Discovery snatches Olympic Games rights

The BBC will lose control over the TV rights to the Olympic Games from 2022 after Discovery struck a €1.3bn (£920m) deal to broadcast the event across 50 European territories. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) today announced that the US broadcasting giant has landed the exclusive TV and online rights to the Olympics and Winter Olympics across Europe from 2018 to 2024. Rights in the UK are handled on a different timetable to some of Europe, meaning the BBC will not be impacted until the Winter Olympics in 2022. It holds exclusive UK rights to the Games up to the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 under a deal it struck with the IOC in 2012. As part of Discovery’s deal, it has committed to broadcasting a minimum of 200 hours of the summer Games and 100 hours of the winter Games on free-to-air television. Discovery could choose to do this in the UK by launching a free-to-air Eurosport channel, putting the rights on its existing Freeview station Quest or sub-licencing the Games to another broadcaster.- www.broadcastnow.co.uk

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

London Live makes £12m loss

quotWe launched a quality channel after building the complete broadcasting chain from scratch and our agile approach during our first year has seen us evolve the channel, focusing investment on the most popular programming and ensuring a financially sustainable cost base for the business,quot said Tim Kirkman, chief operating officer at London Live. London Live said its May audience figures put it quotMarginally behindquot Sky 1, but in London attracted more viewers than channels including 5USA, UKTV's Watch, Sky News, ITVBe and Comedy Central. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

Is TV putting its money where its mouth is on diversity?

The BBC's diversity adviser Lady Grey-Thompson put the cat among the pigeons last week when she said the BBC may have to spend around pound100m if it wants to achieve true diversity. He suggested ringfencing money for BAME shows and setting targets adapted from a BBC model used to increase programmes from the nations and regions by 400. Albury says quotIt's an ingenious solution and it worked for regional programming.quot He calls the BBC's diversity fund quotDerisoryquot and says it was quotAbout on-screen representationquot - more needs to be done behind the scenes and in putting people from BAME backgrounds in positions of power quotThe figure Tanni Grey-Thompson talked about would drive the diversity of BAME employment. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

BBC unveils plans for radio revolution

26 June 2015 Last updated at 1215 The BBC is planning to triple the amount of radio hours open to competition from indies under new 'compete or compare' proposals unveiled on Thursday. The new approach would phase out the quota over a six-year period, with the result that around 60 percent of eligible network radio hours will have been opened up to competition. - www.bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Government denies decision made on Ofcom replacing BBC Trust

The forthcoming green paper on the BBC is likely to call for the abolition of the BBC Trust without backing an alternative regulator, according to sources close to the government. Within a few months of her appointment, the chair of the trust, Rona Fairhead, indicated it was not fit for purpose and that its powers should be transferred to an external body dedicated to regulating the BBC. The Telegraph reported that ministers had rejected that option and were instead planning an expanded role for Ofcom, which already acts as the regulator for commercial TV. A report in February on the future of the BBC from the select committee chaired by the now-culture and media secretary John Whittingdale was sharply critical of the trust, suggesting that a unitary board allied with an external regulator might be a better option. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

BBC's future to be examined in a green paper this summer

According to last year's BBC annual report Worldwide returned pound174m to the BBC in 2013/14 so privatising it would reduce the corporation's income. There has been some concern within the BBC that there could be something about the corporation in the chancellor's budget on 8 July and that the charter renewal process and licence fee settlement could become caught up in a government spending review, as the licence fee deal was in 2010. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

BBC could be made to pay for the £600m cost of free TV licences itself, George Osborne says

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. The new Culture Secretary is a well-known critic of the licence fee, and of alleged political bias in the BBC, but in a recent interview Mr Whittingdale said quotIt never was the case that I was going in to go to war with the BBC.quot. - www.independent.co.uk

www.independent.co.uk

26/06/2015 Radio 4 Feedback

open.live.bbc.co.uk

Commissioning BBC TV programmes, News on smart phones, The 'pause' in local TV rollout

open.live.bbc.co.uk

BBC turns on five more DAB radio transmitters

The roll-out not only serves new areas but also improves coverage in areas already served. Haydon Bridge and parts of Haltwhistle Campbeltown and surrounding areas Brandon and areas of the Brecks Ipswich and surrounding areas Port St Mary and surrounding areas on the Isle of Man. - radiotoday.co.uk

radiotoday.co.uk

Local TV rollout delay 'unjustified'

Licences for Kidderminster, Bromsgrove and Stratford-upon-Avon would not be advertised until at least next year, regulator Ofcom revealed last week. Licences to run channels in 10 other areas will not be re-advertised until at least next year. - www.bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

The BBC's launched an app for its youth-friendly Newsbeat service

Available for Android and iOS, the BBC Newsbeat app brings news from around the world as well as updates on social trends, entertainment, gaming, student life and more. Read next BuzzFeed's news app gives you the latest without the fluff. - thenextweb.com

thenextweb.com

Portsmouth to get new DAB services

quotHighbury College prides itself on being a cutting edge educational establishment, and we are excited to showcase our student led radio service JAMM Radio to digital radio listeners in Portsmouth. We look forward to working with local broadcasters to broaden choice available to radio listeners. quotWith nearly half of adults nationally having access to a DAB digital radio, being on DAB digital radio in addition to FM, will enable our unique local programming to be heard in Portsmouth on as many radios as possible. - media.info

media.info

Local TV licences not yet advertised

Licences to run local TV channels in 13 areas will not be advertised or re-advertised until at least next year. Originally, 47 licences were due to have been awarded or advertised by early last year. - www.bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Growing resentment of pay television

