Your Noon Briefing: QTV, agriculture journalism awards, etc

A GLASGOW-based TV production company that specialises in live streaming of sports such as badminton, cricket and swimming has cemented an arrangement with one of its regular commentators, by naming him head of cricket.

Says QTV – formerly known as QuipuTV – Tim Brooks is a “world-leading expert on the global development of the game” who “has worked extensively for Wisden and All Out Cricket, among other publications”.

Says the company’s CEO, Jack McGill: “We wanted to make a statement about our commitment to cricket: all of cricket. We’ve worked hard, with the support of the ICC and many of its members, to understand the global development needs of the sport and to understand where we can play a meaningful role within that. There is no-one with a more intuitive sense of that journey than Tim Brooks.”

The move coincides with a QTV production team leaving this week to cover the upcoming ICC World Cup, in Australia and New Zealand, which will feature Scotland. Says the company, the crew will be ‘embedded’ with the Scotland team.

QTV describes itself thus: “In total, [we] cover 17 sports, producing a combination of live and post-production video content that [we] curate and distribute on behalf of [our] partners, improving the reach of their events. The company was founded in 2011 after the successful livestreaming of a cricket tri-series featuring Scotland, Ireland, and Sri Lanka.”

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BEGINS Martin Dempster, in The Scotsman, today: “While it will boost the R&A’s coffers if, as predicted, it is worth £3 million more per year than the current package, a new television deal for the Open Championship taking it away from the BBC to Sky surely can’t be welcomed as being good for golf in its overall landscape.

“Admittedly, at a time when the BBC, which has held the live rights for the event for the past 59 years, appears to have lost all interest in the Royal & Ancient game, the sport is now being covered better than ever before.”

Read more, here.

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BEGAN the website, Press Gazette, last week: “The High Court has blocked second phone-hacking damages claims brought by former TV presenter, [Scot] John Leslie and Jeff Brazier, once partner of the late reality star, Jade Goody.

“Mr Justice Mann allowed applications by News Group Newspapers (NGN) for summary judgment on the basis that the terms of the settlement reached in their first claims barred the new actions, because they fell within the settled claims.

“In December 2012, the court heard that Brazier was among 22 claimants to have recently accepted offers of substantial damages from NGN, publisher of the now-defunct News of the World.

“And, at another hearing in April 2013, Leslie’s counsel said he had accepted substantial damages, costs and an apology.”

Read more, here.

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A DEADLINE of the 27th of this month has been set for entries to an awards competition celebrating the best of agricultural journalism among regional newspapers.

The competition is being run by the British Guild of Agricultural Journalists.

Says the Guild: “Last year, the award was won for the second successive year and for the third time by The Press and Journal and farming editor [the late, as reported here] Joe Watson for the Aberdeen-based newspaper’s daily coverage of agriculture and weekly, Farming supplement published every Saturday.”

Read more, here.

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BEGINS The Herald: “More children with life-threatening illnesses will be able to make use of a popular hydrotherapy pool, thanks to a grant from the Gannett Foundation.

“The Children’s Hospice Association Scotland (Chas) was awarded £7,000 from the fund, run by the charitable arm of The Herald’s parent company.”

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THE deadline is looming for entries to a competition celebrating the best of food photography.

The eighth of this month has been set as the deadline for the Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year 2015, with £5,000 going to the overall winner.

Read more, here.

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BEGINS Brian Ferguson, in today’s Scotsman: “There are many remarkable things about the American television drama series Outlander, over and above the fact it is entirely set and filmed in Scotland.

“Well over a year after filming got under way, it is still hard to believe the largely unremarkable town of Cumbernauld is home to the biggest-ever inward investment into the country’s film and television industry.

“Two years ago, I doubt few of those in the country’s film and TV industry had heard of the Outlander series of novels by American author Diana Gabaldon, despite them selling more than 
25 million copies.”

Read more, here.

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