom, Mr Hunt said the proposed takeover might be against the public interest in media plurality and he was minded to refer it to the Competition Commission. If the undertakings are accepted, a 15-day consultation period will commence, when parties will be able to express their views. News Corporation said it believed Ofcom's analysis to be deficient in a number of ways and added that the level of plurality in the UK has increased since 2003, when the Communications Act was enacted. - independent.co.uk

www.independent.co.uk

Arqiva seeks investment partner for SeeSaw

Arqiva has announced that it is seeking an investment partner for its online TV service SeeSaw, following a strategic review. The move comes after a major reorganisation of Arqivas business units, announced last October. Weve been looking at SeeSaw as part of a wider strategic review and, following the success in launching a pioneering new service to both consumers and advertisers, we now believe the service needs further investment to reach its full potential. - dtg.org.uk

www.dtg.org.uk

Hunt to give update on News Corp BSkyB merger

In this letter I explained that I was minded to refer the case to the Competition Commission but that I would receive written, and if necessary oral, representations from them if they wanted to challenge my thinking. On 10 January I met with Ofcom to seek clarification on a number of aspects of their report. After considering these responses and consistent with section 104 of the Enterprise Act 2002 I therefore met again with News Corporation on 20 January to hear representations on the issues they highlighted. - dtg.org.uk

www.dtg.org.uk

Non-confidential version of BSkyB Submission dated 14 January 2011 [pdf]

- culture.gov.uk

www.culture.gov.uk

Government favours News Corp/BSkyB probe

C21Media.net is Everything about content in the 21st Century, from television to web, mobile, tablet and beyond. - c21media.net

www.c21media.net

Hunt plans competition probe over Sky bid | News | Broadcast

It takes just 2 minutes and offers full, instant access to the Broadcast website along with a copy of the magazine delivered every week. - broadcastnow.co.uk

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

News Corps BSkyB bid: Hunt delays referral decision | Media | guardian.co.uk

It is understood that News Corp's undertakings relate to editorial guarantees for Sky News. However, if Hunt decides to accept News Corp's undertakings and put the proposal out to a 15-day consultation, it could be a matter of weeks. Hunt had planned to announce whether he was referring the bid to the Competition Commission by the end of the month. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

Politics live blog - Tuesday 25 January | Politics | guardian.co.uk

Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary, has said that he is going to give News Corporation more time to find a way of making its bid for BSkyB acceptable. On the evidence available, I consider that it may be the case that the merger may operate against the public interest in media plurality. However, before doing so it is right that I consider any undertakings in lieu offered by any merging party which have the potential to prevent or otherwise mitigate the potential threats to media plurality identified in the Ofcom report ... - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

Government plans competition inquiry over BSkyB bid - Channel4 News

A report by media watchdog Ofcom recommended that the proposed deal should be investigated further by the Commission. It also called on the government to review the law on media ownership generally. If the undertakings are accepted, a 15- day consultation period will commence when parties will be able to express their views. - channel4.com

www.channel4.com

For all its neuroses, the BBC should have self-confidence | Polly Toynbee | Comment is free | The Guardian

How they detest it, not just for particular faults, but because its very existence is an affront to everything they believe about markets. The sight of a sour old BBC presenter of yesteryear plugging his memoirs in the Daily Mail and attacking the hand that fed him rather well for 20 years might on an ordinary day not be worth noting. You might think that now the government has lopped off a great chunk of BBC revenue, it would go away. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

Ofcom | Public Interest Test

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stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk

What kind of programmes are available on BBC iPlayer?

