Newspapers warn over threat to democracy of Google and Facebook taking advertising revenues September 22, 2016 National newspaper publishers have warned the government that news aggregators like Google and Facebook are threatening the UK’s democracy by taking their advertising revenue. The News Media Association (NMA) said in a letter to ministers that it is becoming “increasingly difficult” to fund quality journalism, with advertising revenues at news organisations plummeting. Read more: Guardian [...]
“Farewell to soggy bottoms”: Mary Berry won’t be moving to Channel 4 with Great British Bake Off – but Paul Hollywood will September 22, 2016 Great British Bake Off star Mary Berry has stepped down from the programme – but fellow judge Paul Hollywood has announced he will stay on after the show was bought by Channel 4. Berry said today she will stay with the BBC out of "loyalty", adding that it had been a "privilege and an honour" to spend [...]
Pinewood Studios wants to make it in China September 20, 2016 Forget making it in Hollywood – one of the biggest names in UK film is off to break…. China. Pinewood, the studio best known as the home of James Bond and Star Wars, said today it has opened an office in Beijing. The venture will be led by the company's international project executive, Amanda Halliday. Read [...]
ITV and Sky buy stakes in 24-hour video gaming TV channel September 20, 2016 ITV and Sky have bought stakes in the owner of a channel that screens video gaming 24 hours a day. The broadcasters have each invested £1.55m in Ginx TV for 16.5 per cent shareholdings. Both companies also have the option to increase their stakes. Read more: Sky invests $1m in air Drone Racing League in the [...]
Hallelujah: BBC puts Songs of Praise and other shows out to tender September 20, 2016 The BBC has today put Songs of Praise, Holby City, A Question of Sport and science show Horizon out to competitive tender. Independent production companies, including the corporation’s new commercial arm BBC Studios, will be able to pitch to make the programmes, which are currently made in-house. Read more: "Historic day" as BBC prepares to [...]
Eight years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, FutureBrand’s Tom Adams says that perceptions of banks’ brands are improving September 19, 2016 Eight years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, FutureBrand’s global head of strategy Tom Adams reflects on how the public perceives financial services organisations. In 2014, when his global brand consultancy first began polling professionals in 17 countries to see how they perceived the firms in PwC’s list of global top 100 companies by market capitalisation, [...]
Magazine Country Life gets a boost from the BBC September 18, 2016 A BBC television series has boosted the circulation of magazine Country Life. The show, Land of Hope and Glory – British Country Life, was broadcast in March and chronicled the publication’s 199-year history of documenting rural life in Britain. The latest industry data showed the readership of the magazine has increased by 29 per cent [...]
“Historic day” as BBC prepares to put more programming out to tender September 18, 2016 The production industry is set to learn this week which BBC programmes that are currently made in-house will be put out to tender by the corporation. Under the terms of the new royal charter, the BBC will be required to put all programming outside of news and current affairs to commercial competition. Read more: Outgoing [...]
HSBC is the new sponsor of British Cycling replacing Sky September 18, 2016 HSBC will become the lead sponsor of British Cycling replacing Sky in a new deal . The group is credited with creating superstar athletes such as record breaking gold medal winners Laura Trott and Jason Kenny and Tour de France and Olympic champion Bradley Wiggins in recent years. "We are extremely proud to be working in partnership with British Cycling," [...]
ITV inks new deal to screen Britain’s Got Talent and X Factor until 2019 September 16, 2016 Fans of X Factor and Britain's Got Talent will be relieved to hear that the popular TV shows will not be doing a Bake Off. Broadcaster ITV said today that it's signed a new contract with Simon Cowell's Syco Entertainment and FremantleMedia UK allowing it to air the shows until at least 2019. It comes days after [...]