Episode 30 – Phone hacking payouts, RAJARs, falling ITV audience – The Media Podcast with Olly Mann

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DTG :: News :: The DTG congratulates John Whittingdale MP and Ed Vaizey MP on ministerial appointments

John Whittingdale has taken a strong interest in the media industry as chair of the Commons culture, media and sport select committee since 2005. He launched the DTG's Future of Innovation in Television Taskforce report at the DTG Summit 2014. - www.dtg.org.uk

www.dtg.org.uk

RAJAR figures on media.info

Want a quick overview of how a radio station's done Search for a radio station like BBC Radio 2, and instantly see how many weekly listeners it has. Discover what kind of music the station plays, and more information including their website, Twitter and Facebook accounts and who the key personnel are at the station. - media.info

media.info

Apple Wants Local TV in Its Apple TV Service, Which Means Apple TV Could Be Delayed

Industry executives familiar with Apple's plans say the company wants to provide customers in cities around the U.S. with programming from their local broadcast stations. Apple's pitch to TV networks is that it wants its service to have mass appeal - quotThis is supposed to be for 30 million people,quot says one executive who has talked to Apple - and it believes local TV will be part of that. - recode.net

recode.net

Digital radio hits nearly 40% of all listening

Absolute 80s pulled in an average of 1.45 million listeners a week with another 1.25 million tuning into Planet Rock, both owned by Bauer Media, in the first three months of this year, according to Rajar listening figures published on Thursday. Global Radio's Classic FM was up 4.1 year on year to 5.53 million listeners while UTV's TalkSport was up 1.6 to 3.25 million. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

Edinburgh man wins Sky payout after BILLING them £25 an hour for time wasted

'Fobbed off' Mr Swift had two years of frustrations to finally settle his dispute with Sky - who failed to acknowledge he had paid his final bill to Sky and then moved address. Long process Mr Swift's bill included 31 hours and 25 minutes speaking to Sky either on phone or by email, with a further six hours dealing with Mackenzie Hall debt collectors. - www.dailymail.co.uk

www.dailymail.co.uk

South Africa to start digital migration

Transformation Transformation of the media industry, especially the print media in South Africa, was slow, and little had changed since 1994 when Times Media, Naspers, Caxton and Argus were the big four media houses, Muthambi said. quotAs part of finalising this policy, we will also investigate the possibility of pooling government media assets with a view to support the creation of a black-owned media house in the country.quot Community media Deputy Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams said it was important for the government to support community media in order to ensure they were able to sustain themselves. - www.southafrica.info

www.southafrica.info

BBC global audience passes 300 million

The figures, which includes people looking at news content on the BBC's Facebook page and on YouTube for the first time, shows that television has overtaken radio as the most popular platform for BBC international news for the first time. The reach of BBC Global News hit 105 million, with World News TV viewing rising 12 and those turning to BBC.com for news rising 16. quotThe consumption of branded BBC services across TV, radio and digital platforms speaks to the international appetite for premium content across all the genres for which we are best known - primarily news, but increasingly for drama, factual and entertainment,quot said Tim Davie, chief executive of BBC Worldwide. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

Between A Rock And A Hard Place

The latest research shows that 80 of all 15 year olds in the UK have a smartphone, and that on a smartphone streaming music is the 14th most popular activity, and listening to the radio is 33rd. All that time spent playing Candy Crush, checking your mum hasn't embarrassed you on Facebook or just texting the latest emoji's, means time not tuned into a radio station. We have streaming services trying to be radio stations and radio stations evolving online. - www.huffingtonpost.co.uk

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk

BBC weekly global audience over 300m

The new figure includes people using Facebook and YouTube to watch BBC content abroad and those who watch BBC Worldwide channels. The same figures show that the BBC's weekly global news audience has increased by 18m, a rise of 7 since last year, taking it to a record-breaking 283m. Television has overtaken radio as the most popular platform for BBC international news for the first time, with 148m watching via TV as opposed to 133m via radio. - www.bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

but byzantine 'cable bundle' pricing still has me baffled

What really did my head in, and caused me to pull the plug on my cable television was the utterly incomprehensible nature of what's known as the quotCable bundlequot. The only way to get the teasers and discount rates that make cable affordable, relative to its alternatives is if you are a television addict and/or are happy to subscribe to lots of channels just in case there's a show that pops up on one that you might want to watch down the road. None of these television options seemed very attractive, at least on an absolute basis. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

Media: Facebook Instant Articles, Eurovision and UKTV.

