Women in Sports media

 Research backs up the outrage over sexist jokes at a sports event: Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/may/10/female-sports-reporters-rail-against-sexism-at-scottish-newspapers?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Cinema goes grey? 20% drop in 15-24s pre-pandemic

Guardian.

'In 2019, franchise movies took 83% of worldwide box office for Hollywood movies. If they fell back a little and made space for the kinds of movies that have been squeezed out, it might mean one less pay cheque for a few seasoned actors, but it could make all the difference for the future of cinema.'

Time Out ceases print publication Is paper dead?

Joining the Independent, NME and many local papers the London listings magazine Time Out has ceased print publishing, going online only.

The US has seen a swfiter, deeper collapse of print news media and online migration of these - can the UK really sustain 9 national print dailies (counting the Metro but not FT)?

GUARDIAN, APRIL 2022.

Tiny Twitter shapes perception of media political elites

Guardian  ‘ As of 2021, only 28% of the UK populationuses Twitter. But it has outsize influence. What matters is who is on there: which people are experiencing the white-hot anger of engaging daily with the timeline. “Political elites are on Twitter every day, and for all the warnings that Twitter isn’t real life, it feels like real life to them,” said Ezra Klein, the author of Why We’re Polarised, in a 2020 interview with the Verge. “They’re stuck in a hyper-polarised informational system and it influences the candidates they support, the messages they emphasise, the stories they focus on.”

Klein was speaking about US politics but his analysis applies to Britain too. It’s not just British politicians: it’s our media class – celebrities as well. If you have a public profile, the likelihood is that you’re on Twitter and active. It influences which topics are afforded importance: this week we saw Kay Burley ask Angela Rayner about whether women could have a penis, a question the Labour deputy leader quite rightly said was prominent on social media. These discussions then spill over into policy, as we saw this week when the government excluded trans people from a ban on conversion practices.’ 

Guardian, April 2022

From BBC Radio 6 to Patreon spare room star

 Loved the station but not this presenter - great example of the power of convergence though: to leave the mighty BBC, launch out on your own and have such success with 2 podcasts and a weekly radio show that you’re actually considering creating your own station…

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/apr/03/broadcaster-shaun-keaveny-its-been-a-huge-liberation-?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

FAANGS get teeth removed by EU? Digital Markets Act + Digital Services Act

UK ACT THREATENS 10% FINES OF GLOBAL TURNOVER IF HATEFUL TROLLING ISNT BLOCKED

GUARDIAN: In the UK, the government is introducing the online safety bill, which imposes a duty of care on tech companies to protect users from harmful content. Some of the content it covers is already banned by the likes of Twitter, specifically posts containing things that are criminal in the offline world, such as terrorist or child sexual abuse content. But it will also require major platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and TikTok to deal with “legal but harmful” content – in other words posts that fall below the threshold of criminality but can still cause psychological or physical harm. This has alarmed free speech advocates (York calls it “dystopian”) but Musk will have to abide by it – the British communications regulator, Ofcom, could fine companies up to 10% or their turnover for transgressions of the law.

“Services that operate in the UK are subject to UK regulations. Online platforms are no different to services in other sectors. Once enacted, Twitter will need to satisfy Ofcom that they are complying with the duties to protect users,” says Maeve Walsh, a policy consultant who helped shape the regulatory framework behind the bill.

At the same time, the EU is implementing the Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires the major social media platforms to do more to tackle illegal content. This includes forcing them to allow users to flag such content in an “easy and effective way” so that it can be swiftly removed. “Twitter, even owned by Mr Musk, needs to moderate content to comply with EU rules. If he wants to do business in EU, that’s a fact,” says Christel Schaldemose, a Danish MEP and the chief negotiator on the DSA.

Guardian.

A sign of far the tables have turned - the Daily Mail has overtaken The S*n as the most influential, powerful UK newspaper ... but is reported to have bowed to pressure from a Facebook executive to kill 2 stories (which they did) about her boyfriend's alleged abusive behaviour. Guardian, based on a WSJ report.

April saw more pressure with the DIGITAL SERVICES ACT agreed by the EU (Guardian), creating new legal powers to fine digital giants 6% of their GLOBAL turnover for violating the new rules (focused on removing illegal content, something they've been poor at doing):

'Banning advertising aimed at children or based on sensitive data such as religion, gender, race and political opinions.

• Allowing EU governments to request removal of illegal content, including material that promotes terrorism, child sexual abuse, hate speech and commercial scams.

• Forcing social media platforms to allow users to flag illegal content in an “easy and effective way” so that it can be swiftly removed.

• Online marketplaces like Amazon will need similar systems for suspect products, such as counterfeit sneakers or unsafe toys.

The DSA has been drawn up against a backdrop of political and regulatory action against online platforms around the world. The UK is introducing the online safety bill, which imposes a duty of care on tech firms to shelter users from harmful content, while in the US, the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission has filed antitrust actions against Google and Facebook.'

'Other measures in the DSA will require large online platforms and online search engines to take specific measures during a crisis. Theywere triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the related disinformation.

The companies could be forced to hand over data related to their algorithms to regulators and researchers. The companies also face a yearly fee of up to 0.05% of worldwide annual revenue to cover the costs of monitoring their compliance.'

UK TV TRIES TO CHALLENGE NETFLIX with ITVX

I think it's probably far too late for this - OfCom blocked BBC-led proposals for a unified UK PSB TV streaming service years ago when it was already a tough landscape - but the commercial network ITV is having a go with ITVX.

Guardian, March 2022.

APRIL 2022 - OVERVIEW OF ANALYSTS CLAIMING NETFLIX IS DOOMED, Guardian

Some analysts say Netflix must become moreike the cable TV networks it has disrupted in the US, or the UK networks like BBC/ITV ... and offer news and sport.

'In the US consumers spent about $140bn on professional video content last year from cable content and theatrical admissions to streaming services and purchases of physical media. Streaming services account for about $30bn of that money; cable still takes $100bn but is still losing subscribers. From 2016 to 2021, pay TV lost more than 50 million adult viewers in the US and fewer than half of all US households will have a cable TV subscription by 2023, according to study by Insider Intelligence'

'The UK’s ITV recently announced a new streaming platform, ITVX, it hopes will be a “national champion” in the battle for British viewers​​ against the streaming giants. The media company’s overall content budget is expected to be £1.23bn this year . Netflix alone will spend 11 times that.'

TV and radio blur convergence

My own show is live streamed on video, 4 in-studio cameras using AI to auto-edit between presenter and any guests.

Just reading about another hammer blow to the BBC, several more of its best known figures poached away by commercial rivals (partly pushed by the Tory-appointed BBC Chair Richard Sharp, a former advisor to Johnson and his chancellor who's donated over £400k to the same Tory party; independent BBC??? See Wiki).

This caught my eye: 

"Marr’s LBC show will also be broadcast live as a video stream, another indication that the division between radio and television is increasingly blurred." (Guardian)

HOW DIFFERENT WAS 1959s TV REGULATION? HUGELY...

Guardian, Feb 2022.

Murdoch NFT of iconic front pages

See Guardian, Feb 2022.

'News UK is in the early stages of evaluating whether the crown jewels among its tens of thousands of physical images, such as exclusive pictures of the Queen, to front pages such as “It’s The Sun Wot Won it!”, to Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster, could be given a lucrative second life as exclusive digital collectibles the public could buy and trade.'

NFTs are a €22bn fast-growing market.

'The Times unwittingly played an important role in the rise of crypto assets. Satoshi Nakamoto, the presumed pseudonym for the person or persons who created bitcoin, embedded and quoted the 3 January 2009 front page, which led with “Chancellor on Brink of Second Bailout of Banks”, in the first ever bitcoin block chain transaction in what is now known as the Genesis Block.'

'News UK, which declined to comment on its crypto project, is understood to also want to keep the rights to continue to use the originals in its publications, a common phenomenon among creators of NFTs.'

INFLUENCERS fake woke warriors beige berks

 Guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/09/influencers-online-social-justice-branding?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

NFT to finance movie in world first

NFTs are something I've frequently discussed on the radio show: a form of cryptocurrency linked to a specific digital text. Now one (with 10,000 tokens for sale and $1m starting budget raised through a 20% sale to a venture capital firm) offers profit-sharing and access to the premiere (Guardian).

Quite a landmark for the digitised era, though I'd be cautious: film studios are notorious for engineering accounts to somehow paint high-performing box office hits as loss-makers to avoid paying out on points (% fractions of profits or revenues depending on the deal) given to stars, producers etc as part of budgeting.

BBC

Government minister caught pressuring BBC? Guardian.

BBC no-bias policy at breaking point? Guardian.

DISNEY LEAD METAVERSE CHARGE virtual reality future?

See Guardian.

China's firewall served challenge by tennis ace

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/03/tennis-star-peng-shuai-accuses-chinese-communist-party-official-zhang-gaoli-of-sexual-assault?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other