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Can Hunt’s local TV plans defy history?
A thriving local television landscape has long been on the wish list of UK politicians but, over the years, success has been elusive. Numerous providers tried and failed to make a go of local TV using cable networks or analog spectrum through so-called restricted services licenses (RSLs). Back in the 1990s two big media groups – the owners of the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror national newspapers – tried to make a splash in local television on cable with their respective Channel One and L!ve TV ventures. Despite pioneering concepts – video journalists (Channel One), topless darts (L!ve TV) – both channels flopped.
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What is a coalition likely to mean for UK media policy?
Media policy was never likely to feature particularly highly on the new government’s “to do” list and the emergence this week of the UK’s first coalition government since the Second World War is unlikely to lead to its being given any greater priority. Indeed, it does not feature at all (bar pledges to review libel laws and the ending of storage of Internet and e-mail records without good reason) in the seven-page coalition agreement published yesterday.
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German public broadcasters face flak over HD picture quality
They have only been broadcasting in HD for a week, but German public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF are already facing hefty criticism for their HD picture quality. Read the rest of this entry »
Online video could be key factor as ITV’s new chief ponders pay TV
A week after ITV announced that former Royal Mail chief executive Adam Crozier would be its new chief executive – and with variations on the “now he’s got the post, can he deliver?” joke beginning to run thin – ideas about what Crozier needs to do to turn around the UK’s largest commercial broadcaster are starting to be fine-tuned.
The power of high-definition suggestion
Pay-TV operators and broadcasters have long been concerned that far too many consumers do not realise that there is more to receiving high-definition television programmes than simply buying an HD-capable television set.
After all, it is a tough job convincing people to pay for HDTV subscriptions if they have not noticed that they are missing out in the first place.
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Once Carter goes, whither Digital Britain?
Digital Britain: 245 pages of “outcomes, proposals, roadmaps and recommendations” on the UK’s digital future. On top of that, there’s the promise of a dozen further consultations and new non-governmental bodies.
Despite all this bureaucracy, communications minister Stephen Carter’s report has mapped out a clear vision of Britain’s digital future.
European Commission sees sense on mobile-TV ‘tax’
I have almost lost count of how many stories and comment pieces of the “mobile TV suffers yet another blow” variety I have written over the last months. So it is refreshing finally to be able to write about some good news amid all the DVB-H debris and reports of DMB launches without phones.
As we report in New Media Markets this week, the European Commission’s tax directorate has done the sensible thing and abandoned proposals to reclassify high-end mobile phones that enable reception of television signals – a move that would have triggered a very recession-unfriendly import duty of up to 14%.
Analyst
Julia Glotz
Julia is editor of New Media Markets, Informa Telecoms & Media's weekly newsletter covering the European multichannel TV sector.
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