downloads.bbc.co.uk

BBC freezes recruitment for digital content director

The BBC has called a temporary halt to its hunt for a digital content director after it failed to uncover the required calibre of candidate and to allow incoming executive Emma Swain to clarify the remit of the role. Applications were received for the role, which was first advertised in November alongside the BBC3 digital controller position, before it was removed from the BBC’s internal list of vacancies later that month.. - www.broadcastnow.co.uk

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

UTV gets extra space for new DAB stations

First Radio Sales will be leaving UTV's London HQ to make extra room for studios for four new stations. UTV Media's COO Scott Taunton said quotIn 2016 UTV will be at the forefront of the biggest expansion in the UK's national radio line-up in a generation. We want to foster a culture of creative excellence and innovation at our national radio business, and the world-class new broadcast centre we're planning to build on London's South Bank will be the first step to achieving that goal. - radiotoday.co.uk

radiotoday.co.uk

HSBC tax scandal: Classic FM and Capital owner Global Radio advised stations not to report story

Peter Oborne resigned from The Telegraph earlier this year Comment The Telegraph only has itself to blame. The Independent has contacted Global Radio for a comment on the situation. - www.independent.co.uk

www.independent.co.uk

Over-The-Top Streaming Video Services To Surge To 330 Million+ Subscribers By 2019

Consumer adoption of streaming video services is surging, according to a new report by Juniper Research out this morning, which finds that subscriber numbers for services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video will grow from 92.1 million in 2014 to 333.2 million global subscriptions by 2019. Dish Network is running an Internet-based streaming TV service called Sling TV. Juniper also says that the spike in consumer adoption of these streaming video services will be led by growth in North America, but will be closely followed by the Far East, as this region, too, will see new services and increasing consumer interest. - techcrunch.com

techcrunch.com

Pay television in the UK and Ireland

The informitv Multiscreen Index now reports there are 18.50 million pay television customers across the four main providers in the United Kingdom and Ireland. TalkTalk added 82,000 video customers for a total of 1.41 million, while BT TV gained 52,000 video customers to reach 1.14 million. - informitv.com

informitv.com

Surveying ultra-high-definition benefits

So why is viewing distance relative to screen size important The designed viewing distance for high-definition television is apparently just over three times the screen height. The optimal 'design viewing distance' is apparently 'the distance at which two adjacent pixels subtend an angle of 1 arc-min at the viewer's eye'. - informitv.com

informitv.com

TV licence loophole exploited by viewers

As a consequence it is not doing everything it can to reduce licence fee evasion such as making iPlayer access - which unlike watching free-to-air broadcast signals can be easily controlled - contingent on owning a TV licence. In the digital age where all online devices have unique addresses and where mobile applications - including the BBC's iPlayer app - identify the devices they send content to - the BBC already has mountains of information it could use to pursue licence fee evaders but chooses not to. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

BBC's Diane Coyle: 'Whittingdale, despite the headlines, is a good choice'

quotShe explainsquotIn the Conservative party there are more people who are ideological about the BBC and would want to pare it backquot, but quotI think the government and John Whittingdale are actually quite pragmatic and recognise among the people who vote for them that the BBC has great popularity. quotIf politicians really stop to think about it they recognise independent scrutiny from the BBC, although it can be uncomfortable, serves them better than anything else. All the research I've ever seen says that people, on the whole, like the BBC and want it to carry on and don't want it interfered withI think grown-up politicians will not be daft enough to ignore what people think about it.quot And she thinks that, quotWhittingdale, despite the headlines, is actually a good choice. He's really well-informed. He's a pragmatic, sensible man. He knows people in the independent sector and around the country. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

John Whittingdale, the horror fan putting the frighteners on the BBC

There is no shortage of evidence that Whittingdale will take a tough line on the BBC, having said last year that the licence fee was quotWorse than the poll taxquot because there was no element of subsidy for the low-paid. More top-slicing is likely and there is the possibility that Whittingdale will revisit the idea, which he backed five years ago, of the BBC paying the pound500m cost of free TV licences for the over-75s. If the axeman cometh, then he does so with a cheery smile and a glint in his eye, a man who once said his favourite Star Trek character was The Borg, quotAn alien species which is very similar to the Whips' office a collective consciousness dedicated to the eradication of all other speciesquot. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

BBC Local Radio closes Late Show for East Midlands

The programme, which broadcasts on BBC Radio Nottingham, Derby, Lincolnshire and Leicester, will have its last edition on May 21st. As of May 24th, East Midlands listeners will join the late show broadcast in the West Midlands, on BBC WM, Coventry Warwickshire, Hereford Worcester, Stoke, and Shropshire. Given the BBC's comparatively large local radio sizes, it's likely that he now reaches more potential listeners across BBC Local Radio than he did on the GWR network. - media.info

media.info