If you are searching for a specific programme then please head to the BBC iPlayer homepage and use the search there to find the programme you are after. It may be that the programme has been delayed, or you can try entering a different search word or browsing the categories. In addition, certain programming can be subject to restrictions Films and sport To offer programmes on BBC iPlayer, we have to acquire the relevant rights from the people who make and appear in them. - iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk

iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk

Why 3D doesnt work and never will. Case closed. - Roger Eberts Journal

The 3D image is dark, as you mentioned about a camera stop darker and small. So 3D films require us to focus at one distance and converge at another. If we look at the salt shaker on the table, close to us, we focus at six feet and our eyeballs converge tilt in at six feet. - blogs.suntimes.com

blogs.suntimes.com

Secret film embarrases Currys and Comet - January - 2011 - Which? News

If you're not a member, subscribe to Which magazine now to try three issues for just 3. Comet and Currys did badly Not one visit to electrical giants Comet and Currys could be rated as excellent, so we went on follow-up visits with secret cameras to investigate further. There was also evidence in our visits of hard sell tactics - staff steered us towards buying cables we simply didnt need, or towards more expensive cables when cheaper ones would have been just as good. - which.co.uk

www.which.co.uk

We re all Mark Thompson now. Emily Bell(wether)

The BBCs announcement today of its streamlining and focusing of its web strategy, 25 per cent budget cuts, the loss of 360 jobs, cannot have been a surprise to anyone, least of all its most ardent competitors. The out of control growth of the BBCs websites has often been posited as a commercial market impact problem for commercial rivals, but it is more of an editorial challenge than a regulatory one. After all, it is not clear exactly what the market is for it to impact. - emilybellwether.wordpress.com

emilybellwether.wordpress.com

Cameron-Murdoch meeting will not affect BSkyB decision, says No 10 | Media | guardian.co.uk

Rupert Murdoch with his son James, who had dinner with David Cameron over the Christmas period. The Guardian revealed last week that Cameron had been a guest of Brooks over the Christmas period. A Downing Street source denied last week that the meeting had taken place on Christmas Day, but declined to confirm or deny whether the prime minister had met Brooks over the Christmas period. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

The BBC Radio Blog: Surround sound for streaming radio - the challenges

Simon Tuff, a senior engineer at the BBC, takes up the technological challenges being met in producing surround sound for online audio. Alan Ogilvie in the first surround sound blog post talked about some of the challenges we face when delivering surround sound online as well as some of the changes that make this increasingly feasible. In this second part I'll look at what broadcasters like the BBC are doing to create surround sound content for you to enjoy as well as some of the challenges this has created - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Radio leaves the BBC iPlayer, and more - James Cridland

A large amount of tweets appeared after this announcement, unnecessarily worried and it even made Erik Huggers come out of Twitter retirement and post his first tweet for three months Audiences will still discover both live and ondemand audio in iPlayer. We will however build a new dedicated product for Radio and Music which looks a little confusing to me is it coming out, or staying in. BBC radio is mostly consumed live online 74 is live, rather than the 13 of TV viewing. - james.cridland.net

james.cridland.net

Murdoch employs BP strategy

It goes like this company suffers a disaster company offers comprehensive financial settlement to victims of the disaster company admits to its own shortcomings, but implies that an entire industry has also engaged in similar flawed practices. That broadly describes the response of BP to the appalling oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Once they have the details, they will offer settlements to those celebs, politicians and others whose privacy may have been invaded - to cut out the requirement for huge lawyers' fees. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

AirCast Red Button TV Information System Launched - UK Broadcast Film and Television News

AirCast is a new information system that enables hoteliers to distribute information to their guests via one or more interactive TV channels dedicated to hotel-specific information. As AirCast is truly interactive, guests can quickly and easily access the information they want, when they want. The information that can be made available to guests via the TV is wide-ranging, including live feeds - such as News, Sports and Weather - together with standard hotel information and current promotions. - 4rfv.co.uk

www.4rfv.co.uk

Local TV: a picture at last, but still poor reception | Steve Hewlett | Media | The Guardian

We've moved a long way from his initial ideas for a network of 80 local stations across the UK. His own inquiry, chaired by the investment banker Nicholas Shott and set up to examine the prospects for commercially sustainable local TV, put paid to that. Other things could be possible in future but that would depend on the availability of fast broadband to provide low-cost distribution. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

The new BBC Broadcasting House: So what does 1bn buy? | Art and design | The Guardian

