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BBC6 gives power to the online people

Digital radio station BBC6 was saved from being axed this month, largely due to the influence of an uncoordinated protest, as fans started a huge Facebook/Twitter/blog campaign to keep it. In March, BBC management announced that 6 Music and the Asian Network would close next year, after a wide-ranging strategy review, and the best of what they offer would be dispersed to other networks. The BBC Trust opposed the channels closure and received more than 25,000 emails and nearly 250 letters of support. Millions of Tweets were hashtagged with #save6music and Twitterers sported a BBC 6 Twibbon boosting awareness of the channel and its plight. 180,000 people joined the Save 6Music Facebook campaign established by Jon Morter, the man who masterminded the Rage Against the Machine Christmas number one campaign. Online petition sites formalised the support, and petitions holding nearly 100,000 signatures between them were handed to the BBC trust. The media coverage led more people to the station and triggered BBC 6’s regular audience to grow from 600,000 a week to 1m.
The channel ‘brings together the cutting edge music of today, the iconic and groundbreaking music of the past 40 years’ and is available on DAB digital radio, TV and online.

The Times online loses two thirds of its readers post-paywall introduction

As the debate of paid versus un-paid content online rages on an NMA article gives us a glimpse into the possible outcomes of such paywalls when it comes to readership figures. Reporting on findings from Experian Hitwise the latest data shows The Times online has lost two-thirds of its readership since the introduction of its paywall on 2nd July. However, since this data betters the Murdoch-owned paper’s own predictions that readership would drop by up to 90%, is this an outcome The Times is likely to view favorably and how are other rival publications likely to respond as they watch this unfold? Interestingly, NMA report “the biggest drop in audience came in the five weeks before the paywall took effect, when visitors were asked to register their details. It was during this time that 58% of the online paper’s audience was lost. The decline since has been “modest”.” Murdoch’s cards have long be layed firmly on the table when it comes to his feeling in regards to paid for content previous stating “Quality journalism is not cheap and an industry that gives away its content is simply cannibalizing its ability to produce good reporting. … We can be platform-neutral but never free.” Yet with audience attitudes seemingly not matching this sentiment we have to wonder, which will prevail – the man whose 3 decade career in publishing has long shaped the industry or the content model as we know it?

Social media drives increase in internet usage

According to new research from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising’s (IPA) TouchPoints3 Hub survey, Brits are spending 38% more time online, due to the proliferation of social media sites. An average Brit spends about 1.8 hours a day online and for just under 40% of us an hour of this time is spent social networking. While some respondees confessed to loggin on during working hours the peak time for social networking is between 6.30 – 10.00pm when up to 3.5% of us are active – supporting the trend towards two screen viewing a third of these also claim to be watching TV at the same time. More stats about our TV, radio and internet consumption habits available here.

Virgin to be Mavericks of online-only magazines

Virgin are set to launch Maverick, an online only magazine in October. The first edition will be available on the iPad in early October, followed by apps for the iPhone and Android, and will be Virgins first venture into consumer magazines. Richard Branson’s daughter Holly, who left a career in medicine to join Virgin in 2008, is the family’s ambassador for Maverick, working with former FHM editor Anthony Noguera on the project. The content is said to be geared towards technology, film and design and will be consistent with Virgin’s overall brand, but will not be used as a tool to promote Virgin’s vast selection of products. We can expect a high standard of articles as the title will not be available on print, leaving more budget for content, and revenue will come from subscriptions, downloads and advertising. Virgin will be reaching a market they say is ‘underserved and overpriced’, and as iPad sales are predicted to reach 13 million by the end of the year, they could be pioneering a groundbreaking platform.

Stuff on the web we think you might like:

Google Chrome Fastball: Causing quite the stir in the office our fastest time is 2.41 – see if you can beat us
Project Mouseless: Described by Wired as ‘a magic trick only geeks can pull off’ this little bit of tech wizardry  uses an infra red laser and camera so you can operate your computer in exactly the way you would with a mouse only without the mouse being there.
Draw.To: For the Rolf Harris within you, draw anyting you like (in HTML5) then share it via instant messaging, Twitter and Facebook.
8-Bit City: Take some time to think about your surroundings differently with 80’s video game style city maps, we’re a fan of this one of London

Hurrah, TV catch-up on your iPhone!

As of autumn we will be able to catch that missed episode of Neighbours on the bus on the way to work, as Five are to launch a TV VOD app to coincide with their Demand Five relaunch. Sky launched their live TV app last November and app’s became available to remotely record programmes on your Sky Plus from your iPhone,  but Five will host the first video on demand app. They look set to beat the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 to have a catch-up app on the iPhone along with the iPad, and have new plans for the relaunch including placing the VOD function at the centre of the channel with links so users can share content with friends on Facebook.

Who said the iPad would never catch on?

LG has revealed plans to introduce a thinner, lighter tablet computer running on Google’s Android OS. It is to be launched later this year and leaps on the iPad bandwagon along with Dell and Samsung, offering an alternative to Apple’s monopoly on the keyboard-less PC market. In response to record demand Apple is now producing over 2.3million iPads monthly and a Forrester research report predicts that tablet or slate style computer sales will outsell netbooks by 2012.
Matching the iPad seems a tall feat but there is room for competition. There may be apps available that are prohibited by Apple and a telephone function and removable battery would give a great advantage. As with the iPhone, if you encounter battery issues with the iPad, it is necessary to send the whole device to Apple.

LG boasts it “will deliver vastly superior performance than other similar devices currently on the market while still managing to be thinner and lighter than competing devices.” It’s rumoured LG’s device will use Android OS v2.2 (Froyo) with a 7-inch touchscreen, WVGA resolution, 3G, Wi-Fi and built-in GPS. Samsung previously announced they are working on the Galaxy Tab, a tablet with a 7inch TFT screen also powered by Google’s Android OS.

Watch and learn Prince, Radiohead’s Phil Selway offers his first solo single as a free download

After Prince’s outlandish comment that “The internet is completely over”, Phil Selway, drummer of Radiohead, has followed in his bands footsteps and embraced the internet, offering his first single as a free download. The new track ‘By Some Miracle’ is taken from his debut solo album ‘Familial’, set to be released over the summer. Radiohead caused a sensation in 2007 when they released their Rainbows album online offering fans the chance to pay what they wanted between £0.00 to £99.00. Figures from Comscore show the average amount paid per album download was US$6.00 and despite the free download option, fans bought more than 100,000 copies of the CD within a year. According to Radiohead front man Thom Yorke “In terms of digital income, we’ve made more money out of this record than out of all the other Radiohead albums put together.”

Adding more power to digital’s elbow research sponsored by Microsoft and Intel, for a study entitled ‘The Energy and Climate Change Impacts of Different Music Delivery Methods’, shows downloading is better for the environment than buying CD’s.  All the more reason to embrace digital.

Twitter surpasses Bing as fastest-growing search engine

Brace yourself for some big number crunching – Fast Company brought us news of happenings at the Aspen Ideas Festival where cofounder Biz Stone talks of how Twitter is rapidly establishing itself as a popular search tool, pulling in around 800 million search queries per day. While the news is unlikely to have the daddy of search engines Google quaking in its boots just yet (88 billion searches per month), young Twitter with its 24 billion searches per month is certainly giving the likes of Bing (4.1 billion) and Yahoo (9.4 billion) a run for their money. Not bad considering Twitter is still in its relative infancy – search volumes are up 33% in the last 15 months. Fast Company say “this is something the service has been angling for. Last month, at the the World Innovation Forum, Stone argued that Twitter is “not a social network,” though many people view it as one. “That’s been a myth since the beginning,” he explained. “We’re much more like an information network or a source of news.”