Category Archives: Broadcasting

Telegraph: IPTV joint venture YouView delayed until next year

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YouView, the IPTV joint venture billed as the new Freeview, is to miss its July target launch date and will go live in early 2012 instead, the Telegraph has revealed.

YouView chief executive Richard Halton said it was important the development was “not rushed”. When it launches, the box will offer a seven-day TV catch-up service and other on-demand web TV services. Analysts are concerned that the delay means the product will already be obsolete by the time it is ready.

Screen Digest head of broadband Dan Cryan told the paper: “With more and more TV catch up services, such as the iPlayer, coming to the living room TV set using the browser, YouView risks becoming irrelevant.”

The initiative is a joint venture between the major terrestrial broadcasters, BT, TalkTalk and transmissions giant Arqiva.

BBC’s iPlayer iPad app to launch this week

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The BBC will launch an iPlayer app for Apple’s iPad this Thursday, the corporation’s interactive operations manager Geoff Marshall has announced on Twitter.

Users can browse the catch-up TV and radio service listings using a 3G connection but will need WiFi to watch or listen to programmes.

It will initially be limited to the UK, although the BBC is working on a subscription-based international version for the iPad that is expected to launch this summer.

James Cridland: TalkSport web traffic soars

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UTV Media’s TalkSport has claimed a seven-fold increase in traffic to its website following a relaunch last August – with 1.7 million unique users and 9 million page impressions in January, according to unaudited figures seen by radio futurologist James Cridland.

Cridland says the site, which used to be “derided within the industry”, is now beating its closest broadcast rival BBC Radio FiveLive, which had an average of 191,000 weekly unique users in September 2010 (the last available figures), even though FiveLive has double TalkSport’s broadcast audience.

The site has been buoyed by closer editorial collaboration with Sport magazine and two big stories at the end of last month: football transfer deadline day and an exclusive interview with Richard Keys, the Sky Sports presenter who resigned in a controversy over sexist remarks.

New Dispatches phone-hacking investigation to air tonight

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Dispatches is following up on its October phone-hacking investigation tonight with a new installment.

Channel 4 News presenter Alex Thomson tweets that there is “furious re-editing” underway “as new evidence comes in of News International dirty tricks”.

According to Thomson, “it’s not just the tabloids Dirty Secrets…”

Tune in to Channel 4 at 8pm tonight.

More on phone hacking from Journalism.co.uk.

As first journalist dies in Egypt protests, CPJ compiles list of attacks

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An Egyptian photographer has become the first journalist to die covering the anti-Mubarak protests.

Ahmad Mohamed Mahmoud, who worked for Al-Ta’awun, died from gunshot wounds sustained a week ago when he was shot by a sniper.

Journalists face ongoing attacks and detentions in Cairo. The Committee to Protect Journalists has compiled a round-up of the latest attacks on the press.

Graham Smith: BBC must report, not celebrate, the royal wedding

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As the country’s excitement about an impending royal wedding builds to its inevitable fever pitch, BBC journalists must report, not celebrate, says Republic executive officer Graham Smith.

Republic is a group which campaigns for a democratic alternative to the monarchy.

It has long been felt by a great many people in this country – not just republicans – that when it comes to the monarchy and coverage of the royal family the Corporation fails in its duty to remain balanced and impartial. That’s why Republic has this week written to David Jordan, the BBC’s Director of Editorial Policy, to ask for a meeting to discuss the BBC’s coverage of the monarchy in general and the royal wedding in particular.

Full post on BBC College of Journalism at this link.

Jon Snow to look at social media in Bob Friend memorial lecture

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Channel Four presenter Jon Snow will look at social media’s impact on journalism when he gives the annual Bob Friend Memorial Lecture later this month.

Held at Kent University on February 25, the talk will be entitled ‘From film to Twitter – the media revolution: is the golden age of journalism come or gone?’

BBC general director Mark Thompson gave last year’s lecture, which he used to defend the corporation’s decision to axe two digital stations and cut the size of its website.

The event was established in 2009 in memory of Sky News reporter Bob Friend.

Al Jazeera reports its Cairo office attacked and burned

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Arabic television network Al Jazeera has reported that its Cairo office has been attacked by “a gang of thugs”.

According to the network’s report, the office has “been burned along with all the equipment inside it.”

Al Jazeera’s Cairo office was reportedly shut down last Sunday, following the network’s coverage of protests in the country, with staff stripped of their press credentials and detained.

It has since reported interference with its coverage and, this morning, the replacing of a banner advert on its site by hackers with a slogan reading “Together for the collapse of Egypt”, which linked to a page criticising the broadcaster.

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Journalisted Weekly: Football, phone hacking, and Egyptian uprising

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Journalisted is an independent, not-for-profit website built to make it easier for you, the public, to find out more about journalists and what they write about.

It is run by the Media Standards Trust, a registered charity set up to foster high standards in news on behalf of the public, and funded by donations from charitable foundations.

Each week Journalisted produces a summary of the most covered news stories, most active journalists and those topics falling off the news agenda, using its database of UK journalists and news sources.

for the week ending Sunday 30 January

  • Sexist remarks by two football commentators and phone hacking received much coverage
  • Egyptian protests and the leaking of the ‘Palestine papers’ dominated headlines
  • Drugs from Britain used on US death row and the return of a Tunisian Islamist leader received little attention

Covered lots

Covered little

Political ups and downs (top ten by number of articles)

Celebrity vs serious

Who wrote a lot about…’protests in Egypt’

Jack Shenker – 13 articles (The Guardian), James Hider – 11 articles (The Times), Peter Beaumont – 10 articles (The Guardian), Roula Khalaf – 7 articles (Financial Times), Adrian Blomfield – 6 articles (Telegraph)

Long form journalism

More from the Media Standards Trust:

The Media Standards Trust’s panel event ‘Libel reform: in the public’s interest?’ is available to watch on our website

The Media Standards Trust’s unofficial database of PCC complaints is available for browsing at www.complaints.pccwatch.co.uk

For the latest instalment of Tobias Grubbe, journalisted’s 18th century jobbing journalist, go to journalisted.com/tobias-grubbe

BuzzMachine: ‘Cable companies, add Al Jazeera English NOW!’

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Writing on his BuzzMachine blog, Jeff Jarvis has called for US cable networks to start carrying Al Jazeera’s English-language network.

Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera has been covering the civilian unrest in Egypt but was effectively shut down by the Egyptian government on Sunday, according to reports. In the following days Al Jazeera journalists have been reportedly arrested and detained in the country.

Jarvis acknowledges that Al Jazeera English is available to stream online but tells cable companies that this just isn’t enough.

Yes, we can watch AJE on the internet. But as much of an internet triumphalist as I am, internet streaming is not going to have the same impact–political and education impact–that putting AJE on the cable dial would have. I can watch AJE in the Zurich hotel room where I am now; I want to be able to watch it on my couch at home.

Full post on BuzzMachine at this link.

The New York Times’ Media Decoder blog has also picked up on the difficulty of accessing Al Jazeera English from within the US. Media Reporter Brian Stelter talks about the issue in an NYT video.

As the uprising in Egypt nears its second week, a lot of people are calling this Al Jazeera’s moment. The Qatar-based broadcaster has been showing us pictures that most US broadcasters haven’t been able to get … Al Jazeera also has an English-language channel, but a lot of people don’t know it because it’s very hard to access in the United States … Most of us can’t watch it in the US unless we watch on our computers.