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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‘Lamentable’ progress for next-gen’ broadband

March 10th, 2010 - 
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Malcolm Corbett is chief executive of the new Independent Networks Co-operative Association, which represents organisations building and operating independent next-generation broadband networks in the UK. He has written a great blog for zdnet UK calling for a next-generation broadband manifesto. Extracts below, or read the article in full HERE.

‘For those of us working to accelerate the pace of fibre rollout in the UK, February’s report from the Parliamentary Business, Innovation and Skills Committee on broadband [accessible HERE] made depressing reading… for the paucity of vision and lack of urgency shown by our legislators.

World leader?

The first paragraphs highlighted Britain’s leading role in the 19th century development of telegraphy, going on to say once again that the UK “faces the question of how best to maintain its position as one of the world leaders in electronic communications”.

Wake up, guys. The global rankings for fibre to the home published at the FTTH Conference in late February in Lisbon [see HERE] show we are far from being world leaders. According to the Fibre to the Home Council Europe, an industry-led body, Britain is unranked… It really is lamentable. Not only are Japan, South Korea, the US and China ahead of us, but so are Latvia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Portugal and Bulgaria…

An Ofcom speaker at February’s FTTH Conference said this means Britain has 50 percent next-generation access coverage and so is doing very well. Perhaps. But only if you discount several key facts: BT and Virgin are largely competing for customers on the same territory; both technologies are heavily contended and heavily asymmetric, which means lower upstream bandwidth; and even more frustratingly for consumers, since VDSL is very distance-sensitive, we face the prospect of ‘up to’ speed offerings from ISPs for years to come…’ Full article HERE.

Independent Networks Co-operative Association

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Virgin Media to launch flagship 100Mb broadband

February 25th, 2010 - 
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Virgin Media has just announced its intention to begin the roll-out of a 100Mb broadband service by the end of 2010. This marks an increase in Virgin top broadband tier from 20Mb to 100Mb in less than two years.

The new speed tier is designed for tech-savvy users who want the very best the internet has to offer, and will act as Virgin Media’s flagship product, within a portfolio of different broadband speeds.

Virgin Media’s chief executive officer, Neil Berkett, has said:

“There is nothing we can’t do with our fibre optic cable network, and the upcoming launch of our flagship 100Mb service will give our customers the ultimate broadband experience… we want to keep giving our customers the very best broadband available, by investing in technological innovation…  The launch of Virgin Media’s 100Mb service will be a historic moment and will mean the UK will be comparable to other leading broadband nations.”

The 100Mb service will allow users to download a music album in as little as 5 seconds, an hour long TV show in 31 seconds and an HD movie in 7 minutes 25 seconds.

  • In another major development for the broadband sector, Virgin Media will extend its 200Mb pilot to Coventry where it will look to recruit hundreds of customers to test the internet with this “supercharged speed”.  The 200Mb pilot, which began in May 2009 in Kent, has been focusing on future technologies and applications, such as home teleconferencing and downloading HD programmes on-demand, which are likely to require fast speeds.
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News Summary: January 22nd 2010

January 22nd, 2010 - 
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Hilary Clinton made a speech yesterday calling on Beijing to investigate Google’s claim’s of Chinese cyber-hacking, and also announcing that tackling internet censorship will be a new priority for US foreign policy. More in the Independent HERE; Times HERE and Telegraph HERE. China responded today warning the US against interference and denouncing Clinton’s criticisms as “information imperialism”.. A foreign ministry spokesman said:

‘The US has criticised China’s policies to administer the internet and insinuated that China restricts internet freedom… This runs contrary to the facts and is harmful to China-US relations… We urge the United States to respect the facts and cease using so-called internet freedom to make groundless accusations against China.’ More in the Guardian HERE and Times HERE.

The Court of Appeal has upheld a judgment from the Competition Appeal Tribunal in 2008, which insisted that BSkyB cut its stake in ITV from 17.9 per cent to less than 7.5 per cent on competition grounds. Sky has 28 days to lodge an appeal with the Supreme Court, its final available legal recourse, and has said it will ‘review the judgment and order carefully and consider next steps in due course’. More in the Independent HERE; Times HERE; and Telegraph HERE and HERE.

BT is launching its next-generation super-fast broadband service next week, and kick-starting a price-war; already claiming to have undercut Virgin Media’s prices. BT is spending £1.5bn putting a new fibre network within the reach of 10m homes by the time of the Olympics in 2012. It will have 500,000 homes connected by the end of next month and 4m by the end of this year. Virgin Media, meanwhile, has already upgraded its existing cable network, which passes 12.5m addresses, and launched its own ultra-high speed offering.

Virgin have hit back at BT’s pricing, accusing the company of misleading consumers because Virgin Media’s service is actually faster. BT’s service runs at 40Mb per second while Virgin Media’s is 50Mb per second. This said, BT’s service does offer upload speeds of 10Mb a second – meaning customers will be able to send large files to other people quickly. In stark contrast, Virgin Media’s upload speed – even on its 50Mb service – is only 1.5Mb. More in the Guardian HERE and Telegraph HERE.

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Weekly email: 21/01/2010

January 21st, 2010 - 
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Here is this week’s news:
Tory Stuff
Media
Jeremy is speaking at the Oxford Media Convention as we email! Coverage of what he’s saying HERE and full transcript HERE.
In an interview this week with New Media Age, Shadow Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt acknowledged the vital role that the digital media industry plays in the UK economy, and promised a light-touch regulatory approach. HERE
Ed spoke at the Nations and Regions Media conference in Salford Quays on Tuesday. He confirmed our intention to scrap the IFNC pilots should be win the election more HERE and HERE
Arts Policy
Charlotte Higgins has written a helpful and by and large quite nice overview of the themes from Jeremy’s speech to the RSA / ACE State of the Arts conference last week, HERE Lyn Gardner discussed our philanthropy proposals in the Granuiad HERE. The Arts Council have pointed out to us that it was a joint conference, not just the RSA’s. Apologies, credit where it’s due, etc.
Material from the conference is available HERE.
Creative Industries
Digital Economy Bill
The Digital Economy Bill had its third (HERE) and fourth (HERE) days in Committee in the Lords, they have reached Clause 10.
Interesting correspondence this week in the letters page of the Granuiad on clause 17, led by a letter from the Creative Coalition HEREwith a response HERE
Two new pieces of research from both the BPI and Creative Coalition suggest that ISPs are exaggerating the financial hardship they will have to bear under measures proposed by the Digital Economy Bill. More in links via Facebook in some clever way HERE
and HERE.
ITV CRR Decision
The Competition Commission has given its final recommendations on CRR for consultation. The main recommendations are unchanged from its provisional findings and reject ITV’s proposals for more flexibility over its advertising charges. ITV have commented that ‘This decision confirms the urgent need for a thorough and comprehensive review of the cumulative impact of regulation of the independent broadcasting sector.’
We agree (with ITV), more HERE and HERE.
This morning the court of appeal has ordered BSkyB to sell down its stake in ITV from 17.9% to less than 7.5%HERE.
BBC
Maybe it is rocket science: The BBC have announced that throughout 2010 they will be ‘bringing together a range of TV and radio science programmes, online initiatives, regional road shows and learning campaigns to inspire engagement  with  science across the nation more HERE.
Meanwhile CCHQ wants Tory activists to help ‘beat BBC bias’ more HERE.
The BBC Trust has announced it is to conduct a performance review of the BBC’s on-demand offerings, including the iPlayer, simulcast TV and podcast downloads. This is launched today with an eight week public consultation, more HERE.
Video Games
The Video Standards Council has announced a number of high-level staff changes ahead of the implementation of the government’s new video games ratings regime outlined in the Digital Economy Bill more HERE.
The prestigious Ivor Novello Awards are to recognise music from videogames for the first time this year following the introduction of a special game score category, more HERE. Meanwhile, Hugo Chavez clearly is the new Keith Vaz, suggesting that the PlayStation leads children down the capitalist ‘road to hell’, which is of course just one of the reasons we like them more HERE.
Joining us on Chavez’s proverbial road to hell, is the Parliamentary website Parliament.uk which has recently launched a video game where you get to be an MP for Week, as part of their work with schools to support young people’s understanding of Parliament and democracy. Play it for yourself HERE
There’s an interesting post on video games HERE summarising recent political developments relevant to the sector.
Film
2009 production and box office figures from the UKFC show that the industry is weathering the recession well, with record inward investment, record box office, and UK indie films at their most popular in cinemas for a decade. On the downside there has been small drop in independent UK production and spend, and there are ongoing challenges in raising credit for film projects, especially through bank loans. More details in the full reports HERE.
CC Skills
Congratulations to Tom Berwick. He has been appointed as the new Chief Executive of Enterprise UK by Chairman and Dragon (of the Den) Peter Jones CBE. Tom leaves his current post as Chief Executive of Creative & Cultural Skills at the end of March more HERE
Broadband
We have release figures which show that the Government’s proposed broadband tax will hit 3.2 million people who do not have an internet connection and have no interest in having one, more HERE.
News speeds and prices for superfast broadband from BT more for its superfast broadband service HERE.
Awards Season Round Up
A slightly controversial night for Ricky Gervais in an otherwise quiet night for the Brits at the Golden Globes HERE. Congratulations to the BAFTA nominees, especially An Education, neck and neck with Avatar with eight nominations a piece, full list HERE. Further congratulations to the Brits nominees HERE, and nominees and winners at the National Television Awards, HERE where Jedward stole the show, HERE.
Arts and Heritage
Arts Council
Arts Council England have launched Achieving great art for everyone – a consultation on future priorities for the arts.   The results of the consultation will inform a ten-year strategic framework and the Arts Council’s future investment decisions, so get contributing, moreHERE
Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad
It’s been going since 2008 apparently. Did you know that? More HERE.
Heritage
The Historic Houses Association have launched their policy proposals for 2010 onward, titled ‘Inspirational Places – the value of Britain’s historic houses’ more HERE.
Libraries
Good news as interim results from an independent review of Northumberland’s library service show that the closure of six libraries in the county can be put on hold while further talks are held   with communities, with the aim of developing new ways of working. More HERE. Shows what can happen when the MLA gets in on the ground floor.
In Parliament
Prime Minister’s Questions
Excitement this week, as a question was posed to Gordon about rural broadband HERE.
Oral Questions
Oral questions took place on Monday covering everything from the 2018 World Cup bid to product placement HERE
10 Minute Rule Bill
Tom Watson introduced a 10 Minute Rule Bill on Digital Archiving, and got into trouble with the Deputy Speaker for grandstanding on the Digital Economy Bill HERE.
House of Commons
Video recordings bill received royal assent in the Commons today HERE.
Parliamentary Questions
34 external consultants working at the DCMS HERE
Still no indication from the DCMS of how many jobs the Government’s flagship Future Jobs Fund has created HERE
1400 responses to the Government’s consultation on product placement HERE
Over £500 million on free television licenses HERE
The criteria set out for community radio stations to receive a licence HERE
Government spending through the Community Radio Fund HERE
Implementation of the Legal Deposit Libraries Act HERE
Lords
The Video Recordings Bill made its way through the Lords HERE
EDMs
EDM 642 – National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts Big Green Challenge Awards HERE
EDM 617 – Access to Government services via the internet HERE
On the blog
Ed’s chief of staff Helen and Fun Inc author Tom Chatfield discuss whether the high barriers to entry explain why video games aren’t taken seriously by the wider cultural world, and Tom suggests where to start, HERE . An online network for independent filmmakers has a discussion about internships, unpaid / low paid work, and the minimum wage, something which is a live issue across the cultural and creative industries HERE
And Finally
Something to cheer Obama up following this week’s loss of Ted Kennedy’s seat to Republican Scott Brown: Obama the musical has opened in Germany. More HERE
Where we’ve been and who we’ve seen
Arts Council, Ofcom, Digital Radio surgery, Nations and Regions Media conference, Arts and Humanities Research Council, GLA, Wallace Collection, Westminster eForum on video games, Edelman, Mediawatch, digital entrepreneurs at Bootlaw, Moctezuma at the British Museum, Northampton School for Girls (specialist music school), Northampton Music Service Oxford Media Convention, Modern Art Oxford.
Ed Vaizey
Shadow Arts Minister
Jeremy Hunt
Shadow Culture Secretary
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Daily News Summary; 14 Dec 2009

December 14th, 2009 - 
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The British Screen Advisory Council has encouraged the Government to create a ‘British Silicon Valley’ HERE

Google is planning to launch its own phone HERE

A good day for ITV as nearly 20 million tune in to watch the X Factor final HERE

The UK is trailing competitors in the rollout of next generation access broadband HERE

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Weekly email 10-12-09

December 10th, 2009 - 
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Here is this week’s news:

Pre Budget Report

The Pre-Budget report, which you can download HERE, had little good news for anyone in the arts or creative industries. Buried in the detail (page 194) was confirmation that the DCMS resource budget would remain pretty much the same over the next two years and its capital budget would be cut from £0.9bn to £0.6bn.

Alistair Darling has also decided to press ahead with the phone line levy which we think will actually kill off private sector investment in superfast broadband HERE.

The film tax credit will be adjusted slightly to correct a ‘quirk’ in the legislation which restricts the available tax credit in an unintended way if there is increased UK spend in the second or later accounting periods full details HERE.

Alistair Darling has rejected a tax break from video games developers, as suggested in Digital Britain HERE. Ed has already said that we are actively considering a tax break for the industry, though we are also looking at other alternatives.

Taking a leaf out of David Cameron’s book they also announced a streamlining of quangos. This will include “rationalising up to a third of DCMS ALBs (arms length bodies), including streamlining ten DCMS advisory bodies and bringing forward plans for merging the UK Film Council and the British Film Institute” more HERE.

Creative Industries

Video Games

Tom Watson MP has called on ELSPA and TIGA to begin ‘forming an idea’ of a UK Games Council that would ‘run along the lines of the UK Film Council’ more HERE. This is something we have long advocated. We think this could be done by widening the remit of the UK Film Council, which would both encourage co-operation between these two sectors, and avoid the creation of a new quango.

Google

An excellent analysis of the implications of the Google book deal vis all creative content on the internet, and Google’s wider position in the global media world HERE.

Fashion

Congratulations to the winners at last night’s British Fashion Awards last night, though we hear that everyone was falling for Karen Elson, more HERE. Elson presented British Grace Coddington, creative director of American Vogue with the ‘fashion creator’ award.

Ahead of the awards, the British Fashion Council released their power 25 list more HERE

Ofcom

Ofcom’s draft Annual Plan for 2010/11 is out, more HERE. It includes three key areas including consumer and citizen, competition, and infrastructure and spectrum. Their Consumer Experience Report, which has helped shape these priorities is also published HERE… need to find a link

Music

The number of people using personalised online radio services such as Spotify and Last FM is growing rapidly, according to RAJAR research: 4.5 million people used such services last month, up from 3.9 million in may and 2.9 million in October last year, more HERE.

TV

Greg Dyke gave the annual Royal Television Society Christmas lecture last night. He called for the ‘unduly slow and bureaucratic’ BBC Trust to be abolished and its powers passed to Ofcom or a new body. He also said that he thought salaries across the TV industry were now too high, and that ITV and C4 have the opportunity to address this as they appoint new chief executives.  More HERE.  Given that Greg is chairman of our creative industries task force his views are particularly interesting, obviously.

There is a good story in the Telegraph on the future of local television HERE.

BBC Worldwide

The government has included BBC Worldwide in the portfolio assets it is considering selling and is urging the corporation to ‘look more widely at the options for greater financial and operational separation, including a sale or partial sale’ more HERE.

On the blog this week

What Lord Putnam would have said, had he been able to be there for the second reading of the Digital Economy Bill, HERE.

Arts and Heritage

Archives

A new archives strategy has been developed, consulted and published jointly by the National Archives and the MLA. More HERE.  Congratulations to both organizations on this, which we think it is both clear and comprehensive and note that these two organizations have done all of this in less time than it’s taken not to have a library review.

Libraries

Stirring stuff on the Government’s spectacular failure to organise a drinks party in the proverbial brewery on libraries from Rachel Cooke in the Guardian HERE, and her longer piece in the spring HERE. We did write to her at the time to point out that she’d over looked Ed’s brilliant speech on the matter HERE. She seems to have overlooked his barnstorming performance at last week’s Review launch too. What’s a Shadow Minister to do to get the attention of the Guardian’s library champion you might wonder?

Meanwhile, thanks to an agreement brokered by the MLA, libraries are to get high speed broadband access, more HERE.

Music

Gustavo Dudamel has taken over as music director of the L.A. Philharmonic. The Venezuelan musician has attracted a level of media attention over the past few years normally only reserved for pop-stars, the kind of thing can cause concern in classical music circles. However, the New Yorker points out that: “notions of the irreconcilability of commerce and art smack of college-dorm Marxism, and run counter to the spirit of Beethoven, Verdi, and Mahler, who addressed themselves passionately to the general public.” To read the article in full HERE

RBS Art Collection

RBS have given in to pressure and agreed to open its art collection to the public. Thought to be one of Scotland’s finest private art collections, some of its most outstanding works will be lent to galleries and community arts projects. More HERE. We welcome this news, although we would like to see more British companies, including banks, putting their arts philanthropy at the centre of what they do: It is part of their contribution to wider society. Credit Suisse is currently running a US ad campaign which highlights how proud they are of supporting the New York Philharmonic in the current economic climate, more HERE. We would like to see more UK companies doing similar things.

Management of the Crown Estate

The Treasury Sub-Committee has announced a new inquiry into the administration and expenditure of the Crown Estate. The inquiry will look at how effectively the Crown Estate Commissioners are rising to the challenges they face including, for example, the development of renewable energy, and the extent to which they are achieving their objectives to earn a surplus for the benefit of the UK taxpayer, and enhance the value of their estates in each of their four business areas: The Urban Estate (commercial and residential property in London and elsewhere): The Marine Estate (includes 55% of the UK’s foreshore, and almost all of the seabed out to the 12 mile nautical limit), The Rural Estate  (agricultural land, forests, and residential and commercial property in England, Scotland and Wales), Windsor Estate (includes the Royal Park) more HERE.

Turner Prize

Congratulations to painter Richard Wright, winner of this year’s Turner Prize, more HERE

And Finally

The Telegraph have recognised Ed for distinguished services to the arts, more HERE.

In Parliament

Parliamentary Questions

Forthcoming information on PR spending at the DCMS HERE

£126,000 on entertainment at the DCMS HERE

Visits to Museums and Galleries in Yorkshire and the Humber HERE

Just half of DCMS Parliamentary Questions are answered on time HERE

Early Day Motions

EDM 323 – Save Our Sound Campaign HERE

EDM 374 – Museums, Galleries, Councils and Gardens HERE

EDM 403 – Free Broadband Access in Towns HERE

Where we’ve been and who we’ve seen

Goldman Sachs(!), Turner Prize, Dell, MLA, launch of all-party group for Ethical Fashion, London International Festival of Theatre, Local Government Association, Munira Mirza, Serpentine Gallery, Matthew Freud, Conservative Arts and Creative Industries Network generously hosted by Rory Coonan, Turner and the Masters at the Tate, Ingenious and Microsoft Radio Spectrum seminar, Creative and Cultural Skills, BFI, Deloitte, Avatar premiere, Jingle Bell Ball, British Library, Charlie Caminda from Ludorum, new chairman of BBC Worldwide, Carphone Warehouse, V&A, Independent Publishers Forum, Hutchison Whampoa, Selina Scott, Google, Bollywood Festival at the Reel Cinema in Loughborough.

Ed Vaizey

Shadow Arts Minister

Jeremy Hunt

Shadow Culture Secretary

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Weekly email 19-11-09

November 19th, 2009 - 
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Here’s this weeks news:

See Ed’s latest LinkedIn question about the BBC and post a response, HERE. And join up to our group, post news and participate in discussions, HERE.

Digital Economy Bill

We hope you are as excited as we are for more news on the much vaunted Digital Economy Bill. We would have loved to bring you details of the bill itself, alas it’s not out yet, and we like you are waiting for Lord Mandelson’s press conference tomorrow.

Tory Stuff

Jeremy outlined the Conservative vision for the future of the National Lottery in a speech in Leeds on Monday. He unveiled a package of measures to increase the returns to the Lottery good causes by £186 million a year, including abolishing the National Lottery Commission and giving its regulatory functions to the Gambling Commission; banning all Lottery Distributors from having press, public relations and communications departments; introducing a cap of 5% on administration costs. Most importantly we will return the National Lottery to its original good causes of sport, arts, heritage and charities, significantly increasing the returns to arts and heritage.

Jeremy said: “Last year, the 7 main distributors spent £120m on admin costs – a staggering 11.4% of the £1.05bn they distributed. That is grotesque when charities, community groups and voluntary organisations are under such intense scrutiny from those very same lottery distributorsto get every penny possible out of administration and into delivery.” More HERE full speech HERE

Speaking at the LSE this week, Jeremy talked about our plans to help the private sector roll out broadband across the country and our opposition to the unfair broadband tax HERE.

A Bon Jovi quoting (Plan your future but do it in pencil) Jeremy also spoke at the Manchester Media Festival today, setting out our plans to transform the current bleak outlook for media, more HERE and HERE and further faint praise from Roy Greenslade HERE Jeremy is worth watching, according to the Daily Telegraph HERE. We agree, obviously.

Ed spoke at the NextGen09 conference on broadband, dark fibre and how our localism agenda will help local governments to get their area online. More HERE

Ed gave an interview to the Standard HERE

Creative Industries

Top-slicing

The Government’s plans for top-slicing are now as confusing as all their other plans. The Times reported that the BBC has seen off the plan HERE, while the ‘Government’ (in the shape of DCMS) reaffirmed to the FT that the proposals would go ahead (after the election) HERE.  The DCMS has issued a response to consultation on IFNCs indicating top-slicing will be delayed until 2012, HERE. Hilariously, they hid it away on their website HERE

Video Games

Tom Watson MP has been interviewed by Critical Gamer, where he talks about the games he likes, his Gamers’ Voice campaign, and Keith Vaz, more HERE

Modern Warfare 2 sales reach record levels, pulling in $310 million in the US and UK alone HERE outselling the entire music and video markets combined, although as commentators have pointed out, high earnings are generated by the high price of games on average (£37.85 was the average UK price for MW2) as opposed to around £8 for CDs and £10 for DVDs more has been posted on our LinkedIn group news page, HERE

It’s a landmark game: ‘a first-person shooter that plays as a tragedy, not a power fantasy’ according to this review in influential on-line journal Slate HERE

Film

The UK Film Council launched a public consultation on proposals to merge its Premiere, New Cinema and Development funds to create a £15million Film Production Fund with an emphasis on first and second time directors, as part of a major overhaul of the organisation following a £25million budget cut to help fund the Olympics. A new Innovation Fund will promote new business models and aims to ensure UK film’s transition into the digital age, more HERE

Please note the word “cut”, as in a “cut imposed by Labour”.

Architecture

John Sorrell the outgoing CABE chair singles out Asda and Tesco in an impassioned speech calling for high architectural standards in midst of recession. In his valedictory speech he hit out at the ‘poor’ quality of supermarket development, singling out planning proposals by both Asda and Tesco in Barnet and proposals for a Tesco in St Helens in Merseyside ‘for its lousy public space’. He called on supermarkets ‘to come up with an alternative development model’ more HERE . We are big fans of John, which is why we are bigging up his speech.

Broadband

Conservative-run Swindon Council is set to become the first town in the UK to offer completely free wi-fi access. In the first project of its kind it will provide a wireless network for business, residents and visitors to the borough. We wholeheartedly welcome this ground -breaking initiative more HERE

Meanwhile, Nordicity are working on a Digital Britain/Technology Strategy Board feasibility study to deliver high speed broadband to remote and rural communities around Lancashire using ‘white space’ technologies. This week Ofcom published a discussion document to explore the potential of this new technology to wirelessly link up different devices and offer enhanced broadband access in rural areas. It works by searching for unoccupied radio waves called white spaces between TV channels to transmit and receive wireless signals. HERE

BBC

The BBC Trust think Thought for the Day is fine as it is, more HERE

Meanwhile Jeremy talked about the future of the BBC, including salaries and bureaucratic waste in an interview in The Sunday Times HERE . This follows the revelations last week that 46 BBC managers receive salaries higher than that of the Prime Minister.

The Times reports today that the BBC will reveal the salaries that it pays to its star presenters for the first time, but will still withhold their names. The corporation will disclose in January that it pays a small group of its ‘top talent’ including presenters such as Jonathan Ross and Graham Norton, a total of more than £70 million a year. More HERE. We think this is a further step in the right direction, but still not far enough.

Jeremy has also completely dismisses the suggestion that any “deal” has been done with Rupert Murdoch, reminding Lord Mandelson that Labour had the support of the Sun at the last three general elections HERE

Lord Sugar doesn’t seem to have the best grasp of this politics lark as he suggests that Jeremy has bullied the BBC HERE.

ITV

The Board of ITV has announced the appointment of Archie Norman as Non Executive Chairman. He will take up the role in January 2010, when Michael Grade, Executive Chairman, stands down from the company and John Cresswell will become Interim Chief Executive. We think this is great news (obviously – Archie used to be a Tory MP) more HERE No doubt Ben Bradshaw would veto the appointment if he could.

Local Television

United for Local Television (ULTV) a coalition of local TV campaigners has attacked Ofcom’s proposal to appoint a band manager to control spectrum suitable for local TV, sending an open letter to chair Collette Bowman. ‘It is undeniable that asking prospective local TV service providers to attempt to negotiate spectrum access with an unregulated dominant band manager is the equivalent of asking David to wear a straightjacket to fight Goliath.’ More HERE

Google Books

Google Books is forced to ease its ironclad hold on copyright-protected books, HERE.

Listed Events

David Davies has published his review of free to air listed events, more HERE and the full report HERE and Government consultation on this here HERE

Arts and Heritage

Visual Art

Art Historian, former director of the National Gallery and current Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Arts has given this year’s Colin Matthew Memorial Lecture for the Public Understanding of History at Gresham College. It’s on the ‘The Institutionalisation of Art In Early Victorian England’ and you can read it HERE

The Holocaust (Stolen Art) Restitution Act, supported by the Shadow DCMS team, which allows museums to return art stolen during the World Wars comes into effect, HERE.

Charles Saatchi advises against becoming an artist, HERE.

More BoJo

For specific news on arts and culture in London and monthly updates on what the Mayor is doing in this area sign up here: HERE

Boris Johnson presented the Marsh Award for Public Sculpture at the Whitechapel Gallery this week HERE. This year’s award is shared between three new works and one restoration project. The main winner, Dream, is the creation of a Catalan artist Jaume Plensa and is constructed on the site of the disused Sutton Manor Colliery at St Helens, commissioned by former miners and St Helens Council as part of Channel 4’s Big Art Project more HERE

Boris’s office is also supporting the London Jazz Festival which runs until Sunday 22nd in venues across London more HERE

Aesthetics Row

Its is commonly know fact among philosophy students that philosophers like nothing better than a good slanging match, something that is equally true of critics. So we bring you a humdinger as Sunday Times art critic, Waldemar Januszczak, HERE attacks the latest book by philosopher Roger Scruton, Beauty, more HERE which examines the disappearance of the idea of beauty in modern art. Peter Whittle of the New Culture Forum says ‘in its sheer vileness [Januszczak’s review] manages to make you physically recoil from the paper in your hand.’ All of it makes Peter wonder: ‘Does he fear Scruton might have a point?’

Theatre

Alan Bennett’s gift for ringing up box-office success has the critics feeling giddy as The Habit of Art opens at the National HERE.

Leaner funding times could be good for the theatre argues Patrick Marmion HERE.

Stay sober, stay conscious and stay to the end – are these the only obligations theatre critics have? HERE and HERE

Arts and Business

Congratulations to the awards winners HERE The big news from the awards had nothing to do with any of the winners, it was the sudden announcement by the lady herself of the chair’s resignation. Helena Kennedy is leaving with immediate effect, one year into her second three year term, the rumour as reported in Simon Tait’s TaitMail: ‘she wanted to clear her decks for another big job, either with this government or the next one, but she keeps her own counsel and no-one has any idea what it is’.

In Parliament

The Queen’s speech, featuring the much vaunted Digital Economy Bill, HERE and a list of the thirteen bills, HERE

Where we’ve been and who we’ve seen

Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Royal Armouries Leeds, Tate Modern, Google, Akram Khan in a remarkable evening, more HERE at Sadlers Wells, Beyonce at the O2, POLIS at the LSE, Manchester Media Festival, Roundhay Park in Leeds, Five Live tour, Erik Huggers.

Ed Vaizey

Shadow Arts Minister

Jeremy Hunt

Shadow Culture Secretary

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Weekly Email: 22 October 2009

October 22nd, 2009 - 
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Here is this week’s news:

Tory Stuff

Media Policy

Jeremy has set out our media proposals in an interview with the FT this week. He said that we want to replace the BBC Trust and that we are looking at reopening the BBC Charter. He also said that we would scrap the Government’s proposed 50p a month tax on all telephone lines to fund superfast broadband and reverse Government plans to force the BBC to share the licence fee, more HERE.

Culture Policy

Ed spoke at the Culture is Right conference yesterday and set out our plans for the National Lottery and philanthropy, confirmed our commitment to free museums, set out our views on the Arts Council, heritage, the MLA, culture in education, highlighted significant proposals at a local level that have implications for the arts, and set out his vision for the cultural Olympiad. Read his full speech HERE and download the green paper on localism HERE the relevant proposals are in the executive summary and in detail on page 25.

Last night we held another Conservative Arts and Creative Industries Network event, thank you to the Creative Coalition for hosting us. The turnout was fantastic, the view, phenomenal and apparently we’re now ‘in danger of becoming trendy’ according to the Standard, HERE.

Ed has posed a question on Linked In: What is the best way for an incoming government to address the issue of online piracy? You can join our network HERE, and respond to his question HERE.

Creative Industries

Broadband Tax

Government advisor Professor Cave agrees with us on there being no need for a broadband tax. Professor Cave, an economist, expressed his support for our proposal and called for more emphasis to be placed on drawing private investment into next-generation network development. More HERE.

BBC

The BBC Trust has rejected plans to open up the iPlayer to ITV and Channel 4 programmes, saying that the idea was ‘too complex’ to be allowed because it would mix programmes that carried advertising with the BBC’s advert-free shows – and it was not clear if the corporation would benefit as a result, more HERE. We think this is a backwards step, which demonstrates that the BBC Trust has once again mis-understood its role – the purpose of this plan was not to benefit the BBC but rather to share the benefits of public investment in the iPlayer with the commercial sector.

Philip Stephens of the FT has outlined a five set programme to save the BBC, HERE. First, show some humility, second, reduce the pay and benefits of top managers, and cut the number of those managers, and publish earnings of its talent; third, rebuild the quality of its journalism, fourth, think strategically about the space a publicly funded broadcaster should be occupying 10 years hence; finally and most importantly, rediscover the difference between ends and means.

Mark Thompson has defended the appearance Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP on Question Time this evening on the grounds of BBC impartiality, and argues that it would be up to Parliament to stop it, more HERE.

Music Piracy

70% of those surveyed in a YouGov poll on internet piracy said that someone suspected of illegal downloading should have a right to a trial in court before restrictions on internet use were imposed, with only 16% in favour of automatic curbs based on accusations by copyright holders such as musicians, more HERE.

In other old model / new model news this week, party chairman Eric Pickles is leading the Conservative party onto Spotify. Cheese and Pickles anyone? More HERE.

Licensing

Ed is at the licensing debate in Westminster Hall at this very moment. We think there should be a review which as we are sympathetic to the suggestion of exemptions for Venues with a capacity of 200 or less – it would support artists without undermining the power of local authorities to control noise levels and promote safety in their area. The Government has just announced a very similar sounding U-turn, more HERE and watch the debate live or recorded, HERE.

Creative Industries

Northwest Vision and Media, which works on behalf of the creative and digital industries in the region, has put together the ‘Fast Company Programme’ to help the industry’s leaders to realise the value of their business and access the private equity funding available to them, more HERE. It launches with a panel discussion at the start of November, more information and registration HERE.

Advertising

Tim Lefroy, Chief Executive of the Advertising Association has announced plans to create a foundation to rebuild trust in advertising. He warned: “Less than 15% of adults ‘generally trust advertising’ today. If current trends continue, for the first time ever, people who are against advertising, who want it more controlled and regulated will, in a few years outnumber those who are ‘for it’, who feel that our freedoms are well placed.” More HERE. We think the foundation is a great idea.

Design

The winner of the Prince Philip Designers Prize for 2009 is Andrew Ritchie’s Brompton bike, based on the ingenuity of its folding mechanism, its balance of functionality, durability and comfort, and a consistent 30-year commitment to refining the product and its 1,200 parts – many of which are unique to Brompton. The bike is wholly manufactured at the company’s factory in Brentford, sells in more than 30 countries, driving a successful business that has grown by 25% for the last three years.  The business still dedicates 50% of management resource to design and development to keep itself ahead of growing competition in the fast-evolving folding bicycle market. More HERE.

Watch a design documentary of 50 years of British innovation, HERE.

The Design Council has launched a national design challenge called ‘Design for Patient Dignity’, inviting designers to join forces with manufacturers, service providers and specialist contractors to help eliminate mixed sex accommodation and increase patient privacy and dignity in hospitals. One of the briefs includes redesigning the patient gown! More HERE.

Architecture

CABE and eight regional design review panels have joined together to create a national network of design review panels. This will provide all local planning authorities with access to independent practical design advice, which is great news, more HERE

Congratulations to Richard Rogers who won this year’s Stirling Prize for his Maggie’s Centre in London, more HERE.

Arts and Heritage

Money Money Money

The Government appears to have found some money to fill the DCMS funding hole that came to light in the summer, HERE as last Friday they confirmed funding for the BFI National Film Centre, Stonehenge, the Tate Modern Extension and the British Museum’s conservation and exhibitions centre and the British Library’s newspaper archive, more HERE and HERE. It’s not at all clear to us where they have found this extra money. Nevertheless, if it is there, it is very welcome.

ACE

Speaking of money, Arts Council England chief executive Alan Davey has argued: ‘The arts ought to be a key part of any civilised government’s mission,’ also speaking at Culture is Right, this week. He added: ‘I hope any government would not return to a Mills-ian view of the most efficient creation of wealth being the sole aim of any society. [Money for the arts] has an ultimate end that Ruskin knew was important to any society – the creation of beauty, and something that goes beyond the material and straight to who we are.’ HERE. We agree.

Cultural Olympiad

The Arts Council have announced the 12 winning projects for their Artists taking the lead programme, part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. Congratulations to the winners, full details HERE.

Heritage

English Heritage has launched the Heritage Counts 2009 website, HERE. This annual report on the state of the historic environment shows that heritage can have an impact on wider social issues such as people’s sense of well-being and community cohesion, and reveals that England’s heritage has had a bumper year with visitor numbers far higher than expected, more HERE.

Libraries

Tim Godfray at the Booksellers Association has written a: ‘blistering private reply to Hodge’s proposal, and in public he talks about a “growing sense of concern” and regards libraries selling books as “unfair competition”—not least because bookshops pay taxes that support libraries… Rather than flying ill-conceived and frankly preposterous suggestions, Margaret Hodge would be better off speeding up the publication of the Charteris Report into the library service in the Wirral, and on speeding the publication of her own long-delayed Department for Culture, Media & Sport library review.’ Ouch! More HERE.

Meanwhile CILIP has weighed in with the biting headline: ‘Hot news! Absolutely nothing is happening!’ more HERE.

Effects of the recession

The Art Fund has carried out its second nationwide survey of museums and galleries which shows that more people are visiting museums across the UK and that they are spending more in the shops and cafes – a positive sign. But income from other sources, especially public funding, investments and corporate sponsorship, is falling, more HERE.

In Parliament

Parliamentary Questions

Falling Lottery funding for the arts, sports and heritage HERE

But steady lottery sales over the past few years HERE

The increasing cost of visiting English Heritage properties HERE

Buildings added, buildings removed from the English Heritage ‘Buildings At Risk’ register HERE

Estimates of the financial contribution of the heritage sector HERE

The impact of digital switchover on provision of ITV 3 and 4 in Wales HERE

The proposal for top-slicing the license fee and the impact on ITV HERE

And Finally

To mark the end of its popular P G Wodehouse exhibition, Heywood Hill the bookshop has come up with a mouth-watering free competition for anyone with an appetite for Wilton’s, Berry Bros, Heywood Hill and/ or Nicholas Soames! Watch Plum Idol HERE featuring among others Stephen Fry, Santa Montefiore and Henry Blofeld (and including Debo Devonshire’s first official appearance on You Tube) and then vote for your favourite – there is a corker of a prize for one lucky winner:

Where we’ve been and who we’ve seen

TIGA, London Film Festival screenings of Bright Star and An Education, CBI Tourism Alliance Breakfast, the Roundhouse, Culture is Right, ITV, Conservative Arts and Creative Industries Network at the Paramount, Editorial Intelligence on the future of the arts, more HERE, Alan Davey, CBI London Annual Dinner, Cartoon Museum, Moctezuma exhibition at the British Museum, Churches Conservation Trust, Channel 4, Enron at the Royal Court Theatre, TimeWarner, Connect.

Ed Vaizey

Shadow Arts Minister

Jeremy Hunt

Shadow Culture Secretary

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No Need for a Broadband Tax

October 19th, 2009 - 
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Government advisor Professor Cave agrees with us on there being no need for a broadband tax. In an interview with the Financial Times this morning, HERE Jeremy said that we would shelve the proposal ‘as soon as possilbe’ if we win the general election next year.

Professor Cave, an economist, expressed his support for our proposal and called for more emphasis to be placed on drawing private investment into next-generation network development. More HERE.

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