Woe for Virgin and Sky as credit crunch turns viewers off pay-TV cost - mirror.co.uk

22 Oct 2008 0000 Almost a quarter of pay-TV customers are considering cutting their subscription package because of the credit crunch. Six per cent of TV viewers had already decided not to buy additional services, such as movies and sports, directly because of the economic slowdown. A further 18 per cent were planning changes soon, according to the survey of more than 1,000 people by Continental Research. - mirror.co.uk

www.mirror.co.uk

Quarter of pay-TV customers thinking of cutting back services |Media |guardian.co.uk

The report found 24 of the pay-TV customers surveyed said they planned to reduce the amount they spent on services such as movie and sports channels over the next year. Continental Research, which conducted the survey of 1,022 people, found that 6 of TV viewers had decided not to buy additional services directly because of the economic slowdown. To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editormediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

Carter revisits C4 privitisation plan

It takes just 2 minutes and offers full, instant access to the Broadcast website along with a copy of the magazine delivered every week. - broadcastnow.co.uk

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

DTG News: 55 HD channels now on ASTRA

With the new channels we further improve the impressive HD channel line-up and build a very attractive HD neighbourhood on our main orbital positions. DTG Staff 20.10.2008 Links open in a new window. - dtg.org.uk

www.dtg.org.uk

ITV faces Ofcom fines of 80m a year if it surrenders PSB licences | Media | guardian.co.uk

Michael Grade said ITV could foresee a future as a full commercial body. The broadcaster's net advertising revenue during 2007 was 1.22bn, meaning ITV fines could start at 80m a year and rise until its licences expire in 2014. Ofcom has confirmed that under Section 424 of the 1990 Broadcasting Act, PSB licence holders who fail to provide the service they are contracted to do face a financial penalty. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

BBC strikes iPlayer deal with BSkyB |Media |guardian.co.uk

From today, visitors to sky.com/skyplayer will be able to access the 400 weekly hours of BBC programming that is available through the iPlayer. BBC programmes will be distributed within Sky Player's existing genres - such as entertainment and kids - and will be free to air. Once viewers select a BBC programme they will be transferred to the iPlayer website to watch videos. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

informitv - BBC opens Canvas for platform-neutral publishing

The BBC is hoping to establish an open industry platform to enable internet television services. The problem that the BBC faces lies in making a different version available for every possible device. Can there be an open IPTV standard that device makers can adopt to enable direct to consumer delivery of on-demand content in the living room he asked. - informitv.com

informitv.com

Forget about scuzzy sex shows the arts are our future, says Sky - Media, News - The Ind

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www.independent.co.uk

Conservatives back licence fee

It takes just 2 minutes and offers full, instant access to the Broadcast website along with a copy of the magazine delivered every week. - broadcastnow.co.uk

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Question of the week: What if ITV hands back its licences? |Media |The Guardian

If the government and regulators want ITV to carry non-profitable public service programming in the future they will have to use bribery rather than the traditional stick to get ITV to do it. That is why Ofcom's public service fund is a good idea so long as it doesn't mean the BBC receiving less money. We need more imaginative ways of paying for the fund and the money in the fund shouldn't automatically go to Channel 4 - some of the fund should go to support regional news on ITV and some to create truly local television. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

Third of S4C to be in HD - WalesOnline

The move follows Ofcoms decision to reserve capacity for HD services after a joint bid between the channel and Channel 4. The joint Channel 4/S4C proposal may also offer in the future an on-demand service, or sub-let during overnight hours. The freeview HD service will be broadcast through S4Cs digital channel digidol. - walesonline.co.uk

www.walesonline.co.uk

Digital TV switchover will hit rural viewers |Media |The Guardian

The culture secretary, Andy Burnham, has been accused of neglecting 2.5 million households in rural areas after it emerged they would get less than half the number of TV channels broadcast to the rest of Britain after the switch to digital services. Opposition MPs believe the government is discriminating against rural communities because ministers have refused to make sure that all the broadcasters using the digital service Freeview offer a full service for every home, once the analogue television signal is finally switched off in 2012. The problem is most keenly felt in the Borders TV region, which covers southern Scotland, Cumbria and parts of Northumberland. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

MediaTalk: BBC, Channel 4 Radio fallout, newspaper apocalypse

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DTG News: Care home residents to get more switchover help