I am standing in the News Room of the BBC's gleaming and much-talked-about new building. With its vast pillars, spiralling staircases, and towering lift shafts painted red and orange, this cavernous, boldly modern space seems more like a submarine dock, the sort of place you might expect a James Bond shoot-out to take place, rather than somewhere for Huw Edwards to calmly read the news. The News Room may take up most of the basement and ground floor of the main wing of the 1bn new addition to Broadcasting House, but it is a surprisingly bright space, thanks to thefact that its glass ceiling is all but invisible, vanishing into the crevice-like atrium. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

YouView: mixed signals on new television platform

YouView will be different. One of the main criticisms of YouView from manufacturers and other platform operators is that YouView seeks to specify and control the user interface. However, the director general of the BBC observed that The user-experience and search and navigation environment will not unfairly exclude or favour some content players. He said anyone who meets the standard will be able to build YouView boxes, TVs and other devices which will encourage genuine competition in the consumer electronics market, just as it will in content and in the provision of broadband services and and encourage new entrants and new investment. - informitv.com

informitv.com

Freeview viewers face retune as Dover transmitters changes signal

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www.kentnews.co.uk

The Andy Coulson affair raises the question who runs Britain? | Jackie Ashley | Comment is free | The Guardian

Westminster stories have a simple arc the scandal the uncovering therefusal to resign the resignation and closure. Sometimes the period from the first intimation of scandal to the resignation can be a matter of hours. So the Andy Coulson story seems on the surface to have a typical shape. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

Stephen Glover: Does Cameron dare to disappoint Murdoch? - Stephen Glover, Opinion - The Independent

The most interesting question arising from Andy Coulson's resignation is whether it puts the Prime Minister in a better place. One or two have even speculated that David Cameron was happy to see his spin doctor go because he was generating so much unfavourable publicity for No 10. If Mr Coulson did end up in court, and were to be convicted, the uproar against Mr Cameron would know no bounds. - independent.co.uk

www.independent.co.uk

MPs to quiz candidate for role of BBC Trust chair | Media | The Guardian

Jeremy Hunt has rejected a Labour proposal that the last two shortlisted candidates for the BBC Trust role should be interviewed by parliament. Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt wrote to his Labour shadow, Ivan Lewis, saying it was appropriate that the candidate appear before the culture, media and sport select committee before they were confirmed in the job. Former education secretary Ed Balls caused a political furore when he overruled the education select committee in October 2009 after it said Maggie Atkinson should not be appointed children's commissioner. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

Making the new BBC One HD trailer

The BBC likes to throw out challenges, and the wheel stopped on this one for me and the marketing team I work with. The BBC One part was the easy bit. BBC One is the place that brings people together to watch an incredibly rich and diverse range of programmes. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Get DAB radio on your mobile phone - January - 2011 - Which? News

The headset includes earphones and will enable users to listen to DABradio stations like Radio 5 Live Sports on the move and see station, artist and track information on the screen of their phone. Key criteria must be met before an FMto DAB radio switchover can take place. One of the key triggers is that 50 of all radio listening must be on a digital platform. This brings a switchover date within easier reach than if the digital listening figure was based on DABalone. - which.co.uk

www.which.co.uk

Nokia gives away DAB headset

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radiotoday.co.uk

Viewers could wait until 2012 for YouView launch - January - 2011 - Which? News

A senior YouView executive is quoted by the Daily Telegraph as saying It just doesn't work when you turn it on and keeps crashing. We will understand our launch position better by the end of March 2011. The YouView project is expected to cost a total of 115 million, shared across its partners, and the BBC is predicted to have spent six million pounds on the project to the end of April 2011. - which.co.uk

www.which.co.uk

Digital switchover in Harpenden and Wheathampstead From St Albans Harpenden Review)

The existing analogue television is being turned off and to keep a service residents will need to convert their TVs to digital before the switchover date. Satellite and cable services such as Sky, Freesat and Virgin Media are not affected by switchover. Residents can check when they will be affected on the website for Digital UK, the organisation leading switchover in the UK at www.digitaluk.co.uk/home or by calling the helpline number 08456 505 050. - stalbansreview.co.uk

www.stalbansreview.co.uk

Can Hunt do a deal with Murdoch to meet Ofcoms concerns?

