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Murdoch Attempting to Buy the UK General Election for the Conservative Party
David Cameron and Rupert Murdoch singing the the chorus of Ruperts New Hit Song... "I'm going to buy the BBC"
"I'm Rupert Murdoch just brought the Wall Street Journal, and now I'm off to London after I get David Cameron and his Tory Party into power then David will let me buy the BBC..."
The above is the chorus of Rupert Murdoch's new hit Single..."I'm going to buy the BBC".....selling very well amoundst Tory Party members
"he is all carvivorous, no. taste.....will eat anything in his path...who has been persoanlly respncible for the decline of quality and investigative journalism in America by turning it into cheap profitable junk news....as he now want to do with his planned take over of UK's much respected and loved BBC if David Cameron and his Tory Party will the next 2010 UK election...
......you can fight back and stop...................
..............Rupert Murdoch's nextmedia take over the the BBC..
the last well funded and truely free speach and independent and investigative journalism organisation oin the world where it's journalists, TV and Internet presentors and editors are not told what to say, when to say it and how to say it by a private media boss who's only interest is in bigger profits, cheap and junk journalism and shaping and controlling the editorial content to support a political party that will play by his rules to further his and his powerful silent multi trillionaire backers known the Builderberger Group's business's interests...."
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Type: Company News International Ltd Nationality: United Kingdom
Murdoch Attempting to Buy the UK General Election for the Conservative Party
Published 11/14/2009 by The Market Oracle
"It is essential for the future of independent digital journalism that a fair price can be charged for news to people who value it"Murdoch Attempting to Buy the UK General Election for the Conservative Party [The Market Oracle - 11/14/2009]
"The BBC is dominant, Other organisations might rise and fall but the BBC's income is guaranteed and growing."
Murdoch Attempting to Buy the UK General Election for the Conservative Party [The Market Oracle - 11/14/2009]
The Murdoch News International press is openly engaged in a campaign to bring about a Conservative Government in lieu of Tory promises for News International favourable government policies.
This week we saw the Sun sparked story concerningGordon Brown's hand written condolences letter to the mother of...
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/
Murdoch Attempting to Buy the UK General Election for the Conservative Party
Politics / UK General Election Nov 14, 2009 By: Nadeem_Walayat
The Murdoch News International press is openly engaged in a campaign to bring about a Conservative Government in lieu of Tory promises for News International favourable government policies.
This week we saw the Sun sparked story concerning Gordon Brown's hand written condolence letter to the mother of a solider killed in Afghanistan that contained spelling mistakes. The Sun instigated a viscous attack on the Prime Minster and used the bereaved Mother to attempt to damage Gordon Brown which was implemented in a coordinated manner by the relentless reporting of by Murdoch's Sky News channel. The BBC responded to this and other newspaper coverage to continue the story into the end of the week. However the whole story has backfired on the Murdoch press as the electorate clearly sided more with the Prime Minister than the biased propaganda emanating out of the Sun. The Murdoch's press strategy is clearly motivated by self interest as I pointed out in August (News Corporation's Murdoch Blames BBC For Driving Independent Journalism Out of Business), that the Murdoch press is making huge losses in an media market place that is being decimated by the internet and the state run BBC broadcaster against which the Murdoch press for obvious reasons cannot compete. James Murdoch stated: "The expansion of state-sponsored journalism is a threat to the plurality and independence of news provision," "The BBC is dominant, Other organisations might rise and fall but the BBC's income is guaranteed and growing." "It is essential for the future of independent digital journalism that a fair price can be charged for news to people who value it," The answer to the problem of the internet and the BBC is clearly for the Murdoch press to seek favour from a new government policy in reward for electioneering support that will result in a government that is willing to implement policies to diminish the competition poised by both the BBC and the internet. At the beginning of October the Murdoch press accelerated its objective of winning favour amongst the tory party leadership by the Sun publically declaring its backing for the Conservative party some 6 months ahead of the next General Election. This has been subsequently been followed by favourable policy proposals out of the Conservative party in the commercial interests of News International such as reported in the Independent in response to Peter Mandelson's allegations of the Tory leaders being suspected of having done a deal with Murdoch. Examples of the apparent tie-in between what News International's boss, James Murdoch, wants, and what David Cameron is ready to promise include the recent decision by the Conservatives to abandon the idea of "top slicing" the BBC licence fee. It had been proposed that part of the money paid to the BBC would be siphoned off to help regional television companies meet the threat from the internet. But this would also have helped them compete more effectively against Sky News, which is part of the Murdoch media empire. When the policy was abandoned in September, Jeremy Hunt, the shadow Culture Secretary, said that it was because enacting it might make the commercial television companies "focus not on attracting viewers but on attracting subsidies". There was no gain for the BBC in the climb down, because David Cameron had already said that the Tories will freeze the licence fee. What it will mean is that the BBC's income will be capped, without the regional television companies seeing any government help, which will strengthen the market position of Britain's only satellite television company, Sky. "This was done for News International," a Tory insider said yesterday. "Murdoch wants Sky to go head to head with the BBC. He doesn't want the independent companies strengthened." In April 2008, James Murdoch complained bitterly about the media regulator Ofcom in his first major speech after taking over as chief executive of News Corporation in Europe and Asia. The following year, David Cameron announced that a Conservative government would cut Ofcom down to size. The rest of the mainstream press in their self interest is secretly supportive of these measures of restriction's on the BBC and the internet competition and therefore unlikely to report on this subject to any significant length. The campaign in favour of a Conservative party by a tory friendly Murdoch press dates back much earlier than the Sun's September announcement of support, as illustrated by the June 09 Sun newspaper article that forecast a Conservative landslide victory of 414 seats, against my own projection of 343 seats which is suggestive of biased propaganda rather than real journalism.
Therefore readers of the Murdoch Press including the Sun and Sky News viewers, should take much of the coverage of the General Election campaign with a big pinch of salt as it is biase d propaganda in favour of an outcome that will reward News International in monetary terms, i.e. we are back to an age of press barons such as Rupert Murdoch attempting to buy the next general election for the Conservative Party for influence. Source: http://www. By Nadeem Walayat
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk
Nadeem Walayat has over 20 years experience of trading derivatives, portfolio management and analysing the financial markets, including one of few who both anticipated and Beat the 1987 Crash. Nadeem's forward looking analysis specialises on the housing market and interest rates. Nadeem is the Editor of The Market Oracle, a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. We present in-depth analysis from over 300 experienced analysts on a range of views of the probable direction of the financial markets. Thus enabling our readers to arrive at an informed opinion on future market direction. http://www.
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I finally brougjht the Wall Street Journal...now I off to Britain to buy the BBC.... to make sure I can make everyone pay for the news..I keep reminding the world that news is not free,
even the cheap profitable junk news... News Corp chuns out in it's publications worlwide..everone must pay me my 'news toll fee'.....".......Repurt Murdoch"
Rupert Murdoch named as the seventh most powerful person in the world is set to take over ownership of the BBC if David Cameron's Tory party gains power from Gordon Brown's Labour Party in at the next UK Election in 2010
Click here to read the full story in the USAWeeklyNews and see the video of Keith Rupert Murdoch past, present and future aims to increase his stranglehold and control of the editorial content and advertising and subscription revenues of the worlds media http://www.usaweeklynews.com/
No. 7 Most Powerful person in the World ......Rupert Murdoch Chairman News Corp. U.S. Age: 78
AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
"The leading British (the Times), Australian (The Australian), American (The Wall Street Journal) newspapers, in addition to tabloids like the New York Post and The Sun (U.K.). Also movies (20th Century Fox), books (HarperCollins), television (Fox, BSkyB he man who owns the news" still believes in print, not afraid to use vast media holdings to further personal political views. Media empire includes), online (MySpace). Weak ad-marketing hurting his News Corp.: net loss of $3.4 billion in fiscal 2009, stock off March lows,
but still well below 2007 levels, when he made a $5.6 billion gamble on Dow Jones. Accused Google of stealing content; threatened to block search engine from indexing his Web sites. "Quality journalism isn't cheap. "
As insider in Rupert Murdochs multi Billion News Limited Media Group reveals plans for take over BBC in return for backing
David Cameron's Tory Party in the United Kingdom with favourable news stories for the Tories and attacking
Gordon's Brown and his Labour Party in his Sun Newspaper and other powerful hard copy and Internet media outlets in the UK.
The biggest and most important and serious political issue for Labour and the people of the UK in the upcoming 2010 United Kingdom Elections is to stop the BBC from being taken
over by the Rupert Murdoch's powerful media Group, described by the Bill Moyer Journal and Free PressFounder, Robert McChessney the founder of
FreePress.net ( www.freepress.net ) as "All Carnivorous, no taste.... who will eat anything in his path"
As insider in Rupert Murdochs multi Billion News Limited Media Group reveals plans for take over BBC in return for backing David Cameron's Tory Party in the United Kingdom with favourable news stories for the Tories and attacking Gordon's Brown and his Labour Party in his Sun Newspaper and other powerful hard copy and Internet media outlets in the UK. An insider in Rupert Murdoch's News Corp has informed the USA Weekly News that David Cameron and his Tory Party, has promised to privatise the BBC and sell the BBC off to Rupert Murdoch's powerful News Corp media group if Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is successful in helping David Cameron and his Tory Party to win the next 2010 UK election
Keith Olberman on the history Rupert Murdoch and planned ownership and control of the world's media...Part One
OutFoxed Part One Rupert Murdoch just brought the Wall Street Journal, and now Rupert is off to Britain after he gets David Cameron and his Tory Party into power to buy the BBC To some he is little less than the devil incarnate, to others, the most progressive mover-and-shaker in the media business. Whatever the case, as head of a global broadcasting empire worth £30bn, Rupert Murdoch continues to provoke strong emotions. No-one who saw Melvyn Bragg's dramatic interview with Dennis Potter in 1994 will ever forget it. Potter, who was terminally ill with cancer, yet had lost none of his waspish wit, mused on his life, his work...and his illness. "I call my cancer Rupert," he told Bragg. "Because that man Murdoch is the one who, if I had the time (I've got too much writing to do)... I would shoot the bugger if I could. "There is no one person more responsible for the pollution of what was already a fairly polluted press." The focus of Potter's hatred - Rupert Murdoch - is now 71, with a new baby daughter by a new wife. He is as ambitious as ever, still planning to expand his business, News Corporation (News Corp), and intent on establishing his children as worthy successors to their old man. From Page Three through the Simpsons and BSkyB to Twentieth Century Fox and digital television, Murdoch has created a personal media empire before which even Citizen Kane would tremble. But, his many detractors would say, Murdoch's success has resulted in the dumbing-down of the media, with quality entertainment and journalism replaced by mindless vulgarity. "not the sort of person who liked playing in a team". " I'm rather sick of snobs who tell us they're bad papers. " Murdoch lambasts his critics Groomed by his father, young Rupert was educated at Oxford, where he supported the Labour Party. But, aged just 22, Sir Keith died and Murdoch returned to Australia to take charge of the family business. "My father left me with a clear sense that the media was something different," Murdoch recently told one interviewer. Taking charge, not of his father's more prestigious titles, but of the Adelaide News, a loss making newspaper based in the provinces, Rupert Murdoch began his spectacular rise. " Probably the bravest deal-maker the world has ever known. " 1968 brought a major breakthrough, when Murdoch beat Robert Maxwell to buy London's News of the World. He later incorporated the Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times into his News International group. It was the Sun which introduced bare breasts to the breakfast table and which, during the 1982 Falklands conflict, provided history's most infamous headline. GOTCHA!, screamed the paper's front page after the sinking of the Argentinian cruiser, General Belgrano, to huge outrage. As Charles Foster Kane once put it: "If the headline is big enough, it makes the news big enough". Murdoch went from strength to strength. Moving to New York in the '70s, he snapped up, and revitalised, both the New York Post and New York magazine. But it was the 1980s which, in many people's minds, defined Murdoch. Leaving Fleet Street for good, he re-located to Wapping in London's East End, refused to recognise unions and sacked 5000 workers. Vowing to "shock people into a new attitude", Murdoch fought a year-long battle which, though eventually victorious, made him into a bogey-man for many on the left. But Andrew Neil, his former right-hand man at the Sunday Times and Sky Television, called Murdoch "probably the most inventive, the bravest deal-maker the world has ever known". Profits from Murdoch's lower-cost newspaper empire offset the losses he accrued at Sky Television, allowing him to buy the rights to Premiership football and revolutionise the sport, to many people's disgust. Email: mrwijat@gmail.com
"he is all carvivorous, no. taste.....will eat anything in his path...who has been persoanlly respncible for the decline of quality and investigative journalism in America by turning it into cheap profitable junk news....as he now want to do with his planned take over of UK's much respected and loved BBC if David Cameron and his Tory Party will the next 2010 UK election...
