MEDIABLAB NOVEMBER 7
December 6th 2007 22:46
From MediaBlab comiled by Peter Olszewski for Dow Jones' Factiva
BIG CHANGES IN STORE FOR AUSTRALIA’S NATIONAL BROADCASTER FOLLOWING ELECTION OF NEW GOVERNMENT
Australia’s national broadcaster, the ABC , will have to wait until the May federal budget to learn if it still gets the $82 million promised by the coalition for its new digital children's channel, ABC Kids.
The new Labor government studiously avoiding making any comment on the proposed new kids channel during its recent successful federal election campaign.
The Australian newspaper also reports that the ABC's board is set for a shake-up, with the federal government promising to honour its commitment to reintroduce a staff-elected director and “create an arm's-length system of appointment for directors.”
Also, as part of its media platform, the new Rudd government will mark the end of 2013 as the conclusion of the analog era of Australian television and unwind the newly created body Digital Australia.
NEW EDITORIAL BOSS TIPPED TO BE APPOINTED TO THE UK TIMES, FREEING UP PRESENT EDITOR TO TAKE CONTROL OF THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Speculation abounds in the UK James Harding is about to replace Robert Thomson in the top editorial job at The Times, and News International has refused to comment on the agenda for the meeting of the Times Newspapers Holdings Board next Tuesday.
The meeting is two days before News International's parent company, News Corporation, completes its takeover of the Wall Street Journal's parent firm, Dow Jones.
MediaGuardian previously reported that Thomson is strongly tipped to leave the Times to take up a senior job at Dow Jones after the acquisition is completed, although News Corp has not commented on this.
But it’s a good bet that Robert Thomson will take over editorial control of the Wall Street Journal.
HOYTS MOVIE THEATRE SALE COMPLETED IN AUSTRALIA
Australia’s new media company, Consolidated Media Holdings Ltd, spun out of PBL has completed the Hoyts movie theatre group transaction.
Consolidated Media said that, further to its announcements of May 8, 2007 and September 24, 2007, it has received $150,129,500 as consideration for its sale of its 50 percent interest in the Hoyts Group to funds advised by Pacific Equity Partners.
AUSTRALIAN TELCO TELSTRA GUILTY OF MISLEADING CONSUMERS
Australian telco Telstra misled consumers about the coverage available on its Next G mobile network, the Federal Court found today.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission brought proceedings against Telstra in September, alleging that Telstra had engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct by representing that the Next G mobile network had "coverage everywhere you need it".
The ACCC also alleged that Telstra had engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct by claiming that Next G customers would get the same or better coverage as they did on the CDMA network.
Evidence provided by Telstra's technical experts revealed that coverage on the Next G network was limited by a variety of factors including terrain, physical structures and handset selection.
Justice Gordon also found that Telstra had misled consumers by representing that Next G coverage was the same as or better than CDMA coverage.
ACCC Chairman, Graeme Samuel, warned that all telecommunications companies should ensure, when promoting the coverage of their services, that claims reflect real-world experience.
Relief orders have not yet been made. The ACCC will seek injunctions preventing further similar representations, and orders requiring Telstra to publish corrective advertisements.
Today's judgment was also significant in that it was handed down less than three months after the ACCC instituted proceedings. This rapid turnaround was made possible by the new Fast Track List in the Victorian Registry of the Federal Court.
SP TELEMEDIA OFFICIALLY DENIES MEDIA REPORTS THAT IT IS FOR SALE – YET
SP Telemedia Ltd has informed the Australia Securities Exchange that a headline inference in the articles that the company is for sale is not correct.
It also said that the statement that it has established a data room for this purpose is not correct.
The chairman reiterated his comments made at the recent annual general meeting that the company believes consolidation in the industry is inevitable and it is in a position to participate should the right opportunity emerge.
MORE NEWSPRINT PRODUCTION REDUCTION FROM EUROPEAN COMPANIES
Following yesterday’s MediaBlab news item about AbitibiBowater in the US planning to close several mills, and substantially reduce its newsprint production, comes news from Europe of more newsprint reduction.
Norske Skog, had previously announced it was going to reduce European newsprint capacity by 200,000 tonnes in 2008 but this week it said will perhaps double that to 400,000 tonnes.
Stora Enso has announced plans to cut its magazine paper and newsprint capacity by 500,000 tonnes of paper annually.
This could be driven by reduced demand from publishers with newspapers cutting print runs and reducing page sizes.
The Pulp and Paper Products Council said US publishers used 10.1 percent less newsprint for the first ten months of this year than last year.
This initially lowered the cost of newsprint but not the producers say they are going to increase the price, with AbitibiBowater saying it will up the price by about $60 a tonne over the first three months of 2008, jacking up the price gradually by $20 per tonne per month.
But European prices are already much higher than US prices and it is hard to see them go much higher, or indeed any higher.
A Credit Suisse report said, “'Newsprint market fundamentals are bleak. European prices are high in a global perspective and we believe will fall by 6 percent in 2008 contracts.”
MYANMAR MEDIA CLAIMS WESTERN MEDIA IS OUT TO GET IT
Pronunciations made by the Myanmar military government via its mouthpiece newspaper, the New Light of Myanmar, are almost inevitably treated as a joke by the western media, and the often tortured English helps make the announcements appear ludicrous.
But now non-western media has begun to give the New Light of Myanmar reports some credence by reporting its pronunciations straightforwardly as news, without the negative or derogatory component common in the west.
Yesterday Pakistan’s Daily Times reported Myanmar’s view that it is the victim of biased western media, and the Daily Times article is very similar in content to an item run by China’s official news agency Xinhua.
Pakistan’s Daily Times said, “Myanmar’s information minister has urged journalists in neighbouring Asian countries to help counter ‘biased information’ provided by the media in powerful nations, state-run newspaper reported Wednesday.”
The day before, on Wednesday, Xinhua reported, “A Myanmar high-ranking information official has urged media persons of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to unitedly distribute authentic and constructive information to resist the media influence of some powerful nations, the state-run newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported Wednesday.”
