01 Apr 10
Weekly Broadcast News
1st April 2010
BSkyB told to cut prices for sports channels
BSkyB has been ordered to cut the price that it charges rivals such as Virgin Media for its premium sports channels by 23%. The directive from Ofcom is likely to drive down the cost of watching Premier League football and other big sporting events. BSkyB charges £26 a month for Sky Sports 1; BT said yesterday that it intended to offer the Sky sport packages at “somewhere in the mid-teens”. Virgin Media, the only pay-TV broadcaster to buy Sky’s premium sports channels, also said that it would begin “marketing these channels aggressively” to its 3.7m TV customers. Ofcom’s ruling came after a three-year investigation, which concluded that BSkyB - which is 39% owned by News Corporation - must cut its wholesale prices for Sky Sports 1 and 2 to safeguard competition, BSkyB said that it would appeal to the Competition Appeal Tribunal against what it described as an “unprecedented and unwarranted intervention”. If the appeal fails, BSkyB may have to cut its own retail prices or risk losing customers, it said. Ofcom ordered BSkyB to reduce the wholesale price of Sky Sports 1 and 2 from £13.48 to £10.63 per subscriber per month. Most subscribers buy Sky Sports 1 and 2 as a bundle, however, and the price for both channels will be cut by 10.5% to £17.14. Sky has six weeks to implement the changes.
Ofcom launches consultation on TV advertising rules
Ofcom has said that rules forcing ITV1, Channel 4 and Five to sell all their advertising airtime could be scrapped under new proposals for the TV industry. Introduced in 2003, current regulations governing TV ad sales were designed to foster fair and effective competition in the market, including restrictions preventing ITV1, Channel 4 and Five from withholding airtime to drive up prices. However, Ofcom believes that the rules are no longer appropriate due to "significant developments" in the television sector. The watchdog pointed to a "substantial increase" in the number of available channels, which has led to "increasingly fragmented TV audiences across many channels and enabled media buyers to purchase airtime across an extensive range of channels". Among its proposed changes, Ofcom believes that ITV1, Channel 4 and Five should be permitted to withhold airtime as the approach will no longer have a negative impact on competition. Ofcom also wants to allow all three commercial public service broadcasters to offer bundled deals, in which media buyers purchase airtime across multiple television channels rather than just one. Known as conditional selling, the method brings various benefits to PSBs, including the opportunity to reduce negotiation costs. Ofcom will now run a ten-week consultation on its proposals, closing on 7th June.
ITV creates social media platform for top shows
ITV has created a social media platform to encourage viewers to interact with some of its flagship programmes, including 'This Morning', 'Loose Women' and 'Coronation Street'. From this month, viewers of some of the broadcasters most popular shows can engage with one another before, during and after programmes are shown.
ITV viewers will also be able to use the social media platform in its football section in time for the World Cup. Viewers of ITV's popular daytime TV programme 'Good Morning' will be able to react to the website's online content to spark a debate about the show. ITV's other online communities will be able to directly connect their activity on the site with their social networks, aggregating their comments and discussions via Facebook and Twitter for the first time.
Newspapers force BBC to delay free iPhone downloads
The BBC has bowed to pressure from the newspaper industry and agreed to assess whether its plans to launch free iPhone applications would damage commercial rivals. The broadcaster had planned to launch the smartphone services, including news and football World Cup coverage and the iPlayer catch-up service, in April. However, the BBC Trust, the corporation’s governing body, said that it had ordered executives to postpone the plans. The decision to open the services was criticised strongly by the Newspaper Publishers Association, which said that the BBC’s entry into the market would “undermine commercial media organisations’ ability to establish an economic model on these emergent platforms”. The Trust previously had waved the proposals through, on the ground that executives had told the internal regulator that the applications did not “constitute a significant change” to the broadcaster’s services. Critics of the corporation said that the Trust, which faces being scrapped under a Conservative government, had intervened to avoid accusations that it was incapable of holding the BBC management to account.
and finally … Watch the big match in 3D!
Sky has today launched an online pub finder so consumers can locate 3D-ready venues for watching the satellite broadcaster's new channel. On Saturday, Sky will officially start 3D broadcasts to pubs for the Premier League clash between Manchester United and Chelsea. According to estimates, around 1,500 pubs and clubs in the UK have already signed up to receive the service, and consumers can now log on to the '3D pubs' section on Sky's website to track down a participating venue in their area. If you fancy watching this weekend’s big Man Utd vs. Chelsea clash in 3D, click on the link below to see if there’s a Pub near you! www.sky.com/3Dpubs
Have a great Easter! 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 / FT