19 Mar 10
Weekly Broadcast News
19th March 2010
ITV set to be relieved of CRR rule burden / Friends Reunited sale cleared
ITV may be close to losing one of its most burdensome regulations, after the government said this week that it had powers to intervene in a long-running competition saga under a loophole in the law. City analysts believed the contract rights renewal (CRR) rules were certain to be a drag on the company's earnings for at least another three or four years after the Competition Commission said recently it was likely to amend them slightly, but not scrap them as ITV wished. But a senior government official has disclosed that the government has the power under the Interpretation Act 1978 to revoke the CC's oversight of CRR without having to pass an act of parliament. Lord Davies of Oldham, the chief whip in the House of Lords, said the government would now consider if it wanted to use that power, although he suggested that it was unlikely to do so speedily. However, Jeremy Hunt, shadow culture secretary, told the Financial Times that if elected, his party would move swiftly to revoke the CC's oversight, setting in train a parliamentary process to change the law that created CRR. Analysts estimate that scrapping CRR could add £45m-£55m to ITV's revenue, almost all of which would drop on to its bottom line. Earlier this month, ITV reported pre-tax profits of £108m, so the extra cash would represent about a 50 per cent increase. On a separate note the CC has cleared the sale of ITV's Friends Reunited to the newspaper group DC Thomson.
OFT clears Lebedev as Independent buyer
Alexander Lebedev has moved a step closer to taking control of the Independent newspapers after the Office of Fair Trading said it would not investigate the deal over competition issues. Last month INM and Lebedev lodged a submission with the Office of Fair Trading that began the process of checking whether any competition issues might stand in the way of a deal. The OFT called for comments by 11th March and has until 26th April to issue a ruling. However the OFT has announced this week that the Lebedev takeover of the Independent has not been found to qualify for a competition investigation, effectively giving the green light on competition grounds. To qualify for the OFT to launch an investigation the merged company's UK turnover must be £70m or hold more than a 25% share of supply in the UK. The proposed Lebedev/INM deal did not reach either threshold. According to city sources, senior executives at INM are desperate to be able to announce the sale of the Independent and Independent on Sunday to shareholders when it reports financial results for 2009 next Wednesday.
Sky reveals first 3D programming
BSkyB will launch Sky 3D, Europe’s first 3D TV channel, with the Barclays Premier League match between Manchester United and Chelsea on Easter Saturday (3.04.10). Following the channel’s launch, Sky will then show at least a further five Premier League games before the end of the current season and the Coca-Cola Football League Play-Off Finals, all live and all in 3D. The broadcaster says that more than a thousand pubs and clubs across the UK and Ireland have already signed up for Sky 3D. Outside of the live games, a show reel showcasing the best of Sky 3D, which will cover a wide range of different programming, will run on Sky 3D during selected hours of the day. This programming, which will run from launch, will also be available to residential customers who subscribe to Sky’s top channels and HD pack.
Last week Sony, Samsung, LG and Panasonic all confirmed plans to have 3D TVs on sale within weeks. Sky 3D is compatible with all of the product ranges being introduced by these manufacturers. Later in the year, Sky 3D will offer a range of movies, sport, documentaries, entertainment and arts content. The channel will initially be introduced at no extra cost for customers who subscribe to Sky’s top channels and HD pack.
TV ad revenues set to grow by up to 20% in May
The TV ad market is set to continue its recovery with media agencies predicting that May revenue will increase by between 15 and 20 per cent compared with 2009. This rise, which could see May TV revenue total £300m, would match the increase in revenues expected for April and exceed the 9 per cent year-on-year increase across the first quarter. Agency sources suggested that the increases in revenue for the five months to the end of May will result in ITV, which takes around 45 per cent of total TV revenue, bringing in an additional £100m over this period when compared with the first five months of 2009. Advertisers launching their World Cup activity ahead of the tournament starting in June are contributing to the boost in May revenue. All the major broadcasters are expected to continue to show growth, with the likes of Five and Sky among the largest increases in percentage terms. Agencies said that new clients and clients returning to the medium were also helping to boost spend because TV remains relatively cost- effective.
Five to launch high definition channel on Sky
Five is set to launch its first high-definition channel on Sky's satellite service in July. Five, which claims to be too cash-strapped to launch a HD channel on Freeview, said its programming makes the Five HD service "more suited" to rival services from Channel 4 and ITV. Charles Constable, Five's director of strategy, said: "Our programme schedule is more suited to HD than any other major free-to-air commercial broadcaster given the wide range of high quality series we broadcast, such as our top-rated line-up of US dramas. We are delighted to begin our HD journey with Sky."
