Great things to read about British TV from March 2008 to today

Ofcom report reveals dominance of BBC in local, national and online news markets

Asked what specific outlets people use for news, BBC One was by far the most popular - listed by 48 per cent of respondents, down from 53 per cent last year. Some 31 per cent said they use a newspaper for news, down from 40 per cent last year. - www.pressgazette.co.uk

www.pressgazette.co.uk

Wednesday 16 December 2015, PM

Leveson part 2?, BBC News at Ten, David Rose on Shaker Aamer

Tuesday 15 December 2015, PM

Netflix launches on UK's Freetime by Freesat platform » Digital TV Europe

Netflix has launched on UK free-to-air digital satellite platform Freesat via its Freetime connected TV service. Netflix is already available via Virgin Media and the YouView-based services offered by BT and TalkTalk in the UK, but has yet to launch on the new Freeview Play service launched to complement free-to-air digital-terrestrial platform Freeview. - www.digitaltveurope.net

www.digitaltveurope.net

Tuesday 15 December 2015, AM

Netflix's New Tech Makes for Better-Looking, Lower-Bandwidth Streams

SEE MORE Why Netflix Is Pushing 'Breaking Bad,' 'House of Cards' in 4K Ultra HD. In recent months, Netflix has been silently testing the new encoding scheme by sending out streams with new and improved bitrates and resolutions to randomly selected customers. Once Netflix's video algorithms team is done with re-encoding the existing catalog, it already has a number of new challenges ahead. There is 4K, and there are a number of other ways to improve image quality, including higher frame rates and HDR. And then there is another crazy idea that could require the company to re-encode the entire catalog all over again After finding the best setting for each single video, Aaron's team is now thinking about even encoding each scene of a movie or TV show with different settings to account for higher information density during fight scenes and lower demands during slow moments of introspection. - variety.com

variety.com

Monday 14 December 2015, AM

Guernsey gets national BBC stations on DAB

National DAB radio services have arrived in Guernsey from the BBC, after a week of testing. The island would have had the services earlier but there has been discussions about moving the transmitter site locally. - radiotoday.co.uk

Sunday 13 December 2015, AM

BBC continues to improve DAB coverage

The BBC has announced where it has boosted or introduced DAB coverage of its national digital radio stations since October, as its roll-out of national DAB heads towards the end. DorkingImproving coverage in Dorking, parts of Mickleham and Leatherhead. HaslemereImproving coverage in Haslemere and Liphook. - www.a516digital.com

www.a516digital.com

Saturday 12 December 2015, AM

Netflix usage gaining ground on ITV Player and iPlayer in UK

Netflix use gaining ground on ITV Player and iPlayer in UK. New research from Parks Associates indicates that 18 of UK broadband households have used paid-service Netflix in the past 30 days, compared to 20 who used the free ITV Player and 33 who used the free iPlayer to stream video programming. Overall 58 of U.K. broadband households used a video streaming service or player within the past 30 days. - www.iptv-news.com

www.iptv-news.com

Friday 11 December 2015, PM

11/12/2015 Radio 4 Feedback

#41: Would Channel 4 Survive Privatisation? - The Media Podcast with Olly Mann

feedproxy.google.com

Friday 11 December 2015, AM

Heggessey accuses government of being 'underhand' over C4

Lorraine Heggessey has attacked the government for the underhand way it has handled the potential Channel 4 sell-off and warned that the UK broadcasting ecology could change very suddenly. Delivering the RTS Christmas Lecture on Wednesday, the former BBC1 controller said she was concerned how C4 privatisation had been sneaked on to the agenda by culture secretary John Whittingdale after he denied it was under consideration at the Edinburgh International Television Festival in August. To start proposing a major change like this at a time when they've refused to extend Terry Burns tenure, so that C4 is essentially without a chairman, and when everyone is very much focused on the BBC licence fee debate, makes it seem like the DCMS is trying to pull a fast one, Heggessey said.. - www.broadcastnow.co.uk

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Wednesday 09 December 2015, PM

TV leadership debates, Royal interview conditions, Trump's social media strategy.

