Monday 02 March 2015, AM
BBC to hive off production of top shows into studios division
The remaining departments - Salford-based children's and sport and current affairs - will remain within the BBC and be managed by BBC North and BBC News, respectively. The second stage, which is being proposed but will need sign-off from the BBC Trust, government agreement and a change in the BBC's charter, is for BBC Studios to transfer out of the publicly-funded part of the BBC. It would become a separate subsidiary of the BBC group, operating at arm's length. - www.theguardian.com
www.theguardian.comTony Hall: BBC needs political and financial backing to survive in digital age
Not only is the speech Hall's first dealing with the future scope and scale of the BBC - likely battlegrounds of charter renewal negotiations - it comes less than a week after an influential committee of MPs gave their verdict on the funding and governance of the BBC. In a nod to criticism of the BBC's financial and editorial management mentioned in the report, Hall will suggest that he has fixed some of the problems dogging the corporation since taking the top job two years ago - by making pound1.5bn of cost savings and strengthening editorial processes - and now needs support for the BBC to become quotPioneers againquot. As part of the changes, Fran Unsworth, director of BBC World Service, is to join the BBC's senior exectuive team. - www.theguardian.comwww.theguardian.com
Tony Hall plans BBC data 'revolution'
Tony Hall will today set out plans for the BBC to harness the power of data to offer audiences Amazon-style recommendations as it bids to become a “pioneer” in the internet age. The BBC director general will deliver a speech on the future of public service broadcasting on Monday, where he will expand on the “My BBC” plans he set out in October 2013 to help audiences become schedulers. Tony Hall plans personalised BBC Dubbed the “My BBC revolution”, Hall will say the corporation will go further and faster than any other broadcaster or online platform in harnessing personal data to empower viewers and listeners. - www.broadcastnow.co.uk
www.broadcastnow.co.ukSunday 01 March 2015, PM
The Media Column: Brilliant run of dramas sees foreign buyers snap up the best of British TV
The event, which began above a Brighton pub in 1976, featured exclusive appearances from John Cleese and Rowan Atkinson - Worldwide is the international partner for Atkinson's new starring role as Maigret, the French detective who returns in two new films for ITV. Rebekah Brooks has moved to New York for a job at News Corp Rebekah Brooks has landed a new job leading Rupert Murdoch's search for promising internet startups to invest in, it was claimed yesterday. - www.independent.co.uk
www.independent.co.ukbut didn't tackle burning issue of independence
These parts of the report could have been written by the BBC. On scope and scale the committee was critical of the BBC's stance that in order to appeal universally it must do virtually everything it currently does. The committee's suggested replacement system - a unitary, PLC-style board, with a majority of non-executive directors, to run and govern the BBC, and a separate Public Service Broadcasting Commission to oversee strategy and regulation - might even be favoured by many senior BBC executives who would quite like the trust to get out of their hair. - www.theguardian.comwww.theguardian.com
How to set up an indoor aerial - Indoor aerials - TV DVD - Which? Technology
- www.which.co.uk
www.which.co.ukFriday 27 February 2015, PM
Feedback: Face the Facts ends: 27 Feb 15
downloads.bbc.co.uk#24 - Oborne vs The Telegraph, Radio Academy changes and Guardian hustings - The Media Podcast with Olly Mann
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Thinkbox: decline in heavy TV viewing
Overall TV viewing fell slightly in 2014 as the number of people tuning in for more than four hours per day dipped by 7%. According to the study, based on Barb data and compiled by commercial TV body Thinkbox, total average daily viewing time fell by around 11 minutes - from 3 hours 55 minutes in 2013 to 3 hours and 44 minutes last year. Viewing via a TV set was broadly flat year-on-year at 98.4%. According to the data, 16-34 year olds watched 7% less TV via traditional sets in 2014, compared with the previous year. However they were the fastest adopters of new platforms, estimated by Thinkbox to create an additional 5% of viewing. - www.broadcastnow.co.ukwww.broadcastnow.co.ukHouse of Commons - Future of the BBC - Culture, Media and Sport
- www.publications.parliament.ukwww.publications.parliament.ukFriday 27 February 2015, AM
Why Everyone Was Wrong About Net Neutrality
A year ago, Kevin Werbach, a thoughtful and prominent analyst, predicted that quotThe political and marketplace costsquot of strong net-neutrality rules would be just quotToo great.quot He warned, among other things, that Congress would quotGrind the FCC to a standstill, starve its budget, and do everything in their power to inflict permanent harm on the agency. Unlike in 2010, the F.C.C. has written an exceptionally well-defended rule that depends on its broadest grants of authority to regulate quotCommunications by wire.quot Predicting the outcome of an unfiled suit is hazardous business but it is fair to say that knocking out the rules will be rather hard. - www.newyorker.com
