The future of the BBC World Service - News from Parliament - UK Parliament

The main areas for discussion are expected to be the degree of protection for the interests of the World Service within the BBCs decision-making structures, and future levels of funding. - parliament.uk

www.parliament.uk

The BBC will, in effect, be privatised with vast consequences Telegraph Blogs

Budgets come and go, but something more far-reaching will take place in the House of Commons today something that might change our political discourse significantly, benignly and permanently. Instead of being dragged through the courts, defaulters will simply have their access to the BBC switched off in the same way that Sky withdraws its services from those who dont pay their subscriptions. The practical case for the measure is unarguable. - blogs.telegraph.co.uk

blogs.telegraph.co.uk

LBC London Talk station taking over Jazz FM

Dont ask me to explain what digital radio multiplexes are. You might as well ask me to explain Mornington Crescent, or gravity. I thought Id provide a handy guide to non-London readers who may be a little baffled by what LBC is. - radiotimes.com

www.radiotimes.com

Noel Edmonds Actually Wants to Buy the BBC - VICE United States

Already tired from an evening of beating up political heavyweights and chewing over the fundamental origins of the universe, despite the direct threat to his existence, he must have sensed this was also his chance for a smoke break, the evenings comic interlude. We believe it will be lost to Britain. And Mr. Blobbys the man to save it Practically immune to these tactics after a lifetime of jokes about his weird pink slug, Noel decided he was going to play the bigger man. - vice.com

www.vice.com

The Remote Control Needs To Die So The Television Can Live ReadWrite

The remote control, back when we only had four channels to choose from, was the perfect way to interact with television. No directional pad, settings buttons, RGBY buttons, or guide controls. Television sets were used to watch television programs, and the remote control was used to change from channel to channel. - readwrite.com

readwrite.com

BBC licence fee: decriminalising evasion review delayed - Media - theguardian.com

Andrew Bridgen has called for ministers to spend up to a year reviewing the issue of decriminalising BBC licence fee evasion. The BBC is claiming victory in its bid to delay a review into decriminalising licence fee evasion, which it claims would lead to reduced revenue and force it to axe services such as BBC4. Tory MP Andrew Bridgen, who has been pushing for legislation to make non-payment a civil rather than criminal offence via an amendment to the forthcoming deregulation bill, has made additional amendments in which he calls for ministers to spend up to a year reviewing the issue. - gu.com

gu.com

Nick Clegg cautious on plan to drop licence fee prosecutions - Media - theguardian.com

David Cameron has expressed interest in the idea proposed by the Tory backbencher Andrew Bridgen to decriminalise non-payment and instead make it a civil offence. Bridgen has won the support of more than 140 MPs for an amendment to the deregulation bill. The BBC says decriminalising non-payment could cost it 200m in annual revenues, forcing it to close local radio stations. - gu.com

gu.com

Media: Lenny Henry; licence fee evasion; L'Wren Scott

downloads.bbc.co.uk

Media Talk podcast: Lenny Henry calls for more diversity in creative industries

download.guardian.co.uk

Chromecast launches in UK: long-term review

This is a significantly more user-friendly way of sifting through mounds of content. Except for the Chromecast setup app, which helps set your Chromecast's wifi details and other things, there are no special apps for the Chromecast. Instead, app-makers enable Chromecast functionality properly called Google Cast in their apps. - mediauk.com

www.mediauk.com

BBC satire W1A too true to life? - Media Monkey - Media - theguardian.com

The same can't be said for sure about their latest venture, W1A, which pokes fun at the BBC. The Sun reports that Sarah Parish, who plays an inept head of output at the Beeb, reckons the spoof drama may be so realistic viewers won't know that the whole thing is meant to be a joke. - theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

BBC - Blogs - Internet blog - BBC iPlayer apps on Chromecast

I've been working with the team that has added support for this platform to BBC iPlayer and I wanted to tell you a little a bit about it and what we have planned. From this point on, the Chromecast dongle does all the heavy lifting of decoding and playing the video stream. Your mobile device works more like a remote control and just sends and receives messages from the Chromecast about what is playing. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

BBC - Blogs - About the BBC - Why the BBC disagrees with Andrew Bridgen MP about the Licence Fee

By going down this route, we think that any comparison of the existing system against others can be properly examined to judge the full effects. In the absence of a rigorous testing of this proposal, it could have some perverse effects for example, a civil fixed penalty would need to be set at a sufficiently high level to deter evasion, and that could well end up hitting the less well off harder. As the BBC cannot turn off services for those who do not pay the licence fee, it needs an effective payment enforcement system. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Links of interest for week ending 16 March 2014

