| British TV & Radio News Month 2012 |
| Arqiva wins distribution deal with Freesat |
| Wednesday, January 4 2012 |
Arqiva, the communications infrastructure and media services company, has secured a further contract to deliver Freesat’s Electronic Programme Guide. Dual and redundant multiplexing, uplink and satellite capacity on Eurobird 1 will ensure the constant availability of the essential EPG data to over 2 million Freesat receivers across the UK.
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| John Bozza, Sales Director, Broadcast & Media at Arqiva, said: “Arqiva’s international infrastructure and technical expertise at delivering critical transmission services provides major broadcasters with the highest levels of confidence. We are delighted that Freesat has chosen to renew our distribution contract and we look forward to maintaining the exceptional service levels they demand.” |
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| Arqiva secures UK distribution deal with France 24 |
| Thursday, January 4 2012 |
Arqiva, the communications infrastructure and media services company, has won the contract to distribute the France 24 news channel in the UK. The five-year contract sees Arqiva providing multiplexing, uplinking and satellite services that deliver the channel’s English language feed to the BSkyB and Freesat platforms as well as to an extensive network of hotels.
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Following its launch five years ago France 24 has built a 30 million-strong weekly following for its 24/7 news content which brings a French perspective to world events. With global distribution reaching 160 million homes worldwide its programming is produced in Paris in French, English and Arabic.
Arqiva uses its facilities in France and its global terrestrial fibre network to bring the channel’s feeds to the UK. The English language feed is then uplinked onto Arqiva’s Eurobird 1 satellite capacity through one of its international teleports. Exclusive delivery of the service began on 1 November.
David Couret from France 24 said: “France 24 broadcasts extensive live prime-time content so it is crucial that our broadcast chain is as robust and reliable as possible. Arqiva is widely recognised as the UK broadcast specialist so we are pleased to be able to utilise their expertise in distributing our content into this essential market.”
John Bozza, Sales Director, Broadcast & Media at Arqiva, added: “Arqiva’s core expertise in the UK broadcast market extends to an international presence which makes it simple for us to provide global distribution services to major broadcasters all around the world. We are delighted to win this contract with France 24 and look forward to building our relationship with this leading international news broadcaster.” |
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| 61% of BBC TV programmes are repeats |
| Wednesday, January 11 2012 |
More than half the programmes broadcast on BBC channels are repeats, new figures have revealed. BBC One aired 2,736 rerun shows in the year to March 2011, up 1.7% from 2006, according to figures released to the Daily Mail in response to a Freedom of Information request.
Nearly half of all content shown on BBC Two (49.8%) was repeats over the 12 months, up from just 30% six years ago.
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BBC Four's schedule was made up of 79% repeated programming, but BBC Three hit 84.2% reruns, a total of 3,144 shows. The average level of repeats across all four of the corporation's channels was 61%.
As the BBC readjusts to financial constraints under its new licence fee settlement, bosses have opted to focus more on primetime content on the BBC TV channels.
With so many hours to fill on the four networks, the corporation feels that focusing on creating big programmes and events, particularly for BBC One, offers the best value for licence fee payers.
A BBC spokesman said: "Repeats are scheduled to reach different audiences and are rarely shown in the same slot. On BBC One, for example, over 91% of programmes in primetime are new. "Audiences value having several opportunities to catch something they may have missed." However, Matthew Elliott, of campaign group the TaxPayers' Alliance, said that the high percentage of repeats is doing a disservice to viewers. "Viewers will feel cheated that they are getting endless repeats in return for their licence fee each year," he said. "Auntie should scrap BBC Three if there aren't enough new programmes. Bosses need to focus on delivering high-quality and unique programming." |
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| Sky axes Curren TV |
| Thursday, January 12 2012 |
Current TV channel is under the threat of closure in the UK after Sky axed the network from its pay-TV platform. The satellite broadcaster, part-owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, took the "commercial decision" to no longer offer the liberal current affairs channel to its more-than-10m UK subscribers.
The move comes just months after Sky Italia also controversially dropped the network in Italy, leading to claims that Murdoch was victimising Current TV on political grounds.
Current's pay-TV contract with Sky was due to end in two months' time, but Sky had already informed the company that it will be cut from its pay-TV lineup.
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Current TV is still available on Virgin Media and online, plus it can continue to operate as a free-to-air channel on Sky. But the network has already been hurt by low ratings, while the majority of its UK funding is understood to come from the pay-TV deal with Sky.
Staff at the channel and independent producers were informed today that Current TV risks closing as early as March, although the broadcaster is exploring options to remain widely available. |
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| Channel 4 planning repeats channel |
| Friday, January 13 2012 |
Channel 4 looks set to launch a new station that would show the last seven days most popular programmes. The plan is thought to be called ‘Project Shuffle’ and, according to sources close to the channel, it is an attempt to increase the broadcaster’s portfolio share.
The main channel’s content would be made available for the next seven days in a linear broadcast fashion.
The example one source gave was: an episode of Location, Location, Location premiering on a Wednesday would be played out in the same slot on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Films and acquired series are likely to be exempt from the shuffle due to rights issues.
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A Channel 4 spokesman said: “We are always looking at ways of innovating our offering to viewers,” but otherwise declined to comment.
The Channel 4 family, currently comprises of four channels: Channel 4, E4, More 4 and Film 4. More 4 is being rebranded and overhauled to become more of a lifestyle channel.
A digital scrapbook, will be launched in April, which will align the channel more closely to channel4.com.
