BBC2's Janice Hadlow: 'I'm not opposed to romping' - Media - The Guardian

Not surprisingly BBC2 controller Janice Hadlow stands foursquare behind Clarkson and her channel's top rating show. In a break with tradition, the job ad for the director general said a background in programming or journalism was not required. It would be less challenging had management gone ahead with a plan to axe BBC4 in the latest round of cost-cutting. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

No laughing matter: BBC faces comedy crisis as rivals lure talent with big budgets - News - TV Radio - The Indepen

BBC1 could miss out on the next generation of classic sitcoms like Only Fools And Horses because talented writers can't handle the pressure of parading their wares in front of a mass audience, a leading executive said. It's a sellers' market in comedy at the moment, which has impacted the number of scripts we are getting. Other writers prefer the path taken by Tom Hollander, who launched his acclaimed religious comedy Rev on BBC2, where it was able to build an audience. - independent.co.uk

www.independent.co.uk

Vince Cable: I feel vindicated for declaring war on Rupert Murdoch over BSkyB - UK Politics - UK - The Independent

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www.independent.co.uk

Richard Horwood has a tele-‘vision’ of a Channel 6 for London—and a reason why he wants Ofcom to act on it now - F

That set the broadcasting industry buzzing, not least Richard and his Channel 6 Group. We have good national advertising market in Britain worth around 3.4 billion, he points out. It can fund a high-quality channel that would sell London as a world city. The ex-lawyer turned financier, now media executive, is passionate about the new London TV franchise about to be offered for tender. - eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk

www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk

What would an independent Scotland mean for the BBC? - Television radio - guardian.co.uk

Salmond has been generally opaque on this issue, offering little beyond a cheery assurance that Scottish voters shouldn't fret because no one's going to deprive us of Eastenders or The X Factor. Yes, why would Scottish viewers have any interest in a programme with middle class people in it Good news for Sky and Virgin though Scottish subscriptions would soar. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

Making Windows Media Center available in Windows 8 - Building Windows 8 - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

This post is how we will deliver on that and continue to support Media Center for another product lifecycle. --Steven If you saw our recent post on the Windows 8 editions, then you know already that Windows Media Center will be available in Windows 8. You might also have noticed Windows Media Center is included in Windows 8 Consumer Preview. - blogs.msdn.com

blogs.msdn.com

YouView is coming – slowly - Comment - Broadcast

3 May, 2012 But not everyones prepared to wait patiently, says Kate Bulkley. 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

Echostar launch Ultra Slim Box, world's slimmest PVR : HDTV UK

With analogue TV signals dying the death, now's the perfect time to grab a digital set-top box if you didn't already have one. The box also offers live TV rewinding and pausing functionality, as well as intelligently seeking out HD versions of shows when available and offering the ability to set shows to record from advertisements. - hdtvuk.tv

www.hdtvuk.tv

http://www.how-do.co.uk/north-west-media-news/north-west-broadcasting/channel-m-'was-a-victim-of-bad-timing'-says-form

- how-do.co.uk

www.how-do.co.uk

Lord Sugar: Dont Hold Your Breath For YouView - Gizmodo UK

Bad news streaming fans those looking forward to a May launch for the revolutionaryYouViewstreaming TV service will be sorely disappointed. According to Lord Sugar, its not in any shape to launch before the end of 2012, let alone before the Olympics. Considering it was meant to get into our living rooms way back in 2010, well be lucky if it makes it out this year. - gizmodo.co.uk

www.gizmodo.co.uk

Will BSkyB's viewers turn on and tune in or drop out? - Telegraph

However, the phone hacking scandal and News Corp's contentious 39pc stake in BSkyB has not so much blotted the broadcaster's copy book, as upended a whole inkwell over it. The act has only forced a broadcaster off air once in the past, but Ofcom's steady flow of pronouncements on the subject suggest it has the appetite to flex its muscle again. If Ofcom reaches the same conclusion, News Corp could be forced to sell its entire stake or watch BSkyB, the broadcaster it tried to take over last summer, go off air. - telegraph.co.uk

www.telegraph.co.uk

Freeview homes face digital TV interference due to new mobile services - Media - guardian.co.uk

