Daily News Summary: 30th April 2010

April 30th, 2010 - 
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Sky

BT and Top Up TV have confirmed they will launch cut-price subscriptions to Sky Sports channels in time for the new football season. This has been made possible after BskyB reached an interim settlement to drop its fight to get the Competition Appeals Tribunal to implement a ‘stay’ to postpone the implementation of Ofcom’s ruling that it must cut the amount it charges to rival pay-TV operators to offer Sky Sports by more that 20%.

The CAT has brokered a deal under which Virgin Media, BT and Top Up TV can all take advantage of the reduced wholesale price for the two Sky Sports channels but they must place the difference between the new regulated price and Sky’s original wholesale price in a so-called ‘escrow’ account.

If Sky wins the case (likely to be held in September), then the money will be handed over to the satellite broadcaster as it will be able to put its prices up again. If Sky loses, the cash will be returned to the three companies. More HERE.

Film

After seven years and 24 outings (the Darth Vader one was our favourite) Orange’s spoof film board executive and his sidekick Elliott has been scrapped, a sad day indeed, more HERE.

BBC

Alan Yentob explains why the license fee payer should cover him flying business class HERE.

And finally

The Guardian has compiled a helpful selection of Wire quotes that Cameron, Clegg and Brown might have used, more HERE.

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Daily News Summary: 14th April 2010

April 15th, 2010 - 
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Election Stuff

Debate excitement is probably peaking about now with as many as 21 million expected to watch (according to polls, never the most reliable predictor). The networks estimate viewers will be more like 10 – 12 million, more HERE.

The Guardian annotated guide to the Lib Dems manifesto is HERE.

Advertising

Conservative plans for tax reform might lure advertising group WPP back to Britain says its chief executive  Sir Martin Sorrell in the FT, more HERE.

Online

Google searches for David Cameron have overtaken searches for Gordon Brown, more HERE.

Theatre

Rave reviews for Hair in the Guardian, HERE and The Times HERE.

Music

The final line up for Glastonbury is announced, with Snoop Dogg joining U2, Muse and Stevie Wonder for the 40 year old festival. More HERE.

Visual Art

What a free thinking prisoner’s carvings in his Tower of London cell tell us about Britain’s past, HERE.

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Daily News Summary: 14th April 2010

April 14th, 2010 - 
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Election stuff

We launched our manifesto yesterday, download the full document HERE, David Cameron said ‘it is an invitation to the whole nation: we’ll give you the power, so you can take control.’

A sector specific summary will be posted up later. The Guardian have covered it, naturally, HERE, and have just posted their annotated interactive version HERE.

The Lib Dems have launched their manifesto this morning, HERE.

Still in the Graunuiad, Charlotte Higgins is excited by the prominence of culture in the Labour manifesto, HERE, although she does point out this is probably in response to the Conservatives (ie, us)  ‘having taken the initiative on the arts in recent months’. After all, we published our arts manifesto in February, HERE.

Is everybody excited about the first leaders debate tomorrow? We are! And so are ITV apparently, going fully American with online coverage featuring ‘sentiment’ tools to show reaction of the audience and Twitter users, more HERE.

BBC

As those of you that stayed up all night reading our manifesto will know, if elected we will ensure that the BBC’s accounts are fully audited, more HERE.

Pay TV

BSkyB chief executive Jeremy Darroch has suggested that ‘basic tier’ pay TV channels such as MTV, Discovery and National Geographic could become ‘collateral damage’ after Ofcom’s ruling which requires Sky to sell its premium sports channels to rivals at a discount. More HERE.

Webby Awards

Nominations are out, the New York Times and the BBC lead the pack with 24 nominations between them, more HERE.

Advertising: Enders Analysis says revenues from TV advertising could grow 10% year on year, more HERE.

Broadband: Rutland telecom has taken on BT at its own game, offering the residents of Lyddington speeds of up to 40Mbps, more HERE this is exactly the kind of local innovation our own broadband proposals will encourage and enable more of, more HERE.

Theatre: as Hair opens in the west end tonight, producer Cameron Mackintosh is profiled in the FT, HERE

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Weekly email: 1st April 2010

April 12th, 2010 - 
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We’d like to wish all our readers a very Happy Easter.

Today is April Fool’s day.

Tory Stuff

Ed spoke at the LGA Culture Tourism and Sport conference in Gateshead yesterday. Read his speech, and about the conference more widely, on their blog, including ACE chief executive Alan Davey who has been making the case for maintaining funding at local government level, HERE

Creative Industries

Ofcom – busy, busy, busy!

Ofcom – Pay TV

Ofcom has published the conclusion of its investigation into the pay TV market and concludes that: Sky must offer Sky Sports 1 and 2 to other retailers at a wholesale price set by Ofcom; give conditional approval to Sky and Arqiva’s request to offer pay TV services on digital terrestrial TV (Picnic), dependent on a wholesale deal; it will refer concerns regarding the sale and distribution of film rights  to the Competition Commission; and that Sky must offer wholesale HD versions of Sky Sports 1 and 2. More HERE and analysis on Media Guardian HERE .

