Tuesday 27 January 2015, PM
A guide to the Sky v BT Sport Ofcom investigation and Competition Appeal Tribunal Decision
Equally important to the way in which sports content is made available to TV viewers are the various quotOff the pitchquot legal battles that BT Sport and Sky have been fighting, in particular following Ofcom's decision to impose quotMust offerquot obligations on Sky to make available its Sky Sports 1 and 2 channels to other broadcast platforms. Three years later, Ofcom decided that Sky should be forced to make available its core sports channels to competing broadcast platforms, a remedy which has become known as the quotWholesale Must Offerquot or quotWMOquot.3 Ofcom's decision was based on the perceived importance of those channels in enabling pay-TV operators to compete for subscribers with Sky and the fact that, absent regulatory intervention, Sky might not necessarily be incentivised to make them available to its competitors on reasonable commercial terms. - www.lawinsport.com
www.lawinsport.com
BT Mini YouView Box review
BT MINI YOUVIEW BOX SET UP. Size-wise, the BT Mini YouView Box is a small square box that's a little larger than the Apple TV, although still small and discrete enough to tuck neatly out of the way. BT MINI YOUVIEW BOX TV. One of the main uses of the BT Mini YouView Box is for watching TV. Given that this isn't a PVR that may seem a little pointless, doubling up on the features that your TV no-doubt already has. - www.expertreviews.co.uk
www.expertreviews.co.uk
BBC boss Tony Hall questions TV watershed and The Archers
Radio 4 boss Gwyneth Williams recently denied the show had become too sensational, telling Radio 4 quotIf you look back, there have always been extraordinary things going on in The Archers - kidnaps, arsons, all kinds of things. quotA Radio 4 spokesperson saidquotAs Tony Hall says, The Archers is an extraordinary drama and, alongside other long-running shows, evolves with the times. - www.bbc.co.uk
www.bbc.co.ukTuesday 27 January 2015, AM
Catching up with online viewing figures
The most common screen for viewing catch-up services was the television, for 53 of respondents, followed by laptop or desktop computers at 33, with tablets at 22 and smartphones at 10. The report suggests that although young adults were most likely to have watched catch-up services quotThis cohort is turning away from the television as the preferred means of viewing programmesquot. For some reason the BBC does not publish figures for online viewing by duration, but usage of the BBC iPlayer across all platforms can still only amount to one or two per cent of television viewing at most. - informitv.com
informitv.comNetflix accelerates global expansion
Netflix nevertheless faces increasing competition on all fronts, from standalone services and those associated with existing television services, as well as from unauthorised distribution. Cable companies lost television customers, but telco television services continued to make considerable gains. - informitv.cominformitv.comMonday 26 January 2015, AM
Why It's Risky Business for Publishers to Build Their Own CMS
A new wave of publishers running custom software gained traction, while established news organizations continued to embrace open-source technologies. For startup news organizations, the primary way to get the money to build your own platform is venture capital, which is rightly skeptical of news startups regardless of their technology. - www.pbs.org
www.pbs.orgBBC3 bid: 'We're trying to say that there is another way'
What neither the trust nor BBC management acknowledged is that a pound100m windfall, for a channel the BBC plans to close anyway, would be remarkably good value for the public. Total budget, including distribution and overheads, 2013/14 pound109.3m. Content budget pound81 m. Share of linear TV viewing, 2013 1.48. Amount BBC says it can save annually by taking BBC3 online only pound50m. Amount BBC intends to reinvest into BBC1 drama pound30m. Amount bid by Hat Trick and Avalon to buy the BBC3 TV channel pound100m. Annual content budget predicted by Hat Trick and Avalon post-sale pound100m. Annual predicted ad revenue post-sale pound120m to pound150m. Annual predicted profit post-sale pound10m to pound30m.. - www.theguardian.com
