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Monday 09 June 2014, PM

Ariel - BBC Two gets Russell Howards Good News

The comedian's mix of topical comments and sketches is one of BBC Three's best-known shows and is regularly among the most popular programmes on iPlayer. If approved, the channel will be solely broadcast on iPlayer from autumn 2015. - bbc.co.uk

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BBC News - Smart TVs subverted by radio attack

9 June 2014 Last updated at 1155 Millions of smart TVs can be hijacked by burying attack code in signals broadcast to the net-connected devices, security experts warn. The attack exploits loopholes in widely used technology that helps smart TVs receive tailored adverts. Once hijacked, the TVs could be made to send messages on behalf of attackers, find other vulnerable devices in a home or launch other attacks across the net. - bbc.co.uk

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Sheffield Doc/Fest 2014: The Calling

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Sheffield Doc/Fest 2014: Love and Radio - audio

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Monday 09 June 2014, AM

Sheffield Doc/Fest 2014: The Calling

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Sunday 08 June 2014, PM

Why all broadcasters should buy into Freeview Connected - Media - The Guardian

At last the free digital TV platform currently in 11m homes 20m if you count second sets in Sky and Virgin households is set to get the internet on-demand functionality it needs to stand any chance of competing with rival commercial platforms. But, well-intentioned and necessary though it undoubtedly is, this refocusing on Freeview raises awkward questions about why it has taken so long to happen. Broadcast TV would decline relatively rapidly to be replaced by on-demand services enhanced by new social media and other applications. - theguardian.com

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Saturday 07 June 2014, AM

Exeter residents hit by Freeview signal problems - Exeter Express and Echo

Television viewers and radio listening in Exeter are understood to be experiencing signal problems. Comments1 Television viewers and radio listeners in Exeter are understood to be experiencing signal problems. City residents have reported that their Freeview sets and digital radios suddenly went blank at the same time every evening so far this week. - exeterexpressandecho.co.uk

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British TV should reflect the country it s made in, says Happy Valley writer - Television radio - The Guardian

Responding to critics of the violence in Happy Valley, Wainwright said it had been responsibly done because it showed the reality of violence. - theguardian.com

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Sheffield Doc/Fest 2014: Love and Radio - audio

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Friday 06 June 2014, PM

BBC and Channel 4 battle to keep younger viewers - TV Radio - Media - The Independent

The reduction is greater than that suffered by any of the other major British broadcasters and well above the market average decline of around seven per cent. ITVs portfolio saw a fall of three per cent among 25-34 television viewers. In the younger 16-24-year-old demographic, Channel 4 was hardest hit, losing 19 per cent of television viewers, while Sky lost 18 per cent. - independent.co.uk

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Robert Peston’s speech warns of threat to journalism from native ads – full text - Media - theguardian.com

It is a thrill and a privilege for me to be with you tonight, for two reasons. Not for Charles Wheeler the siren call of the public relations world, or spurious but well-paid consultancy of various sorts which too few of my own peers have been able to resist. He didnt quite do a Tommy Cooper, by passing away on stage. - theguardian.com

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Friday 06 June 2014, AM

RadioToday - Mercedes C-Class gets DAB as standard

Mercedes now has 60 of models with DAB digital radio as standard and is working towards including it across its range. 21.4 of all radio listening takes place in car. - radiotoday.co.uk

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Thursday 05 June 2014, PM

You can t break copyright by looking at something online, Europe s top court rules Tech News and A

Meltwater is a Norway-founded media monitoring service that sent out daily digests including the headlines and ledes the first bit of the article of the newspaper stories, together with links to the full online articles. In the U.S., the suit was filed by the Associated Press, which effectively saw Meltwater as a freeloading rival to its own newswire services. In 2013, a federal court decided in APs favor, kicking out Meltwaters claim that what it was doing counted as fair use. - gigaom.com

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BBC under fire for lack of staff diversity - TV Radio - Media - The Independent

The former RTS head complained that Today presenter James Naughtie had dismissed the lack of diversity on the flagship show by saying the programme was not a sociological laboratory. The actor and comedian Lenny Henry is leading a campaign to force action on the issue and has warned that viewers might withhold payment of the licence fee if change is not forthcoming. It does seem odd to me is that while people get very exercised about what someone like Jeremy Clarkson said off-air two years ago, no one at the BBC seems much bothered when one of Radio 4s ubiquitous presenters says something like this - on the record - now. - independent.co.uk

