Tuesday 29 April 2008

ITV's £4m fine 'a bit of a result'

ITV's anticipated record £4m fine is a "bit of a result" for the broadcaster - and executive chairman Michael Grade handled the controversy well, media and industry analysts say.
The fine - for a string of viewer deceptions surrounding phone-ins on programmes including Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway - was well below the £70m maximum from regulator Ofcom and lower than many had anticipated.
Grade's swift move to appoint Deloitte to conduct an internal review of programming and promising to spend £18m on compensation and other remedies has been seen as key to the relatively small punishment.
"Compare the size of GMTV and ITV and outwardly financially it is probably a bit of a result," said Jim Marshall, the chairman of Starcom UK. "But the ruling has to take into account the way it was handled.
"Michael Grade handled it well in accepting responsibility, getting ITV's house in order and there was a feeling that most of the problem was under the previous regime. I expect that Ofcom want to draw a line under this and move on."
Other analysts said the fine was small in the context of ITV's revenues - about £265m in pre-tax profits in 2007.
"You are talking about a company that makes hundreds of millions in pre-tax profits so £4m is neither here nor there," says Alex DeGroote, a media analyst at Panmure.
Despite the fine being far below the maximum available to Ofcom, in the wider context of breaches of the broadcast code the fine is still likely to be double the previous record levied against GMTV.
"It does feel like it could have been much worse but it is still a significant amount of money," said Richard Oliver, managing partner at media agency Universal McCann.
"If ITV's TV revenue dropped by £4m in a month that would be a big deal and such a sum can't be dismissed easily.
"It seems like a reasonable result all round, sending a suitably strong message - but it isn't crippling either."
Beyond the value of the fine, the industry will examine how damning Ofcom's ruling is against the broadcaster and its operations. Previous rulings have included forcing broadcasters to make several on-air apologies.
"It would send out the wrong signals to hammer them [with a huge fine]. Ofcom has to take everything in the round," says DeGroote.
"A punitive fine would not have served a good purpose in light of ITV's low share price, poor morale in general and an unhealthy advertising outlook. Ofcom has to take a broader view and been sensible in its decisions."
SUN HOMEPAGE

Form and function – inform audiences of current stories. Attract an online audience as print is in decline. The website attracts advertisers so therefore the newspaper still gets money, even if the website is free and print sales being under threat.

Bold colours, typical of the sun – red and white.
Typical audience is C, D; However the Sun is highly read so upper classes are likely to read it but not to gain all their news from it.
Celebrity based stories shows what the audience expects of the newspaper.

BBC NEWS REPORT

Form and function – inform the audience of what is going on internationally, fulfilling the channels educative function.
Although the BBC has the purpose to provide for everyone it is likely this piece of news will be aimed at those interested in international politics and those generally more informed in such matters. The audience can be assumed to be educated as the event centres on a demand for a democratic reform so therefore they would be required to understand all this as well as the communist state of China.
Gaining first hands news and footage.

THEORIES/ISSUES AND DEBATES

Mulvey – representation of women, Sun’s Page 3.
Moral Panic – The Sun is known to sensationalise stories for example those about terrorism, to gain a greater audience reaction.
Cult of the Celebrity – soft news which is a key part of the Sun.
Galtung & Ruge – news values and its appeal to the audience.
Gatekeepers – The Sun’s editors pick stories which are usually national whereas the BBC picks stories which are making global headlines reflecting their audiences need for greater knowledge.
Adorno – dumbing down can be used in reference to the Sun.




Text one is the sun homepage which is aimed at an online audience to give them the daily news, text two is a BBC report about the Tiananmen Square massacre which took place in china, the purpose of this text is again to provide news as well as inform and educate the audience on the situation.

The Sun is a conglomerate owned business run by Rupert Murdoch. So therefore could contain some of his beliefs hence being a hegemonic paper, the homepage is also from 2008 so therefore has been affected by vast changes within the media and the technology it uses. The BBC however is a government owned channel which is meant to remain neutral and provide a balanced argument, the text provided is dated from 1989 so could be affected by fewer resources and developments during that time.