Netflix, iPlayer and others to be available on holiday

Online service subscriptions, such as Netflix, BBC iPlayer and Sky's Now TV, will be portable across the EU under proposals announced on Wednesday. Supporters said the proposals were an opportunity for creative industries. - www.bbc.co.uk

Wednesday 09 December 2015, AM

DAB radio coverage gets a boost in Sussex

Digital radio reception is being improved for over 330,000 people in the Sussex area - around Crawley, Newhaven, Heathfield and in the Sussex Weald, north of Shoreham. The Mayor urged all digital listeners in Sussex to retune to ensure that they could continue to listen to BBC Sussex, Heart Sussex, Smooth Radio Sussex, Capital, Gold, KISSTORY, heat, Gaydio and Smile Sussex. - radiotoday.co.uk

Tuesday 08 December 2015, PM

Is BBC One really the same as ITV?

Having cut the BBC's funding if you then freeze the BBC in aspic with very detailed regulations, there is a real danger that you end up with a diminished BBC. While a BBC that paints by numbers and ticks any number of boxes may be good news for commercial competitors, it would not deliver the genuine creativity and innovation valued by licence fee payers. 2 A ban on the BBC showing any acquired content or formats on BBC One or BBC Two. - www.bbc.co.uk

Monday 07 December 2015, PM

Disconnected viewing experiences

The ways in which we watch television are continuing to evolve, with online viewing increasing, but traditional broadcast television remains overwhelmingly the most important way of watching in the United Kingdom. More programming is being viewed over the internet than ever before, but most viewing continues to be to linear broadcast television. - informitv.com

informitv.com

Monday 07 December 2015, AM

Ofcom pushing ahead with small-scale DAB and planning for terrestrial TV changes

As part of Ofcom's newly-published plans for the 2016/17 financial year, it has confirmed that it is going to continue its work on 'small scale DAB', a low-cost, simplified approach to enabling stations to broadcast across a small area on DAB. Ofcom wants to expand small scale DAB services to more areas and has been working on identifying suitable frequencies and setting up the regulatory framework for smaller operators if small scale DAB was to enter regular, full-time service across the UK. The current roll-out of local, mostly countywide DAB multiplexes will continue to be supported into the next financial year, according to the proposed Ofcom annual plan. - www.a516digital.com

www.a516digital.com

Nielsen: Smartphones and the Internet are eating our TV time

In the same age group, the demographic most highly coveted by advertisers, use of those devices fell 8 percent over the same period to a combined 16.6 million people per minute. The new Nielsen data also looks at time spent watching video on various devices, but not for TV-connected devices, where users were clocked playing games as well. - bigstory.ap.org

bigstory.ap.org

Saturday 05 December 2015, AM

Sir David Attenborough: 'I am concerned about future of the BBC'

Sir David Attenborough has voiced concern about the BBC's future as he returns to film at the Great Barrier Reef, after nearly 60 years. Sir David's new three-part series, which begins later this month on BBC One sees him return to the Great Barrier Reef in north-eastern Australia. - www.bbc.co.uk

Friday 04 December 2015, PM

BBC World Service Soft Power

Wednesday 02 December 2015, PM

Lord Puttnam on public service broadcasting, Peter Salmon on BBC Studios, I'm a Celebrity

DTG :: News :: Ofcom reveals TV homes drop, iPlayer on the rise, Virgin Media goes back to content

Virgin Media recently acquired US horror series 'Ash vs Evil Dead', marking a return to the business of owning content. The deal with US media firm Starz allows Virgin Media to make the first five episodes immediately available on their VoD service, with the remaining episodes added after airing in the US. This is the first significant move back into content since the Virgin Media channels division was sold off to Sky in 2010. - www.dtg.org.uk

www.dtg.org.uk

Wednesday 02 December 2015, AM

UTV shareholders agree on £100m sale to ITV

UTV has recently sold one of its stations to Global, meaning Juice FM Liverpool will become Capital next month. The company is gearing up towards the launch of three brand new national radio stations early next year on DAB. - radiotoday.co.uk

Tuesday 01 December 2015, PM

Channel 4 News in current form 'unlikely to survive privatisation'