Today I think Mr Hunt is doing just that - or at least over the past few days a number of informed sources have told me that is what Mr Hunt is doing. As I revealed in a post earlier this month, Ofcom has made a clear recommendation to Mr Hunt that the proposed takeover should be referred to the Competition Commission for further scrutiny, because of the potential damage to plurality or media choice for citizens, especially in the provision of news. They insist there is nothing strange in Mr Hunt's failure yet to publish Ofcom's report - which he received on the last day of 2010 - or to say how he will respond to its recommendation. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Landmark arts series Civilisation in HD

The critically acclaimed 13-part series was first shown on BBC Two in 1969 and swiftly became one of the most important arts series of its time. Last shown in its entirety on the BBC in 2005, the repeat is part of the BBC's wider commitment to the arts through showcasing the jewels of its arts archive to new audiences and providing the biggest depth and range of original arts programming. The series was originally shot on 35mm film to ensure the highest possible quality, which has enabled it to be remastered for HD. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Time to switch on local TV? | Comment | Broadcast

20 January, 2011 By Lisa Campbell Jeremy Hunts plan is laudable, but lessons must be learned from radio. It takes just 2 minutes and offers full, instant access to the Broadcast website along with a copy of the magazine delivered every week. - broadcastnow.co.uk

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Sky boosts development budget 160%

C21Media.net is Everything about content in the 21st Century, from television to web, mobile, tablet and beyond. - c21media.net

www.c21media.net

BBC News - Rural UK could get cheaper broadband under Ofcom plans

20 January 2011 Last updated at 0937 ET Rural parts of the UK could be set for cheaper broadband under plans set out by the communications regulator. Ofcom wants BT to reduce its wholesale charges by between 10.75 and 14.75 below the RPI measure of inflation. It is mainly in rural areas where BT is the only provider of wholesale broadband services. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

YouView risks becoming obsolete as launch further delayed until 2012 - Telegraph

YouView, the BBC-backed internet connected set top box, which will offer viewers a programme guide that goes seven days back in time, was due to launch by July of this year. However, according to insiders, YouView, which was originally meant to go on sale in 2010, will be lucky to get off the ground before the 2012 London Olympics, having failed to agree technical standards with a key TV industry body and function properly when tested. If they can't get it out before the Olympics, which is looking less and less likely, I wouldn't bother. - telegraph.co.uk

www.telegraph.co.uk

Media Talk podcast: Jeremy Hunt unveils his grand plan for local TV

download.guardian.co.uk

BBC remasters Civilisation for HD | Media | guardian.co.uk

Civilisation 'defined a new gold standard for arts programming'. Photograph BBC It was a landmark documentary series that is still discussed in hushed tones today. Now Kenneth Clark's Civilisation, the acclaimed BBC2 series from 1969 that traced the history of western art and philosophy, is to be remastered in high definition for a new generation of television viewers. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

Audiophiles make me laugh. If you visit the What... fscked.co.uk

If you visit the What Hi-fi offices, do you think their computers use these cables to connect to their proofing printers, so they can get better midrange colour saturation and superior high-end vibrance - fscked.co.uk

fscked.co.uk

Richard Lambert and Lord Patten favourites to be BBC Trust chairman | Media | guardian.co.uk

With his media and financial experience on the Bank of England's monetary policy committee, outgoing CBI director general Lambert is seen as a safe pair of hands. He has applied for the job before, after Gavyn Davies resigned in the wake of the Hutton inquiry in 2004. Patten has already been interviewed and the other candidates are due to be seen over the next few days. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

Sky offers private landlords help in making the switchover to digital - RL news

Many private landlords are still unclear about the actions they need to make to prepare for the digital switchover according to research carried out by Sky. Many regions such as the West Country, Wales and Granada have already made the switch with the remainder to follow by 2012. Skys research found that a substantial number of private apartment blocks are still not fully digitally ready. - residentiallandlord.co.uk

www.residentiallandlord.co.uk