The company that brought you American Idol and The X Factor wants a drastic reduction in VOD prices and tougher enforcement for P2P freeloaders to help it grow. FremantleMedia CEO Tony Cohen told MediaGuardian’s Changing Media Summit: “On-demand viewing will be just another option on your living room TV screen.…

Nothing like a hard dose of reality - except this one came from the man on whose shoulders many hopes are pinned for a media business roadmap… Reminded that Trinity Mirror (LSE: TNI) CEO Sly Bailey lambasted his interim Digital Britain report’s “crushing lack of understanding” and “only passing reference…

The BBC is now “talking to all the public service broadcasters and others about the practicalities of sharing the iPlayer”, despite initial reticence from Channel 4, director general Mark Thompson told MediaGuardian’s Changing Media Summit in London this morning. The BBC proposed widening iPlayer to other broadcasters in its December…

Our mocoNews.net correspondents Tricia Duryee and Dianne See Morrison are in Barcelona this week, covering the massive mobile event that is Mobile World Congress. So far, *Microsoft* has unveiled Windows Mobile 6.5, *Nokia* showed off its Ovi Store and *Verizon* has begun allowing Flash animations on its handsets. That’s just…

The music industry stands at a critical juncture (no, really this time) - but some people don’t think it’s capable of making leaps bold enough to avoid financial oblivion. Two years ago, Midem-goers fretted over whether dropping DRM would satisfy consumers frustrated at digital limitations on their purchases; last year,…

Our own Robert Andrews has spent the weekend in Cannes for the annual digital music conference called MidemNet. He’s covered everything from the ISP music accord, to the UK government’s “wimpy” attempt at P2P regulation. As for the future of digital music? Research shows the industry is expected to reach…

—7Digital: The online music retailer and white label store service says download sales were up 260 percent for Q4 2008; unclear if that’s up from the previous quarter or from the corresponding 2007 period; also unclear - the actual figures. Just as it’s rolled out in the US, 7Digital is…

Europe’s music biz will reach a digital tipping point in 2013, when the majority of sales (53 percent) will be from online, mobile and ringtones for the first time - but overall sales will still be nearly half what they were in 2001,  according to a new Forrester report. Digital…

Robbie Williams’ manager has accused the UK government of “wimping out” in the fight against illegal P2P downloading. ie:music MD Tim Clark told the MidemNet music industry conference in Cannes: “In France, Sarkozy is doing something about it. In the UK, as you’d expect, our government is completely wimping out.…

UK ISPs are lurching awkwardly toward launching next-generation music services - but, typically for the tail-chasing music business, splits remain about the best way forward. Last summer’s accord struck between labels and service providers seemed to pave the way for new offerings including unlimited downloads bundled with broadband and perhaps…

Trade bodies for both UK ISPs and the music business have used high-profile speeches to warn ministers against legislating to tackle illegal downloading - rumoured to be a recommendation in Lord Carter’s upcoming Digital Britain report. Internet Service Provider Alliance (ISPA) secretary general Nicholas Lansman told the MidemNet conference in…

Most people would stop downloading illegal music if sent a warning letter by their ISP, a second set of research has shown. The survey of 1,300 US, UK and French music fans showed 64 percent would quit if warned, The Leading Question analyst Tim Walker, who conducted the survey, told…

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) will roll out its Comes With Music bundled mobile music initiative in Australia and Singapore in the next few weeks, and hopes to launch in the US and globally later this year. Entertainment and communities EVP Tero Ojanpera revealed at the MidemNet conference in Cannes, France, the…

An extraordinary spectacle to open this weekend’s big MidemNet digital music conference in Cannes, France. MP3.com founder Michael Robertson, named on the speaker agenda, couldn’t be here in person after all - because terms of EMI’s lawsuit against his MP3Tunes music site prevented him being on stage with ex EMI…

When businesses suffer, so do their in-house magazines. Contract publisher Brooklands Group, which makes A Place in the Sun magazine as a tie-in with the Channel 4 show as well as mags for Renault and Chrysler went into administration on December 23, as Press Gazette reports, putting 16 staff at…

Viacom’s Harmonix is breaking out of its annual development cycle for Rock Band this year to focus on the new Beatles’ game, due out in time for the holiday season, and to avoid the limits that come along with cranking out new versions, CEO Alex Rigopulos told attendees at Billboard…

Farmers Guardian, MusicWeek and TechWeb publisher United Business Media (LSE: UBM) flirted with Lloyd’s List publisher Informa for a merger before backing out this summer. I caught up with UBM CEO David Levin, fresh from the stage at our Future Of Business Media conference in New York last week, where…

NBC, which was roundly criticised (not least by ourselves) for holding back live Beijing Olympics coverage for prime-time TV this summer, says it’s learned lessons and will be making adjustments for London 2012. Despite a significant online investment, NBC was seen to have withheld some of the most exciting sport-event…

News networks can move markets, that’s for sure, and rarely has their compulsion to report responsibly been more critical. But what truth is there to concern from some quarters that they’ve talked the economy in to a recession? Absolutely none, a trio of journalists emphatically told our Future Of Business…