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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News Summary: 17th February 2010

February 17th, 2010 - 
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Brit Awards 2010

It was all about the ‘fame monster’ Gaga wasn’t it really, and so, in turn, is today’s coverage. The British music industry chose to award the 23-year-old, whose “Poker Face” single was the biggest-selling song of 2009, with the gongs for International Breakthrough; International Female Solo Artist; and International Album and you can read more in The Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; Times HERE; and Telegraph HERE.

Here’s the rest of the night’s wins:

British male solo artist Dizzee Rascal

British female solo artist Lily Allen

British breakthrough act JLS

British group Kasabian

British Album West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, Kasabian

British single Beat Again, JLS

International male solo artist Jay-Z

International female solo artist Lady GaGa

International breakthrough act Lady Gaga

International album The Fame, Lady GaGa

British producer Paul Epworth

Critics’ choice Ellie Goulding

Outstanding contribution to music Robbie Williams

Best Brits performance of its 30-year history Spice Girls, (1997) “Wannabe”/”Who Do You Think You Are?”

Best Brits album of 30 years (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?, Oasis

Tech

Google is being threatened with legal action over the launch of its new social network, Google Buzz, amid furious claims that the service breaches users’ privacy. A week after launching the service with great fanfare and with high hopes that it could lure internet users’ attention away from Facebook and Twitter, Google finds itself embroiled in a technical and public relations nightmare. The pioneering internet company again apologised to users yesterday, and said it was working round the clock to roll out additional alterations to Buzz, on top of emergency changes imposed late last week and over the weekend.

Users revolted when they realised that their contacts could now see who they had been emailing – something that could reveal everything from private business relationships to romantic affairs. Shelly Palmer, founder of Advanced Media Ventures, has said:

“Anyone who understands the Google mindset could not have expected them to get this right… Everywhere they go, they try to apply mechanistic efficiency. They looked at Facebook and said, ‘You have to invite people? How ridiculous! We’ll just look at who you email most and hook up those people right now.’ This wasn’t a malicious attack on your privacy. It was just Google’s attempt to create a social network with no fuss.” More in The Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; and Telegraph HERE.

Broadcasting

SeeSaw, a new television streaming service launches online today, bringing together shows from the BBC, Channel 4 and Five on a single site. SeeSaw went live with more than 3,000 hours of content and, unlike services such as BBC’s iPlayer or Channel 4’s 4oD, which broadcast their own content, has partnerships with BBC Worldwide, Channel 4, Five and independent companies who produce shows for ITV. John Keeling, the controller of SeeSaw, said:

“It’s like having an enormous buffet. You can either just snack on it and catch up on what you’ve missed, or gorge yourself with an entire season. It’s absolutely at your fingertips and your control.”

SeeSaw is currently free and funded by advertising revenue but in future it will introduce a pay-per-view service for top US dramas and other premium content. More in The Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; and Telegraph HERE.

The BBC has been accused of having a “total sense of humour failure” after banning its political editor, Nick Robinson, and other senior journalists from taking part in one of the corporation’s own entertainment programmes. The extraordinary situation relates to “The Bubble”, a new show whose format involves three comedians being cut off from the news for several days in a country house with no access to any media and then being asked to distinguish between authentic and fake news items. Both ITV News and Sky News have been happy to co-operate with BBC the series and supply it with news footage. The only BBC footage to appear will be archive material, even though the series is supposed to reflect stories of the week.

A spokesman for BBC News  has said:

“We are sure The Bubble on BBC Two will be extremely funny but BBC journalists will leave it to the comedians to do the comedy.” More in The Independent HERE.

Advertising

The Advertising Standards Authority have today ruled that eight TV adverts shown during an episode of Sherlock Holmes were “excessively strident” and breached the sound levels code. This followed a complaint from a viewer that the adverts were excessively noisy compared to the surrounding programme material, reflecting a long-standing issue for some TV watchers.

The ASA upheld the viewer’s complaint, saying the volume was “not well matched to the overall sound levels of the programme” but has also noted that complaints about noisy advertisements have gone down since rules were tightened up two years ago. More in the Guardian HERE; and Independent HERE.

Music

Sir Paul McCartney has told of his hopes that the famous Abbey Road Studios could be saved after reportedly being put up for sale by owner EMI. Sir Paul, who recorded most of the Beatles’ songs at Abbey Road, told BBC’s Newsnight:

“There are a few people who have been associated with the studio for a long time who were talking about mounting some bid to save it… I sympathise with them. I hope they can do something, it’d be great.

