What Jeremy Hunt didnt say | Media | guardian.co.uk

Photograph Sarah Lee There were a number of big issues left untouched by the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, in his first media policy speech yesterday. When pressed about why this institution was omitted from the coalition government's initial media plans, Hunt said that it was a subject for another day. Hunt said the device of top-slicing the licence fee may also have to be continued after 2012, should continued subsidy for broadband be needed. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

Pace to add Wi-Fi technology to boxes

Pace has announced it has become a member of the Wi-Fi Alliance and is to incorporate Wi-Fi technology into selected upcoming set-top boxes. Darren Fawcett, Chief Technologist, Pace, said As we move towards a converged home entertainment environment, one of the biggest challenges is moving content around the home Pace is at the forefront of developing a whole range of technologies which allow operators to offer these kinds of capabilities. Our membership of the Wi-Fi Alliance will aid us in exploiting wireless technology to develop future generations of products with increased flexibility in connecting and sharing media content. - dtg.org.uk

www.dtg.org.uk

Sky News Briefly Falls Off Air on Freeview - News on News

Further viewing problems involving Sky's channels broadcast on Freeview were reported later in teh afternoon, however this time it is thought that a temporary transmitter fault in the north of the UK was at fault, and not connecting to this morning's outage. - newsonnews.net

www.newsonnews.net

Panasonic Blu-ray recorders with twin Freeview+HD tuners | Easier

Besides their ability to record two digital broadcasts at the same time, the twin HD tuners also allow users without a digital TV to watch a digital broadcast and record it simultaneously. 5.1-channel surround sound Dolby Digital or Dolby Digital Plus signal and subtitles that are included in digital broadcasts can also be recorded, allowing users to enjoy surround sound and subtitles during playback. For standard definition DVDs as well as 1080i and less sources, the P4HD renders progressive images superbly, expresses motion smoothly, and draws crisp diagonal lines. - easier.com

www.easier.com

Going Social with the BBC iPlayer Beta

It's been a few days now since we launched the new BBC iPlayer Beta site, and the feedback has been fascinating. Lots of people have been commenting on the new social features, in fact it's been one of the dominant themes in the new media and press coverage so far. Now that's great, but when you're on Facebook or reading your email, you're not always in the mood to watch a 60 minute TV show or listen to a 3 hour Zane Lowe show. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Internet video traffic to increase massively

Global internet protocol traffic will increase by four times from 2009 to 2014. Cisco forecasts that the biggest single component of that will be internet video, overtaking peer-to-peer file sharing as the biggest single usage of bandwidth by the end of 2010. The combination of all forms of video will continue to exceed 90 of all global consumer internet traffic and by 2014 nearly half of it will be high-definition video. - informitv.com

informitv.com

Will the World Cup bring ITV a bonanza summer of advertising? | Media | The Guardian

It's across all media you can see it in the amount of poster ads. Since then, late bookings have reportedly nudged the figure up to 25, and a good England run could push it higher. This would offer a marked contrast to the network's fortunes when the 2006 World Cup was held in Germany, when a 5 boost in ad spend was expected as the tournament took place in Europe, there was no problem with the timing of games, as there had been in Japan and Korea in 2002. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

Fru Hazlitts appointment brings another outsiders perspective to ITV | Media | The Guardian

Fru Hazlitt is ITV's new managing director of commercial and online. It's not personal everyone likes her and wishes her well but they just can't see what someone with no commercial TV experience can bring to a company whose core business is, well, commercial TV. When Norman arrived at ITV, he found a culturally sick company, with different divisions not just failing to work together but actively working against each other. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

Jonathan Dimbleby: BBCs culture of compliance is extremely damaging | Media | The Guardian

As scions of the legendary war reporter and anchorman Richard Dimbleby, Jonathan and David are perhaps the closest thing to British broadcasting's royal family. His interview with Prince Charles in 1994 was a milestone for the royal family. His own life was much reported on after he left Bel Mooney, his wife of 35 years, and later married a woman 30 years his junior. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

Grant Goddard : radio blog: The cost of upgrading DAB radio: why it will never happen

To get DAB up to FM standard, a huge amount of work needs to be done, which would cost a lot of money. What information is in the public domain about the costs of DAB transmission The BBC owns one of the two national DAB radio multiplexes, for which only a small amount of data about costs has been published. - grantgoddardradioblog.blogspot.com

grantgoddardradioblog.blogspot.com

Points of View: 2009/2010: Episode 20

- beta.bbc.co.uk

beta.bbc.co.uk

Picture Quality on BBC HD: a Viewers Group Visit (part 3)

