Weekend News Summary: 6th/7th March 2010

March 8th, 2010 - 
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BBC

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Television

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

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

Publishing

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

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

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

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News Summary: 5th March 2010

March 5th, 2010 - 
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Advertising

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

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

Broadcasting

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jeremy’s letter to The Guardian

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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News Summary: 26th February 2010

February 26th, 2010 - 
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Media

The Home Office-commissioned Sexualisation of Young People Review we mentioned yesterday HERE is today making headlines for the recommendation that music videos featuring “sexually provocative” images or lyrics should be banned until after the 9pm watershed. The report says:

“Music channels and videos across all genres have been found to sexualise and objectify women. Women are often shown in provocative and revealing clothing and are depicted as being in a state of sexual readiness. Males, on the other hand, are shown as hyper-masculine and sexually dominant.”

Other key recommendations of the report include:

  • Launching an online “one-stop-shop” to allow the public to voice their concerns regarding irresponsible marketing which sexualises children;
  • Encouraging the government to support the Advertising Standards Agency to take steps to extend existing regulatory standards to include commercial websites;
  • Ensuring games consoles are sold with parental controls already switched on. Purchasers can then choose to unlock the console if they wish to allow access to adult and online content.

You can read the full report in PDF HERE and coverage in The Guardian HERE and HERE; Independent HERE, HERE and HERE; Times HERE; and Telegraph HERE.

The latest report on the BBC strategic review – to be published next month – is that the Mark Thompson, the Director General, is to admit that the corporation has become too large and must shrink to give its commercial rivals room to operate. It is thought he will announce the closure of the digital radio stations 6 Music and Asian Network and introduce a cap on spending on broadcast rights for sports events of 8.5 per cent of the licence fee, or about £300 million. He will also pledge to close BBC Switch and Blast!, leaving the lucrative teenage market to ITV and Channel 4. But BBC Three, which is aimed at 16 to 35-year-olds will not be touched. More in The Guardian HERE; Times HERE, HERE and HERE; and Telegraph HERE.

Cinema

We’ve been covering the Alice in Wonderland/ Odeon boycott story for a while now; most recently HERE, but today it appears it is to be no more; Britain’s biggest cinema chain, a week before the film is released and, having chastised Disney for threatening the “existence of cinemas”, has decided it will show after all.

The battle over Alice in Wonderland was always a high-stakes game; the film is expected to be one of the highlights of the cinematic year, and the 3-D element makes it likely to remain open for longer and attract higher ticket prices. Neither the studio nor Odeon would comment on the concessions made, but an Odeon spokesman said they had reached an “enduring agreement … encompassing all the different aspects of both companies’ commercial relationship”. More in The Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; and Times HERE.

Art

An art exhibition portraying Jesus as the gay son of a prostitute has been closed after the organisers at Granada University in Spain admitted that furious protests from churchgoers meant that they could no longer guarantee the safety of its creator, Fernando Bayona. More in The Times HERE.

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News Summary: 25th February 2010

February 25th, 2010 - 
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Tech

An Italian court has found three Google execs guilty of violating the privacy of a child with autism who was shown being bullied in a video posted on Google Video. The case has potentially vast implications for the future of the hosting platforms such as Facebook and YouTube who argue that they cannot be held responsible for content created by their users until they are informed that something is illegal. The Italian prosecutors contended that Google was negligent in not removing the video sooner.

In a statement, Google said the outcome of the case was:

“… surprising to say the least, since our colleagues had nothing to do with the video in question: they did not make it; they did not upload it, and they have not seen it… We are deeply troubled by this conviction for another equally important reason… It attacks the very principles of freedom on which the internet is built. Common sense dictates that only the person who films and uploads a video to a hosting platform could take the steps necessary to protect the privacy and obtain the consent of the people they are filming.”

The prosecutors maintained:

“… this was not a trial about freedom of the internet as some have said. Instead, and for the first time in Italy, a serious issue has been raised about the rights of the individual in today’s society.” More in The Guardian HERE and HERE ; Times HERE; Telegraph HERE; and FT HERE.

Media

A Home Office report has recommended that “lads’ mags” such as Zoo and Nuts should be made top shelf titles with age restrictions on their sale because they are thought to be part of a “drip, drip” media landscape sexualising children at an increasingly early age. The report was commissioned last year by the then home secretary, Jacqui Smith, as part of a Home Office strategy tackling violence against women and girls.

The report, published tomorrow is also expected to endorse a call from the Royal College of Psychiatrists for advertisements and magazine spreads to carry a warning kitemark when digitally enhanced models appear. More in The Guardian HERE.

Robert Dee, a young British man described as “the world’s worst tennis pro” has appeared at the High Court to sue the Daily Telegraph for ruining his professional reputation. He has already secured more than 30 apologies and tens of thousands of pounds in damages from media organisations that made similarly disparaging allegations about his sporting prowess. The BBC, Daily Mail, Guardian and Sun were among the news organisations that apologised to Dee, avoiding litigation. More in The Guardian HERE.

Auction

Chanel couture gowns from the 1920s go under the hammer in France today alongside handbags and jewellery. Estimated prices range from as little as €50 for certain accessories to €10,000 for a silk satin gown embroidered with white pearls, thought to have been designed by Coco Chanel herself, around 1923. More in The Guardian HERE.

A pair of football boots worn by Sir Stanley Matthews in the 1953 FA Cup Final have been sold – complete with laces, studs, and a programme from the game signed by players – for £38,400 at auction. More in The Times HERE.

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Weekly email: 28/01/2010

February 2nd, 2010 - 
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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 3rd 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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Weekend News Summary: 30th/ 31st January 2010

February 1st, 2010 - 
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Poetry

Ruth Padel – Oxford’s first female Professor of Poetry until a dirty-tricks scandal led her to resign only 9 days in – talks about sex, lies, poetry, and her ‘moment of lunacy’, in the The Times’ Saturday Review HERE. The Padel interview formed part of Saturday Review’s Poetry Special, which also ran pieces by The Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, on reading for Haiti and ‘the music of being human’ HERE; Christopher Reid, on his surprise Costa win for an ‘intimate expression of love and grief’ HERE; and former Laureate, Andrew Motion on disproving the contention that there is no audience for poetry; stimulating its teaching in schools and generally extending audience reach HERE. Motion talks of the success of The Poetry Archive (www.poetryarchive.org), which enjoys a regular monthly audience of a quarter of a million people, listening to about 1.25 million pages of poetry.

Theatre

The news just keeps getting better and better for the West End. Further to last week’s announcement of a record-breaking box for 2009 (see our coverage at the time HERE), Sir Cameron Mackintosh has announced his plans to use some of his £635m fortune to endow each of his seven London theatres with enough cash to ensure that their lifespans outlast his own. The lucky theatres now safely tucked under this super-sheltering wing are the Prince Edward; Prince of Wales; Novello; Queen’s; Gielgud; Wyndham’s and Noel Coward. More in The Sunday Times HERE.

Heritage

 

English Heritage received a last-minute appeal on Friday to save The Foundry – a bar, community radio station, and performance venue. The building has played a key part in the contemporary arts boom and features graffiti and murals by the likes of Banksy, Jake and Dino Chapman and Damian Hirst. Despite the protestations of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, developers plan to replace the building with a hotel. More HERE.

Following the bulldozing of the 1936 Art Deco Regal cinema in King’s Street, and fears that more that 20 others of Britain’s 1930’s cinemas could face a similar fate, David Trevor-Jones, chairman of the Cinema Theatre Association, has said:

‘We’re losing swathes and it’s a tragedy. We live in a world of corporations and cheap architecture, but these buildings take you to another place. They’re all about grandeur and supreme fantasy… I think cinemas are still undervalued; no town would willingly lose its Victorian theatre, but the same isn’t the case for iconic cinema buildings… They’re part of our social and cultural history, but they have no protection.’ More in the Independent on Sunday HERE.

 

Television

David Lister writes about this week’s recording of the South Bank Show Awards (which we covered at the time HERE) at which consensus set around accusing ITV of philistinism for axing The South Bank Show. ‘But if ITV now seems a lost cause on serious arts programming, I can’t say I always get a warm glow from the approach of the BBC or Channel 4’ voices The Independent HERE.

‘Godless liberals’ are beside themselves with horror as a result of an opinion poll suggesting Fox News is the most trusted news operation in America; 49% of Americans trust Fox. Great analysis of the success of ‘news-o-tainment’ in the Guardian HERE.

Rock films look set to take on TV talent shows, and what Peter Hook is calling their ‘singing prostitutes’. Ten films chronicling the lives of musicians have been released or gone into production in recent months, to include the stories of John Lennon, Ian Dury and Joe Meek so far. This week sees the release of Oil City Confidential, an account of Canvey Island pub-rockers, Dr Feelgood. The film’s director, Julien Temple, says ‘We want film to provoke questions… Why can’t we come up with this kind of passion anymore? Now it’s the blandest of the bland who reach whole new audiences on shows like the X-factor’. More in The Observer HERE.

Adam Crozier could get £15m if he successfully turns around the fortunes of ITV. He will get a basic salary just below the £800,000 of his predecessor, but his annual bonus has the potential to reach more than double that. The biggest incentive though takes the form of a parcel of shares he will be awarded on arrival, but will only be allowed to collect after two years at the helm, making 2014 and 2015 the key years in the plan. More in The Observer HERE and The Sunday Times HERE. Assessment of Crozier’s chances of success can be found in the Observer HERE and Sunday Times HERE; The option of an ITV pay-per-view in The Sunday Telegraph HERE; And The Observer cites the latest threat of an ITV break-up bid, posed by rebel shareholders HERE.