Its always been our aim to make sure those people who may find the process of digital switchover most difficult receive the best help possible. When the Help Scheme was first developed we recognised that care homes may require special arrangements and the change announced today is recognition of our ongoing commitment to this. People in the Scottish Borders can be reassured theyll get all the help they need to switch. - dtg.org.uk

www.dtg.org.uk

Panasonic quashes Freesat Blu-ray PVR rumours - What Satellite Digital TV

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blog.wotsat.com

Elgato prepping live Freeview TV for iPhone | Electricpig

October 17, 2008 1130 am If youve got a Mac, youve probably heard of Elgato. The company makes ultra-slick Freeview adapters for Apple computers, but soon itll be bringing its telly tech to the iPhone too. We caught up with Lars Felber, Elgatos Product Marketing Manager, earlier this week. - electricpig.co.uk

www.electricpig.co.uk

BetaNews | New legislation could postpone February DTV transition

Legislation now proposed in the US Congress would effectively postpone the February 17, 2009 date for the switchover to all-digital TV. That same day, the National Association of Broadcasters endorsed proposed legislation in the US Congress that would enable an extension of the quickly encroaching deadline, now only four months away. Still, lots of progress seems to have emerged over the past 10 months. - betanews.com

www.betanews.com

BBC Common Platform: Should the BBC recapitalise British Culture?

15Oct Is Mark Thompson a good proxy for Gordon Brown Should the BBC move to rescue struggling media companies as the government is saving struggling banks Should the BBC recapitalise British culture by taking stakes in bust public service providers - commonplatform.co.uk

commonplatform.co.uk

MediaTalk: DAB radio special

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Media Show: DAB, China, Nick Robinson

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Trading Standards warns of digital switchover aerial rip-off - Computeractive

computing/computing-06-12-07/satellite-dish People could be ripped off by unscrupulous aerial installers in the run up to the digital switchover, Trading Standards TS has warned. Research by Ofcom found that most aerials will continue to work after the switchover and only five to ten per cent of households will need an aerial upgrade. However, in a mystery shopping telephone exercise of 31 installers, Leicestershire TS found more than a quarter of aerial installers were prepared to mislead consumers, claiming a new TV aerial would be needed without even looking at their existing one. - computeractive.co.uk

www.computeractive.co.uk

BBC NEWS | Scotland | Highlands and Islands | Call to put Gaelic TV on Freeview

The culture minister said she would support efforts to secure the coverage. - news.bbc.co.uk

news.bbc.co.uk

Is TV on track for the digital revolution? - Brand Republic News - Brand Republic

On 14 November 2007, about 250 homes in the former Cumbrian fishing port of Whitehaven, located in the shadow of the Sellafield nuclear plant, lost their TV signal and their screens went blank. Fortunately for those responsible for conveying the digital switchover message in the UK's first all-digital community in the Copeland area, the rest of the district's 25,000 households made sure their sets could receive a digital signal before the analogue service was switched off. They were now watching television on satellite, cable, broadband or Freeview. - brandrepublic.com

www.brandrepublic.com

Talks At Mod To Seek BBC Alba Expansion (from The Herald )

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www.theherald.co.uk

SacredFacts: TV v online

New Zealand broadcasting has been through some tumultuous times in terms of funding and status. However the most extraordinary thing Rik told us was that more people now watch programmes time shifted through broadband than watch through their TV. The online on-demand service was only launched 18 months ago but has already overtaken conventional TV viewing with 30,000 hours a month consumed over broadband. - sambrook.typepad.com

sambrook.typepad.com

BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons warns Ofcom over PSB proposals |Media |guardian.co.uk

Sir Michael Lyons said the television industry should 'stop looking to Ofcom for answers'. To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editormediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 7278 2332. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

Liberal Democrats - TV switchover - Dont lose the remote, Moore tells government

- libdems.org.uk

www.libdems.org.uk

Media facing carnage, warns Guardian News Medias Emily Bell |Media |guardian.co.uk

As many as five national newspapers could fold within two years in a worst-case scenario as the media suffers unprecedented carnage, Guardian News Media executive Emily Bell has warned. Bell, the GNM director of digital content, warned that broadcasters, national and regional media were in the middle of a systemic collapse in advertising and not a cyclical downturn. Bell pointed out that the New York Times' revenues fell 12 before the current credit crunch took hold and merchant bank Lehman Brothers collapsed. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

The Scourge Of SCART

I thought it was time to give you a quick update on some of the technical issues that have come up around BBC High Definition over the last couple of months and what has been happening since the Olympics. We have taken some time to look at a lot of the issues bought up by you and a few of the things I wanted to investigate myself. It's now working, but not as well as we would like - for example, we still have more work to do before we can move between stereo and surround programmes without having to put silence between them. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Roy Greenslade: Why Jeff Jarvis is wrong to blame British journalists |Media |guardian.co.uk

Jeff Jarvis has taken me to task twice, in yesterday's print section, and last week on his blog, because he disagrees with my contention that journalists are not responsible for the decline of newspapers. The truth is that we are being assailed by revolutionary technological forces completely outside of our control... It is our fault we did not see change coming soon enough and ready our craft for its transition. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

