On 5 January 2012 Ofcom, the Uk media regulator, published the responses to its consultation on measuring media plurality.
My response appears among the 30 documents Ofcom receveid on this specific issue and it’s available here. A summary of my analysis is also available on medialaws.eu here.
Making public data accessible to every citizen is not solely about encouraging a better informed and more transparent society. It can also lead to economic gains, as a result of re-use or recombination of these data in creative ways. This is the perspective that has driven the European Commission to launch an Open Data Strategy, following the examples of other governments’ initiatives in the field – such as the US (data.gov), the UK (data.gov.uk) and very recently also the French Government (data.gouv.fr). This includes a commendable commitment from the Commission to make its own data available, but in the current atmosphere, its plans for open data across the member states may meet resistance.
“The real message I want to send to public authorities today is: don’t wait for this package [the Open Data Strategy] to become law. You can give your data away now, and generates revenue and jobs, and even save money from the better information and decisions that will flow”, Commission Vice-President Neelie Kroes said during a press conference on 12 December…
It has been more than four months now since Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation decided to withdraw its bid to fully acquire British Sky Broadcasting (BSkYB) on 13 July 2011. Although that decision put an end to a case which had kept the British media and public opinion in upheaval for more than a year, it did not stop the debate on how a plural media environment can be both regulated and enforced. While the Leveson inquiry is now investigating the ethics and freedom of the press after the so called ‘phone-hacking’ scandal, Ofcom – the UK media regulator – has recently launched a specific consultation on measuring media plurality.
The consultation aims to collect evidence on several aspects of media plurality in order to implement future regulation in the field. In particular, Ofcom asks which approach should be adopted to measure plurality and whether setting absolute limits on news market share would be an advisable solution. Regarding these questions, a few suggestions can be drawn on the basis of recent research which I carried out at the London School of Economics…
In March 2010 the European Commission launched the “Europe 2020 Strategy”, a wide and comprehensive plan for fostering sustainable and inclusive growth within the European area. One of the main flagship of this ambitious plan is the so called Digital Agenda, which aims at delivering “sustainable economic and social benefits from a digital single market based on fast and ultra fast internet and interoperable applications”. However, Europe’s strategy is not just about improving access to infrastructure or applying digital technologies to public services. It also means breaking down cross-country regulatory barriers and adopting harmonization measures among national regulators.
Recently, a €9.2 billion investment was proposed by the EU Commission to boost Digital Agenda’s goals in improving internet access.. This funding – which now waits for both the European Parliament and the EU’s Council of Ministers’ approval – should sustain pan-European public and private projects to improve internet infrastructures. In addition it will support investements in areas where delivering broadband is less attractive, such as countrysides or little densely populated areas. The EU Commission considers that this intervention could leverage a significant amount of public and private investements, which would account for a total of between 50 and 100 billion euros…
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In cosa consiste la crisi del debito pubblico? Cosa significa questo onnipresente spread? Quali misure sono state adottate dalle varie manovre estive per arginare la crisi? Nell’arco di sei minuti, il video “La crisi del debito in Europa” ripercorre lo svolgersi degli ultimi mesi in cui nell’occhio del ciclone della crisi finanziaria è entrata dapprima la Grecia, poi sempre più pericolosamente anche l’Italia.
In early July, a genuinely international group of young scholars and regulators gathered for the 13th annual Annenberg/Oxford Media Policy Summer Institute.
Organised by the Centre for Global Communication Studies at the Annenberg School for Communication and the Programme for Comparative Media Law and Policy at University of Oxford, the two-week programme addressed a wide range of media policy issues, focusing not only on recent Western debates, but also on new media systems in conflict and post-conflict countries. A common feature of the sessions was the open and interactive environment. Constantly encouraged by Professor Monroe Price, participants added their rich international perspectives to the presentations. These can be grouped in four general areas.
Read the entire entry on the LSE Research Newsletter – August 2011 (page 7)
The UK Government remains consistent in its commitment to roll out “superfast” broadband across the country. But what does superfast broadband mean and will having superfast broadband in the UK really give the increased in capacity and access to global content that it should?
A July report from Ofcom on internet speeds and research presented at the Annenberg/Oxford Media Policy Summer Institute paint a surprising picture of what speed consumers really get and the other limits to online capacity and access. It turns out that the network we rely on is often much slower than advertised and extremely centralised, despite the common mantra of a global and widespread infrastructure.
Ofcom’s data shows that the average UK broadband speed increased by 10 per cent from November 2010 (6.2Mbit/s) to May 2011 (6.8Mbit/s), but, at the same time, the gap between actual speeds and advertised (‘up to’) speeds also increased. While millions of Britons in May 2011 were being sold an average advertised speed of 15Mbit/s, they were actually surfing the internet at less than half that speed.
Though the report shows that superfast broadband services are now available to more than half of UK households, over 75 per cent of UK residential broadband connections are still delivered by copper ADSL telephone lines…
On 13 July 2011 Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation announced its decision to drop the bid to take full control of the satellite broadcaster BSkyB. The mounting pressure following the latest phone-hacking scandal’s revelations forced News Corp to put an end to a deal which started about a year ago and went through a series of complete reversals. As News Corp deputy chairman and president Chase Carey said, “It has become clear that it is too difficult to progress in this climate”.
Read the full dossier on the News Corp/BSkyB case which I prepared for the LSE Media Policy Project. It contains links to key government and regulatory documents, in addition to a series of press articles which explain the story step by step.
I gave a brief presentation on the News Corp/BSkyB case at the Annenberg/Oxford Media Policy Summer Institute. The following is the summary of the slides:
1.The UK regulatory framework and the Public Interest Test
2.News Corp/BSkyB: the story step by step
3.Murdoch‟s grip over UK media
4.Assessing media plurality: the role of OFCOM
Discussing the role of public service content (PSC) in the digital media landscape keeps raising the old unsolved question: can the market deliver? A Westminster Media Forum conference on June 22nd focused the market failure question on public service plurality: with ad revenues in a long term decline at Channels 3, 4, and 5; how to support public service content that competes with the BBC?
With the UK Government embarking in a wide communications review and Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt calling for evidence about “regulatory barriers to investment in content”, providing an answer to this dilemma will prove to be crucial. Hinting that Ofcom’s view remains that markets do fail, the senior Ofcom figure Chris Woollard caused ripples when he stated that ‘retransmission fees’ were a part of this debate. This is the view that to plug the funding gap for PSB, Sky may be required to pay to carry ITV and other major broadcast channels, rather than have them pay for carriage. This idea – which was first put on the agenda by BBC DG Mark Thompson in a speech last year, was strongly rejected by Sky and others present…