......you can fight back and stop...................
..............Rupert Murdoch's nextmedia take over the the BBC..
the last well funded and truely free speach and independent and investigative journalism organisation oin the world where it's journalists, TV and Internet presentors and editors are not told what to say, when to say it and how to say it by a private media boss who's only interest is in bigger profits, cheap and junk journalism and shaping and controlling the editorial content to support a political party that will play by his rules to further his and his powerful silent multi trillionaire backers known the Builderberger Group's business's interests...."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/
Wednesday, 31 July, 2002, 02:04 GMT 03:04 UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/
Rupert Murdoch: Bigger than Kane
By Andrew Walker
BBC News profiles unit
'Wheeler-dealer'
Beyond this, they mutter darkly about his emergence as a voracious political wheeler-dealer. Keith Rupert Murdoch was born in Australia in 1931. His father, Sir Keith, was a regional newspaper magnate, based in Melbourne, and the family enjoyed considerable wealth. Even as a child, Murdoch knew his own mind. He was, his mother recalls,
'Sleaze'
Soon he had expanded his legacy into a nation-wide business, encompassing newspapers, magazines and television stations. He also found time to found Australia's first national newspaper, the Australian. Even then, he was accused of peddling sleaze. He responded with typical directness. "I'm rather sick of snobs who tell us they're bad papers, snobs who only read papers that no-one else wants," he said
Andrew Neil
Global reach
But it is the United States which has proved Murdoch's happiest hunting ground. He even became a US citizen in 1985 to comply with the country's media ownership laws. As owner of Twentieth Century Fox and the Fox television network, he has been responsible for both the Simpsons and the feature film, Titanic. The Dirty Digger of popular repute now enjoys a global reach, using a sophisticated system of communications satellites to reach his audience, whether in Baltimore, Basingstoke or Beijing. Domestically, though, Murdoch's life has been complicated, to say the least. After a short-lived early marriage, he and his second wife, Anna, divorced in 1999, after 31 years. Three weeks later, he married Wendi Deng, a Chinese-born News Corp executive. He was 68, she 32. Their child, Grace, was born in November 2001. Strangely for a man who despises the aristocracy and praises meritocracy, Murdoch has shamelessly promoted three of his four grown-up children to run his companies. Though his daughter, Elizabeth, left Sky Television to pursue her own dreams, sons James and Lachlan remain poised to take over from their father, whose recent brush with prostate cancer caused tremors in financial markets. Whether pronouncing on New Labour (he is broadly in favour) or on the Euro (he is firmly against British participation), Rupert Murdoch continues to live up to his billing as a press baron. An early apostle of digital broadcasting, Murdoch entered the internet business just as the smart money left town. It is clear that he still sees plenty of dragons ripe for slaying. With no intention of retiring, Rupert Murdoch's many fans and enemies may well have to put up with the Digger for some time yet.
Hi I'm Mr Wijat, my Team and I have followed Rupert Murdoch from Australia to keep an eye on his and help provide alterative news, information, music, entertainment to the profitable junk news Rupert and his gang at News Cort provide..... and it is all for free.....no news toll boths for me...or you.....
To much annoyance to my old Australian friend and media foe, Rupert Murdoch, I own the Australian Weekend News newspaper masthead in Australia, and when I asked Rupert ten years ago if he was to come into partnership with me in a real fair dimkin Aussie Newspaper, the Australian Weekend News, that stands up for the agerage digger and is not afraid to print the truth...no matter how it upsest the pollies and powerbrokers.....Rupert's answer was to threaten to sue me and my Team with supreme and Federal Court writs, because he said he owned the word Australian, as he has the Australian Newspaper and I was not allowed according to Rupert to have a newspaper with the word Australian in it without Rupert's permission. I sent a fax to Rupert that night with a copy of a draft front page article to be printed on the front page of my Australian Weekend News, newspaper the next weekend, which had the headline,
Rupert Murdoch sues Mr Wijat over using the word Australian as the title of his newspaper the Australian Weekend News
The article went on to say that Rupert Murdoch was demanding that Mr Wijat immediately remove the word Australian from the beginning of Mr Wijat's newspaper the Australian Weekend News...because Rupert Murdoch says he owns the wird Australian, even though he has become an American and dumped his Australian citizenship to take over the USA media world and finance this ambition with the $500 billion a year profits Rupert makes from his Australian newspapers, instead of spending this profits back in Australia, improve the well being of the hard working Australian people from whom he makes this money each year..Rupert' murduch was also trold to use some of his billions to pay his lawyers at the time Balke and Waldron to prepare all the legal actions claiming the word Australian belongs to Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp Media Group, and Mr Wijat would be around in the morning to personally collect his copies of the writs so he could then use them as a basis for this planned article in the next weekend's edition of Mr Wijat's Australian Weeklend News... the writs as promised by Rupert Murdoch never were prepared and Mr Wijat has not heard any complaints form Rupert Murduch or his big time solicitors since about Mr Wijat's use of the word Australian in his Aussie newspaper masthead, The Australian Weekend News...
However, in 2005 when Mr Wijat and his team were ready with the capital to re-launch the Australian Weekend News Australia wide in evert town and cits in Australia based on the $100 million sale of the Mr Wijat's seven luxury homes in one street on 200 acres of exclusive development land in the hills of Tallai, known as the Hollywood Hills of the Gold Coast, Queensland, whicch on one side of the street overlooks the beautiful Hinze Dam and on the other side of the street overlooks the city of the Gold Coast which is build right on he Pacific Ocean and the city ....one of Rupert Murduch reporters, Valerie and her husband Mather Jones. who also owned a house in the same street, worked with under instructions from Rupert Murdoch and his all powerful News Corp to corrupt estate agents, corrupt business people, corrupt valuers and corrupt police, even heavies to scare Mr Wijat, his family and his freinds, to destroy Mr Wijat's $100 million equity in his properies to make and to make sure the $100 million sale of the properties did not complete. Rupert Murdoch and his all powerful News Corp had $500 billion in media assets to protect and could not afford Mr Wijat to re-launch the Australian Weekend News Australia wide using the expected $100 million from the sale of his properties to finance the newspaper re-launch and the finalisation of the take over of a publicly listed company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, as a vehicle to run the Australian Weekend News and finance it's future operations and development into a more honestly and fairly run world wide media group under the name International News Limited, a company Mr Wijat owned in Australia. So Mr Wijat has now followed Rupert Murdoch gtot he USA and now has a company regsitered in the same USA state as News Corp is registered in called International News Limited. Mr Wijat is had made available at the ocst of $10 a year for anyone to reguster their own website, and as well get free easy to use webdesign softare so that even dummies like Mr Wijat can build a website, and also have five free pages hosting on the Web...all for $10....that way anyone can build and host their own website about their pet subject, news, hobby or business, or social networking web sites, they can even build their own news website which mr Wijat will help them promote and their partner with google to provide the adds to put on their website and that way make a permanent income for themsleves..all starting with $10...
Mr Wijat is the only guy in the world prpeared ot stand upto Rupert Murdoch.,
who according to Forbes, is the seventh most powerful perosn in the world,
however in reality if Rupert Murdoch gets control of the Britains BBC, which Rupert will do if David Cameron and his Tory Party
get into power at the 2010 UK elections, t
here is no doubt that will make Rupert Murdoch the most powerful man in the world...
no one will stop Rupert then.. except Mr Wijati and His Team.....
Mr Wijat is never afraid to take on the most powerful pollies, powerbtokers, business people, police, judges, magistrates...etc on fact anyone in power that is not using that power of the right, honest , moral and reasonable way........
In fact the most powerful, the more rich and well connnecte dthey are the more Mr Wijat likes taking them on......Mr Wijat likes the challenge...
Mr Wijat is just there for the ordinary person that needs support when they are being pushed around by powerful people....in a wrongful way..
if anyone wants to write to Mr Wijat about any subject whatsoever,
even Rupert you can write to Mr Wijat and put your point of view as to what has been said above about you and your powerful media group News Corp..
Mr Wijat's favourite email address is his Google Mail one,
because it has all the best email features int the world with uo to 20 megabites of attachment space and
a great editing and speel check facility as Mr Wijat is not the best speller in the world...
http://the-osterley-times.
The Labour party are alleging that David Cameron has come to a deal with Rupert Murdoch to ensure support for the Tories; and that, in return, Cameron is offering to tailor Tory policies on media regulation and the BBC to suit the commercial interests of News International.
Examples of the apparent tie-in
I find none of this remotely surprising. I have been trying for months now to work out just what exactly it is that David Cameron believes in, and I find him almost impenetrable. He will, literally, say anything - the vaguer the better - to ensure his own advancement.
Cameron and his bunch of Etonian cronies are creeping towards power - promising referendums to those who want them and attacks on BBC regional funding to those who would like to see that - but, as his recent climbdown regarding the Lisbon treaty shows, there is no guarantee that he will, in the end, deliver.
He's an empty suit, saying anything to get into office. Once he's there, he will simply make it up as he goes along. This is not a serious figure with a serious political message. If he had a political message, he would have given it to us by now. But, at the moment, he simply doesn't have one.
Don't get me wrong, he might acquire one once he gets into office, but for now, that ambition alone - getting into Number 10 - is far more important to him than what he will do once he gets there.
Examples of the apparent tie-in
Back during the GOP's Contract With America days, Republicans in congress were voting to slash moneys (cutting something like 200 million plus) given to our public broadcasting network at the same time that they were giving the FOX network a tax break in excess of 600 million. You can see where that led. PBS has yet to recover from that blow. My local National Public radio station spends two weeks out of every three months doing fund-raising.
POSTED BY KEL HTTP://THE-OSTERLEY-TIMES.