The outgoing Channel 4 chairman Terry Burns has said he struggles to see how the broadcaster's 7pm news bulletin would survive at its current length in a primetime slot if the channel were privatised. Burns said uncertainty over Channel 4's future had been disruptive to the channel's ongoing operations. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

57% of UK TV housesholds have HD

Significantly more viewers choose to watch ITV in standard definition rather than ITV HD, most of the time. Online catch-up viewing is now increasingly substituting for DVR-recorded programming when viewers want to watch programmes they have missed. - www.broadbandtvnews.com

www.broadbandtvnews.com

Tuesday 01 December 2015, AM

Ofcom launches Wi-Fi checker

Move your router to a different part of your home The walls and furniture in your house act as an obstacle to the Wi-Fi radio frequencies. Try restarting your wireless router This may automatically select a less busy Wi-Fi radio frequency. - consumers.ofcom.org.uk

consumers.ofcom.org.uk

Monday 30 November 2015, PM

European broadcasters retain spectrum

An international conference has decided to maintain certain radio frequencies primarily for broadcasting in Europe, Africa the Middle East and Central Asia, while providing further capacity for mobile broadband in some bands globally. The GSMA, which represents mobile operators and associated companies, had argued for the UHF band below 700MHz to be allocated to mobile services on a 'co-primary' basis with broadcasting. - informitv.com

informitv.com

C4's future to be decided in new year

The government could reach a decision over whether to privatise Channel 4 as early as January, Broadcast understands. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) quietly began a formal process with the broadcaster just over three weeks ago, requesting detailed information to help it assess privatisation and other options. It is examining C4’s finances and is understood to have sent the broadcaster a series of questions to answer, which will help it explore a number of potential models. Sources have indicated to Broadcast that among these is how a privately-owned C4 might operate were it allowed to have in-house production. - www.broadcastnow.co.uk

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Friday 27 November 2015, PM

#40 - David Schneider on being funny for brands - The Media Podcast with Olly Mann

feedproxy.google.com

Local Radio controversy, BBC World Service funding, New comedy double act The Pin

Friday 27 November 2015, AM

BBC3 TV channel to be switched off by February, BBC Trust confirms

The BBC3 TV channel will be switched off by February next year, the BBC Trust has confirmed, despite accepting that almost 1 million younger viewers could desert the corporation as a consequence. As expected the trust confirmed its rejection of the corporation's controversial bid to launch a BBC11 channel in place of BBC3. The report gave given the corporation three months to return with a full proposal for the use of the BBC3 TV spectrum. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

Thursday 26 November 2015, PM

A new Ariel for a new era

The latest change sees Ariel becoming a true internal channel for the first time in its long history, available only to BBC employees via Gateway. The world has changed unrecognisably since the first edition of Ariel in June 1936 but the brand remains, with its fundamental remit, to convey messages, news, perspective and context on what matters most to us, the people of the BBC. That's the same as it ever was. - www.bbc.co.uk

Broadband's frequency hunters denied Freeview patch

Between them these two muxes carry eight of the Freeview platform's 14 HD channels. With major changes to Freeview potentially less than two years away, let's hope Geneva at least means light is coming. - www.theregister.co.uk

www.theregister.co.uk

BBC3 to move online by March 2016

The BBC Trust has formally approved proposals to close BBC3 as a linear channel in January and to gradually transition it online by March 2016. As a condition of the move, the service licence agreements of both BBC1 and BBC2 have been amended to require an extra commitment to programming for 16-34 year olds. The two channels will also be required to air all BBC3’s long-form content “at a variety of times” in their schedules as soon as the linear channel closes at the end of February. The decision marks the culmination of an 11-month public value assessment (PVA) by the Trust, under which the governing body has also confirmed that the proposals to launch BBC1+1 have been rejected. However, as mooted under a provisional decision on the BBC3 plans in June, the Trust has approved plans to extend CBBC’s broadcast hours from 7pm to 9pm and develop iPlayer to include online-first and third party content. www.broadcastnow.co.uk

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Thursday 26 November 2015, AM