Part one and part two are already posted on the Internet blog. There is no doubt that the group's visit has given us a better understanding of all the issues. We can now see that there are, in fact, three important variables that can adversely affect the PQ of the channel, namely production decisions and programme quality assurance, encoder software and finally the bit-rate. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Sky turns on set-top box internet connection - Telegraph

I would have loved to have done this sooner but we had to first focus on ensuring the software in our HD boxes was as up to date as possible so the integration of all of our services was seamless. Sky began showing press previews this week of its Sky Anytime service. It allows people to download programmes using a Sky broadband connection only and save it on their box for an indefinite amount of time. - telegraph.co.uk

www.telegraph.co.uk

BBC opens up about its lack of Dolby Freeview HD support | News | TechRadar UK

As for Dolby and its carrying of audio description, Layton is hoping that the Dolby EAC3 format will be able to deliver receiver mix audio description in the future. - techradar.com

www.techradar.com

Picture Quality on BBC HD: a Viewers Group Visit (part 2)

The method requires the assessment of two versions of each test clip. One of each pair of test clips is unimpaired while the other presentation may or may not contain impairment. In the series of tests, the position of the reference picture is changed in pseudo-random fashion. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Tech podcast: Stephen Fry, iPad World Cup TV - Which? News

Multi-talented technophile, Stephen Fry, was on-hand to give his opinions on the iPad launch, as were keen customers who had queued overnight to get their hands on Apple's tablet. We look at the statistics to see how consumers' attitudes to digital technology have changed in the last year, and focus on 3DTV. It's all in this week's Which tech podcast. - which.co.uk

www.which.co.uk

Picture Quality on BBC HD: a Viewers Group Visit (part 1)

The debate about picture quality had met an impasse and we thought this might be a way to move it on and, for me at least, be a way of discussing quality as a whole and not just as a bit rate issue. It took some time to arrange the meeting, mainly due to the move of all the test equipment from its old home in Surrey to a building in London W12. Have a look at the BBC RD web site for some of the history of the buildings. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Panasonic Freeview HD Blu-ray recorders announced - Which? News

The twin HD tuners give you the ability to record two digital broadcasts simultaneously or to watch one programme live while recording another. Blu-ray recorders These new models will also both feature Blu-ray recorders so you can also record onto a dual-layer Blu-ray disc. Each 50GB disc would give you around 7 hours of high-definition recording time. - which.co.uk

www.which.co.uk

Questions around surround sound on Freeview HD

Some people have asked why we don't currently use Dolby as the sound solution for Freeview HD. As always there's a quite complex reason behind this decision so I thought it would be a good idea to do a post on it. Typically there are two to three programmes everyday which are audio described. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Channel 4 barred by law from buying Five | Media | guardian.co.uk

Provisions in the Broadcasting Act 1990, and amended in subsequent acts, specifically prevent Channel 4 from taking control of Five's terrestrial licence. Senior industry sources said the law would have to be changed to enable Channel 4 to bid for Five. Channel 4 is aware of the clause but executives do not regard it as a significant obstacle to a potential deal, should they decide to pursue one. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

BBC faces criticism in strategy review responses | Media | guardian.co.uk

BBC management's attempt to reposition itself before the next charter renewal has been dominated by reaction to one of its few pledges to cut services, 6 Music. The strategy, devised by BBC executives, selects five areas for redirected funds, while cutting 25 of its website content by 2013. The five targets, or aspirations, are the best journalism in the world inspiring knowledge, music and culture ambitious UK drama and comedy outstanding children's content and events that bring communities and the nation together. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

Sky buys TV channels from Virgin in 160m deal -TV Radio, Media - The Independent

As well as expanding its range of basic pay TV channels, Sky said the deal eliminated the carriage fees it currently pays for distributing Virgin channels on its platform. Virgin Media said the deal had generated substantial value and would allow it to offer its cable customers an enhanced range of Sky services, including HD channels and on-demand content. Today's sale agreement will see Sky pay 105 million on completion of the deal and the remainder following regulatory approval. - independent.co.uk

www.independent.co.uk

Hazlitt is given top advertising job at ITV -Business News, Business - The Independent

