I've been watching Challenge most of the day, watching a Takeshi's Castle marathon. I love the show, it's wonderfully silly. But in doing so, I've spotted a horrible example of what's wrong today with the media.
Broadcasters today seem to have forgotten that not only are they part of the Entertainment industry, but that it is also a Service industry. There seems to be very little in the way of service and the continuity announcements on Challenge today have been no exception. Most announcements over closing credits have been simply voiced promos for regular programmes, no mention of what's coming up next. The announcements into a programme have been nothing more than station promotion liners, no mention of what programme was actually about to air.
Quite frankly, if you're going to have some pre-recorded continuity, then at least make it about the shows you are showing now and next, rather than general promotion of other shows. For all the good that those announcements would actually do, they may as well not have had them airing in the first place. They were neither entertaining nor providing much of a service.
Saturday, 2 June 2012
Saturday, 19 May 2012
Olympic Torch Relay: Day 1: Truro
A selection of photos from the events that took place today in Truro surrounding the Olympic Torch Relay.
Thursday, 17 May 2012
My thoughts on the Q1 2012 RAJARs
There are a few notable things in this new report, which was released at Midnight.
The Cornish local radio stations, all down compared to last quarter. Very unusual. Usually one will be up even if the others are down. Best performer out of the three was BBC Radio Cornwall, which was only down 2,000 in reach and 0.2% in terms of share. The station maintained its average hours at 11.3 hrs per listener.
Atlantic FM though, is already showing signs that the move by Global to buy it out might have been a mistake. The announcement was made on 19th March, right towards the end of Q1. And if these figures are anything to go by, then Atlantic's listenership might well had already started to desert by the end of the quarter. The figures are down 5,000 on reach, average hours dropped to 5.4 and share dropped from 3.6 to 3.4%. And this was before any of the Heart branding got added into the mix.
But surprisingly, the worst performer of the three was Pirate FM. Down 8,000 in reach, down 0.3 hours in average hours, and down 0.8% in share. Pirate FM did replace their evening presenter at the beginning of the quarter with an extension of their automated programming. That maybe the reason why they're down.
In South East Cornwall, you might have expected Heart or Gold to be the beneficiaries of such a drop. Well if Heart Devon did benefit, though it is unlikely, they lost out elsewhere in Devon. Heart Devon saw their own audience drop 11,000 on reach, down 0.2 on average hours and down 0.1% on share. But Gold did gain, but it might not have been entirely due to the reduction in audience in the other stations. Gold Devon got carraige on DAB in North Devon and maybe that had as much to do with it, as anything else. Gold gained 13,000 listeners in reach, saw their average hours increase by 4 hours, and as a result, their share more than doubled, from 1.2% to 2.6%. I will need to pay a little more attention to Gold, to see if I can discern why their audience is growing that significantly.
You might have expected BBC Radio Devon to have picked up significantly from Heart Devon, but they did not. In fact, they lost 22,000 listeners on reach. However, average hours went up from 12.5 to 13.2 and as a result, share increased 0.2% on the previous quarter.
In other news, BBC Radios Guernsey, Jersey and Cornwall continue to be the best performing of the BBC local radio stations, although Cornwall (37%) has moved into second place on that list, putting Jersey (35%) into 3rd place. BBC Radio Norfolk is 4th on 30% reach, the only other station to achieve 30%+ in terms of reach in the BBC Local Radio stable. Worst perfomer there is BBC London, in the ultra competitive London market only achieving a 5% reach. Next was BBC Sussex and Surrey with 9% reach, and equal third, BBC WM and BBC Coventry and Warwickshire, both with 11% reach.
In national commercial radio, Absolute Radio is down 32,000 listeners, whilst Absolute 80s gained 29,000 and Absolute 90s gained 32,000 listeners, Classic FM gained 80,000 listeners, Talk Sport gained 36,000 listeners, Smooth Radio UK gained 2,000 listeners, Jazz FM gained 52,000 listeners and Planet Rock gained 50,000 listeners.