The Daily Times reported Myanmar’s information minister, Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan, as saying, “Some powerful nations are misusing media as a weapon to interfere in the internal affairs of small nations, as well as to spread biased information with negative views to tarnish the image of the country internationally.”
Xinhua gave a slightly different version of the same theme.
Kyaw Hsan was reported as speaking on Tuesday in the new administrative capital of Naypyitaw, at a meeting of the information subcommittee of ASEAN’s Committee on Culture and Information.
Pakistan’s Daily Times said Kyaw Hsan charged that international media had exaggerated the recent protests and harmed Myanmar’s image, and described the demonstrations as “trivial.”
Xinhua did not use the word ‘trivial.’ It reported Kyaw Hsan as saying, "Nowadays, some powerful nations are misusing media as a weapon to interfere in internal affairs of small nations.
"Although the power nations should use their media might in building world peace and peaceful solution of regional disputes, they are inciting for instability in the country they want to interfere and they are misusing media for biased information with negative views to tarnish the image of the country intentionally."
The Irrawaddy Journal also carried the report and added that foreign press coverage of recent events in Myanmar also came under fire at a briefing in Naypyidaw by police chief Brigadier General Khin Yi. He singled out the Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma, saying it was “the most notorious foreign broadcasting station airing fabricated news about Myanmar.”
Khin Yi slammed Democratic Voice of Burma, two days before the TV and radio station was rewarded by two French-based organisations for its coverage of the September demonstrations. Describing Democratic Voice of Burma, as “one of the most reliable sources of news during the crisis,” Reporters without Borders and the Fondation de France awarded the station their media prize, as previously reported inn MediaBlab.
GEO TV GROUP SILL BANNED FROM BROADCASTING IN PAKISTAN
Pakistan’s Sindh province supreme court on December 4 rejected two petitions by the Geo TV group challenging a broadcast ban on its channels.
The court accepted deputy attorney-general Rizwan Ahmed Siddiqui's argument that the ban was imposed after the declaration of a state of emergency giving the government the right to take any action to maintain law and order.
The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists said the ruling was a message from the government that the ban, which threatens 1,200 jobs, was not going to be lifted any time soon.
Geo TV is part of the Jang media group. Its channels are the only ones still subject to the cable distribution ban imposed when the state of emergency was declared on November 3.
DOW JONES IN FINAL PREPARATIONS FOR NEWS CORP ACQUISITION
Editor & Publisher reports that Dow Jones has set a December 12 deadline on Wednesday for shareholders to decide whether they want to receive shares or cash in News Corp's buyout of the media and financial information giant.
Dow Jones stockholders can opt to receive Newco class B common units in exchange for their Dow Jones shares, or they can cash out for US$60 per share. Newco is a News Corp subsidiary that will own all shares of Dow Jones when the deal closes.
MediaBlab reported earlier this week that News Corp advised the Australian Stock Exchange that it has set aside the necessary number of shares.
The US$5.2 billion acquisition is expected to close before the end of the year.
Near close of trading in the US on Wednesday, Dow Jones shares were priced at US$59.91, up 8c, or 0.1 percent.
MALAYSIAN NEWSPAPER CIRCULATION INCREASES BY 12 PERCENT
Malaysia’s The Star newspaper reports that the country’s newspaper circulation has increased by 12 percent, and the average daily net circulation crossed 2.8 million copies for the year ended June 30.
For the period under review, the Klang Valley accounted for 40 percent , or 1.1 million copies, with English newspapers being the most purchased at 43 percent, followed by Chinese language newspapers 32 percent, and Bahasa Malaysia dailies 25 percent, the Audit Bureau of Circulation said.
The bureau said, “Sin Chew Daily's circulation of 357,163 puts the Chinese language daily at the top of its category as well as the newspaper pile. The Star is a close second with 309,181. The Sun increased its daily distribution from 174,179 to 256,486.
Overall, the daily newspaper circulations in Sabah and Sarawak were 243,549 and 167,149 respectively, against Peninsular Malaysia's 2,471,057.
The total circulation of magazines was 1,536,947, which represented 20 percent of total magazines published in the country. A bigger figure would be yielded if the rest of the magazines submitted their circulation claims to an audit.
AUSTRALIAN COMMERCIAL TV IS LOSING ITS 6PM NEWS BULLETIN AUDIENCES
Crikey.com reports that Australian viewers “are switching off the 6pm news bulletins on Seven and Nine and their 6.30pm current affairs programs, and the ABC is the chief beneficiary.
Nine News ‘Monday to Friday average audience fell to 1.223 million, down from 1.329 million in 2006 and 1.336 million in 2005.
Seven News shed 11,000 viewers from 2006, falling from 1.439 million to 1.428 million. In 2005 it averaged 1.366 million.
But the 7pm ABC News lifted its average audience by just over 7 percent to 1.05 million, but still well behind the commercial stations . Still a long way behind the commercials, but it improved sharply in the second half of the year, particularly during the election campaign.
Crikey said Nine’s A Current Affair averaged 1.174 million in 2007, its lowest average so far this decade. It fell from 1.255 million in 2006 and 1.259 million in 2005.
Seven’s Today Tonight had 1.364 million viewers, down from 1.420 million in 2006 and 1.396 million in 2005.
COSMOS AND G GREEN MAGAZINE BIG WINNERS IN AUSTRALIA’S BELL AWARDS
Cosmos, the innovative Australian science magazine that treats science as hip and fashionable, has taken out its 22nd award in three years.
At the 2007 Bell Awards in Sydney, staged annually by the magazine industry body Publishers Australia, Cosmos scooped a total of eight awards, including Best Single Article and Best Analytical Writing – both won by Melbourne-based contributing editor Elizabeth Finkel. She was also awarded a highly commended certificate as Writer of the Year.
The magazine won Best Sales and Marketing Program and its publisher, boutique Sydney magazine house Luna Media, took out a highly commended certificate as Best Small Publisher, both collected by ceo Kylie Ahern.
