The UK Film Council is to be axed as part of a cost-cutting drive by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), it has been announced.

The organisation, founded in 2000, had an annual budget of £15m to invest in British films and employed 75 people.

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he wanted to establish a “direct and less bureaucratic relationship with the British Film Institute”.

UK Film Council chairman Tim Bevan called it “a bad decision”.

He said the announcement was “imposed without any consultation or evaluation”.

“People will rightly look back on today’s announcement and say it was a big mistake, driven by short-term thinking and political expediency,” he said.

The DCMS said film funding would continue but would be distributed through other bodies.

Current lottery funding for film is £26 million per year. This is expected to increase to £32 million after 2012.

Direct government funding, currently about £25m a year, is being considered as part of the ongoing spending review.

In a statement, the DCMS said it was “clear that culture and creative industries will not be singled out as a soft target, and that the government will champion the value they bring”.

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The BBC Trust has given the UK public broadcaster the go-ahead for a series of smartphone applications for its BBC News, Sport and iPlayer services, ruling that they do not require further scrutiny.

BBC execs will be relieved the apps have been okayed since they have already been produced and are ready to go. However, they will be angry over the Trust’s timing, which has meant them not being able to launch the apps in time for the FIFA World Cup.

The BBC had planned to roll out its iPhone sports app in time for the tournament, which kicked off on June 11, before the Trust called a halt to the launch in March, following criticism from external parties that the BBC was exceeding its remit.

The Trust’s ruling today comes weeks after the tournament has finished, missing a crucial window the Corporation would have had to get the app in front of thousands of football-hungry viewers.

The Trust’s assessment looked at the BBC’s app plans in four areas: the potential impact of the proposed apps, the financial implications, whether apps would involve the BBC in a new area of untested activity, and the duration of the proposed apps. The conclusion was that a public value test was unnecessary.

BBC Trustee Diane Coyle, who led the review, said: “The apps market is rapidly taking off as more people choose to get their news, sport and other online content while they’re on the move.

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Ad-funded US online video service Hulu still plans to take its wares to the international market, following the launch of subscription service Hulu Plus in the States last week.

Hulu, a joint venture between NBC Universal , News Corp and Disney-ABC, has been seeking to expand internationally for some time and came close to tying up an agreement with UK broadcaster ITV earlier this year. The deal broke down when ITV decided it wanted to work on its catch-up TV services alone.

Last week, Hulu, which carries programmes such as Glee and Family Guy, launched Hulu Plus, a premium content subscription service that offers back episodes of series such as Arrested Development and Family Guy for US$9.99 month.

It is being rolled out on the iPad, iPhone and third-generation iPod Touch, with carriage on Samsung connected TVs and Blu-Ray players. Hulu is also aiming to put the service on games consoles such as the Xbox and PlayStation 3.

Jason Kilar, the JV’s CEO, told London’s Financial Times he was confident Hulu Plus could be launched internationally, adding: “We won’t be satisfied until this is a global sevice.” Japan and the UK are understood to be priorities.

Kilar added that Hulu was not in competition with US cablenets that offer premium content, such as HBO. “It is inaccurate to consider Hulu as a substitute for cable or pay-TV services,” he said. “We want to make sure that our focus is on serving an unmet need with broadcast content.”

Take-up of Hulu Plus has been good, attracting “thousands” of subscribers, according to reports in the US. But customers have complained about paying for a service that still contains pre-roll advertising and commercial breaks.

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The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem LLC (DECE LLC), a cross-industry consortium dedicated to driving a new, open market for digital content distribution, today announced its consumer brand – UltraViolet™ – and logo (www.uvvu.com). UltraViolet represents a new way for consumers to have greater choice, confidence and freedom in how, when and where they enjoy digital movies, TV shows and other entertainment. In addition, the consortium announced three additional new members bringing the total to nearly 60 member companies.

“We believe that UltraViolet will provide consumers with an easy-to-use way to buy and watch digital entertainment across multiple devices”

Complementing the physical DVD and Blu-ray home entertainment markets, UltraViolet will allow consumers to watch their digital entertainment across multiple platforms, such as connected TVs, PCs, game consoles, smartphones and tablet PCs, in an easy, consistent way. Since all UltraViolet offerings will work together, consumers will be able to select which products and devices they prefer from a spectrum of familiar companies – ranging from major studios to consumer electronics companies to cable, web and other service providers. In addition, the UltraViolet name and logo will help identify entertainment products and services designed to work together seamlessly.

“The introduction of the UltraViolet brand is another important step towards the consumer launch of UltraViolet products and services,” said Mitch Singer, DECE president and CTO of Sony Pictures Entertainment. “Our goal is to firmly establish UltraViolet as the symbol for digital entertainment – one that gives consumers the freedom of access wherever they are, the confidence of knowing how it will work and the broadest choice of content, stores and devices.”

The UltraViolet experience will be powered by a cloud-based UltraViolet Account, which will include a Digital Rights Locker and account management functionality. Consumers will be able to create an UltraViolet Account, free of charge, via one of the many participating UltraViolet service providers or through the UltraViolet website. Once created, this Account will allow consumers to easily access and manage all of their UltraViolet entertainment, regardless of where it was purchased.

Technical specifications and licensing details for companies who wish to offer UltraViolet content, services and devices, are expected this year.

DECE also announced the addition of LG Electronics, LOVEFiLM and Marvell Semiconductor, Inc. to the consortium. These companies join DECE’s already strong group which include world leaders across a wide range of industries.

While the French football team left the South Africa FIFA World Cup under a cloud, France Telecom subsidiary GlobeCast has its head held high after a successful tournament in which it provided contribution for 28 live matches in 3D. The games were transmitted around the world by satellite, displayed to cinema audiences and also received by major broadcasters including ESPN in the USA, which launched its 3D channel ESPN 3D in time for the tournament.

Contribution from the stadia to the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) was performed as separate left eye and right eye streams using JPEG2000 compression. At the IBC, Sensio equipment converted two HD SDI signals into one HD SDI side-by-side (Frame Compatible) output and this was encoded with an Ericsson E5780 HD encoder in MPEG-2 at 40Mbps in 27MHz of bandwidth using DVB-S2 modulation, uplinked via Intelsat to London, with fibre back-up into London and Frankfurt. From London the signals were redistributed worldwide.

Because some cinema projectors could only work with 720p HD (Frame Compatible 3DTV) GlobeCast also decoded the MPEG-2 stream in London to convert the content into this HD format, taking care of some specific audio configurations as well. For the rest of the market the signal was delivered as 1080i50 HD. Broadcast/Pay TV customers for the GlobeCast 3D contribution feeds included ESPN in the US, Sky PerfecTV in Japan, CCTV in China, SBS in Australia, TF1 in France and Sogecable in Spain.

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For the third year running re:fine will be taking part in the Soho fun-run!

This unique event is a three legged race around the heart of Soho and has become a bit of a summer tradition!  The race follows a route around Soho where teams endeavor to answer questions and receive hospitality at various stops en route.

Once back in Soho square there is a big picnic and a live band.  We’ve never won anything or even come close but it’s great fun and raises money for the Vision Charity -our industry charity that aims to change the lives of blind and visually impaired children.

To donate or take part click here!

Brian Lenz, Director of Product Design and TV Product Development at BSkyB, told the 3DTV World Forum last week that it was much more challenging to create the business case for digital TV and then HDTV than it is for 3DTV before deciding: “Will 3D be the next big innovation that radically alters television? I think there are reasons to believe that could be the case.”

Referring to the reaction of consumers to early Sky 3D broadcasts, Lenz said: “Every time we put this in front of people they are excited and want more. We do not need to convince them. HD was a harder sell because some people cannot see the difference between SD and HD but 3DTV is immediately obvious to them.”