BBC Radio 2 gaining 293,000 listeners, and 5 Live saw an icrease of 137,000 listeners but other BBC nationals did not perform so well. Radio 1 saw a drop of 524,000 listeners, Radio 4 saw a drop of 527,000 listeners, Radio 3 lost 195,000 listeners. The BBC national digital stations were also a mixed bag. Whilst 5 Live Sports Extra saw a massive 336,000 listener increase, Asian Network increased by 68,000 and 6 Music gained 11,000 listeners, on the flip side, 1Xtra lost 99,000 listeners, World Service lost 85,000 and Radio 4 Extra lost 52,000 listeners.
Overall, it's difficult to determine any distinct pattern or trend, although national commercial radio seemed to be the greater beneficiary, with a few exceptions. Although Heart Devon lost listeners and Gold Devon gained, the reverse was true across the networks. Heart gained slightly across the UK, whilst Gold lost listeners. The Breeze South West continued to lose ground, losing another 5,000 listeners, and dropping below 1% in share, whilst sister station Jack FM gained 10,000 listeners in Bristol, but they average hours went down by 2 hours. Local commmercial radio doesn't seem to gaining much ground, if any. Without significant improvement to the local commercial radio product, listeners will continue to desert stations. The BBC needs to be wary that any cuts made to BBC local radio, especially the replacing of regional evening shows with an England-wide evening show, may send listeners away from the radio entirely in the evening, especially with local commercial radio moving away from live evening shows themselves. And once they disappear, it will be hard to get them back.
The Cornish local radio stations, all down compared to last quarter. Very unusual. Usually one will be up even if the others are down. Best performer out of the three was BBC Radio Cornwall, which was only down 2,000 in reach and 0.2% in terms of share. The station maintained its average hours at 11.3 hrs per listener.
Atlantic FM though, is already showing signs that the move by Global to buy it out might have been a mistake. The announcement was made on 19th March, right towards the end of Q1. And if these figures are anything to go by, then Atlantic's listenership might well had already started to desert by the end of the quarter. The figures are down 5,000 on reach, average hours dropped to 5.4 and share dropped from 3.6 to 3.4%. And this was before any of the Heart branding got added into the mix.
But surprisingly, the worst performer of the three was Pirate FM. Down 8,000 in reach, down 0.3 hours in average hours, and down 0.8% in share. Pirate FM did replace their evening presenter at the beginning of the quarter with an extension of their automated programming. That maybe the reason why they're down.
In South East Cornwall, you might have expected Heart or Gold to be the beneficiaries of such a drop. Well if Heart Devon did benefit, though it is unlikely, they lost out elsewhere in Devon. Heart Devon saw their own audience drop 11,000 on reach, down 0.2 on average hours and down 0.1% on share. But Gold did gain, but it might not have been entirely due to the reduction in audience in the other stations. Gold Devon got carraige on DAB in North Devon and maybe that had as much to do with it, as anything else. Gold gained 13,000 listeners in reach, saw their average hours increase by 4 hours, and as a result, their share more than doubled, from 1.2% to 2.6%. I will need to pay a little more attention to Gold, to see if I can discern why their audience is growing that significantly.
You might have expected BBC Radio Devon to have picked up significantly from Heart Devon, but they did not. In fact, they lost 22,000 listeners on reach. However, average hours went up from 12.5 to 13.2 and as a result, share increased 0.2% on the previous quarter.
In other news, BBC Radios Guernsey, Jersey and Cornwall continue to be the best performing of the BBC local radio stations, although Cornwall (37%) has moved into second place on that list, putting Jersey (35%) into 3rd place. BBC Radio Norfolk is 4th on 30% reach, the only other station to achieve 30%+ in terms of reach in the BBC Local Radio stable. Worst perfomer there is BBC London, in the ultra competitive London market only achieving a 5% reach. Next was BBC Sussex and Surrey with 9% reach, and equal third, BBC WM and BBC Coventry and Warwickshire, both with 11% reach.
In national commercial radio, Absolute Radio is down 32,000 listeners, whilst Absolute 80s gained 29,000 and Absolute 90s gained 32,000 listeners, Classic FM gained 80,000 listeners, Talk Sport gained 36,000 listeners, Smooth Radio UK gained 2,000 listeners, Jazz FM gained 52,000 listeners and Planet Rock gained 50,000 listeners.
BBC Radio 2 gaining 293,000 listeners, and 5 Live saw an icrease of 137,000 listeners but other BBC nationals did not perform so well. Radio 1 saw a drop of 524,000 listeners, Radio 4 saw a drop of 527,000 listeners, Radio 3 lost 195,000 listeners. The BBC national digital stations were also a mixed bag. Whilst 5 Live Sports Extra saw a massive 336,000 listener increase, Asian Network increased by 68,000 and 6 Music gained 11,000 listeners, on the flip side, 1Xtra lost 99,000 listeners, World Service lost 85,000 and Radio 4 Extra lost 52,000 listeners.
Overall, it's difficult to determine any distinct pattern or trend, although national commercial radio seemed to be the greater beneficiary, with a few exceptions. Although Heart Devon lost listeners and Gold Devon gained, the reverse was true across the networks. Heart gained slightly across the UK, whilst Gold lost listeners. The Breeze South West continued to lose ground, losing another 5,000 listeners, and dropping below 1% in share, whilst sister station Jack FM gained 10,000 listeners in Bristol, but they average hours went down by 2 hours. Local commmercial radio doesn't seem to gaining much ground, if any. Without significant improvement to the local commercial radio product, listeners will continue to desert stations. The BBC needs to be wary that any cuts made to BBC local radio, especially the replacing of regional evening shows with an England-wide evening show, may send listeners away from the radio entirely in the evening, especially with local commercial radio moving away from live evening shows themselves. And once they disappear, it will be hard to get them back.
Wednesday, 16 May 2012
Rajar's released at Midnight.
All the radio stations that subscribe to RAJAR will have recieved their Q1 2012 figures today, and the public figures get released at Midnight tonight.
For me here at Viewpoint, this means that I will be paying especially close attention to the figures for Atlantic FM. And no, I do not mean Heart Cornwall, as that did not start until May 7th, so well into Q2. These figures will be the last set of figures for Atlantic FM, as it was. The figures in Q2 will be transitional between Atlantic FM and Heart Cornwall, so we won't get an idea how Heart Cornwall is really doing until Q3. Even then, because RAJAR use a year's worth of listening figures to determine the final numbers for Atlantic FM / Heart Cornwall, it won't be until the Q2 2013 figures are released before we get a clear set of Heart Cornwall figures as opposed to a combination of Atlantic FM and Heart Cornwall.
There are three sets of figures that you should pay close attention to.
Average Hours Per Listener: This is quite simple. The average number of hours that a listener listens to the station per week. The lower the number, the less time is spent listening to the station. For example, 7 hours per listener would indicate an average of an hour per day. Less than this is considered bad performance. Above 10 hours a week would be considered good performance.
Listening Share in TSA: This requires a little bit of explanation. TSA means Total Survey Area, the area which is used to measure the audience. The population figure on the results give you the size of the population in that TSA aged 15 or older. The total number of hours that the station accrues, is divided by the total number of hours spent by listeners listening to the radio as a whole, and that gives you your share of listening. The higher the number, the better the performance. Below 5% share in considered bad performance, whilst above 10% is regarded as good performance. Very few stations achieve over a 20% share.
Weekly Reach: This is quite simple. It's how many people listen to a station for at least 5 minutes a week. This is measured against the 15+ population (people aged 15 or older) and a percentage is taken. Generally the higher the percentage, the better the performance, but there are many more factors in here when it comes to judging this. In London, there are a large number of local radio stations broadcasting on AM, FM and DAB, as well as the national ones. Whilst in somewhere like Cornwall, there is only the BBC local radio station and 2 ILRs to go with the nationals. Guernsey and Jersey have only the local BBC station and one commercial station against the nationals. And now with DAB, there are over 20 national radio stations, not the 8 we've been used to on AM and FM. It does mean that making sense of the reach figures in a bit trickier. However, for a local station, a reach below 10% is not good. And even up to 15% probably indicates some improvement needed.
