Online News Roundup
FT reports – ‘BBC accused of ‘casual disregard’ for industry’
Guardian reports – ‘Indies call for BBC sanctions’
Mediaweek reports – ‘You thought the ITV saga was getting rather complicated?’ – claiming that the Ofcom/OFT consultation document on CRR is so steeped in legal jargon that is hard even for seasoned TV experts to understand.
mad.co.uk [...]
Regulatory Definitions of Broadband
Luke’s earlier post on Tiscali raises a good point. What is broadband? And, always important for critical Ofcom policy-watchers like our loyal readers (both of you) — who decides?
A marketplace decision is clearly preferable in my opinion. For example, we all know that a Smart car isn’t — isn’t a [...]
Tiscali Makes The Broadband Grade – But Then Speed Isn’t Everything
Tiscali’s 150kbps service got the thumbs up from Oftel, BT and the Advertising Standards Authority earlier this week. It had recieved criticism from competitors who claimed the company was misleading consumers by selling such low speed services as ‘broadband’.
The company said, in response to the [...]
Sky Remakes ‘The Crying Game’
Well…sort of…
Sky will easily win the lawsuit because no juror is going to admit that THEY could have been fooled so easily.
BBC Misses Indie Quotas – Again
The OFT has today revealed that the BBC missed the statutory target to ensure that at least 25 pct of “qualifying programmes” shown on BBC1 and BBC2 were independent productions – for the third consecutive year.
The OFT’s report covers the period April 1 2002 to March 31 2003 – [...]
McNally – Ofcom should defend ITV
Lord McNally in an article for expNews said that the Communications Act provides ITV no protection from hostile US-led takeover, leaving – in his view – UK viewers and production at risk.
He writes:
“When the Puttnam Committee (the joint pre-legislative scrutiny committee on the Communications Bill) reported in July 2002, one [...]
Ofcom/ITC Airtime Sales Rules Update
The ITC and Ofcom today published an update to their joint consultation on television airtime sales rules announced on 7 October 2003 in the wake of the Competition Commission/DTI decision to allow Carlton and Granada to merger, dependent on a certain stipulations.
Under the ITC’s current Airtime Sales Rules, which all commercial [...]
WSJ Report on the Mobile Phone Market
Today’s Wall Street Journal has a large report entitled: World Circuit: Cellphone Makers Pay a Heavy Toll For Missing Fads, covering the current challenges facing the mobile phone industry (it’s just next to the piece about U.S. hospitals arresting patients for not paying their bills ~ heart-warming stuff!).
The basic [...]
But Who’s Counting?
I’m continually confused about the citizen / consumer divide in Ofcom matters. . . so I full-text searched Ofcom’s .pdf file of its consultation document, The Future Regulation of Broadcast Advertising, and came up with the following:
‘consumer(s)’ — appears 30 times in the document
‘citizen(s)’ — appears 1 time in the document
This immediately caused [...]
OFT Opens Forum on Carlton/Granada Merger
The OFT is seeking views on a draft of the Carlton and Granada merger undertakings that it has been asked to negotiate.
Comments should be received by 5pm on 3 November 2003.
A Message From Russ Taylor, Senior V.P. and Chief Marketing Coordinator of Ofcom Watch re: Advertising
The biggest difference between U.K. and U.S. advertising on television must be the overwhelming number of adverts shown on U.S. television for pharmaceutical products. I would imagine the amount spent by this one industry in the U.S. equals or [...]
Ofcom Starts Broadcast Advertising Consultation
Ofcom today launched a public consultation on the future regulation of broadcast advertising. The regulator said:
“The Communications Act 2003 places a duty on Ofcom to consider effective forms of self-regulation for its various functions. Ofcom is seeking views on its proposal to delegate the regulation of advertising on television and radio [...]
Dominic Timms on the EUCD
Today’s Guardian has an article by Dominic Timms with what is, in my view, an incomplete analysis of the EUCD — the European Union Copyright Directive.
Timms portrays the EUCD and its similar U.S. counterpart, the DMCA, as turning ‘innocuous activities’ such as downloading music into crimes. Maybe it’s just me, [...]
Ofcom Try To Define ‘Regional Production’
Industry weekly Broadcast had an article in this past week’s issue on Ofcom’s role overseeing the regional production quotas, focusing particularly on how the new regulator will define ‘regional production’.
According to a letter sent by Channel 4 to its independent production partners, Ofcom is proposing three criteria to judge whether [...]
Red Herring on 3’s Dim Prospects…
Red Herring reports on the technical and marketing troubles experienced by the 3G telecoms operator, 3. Red Herring says:
Based on recent sales figures, 3 has only managed to attract 155,000 subscribers in the U.K. over the past six months � just a small fraction of its goal. . . [...]
Wall Street Journal on ‘Fair and Balanced’
You should check out the WSJ today — there’s a humourous piece on what is considered ‘fair and balanced’ in news reporting or coverage of news issues. The WSJ points out the hypocrisy of those who constantly criticize the conservative leanings of Fox (Murdoch) and Clear Channel (Mays) [...]
Eyre Disappointed With Communications Act
Mediaweek is reporting that former chief executive of the Capital Radio Group, Richard Eyre, speaking at NAB European Radio Conference in London, said that the Government has failed in drafting the Communications Act to, “recognise the scale of change since 1990 when the skeleton of the current radio policy was put [...]
McNally Asks DCMS For ITV Assurances
Lord McNally, the Lib Dem peer who wasn’t too pleased with the terms on which the UK terrestial TV market was opened up to foreign ownership in the Communications Act, 2003 told an audience at the Creators Rights Alliance Seminar at the Royal Society of Arts earlier this week that [...]
And speaking of things that are being unbundled…
Omigod.
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