BT does not think that Ofcom has gone far enough, saying : ‘Despite being a step in the right direction, it is disappointing that Ofcom seem to have compromised.  This is because their remedy does not apply to all Sky Sports Channels, there’s also no price for HD channels, they’ve set a price bundle of Sky Sports 1 and 2 at a higher rate than they suggested and they’ve left out the issue of premium movies.’

Sky have confirmed that they will appeal.

Ofcom – broadband

Ofcom has said that ISPs must do a better job of telling customers about broadband speeds, or face stiffer regulation, Full research HERE more HERE

Ofcom – media literacy

Ofcom’s report into media children’s media literacy suggests that a quarter of UK internet users aged eight to 12 have profiles on Facebook, Bebo or MySpace last year, despite the lowest minimum age set on any of the sites is 13, and band news for the music industry, finding that 44% of children between 12 and 15 thought downloading shared copies of films and music for free should not be illegal, more HERE Read the full report HERE

Ofcom – termination rates

Ofcom has published plans to reduce mobile termination rates (MTRs) – the charges operators made to connect calls to each others’ networks – to benefit UK consumers.

They will be consulting on these proposals until 23 June, more HERE

Ofcom – CRR

Ofcom has published the submission it made to the Competition Commission on CRR. It states that “Ofcom does not believe that retaining the undertakings in their current form is appropriate” HERE

Broadband

US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman, Julius Genachowski submitted a new “100 Squared” Nation Broadband Plan to Congress, full plan HERE, he raised the bar to an unprecedented height by proposing that that a 100 million U.S. homes should have affordable access to actual download speeds of at least 100M bps (bits per second) Internet, and upload speeds of at least 50 Mbps by 2020, more HERE

Virgin are using innovative methods to get broadband to rural areas, more HERE

Press Complaints Commission

Following the extension of the PCC’s remit to blogs , Rod Liddle’s Spectator blog is the first to have a complaint upheld, more HERE

Video Games

Skillset have pointed out, rightly, that while the promise of tax breaks are an important step for the sector, the need to tackle the skills gap is as, if not more,  important. More HERE.

Channel 4

The Culture Media and Sport Select Committee has published a report on Channel 4, more: HERE

It calls for increased over-sight of the channel if its PSB remit is extended to include other platforms including E4, More4, Film4 and online services. More in the Times,

HERE and from PA, HERE

Channel 4 is to double its budget for arts funding, under a new arts board chaired by its director of television and content Kevin Lygo. Tabitha Jackson has been appointed as commissioning editor art, more HERE

Advertising

Professor Tanya Byron published her progress review on child internet safety at Number 10 on Monday. Read it in its full 60-page glory HERE. The report commends the ad industry for the work done so far, especially the industry agreement to CAP’s remit extension – HERE.

UK internet advertising expenditure has grown 4.2% to £3.5bn in 2009, and IAB/PWC figures reveal that ad spend mushroomed by 2,200% during the last decade. Search has surpassed £2bn, while online video ads have enjoyed spectacular growth. The Internet Advertising Bureau’s Guy Phillipson appeared on BBC R5 and you can listen to him HERE.

Radio

The Lords Communication Committee has published its report into digital switchover of television and radio this week, a summary is on our blog HERE more on the radio aspects of the report HERE download the full report HERE

Film

The UK Film Council has published its three year plan and launches its new £15m Film Fund, following three months consulting on proposals across the film sector. More HERE

EM Media announces nine new digital media projects with the support of the East Midlands Development Agency, more HERE

Camelot

The National Lottery operator’s shareholders have agreed to sell their shares to the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan for £389 million, more HERE .  Just think, it could have been you. Then again, if you used to teach in Ontario, it is you.

Fashion

Last week, twenty emerging London design talents flew to New York to show their work at the Soho Grand at the invitation of Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue, more, and an analysis of the increasing profile of fashion in the political world, HERE

The British Fashion Council have launched their first ever ‘Pop-Up’ store to celebrate new British design talent at Bicester Village yesterday, featuring clothes from Erdem, Mark Fast, PPQ, Todd Lynn, House of Holland, Osman and Hannah Marshall, more HERE

Meanwhile Skillset’s remit is expanding to cover fashion and textiles creating one of the biggest Sector Skills Councils, more HERE

Arts and Heritage

Libraries

Following the Libraries Review, which promises to make an ‘affirmative order preventing libraries from charging for ebooks lending of any sort, including remotely’, the Booksellers Association has written to Margaret Hodge warning that the commercial book business risks being undermined by the free loading of ebooks by libraries in a letter sent to culture minister Margaret Hodge, more HERE The Booksellers Association have been joined in their protest by the Society of Authors and the Writers Guild, who have also written to La Hodge on the matter, more HERE

Visual Art

As part of its tenth anniversary celebrations, Tate Modern will host a festival of independent arts, No Soul For Sale, hosting over 60 of the world’s most innovative independent art spaces, not-for-profit organizations and artists’ collectives to take over the turbine hall, more HERE

Meanwhile Tate has appointed former Guardian and Observer marketing director Marc Sands to be director of audiences and media, congratulations to him, more HERE

Heritage

Ben Bradshaw has announced £250,000 funding for Bletchley Park Museum funding an urgent repair programme within the conservation area, more HERE

The Historic Houses Association have a lovely new website, HERE

The Heritage Lottery Fund has announced a £25m increase in its annual budget for new awards to heritage projects across the UK following a rise in National Lottery ticket sales, more HERE .  They’ll get even more if we win the election.

