Free to view TV for the connected age Update: July 2015

Digital UK’s increasingly important role alongside managing day-to-day operations for UK terrestrial television is leading the development of a long-term strategy for the platform as it adapts to shifts in technology and viewer behaviour - www.digitaluk.co.uk

www.digitaluk.co.uk

Department for Culture, Media and Sport BBC Charter Review: public consultation

Last year, as Chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, I heard evidence from a range of experts about the BBC on the challenges it has faced and the issues for its future. This has helped to establish what this Charter Review needs to consider. As Secretary of State, I want to hear from people all over the UK, so I can understand what this country wants from and for the BBC. - www.gov.uk

www.gov.uk

No plans to reduce news on BBC local radio | RadioToday

The BBC has confirmed to RadioToday that there are no plans to reduce news programming on any BBC local radio stations. - radiotoday.co.uk

radiotoday.co.uk

Ofcom seeks views on splitting BT and Openreach

Most internet service providers offer services through a fixed-line network controlled and maintained by BT. But Ofcom said it had concerns BT Openreach's performance on behalf of those providers had often been poor. Ofcom said the network had evolved in recent years, with the growth of fibre optic cable services - particularly in towns and cities - offering television, telephone and superfast broadband internet services. - www.bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jul/15/friends-of-the-bbc-will-oppose-the-governments-vicious-attacks

Levy/PA Letters Wednesday 15 July 2015 19.43 BST Last modified on Thursday 16 July 2015 00.00 BST Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share via Email Share on Pinterest Share on LinkedIn Share on Google+ Shares 80 So the government wants a “root and branch” review to decide whether the BBC has “been chasing mass ratings at the expense of its original public service brief” (BBC faces ‘root and branch’ review of its size and remit, 13 July). Ministers appear not to know – or perhaps they have conveniently forgotten – that right from its foundation in the 1920s the BBC’s core mission was precisely to reach the entire population. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

Bad news week for BBC as Murdoch press sharpens claws

It’s to be yet another week of crisis, inspection and introspection for the forever under pressure BBC as the government is set to publish a green paper on Thursday, which will, the Guardian says, signal the next stage in the political battle over the broadcaster’s future size and funding. - theconversation.com

theconversation.com

BBC's annual report, Chris Bryant on the 'BBC under siege', Alan Whicker award.

open.live.bbc.co.uk

BBC Local Radio to reduce news programming

David Holdsworth has announced a new direction for BBC local radio stations, with a focus on personalities and production. Local news will continue to be important, but local radio journalism, David says, also needs to have personality through engaging interviews, debate and conversation with the audience. - radiotoday.co.uk

radiotoday.co.uk

Celebrities sign BBC letter: Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz and JK Rowling tell David Cameron to leave Corporation alone

He added quotThe BBC does not belong to its staff. The BBC does not belong to the government. The BBC belongs to the country. The BBC is trusted and loved at home by British audiences and is the envy of the world abroad. During the course of the Charter, we will continue to make the case for a strong BBC at the centre of British life and will be vocal in making the case for the BBC as it approaches its centenary. - www.telegraph.co.uk

www.telegraph.co.uk

Seventy per cent of new cars now have DAB

The growth of digital radio in cars is linked to the increase of digital listening which now represents nearly 40 of all listening, and the expansion of digital coverage and content. Ed Vaizey quotI am pleased to announce that 70 of new cars now come with digital radio as standard - that's excellent progress and demonstrates the support of vehicle manufacturers for digital radio. - radiotoday.co.uk

radiotoday.co.uk

Evening Standard comment: The battle is beginning over reform of the BBC

Government figures are already briefing that the paper will propose an end to some mainstream programming, limits on the BBC's website and scrapping the BBC Trust - as well as reconsidering the future of the licence fee. The BBC is one of Britain's greatest national institutions. - www.standard.co.uk

www.standard.co.uk

BBC Annual Report and Accounts

Part One is the BBC Trust's review and assessment of BBC performance during the year. The BBC Executive's report on its own performance during the 2013/14 is included in Part Two. - www.bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

but that doesn't affect its output

Then there's Robbie Gibb, the current excellent editor of all BBC TV's political programmes In a former life he was a vice-chairman of the extreme rightwing Federation of Conservative Students and went on to become chief of staff to the senior Tory MP Francis Maude before joining the BBC. And we, or the bias investigators, should not overlook the fact that David Cameron replaced his previous press secretary, Andy Coulson, with the then editor of BBC News, Craig Oliver and, around the same time, London mayor Boris Johnson recruited BBC political correspondent Guto Harri, to head his media team. In the context of Tory-aligned personnel in influential positions within the BBC, perhaps most importantly of all, one thinks of the recently retired chair of the BBC Trust, Lord Patten, a former Conservative cabinet minister. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