ITU Allocates 700MHz Band For Mobile Broadband

Freeview delivers broadcasts using the spectrum, but the mobile industry has identified the band is one that can offer additional capacity for mobile data services and global harmonisation will allow equipment manufacturers to deliver economies of scale. In addition to the 700MHz band, the mobile industry body is targeting airwaves between 470MHz and 698MHz, L-band frequencies located between 1300 and 1518MHz, the 2.7 - 2.9GHz band and 'C Band' spectrum between 3.4GHz and 4.2GHz. Around 1000MHz of spectrum is currently allocated for mobile services, but the GSMA says another 600-800MHz needs to be allocated by the ITU. - www.techweekeurope.co.uk

www.techweekeurope.co.uk

Amazon Said Planning to Add Other Online Networks to Prime Video

Prime Instant Video would resemble something between a cable-TV subscription, though without live programming, and the online array of video offered through devices from Roku Inc., Apple TV or Amazon's own Fire TV. Amazon will feature videos from the added services within Prime, along with its own original shows and licensed programming, and include its partners' branding as well, the people said. The changes to Prime Instant Video are separate from Amazon's ongoing effort to start a live online-TV service that would compete directly with cable TV. Amazon continues to talk to media companies about that service, which could interest more users in the Fire TV. Apple is pursuing a similar strategy. - www.bloomberg.com

www.bloomberg.com

Wednesday 25 November 2015, PM

CEO OF Virgin Media, President of AOL Content, Expert women

DAB radio transmitters turned on in Plymouth

All local DAB listeners will need to retune their radio sets as well, as frequencies for the local digital radio stations change, and new ones are added. Over 51 of homes in Devon have a DAB digital radio, and 42.2 of radio listening hours are to digital platforms. - radiotoday.co.uk

Tuesday 24 November 2015, AM

BBC World Service to receive £289m from government

In total it will invest 289m which will be spent on a number of new services including new radio services in North Korea, Ethiopia and Eritrea a better TV service in Africa additional language broadcasts via digital and television in India and Nigeria better regional content for the BBC Arabic Service, improved digital and TV services in Russia and for Russian speakers and improved video across its output. Ironically the amount invested is close to the 245m annual cost of the World Service that the corporation was forced to take on from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office last year as part of the 2010 licence fee settlement with the government. - gu.com

gu.com

Monday 23 November 2015, PM

BBC independence 'eroded', says director general

The BBC's political independence has been gradually eroded, according to the corporation's director general. Lord Hall, echoing the current BBC chairman, Rona Fairhead, says the roles should be split and the BBC should for the first time have an external regulator. - www.bbc.co.uk

Why we watch TV whitepaper

Why do we watch television How does is satisfy our social, societal and lifestyle choices And how can broadcasters and programme creators connect with tomorrow's audiences Produced in association with leading media consultant Dr William Cooper of informitv, this whitepaper explores what 'television' means in today's world, and how its role will continue to evolve with viewers' needs. - response.pro.sony.eu

response.pro.sony.eu

Freeview Play delivers next gen TV with HbbTV 2.0

Freeview Play delivers next gen TV with HbbTV 2.0. Freeview Play, a Freeview and Digital UK co-initiative, is built on the HbbTV 2.0 standard which was released earlier this year. - www.iptv-news.com

www.iptv-news.com

Saturday 21 November 2015, PM

Trust consults on BBC guidelines for coverage of Elections in 2016 and Referendum on the UK's membership of the Europea

BBC - Trust consults on BBC guidelines for coverage of Elections in 2016 and Referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union - BBC Trust. - www.bbc.co.uk

Tech changes to Channel 5 on satellite coming up

Although there has been just one national version of Channel 5 since 1st August 2015, individual data streams linked to the old regions have remained. Channel 51 and Channel 5 HD are unaffected by the changes, regardless where you are in the UK. Freesat hasn't yet commented on how the changes might affect viewers with their service in the coming weeks, as Freesat's programme data is also broadcast alongside Sky's data on Channel 5's satellite signal. - www.a516digital.com

www.a516digital.com

Friday 20 November 2015, PM

Paris Attacks Coverage