Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

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

ITV has reported this morning that pre-tax profit almost tripled last year to Β£321m, but its programme making division struggled as earnings dropped more than 10%. ITV reported total revenues up 10% to Β£2.06bn in 2010, fuelled by a 16% rise in TV ad revenues thanks to hit shows such as The X Factor and Downton Abbey.

Ofcom is seeking to stop internet service providers from advertising unrealistic broadband speeds. "There is a substantial gap between advertised speeds and the actual speeds people get in their homes," Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards told the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ.

The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ is to give public access to the archive of Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, allowing downloads of the past 500 editions and listing the choices made by every guest since the programme began in 1942, . It will coincide with the launch of the re-branded digital network Radio 4 Extra, which replaces Radio 7 next month.

it's hard to fault the digital radio strategy that the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's head of audio and music, Tim Davie, announced yesterday - "it'll be popular... it is clearly designed to be a tempting digital radio carrot rather than a threatening digital radio stick... and it's cheap."

Luke Johnson, the former chairman of Channel 4, has teamed with former Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ and ITV executive Paul Jackson to bid for culture secretary Jeremy Hunt's new national TV channel. their group, Local6, is the ninth bidder to publicly declare an interest in running the channel, which is intended to provide a national spine for Hunt's initiative to create a new network of local TV services. Tuesday was the deadline for initial submissions of interest to Hunt.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is close to finalising a remedy with Ofcom and the Office of Fair Trading which could enable it to bid for the 61pc of BSkyB it does not already own. She expects Sky News to be hived off into an independent trust that News Corp will agree to fund with tens of millions of pounds a year in the long-term and says "Essentially, the arrangement will see Mr Murdoch's News Corporation cede control of Sky News."

The government's announcement of cuts in the armed forces comes in for a great deal of criticism. The Times says the weakness of Britain's defences was exposed as the government confirmed thousands of jobs losses across the services - just hours after David Cameron attempted to take a lead role in the Libyan crisis, as highlighted in the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's newspapers review.

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