Nearly two million homes face disruption to their digital TV signal because of interference from new mobile services, with fears that a government help scheme to combat the problem will prove inadequate. About 1.9 million households all with digital terrestrial TV service Freeview will suffer interference from the next generation of mobile services 4G which could come online by the end of this year. Satellite and cable TV services will be unaffected by 4G signals. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

informitv - Future of Broadcast Television Initiative

This represents a laudable effort to define the requirements for future global terrestrial television standards, but it currently lacks representation from other fields of telecommunications and information technology. In the digital age divisions have remained and consequently there is no single digital television standard. The ambitious aim is to try and break down many of the long-standing barriers that have prevented common systems. - informitv.com

informitv.com

BBC News - Murdoch not fit to run News Corp

It will force the board of News Corporation to review whether the 81 year-old, who created one of the most powerful media groups the world has ever seen, should remain as its executive chairman. It will give ammunition to those News Corporation shareholders who would like to loosen the hold over the company of the Murdoch dynasty. I forgot to mention one very important conclusion, that the News of the World and News International also misled MPs as corporate entities. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

BBC and Arts Council launch joint digital Space for culture - Media - guardian.co.uk

An archive of John Peel's entire record collection is now available on The Space. The Space, which went live on Tuesday, will offer hundreds of hours of arts programming online, on mobile, and on digital TV. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

Backwards EPG and catch-up coming to Freeview - News - TechRadar

You'll soon be able to catch up on TV shows you missed by browsing backwards through the Freeview EPG. The EPG upgrade will only benefit those with a connected set-top box or TV, but will bring a week's worth of catch-up programmes to the televisual buffet. Timing There's no word yet precisely when the EPG upgrade will be released, unfortunately. - techradar.com

www.techradar.com

Now on Freeview HD: Olympic arts channel that's tough to watch • The Register

Freeview HD got a new channel this morning, which will be filled with events from the Cultural Olympiad as well as the occasional Hitchcock film and the usual arts nonsense. The Space sits on channel 117, which puts it into the IP-streamed channels only available to kit conforming to the letter and spirit of the Freeview HD standard. The channel is funded from 3.5m of lottery dosh, via the Arts Council, and on the website punters can already watch the first of 26 shows of John Peel's record collection from A to Z. - theregister.co.uk

www.theregister.co.uk

informitv - YouView delayed again

YouView, the hybrid television platform planned by British broadcasters and broadband service providers, may not be ready until the end of 2012. The repeatedly postponed project will apparently now not roll out until at least the fourth quarter of the year. By which time, it may be too late to make an impact on the market. - informitv.com

informitv.com

Lord Sugar blow over YouView delay - Telegraph

According to documents filed at Companies House, YouView spent more than 20m in its first nine months to April last year. However, well-placed sources said the spend so far is now more than 100m. When the set-top box does launch properly, it will have a battle on its hands. - telegraph.co.uk

www.telegraph.co.uk

Ofcom - DAB coverage planning: report to Government

1.2 This report to Government sets out the approach and results of this planning exercise. 1.3 Broadcast radio coverage is dependent on a range of different factors including the height of the transmitting antenna and the power of the transmitting station, the type of terrain and ground clutter, atmospheric weather conditions, receiver sensitivity and aerial gain and whether the receiver is used indoors or in vehicles. 1.4 There are also important differences between FM and DAB technologies. - stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk

stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk

Phone hacking: select committee report – live - Media - guardian.co.uk

11.02am MPs on the Commons culture, media and sport select committee are finally publishing their long-gestating final report into the News of the World phone-hacking scandal on Tuesday. The report is expected to criticise James Murdoch, the former chairman of News of the World publisher News International,. Here's what the Guardian's latest story suggests may happen The all-party culture, media and sport select committee has concluded that it cannot reach a final decision about whether Murdoch misled them because of what MPs describe as conflicting evidence, according to a source close to the process. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

