by Angela Phillips The appointment of George Osborne, a Conservative MP and former chancellor of the exchequer, as editor of the Evening Standard was, to put it mildly, a surprise to many. But Osborne’s appointment only makes more explicit the newspaper’s close ties to the Conservative Party We carried out research on the Standard when it was edited by Sarah Sands, who … [Read more...]
Murdoch buying Murdoch – nothing to worry about?
by Des Freedman When information leaked out last weekend about BSkyB’s proposal to buy 21st Century Fox’s share of pay-TV channels Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland in order to build a Sky Europe brand, there was a flurry of interest in the business press. Given that Rupert Murdoch’s Fox owns 39% of BSkyB, 57% of Sky Deutschland and 100% of Sky Italia, you might have thought … [Read more...]
Murdoch and Media Power – Déjà Vu All Over Again?
Thursday sees the announcement of half-year results from BSkyB. There may be a slight dent in its relentless profitability following recent competition from BT for Premier League rights, but there's unlikely to be a major deviation from the last full-year results: annual revenues of £7.2billion with an annual operating profit of £1.3billion. One and a third billion is an awful … [Read more...]
When “measuring” is a substitute for action: the government’s consultation on media ownership
By Des Freedman Right in the middle of the summer, and without much fanfare, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has published two documents that reveal its plans for the media and communication sectors. Perhaps it thought that no one would notice. The first is a ‘strategy document’, Connectivity, Content and Consumers, effectively a white paper on digital … [Read more...]
Will the Financial Times be the latest jewel in the Murdoch crown?
Rumours swirled across the international media this week that Rupert Murdoch, in partnership with the state media of Abu Dhabi, was plotting to buy the Financial Times. The story was ardently denied; Pearson, the current owner of those venerable salmon-pink pages, said the FT was "not for sale" and that it was an "important part of Pearson's strategy". Nor is it the first … [Read more...]
Our Media, Not Theirs: report from the Media Reform rally, 17 June
This post is reproduced, with kind permission, from the website of the National Union of Journalists. It does not represent our views, but does offer a fair summary of the rally that night. As the explosive events in Turkey played out on news networks and Twitter around the world, and protesters were being attacked in Taksim Square by the police, the Turkish national news … [Read more...]
The case for caps: how to make media ownership policy work
By Justin Schlosberg Last night’s Radio 4 Media Show featured an interview with shadow culture secretary Harriet Harman where she was pressed by Steve Hewlett on the burgeoning issue of what to do about media plurality. In response, she reiterated Labour’s support for a system of thresholds to be applied to media ownership – particularly in respect of newspapers – arguing … [Read more...]