Basically to improve your overall performance, you need to reach as many people as possible, and once they're listening, get them to listen for longer. It's not easy, but there are ways to be more successful at it. I'll get into those methods in a future post.
I'll be ready at Midnight tonight to get the data release and analyse it myself to see what can be determined.
For me here at Viewpoint, this means that I will be paying especially close attention to the figures for Atlantic FM. And no, I do not mean Heart Cornwall, as that did not start until May 7th, so well into Q2. These figures will be the last set of figures for Atlantic FM, as it was. The figures in Q2 will be transitional between Atlantic FM and Heart Cornwall, so we won't get an idea how Heart Cornwall is really doing until Q3. Even then, because RAJAR use a year's worth of listening figures to determine the final numbers for Atlantic FM / Heart Cornwall, it won't be until the Q2 2013 figures are released before we get a clear set of Heart Cornwall figures as opposed to a combination of Atlantic FM and Heart Cornwall.
There are three sets of figures that you should pay close attention to.
Average Hours Per Listener: This is quite simple. The average number of hours that a listener listens to the station per week. The lower the number, the less time is spent listening to the station. For example, 7 hours per listener would indicate an average of an hour per day. Less than this is considered bad performance. Above 10 hours a week would be considered good performance.
Listening Share in TSA: This requires a little bit of explanation. TSA means Total Survey Area, the area which is used to measure the audience. The population figure on the results give you the size of the population in that TSA aged 15 or older. The total number of hours that the station accrues, is divided by the total number of hours spent by listeners listening to the radio as a whole, and that gives you your share of listening. The higher the number, the better the performance. Below 5% share in considered bad performance, whilst above 10% is regarded as good performance. Very few stations achieve over a 20% share.
Weekly Reach: This is quite simple. It's how many people listen to a station for at least 5 minutes a week. This is measured against the 15+ population (people aged 15 or older) and a percentage is taken. Generally the higher the percentage, the better the performance, but there are many more factors in here when it comes to judging this. In London, there are a large number of local radio stations broadcasting on AM, FM and DAB, as well as the national ones. Whilst in somewhere like Cornwall, there is only the BBC local radio station and 2 ILRs to go with the nationals. Guernsey and Jersey have only the local BBC station and one commercial station against the nationals. And now with DAB, there are over 20 national radio stations, not the 8 we've been used to on AM and FM. It does mean that making sense of the reach figures in a bit trickier. However, for a local station, a reach below 10% is not good. And even up to 15% probably indicates some improvement needed.
Basically to improve your overall performance, you need to reach as many people as possible, and once they're listening, get them to listen for longer. It's not easy, but there are ways to be more successful at it. I'll get into those methods in a future post.
I'll be ready at Midnight tonight to get the data release and analyse it myself to see what can be determined.
Sunday, 6 May 2012
Goodbye Atlantic FM...
So the last live presenter on Atlantic FM signed off today at noon. The station formerly known as Atlantic FM, but currently known as "Heart is coming", has been playing back to back music since.
Heart Cornwall officially launches at 8am with Victoria Leigh, ex of Atlantic FM's Full Cornish Breakfast, doing the first and only live breakfast show exclusively for Cornwall on Heart. As it currently stands, there will not be another one in the foreseeable future. Heart Devon have the excrusiating Emma Scott. Heart Cornwall will usually just have to put up with her on Saturday Mornings as she will host Saturday Breakfast from 8am to Noon. Dave Luck hosts Sunday Breakfast between the same times.
Normally, Victoria Leigh will do the drivetime show exclusively for Cornwall from 4pm to 7pm Weekdays, whilst Heart Devon will have Emma Scott.