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RadioToday - Nine presenters depart Radio 1 1Xtra

Phil Taggart will be on air Thursday nights from 9 10pm with a new music show. On Saturday afternoon, female rapper A.Dot joins 1Xtra with a new show from 4 7pm. In other changes, Skream joins Radio 1s Residency, which moves to a new three-hour slot at 10pm Thursday. - radiotoday.co.uk

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Ariel - Harding points to significant job cuts

5 June 2014 Last updated at 1205 James Harding has admitted that 'a significant number of redundancies' are likely to be made in News. In an email to his staff, the director of news and current affairs reiterated that the division had to make savings of 'tens of millions of pounds' as part of DQF. 'I am afraid that there is no escaping the fact that there are likely to be a significant number of redundancies - most of our costs are tied up in people so there is limited scope for other big savings elsewhere,' he said. - bbc.co.uk

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Ariel - Freeview to launch connected TV service

5 June 2014 Last updated at 1241 The BBC is backing a Freeview-branded connected television service that will be developed over the next five years. The aim is for manufacturers to eventually launch a new range of connected Freeview HD televisions and boxes that consumers will be able to buy in-store. People will be able to watch the service via their TV aerial and current broadband provider without being tied to a contract. - bbc.co.uk

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BBC News - BBC to stream World Cup matches in 4K ultra HD

The format, also known as 4K, offers four times the resolution of 1080p high definition video. The matches - including the quarter final and the final - mark one of the first times a live event has been streamed over the air in UHD in the UK. They will only be made available to a limited number of TVs at BBC sites. - bbc.co.uk

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BBC, Channel 4 and ITV agree £100m-plus Freeview Connect deal - Media - theguardian.com

They are launching Freeview Connect after scaling back their investment in YouView, although they remain shareholders in the rival internet-connected TV service. The 100m-plus five year investment in Freeview Connect is a clear fightback against YouView, which recently announced an identical level of backing in a new shareholder agreement. To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email mediatheguardian.com or phone 020 3353 3857. - gu.com

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Thursday 05 June 2014, AM

STV Glasgow launches - FeaturesExec Media Bulletin

The launch of the channel, which began broadcasting Monday night, has coincided with a universal refresh of STV's logo and redesign of news programming studio sets. - featuresexec.com

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London Live and Russia Today hobble Freeview recorders with dodgy EPG data - Recombu

- recombu.com

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BBC Trust resumes Comux payments - News - Broadcast

The BBC Trust has restarted payments to Comux, the organisation responsible for building the infrastructure for local TV, following concerns over its handling of £25m of licence fee money. The Trust confirmed that the funding – which is used to roll out local television services across the UK – has resumed despite having not yet concluded its investigation into Comux’s financial affairs. The precise details of the allegations are unclear, but they are understood to stem from a dispute between Comux chief executive Ed Hall and Alan Judd, the owner of Canis Media Group, which manages Comux’s transmission network. Hall stepped down as the boss of Canis earlier this year. Hall has defended Comux’s handling of licence fee money, arguing that he personally signed off on all use of BBC funding. "We’re delighted the BBC Trust has resumed payments,” he said. “We will work to reassure the Trust that the financial systems at Comux are robust and fit for purpose." A BBC Trust spokeswoman said:"We have made a payment to Comux, subject to appropriate controls, pending completion of our audit.". - broadcastnow.co.uk

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Film streaming and downloads to overtake box office in 2017 - Film - theguardian.com

Netflix's HQ the streaming service is eating into DVD sales. The study says that revenue from electronic home video ie streaming and downloading films will outstrip physical media in 2016, and that the market for physical media will drop from 12.2bn now to 8.7bn in 2018. They also predict that in 2017 electronic home video will overtake the traditional cinema as the biggest contributor to total film revenue in the US, reaching a total of 17bn the following year double the 8.5bn the sector currently generates. - theguardian.com

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Wednesday 04 June 2014, PM

Media: Google requests; FIFA; Newsweek; Peter Greste

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TV Apps Are Soaring in Popularity, Report Says

When it comes to online video, people may not want to cut the cord. Instead, they want to take the cord with them. People are streaming broadcast television on their smartphones in record numbers, according to Adobe’s state-of-the-industry report on digital video viewing

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BBC News - Harman calls for licence fee review

She told Total Politics magazine that the licence fee was a means to an end, not an end in itself. Her comments came a day after comedy producer Armando Iannucci advocated a subscription-based BBC. It was frozen at that figure in the last deal it made with the government in 2010, but the agreement runs out in 2016. - bbc.co.uk

