Internet TV watching to be tracked

An interesting development in the United States sees measuring of television viewing to take account of the internet.

This morning's FT reports that

Nielsen, the dominant tracker of television viewing, will begin measuring internet usage across its national panel of US television viewers by August next year, accelerating a plan to offer its network clients the ability to gauge the impact of online videos.

In the UK almost as many people are accessing television via their iPhone or PlayStation 3 as via a Mac computer,

Bazalgette calls for more investment in Tv

Britain's investment in original television content is plummeting writes Peter Bazalgette in the FT today.

Does this matter?

New figures from analysts Oliver & Ohlbaum show the total spend on content (at 2008 prices) has fallen from £3.4bn in 2004 to £2.8bn this year. The decline this year alone has been 10 per cent. The trend is that this will hit £2.5bn by 2012

and the answer is yes

Britain used to spend more per capita on television content than any country in the world. News and current affairs are an essential part of our democracy. Drama and documentaries contribute to the nation's cultural conversation. And the programmes' producers are a cornerstone of the creative economy. As exporters of intellectual property, they have captured more than half of the world's sales of formats.

We are a load of barbarian's says Paxman

The Guardian's media monkey reports the comments of Jeremy Paxman at the Hay on Wye festival over the weekend.

In his usual straight to the point manner he criticised the amount of time that we spend watching Tv.

I think the basic problem is that we are a bunch of barbarians really," he said at the Guardian Hay festival. "Watching TV is the most popular leisure activity in this country now. I find this very depressing." He called for people to visit more art galleries instead

RTE on the verge

Could we have a case of a large state broadcaster going bump?

The Independent.ie reports that Ireland's RTE is on the brink of going bankrupt.The paper reports that

RTE is losing €1m a week and will not be able to pay staff by October unless a programme of salary cuts and redundancies is implemented in the coming weeks.

and it's losses are almost twice as high as previously budgeted.

It is currently trying to negotiate pay cuts of 12 per cent for its staff and a spokesman for the company told the paper that

"We need to claw back €68m. It poses a significant cash crisis for RTE. Otherwise the station will be in serious financial difficulty."

Ht-Adrian Monck

Heffer on Bragg's impending retirement

Simon Heffer reflects on ITV's decision to axe the South Bank show when Melvyn Bragg retires over at the Telegraph blog

ITV will be to high culture what Poundland is to Chateau d'Yquem.

The show he says

opened doors to the curious and allowed them to peek inside. It was the more remarkable for doing so because, being on ITV, it might reach people not already bitten by the culture bug, but who had that spark of open-mindedness to allow themselves to be bitten. From next year, that opportunity will be lost.

But as channels have proliferated in the digital era the mainstream have moved away from the culture prefering to leave it to the niche operators

We seem to have lost the Victorian understanding of the benefits of opening up culture. If television channels that attract mass audiences do not put in their schedules the occasional opera, or interviews with great novelists, artists or playwrights, or programmes about great buildings, then of course these things will be considered elitist.

Internet Tv to replace the traditional form by 2010

Over at Cross the Breeze they are predicting that Internet based Television will soon be overtaking the traditional form of TV as early as 2010 across Europe.

You can read a PDF of their full report but essentially the change is due to the explosion in broadband and wi fi access

Broadband has changed everything. And it’s not speed of access that has made the biggest impact, its having a direct connection that is always on. This has changed the internet experience dramatically. It’s no longer a disruptive experience where people have their PC in the backroom of the house and where they use a dial-up connection a couple times a day to do some specific tasks. Now, the PC has moved to centre stage in the kitchen or living room where it does not interfere in the family conversation or TV viewing but is integrated into everything we do.”

TV is trying to dehumanise us

An interesting comment from Samira Makhmalbaf, daughter of the acclaimed Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf,interviewed in the Times Of India

In the rush towards modernity, the world often misses the values of civilisation. Television is teaching us to think in a very cliched manner. TV is trying to make the world a single image/voice. It is trying to make all humanity one person, thus loosing the character of being human.

Do you know what-somehow I agree

Hat Tip-Sans Serif

Changing TV habits

Richard Sambrook provides us with,if we didn't know already,evidence of the speed of change in the media.

Hosting a talk given last night by the CEO of TV New Zealand,Rik Ellis,he picked up the following statistic

more people now watch programmes time shifted through broadband than watch through their TV. The online on-demand service was only launched 18 months ago but has already overtaken conventional TV viewing with 30,000 hours a month consumed over broadband

Boxing Day ramblings

Boxing day is always a little of a anti climax.We wait so long for Xmas,then at a blink of an eye.....it's over.In this gap between supplies of food some ramblings

First of all something on last night's Xmas telly.Really was quite bad,the Doctor Who was turgid,70 mins of drivel.Catherine Tate was appalling,you could play guess the punchlines and what about the use of the F-word.Even though it was well past the watershed,how many kids would have been watching at 10.30 on Christmas day?