We won't get our new regular breakfast show until Tuesday morning with Matt and Caroline. And you can bet that in the 26 hours from Monday 8am to Tuesday 10am, most of the links will be promoting the new Heart Cornwall, even on network programmes. They have the ability to voicetrack separate links for individual transmitters if they need to, and they'll be taking full advantage of that during that 26 hour period and probably at least once per hour for the rest of the week, except of course during Victoria Leigh's shows.
So, farewell Atlantic FM. 0730 06/07/2006 - 1200 06/05/2012
And farewell as well to Heart Plymouth on the NOW Cornwall DAB multiplex. That has been replaced already by Heart Cornwall, same output as FM. Well at least, we're getting the right version of Heart right now, which is still more than can be said for listeners to DAB in North Devon. I understand they are still getting the Exeter ads on their version of Heart on local DAB.
But although Heart Cornwall may be coming in the morning, I will probably be saying goodbye to it soon afterwards, as I will almost inevitably return to the better products that exist on the radio. Pirate FM, BBC Radio Cornwall, Smooth Radio, BBC Radio 5 Live, 5 Live Sports Extra, BBC World Service, WNYC, WETA, WGBH and the many other superior choices that are available online.
But I do have something to look forward to. CHBN Radio, formerly known as Truro Hospital Radio, will be launching soon on FM, and I will be awaiting their launch with a lot of interest.
Heart Cornwall officially launches at 8am with Victoria Leigh, ex of Atlantic FM's Full Cornish Breakfast, doing the first and only live breakfast show exclusively for Cornwall on Heart. As it currently stands, there will not be another one in the foreseeable future. Heart Devon have the excrusiating Emma Scott. Heart Cornwall will usually just have to put up with her on Saturday Mornings as she will host Saturday Breakfast from 8am to Noon. Dave Luck hosts Sunday Breakfast between the same times.
Normally, Victoria Leigh will do the drivetime show exclusively for Cornwall from 4pm to 7pm Weekdays, whilst Heart Devon will have Emma Scott.
We won't get our new regular breakfast show until Tuesday morning with Matt and Caroline. And you can bet that in the 26 hours from Monday 8am to Tuesday 10am, most of the links will be promoting the new Heart Cornwall, even on network programmes. They have the ability to voicetrack separate links for individual transmitters if they need to, and they'll be taking full advantage of that during that 26 hour period and probably at least once per hour for the rest of the week, except of course during Victoria Leigh's shows.
So, farewell Atlantic FM. 0730 06/07/2006 - 1200 06/05/2012
And farewell as well to Heart Plymouth on the NOW Cornwall DAB multiplex. That has been replaced already by Heart Cornwall, same output as FM. Well at least, we're getting the right version of Heart right now, which is still more than can be said for listeners to DAB in North Devon. I understand they are still getting the Exeter ads on their version of Heart on local DAB.
But although Heart Cornwall may be coming in the morning, I will probably be saying goodbye to it soon afterwards, as I will almost inevitably return to the better products that exist on the radio. Pirate FM, BBC Radio Cornwall, Smooth Radio, BBC Radio 5 Live, 5 Live Sports Extra, BBC World Service, WNYC, WETA, WGBH and the many other superior choices that are available online.
But I do have something to look forward to. CHBN Radio, formerly known as Truro Hospital Radio, will be launching soon on FM, and I will be awaiting their launch with a lot of interest.
Tuesday, 24 April 2012
Leveson Inquiry, Murdoch and Jeremy Hunt
We have had an explosive day at the Leveson Inquiry, and quite frankly, this one damages not just James Murdoch, who continues to sound like an executive trying to get round claims of dodgy dealings by claiming incompetence, in which case he shouldn't have been in the role in the first place; it not only damages the Con-Dem government, by showing that Jeremy Hunt and his office and advisers had had contacts with BSkyB, News International and James Murdoch, and thus also damages the credibility and position of Jeremy Hunt to the point where he has no option but to resign; but also damages the whole newspaper industry and the Conservative Party.
Not surprisingly, Conservative Central Office have sent out the party loyalists to both BBC and Sky to defend Jeremy Hunt, but quite frankly, what we are talking about is indefensible. Before he went into DCMS, he was pro-BSkyB, aggressively so, and his actions during the NewsCorp bid to gain full control of BSkyB do absolutely nothing to change the perception that he was a Murdoch puppet, and as such, he was the wrong person to rule on the takeover.
JEREMY HUNT MUST RESIGN!
Not surprisingly, Conservative Central Office have sent out the party loyalists to both BBC and Sky to defend Jeremy Hunt, but quite frankly, what we are talking about is indefensible. Before he went into DCMS, he was pro-BSkyB, aggressively so, and his actions during the NewsCorp bid to gain full control of BSkyB do absolutely nothing to change the perception that he was a Murdoch puppet, and as such, he was the wrong person to rule on the takeover.
JEREMY HUNT MUST RESIGN!
Thursday, 19 April 2012
Guernsey Elections 2012
Well, last night in Guernsey saw one of the more interesting and unpredictable elections we've had in a long time. No political parties, 78 candidates vieing for 45 seats in 7 parishes in the States of Deliberation, Guernsey's political assembly.
Of the 45 previous deputies who had been in the States, 10 decided not to run again, so we were guaranteed 10 new deputies. We got 22. Almost half the seats went to new deputies. And there were some high profile casualties including the Deputy Chief Minister and the Father of the House.
The fact that 6 of the 7 top polling candidates in this election were new deputies, also adds to the perception that the people of Guernsey, voted for change.
In fact, since the 2004 States, only 13 of those deputies remain. Such radical voting patterns have not been seen before. It's leaving even seasoned political observers somewhat surprised and baffled.
Even the current Chief Minister, Lynden Trott, came close to losing his seat in the parish of St Sampson, as he came 6th out of the 11 candidates in the 6 seat parish, beating Jane Stephens by just 73 votes.
Can he claim a mandate to remain as Chief Minister? You might think so when you consider the fact the Deputy Chief Minister did not retain his seat. But coming in as the final elected deputy in St Sampson in 6th place? Hardly a ringing endorsement from the voters.
May 1st is when we will find out who will become Chief Minister in the new States of Deliberation. And there are two recounts happening Friday.
In the parish of Vale, the margin between success and failure was 42 votes, and the losing candidate there, James Symons, has asked for and been granted a recount. But in St Peter Port North, the margin there between success and failure was just 3 votes. Rhoderick Matthews could be the beneficiary there challenging Lester Queripel, although I imagine that Elis Bebb, who is just 7 votes ahead of Queripel, will also be watching with interest.
Hopefully we'll find out the results of the recount Friday afternoon.
Of the 45 previous deputies who had been in the States, 10 decided not to run again, so we were guaranteed 10 new deputies. We got 22. Almost half the seats went to new deputies. And there were some high profile casualties including the Deputy Chief Minister and the Father of the House.
The fact that 6 of the 7 top polling candidates in this election were new deputies, also adds to the perception that the people of Guernsey, voted for change.
In fact, since the 2004 States, only 13 of those deputies remain. Such radical voting patterns have not been seen before. It's leaving even seasoned political observers somewhat surprised and baffled.
Even the current Chief Minister, Lynden Trott, came close to losing his seat in the parish of St Sampson, as he came 6th out of the 11 candidates in the 6 seat parish, beating Jane Stephens by just 73 votes.
Can he claim a mandate to remain as Chief Minister? You might think so when you consider the fact the Deputy Chief Minister did not retain his seat. But coming in as the final elected deputy in St Sampson in 6th place? Hardly a ringing endorsement from the voters.
May 1st is when we will find out who will become Chief Minister in the new States of Deliberation. And there are two recounts happening Friday.
In the parish of Vale, the margin between success and failure was 42 votes, and the losing candidate there, James Symons, has asked for and been granted a recount. But in St Peter Port North, the margin there between success and failure was just 3 votes. Rhoderick Matthews could be the beneficiary there challenging Lester Queripel, although I imagine that Elis Bebb, who is just 7 votes ahead of Queripel, will also be watching with interest.
Hopefully we'll find out the results of the recount Friday afternoon.