For all its faults, the BBC is neither anything like an old guard American network (totally commercial, totally liberal – privatisers, take note) nor anything like FoxNews. While it is there, ITN cannot become the former, nor Sky News the latter. Long may it remain. David Lindsay on Aug 29th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
davidaslindsay@hotmail.com; ht
Johan de Meulemeester’s comment (29 August 4.54 pm) puts the matter in perspective. Surely even those who have reservations about the BBC would not wish to give the Murdoch empire more commercial power over news dissemination? Pragmatist on Aug 30th, 200
Notwithstanding anything which may be said about the BBC’s left-liberal or anti-Christian bias in news, current affairs and drama commissioning, all of which in great part I agree with, and given that caveat, their multivarious website content is a superb resource and as a television licence fee payer I do not mind in the least that this resource is supplied free to countless people throughout the world. To those who snicker about the licence fee, remember that every time you buy anything in a shop or supermarket you are actually paying a proportion to the commercial organisations who fund the advertising-funded other “free” television resources, which you also don’t watch. I am weary of complex problems being trivialised. Does anyone seriously wish for a media landscape without the BBC, for all its faults? A landscape dominated by Murdoch, Turner, et al? The left-liberal BBC stance is very much beholden to the current political and intellectual establishment consensus, and if we, or the episcopate, do not have the spine and/or the intellectual wherewithal to challenge or inform that consensus, we only have ourselves to blame. Ranting is so much easier than slow hard work. Londiniensis on Aug 29th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Londiniensis That was probably the most intelligent and considered comment I have read on the Telegraph website, by professional and amateur contributor alike. I fear it will be wasted on its regular denizens, however beaton on Aug 29th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
RUPERT MURDOCH’s NEWSCORP
Television, Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox Television Stations
WNYW – New York City. WWOR – New York City, KTTV – Los Angeles, KCOP – Los Angeles, WFLD – Chicago, WPWR – Chicago, KMSP – Minneapolis, WFTC – Minneapolis, WTXF – Philadelphia, WFXT – Boston
WTTG – Washington D.C., WDCA – Washington D.C., KDFW – Dallas, KDFI – Dallas, WJBK – Detroit, KUTP – Phoenix, KSAZ – Phoenix, WUTB – Baltimore, WRBW – Orlando, WOFL – Orlando, WOGX – Ocala, WAGA – Atlanta
KRIV – Houston, KTXH – Houston, WTVT – Tampa, WHBQ – Memphis, KTBC – Austin, DBS & Cable, FOXTEL, BSkyB, Sky Italia, Fox News Channel, Fox Movie Channel, FX, FUEL, National Geographic Channel
SPEED Channel, Fox Sports Net, FSN New England (50%). FSN Ohio, FSN Florida, National Advertising Partners, Fox College Sports, Fox Soccer Channel, Stats, Inc., Film20th Century Fox Español, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
20th Century Fox International, 20th Century Fox Television, Fox Studios Australia, Fox Studios Baja, Fox Studios LA, 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Fox Television Studios, Blue Sky Studios
Newspapers
United States, New York Post, The Wall St. Journal, Dow Jones United Kingdom
News International, News of the World, The Sun, The Sunday Times, The Times, Times Literary Supplement, Australasia, Daily Telegraph, Fiji Times, Gold Coast Bulletin, Herald Sun, Newsphotos, Newspix, Newstext, NT News, Post-Courier, Sunday Herald Sun, Sunday Mail, Sunday Tasmanian, Sunday Territorian
Sunday Times. The Advertiser, The Australian, The Courier-Mail, The Mercury, The Sunday Telegraph, Weekly Times, Magazines, InsideOut, donna hay, SmartSource, The Weekly Standard, Big League, ALPHA
Books
HarperMorrow Publishers, HarperMorrow. General Books Group, Amistad, Caedmon, Avon, Avon A, Avon Inspire, Avon Red, Collins, Collins Design, Ecco
Eos, Fourth Estate, Harper Mass Market, Harper Pakerbacks, HarperAudio, HarperBusiness, HarperCollins, Perennial, Perennial Modern Classics, HarperCollins e-Books, HarperLuxe, Rayo, William Morrow
William Morrow Cookbooks, Children’s Books Group, Amistad, Greenwillow Books, Joanna Cotler Books, Eos, Laura Geringer Books, HarperAudio, HarperCollins Children’s Books, HarperFestival, HarperTeen
Katherine Tegen Books, Julie Andrews Books, Rayo, Trophy, HarperCollins International, HarperCollins Canada, HarperCollins Australia, HarperCollins UK, HarperCollins India, HarperCollins New Zealand, Zondervan
Other,
Los Angeles Kings (NHL, 40% option), Los Angeles Lakers (NBA, 9.8% option), Staples Center (40% owned by Fox/Liberty)
News Interactive
Fox Sports Radio Network, Broadsystem, Classic FM, Festival Records, Fox Interactive, IGN Entertainment, Mushroom Records, MySpace.com, National Rugby League, NDS, News Outdoor, Scout Media, Rotten Tomatoes, AskMen, FoxSports.net, WhatIfSports, kSolo. Fox.com, AmericanIdol.com, Spring Widgets, News Digital Media
News.com.au
FoxSports.com.au
CARSguide.com.au
Careerone.com.au
Truelocal.com.au
The problem with the BBC’s web sites is that it is funded by the licence fee but not subject to the impartiality rules.
There is a duopoly – Murdoch and BBC. Murdoch should be compelled to choose between Press and TV, and divest all print media ownership.
The License fee should be abolished and the BBC forced to survive on ads and subs. One would see the lefty bias and PC nonsense disappear overnight, and not just from the wwwebsite
http://www.slate.com/id/
Murdoch Lies to the Financial Times Do we really want this guy owning the Wall Street Journal? By Jack Shafer Posted Thursday, May 24, 2007,
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Mark Thompson took over from Greg Dyke as BBC director general in 2004
James Murdoch in Edinburgh
BBC Boss: James Murdoch Is 'Out Of Touch' UK, Thursday September 10, 2009 The BBC has called James Murdoch "desperately out of touch" after the News Corp chief labelled the corporation's news and internet ambitions as "chilling".
Director general Mark Thompson wrote an email to all staff declaring that UK audiences were behind the BBC.
His comments were prompted by a recent speech Mr Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corp Europe and Asia, made to the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival.
The most important thing to say about that lecture and about many of the recent attacks on the BBC is that they are desperately out of touch with what the audience themselves are telling us. Mark Thompson, BBC director-general
He raised BBC hackles by asserting that the corporation had become too big and was a "serious and imminent" threat to news provision. "Dumping free, state-sponsored news on the market makes it incredibly difficult for journalism to flourish on the internet," Mr Murdoch said. "It is essential for the future of independent digital journalism that a fair price can be charged for news." But Mr Thompson has now told his staff to ignore any recent criticism. "We've seen a pretty relentless onslaught from the press over the summer, culminating in James Murdoch's MacTaggart lecture," he wrote in the email. "The most important thing to say about that lecture and about many of the recent attacks on the BBC is that they are desperately out of touch with what the audience themselves are telling us." The email emerged as the chairman of the BBC Trust, Sir Michael Lyons, acknowledged the BBC may have to "become smaller". In an unprecedented open letter to licence-fee payers, he said the BBC "cannot be allowed to use its strength and public funding to compete unfairly or to squeeze out new or weakened competitors". He added that the BBC was "not frightened of change" but the that change "must be driven by what the public wants and not by commercial or political pressures".
:: News Corporation is a minority shareholder in BSkyB.
http://the-osterley-times.
The Osterley Times"THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD IS LED TO WAR: POLITICIANS LIE TO JOURNALISTS, AND BELIEVE THOSE LIES WHEN THEY SEE THEM IN PRINT."
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2009 Has Cameron done a deal with Murdoch?
The Labour party are alleging that David Cameron has come to a deal with Rupert Murdoch to ensure support for the Tories; and that, in return, Cameron is offering to tailor Tory policies on media regulation and the BBC to suit the commercial interests of News International.
Examples of the apparent tie-in between what News International's boss, James Murdoch, wants, and what David Cameron is ready to promise include the recent decision by the Conservatives to abandon the idea of "top slicing" the BBC licence fee. It had been proposed that part of the money paid to the BBC would be siphoned off to help regional television companies meet the threat from the internet. But this would also have helped them compete more effectively against Sky News, which is part of the Murdoch media empire.When the policy was abandoned in September, Jeremy Hunt, the shadow Culture Secretary, said that it was because enacting it might make the commercial television companies "focus not on attracting viewers but on attracting subsidies". There was no gain for the BBC in the climbdown, because David Cameron had already said that the Tories will freeze the licence fee. What it will mean is that the BBC's income will be capped, without the regional television companies seeing any government help, which will strengthen the market position of Britain's only satellite television company, Sky. "This was done for News International," a Tory insider said yesterday. "Murdoch wants Sky to go head to head with the BBC. He doesn't want the independent companies strengthened."In April 2008, James Murdoch complained bitterly about the media regulatorOfcom in his first major speech after taking over as chief executive of News Corporation in Europe and Asia. The following year, David Cameron announced that a Conservative government would cut Ofcom down to size.Last summer James Murdoch attacked the "abysmal record" of the BBC Trust – the body created by Labour to over see the BBC – in a lecture he gave at the Edinburgh Festival, singling out its "total failure" to stop the BBC buying the Lonely Planet travel guides, a takeover that Murdoch denounced as an "egregious" invasion of private enterprise by the state. Less than two months later, Jeremy Hunt promised that the Tories would abolish the Trust.In the same lecture, Murdoch complained that BBC performers like Jonathan Ross are being paid salaries that "no commercial competitor can afford". He had barely uttered the words before Ed Vaizey, a shadow media minister, promised that a Tory government would compel the BBC to publish the salaries of its top performers.I know that Cameron would do simply anything to become the PM, but the links between what News International want, and how quickly the Tories jump every time News International make their views known, is pretty hard to ignore.
Cameron would do whatever Murdoch asked of him. And that point is now being made by very senior Labour figures.Lord Mandelson alleged yesterday that the Conservatives and News International had "effectively formed a contract, over the head, incidentally, of the newspaper's editor and their readers, in which they are sort of bound to one another". peaking to the BBC's Today programme, he added: "What The Sun can do for the Conservatives during the election is one part of the contract and, presumably, what the Conservatives can do for News International if they are elected is the other side of the bargain. But there is a wider question. When The Sun creates the news in this way, this is then followed up by Sky News, which then puts pressure on the BBC to follow suit." his is all coming out because of The Sun's recent attack on Gordon Brown over a letter which he sent to the mother of a soldier who died in Afghanistan last month in which Brown got the family name wrong. The intensity of the attack, and the inference that Brown was callous and caused great offence, has not been received by the public in the way which The Sun surely wanted. ut there were signs yesterday that the attack may have rebounded on The Sun. Mr Brown, who is blind in one eye, has admitted that his handwriting is bad and has apologised to Mrs Janes, whose 20-year-old son, Jamie, was killed by a makeshift bomb in Afghanistan last month. poll yesterday for the website PoliticsHome, whose main shareholder is the Conservative Party deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft, found that 65 per cent of those polled thought that The Sun's attack was "inappropriate" compared with 23 per cent who thought it was "legitimate". t is also being reported that Cameron had personally consulted the editor of The Sun, Dominic Mohan, three times before abandoning his "cast iron" promise that the Tories would hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.
find none of this remotely surprising. I have been trying for months now to work out just what exactly it is that David Cameron believes in, and I find him almost impenetrable. He will, literally, say anything - the vaguer the better - to ensure his own advancement.
ameron and his bunch of Etonian cronies are creeping towards power - promising referendums to those who want them and attacks on BBC regional funding to those who would like to see that - but, as his recent climbdown regarding the Lisbon treaty shows, there is no guarantee that he will, in the end, deliver.
He's an empty suit, saying anything to get into office. Once he's there, he will simply make it up as he goes along. This is not a serious figure with a serious political message. If he had a political message, he would have given it to us by now. But, at the moment, he simply doesn't have one.
on't get me wrong, he might acquire one once he gets into office, but for now, that ambition alone - getting into Number 10 - is far more important to him than what he will do once he gets there.
Tags: Cameron, Murdoch, The Sun, Tories, Lisbon Treaty
POSTED BY KEL AT 7:05 AM
KEL SAID...
amer
LABELS: CAMERON, TORIES OMMENTS
DAVEAWAYFROMHOME SAID... ACK DURING THE GOP'S CONTRACT WITH AMERICA DAYS, REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS WERE VOTING TO SLASH MONEYS (CUTTING SOMETHING LIKE 200 MILLION PLUS) GIVEN TO OUR PUBLIC BROADCASTING NETWORK AT THE SAME TIME THAT THEY WERE GIVING THE FOX NETWORK A TAX BREAK IN EXCESS OF 600 MILLION. YOU CAN SEE WHERE THAT LED. PBS HAS YET TO RECOVER FROM THAT BLOW. MY LOCAL NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO STATION SPENDS TWO WEEKS OUT OF EVERY THREE MONTHS DOING FUND-RAISING.
ameron will do the same here. He'll sell out the BBC if he thinks Murdoch will help to get him electe
HTTP://WWW.INDEPENDENT.CO.UK/
HAS CAMERON DONE A DEAL WITH MURDOCH? ORD MANDELSON'S ATTACK SHINES SPOTLIGHT ON TORY LEADER'S LINKS WITH MEDIA MOGUL
EXAMPLES OF THE APPARENT TIE-IN BETWEEN WHAT NEWS INTERNATIONAL'S BOSS, JAMES MURDOCH, WANTS, AND WHAT DAVID CAMERON IS READY TO PROMISE INCLUDE THE RECENT DECISION BY THE CONSERVATIVES TO ABANDON THE IDEA OF "TOP SLICING" THE BBC LICENCE FEE. IT HAD BEEN PROPOSED THAT PART OF THE MONEY PAID TO THE BBC WOULD BE SIPHONED OFF TO HELP REGIONAL TELEVISION COMPANIES MEET THE THREAT FROM THE INTERNET. BUT THIS WOULD ALSO HAVE HELPED THEM COMPETE MORE EFFECTIVELY AGAINST SKY NEWS, WHICH IS PART OF THE MURDOCH MEDIA EMPIRE.
