Ofcom frees up the local picture

So Ofcom is set to recommending to the government that rules covering local media ownership should be relaxed, allowing one group to own newspapers and radio stations in the same area.

According to Guardian media

The recommendations will be welcomed by newspaper, TV and radio companies, which have been urging the government to liberalise local cross-media ownership rules as they struggle with plunging advertising revenues in the recession.

A solid case of commercial pressures dictating the way forwards?

Welcome to the world of behavioral targeting

Some interesting comments from Ofcom chief Ed Richards are being reported in the FT this morning.

He has

backed controversial behavioral advertising technology from companies such as Phorm as a way for broadband providers to fund investment in new superfast networks.

Phorm is an advocate of what is known as behavioral targeting

What is it? Well it is a method where the network or publisher creates behavioral segments based on where the user has gone and/or what they have done on various web pages.

The result being that based on previous browsing behavior the user can be targeted with segmented advertising.

The detractors claim that it is a attack on internet privacy and rights but Richards sees this as a way of funding the new superhighway

“if done sensibly and done correctly, transparently to the user and with the consent of the user.”

First thoughts on the OFCOM proposals

By all accounts the long awaited report by Ofcom into public sector broadcasting which has just been released is high on rehetoric but low on solutions.

It recognises that the model is broken but fails to give a solution on how to fix it.It gives ITV what it wants in terms of public service committments but fails to provide the solutions for replacing that service.

It has rejected the top slicing argument and believes that Channel 4 needs to merge but doesn't give the answer to whom it merges with,only saying that it could be BBC Worldwide or Channel 5

Get ready for radical fragmentation

More bad news for the media industry in this morning's Observer.

It reports that

The TV advertising market could collapse by 2020, according to research commissioned by media regulator Ofcom. The study found that the value of conventional TV ads could fall from £3.16bn in 2007 to just £520m in 12 years' time - a drop of 83 per cent - if some of the most dramatic predictions about the growth of the internet become a reality.

One phrase that we may have to become familiar with is "'radical fragmentation".It is the worst case scenario where the

value of conventional or 'linear' TV advertising - that is, adverts broadcast in the run of scheduled programming - fall far faster than has previously been predicted, with catastrophic consequences for programming and jobs.

No suprises from Ofcom

So the news from Ofcom is not unexpected.It seems that ITV would have gone ahead anyway being forced into the corner due to lack of funds.
Nevertheless the cut in local news output will mean job cuts,the NUJ reckon on a figure of 500 and some areas of the country being deprived of a certain amount of local news.

The regulator has agreed to ITV's request to cut news programming form the current 17to 9 regions as well as cuts in non news programmimg and production of programmes from outside the London region.
Perhaps more importantly the regulator thinks that both ITV and Channel 5 could well be free of all its public service obligations by 2014.

For Channel 4 the news is grim with estimates that it will have a funding deficit of around £100m a year by 2012 rejecting the idea of the so called "top slicing2 of BBC licence fee money.

You can read the full review HERE

An asteroid strike could change your life

One wanders whether Ofcom are making the best use of their resources.

The organisation has commissioned a report on the macro economic scenarios for the year 2025.
Included in its finding,national income growwth is projected to rise 56%,per capita income 37%.However they point out in their analysis,two scenarios may affect these figures,a regional nuclear war and .....an asteroid strike