Five Bails From Canvas As Bertelsmann Looks For Sale
By Mark Sweney: Five has pulled out of Project Canvas, the BBC-backed venture to bring video-on-demand to Freeview and Freesat.
Five, which… Read more »
Industry Moves: Codemasters, BBCWW, Blue Barracuda
– Codemasters: The games firm’s UK and Australia general manager Jeremy Wigmore has been upped to EMEA publishing VP, to grow its publishin… Read more »
BBC Websites Cost Users £0.67 Per Month
The BBC spent £199.3 million on its BBC Online service in 2009/10, according to its annual report – 12 percent more than the previous year.… Read more »
BBCWW Lost £20.8 Million On Digital Last Year
BBC Worldwide’s online revenue grew nine percent to £30 million in 2009/10 – but the company still ended up losing £20.8 million on its di… Read more »
BBC’s Interactive TV Exec Chakkara Heads To TalkTalk
After Anthony Rose, another BBC iPlayer exec may be Canvas-bound for his next challenge.
BBC future media TV platforms controller Rahul Cha… Read more »
Canvas Beaten To Market And Disclosure By Europe-Wide Web TV Standard
photo: Corbis / Simon Marcus
Project Canvas isn’t the only European effort to try harmonising upcoming connected-TV standards. As we reported last year, HbbTV, a venture… Read more »
BBC iPlayer Costs At Least £5.2 Million A Year
The BBC has just published costs for its iPlayer catch-up TV and radio service, which has helped popularise time-shifted consumption in the… Read more »
Dan Heaf Returns To BBCWW From 4iP As Digital Director
photo: Matt Biddulph
By Josh Halliday: BBC Worldwide has appointed Daniel Heaf, the digital commissioner of 4iP, to the newly-created role of digital director.… Read more »
Canvas VOD JV Approved: BBC Must Publish Specs In 20 Days
The BBC has received final approval to join a joint venture with three other broadcasters that will add a range of VOD, IPTV and internet se… Read more »
Stats: Five Percent Of English Soccer Viewers Watched Match Online
Let’s hope broadcasters have got their CDNs in order – this summer’s World Cup is proving a genuine watershed for live online TV streaming.… Read more »
Two In Running To Head Project Canvas
By Mark Sweney: Announcement likely to come as BBC Trust approves venture, with chairman tipped to come from outside broadcasting industry… Read more »
BBC Worldwide Moves In To Pay-To-Play Gaming With Weakest Link
By Mark Sweney: BBC Worldwide is to make its first foray into pay-to-play gaming linked to TV programming with an online version of The Weak… Read more »
Industry Moves: Telegraph Mobile, BBC.com Promotions; ESPN Down Under
– Telegraph: Seasoned newspaper exec Mark Challinor is being named Telegraph Media Group’s first mobile director, reporting to Steve McLaug… Read more »
Freeview Allowed To Use DRM To Curtail Online Piracy
photo: Lee Jordan
Ofcom is allowing the BBC to operate its Freeview HD multiplex in such a way that only TV receivers and set-top boxes with built-in digital… Read more »
Virgin Media CEO: Project Canvas Is Too Closed
By Neil Berkett: The BBC Trust will shortly announce whether, and on what terms, the BBC can join ITV (LSE: ITV), Channel 4, Five, TalkTalk,… Read more »
BBC Declines To Publish Canvas Spec, Until Autumn
The BBC has refused to put technical specs for its Canvas connected TV in the public domain, until the TV industry has perused the documents… Read more »
BBC News Will Warn When Links Go To Paid Sites
The BBC’s news site is frequently lambasted by commercial rivals for not linking out enough and for existing as a roadblock to commercial pa… Read more »
BBC Worldwide America Taps Herb Scannell As President
Herb Scannell, the former MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA) executive who went on to start online video producer Next New Networks, has been named pr… Read more »
iPlayer Makes TV More Social, Without Re-Inventing The Social Network Wheel
Outgoing BBC iPlayer boss Anthony Rose’s “parting gift” to the VOD service, as Erik Huggers put it – a series of upgrades that make iPlayer… Read more »
BBC iPlayer Will Link To Commercial VOD Services
Having seen its benevolent intention to share the technology of its iPlayer VOD service with commercial broadcasters blocked by its regulato… Read more »
Audio Interview: BBC’s Huggers And Rose On iPlayer, Canvas And More
At the launch of upgrades to iPlayer, I caught up with BBC future media and technology director Erik Huggers and his vision and online contr… Read more »
BBC Looks To Ban Third-Party iPlayer Builds
The BBC, seeking to maintain its brand, says it does not want to make its programmes available to third parties for VOD distribution on an u… Read more »
Indie Producers To BBC: Please Don’t Cut Your Online Budget
photo: AP Images
A group of independent multimedia producers is lobbying the Beeb to abandon its planned 25 percent cut of its online budget.