With multiple new ways of listening to sound, whether via your phone, an iPod or your laptop, we ask what is the future of... Spotify will kill off radio, Pandora streaming will kill off radio, Nick Grimshaw will kill off radio. Shame there isn't a radio tuner though, or that S Voice couldn't launch my UK Radio Player... - mediauk.com

www.mediauk.com

It's the BBC's rightwing bias that is the threat to democracy and journalism - Owen Jones - Comment is free - The Guardi

Trade unions may be Britain's biggest democratic movement, but they are generally shunned or demonised by the media and political elites alike. His second crime is like many journalists to have a political background in his case, he once advised Harriet Harman. Ironically, I recently discussed the issue with him when he interviewed me for a BBC Radio 4 documentary he was presenting. - theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

DTG :: News :: Panasonic announces smart TV partnership with Freesat

Panasonic has today announced a smart TV partnership with Freesat, the UK's free-to-air satellite platform currently in 1.8 million homes. In addition, consumers will receive daily programme recommendations. Launched in September 2012, Freetime boxes now account for over 40 of all Freesat set-top-box sales. - dtg.org.uk

dtg.org.uk

BBC - Blogs - Internet blog - Making the new iPlayer accessible for all

We provide tools, training, and support to teams within the BBC so that they can deliver web content and applications that are accessible to disabled audiences. Earlier this week a public preview of the new BBC iPlayer on the web was released. In streamlining the user experience for all users we wanted to also exceed existing levels of accessibility with the current BBC iPlayer and, more importantly, make the site more usable for disabled users. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Home broadband speeds double in two years as UK overtakes EU competitors - Technology - theguardian.com

A BT engineer connects customers in London to high-speed fibre-optic broadband. Photograph Rex Features The average home broadband speed has doubled in less than two years, reaching nearly 18 megabits per second Mbps and helping to propel Britain's digital infrastructure ahead of Europe's other leading economies. With internet gradually gaining the status of a household utility alongside water, gas and electricity, more Britons now shop online than in any other European state. - theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

Media: Sophie Turner-Laing; live debates; licence fee

downloads.bbc.co.uk

Media Talk podcast: can the BBC regain the initiative?

download.guardian.co.uk

BBC - Blogs - Internet blog - Welcome to the new BBC iPlayer on TV

We are currently offering users a preview of the new version of BBC iPlayer for big-screen devices. If the preview is available for your TV device see the list below and the BBC iPlayer help pages, you will see a new link at the bottom of the screen inviting you to try out a new version. We launched the current TV version in 2011 and since then we have seen a dramatic change in how people use BBC iPlayer. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

RadioToday - Westminster debates DAB future of radio

The Westminster Forum on the future of the UK radio industry is taking place today, with a number of radio execs having their say. He said the radio industry should stop planning for switchover any time soon, get on with running their businesses in the most sensible way for them, and the Government should end regulatory uncertainty by agreeing to keep the FM frequency for the foreseeable future, and issue new longer term FM licences as a result. When consumers simply expect content to be delivered whenever, wherever, in the most convenient manner possible, why have we in radio come to the conclusion that we can simply impose a diminution of platform availability on people, simply because its currently costing us more money. - radiotoday.co.uk

radiotoday.co.uk

Ariel - Jo Kent saves cult hg2g game from scrapheap

Jo Kent, who works for radio and music interactive, saved the Bafta-winning Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy game from a server that is due to be decommissioned and volunteered to give it a new lease of life. The revamped game was launched at the weekend on Radio 4 Extra - 30 years after Douglas Adams created the original text-based interactive quest for devotees of his science fiction comedy radio series. Adams admirer Kent came across the files for a 20th anniversary edition of the game - enhanced by Rod Lord graphics and dressed up in Flash - when she was working through the websites on a server that was to be shut down. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Most smart-TV owners do not connect their TVs to the Internet: manufacturers must respond - Insight - News - Analysys Ma

Consumer electronics CE manufacturers must address this and help consumers to understand the functionality and benefits of smart TVs if they are to significantly increase usage of these devices. We believe that actual ownership levels for smart-TV sets may be higher than that reported in our survey, because some people may own a smart TV without even realising it, having purchased the TV for other features such as picture quality or the attractive form factor. Encouragingly for CE manufacturers, more than a third 36 of respondents who do not yet own a smart TV were interested in buying one, with interest peaking at 42 within the key 3554 age group these respondents typically have a higher income than their younger peers 1834 year olds, but are more interested in new technology than older respondents aged 55 or over. - analysysmason.com

www.analysysmason.com

Decriminalising TV licence fee evasion is 'huge risk', warns BBC strategy chief - Media - The Guardian

We don't know what the system would be but what we're saying at this stage is doing it like this, very quickly, would be a huge risk. BBC3 is going to carry on, we're just doing it in a different way. 25 of iPlayer views now come through connected TVs ... - theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

