News Round Up: Queen's New Year's Honours, BSkyB, Superfast Broadband for Liverpool
Included in this morning's media, marketing and news round up are the media figures being honoured by the Queen, Liverpool set to trial a new broadband system and BBC's online TV viewers are prosecuted to pay license fee.
Broadcast and media figures feature in New Year honours
Broadcast and media figures enjoyed a happy morning as the New Year honours list were announced, reports the Guardian. Former BBC Radio 4 controller Mark Damazer (CBE), ex-ITN correspondent Sandy Gall (CMG) and QI producer John Lloyd (CBE) were among those honoured. Other notable honours include the former head of the BBC's award-winning science unit John Lynch (OBE), Farah Ramzan Golant, executive chairman of advertising agency AMV BBDO (CBE) and Dick Penny, MD of the Bristol-based Watershed Media Centre (MBE).
BBC prosecutes web-TV licence evaders
People watching television over the internet without a valid TV licence have been prosecuted for the first time, reports Digital Spy. The BBC told the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport committee that it has already secured prosecutions for viewers accessing web-TV services. Current TV licensing rules stipulate that a licence is required to watch television content "as it is being broadcast", whether that is on the TV set, online or via mobile platforms. The BBC estimates only 0.3% of viewers consume TV only via the internet in a typical week.
Murdoch media to control over a fifth of UK news consumption
Statistics produced by Enders Analysis shows that News Corp and Sky will produce 22% of all the news that Britons consume daily – if the transaction goes through. In a blog piece on the Guardian website, Enders took the number of minutes a day the average adult (aged 15+) consumes news from various newspapers, radio, TV, magazines and online. The figures show that News Corp has a 14.6% share of news consumption; Sky another 7.4%, adding up to 22%. The top four positions are completed by The Daily Mail group (10.5%) and ITN (7.6%).
Liverpool to Trial 200Mbps Superfast Broadband
The Liverpool Daily Post is today reporting 1,000 homes will become the first to get super fast broadband down their electricity line, potentially creating hundreds of new jobs on Merseyside. Around 1,200 homes are currently involved in a £1m SmartGrid trial, which is aimed at reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions. The household meters will pave the way for power lines to be used to provide broadband with speeds of up to 200Mbps – about 10 times faster than currently available. Liverpool is already one of six leading cities in the world for smart grid technology.