Published 15 April 2010
On 5 April 2010 Pennine FM became the latest in a list of smaller commercial radio stations to shut down and hand back its licence to Ofcom.
Published 6 April 2010
I was on holiday on 27 March else I would have been standing outside Broadcasting House chanting and waving my placard at the protests against the proposed closure of the wonderful BBC Radio 6music.
Published 3 April 2010
If you’re reading this by a newsreader then you probably won’t notice any difference, however if you’re on the website itself you’ll probably notice that we’ve had the decorators in and the MediaBlog has a brand new look.
Published 4 February 2010
It’s been many years since I personally lived in the North East so the story that demolition had begun on Tyne Tees’s old City Road studios had passed me by.
Published 19 January 2010
As it’s announced that BBC iPlayer has had over 100 million requests, and the Corporation adds more and more ways to catch up on missed TV, you’d be forgiven if you thought that traditional TV was on the way out. And quickly too.
Published 29 September 2009
Well if this is not a sad sight for ITV I don’t know what is. For the good news is that Primeval will return (good if you like Primeval anyway!) in a deal with UKTV which will see the programme air on Watch afterwards, and BBC Worldwide become the largest co-production partner.
Published 19 August 2009
More Mark Austin on News at Ten As part of a piece proclaiming that Mark Austin will be doing more News at Ten, is the news that Alastair Stewart is…
Published 2 June 2009
Ah, do you remember the days? Everyone was rushing off pay TV, determined to embrace the world of free to air television. It would be great! Advertising would pay for…
Published 1 May 2009
Well it didn’t take that long, but now we’re on the sixth analogue station to close this year as UTV Radio (a name that is a contradiction in itself) killed off Valleys Radio in Wales after failing to find a buyer for the station.
Published 28 April 2009
Local TV hasn’t exactly had a particularly good start in the UK. Failed station followed failed station. Small scale ventures have risen in high profile, only to shatter not long after. Ofcom has a list of the stations, however several have never even launched.
Published 23 April 2009
It’s not been long since the counter was started but already we’re heading for the sixth radio station to close.
Published 20 April 2009
Peter Preston has a fantastic piece in the Guardian about Fox News, and what makes it a “success”
Published 17 April 2009
Fifty radio stations “could close” apparently. Well so far this year alone, we’re on five, following the closure of Pennine FM in Huddersfield just yesterday.
Published 10 April 2009
Fox are starting a new reality TV programme where cash strapped businesses will let the staff decide which of their colleagues should be got rid off. In ‘Someone’s Gotta Go’ the company books will be turned over, staff salaries will be revealed. And no doubt bitterness and agendas will be at the heart of the show.
Published 17 March 2009
BBC Radio 4 is to ditch it’s children’s programme, Go4It, after seven years. Apparently the average age of the shows listeners was nowhere near it’s target audience, being, as it was, over 50.
Published 9 March 2009
Most solutions to Channel 4’s problems envision a continuation of free to air television. Funnily enough Sky don’t. Who would have thought it?
Published 6 March 2009
We were very sad to learn of the death of Transdiffusion contributor, Simon Luxton.
Published 23 February 2009
Much of broadcasting is a rather boring sounding but essential business. Take SDN for example. It runs a multiplex on Freeview, meaning it provides the infrastructure that runs a sixth of the digital terrestrial television spectrum.
Published 13 February 2009
The distribution of Premier League football rights is a seemingly never ending occurrence, however the latest round now has the potential to have some serious consequences.
Published 23 January 2009
The fall out of the recent Ofcom report into the future of commercial public service broadcasting continues, with The Guardian reporting that Ofcom are not aren’t convinced that there will need to be a separate Teletext franchise going forward.
Published 18 December 2008
The battle of what sports the BBC should or should not cover is one which will, inevitably, never draw any consensus.
