Broadcast industry regulator Ofcom has announced that product placement will be allowed in UK TV programmes from 28 February 2011. The rules for paid-for references on radio broadcasts have also been revised.
Reuters reports on plans by Microsoft to create a new subscription-based TV service available via its Xbox console. According to Reuters’ sources, talks have been held with TV networks about a product to rival plans by Google and other new media companies to move into TV.
The service would charge a monthly fee for access through the Xbox to networks such as ABC, NBC, Fox, CBS, ESPN or CNN, according to two sources familiar with the plans.
Other options include allowing cable subscribers to use the Xbox to watch shows with more interactive functions. Viewers could, for instance, message with friends over the console while viewing their favorite shows.
To mark the launch of a new internship scheme, Channel 4 is taking part in a live Q&A session on the Guardian’s Careers website today from 12-3pm.
Jo Taylor, head of learning and 4talent; Alison George, learning and organisational development specialist at Channel 4; and representatives from several independent production companies will be on hand to answer your questions about breaking into the TV industry.
To take part visit the forum at this link.
Following on from last month’s UK event on microblogging, Media140, a new event dedicated to all things Twitter takes place today and tomorrow.
140Conf or ‘The 140 Character Conference’ features sessions on Twitter and TV; Twitter and newspapers; and Twitter for newsgathering, with contributions from BusinessWeek.com editor John A. Byrne (@johnabyrne), Tim O’Reilly (@timoreilly) and Andrew Keen (@ajkeen) amongst others.
You can watch a livestream from 8:45am (EST) today – you’ll need to register and download the player. There’s also a great backchannel site hosting video, tweets, speaker profiles and latest coverage of the conference.
Alternatively, follow the Twitter stream of #140conf tweets below:
As plans in the UK for greater sharing of resources between ITV, the BBC and other agencies are developed, here are some pointers from across the pond on the pros and cons of sharing news video.
A benefit, suggests Deborah Potter:
A negative:
In a time of strapped resources, will news video sharing become the norm and could it help to boost local news on TV and the web?
Cory Bergman offers eight tips for local TV sites to capitalise on the ailing local newspaper industry including forming partnerships with local blog and independent publishers and ‘aggregate when you can’t host’.
Online advertising is going to overtake radio in the advertising market, MediaGuardian reported today.
Richard Wray’s article stated that while Carat – part of the Aegis marketing empire – had reduced its forecasts for the global advertising markets for 2008/9, it also said online advertising will continue to grow, overtaking radio as the third most popular advertising medium after TV and newspapers and magazines.
MediaGuardian’s report is interesting to look at in the light of statistics made available last week by the Online Publishers Association (OPA).
The US-based figures suggest that ‘consumers on all three types of local media sites – newspapers, television stations and magazines – are more likely to take action after viewing a local advert than visitors on all other local content sites’.
As part of the OPA study, JupiterResearch surveyed 2,069 US online consumers ‘who qualified as Local Online Content Users, by currently using online yellow pages, newspaper, TV, magazine, city guides, user review sites, portals or classifieds for local information.’
Here’s the breakdown:
Per cent of consumers taking action after viewing local adverts
Click here to view the full report and follow this link for the press release.