Media Brief
Post categories: mediabrief
| 10:13 UK time, Friday, 26 March 2010
I'm the BBC's media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.
The Times and Sunday Times will start charging for access to their websites and other digital services from June. The cost will be £1 a day, or £2 for a week's subscription. Rupert Murdoch announced last summer that his newspapers would start charging for online content. The industry is divided over the wisdom of the move reports the BBC.
The former KGB agent Alexander Lebedev, who last year bought the Evening Standard in London, has agreed to buy the Independent and Independent On Sunday for a nominal £1. It's not yet known if the editors will stay, or whether the titles will go free according to the BBC and the Times.
The Guardian reports that sports bodies are threatening legal action over Ofcom's imminent announcement that it will force Sky to cut the price it charges rivals for sport content.
Several newspaper groups have been chosen ahead of ITN and STV to run three publicly-funded pilot news services on ITV. The Government proposed the services - in Scotland, Wales and the north-east of England - after ITV said it could no longer afford to provide regional news reports the BBC and the Independent.
The prospect of strikes by rail staff and further action by British Airways cabin crew dominates Friday's papers as reflected in the BBC newspaper review.
Links in full
BBC | Times and Sunday Times websites to charge from JuneBBC | The Independent bought by Lebedev for £1 
Alexi Mostrous | Times | Former KGB spy Alexander Lebedev buys Independent for £1
Owen Gibson | Guardian | Legal action threat over Sky's TV dominanceBBC | ITV local news providers chosen 
Nick Clark | Independent | ITN misses out as Johnston and Trinity snap up ITV newsBBC | Newspaper review
• Read Thursday's Media Brief.
• Read my archive of media articles on Delicious.
