North Yorkshire DAB multiplex officially launched

Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture and the Digital Economy said quotI welcome today's big switch-on in York and wish BBC Radio York, Stray FM and Minster FM great success on DAB. The future of radio is digital and this is part of a major expansion of DAB digital radio coverage across the UK.quot. Ford Ennals, CEO Digital Radio UK said quotThis is a big day for radio and for North Yorkshire. From today over 600,000 listeners will be able to receive their favourite local stations on DAB for the first time. - radiotoday.co.uk

radiotoday.co.uk

Senior Treasury official Sharon White to step into top Ofcom job

quotSharon brings with her an outstanding combination of intellect, political acumen and experience leading complex public organisations,quot said Ofcom's Chairman, Dame Patricia Hodgson. quotThe Ofcom Board is confident that Sharon will provide the leadership and vision to ensure Ofcom continues to promote a thriving communications sector in the UK that operates in the public interest. - www.independent.co.uk

www.independent.co.uk

Sharon White appointed as chief executive of Ofcom

Ofcom has appointed Sharon White, a senior Treasury official overseeing the UK's spending cuts, as its new chief executive. Waiting in White's inbox will be the inquiry into the auction process for Premier League broadcasting rights and a market-impact assessment into the proposed closure of BBC3. Well-regarded for her economic nous, White's impressive CV covers 25 years in the public sector and government, including spells in the British embassy in Washington DC, at the World Bank and as director general in the Department for International Development. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

Coba: ITV receives 87m PSB benefit | News | Broadcast

ITV’s public service broadcaster status is worth at least £87m, according to a Commercial Broadcasters Association (Coba) report published to coincide with the launch of Ofcom’s PSB review. The Costs and Benefits of the C3 Licences report analysed the benefits received by the broadcaster compared to the costs of maintaining its public service broadcaster remit. It found that ITV’s prevalence in the EPG on slot three, coupled with its privileged access to spectrum was worth £161m.- www.broadcastnow.co.uk

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Media Monkey looks ahead to what's in store for the industry in 2015

May Far more gripping than the poll itself on 7 May is the on-screen stand-off in Channel 4's election-night broadcast between Channel 4 News anchor Jon Snow, 67, and upstart new signing Jeremy Paxman, 64 - a tussle Autumnwatch fans compare to stags rutting. One such story prompts extraordinary scenes as Humphrys descends, mike in hand, to the BBC newsroom in pursuit of the man making the decision, news supremo James Harding. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

From Mary Berry to Xbox Studios, the big winners and losers of 2014

The two programmes won a Radio Academy special award, with LBC's Tom Swarbrick also claiming a Radio Academy gold as national journalist of the year. Yes, that's national radio - in February, after years of being London's Biggest Conversation, the station went UK-wide on DAB under new branding as Leading Britain's Conversation. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

Muxco's North Wales multiplex officially launched

Four radio stations - BBC Radio Cymru, BBC Radio Wales, Capital and Smooth will be available on DAB in addition to analogue, whilst two additional stations, Nation Radio and Nation Hits, will be available for the first time in the area only on DAB digital radio. Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture and the Digital Economy said quotI welcome today's big switch-on in North West Wales and wish BBC Radio Cymru, BBC Radio Wales, Capital, Smooth, Nation Radio and Nation Hits great success on DAB. The future of radio is digital and this is part of a major expansion of DAB digital radio coverage across the UK.quot. - radiotoday.co.uk

radiotoday.co.uk

RTE's ending of long wave transmission

Reception of RTEacute One on long wave such as BBC Radio 4 provides simple-to-tune long-range coverage free from co-channel interference experienced on medium wave using simple portable equipment like a transistor radio or car radio. RTEacute should reflect on the benefits of continuing the transmission on long wave by running it in parallel with DAB and FM transmissions. - www.irishtimes.com

www.irishtimes.com

Sky considers withdrawal of Now TV from YouView

A Sky spokesman said quotWe are committed to giving YouView customers the full Now TV experience and have been working with YouView management to achieve this. A spokesman for YouView insisted its partnership with Sky was quotOngoing and both parties are committed to the relationshipquot. - www.telegraph.co.uk

www.telegraph.co.uk

Twitter reaction to BBC3's online plans: Brooker and Herring weigh in

Twitter seized on two strands of today's proposals - the twin pillars of quotMake me laughquot and quotMake me thinkquot around which the new BBC3's content will be based. The imminent devise of Snog Marry Avoid wasn't about to change anyone's minds, either the best thing about BBC3 or the worst. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