The BBC report is a piece of hard news which focuses on politics and an international event. The event in china took place due to a demand for democracy, the fact that the BBC chose a piece like this could be a reflection of their audience, and their relation to living in a democratic state and assuming it is right. Unlike the red top newspapers such as the Sun, the BBC covers hard international news which allows us to make the assumption that this is what their audience demands and has knowledge about. From a political report like this we can assume the audience for this particular story are likely to be more educated and aware of the situation in China, therefore of a social standing of C1 and up.
The Sun page however, does not carry much in the way of international politics and contains more home grown stories and celebrities. An article advertised on the homepage about terrorist plots within England shows the current situation the world is in with the threat of terror increasing since the events of 9/11. The newspaper sensationalizes the story and gives the audience another reason to continue living in a state of fear, in a “moral panic” as described by Cohen. A lot of the news in the Sun is soft news and covers stories about celebrities and television channels. The Sun is a good example of the recent phenomenon in celebrity soft news coverage and shows the extent of this “cult of the celebrity”. With the gatekeepers of a newspaper such as the Sun which reaches millions on a daily basis, as well as providing an online page, shows the ideologies and values that they and the audience are likely to carry. The “white van man” is not interested in international events and just requires the basic, maybe even “dumbed down” (Adorno) news about what’s going on in the country and some celebrity gossip for entertainment. Hence the audience for the Sun is assumed to be from social group C2 and lower.

The Sun homepage contains a completely separate section for women entitled “Woman” with sections about “sex and love”, “beauty” and “fashion” assuming that a female audience which reads the Sun must only be interested in this, not the actual news which is covered on the homepage. The title of “Woman” sounds so harsh, and as if the paper is throwing a female audience to the side, even if the title was “Women” it would still give a more appeal to it, as well as only containing superficial articles for the female audience shows that this newspaper is aimed at predominately men, which is proven by the fairly controversial page 3, which completely objectifies women and proves that females are solely there for the pleasure of the “male gaze”. Women are often placed in demeaning positions by the paper as many articles are about scantily clad women at the beach, in the paper, in adverts etc. and this seems to be the only role women seem to play in the newspaper. They are there to be objectified and to be stared at, nothing more. Again playing up to the newspapers “white van man” audience.

In contrast, the BBC report is by a woman, showing a more equal representation of women by the BBC and showing women and not an object but are educated and intelligent career women. This shows that the BBC audience do not expect women to be constantly objectified and show them in a more equal role. Also seeing as the two texts are from different time periods, it could be considered interesting that the BBC during the 1980s chose a female to cover such an important international story rather than a man, seeing as women were fewer on screen as shown by studies carried out by Gunter. Whereas, a modern day newspaper still continues to show women in such undignified roles, however by now it could be considered almost a tradition and be part of the male back lash to gain control over the audience and their values.

Tuesday 22 April 2008

ITV to sell classic shows on iTunes

ITV is to make a range of classic programmes including Brideshead Revisited and Inspector Morse available for sale through iTunes.

The deal, which will be the first time that ITV has made TV shows available for sale via a third-party website, will see more than 260 hours of archive shows made available via Apple's iTunes UK store.

ITV shows available on the iTunes service from today include Lewis, Cold Feet, Brideshead Revisited, Goodnight Mr Tom, and Gerry Anderson's puppet classic Captain Scarlet.

Later this year ITV will make shows including Inspector Morse, The Prisoner, The Saint and adaptations of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey and Emma available via iTunes.

The shows will be priced at from £1.89p per episode and fans will be able to download complete series.

ITV is not making current programmes or series available.

"ITV has thousands of hours of classic content in the archive which we are bringing to a whole new audience via iTunes," said Dawn Airey, managing director of ITV global content.

"Our strategy is to deliver 360-degree value for our content on multiple platforms, and in multiple territories, and our partnership with Apple is a demonstration that we are delivering on that strategy."

The deal was brokered by Granada Ventures, which has previously made more than 300 films from the ITV DVD catalogue available via movie download services such as filmon.com, lovefilm.com and vizumi.com.

ITV streams its programming live via ITV.com and offers a catch-up TV service.
The broadcaster's shows are also being made available via an ad-funded service on youth-targeted social networking website Bebo.