In a submissio… Read more »
‘The General News Business Is Dead – RIP’
Some debates circling the industry currently got down to brass tacks at a Westminster Media Forum conference on The Future Of News on Thursd… Read more »
BBC Tries ‘Dollar-A-Week’ Radio Mobile App In U.S.
The public-service BBC’s app plans may be on hold in its native UK until its regulating body checks for anti-competitive effects – but, outs… Read more »
Project Canvas Clears OFT Scrutiny In Strange Ruling
The Office of Fair Trading has taken two months to rule that… it is not supposed to investigate the BBC’s proposed Project Canvas connecte… Read more »
BBC.co.uk Budget Rises Slightly On Property Cost Increases
BBC.co.uk’s baseline budget has risen by half a million pounds, from £133.8 million per year to £134.3 million per year, reflecting a hous… Read more »
Broadband Content Bits: BBC Comedy, Pirate Bay, HBO On 3, VOD Measurement
– BBC Comedy: The Beeb is unveiling new web comedy series from Mitchell & Webb, Lenny Henry and James Corden as part of a relaunch for its… Read more »
Nevermind 3D, Could This Be The Connected-TV World Cup?
Verdicts may not be expected until next week on the BBC-proposed Canvas connected-TV standard – but home electronics makers are already brin… Read more »
BBC Goes Horizontal, Remaining Redesigns Coming Soon
It was back in March that Erik Huggers first previewed upcoming redesigns for the BBC News and BBC Sport websites, including their first eve… Read more »
Project Canvas Verdict Looms: Funny Kind Of Openness
The proposed BBC/ITV/C4/Five/BT/Talk Talk/Arqiva connected TV joint venture has stressed its openness since it was first mooted by the BBC.… Read more »
Industry Moves: Haymarket MD, Associated Newspapers, BBC Newsroom
– Haymarket: In the mag publisher’s ongoing exec rejig, the consumer media unit’s sales director David Prasher (pictured) becomes its MD, f… Read more »
Coming Soon: iPlayer’s Social Upgrade
It’s a shame Erik Huggers even had to respond to the crazy notion that the BBC would somehow look to create a social network out of iPlayer… Read more »
BBC 6 Music’s Online Audience Soars After Closure Threat
By John Plunkett: The BBC’s threatened digital radio station 6 Music has enjoyed a big audience increase with a 50 percent rise in online li… Read more »
Updated: BBC, C4, Five Going After TV Streamers; Zattoo Removes Streams
The legality of services like Zattoo and TVCatchUp, which re-stream public-service TV channels via what they say is a provision in copyright… Read more »
Broadband Content Bits: BBC Introducing, Jobsite, Demand Five, Last.fm
– BBC Introducing: The Beeb says 20,000 unsigned music artists have used its Uploader, a tool designed to share new music with BBC Radio st… Read more »
Broadband Content Bits: iPlayer Dip, ITN Fashion, C4 News, Corbis Ads
– iPlayer dip: The BBC’s VOD service posted rare slow growth in March. Total monthly requests grew by only 1.2 million to 117.6 million, wh… Read more »
The Huggers Files: The Case Of The Missing Moet
The BBC’s Future Media & Technology (FM&T) director must be getting creeped out by folk tracking his every taxi ride like this – but, as lic… Read more »
Lonely Planet Turns Eyjafjallajökull In To An iTunes Opportunity
Cynical exploitation of Mother Nature, or a canny free offer to tempt customers… ?
BBC Worldwide-owned Lonely Planet says it is dropping… Read more »
Broadband Content Bits: Doctor Who Games, EastEnders E20, FanDuel In Philly
– Doctor Who games: The BBC commissioned Sumo Digital to make four free downloadable games to accompany Doctor Who as “interactive episodes… Read more »