Rupert Murdoch 'not fit' to lead major international company, MPs conclude - Media - guardian.co.uk

All three were accused of misleading parliament by the culture select committee. According to minutes published by the committee, the MPs were almost unanimous in their criticism of Hinton, Myler and Crone. The report said that it would not draw conclusions on evidence to the committee about Milly Dowler, the murdered schoolgirl whose voicemail messages were hacked by the News of the World in 2002, because of an ongoing police investigation into Brooks. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

News - SES.com

This means that consumers will be able to enjoy the benefits of watching TV programmes on different devices and screens. SAT-IP will become an official standard which is open to all manufacturers and allows them to develop a neutral environment of multiple devices. Current prototypes already allow for the reception of up to eight programmes on eight different screen devices at home. - ses.com

www.ses.com

BBC News - BBC announces daytime TV schedule shake-up

The new strategy is part of the Delivering Quality First initiative aimed at saving money. Daytime controller Liam Keelan has also pledged there will be no more than two programmes of any genre shown each day. Keelan used last year's decision to pull the plug on Cash in the Attic - which will come off air in early 2013 - and To Buy or Not to Buy as an example of the new approach. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

BBC - About the BBC: Voting with Mobile Short Dial Codes

The voting experience is exactly the same as if the caller was dialling an 090... long number, from the message they hear to the way in which their vote is counted, but by using MSDCs we are able to detail the exact price the consumer will be charged which for The Voice will be 25p. Traditionally '090...' Premium Rate numbers have been used for live voting which has left the mobile caller being charged, in some instances, up to three times that of a land line caller. When a caller from a mobile wishes to cast a vote, the journey that call takes across to the fixed line provider has historically lead to the high charges incurred from a mobile. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

MuxCo.com London s Digital Boost

Each area in the country has specific issues based on topography or land use and Londons no exception. Digital Radio UK have co-ordinated an additional transmitter on BT Tower, alongside some additional power upgrades around the network to provide further resilience. Its seen all the multiplex operators work together London 1, 2 and 3 alongside D1 and the BBC to make this happen. - muxco.com

www.muxco.com

YouView hires top marketer ahead of expected autumn launch - Marketing news - Marketing magazine

YouView expected to launch in the autumn Last October YouView made its entire marketing and communications redundant. It has now hired Conway who will report to Richard Halton, chief executive. YouView's initial launch was scheduled for the summer of 2011 but has been delayed by technical difficulties. - marketingmagazine.co.uk

www.marketingmagazine.co.uk

London TV channel only on Freeview could leave millions unable to view - News - London 24

The government proposal for the local station, one of 20 planned in the UK, only allocates a Freeview slot when it goes live next year. They argue that Freeviews vacant slot 8 listing, allocated to the new service, can only cover three million homes if it is transmitted just from Crystal Palace on a medium power frequency. The remaining two million will be left in what London Assembly budget chairman John Biggs describes as a TV desert. - london24.com

www.london24.com

Media Analysis: Throwing digital radio switch will be a challenge - Media - Business - Evening Standard

It wont have meant much to viewers, most of whom regard five-channel viewing as an anachronism anyway, but the marquee full of engineers and media types were still rather pleased with themselves when the tower was lit up like a Christmas tree to mark the event. Second, it frees up airwaves that will be fought over by mobile phone operators keen on increasing their networks capacity. Now the old TV signal has been switched off, when will radio follow suit - thisislondon.co.uk

www.thisislondon.co.uk

Cambridge Consortium Completes Successful Trial of Next-Generation Wireless -- CAMBRIDGE, England, April 25, 2012

The UK is playing a leading role by exploring the use of licence-exempt access to TV white spaces and developing a model regulatory framework. Leading innovators from the UK and beyond have demonstrated the potential that television white spaces can have for meeting the UK's broadband needs. Developments such as this endorse the leadership position that the UK can take in enabling more efficient use of spectrum by opening up an array of opportunities for wireless applications for consumers and businesses alike. - prnewswire.co.uk

www.prnewswire.co.uk

Digital switchover has lost me 80 TV channels From Bournemouth Echo)