TalkTalk is to launch television and mobile services, informed not least by the rapid maturation trend in the fixed-line broadband market and the fact that TalkTalk’s rivals in the broadband market already have TV services; BT, Virgin Media and BSkyB all sell broadband and phone services in discounted bundles. TalkTalk is involved in Project Canvass, a BBC-led consortium preparing to launch an internet-connected TV set-top box before the end of the year. More in the FT Weekend HERE.

Film

Highlights include Pulp Fiction; The English Patient; Good Will Hunting; and The Queen – could it really now be the end for Miramax? The studio is credited with bringing arthouse to huge audiences, but now reports have it that it is to scrapped by Disney. Disney claims it is not closing the business entirely; it is still in possession of six unreleased films, including The Tempest, with Helen Mirren as Prospero. Co-founder Harvey Weinstein has responded by saying he and his brother would ‘love the opportunity’ to buy back the name – an amalgam of their parents, Miriam and Max. More HERE.

The first black Disney heroine is greeted as ‘an opportunity missed’ by The Observer HERE.

Digital media

We covered immediate reaction to the hyper-hyped launch of the iPad HERE. Come Saturday calm, and the latest tablet is in receipt of a positive, if somewhat muted, review in the FT Weekend, which concludes that it will find some degree of success, and help define the emerging media tablet market HERE. Elsewhere in the FT ‘charismatic returnee’ Steve Jobs is observed, to the deduction ‘if his record is anything to go by, consumers could yet find it hard to live without their iPads’ HERE. The potential trickle-down effect for apps companies is covered in The Sunday Times HERE.

With the iPad still two months away though, there remain many unanswered questions. For example, in relation to digital rights management (DRM), it is unclear whether Apple intends to add software which could render consumers unable to transfer content across devices; critics of DRM argue such restrictions prevent consumers ever really owning their books HERE. Yet might it be the case that as Apple usurp not only other major companies, but also consumer choice, their legions of fans will grow only more loyal still? Yes, says The Telegraph, which supposes Apple is taking over the world HERE, The Observer agrees, but fears this will be the realisation of an Orwellian nightmare HERE.

But can the iPad rescue newspapers from ‘oblivion’, in the words of the Guardian Editor in Chief? Absolutely not, responds The Observer HERE, citing the fact that, against industry losses of about $10bn last year, the newspaper US subscription and advertising revenue across all existing e-readers and ‘at a mighty optimistic stretch’, reached new circulation funds of only $325m a year, plus $150m in ads. The Observer is however much more optimistic about the potential of ‘a paywall nobody will notice’; which comes bundled with pay-tv packages HERE.

Media freedom

Standing against the ‘creeping’ culture of secrecy in Britain’s courts, Mr Justice Tugendhat revoked a privacy injunction obtained by John Terry, the England football captain, ruling that there were no grounds for a gagging order preventing the disclosure of an extramarital affair with a former team-mate’s girlfriend. The ‘super-injunction’ had been granted last week after Terry’s legal team used Human Rights Act legislation to argue the public had no right to know about his private life. The injunction has been criticised as the latest example of courts bringing in a backdoor privacy law at the expense of freedom of expression in the media. This weekend Lord Woolf, the former lord chief justice, said he hoped Terry’s case would discourage celebrities from making spurious attempts to gag the press. More in the Guardian HERE; Sunday Times HERE and HERE; and Telegraph HERE.

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News Summary: 28th January 2010

January 28th, 2010 - 
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Congratulations West End, for a £500m-mark –topping; record-breaking; recession-defying 2009!

The Society of London Theatre has announced that the total receipts for 2009 added 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 in The Stage HERE and the FT HERE.

So, after much, much speculation and hype, the iPad was finally presented, in all its ‘truly magical and revolutionary’ glory, by Steve Jobs yesterday. The innovation of chief interest to us has to be its e-reading capabilities and the co-launch of the iBookstore; a new way to buy books and newspapers. The New York Times was among the companies called to the stage to promote a dedicated iPad app yesterday, saying it would offer a more newspaper-like experience than anything that has been created for a smartphone and that ‘We’re pioneering the next version of digital journalism.’ Latest consideration of the saleability of digital journalism can be found in MediaGuardian HERE.

With millions of people now used to downloading apps, music and movies from its online stores, Apple now has the chance to dominate the digital books market as it has with music. John Makinson, chairman and CEO of the Penguin Group, represented publishers’ excitement (Simon & Schuster; Rupert Murdoch’s Harper Collins; and Macmillan were among those immediately committing to sell books for the iPad) thus:

‘[The iPad] represents an important step in the development of a digital audience for books. Penguin already maintains a close partnership with several digital platforms and channels, and is delighted to extend our approach with Apple. The iPad and iBookstore will, we believe, appeal to existing Penguin customers and also attract millions of new readers.’

