Guardian features Ed’s complaints as to the ‘wilful misrepresentation’ of Conservative media policy

March 10th, 2010 - 
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‘The shadow culture minister, Ed Vaizey, has denied that Conservative media policy is dictated by Rupert Murdoch and executives at his News Corporation media empire, dismissing the suggestion as “completely laughable”.

Vaizey told delegates at a Westminster Media Forum event in London that Tory policy on the BBC, in particular, has been “wilfully misrepresented”.

He singled out a column in the Guardian last week by Jonathan Freedland [HERE], which argued that the BBC director general, Mark Thompson, had decided to axe services in an attempt to prevent the Tories from making more swingeing cuts if they form the next government. Freedland also said Thompson was right to fear the Conservatives would do this because of “two words: Rupert Murdoch”.

Vaizey responded today: “If a Conservative has any kind of critique of the BBC then somehow this a ‘Sky agenda’. I noticed that in Monday’s Media Guardian James Purnell, a former BBC employee, said BBC2 should only broadcast in the evenings. Nobody has written that to understand where James Purnell is coming from you just have to understand two words: Rupert Murdoch.”

He added: “There is a legitimate debate to be had about the [size] of the BBC.” The culture secretary, Ben Bradshaw, had conceded as much, Vaizey argued.

Conservative opposition to the BBC Trust’s decision to close educational service BBC Jam demonstrated that the party did not have the corporation in its sights, he said.

“You shouldn’t lose sight of the fact the BBC has massive public support,” Vaizey said. “The idea that somehow there is any agenda to do down the BBC is completely laughable.”

Tory policy on the BBC was straightforward, he added. A Conservative government would replace the BBC Trust with an independent regulator and force it to be “more transparent about its finances”.

He said news organisations need to know how much the corporation spends on its news website in order to make judgments on how best to run their own online businesses.

Vaizey reiterated that Tory media policy is dictated by a “de-regulatory approach” but insisted he “liked Ofcom”.

The Conservative leader, David Cameron, last year set out plans to reduce Ofcom’s size and strip it of its policy-making powers.

“We felt there was a leadership vacuum from DCMS [the department of culture, media and sport] so Ofcom was driving policy. With a new and energetic Conservative government you would get leadership on media policy and Ofcom would return to its regulatory role,” Vaizey said.

He also said the Conservatives have no plans to privatise Channel 4 and defended the party’s proposals to fund rollout of high-speed broadband to rural areas with licence-fee money currently earmarked to meet the cost of digital switchover as “a perfectly sensible and intellectually coherent proposal”.

Vaizey added that the principle of using licence-fee money to fund other projects was now well-established.’

Original article HERE.

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News Summary: 10th March 2010

March 10th, 2010 - 
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Fashion

Four weeks after Alexander McQueen’s death, the collection he had been working on was unveiled in Paris yesterday. This was the last ever collection by Lee Alexander McQueen, but it will not be the last collection to bear the Alexander McQueen name. A week after the designer’s death, it was announced that the label would continue. There has been no announcement as to who will replace McQueen.

A note given to each of yesterday’s audience read, ‘each piece is unique, as was he’. As the 16th outfit disappeared from the catwalk, the audience sat in silence, not yet ready for the spell to be broken. The sound of clapping began backstage, and spread. More in The Guardian HERE; Times HERE; and Telegraph HERE.

Tech

Senior police officers have clashed with Facebook, accusing it of ignoring worrying trends that it is providing a safe haven for predatory paedophiles by refusing to sign up to a ‘panic button’ for children and young people. Jim Gamble, chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Unit (Ceop), was joined by the country’s lead officer on homicide to tackle the site about its repeated refusal to sign up to a key safety practice adopted by many other similar websites.

The American-owned site has 23 million active users in the UK but refuses to display an official ‘panic button’ that links users directly to Ceop to report suspected activities by predatory paedophiles. More in The Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; and Times HERE.

Music

A report commissioned by Universal Music Group on behalf of the British music industry trade body, the BPI, estimates that Virgin Media, Sky, O2, Orange, BT and TalkTalk could be making between £100 million and £200 million between them per year by 2013 if each of them launched their own music download service. The ISPs could generate approximately £100m per year in total by 2013 if there was only a ‘a medium adoption rate’ of music services (approximately 12,000 consumer sign-ups a month), but if there was an ‘accelerated adoption scenario’ – where 24,000 new subscribers joined each ISPs’ music service per month, the report estimates this revenue figure would double. BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor said:

‘It is increasingly clear that it isn’t smart to be a ‘dumb [broadband] pipe’. This report shows that the revenue potential of digital music services alone makes sound economic sense for ISPs.’ More in The Telegraph HERE.

Pink Floyd took on their record label, EMI, in the High Court yesterday in a dispute over royalties for music downloads. Members of the band, one of EMI’s most successful since they signed in 1967, believe they have been underpaid and that the company should have asked permission to sell songs individually, rather than as complete albums. The dispute centres on a contract clause that says ‘there are no rights to sell any or all of the records as single records other than with [Pink Floyd’s] permission’. The band claims that this applies to their songs in all formats, including those sold online. EMI says it applies only to physical copies. More in The Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; Times HERE; and HERE.

Television

Writing in The Guardian HERE, Bob Geldoff accuses the BBC World Service of a ‘total collapse of standards and systems’, threatens it with legal action and calls for the sacking of the reporter behind the story, his editor and the head of the World Service, Peter Horrocks. Geldof and the Band Aid Trust are talking to some of the world’s biggest charities – including Oxfam, Unicef, the Red Cross, Christian Aid and Save the Children – about reporting the BBC to Ofcom and the BBC Trust. More in The Guardian HERE.

Samsung has kicked off the industry-wide push – and battle for brand supremacy – in 3D television by launching a 3D range that will be in British shops by the end of the month. More in The Guardian HERE. Sony in turn yesterday unveiled its 40in and 46in Bravia 3D television sets, saying they would launch in Japan on 10 June and around the world shortly after. More in The Independent HERE. Adam May, a producer with 3D producers and consultants Vision 3, says TV companies have started showing interest in making programmes in 3D; but that the big push to sell the sets will come this Christmas. More in The Guardian HERE.

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2% increase in BBC Licence Fee

March 9th, 2010 - 
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From 1 April, the cost of a colour television licence will increase from £142.50 to £145.50 and a black and white licence from £48.00 to £49.00.

The increase, to be brought into effect by an order laid in the House of Commons today, follows the six-year BBC funding settlement which began in April 2007.

The licence fee increase is set at three per cent for the first two years of the settlement and two per cent in years three, four and five. This is year four. The government says any increase (of up to two per cent) in year six will be set nearer the time.

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News Summary: 8th March 2010

March 8th, 2010 - 
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BBC

The BBC is standing by a report that 95% of the aid raised to fight famine in northern Ethiopia in 1985 was diverted by rebels and spent on weapons, despite denials by Bob Geldof and leading charities (whose complaints can be see in our Weekend News Summary HERE).

BBC World Service’s Africa editor, Martin Plaut’s documentary is expected to find itself the subject of a formal complaint next week when Geldof and several charities send a letter to Ofcom and the BBC Trust. The BBC has declined to comment directly, instead referring to a blog entry written by the BBC World Service’s news and current affairs editor. Andrew Whitehead said the programme had presented ‘compelling evidence that some of the famine relief donations were diverted by a powerful rebel group to buy weapons’, adding that the BBC stood by Plaut’s reporting. He also noted that the programme had not suggested that any relief agencies had been complicit in the diversion of funds:

‘It explicitly stated that “whatever the levels of deception, much aid did reach the starving”… But there is a clear public interest in determining whether some money given as famine relief ended up buying guns and bullets. And that’s what the evidence suggests.’ More in The Guardian HERE.

Erik Huggers, the BBC digital chief, has promised its closure of 200 websites is not simply an exercise in cutting dead wood and will help commercial rivals. In an interview with MediaGuardian – which you can read in full HERE – he said the BBC expansionist tendencies that had angered commercial rivals were a natural consequence of the internet being a medium with no boundaries:

‘Our mistake was allowing our web presence to sprawl, a natural consequence of not being constrained by spectrum… We need to be more focused, and do it much better… we need to improve the quality level, and reprioritise on what we do best.’ More in The Guardian HERE.

Tech

A BBC World Service poll, which collated the answers from more than 27,000 people across 26 countries, has found that 87 per cent of internet users felt that web access should be a basic human right. More than 70 per cent of non-users felt they should have access to the net. Dr Hamadoun Toure, secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union has said:

‘The right to communicate cannot be ignored… The internet is the most powerful potential source of enlightenment ever created. [Government’s must] ‘regard the internet as basic infrastructure – just like roads, waste and water’. More in The Telegraph HERE.

