Media Brief
I'm the 91Èȱ¬'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.
Virgin Media has announced it will roll out superfast 100Mb broadband from December. Pre-registration starts today. Virgin Media says it will let customers download a TV show in 30 seconds. Its revenue increased 6.4% in the third quarter, to £978m. The the news follows last week's announcement by the government that the 91Èȱ¬ would have to pay £300m from licence fee funds to help pay for extending superfast broadband to rural areas.
Steve Hewlett has interviewed Conrad Black for The Media Show on Radio 4 today. Lord Black of Crossharbour, former proprietor of the Daily Telegraph, was jailed in 2008 for fraud, and is now free on bail. He talks about Rupert Murdoch, saying the Wall Street Journal is the only publication he thinks Mr Murdoch has improved.
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Two films based on The Hobbit will now be made in New Zealand as planned, after acting unions threatened to boycott them in a pay row the 91Èȱ¬ reports. Prime Minister John Key said "Making the movies here will not only safeguard work for thousands of New Zealanders, but will also allow us to follow the success of The Lord of the Rings." British actor Martin Freeman will play Bilbo Baggins.
The communications group WPP has had its best quarter for ten years, according to chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell. But he said there was still "a tremendous amount of uncertainty" about the future direction of the world economy. He was speaking at the World Retail Forum ahead of the group's third-quarter results on Friday.
Nielsen estimates that the number of UK web users going beyond The Times and Sunday Times paywalls was 362,000 per month between July and September. The the report suggests that traffic to individual stories has declined by 88%. News International is still not releasing figures.
The 91Èȱ¬ newspaper review says the UK's unexpectedly strong growth rate has produced mixed messages as the papers struggle to make sense of it.
Links in full
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• 91Èȱ¬ | The Hobbit will be made in New Zealand, PM confirms
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• 91Èȱ¬ | Newspaper review
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