The BBC licence fee is expected to rise by 3% over each of the next two years, seeing the current price rise from £131.50 currently to a maximum of £151 by 2012.Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell is also expected to announce today that a borrowing limit of between £220 million and £230 million will be set,… Continue reading BBC Licence Fee To Rise 3%

The Food Standards Agency last night launched a series of TV advertisements raising awareness of traffic light colour-coded front of pack food labelsThe ad aired for the first time last night at 7.45pm on ITV during Coronation Street. Other marketing activity to accompany the TV work will feature in the press, on poster sites and… Continue reading Food Standards Agency Launches Ad Campaign

Regulator Ofcom is to revamp its regulation of short-term radio licences, which could see a host of new stations able to cover events such as conferences.Following a consultation which showed backing for proposals to liberalise restrictions on 28-day restricted service licences (RSLs), Ofcom has decided to extend the number of short-term RSLs.Long-term RSLs will also… Continue reading Ofcom Reviews Regulation Of Short-Term Radio Licences

The Carphone Warehouse has pulled out of its sponsorship of the latest series of Celebrity Big Brother, apparently unhappy with the furore surrounding alleged racism and bullying.The Carphone Warehouse began its sponsorship of Big Brother two years ago with its TalkTalk brand before moving the sponsorship to its main brand last year.Complaints about the show… Continue reading Carphone Warehouse Suspends Celeb Big Bro Sponsorship

The founders of VoIP service Skype, entrepreneurs Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, have named their new social-networking meets TV-programming internet venture Joost.Previously code-named the Venice Project, Joost is currently undergoing testing. It is described by its creators as putting together the “best of TV and the best of the internet” by creating a piracy-proof online… Continue reading Skype Founders Launch New Internet Project

Virgin Mobile is thought to have sold less than 10,000 handsets for its recently launched mobile-TV service, despite a £2.5 million advertising campaign.Virgin Mobile has also recently cut the price of the Lobster phone, the only handset which is able to receive the service, from £199.99 to £99 for pre-pay customers..A report in today’s Guardian… Continue reading Poor Sales For Virgin Mobile TV Handsets

An estimated 20,000 complaints have been made to Channel 4 and Ofcom about racist abuse on Celebrity Big Brother.Reports in the trade press claim that the majority of the complaints received by both Ofcom and Channel 4 are in relation to comments made towards Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty by contestants Jack Tweed, Jackiey Goody and… Continue reading Big Brother Racism Complaints Reach An Estimated 20,000

By 2010 more than half (55%) of all the video content consumed online in the US will be user generated, representing 44 billion video streams, according to a new forecast from Screen Digest. Screen Digest says that the user generated online video market (UGOV) exploded in 2006 and by the end of the year, user… Continue reading US User Generated Content To Grow

Fru Hazlitt has been appointed to the new position of managing director, GCap London and will also join the board of GCap Media. Hazlitt, 43, will take responsibility for Capital Radio and Choice FM, in addition to GCap Media’s national commercial sales and online operations and will report directly to Ralph Bernard, GCap CEO. Hazlitt… Continue reading Hazlitt Appointed GCap London Managing Director

ITV is no longer interested in buying cinema advertising business Pearl & Dean, which SMG had hoped to sell for up to £20 million. According to reports in the trade press, ITV has pulled out of a possible deal as it was worried that a purchase would be blocked by competition authorities. ITV currently owns… Continue reading ITV No Longer Interested In Pearl & Dean