Dance

The Dance sector has a national campaign running to get as many Parliamentary candidates as possible interested in and connected to dance, more HERE

Music

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic’s In Harmony music project is the subject of a specially commissioned 30-minute film to be broadcast on BBC One North West on Easter Monday, 5th April, at 3.40pm , more HERE

Cultural Learning Alliance

The Cultural Learning Alliance brings together the cultural sector including museums, film, libraries, heritage, dance, literature, new media arts, theatre, visual arts and music with the education and youth sector to promote  the vision of a stronger cultural entitlement. More HERE It sounds great to us, and there’s a lovely film of David Cameron on their website.

Museums

Congratulations to the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry, which won the 2010 Guardian Family Friendly Museum Award today! More HERE

The NMDC’s monthly newsletter is out now, read it HERE

Writing

Congratulations to British writer Rosemary Sutcliff has been awarded the major US 2010 Phoenix Award, for The Shining Company more HERE

Culture Blogs

Lord ‘jostle like a dragon’ Tebbit has his own culture blog, more HERE

Election Fever

Rumour has it the election might be called shortly. We hope that this email will continue during the campaign, although we can’t quite confirm that as yet, so watch this space. Email-wise, during the campaign Ed will be on HERE. Helen will be delighted to receive your suggested Weekly contributions on HERE.

In Parliament

Parliamentary Questions

Pricey hospitality at the DCMS HERE

Payments to the Newspaper Licensing Agency HERE

Almost 23000 people employed at the BBC HERE

Public opinions of the BBC HERE

EDMs

1228 Hospital Radio Awards HERE

1223 Digital Economy Bill HERE

1215 Licensing of Live Music HERE

1206 National Anthem and the BBC HERE

Where we’ve been and who we’ve seen

Game Based Learning Conference, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner at Working Title, AOP, Getty Images, BAPLA, Video Games Hustings, City Screen, LGA Annual Culture Tourism and Sport conference, Newcastle City Library,  Great North Museum: Hancock, Telegraph digital team, Ofcom, UK Music reception, Big Society Seminar.

Ed Vaizey

Shadow Arts Minister

Jeremy Hunt

Shadow Culture Secretary

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Weekly email 25th March 2010

April 12th, 2010 - 
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Here is this week’s news:

Budget Special

Despite their disingenuous hints that the arts budget might be ring-fenced, the Budget has revealed Labour’s plans to cut the culture budget substantially.  Ben Bradshaw has announced £60 million of cuts – sorry, efficiency savings – across the DCMS. The overall budget is frozen for a year – so effectively cut again – and the capital budget has been reduced by £300 million. More HERE

The Budget also announced a number of other measures:

A tax credit for the video games industry. We have long argued for some form of fiscal support for the industry, so we welcome the announcement. We note, in a completely unchurlish way of course, that Labour ruled this out in December, and this announcement will not be passed before the general election.  TIGA, the trade body for the industry, has welcomed Labour’s move but surprisingly not acknowledged our long campaign to get Labour to take the video games industry seriously HERE

A tax rise for every family in the country that still uses a landline. The phone tax has been confirmed and will cost the British public an extra £175 million per annum – including a £70 million levy on British business – and could drive 200,000 people off the internet. We have promised to scrap the phone tax, deregulate the market in order to stimulate investment and have ruled out adding extra charges to consumers to pay for superfast broadband rollout. Jeremy has pointed out that Gordon Brown’s phone tax will push 200,000 homes off the internet, more HERE

In contrast, we propose to fund rural broadband from the digital switchover element in the licence fee.

A Gift Aid forum has been set up and will recommend possible reforms in the autumn. We have already said we will reform Gift Aid, so that’s another idea nicked from us.

Streamlining DCMS bodies. Labour have said they will reduce advisory bodies by half; merge the Film Council and the British Film Institute; and merge the National Lottery Commission with the Gambling Commission.

Jeremy has blogged on the budget HERE

Creative Industries

Regional News

The Government is pressing on with IFNCs, today announcing preferred bidders in the three areas, HERE in an attempt to force them through whatever happens in the election, which is ridiculous as Jeremy points out HERE. Unfortunate, too, that the chair of the selection panel responsible for choosing the bidders has encouraged the bidders to plan for life without public funds on the day of their selection, more HERE

Film and television

The Government have responded to the House of Lords Select Committee report on the British Film and Television industries, full response HERE . Recommendations in the response include increasing the net rate of film tax relief for productions under £5m to 30 percent, and to make salaries of personnel employed on a production eligible for tax relief whether they are working in the UK or on location abroad, so long as the personnel are paid and taxed in the UK.