The battle for the BBC

quotChris Patten used to make jokes about the army of the People's Republic of China being the organisation that's the closest he's encountered to the BBC it is just huge numbers of people, many of whom don't appear to be doing anything. And every person I talk to in the BBC tears their hair out about all these people with mad titles. You know, the BBC is full of directors of sustainability and all those other sort of ridiculous titlesquot - the kind of thing satirised by the BBC's own comedy about itself, W1A. Hall told me last year quotI think we are at the end of a period of, as it were, unbridled expansion of the BBC. We're now in a period when we have to define much, much more carefully what it is the BBC offers and what is it the BBC can doquot He was contemplating acts of retrenchment, such as the moving of BBC3 - the channel much loved by younger and lower-income viewers - to an online-only service, which the BBC Trust has now ratified. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

Annual report highlights BBC challenge

The BBC annual report and accounts for 2014/15 - published on Tuesday - reveal that while nearly every UK adult watches BBC television, listens to its radio stations or uses BBC online, they aren't hanging around for as long and they appreciate the services less. Every BBC television channel lost both reach and audience appreciation - a trend across broadcasters as people spend more time online - while only BBC One and CBeebies kept audiences watching for longer than last year. - www.bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Joan Bakewell calls for over-75s to continue paying BBC licence fee

Broadcaster Joan Bakewell has urged people aged over 75 to carry on paying the licence fee after the BBC was saddled with the pound750m cost of free TV licences for the elderly. quotAnyone who has previously applied for an over-75 licence but chooses to start paying again would need to contact TV Licensing, cancel their existing concessionary licence and then pay for a new licence via any of our standard payment channels. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

BBC radio shows now available to download

The programmes will be added to their download queue and downloaded whenever the device is connected to Wi-Fi. Andrew Scott, General Manager of Product, Radio Music, BBC Digital, says quotWith over 860m requests for radio streams across all devices on BBC iPlayer Radio in 2014, we're thrilled to bring offline listening to our audiences. We know this is something they've been asking for and we have been working hard to make it possible. Now they will have more choice than ever to listen to their favourite programmes, with all downloads available for 30 days and no need to worry about mobile data limits. quotMark Friend, Controller of Radio Music Multiplatform, BBC Radio, saysquotThe spectacular success of the BBC's podcasts, with around 70 million downloads in May, shows that people want to download high-quality audio to listen to at their convenience. - radiotoday.co.uk

radiotoday.co.uk

BBC fights back against Tory assault on 'waste' and right to make popular shows

quotThere is an important argument to be made about what kind of BBC we want to see in the future,quot said a BBC source. quotThe government's plans are to scale back the BBC and to stop it making popular programmes. If it gets its way with the changes it wants, the BBC will be a national irrelevance by 2027. Audiences tell us they want big, popular entertainment shows as part of the unrivalled range of programmes the BBC offers, and given the universal nature of the licence fee, it's right that we provide something for everyone. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

Ex-BBC chief Sir Michael Lyons attacks minister's 'murky' bid to reform the broadcaster

Read more BBC's Tony Hall The Tories won't close us downMPs set to debate BBC licenceBBC boss Tony Hall TV licence fee will last another 10 years. Sir Michael Lyons, a former chairman of the BBC Trust, warned that the situation seemed to be getting quotMurkier and murkierquot, following last week's decision to make the corporation cover the cost of free licence fees for over-75s. He said the advisory panel had been quotHand-pickedquot by Mr Whittingdale with quotNo room, not even a mention of how the public, who pay for the BBC, are going to be involvedquot. - www.independent.co.uk

www.independent.co.uk

BBC charter review: what the panel members have said in the past

quotWho judges the performance of the BBC, that's the issue that is really in debate now. You wouldn't notice a lot of difference about the way the content is regulated apart from this issue of impartiality. What you would be trying to resolve is who would give a running commentary on how is the BBC is doing, is it spending public money properly. You could hardly leave that to the body which is running the BBC, they may have a view on it. The select committee thought there should be a third body, sometimes known as Ofbeed. They called it the public service broadcasting commission. The debate is around is that part of Ofcom or is it to the side of Ofcomquot. quotClearly something must be done about governance at the BBC. The current view is to simply choose a new director general from outside the BBC bureaucracy in the hope that this individual will be able to rectify mistakes the organisation makes. However, the BBC may simply be too big an organisation for an individual to manage successfully given the dual demands of producing, high-quality, accurate journalism within aquotlight touchquot management environment. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

Rona Fairhead: 'The word of a chancellor you should be able to trust'

These circumstances, which began with a surprise phone call from culture secretary John Whittingdale to both Fairhead and BBC director general Tony Hall on Monday June 29, could have far-reaching consequences for the BBC. In the call, Whittingdale relayed the quotGovernment's decisionquot that the BBC should take on the pound750m burden of the free TV licences. Isn't a government decision to support the elderly with state funds slightly different from dumping huge costs on the BBC, though quotThis was a continuation of that trend which I urge ministers to reform,quot says Fairhead. quotThe BBC needs to keep control of its funding. There is a risk of a chilling effect if the government can use licence fee payers' money to fund government projects.quot The lack of clarity of state and licence fee funding was further exacerbated in 2010 when the previous trust and BBC management picked up the bill for the World Service, broadband rollout and S4C, she adds. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

New political battle over the BBC's future to begin next week

quotOn Sunday, Sajid Javid, the business secretary and former culture secretary, told BBC 1's the Andrew Marr ShowquotThe reforms introduced last week were not dissimilar to the review in 2010 about how much the BBC could absorb within its own income. quotA senior BBC source saidquotLet's see what the green paper says, but the BBC doesn't nakedly chase viewers, but we do seek to make the good popular, and the popular good. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

Goodbye, Music Tuesday: Starting Today, Albums Come Out On Friday

If you didn't find any new albums on iTunes or in your local music store earlier this week, it's because beginning July 10, new music around the world is being released on Fridays. Strain says quotNew Music Fridays,quot the nickname for the new global release schedule, quotShould give less reason for those people who can't get the new release legally to go to illegal sites. - www.npr.org

www.npr.org

Cameron's monkeys are feasting on the BBC's nuts

Apparently, BBC director general Tony Hall had been forced at cattle-prod point into a sheep-shearing shed by the Conservative culture secretary, John Whittingdale, and quite simply bullied. The consensus view in the corridors was that Hall's emergence from Whittingdale's corrugated-iron lair with a loss of 20 further BBC funding may look lamentable, but it was only the lord's legendary negotiating skills - deployed calmly and collectedly, even as the culture secretary's phlegm and mucus crystallised on his noble, opera-loving face, while mechanical monkeys pulverised his scrotum - that meant he had his genitals merely mutilated, rather than chopped off entirely and eaten by leading Conservatives. - gu.com

gu.com

Worst week of BBC's life may be just a warm-up for bigger battles ahead

The deal remains dependent on BBC efficiency savings and quotThe conclusions of the charter review, in relation to the purposes and scope of the BBCquot. Senior industry sources attributed the clause to Whittingdale, who will now oversee the review process, rather than Osborne, from whom Hall is said to have secured the link to inflation. The last time the Conservatives attempted to foist on the BBC the cost of free TV licences for older people, in 2010, the then director general, Mark Thompson, and the BBC Trust threatened to resign en masse. - gu.com

gu.com

10/07/2015 Radio 4 Feedback

open.live.bbc.co.uk

Goodbye to Media Centre after 11 years

While it's the end for the BBC occupation of the Media Centre, the building will have a new life, undergo a complete refurbishment and be brought onto the market in 2016 for new tenants to occupy. Having now moved from the Media Centre back to the Broadcast Centre once again, it's nice to at least be in a similar building here. - www.bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

BBC cuts: government forced to publish licence fee deal letter

The letter from chancellor George Osborne and culture secretary John Whittingdale to BBC director general Tony Hall said the licence fee would rise in line with the consumer price index quotSubject to the conclusions of the charter review in relation to the purposes and scope of the BBCquot. It added that the corporation, which took on the pound750m burden of funding free licence fees for the over-75s, had to demonstrate that it was undertaking efficiency savings quotAt least equivalent to those in other parts of the public sectorquot. quotAs we feared it's a bad deal built on dodgy foundations - the chancellor is clear that if the BBC changes in scope or purpose then the funding deal is off the table which could leave the BBC with another 10 cut. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

BBC seeks to forge working links with hyperlocal news sites

In a statement today, the BBC referred to hyperlocal publishing as a quotBurgeoning area of citizen engagementquot and that hyperlocals would be incorporated into the Local Journalism Working Group, which also includes representatives from regional newspaper groups. The efficacy of the local live stream the inclusion of hyperlocal providers in training the promotion of an updated register of hyperlocal sites and the possibility of establishing a quotHyperlocal forumquot to meet twice a year from November. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

BBC spending to be cut by 20% in real terms over five years, says OBR

BBC spending could fall 20 in real terms over the next five years under the government's plans to hand the corporation the bill for providing free TV licences to the over-75s, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility's analysis of Wednesday's budget. The OBR predicts BBC spending will fall by about pound400m from pound3.9bn this year to pound3.5bn in 2020/21 as the BBC takes responsibly for the bill in phases. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

BBC to foot bill for over-75 licences

6 July 2015 Last updated at 1703 The BBC will have to bear the cost of providing the over-75s with free television licences, the culture secretary has confirmed. On Sunday, chancellor George Osborne told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show that the BBC should make a 'contribution' towards the deficit. - www.bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Role of broadcasting in the internet age | informitv

Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom continues to deliver but needs to evolve as the trend towards online viewing grows. In its latest review the regulator Ofcom questions whether the benefits intended to support public service broadcasting will remain effective in the internet age. It notes the rapid changes over recent years may mark a fundamental shift in audience attitudes and consumption. It is the third review that Ofcom has conducted of public service television broadcasting. The last was published in 2009 and was concerned with issues such as the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting. Since then there have been significant changes in the broadcasting landscape, not least with the emergence of new ways of watching television. Sharon White, the chief executive of Ofcom, said: “More people are watching online or on demand, and this presents challenges as well as opportunities for public service broadcasters. They must continue to find new ways of connecting with audiences, and the PSB system needs to evolve to ensure it remains effective in the digital age.” - informitv.com

informitv.com

Can cuts let the BBC seize the narrative?

Briefings from government quotSourcesquot to the effect that regulation of the corporation will be handed to Ofcom, that the BBC will be landed with paying for over-75s' licence fees or in any event quotCut down to sizequot are almost always contradicted by other government quotSourcesquot. Off the back of a licence fee frozen since 2010 with hundreds of millions required to be spent on S4C, broadband rollout, World Service etc - amounting, Hall said recently, to a 26 cut in resources for its UK domestic public services - the BBC is rightly fearful of further costly incursions. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

Digital One boosts DAB coverage

Halfway through 2015, national commercial DAB digital radio multiplex operator Digital One has issued an update on its network expansion. A transmitter at Warren Heath, serving the Ipswich and Felixstowe area was brought into service at the end of May. Two further transmitter sites will be added to the Digital One network by the end of 2015. - www.a516digital.com

www.a516digital.com

BBC run efficiently, PwC review finds

The auditor has found that the BBC's overheads are currently 7.6, while the likes of government departments and charities had a ratio of 10. It indicates that the BBC 'is more efficient than the average organisation' it was compared to. A BBC target is to get overheads down to 7 by 2016/17, a percentage that would put it in the top quarter, according to the benchmark used by PwC. PwC's efficiency review compared the BBC to a peer group that included some government departments, large charities and regulated telecoms and utilities. - www.bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

#33 - BBC Three cut gets Trust approval – The Media Podcast with Olly Mann

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03/07/2015 Radio 4 Feedback

open.live.bbc.co.uk

BBC3: producers call on culture secretary to launch review into closure

The pair submitted a pound100m plan to buy BBC3, including a pledge to significantly increase programming spend by about 20, which they say was unfairly dismissed by BBC management and the BBC Trust. quotWhat is galling is haven't they even tried to explore the alternatives. The BBC does all sorts of deals. The Radio Times has a BBC logo on it and that got sold off. They sold off part of BBC America to AMC. But they don't even talk to their partners at UKTV and BBC Worldwide about BBC3.quot. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

Only half of young people watch live TV, according to Ofcom

BBC Director-General Tony Hall said that an increasing number of people do not watch live television and so do not need to pay the licence fee The BBC is seeking a modernised licence fee which covers quotCatch-upquot viewing when negotiations with ministers over a new Royal Charter begin. The BBC announcement means that three layers of management will be cut, while some of the BBC's divisions will be reduced. - www.independent.co.uk

www.independent.co.uk

Ofcom: Sky and Virgin retransmission fees plan difficult to regulate

The media regulator did admit that Sky and Virgin benefit hugely from getting channels for no charge - the lion's share of total viewing on their pay-TV services is of PSB channels. quotOfcom recognises the value that PSB channels bring to pay-TV platforms,quot it said. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