www.theguardian.comFriday 23 January 2015, AM
BBC Trust launches consultation on independent production
A review and public consultation has been launched by the BBC Trust looking at the way that BBC programmes and content are supplied to the BBC by either independent production companies or BBC in-house production. At the moment, the Trust requires the BBC to commission at least 10 per cent of radio production from independent suppliers, with a further 10 per cent open to competition between the BBC and independent sector. - radiotoday.co.uk
radiotoday.co.uk
Scotland to get BBC charter renewal role
The UK government has published draft legislation which will hand the Scottish government and parliament a formal role in BBC charter renewal. The legislation, titled Scotland in the United Kingdom: An Enduring Settlement, is expected to make up the Scotland Bill which will pass through parliament following this year’s general election. It is made up of proposals recommended by The Smith Commission, which was established last year to devolve more powers to Holyrood following the Scottish referendum in September.. - www.broadcastnow.co.uk
www.broadcastnow.co.ukThursday 22 January 2015, PM
Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP
Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP, also known as MPEG-DASH, is an adaptive bitrate streaming technique that enables high quality streaming of media content over the Internet delivered from conventional HTTP web servers. Within website DASH can be used via the HTML5 Media Source Extentions and JavaScript-based DASH players. - en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.orgDTG :: News :: DTG's 4k Plugfests turn spotlight on HEVC streams
The DTG's UK UHD Forum has held its second 4k Plugfest with a focus on content streamed in 4k over satellite, IP and DTT to UHD TVs and set-top boxes. quotSimon Gauntlett, chief technology officer at the DTG, saidquotThe DTG would like to thank all the participants and observers who made our second 4k plugfest a busy and productive day. - dtg.org.ukdtg.org.ukRegulation of music in local radio to be reviewed
The radio regulator is wanting opinions from the industry to see if there should be a No change to Formats, b Simplification of the Formats of stations playing quotMainstream popular musicquot or c Ofcom could allow licensees to request to change the music element of their Format to be either Genre led or Audience led. Ofcom has a statutory duty to ensure a range and diversity of local radio services, and at the moment, a wide range of different descriptions are used in radio Formats to specify the selection of music from popular music, to specific genres and the target age range for the service. - radiotoday.co.ukradiotoday.co.ukThursday 22 January 2015, AM
Streaming overtakes radio use for US teens: but UK fares better
quotWhile AM/FM Radio listening leads by a significant margin among all other age groups, much of teens' listening time has shifted to pureplay Internet audio services like Pandora and Spotify and others,quot said Larry Rosin, President of Edison Research. Info from RAJAR, the UK's radio research body - above - give a different picture for the UK. Jerry Hill, CEO of RAJAR, points to the strong presence of the BBC and Radioplayer, as well as a lack of a strong Pandora-like service in the UK. Methods of measurement are different between the two pieces of research and the Edison figures are more recent but the UK has a number of strong national youth radio brands like KISS, Capital and BBC Radio 1, that are without a clear equivalent in the US. Additionally, services like Pandora are unavailable in the UK. Audiomonitor report that consumption via streaming overtook radio for the first time for 15-19s with 22.9 of all audio consumption ocurring on a radio receiver. - media.info
media.infoWednesday 21 January 2015, PM
Media: End of Page 3?; Josie Cunningham's agent; Sir Alan Moses on press freedom.
downloads.bbc.co.ukRunning costs of BBC's London headquarters are triple UK average
quotNAO head Amyas Morse saidquotThe BBC has made good progress in upgrading its estate but it will need to press ahead with its plans to make better use of space to achieve value for money. quotBBC Trust value for money committee chair Nick Prettejohn saidquotThe BBC has reduced the size of the estate by almost a third while at the same time adding new TV channels and radio stations, and modernising its buildings. - www.theguardian.comwww.theguardian.comWednesday 21 January 2015, AM
BBC Trust upholds NSS complaint
21 January 2015 Last updated at 0922 The BBC Trust has upheld a complaint from the National Secular Society about a news item on Asian Network Reports. The Asian Network's head of news, argued that the word 'white' was used to make it clear that the parents objecting to the school were 'not Asian'. - www.bbc.co.ukwww.bbc.co.ukBest digital radios under £100 - Digital radio reviews - Audio - Which? Technology
See all the radios we've tested by reading our latest digital radio reviews. At Which we test digital radios from the big brands you know, like Roberts and Pure, as well as brands you may not have heard of, such as Magicbox and Revo. - www.which.co.uk
www.which.co.ukOur 'impartial' broadcasters have become mouthpieces of the elite
After CBC tried to dismiss the scandal as quotHalf-truths based on anonymous sourcesquot, Kathy Tomlinson, the reporter who had broken the story about the bank, bravely spoke publicly to the website. A study by academics at the Cardiff School of Journalism examined the BBC Today programme's reporting of the bank bailouts in 2008. - www.theguardian.comwww.theguardian.comTuesday 20 January 2015, PM
DAB splits in Herts, Beds, Bucks and Northants
The change means BBC Radio Northampton will be removed from the Herts, Beds and Bucks service whilst BBC Three Counties Radio is removed from the Northamptonshire multiplex. Commercial stations BOB fm and MKFM will no longer be available on DAB in Northants but Adventure Radio's Connect FM and Sunrise Radio will continue to broadcast across both areas. - radiotoday.co.ukradiotoday.co.ukBBC3 'not for sale' says corporation in response to planned bid for channel
The BBC initially declined to comment, but then put out a statement via its press office Twitter feed late on Tuesday morning quotBBC Three not for sale because it's not closing - proposal to move it online is part of bold move to reinvent BBC's offer for young people. Point one stated quotBBC Three is not closing and BBC Three is not for sale. - www.theguardian.comwww.theguardian.comTuesday 20 January 2015, AM
BBC strikes deal with PBS to create factual programmes
The BBC has struck a deal with US public service broadcaster PBS to develop up to 10 factual shows a year, with Sir David Attenborough's Waking Giants one of the first to air. The partnership, struck between the BBC, commercial arm BBC Worldwide and PBS, will see eight to 10 specials created per year, with around 20 hours of programming content. - www.theguardian.comwww.theguardian.comnews conferences streamed live
It's Democracy Day at the BBC, where the corporation will stream live coverage of its biggest morning news meetings, including the one chaired by its director of news and current affairs, James Harding. Perhaps it will be bought by these chaps for pound100m instead Want to save BBC3 Vote now Now that really would be a democracy day at the BBC.. - www.theguardian.comwww.theguardian.com
Derbyshire show gets BBC Two slot
19 January 2015 Last updated at 1554 Victoria Derbyshire is to host a new daytime news show that will be simulcast on BBC Two, the News Channel and online. BBC News is also preparing to launch a new breakfast business programme, presented by Ben Thompson and Sally Bundock. - www.bbc.co.ukwww.bbc.co.uk
Anne Mensah: Why Sky's drama supremo worries about her customers, not her viewers
With Sky's commitment to spending pound600m on original content and four channels to fill, Mensah now presides over one of the biggest drama budgets in British television. quotWith Fortitude, I thought that, although Sky dramas have dark moments, we tend not to be grim - our shows have colour and vibrancy. A little blue sky helps. - www.independent.co.uk
www.independent.co.ukDTG :: News :: Ofcom seeks industry views to lay 5G foundations
Known currently as '5G', these future mobile communications could use very high frequency spectrum above 6 GHz, as well as the current mobile spectrum from 800MHz-2.6GHz. According to Ofcom, this could support a variety of uses, ranging from financial trading and entertainment to gaming and holographic projections. The key issue for 5G services is developing the commercial use of the spectrum above 6 GHz without infringing upon the spectrum's current non-commercial uses, from scientific research to satellite broadcasting and weather monitoring. - dtg.org.ukdtg.org.uk