The Digitalsmiths quarterly video trends survey of over 3,000 consumers in the United States and Canada found that 3.1 of respondents planned to switch their television service in the next six months, while 7.5 said they would change their service and 4.8 said that they would cut their television service altogether. Despite a 5 year on year increase in awareness it suggests that service providers are still failing to market their television everywhere services effectively. - informitv.com

informitv.com

Young people still watch television

The research, based on industry data from 2014, including BARB, comScore and Ofcom, shows that television viewing, across live, playback and the video on demand services of broadcasters, dominates the viewing of all ages. Playback of recorded programmes and broadcaster video on demand services contribute a further 16 of all viewing, while discs add another 9. Together, these sources account for three quarters of all video viewing. - informitv.com

informitv.com

Tony Hall: household levy a very interesting idea

Tony Hall has suggested he is open to exploring the German household levy as a means of funding the BBC. The director general told The Andrew Marr Show that the licence fee has another decade of life, but repeated views in a Broadcast interview last week, explaining that reform is needed to the funding mechanism. This includes extending the licence fee to cover catch up viewing on iPlayer. Hall added that the household levy is a “very interesting idea”, but said he was unsure how it will work in practice. “There is a broad agreement that the licence fee needs to be reformed in some sort of way… it could be a household tax, I don’t know whether that works or not, ” the director general told Marr. Hall was speaking a day after John Whittingdale gave his first interview as culture secretary. - www.broadcastnow.co.uk

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Digital Radio's summer campaign launches

A number of radio stations across the UK are now broadcasting Digital Radio UK's summer advertising campaign. The BBC is also mounting a major TV and radio promotional push for the England v Australia Ashes which runs from 8 July to 25 August with radio commentary running exclusively on BBC Radio 5 live Sports Extra. - radiotoday.co.uk

radiotoday.co.uk

Radio indies not happy with BBC Trust Review

Managing Director Will Jackson told RadioToday quotThree independent analyses of the indie radio sector in the last 16 months have recommended that the BBC should significantly grow opportunities for indies to produce radio content. We are therefore disappointed that the Trust has not gone further and clearly recommended a substantial increase in opening up the radio schedules to indies. quotWe note the report makes recommendations that for BBC Television, the in-house production guarantee should be reduced or removed, and that the BBC strengthen its working with indie TV producers in the nations and regions - we will be working to see that emulated in radio. - radiotoday.co.uk

radiotoday.co.uk

Time is running out for the 30-second TV commercial

A study last year by Arris showed that 84 of respondents wanted to fast forward through the ads they watch, while 60 of them download or record shows so they can skip commercials. What sort of brand message is appropriate today What can a brand do to get its message across to consumers in this new media environment without giving up the massive reach that TV commercials can bring - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

BBC director-general Tony Hall: The Tories won't close us down

The BBC's political editor, Nick Robinson, said that sources on an election battle bus had told him the Prime Minister had described a BBC story as quotRubbishquot and went on to say quotI'm going to close them down after the election. quotI put a cap on that at pound150,000 in the first couple of months and that must continue,quot he said, adding that while the BBC now wants to cap them at pound125,000, the Government was aiming for pound95,000. - www.independent.co.uk

www.independent.co.uk

but why doesn't it press the sceptics?

On Thursday, eurosceptic MPs tabled an amendment to the referendum bill designed to establish a regulator to ensure balance in the BBC's coverage of the vote on UK membership of the EU. Their implied attack on the BBC is not surprising as the corporation is one of the few mass media outlets with any hope of providing balance given the europhobic stance of many of the best-selling newspapers. When eurosceptics stress the export opportunities available outside the EU, the BBC never asks why membership impedes our global exports, nor points out that an exit would exclude the UK from existing EU trade treaties and that negotiating new ones would take many years. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

Trust to review how BBC uses statistics

11 June 2015 Last updated at 1209 The BBC Trust will examine how the BBC reports statistics in news and current affairs programming, the subject of its latest impartiality review. The review will assess whether the BBC is giving audiences sufficient context and analysis when reporting statistics, and whether it's enough to give them an informed understanding of controversial subjects and areas of public policy. - www.bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Greece's state broadcaster ERT back on air after two years

Greece's state broadcaster ERT went back on air on Thursday, two years after being closed down under austerity measures. A concert by ERT's musical ensembles outside the station's headquarters is to be broadcast live on TV and radio this evening, followed by quotThe lost signal of democracyquot - a documentary looking back at events since the previous government decided to close ERT. - www.bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Ofcom awards 10 local DAB multiplex trials

In Glasgow, a local mux has been awarded to Scrimshaws ID which will broadcast quotFour or fivequot services including Celtic Music Radio, Pulse FM and a new station called GO Radio. quotStar Radio's Programme Director Simon Nicks is very happy with the announcement, and addsquotThis is a great step forward in bringing the DAB platform to local stations like ours, it also opens up Digital Radio to others such as community stations, expanding choice, which is a healthy thing. - radiotoday.co.uk

radiotoday.co.uk

Creative industry calls on Trust to #SaveBBC3

Rew Davies - who wrote the Colin Firth adaptation of Pride and Prejudice - and Jimmy McGovern, writer of BBC2's Banished. It adds quotBBC3 has cost the licence fee payer over pound1bn over the last 10 years. Closure will write off this investment, which would be unthinkable in a commercial environment. - savebbc3.com

savebbc3.com

Industry big guns are 'backing the BBC'

4 June 2015 Last updated at 1420 Oscar-winning directors, celebrated documentary-makers and hit drama writers are among the supporters of a 'Back the BBC' campaign, launched by Broadcast magazine. Pat Younge, former BBC chief creative officer, who is now MD of Sugar Films, added 'As someone who's lived abroad you come to realise the vital role the BBC plays in keeping the industry and aiming high... You will certainly miss it if it's gone, and by then it will be too late. - www.bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk