Media Brief

I'm the BBC's media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

Every community in the UK will gain access to superfast broadband by 2015 under a new scheme announced by the Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt. The private sector is to tackle two thirds of the UK. Other, mainly rural, areas will receive public funds to build a "digital hub" with a fibre optic internet connection. The government has earmarked £830m for the scheme, using money from the BBC via the TV licence fee.

Jeremy Hunt said on Radio 4's Today Programme that broadband access could create up to 600,000 jobs.

The BBC Director-General Mark Thompson has told Media Guardian that he aims to make annual savings of £500m following the recent licence fee settlement. He said the BBC would have to operate on a smaller staff than its current 23,000 but promised that no TV channels or radio stations would come off air because of lack of resources.

Mr Thompson also said on the Andrew Marr Show that the freezing of the licence fee for the next six years would result in the BBC making fewer hours of programmes "but to higher quality". He said the deal, announced in October, had been "a tough settlement but a good settlement".

Stephen Glover says in the Independent that people shouldn't laugh at Richard Desmond's boast - in an interview with Management Today - that he offered Rupert Murdoch £1bn for his four UK newspapers. He says Mr Desmond usually gets what he wants.

Ann Widdecombe, self-proclaimed 'dancing elephant', was finally voted off Strictly Come Dancing. The Daily Mail says she remained defiant, insisting she had entertained viewers and inspired a generation of older women to try dancing - even if they worried they would not be any good.

The Guardian reports that Coronation Street will celebrate its 50th anniversary this week with a dramatic storyline featuring a devastating tram crash.

In the Independent on Sunday Tony Livesey salutes Coronation Street as a northern phenomenon.

The story of the Russian-born parliamentary aide facing deportation from the UK accused of spying is carried by many of Monday's papers. Russian media reports consider her treatment "revenge" over the 2018 World Cup vote, reports the Daily Telegraph. The BBC newspaper review rounds-up how the story is covered.

Links in full

• BBC | Government reveals super-fast broadband plans
• Jeremy Hunt | BBC | Today Government 'raises the game' on broadband
• Guardian | Thompson aiming to make cuts of half a billion pounds
• BBC | Mark Thompson pledges 'higher quality' BBC
• Stephen Glover | Independent | What Desmond wants, Desmond usually gets
• Daily Mail | Public finally tire of Ann Widdecombe
• Guardian | Coronation Street blasts into the future on its 50th birthday
• Tony Livesey | Independent | Happy birthday, chuck! Fifty years of a Northern TV legend
• BBC | Newspaper review

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