Wednesday, 11 April 2012
Friday, 6 April 2012
My "Countdown" of today's top stories.
In homage to Keith Olbermann, who has filed a lawsuit against Current TV for wrongful termination, I present to you my "Countdown" of the top stories. So I suppose I ought to begin with the immortal words...
...Which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow?
5: George Zimmerman's lawyers and a forensic audio expert, both claim that Zimmerman used the word "punks" on that now infamous cellphone call. CNN aired the "cleaned-up" audio, which if I'm honest, as an audio man myself, didn't sound that different to the original, but on listening back to it myself, I can't hear the word punk. What I do distinctly detect is an "ooo" sound, that might come from a particular racial slur, and that "ooo" sound definitely is not present when you pronounce the word "punk". Listen to it yourself, and see if you agree.
4: Sky News has become the latest part of the NewsCorp clan to have been caught up in hacking. Now we know why James Murdoch resigned this week. Sky News today confirmed that two email accounts, one belonging to a suspected paedophile,and one belonging to 'canoe man' John Darwin were hacked. Both resulted in information that was passed onto the police. Sky News claimed the hacking was done in the public interest, but hacking emails is a crime under the Computer Misuse Act, and that act does NOT have a public interest defence attached to it.
With Ofcom investigating British Sky Broadcasting, there is a number of possibilities now rearing their heads, and I'll talk about them in a future post.
3: Rick Santorum obviously doesn't know when to quit, or indeed how to lose with good grace. The Republican Party establishment has been telling him to leave the race, but Santorum, much like Newt Gingrich, has stuck two fingers up to the establishment. And he met with supporters to discuss the way forward.
Mathematically, it's getting beyond the realms of possibility, especially given that the only remaining state with a winner takes all race, California, looks like a certainty for Mitt Romney. But it does appear right now that Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich are both in line for a fairly major Republican Party smackdown, before we get to Tampa, maybe even before we get to the end of the primary process.
2: Is it ethical for a journalist to express their own political viewpoints through signing a petition? Apparently, some TV stations in Milwaukee don't think it is. WTMJ, WISN and WITI have confirmed that journalists on their payrolls have signed the recall petition against controversial Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. WTMJ went as far as to say that they took this matter seriously and would be dealing with it internally. Apparently, one of the people who signed the petition was an on-air anchor at WTMJ.
One thing is for certain, Scott Walker has done incredible damage to Wisconsin. Any attempt by these stations to censure their staff for signing the petition would be a direct contravention of the First Amendment. And no news station, no matter how good their checks and balances are, could ever claim to be totally unbiased.
1: Current maybe now being sued by Keith Olbermann, but they may soon have bigger problems. A report from Reuters indicates that Current needs to hit ratings benchmarks every quarter. Should they miss those benchmarks two quarters in a row, they could be dropped by Time Warner Cable. So far they have not missed those benchmarks, thanks to Keith Olbermann, but with his sudden departure last week, Current's ability to hit those benchmarks consitently maybe in doubt.
...Which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow?
5: George Zimmerman's lawyers and a forensic audio expert, both claim that Zimmerman used the word "punks" on that now infamous cellphone call. CNN aired the "cleaned-up" audio, which if I'm honest, as an audio man myself, didn't sound that different to the original, but on listening back to it myself, I can't hear the word punk. What I do distinctly detect is an "ooo" sound, that might come from a particular racial slur, and that "ooo" sound definitely is not present when you pronounce the word "punk". Listen to it yourself, and see if you agree.
4: Sky News has become the latest part of the NewsCorp clan to have been caught up in hacking. Now we know why James Murdoch resigned this week. Sky News today confirmed that two email accounts, one belonging to a suspected paedophile,and one belonging to 'canoe man' John Darwin were hacked. Both resulted in information that was passed onto the police. Sky News claimed the hacking was done in the public interest, but hacking emails is a crime under the Computer Misuse Act, and that act does NOT have a public interest defence attached to it.
With Ofcom investigating British Sky Broadcasting, there is a number of possibilities now rearing their heads, and I'll talk about them in a future post.