Hat Trick and Avalon to make BBC3 bid
Hat Trick Productions and Avalon Entertainment are to make an audacious bid for BBC3 in an attempt to save it as a TV channel. The two production companies are preparing to team up to buy the corporation’s youth channel and have drawn up proposals to increase its budget from £81m to £100m a year. In a statement, a spokesman for Hat Trick and Avalon said: “Under the new ownership, BBC3 would continue to broadcast on all digital platforms, all current contracts would be honoured and the channel’s programme budget would be increased from £81m to £100m a year.- www.broadcastnow.co.ukwww.broadcastnow.co.ukMonday 19 January 2015, PM
Culture select committee report expected to back axing of BBC Trust
MPs on the Commons culture, media and sport select committee are expected to join the growing chorus calling for the BBC Trust, the corporation's governance and regulatory body chaired by the recently arrived Rona Fairhead, to be scrapped. The committee, chaired by Conservative MP John Whittingdale, is expected to recommend that the trust be abolished in its upcoming report on the future of the BBC. It is understood that committee members have mostly been receptive to an idea for the BBC to be governed instead by a unitary board - a single board of directors comprising executive and non-executive directors, overseen by a single chairman. - www.theguardian.comwww.theguardian.com'The BBC has deep specialism, 50 or 60 years of heritage. Netflix can't buy that'
David Attenborough will start shooting a brand new natural history epic for the BBC in February three months after his latest landmark series, Life Story, came to an end on BBC1. quotIt's a huge scoop, a huge story, we are really excited,quot says Natalie Humphreys, controller of factual and daytime at BBC Production. Big questions remain, not least where the new entity will sit - one option is that it will go alongside BBC Worldwide as part of BBC Commercial Holdings, wholly owned by the BBC - and whether it will retain some sort of guaranteed programme quota, which would be fiercely contested by the independent sector. - www.theguardian.comwww.theguardian.comWoody Allen, House of Cards what's next for the television revolution?
Streaming services have breathed fresh life into all manner of shows, from allowing British comedies such as The Wrong Mans and Peep Show to find a US audience to providing a UK home for everything from bloody epic Vikings to the computer drama Halt and Catch Fire, set in the 80s. quotIn the last five years we've seen a huge change in television,quot says Jane Featherstone, chief executive of Kudos. The new classical music comedy Mozart in the Jungle feels refreshingly different from most other shows on TV. quotI feel as though every good UK TV production company is either in business or going to be in business with Netflix and Amazon,quot says Featherstone. - www.theguardian.comwww.theguardian.comFriday 16 January 2015, PM
Scheduled and VoD can live harmoniously
Reports of the death of linear TV are greatly exaggerated, says Digital UK boss Jonathan Thompson Anyone reading the media business pages will be familiar with the stories declaring the imminent demise of television. Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings got the ball rolling by proclaiming that broadcast TV would be obsolete by 2030. Then Ofcom stated that children are watching half as much linear television as their parents, and that the number of homes with a TV set has fallen for the first time in decades.www.broadcastnow.co.uk
BBC has greater responsibility than other broadcasters to recruit women in news and current affairs, report says
quotAlthough on the surface it appears that women are well represented, the facts tell a different story. We heard, for example, that men interviewed as experts outnumber women 4 to 1 on radio and TV.quot. quotLord Best said working in current affairs posedquotadditional barriers to women - for example, the fast-paced nature of news which can mean anti-social hours, and freelance work that can make it harder for women with caring responsibilities - the situation is simply not good enough. - www.independent.co.ukwww.independent.co.ukBBC uses RIPA terrorism laws to catch TV licence fee dodgers in Northern Ireland
quotA lack of transparency, accountability and oversight of how these powers are used has allowed the use of the powers to reach unacceptable levels. A BBC spokesman said quotLegislation explicitly grants the BBC the right to use these powers to detect unlicensed use of television receivers. We're regularly inspected by independent regulators and have always been open about using this power when there is no other option to help reduce evasion on behalf of the vast majority of the population who pay for their licence. - www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk
www.belfasttelegraph.co.ukThursday 15 January 2015, PM
#21 - Charlie Hebdo coverage, TV Debates, UTV sales - The Media Podcast with Olly Mann
feedproxy.google.comWednesday 14 January 2015, PM
Media: Publishing Charlie Hebdo images; Newsbeat's editor; Channel 4's diversity plan
downloads.bbc.co.uk
Hall: Production will not be privatised
He shared two other priorities for the year ahead - to strengthen the BBC's role as a 'trusted meeting place' and to progress plans to personalise the BBC. After a 2014 in which it had brought people together for big events like the World Cup, told stories like the Scottish Referendum to the whole of the UK and attracted four out of every five people to some of its World War One season, the BBC was about to be tested by 'the most unpredictable elections in living memory'. Answering questions on a range of topics, Hall hailed BBC News' use of Charlie Hebdo cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed as 'part of the storytelling' and 'wholly appropriate', believed the BBC was being 'more on the front foot' to combat negative newspaper headlines and agreed there was scope to make more money from commercial sales of BBC programmes. - www.bbc.co.ukwww.bbc.co.uk
Tony Hall: 2015 a high risk year for the BBC
Director general Tony Hall has called on all BBC staff to become â??ambassadorsâ? for the corporation as it faces a â??high riskâ? year which includes the general election and charter renewal. The former Royal Opera House chief executive addressed all staff from the radio theatre at New Broadcasting House on Wednesday afternoon with a rallying cry for the next 12 months. Hall said there is a real danger that the BBC could emerge from post-election charter renewal negotiations â??diminishedâ? or â??stuck in an analogue cul-de-sacâ?. The corporation must make a strong and coherent case to ??keep advancing in the digital age?, he added. ??We live at a time of unparalleled change in media. Never have audiences changed so fast, or global competition changed our environment so radically,? Hall told staff. ??That makes this charter review matter much more than most: we face big choices about the future of public service broadcasting and the BBC. But I am confident that at the end of the process we will emerge stronger, re-energised and with our best days ahead of us. ? www.broadcastnow.co.ukwww.broadcastnow.co.ukTuesday 13 January 2015, PM
Are you wasting hundreds on your TV package?
There are 13 HD channels, 58 entertainment channels, 5 children's channels, 7 news channels and a load more regional, local and radio channels. There are 13 channels you won't find on Freeview that you can gain access to for pound6.99 a month, you can get Sky Movies for pound9.99 a month or grab the latest football games with all seven Sky Sports Channels for pound6.99 - alternatively, there's currently a deal letting you see a single game, or a week, for one-off fees. - www.mirror.co.uk
www.mirror.co.ukMonday 12 January 2015, PM
High Dynamic Range on display at CES
With respect to images, high dynamic range refers to representing a greater span of luminance levels to accommodate wider differences between the darkest and the brightest areas of a scene. All the major manufacturers seem to have some version of HDR. Seen side by side, HDR displays deliver visibly improved images, which it is difficult to illustrate in a comparative image. - informitv.cominformitv.comCharlie Hebdo coverage provides huge ratings boost for TV news channels
BBC News had the biggest audience of any news channel bulletin with 932,000 viewers at 4pm, up 696 on average. BBC1's late bulletin had around three times the audience of ITV's News at Ten, which had 1.8 million viewers on Thursday and 2.2 million viewers on Friday. - www.theguardian.comwww.theguardian.comSunday 11 January 2015, AM
A Rare Look Inside The Sausage Factory Of Media Consolidation
UBS estimated Sony's television and movie business had revenues of 8.4 billion, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization of 752 million, and a multiple - meaning the ratio between a company's per share earnings and its overall value and a measure of investor's estimate of growth of future revenues - of 8X. The new company with AMC would have revenues of 10.7 billion, EBITDA of 1.47 billion and a new multiple of 10.5X. Sony Pictures, the bankers estimate, is worth 10 billion, and the two companies together would have an enterprise value of 18.5 billion. The leaked emails show that Sony executives, including Lynton and Sony Television chief Steve Mosko, have relationships with AMC CEO Josh Sapan and have discussed deals with the companies in the past. - www.buzzfeed.com