Film London an Screen South are merging, more HERE

Skillset

Skillset has published a report which suggests there is an “oversupply” in many general creative media roles, but serious skills shortages in areas like digital technology and multiplatform capability, broadcast engineering, business and commercial know-how, visual effects and craft-orientated jobs, more HERE.

Skillset has also announced a new Advanced Apprenticeship in Creative and Digital Media, funded by the London Development Agency to help London’s diverse communities enter the industry, with a view to supporting the range of media activities needed for the London 2012 games. We think this is a great idea, more HERE

And, in a very busy week for Skillset, they have also published guidelines for creative industry employers offering work placement schemes, more HERE

Television

Congratulations to Freesat who have reached the 1 million sales mark well ahead of target more HERE

Architecture

Jean Nouvel will design the 2010 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion. As a Pritzker Prize winner and recipient of the RIBA Royal Gold Medal, Jean Nouvel has won worldwide acclaim with magnificent structures including the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris and the extension of the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, more HERE

Advertising

The Government is now the biggest advertiser in the UK, after spending £208m in 2009, according a league table published by Marketing, HERE. The COI increased its spending by 13% year on year, to outspend Procter & Gamble by nearly £53m. The figures also show that advertising spend by the top 100 advertisers fell by £854m, a 10% reduction on year on year. Hard-pressed sectors like financial services and car making recorded the biggest falls in ad spend.

Product Placement

The Government placed legislation on product placement before Parliament last week. The legislation will enact the changes that Ben Bradshaw announced on 9th February. Read the legislation HERE , explanatory memorandum HERE and Ben Bradshaw’s statement HERE.

The regulations include a requirement for broadcasters to flag up product placement to viewers in any programme which is made or commissioned by the broadcaster, while product placement will be signaled at the beginning and end of the programme and after any ad breaks it may contain.

Ofcom will now amend the Broadcasting Code to bring the changes into effect, but before they can do that, they are required to hold a public consultation. Ofcom anticipates that its consultation will be issued in June and will conclude at the end of the summer, with the revised Broadcasting Code being published in the autumn.

Design

The first national survey of the UK design industry since 2005, released today by the Design Council, shows UK design industry has grown since 2005, despite the recession. There are 232,000 designers, 29% more than in 2005 and earnings have increased by £3.4bn. The combined budget of in-house teams and fee income of freelances and consultancies is £15bn. Collectively in-house design team budgets are down 34% since 2005, but the number of in-house design teams in the UK has increased by 10% to 6,500 suggesting that employers are holding on to creative employees despite downward pressure on budgets.  More HERE.

Multi tasking Help for Heroes/ legal music buying corner!

With the election approaching here’s your chance to obtain a unique souvenir of parliament, and to help a very good cause at the same time.  MP4′s first full album ‘Cross Party’,  issued by Revolver Records and produced by Robin Millar (producer of Sade’s platinum classic album Diamond Life) is now available to buy, with any profits going to Help for Heroes.  Here’s how you can obtain your copy and help in other ways, HEREl.

Arts and Heritage

Culture

The great and the good of the cultural world got together today to launch the Culture for Capital Manifesto today at the British Museum. More HERE and HERE, and the publication can be found here, HERE.

Philanthropy

Arts and Business have launched a ‘ Private Sector Policy for the Arts’ this week, which has some very interesting ideas. A&B Chief Executive Colin Tweedy said ‘artistic successes of the last decade have been driven by the deeply interdependent nature of the arts economy. The healthy levels of public funding secured quality for the sector, allowing arts organisations to attract increasing visitor numbers (and earned income), which in turn has encouraged further private investment (sponsorship and philanthropy) thus enabling further growth and consolidation.  This three-legged tripod mixed economy model is under threat.  This policy is designed to reboot and rewire it’ more HERE

Arts Council

ACE has announced its final round of Sustain funding, in another list that overwhelming favours large, well known arts organisations from the Young Vic to English National Ballet. More HERE

Heritage

A sudden flurry of government activity on the heritage front, with the publication of their vision statement HERE and a new Planning Policy Statement (PPS – now number 5, replacing 15 and 16 – keep up at the back!) HERE.

The general view from the sector is that it is a big improvement, see English Heritage’s response, HERE and Heritage Alliance’s response, HERE.

The aspiration for joined up thinking across government is a good one, although the document is a very thin on how this will actually be achieved. There is also very little mention of plans to bring back the much vaunted, long postponed Heritage protection bill – with one reference down there on page 20/21 (depending on which version you have). So once again an all mouth and no trousers policy announcement from the Government, while we, in contrast, have committed to a heritage and museums bill in the first Parliament after the election.

The Historic Houses Association has responded HERE, calling on the government to make firm commitments to action.

Heritage Crafts

The Heritage Crafts Association has launched this week, to support and promote heritage crafts as a fundamental part of our living heritage. More HERE and a good article in the Guardian, HERE

Staffordshire Hoard

The Hoard has been saved for the nation following the pledge of £1,285,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund this week. Congratulations all round, more, and you can still donate to the ongoing conservation and research work into the hoard HERE

Libraries

The Government’s much delayed, much criticised libraries review has finally been published .  Again, most of the ideas are nicked from us. More HERE

Quite a lot of people are rude about it HERE while the Unison response HERE called on the government to go further, and set out clear guidelines on exactly what service local authorities are obliged to provide, which is exactly what we have suggested in our own proposals for a libraries charter.