3: Rick Santorum obviously doesn't know when to quit, or indeed how to lose with good grace. The Republican Party establishment has been telling him to leave the race, but Santorum, much like Newt Gingrich, has stuck two fingers up to the establishment. And he met with supporters to discuss the way forward.
Mathematically, it's getting beyond the realms of possibility, especially given that the only remaining state with a winner takes all race, California, looks like a certainty for Mitt Romney. But it does appear right now that Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich are both in line for a fairly major Republican Party smackdown, before we get to Tampa, maybe even before we get to the end of the primary process.
2: Is it ethical for a journalist to express their own political viewpoints through signing a petition? Apparently, some TV stations in Milwaukee don't think it is. WTMJ, WISN and WITI have confirmed that journalists on their payrolls have signed the recall petition against controversial Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. WTMJ went as far as to say that they took this matter seriously and would be dealing with it internally. Apparently, one of the people who signed the petition was an on-air anchor at WTMJ.
One thing is for certain, Scott Walker has done incredible damage to Wisconsin. Any attempt by these stations to censure their staff for signing the petition would be a direct contravention of the First Amendment. And no news station, no matter how good their checks and balances are, could ever claim to be totally unbiased.
1: Current maybe now being sued by Keith Olbermann, but they may soon have bigger problems. A report from Reuters indicates that Current needs to hit ratings benchmarks every quarter. Should they miss those benchmarks two quarters in a row, they could be dropped by Time Warner Cable. So far they have not missed those benchmarks, thanks to Keith Olbermann, but with his sudden departure last week, Current's ability to hit those benchmarks consitently maybe in doubt.
Tuesday, 3 April 2012
James Murdoch resigns as Chairman of BSkyB
When this broke in the 1pm BST hour today, I was stunned. I was not expecting this to have happened today. In fact, I wasn't expecting it at all. James wil stay on as a member of the board, but he's no longer Chairman.
Ofcom is investigating whether NewsCorp is a fit and proper company to hold a broadcasting licence. There are many investigations in the UK, the USA and Australia right now. But I cannot honestly see how NewsCorp can continue to own assets like British Sky Broadcasting, Foxtel and Fox Broadcasting Company.
I also think the FCC should take this as an opportunity to finally regulate the cable broadcasting market in the US.
Of course, James's resignation is another line of firewall, designed to protect Rupert Murdoch and NewsCorp's investments across the world. Just last week, Panorama on BBC1 reported how NewsCorp subsidiary company NDS had been invloved in breaking the Canal Plus encryption system that On/ITV Digital was using. Then the Australian Financial Review released emails detailing NDS's involvement in breaking other encryption systems of competitors. Currently, Cisco Systems is seeking to acquire NDS Group.
No matter how many levels of firewalls Rupert Murdoch puts in, everything goes back to him, one way or another. Murdoch is well known for handling things himself and being very hands on. Because of that reputation, he will not be able to wash his hands of all the controversies that now dog him.
Ofcom is investigating whether NewsCorp is a fit and proper company to hold a broadcasting licence. There are many investigations in the UK, the USA and Australia right now. But I cannot honestly see how NewsCorp can continue to own assets like British Sky Broadcasting, Foxtel and Fox Broadcasting Company.
I also think the FCC should take this as an opportunity to finally regulate the cable broadcasting market in the US.
Of course, James's resignation is another line of firewall, designed to protect Rupert Murdoch and NewsCorp's investments across the world. Just last week, Panorama on BBC1 reported how NewsCorp subsidiary company NDS had been invloved in breaking the Canal Plus encryption system that On/ITV Digital was using. Then the Australian Financial Review released emails detailing NDS's involvement in breaking other encryption systems of competitors. Currently, Cisco Systems is seeking to acquire NDS Group.
No matter how many levels of firewalls Rupert Murdoch puts in, everything goes back to him, one way or another. Murdoch is well known for handling things himself and being very hands on. Because of that reputation, he will not be able to wash his hands of all the controversies that now dog him.
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