Culture Politick

Weekend News Summary: 6th/7th March 2010

March 8th, 2010 -

Tags:

BBC, Google, Libraries, Print media, Publishing, Radio, Television

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: 1st March 2010

March 1st, 2010 -

Tags:

BBC, Filesharing, Heritage, Libraries, Music, Public Service Broadcasting, Radio

Libraries

Libraries are among the services “most vulnerable” to widespread cuts across local councils, with a BBC survey estimating 25,000 public sector jobs could be lost around the country (more HERE). More than 70% of the 49 councils that responded to the survey predicted spending cuts of between 5% and 20%. The BBC reports that:

‘… services such as libraries… face cuts as councils battle the “perfect storm” of recession – falling revenues and higher demand’

Local Government Association deputy chairman Richard Kemp has said:

‘We know that if the government ring-fences schools, health, defence and the police, other services will need to take a big hit. The LGA view is that everything else will face a cut of 16.5% in real terms. Others believe it could be 18.5%.’

The Guardian reports HERE that under a 10-point government plan to help councils cut spending – in response to the BBC survey – suggests that “arts and leisure services will be most vulnerable to cuts while homelessness, children’s social services and planning are likely to be more protected”.

Meanwhile Tony Travers, director of the Greater London group at the London School of Economics, says:

‘Nothing like this has happened for a generation… To minimise the impacts on the public… would require massive efficiencies in all service, higher charges for many and sharing back-office staff with other public bodies.’ More in The Telegraph HERE.

Heritage

The Times reports fears that historic treasures worth millions will be lost to the country after ‘the Government quietly halved its grant to the “fund of last resort” for heritage.’ Treasury pressure has forced the DCMS to reduce the £10 million previously allocated to the National Heritage Memorial Fund for next year to £5 million, meaning that the fund’s acquisition budget for next year is now in effect down to £1.7 million because £3.3 million of its funds are already committed to assisting the £50 million purchase of Titian’s Diana and Actaeon from the Duke of Sutherland. More HERE.

Radio

In a strongly worded letter to Mark Thompson, the Director-General, representatives of the music industry have said they were ’surprised and alarmed’ by last week’s reports that the BBC is to close 6Music. Geoff Taylor and Tony Wandsworth; chief executive and chairman of the British Phonographic Industry have said:

‘6 Music has established itself as a vital platform providing exposure to a wide range of emerging British music talent… There is no other radio station that is remotely comparable in scale or depth for showcasing new music... It is therefore vital to the artistic and cultural diversity of this country that the role of 6 Music as a taste-maker for the airwaves is preserved.’ More in the Times HERE; and in our Weekend News Summary HERE.

Whilst The Guardian thinks the 6 Music announcement has reminded people why they pay the licence fee, HERE; The Telegraph thinks the licence fee could be scrapped altogether under a Labour government, in response to Ben Bradshaw’s view that there is ‘good reason’ to have a debate as to whether the £3.6 billion annual licence fee is the ‘best funding mechanism’ for the BBC HERE. Further coverage of the BBC’s strategic review, or ‘election manifesto’, can be found in The Guardian HERE.

Tech

CeriseClub, a French internet company has said that illegal file sharing is a ‘national sport’. Southwest France is said to hide one of the highest rates of software piracy in the developed world. Poitou-Charentes, for instance, may be famed for its goat cheese, but it has been hailed by La Charente Libre, the local daily newspaper, as “champion of counterfeit software”.

Studies suggest that 42 per cent of software programmes are copied illegally in France, compared with 26 per cent in Britain and 27 per cent in Germany. In the southwest, the piracy rate was 49 per cent. The cost to business in France is estimated at £1.8 billion — by far the highest in the European Union, driven by an attitude of “Microsoft makes billions. It can afford to lose a few euros here and there”. More in The Times HERE, which also covers today the need to save music from “the twin ravages of illegal downloading and a lack of strategic direction” HERE; and the disproportionate effect of sharing on newcomers’ earnings HERE.

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News Summary: 23rd February 2010

February 23rd, 2010 -

Tags:

Advertising, Art, Awards, BSkyB, Education, Libraries, Ofcom, Theatre

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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School Library Commission Invites Submissions

February 19th, 2010 -

Tags:

Education, Libraries

As we covered last month HERE, The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) has, along with the National Literacy Trust (NLT), launched a commission to examine the future of school library provision in England, pointing out that, with the number of pupils with school libraries provision dropping from 88% to 66% in the 10 years to 1997, “an evidence based examination of the school library in the education landscape is urgently required”.

Former Secretary of State for Education and Skills, Estelle Morris, will Chair, to be joined by Peter Wanless, chief executive of the National Lottery Fund; Jean Gross, director of Every Child a Reader; and Catherine Blanshard, chief officer of libraries, arts and heritage for Leeds City Council. Findings will be published in June. More HERE.

The Comission yesterday announced its intended lines of enquiry (see HERE) and requested submissions.

Director of the National Literacy Trust, Jonathan Douglas, said:

“We strongly urge all individuals and organisations who are committed to the future of school libraries to submit their ideas to the Commission. As powerhouses of reading, school libraries are a vital resource that must be rediscovered in the context of a changing educational landscape. We need the expertise of all parties with a vested interest in school libraries to ensure our final report is balanced, results driven and engaging.”

Museums, Libraries and Archives Chief Executive, Roy Clare, said:

“Libraries are vital in offering children and families access to reading, learning and information – whether in physical media or digitally – and in supporting them to achieve their full potential. This Commission offers an exciting opportunity for everyone to contribute and help to shape the future of effective library services in a changing educational and economic environment. The new primary curriculum offers the potential for some fresh linkages, too, and we believe that everyone gains from the earliest possible engagement with all that libraries have to offer.”

All written evidence must be submitted to the Commission by 12am on 17 March 2010 and should be emailed to National Literacy Trust Policy Adviser George Dugdale at: George.Dugdale@literacytrust.org.uk. More information on lines of enquiry and methods for submission available care of the National Literacy Trust HERE.

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Daily Blog

Weekly email: 28/01/2010

February 2nd, 2010 -

3 Comments

Tags:

BSkyB, Digital Economy Bill, Education, Heritage, ITV, Libraries, Local Media, Music, Piracy, Print media, Theatre, Video Games

Here’s this week’s news…

Tory Stuff

Ed spoke this week on cultural education at the Yehudi Menuhin school. He warned that: ‘We are losing sight of the key aims of cultural education in a blizzard of initiatives. What I would like to do is bring some coherence, stability and long-term strategy to the sector.

I want to be able to answer easily questions like: can my child learn a musical instrument, learn art, learn to dance, regardless of my income; if my child is talented, can I guarantee that they will be able to sustain their talent; will my child leave school with a solid cultural education, and therefore feel comfortable in engaging in the arts in all its forms?

In short, we need strategy and coherence from the centre, so that the considerable funds that are spent on music and dance education – more than £95 million annually – are spent efficiently and effectively.’ Full speech HERE. We are very interested to hear your contributions, so please do post them in the comments section, identifying who you are and which organisation you are from. There is a nice comment about the speech on LinkedIn HERE.

Jeremy is on Facebook, add him as a friend HERE We are resisting all obvious jokes

Creative Industries

Digital Economy Bill Day 5

Clauses 10 -18 were considered, full transcript on Hansard HERE A sixth day is scheduled for 3^rd February. With discussions of the eagerly anticipated Clause 17 starting HERE Lord Howard spoke for our side, and pointed out HERE that the Government haven’t said what they want this power for, which makes it rather difficult for us to decide whether to support it or not. He also expressed our serious concerns about broad nature of the power and the use of a super affirmative resolution (that’s a super duper SI) and said that in its current form, we don’t support it. We would like to see the Government come back narrower definition of the power, and continue to discuss this with them.

Online Piracy

At the Oxford Media Convention, Stephen Timms, the ‘Digital Britain’ Minister, criticised rights holders for not moving fast enough to bring new business models to market. He said: ‘The space the legislation provides to develop those models will be important. But rights holders must get a move on. Legislation is not the whole solution to the problems. Rights holders need to develop new ways to make content available to people in formats that they want and at a fair price – reducing the incentive to break the law. Progress has been much too slow. We also need initiatives to educate people about why creativity deserves to be fairly rewarded.’ Er, we agree, more HERE ’

ITV

ITV have appointed Adam Crozier, the head of Royal Mail and former boss of the FA as its new chief executive. More HERE congratulations all round.

Congratulations to ITV and Sony Pictures TV, as analysis suggests Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? A TV format created in the UK is the most popular gameshow in the world more HERE.

BSkyB

Continue their downturn-defying financial performance: For the six months to the end of December, they have reported a revenue rise of 10% year on year to £2.9 billion. More HERE.

Video Games

The House of Lords Communications Committee has effectively backed TIGA’s campaign for Games Tax Relief in their report into The British Film and Television Industries published this week. The report says: “We recognise the claims of the videogames industry for support in the face of foreign government-subsidised competition, and recommend that the Government consider providing tax incentives for videogames production.” More HERE.

Speaking at the Westminster eForum on video games Ian Livingstone criticised the national news media’s tendency to stir up more panic surrounding violent content more

HERE Ed also spoke at this event, more HERE.

TIGA have said it is ludicrous to suggest that playing video games was responsible for an apparent increase in cases of rickets more HERE and HERE.

Technology

Derek Wyatt MP has created a ‘My MP’ App for the iPhone, yes really, a Beta version is available HERE

Local News

The CEO Trinity Mirror’s CEO called for the abolition of council newspapers at the Oxford Media Convention last week, HERE. Meanwhile, the Audit Commission wrote to Stephen Timms last week with their conclusions from research into this area. They say that ‘the money being spent by councils is not unreasonable, though they should always consider whether it provides good value. Few council publications are published sufficiently frequently to be viable media for most local advertising.’ The letter and the appendix are published HERE.

Newspapers

Congratulations to the Guardian.co.uk which has attracted nearly 37m users and breaks the record for a UK newspaper website according to their latest ABC stats. We don’t know where we’d be without it, frankly. More HERE.

Music

Congratulations to UK indie label XL, part of the Beggars group, on reaching a number 1 in the US album chart with Vampire Weekend’s second album Contra, more HERE.

iPad

Bringer of the eBooks revolution, possible saviour of the newspaper business, or an oversized iPhone? Views on this, and an explanation of the term ‘goldilocks device’ HERE

Arts and Heritage

Culture and Education

Ofsted have published a report into culture and education: ‘Learning: Creative approaches that raise standards’ more HERE which recognises the work of Creative Partnerships and the impact of creative learning practices in schools in improving standards and pupils’ personal development.

Creativity, Culture and Education have welcomed Ofsted’s recognition that using arts and culture across in learning raise attainment levels, improve attendance and increase pupil motivation – particularly for schools in challenging circumstances, more HERE

New Deal of the Mind

£1.45 million announced for 223 jobs, 167 of which will be arts jobs across 14 London boroughs in a project run by new Deal of the Mind. There include design assistants, marketing and press assistants and fundraisers at organisations including The British Library, the Lyric Hammersmith, the Young Vic and the Royal Court, more HERE

Libraries

A new research report conducted by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) highlights the crucial role public libraries play in supporting the delivery of the national digital priorities set out by the Government and Digital Inclusion Champion, Martha Lane Fox. More HERE and HERE.

Meanwhile, a commission to examine the future of school library provision in England is being launched by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and the National Literacy Trust (NLT) it will be chaired by Estelle Morris, more HERE

New funding opportunity for libraries to support digital inclusion has been announced in December’s Smarter Government report. Library services have their chance to bid for new funding, thanks to a new £30 million government investment in UK online centres. More information about the funding, different models, criteria and obligations HERE.

The Charted Institute of Library and Information Professionals has responded to the Government’s (latest) libraries review, HERE.

Heritage

English Heritage is suggesting that refurbishing old school buildings is often the best use of resources and the most sustainable way of modernising them and have published two new papers that highlight the value and potential of older schools. We think this is an interesting idea, well worth exploring, more HERE and HERE.

New grants from HLF have just been announced, Including a £3m grant to the Giant’s Causeway World Heritage Site in Northern Ireland and £3.7m for Liverpool’s pioneering Florence Institute for Boys, more HERE.

Theatre

Great news for theatre: total box office receipts for 2009 were up to £504,765,690; marking the seventh record-breaking year in a row. What’s more, while in previous years it has been musicals that have driven increases in box office takings, in 2009 the rise was almost entirely accounted for by the performance of drama at the box office. Led by the success of shows such as War Horse, Waiting for Godot and Calendar Girls, plays were 26% up on 2008 levels, while opera, dance and entertainments were up 7%. Musicals were 2% down over the year more. Congratulations all round, more HERE.

In Parliament

Parliamentary Questions

Just 77% of the Scottish population can currently access DAB HERE

DCMS considering proposals from Camelot to enter the commercial market for bill payments HERE

The largest proportion of the general public view the Arts Council ‘neither favourably nor unfavourably’ HERE

Digital Economy Bill

The Digital Economy Bill has reached Clause 9 in the Committee Stage of the Lords HERE

EDMs

EDM 689 – Licensing Act 2003 HERE

EDM 671 – Publication of salaries and remuneration packages of BBC executives HERE

EDM 666 – Live Music Bill HERE

Where we’ve been and who we’ve seen

The Stephen Lawrence Centre, the RSC education team, Battersea Power station, English Heritage, Asian Music Circuit, Southbank Sinfonia Every Good Boy Deserves Favour at the National Theatre, UK Music, Enron at the Noel Coward Theatre, The Yehudi Menuhin School, the Performer Alliance APPG were everybody supported an exemption to the Licensing Act for small venues HERE, the Globe, Clore Duffield Foundation, the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Foyle Foundation, Fidelity UK Foundation, Michael Van der Ham, Christopher Kane, Erdem, the London College of Fashion MA show at the V&A, Clare Delmar, Channel 4, ITV, STV, Johnson Press, Google, Yahoo, Ebay, Facebook, OFT.

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Library Provision

January 27th, 2010 -

6 Comments

Tags:

Digital Inclusion, Libraries

Libraries key to Digital Inclusion

A new research report conducted by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) highlights the crucial role public libraries play in supporting the delivery of the national digital priorities set out by the Government and Digital Inclusion Champion, Martha Lane Fox. The report includes findings that:

79 per cent of library services in English Local Authorities do not charge for internet access at all, and a further 12 per cent do not make any charge for the first hour (91per cent in total).
Nearly three-quarters (72 per cent) of library services have provided digital training to their frontline staff to support them in their core role of helping library users to get online.
Library services are particularly skilled at supporting older people to get online; they are offered one-to-one support to get online by an estimate of 64 per cent of Local Authorities.
People are also supported to get online in libraries to improve their employability – 86 per cent of library services report that they provide support to the unemployed to get online with 76 per cent supporting online job-searches, 71 per cent supporting through CV writing and 63 per cent offering short courses that help the unemployed their ICT skills.

MLA Chief Executive, Roy Clare said: ‘These results confirm that neighbourhood libraries are helping people… develop their digital skills; this is particularly of benefit to the 15 million people without internet access in their homes.’

A press release can be found HERE and the report in full HERE.

The Future of School Libraries

The MLA is now, along with the National Literacy Trust (NLT), launching a commission to examine the future of school library provision in England, pointing out that, with the number of pupils with school libraries provision dropping from 88% to 66% in the 10 years to 1997, ‘an evidence based examination of the school library in the education landscape is urgently required’.

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Uncategorized

Weekly email: 21/01/2010

January 21st, 2010 -

1 Comment

Tags:

Art, Arts Council, Awards, BBC, Broadband, Competition, Cultural Olympiad, Digital Economy Bill, Film, Heritage, ITV, Libraries, Philanthropy, Video Games

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

Posted in:

Weekly email: 14/01/10

January 18th, 2010 -

Tags:

Art, Arts Council, Channel 4, Cultural Olympiad, Dance, Heritage, Libraries, Local Media, Museums, Music, Opera, Philanthropy, Piracy, Public Service Broadcasting, Television, Video Games

Here is this week’s news:

Tory Stuff

Jeremy made a major speech on the arts at the RSA’s conference on arts policy, the largest conference of its kind held in recent years. He was doing his impressive speaking-without-notes trick so no transcript to link to, but he talked about our plans to: restore lottery funds to the four original good causes, bear down on quango administration costs; philanthropy including simplifying Gift Aid and lifetime giving, and incentives to build up endowments and a better culture of asking for contributions. There’s good overview from Charlotte Higgins in the Guardian, HERE, although unfortunately there is a typo in the headline, which should say ‘Arts bureaucracy cuts proposed by Conservatives.’ Feedback on what he said and other goings on from the conference on Twitter, HERE.

Creative Industries

Digital Economy Bill

Realising that there is no way it will pass in its current form, the Government has climbed down on Clause 17 (which allows the Government to extend copyright with minimal consultation) more HERE and latest discussion from the Lords HERE. The debate rages on with Bono’s 10 ideas to make the next 10 years more interesting, including criticism of internet piracy HERE causes a storm of debate HERE and HERE

Video Games

Ed spoke at an event on video games at the RSA last night with Tom Chatfield, a critic and commentator on video games, with an excellent book out this week, Fun Inc. Why Video Games Are the First Serious Business of the 21st Century, more HERE and HERE.

Channel 4

Congratulations to C4, which has been awarded the broadcast rights for the 2012 Paralympics. It will broadcast 150 hours of coverage after winning what LOCOG described as a ‘highly competitive tender process’. C4 tell us they feel this is a great fit with their remit commitment to cultural diversity and that ‘we’ll be throwing everything at our coverage to make it as innovative and exciting as it can be and attract the largest possible audiences.’ More HERE

Local Media

Ed spoke in yet another debate on the Local Media in Parliament this week HERE. Eight consortia have been successful in the first phase of the selection process for Independently Funded News Consortia (IFNC) pilots HERE. We oppose IFNCs as a backward step, and instead have put forward proposals for local television HERE

Broadcasting

Independent think tank Policy Exchange has published a report on the future of broadcasting HERE. The report argues that public service broadcasting needs to be radically overhauled if it is to survive in the new digital age. It calls for the BBC to place quality before ratings, and stop spending huge resources on sports rights, programmes for 16 to 35 year olds and popular entertainment, which other channels would deliver anyway. Instead of crowding out commercial schemes, the BBC management should spend up to 5% of total licence fee income on co-funding PSB programmes on other channels.

Music

Contribute to this discussion on our LinkedIn group: It’s a traditional New Year ritual for trade associations to portray their industries in the best possible light, but how is the entertainment business really doing? HERE Incidentally, any one can start a discussion on our Linked In group, so feel free.

Arts and Heritage

Arts Council

What did the Arts Council ever do to Tom Watson MP, we wonder, as he tables yet more parliamentary questions about them following the 50 - yes 50 - he tabled last week, and the 50-plus before Christmas, the latest from yesterday HERE the day before HERE 6th January HERE 5^th January HERE

Could it be the answer to an earlier question, as reported HERE that has really got him going?

The Arts Council has given an extra £1.2 million to the ICA, more HERE

Cultural Olympiad

DCMS advisor on Culture and former director of the Manchester International Festival Ruth Mackenzie has been appointed as the director of the Cultural Olympiad. At the same time several artistic associates have also been announced: Alex Poots, current artistic director of MIF, Martin Duncan who was joint artistic director with Mackenzie at Chichester Festival, Sir Brian McMaster, former director of the Edinburgh International Festival and Craig Hassall, managing director of English National Ballet and former head of the Cultural Olympiad for the Australian Olympics more HERE. And they all report to Tony Hall. Sounds like a recipe for clear decision-making, then.

Philanthropy

Arts and Business report that the total figure for private sector investment in culture for 2008/09 fell from its record high in 07/08 to £654.9 million in the UK decreasing by 7% (above inflation). Investment from all three private sector sources declined from the previous year: Business investment fell by 6% to £157 million and accounts for 24% of the overall contribution from the private sector. In 08/09, investment from individuals dropped to £363 million, a 7% decrease that ends the trend of fast-paced growth that began to accelerate in 05/06. Individual giving now accounts for 55% of the total private investment received in the sector. The amount of support from Trusts & Foundations also fell from £141 million to £135 million a 7% decrease now accounting for 21% of the total private investment in the cultural sector. More HERE. Ed commented ‘These figures are disappointing and reflect the effects of the economic recession. This is a wake-up call that we need to get our economy back on track, in order to return to the levels of private giving we enjoyed in the 1990s and 2000s. Economic recovery is as crucial for the arts as it is for all parts of our economy’.

Heritage

The Public Accounts Committee report into Promoting Participation with the Historic Environment was published this week. Committee chair Edward Leigh MP said:

“The Department for Culture, Media and Sport gave English Heritage unrealistic targets to increase the number of visits to historic sites by people from three specific underrepresented groups. With no clear evidence of how the target levels might be achieved, English Heritage opted instead to focus on increasing its income from visitor attractions, at the expense of activities to increase participation’Full report HERE. We think this is yet another example of how Labour’s box-ticking is a misconceived approach to heritage and the arts.

The Art Fund has launched its campaign to raise £3.3 million to save the Staffordshire Hoard HERE. We wish them every success and of course will make a donation.

Libraries

Rather than staying at home and building snowmen this winter, Bloomsbury have conceived Bloomsbury Library Online to support public libraries and literacy in an innovative, experimental and socially inclusive way using existing computers and devices within the local library, internet-enabled mobile phones, or remotely from home or elsewhere with a library card. Currently offering seventy books, from forty-eight authors to 2.4 million readers through UK public libraries, we think this is great news, more HERE

West Sussex County Council also has plans to deliver 21st century library services more HERE.

Predictions for the new decade include: ‘a very strong independent sector, the growth of the e-book market and a continued fight for library campaigners are some of the predictions for next year made by figures from the retail, library and digital sides of the trade.’ according to The Bookseller, more HERE.

Archives

The National Archives Education Department has set up a Twitter feed that lets people get a unique perspective on the opening months of the Second World War. Starting from 1 January, summaries and links to Cabinet papers relating to that date in 1940 are posted – the result is a day by day view of the Second World War from the War Cabinet’s point of view, using real documents You can follow the tweets and follow the links to read the original documents capturing the decisions of the men who determined the fate of the nationHERE. For non-tweeters, you can find Cabinet Papers 1915-1978 online HERE.

Natalie Ceeney is stepping down from her post as CEO at The National Archives. Oliver Morley will be Interim CEO, the Ministry of Justice will be handling the new appointment, more HERE. We wish Natalie well for the future, she has been an outstanding leader.

Museums

The findings of an NMDC project looking at how national and regional museums work together was launched this week, more HERE.The NMDC has also published Museums’ Deliver demonstrating the wide-ranging social and economic importance of museums in the UK. Full report HERE.

Kids in Museums have launched their manifesto today, highlighting the need for flexible family tickets HERE.

In America, is it time to start selling some works to balance the books in museums and galleries? More HERE and the piece caused such a storm there is a response HERE.

City of Culture

Birmingham will bid to be the UK’s first city of culture more HERE.

NCA

The National Campaign for the Arts have a lovely new website HERE.

Opera and Ballet

The Royal Opera House is the first big arts institution to join the tickets for troops scheme, more HERE. Dance, as someone in a cheese shop once said, is ‘staggeringly popular in the manor squire’ more HERE.

New Year’s Honours - Errors and Omissions

Thank you for pointing out the following omissions from our New Year’s Honours List – a knighthood for the brilliant architect David Chipperfield, CBEs for the outstanding Natalie Ceeney, soon to be ex head of the National Archives, the great singer Sarah Connolly, the awesome architect George Ferguson, and an OBE for the superb Julia Fawcett at the Lowry. Also the Director of Heart n Soul is Mark Williams (not Christopher Williams, a songwriter who works with them who received an OBE). Slapped wrists all round

In Parliament

Parliamentary Questions

More questions from Tom Watson on the Arts Council HERE

DCMS spending on travel costs for Ministers and Officials HERE

EDMs

EDM 583 – Technology Company Censorship HERE

Digital Economy Bill

The Bill is in the committee stage in the Lords – Hansard can be read HERE

Where we’ve been and who we’ve seen

PayPoint, the London Film Museum, VAGA, NMDC, Orange, Anthony Browne, RSA, V&A, Kids in Museums, NCA, Ideas Tap, The State of the Arts Conference, the Olympic site, BBC News Festival, OC&C Media Conference.

Ed Vaizey

Shadow Arts Minister

Jeremy Hunt

Shadow Culture Secretary

Posted in:

Weekly email 10-12-09

December 10th, 2009 -

Tags:

Art, Awards, BBC, Broadband, Channel 4, Creative Industries, DCMS, Fashion, Film, Google, ITV, Libraries, Music, Ofcom, Quangos, Radio, Television, Video Games

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.

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

Posted in: