Great things to read about British TV from March 2008 to today

informitv - Amazon box delays

Sunday 27 October 2013, PM

BBC licence fee threat: Greg Dyke hits back at Tory chairman - Media - The Guardian

Greg Dyke, former BBC director-general and now chairman of the FA. He said Shapps's comments were a predictable attempt to whip the corporation's journalists into line before the 2015 general election. Dyke has been backed by Harriet Harman, Labour's deputy leader, who said it was wrong for Shapps to use his position to stop legitimate reporting of failures in government policy. - theguardian.com

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/tory-minister-warns-bbc-to-change-or-prepare-for-licence-fee-cut-8907211.

The BBCs royal charter comes up for renewal in 2016, and Mr Shapps suggested that the corporation needed to be subject to the same scrutiny as other public bodies or risk having its 3.6 billion income from the fee cut or split with other organisations. He said that the recent scandals involving high-profile BBC presenters and pay-offs for senior executives had raised a question of credibility over decisions at all levels of the corporation. I think it is one of too much secrecy. Mr Shapps indicated that his party was prepared to look into ways of changing the licence fee system if the BBC is not able to reform. - independent.co.uk

BBC - Inside the BBC - BBC Where Next

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets CSS enabled. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets CSS if you are able to do so. - bbc.co.uk

Saturday 26 October 2013, AM

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/posts/Whats-on-BBC-Red-Button-26-October-1-November

Friday 25 October 2013, PM

Feedback: CBeebies Radio: 25 Oct 13

BBC - Blogs - Internet blog - Links: BBC iPlayer App Downloads

The BBC iPlayer app has now been downloaded more than 20 million times in the press release there's a list of the most popular programmes and days. A year ago smartphones and tablets accounted for only 25pc of viewing, compared to 47pc on computers. Three years ago only 6pc of requests for programmes came from mobile devices. - bbc.co.uk

Friday 25 October 2013, AM

Media Talk podcast: Rajars, BBC payoffs and cakes

download.guardian.co.uk

Radio Today - Absolute 80s reaches over 1.2m listeners

Absolute 80s, with 1.2m listeners on digital is closing the gap on Absolute Radio, which now has 1.6m after a drop in listeners this quarter. The main Absolute Radio station is up year-on-year but has lost over 300,000 listeners this quarter following its highest ever reach of almost 2m last quarter. All the digital stations combined are recording a record reach at 2.2m listeners, with 60s 203k, 80s 1.2m and 90s 522k all getting individual records. - radiotoday.co.uk

radiotoday.co.uk

Thursday 24 October 2013, PM

Ariel - iPlayer app hits 20 million downloads

It revealed the most popular day for downloading the app, which is only available on Apple and Android devices, was Christmas Day in 2012, when there were 385,600 downloads after many people received smartphones and tablets as gifts. It was also revealed that since iPlayer mobile downloads were launched in September 2012, Top Gear has been the most-downloaded show. - bbc.co.uk

Thursday 24 October 2013, AM

DAB - BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra/ Radio 4 LW programmes - BBC - FAQs - Home

Flexibility within the DAB system means that part-time 'secondary services' can be created to allow broadcasters to transmit extra programs. Radio 4's LW output is transmitted as a side channel to Radio 4's main output. To access 'secondary services' you need to tune in when the service is actually broadcasting. - bbc.co.uk

Wednesday 23 October 2013, PM

Media: Black audiences, online comments, the end of Millionaire? 23 Oct 2013

Tuesday 22 October 2013, PM

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/bbc-executives-face-disciplinary-hearings-over-alleged-bullying-as-seni

Some of those accused are facing upwards of 20 allegations and have been moved to new jobs pending the outcome of the disciplinary process. He decried the existence of sideways managers, which he defined as people not adding value to the process of getting great programmes onto the air. The flawed technology project became known inside the BBC as Dont Mention It. - independent.co.uk

Lord Patten attempts to downplay scale of BBC severance payoffs - Media - theguardian.com

Lord Patten appeared in front of a committee of MPs to discuss the BBCs annual report. On severance pay he said that he felt he needed to contextualise the issue. He pointed to issues such as former deputy director general Mark Byford's almost 1m severance pay deal. - theguardian.com