Published 9 December 2008
Like many I grew up with the creations of Oliver Postgate, and his usal collaborator Peter Firmin. Ivor the Engine, Noggin the Nog, the Clangers, and of course, the utterly wonderful Bagpuss, played a huge part of my childhood, as it did so many others – enchanting and enthralling a whole generation.
Published 28 October 2008
Stephen’s post, They would say that, wouldn’t they? mentions that the branch of WH Smiths in the BBC’s Television Centre, sells, as a percentage of all papers sold, a disproportionate number of copies of The Guardian compared with the country overall.
Published 17 October 2008
Another one from the “Eh, what? Why?” file is the news that the remake of The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin won’t actually be a remake at all because most of the concepts and storylines will be got rid off.
Published 16 September 2008
The nationisation of local radio is taking a step up a gear, with Global Radio announcing plans to rebrand 28 of its local stations as Heart
Published 12 September 2008
It’s been hanging around for goodness knows how long, but finally BSkyB have done the inevitable, and axed its pay TV proposals for DTT.
Published 29 August 2008
A couple of weeks ago I unpacked a Grundig Freesat HD set top box. In the cardboard packing was a set top box, power adapter, SCART lead and a remote…
Published 28 August 2008
There’s an element of inevitability about this one – and the one surprise is that has taken so long.
Published 11 August 2008
“On BBC One now, Britain from Above, whilst on BBC Two in sixty minutes, it’s Britain from Above”.
Published 24 July 2008
If you haven’t seen the BBC’s Olympic monkey, then it’s time to head over to the BBC website now.
Published 17 June 2008
Here’s an interesting one. The Guardian are reporting that the Scottish Government are consulting about a possible ban of alcohol related TV ads before the 9pm watershed. It’s a question that has been raised nationwide, but so far not discounted.
Published 23 May 2008
One upon a time, the adage was that you joined the BBC to get the training, then when you could, you disappeared off for the better wages in the commercial world.
Published 23 May 2008
There is absolutely no doubt at all. Not one bit. You can guarentee that is there’s one programme that’s going to set the “decline of broadcasting” brigade off, it’s new CBBC programme Gastronuts, which, according to the Guardian, will “encourage kids to stew worms, catch farts in jars and bake toenail cakes”.
Published 22 May 2008
There’s a certain irony that ITV apparently failed to meet its quotas for out of London production. Irony that a network which was founded on regional principles, to spread power and away from the capital, is now firmly rooted in London, and makes most of its programmes there.
Published 12 April 2008
On the more trivial side of broadcasting news recently is the revelation that popular TV personalities Ant and Dec have rushed out and bought the rights to their old shows SM:TV Live and Byker Grove, apparently in a bid to stop digital TV channels buying the rights and showing their previous work without their permission. Or presumably, at all.
Published 11 April 2008
The first signs of new management ideas at GCap Media are slowly being revealed. Whilst the company is not yet part of Global Radio (the move has to be agreed by shareholders first), it would seem highly unlikely that the potential new owners would have not been consulted first on todays announcements.
Published 1 April 2008
So it’s finally happened – GCap has succumbed to Global Media, with the company being sold for £375m.
Published 25 March 2008
It’s not even been a year since the change, but it seems XFM’s bold vision of an exciting world of giving listeners the power, and ditching it’s daytime presenters has been a resounding success!
Published 20 March 2008
Where Dave leads, “Fiver” apparently follows as digital channel Five Life, is getting a new name.
Published 5 March 2008
Well it looks like the battle has finally ended. Surely? The news that the House of Lords have refused to hear an appeal from Christian Voice in their attempts to procecute the BBC for blasphemy for showing Jerry Springer: The Opera.
Published 5 March 2008
If you’re one of those people who think that the BBC would be insane to sell off its flagship building, then you might be encouraged by something on Media Guardian this morning.
Published 11 February 2008
The GCap/DAB story just keeps coming up with new twists as more articles get published. In an article about the economic viability of DAB on the Media Guardian website, there’s an interesting comment from Fru Hazlitt.