www.newyorker.comJohnston Press chief 'excited' by possibility of news deal with BBC
He thinks the select committee's call for a quotMore symbiotic relationshipquot between the BBC and local press industry reflects not only his views but also those of the head of BBC news, James Harding. quotThe BBC must not expect to receive others' news content without providing something in return. We are attracted by the idea of exchanges of content and information, where the BBC local websites link to the source of local material they have used, and in return the BBC allows others to use its content and embed BBC clips on their sites, where these would be of local interest, under a licence agreement. - www.theguardian.comwww.theguardian.comHouse of Cards: how Netflix's $100m gamble made them internet video kings
What is its secret Netflix's chief content officer Ted Sarandos recently reaffirmed that the company relies on its rich subscriber data to take editorial decisions where quotSeventy is the data and thirty is judgement, the thirty needs to be on topquot. Television must mine bigger data or risk being Netflixed. - www.theguardian.comwww.theguardian.com
Net neutrality rules passed by US regulator
Broadband access is being reclassified as a telecommunications service, meaning it will be subject to much heavier regulation Broadband providers cannot block or speed up connections for a fee Internet providers cannot strike deals with content firms, known as paid prioritisation, for smoother delivery of traffic to consumers Interconnection deals, where content companies pay broadband providers to connect to their networks, will also be regulated Firms which feel that unjust fees have been levied can complain to the FCC. Each one will be dealt with on a case by case basis All of the rules will also apply to mobile providers as well as fixed line providers The FCC won't apply some sections of the new rules, including price controls. Scott Belcher, chief executive of the Telecommunications Industry Association, said that the quotOnerous set of rulesquot was an quotOver-reaction from the FCCquot. He predicted a two-pronged response from the broadband providers. - m.bbc.co.ukm.bbc.co.ukThursday 26 February 2015, PM
BBC's James Purnell: TV Licence will need modernising
It also says the threat of jail for non-payment should be scrapped. James Purnell, the BBC's Director of Strategy, told BBC News that he agrees the TV Licence does need to be modernised. - www.bbc.co.uk
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BBC picks ENPS replacement
26 February 2015 Last updated at 1426 ENPS, the news management system used by BBC journalists to put and keep BBC news on air, is to be phased out. The system - which carries newsfeeds and alerts to the desktop, sends scripts to the prompter, 'speaks' to the BBC's audio and video systems and schedules the playout of programmes and reports - has been in use at the BBC since the 1990s. - www.bbc.co.ukwww.bbc.co.ukThursday 26 February 2015, AM
BBC strategy chief: people would pay more and get less with subscriptions
The BBC's strategy chief has said everyone would lose out if the BBC became a subscription service, which he said would hit Sky revenues and advertising on ITV and Channel 4. In response to a select committee report into the future of the BBC which called for the abolition of the BBC Trust and an exploration of other funding models, James Purnell championed the BBC's Hilary Mantel adaptation, Wolf Hall, which has just finished on BBC2, which he described as quotOne of the best programmes for generationsquot. - www.theguardian.comwww.theguardian.comBBC future report: no long-term licence fee; end of the trust; less content is more
The public spending watchdog, the National Audit Office, must be given quotUnrestricted accessquot to the BBC's accounts, something which has been fiercely resisted by the BBC. Ofcom's regulatory powers over the BBC should be extended to include accuracy and impartiality. BBC services have quotStood up remarkably wellquot during the explosion of choice in the digital era with new services such as iPlayer and BBC Radio 6 Music. - www.theguardian.comwww.theguardian.comStarting gun fired in BBC charter battle
Daily Mail headlines last year may have sounded the death knell for the BBC licence fee, but it has taken a group of MPs headed by a Thatcherite to decide that the compulsory levy is going to be difficult to replace any time soon. Thursday's report by the culture, media and sport select committee is simply the firing gun in the charter renewal battle that will wage all the way through to the end of 2016, when the current charter governing the BBC ends. - www.theguardian.comwww.theguardian.com
BBC's licence fee should be decriminalised then scrapped, MPs say
quotThe principle of the licence fee in its current form is becoming harder sustain. We conclude that a degree of subscription could be a possibility in future if the BBC moved to a more personalised ervice, but as a minimum the licence fee should be amended to cover catch up TV as soon as possible. A BBC spokesman said quotThis report confirms the importance of the BBC in national life and recommends maintaining and modernising the licence fee, something we have said is necessary. - www.telegraph.co.uk
www.telegraph.co.ukWednesday 25 February 2015, PM
Media: Can BBC Three be bought?; how BARB measures TV audiences; 'FIFA Files' journalists win award.
downloads.bbc.co.uk
5G researchers manage record connection speed
The speed is more than 65,000 times faster than average 4G download speeds. The regulator said it expected 5G mobile to be capable of delivering between 10 and 50Gbps, compared with the 4G average download speed of 15Megabits per second. - www.bbc.co.ukwww.bbc.co.ukBBC3: Danny Cohen's letter to Jon Thoday and Jimmy Mulville
The media behaviour of these six- to 12-year-olds needs to shape the future of BBC3. The BBC needs to change now so as to learn how to serve them best not just for the sake of BBC3 but to help secure the long-term relevance and strength of the BBC overall. Nor would the BBC be willing to allow a third-party company to decide the editorial direction of a BBC branded channel in the UK. We would also not wish to risk invalidating the BBC trademark by splitting it. - www.theguardian.comwww.theguardian.comWednesday 25 February 2015, AM
BBC Trust probes potential EU rule breach over local TV
The BBC Trust is investigating whether EU rules may have been breached after £25m of licence fee funding was ploughed into launching local television. A report by auditor KPMG, commissioned by the Trust last year, has raised concerns that EU state aid clearances may have been misinterpreted when the broadcasting network for local TV was put in place. The Trust plans to discuss the issues over the coming weeks with the Department for Culture Media and Sport and Comux (DCMS), the organisation in charge of the network’s roll-out. KPMG’s concerns are understood to focus on around 8% of the £25m of licence fee spend and whether certain infrastructure costs formed part of the EU state aid clearance. - www.broadcastnow.co.ukwww.broadcastnow.co.ukTuesday 24 February 2015, PM
Danny Cohen aims to rid BBC of 'addiction' to overnight ratings
Danny Cohen will attempt to wean staff off their “addiction” to the overnight ratings by introducing sophisticated internal data, which will also how reveal how the BBC is reaching underserved viewers. The BBC director of television has invited his division to sign up to two distinct daily emailed reports, which will be grounded in Barb data but offer a more rounded picture of how the corporation’s shows are performing. The first email, titled the Live+7 Report, will offer commissioners and producers a total audience figure encompassing four sets of data: live and viewed on same day as live, consolidated, narrative repeats and iPlayer viewing. - www.broadcastnow.co.ukwww.broadcastnow.co.uk
Ofcom announces trials to help small stations join digital radio
If the trials are successful, UK radio listeners could benefit from more local and community radio stations on DAB.Currently, the cost of broadcasting on DAB is beyond the reach of many small radio stations. Digital radio in the UK. Almost half of UK adults say they now own a digital DAB radio set and 37.9 of all radio listening is digital. - media.ofcom.org.ukmedia.ofcom.org.ukMonday 23 February 2015, PM
Younger Americans generally watching less
According to Nielsen they watched 17 hours 34 minutes a week watching television, 1 hour and 43 minutes watching time-shifted television, and 1 hour 46 minutes watching video online. Back in the third quarter of 2011, Nielsen reported that those aged 18-24 watched 24 hours and 11 minutes of traditional television, 1 hour 39 minutes of time-shifted television, and just 46 minutes of online video. - informitv.com
informitv.comMonday 23 February 2015, AM
Ofcom probes London Lives local programming commitments
Ofcom has held talks with London Live to assess whether the local television station is meeting its commitments to first run local programming. The media regulator has “sought further information” from the Evening Standard-backed station about its content line-up and is now in the process of deciding whether to launch a formal investigation. Ofcom’s approach earlier this month was prompted by questions over the number of repeats in London Live’s schedule - which was reported in The Guardian - and Broadcast’s analysis of the channel’s January output. London Live has a commitment to broadcast an average of eight hours of “first run local programming” a day, three of which must be between 6pm and 10.30pm. It was these pledges in its 12-year licence that London Live attempted to radically reduce last year. - www.broadcastnow.co.ukwww.broadcastnow.co.ukSunday 22 February 2015, AM
Channel 4 could be sold for ?1bn by a new Tory government - TV Radio - Media - The Independent
It warned quotChannel 4's not-for-profit status means it can take risks on the content it commissions,quot it concluded. The discussions come after the Liberal Democrats vetoed a proposal by Tory ministers to examine the case for selling off Channel 4 last autumn. - www.independent.co.ukwww.independent.co.ukSaturday 21 February 2015, PM
Big Centre TV set to go live in Black Country ? Express Star
Freeview viewers may need to re-tune their Freeview TVs, boxes or recorders if they wish to watch Big Centre TV. Ofcom's broadcast licensing committee awarded the local TV licence to Kaleidoscope TV, the holding company for Big Centre TV, following the collapse of City TV last year. The commitments include an initial 41 hours of local programmes a week, including a 90-minute breakfast show, news at noon and a half-hour programme of news at 6pm and 10pm. IT also plans to show 40 hours of repeats. - www.expressandstar.com
www.expressandstar.comFriday 20 February 2015, PM
#23B - BBC World Service's Owain Rich on Drones - Media Podcast with Olly Mann
feedproxy.google.comFeedback: coverage of the Dresden bombings: 20 Feb 15
downloads.bbc.co.ukFriday 20 February 2015, AM
Consumers TV-Viewing Habits Detailed In New Study
Nearly half of SVOD subscribers have found new programming through streaming that the then watch on live TV. More than seven in ten viewers say networks that they already watch are an important source of information about new programming. SVOD subscribers are more favorable toward program quality than nonsubscribers with 60 percent saying, quotThere are more high quality programs availablequot and 70 percent say there is a quotGreater variety of programs than in the past. - www.hollywoodreporter.com
www.hollywoodreporter.comSir Hugh Greene, BBC radical, dies at 76: from the archive, 20 February 1987
Sir Hugh Greene, the former director-general of the BBC who presided over the radical transformation of the corporation's output in the 1960s, died in a London hospital yesterday, aged 76. Mr Alasdair Milne, who recently retired as BBC director-general, said last night 'Hugh Greene was a great liberalising influence in the BBC. With his background as a foreign correspondent in Germany and Poland before the war and his command of the BBC's German service during the war, he had a unique experience of the journalistic side of the BBC. 'He was therefore a natural choice as director-general in 1960. - www.theguardian.comwww.theguardian.comWar on the BBC: the triumphs and turbulence of the Thatcher years
Papers in the BBC archives dating from the late 50s show her bouncing on to the BBC stage as a new MP. She was recognised straight away by the Corporation as one to watch. When Thatcher intervened in the constitutional conventions that had guarded the Corporation's independence from government, Whitelaw cashed in his loyalty to the prime minister to protect the BBC. The Home Office often came to the BBC's aid. - www.theguardian.comwww.theguardian.comThursday 19 February 2015, AM
New HTTP/2 protocol to speed up the web is approved
18 February 2015 Last updated at 1909 A new web protocol that promises to speed up internet browsing has been approved. The Internet Engineering Steering Group has accepted the protocol, one of its senior members wrote in a blogpost on Wednesday. - www.bbc.co.ukwww.bbc.co.ukDTG :: News :: Internet access should be a basic right, House of Lords report says
Produced by the digital skills committee of the House of Lords, the report written for the incoming government stresses that a robust digital strategy is critical to the country's future. The report, called 'Make or Break The UK's Digital Future', says quotDigital technology is changing all our lives, work, society and politics. It brings with it huge opportunities for the UK, but also significant risks. This demands an ambitious approach which will secure the UK's position as a digital leader. - dtg.org.ukdtg.org.ukWednesday 18 February 2015, PM
Media: Advertisers and editorial; British drama; "Immigration Street"
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Save BBC Three petition delivered to BBC Trust
Campaigners against proposals to turn digital station BBC Three into an online-only channel in the autumn have delivered a petition, signed by more than 270,000 people, to the BBC Trust. After the protest they marched the short distance to the BBC's Trust headquarters to hand the petition to Jon Cowdock, the Trust's head of business strategy. - www.bbc.co.ukwww.bbc.co.ukWednesday 18 February 2015, AM
Why is the BBC just so bad at TV news?
Over on the BBC's dedicated news channel - formerly known as BBC News 24 - the lead item at 9pm was pensioner bonds, followed at a quick trot by reports on Prince Charles's fogeyish thoughts about Islamist militancy on the Ukraine on hospital trust finances on Labour promises and Tory rejoinders and on Tony Abbott's shaky majority in the Australian parliament. To spend any length of time with the BBC's rolling news is to be assailed, despite skilled presenters like Simon McCoy, by a terrible creeping blandness, because BBC News has its comfort zones where it dwells whenever possible. - www.independent.co.ukwww.independent.co.uk
Trust gets petition to save BBC Three
17 February 2015 Last updated at 1705 Campaigners have delivered a petition signed by about 271,000 people asking the BBC to reconsider the decision to axe BBC Three as a digital television channel. A BBC spokesperson said 'With the licence fee frozen we've had to make some difficult choices in order to save pound800m a year, including moving BBC Three online. - www.bbc.co.ukwww.bbc.co.ukTuesday 17 February 2015, PM
Listeners complain about lost streams
The problem stems from the BBC switching off certain old systems used to deliver audio streams to particular devices. 5 live listeners who now get their station stream as an international Shoutcast are finding it's missing the sport as the BBC does not hold the international rights. - www.bbc.co.ukwww.bbc.co.ukIndependent review into TV Licence Enforcement seeks views
The Review is looking at options for changing the current enforcement measures, including the decriminalisation of TV licence evasion offences, and whether these options would represent an improvement to the existing system. Reform of current system leave the current offence as it stands but reform the current criminal enforcement system. - www.gov.ukwww.gov.uk'Save BBC3' campaigners deliver petition to BBC Trust
Campaigners have delivered a petition signed by more than a quarter of a million people calling on the BBC not to axe digital station BBC3. The petition, signed by 271,222 people, was delivered to the BBC Trust, which has yet to rule on the plan to take the youth-oriented station online-only. quotJono Read, who set up the petition, saidquotOnly last month the BBC Trust claimed that they want to give power to the people rather than leaving important decisions within the hands of a 'small elite' management at the BBC. quotIf they genuinely mean this they will listen to the 270,000 people who have signed the Change.org petition against the closure of BBC3, and the views of key BBC3 talent who are dead set against the proposals. - www.theguardian.comwww.theguardian.comTuesday 17 February 2015, AM
World Have Your Say TV faces axe
Only a year ago, this same team - currently led by acting editor David Mazower - faced the prospect of losing their jobs as part of cuts announced to the News division the World Service radio programme would go to save money. WHYS presenter Tilley takes up the argument, explaining that if the team had been told it was about the editorial direction of the programme, they'd hold their hands up and respect the decision of the people in charge of the channel. - www.bbc.co.ukwww.bbc.co.ukDTG :: News :: Ofcom approves use of innovative 'TV white space' wireless technology
White space spectrum in the TV frequency band appeals to industry because it can travel longer distances and more easily through walls than the bands used by other wireless technologies, such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. This announcement follows a series of successful industry trials, where TV white space was used to serve innovative purposes, from internet access for ships in the Orkney Islands to video streaming of animals at ZSL London Zoo. DTG Testing played a key role in this development, carrying out comprehensive tests on 50 TVs, the results of which were used to verify Ofcom's framework for the power levels at which TV white space devices can operate without causing interference to TV. Ofcom is also exploring how the white space from other frequency bands can be used in the future. - dtg.org.ukdtg.org.ukDisused Stations: Palace Gates Station
In an attempt to capitalise on the popularity of the Palace as a tourist attraction the Great Eastern resurrected their line from Seven Sisters but this time it was a more modest scheme, terminating at a station called Palace Gates adjacent to the GNR's Wood Green station and avoiding the steep climb up to the Palace. The Palace Gates branch was at its height in the early 20th century with a 30-minute interval off-peak service to Liverpool Street with 41 up and 38 down trains between Palace Gates and Liverpool Street and an hourly weekday service to North Woolwich. - www.disused-stations.org.ukwww.disused-stations.org.ukMonday 16 February 2015, PM
Anger over BBC radio streaming changes
The BBC is also working with the radio industry and manufacturers towards using just one standard, known as Mpeg Dash, which will be industry-wide and open source, said Andrew Scott, the BBC's head of radio music product. Changes to the Shoutcast stream have left the owners of devices receiving it unable to hear BBC Sport content, wrote Henry Webster, the BBC's head of media services, on the BBC Internet Blog. - www.bbc.co.ukwww.bbc.co.uk
BBC and community reporters hook up
16 February 2015 Last updated at 1556 BBC local radio journalists will work with community reporters next week to tell new stories and bring new voices to each patch. The mentoring project is the first fruit of a new national agreement between the BBC and the Community Media Association, the UK representative body for the community broadcasting sector, that builds on earlier cooperation between the two groups at local level. - www.bbc.co.ukwww.bbc.co.ukVirgin Media to expand cable footprint
Virgin Media, with the support of parent company Liberty Global, plans to expand its cable footprint to a further four million homes and businesses in the United Kingdom, taking its addressable market to 17 million premises. Liberty Global has a total of 14.80 million digital video customers in Europe, and a further 7.49 million analogue customers, giving a total of 23.10 million video customers and 16.13 million internet subscribers across the region. - informitv.cominformitv.compick a page