Tim Hincks, BBC Three going online, The future of Olympic coverage

open.live.bbc.co.uk

Chris Bryant warns over BBC cuts

The Conservative government is at risk of ruining Britain's quotStrongest cultural institutionquot by demanding more cuts from the BBC, according to shadow culture secretary Chris Bryant. The Treasury is understood to be considering whether it can insist that the BBC foots the bill for the pound700m-a-year charge of providing free television for the over-75s. If non-payment of the pound145.50-a-year licence fee is decriminalised - an idea which has cross-party support - the BBC could end up with a further pound200m bill. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

TV industry is 'hideously middle class', says Endemol Shine's Tim Hincks

One of the UK's leading TV executives has described the industry as quotHideously middle classquot and called for measures of diversity in broadcasting and production to include class and social mobility. quotIt's an industry-wide problem and it's beyond shows like that. It's got nothing to do with their creative intent or their quality, it is they feel like shows made by middle class people about working class people. The reason that makes us feel uncomfortable is because it's true. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

Less than half of UK adults are aware ads fund free content online

The study offered some hope that web companies could change their advertising to stop people using ad blockers. Only just over half of those using blockers saying they wanted to remove all ads. - gu.com

gu.com

BBC aims to become 'leaner and simpler' with new round of job cuts

Nick Robinson, the BBC's political editor, said David Cameron had threatened during the election campaign that he would quotClose them down after the electionquot Considered whether to insist that the BBC pay for the pound700m-a-year charge of providing free television for the over 75s. Currently funded by the Treasury, the BBC governors threatened to resign the last time this was mooted in 2010. Examined decriminalising non-payers of the pound145.50-a-year licence fee, which the BBC estimates would cost it a further pound200m. Debated whether to impose a new governance structure in charter renewal negotiations in which the BBC Trust would be closed to make way for external regulation from communications regulator Ofcom or a new organisation dubbed quotOfbeebquot. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

The new season on BBC Radio 4 unveiled

A number of new commissions for BBC Radio 4 have been revealed at an event in London on Monday night with BBC Director General Tony Hall and station Controller Gwyneth Williams. quotI am excited by the line-up of ambitious programmes and amazing talent that will be on Radio 4 this autumn. I want especially to welcome the gifted young comedian and actor - already a Radio 4 favourite - Miles Jupp, as our new presenter of The News Quiz. We will miss the fabulous Sandi Toksvig but I know that her legacy will be safe with Miles. - radiotoday.co.uk

radiotoday.co.uk

Ministers urged to intervene as BBC under threat of losing of Olympics coverage rights

In a major blow to the BBC, which styled itself as the quotHome of Gamesquot during the 2012 London Olympics when it screened 2,500 hours of live action, the broadcaster will now have to negotiate a licensing deal with Discovery if it is to extend 60 years of continuous coverage of the Games. Discovery could quotSublicensequot limited live coverage to commercial, free-to-air UK broadcasters, including ITV and Channel 4, which already screens the Paralympics, ending the BBC's longstanding association with the Games. - www.independent.co.uk

www.independent.co.uk

BBC Trust publishes provisional conclusions on proposed changes to BBC television and online services

The BBC Trust has today published its provisional conclusions on the BBC Executive's proposals to reinvent BBC Three as an online-only service, launch a 1 channel for BBC One evolve BBC iPlayer and extend the hours of CBBC. Provisional conclusions on proposed changes to BBC television and online services. quotWe know young audiences are already moving towards the online future, but we do recognise that in the short term some of them will feel the immediate impact of the BBC Three proposals. We are therefore asking the BBC for commitments to ensure it uses the full range of its television services to better serve young people and others who make up BBC Three's audience. - www.bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

DCMS: no plans to move C4 to Birmingham

The Department for Culture Media and Sport has “no plans” to relocate Channel 4 out of London after reports emerged that a move to Birmingham was under consideration. A report in The Telegraph on Saturday suggested that the government was eyeing a sale of the broadcaster’s Horseferry Road headquarters, raising a potential £85m. C4 would then be relocated, with the Midlands and Manchester named as potential new homes. The BBC and ITV already have bases in Salford’s Media City. Were it to go ahead, such a move would represent an alternative to the plans to privatise C4 - which are said to be being considered by culture secretary John Whittingdale – and help the publicly-owned broadcaster to further stimulate the regional TV industry.. - www.broadcastnow.co.uk

www.broadcastnow.co.uk