Advanced Television

Funding

£67m boost for a Full Fibre future

Tens of thousands of businesses and homes across the UK are set to benefit from a £67 million (€75.9m) investment in faster Internet connections, the Chancellor Philip Hammond has announced. The Nationwide Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS) will provide vouchers worth up to £3000 for a small or medium sized business or £500 to residents […]

March 16, 2018

Channel 4 reveals regional strategy

Following pressure at a ministerial level and consultation on how public service broadcaster Channel 4 could most effectively contribute to regional economic growth, stimulate regional creative industries, and better serve regional audiences to deliver a stronger economy and a fairer society, the service has announced a strategy that it says will significantly boost jobs in […]

March 9, 2018By Colin Mann

Report: BBC’s ‘critical’ commercial activities

The success of the BBC’s commercial activities will be critical to the BBC and licence fee payers in the immediate years ahead, according to the UK’s National Audit Office (NAO) which has published its first report on the BBC’s commercial activities, following an expansion in its statutory powers under the BBC Royal Charter. These activities […]

March 7, 2018By Colin Mann

£10m boost for BBC Three shows

BBC Three is expanding its commissioning remit, with an additional £10 million (€11.17m) investment to launch a new editorial pillar, two years after going online. “This is an exciting creative moment for the channel and the production community as we are broadening the scope of our commissioning,” commented Damian Kavanagh, Controller BBC Three. “We have […]

March 7, 2018

UK PM calls for Brexit broadcasting safeguards

UK Prime Minister Theresa May has called for “creative options” to address the licensing problems likely to be faced by UK-based broadcasters following the UK’s departure from the European Union. In a detailed speech setting out her vision for the future economic partnership between the United Kingdom and the European Union, May noted that broadcasting […]

March 5, 2018By Colin Mann

Swiss vote in favour of Public Service Media

The Swiss public have voted overwhelmingly in favour of retaining the licence fee in a national vote held on March 4th 2018. The ‘No Billag’ initiative was filed in Switzerland in late 2015, calling for the abolition of the TV and radio licence fee. Billag is the name of the private company responsible for collecting […]

March 5, 2018

Andreessen invests in broadband satellite plan

Billionaire investor Marc Andreessen, co-inventor of web-browser Mosaic and co-founder of Netscape, is putting cash into a new venture which intends building small geostationary satellites to provide a global broadband service. His investment, made by his Silicon Valley venture capital fund, Andreesson Horowitz, is going to satellite start-up Astranis and the projects second-round of financing. […]

March 5, 2018By Chris Forrester

Wales hails busiest year for production

The last 12 months look set to be the Welsh Government’s busiest yet for supporting TV and film production, Economy Secretary Ken Skates has said, with high profile feature film and TV programmes such as Journey’s End, Requiem, Britannia, Kiri and Keeping Faith all cementing Wales’ reputation as a first-class place to film. Speaking on […]

March 1, 2018

BBC TV licence fee rises again

The UK’s annual television licence fee is to rise to £150.50 (€171) from £147, the government has announced. The increase, which will come into effect on April 1st, follows last year’s rise to £147 from £145.50. Last year the government announced that the licence fee would rise in line with inflation for the next five […]

February 23, 2018

Alchemiya targets SE Asia launch

Alchemiya Media has launched a £1 million investment round on UK based equity crowdfunding platform CrowdCube – a public equity investment platform. The VoD service offers inspirational content about the arts, heritage, music, food, travel, and culture of the Muslim world and has been dubbed ‘the Netflix of Islam’. “Our content celebrates the very best […]

February 23, 2018