Ofcom: very unlikely all local TV channels will succeed

15 September, 2014 By Jake Kanter Ofcom has admitted that it is very unlikely that all local television stations will survive after the Birmingham operator went bust last month. In a progress update marking two years since it first started awarding the broadcasting licences, the media regulator said failure will be part of the ecology of local television. “The nature of awarding licences for a new type of service in a competitive media market means that it is very unlikely that all channels will succeed,” Ofcom said. “This is an inherent feature of the nature of awarding a large number of licences for a new service across very different parts of the UK.” - broadcastnow.co.uk

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BBC2 mockumentary W1A to return in 2015 | Media | theguardian.com

The new four-part series of W1A will begin with a 60-minute episode, followed by three 30-minute ones. W1A claims to operate in a parallel universe to the actual BBC but the first series like Twenty Twelve was notable for coming up with situations in which life imitated art. We cant wait to see what dysfunctional madness lies ahead for Ian Fletcher and colleagues in this sly fiction. To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email mediatheguardian.com or phone 020 3353 3857. - theguardian.com

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Ariel - Is Birmingham back on the BBC map?

15 September 2014 Last updated at 1003 It's been a difficult few years for the BBC in Birmingham. The workforce at the Midlands base was depleted after key factual productions, such as Countryfile, moved to Bristol in 2012 because of Delivering Quality First plans. BBC Birmingham staff also held a strike against the move but it didn't stop programme teams being relocated mainly to Bristol, with a few to Salford, leaving an array of empty desks and low morale among those remaining at the Mailbox. - bbc.co.uk

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Kia joins the "DAB as standard" family

Kia has committed to moving to digital radio as standard across most of its Kia models in the UK. The Kia Soul has been launched with digital radio as standard and the company says other Kia models will be upgraded as soon as possible within the product life-cycle. The Kia Sportage, the brands best-selling car in the UK, will get digital radio when the all-new version is launched this year. - radiotoday.co.uk

radiotoday.co.uk

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/opinion/ian-burrell-idealism-still-exists--in-public-service-broadcasting--as-th

His masterpiece The Civil War, a nine-part epic of more than 11 hours watched by 40 million people in 1990, has left a lasting impression on the national psyche. Series such as Baseball 18.5 hours long and made in 1994 and Jazz 10 episodes, each of two hours, made in 2000 help Americans to understand the role of sport and music in their national culture. Burns is both a symbol of the essential value of non-commercial television and an example of what can be achieved in terms of quality and ambition. - independent.co.uk

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New financial radio station to launch on DAB - media.info

All this might change, with a promised new radio station called Share Radio. - media.info

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If ITV is sold to a foreign mogul, a vital bit of our culture is threatened | Will Hutton | Comment is free | The Observ

Photograph Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images It takes guts for politicians to stand up to powerful business moguls in general, and powerful media moguls in particular. Moguls trade commercial favours for political support, and media moguls have the media power to make their support or lack of it - much more telling. Now the drama is playing itself out in the media industry itself. - theguardian.com

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TV spectrum is under threat | Comment | Broadcast

Broadcast RF’s Nick Fuller calls on Ofcom to safeguard the radio frequencies used by broadcasters As a specialist wireless camera provider to the TV industry, we at Broadcast RF are heavily reliant on the availability of suitable frequencies for our wireless systems. Unfortunately, the section of the frequency spectrum most suited to wireless cameras and mobile links is ideal for a variety of other uses – the most popular being mobile phones. Rising demand inevitably leads to increasing prices as the licencing authority (the UK government) realises there is money to be made from the frequency spectrum. Broadcasters have gradually been squeezed out of the band as the demand for mobile phone spectrum has increased, and the deeper pockets of the phone companies have enabled the acquisition of swathes of spectrum previously reserved for programme-making and special events (PMSE).. - broadcastnow.co.uk

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Could the licence fee double in Scotland? We have no idea, say BBC - Telegraph

