There has been a media flurry this morning.  The FT went to press with a front page story claiming ‘Brown to be star of the show on Downing Street web TV channel’. 

According to a spokesperson in the FT ‘The new online channel, accessible via the Downing Street website, will offer exclusive video of the prime minister’s speeches, press conferences, media appearances and news archives'

The announcement caused a little confusion this morning as Downing Street was initially keen to play down the ‘Web TV Channel’ badge.

Either way, this adds a little heat to an online battle that Cameron as been quietly winning hands-down for two years now, thanks to his rather well established weblog. 

Despite the launch of his YouTube channel in April/May which encouraged the public to ask Brown a question, he has been playing catch-up in the online webTV arena, so this development can only be a good thing.

Of course, like many things, we’re light years behind the US where both presidential candidates have established webTV channels; Obama and McCain are waging an online video war, which makes for fascinating viewing even from this side of the pond. 

An amusing aside, one of the first UK politicians to engage with her audience via the web, was staunch right-wing conservative Ann Widdecombe who’s Widdyweb, was mentioned in a rather toe-curling Louis Theroux show some years ago.

In the last week both the BBC and Channel 4 have announced their latest forays into multi-platform TV.  Not surprisingly both have decided to target the ‘yoof’ market to test their propositions.

Hollyoaks  ‘show within a show’ idea will see characters talking about, and watching a drama show called Runners.   Runners will be about life working as an intern in the showbiz and fashion industries and will include sequences shot at events such as the Brit Awards.  Thanks to Broadcast for the info.

As well as brief clips of Runners appearing in the soap, Hollyoaks fans will be able to watch a full three-minute online episode each weekday for the 10-week initial run. Episodes are planned to appear on C4's Hollyoaks website as well as on Bebo, MSN Messenger TV, Facebook and iTunes.

The BBC’s working title “‘Mouth to Mouth’ is a cautionary tale, following the highs and lows of the three members of girl-group Cat's Eyes through individual monologues.”  The programme will be made available across selected web and mobile platforms prior to transmission on BBC 3.  An un-specified amount of additional content will also be exclusively available online to “expand the narrative”.

This is all well and good, but as the BBC wisely points out

"BBC Three is committed to producing a steady stream of innovative and creative multi-platform projects.  The latest of these, Mouth to Mouth, is all about powerful writing and great acting talent. The essentials of quality content are not going to change, whatever the platform."

This advice is totally correct and I really hope they both get it right.

I find it staggering that text messaging in this country continues to grow and yet that’s exactly what keeps happening.  In their most recent report the Mobile Data Association shows that texting has grown by 30% in the year to May 2008.  Despite the growth of mobile email we’re now sending an amazing 212,616,000 text messages per day.

MDA are also pleased to report that mobile web is maturing finally in fact; it has enjoyed 25% growth over the last two years.  Over 16.5 million of us now partake of mobile internet and Steve Reynolds of MDA predicts that before long, mobile internet use could eventually supersede home internet use.   Their next report will outline the impact 3g dongles are having, which in my opinion will play a bigger role in online mobile growth than any new iPhone.

When I heard the news that rather than reducing my licence fee the BBC was going to give some of its record overseas profits to the directors in the form of a £100,000 per year pay rise, I have to confess, I considered cancelling the direct debit and tearing the TV aerial from my roof.

Then, I read a release on the fully convergent, new iPlayer and I fell back in love with our eccentric aunt. I’ve always thought the BBC was pretty forward thinking in their broadcast convergence strategy, their use of video on bbc.co.uk/news site set a new standard.

Erik Huggers at the BBC says of the new iPlayer.  "The next generation of BBC iPlayer allows UK licence fee payers to catch up on their favourite BBC TV and radio programmes in one place – a completely unique on-demand service.”   

The iPlayer’s got it all, in addition to TV and radio in one place you can ‘pop it out’ and continue browsing other pages, it has a better screen resolution, and in a nod to web 2.0, it suggests other content you may like.  It will also be available on hand-held devices such as the iPhone and even the Nintendo Wii. 

The biggest development of all for me (and many a discussion board) is Virgin Media’s announcement that they are working on implementing a version of the iPlayer on its cable TV network.  This means Virgin Media’s already impressive on-demand service has received a significant boost, and it’s another step towards the inevitable standardisation of on-demand platforms.

With the new iPlayer I don’t need an aerial and it looks like the licence fee is safe for now.

No, absolutely not.

The second instalment of Rajar’s catchily named ‘Podcasting and Radio via The Internet’ survey was published this week and it makes for encouraging viewing. (Link above opens a pdf)

9.4 million people in the UK are now listening to radio online, be it live or listen again this figure is up by 1.3 million since the last survey in October last year, impressive stuff.

The survey also goes on to show that podcasting is on the up, with 3.7 million now regularly downloading podcasts.  Also encouraging is the fact that podcasts are becoming a bigger part of the listening diet with the average respondent subscribing to 3.59 casts up from 3.16.

The best statistic that this report identifies proves our view that Radio is the most adaptable channel.  Rather than diluting radio audiences the web is extending radio’s reach with 13% of respondents now listening to ‘more live radio’ as a result of listen again functionality.

As radio continues to grow and the media continues to change, the nature of its influence is evolving.  Radio Centre’s latest paper shows that in spite of the illicit, and under threat, bit torrent generation, 56% of people are still hearing new music first on radio.

In short, radio just keeps on delivering.