EMI – which counts Robbie Williams and Coldplay among its artists – posted a £1.75 billion loss for the year to March 2009 in accounts earlier this month. Recent recording advances and cheaper overseas studio facilities have added competitive pressure to Abbey Road and a sale of the studios would raise much needed cash for its struggling owner. More in The Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; and Telegraph HERE.

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News Summary: January 21st 2010

January 21st, 2010 - 
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Further to our wonderings (hither forth ‘sure-minded predictions’) yesterday about whether the New York Times is to install an online paywall, the NYTimes.com has today gone official:

‘Starting in early 2011, visitors to NYTimes.com will get a certain number of articles free every month before being asked to pay a flat fee for unlimited access. Subscribers to the newspaper’s print edition will receive full access to the site.’ More in the New York Times HERE and Guardian HERE.

We can only congratulate Arts Council England for its ambition to go ‘politician-proof’. ACE has this week published Achieving Great Art for Everyone, a consultation paper putting forward its priorities for the next ten years. The arts sector is being asked to voice its own views on the plans, which will be taken into account by ACE, before a final strategy framework is published later in 2010, after the general election. Chief Exec Andy Davey said:

‘What we’ve put up is something to be shot down or talked about… We want lots of discussion about it. That takes place over three months, we absorb it and, when there’s a new government, we’ll come back with what people have said and we’ll say what we think [which] we’ll then convert into a framework for the next investment strategy and beyond… If you look at companies in the commercial world who have done well, they’ve thought about ten years ahead and they’ve stuck to it through thick and thin… We in the arts need to think a bit like that. I think we’re capable of doing it, because artists do tend to think long term and I think we need to acknowledge that…’ Davey added that the ten-year plan was intended to be ‘politician-proof so that it doesn’t really matter what the political climate is, we’re clear what we want to do in the arts’. More HERE.

BSkyB will learn today whether it will be forced to sell its controversial stake in ITV. In the fourth ruling since Sky acquired the shareholding in 2006, the Court of Appeal will decide whether to uphold previous orders for Sky to reduce its stake from 17.9% to less than 7.5%. Although it’s thought Sky is likely to appeal if the decision once more goes against it, there is no guarantee that Supreme Court – the only court left for it to apply to – would hear the case.

Sky has been fighting to hang on to the stake since the Competition Commission ruled in 2007 that the acquisition ‘restricts competition’ and ‘may be expected to operate against the public interest’. Sky had argued that the stake was a passive investment and offered to withhold using their voting power. M  ore in the Guardian HERE and Business Week HERE.

In the context of the BBC’s strategy review, chief operating officer, Caroline Thomson, is expected to tell the Oxford Media Convention today that the BBC’s ‘raison d’être is providing programmes and content of real value and quality to licence fee payers, and we must never forget this… we will also explore the potential for spending an even higher proportion of the licence fee on quality content’. More HERE.

Mark Thompson has previously said we should expect out of the review ‘reductions in some kinds of programmes and content’, but speculation that this might mean merging BBCs Two and Four and/ or scrapping BBC Three has been dampened today by reports that, whilst mergers were considered, the corporation is to keep the main television channel structure. More HERE.

Alcohol companies stand accused of ‘cynically manipulating advertising rules’ in order to target under-age drinkers. A report published in the British Medical Journal results from the examination of documents such as alcohol client briefs to agencies, market research reports and media schedules and claims that they show market research date on 15 and 16 year-olds; references to the need to recruit new drinkers; and attempt to push brands as necessary for social success or masculinity – tactics banned in the advertising code.

Alcohol industry body, the Portman Group, has responded that despite having ‘trawled through thousands of pages of internal company marketing documents on behalf of the Health Committee, [there has been a failure] to find any evidence of actual malpractice…’

UK advertiser’s body ISBA, concludes the report ‘deliberately distorts the facts to support [an] agenda… [it fails] to identify a single case of malpractice, which is due to the efficient system of self-regulation within the companies to which [it] refers’. More in the Guardian HERE; Independent HERE and Telegraph HERE.

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News Summary: January 19th 2010

January 19th, 2010 - 
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Ofcom said yesterday that it is committed to “removing unnecessary burdens” from TV broadcasters; its current review is looking at rules surrounding advertising minutes. Ofcom’s CEO Ed Richards said:

‘[in the context of] substantial increases in the takeup of digital services and in the number of available channels, and consolidation in the advertising buying sector… If regulations have no public interest then they should be removed. That is what we will be considering here.’

ITV responded: ‘ITV welcomes Ofcom’s proposed review of the advertising sales and scheduling rules and its recognition that further deregulation may be necessary’ More in the Guardian HERE; Times HERE; Telegraph  HERE; and FT HERE.

A report by Deloitte has expressed optimism for the future of ‘traditional’ television advertising consumption, saying that, contrary to the findings of ‘misleading’ self-report research: ‘In 2010 most consumers of content are likely to remain happily beholden to the schedule, rather than resentful of what some pundits have labelled the “tyranny of the schedule”… Linear is likely to remain dominant not just in 2010 but for many years to come.’ More HERE

The Googlecn drama continues to unfold, with latest reports flagging the fact that Google might have fallen victim to an ‘inside job’, wherein the firm’s own employees assisted hackers who then launched the cyber-attack from China prompting Google’s threats last week to leave the country. Google has responded: ‘We’re not commenting on rumour and speculation. This is an ongoing investigation, and we simply cannot comment on the details.’ More in the Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; Times HERE; and Telegraph HERE.

And finally… ‘Best Original Video Game Score goes to…’

Video games, congratulations! Excellent kick off to the year as the Ivor Novello awards are to introduce a new category — best original video game score, in recognition of the increasing sophistication of game soundtracks and their importance as a new revenue stream for the music industry, on which you might like to read more HERE.

But that’s not all – video games are also being congratulated for raising social and political awareness; for discovering ‘virtuous reality’. This in response to ‘serious’ games such as ‘Dying in Darfur’, intended to depict the reality of life in Sudan. Read more HERE.

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News Summary: 15th January 2010

January 15th, 2010 - 
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Google may have pledged to close Google.cn if censorship is not lifted, but the Chinese authorities don’t seem remotely moved to change. The State Council Information Office has put out a statement filling half a page in the People’s Daily – the official mouthpiece of the Communist Party – signalling a stance that its 360 million internet users will simply have to manage without the search engine. It said:

‘Our country is at a crucial stage of reform and development and this is a period of marked social conflicts. Properly guiding internet opinion is a major measure for protecting internet information security.’ More in the Independent HERE; Times HERE; and Telegraph HERE.

Human rights activists tell of their phished gmail accounts and malware infected computers HERE. Cyber attacks aimed at extracting secret information from defence contractors HERE.

Local media is under the spotlight, with concern expressed about the market impact of local authority publications on commercial regional and local press. A question being asked quite pressingly is why the Government is refusing to say whether or not it will ask the Office of Fair Trading to investigate the competitive impact of council-run newspapers. More HERE.

Online media sees Mecom, the UK-based European newspaper group, set to unveil their strategy on paid-for digital content. CEO David Montgomery has said:

‘The crisis is not to do with print or newspapers, it [has been] a crisis of advertising’, he said, adding that circulation and subscriptions at Mecom had stayed relatively solid throughout the downturn. ‘Advertising [decline] is now clearly moderating. People who have written off newspapers have clearly done so far too soon.’ More in the Guardian HERE and in the FT HERE.

Analysis of the decline of Waterstones is to be found in Guardian Books HERE and HERE, and of the firm’s plans to regroup and succeed as a ‘specialist chain relevant in a Google world’ in the Times HERE.

A new collection of Van Gogh’s letters is thought to reveal the depth of his personal plight and the true influence of madness on his art. All pretty depressing stuff really: ‘His achievement was not to conquer illness, but to drag something out of its isolating darkness.’ In his own words: ‘… every time I try to reason with myself… a terrible horror and terror seizes me’. More HERE.

And finally… Disney , you rebels! In the context of 15 years since the first Toy Story – and 10 successive computer animated Pixar films receiving global critical acclaim and box office hit after hit since – Disney is bucking the world’s obsession with CGI with its latest cartoon to be painstakingly hand-drawn throughout. More HERE.

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Weekly email 17-12-09

December 17th, 2009 - 
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Here is this week’s news.  There’s some stuff not in here, but that’s just because we’re saving it for our Christmas special!

Creative Industries

Video Games

Labour MP Tom Watson has suggested that the BBC could ‘really help’ small developers. He suggests that the corporation could allow developers to showcase applications or games on the BBC website, with the studio then able to look at commercial routes as well. More HERE.

Two more games courses have been accredited by Skillset, putting them among the ranks of the UK’s elite games training grounds. Congratulations to Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Abertay more HERE.

Ed has been interviewed by Midlife Gamer, along with Don Foster and Sion Simon: HERE.

Children and Advertising

Ed Balls has published a report on: ‘The Impact of the Commercial World on Children’s Wellbeing’. Amongst its findings, the report says that the commercial world provides children with important opportunities in terms of entertainment, learning, creativity and cultural experience. Full report HERE. Press release HERE. .

The Advertising Association has published a response, HERE with chief executive Tim Lefroy saying: ‘This is a measured and thoughtful review of the role the commercial world has in society and particularly for children and young people.  We are playing a full role in various initiatives as part of our responsible approach to marketing to children’

Online Piracy

YouTube are considering offering subscription services that allow users to watch major new TV shows and films online. Some broadcasters including Channel 4 and Five have already forged deals with the website to show full-length programmes online, Youtube is now considering paid options as well. More HERE.

Australia introduces web filters that restrict access to criminal content, HERE. As you can imagine twitter is not happy, HERE.

Online security group Detica is launching a system that can monitor illegal filesharing over Virgin Media’s Network. It has dismissed concerns that it could be used to identify and spy on individual users, saying ‘customer privacy is at the very heart of this’ more HERE.

Mobile Networks

In Norway and Scandinavia the first 4G mobile network becomes available, HERE. 4G is 10 times faster than the best mobile internet in this country.

BBC Worldwide

Mark Thompson has hit back at calls to sell of Worldwide, saying it will be an ‘empty vessel’ if it is sold. More HERE and HERE.  We now have absolutely no idea what the BBC actually wants to do with Worldwide…sell it? keep it? sell part of it?

TV

Channel 4 and TalkTalk have announced they will join Canvas, the proposed venture with the BBC, ITV, Five and BT to deliver television programmes and other online content via broadband more HERE. We think this great news.

Almost a third of the entire country tuned in to watch the final of X-factor, well over half of the total TV audience, HERE.

Music

Rage Against the Machine was outselling X Factor Winner Joe McElderry in the midweek sales figures, more HERE. More than 500,000 people have joined a campaign on Facebook encouraging people to by the 1992 single Killing in the Name in an attempt to upset Simon Cowell’s domination of the Christmas charts.

Film

The BSAC have published a report into Creativity, Competitiveness and Enterprise more HERE. which calls on the Government to stimulate competition, create a UK silicon valley liberate public service content from TV and create a copyright regime that facilitates decentralised creativity and access to content in the broader ecology. HERE. This is an interesting report which we will be looking at closely.

Pinewood studios have announced that they will open a studios in Malaysia more HERE.

Fashion

Good news from Burberry which has said it will show in London again at the A/W 2010 shows in February, more HERE.

The Guardian Fashion Awards for the year are out HERE. And no, we have no idea what that thing on Madonna’s head is either.

Radio

Made in Manchester’s second online drama with the Indy is online now HERE. We think this project is an interesting development which opens up new radio platforms other than the BBC.

Awards Season

Just starting to warm up, with the Golden Globe nominations out. Congratulations to British nominees Helen Mirren, Carey Mulligan and Emily Blunt more HERE.

Arts and Heritage

Visual Art

Ed has been interviewed by Art Forum on our arts policies, HERE.

Film and Archives

The BBC and the British Library have brought together their collection of audiovisual archives to make them more widely available to the public HERE. Well done to both.

Books

A new website plans to use commuters’ music players to revive the art of the short story by selling audiobooks of work by famous writers. More HERE. Very good idea.

And Finally

Ed was interviewed by the BBC’s Hard Talk this week, talking about culture and media policies and the wider Conservative agenda more HERE.  He vigorously denied he was posh.

Win a free cultural calendar on CultureLabel  HERE

In Parliament

DCMS spending on public relations HERE

£1,100 on departmental photo shoots HERE

Departmental meetings with the music industry HERE

The cost of DCMS departmental away days HERE

Government Art Collection loans to public galleries HERE

Funding to ACE over the last five years HERE

1700 days lost to sickness at the DCMS HERE

Estimates for funding to the good causes in the years to 2015 HERE

Where we’ve been and who we’ve seen

ITV, Local Government Association libraries conference, Loyd Grossman, St Mary’s Tower Gloucester, Gloucester Folk Museum, Gloucester Cathedral, Gloucester Museum (yes, we were in Gloucester), Tribal Education, Sally Greene… and George Osborne visited David Chipperfield and Neues Museum in Berlin and also met with Chairmen of three National Museums.

Ed Vaizey

Shadow Arts Minister

Jeremy Hunt

Shadow Culture Secretary

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