Thursday, 13 August 2009

Europe buoyed by returning growth

Link to the article: Channel 4 News

By Channel 4 News

Economic growth is back in France and Germany with surprise figures showing both economies expanded in the second quarter of last year.

That contrasts with the UK where output continued to fall.

German and French output grew by 0.3 per cent in the second quarter, the first quarter of growth since early 2008.

But in the UK official estimates showed output declining by 0.8 per cent during the same period.

Across the 16 countries that use the euro, output fell just 0.1 per cent, much lower than expected by economists.

In further positive signs, the US Federal Reserve said its economy was "levelling out" while the FTSE 100 Index reached new highs for the year.

David Buik of BGC Partners said Germany and France would recover more quickly because of their prowess in exporting contrasting with the UK's emphasis on services and banking.

Monday, 10 August 2009

Apprentices scheme off target

Link to the article: Channel 4 News

By Channel 4 News

Channel 4 News has seen evidence that the government's apprentices scheme, backed by Sir Alan Sugar, has failed to take off.

They have promised to take on 400,000 new apprentices over the next ten years and put the new Enterprise Tsar, Lord Sugar, at the helm.

But figures show that the apprenticeship website only filled 3 per cent of the vacancies that it had on offer in the first half of this year.

The Tories have branded the website a celebrity gimmick but the government insists that the site is increasing in popularity.

Illegal music downloads still popular

Link to the article: Channel 4 News

By Channel 4 News

Threatening letters and free, legal music services are having no success in discouraging young people from sharing music online.

A large academic survey found that the proportion of young people downloading illegally remained the same, at 61 per cent.

And nearly four out of five said they had no interest in using legal streaming services, preferring to own music rather than play it temporarily over the internet.

Sunday, 9 August 2009

Scotland's growing alcohol problem

Link to the article: Channel 4 News

Which is the bigger problem, the future of Scotland's favourite drink or Scotland's chronic drink problem? Girish Juneja reports.

As Scotland's historic whisky industry suffers another blow this week, with another major producer Whyte and Mackay announcing job cuts, the Scotch industry says it wants to curb goverment efforts to stop binge drinking.

Whyte and Mackay confirmed that it would shed up to one sixth of its Scottish workforce, shedding around 85 jobs.

The company, owned by an Indian billionaire, may also shed another 15 overseas sales staff.

On 26 June, 20,000 people took to the streets in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, to protest over plans to axe 900 jobs.

Drinks giant Diageo announced plans to close the plant in the Scottish town which bottles Johnnie Walker whisky, which could lead to a loss of 700 jobs.

Another 200 jobs may be lost under plans for the company to close its Port Dundas grain distillery in Glasgow.

Diageo has said it will "offset" the closures with 400 new jobs at its Fife packaging plant. As well as the Fife expansion the drinks firm has said a coopering centre will be created in Clackmannanshire, and has stated there will be no compulsory redundancies for one year.

The Scottish government has pledged to support the distilleries, but with one of the worst alcoholism rates in Europe, critics say it is the national drink problem not the national drink which should be the priority.

Thursday, 6 August 2009

Is Obama’s economic plan working?

Link to the article: Channel 4 News

Even with signs that the US economy is improving, high unemployment remains a major problem in the country's heartlands.

Unemployment in the US has hit a 26 year high - with almost 10% out of work. On the flip side, new claims for unemployment benefits have fallen by more than expected.

Last night President Obama headed to Elkhart, Indiana, home of the motorhome industry, where unemployment has quadrupled in just a year.

The president, however, insists his stimulus plan is working.

Tuesday, 4 August 2009

'Paying for online content won't work'

Link to the article: Channel 4 News

By Channel 4 News

Media commentator Roy Greenslade tells Channel 4 News online that newspapers using the FT model to charge for online content are doomed to failure.

Media commentator Roy Greenslade says that the Financial Times’ plan to charge for online content can work because it offers a niche product to a niche readership.

But the professor of journalism at London's City University warns FT editor Lionel Barber’s prediction that “almost all” news organisations will be charging for online content within a year is doomed to failure.

Greenslade says that the sheer wealth of free news services – compounded by the BBC – means charging for content is a non-starter for general news.

He told Channel 4 News: “I think the Financial Times is a special newspaper, it can charge for some of its content because its audience is well-heeled and its readers need that information to do their jobs.

"I appreciate what Lionel Barber says, but I think when we says almost all news organisations will be charging within a year he is wrong.

"The problem is for general newspapers where people don’t need it to do their job; I think they will have a real problem with charging.

"It is very, very difficult in Britain, because there is this free website called the BBC. And if general newspapers start charging even more people will just go there.

"Rupert Murdoch is going to trial charging at the Sunday Times, which is going to create its own separate website which readers would have to pay for. It’s a trial and an experiment and I think it will fail.

"I think Murdoch can afford to experiment with the Sunday Times, but it’s my opinion that it won’t work.

"And this is the problem as I see it - all charging is failed if there are alternative news sources. When there is a whole range of alternatives it is very difficult to start charging.

"You would have to stop the news agencies and then reach an agreement with pretty much every news organisation in the world to stop publishing stuff for free, I just don’t see how it could work.

"Some papers already have small audiences and they wouldn’t want to reduce that further by becoming a subscription site – because that would strangle advertising.

"At a local level, the prospects are very slim for regional papers. They do have the unique content so that should be a positive, but the enthusiasm for local news already seems pretty small and there is not much chance of it reviving.

"It is unlikely that too many people would pay for their local paper online in the future. But in fairness many local papers still have strong brands and good reputations.

"Do some newspapers still make money? They can’t say it publicly but in an interview with the FT chief executive it became clear they make money as a newspaper, although they would never release the exact figures.

"The Wall Street Journal do too – although Murdoch paid too much for it – I am sure it makes money. And this is interesting again because it is a niche product, with a wealthy readership.

"Newspapers are making money elsewhere, including some local papers. The trouble is that the companies that own them are saddled with debt and huge pension contributions – they tried to make super-profits when they should just have settled for profits.”

Newspapers to charge for web content

Link to the article: Channel 4 News

By Benjamin Cohen

Badly hit by the recession, newspapers are planning to charge for their online content. Benjamin Cohen reports.

At the moment just one UK paper, the Financial Times, charges its subscribers.

But Channel 4 News has learned that others, including the Sunday Times, are drawing up plans to follow suit.

Indeed, one editor has admitted that the industry's biggest mistake in the past 10 years was not to charge its users.

With steadily a declining circulation and advertising revenue hit by the recession, the newspaper industry may now look to charge users for access to its website content. Currently only one national paper - the Financial Times - charges its subscribers.

The editor of the Financial Times, Lionel Barber, admitted to Benjamin Cohen that the biggest mistake the industry made in the past ten years was not to charge users.

Remaining information and videos on the article

Monday, 3 August 2009

UK loses 52 pubs a week

Link to the article: Reuters

Aug 3 - Pubs across the UK are closing at an alarming rate, spurred on by mounting costs, fragile consumer confidence and the smoking ban.

Sarah Barden reports.

Monday, 27 July 2009

Spotify puts Apple in a lose-lose dilemma

Link to the article: Channel 4 News

By Benjamin Cohen

If Apple allows music lovers to run Spotify on its iPhones and iPods, it could destroy one of the computer giant’s main money-spinners, writes Benjamin Cohen.

Spotify, the music on demand service that aims to revolutionise the legal online music sector, today revealed that it is attempting to launch an iPhone application.

Its website has been hailed as a potential solution for the problem of internet piracy.

Spotify, based in Sweden (the hotbed of internet piracy) is pretty simple. You can for free create a playlist of all of your favourite music from scores of record labels. But it’s only free if you’re prepared to stick up with radio-style advertisements every so often.

For an advert-free service you need to pay £9.99 a month. But not many people have, and the company is reportedly missing its revenue targets. The key problem has been that with Spotify, you can’t take your music with you. That is, until now.

The company today submitted an application to Apple for use on the iPhone and iPod Touch mp3 player. It works very much like the internet version except that your iPhone downloads tracks so you can listen to music, even when you don’t have an internet or phone signal – say, while you’re on the tube.

But having your music downloaded to your iPhone or iPod sounds rather like iTunes, Apple’s own music service that charges 79p per track. And that’s the reason some industry insiders think that Apple will block the service.

Apple guards its iTunes app marketplace very closely, carefully approving only applications that it deems suitable to run on its iPhone and iPod Touch.

It’s Apple’s system, so the company has absolute discretion on what applications can or can’t be used. Refusing to approve Spotify’s iPhone app might result in the company being accused of monopolistic practices.

Although Channel4 News was unable to speak to anyone at Apple today, I was told by one expert that they would have no fear of blocking a competitive product. “They don’t mind being seen as nasty,” he told me.

But if Spotify’s mobile service proves to be popular on other devices, this could actually deter new consumers from purchasing an iPhone. So it might not be in Apple’s interest to block it.

In a way, Apple is in a lose-lose situation. It’s dammed if it does and dammed if it doesn’t. Blocking Spotify might be unpopular, but allowing it could destroy one of Apple’s main money spinners: music sales on iTunes.

Although the politics between Apple and Spotify are interesting, it would be wrong to ignore the question of whether or not the Spotify business model really makes sense.

Assume you’re a consumer with a big bank of music you already own in one form or another. If you’re anything like me, you’ll have a couple of gigabytes of music on your mp3 player. Remember (unless you pirate), you’ve already paid for it.

Although the “all you can eat” mentality of Spotify - offering millions of tracks for less than a tenner a month - sounds impressive, you have to discount all of the music you already own.

You’d actually need to consumer an additional 151 new pieces of music a year for it to make economic sense to subscribe. Because that’s how many iTunes tracks you’d get for £9.99 a month (with a couple of pennies change).

I’m not sure I would consume that much new music, but then I’m nearly 27 so I’m probably a bit past it.

And let us not forget that Spotify on the iPhone isn’t that much different from Napster to Go, which offers all you can eat music for £14.99 a month - a service that isn’t hugely popular when compared to the attractions of pirated content and iTunes.

But Napster doesn’t work with Apple products, essentially because Apple doesn’t want it to work. And due to the popularity of Apple iPods, Napster never really took off. Ultimately it will be in Apple’s court that the success or failure of Spotify is decided.

Thursday, 23 July 2009

Apple's Profit Soars

Link to the article and video - Euronews

Apple quarterly profit was much better than had been predicted by analysts.

Strong sales of Mac computers and iPhones gave
Apple a solid 13 percent jump in its fiscal third-quarter net profit at 1.23 billion dollars (865 million euros).

It sold 5.2 million iPhones in the quarter and said it could not make enough of the latest model to meet demand.

Market forces hit street traders

Link to the article

Updated on 23 July 2009

By Channel 4 News

Competition from the internet and from high street retailers has hit Britain’s traditional street markets, according to a report by MPs. Ben King reports.

In these credit-crunched times, Britain's traditional street markets ought to be thriving.

But most markets are actually in decline, according to a committee of MPs.

Competition from cheap conventional retailers and the internet is one cause.

But MPs have warned that local and central government weren't doing enough to help.

For Channel 4 News, Ben King went down to one street market to find out what was going wrong.

Water bill rises blocked

Link to the article

By Channel 4 News

Water bills in England and Wales are set to drop by an average of £14 over five years after the regulator Ofwat published plans to limit service costs.

The 4 per cent fall was announced in Ofwat's "draft determination" on price limits for water and sewerage costs in England and Wales for the 2010-15 period.

But the regulator's initial decision is likely to spark protests from water companies, who called for an average £28 above-inflation hike in their business plans.

Ofwat chief executive Regina Finn said: "We understand times are hard and we have listened to what customers have told us.

"They want a safe, reliable water supply at a reasonable cost. People can shop around for the best deal on many things, but not water."

The regulator said its draft determination would still allow water companies to "invest extensively" in the network and spend almost £21 billion over the five-year period.

More than £4 billion will be invested in improving drinking water and protecting the environment, Ofwat said.

Spending plans will also reduce the risk of extreme weather - such as 2007's floods - disrupting supply for around 10m people, it added.

The regulator will make its final decision on prices in November before the new regime comes into force next April.

Before then it faces talks with water firms which had called for a more generous deal to reflect tougher conditions - such as rising bad debts in the recession - and higher financing costs following the credit crunch.

But Ms Finn added: "Our decisions allow efficient, well-run companies to invest in the right place at the right time for the right price."

United Airlines hit by complaint song

Link to the article

By Channel 4 News

A musician who blames United Airlines for breaking his prized guitar has taken revenge by writing a song that has hit the company's share price.

Dave Carroll has finally won a nine-month battle with United Airlines after they broke his instrument.

His video 'United Breaks Guitars' has had three and half million hits in ten days and has been a PR disaster for the airline, which has seen its share price plunge by 10 per cent, wiping $180 million off the company's value.

Mr Carroll says he has now been offered $1.200 in flight vouchers as compensation, while United says they will be using his video for training purposes.

Wednesday, 22 July 2009

Link to the article: Channel 4 News

America's banks rake in bumper profits just six months after they were on the ropes, begging for government bailouts. Faisal Islam went to the US to find out what the legacy of the banking crisis is.

Pub closures at epidemic levels

Link to the article

By Channel 4 News

Every week 52 pubs call last orders for the final time, but we are not drinking any less, we are just not choosing pubs to do it in. Nina Teggarty reports.

This is more than another recession story, despite their iconic status, this is no sudden decline - pubs have been closing for over a century.