WHEN THE POLICY WAS ABANDONED IN SEPTEMBER, JEREMY HUNT, THE SHADOW CULTURE SECRETARY, SAID THAT IT WAS BECAUSE NACTING IT MIGHT MAKE THE COMMERCIAL TELEVISION COMPANIES "FOCUS NOT ON ATTRACTING VIEWERS BUT ON ATTRACTING SUBSIDIES". THERE WAS NO GAIN FOR THE BBC IN THE CLIMBDOWN, BECAUSE DAVID CAMERON HAD ALREADY SAID THAT THE TORIES WILL FREEZE THE LICENCE FEE. WHAT IT WILL MEAN IS THAT THE BBC'S INCOME WILL BE CAPPED, WITHOUT THE REGIONAL TELEVISION COMPANIES SEEING ANY GOVERNMENT HELP, WHICH WILL STRENGTHEN THE MARKET POSITION OF BRITAIN'S ONLY SATELLITE TELEVISION COMPANY, SKY. "THIS WAS DONE FOR NEWS INTERNATIONAL," A TORY INSIDER SAID YESTERDAY. "MURDOCH WANTS SKY TO GO HEAD TO HEAD WITH THE BBC. HE DOESN'T WANT THE INDEPENDENT COMPANIES STRENGTHENED." N APRIL 2008, JAMES MURDOCH COMPLAINED BITTERLY ABOUT THE MEDIA REGULATOR OFCOM IN HIS FIRST MAJOR SPEECH AFTER TAKING OVER AS CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF NEWS CORPORATION IN EUROPE AND ASIA. THE FOLLOWING YEAR, DAVID CAMERON ANNOUNCED THAT A CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENT WOULD CUT OFCOM DOWN TO SIZE. AST SUMMER JAMES MURDOCH ATTACKED THE "ABYSMAL RECORD" OF THE BBC TRUST – THE BODY CREATED BY LABOUR TO OVER SEE THE BBC – IN A LECTURE HE GAVE AT THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL, SINGLING OUT ITS "TOTAL FAILURE" TO STOP THE BBC BUYING THE LONELY PLANET TRAVEL GUIDES, A TAKEOVER THAT MURDOCH DENOUNCED AS AN "EGREGIOUS" INVASION OF PRIVATE ENTERPRISE BY THE STATE. LESS THAN TWO MONTHS LATER, JEREMY HUNT PROMISED THAT THE TORIES WOULD ABOLISH THE TRUST. I THE SAME LECTURE, MURDOCH COMPLAINED THAT BBC PERFORMERS LIKE JONATHAN ROSS ARE BEING PAID SALARIES THAT "NO COMMERCIAL COMPETITOR CAN AFFORD". HE HAD BARELY UTTERED THE WORDS BEFORE ED VAIZEY, A SHADOW MEDIA MINISTER, PROMISED THAT A TORY GOVERNMENT WOULD COMPEL THE BBC TO PUBLISH THE SALARIES OF ITS TOP PERFORMERS.
LORD MANDELSON ALLEGED YESTERDAY THAT THE CONSERVATIVES AND NEWS INTERNATIONAL HAD "EFFECTIVELY FORMED A CONTRACT, OVER THE HEAD, INCIDENTALLY, OF THE NEWSPAPER'S EDITOR AND THEIR READERS, IN WHICH THEY ARE SORT OF BOUND TO ONE ANOTHER".
SPEAKING TO THE BBC'S TODAY PROGRAMME, HE ADDED: "WHAT THE SUN CAN DO FOR THE CONSERVATIVES DURING THE ELECTION IS ONE PART OF THE CONTRACT AND, PRESUMABLY, WHAT THE CONSERVATIVES CAN DO FOR NEWS INTERNATIONAL IF THEY ARE ELECTED IS THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BARGAIN. BUT THERE IS A WIDER QUESTION. WHEN THE SUN CREATES THE NEWS IN THIS WAY, THIS IS THEN FOLLOWED UP BY SKY NEWS, WHICH THEN PUTS PRESSURE ON THE BBC TO FOLLOW SUIT."
THIS WAS "ABSOLUTELY, CATEGORICALLY" DENIED YESTERDAY BY THE SUN'S POLITICAL EDITOR, TOM NEWTON DUNN, WHO ACCUSED LORD MANDELSON OF TALKING "PREPOSTEROUS NONSENSE".
THE SUN, WHICH SUPPORTED LABOUR THROUGH THREE GENERAL ELECTIONS UNDER TONY BLAIR'S LEADERSHIP, ANNOUNCED THAT IT WAS JUMPING SHIP ON THE DAY THAT GORDON BROWN DELIVERED HIS ANNUAL SPEECH TO THE LABOUR PARTY CONFERENCE IN SEPTEMBER.
ITS ONSLAUGHT ON GORDON BROWN FOR THE MISTAKES MADE IN A HANDWRITTEN LETTER TO JACQUI JANES IS THE MOST AGGRESSIVE ATTACK THAT THE NEWSPAPER HAS DIRECTED AT ANY LABOUR PARTY LEADER SINCE NEIL KINNOCK STOOD DOWN AFTER LOSING THE 1992 GENERAL ELECTION, A DEFEAT FOR WHICH THE SUN CLAIMED VICTORY WITH THE SLOGAN "IT WAS THE SUN WOT WON IT".
BUT THERE WERE SIGNS YESTERDAY THAT THE ATTACK MAY HAVE REBOUNDED ON THE SUN. MR BROWN, WHO IS BLIND IN ONE EYE, HAS ADMITTED THAT HIS HANDWRITING IS BAD AND HAS APOLOGISED TO MRS JANES, WHOSE 20-YEAR-OLD SON, JAMIE, WAS KILLED BY A MAKESHIFT BOMB IN AFGHANISTAN LAST MONTH.
A POLL YESTERDAY FOR THE WEBSITE POLITICSHOME, WHOSE MAIN SHAREHOLDER IS THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY DEPUTY CHAIRMAN LORD ASHCROFT, FOUND THAT 65 PER CENT OF THOSE POLLED THOUGHT THAT THE SUN'S ATTACK WAS "INAPPROPRIATE" COMPARED WITH 23 PER CENT WHO THOUGHT IT WAS "LEGITIMATE".
THE CLOSENESS OF THE NEW TORY-SUN AXIS IS SHOWN UP BY THE REVELATION, FROM AN INSIDE SOURCE, THAT DAVID CAMERON PERSONALLY CONSULTED THE EDITOR OF THE SUN, DOMINIC MOHAN, IN THREE SEPARATE CONVERSATIONS BEFORE HE ABANDONED HIS "CAST-IRON" PROMISE TO HOLD A REFERENDUM ON THE LISBON TREATY, NOW THAT ALL 27 MEMBERS STATES OF THE EU HAVE RATIFIED IT.
MR CAMERON WAS UNDERSTANDABLY WARY OF HOW THE SUN MIGHT REACT TO THE ABANDONMENT OF THAT PROMISE. THE PAPER HAS CAMPAIGNED FOR YEARS AGAINST WHAT IT SEES AS THE GROWTH OF AN EU SUPERSTATE. IT WAS IN AN OPEN LETTER TO READERS OF THE SUN THAT CAMERON FIRST MADE HIS GUARANTEE, TWO YEARS AGO.
HIS ANNOUNCEMENT THAT A REFERENDUM IS OFF THE AGENDA WAS SUBJECTED TO A SCATHING ATTACK IN THE DAILY MAIL, BUT IN THE SUN IT WAS GIVEN KID-GLOVE TREATMENT UNDER THE HEADLINE "CAMERON'S CRUSADE FOR UK RIGHTS".
THE PERSON BEHIND THIS AGGRESSIVELY PRO-TORY POLICY IS JAMES MURDOCH, NOT HIS FATHER, RUPERT, WHO CREATED THE SUN VIRTUALLY FROM SCRATCH IN THE 1970S. RUPERT MURDOCH CLAIMED IN AN INTERVIEW WITH SKY NEWS AUSTRALIA THAT HE "REGRETTED" HIS SON'S DECISION TO TURN AGAINST GORDON BROWN, "WHO IS A FRIEND OF MINE", BUT DEFENDED IT ON THE GROUNDS THAT BROWN HAS BEEN A "DISAPPOINTMENT".
YESTERDAY, THE TIMES, ANOTHER MURDOCH NEWSPAPER, ANNOUNCED THAT ITS VETERAN POLITICAL EDITOR, PHIL WEBSTER, IS LEAVING THE COMMONS, WHERE HE HAS BEEN BASED FOR DECADES. MR WEBSTER IS VERY WELL THOUGHT OF BY NEW LABOUR. HIS REPLACEMENT, ROLAND WATSON, WAS A FRIEND OF DAVID CAMERON'S AT ETON BUT HAS NO POLITICAL TIES WITH THE TORIES.
TOM NEWTON DUNN, NEWLY APPOINTED AS THE SUN'S POLITICAL EDITOR, IS ANOTHER OLD ETONIAN. HIS FATHER, BILL, USED TO BE A TORY MEP, BUT DEFECTED TO THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATS IN 2000.
AFP
PETER MANDELSON, BUSINESS SECRETARY: '[THE SUN AND THE TORIES] HAVE EFFECTIVELY FORMED A CONTRACT'
DAVID CAMERON HAS BEEN ACCUSED OF MAKING A "CONTRACT" WITH BRITAIN'S BIGGEST MEDIA COMPANY TO TRADE POLITICAL SUPPORT BEFORE AN ELECTION FOR GOVERNMENT FAVOURS AFTERWARDS IF THE TORIES WIN.
THE ACCUSATION WAS LEVELLED YESTERDAY BY THE BUSINESS SECRETARY PETER MANDELSON, WHO IS INCREASINGLY THE PUBLIC FACE OF GORDON BROWN'S GOVERNMENT. MINISTERS ARE ANGRY AT THE CAMPAIGN THAT THE SUN HAS RUN AGAINST THE PRIME MINISTER ALL THIS WEEK OVER THE SPELLING MISTAKES IN A LETTER MR BROWN SENT TO THE MOTHER OF A YOUNG SOLDIER KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN.
THEY SUSPECT THAT THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY HAS BEEN TAILORING ITS POLICIES ON MEDIA REGULATION AND THE BBC TO SUIT THE COMMERCIAL INTERESTS OF NEWS INTERNATIONAL, WHICH OWNS THE SUN, AND THAT THE PAPER'S AGGRESSIVE SUPPORT FOR THE TORIES IS A PAY-OFF THAT COULD SPREAD TO OTHER PARTS OF THE MASS MEDIA.
