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Broadcast Plans For British Royal Wedding: Could It Be 3D TV As Well As High-Def?

By TIM ADLER in London | Monday December 6, 2010 @ 10:21am PSTTags: 3D TV, BBC Royal Wedding, BSkyB Royal Wedding 3D Broadcast, Kate Middleton, Prince William, Royal Wedding Broadcast, Sky, TV, UK Broadcasters Royal Wedding, UK TV

Here’s the game-changer: BSkyB is thinking about broadcasting the April 29th Royal Wedding in 3D. TV experts wonder if Prince Williams’ wedding to commoner Kate Middleton might be the technology boost that the Queen’s 1953 Coronation was when many England’ers bought their first TV sets to watch that royal spectacle. And it may be that people worldwide do the same thing for this wedding and 3D. Sales of 3D TV sets in the U.S. have been modest so far. (Screen Digest predicts there will be only 4.7 million 3D TV sets installed in the U.S. by the end of 2011.) If Sky does go ahead with 3D then it will feed those signals to its international news affiliates. But BBC Vision boss Jana Bennett sounds pretty unenthused about the prospect of the BBC filming in 3D though — “although I can see an archive argument,” she tells me.

The Beeb will definitely be filming next April’s wedding in high-definition. TV technology consultant Chris Forrester thinks that broadcasters will use the Royal Wedding to promote HD to those who haven’t yet upgraded to HDTV sets/receivers.

UK broadcasters will be hoping for record viewing figures in what could be the most watched TV event in history. A total of 28.4 million British viewers tuned in to watch Prince Charles marry Lady Diana Spencer in 1981. Over 750 million tuned in worldwide to see that wedding dress trail up the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral. Media outlets including the BBC and BSkyB already have met with Buckingham Palace officials at Clarence House, the Prince of Wales’s official residence, to discuss broadcasting arrangements for next April’s Royal Wedding. My source says nothing was decided and the meeting was just a meet-and-greet.

The big news about who is going to be the lead broadcaster will be announced in the New Year. However, the likelihood is that the BBC will have that job providing pool footage for every broadcaster around the world to use. (“Otherwise,” the BBC’s Bennett tells me, “too many people will be falling over each other’s camera cables.”) U.S. broadcasters will have access to these live pool feeds. But who will oversee the pool footage? And will U.S. broadcasters be charged for it? My guess is that it may be handled the same as Prince William and Kate’s engagement interview. ITN, the news arm of ITV, filmed it and sold it internationally with revenue going to a charity of the young couple’s choice.

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Puttnam: Murdoch Takeover “Extremely Damaging To Informed Democratic Debate”

By TIM ADLER in London | Friday November 5, 2010 @ 12:15am PDTTags: David Puttnam, David Puttnam Channel 4, James Murdoch, News Corp BSkyB, News Corp BSkyB Takeover, Ofcom, Rupert Murdoch BSkyB, Sky, SKY Finance, UK Media Rupert Murdoch, UK TV

Speaking in the House of Lords, the UK equivalent of the Senate, David Puttnam said that News Corp’s bid to take control of BSkyB posed a threat to democracy. Here are excerpts from the speech given by the one-time Columbia Pictures boss:

My Lords… I had the honour of entering your Lordships House thirteen years ago tomorrow. Since that time there have been three or four really big issues with which I’ve consistently tried to engage – in part because they relate to experiences gained in my former life, but also because I believe they represent the type of issues upon which rests the future of the type of society most of us would wish to live in… My Lords, the purpose of this afternoon’s debate is to draw attention to the possibility that we are on the edge of a very slippery slope – one that could find us falling further and further under the influence of a single, US-based owner, with a highly questionable interest in the benefits of a diverse and flourishing plural media here in the United Kingdom. So why this debate, and why now?

The primary reason My Lords is that News Corporation yesterday notified the European Commission of its intention to purchase the 61% of BSkyB that it does not presently own. As I’ve already mentioned, this morning we heard the welcome news that this proposal had been referred by the Secretary of State, to Ofcom. It’s my most sincere hope that the Coalition’s proposed ‘trimming’ of Ofcom’s powers will not result in any diminution of its capacity to exercise those powers in respect of important matters such as this.

There, are of course, a number of aspects to media plurality – notably the Government’s proposals to repeal the local “cross-media” ownership laws, but this afternoon I only have time to focus on the really big issue resulting from News Corporation’s power, reach and influence. It’s my contention that if regulators and legislators in Europe and the UK remain supine, and simply wave this proposed acquisition through, the consequences for the citizens, as well as the political class in this country could become deeply troubling. The purchase of these shares would give News Corporation an unprecedented level of control over the UK media, one that to my mind has the potential to be extremely damaging, not just in respect of media plurality, but to informed democratic debate as a whole.