MPs bid to reverse BBC3 decision - News - Broadcast

Labour MP John McDonnell has tabled an Early Day Motion in parliament calling on the BBC to reverse its decision to close BBC3 as a television channel. The EDM, which is also sponsored by Culture, Media and Sport Committee member Austin Mitchell, said it was “concerned” by the proposal to move BBC3 online. The motion stated that BBC3 has pioneered programmes including Gavin and Stacey and raised fears that changes could lead to compulsory redundancies. It added that the BBC should receive a licence fee increase that tracks inflation when the corporation’s charter is renewed next year. The EDM said this would “ensure that quality diverse public service broadcasting that plays an enormous role in the broader creative industry can continue to flourish”. As well as McDonnell and Mitchell, Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn has also sponsored the motion.

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Purnell warns against licence fee evasion plans - News - Broadcast

James Purnell has argued that decriminalising licence fee evasion would present a “huge risk” to the future of certain BBC services. The BBC’s director of strategy and digital estimated that if the rate of non-payments were to double from its current level of 5%, it would add up to around £200m of the corporation’s funding. Purnell equated this to the combined budgets of BBC4, CBeebies and CBBC. Purnell voiced his comments at a BBC iPlayer event on Tuesday after justice secretary Chris Grayling mooted the idea of making failure to the pay the licence fee a civil matter, to ease the pressure on courts.

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

BBC News - New-look iPlayer unveiled by BBC

Almost 200,000 people have signed a petition calling for the BBC Three plans to be scrapped. Recommendations The new iPlayer features responsive design - meaning the look of the page, and some functionality, adapts depending on what kind of device is being used. The service will recommend more programmes to visitors, due to a growing number - currently 42 - of people who visit iPlayer without any particular programme in mind. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

BBC - Blogs - Internet blog - Introducing the new BBC iPlayer

Fast forward to now and BBC iPlayer is available on over 1,000 different devices and serves 10 million programme requests a day. It now offers more than just catch-up, with live streaming, archive collections, exclusives and premieres. Weve also introduced innovative new features such as mobile downloads, enabling you to watch offline and on the go, and Live Restart, enabling you to jump back to the start of a programme while its being broadcast. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

BBC - Media Centre - BBC unveils new BBC iPlayer

The apps have been downloaded over 28m times and in January 2014 there were 315 million requests - averaging over 10 million requests a day. Over 10 billion programmes have been requested in the six years since launch, with over 3 billion of these coming in 2013 alone. BBC iPlayer is really popular, and new iPlayer will be even better. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Ofcom - Ofcom confirms terms for new Channel 4 licence

Ofcom today announced that Channel 4s licence will be renewed for a 10-year period. Ofcom has also confirmed Channel 4s licence obligations, which are designed to provide benefits for TV viewers across the UK, while being sustainable for the broadcaster over the new licence period from 1 January 2015. Channel 4s current licence expires at the end of 2014. - media.ofcom.org.uk

media.ofcom.org.uk

BBC ready to contemplate alternative to the compulsory licence fee - Media - The Guardian

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www.theguardian.com

BBC refutes subscription suggestions - informitv

Most members of external review commissioned by the BBC suggest that subscriptions rather than the licence fee could fund the broadcaster from 2020, according to newspaper reports. The BBC says the report recommends an inflationary licence fee increase with greater commercial revenue. It says no subscription model is recommended. According to The Sunday Times, most of the 12 members of the centenary review panel thought that the BBC could become a subscription service rather than one financed through the licence fee. - informitv.com

informitv.com

Spectrum Strategy - Publications - GOV.UK

Spectrum is the airwaves over which all wireless communications devices televisions, mobile phones, radios, microphones and more communicate. Our vision is for use of spectrum to double its annual contribution to the economy by 2025 through offering business the access it needs to innovate and grow, and everyone in the UK the services they need to live their lives to the full. The second document sets out an update on Governments plans for meeting its commitment to release 500MHz of public sector spectrum by 2020. - gov.uk

www.gov.uk

BBC News - BBC to argue for licence fee to be linked to inflation

10 March 2014 Last updated at 1226 A report into how the BBC is funded has recommended arguing for the licence fee to be pegged to inflation from 2020, instead of the current freeze. It also recommended making better use of commercial revenues to boost funds. The BBC denied claims it backed the introduction of a subscription service. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

BBC - Blogs - About the BBC - Prepare for an event, the single drama is back

Remember the one off play or should I say the single drama The critics have been calling for their return for years, and on and off they have made the occasional reappearance on BBC television. On the eve of the release of a major series of new single plays on the BBCs iPlayer, Ive been looking through the archives at previous incarnations of the genre, and have found theres quite a reputation to keep up. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