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Tuesday 03 June 2014, PM

BBC News Division To Cut 500 Jobs - Forbes

I can exclusively report today that the BBC News is preparing to announce 500 more job losses, as part of its ongoing cost-cutting programme, and that industrial action could well follow. Including new cuts to BBC Radio, the corporation is facing a total of between 550 and 600 redundancies. Next month, the corporation is set to announce that it will cut between 475 and 500 jobs from its News division, with a further 75 to 85 going from its radio operation in the UK as opposed to the World Service, which broadcasts globally. - forbes.com

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Ariel - Digital radio coverage will reach extra 2m

The corporation said an additional 162 transmitters will boost DAB's potential reach from 93 to 97 of the UK population. It added that this would bring 16,000 homes into the BBC's national coverage area, and improve reception for a further 42,000 households. They can be heard via DAB sets, digital televisions and online. - bbc.co.uk

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Monday 02 June 2014, PM

Ariel - Boost BBC Russian radio, say critics

- bbc.co.uk

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BT launches multi-room service for YouView-based BT TV - seenit.co.uk

BT has today launched a multi-room option for its YouView-powered TV service, allowing subscribers to add a second box to their account. The BT TV service offers a bouquet of pay-TV channels delivered over broadband alongside traditional aerial channels and on-demand and pay-per-view video apps. By paying an upfront fee of 99 for the box, and a 5pm subscription, customers can now watch and record all of their additional pay channels in a second room. - seenit.co.uk

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BBC News - STV Glasgow TV station ready to go on air

STV won the licence for a station focussed on the Glasgow area in January 2013. The new station will be broadcast across Freeview, Sky and cable. STV says local TV represents a 1 million investment for the company and expects the stations to be breaking even within a year. - bbc.co.uk

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Google planning Android TV launch - informitv

Google is reported to be planning to launch its new Android TV platform at its annual technology conference in San Francisco. Android TV will apparently be a platform that manufacturers can use to offer streaming media and games, rather than a device. So will Android TV finally succeed where Google TV dramatically failed - informitv.com

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Ultra High Definition broadcasts begin - informitv

The French Open tennis tournament has seen the first 4K television transmissions over a digital terrestrial television network using H.265 compression. Channel 4K in Japan has begun the first regular broadcasts of 4K Ultra HD programming. The football World Cup in Brazil will be a major test bed for Ultra High Definition television coverage, but only a few people will be able to see it in their homes. - informitv.com

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Good Morning Britain 'heading for the chop after ratings slump' (and not even host Susanna Reid can pull in the viewers)

Since it launched to a grand fanfare at the end of April, ratings have plummeted as viewers continue to tune in to Reid's former show BBC Breakfast. For the past fortnight the programme has failed to reach the 15 per cent of the audience share bosses reportedly said it needed to survive, and the show is being watched by fewer people than flop Daybreak - which it was brought in to replace. 'But we do want it to get above 15 percent - or it is toast.' Good Morning Britain's high profile launch came after its predecessor Daybreak was dropped for low audience figures. - dailymail.co.uk

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Sunday 01 June 2014, PM

Netflix chief product officer: 'a separate, distinct channel for each customer' - Business - theguardian.com

At least, that's according to Neil Hunt, the chief product officer at Netflix. Hunt, who delivered a keynote speech at the 2014 Internet Week in New York, predicts that personalization and on-demand viewing and streaming are really the way of the future when it comes to entertainment. They are also part of his plan to have Netflix defeat its rivals in entertainment. - theguardian.com

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Could Britain get more bang for its public service broadcasting billions? - Media - The Guardian

S4C, which makes Hinterland, needs to be regarded as a national treasure, not a poor relative, says chief executive Ian Jones. Photograph - Last week Ian Jones, the chief executive of S4C, made an impassioned plea for the survival of the Welsh language broadcaster. The future of the broadcaster is intertwined with the BBC, and yet no guarantee has been given on funding beyond early 2017, with the key questions on level and length of support hammered out as part of the charter renewal process. - theguardian.com

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Sunday 01 June 2014, AM

Lord Coe for the BBC? Remind me of his qualifications again - Catherine Bennett - Comment is free - The Observer

