June 30th 2003
By: Hemal
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 ...
June 30th 2003
By: Russ
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 ...
June 27th 2003
By: Hemal
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 ...
June 27th 2003
By: Russ
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 ...
June 26th 2003
By: Luke
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 ...
June 26th 2003
By: Luke
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 ...
June 25th 2003
By: Luke
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 ...
June 24th 2003
By: Luke
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 ...
June 24th 2003
By: Luke
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 ...
June 24th 2003
By: Luke
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 ...
