Virgin Media could lose ITV programmes in long-running dispute

Virgin Media's 4 million pay-TV customers face losing hit ITV shows including Coronation Street and Love Island as a longstanding dispute with the broadcaster comes to a head. ITV is understood to have written to Virgin Media warning that it could remove its channels as soon as this weekend if an agreement cannot be reached. Virgin Media and ITV have been in protracted and at times tense talks over a range of issues including the carriage of ITV, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4, video-on-demand rights and guarantees of the prominence of its programming, as cable viewers increasingly watch programmes on demand from Netflix, Amazon and broadcasters' own streaming services. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

Plotting the future of history on TV

www.bbc.co.uk

Carolyn McCall triggers ITV overhaul to take fight to US streaming giants

ITV boss Carolyn McCall on Wednesday pressed the button on her shake-up of the broadcaster as she looks to take on the likes of Netflix and Amazon. Total revenues from Studios, its production arm, increased by 16 from 692 million to 803 million. - www.standard.co.uk

www.standard.co.uk

Comcast turns focus to Sky after exiting battle for 21st Century Fox

Comcast has pulled out of its pursuit of 21st Century Fox, turning its focus to trumping Rupert Murdoch's attempt to take full control of Sky. With Comcast out of the Fox hunt, it is not clear if Disney will decide it needs to also own the 61 of Sky not already owned by Murdoch's company. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

Privacy, liberty and Cliff Richard

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Ofcom warns broadcasters could go the way of high street retailers

So fascinating, but what has clearly unsettled Ofcom is the squeeze this is putting on public service broadcasters. The remedies may include obliging the manufacturers of Smart TVs to promote the content made by public service broadcasters on their homepages in the way they are required to in France. - www.itv.com

www.itv.com

Netflix and Amazon become more popular than pay-TV services

Britain's growing appetite for services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime has seen the number of subscribers to streaming services overtake those signed up to pay-TV providers such as Sky, BT and Virgin Media for the first time. Within this, subscription on-demand revenues - mainly viewers paying for Netflix and Amazon - leapt by 38 to almost 900m. Growth has been explosive in 2012, the year Netflix launched in the UK, subscription on-demand revenues were just 52m. While Netflix and Amazon spend more than 10bn annually on content, with a significant proportion on original content such as Stranger Things, the Ofcom report found that spending by the UK's main free-to-air channels on homegrown shows hit a 20-year low the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 spent 2.5bn on UK-made shows last year, a 28 fall on the peak of 3.4bn in 2004. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

Media Masters - Carla Buzasi

www.buzzsprout.com

Sarah Sands, Eddie Mair leaves PM, Ed 'Death Metal' Miliband returns

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Committee of Public Accounts

Balancing the tensions between commercial and public purpose objectives. List of Reports from the Committee during the current Parliament. - publications.parliament.uk

publications.parliament.uk

Paramount Network UK – is a line-up of axed shows and standard definition movies really what 2018's audience is looking

A new free to air channel from one of the world's largest names in entertainment should be something to get get excited about, but the UK launch of the Paramount Network is sadly a pretty damp squib. Available to Freeview, YouView and Sky viewers, the channel arrived earlier this week with a measly standard definition-only version and a schedule littered with shows that have already been axed or ended. - www.seenit.co.uk

www.seenit.co.uk

Introducing the first version of BBC Sounds

Today we're releasing the first version of a brand new audio app from the BBC. Available to download for free from Apple, Google and Amazon app stores from later today, BBC Sounds brings together our live and on demand radio, music and podcasts into a single personalised app. Every user's experience of BBC Sounds will be unique as it's designed to learn from your listening habits, providing one-tap access to the latest episodes of your favourite BBC podcasts and radio shows and introducing you to new audio you wouldn't otherwise have discovered from the 80,000 hours available. - www.bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

BBC in talks with Channel 4 to launch £500m bid for UKTV

The BBC is in talks with Channel 4 tomount a 500m bid to take control of UKTV , which broadcasts channels including Dave and Gold. BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, wants control of UKTV because it is the biggest driver of its profits and source of funds it funnels back to the licence fee-funded BBC each year. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

Winter Hill fire could disrupt radio services – RadioToday

Radio stations in the North West of England have been put on alert that their services may be disrupted due to the fire on Winter Hill. It carries regional and local FM radio services for Heart on 105.4, Smooth on 100.4, Rock FM on 97.4 and BBC Radio Lancashire on 103.9 FM along with all of the BBC's national services on FM - Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 3 and Radio 4. - radiotoday.co.uk

radiotoday.co.uk

BBC Sounds: the broadcaster is ditching its iPlayer Radio app for the podcast age