Notably, not everyone agrees with this. A Cowen & Co analyst concluded ‘This is not an e-reader – this is a device that can be used to read books… This doesn’t change the game. At the same time, Apple is a formidable competitor and our view is that over time, Apple and Amazon will emerge as the two largest players in e-books.’ Further responses in the Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; Times HERE and Telegraph HERE.

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News Summary: 26th January 2010

January 26th, 2010 - 
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Bill Gates has joined the Google.cn debate echoing Microsoft CEO’s criticism of Google’s position [as covered in yesterday’s News Summary HERE]. Gates has now brushed aside accusations that Microsoft is complicit in helping filter the web by saying that it was not an issue because any censorship could be circumvented with technical knowledge. ‘Chinese efforts to censor the internet have been very limited… It’s easy to go around it, so I think keeping the internet thriving there is very important.’ More in the Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; and Gates is branded a ‘shameless opportunist’ in the Telegraph HERE.

Bill’s isn’t of course a widely held view; the US government has associated itself with Google’s position [as covered in our Jan 22nd News Summary HERE; Chinese state media’s latest ‘US conspiracy’ response HERE] which has also drawn widespread support from human rights activists and freedom of speech campaigners. Efforts to censor the internet in China – or project ‘Golden Shield’ – do not seem to us ‘very limited’; they are in fact among the most extensive in the world. The country’s estimated 300 million internet users are almost all affected by the various blocks and filters, which include direct censorship of anti-government protesters; members of the Falun Gong religious group; Tibetan independence campaigners and the Taiwanese media. At various points, Beijing has also blocked access to international news websites including the BBC, and around 50 Chinese bloggers are in prison as a result of their postings. Google’s VP, David Drummond, explains Google’s decision to pull out HERE.

The Editor of the Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, has called for caution in rolling out paywalls, saying it could lead the industry to a ‘sleepwalk into oblivion’. His fear is that universal charging for newspaper content on the internet would remove the industry from a digital revolution which is allowing news organisations to engage with their readers more than ever before. This is in the context of Rupert Murdoch’s announcement last year that he would introduce charges for all his news websites by this summer (more HERE), and the announcement last week by the New York Times that it would introduce a paywall by 2011 (as covered in the New York Times HERE and Guardian HERE). For Rusbridger, this is a time to focus on journalism:

‘If you think about journalism, not business models, you can become rather excited about the future. If you only think about business models you can scare yourself into total paralysis.’

Interesting video discussion with Rusbridger on the future of digital journalism can be found HERE and the Guardian’s report HERE.

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News Summary: January 21st 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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News Summary: January 20th 2010

January 20th, 2010 - 
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Google.cn again, and today news that Google has taken its first concrete step out of China, postponing the launch of two mobile phones produced specifically for the Chinese market. China has the world’s most-populous mobile phone market, with more than 700 million accounts. The postponement of the mobile phone launch underlines for Google how widespread the commercial fall-out of its dispute might become.

China is very much standing its ground, a Foreign Ministry spokesman referring to Google directly for the first time yesterday, saying  ‘Foreign enterprises in China need to adhere to China’s laws and regulations… Google is no exception’. Indeed, Google continues to offered its censored service. More in the Times HERE and Telegraph HERE.

The BBC has launched a marketing review, expected to take about 20 weeks, and forming part of Mark Thomson’s larger strategic review. The BBC has refused to comment as to whether the review will result in job-losses. More in the Guardian  HERE and Marketing Week HERE.

iTunes for newspapers? The problem of getting payment for newspapers’ online content could find solution in the arms of Apple, who, thanks to the success of the iTunes store, can now offer 100m accounts with credit card information. This, in turn, could be used to offer readers an attractively simple and elegant way to pay for online newspaper content: ‘click and run and don’t think about it’. More in the Guardian HERE and Telegraph HERE.

Also being linked to Apple’s tablet launch next week, are rumours that the New York Times is set to announce a Financial Times-style paywall for online readers. The FT’s paywall meters access, allowing readers to view a limited number of articles a month, before asking for subscription. The advantage attributed to a metered model is that it would allow NYTimes.com to extract money from heavy users while preserving its impressive reach (of 16 million monthly unique users). More in the Guardian HERE and Independent HERE.

Internet-enabled games consoles are staking a claim to be a home-entertainment hub. A Microsoft Xbox under the television means no need for satalite dish-installation; you can get Sky’s sports channels through the games console; If you’ve got a Sony PlayStation3, you can use it to get programmes via the BBC’s iPlayer, rather than having to watch them on your laptop; and Nintendo Wii users were told last week that they are going to be able to start streaming full-length movies over their console, thanks to a deal with Netflix. More HERE.

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