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UK Film Council and British Film Institute merger proposed by Film Minister Siôn Simon

Andrew | 20 Aug 2009, 16:40

The UK film industry could be looking at a new, streamlined body to back its future and preserve its past.

Siôn Simon, the Film Minister, today proposed a merger between the UK Film Council (UKFC) and the British Film Institute (BFI) to form a single organisation with a remit to promote both economic success and cultural relevance.

Simon praises both the work of the BFI in caring for the world’s most significant archive of creative content and the contribution of the UKFC to the £4.3 billion that films puts into the UK economy. But he sees fresh potential in a streamlined merged body to provide a better, more cost-effective service for both film makers and film lovers.

By combining the two bodies, Simon believes more money should be released from infrastructure costs to be put in film production, promotion, securing investment, championing film as a cultural force and making the transition to digital.

Tim Bevan CBE, the Chairman of the UK Film Council, and Greg Dyke, the Chair of the BFI both see potential in the proposal and are looking forward to working with a project board chaired by the DCMS.

“We welcome this move if it enables us to further develop our potential to provide a better service to the public,” Dyke is quoted as saying.

“In my opinion it can’t be right for [UKFC and BFI] to remain disconnected,” Bevan says.

The announcement comes against a background of positive news for film in the UK. Today Cineworld announced profits up by a third for the first six months of the year, while the Guardian reports signs of renewed confidence among technology, media and telecoms companies in the state of the British economy, based on a survey by BDO Stoy Hayward.

Last month the UK Film Council published its Statistical Yearbook on UK Film, the highlights of which illustrated the current strength of the UK industry, with $4.2 billion banked by British firms in 2008 and British films accounting for almost one in six viewings at cinemas around the world.

China / US trade dispute lends urgency to piracy challenge

Valerie | 17 Aug 2009, 14:49

China is “actively” getting ready to appeal a World Trade Organization decision that calls for it to end restrictions on the import of US film and music products, a decision which could see diminishing demand for pirated goods.

The WTO panel said last week that China’s import and distribution regime for books and films violates international trade rules and should be revised. The Chinese import restrictions have been blamed for making fewer legal goods available and thus helping pirates profit and proliferate.

The US welcomed the WTO ruling as a “significant victory to America’s creative industries” which would help open up Chinese markets for everything from magazines to movie blockbusters as well as curbing rampant intellectual piracy, highlighting the increasing global importance of the Chinese market.

As this article argues, there is still a long way to go in a country where a pirated DVD is easily available for a third of the price of a movie ticket — often before the movie opens in Asian cinemas. It argues that the strictest enforcement of intellectual property laws are needed before US companies can reap big benefits.

The IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) said last year that more than 99 percent of all music files distributed in China are pirated, and the country’s total legitimate music market, at $76 million, accounts for less than 1 percent of global recorded music sales.

Google and global music labels launched an advertising-supported free music download service in March to compete with pirates, a service it does not offer anywhere else in the world. The move was widely seen as a bid that the demand for music downloads would raise its profile in China, where it trails search leader Baidu.com. However, it is also the first serious attempt to monetize the online market in China .

Kai-fu Lee, the president of Google Greater China, said:

“This is a huge leap of faith for us. We hope this will move the landscape to a legal model.”

Is Wikipedia on the wane: what do the web’s demographics say to c&binet?

Andrew | 14 Aug 2009, 14:18

The agenda for October’s inaugural c&binet forum is announced today amid a flurry of recent headlines that should give delegates food for thought. 

Wikipedia approaches its limits, the Guardian says, reporting that statistics released by the sites own analytics team point to stagnation for the people’s online encyclopaedia and control falling into the hands of an editorial clique.

This comes hard on the heels of headlines – all in the last week or two – that Teens abandon Facebook as silver surfers flood in. Or alternatively, More young people flocking to Facebook. Or, as Timesonline interpreted last week’s Ofcom report, Facebook, Twitter and Spotify are killing the family get together in front of the TV.

‘Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable,’ as the old saying goes. Figures are open to interpretation, so is what we’re seeing quite as sensational as the headlines suggest. Or do they obscure what is actually a natural maturing process?

Younger people are instinctively restless. They will always be first to dip a toe, then move on, seek new things. By doing that they provide the momentum for creativity. In their wake, older people can bring experience, stability and perspective for the longer term.

In defining trends, the importance of authoritative, trustworthy intelligence cannot be overstated.

Creative businesses need good information on which to base sound strategic decisions, especially amid all the noise surrounding the creative industries in tough economic conditions.

With representation from, among others,  Microsoft, Spotify, the Walt Disney Company, Wired, Cisco Systems and the BBC, October’s c&binet forum will be bringing together the people who can maximise intelligence and minimise sensationalism to the advantage of the creative community as a whole.

British musical talent looks to Japan for international success

Valerie | 13 Aug 2009, 17:46

UK music labels are hoping to build on the success of British acts such as Coldplay and Radiohead and carve out a niche in Japan, the world’s second biggest music market after the US, the Guardian reports.

