What Lies Beneath: AOL’s Connie Six Feet Under
The Sunday Times printed the official obituary for Connie, AOL’s 5 year old face for broadband yesterday. While many will not be mourning the death of 2000’s official Turkey of the Year, this does raise questions of what it means for the broadband industry [...]
Barnett Gets It All Wrong Again
Yesterday�s Observer has a poorly-thought-out piece by Steve Barnett on the Communications Bill and efforts by some to quash the ability of large media companies to acquire Channel 5.
Barnett overstates the so-called �mass protests� that occurred in the U.S. as the FCC voted to reform its decades-old media ownership regulations. [...]
Commissioning the Cost of Competition
The Independent reported today that the High Court ruled in favour of the Competition Comission’s decision to reduce mobile phone charges.
The article ends with a cryptic premonition from an unnamed T-mobile spokesman that, “One result will be that subsidies will disappear and the cost of buying a new [...]
Details on the ITC’s Decisions Re: Fox News and “Due Impartiality”…
Do you recall seeing a small article in the British press (see mediafrenzy posts of June 20 and June 26) indicating that the Independent Television Commission cleared Fox News of charges that it was not broadcasting with the requisite ‘due impartiality’ during its coverage [...]
Missed Gem From Scotland’s Sunday Herald : (Sorry)
Feel really bad about missing this one from the Sunday Herald last weekend. You can get so blinkered in the London media smog. A lesson learned perhaps.
Anyway…this is (was) a great round-up of the issues and challenges in merging five regulators to one whilst maintaining representation for the [...]
Puttnam Plays His Hand
The Times reports that Lord Puttnam is looking to compromise over his eleventh hour amendments to the Communications Bill.
Apparently he describes his proposed ‘public interest’ test – to be implemented by Ofcom in the event of a buyout of Five – as, “[ensuring] a plurality of media owners committed to a balanced [...]
Currie Asks Times To Get It Right
The Times printed a correction this morning in reference to their previous report on Monday’s House of Lords vote on amendments to the Communications Bill.
Lord Currie asked the paper, ‘to point out that he did not support an amendment to the Communications Bill to put “the interests of citizens” [...]
Digital Radio Booming
The Digital Radio Development Bureau, an industry body, yesterday released the first consumer research data on the medium, finding that digital radio sales are up 170 per cent on last year. There are now 175,000 digital radio sets in UK homes, with between 300,000 and 500,000 sales forecast by the end of this [...]
A Fifth Of Digital Households Are Free To Air
The ITC released figures today that indicate a surge in the uptake of digital free to air television.
An ITC press release states, ‘Free-to-air digital services (including both free-to-air digital terrestrial and satellite) have accounted for 60% of the growth in the UK digital TV market since the [...]
RTL Plan To Hold Onto Five
FT reports (subscription based) that Gerhard Zeiler, RTL’s Chief Executive has ruled out selling its 65% stake in Channel Five to News Corporation (or anyone else for that matter) in the event of changes brought about by the Communications Bill – “We are not sellers of Five. Anyone who [...]
‘Broadband Britain’ : Coming Soon?
Peers also voted (113 to 111) in yesterday’s session to include an amendment which will place a statutory requirement on Ofcom to encourage the roll out of broadband. Concern had been raised during debate that the level of broadband access in rural areas is low. The move is likely to put [...]
Lords Mean Business
Busy day for the Communications Bill in the Lords yesterday. The peers made it clear that they mean business. This will have focused minds at the DCMS as they look over the seemingly well-supported Lord Puttnam proposed amendment on a ‘public interest’ test in regard to takeovers of Five, which goes to the [...]
LORD CURRIE ON CHANGES TO THE COMMUNICATIONS BILL
According to Ofcom, Lord Currie said, among other things, yesterday:
“No doubt, there is room for some changes, but it is not the time to pull out foundation stones when the Bill is almost complete – otherwise, the law of unintended consequences might kick in with a vengeance.”
WHAT IS AN ‘INDEPENDENT’ BROADCASTER?
Emily Bell confuses me in today’s Media Guardian. In an otherwise useful piece on the BBC’s charter renewal process, she suggests that the U.S. network, ABC, is not an independent broadcaster. Am I reading her correctly? I suppose it depends on how one defines ‘independent’, but I consider [...]
State vs. Market (again)!
Didn’t Barnett’s piece sound wearily familiar? I am sure I have heard that old ‘regulation’ vs. ‘markets’ turkey before. I particularly enjoyed the way in which he pits the well-known and genuine weaknesses of free-marketeers’ solutions against a system of ownership restrictions, the efficacy of which are never seriously interrogated. Do [...]
STEVE BARNETT CALLS COMM. BILL A “RUSH TO MARKET”
In today’s Observer, professor Steve Barnett offers his thoughts on the Communications Bill. To hear Barnett describe it — relying solely (and uncritically) on sources he finds himself in agreement with — the marketplace cannot be trusted. Barnett claims that “[w]hat lies behind this Bill [...]
Ipswich Works To Find Its Voice
Thought this report on moves to establish a ‘local’ Ipswich radio station was great.
I reckon this is exactly the type of issue where Ofcom will score all its best points. Good luck to Nigel Reeve and Norman Lloyd who are spearheading the campaign.
Tony Stoller Outlines Regulatory Principles
Tony Stoller�s speech given to the Westminster Media Forum this week provides a good overview of Ofcom�s regulatory principles.
He said that Ofcom would work, ��to find the least intrusive method possible to achieve our policy goals and public duties� and, �further the interests of the citizen consumer through the promotion of [...]
Professor Michael Tracey’s Dim View of Television Quality
The Independent has a story this morning that quotes extensively from a report by Univ. of Colorado Professor Michael Tracey on media quality. I’ve emailed the professor for a copy, and may have more to offer after I’ve read it.
Based on the Independent’s brief account, [...]
MORE FROM JOHN WILLIS…
Both the Times and the Guardian have articles today by John Willis of the BBC echoing his statements earlier in the week that were sharply critical of U.S. television quality (and thus sharply critical of any deregulation efforts in the U.K.).
I’m beginning to wonder if Willis and the BBC have a [...]
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