Media Brief
I'm the 91Èȱ¬'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.
There will be no increase to the TV licence fee in 2011 after the 91Èȱ¬ Trust offered to freeze it at £145.50 for the next two years, the 91Èȱ¬ reports. But could the fee actually be cut in 2012?The Trust believes that would be a breach of the existing agreement but the DCMS has not ruled it out.
The [subscription required] "The 91Èȱ¬ was pitched into a battle over the future of the licence fee yesterday after government sources suggested that ministers might abandon the current deal with the corporation and cut the fee in 2012".
The the director general of the 91Èȱ¬ Mark Thompson warned that the corporation may not be able to bid for programme rights as a consequence.
The Press Complaints Commission has upheld a complaint by TV and radio presenter Clare Balding over an article in the Sunday Times that mocked her sexuality, reports the 91Èȱ¬.
A new free-to-air, web-connected TV service, combining Freeview digital channels with on-demand content such as iPlayer will launch in the UK in 2011, reports the 91Èȱ¬. YouView - formerly known as Project Canvas - is a partnership between BT, the 91Èȱ¬, ITV, Five, Channel 4, Arqiva and TalkTalk.
The the News of the World will be the next News International paper to go behind a paywall.
The "Whinge Watch", monitoring "the 91Èȱ¬'s biased reporting of the battle to save Britain's economy".
Is the 91Èȱ¬ pension offer a good one? that the compromise deal offered by Mark Thompson will still make 91Èȱ¬ workers some of the richest pensioners the UK has known.
The 91Èȱ¬ Newspaper review says the papers reflect on the Pope's first day of the visit to the UK. With the child sex abuse scandal "overshadowing the Pope's every move", the Independent calls his visit to the UK "mission improbable". It asks whether the Pope's message is "doomed to fall on stony ground?"
Links in full
• 91Èȱ¬ | No licence fee increase in 2011
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• 91Èȱ¬ | Clare Balding complaint over sexuality is upheld
• 91Èȱ¬ | Project Canvas to become YouView
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• 91Èȱ¬ | Newspaper review
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• Read Thursday's Media Brief