The Society of Chief Librarians has launched their libraries manifesto this week, more HERE

Skills

Funding has been confirmed for a £13 million skills academy within the Royal Opera House Production Park in Thurrock more HERE although this would seem to suggest that Gordon Brown announced it a few weeks ago, and DCLG have only just confirmed the money, which is either very disorganised, or a bit worrying.

Missions Models Money

Has published a paper on a collaborative project between Opera North and the University of Leeds to develop DARE, a business model that uses resources differently, ‘helping to equip Opera North with the capacity to continuously innovate and grow artistically in an environment of huge opportunity and a climate of economic uncertainty.’ More HERE

Olympics

While the big news on the Olympics front this week was the launch of the official ticketing website, more HERE the cultural Olympiad announced their Film Nation: Shorts project which will give young film-makers the chance to get their work showcased at the Games, more HERE

BoJo’s Cultural Jobs corner

His Borisness is recruiting for cultural strategy and music education strategy roles, more HERE and HERE.

New Culture Forum

Martin Amis will be in conversation with NCF director Peter Whittle at the Royal Society of Arts on 7th April, discussing feminism and the sexual revolution, the themes raised in his latest book. More HERE

In Parliament

Parliamentary Questions

UK World Heritage Sites and grants from the HLF HERE

Promotion of the Government’s free theatre initiative HERE

14,000 have registered for the National Theatre entry pass HERE

No requirement for local authorities to provide performance data on museums and libraries to the MLA HERE

The Government deny there will be a cut to the NHMF budget this year HERE

Where we’ve been and who we’ve seen

Tom Bloxham, Radio Production in the North conference, Julian Lloyd Webber, Nominet, Beringea, South East Arts round table, Open House architecture debate, Anya Hindmarch’s pub, Bush Theatre.

Ed Vaizey

Shadow Arts Minister

Jeremy Hunt

Shadow Culture Secretary

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News Summary: 5th March 2010

March 5th, 2010 - 
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Advertising

Trinity Mirror – owner of the Daily Mirror and over 120 regional titles – has followed ITV’s announcement (on which more HERE) with further signs that the advertising recession may be over. Reporting better than expected full-year results, Trinity Mirror said that it expected advertising revenue to continue improving after a dire 2009, adding that it was considering reinstating a dividend. Trinity Mirror chief executive, Sly Bailey reports resilience:

‘We are emerging from the downturn leaner and fitter… Ongoing tight management of the cost base enabled costs to fall by £67.9m and was crucial in supporting our profits… During 2010, we will maintain a focus on costs whilst reaping the benefits of an improvement in the rate of decline in advertising revenues. Whilst the board remains cautious about the economic outlook, it anticipates a satisfactory performance for 2010.’ More in The Guardian HERE; Times HERE and HERE; and Telegraph HERE.

Broadcasting

ITV announced yesterday it had secured the UK broadcasting rights to this year’s IPL Twenty20 cricket competition, which gets underway in a week. ITV will show 59 live games over the 45-day tournament on its ITV4 channel, as well as its website, ITV.com. Zai Bennett, director of digital channels and acquisitions at ITV, said it was an ‘exciting acquisition for one of the UK’s fastest-growing digital channels’. Notably, neither Sky, which at present broadcasts all the live cricket shown in Britain, nor the BBC, which is under constant pressure to show cricket, has showed bidding interest. ITV’S deal will prove an interesting test to the hypothesis that cricket will garner an audience only on free-to-air. More in The Independent HERE and HERE.

BBC Radio 1 is to introduce a new mid-week rundown of the 40 pop bestsellers of the week — so far — in the “Official Chart Update”, every Wednesday between 3.30pm and 4pm. Gennaro Castaldo, of HMV, has said the move will give a boost to help up-and-coming artists, who tend to sell better towards at the start of the week:

‘With social media the charts are more relevant than ever before because you have an instant gauge of what people are doing… The charts remain hugely important to the industry because you know where you stand. And we all love the competition and the race.’ More in The Times HERE.

In other BBC news, BBC Worldwide has agreed a deal to buy out the remaining 40 per cent of DVD business 2entertain it did not previously own in a deal worth £17m. The sale, negotiated with the administrators of Woolworths, BBC Worldwide’s partner in the venture, started at the end of 2008. The BBC said the move secured the future of 2entertain, which publishes DVD titles toinclude Gavin & Stacey, Doctor Who and Fawlty Towers. John Smith, CEO of BBC Worldwide, has said:

“I am pleased that we have finally concluded these negotiations, and have secured the future of 2entertain… Licence fee payers will continue to benefit from 2|entertain’s contribution to BBC Worldwide, which helped us return a total of £153m to the BBC in the last financial year,” More in The Independent HERE.

There’s also more on BBC 6 Music, with The Guardian pondering the delivery of ‘new music’ HERE and The Independent arguing that ‘with more people doing their listening online, 6 Music has lost what little raison d’être it had in the first place’ HERE.