BBC - Press Office - "Over the air" download from BBC iPlayer to mobile devices

The system, which debuted on the Nokia N96, will be compatibility tested with other mobile devices with the intention to roll out on more devices in the future. The service is now available on the Nokia N96. For more information please go to What is BBC iPlayer - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

BBCs future bleak, says John Simpson - Media, News - The Independent

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www.independent.co.uk

Michael Grade: Now TVs golden age is over, ITV must be allowed to compete - Commentators, Opini

The world of 1991 when the present iTV licences were designed has gone for ever. To those of us over 50 it was a golden age. I understand the nostalgia of those who wish that commercial broadcasters still had the freedom and the deep pockets to cover the same canvas they did 30 years ago. - independent.co.uk

www.independent.co.uk

Ed Murrow: a voice from the past with lessons for today's news broadcasters

Ed Murrow warned that unless TV was used to teach, illuminate and inspire 'it is merely wires and lights in a box'. Murrow's impassioned plea on October 15 1958 was powerful enough for George Clooney to turn it into the opening sequence of his movie Goodnight and Good Luck. Murrow understood the extraordinary potential of television as a force for enlightenment. - guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

iPlayer becomes handier viewing option

The link you clicked, or the URL you typed into your browser, didnt work for some reason. Here are some possible reasons why We have a bad link out there to a page that has been moved or removed You may have typed the page address incorrectly We have a problem with the server. - broadcastnow.co.uk

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Poor advice on digital switchover

Campaigns Making consumers as powerful as the organisations they deal with. Consumer Rights Your essential guide to consumer rights and what to do if things go wrong. Conversation Want to comment on burning consumer issues of the day - which.co.uk

www.which.co.uk

Commons poised for licence fee debate

It takes just 2 minutes and offers full, instant access to the Broadcast website along with a copy of the magazine delivered every week. - broadcastnow.co.uk

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MORE than a quarter of Gloucestershires TV watchers are still not prepared for the big switch-over to digital

The county's 578,631 residents, in 249,000 homes, are split between ITV's Central region in the north and east, and West region in the rest of the county. In Central, 74 per cent of households have prepared for the switch-over, set for 2011. In the West, 71 per cent have prepared for the switch, scheduled for some point between April and June 2010. - thisisgloucestershire.co.uk

www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk

BBC unveils Freeview plans for iPlayer

It takes just 2 minutes and offers full, instant access to the Broadcast website along with a copy of the magazine delivered every week. - broadcastnow.co.uk

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BBC s Huggers Cosies To Developers, Rivals; Freeview iPlayer Will Be App Platform| paidContent:UK

Original BBC future media and technology director Erik Huggers is at pains to show hes listening to calls for a more open dev strategy from the corporation. Hes used an interview via Guardian.co.uk to reaffirm Aunties commitment to open-source data for web developers and some new projects coming down the pipe hint at how Internet TV Huggers says that a project, codenamed - paidcontent.co.uk

www.paidcontent.co.uk

BBC NEWS | England | Dorset | Digital switch advice shocking

Trading standards secretly contacted electrical stores and aerial fitters and found many gave wrong advice. Officers found some fitters recommended new aerials while one store said customers would need a new 1,000 television despite there being no need. The analogue signal will be gradually switched off region, by region and completed by 2012. - news.bbc.co.uk

news.bbc.co.uk

Countdown to digital revolution

It is six months until homes in Torbay and South Devon become the first in the region to have the analogue signal switched off and replaced by multi-channel digital television through their aerial. Commentators are concerned, however, that many of the 840,000 households in the Westcountry could be left with blank screens or mangled pictures because of ageing equipment, limits to test signals and technical issues that require aerials to be replaced, refitted or extended. The low conversion rates of second televisions in kitchens and bedrooms is also a concern among politicians and engineers. - thisiswesternmorningnews.co.uk

www.thisiswesternmorningnews.co.uk

informitv - Windows Media Center gains interactive television support

Over 30 million MHEG-5 capable receivers have been sold in the United Kingdom. Although the MHEG-5 standard has been updated to support high-resolution graphics in full colour and broadband connections, its critics argue that it is relatively limited. - informitv.com

informitv.com

The Press Association: Third of TVs not digital converted

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ukpress.google.com

18m TVs fail to turn digital | Metro.co.uk

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www.metro.co.uk

The Press Association: Ratings plunge for Richard and Judy

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ukpress.google.com

This Years Christmas TV Is Blank Digital Blackout Warning (from The Herald )

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www.theherald.co.uk

A Freesat for Italy

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blog.wotsat.com

EXCLUSIVE: Metronic Freesat HD box delayed

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blog.wotsat.com

DTG News: ASTRA 1M Satellite launch date revealed

DTG Staff 08.10.2008 Links open in a new window. - dtg.org.uk

www.dtg.org.uk