The live radio section has retained the virtual tuning dial used in the iPlayer Radio app - a feature that was well loved by users. After the release of Sounds, the app will run in parallel with iPlayer Radio for a few months while it acquires more features and the existing users move over, before iPlayer Radio is then shut down completely. - www.wired.co.uk

www.wired.co.uk

Covering Corby, My Dream Dinner Party, News for Millennials

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BBC must 'change faster' to compete with global players, says Purnell – TBI Vision

The BBC has also shared its live-streaming technology with the Manchester International Festival and sports bodies like British Swimming. On the radio front, Purnell said that the BBC's regulatory obligations to meet quotas for the number of hours of genres broadcast on its radio networks should be scrapped in favour of 'impact'-based regulation. - tbivision.com

tbivision.com

Media Masters - Les Hinton

www.buzzsprout.com

Guy North to step down as Freeview boss

Guy North is to step down as managing director of Freeview in October. North will continue to lead Freeview until October 2018. - www.broadbandtvnews.com

www.broadbandtvnews.com

The Media Show Revolutions: News

www.bbc.co.uk

Freeview retune in Norfolk has left people tearing their hair out

MORE Freeview viewers in Norfolk describe signal loss as 'very annoying'. MORE Freeview viewers in Norfolk and north Suffolk advised to retune. - www.edp24.co.uk

www.edp24.co.uk

BBC wants to work closer with Commercial Radio – RadioToday

The BBC has since told RadioToday it will continue striving for bigger audiences but confirms fighting over the share of a cake which is not getting any bigger will not serve any of the broadcasters well. We have the strength of BBC Radio - the best in the world, and a way into the lives of 7 out of 10 people in the UK every week. - radiotoday.co.uk

radiotoday.co.uk

BBC staff accept new pay deal after two years of negotiations

As a result BBC will staff benefit from a backdated pay deal under which wages rise by 2 in 2017/18, 2 in 2018/19 and at least 2.5 in 2019/20. Union leaders say the deal includes an increase in the BBC minimum salary from 15,687 to 20,000 as of August, increased sick pay and wellbeing arrangements, and a simpler, more transparent pay structure. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

Broadcasters agree £125m Freeview deal to combat Netflix threat

The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 have agreed a new deal to invest in Freeview, the free digital television service, in response to sweeping changes in audience behaviour and competition from streaming operators such as Netflix and Amazon. The three broadcasters, together with Arqiva, which owns and operates the national transmitter network, have sealed a £125m, five-year deal to develop new services for Freeview, including an app that will allow viewers to watch programming from the broadcasters live and on demand. Proponents of public service broadcasting hope the investment will lead to more collaboration between channels, including a Netflix-style service that aggregates all available content from the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. Pressure is building on the three organisations to work more closely together in the face of competition from Netflix and Amazon, which have vastly greater spending power. Sharon White, chief executive of Ofcom, the UK’s media regulator, recently called on them to “collaborate to compete”. When competitors like Netflix are spending $8bn a year on content and $1bn a year on engineering, we need to think about what is good for the consumer and the creative industries Carolyn McCall and Alex Mahon, the new chief executives of ITV and Channel 4, have also talked of the need to join forces in an increasingly competitive marketplace. “When competitors like Netflix are spending $8bn a year on content and $1bn a year on engineering, we need to think about what is good for the consumer and the creative industries, and where we should work together to make sure those values of public service broadcasting are best served in the UK,” said Ms Mahon recently. Channel 4 also is working with the BBC to lobby for the prominence of public service broadcasting content in the user interfaces and programme guides of new streaming services. “This new commitment from our shareholders is a major boost for UK viewers,” said Jonathan Thompson, chief executive of Digital UK, which runs the Freeview platform. Further collaboration between the broadcasters would “safeguard free-to-view TV” and “reinvent it for a new age of viewing”. As viewers “cut the cord” and cancel pricey pay-TV subscriptions, free-to-air terrestrial television has become increasingly important, with viewers taking Freeview alongside a subscription to Amazon or Netflix. Today, more than 11m homes use free-to-air terrestrial services — 1m more than in early 2016, according to BARB, the standard for TV measurement in the UK. - www.ft.com

www.ft.com