Jeremy’s letter to The Guardian

Jeremy has written to The Guardian in response to Jonathan Freedland’s Tuesday Guardian article entitled ‘The BBC is caving in to a Tory media policy dictated by Rupert Murdoch’, which you can read HERE. Jeremy responded as follows:

‘Jonathan Freedland suggests Conservative media policy can be summed up in two words: Rupert Murdoch. I would suggest his article can be summed up in two other words: Ben Bradshaw.

His article is so far off the mark, and bears so little relation to the facts, that he appears to have swallowed Labour spin hook, line and sinker. Every single accusation he makes has been made by Bradshaw, the culture secretary, at the dispatch box – but instead of scrutinising their accuracy, Freedland has simply reproduced them almost verbatim.

Let’s take the licence fee. He says: “The Murdochs constantly demand a cut in the licence fee. Last year Cameron nodded dutifully, and called for an immediate freeze in the licence fee.” We did propose a freeze last year – why should the BBC get a rise when there was no inflation?

But it is Labour, not the Tories, who have questioned the licence fee, with Bradshaw putting the principle of the licence fee up for debate only this week. By contrast, David Cameron has written, in the Sun of all places, that he supports the BBC and the principle of the fee. And we have explicitly ruled out privatising Radio 1.

In fact we listen to all sorts of people about media policies – including your own Guardian Media Group, who have expressed concerns about the size and scope of the BBC’s website.

Freedland also raises “the Murdochs’ hatred of Ofcom”, quoting David Cameron as wanting to cut the regulator “by a huge amount”. We do want to slim down quangos, and do believe media policy should be decided by elected ministers not unelected officials. However, we have explicitly made it clear that Ofcom would continue to regulate on competition issues – including pay TV – at arm’s length.

Freedland says: “Sky wants to keep exclusive access to the Ashes, rather than seeing them return, free to air, to the BBC or C4, and the Conservatives agree.” Actually, all we have said is that any decision should take account of the financial impact on grassroots sport. It is not Murdoch’s lobbying that has held us to this conclusion – but the genuine concerns of county cricket boards all over the country that any change would mean less money available to get more young people playing sport.

The general election is coming and political smears will obviously be par for the course. But the debate needs to be based on the facts. The Labour government bases its approach around regulation and subsidy; a modern Conservative approach wants to preserve what is best about British broadcasting while updating regulations to take account of the new media world we live in.

That means support for the BBC as a great national institution – but also a new network of city-based local television stations, superfast broadband for the whole country, and a thriving independent sector that drives on choice and quality for everyone. In this area, Jonathan and I would perhaps agree on one thing: there is a real choice.’ As published in today’s Guardian HERE.

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ITV announce pre-tax profit of £25m for 2009

March 3rd, 2010 - 
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  • Across 2009, ITV delivered £50m of efficiency savings and reduced schedule costs by £119m.
  • 2010 budgets have been set with no increase in schedule costs.
  • Any near term increase in spend will depend on greater certainty regarding outlook for market growth and potential return via on-screen performance.
  • ITV continues to invest to support the launch of ITV1 HD, ITV1+1 and Canvas.
  • Over the seven weeks to 21 February, share of commercial impacts for ITV channels stood at 40.6% (2009: 40.7%) and for ITV1 at 28.5% (2009: 29.4%).
  • Following Archie Norman’s appointment as Chairman, the Board has been streamlined with the departure of four non-executive directors.
  • Adam Crozier will join ITV plc as Chief Executive on Monday, 26 April 2010.

John Cresswell, Interim Chief Executive Officer, ITV plc, has said:

“Faced with the worst television advertising downturn on record… We won back share of the TV advertising market, grew our audiences in peak time and online, and increased our international production presence. We took out costs of £169m, substantially reduced our headcount and lowered net debt by over £100m.

“Whilst ITV advertising revenues are up 7% in the first quarter, this is against the unprecedented declines of the previous year and, over the medium term, we remain cautious.  We recognise also that ITV still faces formidable challenges.  However, with the concerted action we have taken, ITV can address these from a stronger position, both financially and operationally.”

Archie Norman, Chairman, ITV plc, said:

“Under Adam Crozier’s leadership, ITV will set out on the journey to become a very different business over the next five years. ITV’s challenge is to reduce its dependence on a free-to-air model threatened by digital media and besieged by legacy regulation. We have great talent and a strong brand and our future is in our own hands.”

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News Summary: 26th February 2010

February 26th, 2010 - 
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Media

The Home Office-commissioned Sexualisation of Young People Review we mentioned yesterday HERE is today making headlines for the recommendation that music videos featuring “sexually provocative” images or lyrics should be banned until after the 9pm watershed. The report says:

“Music channels and videos across all genres have been found to sexualise and objectify women. Women are often shown in provocative and revealing clothing and are depicted as being in a state of sexual readiness. Males, on the other hand, are shown as hyper-masculine and sexually dominant.”

Other key recommendations of the report include:

  • Launching an online “one-stop-shop” to allow the public to voice their concerns regarding irresponsible marketing which sexualises children;
  • Encouraging the government to support the Advertising Standards Agency to take steps to extend existing regulatory standards to include commercial websites;
  • Ensuring games consoles are sold with parental controls already switched on. Purchasers can then choose to unlock the console if they wish to allow access to adult and online content.