NAO set for improved BBC access - News - Broadcast

The National Audit Office is set to be granted improved access to the BBCâ€™s books after the corporation agreed changes to its relationship with the spending watchdog. The BBC has thrashed out a deal â€œin principleâ€ with the Department for Culture Media & Sport that will clear a path for the NAO to investigate pertinent issues with more freedom.- broadcastnow.co.uk

BBC News - BBC should become mutual company - Dame Tessa Jowell

So the argument would be the BBC should indeed be owned by its licence fee payers. The current royal charter allowing the BBC's licence fee expires at the end of 2016 and MPs have been discussing its future in a backbench debate. - bbc.co.uk

Jowell: turn BBC into a mutual company - News - Broadcast

Former culture secretary Dame Tessa Jowell has argued that the BBC should become a â€œmutual companyâ€ to make it more accountable to licence fee payers. In a backbench Parliament debate on the future of the BBC, the Labour MP said remodelling the BBC would put the public â€œin the driving seatâ€, strengthen the Trustâ€™s role as a cheerleader for licence fee payers and protect the broadcasterâ€™s independence.broadcastnow.co.uk

Monday 21 October 2013, PM

BBC agrees deal for extension to radio programme repeats - Media Monkey - Media - theguardian.com

Gardeners Question Time and other independently produced BBC shows will be available to listen to again for up to 30 days. The new deal will also allow the BBC to repeat independent productions more times such as on digital station, Radio 4 Extra and more shows will be made available as podcasts. With budgets tight at the BBC, independent producers are not getting any more cash in return. - theguardian.com

DTG :: News :: BBC Worldwide unveils new vision for future

At its heart lies an uplift in content investment to secure the position of BBC Worldwide's premium programme assets the launch of three new core consumer brands propositions and a greater focus on digital innovation to extend the company's reach and routes to market. Davie confirmed BBC Worldwide's intention to grow content investment commitments, forecast to increase by 30m pa to some 200m. BBC Worldwide will look to invest in distinctive premium British content of the highest quality. - dtg.org.uk

dtg.org.uk

Saturday 19 October 2013, AM

BBC - Blogs - Internet blog - What's on BBC Red Button - 19-25 October

It'safun-filled tripfor the wholefamily on the Red Button this week. All this plus Chriss blog, horoscopes and jokes that will make you LOL. Showcasing the music that the station has championed, enjoyed and nurtured, listeners can find all the action on air, online and of course on the Red Button. - bbc.co.uk

Friday 18 October 2013, PM

Feedback: climate change sceptics: 18 Oct 13

Radio Today - Sunshine goes digital at MuxCo DAB launch

The two local stations are joined by Heart and Gold covering 400,000 people in the area. This expansion to more than 97 of the population will include two new transmitters in Gloucestershire. Government has said they will make a decision on radio switchover at the end of 2013. - radiotoday.co.uk

radiotoday.co.uk

Media Talk podcast: Radio Festival special

download.guardian.co.uk

Friday 18 October 2013, AM

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/peston-to-replace-flanders-as-bbc-economics-editor-8887466.html

Robert Peston is to move from his role as the BBCs business editor to become the corporations economics editor. Before that he was political editor and financial editor of the Financial Times and city editor of The Sunday Telegraph. He said I am excited by the prospect of trying to get underneath whats going on in the British economy and global economy, especially in the run-up to the 2015 general election. - independent.co.uk

Thursday 17 October 2013, PM

Ariel - BBC and Pact agree deal that paves way for BBC Store

At the moment about 90 of BBC content disappears after broadcast, and is rarely seen again. People in the UK will be able to pay for a classic natural history programme from the 1970s or all the episodes of Doctor Who. 'Fantastic opportunity' Bal Samra, the BBC's commercial director, whose team was instrumental in driving the deal, tells Ariel that it's a 'fantastic opportunity' for both consumers and audiences 'to take great pleasure from the content we produce now and in the past'. - bbc.co.uk

Former BBC boss Mark Thompson to face MPs over Â£100m DMI fiasco - Media - theguardian.com

It is possible that Thompson will give evidence via video link rather than fly to London. Accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, on behalf of the BBC Trust, was expected to have completed its independent review into the failed project last month, but the deadline is now understood to have slipped to before the end of the year. Its conclusions will then be passed to MPs on the public accounts committee. - theguardian.com

Thursday 17 October 2013, AM

Ariel - Is the set-top box dead?