The position is directly contradicted by claims the BBC has quietly drawn up reports into the implications of independence. The Guardian has reported Scotland faces a doubling of its licence fee if viewers wish to continue watching and listening to the same programmes. According to sources close to the corporation, preliminary calculations showed the annual licence may need to rise from 145.50 to nearly 300 per household to reflect the cost of running services in Scotland. - telegraph.co.uk

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Freesat and SeaChange to Debut Connected TV Platform at IBC2014 - MarketWatch

To ensure rapid rollout and optimal performance, the platform offers the concept-through-commercialization capabilities of SeaChange Professional Services for customer integration, deployment and post-launch service monitoring and management. Freesat's Freetime UI and applications are proven solutions for a superior experience for television viewers. Freetime is also a key driver of the growth of Freesat in the UK with consumers choosing to purchase Freetime enabled-boxes and smart TVs to access the superior experience this delivers. - marketwatch.com

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Independent Scotland 'faces doubling of BBC licence fee' | Politics | The Guardian

According to sources with close knowledge of the matter, a BBC paper drawn up three years ago compared the total amount Scottish viewers paid towards the licence fee with the value of the services they received from the corporation. It is understood that the figures which suggested raising the annual licence fee paid in Scotland to almost 300 for each household from the current 145.50 were seen by some of the most senior BBC executives under the tenure of the then director general, Mark Thompson. Sources say that one of the most expensive elements is the transmission of radio and television programmes in Scotland due to its more widely dispersed population and topography. - theguardian.com

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http://www.ses.com/4233325/news/2014/20101788

The company provides satellite communications services to broadcasters, content and internet service providers, mobile and fixed network operators and business and governmental organisations worldwide. The culturally diverse regional teams of SES are located around the globe and work closely with customers to meet their specific satellite bandwidth and service requirements. Please visit www.smardtv.com for more information. - ses.com

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Ariel - NUJ calls off journalist strike threat

The NUJ had been concerned that the plan to cut 415 full-time posts in the next two years would create 'overwhelming workloads' for remaining staff. Following Thursday's meeting, the union said that a recruitment freeze across News had been agreed until the end of March at least, with exceptional appointments to have NUJ approval. There would also be a moratorium on compulsory redundancies across the division, with volunteers for redundancy not permitted to leave before the end of December. - bbc.co.uk

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C5 poised for profile boost | Comment | Broadcast

Thanks to Viacom’s scale, the broadcaster will be parking its tanks on Channel 4’s lawn, says Stephen Arnell There was a distinct feeling of complacency in Jay Hunt’s Meet the Controller session at the Edinburgh TV festival, when she declared: ‘If anything I’m actually less worried about Channel 5 than I have been at any point in my career.’ A career, lest we forget, that has included an eight-month sojourn actually running C5. A calculated position worked out for industry consumption? Maybe, but if she’s at all serious in this view, it signifies a worrying lack of attention to the potential threat a supercharged Viacom-funded C5 could well pose - not only to C4, but especially to E4, which often picks up the slack in C4’s general ratings decline - broadcastnow.co.uk

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TV ad buying will soon be fully automated | Media Network | Guardian Professional

At 74bn, television is still the largest and most powerful advertising market out there. Now, programmatic advertising companies are close to cracking this huge marketplace, meaning ads will be bought automatically with minimal human interaction. According to the IAB, 28 c500m of the UK digital display market was traded programmatically last year, and by 2017 this could rise to between 60 and 75. - theguardian.com

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RadioToday | Finance radio station to launch on DAB

A new radio station all about finance is launching on DAB in London this autumn. Share Radio will be dedicated to providing information on handling money and investments, and will primarily talk-based. It says it will have programmes to inform and empower listeners with the information they need to help them make better financial decisions. - radiotoday.co.uk

radiotoday.co.uk

TVPlayer: Watch Live TV Online For Free - Channels

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Viacom closes ?450m deal for Channel 5 | News | Broadcast

We have recently launched our new Broadcast subscription packages, which means theres an option to suit everyone. Learn more about the new packages here and choose the one that best suits you. Subscribing takes just 2 minutes and offers instant access to the website. - broadcastnow.co.uk

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Radioplayer reveals hybrid digital adaptor for cars - media.info

The point is that radio listeners really don't care too much about how the radio station gets to them - whatever the platformists might say - as long as they can keep listening. I look forward to seeing one in the flesh - and to the technology behind it also being placed into kitchen-top radio sets too. Press release Radioplayer, the online listening platform run by the BBC and commercial radio, today Sept 8th unveiled a prototype hybrid car adaptor which enables listeners to get maximum choice of radio stations, with minimum tuning fuss. - media.info

media.info

Another consultation, anyone? | Comment | Broadcast

Im calling for a consultation on the number of consultations facing the TV industry over the next few months, into 2015, and beyond that into the next Parliament. Certainly, James Purnells Whitehall background shone through. There was plenty of squabbling about retransmission fees, which has quickly become one of the most important/ soporific debates in the sector Ill leave you to delete as appropriate. - broadcastnow.co.uk

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UKTV boosts content budget | News | Broadcast

Dave to be key beneficiary as the broadcaster reveals record revenues of almost £280m UKTV is to increase its programming budget to around £150m next year, with Dave set to benefit from a 70% rise in spending by the end of 2015. The multichannel broadcaster revealed this week that it spent £125m on original commissions in the 12 months to the end of December 2013, up from its initial target of £100m. This helped it generate record revenues of almost £280m. Chief executive Darren Childs told Broadcast he believes there is a “huge amount of growth left” in UKTV’s content spend and said the broadcaster will continue its commissioning drive across Dave, Watch and Gold. “We’re already in the process of increasing those budgets quite significantly,” he said, detailing the 70% spending increase on male-skewing service Dave. - broadcastnow.co.uk

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Local TV chief resigns | News | Broadcast

The boss of Comux has resigned less than two years after creating the company which is responsible for getting local TV on air. Ed Hall has stepped down as chief executive of Comux, which builds and manages the infrastructure for local television in the UK, and will hand back his stake in the not-for-profit company. He will continue to consult for Comux in a handover period over the next three months. In a resignation letter to culture minister Ed Vaizey, Hall said it was “job done” having established the transmission network for local TV and a playout centre in Birmingham. He said local TV will be a story of “ups and downs”, providing “spectacular success stories” and an “inevitable turnover of businesses”. The BBC Trust has been investigating Comux’s financial affairs for some months now, although Hall’s departure is said to be unconnected to the probe. - broadcastnow.co.uk

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BBC News - Rona Fairhead: 'Critical time for BBC' as charter debate looms

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Ariel - Purnell: Top shows won't be retendered

The strategy and digital director said that in-house favourites like EastEnders would not be open to indie bids if a more commercial model for BBC Production was adopted. He told the audience that a more commercial BBC Production would have to operate outside of public service boundaries, but argued that it was what the Corporation's programme makers wanted. 'Lots of people in-house were saying... set us free,' said Purnell, who would not entertain the possibility that in-house production might fail in the open market. - bbc.co.uk

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BBC goes local - and mobile - with experimental 'popup' bureaus - Digiday

For its latest coverageexpansion, international news organization BBC is going local. The operations first stop is Boulder, Colorado, where the BBC has already started crowdsourcing story ideas from the local community via town hall meetings. Were used to telling global stories for a global audience, but we have never based ourselves in these communitiesfor any amount of time. said Matt Danzico, head of BBCs video innovation lab. - digiday.com

digiday.com

BBC: ISPs Should Assume Heavy VPN Users are Pirates | TorrentFreak

Service providers should become suspicious that customers could be pirating if they use VPN-style services and consume a lot of bandwidth, the BBC says. After cutting its teeth as a domestic broadcaster, the BBC is spreading its products all around the globe. As a result the BBC is now getting involved in the copyright debates of other countries, notably Australia, where it operates four subscription channels. - torrentfreak.com

torrentfreak.com

Channel 4 to replace 4oD with new online hub All 4 | Media | theguardian.com

Channel 4 is to make live streaming of its TV networks and on-demand service 4oD available in a new online hub, branded All 4, in a bid to better exploit the growing trend in viewing on devices such as tablets and smartphones. As part of the digital transition, 4oD the brand launched by Channel 4 in 2006 as the first home of its on-demand, catch-up TV service will be scrapped. The All 4 initiative forms the next stage of Channel 4 chief executive David Abrahams plan to keep connected with the broadcasters youth audience, for which advertisers pay a premium, which is drifting from traditional TV to digital. - theguardian.com

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James Purnell: ‘Sword of Damocles’ is hanging over BBC funding | Media | theguardian.com

Purnell said he was very happy that the government had decided to bring forward a review of the licence fee which may pave the way for decriminalising non-payment. Purnell has previously said the step could cost up to 200m a year. Its got nothing to do with this government, which has acted very properly in terms of saying charter renewal would start after the election, Purnell told the Royal Television Society London conference on Tuesday. - theguardian.com

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New BBC Trust chair Rona Fairhead will keep working for HSBC and Pepsi - TV Radio - Media - The Independent

She said One has to be realistic and say sometimes bad things do happen and sometimes the controls you think are effective turn out not be so. There has to be a conflict of interest, he said. If you ask anyone who has worked for me they will say I have a relatively large capacity for work, my working week can go very happily to seven days, she said. - independent.co.uk

www.independent.co.uk

Prospective BBC Trust Head Takes Grilling from U.K. Politicians

The U.K. governments preferred choice to head up the governing body of the BBC was questioned by members of parliament Tuesday as part of her selection process. Rona Fairhead, who is set to become the BBC Trusts first female director if appointed, was quizzed on various aspects on her suitability for the role, her opinions regarding the public broadcaster and her previous and current positions. But if I decide that is it not tenable, my primary role is at the BBC, she said. - hollywoodreporter.com

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BBC Trust chair would be surprised if organisation survived in current form | Media | theguardian.com

The governments preferred choice to be the next chair of the BBC Trust has said she would be very surprised if the body survived in its current form beyond the renewal of the corporations charter in 2016. Rona Fairhead admitted on Tuesday that her role might be abolished in a shake-up of the way the BBC is governed, but gave her backing to the licence fee as the best way of funding the corporation. Giving evidence to MPs on John Whittingdales culture, media and sport select committee, Fairhead denied she was offered the role because of the governments determination to appoint a woman and said she had never been politically active. - theguardian.com

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BSkyB bid may still be on cards, says 21st Century Fox president | Media | theguardian.com

Chase Carey, the president of 21st Century Fox, has hinted that a renewed bid to take full control of BSkyB remains on the cards, but said there are no plans to make a major acquisition in the near future. Carey, who has worked with Rupert Murdoch for 25 years, said that as the largest shareholder in BSkyB, long-term consolidation plans need to be considered. Well have to see how the world evolves, that is just reality. Three years ago, Murdoch was forced to abandon his bid to take full control of BSkyB after the phone-hacking scandal engulfed his media empire. - theguardian.com

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London Live reduction in local content would set ‘unwelcome precedent’ | Media | theguardian.com

Channel 4 and Channel 5 have called on Ofcom to reject Evgeny Lebedevs proposal to slash London Lives programming, arguing it would set an unwelcome precedent that would devalue public service broadcasting. In July, London Live applied to Ofcom to amend its licence, including cutting peak-time local content from three hours to one hour a day. Channel 4 said allowing such drastic changes so easily would be an unwelcome precedent. - theguardian.com

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BBC Trust chair Rona Fairhead faces Commons select committee – live | Media | theguardian.com