You can read the full report in PDF HERE and coverage in The Guardian HERE and HERE; Independent HERE, HERE and HERE; Times HERE; and Telegraph HERE.

The latest report on the BBC strategic review – to be published next month – is that the Mark Thompson, the Director General, is to admit that the corporation has become too large and must shrink to give its commercial rivals room to operate. It is thought he will announce the closure of the digital radio stations 6 Music and Asian Network and introduce a cap on spending on broadcast rights for sports events of 8.5 per cent of the licence fee, or about £300 million. He will also pledge to close BBC Switch and Blast!, leaving the lucrative teenage market to ITV and Channel 4. But BBC Three, which is aimed at 16 to 35-year-olds will not be touched. More in The Guardian HERE; Times HERE, HERE and HERE; and Telegraph HERE.

Cinema

We’ve been covering the Alice in Wonderland/ Odeon boycott story for a while now; most recently HERE, but today it appears it is to be no more; Britain’s biggest cinema chain, a week before the film is released and, having chastised Disney for threatening the “existence of cinemas”, has decided it will show after all.

The battle over Alice in Wonderland was always a high-stakes game; the film is expected to be one of the highlights of the cinematic year, and the 3-D element makes it likely to remain open for longer and attract higher ticket prices. Neither the studio nor Odeon would comment on the concessions made, but an Odeon spokesman said they had reached an “enduring agreement … encompassing all the different aspects of both companies’ commercial relationship”. More in The Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; and Times HERE.

Art

An art exhibition portraying Jesus as the gay son of a prostitute has been closed after the organisers at Granada University in Spain admitted that furious protests from churchgoers meant that they could no longer guarantee the safety of its creator, Fernando Bayona. More in The Times HERE.

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News Summary: 24th February 2010

February 24th, 2010 - 
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Media

The Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee’s Press Standards, Privacy and Libel report was published last night and can be read in full HERE. In summary the report:

  • Called for the Government to cut “enormous cost of libel cases” in the UK;
  • Called for the Press Complaints Commission to be renamed and have power to fine;
  • Condemned “collective amnesia” at News International over phone hacking but said the culture of hacking being deemed acceptable had now changed.

More in The Guardian HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE; Independent HERE and HERE; Times HERE; and Telegraph HERE.

Tech

It has been revealed that former children’s laureates Quentin Blake, Anne Fine and Jacqueline Wilson, among others, have opted out of the Google Books settlement. Court documents relating to the case (see HERE) show that more than 6,500 authors, publishers and literary agents have opted out of the settlement. These include the estates of Rudyard Kipling and Roald Dahl. Novelist Marika Cobbold, author of books including Guppies for Tea and Shooting Butterflies, has opted out and said:

“My feelings were, in the end, that I doubted I would lose out by opting out, whereas I might do by opting in. Also there was the principle that copyright is important… It would be like handing over my babies to a babysitter I’d never met, [and] I couldn’t understand what was in it for me. I love Google, and in principle making information accessible is wonderful, but things are moving so fast, and authors are losing so much control over what we’ve done, that my fear was who knows, in five to 10 years’ time, how this information could be used?” More in The Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; and FT HERE.

More bad news for Google as it faces a preliminary anti-monopoly probe by the European Commission into its dominant position in online browsing and digital advertising following allegations that it demotes competing websites to the lower echelons of customers’ search results. The complaints centre on the way in which Google’s search results are compiled and on the terms and conditions the company attaches to deals with advertisers. Although the commission’s investigation is only at a tentative stage, the fact that Brussels is taking the issue seriously is likely to set off alarm bells at Google. More in The Guardian HERE.

Cinema

There’s interesting coverage of the Alice in Wonderland/ Odeon fall-out in today’s Guardian, where it notes that Tim Burton’s film has become an unlikely pawn in a global struggle to ­redefine how, when and where we watch ­movies in the digital age. Disney, which ­produced the movie, wants to shorten the amount of time between some films being released in cinemas and then coming out on DVD. Exhibitors, unsurprisingly, want to preserve the exclusive ­theatrical experience for as long as possible. The studio insists that it’s not trying to enforce a new industry standard: it ­simply wants the ­flexibility to release some films sooner on DVD, when it makes commercial sense to do so. The studio argues that films typically last about two months in cinemas before they disappear off screens; this means a further two-month wait until the official DVD release, a period used by pirates to flog illegal copies. A shorter window, says Disney, will mean less money lost to the pirates.

But exhibitors fear that if they accept a three-month window for Alice, rather than a four, then other studios will ­follow suit, making a further ­contraction inevitable. This, they say, will erode the eagerness of audiences to rush out to the cinema, and tempt them to wait instead for the DVD or online release. More in The Guardian  HERE.