Wednesday 16 October 2013, PM

Media: BBC2 Controller Janice Hadlow

YouView popularity wanes - Advanced Television

advanced-television.com

DTG :: News :: Report: Online TV video to generate $35 billion by 2018

By 2018, 520 million homes in 40 countries will watch online television and video both paid-for and ad-supported, up from 182 million in 2010. The OTT TV sector is on the brink of a huge take-off as the key players expand internationally, broadband penetration increases, technology advances and as new partnerships are announced on a daily basis, so the report. Online TV and video advertising has been the key driver for the OTT sector, with revenues of 7.4 billion expected in 2013, up from 2.4 billion in 2010. - dtg.org.uk

dtg.org.uk

In Aereo Fight, Are Comcast and NBCUniversal at Odds? - Corporate Intelligence - WSJ

Thats a question worth asking in the wake of Fridays petition by major broadcasters seeking a Supreme Court review of the case over the online TV-streaming service. As close watchers of the case will remember, Aereos legal defense relies in part on a precedent established several years ago in another long-running legal battle, this time between Cablevision Systems Corp. and major entertainment companies. Cablevision won the case and the Supreme Court in 2009 declined to hear the media companies appeal. - blogs.wsj.com

blogs.wsj.com

YouView makes Simon Duffy chairman - Media - theguardian.com

Duffy is currently non-executive chairman of bwin.party digital entertainment and mobile company mBlox. YouView has been hunting for a chairman for the past seven months, following the departure of Lord Sugar that came from a boardroom showdown with Desmond in March. Sugar was paid 500,000 to chair YouView, Duffy's remuneration is not known. - theguardian.com

BBC - Media Centre - Helen Boaden - Radio Festival 2013

Please check against delivery It is a huge pleasure to be here and thank you for doing me the immense honour of inviting me to speak today. As you may know, I have been away from the radio industry for eight years enjoying the cut and thrust of BBC News. News is a place of constant change and you certainly cant dodge the so-called digital revolution if youre in its midst. - bbc.co.uk

www.hollywoodreporter.com

Wednesday 16 October 2013, AM

BBC to Name Head of VOD Service, Treat It Like Fifth TV Channel - The Hollywood Reporter

The BBC is planning to name a controller of its VOD service, the BBC iPlayer, to effectively establish it as a fifth network of the U.K. public broadcaster, director of television Danny Cohen said here Tuesday evening.

iPlayer: BBC to appoint controller for 'fifth channel' - Media - theguardian.com

The announcement comes on the back of BBC director Tony Hall's announcement that an enhanced and personalised iPlayer will pay a central role in the corporation's strategy. Under the BBC's plan, iPlayer will not only allow viewers to watch some content online before it is broadcast, it will also give them access to new iPlayer channels, some of them temporary pop-up ones covering events such as Wimbledon. To pay for Hall's vision for the BBC the corporation is looking to make savings of around 100m a year during the final two years of the current 10-year royal charter agreement, which runs to the end of 2016. - theguardian.com

Tuesday 15 October 2013, PM

Ariel - Local radio at sharp end of public anger

She said that one of her reporters, who had gone to a local school to do an interview, had been spat at by a parent when she revealed where she worked. 'Those pay-offs were wrong,' admitted Yentob, who put them in the context, however, of finding a quick fix to a bloated management. She said she'd worked at the BBC for a quarter of a century and that 'the level we go to to be impartial and balanced in what we do is incredible'. - bbc.co.uk

BBC's Alan Yentob: Mark Byford might have helped avoid Jimmy Savile crisis - Media - theguardian.com