But it was G Magazine which stole the limelight, winning 2007 Consumer Magazine of the Year in its category (print run greater than 30,000). The trophy was collected by editor Sara Phillips, who was also highly commended for Editor of the Year. In addition, G Magazine took out the Best Consumer Magazine Launch for 2007, and Tatyana Kovalyov received a highly commended award for Advertising Salesperson of the Year. In total, G Magazine was recognised with seven awards.
Publishers Australia was founded in 1964 and represents the country's magazine publishers. It has 120 publisher members who produce 500 magazines. In 2007, the Bell Magazine Awards attracted 260 entries across 34 categories.
THE BIZARRE BIRTH OF RADIO BROADCASTING IN AUSTRALIA
Boing Boing ran a quirky item revealing radio was introduced to Australia in 1923, complete with a scheme for ‘analog rights management’ that presaged the dumbest anti-copying/anti-use schemes of the modern day.
Boing Boing said, “In the early years of Aussie radio, the radios were sold permanently tuned to a single frequency, sealed shut to prevent their owners from changing the channel. Each broadcaster had its own model of radio that it sold to the public, one that could only receive its programs, and this was how the stations made money. The system lasted less than two years and was a complete failure.”
Indeed.
Boing Boing’s item was culled from a blog by Australian Jens Parker who wrote:
“While doing research for my PhD, I came across the history of how radio was introduced in Australia – and how it initially failed due to some ancient digital rights management suggested by the industry heavyweights.
“Official radio transmission in Australia commenced in 1923. In May that year the Postmaster-General convened a conference of all interested parties to consider the introduction of systematic broadcasting. At this conference ET Fisk, head of Amalgamated Wireless Australasia, or AWA, the company that held the Australian rights to the most crucial wireless patents, proposed a scheme ‘which provided for competitive broadcasting by stations each having exclusive use of a particular wavelength in a given area and getting its income from subscriptions paid by listeners whose receivers were sealed to its wavelength alone.’
“The regulations were approved in July, the first licence was applied for in August and by the end of the year six had been issued. By March 1924 it was widely held that the sealed set system had failed: less than 1400 listeners bothered to officially apply for a subscription.
“The scheme was not only unenforceable but it also was not supported by the wireless dealers, therefore the main responsibility for the day-to-day operation of the scheme was placed in the hands of those most likely to undermine it : of course the dealers weren’t enthusiastic about selling some crippled technology that potentially could receive dozens of stations – and neither were customers who resorted to ‘piracy’.
“It was obvious that the sealed set scheme was doomed from the start.
“In July 1924, after another conference, the sealed set was replaced by new regulations and a dual system, involving stations funded by advertising revenue, the so-called B stations, as well as stations financed out of listeners’ licence fees, the A stations, began operating. By the end of 1924, 38,000 Australians held A station licences.
BALOCHISTAN JOURNALIST MISSING IN ACTION
A Balochistan journalist, Javed Lehri, has been missing in the Khuzdar region since November 29.
Lehri works for Azadi, a daily based in the provincial capital of Quetta. His family and colleagues think the intelligence services are responsible for his disappearance.
Lehri, 24, is a member of a Baloch student opposition party, but a journalist told Reporters Without Borders on condition of anonymity that, "even if he belongs to this political party, his disappearance seems more linked to his work."
Azadi editor Mohammad Asif Baloch said, "Lehri and his friend, Ibrahim Baloch, were without doubt kidnapped by secret service agents as they were returning home in Wadh Tehsil, in the Khuzdar region."
He said that some time ago Lehri was chosen to cover a rally organised by a political party to protest against the murder of Akbar Bugti, the head of the Baloch Nationalist Party. Someone opened fire on the police during the rally. "They fabricated an entire case against my reporter, claiming he was involved in this incident," his editor said.
The police have denied any role in his disappearance. But it has been established that the security services are holding hundreds of opposition members in Balochistan. Journalists have staged many demonstrations in Balochistan in support of Lehri since his disappearance.
Azadi, an Urdu-language local newspaper, is one of the few Quetta-based publications to criticise the military's operations in Balochistan.
SMUTTY TEEN VIDEOS PROMPTS AUSSIE TELCO TO PULL WEBSITE
ZDNet Australia reported that major telco Telstra have pulled the plug on its web site WotNext.com.au after accusations from family groups it was being used to sell smutty videos instead of music videos.
Telstra launched WotNext in January this year, for young bands to post their music videos, but eight of the 10 most-viewed clips involve women in states of undress.
Family groups have accused the telco of exploiting young internet users and demanded the Rudd government intervene.
Telstra then pulled the plug on the site overnight.
Visitors in the morning were greeted with the message: "OOPS. There has been an error. Please go back and try again." This was later updated to "WotNext is offline while we attend to some urgent matters and will be available soon."
NEW YORK SUN SENDS UP AUSTRALIA’S FEAR THAT SANTA’S HO HO HO COULD BE UNDERSTOOD AS A CHANT ABOUT WHORES
The New York Sun had fun with the news story that the notion of Santa saying ho, ho, ho may be offensive to women because in US gangsta rap lexicon, ho means whore.
The New York Sun’s Mark Steyn wrote, “The holiday season is here and that means it's time to engage in the time-honoured Christmas tradition of objecting to every time-honoured Christmas tradition. Australia is a gazillion time-zones ahead of the US – it may even be Boxing Day there already –
so they got in first this year with a truly fantastic headline: ‘Santas Warned Ho Ho Ho Offensive To Women.’”
Steyn added, “If I were a female resident of Sydney, I think I'd be more offended by the assumption that Australian women and US prostitutes are that easily confused. As the old gangsta-rap vaudeville routine used to go: ‘Who was that ho I saw you with last night?’ ‘That was no ho, that was my bitch.’"
“But the point is the right not to be offended is now the most sacred right in the world. The right to freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of movement, all are as nothing compared to the universal right to freedom from offence. It's surely only a matter of time before sensitivity training is matched by equally rigorous inoffensiveness training courses.”