BBC - Blogs - Internet blog - News Archive Connected Studio: Build Studio

Using archive to enhance and enrich audience understanding of News happening now exploiting local and location based experiences and making experiences more social and personal. News can sometimes feel like a moving car. It can be quite hard catching up or getting into a News story when you arrive in the middle of it happening. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Digital 'white space' frequencies to be opened up for commercial use - Technology - theguardian.com

The prime minister, who was invited by Angela Merkel to join her in opening the high-tech trade fair, will highlight the commercial opportunities as he says that greater use of spectrum will lead to an increase from 50bn to 100bn in its economic benefits by 2025. Today we can put in our pockets a computer more powerful than any computer in the world 20 years ago. Indeed as our Spectrum Strategy will set out tomorrow, we aim to double the economic benefits of spectrum to UK companies and consumers from roughly 50bn today, to 100bn in 2025. - theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

The BBC in crisis: We all need a place to make mistakes - TV Radio - Media - The Independent

As with so many BBC Three programmes, though, such a title would be a trojan horse a saucy, immediate way to draw attention to what turns out to be a more complicated story. For one thing, this isn't just an online transfer two-thirds of the 90m budget is being cut. The channel's remit was not to be edgy but to be youthful, two distinct characteristics that are often mistakenly elided. - independent.co.uk

www.independent.co.uk

BBC3's Zai Bennett: 'It's perverse the station will cease to be a linear channel' - Media - The Guardian

I rather liked that mission statement and in the past three years every show we have made has tried to live up to those ideals of innovation and creativity, answering only to our young adult audience. BBC3 is the leading young adult TV service in the world it's more popular than Channel 4 for 16-24 year olds and from 10pm each evening it is the biggest channel for 16-34s bar none. In its rich history BBC3 has had some exceptional successes. - theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

Is it wrong to axe BBC3? - Comment is free - The Observer

BBC3's Bad Education the first episode of series two premiered on iPlayer. They can now happily carry on watching BBC4 into their dotage. We're long past the point at which the first BBC3 transmission of a show tells the whole story. - theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

Closing BBC3 cuts content for young but doesn't sort efficiency issues - Media - The Guardian

Then in later interviews Hall and his director of television Danny Cohen went further BBC4 wasn't safe either, with its future dependent on the outcome of the next round of charter and licence fee discussions between now and the end of 2016. Which means in the interim there must be a real risk that viewing of BBC3 as an online service will be significantly down on current levels. What's more another aspect of the BBC3 move that has received rather less attention raises further questions about the BBC's commitment to these vitally important and underserved audience segments. - theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

BBC to argue for licence fee link to inflation - Media - The Guardian

The licence fee was frozen at 145.50 in the last deal thrashed out with the newly elected coalition government in October 2010. The recommendation is made in an internal BBC report into the corporation's future funding, which also recommends raising the amount of money it makes through commercial ventures, the corporation said on Sunday. The broadcaster made the disclosure following a newspaper report alleging that a review into the organisation's funding suggested replacing the licence fee with a subscription service from 2020. - theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

The end of BBC3 means the end of the old BBC - Media - The Observer

What's in the frame for BBC3, home of sci-fi drama Torchwood Here outraged, protesting stands a crowd of cool comedians, producers, dynamic executives, cutting-edge analysts just the kind of people who tell you that print newspapers are dying because today's youth is swarming online. BBC3 costs around 85m in programme terms a juicier target than BBC4's 67m. - theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com

BBC News - TV licence fee non-payment could be decriminalised

8 March 2014 Last updated at 0348 Not paying the TV licence fee could become a civil offence, rather than a criminal one, under plans being considered by ministers. The BBC said changing the law could lead to more people failing to pay. In 2012 about 155,000 were convicted and fined for not paying the 145.50 fee. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

BBC News - Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy video game returns

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy game embarks on its next chapter on Saturday with the launch of a new online game. The updated version has been made to coincide with the 30th Anniversary of the award-winning game, 36 years to the day since the programme's first-ever radio broadcast. The first two series of the radio programme will be aired on BBC Radio 4Extra from 6pm this evening. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

BBC - Blogs - About the BBC - What's on BBC Red Button, 8-14 March

As always sports fans have ample reason to press red, with Six Nations highlights and a Formula1 preview on offer. Catch up with highlights andfeatures from the festival on Red Button - this weekend is your last chance to watch With the Formula One season fast approaching, tune in for a special F1 Season Preview show. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

The BBC, not its young viewers, might be the biggest losers when BBC3 goes - Ben Ferguson - Comment is free - theguardia

Frankie in the BBC3 programme Growing Up Poor. My job was to find three boys who would be happy to let us follow them around their daily lives. The search took me to some of the most deprived parts of the UK. - theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com