Tag Archives: BBC

BBC calls on journalists to mark World Press Freedom Day

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Today is World Press Freedom Day. It comes at a time when news organisations and freelance journalists working to report on uprisings in the Arab world have battled, and are still battling, restrictions on their ability to do their job.

In Egypt we heard of news bureaux being shut down during the protests in the country, in Libya foreign journalists told of ‘days of brutality’ in detention while two Western journalists were killed while trying to cover the conflict. And beyond the uprisings, across the world, there are daily reports of journalists, both local and foreign, being prevented from carrying out their work to report on the events around them, through legal action, technological blackouts or violence and intimidation.

Journalists killed in 2010

Journalists killed around the world in 2010. Infographic supplied by World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers

So today has been marked as a day to show support for the journalists fighting for a free press and to remember those who died doing so. The BBC reports that “hundreds, if not thousands” of events are being held across the world today. For its part director of BBC Global News Peter Horrocks has called for a minute’s silence at 11am “to mark the sacrifices made by journalists in the name of press freedom, and to honour those who have been killed”.

Some might see this as just a gesture, which will surely not be observed by all. But the turmoil, anguish and the death toll from the Arab Spring revolts and revolutions have brought home as rarely before how critical the role of journalists is, in not just doing a job, but reporting on events which decide the fate of nations.

The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) is providing a range of material including interviews, infographics and cartoons, for news outlets to use to highlight the meaning of the day.

Media release: Former Newsnight editor appointed as director of BBC Vision

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George Entwistle has been named as director of BBC Vision following what the broadcaster called “an extensive recruitment search” after Jana Bennett’s departure earlier this year.

Entwistle, a former editor of Newsnight, will take up the post with immediate effect. As part of his role he will also oversee Vision Productions and have editorial oversight for UKTV.

I am genuinely honoured to have been chosen for the role of director, BBC Vision.

The BBC’s television portfolio is of enormous importance to the creative and cultural life of the UK and is performing strongly in terms of quality and audience reach and share.

At the heart of its success, BBC Vision Productions is responsible for some of the best television programmes we broadcast.

I feel enormously proud to be leading these teams and I will do my utmost to build on the legacy of talent and excellence left by my predecessor, Jana Bennett.

You can see his full BBC biography here…

Media release: BBC gets Queen’s Award for sports graphics system

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The BBC reports its Research & Development department received a Queen’s Award for Enterprise today for its TV sports graphics system Piero.

By laying graphics over the TV pictures, Piero gives sports presenters and pundits another way to view and analyse crucial incidents in the games, and explain them more effectively to the audience.

According to the broadcaster the Piero system was initially created by BBC R&D and has since been developed and licensed internationally by Red Bee Media, with the award being jointly awarded to both organisations.

Piero works by creating a virtual stadium, which is synchronised to the “real” pictures coming from the TV cameras. Pictures of real players are transposed into the virtual stadium, where it is possible to view and analyse the game from different angles in animated sequences.

In-game incidents, such as offsides and forward passes can be assessed by pundits from the best angle – even if the play has not been captured at this angle.

The system can also render graphics such as distance markings so that they appear tied to the pitch.

The BBC press release can be seen here…

Guardian: ITN chief executive’s pay package nearly £700K

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ITN chief executive John Hardie earned £682,000 in 2010, the Guardian reports.

The boss of the commercial broadcaster received less than the director general of the BBC, Mark Thompson for the year, however.

According to this article in the Telegraph published in July last year, Thompson received £838,000, including a £163,000 pension top-up.

The ITN chief executive, John Hardie, saw his total remuneration package rise last year to £682,000 as the broadcaster recorded a pre-tax profit of £400,000.

Hardie received a base salary of £350,000 in 2010, as well as a further £300,000 in bonus and benefits payments, according to the ITV News and Channel 4 News broadcaster’s full-year accounts published last week.

The former Disney executive took home a total remuneration package of £238,000 in 2009, after joining the company in June that year.

The Guardian’s full article is at this link.

Comment: Is the director general of the BBC overpaid in relation to the ITN boss? Or is the ITN boss, who is operating in a harsh commercial climate, underpaid?

BBC must not hand over material from demo, says NUJ

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The National Union of Journalists is urging the BBC to safeguard material, including footage, gathered during the demonstration against spending cut on 26 March.

According to the NUJ, a number of BBC journalists have received emails regarding police attempts to secure un-broadcast journalistic material from the demonstration. “At this stage it appears to be a police ‘fishing trip’ seeking all material,” said NUJ secretary general Jeremy Dear in a statement.

The NUJ has written to the BBC to ask for “assurance the BBC will ask that the police follow proper procedures and seek to secure a court order if they wish to obtain any journalistic material in the possession of the BBC or its employees”.

Writing shortly after protests against rising tuition fees, photographer and blogger Mark Vallée had this advice on protecting journalistic material.

Less than half of BBC breakfast team confirm Salford move

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In a statement released late on Thursday, the BBC confirmed that 46 per cent of its BBC Breakfast team, including presenters Bill Turnbull and Susanna Reid, have confirmed that they will move to Salford Quays next year, to a new base at MediaCityUK.

This along with just a quarter of the Marketing & Audiences team in scope to move and 33 per cent from BBC Connect & Create, puts the combined total of confirmed moves at 55 per cent, the broadcaster claimed, a figure which includes staff outside of scope who volunteered to move.

The BBC confirmed that journalists Sian Williams and Chris Hollins have decided “for personal reasons” not to make the move, but added that they will “continue to be involved in the programme for the foreseeable future”.

Broadcasting over three hours of live television every day on BBC One and the News Channel, Breakfast will be the first BBC television network news programme produced and broadcast from outside London. It is the UK’s most watched morning TV programme, with a daily reach of around seven million and a weekly reach of around 12 million.

See the full BBC release here…

Union seeks ‘substantial’ above-inflation pay rise for BBC staff

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Media union BECTU is seeking “a substantial rise above inflation” for BBC staff following two years of below-inflation settlements.

Pay talks for the 2011 agreement got underway this week, BECTU said in a release.

According to the union, the the 2010 agreement was reached on a flat rate increase of £475 for all staff paid up to £37,726 a year. In 2009 all staff paid up to £60,000 a year received a rise of £450.

“The rising costs of travel, food, fuel and the impact of the vat increase, set against a period of two years of below-inflation increases and rising pension costs, mean that staff pay at the BBC has regressed,” BECTU general secretary, Gerry Morrissey, said in the statement.

The BBC is due to respond in May when they officials will again meet with BBC management.

BBC announces special swansong for Russian-language broadcasts

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As the BBC puts an end to its 65 years of traditional radio broadcasting in Russian, it is hosting a series of special programmes this week looking back at its journalism over the years.

This will include speaking to key members of the Russian media to share their views on the broadcaster, including the owner of the Independent, Alexander Lebedev and leading Russian journalists and writers.

The final programme will take place on Saturday (26 March) with the BBC Russian live weekend programme, Pyatiy Etazh (Fifth Floor).

The BBC started regular Russian-language broadcasts to the Soviet Union on 24 March 1946. Throughout the years, the BBC radio brought independent news and analysis to Russian-speaking audiences. In its special programming, BBC Russian looks again at the key stories it has covered – reporting the cold war and the perestroika, the attempted putsch of August 1991 and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the two Chechen wars and Beslan, the Russia-Georgia conflict and everything else that has mattered to its audiences in the region.

The BBC’s Russian output will continue on bbcrussian.com, where two radio programmes will be broadcast every Monday to Friday and one will be broadcast on Saturdays and Sundays.

Russian is one of seven radio programming languages which were proposed for closure as part of cuts to the World Service, along with Azeri, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish for Cuba, Turkish, Vietnamese and Ukrainian, and Russian.

Read more about the BBC’s special Russian programming here…

BBC Blog: IPTV is ‘arguably the platform of the future’

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The BBC wants to build a prototype and pilot Internet Protocol Television (IPTV).

Speaking at the IPTV World Forum yesterday, Fearnley, who is general manager news and knowledge of BBC Future Media, said IPTV – which allows content from the internet is displayed on a connected TV – is “arguably the platform of the future”.

Writing on the BBC Internet Blog after delivering the speech, Fearnley says there are opportunities for BBC News Online in IPTV.

Screen Digest reports that by 2014 90 per cent of TV sets sold in Europe will be internet enabled. And of course, connected TVs are only part of the story; around three quarters of major brand consoles purchased in 2011 will be browser enabled so this is a huge area of growth.

That said, the IPTV market is in its infancy and we don’t know what mainstream audience reaction will be. An agreed editorial strategy and defined product roadmap from the BBC are still a way off, but in the meantime we’re keen to prototype and pilot within the market, glean audience feedback, and iterate quickly.

Fearnley goes on to imagine how IPTV could develop.

By looking at the strengths of BBC News on the web we can start to see how the service could be re-imagined for IPTV. When BBC News Online was refreshed last year we introduced ‘live pages’, housing up-to-the-minute AV content and real-time updates. Major events continue to demonstrate that traditional, ‘lean-back’ consumption isn’t enough for audiences. During the recent disaster in Japan over 79,996 users ‘shared’ the live page; the live event experience on the web is strong.

Imagine a browser-based BBC News experience on your TV. With closer proximity between the live broadcast and BBC Online you can envisage users dipping out of a London 2012 linear broadcast to access details of an athlete, event, or location online – a context enriched by our advances in dynamic semantic publishing, which my colleague Jem Rayfield blogged about last year.

In comparison, apps optimised to a platform standard could deliver a more focused type of utility. You can imagine a BBC News app for connected TV that unites digital journalism with the AV of the BBC News Channel, improved by on-demand, allowing users to navigate through bulletins and to drive their own consumption. There’s huge potential here, and the BBC’s role is the same as ever: expressing the full, creative potential of the medium.

Feanley’s post says IPTV is in its infancy and appeals to the industry to develop technologies in a way that are easy to use –  just as Ceefax was.

“A simple, intuitive navigational platform standard – seamlessly integrating linear and on-demand worlds – is what we ask of industry.”

Full blog post on the BBC site at this link