The fallout of the scandal resulted in the resignation of director general George Entwistle after just 54 days. Yentob implied that Byford's experience and close links with top executives across the corporation he was a 32-year BBC veteran and close ally of ex-director general Mark Thompson before being made redundant in 2010 could have made a critical difference in decisions that were taken. Yentob admitted that he and other presenters, such as Richard Bacon who was leading the interview session on a live Radio 5 Live broadcast, are paid too much. - theguardian.com

Smart TV to remain a complementary platform - Advanced Television

The reports author, Roger Stanyard, notes that TV is the last of the great communications and media platforms to embrace the Internet, but suggests that the exercise will take some two decades to complete. This will rise to some 1.6 million in 2017 some 15 per cent of total broadcasting revenues. We also expect that at end of the next two decade most television content will be delivered to the consumer over Internet through a combination of live streaming media and VoD, says Stanyard. - advanced-television.com

advanced-television.com

BBC director general rejects claim that corporation crushes entrepreneurs - Media - theguardian.com

Whatever it might look like on a piece of paper, we are able to point to what actually happens," he said, speaking at the Technology Innovators Forum (TIF) at Broadcasting House. "In practice the argument is not right. The BBC has not crushed entrepreneurs. It has done the opposite". - theguardian.com

Now That's What I Call Music channel queued up - News - Broadcast

A Now Thatâ€™s What I Call Music-branded TV channel will launch later this month as a joint venture between two major labels and All Around The World TV. The channel will air on Sky 378 and Freesat 512 and will target a wide demographic from tweens to families. broadcastnow.co.uk

Lessons from the 4K frontline - In-depth - Broadcast

Sky was quickly into digital, then HD and then 3D 4K should be next. We have to be cautious, says 3D operations and development manager Robin Broomfield. Dramas and movies are already shot in 4K, even if theyre not being mastered or transmitted that way. - broadcastnow.co.uk

Tuesday 15 October 2013, AM

BBCs Tony Hall takes on critics after attack by Rupert Murdoch

Lord Hall, speaking to an audience of tech entrepreneurs and media bosses in London, said the critics are missing the point when they say the BBC is crowding out the market. Rather, he maintained, the BBCs 5bn in annual revenue provides risk capital for independent media companies to make programmes and films that the commercial sector would not be able to fund alone. For me, the BBC is one of those amazing brands that makes Britain what it is, she said, noting creative industries are growing at twice the rate of the rest of the UK economy. - independent.co.uk

Monday 14 October 2013, PM

Ariel - Boaden: Audience not ready for switchover

On the same day that the Corporation announced plans to begin increasing DAB coverage for its network services from 94 to 97, Boaden reflected on a growing appetite for digital. DAB listening was claiming nearly a 25 share, she said, with 52 of the audience listening to something digitally each week. More new cars, meanwhile, were being fitted with digital radios, reaching just over 40 this year. - bbc.co.uk

Humax new Freeview +HD box out 18 October, for Â£180 - CNET UK

Fans of free telly rejoice -- Humax has a new Freeview HD box, that'll be on sale later this week. Perhaps best of all, the box lets you record shows to its 500GB hard drive. It's packing twin-tuners, so you can record two channels at the same time, while pausing and rewinding TV is also on the cards. - crave.cnet.co.uk

crave.cnet.co.uk

informitv - BBC places iPlayer at the heart of its vision

In his much awaited speech to staff he described a toddler sitting up holding a magazine, trying to swipe it and bang it to make it play. To a toddler, a tablet may simply be a broken toy, if you are not careful. The perennial question, like a broken record, is whether public service broadcasting is broken and if so what can be done to fix it. - informitv.com

informitv - Connected televisions forecast at 760 million by 2018

The number of television sets connected to the internet is forecast to rise from around 300 million at the end of 2013 to almost 760 million by 2018. That will represent over a quarter of the television sets in the world. The latest forecast from Digital TV Research includes smart televisions, games consoles, digital media adapter devices, network connected set-top boxes and disc players. - informitv.com

informitv - Google TV may simply become Android TV

The Google TV brand may be quietly dropped as the focus moves to the Android platform on which it is based. There are suggestions that it may simply become Android TV. Given the success of Android for smartphones and tablets, it could become the generic operating system for television products, as part of a wider ecosystem that already supports a billion devices. - informitv.com