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TOLDJA! Sky Launches New HBO Channel

By TIM ADLER in London | Friday October 1, 2010 @ 4:07am PDTTags: Cable TV, Game of Thrones, Sky, Sky Atlantic, Sky HBO, Treme, TV

LONDON: Sky today announced plans to launch Sky Atlantic HD , a new entertainment channel, in early 2011. Sky Atlantic will provide an exclusive home to some of the most hotly anticipated shows in television to customers throughout the UK

… Read More »

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UK Broadcasters Could Be Forced To Carry Local News Bulletins

By TIM ADLER in London | Tuesday September 28, 2010 @ 3:00am PDTTags: Jeremy Hunt, Ofcom, Ofcom Sky, Royal Television Society Conference, Sky, TV, UK Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, UK Local TV Channels, UK TV, UK TV Finance

Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt raised the possibility of Sky also being told to run local news, at least in the short term. Otherwise it could risk being demoted on where it sits on electronic TV listings. Hunt thinks that Sky and … Read More »

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Fears Grow If Rupert Murdoch Buys BSkyB

By TIM ADLER in London | Monday September 20, 2010 @ 7:14am PDTTags: News Corp, News Corp BSkyB, Rupert Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch BSkyB, Sky, Sky News, Sky Rupert Murdoch, UK Business Secretary Vince Cable, UK Media Rupert Murdoch, UK TV, Vince Cable

Nobody expects UK Business Secretary Vince Cable to block Rupert Murdoch from buying the 61% of Sky he doesn’t already own. But Cable, a popular politician here in Britain, is unhappy about Murdoch’s tightening grip on UK media. The official cannot … Read More »

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British Families Spend Twice As Much On Sky As They Do On Newspapers And Books

By TIM ADLER in London | Saturday September 11, 2010 @ 2:55am PDTTags: Nomura Sky, Rupert Murdoch Sky TV, Sky, UK Pay TV

That’s according to investment bank Nomura, which has compared the average $780 yearly cost of being a Sky customer to what people spend on other things. The average British family also spends as much on Sky as it does … Read More »

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Sky Getting Back Into Movie Business

By TIM ADLER in London | Thursday September 2, 2010 @ 3:47am PDTTags: BBC Mark Thompson, Sky, Sky Movies, Sky Movies HD, Sky Original Programming

UPDATE: The pay-TV giant wants to hear pitches for movies and two-part miniseries as it moves back into original feature production. Sky wants to co-produce three big event TV movies each year. The problem, it says, will be finding … Read More »

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BBC Boss Mark Thompson To Lay Into Sky

By TIM ADLER in London | Friday August 27, 2010 @ 4:00am PDTTags: BBC Finance, BBC Mark Thompson, Mactaggart Lecture, Mark Thompson, Mark Thompson Mactaggart Lecture, Sky, SKY Finance, Sky UK Broadcasting

Thompson will attack Sky tonight during his Mactaggart lecture speech at the Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival. Thompson will point to the vast scale of Sky and its influence over the UK broadcasting industry. He will compare the £2 … Read More »

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Lovefilm Signs MGM Distribution Deal

By TIM ADLER in London | Thursday August 26, 2010 @ 2:57am PDTTags: Lovefilm, Netflix, Online Movies, Online Streaming Deals, Sky, Virgin Media

The British equivalent of Netflix will add 100s of MGM titles to its online streaming service. Lovefilm has 1.4 million subscribers – all of whom have access to streamed movies as part of their membership — making it the third-largest … Read More »

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Sky Faces Splitting Up Movie Business

By TIM ADLER in London | Wednesday August 4, 2010 @ 3:58am PDTTags: Ofcom, Ofcom Sky, Sky, Sky Movies, UK Competition Commission, Virgin Media

UPDATE: The pay-TV giant could be forced to separate its consumer movie channels and the way it sells those channels to rivals. Ofcom, the communications regulator, has referred Sky’s dominance of the movie pay-TV business to Brussels. The Competition … Read More »

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HBO Releases Sky’s ‘Female Handbrake’

By TIM ADLER in London | Monday August 2, 2010 @ 3:45am PDTTags: BBC, British Pay-TV, David Elstein, Digital Satelite TV, HBO, HBO Sky Deal, Sky

The British pay-TV giant is considering putting all its new HBO programmes on a single channel, rather than spreading them across the schedule. Sky thinks that having a single US drama channel will increase pay-TV take-up, especially among women.

It … Read More »

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Sky To Become HBO’s Home In Britain

By TIM ADLER in London | Thursday July 29, 2010 @ 2:59am PDTTags: Big Love, BSkyB Finance, Dustin Hoffman, Entourage, Game of Thrones, HBO, HBO Boardwalk Empire, HBO Sky Deal, Luck, Martin Scorsese, Pay TV Channels, Sky, SKY Finance, Sky HBO, Sopranos, UK Pay TV, UK TV

The pay-TV giant has struck an exclusive output deal to be the only place to watch HBO shows from now on. Boardwalk Empire, Martin Scorsese’s series about Atlantic City gangsters, will be the first show to air through the … Read More »

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Analysts Skeptical About Murdoch Paying $15 A Share To Buy Rest Of Sky

By TIM ADLER in London | Friday July 16, 2010 @ 3:14am PDTTags: Big Media, BSkyB, BSkyB Profits, News Corp, Nomura Sky, Rupert Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch BSkyB, Sky

Sky logoNomura, the Japanese bank, has substantially raised its target price for Sky shares from 700p a share to £10. If it happens, Rupert Murdoch will have to dig deep into his pockets to buy the remaining 60% of BSkyB … Read More »

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British Film Channel Launching On Sky

By TIM ADLER in London | Wednesday July 14, 2010 @ 6:59am PDTTags: BSkyB, Paul, Sky, UK TV Finance

British film bigFilm GB will launch on November 1 with six brand-new British features never seen on TV before. The British film channel will show mainly indie films, screening classic movies in the afternoons. Electric Sofa, the channel operator, … Read More »

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