The only decent thing I have watched,apart from the Dad's army repeats, was the ITV,Xmas at the Riveria(Sky plussed from Xmas eve).A good old fashioned comedy farce,the ashes being put in the turkey and being pecked at by geese was something else).

The papers this morning are predictable,reports on the various speeches of our religious leaders and royal leaders and various tales of shopping sales,online trading etc.Why bother publishing?Give journalists another day off.

Read Allison Martin's piece on Press Gazette on how to survive the graveyard shift

The seemingly never-ending evening will be punctuated by pointless phone calls from drunk people with “World Exclusive” stories about spacecraft in Filey or with a bee in their bonnet about the number of repeats on TV, all of which would fail to make page 83 of a weekly local freesheet. However, these people are to be endured in the spirit of peace on Earth and goodwill to all men.

For a religious perspective at this time of year.check out Steve Borris writing on Xmas day who tells us

Modern Journalism has been typically skeptical, when not outright disdainful, of Christianity. In the movement’s founding work, Liberty and the News, Walter Lippmann declared journalism a new science for a new age when Man had finally come to his senses, no longer believing “that an omniscient and benevolent Providence taught [Man] what end to seek” and that it would now be “blazing arrogance to sacrifice hard-won standards of credibility” to such irrational beliefs

But we should be grateful because freedom of the press was first mooted in Genesis.That's the old testament,not the rock dinosaurs

which established that Man was created in God’s image, bestowing upon individuals a dignity that is not inevitably derived through use of reason alone.

The other purpose of the media in this time between xmas and New Year is to review the last 12 months.Jemima Kiss looks at what created the most traffic on Guardian Media and surprise,surprise it was reality Tv,no fewer than 10/20 entries,fuelled by the Shilpa Shetty episode back in January.

Anyway enough and back to eating and drinking

A flash back to 1960

As its looks increasing like we are heading for an autumn election,it is unlikely that we are going to get a televised debate between the candidates.

The piece in the Huffington Post reminded me of the first televised election debate which took place in the 1960 presidential elections in the USA.

Historian's point to it as effectively swinging what was a very narrow election towards JFK.His rival,Richard Nixon did not appreciate the power of the new media.The TV broadcast made him look very old against his younger opponent and the black and white broadcast exaggerated his 6'o clock shadow.

The Television effect was exemplified by the fact that those listening on Radio thought Nixon had won it.

Nixon later reflected

It was a devastating commentary on the nature of television as a political medium that what hurt me the most in the first debate was not the substance of the encounter between Kennedy and me, but the disadvantageous contrast in our physical appearances. After the program ended, callers, including my mother, wanted to know if anything was wrong, because I did not look well."

So come on Gordon,David and Ming.Let's see what you have to offer

Television-the ultimate evil

TV is getting a lot of criticism today over the phone competition rigging but it got some more from a different quarter this morning

The Joseph Rowntree foundation is investigating what a social evil is in this day and age and John Humphrey's interviewed the historian Christopher Lee on the Today programme.

He lists television as being one of the major causes,being a by product of the lack of regard for relationships and social

"Television is one of the huge influences on social evil in our society today,it excommunicates people from their surroundings,it influences people who haven't had all the advantages,it turns us off a society in a communication society we are the most uncommunicative that we have been for many years.

Is he right?In terms of lack of communication he is correct,but is television to blame?I would say no but communication technology is.The advent of the internet,email and mobile phones etc has led to a generation whose main means of communication is no longer spoken but exists in cyberspace.Although we have the means to communicate with so many more people,communication has lost its basic advantage.To understand the intent behind the message by visual means(Look into their eyes)

The End of TV as we know it?

The Telegraph is reporting this morning that the battle has commenced for Television on demand.

With the BBC due to find out on Monday the decision on its I-player and ITV relaunching its website which will include downloads of programmes,it could,the paper says, be mearly weeks before the Internet population have access to downloaded programmes.

"This will allow wireless laptop users to watch television in public places like cafes and airports. Both services will also offer a "catch up" facility, so that people can use their computers to watch recent programmes that they have missed - including popular shows such as EastEnders, Coronation Street and New Tricks."

Will this be the final nail in the coffin of mass experience television?