Digital & Social Media – Broadcasters -vs- Google

Channel 4 chief executive Andy Duncan has joined Michael Grade in attacking Google, branding its failure to invest in UK content creation unfair.

Just weeks after the ITV executive chairman called the search engine a “parasite”, Duncan told Broadcast it was time Google started “giving back” to create a level playing field with broadcasters.

He said: “Google takes more ad revenue out of the UK than ITV makes and it is not regulated. It isn’t fair that it’s not reinvesting that back into content and independent film production companies in the UK.”

Culture secretary Andy Burnham has indicated the government is keen to step up regulation of the internet and new minister for communication, technology and broadcasting Stephen Carter is considering the issue in his Digital Britain review.

Digital & Social Media – Government Policy

The UK Government has promised a report early in 2009 containing recommendations of potential improvements which could be made in the country’s digital economy.

The Communications, Technology and Broadcasting Minister, Stephen Carter, will spearhead the Government’s “Digital Britain Report” (DBR) – promised by the spring of 2009 – which will look mainly at closing the digital divide in Britain but also at how content is provided.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: “The objectives the DBR will look to deliver are open markets; empowered and informed consumers and citizens; universal access to high-quality content, a responsive, up-to-date regulatory framework and, importantly, a world-leading position for the UK in this critical sector.”

UK Council for Child Internet Safety Launches
The UK Government launched its programme to help protect children from exposure to potentially harmful content on the Internet, including some forms of advertising.

The new UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) aims to bring together more than 100 organisations from the public and private sector working to protect children from exposure to harmful content online, such as pornography, gaming and certain types of advertising.

The UK Government is the first in Europe to launch such a project to address internet safety for children. A similar project was launched in the US earlier this year featuring many of the same companies involved in the UKCCIS. The Internet Safety Technical Task Force (ISTTF), however, is more business-focused.

Digital & Social Media – Outlook

The digital media sector has been one of the few bright lights in wider economic gloom, although there are mixed messages as to the level of online advertising expected for 2009.

What is clear, however, is that an increasing shift towards online content, services and applications is at the heart of every sector – from games to TV, film to mobile – and Government policy is finally starting to be shaped around the digital agenda.

Roy Greenslade’s recent downbeat verdict on the health of the newspaper industry could well have spoken for any other sector. “Online is the future and the future is now”.

TV & Video – BBC Cooperation

Culture secretary Andy Burnham has outlined a PSB future in which broadcasters co-operate and scheduling clashes in the chase for ratings are a thing of the past.
Burnham called on public service broadcasters to look beyond their own organisations and backed the BBC’s plans to pursue partnerships with its rivals.

Burnham repeated pledges for a “twin-track” approach with Ofcom to shaping the future of PSB, with both regulator and government publishing their views early next year.
This was followed by the BBC’s own proposals for 
PSB partnership, in areas including:

• A digital archive tool
• A digital production tool
• Regional news
• Distribution
• iPlayer
• Internet-connected television
• Broadband
• Exploitation 
Partnerships with BBC Worldwide
• Enabling Partnerships

Initial modelling by Deloitte indicates that by 2014 the partnerships explored in the BBC proposals could generate over £120m of annual benefit to PSB beyond the BBC compared to a scenario without them. The ultimate benefits of these proposals will of course depend on their exact design and implementation, including more detailed discussion with partners about the nature and scale of the benefits.

TV & Video – Ofcom Review

Amid a gloomy backdrop of job cuts and ailing share prices, the industry is bracing itself for huge upheaval as the government finally moves to secure the future of public service broadcasting, address Channel 4’s woes and tackle media convergence.

The Ofcom review into PSB is gathering pace and the first few weeks of 2009 should provide a lot of answers to the oft-debated questions. Ofcom should finally lay its cards on the table regarding which of its funding measures it believes will be most effective for the £145m to £235m PSB black hole. 
ITV’s regional restructuring and PSB future, C4’s funding model and the options for supporting UK-made children’s TV. Publication may be as early as the Oxford Media Convention on 22nd January.

Games – Games Classifications

The UK government has published its action plan for changes to the videogame classification system. Taking on board recommendations made by March’s Byron Review, Whitehall has pledged that a four-month public consultation period will take place from July with games publishers. Proposals will be pushed through as early as next year.

Self regulating
Currently, the industry regulates itself under the Pan European Game Information age rating system (PEGI). The PEGI system provides a simple guideline for parents who are worried about the games their children play. Software is categorised by the genre of game and the age rating. British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) examines any games that would have an 18 certificate and contains “human sexual activity” or “gross violence”. Each year the industry submits around 250 games for review by the BBFC.
However, the plans have been met with concern by some areas of the videogames industry. Several games publishers including EA, the world’s largest games publisher, and Microsoft have suggested that the BBFC and the UK government have shown scant interest in the needs of the videogames industry.

EA, which publishes around one in every five games sold in the UK has called for the legal enforcement of the European-wide PEGI rating system as opposed to one proposed by Byron and the BBFC. The publisher argues that the BBFC proposal is unworkable due to the increasing number of games that offer downloadable content not included in the original purchase.
“What we need is a single system. There are some games that are already rated at 18 on the current system but would be at 15 on the new cinema model. What we do need is legal enforcement of the PEGI standard, because now if a child of 12 wants to buy a 16-plus game, the retailer has to sell it to them,” said Keith Ramsdale, vice-president and general manager of EA UK.
EA has highlighted how release dates would be delayed in the UK by “weeks, not days”.

Games – NESTA Report on UK Games Industry

Raise the Game Report, commissioned by NESTA from Games Investor Consulting, assesses the competitiveness of the UK’s games studio sector in an international context.
It profiles the games development sectors of the UK, Canada, France and Germany, with a particular focus on policy measures from national and regional governments, identifying challenges and opportunities that have emerged as a consequence of the evolution of video game markets and technology.

The report shows that in spite of its high levels of technical and creative skills and its continued production of world-class games, the UK games studio sector faces important structural weaknesses. They include a lack of global scale publishers, limited access to finance and skill shortages.
Studios, government support agencies and universities all have a role to play in helping overcome these barriers, so that the UK sector remains at the forefront of creativity, innovation and growth in video game development.