More than 30 British companies are in Tokyo this week on a government-sponsored mission to break into the huge, but notoriously tough, Japanese music market. Organised by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) and now in its sixth year, the aim of the mission is to secure record and marketing deals and help British firms navigate a market that would otherwise be out of bounds for smaller UK labels.

2008 saw British acts dominate domestic and worldwide markets, achieving both huge critical success and multi-platinum sales. Coldplay’s Viva La Vida for example was the second biggest selling album in the US, while Leona Lewis’s debut album Spirit sold 4.75 million copies, according to the UKTI.

However, with music sales down by 7.3% for the first six months of this year from a year earlier and the continued pace of piracy, gaining a bigger slice of a market that is “defying the downward spiral seen in the rest of the world” has never been more crucial. Total music sales in Japan were up 0.9% at ¥425bn (£2.6bn) – attributed largely to downloads by the country’s 100 million mobile phone users.

Despite having ‘cracked’ the US, UK artists have struggled to gain a foothold in the Japanese market, where they account for only 25% of sales in Japan, well behind US artists the Guardian says.

Kimitaka Kato, international managing director at Universal Music Japan said:

“It’s vitally important that British labels come with government backing because in Japan, the international market is declining year on year.

“To sustain and expand, indie labels need to keep coming and to understand what this country is really about.“

Julian Wall, the BPI’s director of independent member services remains confident in the commitment of British music companies in breaking their artists overseas:

“British music punches massively above its weight, despite the so-called collapse in the music industry. I have high hopes for UK labels that haven’t put a foot in the water in Japan but are here now to make contacts”.

Facebook vs. Google Has the new search war begun?

Valerie | 12 Aug 2009, 08:19

In a week that has so far been dominated by social media stories, most significant perhaps is the news that Facebook has acquired real-time feed aggregator FriendFeed in what industry commentators believe is a direct challenge to Google.

The deal is largely perceived as a move by the world’s largest social network to boost its social technology, specifically real-time streams, conversations, social media aggregation and search and move further into territory currently held by Google and Twitter.

Founded in 2007 by four former Google employees, FriendFeed has gained a devout following of more than a million users with its all-in-one approach to social networking. According the Guardian, it allows members to interact with a variety of different websites from a single place, plugging into popular sites like Blogger, Facebook, Digg and YouTube.

New features unveiled include being able to find out what friends and strangers have posted online by searching within a friend’s profiles for comments they have made within the last 30 day.

Commenting on the news, influential media blogger Robert Scoble and one of Friendfeed’s most popular users with nearly 46,000 subscribers said:

“FriendFeed has in effect been the R&D (research & development) department for Facebook for some time now.

“They have the best community technology out there and Facebook should continue to use them to try out new features and test them out before transferring them over to Facebook.“

According to Mashable, the timing is no coincidence. On the same day, Facebook also announced the launch of a new real-time search engine, which allows users to see the latest status updates and shared content from both friends and all users who have made their profile open to everyone.

This blog perhaps best sums up the significance of the two announcements, highlighting that whilst Facebook is making public timeline search available for the first time, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has previously indicated that the future of Facebook lies in a hybrid public/private sharing model.

It may be too early to tell whether Facebook can leverage the social graph in providing more relevant search results for time-sensitive or research-related queries, however the news marks an important step in Facebook’s evolution and could reshape the way in which consumers access digital content. By bringing its vision of social search closer to reality, it could increasingly threaten Google and Microsoft’s search dominance.

ITV sells Friends Reunited for £25 million

Valerie | 06 Aug 2009, 09:20

ITV has sold Friends Reunited for £25m, considerably less than the price it paid for the social networking site fours year ago, the Times reports, ending a long running saga about its future.

Under the terms of the deal, ITV will sell Friends Reunited to Brightsolid, a genealogy group owned by DC Thomson, the publisher of the Beano, after buying it for £170 million in December 2005.

Friends Reunited has suffered in recent years as rival social networking sites like Facebook, Bebo and MySpace emerged on the scene, forcing the firm to abandon their subscription model and rely on advertising revenue instead. According to the FT, Friends Reunited still has more than 20 million members, although traffic had fallen to 1.7m unique visitors a month last year.

Genes Reunited is seen as the most lucrative part of the Friends Reunited business and the bulk of the value.  Ancestry.com, a US rival, on Monday filed for a $75m public offering. Ancestry generated revenues of $107m in the last six months, with almost 1m paying subscribers. According to DC Thomson, the deal will create the biggest genealogy business in the UK.

The sale comes as ITV considers new revenue generation models to combat its worst year-on-year decline on record during the six months to June 30, which saw a dramatic slump in advertising revenues of 15% or £108 million. Chief Executive Michael Grade who is due to leave the company at the end of 2009 has described trading conditions as the toughest he had seen in 30 years.

Analysts have suggested that ITV should consider changing to a subscription model to boost revenues as new research commissioned by UBS revealed 40 per cent of terrestrial households in the UK would switch to pay-TV if it moved away from free-to-air. As c&binet as previously reported, the broadcaster has indicated that it would consider charging to view on-demand content.

As the hunt continues for a new ITV chief executive, one thing that is clear is that they will be bracing themselves for an ‘in-tray of challenges’ as the broadcaster considers its future in a radically altered operating environment.