The 54-year-old has retuned her TV half a dozen times since the signal from the Isle of Wight was retuned last Tuesday. Anyone who would like more channels than are available via an aerial may also wish to consider alternative options for digital TV, such as satellite. Comments are closed on this article. - bournemouthecho.co.uk

www.bournemouthecho.co.uk

DTG :: News :: Cambridge Consortium successfully trials TV White Spaces

I find the idea of using white space devices to deliver broadband to rural communities, or to expand the range and quality of urban Wi-Fi hotspots, exciting. This can form a significant contribution to our thinking as we consider how to maximise the value of the spectrum below 1 GHz. The trial analysis found Cambridge has significant television white spaces capacity - dtg.org.uk

www.dtg.org.uk

Avaaz - Fire Jeremy Hunt

This is an outrageous breach of his public duties, and if we raise our voices now we can get him fired this week. Let'stake another massive step to clean up our democracy by ending the crooked collusion between our government and the Murdoch Mafia. Sign the urgent petition to remove Hunt, which we'll deliver with an action outside the Inquiry. - avaaz.org

www.avaaz.org

The future of TV isn t TV, it s broadband. Tech News and Analysis

As government strives to keep up with the broadband age, the Senates Commerce Committee held a hearing today covering the future of television, but midway through the hearing I realized that the Senate has it all wrong. The future of TV isnt to be found in deregulation its on the Internet. It danced around the problems of pipe owners also owning content providers and pay TV distribution businesses. - gigaom.com

gigaom.com

ITV could have made even bigger history - Media - guardian.co.uk

Andy Allan, formerly of Thames, Tyne Tees, Central and Carlton, died relatively young he was only 68 but to say he lived life to the full rather understates the case. By modern norms it all looks desperately wasteful and inefficient 14 separate companies, each a producer/broadcaster in its own right, making shows for the network according to a system of guarantees designed to match contributions paid in according to share of advertising revenue with programming supplied. The big companies thereby got to make most of ITV's network shows, which made their programme controllers very powerful indeed. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

London gets extra digital radio reception : Radio Today

Olympic gold medal winner Dame Kelly Holmes and Colin Murray did the honours at a media gathering overlooking London. The new transmitter, along with three other recent additions, means 99 of the London road network within the M25 will be able to receive a listenable signal. The additional transmitters are a collaboration between the broadcasters, multiplex operators, Arqiva, and BT Wholesale, and is the culmination of a two-year programme of investment in digital transmitters around London. - radiotoday.co.uk

radiotoday.co.uk

Kent prepares for digital switchover - News - Kent News

Digital switchover will take place countywide over May and June, giving the majority of households access to more than 40 Freeview channels free through their aerial. Parts of north Kent which pick up signal from a London transmitter began the switchover process this week. For the remainder of Kent, stages one and two will happen on June 13 and June 27 respectively. - kentnews.co.uk

www.kentnews.co.uk

Digital TV switchover date for Tunbridge Wells looms closer... - Tunbridge Wells People

Homes in Tunbridge Wells will start the stage one process of the digital switchover on May 30, 2012, giving households access to more than 40 Freeview channels throughour aerials. Digital switchover date in Tunbridge Wells is getting closer. For the remainder of Kent, stages one and two will happen on June 13 and June 27 respectively. - tunbridgewellspeople.co.uk

www.tunbridgewellspeople.co.uk

Nordic region, Ireland adopt new 'connected telly' standard • The Register

Nordig, the parent broadcasting organisation for the Nordic countries, plus Ireland, has issued a new specification for broadcasting. The standard is already taking off in Germany, France, the Netherlands and Spain, and to this we can now add most of the Nordic countries. NorDig was constituted in 1997 and says the transmission and reception of digital TV in member countries should be open, standardised and support horizontal competition. - theregister.co.uk