www.buzzfeed.comSaturday 10 January 2015, PM
Blinkbox name to be ditched, TalkTalk to take on Netflix under own brand
TalkTalk has revealed that it plans to jetison the Blinkbox name now that it has bought the movie and TV show streaming service from Tesco. As we previously revealed in our news story about the acquisition, TalkTalk also plans to exploit Blinkbox's smart streaming technology. - www.pocket-lint.comwww.pocket-lint.comFriday 09 January 2015, PM
No ban on depictions of prophet Mohamed as BBC changes guidelines
A BBC spokesman said quotThis guidance is old, out of date and does not reflect the BBC's long-standing position that programme makers have freedom to exercise their editorial judgement with the Editorial Policy team available to provide advice around sensitive issues on a case by case basis. The guidance is currently being revised. The BBC had shown a brief image of a Charlie Hebdo cover, featuring an illustration of the Prophet, during its news coverage of the attacks. - www.independent.co.ukwww.independent.co.ukFriday 09 January 2015, AM
Absolute Radio goes mono on DAB
Bauer's decision to reduce Absolute Radio to 80 kbps mono has sparked an interesting debate about DAB sound quality and the radio stereo listening experience. Absolute Radio is not available nationally on FM and is still a better experience at 80kbps on National DAB than on MW. Absolute Radio is available at 112 kbps on London DAB and of course is available online. - media.infomedia.infoLBC News 1152 changes to reflect London
A new year and a new name for LBC's sister station LBC News 1152 - to LBC London News. Global says LBC London News offers quotNews, travel and weather in 15 minutes, every 15 minutes. - radiotoday.co.ukradiotoday.co.ukLocal DAB network expansion 2015-16
The document is a non-legally binding Framework Agreement between DCMS, BBC, commercial local DAB multiplex operators, Arqiva and Ofcom, which sets out the commitments of all parties to support the expansion of the local digital radio network to commercial ILR FM equivalence as set out in the local DAB expansion plan developed by Ofcom. The programme of work to build out the local DAB network is scheduled to begin in March 2015 and, when completed, will extend local DAB coverage from around 72 of homes at present to circa 90 of UK households by late 2016. - www.gov.ukwww.gov.ukThursday 08 January 2015, PM
Netflix: VPN crackdown claims 'false', says executive
Netflix said its existing policy against the use of VPNs to circumvent geographical content barriers remained unchanged. A spokesman told the BBC that the firm used industry standard technology to stop users doing so and that, contrary to the reports, it had not recently changed the way it did that. - www.bbc.co.ukwww.bbc.co.ukThursday 08 January 2015, AM
Kids Channel Tiny Pop Launches On Freeview - TVWise
- www.tvwise.co.uk
www.tvwise.co.uk
BBC moves up a gear with plans for production arm
The BBC could finalise its radical plans to commercialise its production division as early as March, as the project begins to gather pace The corporation has told external stakeholders that a preferred option for the future BBC Productions could be in place in three months’ time if there are no hitches in getting it signed off by the executive board. Project lead Anna Mallett, the former BBC Studios and Post Production boss, is currently assessing how to unravel in-house from its existing structure. She is working closely with director of television Danny Cohen and Anne Bulford, managing director of finance and operations, on the roadmap, which is at the top of the agenda for the BBC executive board over the coming weeks. The plans will then be submitted to the BBC Trust for formal assessment, although the corporation currently believes a full public value test, which the BBC3 proposals are undergoing, will not be necessary. - www.broadcastnow.co.ukwww.broadcastnow.co.ukWednesday 07 January 2015, PM
Media: Prince Andrew coverage; postponing of Royal doc; Peter Greste retrial; 10 years of FOI.
downloads.bbc.co.ukSteve Hewlett abdicates for BBC's royal documentary inquest
BBC Radio 4's The Media Show will have a guest presenter for its first 2015 outing on Wednesday, with Andrea Catherwood revealing on Twitter that she'd landed the gig. As eagle-eyed readers may summise from Catherwood's tweet, the regular host's absence is not entirely unrelated to the BBC's decision to postpone its TV documentary about royal spin tactics presented by ... Steve Hewlett. - www.theguardian.comwww.theguardian.compick a page