The overhaul will see More 4 repeating programmes such as One Born Every Minute and Come Dine With Me from the main channel. However, some C4 staff are understood to see the shuffle step as at conflict with the More 4 relaunch and the strategy to drive viewers to 4oD, which has recently been offering viewers episode premieres in a bid to collect more data. |
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| ITV to get new look in 2012 |
| Friday, January 13 2012 |
ITV will refresh the ITV brand across the entire network, channel logos and on-screen idents are expected to be refreshed, possibly by September, with one source arguing that the company’s marketing had lagged behind some of its rivals in recent years.
Group marketing and research director Rufus Radcliffe, who joined from Channel 4 in April last year, is examining the broadcaster’s family of channels and is understood to have been given the green light to introduce changes later this year.
Another source said, that everything was under discussion in terms of taking the brand forward, but downplayed the possibility of wholesale changes, such as rethinking of the channel names. |
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The plans come just weeks after Radcliffe brought a £7m advertising account with agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty in-house. He now aims to turn ITV Creative into a formidable marketing unit, creating fast-turnaround campaigns across the broadcaster’s various media channels.
Radcliffe adopted a similar in-house strategy at Channel 4, where he oversaw the relaunch of E4 and More 4, as well as introducing Channel 4’s floating logo idents. He reports to director of television Peter Fincham, who took on responsibility for marketing in July 2011.
ITV’s most recent major brand overhaul was in January 2006, when it ditched its old blue and yellow livery and introduced new on- and off-air logos for its channels. |
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| Press TV's UK broadcasting licence revoked |
| Friday, January 20 2012 |
Ofcom has revoked the UK broadcasting licence of Press TV, forcing Iran's English-language channel off the air for multiple breaches of the broadcasting code.
The controversial broadcaster was at risk of being banned in the UK last year after being rapped by Ofcom for airing an interview with imprisoned Newsweek journalist Maziar Bahari that was conducted under duress.
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However, media regulator Ofcom, opted to impose a £100,000 fine on Press TV, which is the English-language outlet of the Iranian state. Ofcom said that during the course of imposing the sanction on Press TV, the broadcaster revealed that its editorial control actually rested with Press TV International, based in Tehran.
Broadcasting rules state that UK licence holders must be in "general control" of their TV service, including all programmes shown on the network.
Ofcom gave Press TV the opportunity to have its operations in Tehran "correctly licenced" as part of a "minded to revoke" letter. Press TV was offered the chance to either switch editorial control for its programming to the UK or transfer the entire broadcasting licence to Iran. However, Press TV has failed to make any necessary applications for the licence, and so Ofcom has opted to revoke it entirely.
The channel, which counts former MP George Galloway among its presenters, is expected to be removed from the Sky platform by the end of January 2012.
According to Ofcom, Press TV is also "unwilling and unable" to pay the £100,000 fine levelled against it. The watchdog said that it is pursuing this as "a separate matter". |
Press TV is still available on:
Astra at 19.2° east on 12.460 SR 27500 FEC 3/4 Horizontal
Hot Bird 8 13° east on 12437 SR 27500 FEC 3/4 Horizontal
The signal from both satellites, can easily be received in most of Europe including the UK, making a ban pointless.
Live stream: http://www.presstv.ir/live.html
A Press TV app is available for iPhone, iPad, Android and Nokia |
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| Saorsat to launch this February or March |
| Friday, January 27 2012 |
Saorsat, the free-to-air satellite companion to Ireland’s DTT service Saorview, is slated to launch this February or March.
Documents released by RTÉNL, the network’s division of the public broadcaster, said tests have been underway since December 2011. Saorsat will be carried on Eutelsat’s Ka-Sat at 9° East.
It is anticipated that suitable receivers will be available within the next few weeks.
Around 1% and 2% of the Irish population will be unable to receive the terrestrial transmissions from Saorview. It also seems likely the transmissions will also be made available in Northern Ireland, while a joint UK and Irish Government project is currently examining the possibility of allowing the existing RTÉ and TG4 television services to be carried on part of the UK’s Freeview platform. |
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| Channel 4’s Project Shuffle to offer new catch-up platform |
| Friday, January 27 2012 |
UK broadcaster Channel 4 is lining up a new channel to offer repeats of recently aired shows. According to the Guardian newspaper, the channel will enable viewers to catch-up with popular shows that have been aired within seven days. It is expected to launch in June.
Channel 4 is understood to have signed carriage deals with DTT platform Freeview and Sky for what is currently known as Project Shuffle, while talks with Virgin Media are ongoing. The cable operator is thought to have concerns that the channel could compete against its own catch-up services.
Channel 4 has also started pitching the channel to ad buyers, who are said to have backed the proposals. According to the Guardian, potential names for the channel have been tested, including Channel 4 Squared, Channel 4 Plus Two, Channel 4 Two, Channel 4 Too and Channel 4 Shuffle. |
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| BBC iPlayer, ITV Player to launch on Sky Anytime+ |
| Monday, January 30 2012 |
The BBC iPlayer and ITV Player TV catchup services are to be available to BSkyB subscribers for the first time via the Sky Anytime+ video-on-demand offering.
ITV archive content, including Prime Suspect, Lewis and Cold Feet, will be available via Sky Anytime+ from Tuesday, 31 January.
The full ITV Player seven-day catchup service allowing access to the latest episodes of shows such as Coronation Street and Emmerdale will follow later in the year.
The BBC iPlayer will also be added to Sky Anytime+ later this year, giving Sky Anytime+ users access to the latest instalments of EastEnders. BBC archive content is already available on the VOD service via Sky's existing deal with UKTV.
Sky is also extending the reach of Sky Anytime+ by making it available to all Sky+ HD homes with a broadband connection, across all internet service providers.
As a result more than 5 million Sky homes will soon be able to access the VoD service. Sky Anytime+ is currently available to 1.2 million Sky Broadband customers. |
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