Cameron would do whatever Murdoch asked of him. And that point is now being made by very senior Labour figures.Lord Mandelson alleged yesterday that the Conservatives and News International had "effectively formed a contract, over the head, incidentally, of the newspaper's editor and their readers, in which they are sort of bound to one another". peaking to the BBC's Today programme, he added: "What The Sun can do for the Conservatives during the election is one part of the contract and, presumably, what the Conservatives can do for News International if they are elected is the other side of the bargain. But there is a wider question. When The Sun creates the news in this way, this is then followed up by Sky News, which then puts pressure on the BBC to follow suit." his is all coming out because of The Sun's recent attack on Gordon Brown over a letter which he sent to the mother of a soldier who died in Afghanistan last month in which Brown got the family name wrong. The intensity of the attack, and the inference that Brown was callous and caused great offence, has not been received by the public in the way which The Sun surely wanted. ut there were signs yesterday that the attack may have rebounded on The Sun. Mr Brown, who is blind in one eye, has admitted that his handwriting is bad and has apologised to Mrs Janes, whose 20-year-old son, Jamie, was killed by a makeshift bomb in Afghanistan last month. poll yesterday for the website PoliticsHome, whose main shareholder is the Conservative Party deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft, found that 65 per cent of those polled thought that The Sun's attack was "inappropriate" compared with 23 per cent who thought it was "legitimate". t is also being reported that Cameron had personally consulted the editor of The Sun, Dominic Mohan, three times before abandoning his "cast iron" promise that the Tories would hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.
find none of this remotely surprising. I have been trying for months now to work out just what exactly it is that David Cameron believes in, and I find him almost impenetrable. He will, literally, say anything - the vaguer the better - to ensure his own advancement.
ameron and his bunch of Etonian cronies are creeping towards power - promising referendums to those who want them and attacks on BBC regional funding to those who would like to see that - but, as his recent climbdown regarding the Lisbon treaty shows, there is no guarantee that he will, in the end, deliver.
He's an empty suit, saying anything to get into office. Once he's there, he will simply make it up as he goes along. This is not a serious figure with a serious political message. If he had a political message, he would have given it to us by now. But, at the moment, he simply doesn't have one.
on't get me wrong, he might acquire one once he gets into office, but for now, that ambition alone - getting into Number 10 - is far more important to him than what he will do once he gets there.
POSTED BY KEL AT 7:05 AM
LABELS: CAMERON, TORIES OMMENTS
HAS CAMERON DONE A DEAL WITH MURDOCH? ORD MANDELSON'S ATTACK SHINES SPOTLIGHT ON TORY LEADER'S LINKS WITH MEDIA MOGUL
EXAMPLES OF THE APPARENT TIE-IN BETWEEN WHAT NEWS INTERNATIONAL'S BOSS, JAMES MURDOCH, WANTS, AND WHAT DAVID CAMERON IS READY TO PROMISE INCLUDE THE RECENT DECISION BY THE CONSERVATIVES TO ABANDON THE IDEA OF "TOP SLICING" THE BBC LICENCE FEE. IT HAD BEEN PROPOSED THAT PART OF THE MONEY PAID TO THE BBC WOULD BE SIPHONED OFF TO HELP REGIONAL TELEVISION COMPANIES MEET THE THREAT FROM THE INTERNET. BUT THIS WOULD ALSO HAVE HELPED THEM COMPETE MORE EFFECTIVELY AGAINST SKY NEWS, WHICH IS PART OF THE MURDOCH MEDIA EMPIRE.
WHEN THE POLICY WAS ABANDONED IN SEPTEMBER, JEREMY HUNT, THE SHADOW CULTURE SECRETARY, SAID THAT IT WAS BECAUSE NACTING IT MIGHT MAKE THE COMMERCIAL TELEVISION COMPANIES "FOCUS NOT ON ATTRACTING VIEWERS BUT ON ATTRACTING SUBSIDIES". THERE WAS NO GAIN FOR THE BBC IN THE CLIMBDOWN, BECAUSE DAVID CAMERON HAD ALREADY SAID THAT THE TORIES WILL FREEZE THE LICENCE FEE. WHAT IT WILL MEAN IS THAT THE BBC'S INCOME WILL BE CAPPED, WITHOUT THE REGIONAL TELEVISION COMPANIES SEEING ANY GOVERNMENT HELP, WHICH WILL STRENGTHEN THE MARKET POSITION OF BRITAIN'S ONLY SATELLITE TELEVISION COMPANY, SKY. "THIS WAS DONE FOR NEWS INTERNATIONAL," A TORY INSIDER SAID YESTERDAY. "MURDOCH WANTS SKY TO GO HEAD TO HEAD WITH THE BBC. HE DOESN'T WANT THE INDEPENDENT COMPANIES STRENGTHENED." N APRIL 2008, JAMES MURDOCH COMPLAINED BITTERLY ABOUT THE MEDIA REGULATOR OFCOM IN HIS FIRST MAJOR SPEECH AFTER TAKING OVER AS CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF NEWS CORPORATION IN EUROPE AND ASIA. THE FOLLOWING YEAR, DAVID CAMERON ANNOUNCED THAT A CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENT WOULD CUT OFCOM DOWN TO SIZE. AST SUMMER JAMES MURDOCH ATTACKED THE "ABYSMAL RECORD" OF THE BBC TRUST – THE BODY CREATED BY LABOUR TO OVER SEE THE BBC – IN A LECTURE HE GAVE AT THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL, SINGLING OUT ITS "TOTAL FAILURE" TO STOP THE BBC BUYING THE LONELY PLANET TRAVEL GUIDES, A TAKEOVER THAT MURDOCH DENOUNCED AS AN "EGREGIOUS" INVASION OF PRIVATE ENTERPRISE BY THE STATE. LESS THAN TWO MONTHS LATER, JEREMY HUNT PROMISED THAT THE TORIES WOULD ABOLISH THE TRUST. I THE SAME LECTURE, MURDOCH COMPLAINED THAT BBC PERFORMERS LIKE JONATHAN ROSS ARE BEING PAID SALARIES THAT "NO COMMERCIAL COMPETITOR CAN AFFORD". HE HAD BARELY UTTERED THE WORDS BEFORE ED VAIZEY, A SHADOW MEDIA MINISTER, PROMISED THAT A TORY GOVERNMENT WOULD COMPEL THE BBC TO PUBLISH THE SALARIES OF ITS TOP PERFORMERS.
LORD MANDELSON ALLEGED YESTERDAY THAT THE CONSERVATIVES AND NEWS INTERNATIONAL HAD "EFFECTIVELY FORMED A CONTRACT, OVER THE HEAD, INCIDENTALLY, OF THE NEWSPAPER'S EDITOR AND THEIR READERS, IN WHICH THEY ARE SORT OF BOUND TO ONE ANOTHER".
SPEAKING TO THE BBC'S TODAY PROGRAMME, HE ADDED: "WHAT THE SUN CAN DO FOR THE CONSERVATIVES DURING THE ELECTION IS ONE PART OF THE CONTRACT AND, PRESUMABLY, WHAT THE CONSERVATIVES CAN DO FOR NEWS INTERNATIONAL IF THEY ARE ELECTED IS THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BARGAIN. BUT THERE IS A WIDER QUESTION. WHEN THE SUN CREATES THE NEWS IN THIS WAY, THIS IS THEN FOLLOWED UP BY SKY NEWS, WHICH THEN PUTS PRESSURE ON THE BBC TO FOLLOW SUIT."
THIS WAS "ABSOLUTELY, CATEGORICALLY" DENIED YESTERDAY BY THE SUN'S POLITICAL EDITOR, TOM NEWTON DUNN, WHO ACCUSED LORD MANDELSON OF TALKING "PREPOSTEROUS NONSENSE".
THE SUN, WHICH SUPPORTED LABOUR THROUGH THREE GENERAL ELECTIONS UNDER TONY BLAIR'S LEADERSHIP, ANNOUNCED THAT IT WAS JUMPING SHIP ON THE DAY THAT GORDON BROWN DELIVERED HIS ANNUAL SPEECH TO THE LABOUR PARTY CONFERENCE IN SEPTEMBER.
ITS ONSLAUGHT ON GORDON BROWN FOR THE MISTAKES MADE IN A HANDWRITTEN LETTER TO JACQUI JANES IS THE MOST AGGRESSIVE ATTACK THAT THE NEWSPAPER HAS DIRECTED AT ANY LABOUR PARTY LEADER SINCE NEIL KINNOCK STOOD DOWN AFTER LOSING THE 1992 GENERAL ELECTION, A DEFEAT FOR WHICH THE SUN CLAIMED VICTORY WITH THE SLOGAN "IT WAS THE SUN WOT WON IT".
BUT THERE WERE SIGNS YESTERDAY THAT THE ATTACK MAY HAVE REBOUNDED ON THE SUN. MR BROWN, WHO IS BLIND IN ONE EYE, HAS ADMITTED THAT HIS HANDWRITING IS BAD AND HAS APOLOGISED TO MRS JANES, WHOSE 20-YEAR-OLD SON, JAMIE, WAS KILLED BY A MAKESHIFT BOMB IN AFGHANISTAN LAST MONTH.
A POLL YESTERDAY FOR THE WEBSITE POLITICSHOME, WHOSE MAIN SHAREHOLDER IS THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY DEPUTY CHAIRMAN LORD ASHCROFT, FOUND THAT 65 PER CENT OF THOSE POLLED THOUGHT THAT THE SUN'S ATTACK WAS "INAPPROPRIATE" COMPARED WITH 23 PER CENT WHO THOUGHT IT WAS "LEGITIMATE".
THE CLOSENESS OF THE NEW TORY-SUN AXIS IS SHOWN UP BY THE REVELATION, FROM AN INSIDE SOURCE, THAT DAVID CAMERON PERSONALLY CONSULTED THE EDITOR OF THE SUN, DOMINIC MOHAN, IN THREE SEPARATE CONVERSATIONS BEFORE HE ABANDONED HIS "CAST-IRON" PROMISE TO HOLD A REFERENDUM ON THE LISBON TREATY, NOW THAT ALL 27 MEMBERS STATES OF THE EU HAVE RATIFIED IT.
MR CAMERON WAS UNDERSTANDABLY WARY OF HOW THE SUN MIGHT REACT TO THE ABANDONMENT OF THAT PROMISE. THE PAPER HAS CAMPAIGNED FOR YEARS AGAINST WHAT IT SEES AS THE GROWTH OF AN EU SUPERSTATE. IT WAS IN AN OPEN LETTER TO READERS OF THE SUN THAT CAMERON FIRST MADE HIS GUARANTEE, TWO YEARS AGO.
HIS ANNOUNCEMENT THAT A REFERENDUM IS OFF THE AGENDA WAS SUBJECTED TO A SCATHING ATTACK IN THE DAILY MAIL, BUT IN THE SUN IT WAS GIVEN KID-GLOVE TREATMENT UNDER THE HEADLINE "CAMERON'S CRUSADE FOR UK RIGHTS".
THE PERSON BEHIND THIS AGGRESSIVELY PRO-TORY POLICY IS JAMES MURDOCH, NOT HIS FATHER, RUPERT, WHO CREATED THE SUN VIRTUALLY FROM SCRATCH IN THE 1970S. RUPERT MURDOCH CLAIMED IN AN INTERVIEW WITH SKY NEWS AUSTRALIA THAT HE "REGRETTED" HIS SON'S DECISION TO TURN AGAINST GORDON BROWN, "WHO IS A FRIEND OF MINE", BUT DEFENDED IT ON THE GROUNDS THAT BROWN HAS BEEN A "DISAPPOINTMENT".
YESTERDAY, THE TIMES, ANOTHER MURDOCH NEWSPAPER, ANNOUNCED THAT ITS VETERAN POLITICAL EDITOR, PHIL WEBSTER, IS LEAVING THE COMMONS, WHERE HE HAS BEEN BASED FOR DECADES. MR WEBSTER IS VERY WELL THOUGHT OF BY NEW LABOUR. HIS REPLACEMENT, ROLAND WATSON, WAS A FRIEND OF DAVID CAMERON'S AT ETON BUT HAS NO POLITICAL TIES WITH THE TORIES.
TOM NEWTON DUNN, NEWLY APPOINTED AS THE SUN'S POLITICAL EDITOR, IS ANOTHER OLD ETONIAN. HIS FATHER, BILL, USED TO BE A TORY MEP, BUT DEFECTED TO THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATS IN 2000.
AFP
PETER MANDELSON, BUSINESS SECRETARY: '[THE SUN AND THE TORIES] HAVE EFFECTIVELY FORMED A CONTRACT'
DAVID CAMERON HAS BEEN ACCUSED OF MAKING A "CONTRACT" WITH BRITAIN'S BIGGEST MEDIA COMPANY TO TRADE POLITICAL SUPPORT BEFORE AN ELECTION FOR GOVERNMENT FAVOURS AFTERWARDS IF THE TORIES WIN.
THE ACCUSATION WAS LEVELLED YESTERDAY BY THE BUSINESS SECRETARY PETER MANDELSON, WHO IS INCREASINGLY THE PUBLIC FACE OF GORDON BROWN'S GOVERNMENT. MINISTERS ARE ANGRY AT THE CAMPAIGN THAT THE SUN HAS RUN AGAINST THE PRIME MINISTER ALL THIS WEEK OVER THE SPELLING MISTAKES IN A LETTER MR BROWN SENT TO THE MOTHER OF A YOUNG SOLDIER KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN.
THEY SUSPECT THAT THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY HAS BEEN TAILORING ITS POLICIES ON MEDIA REGULATION AND THE BBC TO SUIT THE COMMERCIAL INTERESTS OF NEWS INTERNATIONAL, WHICH OWNS THE SUN, AND THAT THE PAPER'S AGGRESSIVE SUPPORT FOR THE TORIES IS A PAY-OFF THAT COULD SPREAD TO OTHER PARTS OF THE MASS MEDIA.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/medi
Claims of Tory-Murdoch pact 'absolute nonsense', says Jeremy Hunt
Shadow culture secretary reacts to Lord Mandelson's accusation that Tories have 'formed a contract' with News International
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Page last updated at 00:00 GMT, Tuesday, 5 February 2008
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Murdoch rules out bid for Yahoo
Rupert Murdoch has played down speculation that he is interested in launching a rival takeover bid for internet search engine Yahoo.
"We are definitely not going to make a bid for Yahoo," said the chairman of media giant News Corporation.
However, Mr Murdoch then added: "We are just not interested at this stage."
Yahoo received a $44.6bn (£22.65bn) takeover approach from software giant Microsoft on Friday. News Corporation was seen as a potential rival suitor.
Google's concern
While Yahoo's board continues to say it is considering its position, Microsoft says the proposed takeover would create a "strong number two competitor" to search engine leader Google. Google itself has said it finds Microsoft's unsolicited approach for Yahoo "troubling", and has called for it to be investigated by regulators.In a blog, Google said the tie-up could unfairly limit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors' email and instant messaging services. It said Microsoft had previously sought "to establish proprietary monopolies".
Online advertising
Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer counters that a combined Microsoft and Yahoo would better rival Google, and therefore create stronger competition in the market for online advertising. "Google's clearly got a dominant position. They've got about 75% of paid search worldwide," Mr Ballmer said. Despite Microsoft's deep pockets, the software giant has revealed it may have to go into debt for the first time to finance its $44.6bn combined cash and share offer for Yahoo. Microsoft's proposed bid, unveiled in a letter to Yahoo's board on Friday, is 62% above Yahoo's closing share price on Thursday. In addition to News Corporation, other firms named as potential rival Yahoo suitors are Time Warner, AT&T and Comcast.
Jeremy Hunt: 'There are no deals.' Photograph: David Levene
http://www.guardian.co.uk/medi
Claims of Tory-Murdoch pact 'absolute nonsense', says Jeremy Hunt Mark Sweney guardian.co.uk, Monday 16 November 2009 Article history
Jeremy Hunt, the shadow culture secretary, has dismissed as "absolute nonsense" accusations of a pact between the Conservatives and Rupert Murdoch to favour his media conglomerate and curb the BBC in return for support from the Sun.
Last week in the wake of the row over the Sun's coverage of Gordon Brown, business secretary Lord Mandelson claimed that the Conservative party had "effectively formed a contract" with Murdoch's UK newspaper subsidiary News International. Mandelsonalso questioned what concessions the Tories might have to give if they came to power. unt, in an interview with Sky News yesterday, said that the accusation of collusion was "completely wrong and totally improper". There are no deals. I think what Peter Mandelson said is extraordinary," he added. "If there was some deal between the Conservatives and News Corp, then what about Labour's deal in 1997 or 2001 or 2005? It's absolute nonsense. If you look at what we've been saying on media policy, it's been very, very consistent for the last two years." ater this week Hunt is expected to reiterate key aims of Conservative media policy in a speech at the Manchester Media Festival, outlining a vision of a "Big Bang" revolution through the relaxation of local cross-media ownership rules. unt will say that the UK media sector, which has been heavily hit by the advertising downturn, has been strangled because of "heavy-handed" and "micro regulation". The start must be massive reform of the cross-media ownership rules for local media operators," Hunt will say, according to an article in the Daily Telegraph. "We need to allow media operators more flexibility to own businesses operating on both the same and different platforms. We will strip away the regulations in the same way that Big Bang [deregulation] revolutionised the City [in 1986] to make it the major financial centre of the world." he Conservatives will also significantly strip the power of Ofcom, the media regulator, to make policy, while the BBC will face a cut in its next licence fee settlement when negotiations are held in 2012. unt is also seeking to see the BBC's digital activities curtailed, including BBC3, BBC4 and digital radio stations such as 1Xtra, 6Music and Radio 7. The BBC needs to make a better case for investment in some of its new digital channels which have very low audiences but do cost a lot of money," he said in an interview in the Sunday Times. "If we win the election there will be discussions we will be having with the BBC."
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Media
- News International ·
- News Corporation ·
- Rupert Murdoch ·
- The Sun ·
- National newspapers ·
- Newspapers ·
- Newspapers & magazines
- Jeremy Hunt ·
- Conservatives UK news
- 1989 5 February — Sky television launches DTH UK service via Astra satellite
- 1990 — Sky subscribers reach 1 million
- 1990 November — British Sky Broadcasting formed by merger of Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB). Murdoch
the majority shareholder through News International, BSB partners' Pearson, Reed, Charg eurs and Granada plc shareholdings were held through BSB Holdings Limited (BSBH) - 1991 — Of BSB's five channels; Now news programmes merged with Sky News and Sky Arts created to use Now programming, Galaxy merged with Sky One, The Sports Channel is rebranded to Sky Sports soon after the merger, and launches on Astra. This followed Sky's forced closure of its earlier venture Eurosport due to EU competition concerns. (The channel was later purchased by TF1 and relaunched.) The Movie Channel is retained and also launches on Astra. The Power Station remains broadcasting on Marcopolo until April.Sky One, Sky News and Sky Movies maintained.
- 1992 July — BSkyB sells the former BSB Marcopolo II satellite to Telenor
- 1992 — BSkyB signs exclusive live television rights deal with the FA Premier League
- 1992 31 December — BSkyB ceases transmissions to Marcopolo I satellite following the IBA's withdrawal of the BSB franchise. Despite re-advertising the franchise, and attracting a number of expressions of interest, the franchise was not re-awarded, and UK DBS trasmissions from 31 degrees west ended, effectively making Astra 1 the UK's default satellite position.
- 1993 1 September — "Sky Multichannel" packages launched
- 1993 — December — BSkyB sells the former BSB Marcopolo I satellite to NSAB
- 1994 — 17% of BSkyB is floated on the London and New York stock exchanges
- 1994 — Five more channels launch, including Sky Sports 2
- 1995 — Six more channels launched including History Channel and Disney Channel
- 1995 — BSkyB enter the FTSE 100 Index
- 1996 — BSkyB signs an extension of its Premier League rights for £670 million
- 1998 30 August — First of a new generation of Astra satellites launched, paving way for digital satellite television. Sky Digital launches on 1 October
- 1999 — Vivendi SA becomes sole shareholder of BSBH, which held 11.8% of BSkyB at the time. It also acquired the shareholding of Pathé through merger, bringing its total shareholding to 22% (as of 2001). BSkyB Chairman Jérôme Seydoux forced to resign due to sale of Pathé's interest; Murdoch takes Chairmanship to prevent Vivendi acquiring it (as it would be entitled to)
- 2001 — BSkyB signs 5 millionth subscriber. Analogue service discontinued
- 2001 — Sky+ introduced: A set top box/digital video recorder hybrid
- 2001 — December — Vivendi Universal sells part of its shareholding comprising 8% of the company, followed by the remaining 14% in May 2002
- 2002 — BSkyB takes an equal share of Freeview, in partnership with the BBC and Crown Castle (now part of National Grid)
- 2003 — James Murdoch elected as CEO, replacing Tony Ball
- 2003 — Sky subscribers reach 7.5 million
- 2003 — Sky acquires the television series 24 from Fox which was previously shown on the BBC
- 2004 1 November - ITV plc takes full control of GSkyB. Plus, one of GSB's channels, was closed down and replaced with ITV3.
- 2005 — BSkyB purchase network provider Easynet for £211m ($373.1m).[2]
- 2005 — Sky launches Sky by Broadband, a service available to existing movie and sports service subscribers that allows them to download movies and sports clips direct to their home computer. The service is made available free of charge
- 2006 — Sky HD launches on 22 May, with a line-up of 10 high definition channels
- 2006 — Sky acquires Mykindaplace.com to expand its internet presence
- 2006 — Sky acquires Aura Sports Ltd to expand its internet media sales presence
- 2006 — Sky achieves CarbonNeutral status[3]
- 2006 — Sky launches and allows pre-registering of its new broadband service
- 2006 — Sky is listed as one of the applicants for the licence to manage Ireland's digital terrestrial television network
- 2006 — Sky acquires Season 3 and 4 of Lost in a multi-million pound deal with Buena Vista International Television (previous series were shown on Channel 4)
- 2006 — Sky controversially acquires 17.9% stake in ITV, Britain's largest free-to-air commercial broadcaster, blocking NTL's proposal.
- 2006 — Sky rebrands VoD services, such as Sky By Broadband, as Sky Anytime, adding US imports to on-demand content.
- 2007 — Sky announces plans to launch pay channels on the digital terrestrial platform.[4]
- 2007 — Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Alistair Darling asks media regulator Ofcom to investigate Sky's purchase of a stake in ITV plc.[5]
- 2007 — Sky's increased price demands causes Virgin Media to not renew the contract to provide Sky basic channels (effective from 1 March 2007) after negotiations falls through.[6]
- 2007 — BSkyB acquire electronics manufacturer Amstrad for a reported £133 million.[7]
- 2007 29 October — Sky Broadband reach 1 million customer mark.[8]
- 2007 29 October — BSkyB offer to give up part of their ITV voting rights after a ruling from the Competition Commission.[9]
- 2008 10 November — BSkyB announces that they will offer online TV. Satellite TV channels to be broadcast over the internet. No satellite receiver needed.[10]
- 2009 17 February — BSkyB announces that they will be replacing over 90,000 Sky+HD boxes due to a technical fault. Boxes will be replaced for free and customers will receive three months of HD services, free of charge. BSkyB have never confirmed the official reason for the recall, however have stated that the recall was not due to a safety issue.[11]
- 2009 19 October Sky unveils the Sky Songsmusic subscription service. For £6.49/month users can download 10 mp3s, and get unlimited streaming of over 4 million tracks. For £7.49/month, users get an additional 5 mp3s/month (a total of 15 tracks per month) plus the streaming service.
- British Sky Broadcasting Ltd
Operating company for the Sky pay-television service. - Sky Television Ltd
The original Sky Television plc, now a holding company - Sports Internet Group Ltd
Sports content and online betting services. - British Interactive Broadcasting Holdings Ltd
Interactive television services, formerly an alliance of BSkyB, BT Group, HSBC and Matsushita. - Easynet Ltd
Network infrastructure for Sky Broadband, Easynet connect, UK Online, and third party corporate customers. - Mykindaplace.com
Being both an agency and a media owner, run many successful sites. - Aura Sports Ltd
Media Sales Agency, sells advertising on the majority of premiership football club websites, as well as other major sports. - Aura Play Ltd
Another Media Sales Agency, sells advertising across a number of websites in the music and entertainment sector. - Sky Ireland
Operating company for Sky pay-television service in the Republic of Ireland. - Nickelodeon UK (and related channels) (40%) (with MTV Networks Europe)
- AETN UK (50%) (with A&E Television Networks)
- Comedy Central & Comedy Central Extra (UK) (25%) (with MTV Networks Europe)
- Australian News Channel Pty Limited (33.3%) Operates Sky News Australia with Seven Network and PBL Media
- MUTV Limited (33.3%)
- Chelsea Digital Media (35%) - owner of Chelsea TV.
- Attheraces Holdings Limited (47.5%)
- ITV plc (17.9%)
- Freeview (25%)
- Bakrie & Brothers (5%)
- At The Races
- Sky Active
- Sky Arts 1
- Sky Arts 2
- Sky Arts 1 HD
- Sky Arts 2 HD
- Sky Box Office (pay-per-view) - 50 screens
- Sky Box Office Previews
- Sky Box Office Events (pay-per-view)
- Sky Box Office HD 1 & 2
- Sky Movies Premiere, Premiere+1, Comedy, Classics, Family, Modern Greats, Indie, Sci-Fi & Horror, Action & Thriller, Screen 1, Screen 2 and Drama.
- Sky Movies HD Premiere, Comedy, Action & Thriller, Family, Drama, Sci-Fi & Horror, Modern Greats, Indie, Screen 1 and Screen 2
- Sky News - Free-to-air
- Sky1
- Sky1 HD
- Sky2
- Sky3- Free-to-view
- Sky Sports 1–3
- Sky Sports HD 1-3
- Sky Sports Xtra
- Sky Sports News- Free-to-view on Freeview only
- Sky Real Lives
- Sky Real Lives +1
- Sky Real Lives 2
- Sky Real Lives HD
- Sky Travel
- Sky Vegas and Sky Poker
- Sky Digital (UK & Ireland) EPG
- Sky Broadband
- Sky Kids magazine
- Sky Magazine
- Sky Picnic
- Telecommunication convergence
- SES Astra
- Sky Digital (UK & Ireland) EPG
- Sky Broadband
- Sky Kids magazine
- Sky Magazine
- Sky Picnic
- Telecommunication convergence
- SES Astra
- ^ Crisis talks to rescue Setanta TV
- ^ "BSkyB swoops on internet provider". BBC News. 21 October 2005.
- ^ The Climate Group
- ^ "Sky to launch subscription competitor to Freeview". Brand Republic. 8 February 2007. Retrieved 23 May 2009.
- ^ Tryhorn, Chris (26 February 2007). "Darling steps into Sky–ITV row". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 March 2007.
- ^ "Sky dispute sees Virgin Media lose customers". The Daily Telegraph. 26 February 2007. Retrieved 11 May 2007.
- ^ "BSkyB agrees £125m Amstrad deal". BBC News. 31 July 2007. Retrieved 31 July 2007.
- ^ "BSkyB passes 1 million broadband customers". Reuters. 29 October 2007. Retrieved 29 October 2007.
- ^ "BSkyB offers ITV vote surrender". BBC News. 29 October 2007. Retrieved 29 October 2007.
- ^ "BSkyB announces that they will offer online TV channels via the internet.". Dish Check Dish TV News. 10 November 2008. Retrieved 10 November 2008.
- ^ "Sky to replace 90,000 HD boxes.". BBC Newsbeat. 17 February 2009. Retrieved 17 February 2009.
- ^ Bell, Emily (5 November 2003). "Rupert and the joys of nepotism". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 March 2007.
- ^ BSkyB - Investor Relations - Press Release
- ^ http://www.callcentrehelper.
com/75-new-jobs-boost-for- cardiff-3417.htm - ^ "Consumer Panel asks Ofcom to step in to resolve Virgin and BSkyB dispute". 14 March 2006.
- ^ "NCC demands action on dispute between Virgin Media and BSkyB". 1 March 2007.
- ^ "Market investigation into the pay TV industry". 20 March 2007.
- ^ BSkyB bid £160m for Virgin Media TV channels
- ^ a b Multiple HD channels to launch on Virgin
- ^ Virgin to show Channel 4 content in HD
- ^ Virgin Media in HD content deal with Channel 4
- ^ No more Virgin HD despite Sky launches
- ^ Virgin - we only need one HD channel
- ^ Virgin to add linear HD channels
- ^ Virgin Media working on HD
- ^ Sky statement on Virgin dispute
- ^ Sky breached code over Virgin promotions
- ^ BBC News
- ^ Rapture TV
- ^ Rapture TV
- ^ "BSkyB and Virgin Media Sign New Channel Carriage Agreements". skyuser.co.uk. 1 March 2007. Retrieved 4 November 2008.
- ^ "Virgin pays Sky £30m for basic channels". digitalspy.co.uk. 1 March 2007. Retrieved 6 November 2008.
- ^ Oatts, Joanne (8 February 2007). "Sky to launch new DTT service". Digital Spy. Retrieved 5 March 2007.
- ^ Quinn, Ian (5 March 2007). "Sky rethinks Freeview exit and football strategy". Brand Republic. Retrieved 5 March 2007.
- ^ NTL (9 November 2006). "Ntl Incorporated Discussions with ITV plc". Press release. Retrieved 6 December 2006.
- ^ ITV plc (9 November 2006). "ITV and NTL 'in merger talks'". Press release. Retrieved 6 December 2006.
- ^ Welsh, James (17 November 2006). "Sky buys 17.9% of ITV". Digital Spy. Retrieved 6 December 2006.
- ^ Wilkes, Neil (20 November 2006). "Sky/ITV: Branson statement in full". Digital Spy. Retrieved 6 December 2006.
- ^ Welsh, James (21 November 2006). "Ofcom examines impact of Sky's ITV stake". Digital Spy. Retrieved 6 December 2006.
- ^ Oatts, Joanne (6 December 2006). "NTL complains about Sky as it drops plans for ITV Ofcom". Digital Spy. Retrieved 6 December 2006.
- ^ Oatts, Joanne (16 November 2006). "RTL to make ITV decision this week". Digital Spy. Retrieved 6 December 2006.
- ^ "Sky HDTV launch runs into trouble". BBC News. 22 May 2006. Retrieved 5 March 2007.
- ^ 498,000 Sky+ HD customers by 30 June 2008 – BSkyB results for the twelve months ended 30 June 2008
- ^ ;Douglas, Torin (12 March 1999). "Murdoch's rise to the top". BBC News. Retrieved 5 March 2007.
- ^ "Setanta joins Premiership action". BBC News. 5 May 2006. Retrieved 5 March 2007.
- ^ What Do I Get? | Sport On Demand | BT Vision
- ^ Free match highlights - Sport - Virgin Media
- ^ "BSkyB's new Sky+ advert claims to show What Women Think". Tech Digest. 14 September 2007. Retrieved 14 September 2007.
- ^ "Sky Player comes to Xbox Live". CNET. 14 September 2007. Retrieved 29 May 2009.
- ^ TUNING GUIDE FOR ALL UK FTA CHANNELS, Posters on www.boards.ie, 14 September 2007, retrieved 29 June 2009
Politics
More news
More on this story Greenslade: Even rightwing pundits turn on Sun Brown and Murdoch had 'friendly' talk Mandelson warns on Sun-Tory deal
The secret plot to stop Murdoch
In a couple of months' time, high-street shops will start selling a £99 box that can bring free-to-air digital channels to every home. The machine is part of a drive to convert the nation to digital television by a new alliance of BBC and ITV. n a couple of months' time, high-street shops will start selling a £99 box that can bring free-to-air digital channels to every home. The machine is part of a drive to convert the nation to digital television by a new alliance of BBC and ITV. he genesis of that alliance is as remarkable as the technology in the new £99 box. It springs from a series of secret meetings at 10 Downing Street. Those meetings, sanctioned by the Prime Minister and involving figures as senior as the BBC director-general Greg Dyke, had one overriding aim: stop Rupert Murdoch. r Dyke, as well as executives from ITV and senior figures from the City, were called in to Downing Street to discuss with the Prime Minister's media policy adviser Ed Richards, ways of stopping Murdoch's inexorable drive to control all paid-for digital television in Britain. t is not just Rupert Murdoch who has been kept out of the new secret loop. Tessa Jowell, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, has been bypassed. The industry figures went straight to Downing Street with their concerns – a damaging snub to Ms Jowell. The background to these meetings is the Government's commitment to switching off the traditional analogue TV signal between 2006 and 2010. After that, only a digital signal will be available. There are three ways to get digital TV: via cable, satellite or through an ordinary aerial (terrestrial). The cable network will never cover the whole nation. That leaves only satellite (BSkyB) or terrestrial, available from ITV Digital, as the national platforms. he trouble is that, despite the success of its monkey ad campaign and attracting 1.2 million subscribers, ITV Digital is in dire financial trouble. So the BBC and ITV have come together in an initiative dubbed the "digital coalition", with the support of government, to reinvent and save the terrestrial platform. The clandestine grouping, which insiders admit is an "anti-Murdoch alliance", began over the summer. Charles Allen, the chairman of Granada, one of the two main ITV companies, wrote a private letter to Tony Blair in June. In it he said that ITV Digital was bleeding cash and was threatened with closure. This was disastrous news for Downing Street. The Government needs ITV Digital to survive, both to provide an alternative to Sky and to bring on board the majority of the population that still don't have digital TV. The aspiration of Digital Britain was in tatters," says one senior TV source. "Since it realised this, No 10 has been involved and kept briefed." d Richards, No 10's newly appointed special adviser on media, and a former BBC policy researcher, took the lead. A procession of executives from ITV, the BBC and the City were called in to Downing Street, including Greg Dyke, to discuss a way to save ITV Digital. By late September, the BBC and ITV were convinced that a solution to both their problems lay in joining forces, and serious talks between the two broadcasters began. or the BBC, this is a crucial project. The corporation has launched a series of channels that are available only on digital TV, and with more planned, such as BBC4, to start next month, it must ensure that there is a way of getting these stations to the licence-fee payers that have funded them. The new channels are free; but, to see them, viewers have to sign up to a pay-TV service. For the last year, Greg Dyke, has been trying to resolve this conundrum. he Government knows that 15.5 million households do not have access to digital TV, and that, as things stand, the majority of these citizens will still not have it by 2010. How can it then switch off analogue TV, and sell off this spectrum? Furthermore, Mr Blair was as horrified as the BBC by the prospect that all television in this country may soon have to depend on Murdoch, to be beamed into our homes on Sky. So a rescue plan has been hatched by the BBC and ITV. The proposed way out of this mess is to break the link between digital TV and pay-TV. Although Britain leads the world in digital TV, with almost 40 per cent of the population signed up to one of the pay-TV services, take-up is now slowing down. Sky launched its services in 1989 and has gained over 5.5 million customers. But it is feared that most of those that can be tempted have already forked out for a subscription – the most popular Sky package costs £444 a year. Not everyone wants 200 channels and the financial drain of a subscription. Getting the rest of the country on board requires a different approach, according to the digital coalition, which has spent months plotting a new course. An announcement confirming the coalition is due in the next few weeks. Instead of getting a free set-top box with an ITV Digital subscription, which costs an average of £225 a year, consumers would be asked to spend a much smaller amount, say £100 or less, as a one-off payment to buy a basic digital terrestrial box themselves. This would enable them to receive all the free-to-air channels and then, if desired, this box could be upgraded to subscribe to the premium channels available on ITV Digital. Last week, Mr Dyke told a Commons select committee that BBC research showed that two million homes would be willing to buy a cut-price box. All the pieces of the digital terrestrial rescue plan are, then, falling into place. A marketing drive to promote free-to-air content is imminent – with the BBC alone committed to spend £20m on the campaign. Rupert Murdoch will be furious if the new campaign specifically promotes digital terrestrial rather than digital television generally. But if the plan comes off, Sky may just be forced to give one or two of its channels away for free, too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
British Sky Broadcasting From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
History
Origins
Early years
Move to Digital
Timeline
Corporate information
Management
Rupert Murdoch's News International (a wholly owned subsidiary of News Corporation) currently has a 38% stake in the company. News Corp also fully owns Sky Italia, about 78% of New Zealand's SKY Network Television Limited and b.net of Croatia andMontenegro.
The first CEO of BSkyB was Sam Chisholm, who was CEO of Sky TV before the merger. Chisholm served in this position until 1997. He was followed by Mark Booth who was credited with leading the company through the introduction of Sky Digital. Tony Ball was appointed in 1999 and completed the company's analogue to digital conversion. He is also credited with returning the company to profit and bringing subscriber numbers to new heights. In 2003 Ball announced his resignation and James Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch was announced as his successor. This appointment caused allegations of nepotism from shareholders.[12]
On 7 December 2007 it was announced that Rupert Murdoch would be stepping down as BSkyB's Non-Executive Chairman and would be replaced by his Son, James. It was also announced that James would be stepping down as CEO of BSkyB and will be replaced by Jeremy Darroch [13]
Organisation
[edit]Direct subsidiaries
Joint ventures
Others
Competition
Virgin Media - Main Competition
At present the other major pay-TV operator in the United Kingdom is the service provider Virgin Media (Rebranded in 2007 from NTL:Telewest). Virgin Media's cable network was also formed by numerous mergers and acquisiti
Virgin Media currently includes Virgin Media Television, previously the content arm of Telewest known as Flextech Television, which owns several channels, including the Sky1's direct rival Virgin1 and a 50% stake in the UKTV network. Virgin is understood to be seeking to sell this business, and as at May 29, 2009, BSkyB is understood to have made the largest bid at auction.[18]
Like Sky, Virgin Media offers a high-definition television (HDTV) capable set top box, although from 30 November 2006 until 30 July 2009 it only carried one linear HD channel, BBC HD, after the conclusion of the ITV HD trial. Virgin has claimed that other HD channels were "locked up" or otherwise withheld from their platform[19], although Virgin did in fact have an option to carry Channel 4 HD in the future[20][21]. Nonetheless, the linear channels were not offered, Virgin instead concentrating on its Video On Demand service[22] to carry a modest selection of HD content.[23] Virgin has nevertheless made a number of statements[19][24][25] over the years, suggesting that more linear HD channels are on the way.
In Q3 2009 Virgin announced that it was making more linear HD channels available on its platform, including FX HD, MTVN HD, Channel 4 HD, and National Geographic HD. Also expected to follow shortly is Living HD.
In 2007, BSkyB and Virgin Media became involved in a dispute over the carriage of Sky channels on cable TV. The failure to renew the existing carriage agreements negotiated with NTL and Telewest resulted in Virgin removing the basic channels from the network on 1 March 2007. Virgin claimed that Sky had substantially increased the asking price for the channels, a claim which Sky denied, on the basis that their new deal offered "substantially more value" by including HD channels and Video On Demand content which was not previously carried by cable.[26]
In response, Sky ran a number of TV, radio and print advertisements claiming that Virgin media 'doubted the value' of the channels concerned, at first urging Virgin customers to call their cable operator to show their support for Sky, but later urging Virgin customers to migrate to Sky to continue receiving the channels. The broadcasting regulator Ofcom subsequently found these commercials in breach of their code.[27]
The availability (at an extra charge) of Sky's premium sport and movie services was not effected by the dispute. This impasse continued for twenty-one months, with both companies initiating High Court proceedings.[28] Amongst Virgin's claims to the court[29] (denied by Sky)[30] were that Sky had unfairly reduced the amount which it paid to VMTV for the carriage of Virgin's own channels on satellite.
Eventually, on 4 November 2008 it was announced that an agreement had been struck for Sky's Basic channels – including Sky1, Sky2, Sky3, Sk
The agreements include fixed annual carriage fees of £30m for the channels with both channel suppliers able to secure additional capped payments if their channels meet certain performance-related targets. Currently there is no indication as to whether the new deal includes the additional Video On Demand and High Definition content which had previously been offered by Sky. As part of the agreements, both Sky and Virgin Media agreed to terminate all High Court proceedings against each other relating to the carriage of their respective basic channels.[32]
[edit]Television over ADSL services
Sky is facing increased competition from telecommunications providers delivering pay television services over existing telephone lines using ADSL. Such providers are potentially able to offer "triple-play" or "quad-play" packages combining land-line telephone, broadband Internet, mobile telephone and pay television services.
In the final quarter of 2006, BT, the UK's biggest Telephone company, launched BT Vision. The BT Vision set-top box, provides true Video on Demand (VoD) over BT's telephone lines using ADSL. The set-top-box complements the VoD component by providing access to the Freeview digital terrestrial television service. Tiscali TV also offers an IPTV service with many channels, including Sky's channels, delivered to a set top box over ADSL.
To compete with these providers, in October 2005, BSkyB bought the broadband Internet Service Provider Easynet for £211 million. This acquisition has allowed BSkyB to start offering its "Sky Anytime on PC" service as well as a "triple play" package combining satellite television, land-line telephone and Broadband service. Sky also offers some streaming live TV channels to a computer using Microsoft's Silverlight.
Digital Terrestrial Television
BSkyB initially faced competition from the ONdigital digital terrestrial television service (later renamed ITV Digital). ITV Digital failed for numerous reasons, including, but not limited to numerous administrative and technical failures, nervous investors after a large down-turn in the advertising market and the dot com crash, and BSkyB's aggressive marketing and domination of premium sporting rights.
Sky was more receptive to ITV Digital's free-to-air
Terrestrial television companies currently have limited bandwidth. This means that, at present, there is little or no option to offer HD services, until after the final analogue television services are switched off in 2012 freeing up substantial bandwidth.
In a response to the push towards Free to Air services such as Freesat and Freeview, BSkyB has marketed its own free to view offering (Freesat from Sky).
On 8 February 2007, Sky announced its intention to replace its three free-to-air digital terrestrial channels with four subscription channels. It was proposed that these channels would offer a range of content from the Sky portfolio including sport (including English Premiership Football), movies, entertainment and news.[33] The announcement came a day after Setanta Sportsconfirmed that it would launch in March as a subscription service on the digital terrestrial platform, and on the same day that NTL's services rebranded as Virgin Media. However, industry sources believe Sky will be forced to shelve plans to withdraw its channels from Freeview and replace them with subscription channels, due to possible lost advertising revenue.[34]
Stake in ITV plc
Future
EPG
Sky has developed a new version of its Sky Guide electronic programme guide (EPG) service, which includes new genres, easier access to channels, and a complete renumbering system. It also includes new hotkeys to get into new menus quicker. This is the biggest change to the Sky EPG since its launch in 1998.
On Demand services
High Definition TV (HDTV)
BSkyB launched its HDTV service, Sky+ HD, on 22 May 2006. Leading up to the launch, Sky claimed that 40,000 people had signed up to the HD service. However, in the week before the launch rumours started to surface that Sky was having supply problems of its Set Top Box (STB) from manufacturer Thomson. Starting on Thursday 18 May, and then all through the weekend before launch, people were reporting that Sky had either cancelled or rescheduled its installations. Finally, the BBC reported that 17,000 customers had been let down for the launch due to failed deliveries.[42] Some customers reported installations were only cancelled on the day of the launch. The episode was widely seen as being very embarrassing for Sky, who until that point had been extremely conservative in new service launch schedules. The supply problems were resolved shortly after launch.
According to figures published by Sky, there were 591,000 subscribers to the Sky HD service by 30 September 2008.[43]
Football rights
BSkyB's purchase of broadcast rights for major sporting events, most importantly Premiership football, has been the bedrock of its success. The company paid over £300 million for thePremier League rights, beating the BBC and ITV, and has had a monopoly of live matches since the inception of the Premier League in 1992. Murdoch has described sport as a "battering ram" for pay-television, providing a strong customer base.[44]
However, following a lengthy legal battle with the European Commission, which deemed the exclusivity of the rights to be against the interests of competition and the consumer, BSkyB's monopoly came to an end from the 2007–08 season. In May 2006 the Irish broadcaster Setanta Sports was awarded two of the six Premiership packages that the English FA offered to broadcasters. Sky picked up the remaining four for £1.3 billion.[45]
BT offer a pay per view service of selected Premier League matches through their BT Vision service[46], and Virgin Media offer free highlights on the Virgin Media website.
In September 2008, BT announced that it is thinking of bidding for live Premier League matches when the bidding starts in January 2009.[47]
Set Top Boxes and conditional access
Xbox 360 tie-up
Channel restrictions in the Republic of Ireland
Television channels operated by BSkyB
See also
"Outdated rules on media ownership have hampered growth and adaptation for too long," Kim Howells, Culture Minister
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_
Wednesday, 8 May, 2002, 05:03 GMT 06:03 UK
The government has said it wants to scrap the law banning large newspaper groups from buying Channel 5 and radio licences.
But newspaper groups would still be barred from owning a significant stake in the mass-market ITV.
Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell announced the proposals as she unveiled the government's long-awaited Communications Bill in the Commons on Tuesday.
The Bill potentially clears the way for the two biggest ITV companies, Carlton and Granada, to merge.
It also sets out tougher regulations for the BBC, to create a level-playing field with commercial broadcasters.
It would also allow media moguls from outside the EU to buy some broadcasting companies.
Protecting diversity
"For far too long the UK's media have been over-regulated and over-protected from competition," Ms Jowell told MPs. She said she wanted liberalise the market but at the same time protect the diversity and plurality of theUK's media. Due to the complex nature of the government's proposals there would be further period of consultation with the media industry and full scrutiny by both houses of Parliament, she stressed. The draft bill proposes a new "light touch" regulator Ofcom - to replace existing bodies such as the Independent Television Commission (ITC) and telecom regulator Oftel. This would act as a "one-stop" shop for all complaints. Under the proposals, companies outside the EU would be able to bid for ITV companies for the first time. But regional ITV programmes would be protected by core safeguards designed to ensure there are a "range of voices" locally and nationally.
ITN concern
Carlton and Granada would no longer be prevented from merging by media law - but they would still be subject to Competition Commission scrutiny. "We will through tough content regulation ensure that we preserve the distinctiveness of British broadcasting while opening up the possibility of investment from all over the world," Ms Jowell told MPs.
She said ownership rules of news provider ITN would also be changed, following recent concerns about the quality of its service.
Opposition reaction
Shadow Culture Secretary Tim Yeo broadly welcomed the liberalisation of the broadcasting market.
But he said "the acid test" of the government's proposals would be whether regulation would operate "with a light touch rather than a heavy hand".
Nick Harvey, for the Liberal Democrats, also welcomed the "general direction" of the draft Bill.
But he called for a stronger commitment to improving ITV's news service and protecting regional programming.
Meanwhile a spokesman for Mr Murdoch's company said: "News International welcomes the overall deregulatory approach laid out in the announcement today.
"We have yet to study the government's detailed proposals and the draft bill."
'No Murdoch clause'
Channel 5 declined to comment on the proposals until station chiefs had been able to look at their full implications. But the organisations that will make up Ofcom said: "We welcome publication of the draft Communications Bill and the move towards a modern and flexible regulatory framework for the converging communications sector. "The communications industry will benefit from a more flexible approach to regulation, minimising regulatory burdens and providing consistency across all communications networks." But Julian Petley, who is chairman of the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, expressed concern at the "rolling back of regulatory safeguards in the media". "Now we will see power concentrated in the hands of unaccountable bureaucrats and media owners," he said. In the Commons there was concern that the new laws would lead to a takeover of Channel 5 by Mr Murdoch's News Corporation, which owns 32% of the British newspaper market. Under existing rules anyone who controls more than 20% of the national newspaper market is prevented from controlling a terrestrial television licence. In a briefing for reporters, ministers were careful to guard against suggestions that they were giving Mr Murdoch any special favours. Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt said the proposals were "proprietor neutral". And asked about the possibility the plans could become known as the "Murdoch clause", Culture Minister Kim Howells replied: "Not if I have anything to do with it."
WATCH/LISTEN ON THIS STORY
The BBC's Rory Cellan Jones "For Rupert Murdoch, another door is opening"
Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell "The important thing is that we secure diversity"
Former Sunday Times Editor Andrew Neill "He [Murdoch] would not get a good return for it"
TALKING POINT
Murdoch move? Should media ownership laws be relaxed?
IN DEPTH
Broadcasting Charting its past, present and digital future
See also: 07 May02 TV&Radio Communications Bill at a glance, 07 May02 Politics Culture Secretary's speech in full. 30 Jul01 TV&Radio Keeping tabs on TV
Internet links: Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Communications White Paper
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/bus