MACQUARIE BANK SET TO RULE BRITAIN’S BROADCAST MEDIA
The Australian reported that Macquarie Bank may not be a household name in Britain but it is rapidly taking over ownership of the backbone of the country's broadcast media.
Through its ownership of Arqiva, Macquarie controls half Britain's 1154 television towers and transmits the signals for the country's main commercial channels, including ITV, Channel 4 and Five, to nearly 2 5 million homes.
And another Macquarie fund owns Red Bee Media, which manages channel production for the BBC, UKTV, Virgin Media and other clients.
Macquarie's influence is set to increase, since Arqiva has bought rival National Grid Wireless, which owns the remaining TV towers and holds the transmission contracts for BBC One and BBC Two.
WIKIPEDIA RULES OVER NON-DEMOCRATIC EDITING ELITE
A row has erupted amongst Wikipedia users over allegations that a ruling elite controls much of the supposedly democratic project, according to PCPro.
PCPro said, “During a debate which began over the banning of a seemingly productive editor, evidence of a private mailing list was released revealing a small clique of administrators who discuss potential bans and article edits in private. A far cry from the democratic ideal the site was founded under.”
Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales, has previously talked about problems that the site has with its core of super-users, who represent only 2 percent of users, but make 75 percent of edits. Because administrators are chosen by ‘bureaucrats’, a small group of high-level Wikipedians, the site is far from a democracy, many claim.
NIELSEN DEVELOPS SYSTEM TO POLICE SITES FOR COPYRIGHT VIOLATIONS
Information Week reports that Nielsen said on Wednesday that it is developing a system that will police web sites for copyrighted material, and notify site owners and content providers when video has been posted without authorization.
Nielsen is developing the system with Digimarc, a provider of digital watermarking technology. The service, which the companies plan to start rolling out in the second quarter of next year, would tap into technology Nielson currently uses in the services it sells to advertisers and TV networks. The system would first be used for policing the use of TV programs, clips of which are often posted on user-generated content sites. Much of that content is uploaded without authorization or compensation to the content provider, which has led to tension between internet companies and Hollywood studios
Meanwhile, Media Network Weblog reports that Japanese public broadcaster NHK unveiled a new system to put hidden identifiers into films to trace counterfeit works distributed over the internet.
The system, developed with the Japanese technology company Mitsubishi Electric Corp, consists of highly detailed electronic signals which are put inside films and other visual works but invisible to the human eye. If a person copies the film at a cinema or in front of a television screen, his or her camera will automatically tape the signal which will stay in the machine’s memory. Automatic software can then search the internet using the coded signal to find any works that have been illegally copied. The code can also help authorities trace the exact cinema and screening at which the person illegally taped a film.
MOOTUBE PROMOTION INVOLVING MILK CARTONS EMANATING MOOING SOUNDS WHEN OPENED TURNS CANADIAN YOUTH ONTO MOO JUICE
Media in Canada reports that the Dairy Farmers of Canada and British Columbia Dairy Foundation have just finished their 13th annual Moo You Win promotion by successfully wooing the YouTube generation.
It achieved an “astounding” 85 percent awareness among Canadians aged 12-35.
Media in Canada said, “The initiative involved practically every brand of milk in the country attaching mechanisms to their cartons to create mooing sounds when they're opened.
"This year we wanted to add a new element," said Corey Ross, who conceived the campaign for Markham, Ontario-based QVS Promotions. "We had seen blogs, received emails and even seen little vignettes on YouTube created by young people talking about the mystery of the mooing cartons. We realised there was extraordinary potential for us to create our own campaign leveraging YouTube and social networking sites such as Facebook."
QVS created an 18-episode mini-drama featuring two teenagers travelling across Canada searching for mooing milk cartons while being helped by a mysterious figure called the Udderer.
SHANGHAI’S FERRIES AND PLEASURE CRUISERS SHANGHAIED BY REAL ESTATE OUTDOOR ADVERTISERS IN PROPERTY FRENZY
Media Daily News reports that property is so expensive in China's main port city of Shanghai that billboard advertisers are placing giant digital billboards on the sides of ferries and pleasure cruises that ply the busy harbour and Huangpu River.
In the first installation, Media Holding Ltd, China's largest digital media business, signed a contract with the city government allowing it to place a 1,500-square-foot LED billboard on the side of a passenger vessel that sails just offshore from Shanghai's Bund, the city's financial and shopping district. The 50-by-30-foot maritime billboard complements Media Holding's 200 existing LED signs in Shanghai's commercial zones.
ONLINE NEWS NETWORK TOPIX TO PROVIDE PUBLISHERS WITH PRINT READY NEWS PAGES
The online news and community network Topix is in talks with online news publishers about expanding the use of its hyper-local editing platform to create quick-fire news pages, Jounalism.co.uk reports.
It said that as part of the platform users are able to register as editors of particular news pages, giving them access and editing rights to news items from a 'wire' of published articles relating to their area of interest.
The system also allows the editors to write new articles and add content and sources from outside of Topix's own search facility, enabling the creation of on-the-fly pages of issue and location based news.
Topix ceo Chris Tolles said, “The aim of the sites, will be to allow 'people who care about a topic with the ability to cover it' the tools to provide in-depth local news coverage.”
Tolles said the template would provide publications with the means to deliver 'neighbourhood level local news' that they had previously been unable to provide without deploying more full-time staff to these areas.
YAHOO TEAMS WITH INDIA’S LARGEST NEWS PUBLISHER IN NEWS SITE LAUNCH
Yahoo India has launched a new Hindi news and current affairs site with the publishers of India's most-read newspaper and news site.
Online Journalism News reports that the deal with Jagran Group, whose Dainik Jagran news site accounts for 80 percent of India's online audience, will combine news and current affairs content from the media group with Yahoo!'s messenger, mail and search features on the rename Jagran Yahoo! India site.
All features on the site will be offered in seven Indian languages.