Music

It’s National Sing Up Day today, ‘Sing Up’ works on the basis that every child deserves the chance to sing every day. Singing improves learning, confidence, health and social development; it has the power to change lives and help to build stronger communities. You can read more about Sing Up’s work at their website HERE. There is also news this week that teaching stroke patients to sing can “rewire” their brains, helping them to recover speech. Dr Nina Kraus, a neuroscientist from Northwestern University in Chicago, also studies the effects of music on the brain. She has discovered that musical training seems to enhance the ability to perform other tasks, such as reading; providing yet more evidence that musical training is an important part of children’s education. More in BBC News HERE.

Auction

A rare copy of the first comic book to feature Superman sold for $1m (£640,000) yesterday, smashing the previous record for a comic. The 1938 edition of Action Comics No1 was sold by a private seller to a private buyer. Neither released their name. The issue, which has a cover featuring Superman lifting a car, originally cost 10 cents. More in The Guardian HERE.

Libraries

Miranda McKearney, Directorof the Reading Agency has given an interview to The Guardian, talking about their schemes to promote authors and books to communities, through such means as Summer Reading Challenges and reading groups. More HERE.

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News Summary: 23rd February 2010

February 23rd, 2010 - 
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Art

Tate Britain’s important retrospective of Henry Moore’s work, opens today to reveal, say curators, his demons; that this is a man much darker, edgier and more complex than has been realised hitherto. It also reveals an unexpected twist to Moore’s career pattern; he is unusual in that even when his best work was behind him, in every subsequent decade he continued to make individual pieces of sculpture as original and powerful as any he had done; The “five-to-10 good years” phenomenon, appears not quite to apply, as noted in The Telegraph HERE. More in The Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; and Times HERE.

Literature

Michael Morpurgo, the former children’s laureate, is spearheading a writing award for children that launches today. The award is a reincarnation of the much-loved WH Smith’s Young Writers’ competition, which more than a million children entered until it was discontinued 20 years ago. Previous winners included the biographer Hermione Lee, the playwright Neil Bartlett and the actresses Helena Bonham Carter and Kate Beckinsale, who won twice, for poetry and a short story.

Morpurgo said that the new award was aimed at children whose parents “do not go to literary festivals” and offers them a creative antidote to the culture of testing prevalent in schools:

“I know this sounds just like any other campaign, but it’s not… It’s about saying that children matter on a national scale. They make art and poetry just like anybody else does.” More in The Times HERE.

Advertising

In response to Ofcom’s ruling that the Curry’s sponsorship of The Simpsons on Sky1 breached broadcasting regulations, Sky has said it had sought Ofcom’s informal guidance on the campaign and was of the view that “Ofcom had confirmed the credits were compliant”. Ofcom has rejected Sky’s response, issuing a note to broadcasters reminding them that:

“Ofcom does not accept Sky’s view that, in advance of transmission, Ofcom had ‘confirmed that the credits were compliant’… Ofcom is a post-transmission regulator and has always made clear to its licensees that it does not offer pre-transmission clearance or compliance approval… Ofcom does not and cannot clear material prior to broadcast… Any [pre-broadcast] advice is given on the strict understanding that it will not affect Ofcom’s discretion to judge cases and complaints after transmission and will not affect the exercise of Ofcom’s regulatory responsibilities. More in The Guardian HERE.

Theatre

High praise indeed for the British theatre from the theatre editor of Time Out New York who writes of how the excitement over the transfer to Broadway from the West End of Enron, is mitigated by the shame that no one stateside had thought of it first. He argues “American artistic directors are shockingly unimaginative.” More in the Guardian HERE.

Librarians

As Marilyn Johnson explains in This Book is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All HERE, a new generation of young, hip and occasionally tattooed librarians, calling themselves “guybrarians”, “cybrarians” and “information specialists”, and to be found blogging at sites like The Free Range Librarian HERE and The Lipstick Librarian HERE. Who else is going to help us formulate the questions Google doesn’t understand, or show non-English speakers how to apply for jobs online, or sympathize with your need to research the ancient origins of cockfighting? There’s a great Salon article HERE, finding answers to questions such as Aren’t libraries and librarians obsolete in the age of Google?/ What does a librarian look like today?/ and, perhaps most interestingly of all; is the library the last place, other than your home, where information comes free of charge and you don’t have to be ‘on guard’ against the big sell?

Journalism

The Pulitzer committee have decided that the National Enquirer will be eligible to be considered for their investigative reporting and national news reporting awards. The magazine’s executive editor, Barry Levine, who just a few days previously had been telling Pulitzer committee-members that they needed “to get their heads out of the sand”, is jubilant:

“That persistence, that old-fashioned shoe-leather reporting that we exhibited on [the John Edwards affair] story, at the end of the day, is what the Pulitzer committee recognised”

Washington politics blogger, Emily Miller led a grassroots campaign to lobby the Pulitzer committee and says:

“The National Enquirer is a supermarket tabloid, but the time has come for the media elite to admit that it has an excellent investigative reporting team, which broke the biggest political scandal of 2009.”

The Guardian notes that some serious caveats are in order HERE; and a Guardian journalist tells of how the Statesman:

“… shaped my journalistic ambitions. It teaches one to be cynical (yup), sarcastic (tick), and to believe that anyone who is a celebrity is definitely an idiot and probably full-on doolally” HERE.

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