Responding to questions, Lenz said that for BSkyB, 3D success would mean repeating the kind of uptake witnessed for its Sky+ PVR and HD services and, before those, its introduction of digital TV. “This is just the beginning. Success for us would mean that in 2-3 years time consumers are clamouring for more channels and there is enough content available to expand the offering,” he said.

Lenz said the time was finally right for 3DTV. The big changes since previous industry attempts to introduce 3D television have been the transition to digital, including file based storage and editing, plus high quality camera rigs. These have removed many of the difficulties witnessed before.

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Today, Google officially announced its latest product, Google TV.

It’s a platform, both hardware (as a set top box) and software, that uses a combination of technologies, including Android, Chrome, and an Intel chipset plus Internet connectivity to create a truly amazing product.

We think it’s going to change the way people watch TV completely. No longer will people crowd around a desktop computer in order to watch videos on Hulu or YouTube. Gone are the days of hooking up your television to your laptop to watch online content. Google has changed everything.

Google TV hooks up to your set top box via HDMI and has an interface similar to something between Windows Media Center and Android OS. Through a search bar, you can bring up various TV channels, find related content on sites like Hulu and Amazon and so much more.

See, Google TV supports Adobe Flash, meaning if you can view it on the web, you can view it on Google TV.

Watching a Football game on TV and want to check your fantasy stats right then and there? You can throw the game into picture-in-picture mode and bring up your Yahoo! Sports account in a few clicks of a wireless keyboard and mouse.

Love movies? You can now watch all your favorite video websites easily on your TV and can use Netflix as well.

But it gets even more innovative. Your Android Phone is now a remote. You can speak commands to your TV like “Good Morning America” and the appropriate show will turn on instantly. If you hate fighting over the TV remote, just use two Android phones. Problem solved.

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Apple has booked in more than $60m of advertising on its iAd mobile advertising network, which will launch on the new generation iPhone on 1 July.

Big brands such as AT&T, Best Buy, Unilever and Chanel will all kick off the launch with mobile ad campaigns.

The advertising network will be built into the new operating system for the iPod Touch and iPhone 4, which was unveiled by Apple chief executive Steve Jobs in San Francisco yesteThe new system allows users to stay within their app while engaging with an ad, watching a video or playing a game.

Apple said it has iAd commitments for 2010 totaling more than $60m, almost 50% of the total forecasted US mobile ad spending by JP Morgan for the second half of 2010.

The technology giant will sell and serve the ads, and app developers will receive an industry-standard 60% of advertising revenues.

After a few technical hitches on stage at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, Jobs was able to showcase the iPhone 4 that will launch in the UK on 24 June.

It is 24% thinner than the latest iPhone model, the 3GS, and includes a 5- megapixel camera with LED flash on the back. Using a front-facing camera, the iPhone 4 will also allow users to see their callers and visa versa.

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Sony Pictures Home Entertainment confirmed that it will be bringing the first Blu-ray 3D SKU to market “early this summer” with Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 3D.  The first day-and-date Blu-ray 3D release from the studio will be Resident Evil: Afterlife (which opens theatrically in the US in September).

In an interview with Home Media Magazine, Lexine Wong, SPHE senior EVP of worldwide marketing, explained that the company “felt it was absolutely necessary to offer a standalone retail 3D version of Cloudy for our retailers and consumers who want more 3D content for their 3D TVs.” As previously reported (see blu-ray.com, May 23), most of the 3D releases expected for 2010 will be available exclusively for the buyers of 3D hardware of one brand or the other.

Wong added that SPHE’s Blu-ray 3D titles will also include a 2D high-def version of the film.

When asked about whether Blu-ray 3D titles would carry a price premium, Wong stated that with Blu-ray 3D there are authoring and production costs “above and beyond those associated with 2D Blu-ray.” Additionally, she noted that theatergoers are now used to paying more for seeing a movie in 3D than in 2D. Hence, she said, “we do feel that expectation will carry over to Blu-ray 3D.”

“Just as Blu-ray offers the best high-def picture and sound,” she concluded, “the best quality 3D is only on Blu-ray 3D.”

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