Yahoo! will manage the advertising sales and ad-serving for the site, but the revenue generated will be shared between Jagran and Yahoo! India.
BIG CHANGES IN STORE FOR AUSTRALIA’S NATIONAL BROADCASTER FOLLOWING ELECTION OF NEW GOVERNMENT
Australia’s national broadcaster, the ABC , will have to wait until the May federal budget to learn if it still gets the $82 million promised by the coalition for its new digital children's channel, ABC Kids.
The new Labor government studiously avoiding making any comment on the proposed new kids channel during its recent successful federal election campaign.
The Australian newspaper also reports that the ABC's board is set for a shake-up, with the federal government promising to honour its commitment to reintroduce a staff-elected director and “create an arm's-length system of appointment for directors.”
NEW EDITORIAL BOSS TIPPED TO BE APPOINTED TO THE UK TIMES, FREEING UP PRESENT EDITOR TO TAKE CONTROL OF THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Speculation abounds in the UK James Harding is about to replace Robert Thomson in the top editorial job at The Times, and News International has refused to comment on the agenda for the meeting of the Times Newspapers Holdings Board next Tuesday.
The meeting is two days before News International's parent company, News Corporation, completes its takeover of the Wall Street Journal's parent firm, Dow Jones.
MediaGuardian previously reported that Thomson is strongly tipped to leave the Times to take up a senior job at Dow Jones after the acquisition is completed, although News Corp has not commented on this.
HOYTS MOVIE THEATRE SALE COMPLETED IN AUSTRALIA
Australia’s new media company, Consolidated Media Holdings Ltd, spun out of PBL has completed the Hoyts movie theatre group transaction.
Consolidated Media said that, further to its announcements of May 8, 2007 and September 24, 2007, it has received $150,129,500 as consideration for its sale of its 50 percent interest in the Hoyts Group to funds advised by Pacific Equity Partners.
AUSTRALIAN TELCO TELSTRA GUILTY OF MISLEADING CONSUMERS
Australian telco Telstra misled consumers about the coverage available on its Next G mobile network, the Federal Court found today.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission brought proceedings against Telstra in September, alleging that Telstra had engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct by representing that the Next G mobile network had "coverage everywhere you need it".
The ACCC also alleged that Telstra had engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct by claiming that Next G customers would get the same or better coverage as they did on the CDMA network.
Evidence provided by Telstra's technical experts revealed that coverage on the Next G network was limited by a variety of factors including terrain, physical structures and handset selection.
Justice Gordon also found that Telstra had misled consumers by representing that Next G coverage was the same as or better than CDMA coverage.
ACCC Chairman, Graeme Samuel, warned that all telecommunications companies should ensure, when promoting the coverage of their services, that claims reflect real-world experience.
Relief orders have not yet been made. The ACCC will seek injunctions preventing further similar representations, and orders requiring Telstra to publish corrective advertisements.
Today's judgment was also significant in that it was handed down less than three months after the ACCC instituted proceedings. This rapid turnaround was made possible by the new Fast Track List in the Victorian Registry of the Federal Court.
SP TELEMEDIA OFFICIALLY DENIES MEDIA REPORTS THAT IT IS FOR SALE – YET
SP Telemedia Ltd has informed the Australia Securities Exchange that a headline inference in the articles that the company is for sale is not correct.
It also said that the statement that it has established a data room for this purpose is not correct.
The chairman reiterated his comments made at the recent annual general meeting that the company believes consolidation in the industry is inevitable and it is in a position to participate should the right opportunity emerge.
MORE NEWSPRINT PRODUCTION REDUCTION FROM EUROPEAN COMPANIES
Following yesterday’s MediaBlab news item about AbitibiBowater in the US planning to close several mills, and substantially reduce its newsprint production, comes news from Europe of more newsprint reduction.
Norske Skog, had previously announced it was going to reduce European newsprint capacity by 200,000 tonnes in 2008 but this week it said will perhaps double that to 400,000 tonnes.
Stora Enso has announced plans to cut its magazine paper and newsprint capacity by 500,000 tonnes of paper annually.
This could be driven by reduced demand from publishers with newspapers cutting print runs and reducing page sizes.
The Pulp and Paper Products Council said US publishers used 10.1 percent less newsprint for the first ten months of this year than last year.
This initially lowered the cost of newsprint but not the producers say they are going to increase the price, with AbitibiBowater saying it will up the price by about $60 a tonne over the first three months of 2008, jacking up the price gradually by $20 per tonne per month.
But European prices are already much higher than US prices and it is hard to see them go much higher, or indeed any higher.
A Credit Suisse report said, “'Newsprint market fundamentals are bleak. European prices are high in a global perspective and we believe will fall by 6 percent in 2008 contracts.”
MYANMAR MEDIA CLAIMS WESTERN MEDIA IS OUT TO GET IT
Pronunciations made by the Myanmar military government via its mouthpiece newspaper, the New Light of Myanmar, are almost inevitably treated as a joke by the western media, and the often tortured English helps make the announcements appear ludicrous.
But now non-western media has begun to give the New Light of Myanmar reports some credence by reporting its pronunciations straightforwardly as news, without the negative or derogatory component common in the west.
Yesterday Pakistan’s Daily Times reported Myanmar’s view that it is the victim of biased western media, and the Daily Times article is very similar in content to an item run by China’s official news agency Xinhua.
Pakistan’s Daily Times said, “Myanmar’s information minister has urged journalists in neighbouring Asian countries to help counter ‘biased information’ provided by the media in powerful nations, state-run newspaper reported Wednesday.”
The day before, on Wednesday, Xinhua reported, “A Myanmar high-ranking information official has urged media persons of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to unitedly distribute authentic and constructive information to resist the media influence of some powerful nations, the state-run newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported Wednesday.”
The Daily Times reported Myanmar’s information minister, Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan, as saying, “Some powerful nations are misusing media as a weapon to interfere in the internal affairs of small nations, as well as to spread biased information with negative views to tarnish the image of the country internationally.”