The new Five HD channel will broadcast programmes including CSI, FlashForward, Neighbours, Home & Away and The Mentalist to Sky+ HD customers. Sky hopes to build its HD channel portfolio to 50 channels by Christmas. Over the next few months, ITV 1 HD, Sky News HD, Sky Sports HD 4 and Hallmark Channel HD will launch on the BSkyB service.
BBC iPlayer to get Facebook and Twitter integration
BBC iPlayer will soon add Facebook, Twitter and Bebo capabilities to its TV catch-up service, according to Erik Huggers, the BBC’s Head of Future Media and Technology. Huggers told the Guardian’s Changing Media Summit 2010 that the latest version of iPlayer will arrive soon, and would feature social networking capabilities. Users will be able to log in to iPlayer when they use it, and share content over the likes of Facebook and Twitter at the click of a button. It will also be possible to keep an eye on what your friends are currently watching. BBC iPlayer has set another strong month for programming requests, including EastEnders Live, helping it achieve the best ever weekly results. According to iPlayer statistics released this week, there were 116.4m requests for TV and radio programming last month on all available platforms, including Virgin Media. The figure is slightly below the peak of 120.3m requests in January, but it should be noted that February is a shorter month at just 28 days.
New Virgin STB offers 'cost-free HD'
Virgin Media has unveiled a new set-top box offering access to its high definition channel line-up without the need for an additional monthly fee. Launching on 22nd March, the new HD receiver, named the V HD Box, will open up access to the cable operator's HD channels at no further subscription cost for consumers. New and existing customers across all pay-TV tiers (M+, L, XL) will be able to 'purchase' the receiver for £49 plus a £35 installation fee, but then pay no monthly HD fee. The receiver, created by Virgin Media's partner Cisco, includes HDMI, SCART, USB and Ethernet ports, and is also geared to support 3D services. It joins Virgin Media's existing receiver line-up, alongside the basic V Box and the V+ HD Box incorporating HD capability with a personal video recorder. Virgin Media also announced the forthcoming arrival of Sci-Fi HD, marking its sixth new HD channel in 2010 following announcements about Eurosport HD, Discovery HD, E4 HD, Film4 HD and ITV HD. Freesat and Freeview aside, current industry practice stipulates that access to HD content carries a further cost beyond the pay-TV packages. However, Virgin Media wants to kickstart a 'sea-change' in how HD content is made available in the UK. Customers can pre-register now for the V HD Box at Virgin Media's website.
Times Online edges closer to paywall
The Times and Sunday Times subscribers and Times Online registered users will this week be invited to register for premium content. News International CEO Rebekah Brooks has emailed staff, in a memo entitled “Fair Pricing For Digital Content”, to make them aware that News International is edging closer to its “new digital proposition”, which will include a paywall around content. In the email, Brooks said the publishing industry is making a mistake by chasing millions of unique users and giving away content free. “Great journalism needs investment and we are committed to supporting the fantastic work that you are all producing and delivering to our audiences. It is the quality of the journalism that you create, and the ways in which we produce and distribute it, that will continue to set our titles apart from the competition,” the email read. Brooks said she expects the number of unique users to fall dramatically as a result of the paywall. “But the people who register to our new digital products will be customers who have made a positive decision to pay a fair price for journalism that they value and they will be those who are more committed to and engaged with our titles,” she added. The email does not mention other News International titles such as The Sun or The News of the World.
UKOM Data Report: February 2010
Google has once again proved to be the most popular destination for the UK's online population. According to data released by UKOM, the brand had a unique audience of 33m people over the month of August. The second set of data released by the UK Online Measurement Company shows that Google's search page was the most popular search engine with 31m users, reaching 81% of the UK's online population. The list of the top ten sites in the UK has changed very little since January, with only one new addition. Amazon.co.uk slipped from the top ten in February, with Google Maps landing at the tenth spot with a unique audience of 15.5m. Although there is only one change in the ranking, all of the top ten websites saw a drop in users over February with the exception of Google Maps. The BBC saw the biggest month on month drop, losing over 2m (-9.2%) of its audience across all its sites.
For more information visit the MediaTel website.
Snippets usually taken from the following sources: MediaGuardian.co.uk / BBC / MediaTel / WARC / Digital Spy / brandrepublic.com / nma.co.uk / broadcastnow.co.uk / Ofcom / T3