Snog, marry, axe: BBC3's factual entertainment shows to go in move to online

A BBC Trust report earlier this year warned that younger viewers and the black, Asian and minority ethnic audience were tuning out of BBC TV faster than other sections of the population. quotBy proposing to move BBC3 online we can avoid reducing drama spend to what I think are unacceptable levels on BBC1.quotBut Hall said the digital opportunities afforded by the new-look BBC3 could be a quotPathfinder for the whole BBC, searching out new ways to engage the audience and learn through this process to set a new strategic direction for the BBCquot.The BBC refused to give any indication how much money would be spent on marketing the new online-only service. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

Media: BBC plans for the future of BBC3, Press regulation panel

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Global to launch Heart Extra and more digital stations

The first new service, Smooth Extra, launches on December 27th and is a replacement for Smooth Radio which is available on most local multiplexes in the UK. Ashley Tabor, founder executive president of Global, said quotNow is a really exciting time as DAB digital radio gathers pace. Global is committing significant investment in the D1 digital platform the only national commercial DAB multiplex with near true national coverage. We're launching new digital only stations, all of which are brand extensions, and thus extending some of our most loved brands nationally on digital radio. He continued quotWe're also continuing to invest heavily in local DAB coverage, adding coverage for our core brands, Heart, Capital and Smooth. We want all our listeners to be able to enjoy their local stations on DAB as well as our national ones. - radiotoday.co.uk

radiotoday.co.uk

Yentob leads the BBC fightback: we're being smeared for exposing Fake Sheikh

In an interview with The Independent, the BBC's creative director also denied accusations of ingrained left-wing bias at the BBC, most recently made in the wake of coverage of George Osborne's Autumn Statement, citing this week's decision by veteran BBC producer Paul Lambert to join Ukip. At a vital moment for the BBC, when its future funding model is under threat, Mr Yentob said he was convinced that quotThe licence fee is the best way to fund the BBCquot and that the organisation would prove its worth. - www.independent.co.uk

www.independent.co.uk

Bad science reporting blamed on exaggerations in university press releases

quotAlthough it is common to blame media outlets and their journalists for news perceived as exaggerated, sensationalised, or alarmist, our principle findings were that most of the inflation detected in our study did not occur de novo in the media but was already present in the text of the press release produced by academics and their establishments,quot the researchers write in the BMJ. To their surprise, the researchers also found that an exaggerated press release did not have a greater chance of media coverage and they failed to find that caveats in a press release - which were rare and included in only about one in 10 releases - decreased the chances of a study being covered by a news outlet. quotSome exaggeration will creep in and we're not going to blame the press offices for doing their job. A lot of academics don't engage with a press release,quot he said. - www.independent.co.uk

www.independent.co.uk

We must resist political pressure

8 December 2014 Last updated at 1507 James Harding has hit back at Conservative party criticism of BBC News coverage of the Autumn Statement, insisting that reporting had been balanced and that the BBC had to hold the Chancellor to account. Like any news organisation, the BBC makes mistakes, he admitted 'No doubt, in the hurly burly of the election campaign in the coming months, we will make some. - www.bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Longer BBC regional evening TV news for election

9 December 2014 Last updated at 0116 The BBC's late evening TV news bulletins in the English regions are to be extended in the run-up to the general election in May next year. BBC director of news James Harding said the change will allow the campaign to be followed quotEver more closelyquot. - www.bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Hunt for new views must be 'perpetual'

The publication, which included an update from the BBC, welcomed the decision by BBC News to give responsibility to a news editor and deputy for featuring a wide range of voices across coverage of major and long-running stories. Regular 'big story' meetings, chaired by the director of news, and talks by BBC experts are also helping news producers to challenge assumptions on various stories, pointed out the BBC. On Europe, the trust noted the corporation's 'unmediated coverage' of EU proceedings on BBC Parliament and Democracy Live and the 'invaluable resource' offered by the Europe section of the BBC News website. - www.bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