Xinhua gave a slightly different version of the same theme.
Kyaw Hsan was reported as speaking on Tuesday in the new administrative capital of Naypyitaw, at a meeting of the information subcommittee of ASEAN’s Committee on Culture and Information.
Pakistan’s Daily Times said Kyaw Hsan charged that international media had exaggerated the recent protests and harmed Myanmar’s image, and described the demonstrations as “trivial.”
Xinhua did not use the word ‘trivial.’ It reported Kyaw Hsan as saying, "Nowadays, some powerful nations are misusing media as a weapon to interfere in internal affairs of small nations.
"Although the power nations should use their media might in building world peace and peaceful solution of regional disputes, they are inciting for instability in the country they want to interfere and they are misusing media for biased information with negative views to tarnish the image of the country intentionally."
The Irrawaddy Journal also carried the report and added that foreign press coverage of recent events in Myanmar also came under fire at a briefing in Naypyidaw by police chief Brigadier General Khin Yi. He singled out the Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma, saying it was “the most notorious foreign broadcasting station airing fabricated news about Myanmar.”
Khin Yi slammed Democratic Voice of Burma, two days before the TV and radio station was rewarded by two French-based organisations for its coverage of the September demonstrations. Describing Democratic Voice of Burma, as “one of the most reliable sources of news during the crisis,” Reporters without Borders and the Fondation de France awarded the station their media prize, as previously reported inn MediaBlab.
GEO TV GROUP SILL BANNED FROM BROADCASTING IN PAKISTAN
Pakistan’s Sindh province supreme court on December 4 rejected two petitions by the Geo TV group challenging a broadcast ban on its channels.
The court accepted deputy attorney-general Rizwan Ahmed Siddiqui's argument that the ban was imposed after the declaration of a state of emergency giving the government the right to take any action to maintain law and order.
The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists said the ruling was a message from the government that the ban, which threatens 1,200 jobs, was not going to be lifted any time soon.
Geo TV is part of the Jang media group. Its channels are the only ones still subject to the cable distribution ban imposed when the state of emergency was declared on November 3.
DOW JONES IN FINAL PREPARATIONS FOR NEWS CORP ACQUISITION
Editor & Publisher reports that Dow Jones has set a December 12 deadline on Wednesday for shareholders to decide whether they want to receive shares or cash in News Corp's buyout of the media and financial information giant.
Dow Jones stockholders can opt to receive Newco class B common units in exchange for their Dow Jones shares, or they can cash out for US$60 per share. Newco is a News Corp subsidiary that will own all shares of Dow Jones when the deal closes.
MediaBlab reported earlier this week that News Corp advised the Australian Stock Exchange that it has set aside the necessary number of shares.
The US$5.2 billion acquisition is expected to close before the end of the year.
Near close of trading in the US on Wednesday, Dow Jones shares were priced at US$59.91, up 8c, or 0.1 percent.
MALAYSIAN NEWSPAPER CIRCULATION INCREASES BY 12 PERCENT
Malaysia’s The Star newspaper reports that the country’s newspaper circulation has increased by 12 percent, and the average daily net circulation crossed 2.8 million copies for the year ended June 30.
For the period under review, the Klang Valley accounted for 40 percent , or 1.1 million copies, with English newspapers being the most purchased at 43 percent, followed by Chinese language newspapers 32 percent, and Bahasa Malaysia dailies 25 percent, the Audit Bureau of Circulation said.
The bureau said, “Sin Chew Daily's circulation of 357,163 puts the Chinese language daily at the top of its category as well as the newspaper pile. The Star is a close second with 309,181. The Sun increased its daily distribution from 174,179 to 256,486.
Overall, the daily newspaper circulations in Sabah and Sarawak were 243,549 and 167,149 respectively, against Peninsular Malaysia's 2,471,057.
The total circulation of magazines was 1,536,947, which represented 20 percent of total magazines published in the country. A bigger figure would be yielded if the rest of the magazines submitted their circulation claims to an audit.
AUSTRALIAN COMMERCIAL TV IS LOSING ITS 6PM NEWS BULLETIN AUDIENCES
Crikey.com reports that Australian viewers “are switching off the 6pm news bulletins on Seven and Nine and their 6.30pm current affairs programs, and the ABC is the chief beneficiary.
Nine News ‘Monday to Friday average audience fell to 1.223 million, down from 1.329 million in 2006 and 1.336 million in 2005.
Seven News shed 11,000 viewers from 2006, falling from 1.439 million to 1.428 million. In 2005 it averaged 1.366 million.
But the 7pm ABC News lifted its average audience by just over 7 percent to 1.05 million, but still well behind the commercial stations . Still a long way behind the commercials, but it improved sharply in the second half of the year, particularly during the election campaign.
Crikey said Nine’s A Current Affair averaged 1.174 million in 2007, its lowest average so far this decade. It fell from 1.255 million in 2006 and 1.259 million in 2005.
Seven’s Today Tonight had 1.364 million viewers, down from 1.420 million in 2006 and 1.396 million in 2005.
COSMOS AND G GREEN MAGAZINE BIG WINNERS IN AUSTRALIA’S BELL AWARDS
Cosmos, the innovative Australian science magazine that treats science as hip and fashionable, has taken out its 22nd award in three years.
At the 2007 Bell Awards in Sydney, staged annually by the magazine industry body Publishers Australia, Cosmos scooped a total of eight awards, including Best Single Article and Best Analytical Writing – both won by Melbourne-based contributing editor Elizabeth Finkel. She was also awarded a highly commended certificate as Writer of the Year.
The magazine won Best Sales and Marketing Program and its publisher, boutique Sydney magazine house Luna Media, took out a highly commended certificate as Best Small Publisher, both collected by ceo Kylie Ahern.
But it was G Magazine which stole the limelight, winning 2007 Consumer Magazine of the Year in its category (print run greater than 30,000). The trophy was collected by editor Sara Phillips, who was also highly commended for Editor of the Year. In addition, G Magazine took out the Best Consumer Magazine Launch for 2007, and Tatyana Kovalyov received a highly commended award for Advertising Salesperson of the Year. In total, G Magazine was recognised with seven awards.