The Chinese government has pledged to punish the hackers who attacked Google if there is evidence to prove it, but said it has yet to receive any complaint; Google has never filed a report to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology over the cyber attacks or sought negotiations, Vice Minister Miao Wei has been quoted as saying by state news agency Xinhua:

‘If Google has had evidence that the attacks came from China, the Chinese government will welcome them to provide the information and will severely punish the offenders according to the law’. More in The Independent HERE.

Meanwhile today’s Times reports that urgent warnings have been circulated throughout Nato and the European Union for secret intelligence material to be protected from a recent surge in cyberwar attacks originating in China. The attacks have also hit government and military institutions in the United States, where analysts said that the West had no effective response and that EU systems were especially vulnerable because most cyber security efforts were left to member states. James Lewis, of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies has said British and American cyber defences are among the most sophisticated in the world, but:

‘… the EU is less competent… The porousness of the European institutions makes them a good target for penetration. They are of interest to the Chinese on issues from arms sales and nuclear non-proliferation to Tibet and energy.’ More in The Times HERE.

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Weekend News Summary: 6th/7th March 2010

March 8th, 2010 - 
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BBC

Sir Bob Geldof and the Band Aid trust are to report the BBC to Ofcom over a World Service report that millions of pounds raised for famine victims in Ethiopia in 1985 were actually spent on weapons. A group of Britain’s most respected agencies – including Oxfam, the Red Cross, Unicef, Christian Aid and Save the Children – are joining Band Aid in writing an official complaint to the chairman of the BBC Trust, Sir Michael Lyons. Geldoff, who raised $144m for Africa in the Live Aid concert in 1985, has accused the BBC of ‘wilfully naive reporting’:

‘This is a Ross/Brand moment in BBC standards for me… This story has gone around the world on the internet and created a totally false impression of what actually happened… the BBC has undermined the faith of ordinary people across the world in the effectiveness of giving to people in their hour of need. It is a disgrace.’

Nick Guttman, director of emergency relief operations at Christian Aid has condemned the BBC story as ‘outrageous and very damaging’, whilst Phil Bloomer, director of Oxfam’s campaigns and policy division has said:

‘It is palpable nonsense… We know because we bought the food, we bought the trucks, we took the food in, saw it distributed and then we drove the empty trucks out… you have to ask why the BBC seems to have been prepared to run with these extraordinary claims about our work without even putting in a call to Oxfam before they were broadcast.’ More in The Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; Times HERE; Telegraph HERE.

Prominent British Asians have called for the BBC Asian Network to be saved. Actor and writer Meera Syal and Olympic medal-winning boxer Amir Khan and are among the entertainment stars, actors and peers signing a letter – which you can see in The Guardian HERE, urging the BBC to halt the closure of the station. The letter says that the eight-year-old digital broadcaster provides a ‘key platform’ For the national Asian community and:

‘… offers creative British Asian talent an outlet which is demonstrably under-represented in the more mainstream BBC. This would all be tragically lost if these proposals are agreed.’

Jarvis Cocker becomes figurehead of the Save 6Music campaign, more in The Guardian HERE. More on the review in The Guardian HERE; Observer HERE, HERE and HERE; Sunday Times HERE

Amid reports that Chris Evans has sparked 654 official complaints to the BBC with critical messages appearing on his radio show’s message boards, Terry Wogan has written on his blog to fans, or Togs – Terry’s Old Geezers and Gals – who have been particularly vociferous against Evans since he took over the Radio 2 Breakfast Show in January. He said:

‘I asked all Togs to welcome Chris with open minds and hearts, and I know that they have… They know better than most that it took me years and years to build a loyal audience. Chris has had six weeks! I’m trying to build a new audience myself on a Sunday morning… Give us a chance.’ More in The Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; and Telegraph HERE.

Television

The survey of Britain’s main television channels, carried out for Channel 4 by the Communications Research Group, has found that men still outnumber women by two to one, and that, where they do appear, women predominantly feature in programmes about ‘soft’ issues and older women are kept off the screen. The survey indicates that the position has not changed since 2006, when a BBC report found there were twice as many men on television as women.

Women are equally represented in soaps, but make up just one third of people in factual programmes and even fewer on news bulletins. Women make up just over a third (37%) of those giving their opinion in vox pops. More in The Observer HERE and Sunday Times HERE

Publishing

Robert McCrum argues in The Observer that only belatedly are publishers confronting the implications of the digitisation of literature. He says:

‘Electronic time can seem faster than real time. The transformation of the literary landscape has happened at warp speed and it’s not over yet… So it should come as no surprise that the publishing business, a slave to real time and long lunches, should have been so slow to adapt. The book trade has always been intrinsically conservative… At first, when the Google Books Library Project was launched in 2004, senior UK publishers… instinctively found an ostrich-like default position. If they had understood the digital revolution better, they might have resisted Google’s piracy with an articulate common purpose… As it was, only Nigel Newton of Bloomsbury had the wisdom to pull his head out of the sand and raise the alarm. More HERE.