The TV is dead, long live television

You don't have to be ancient to remember when possession of the remote control was the source of great family resentment when you were forced to watch University Challenge as a child because the only alternative was your homework, and your sister was monopolising the landline when Christmas involved a great deal of planning and negotiation to ensure you didn't miss the Top of the Pops Christmas Special or get stuck watching the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures while your dad shushed you constantly. Freed by a tablet or smartphone I'd have been able to watch loads of tutorials on early 90s make-up, and my dad could have discussed physics with people who were actually interested. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

Number of UK homes with TV falls for first time

quotThe way consumers interact with their TV, phone and broadband is changing as fast as technology is evolving,quot said Ed Richards, the chief executive of Ofcom. quotOfcom has a major programme of work to assess how to support the needs of SMEs,quot the regulator said. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

#18 EXTRA - Women in Film and Television Awards 2014 - The Media Podcast with Helen Zaltzman

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BBC News boss hits back at government criticism

James Harding has argued that BBC News will be “undeterred” in holding politicians to account following government anger over its autumn statement coverage. The corporation’s director of news and current affairs used a blog to address right-wing press headlines and criticism from chancellor George Osborne, who labelled coverage of spending cuts “hyperbolic” last week.. - www.broadcastnow.co.uk

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Gideon Spanier: Why Britain's telecom companies are expanding into media operations

Offering a bundle of services - triple play or quad play - is not new for the telecoms industry and it has had mixed results in the past. The challenge for BT and Vodafone, with their much larger subscriber bases, is can quad play become a mass phenomenon Enders cites industry figures that show Britons do not have a history of taking all four services from one provider - unlike in, say, Germany and Spain. - www.independent.co.uk

www.independent.co.uk

Feedback: Home Front: 7 Dec 14

downloads.bbc.co.uk

http://readwrite.com/2014/11/27/tv-streaming-set-top-box-stick-dongle-chromecast-holiday-gift-guide-2014

- readwrite.com

readwrite.com

Service review: BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 4 Extra, BBC Radio 5 live and BBC Radio 5 live Sports Extra

The purpose of this consultation is to get the views of listeners to the BBC's network radio services that provide mainly speech Radio 4, Radio 4 Extra, Radio 5 live and Radio 5 live Sports Extra. You will be asked a series of questions about the BBC's speech radio services, namely Radio 4. - consultations.external.bbc.co.uk

consultations.external.bbc.co.uk

RadioAnalyzer moves into the UK and Ireland

RadioAnalyzer describes itself as a business intelligence tool for radio, that analyses how listeners react when they are tuned-in to radio, using quotBig dataquot techniques. Info quotEndre is a seasoned radio pro who has been living in the UK for a few years and has a good network in the industry. His vision for radio is similar to ours, so it is a cooperation we are really looking forward to. - media.info

media.info

BBC strikes back in battle over 'bias'

With even some senior Tories surprised by the reporting of the story by the right-wing press - there has been no official complaint against Smith's report - all the battle does is underline the fact that if the Tories really have gone to war with the BBC, some of the party's most effective generals would have been featured in the newspapers themselves. One BBC insider pointed out the irony of a double page spread in the Mail on Friday whose huge headline quotFury at BBC's doom-mongersquot included a story about the experts warning of the quotColossalquot size of the cuts needed, just the thing Smith was talking about when he talked about the quotBook of doomquot. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

George Osborne's BBC attack branded 'seriously unacceptable'

Ben Bradshaw, the former culture secretary, said Osborne was trying to scare the BBC and warned it was part of a wider drive by Conservatives to intimidate the public broadcaster before voters go to the polls next May. The MP, who is a member of the House of Commons culture, media and sport committee said the BBC needed to stand firm against such accusations of bias because the level of political aggression directed against the public service broadcaster ahead of the election was quotGoing to get worsequot. In an interview shortly afterwards on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Osborne accused the BBC of allowing quotTotally hyperbolicquot reporting about his spending plans and conjuring up bogus images of the 1930s slump. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

iPlayer gets 30-day download window in time for Christmas

TV is undoubtedly king at Christmas and the arrival of BBC iPlayer on Xbox One gives viewers even more choice on how they watch,' said head of BBC iPlayer Dan Taylor-Watt. The latest figures for October show that while just over half of requests for TV programmes were from people wanting to watch on smartphones and tablets, a quarter now come from BBC iPlayer on connected TVs, including games consoles - edging ahead of computer requests for the first time. - www.bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