Sunday 13 April 2008

1950s

4th January 1951 - TV cameras allowed in 10 Downing Street - encouraging political views
15th February 1952 - Funeral of King George broadcasted on TV shared with mass audience, established a tradition of royal television events
25 June 1950 - Korean War begins
26 October 1950 - First broadcast from the House of Commons
25 June 1951 – CBS transmits first colour programme
13th June 1952 - programme for children with impaired hearing
7th Feb. 1952 – first interlude programming introduced for when a show breaks down or under ran.
2nd June 1953 - Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II – definitive event in the evolution of British television
18 July 1953 – quatermass experiment first British sci fi programme, mass audiences.
11 November 1953 – panorama began
11 January 1954 - first in vision weatherman
5th July 1954 - first transmission of Newsreel
Television act 1954 becomes law – introduction of commercial television is given royal assent.
2nd April 1954 - the Grove family - first Soap opera, tried to convey a social representation of the country at that time.1/4 of the U.K's population tuned into this programme.
17th February 1955 - Kitchen magic – Fanny Craddock’s gourmet cooking show.
22 September 1955 – ITV began broadcasting, independent television channel.
1 July 1955 – Montgomery bus boycott – Rosa parks, helped set in motion the US civil rights movement
27th April 1956 - First Ministerial broadcast Anthony Eden
24 May 1956 – first Eurovision
19 February 1957 - first medical drama – first appointment at emergency ward 10.
9th January 1957 - Anthony Eden resigns as prime minister after the Suez crisis
16 October 1958 - first blue peter show broadcasted
2nd April 1958 - People in trouble - programme which focused on social issues within real people's lives, mixed marriages, and unmarried mothers
4 April 1958 - The first CND protests (campaign for nuclear disarmament)
14th June 1958 - black and white minstrel show - now seen as highly racist. However it was extremely popular at that time.
21 march 1959 - Whickers world globe trotting show opening one of the first windows on the world for the British audience


1960s

9th December 1960 - Coronation Street launch. Now the longest running soap drama
25th December 1960 - queen pre-records her first Christmas message, it used to be live.
9 November 1960 - Kennedy elected president, youngest and first Roman Catholic to hold the office
12th April 1961-- first man to go into space Yuri Gagarin
1960 - Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho becomes one of the year’s most successful films
29 April 1961 - ITV goes regional
1st October 1961 - songs of praise first broadcast (religious views) 5th August 1962 - Marilyn Monroe found dead24th September 1962 - university challenge (educational programme) 22nd November 1963 - JFK assassinated1 January 1964 - first top of the pops aired
20th April 1964 - launch of BBC 2, disrupted by power failure.12th June 1964 - nelson Mandela sentenced22nd august 1964 - match of the day launch24th January 1965 - Winston Churchill funeral broadcasted on BBC and ITV
12 June 1965 - Kenneth Tynan swears on a live BBC show, sparked major debate and one mp called for him to be hung.
3rd July 1967 - news at ten extended news on for 1/2 hour on ITV with 2 news casters, adopting a US style
20th July 1969 - Neil Armstrong first man to walk on the moon, broadcasted to millions
9 Feb. 1970 - Doomwatch, environmental science programmed, which lead to debates in parliament


1970s

15 Feb. 1971 - Britain adopts the decimal system
2 October 1971 - generation game begins most watched game show in history and had 23.9 million viewers
30 January 1972 - Bloody Sunday – peaceful civil rights march in Derry descends into chaos, British paratroopers open fire
4 April 1972 - Newsround begins
8 Jan 1973 - Watergate scandal
17 December 1975 - the naked civil servant discussed the persecution of a homosexual, defining moment in the presentation of homosexuals.
8 April 1977 - BBC airs Roots, about the slavery of African Americans, these kind of historical dramas were a signature of 1970s programming.
4 January 1978 - the south bank show, which examined cultural changes.
3 may 1979 - Margaret Thatcher came to power
25 September 1979 - question time began, gave the public the opportunity to question politicians.
2 September 1979 - subtitling began


1980s

30 august 1980 - first time television acknowledged female police officers
21 November 1980 - Children in need, first British telethon
25 November 1981 - Brixton and Toxeth race riots
2 April 1982 - Falkland’s war
2 November 1982 - channel 4 launches
5 march 1984 - miners strike
19 February 1985 - Eastenders first aired
26 February 1987 - women priests accepted in the Church of England.
15 January 1988 - this morning, Britain’s most popular morning show.
5 January 1989 - Desmonds broadcasted on channel 4, shows its multicultural nature
5 February 1989 - sky launches the UK’s first satellite television service
9 November 1989 - Berlin wall comes down
22 November 1990 - Thatcher steps down
30 march 1997 - channel 5 launches
9 November 1997 - news 24 launches
7 December 1998 - ITV 2 launches
23 February 1999 - channel 4 broadcasts queer as folk, deals with gays exclusively.
21 September 1999 - walking with dinosaurs, most costly science BBC programme
2 November 1999 - house of commons is televised

2000s

13 November 2000 - George w bush elected president
11 September 2001 - terrorist attacks
20 November 2002 - channel 4 airs a live autopsy
20 March 2003 - USA enters Iraq

28 January 2004 - Hutton inquiry
26 December 2004 - tsunami
30 January 2005 - Iraqi elections
February 2005 - youtube launched
7 July 2005 - London bomb attacks
30 September 2005 - Danish cartoons published depicting the prophet Muhammad (pbuh), causing much controversy