Equally, it could have been written to demoralise fellow candidates, several rumoured to be women. Even allowing for their comparative inexperience in delivering Games on time and on an admittedly insane budget, it could be difficult for the non-athletes among them to rival sporting techniques that Coe, having once refined them on the track, still insists are transferable into any sphere. As for courage, Coe himself has remarked on women's woeful lack of confidence in fitness matters. - gu.com

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Diane Coyle interview: ‘The BBC must kick off its comfy old slippers’ - TV Radio - Media - The Independent

Ms Coyles comments on diversity place added pressure on the BBC in the wake of a high-profile campaign led by Lenny Henry to improve representation of black and other ethnic minorities among the corporations staff. The BBC needs to do more to reflect Britain as a whole, she believes, including rural communities, different socio-economic groups and those with strong regional identities. I think the one thing that I would like to make progress on most quickly is the diversity of the BBC on screen, she said. - independent.co.uk

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Ushering Seb Coe into the BBC chair is not independence, but interference - Media - The Observer

The BBC is looking for a new trust chairman, a supreme regulator/leader. Does Lord Coe know anything much about broadcasting He was a great runner and masterminded a great Olympics. - theguardian.com

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Saturday 31 May 2014, AM

YouView expands to build cloud PVRs and give personal recommendations - Recombu

YouView is hiring TV techies to build a smarter service with cloud-based recording and personal recommendations that can handle peak-time viewing with ease. The free-to-view TV platform is expanding its tech team from 80 to 130 engineers as it aims for the two million UK homes barrier, with a goal of 10 million. Weve got over a million customers and thats increasing rapidly so were eyeing the 2 million mark in the near future and YouView has ambitions to be in 10 million homes in the UK, Lomax said. - recombu.com

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Ariel - Outstanding individual wanted as chair of the trust

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport published the job advert for the 110,000 a year vacancy on Friday, with applications set to close on June 20. They are seeking an 'outstanding individual with significant leadership skills' to head the trust, which has 11 trustees and a deputy chair. The advert highlights the need for the new chair to lead BBC discussions about its new Royal Charter, as one of the most significant responsibilities in their four year term. - bbc.co.uk

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BBC Radio Explorer: a new way to listen to radio

Unusually, this one is visible to the public, if you know where to look. Type something that you're interested in, and the service plays you clips and programmes that it thinks you'll like one after the other. You can skip forward and back to different clips, and a quite clever progress bar shows you images of what's coming up, while the current programme slowly disappears. - mediauk.com

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Friday 30 May 2014, PM

Media Talk podcast: eight years later - what's changed?

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BBC fails to air Shipping Forecast for first time in more than 50 years - Media - theguardian.com

BBC Radio 4s Shipping Forecast ran into choppy waters after failing to air for the first time in more than 50 years. The BBC radio service is something of an institution, metronomically broadcasting four forecasts a day since 1924, a routine which failed for the first time at 5.20am on Friday. A technical glitch meant the BBC's World Service was played in its place, a gaffe that prompted listeners to take to Twitter to voice their bewilderment. - gu.com

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Public Appointments - Cabinet Office

Time Requirements The time commitment for Trust Chairman is 3- 4 days per week or 12-16 days per month. Closing Date 20/06/2014 Interviews Interviews are scheduled to be held in the week beginning 28 July 2014. The BBC exists to serve the public interest. - publicappointments.cabinetoffice.gov.uk

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Wednesday 28 May 2014, PM

Media: New Chair of IPSO; the Duchess's bottom line.

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Ofcom - Consultation on future use of the 700 MHz band - Cost-benefit analysis of changing its use to mobile services

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Wednesday 28 May 2014, AM

Freesat links with Curzon to offer pay-per-view movies - Media - theguardian.com

Blue Is the Warmest Colour will be available on Freesat thanks to a deal with Curzon. Freesat has been talking about adding pay-TV options to its premium service, called Freetime, since September 2012. To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email mediatheguardian.com or phone 020 3353 3857. - theguardian.com

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How Disney learned to stop worrying and love copyright infringement - Salon.com

The soundtrack to Frozen has sold 2.7 million copies. According to the Wall Street Journal, some 60,000 fan-made versions of Let It Go have been watched more than 60 million times. The authorized film clip featuring the song has been viewed over 147 million times. - salon.com

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Fancy a tour of Broadcasting House? diamond geezer

The BBC runs them daily, allowing access inside the corporation's 1930s HQ and the much more recent extension. Book in advance, stump up 13.50 for the privilege, and you could be looking round tomorrow. The curving outside with its embedded artwork, for example. - diamondgeezer.blogspot.co.uk

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