Ms Hazlitt has not held an executive role since she left Gcap after it was bought by Global Radio in April 2008. She has been a non-executive director at the online bookmaker Betfair and at the Rare Tea Company. Group M raised its forecast for the wider UK ad market in 2010 from flat to 4.2 per cent growth. - independent.co.uk

www.independent.co.uk

Media Talk: The David Laws saga

download.guardian.co.uk

BBC Trust launches review of BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 7

Please visit the BBC Trust homepage to find the information you want. you may have typed the web address incorrectly - please check the spelling, or that there are no spaces or capital letters. Alternatively, please try the other links and search box on this page. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Your feedback on the iPlayer beta

Hello, The new iPlayer site's been up for a week now and we've had lots of people getting stuck in usage of the new site is now peaking at 8.3 of the total. Thank you for all your ideas and constructive criticisms - we've been tracking these across the blogs, messageboard, Twitter and even calls to the good old BBC call centre. As promised in my previous post, here's a round up of that response to let you know what we're doing with it. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

STV Launches HD Service on Freeview and Virgin Media

- allmediascotland.com

www.allmediascotland.com

Switchover begins in Caithness and north Sutherland

Caithness and north Sutherland have completed the first stage of the digital switchover. According to Digital UK, these households will now be able to receive Freeview for the first time. These services have moved to new frequencies and can be restored by retuning equipment. - dtg.org.uk

www.dtg.org.uk

BBC -On-demand syndication

Possible reasons for this include We have a bad link out there on the web somewhere and you were unlucky enough to click it You may have typed the page address incorrectly Something has gone wrong at our end Sorry we couldn't find what you were looking for. Our site is pretty simple, you might find what you're looking for if you poke around a bit. If you give us a call on 0845 638 1848 we'd love to help. - consultations.external.bbc.co.uk

consultations.external.bbc.co.uk

Ian Burrell: From radio to television, mobile phones and iPads -Commentators, Opinion - The Independent

With 241 million watching, listening to or accessing by internet its global output, the BBC has the largest audience of any international news provider. The BBC stopped the shortwave service in Europe two years ago and is now reconfiguring its strategy in other parts of the world to keep pace with technological change. The BBC is either setting up its own FM transmission in key cities, or entering into partnership with local media organisations. - independent.co.uk

www.independent.co.uk

Today: Future of 24-hour news

downloads.bbc.co.uk

Media: Media: Sir Harold Evans, media 'stings', new journalism for new politics? 02 Jun 10

downloads.bbc.co.uk

Humax HD-FOX T2 review - PC Advisor

Its a compact unit which serves as a regular Freeview digital terrestrial tuner, but with the extra capability to tune into the new-style DVB-T2 transmissions. Premium channels such as BBC 1 use a more generous bitrate of around 4Mb/s which preserves picture quality better. Sound quality from the HD broadcasts was not so clearly better though. - pcadvisor.co.uk

www.pcadvisor.co.uk

Virgin and BSkyBs summer of love | Media | The Guardian

Five was launched in 1997 after a decade-long gestation, and pitched, like a throwback, into an era of digital television its German-based owner RTL has made no secret of its desire to sell off the UK's weakest terrestrial channel. In return Virgin gains a long-term deal for the premium content it needs from Sky to drive its cable TV business forward. It is likely to focus on its increasingly successful cable business selling a package of superfast broadband, cable TV and on-demand content such as films and to dismantle its small sales house, IDS. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

DAB blow as Q Radio backs out - Telegraph

Ford Ennals, the chief executive of Digital Radio UK, is in charge of making sure the radio industry meets those standards. However he admitted in an interview with The Telegraph, that there was not yet enough DAB-only content to entice audiences. With just eight national digital-only stations live now, such as Planet Rock, Ennals conceded that broadcasters so far havent offered enough. - telegraph.co.uk

www.telegraph.co.uk

Tech podcast: trade-in for cheaper DAB radios - Which? News

Our featured gadget of the week is a portable battery-powered speaker - the X-mini Happy. It connects to MP3 players, mobile phones or netbooks, or has got a built-in SD card slot for playing audio files. Find out whether this tiny speaker can deliver a big sound, and how usable its MP3 functions are. - which.co.uk

www.which.co.uk

Behind the scenes of BBC iPlayer

I look after everything you see as a user, including new developments and keeping things running smoothly every day across the many platforms we support. The other big piece of news came in the publication of the latest figures for iPlayer - the highlight for me here was the record monthly play requests which are now hitting 123 million. A big thank you for all your comments and ideas so far - we've had a great response so far and the team are closely following the reaction. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Draft code of practice to reduce online copyright infringement | Ofcom

Independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries. 4G auction bidders announced December 20, 2012 Ofcom has today announced the bidders in the forthcoming 4G mobile spectrum auction the largest ever sale of mobile airwaves in the UK. npower fined for making abandoned calls December 6, 2012 The conclusion of an Ofcom investigation has today found npower, the gas and electricity supplier, to be in breach of rules on abandoned calls. - ofcom.org.uk

www.ofcom.org.uk

BBC One HD to launch Autumn 2010

It is also announced today that the BBC HD Channel itself will extend its regular broadcast hours over the coming months from around nine hours a day to 12. This is a key moment for us on the journey to HD becoming the norm for all our programmes and channels. The channel features a broad range of quality programmes from across the BBC channels, including spine-tingling drama, heart-stopping nature epics, and the very best of sport, entertainment and music programming in beautiful detail. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Black and white World Cup for some

-

www.google.com

Media Talk: The Times redesign, Tony Blackburn, and Mariella Frostrup

download.guardian.co.uk

Howell joins old guard exodus from ITV -Business News, Business - The Independent

One of ITV's most senior executives quit yesterday, saying he was unwilling to commit for five years, as the new chairman and chief executive continue to reshape the broadcaster. Rupert Howell had been among the frontrunners to replace the former executive chairman Michael Grade when he stepped down last year. He announced yesterday that he would leave the board on Monday and quit his role as managing director of ITV's brand and commercial operations at the end July after less than three years. - independent.co.uk

www.independent.co.uk

Round up, Thursday 27 May 2010: iPlayer Beta

Among other stories that emerged yesterday in the announcement was the BBC's support for the imminently available iPad from Apple. Let's be really clear about that,,, Having over 25 devices out there for BBC iPlayer means we are quite flexible about the technologies we use to get our service out to consumers. On low resolution mobile devices, as with an iPhone, you sometimes don't need protection. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

BBC publishes Statements of Programme Policy for 2010/2011

The publication of the statements demonstrate the BBC's ongoing commitment to meeting audience needs and to delivering excellence and value across all of its services. The BBC will continue its role in providing the best journalism in the world. We will also continue our commitment to outstanding national and regional news output. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Extra choice on your radio good or bad? - James Cridland

- Whats the main reason to get DAB Digital Radio getdigitalradio.com says more stations. - Whats the reason to get HD Radio - Whats the reason to get XM Radio - james.cridland.net

james.cridland.net

The BBC, DRM and the demise (?) of get_iplayer

It's never nice to hear about the demise of a piece of simply brilliant software. when I discovered that get_iplayer was being pulled by its developer I was, to use a cliche, gutted. The potential loss of a piece of software that did just what it said on the tin is bad enough but it was impeccably free and open. You needed and still need Adobe Flash to view the video content and the content was encumbered with DRM and was not yours for keeps. - freesoftwaremagazine.com

www.freesoftwaremagazine.com

ITV share rise irrational | Media | guardian.co.uk

To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editormediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

BSkyB: BBC cuts tactical and cosmetic | Media | guardian.co.uk

A flashmob protest about the cuts proposed in the strategy review, which BSkyB says merely 'tinker around the edges of the BBC's activities'. Sky also criticised the way the BBC Trust has conducted its consultation. Such a large reallocation of funding into content should not be allowed without an assessment of the impact of the BBC's current output in the market, the company said. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

Sky Screw Up Online Advertising for Lost Finale

Sky TV was the object of much Twitter rage online last night as technical difficulties interrupted the dramatic final episode of hit series Lost. Fans watching the episode on Sky's online video on demand VOD service Sky Player had to sit in exasperated frustration as the programme cut out after 55 minutes. The interruption in the programme led to a melt down at Sky's UK call advisor centre, and furious responses on Twitter at lostfinale. - directtrafficmedia.co.uk

www.directtrafficmedia.co.uk

TV ANTENNA: More disruption as it needs replacing From Oxford Mail)

Arqiva, the company carrying out the countys digital switchover, could not say whether it would take days, weeks or months to find and fix a new antenna to the mast at Beckley, near Oxford. The fire broke out at the mast on Thursday, May 13, leaving up to 410,000 homes without television signals for about eight hours. Cable and satellite customers are unaffected by the work, but other viewers have already reported months of difficulty receiving BBC and ITV channels because engineers had to use a reserve antenna with a weaker signal as they upgraded the mast in preparation for the digital switchover. - oxfordmail.co.uk

www.oxfordmail.co.uk