Publishers Australia was founded in 1964 and represents the country's magazine publishers. It has 120 publisher members who produce 500 magazines. In 2007, the Bell Magazine Awards attracted 260 entries across 34 categories.
THE BIZARRE BIRTH OF RADIO BROADCASTING IN AUSTRALIA
Boing Boing ran a quirky item revealing radio was introduced to Australia in 1923, complete with a scheme for ‘analog rights management’ that presaged the dumbest anti-copying/anti-use schemes of the modern day.
Boing Boing said, “In the early years of Aussie radio, the radios were sold permanently tuned to a single frequency, sealed shut to prevent their owners from changing the channel. Each broadcaster had its own model of radio that it sold to the public, one that could only receive its programs, and this was how the stations made money. The system lasted less than two years and was a complete failure.”
Indeed.
Boing Boing’s item was culled from a blog by Australian Jens Parker who wrote:
“While doing research for my PhD, I came across the history of how radio was introduced in Australia – and how it initially failed due to some ancient digital rights management suggested by the industry heavyweights.
“Official radio transmission in Australia commenced in 1923. In May that year the Postmaster-General convened a conference of all interested parties to consider the introduction of systematic broadcasting. At this conference ET Fisk, head of Amalgamated Wireless Australasia, or AWA, the company that held the Australian rights to the most crucial wireless patents, proposed a scheme ‘which provided for competitive broadcasting by stations each having exclusive use of a particular wavelength in a given area and getting its income from subscriptions paid by listeners whose receivers were sealed to its wavelength alone.’
“The regulations were approved in July, the first licence was applied for in August and by the end of the year six had been issued. By March 1924 it was widely held that the sealed set system had failed: less than 1400 listeners bothered to officially apply for a subscription.
“The scheme was not only unenforceable but it also was not supported by the wireless dealers, therefore the main responsibility for the day-to-day operation of the scheme was placed in the hands of those most likely to undermine it : of course the dealers weren’t enthusiastic about selling some crippled technology that potentially could receive dozens of stations – and neither were customers who resorted to ‘piracy’.
“It was obvious that the sealed set scheme was doomed from the start.
“In July 1924, after another conference, the sealed set was replaced by new regulations and a dual system, involving stations funded by advertising revenue, the so-called B stations, as well as stations financed out of listeners’ licence fees, the A stations, began operating. By the end of 1924, 38,000 Australians held A station licences.
BALOCHISTAN JOURNALIST MISSING IN ACTION
A Balochistan journalist, Javed Lehri, has been missing in the Khuzdar region since November 29.
Lehri works for Azadi, a daily based in the provincial capital of Quetta. His family and colleagues think the intelligence services are responsible for his disappearance.
Lehri, 24, is a member of a Baloch student opposition party, but a journalist told Reporters Without Borders on condition of anonymity that, "even if he belongs to this political party, his disappearance seems more linked to his work."
Azadi editor Mohammad Asif Baloch said, "Lehri and his friend, Ibrahim Baloch, were without doubt kidnapped by secret service agents as they were returning home in Wadh Tehsil, in the Khuzdar region."
He said that some time ago Lehri was chosen to cover a rally organised by a political party to protest against the murder of Akbar Bugti, the head of the Baloch Nationalist Party. Someone opened fire on the police during the rally. "They fabricated an entire case against my reporter, claiming he was involved in this incident," his editor said.
The police have denied any role in his disappearance. But it has been established that the security services are holding hundreds of opposition members in Balochistan. Journalists have staged many demonstrations in Balochistan in support of Lehri since his disappearance.
Azadi, an Urdu-language local newspaper, is one of the few Quetta-based publications to criticise the military's operations in Balochistan.
SMUTTY TEEN VIDEOS PROMPTS AUSSIE TELCO TO PULL WEBSITE
ZDNet Australia reported that major telco Telstra have pulled the plug on its web site WotNext.com.au after accusations from family groups it was being used to sell smutty videos instead of music videos.
Telstra launched WotNext in January this year, for young bands to post their music videos, but eight of the 10 most-viewed clips involve women in states of undress.
Family groups have accused the telco of exploiting young internet users and demanded the Rudd government intervene.
Telstra then pulled the plug on the site overnight.
Visitors in the morning were greeted with the message: "OOPS. There has been an error. Please go back and try again." This was later updated to "WotNext is offline while we attend to some urgent matters and will be available soon."
NEW YORK SUN SENDS UP AUSTRALIA’S FEAR THAT SANTA’S HO HO HO COULD BE UNDERSTOOD AS A CHANT ABOUT WHORES
The New York Sun had fun with the news story that the notion of Santa saying ho, ho, ho may be offensive to women because in US gangsta rap lexicon, ho means whore.
The New York Sun’s Mark Steyn wrote, “The holiday season is here and that means it's time to engage in the time-honoured Christmas tradition of objecting to every time-honoured Christmas tradition. Australia is a gazillion time-zones ahead of the US – it may even be Boxing Day there already –
so they got in first this year with a truly fantastic headline: ‘Santas Warned Ho Ho Ho Offensive To Women.’”
Steyn added, “If I were a female resident of Sydney, I think I'd be more offended by the assumption that Australian women and US prostitutes are that easily confused. As the old gangsta-rap vaudeville routine used to go: ‘Who was that ho I saw you with last night?’ ‘That was no ho, that was my bitch.’"
“But the point is the right not to be offended is now the most sacred right in the world. The right to freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of movement, all are as nothing compared to the universal right to freedom from offence. It's surely only a matter of time before sensitivity training is matched by equally rigorous inoffensiveness training courses.”
MACQUARIE BANK SET TO RULE BRITAIN’S BROADCAST MEDIA
The Australian reported that Macquarie Bank may not be a household name in Britain but it is rapidly taking over ownership of the backbone of the country's broadcast media.
Through its ownership of Arqiva, Macquarie controls half Britain's 1154 television towers and transmits the signals for the country's main commercial channels, including ITV, Channel 4 and Five, to nearly 2 5 million homes.
And another Macquarie fund owns Red Bee Media, which manages channel production for the BBC, UKTV, Virgin Media and other clients.
Macquarie's influence is set to increase, since Arqiva has bought rival National Grid Wireless, which owns the remaining TV towers and holds the transmission contracts for BBC One and BBC Two.
WIKIPEDIA RULES OVER NON-DEMOCRATIC EDITING ELITE
A row has erupted amongst Wikipedia users over allegations that a ruling elite controls much of the supposedly democratic project, according to PCPro.
PCPro said, “During a debate which began over the banning of a seemingly productive editor, evidence of a private mailing list was released revealing a small clique of administrators who discuss potential bans and article edits in private. A far cry from the democratic ideal the site was founded under.”
Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales, has previously talked about problems that the site has with its core of super-users, who represent only 2 percent of users, but make 75 percent of edits. Because administrators are chosen by ‘bureaucrats’, a small group of high-level Wikipedians, the site is far from a democracy, many claim.
NIELSEN DEVELOPS SYSTEM TO POLICE SITES FOR COPYRIGHT VIOLATIONS
Information Week reports that Nielsen said on Wednesday that it is developing a system that will police web sites for copyrighted material, and notify site owners and content providers when video has been posted without authorization.
Nielsen is developing the system with Digimarc, a provider of digital watermarking technology. The service, which the companies plan to start rolling out in the second quarter of next year, would tap into technology Nielson currently uses in the services it sells to advertisers and TV networks. The system would first be used for policing the use of TV programs, clips of which are often posted on user-generated content sites. Much of that content is uploaded without authorization or compensation to the content provider, which has led to tension between internet companies and Hollywood studios
Meanwhile, Media Network Weblog reports that Japanese public broadcaster NHK unveiled a new system to put hidden identifiers into films to trace counterfeit works distributed over the internet.
The system, developed with the Japanese technology company Mitsubishi Electric Corp, consists of highly detailed electronic signals which are put inside films and other visual works but invisible to the human eye. If a person copies the film at a cinema or in front of a television screen, his or her camera will automatically tape the signal which will stay in the machine’s memory. Automatic software can then search the internet using the coded signal to find any works that have been illegally copied. The code can also help authorities trace the exact cinema and screening at which the person illegally taped a film.
MOOTUBE PROMOTION INVOLVING MILK CARTONS EMANATING MOOING SOUNDS WHEN OPENED TURNS CANADIAN YOUTH ONTO MOO JUICE
Media in Canada reports that the Dairy Farmers of Canada and British Columbia Dairy Foundation have just finished their 13th annual Moo You Win promotion by successfully wooing the YouTube generation.
It achieved an “astounding” 85 percent awareness among Canadians aged 12-35.
Media in Canada said, “The initiative involved practically every brand of milk in the country attaching mechanisms to their cartons to create mooing sounds when they're opened.
"This year we wanted to add a new element," said Corey Ross, who conceived the campaign for Markham, Ontario-based QVS Promotions. "We had seen blogs, received emails and even seen little vignettes on YouTube created by young people talking about the mystery of the mooing cartons. We realised there was extraordinary potential for us to create our own campaign leveraging YouTube and social networking sites such as Facebook."
QVS created an 18-episode mini-drama featuring two teenagers travelling across Canada searching for mooing milk cartons while being helped by a mysterious figure called the Udderer.
SHANGHAI’S FERRIES AND PLEASURE CRUISERS SHANGHAIED BY REAL ESTATE OUTDOOR ADVERTISERS IN PROPERTY FRENZY
Media Daily News reports that property is so expensive in China's main port city of Shanghai that billboard advertisers are placing giant digital billboards on the sides of ferries and pleasure cruises that ply the busy harbour and Huangpu River.
In the first installation, Media Holding Ltd, China's largest digital media business, signed a contract with the city government allowing it to place a 1,500-square-foot LED billboard on the side of a passenger vessel that sails just offshore from Shanghai's Bund, the city's financial and shopping district. The 50-by-30-foot maritime billboard complements Media Holding's 200 existing LED signs in Shanghai's commercial zones.
ONLINE NEWS NETWORK TOPIX TO PROVIDE PUBLISHERS WITH PRINT READY NEWS PAGES
The online news and community network Topix is in talks with online news publishers about expanding the use of its hyper-local editing platform to create quick-fire news pages, Jounalism.co.uk reports.
It said that as part of the platform users are able to register as editors of particular news pages, giving them access and editing rights to news items from a 'wire' of published articles relating to their area of interest.
The system also allows the editors to write new articles and add content and sources from outside of Topix's own search facility, enabling the creation of on-the-fly pages of issue and location based news.
Topix ceo Chris Tolles said, “The aim of the sites, will be to allow 'people who care about a topic with the ability to cover it' the tools to provide in-depth local news coverage.”
Tolles said the template would provide publications with the means to deliver 'neighbourhood level local news' that they had previously been unable to provide without deploying more full-time staff to these areas.
YAHOO TEAMS WITH INDIA’S LARGEST NEWS PUBLISHER IN NEWS SITE LAUNCH
Yahoo India has launched a new Hindi news and current affairs site with the publishers of India's most-read newspaper and news site.
Online Journalism News reports that the deal with Jagran Group, whose Dainik Jagran news site accounts for 80 percent of India's online audience, will combine news and current affairs content from the media group with Yahoo!'s messenger, mail and search features on the rename Jagran Yahoo! India site.
All features on the site will be offered in seven Indian languages.
Yahoo! will manage the advertising sales and ad-serving for the site, but the revenue generated will be shared between Jagran and Yahoo! India.
| 47 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
Comment by jon
Orble News
Urban Hint
Blog Adviser
Jon's Bookmarks
Debate Battle
Orblepedia
Let me know if you have any questions.
Jon.