22 Jan 10

Weekly Broadcast News

22nd January 2010

C4 appoints David Abraham as chief executive
Channel 4 has hired the chief executive of UKTV, David Abraham, as chief executive. No date has been confirmed for when Abraham will join the broadcaster, and Channel 4 acting chief executive Anne Bulford will lead the management team until Abraham's arrival. The broadcaster has been on the hunt for a new chief executive since former boss Andy Duncan stepped down in November last year. Abraham was appointed chief executive of UKTV in April 2007 and was behind the rebrand of UKTV channel G2 to Dave in the same year. He joined UKTV from Discovery Networks USA, where he was president and general manager for TLC.

Court tells Sky to reduce ITV stake
The Court of Appeal has ruled that Sky must reduce its 17.9% stake in ITV to 7.5%, with the satellite firm now expected to finally accept the decision. Last October, Sky launched a fresh appeal against the Competition Commission ruling about its 2006 purchase of 696m shares in ITV for £1.35 to become the broadcaster's largest shareholder. At the time, there were suggestions that the purchase was a blocking move to prevent ITV joining up with Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group, containing cable operator NTL, now Virgin Media. Sky now has a 28-day period in which to appeal directly to the Supreme Court. However, the firm now seems resigned to the decision and has reportedly held talks with interested parties about a sale. Five-owner RTL, Italy's Mediaset and private equity group Blackstone could all be potential suitors for the stake, but Sky may be forced to take a significant loss on its investment.

New York Times to charge for online access
The New York Times is to charge readers for full access to its website from next year. The title is introducing a meter system which will give users free access to a certain number of stories each month before charging. Subscribers to the print edition will have full access to the website. It is unknown how much the paper will charge for stories or how many will be accessible for free before charging begins. Several publishers are planning on charging for online content this year, with News Corporation being one of the most vocal.

Google reports 54% increase in profits over 2009
Google saw off recession blues with a 54% increase in profits last year, totalling £4bn mainly thanks to advertising earnings. The search giant reported a 17% increase in its revenues between October and December, as its advertising earnings rose strongly, up from £3.5bn a year earlier. Its net profit also shot up to £1.2bn. The company has now pledged to invest heavily in 2010 as it seeks to stay ahead in the search business that delivers the lion’s share of its revenue, and as it spends on initiatives to expand into new markets. According to the latest Bellwether report, spend on search marketing has increased by 11.5% in the last quarter. Google is facing increasing competition from Microsoft, which has struck a deal to provide Yahoo search technology. Bing was the fastest growing search engine in the US last month. Google is also attempting to expand into the mobile phone market, with the recent move to sell the Nexus One smartphone directly to consumers, in an effort to put it in greater competition with Apple. Its results come after Google said earlier this month that it may pull out of China due to concerns that Chinese human rights activities were the victims of cyber-attacks.

Spotify access ban for Oxford University students
Students at Oxford University have been banned from using Spotify after the university's IT department decided to halt access to the streaming music service. The cause for the drastic action by the OUCUS (Oxford University Computer Services) department appears to be the fact the award-winning service is eating up too much bandwidth at the prestigious university. Chances are a Facebook protest group will arrive in the not too distant future…

Live IPL cricket to stream on YouTube
Google has announced a partnership with the Indian Premier League (IPL) to live-stream upcoming cricket matches on YouTube. This will the first time YouTube has delved into the live-streaming of a sports event. Most of the site's live shows have been music-based - late last year it announced it was showing a U2 gig live and its first-ever live-streamed event was aptly called YouTube Live – a concert which featured music from Katy Perry, Will.i.am and Joe Satriani. The online content will start 12th March and run to 25th April, covering a Twenty20 tournament, and YouTube will have the exclusive online rights to the footage for two years.

UK consumers spent £5.46bn online in December
Online retail sales grew by 14% in 2009, with consumers spending £5.46bn in December alone. According to the IMRG CapGemini e-Retail Sales Index, UK online sales grew by 3.8% across November and December, with sales equivalent to every person in the UK spending £88.93 online in December. Despite the online retail sector growing by 14% over the past year, September sales grew by just 7.6%, the lowest month in the history of the index. The report attributed the slower growth for the month to warmer than usual weather and postal strikes.
The IMRG and CapGemini predict online retail will grow 13% in 2010.

ITV calls for end to "outdated" CRR
ITV has called on the competition regulator to abolish contract rights renewal (CRR) for ad sales on ITV1 after only minor adjustments were made to the regulatory mechanism. Provisionally decided last September, the Competition Commission has now opted to formally retain the CRR mechanism, which was introduced in 2003 to protect advertisers from the loss of competition when Carlton and Granada merged to form ITV plc. The commission has instead introduced just minor adjustments to CRR, taking into account ITV's forthcoming new time-shifted ITV1 +1 service, along with its full high-definition channel on Freeview.

Radio industry to develop integrated list for digital and FM stations
The UK radio industry has announced a commitment to work with manufacturers to develop an integrated station list which will enable listeners to tune between FM and digital frequencies more easily. At the moment listeners must navigate between FM and Dab using a switch which means non-digital stations may lose the listeners who fail to switch between platforms. When there is an integrated station list radios will be able to display all stations on one list, allowing listeners to tune seamlessly from station to station. This will ensure the local and commercial and community stations which stay on FM will remain as accessible as those stations which are digital only. Digital Radio UK, the organisation preparing the country for digital radio switchover, is working with receiver manufacturers and technology suppliers on the integrated list.

The London Weekly claims February launch is on track
The London Weekly, the new free paper for London, has underlined its commitment to launching on 5th February, despite the lack of details currently being circulated to much of the country's media print buyers. Plans for the launch of The London Weekly, which aims to distribute 250,000 copies a days on Fridays and Saturday, were first revealed in November. A number of print specialists at the larger media agencies have expressed surprise at the decision by parent Global Publishing Group not to showcase their plans or discuss advertising opportunities with them. The title's website launched on schedule on 20th December last year. The London Weekly looks to be aimed at a similar readership to the one targeted by the failed newspapers thelondonpaper and the London Lite.

Sources: MediaGuardian.co.uk / BBC / MediaTel / WARC / Digital Spy / brandrepublic.com / nma.co.uk / broadcastnow.co.uk / Ofcom / T3