BBC3: plans submitted for channel's closure in 2015

The BBC Trust has now received the detail of proposals from the BBC executive to close BBC3 as a broadcast channel and re-invent it as an online-only proposition,quot said the BBC Trust in a statement on Friday. The plans, which will be discussed at the BBC Trust's final meeting of the year on 17 December, also include proposals to use the bandwidth freed up by axing the BBC3 TV channel to launch a BBC1 service and extend the hours for children's channel CBBC. They also include proposals for enhancing BBC iPlayer. - www.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

Gigaom

Israel-based video startup Vidmind is getting ready to unveil the second generation of its Android-based set-top box at IBC this week, and the device comes with a twist Vidmind is selling its box to generation of internet-centric TV operators, offering them a combination of broadcast over-the-air TV and online streaming. That's why Vidmind plans to also build a version of its set-top box capable of receiving U.S. broadcast TV, which could be used by used by operators looking to launch a new generation of TV services. -

gigaom.com

DTG :: News :: ECC consults on 700MHz technical framework

The draft decision provides a common technical framework for those countries which decide to implement mobile networks in the 700 MHz frequency range in the shorter term, providing confidence for manufacturers to meet the market demand across Europe. However, this decision is not being positioned as an allocation measure to designate the frequencies for a single purpose in all 48 CEPT member countries. However, even if such a move were agreed it would inevitably take time to become fully effective across all of Europe, given the differences of the market conditions across the EU28, and the time that would be taken to negotiate and complete the numerous rearrangements of television services which currently occupy these frequencies. - dtg.org.uk

dtg.org.uk

Repeat after me: Mirror goes hyperbolic over Christmas TV schedules | Media | The Guardian

Christmas of TV re-runs on page 27, the Mirror splashes on 63 of Xmas TV will be repeats, with a turn to most of page five. Given that the vast majority of the UKs hundreds of digital channels show almost nothing repeats, the amount of airtime they account for on any given day is probably north of 90 full disclosure this is Monkeys back-of-a-fag-packet estimate, rather than the result of exhaustive research. Bravo, Daily Mirror - a stone-cold classic of the genre. - theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

BBC fights back against Sun editorial - media.info

The BBC has issued a rebuttal to two Sun editorials on their website and on Twitter. The line-by-line graphic shows recent Sun editorials, with a response from the BBC. This type of post is unusual from the BBC, who normally issue a short statement. - media.info

media.info

Media: The Times growth; Christopher Jefferies; front page tabloid content

downloads.bbc.co.uk

Bay TV Liverpool makes splash as it takes to the air on Freeview Channel 8 > TV Series and Shows > Movies | Purple Revol

Published Wed 03 Dec 2014 1410 The new local TV station for Liverpool launches this week promising a bold new approach to coverage of news, sport, business, entertainment and features. The channel will burst onto the airwaves with the Big Bay Launch show starting at 5.30pm on Thursday 4th December. Bay TV Liverpool will be on air each day from 6am to 11pm, reaching more than 930,000 homes across the Liverpool City Region and beyond. - purplerevolver.com

www.purplerevolver.com

#17 - Dapper Laughs, Fake Sheik, Julia Davis at Breakfast - The Media Podcast with Olly Mann

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#16 - Radio 1 to launch iPlayer channel, BT wins access to Sky Sports and the TV ads going viral for Christmas - The Med

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#15 - RAJARS, Vice Media plans, Whisper scoop - The Media Podcast with Olly Mann

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#14 - Radio Festival 2014 SPECIAL - The Media Podcast with John Plunkett

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#13 - Viacom invests in C5 / MIPCOM preview - The Media Podcast with Olly Mann

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#12 - Trinity Mirror payouts, Emma Watson hoax - The Media Podcast with Olly Mann

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#11 - Save Our Sources, Next Radio Conference - The Media Podcast

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#10 - SPECIAL: Guardian Edinburgh International TV Festival 2014

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#9 - Scotland debate update, Company magazine closes, Edinburgh preview

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#8 RAJARs, Sky Europe NYT app confusion

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#7 BBC News Cuts, Murdoch bids for Time Warner

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