For many people here and around the world, it represents the best of British. She adds that she wants to help build a future for the BBC in which people are proud to work for it and it has the full confidence of licence fee payers. I would see my role as chair of the trust to be above all things the representative of the audience, of licence fee payers. 2. I will defend vigorously, against all comers, the impartiality of the BBC. - theguardian.com

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Ariel - Licence fee enforcement to be reviewed

9 September 2014 Last updated at 1057 Ministers are to look at whether non-payment of the licence fee should remain a criminal offence. 'In 2012/13, almost 200,000 people ended up in court accused of not buying a tv licence,' he will say. 'When over 10 of magistrates' court cases concern this one offence, you have to ask whether the current system is really working. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

ITV goes into battle with BSkyB and Virgin over ?100m fees for main channel - Telegraph

In todays highly competitive media marketplace that is simply wrong. It is in the interests of all broadcasters that we encourage the regulator and government to look again at this issue for the benefit of the industry and viewers. ITVs campaign is supported by Channel 4, which also stands to add tens of millions to its bottom line if a US-style system of retransmission fees is introduced. The attack is focused on BSkyB and Virgin Media. - telegraph.co.uk

www.telegraph.co.uk

TV AND MEDIA 2014 Changing consumer needs are creating a new media landscape

The TV landscape is changing from one where traditional TV providers and physical media dominate and the consumer experience is inflexible. Nowadays, new aggregators enable consumers to decide what they want to watch and pick-and-mix their own services, something that 5 out of 10 consumers prefer over the traditional TV bundles.

www.ericsson.com

BBC4 goes weird and wonderful with abstract idents and new shows | John Plunkett | Media | theguardian.com

New writers, quite bold and exciting, is all he will say. On Monday night he will do the unthinkable, dismantling his channels branding and handing the precious between-programme idents to a bunch of artists including Turner prize winner Laure Prouvost. The results, to coincide with a new season of programmes about abstract art, will be weird and wonderful, and even laugh-out-loud funny. - theguardian.com

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UKTV seeks to exploit scale as field narrows

UKTV has predicted a decline in the number of channels on British television, as the broadcaster heralded an increase in its own market share. The company - which owns Dave, the channel famous for its repeats of popular programmes - increased revenues 6 per cent last year to £278m

www.ft.com

ITV chief: Force BSkyB and Virgin Media to pay retransmission fees | Media | theguardian.com

The impact of this wholly outdated regime is that UK public service broadcasters are forced to subsidise major pay-TV platforms. ITV points out that last year US free-to-air broadcasters received about 3.3bn 2bn in retransmission payments from cable operators. Last year culture minister Ed Vaizey called on BSkyB to scrap its charges, or possibly face regulation. - theguardian.com

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UKTV profits fall 7% in 2013 | Media | theguardian.com

Revenues were up 6 to a record 278m, with reported Ebitda down 6 to 67.4m, according to the broadcasters annual results published on Monday. UKTV chief executive Darren Childs said Investment is key to our future growth. This is a really significant phase in UKTVs story, when we move from challenger to contender. The company said its total share of the audience grew 5 in 2013 to 4.7 across all its channels. - theguardian.com

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Cliff Richard raid: The BBC’s breaking news dilemma | Media | The Guardian

The BBCs case against the accusations was very strong but the corporation was also uncharacteristically lucky. For once the knives were out for its accuser well before the letters BBC were ever even uttered he was after all the man responsible for a police force standing accused of ignoring as many as 1,400 child victims of organised grooming and sexual abuse over more than a decade in Rotherham. The BBC robustly defended its deal with the police and the coverage it subsequently gave to what became its exclusive story. - theguardian.com

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Broadcasters slam London Live bid to slash local content | News | Broadcast

Channel 4, Channel 5, UKTV and rival bidders have lined up to slam London Live’s proposals to radically reduce its commitment to local programming. The Evening Standard-operated television station wrote to Ofcom in July to request a number of changes to its licence, including slashing its primetime local content by two thirds - from three hours, to one hour a day. Cutting local repeats and diluting its service commitments were also priorities. - broadcastnow.co.uk

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