The sale of The Independent is being held up while Alexander Lebedev tries to strike a better deal with its landlord, the Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT). The Independent and London Evening Standard pay a total of £5m a year to DMGT. More in The Sunday Times HERE.

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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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News Summary: 4th March 2010

March 4th, 2010 - 
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Broadcasting

In the name of equality, the Guardian has left BBC 6 Music for the day, in order to ask ‘Where’s the Save Asian Network campaign?’ And then to respond that the majority of the Asian Network audience comes from the Midlands (around 70%) listens on the AM frequency, not on digital radio; you’re unlikely to find them in media-friendly places such as Twitter – ‘The Asian Network’s inability to generate its own noise seems to stem from the fact that it doesn’t appeal to middle-class male tweeters with a love of Suede B-sides.’ More in The Guardian  HERE, with the idea that breaking up the BBC Asian Network will better serve diverse communities dismissed as absurd HERE.

The Times reports the fact that 3,000 complaints have been made to the BBC regarding 6 Music, and a senior BBC executive’s report that Mark Thompson:

‘… told us he is not concerned about the outcry, because it sends a message to politicians that even if you want to close a small, niche station there’s such a large outcry; imagine what would happen if you tried to close BBC One or Two.’ More in The Times HERE, whilst The Independent focuses on new controversy around the BBC giving free sporting event tickets to celebrities HERE.

ITV chairman, Archie Norman has said ITV gains nothing from the proposed BBC cutbacks:

‘I don’t see any benefit… The savings the BBC will make on cutting back on peripheral activities will be re-invested in programming. I can’t see how that will be of any benefit to ITV.’

Speaking of ITV’s own strategic review, which will be run by chief executive Adam Crozier for his arrival on 26 April with support from consultants LEK, he said what was needed was a ‘cold-eyed, realistic’ look at ITV’s position in the marketplace and that ‘today is very much day zero’. Norman, who has in the past said that a move to pay-TV services was not on the cards, seems to be viewing the idea more favourably of late, although maintaining that ITV currently has ‘no suitable product for a pay platform’. More in The Guardian HERE and more on ITV’s profits announcements in The Independent HERE.

City of Culture

Derry was last week one of four cities shortlisted for the title of UK City of Culture, 2013, good news which at the time seemed straight-forward enough; until Sinn Féin demanded that ‘UK’ be stripped from the title if the city wins. Maeve McLaughlin, the party’s leader on Derry city council, has said:

‘I have yet to be convinced this bid, as it currently stands, reflects the views of Irish nationalists and republicans… While we are a city of culture there has to be a recognition that we’re not part of the UK. We are not opposing the bid, but… There is a huge onus on the team that’s been put together to lead this bid to put in writing how they will address the issue of the tens of thousands of nationalists and republicans in this city and region who do not recognise themselves as part of the UK.’

Speaking yesterday at a reception to launch Derry’s bid in the House of Lords, the SDLP MP Mark Durkan said Sinn Féin protests over the title were putting the city’s application in peril:

‘This bid is an opportunity for Derry to promote itself as a city and to promote the wider region. It is about our civic ambition. It is about our cultural ambition. It is nothing to do with political aspiration – in which the people of this city have very clear views and differences about wanting to be part of a united Ireland or United Kingdom… Are we going to say that any other funding or opportunity that is set up on a UK basis we count ourselves out of? We should not be disabling ourselves from making the most of any opportunity to which we are as entitled as anyone else… And we can do that without compromising any of our political beliefs, any of our interests and identities that we hold very dearly at a political level.” More in The Guardian HERE.

Tech

Ed Richards, chief executive of Ofcom, has said that several media companies had raised concerns about the issue of net neutrality in the last few months and that Ofcom is scrutinising traffic management techniques, to publish its initial findings in the spring. Whilst arguing that traffic management policies must be clearly explained and transparent, Richards has indicated that the highly interventionist approach seen in the United States might not be appropriate for the UK and Europe, and that it was:

‘… even harder to justify blanket net neutrality rules when we consider the risks they could pose to potential collaborative and desirable investment in networks… In the US, limited competition, both at the network and the ISP level, means that the potential for consumer detriment through traffic management is greater… In Europe, as recent research for the FCC indicates, the mixed model — investment in infrastructure complemented by unbundling of the local loop — has delivered a more competitive market structure from the exchange back into the network.’ More in The Telegraph HERE.

Publishing

Mills and Boon’s novels were launched in India exactly two years ago and have doubled their sales in the past year. The publisher, Harlequin Mills & Boon, is far from the only beneficiary of a boom in book sales that is sweeping India; Dan Brown’s sequel to The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol, has already sold 100,000 in hardback alone; Aravind Adiga’s Man Booker winner The White Tiger has sold more than 200,000 copies since its publication in 2008.

Driving the demand is the country’s continuing economic boom – 6.7% growth in 2009 despite the global crisis – and the tastes of the new Indian middle class. Manish Singh, Mills & Boon’s country manager for India has said:

‘It is a forward looking generation… The low hanging fruit for us is the single working woman who has money in her hands, the liberty to read, no responsibilities yet, no husband, children and so on.’

In the next decade, publishers forecast that India will become the biggest English language book-buying market in the world. New distribution networks and an increasing presence of chains of major bookstores are also fuelling the expansion. More in The Guardian HERE.

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News Summary: 3rd March 2010

March 3rd, 2010 - 
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Broadcasting

Opposition to the closure of BBC 6 Music continues in The Guardian HERE, HERE and here HERE, with more general analysis HERE, HERE and HERE; in The Independent HERE and HERE, with unions’ continuing vows to resist cuts HERE. The Times ponders the likelihood of a licence fee cut or freeze HERE and HERE, with further analysis HERE; in The Telegraph HERE and FT HERE.

Our congratulations to ITV, who have reported a pre-tax profit of £25m for 2009 (in contrast with its posting a loss of £2.7bn in 2008 HERE). ITV had a strong close to the year, outperforming the total TV ad market, which fell 11%. It says it expects TV ad revenues to be up 18% year on year in March and up 15% to 20% in April. TV ad revenues are expected to increase 7% overall in the first quarter. Chairman, Archie Norman, announced that Adam Crozier will start on 26th April, adding that under his 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.’ More in The Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; Times HERE; Telegraph HERE and FT HERE.

Art

Infighting and sabotage at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, which has just received an emergency Arts Council Sustain fund bailout of £1.2m, Mark Sladen, its director of exhibitions, has announced he would consider a new role in the organisation only if its director, Ekow Eshun, resigned. He said ‘I would not be able to carry out the duties of the position unless Ekow resigned’ such that, having been told that Ekow has no intention of doing so, ‘I will be serving out my remaining notice, and leaving in late April.’

A vote of no confidence in Eshun has also been taken by staff members. But at a later union meeting, it was decided the vote should not be counted or its results disseminated. A member of staff said:

‘The results of the vote were suppressed, and whatever the official line on this, this is manipulation. Ekow Eshun made it clear that to reveal the results of the vote would be an act of sabotage, that the ICA would suffer from such information being out there.’ More in The Guardian HERE.

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BBC Publishes Strategic Review

March 2nd, 2010 - 
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The BBC has today published its much-leaked strategy review, confirming proposals to shut down BBC 6 Music and Asian Network, and also announcing that half of the websites on BBC online will close by 2013. Among closures will be teen services Switch and Blast, with Thompson admitting Channel 4 should lead the way with these audiences. The strategic review has now been submitted to the BBC Trust for commencement of a three month consultation period. BBC Trust Chairman Sir Michael Lyons said today:

‘We welcome the general direction of this report, although we will want to test it and consider how it is delivered. We are clear it heads towards a more disciplined and sharply focused BBC… The end result should be a BBC that is genuinely distinctive, genuinely open and transparent and genuinely public service.’

Jeremy has welcomed the review as follows:

‘I am pleased that the BBC is taking a long, hard look at exactly what it should be doing, but the truth of the matter is that we need to see actions not words. Will the BBC be less expansionist? Will it think carefully about its impact on the independent sector? Above all, will it spend licence fee payers’ money on quality public service content that they want to see? Only real change will address these concerns so I hope that’s what we get.’

The review commits a higher proportion of the licence fee into quality programming in order to make ‘fewer things better’. The BBC has listed five core editorial principles – putting quality first, doing fewer things better, guaranteeing access, making the licence fee work harder and setting new boundaries.

Television

  • Capping TV sports rights spending at 9p in every licence fee pound;
  • Reduction of entertainment and comedy on BBC Four;
  • Extending CBBC finishing time until 9pm;
  • Investing £50m a year from this total into BBC Two, children’s programming and journalism.

Websites

  • Half of the BBC websites will close, including Strictly Dance Fever and Street Doctor;
  • Spending on BBC websites will be cut by 25% by 2012;
  • Monthly “click-throughs” to external sites will be doubled;
  • Fewer bespoke programme websites;
  • Defining publicly which areas of activity BBC Online will not undertake.

Radio

  • Closure of 6 Music;
  • Closure of Asian Network;
  • Radio 2 must become more distinctive with at least 50% of speech during the daytime;
  • Investment in local radio breakfast, mid-morning and drive-time shows – but shared content at other times;
  • 1Xtra and Radio 7 to be aligned more closely with their parent stations (Radio 1 and Radio 4). Radio 7 to be rebranded as Radio 4 Extra.

Worldwide

  • The commercial arm will move away from publishing magazines in the UK.
  • Will derive at least two-thirds of its revenue from outside the UK by 2015.
  • Spending on imported programmes and films will be cut by 20%

Thompson expects the plans to see an extra £600m diverted into programme-making, but broadcasting workers’ union Bectu, has said that the proposed changes could result in the loss of up to 600 jobs. General secretary, Gerry Morrissey, said:

‘These cuts are totally unnecessary and are purely politically motivated. It is obvious that the BBC is being bounced by its competitors and by the political climate ahead of the upcoming general election. It is not acceptable for the BBC to be offering up services and jobs as some kind of sacrifice ahead of the general election.’

Thompson has denied that the proposals have anything to do with the forthcoming election:

‘The proposed changes… are not a piece of politics. It is also not a blueprint of a small BBC or a BBC that is in retreat from digital… It is exactly because the media is changing so fast that we must articulate our public service mission and our values more clearly and consistently than ever before… But we also have to recognise the profound challenges facing much of commercial media. And that, while some attacks made on the BBC are destructive and baseless, others represent legitimate concern about the boundaries of what we do, and about our future public service and commercial ambitions. We need to listen more closely than we have in the past.’

You can read the full BBC Strategy Review in PDF HERE.

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News Summary: 2nd March 2010

March 2nd, 2010 - 
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BBC review

The latest on the BBC review, as of 10.04am on the BBC News website HERE is confirmation from Mark Thompson that BBC 6 Music and Asian Network will face closure.

Speaking to BBC staff Mr Thompson also announced that there will be 25% less spent on BBC online by 2013. Among the closures will be teen services Switch and Blast, with Mr Thompson admitting Channel 4 should lead the way with these audiences. He has also pledged that in the future 90p of every licence fee £1 will be spent on programming. The morning newspapers’ coverage of the story can be found in The Guardian  HERE, HERE, HERE (where Greg Dyke accuses Thompson of being overpaid and out of touch), and Thompson’s own article acknowledging that the BBC must stop trying to do everything  HERE. The Times’ coverage is HERE; Telegraph’s HERE, HERE and HERE.

Tech

The 80 or 90% market share dominance of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer looks to be nearing the end as users throughout Europe were yesterday shown a ‘ballot screen’ prompting people to choose a browser to use. The move is part of a deal with European Union regulators; last month Brussels dropped anti-trust charges against Microsoft in return for Microsoft agreeing to provide a software update with a pop-up menu of browsers. Dave Heiner, vice president of Microsoft said ‘users who get the choice screen will be free to choose any browser or stick with the browser they have.’

In an effort to take on Internet Explorer, Google launched a major advertising campaign in Britain to promote Chrome. Today Google will release several improvements in its browser including additional privacy controls and a foreign language translator for web pages. Apple Firefox is the other biggest rival. More in The Times HERE and background on the ’10 year web browser war’ in The Guardian HERE and HERE; Independent HERE; Telegraph HERE; and FT HERE.

Theatre

This month sees the long-awaited launch of National Theatre Wales. In Wales, English speakers outnumber Welsh speakers three to one. The idea of an English-language national theatre has been debated for almost 100 years, but it took Dai Smith, who has chaired the Arts Council of Wales since 2006, to cut through the competing reports on how it should be structured – ‘I decided that this pussyfooting around – should we have a national theatre or not? – was ridiculous… I firmly believe in this’. Like Scotland’s national theatre, the company has no permanent home. Its home is all of Wales. More in The Guardian HERE.

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