www.theregister.co.uk

YouView expands on EPG plans

Clarifications have been made in areas surrounding the search methodology, the genre structure and navigation and the population of partially filled UI pages. In itself the statement provides clarity that ISPs will use the YouView platform as the means to deliver content exclusively to their subscribers. No firm date has been given for the launch of YouView, though with small-scale trials underway, there had been some expectation that this might take place during May. nevertheless analysts have recently expressed concern that the launch might not take place before the London 2012 Olympics. - broadbandtvnews.com

www.broadbandtvnews.com

Freeview homes now exceed Sky in UK - Advanced Television

Freeview is now in more than 20 million homes in total when second sets are counted. There are now 2.1 million active Freeview HD homes. - advanced-television.com

advanced-television.com

Video: BBC Director General mark Thompson turns off analogue signal in London - Telegraph

- telegraph.co.uk

www.telegraph.co.uk

BSkyB's hold on pay-TV movies should be broken, says Ofcom - Media - guardian.co.uk

In March the competition regulator decided to take another look at the UK pay-TV market for films, to see whether the arrival of new digital services weakened the case against Sky. It provisionally concluded last summer that Sky was anti-competitive and needed to be weakened to allow rivals to flourish. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

BBC - BBC Internet Blog: BBC Red Button Blog 21st - 28th April

Every Saturday press the Red Button during the show to pit your wits against our studio contestants. On weekends the tone becomes more conversational when Red Button viewers can watch a topical interview in 'Five Minutes with...' or a round-up of the week's weird and wonderful videos in OddBox. This has enabled us to offer the best games tailored to each system. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Digital switchover's tower of power - Media Monkey - Media - guardian.co.uk

Crystal Palace transmitter marks digital switchover Martian ships not pictured. Photograph Clayton Hirst Eat your heart out, Eiffel Tower. London's Crystal Palace transmitter transformed itself into a son et lumiere spectacular well, the lumiere bit anyway to mark digital TV switchover in the capital on Wednesday night. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

Manchester's Channel M closes after 12 years - Media - guardian.co.uk

Stuart Taylor of GMG said the governments plans for local TV did not offer a viable future for the station. The on-air offering was cut back in 2010, with the loss of about 30 staff, to a mixture of archive material, traffic and networked news. Under culture secretary Jeremy Hunt's plans for local television, the government is expected to license the first local TV stations by this summer, with the first 10 to 20 services expected to be in operation by 2015. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

Freeview finds that 3D is not such a turn-on for viewers - Media - guardian.co.uk

Audience research for Freeview shows that TV viewers are not that keen on 3D maybe it's the glasses 3D ranked only sixth out of eight different new technologies in terms of popularity in a survey of 2,000 viewers published on Wednesday. Asked to pick three technologies out of the eight which they found most appealing, only 19 chose 3D. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

BBC to hand back almost £300m of digital switchover cash - Media - guardian.co.uk

Crystal Palace transmitter is to host an event marking the analogue switch-off in London. Around nine in 10 households have now completed the switchover process which began in Whitehaven in Cumbria on 17 October 2007. A total of 603m was allocated out of licence fee revenues to help the over-75s, the blind and partially sighted and with other serious disabilities get digital TV. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

BBC - The Editors: From Ceefax to digital text

One of the effects of this is that they will no longer have access to Ceefax, which is broadcast via the analogue signal. For those of us who use their Tivo service, when we press the red button all we get is iPlayer, hence missing a lot of content. I am assured that by the time the Olympics come around we will have access to Red Button content I am not holding my breath given Virgin's history of delivering late. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

BBC - Research and Development: Goodbye analogue telly, hello digital. Part 2

In this final image of the spectrum analyser output you can see the radio waves are now entirely devoted to digital television multiplexes, and no more analogue stations are seen. As we promised yesterday here's the final spectrum analyser shot, showing the spectrum over london now being entirely full of digital multiplexes of channels. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk