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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Original article HERE.

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News Summary: 8th March 2010

March 8th, 2010 - 
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BBC

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

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

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

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

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

Tech

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

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

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

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

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

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

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News Summary: 5th March 2010

March 5th, 2010 - 
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Advertising

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

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

Broadcasting

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jeremy’s letter to The Guardian

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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News Summary: 4th March 2010

March 4th, 2010 - 
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Broadcasting

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

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

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

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

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

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

City of Culture

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

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

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

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

Tech

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

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

Publishing

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

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

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

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

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News Summary: 23rd February 2010

February 23rd, 2010 - 
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Art

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

Literature

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

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

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

Advertising

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

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

Theatre

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

Librarians

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

Journalism

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

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

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

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

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

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

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News Summary: January 19th 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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News Summary: January 18th 2009

January 18th, 2010 - 
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Ofcom’s pay-TV review – the final statement from which is due to be published in March – has set rolling predictions that the ‘cost of TV sport set to tumble’. More in the Guardian HERE; Independent HERE and Telegraph HERE.

Google is making the headlines again, this week in response to an action lodged by German news publishers regarding copyright. Germany’s justice minister has also joined the debate, complaining that the firm is becoming ‘a giant monopoly, similar to Microsoft’. More HERE.

Last week’s big all-change of radio talent - Chris Evans, the new Terry; Simon Mayo the new Chris; Richard Bacon the new Simon… – is under review HERE, whilst television’s Simon vs. Simon is analysed HERE.

The National Youth Jazz Orchestra is facing bankruptcy. Its plight has emerged after the cancellation of this year’s Festival of British Youth Orchestras because of a shortfall of £50,000. The orchestra’s chairman estimates that he needs to raise £105,000 by April to secure the band’s survival:

‘If we fail to raise the money we need, one of two things would happen. Either the NYJO would have to fold more or less instantly, or it might limp along for a bit but still eventually fold. If we don’t raise it, it’s a tragedy: a national cultural jewel down the tubes.’ More HERE.

And finally… ‘You ever heard of this amazing Stravinsky bloke?’

The Roundhouse – famous Camden-cool nurturer of young music and performance talent – looks set to make in-roads in the struggle to get kids into classical. A new series called ‘Reverb at Roundhouse’ features everything from Beethoven to cutting-edge new works, bringing classical music into a venue that has a devoted following among young fans of only the coolest rock and pop gigs. Roundhouse’s Creative Director reports the kids have been ‘absolutely blown away’, asking ‘You ever heard of this amazing Stravinsky bloke?’ More in the Independent HERE and FT 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

Posted in:
Weekly Email

Weekly email 29-10-09

October 29th, 2009 - 
No Comments
Tags:
, ,

Here is this week’s news:

 

Tory Stuff

Museums and Heritage

Jeremy made a key note speech on heritage yesterday. He called for our national museums currently to have greater independence from Government, more HERE  and the full text of his speech HERE.  He lambasted the Government’s record on heritage, emphasised our plans to increase Lottery funding, proposed the merger of English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund to save costs and promised a heritage bill if we win the next election.

 

Video Games

Ed’s enthusiasm for the video games sector is well documented. This week he set out what a Conservative government would do to give the games industry the ‘voice it deserves’. He urged the sector to think more widely than industry specific tax break and engage with our Shadow treasury team’s task force, headed by Sir James Dyson, which is looking at options for Government to provide effective support to venture capital. He also addressed skills, broadband and piracy issues. More HERE and full text of his speech HERE Labour Peer Lord Puttnam said: ‘If the Conservative get in next year, there’s a guy called Ed Vaizey who will be a minister, and he certainly takes the games industry seriously, and he’s made it his business to understand the games industry.’ HERE. ELSPA have just press released to say that they loved it, HERE

 

Creative Industries

 

Music Piracy U-turn

His Lordship Peter Mandelson has set a date for blocking filesharers’ internet connection at C&binet. The strategy will be officially set out in the government’s digital economy bill in late November and could come into force in April 2010, more HERE and HERE.

 

Jeremy has commented: “We seem to have a new policy on file sharing every time a Government Minister opens their mouth. We’ve had three changes in five months. Most recently, in August Lord Mandelson argued that waiting for 12 months before anything happened would be “too long”. Now they propose waiting 15 months. What’s changed? Its clear that the Government doesn’t know what to do and until the Bill is actually published no-one is any wiser as to how they will act.” More HERE

 

As yet there is no clarification on what the government intends to do about oversights in the original proposals, particularly internet access via mobile networks: our sources tell us that BIS are still ‘grappling’ around options, and plans seem to be changing on a daily/ weekly basis.

 

Google is to offer music downloads, with the four major labels all licensing their catalogues to the service which is expected to launch next week, more HERE.

 

Meanwhile the European Parliament is hammering out a final agreement on how member states should deal with file-sharing, more HERE

 

C&binet

His Lordship’s speech took place at C&binet, the lavish digital creative industries conference sponsored by DCMS. We hear the budget ran to the millions, so the catering was once again marvellous, but they couldn’t sell all the tickets and had to give some away for free. Make what you will of what they got up for three days in Hertfordshire, more HERE .  Naturally, we weren’t invited.

 

Ofcom Pay TV Review

The debate continues, with BSkyB and leading sports bodies pointing out the impact that Ofcom’s Pay TV Review remedies would have on incentives to invest in content, and specifically in sport, more HERE. However, as Enders analysis say: ‘as Sky forges ahead of its rival pay-TV operators so attention is turning to competition issues.’ Meanwhile Virgin Media and BT are arguing that BSkyB should not be allowed to use project Canvass, the joint video on demand project for Freeview and Freesat viewers as a loophole to avoid proposed regulation, more HERE

 

BBC

The BBC Trust today published the outcome of the review of BBC executive pay which they commissioned earlier this year, more HERE We think that if that number of people are suddenly superfluous to requirements it does beg the question: ‘what have they been busying themselves with until now?’ Jeremy said: ‘The BBC has missed an opportunity to prove it is in tune with the public mood over high salaries. Public anger was focused not just on the management itself but on the salaries paid to senior executives, more HERE

 

The BBC has welcomed the BBC Trust’s endorsement of a package of initiatives designed to strengthen the role of the BBC’s children’s output. This follows the Trust review at the start of this year which identified some areas for improvement more HERE

 

The BBC consider selling shows on a ‘global iPlayer’, HERE. We think this is a great idea.

 

Licensing

During last week’s Westminster Hall debate on licensing, the Government compromised on small venues licensing. More, and a good round up of the debate wit, in which Ed suggested that John Whittingdale discovered The Police, HERE

 

Architecture

There’s a good round up of policy developments, particularly ours, that are relevant to architects HERE

 

Film

HMV and Curzon have announced a new joint venture that could create a new national cinema chain, more HERE

 

The international competition for tax credits hots up, more HERE

 

The British Independent Film Awards have announced their 2009 nominations.  Congratulations to the three films financed by EM Media; Bronson, The Unloved and Bunny and the Bull that have been nominated. More HERE .

 

South West Screen is launching a new scheme with BBC Films and Bristol City Council, Skillset and NESTA. iFeatures represents a step up for microbudget filmmaking schemes more HERE

 

Culture and Heritage

 

Libraries

The delayed Library Service Modernisation Review now has a target publication date of the end of November, over a year after it was originally commissioned. More HERE

 

Twit of the week

Ben Bradshaw is busying himself trying to take the Boris ACE London Chair row to David Cameron, HERE. Has he nothing better to do? He also launched a cycling campaign this week.  No wonder DCMS policy is all over the place. Meanwhile Boris has written to Bradshaw to reaffirm that the selection process and subsequent nomination of Ms Wadley were completely transparent and followed the Nolan principles, more and Boris’ letter to him, HERE .

 

Cultural Debate

Ed is speaking at the Southwark on Culture Big Debate on19th November, chaired by Anna Fazackerley of Policy Exchange with Munira Mirza director of arts and culture for the Mayor of London, Diane Lees director-general, Imperial War Museum and a host of influential speakers more information, or register, HERE

 

Arts and Business

The October issue of the Arts Business Culture E-Digest focuses on aspects of learning and development – from master classes to case studies across London and Leeds and Birmingham, more HERE 

 

Dance

What do a children’s choir, birdsong and a piper have in common? They’re all part of Rosemary Lee’s communal dance experience at Greenwich Borough Hall, where a cast of professional and non-professional dancers are encouraged to ’soar, touch and find the sublime’, more HERE.

 

Where are all the women in dance? HERE.

 

Heritage

The Textiles Conservation Centre has a new website, HERE

 

Visual Art

Wild Thing at the Royal Academy punches above its weight, HERE.

 

Opera

English Touring Opera’s ‘double anniversary’ tour, Handelfest, celebrating 30 years of the ETO and 250 years since Handel died is under way. Happy Birthday ETO, more on the tour HERE

 

Theatre

Is it possible to film a play, make it compelling to watch, and downloadable? A new organisation, Digital Theatre, is doing exactly that. We think this is brilliant innovation and wish them every success. More HERE and HERE

 

A great example of not depending on subsidy in the theatre HERE

 

Interesting Pieces from Across the Pond

Seattle may have to close its library two days a week to balance the city budget, despite soaring popularity HERE Google and Obama, (a love story) HERE Has the arts world worked hard enough to dissect the true costs, benefits and implication of recent diversity efforts? HERE

 

In Parliament

 

Parliamentary Questions

 

Falling numbers working on heritage matters at the DCMS HERE

 

Whilst spending is increasing on staff at the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment HERE

 

Estimates for participation levels in music HERE

 

Grant in aid funding for English Heritage over the years HERE

 

Growth in the UK video games industry HERE

 

Total sales in the video games sector up 23% since 2007 HERE

 

Listed events review report expected shortly HERE

 

EDMs

 

EDM 2145 – BBC and the British National Party HERE

 

EDM 2128 – British National Party Appearance on Question Time HERE

 

Where We’ve Been and Who We’ve Seen

MLA, UK Film Council, London Games Conference, the Globe, London Games Conference and Best of British, Freesat, BBC, Universal Music, Enron at the Royal Court, This Is It, James Thiérrée’s Raoul at the Barbican, Nowhere Boy at the London Film Festival, St Peter’s, Wallingford, with the Churches Conservation Trust, Dennis Stevenson, Mark Thompson, Anthony d’Offay, NCVO, Ofcom, The Globe, National Trust.

 

 

Ed Vaizey

Shadow Arts Minister

 

Jeremy Hunt

Shadow Culture Secretary

Posted in:
Weekly Email

Weekly Email: 29 October 2009

October 29th, 2009 - 
No Comments
Tags:
, , , , , , , , , , ,

Here is this week’s news:

Tory Stuff

Museums and Heritage

Jeremy made a key note speech on heritage yesterday. He called for our national museums currently to have greater independence from Government, more HERE and the full text of his speech HERE.  He lambasted the Government’s record on heritage, emphasised our plans to increase Lottery funding, proposed the merger of English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund to save costs and promised a heritage bill if we win the next election.

Video Games

Ed’s enthusiasm for the video games sector is well documented. This week he set out what a Conservative government would do to give the games industry the ‘voice it deserves’. He urged the sector to think more widely than industry specific tax break and engage with our Shadow treasury team’s task force, headed by Sir James Dyson, which is looking at options for Government to provide effective support to venture capital. He also addressed skills, broadband and piracy issues. More HERE and full text of his speech HERE Labour Peer Lord Puttnam said: ‘If the Conservative get in next year, there’s a guy called Ed Vaizey who will be a minister, and he certainly takes the games industry seriously, and he’s made it his business to understand the games industry.’ HERE. ELSPA have just press released to say that they loved it, HERE

Creative Industries

Music Piracy U-turn

His Lordship Peter Mandelson has set a date for blocking filesharers’ internet connection at C&binet. The strategy will be officially set out in the government’s digital economy bill in late November and could come into force in April 2010, more HERE and HERE.

Jeremy has commented: “We seem to have a new policy on file sharing every time a Government Minister opens their mouth. We’ve had three changes in five months. Most recently, in August Lord Mandelson argued that waiting for 12 months before anything happened would be “too long”. Now they propose waiting 15 months. What’s changed? Its clear that the Government doesn’t know what to do and until the Bill is actually published no-one is any wiser as to how they will act.” More HERE

As yet there is no clarification on what the government intends to do about oversights in the original proposals, particularly internet access via mobile networks: our sources tell us that BIS are still ‘grappling’ around options, and plans seem to be changing on a daily/ weekly basis.

Google is to offer music downloads, with the four major labels all licensing their catalogues to the service which is expected to launch next week, more HERE.

Meanwhile the European Parliament is hammering out a final agreement on how member states should deal with file-sharing, more HERE

C&binet

His Lordship’s speech took place at C&binet, the lavish digital creative industries conference sponsored by DCMS. We hear the budget ran to the millions, so the catering was once again marvellous, but they couldn’t sell all the tickets and had to give some away for free. Make what you will of what they got up for three days in Hertfordshire, more HERE .  Naturally, we weren’t invited.

Ofcom Pay TV Review

The debate continues, with BSkyB and leading sports bodies pointing out the impact that Ofcom’s Pay TV Review remedies would have on incentives to invest in content, and specifically in sport, more HERE. However, as Enders analysis say: ‘as Sky forges ahead of its rival pay-TV operators so attention is turning to competition issues.’ Meanwhile Virgin Media and BT are arguing that BSkyB should not be allowed to use project Canvass, the joint video on demand project for Freeview and Freesat viewers as a loophole to avoid proposed regulation, more HERE

BBC

The BBC Trust today published the outcome of the review of BBC executive pay which they commissioned earlier this year, more HERE We think that if that number of people are suddenly superfluous to requirements it does beg the question: ‘what have they been busying themselves with until now?’ Jeremy said: ‘The BBC has missed an opportunity to prove it is in tune with the public mood over high salaries. Public anger was focused not just on the management itself but on the salaries paid to senior executives, more HERE

The BBC has welcomed the BBC Trust’s endorsement of a package of initiatives designed to strengthen the role of the BBC’s children’s output. This follows the Trust review at the start of this year which identified some areas for improvement more HERE

The BBC consider selling shows on a ‘global iPlayer’, HERE. We think this is a great idea.

Licensing

During last week’s Westminster Hall debate on licensing, the Government compromised on small venues licensing. More, and a good round up of the debate wit, in which Ed suggested that John Whittingdale discovered The Police, HERE

Architecture

There’s a good round up of policy developments, particularly ours, that are relevant to architects HERE

Film

HMV and Curzon have announced a new joint venture that could create a new national cinema chain, more HERE

The international competition for tax credits hots up, more HERE

The British Independent Film Awards have announced their 2009 nominations.  Congratulations to the three films financed by EM Media; Bronson, The Unloved and Bunny and the Bull that have been nominated. More HERE .

South West Screen is launching a new scheme with BBC Films and Bristol City Council, Skillset and NESTA. iFeatures represents a step up for microbudget filmmaking schemes more HERE

Culture and Heritage

Libraries

The delayed Library Service Modernisation Review now has a target publication date of the end of November, over a year after it was originally commissioned. More HERE

Twit of the week

Ben Bradshaw is busying himself trying to take the Boris ACE London Chair row to David Cameron, HERE. Has he nothing better to do? He also launched a cycling campaign this week.  No wonder DCMS policy is all over the place. Meanwhile Boris has written to Bradshaw to reaffirm that the selection process and subsequent nomination of Ms Wadley were completely transparent and followed the Nolan principles, more and Boris’ letter to him, HERE .

Cultural Debate

Ed is speaking at the Southwark on Culture Big Debate on19th November, chaired by Anna Fazackerley of Policy Exchange with Munira Mirza director of arts and culture for the Mayor of London, Diane Lees director-general, Imperial War Museum and a host of influential speakers more information, or register, HERE

Arts and Business

The October issue of the Arts Business Culture E-Digest focuses on aspects of learning and development – from master classes to case studies across London and Leeds and Birmingham, more HERE

Dance

What do a children’s choir, birdsong and a piper have in common? They’re all part of Rosemary Lee’s communal dance experience at Greenwich Borough Hall, where a cast of professional and non-professional dancers are encouraged to ’soar, touch and find the sublime’, more HERE.

Where are all the women in dance? HERE.

Heritage

The Textiles Conservation Centre has a new website, HERE

Visual Art

Wild Thing at the Royal Academy punches above its weight, HERE.

Opera

English Touring Opera’s ‘double anniversary’ tour, Handelfest, celebrating 30 years of the ETO and 250 years since Handel died is under way. Happy Birthday ETO, more on the tour HERE

Theatre

Is it possible to film a play, make it compelling to watch, and downloadable? A new organisation, Digital Theatre, is doing exactly that. We think this is brilliant innovation and wish them every success. More HERE and HERE

A great example of not depending on subsidy in the theatre HERE

Interesting Pieces from Across the Pond

Seattle may have to close its library two days a week to balance the city budget, despite soaring popularity HERE Google and Obama, (a love story) HERE Has the arts world worked hard enough to dissect the true costs, benefits and implication of recent diversity efforts? HERE

In Parliament

Parliamentary Questions

Falling numbers working on heritage matters at the DCMS HERE

Whilst spending is increasing on staff at the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment HERE

Estimates for participation levels in music HERE

Grant in aid funding for English Heritage over the years HERE

Growth in the UK video games industry HERE

Total sales in the video games sector up 23% since 2007 HERE

Listed events review report expected shortly HERE

EDMs

EDM 2145 – BBC and the British National Party HERE

EDM 2128 – British National Party Appearance on Question Time HERE

Where We’ve Been and Who We’ve Seen

MLA, UK Film Council, London Games Conference, the Globe, London Games Conference and Best of British, Freesat, BBC, Universal Music, Enron at the Royal Court, This Is It, James Thiérrée’s Raoul at the Barbican, Nowhere Boy at the London Film Festival, St Peter’s, Wallingford, with the Churches Conservation Trust, Dennis Stevenson, Mark Thompson, Anthony d’Offay, NCVO, Ofcom, The Globe, National Trust.

Ed Vaizey

Shadow Arts Minister

Jeremy Hunt

Shadow Culture Secretary

Posted in:
Weekly Email
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