Courtesy of Channel Five, this evening some archive repeats are being shown from 7pm onwards, kicking off with The Goodies and the Beanstalk. Previous BBC Two controller Jane Root supposedly axed a Goodies theme night which was close to its...

Black day for Cilla Here's an object lesson in that no matter how hard you try to produce something that will draw a large audience to your channel, there are numerous pitfalls to be encountered when chasing those elusive large...

BBC defends digital TV and radio Striking the correct balance between innovation and audience reach is always a tricky proposition for the BBC, especially when you have so many licence fee payers to please as opposed to just 'entertaining viewers'...

Top of the Pops axed by BBC1 The mysterious thing about this change is that Top of the Pops is now going to incorporate elements of Top of the Pops 2 - therefore it now appears to be more like...

Bectu threatens Ofcom with legal action over ITV ITV may have thought that it can sidestep most (or indeed all) of its remaining obligations with Ofcom in charge of regulation, but a legal challenge from Bectu may well prove to...

ITV delays decision on satellite switch Publically BSkyB are making a great effort to keep ITV from following the BBC's example and going free-to-air, since if ITV were to do so this would enable the BBC to launch a Freesat...

C4 and Five abandon merger plans It was pretty obvious that this proposed marriage of convenience would end in tears long before the couple would ever get near an altar, but both sides felt pressured into considering at least a...

Inquiry into BBC One programming The first sentence of this BBC News article summarises the level of anxiety that faces both the BBC and its governors: "BBC governors have ordered an inquiry into BBC One's peak time schedules amid public...

BBC reality show turns children into matchmakers Recently it was stated by BBC bosses that the intention was to move away from "reality TV" towards programming that reflected real life issues, hence the axing of Changing Rooms (which was nearing...

Children's TV is more than kids' play ITV may soon decide to sell its childrens' programming slot to Nickelodeon, since for various reasons it cannot fully exploit the commercial possibilties that seem to be related to children's programming nowadays. Of...

Gardam backs Ofcom's big idea It seems that Ofcom knows what the fundamental problems are in British broadcasting - which is promising in itself - but is virtually admitting that it has no power to force Channel 4 to become...

'Touchy-feely' Panorama derided This proposal to make Panorama "touchy-feely" (oh how I hate that expression but it sums everything up neatly) encapsulates everything there is to know about today's BBC scheduling and channel strategy. It's the same philosophy that schedules...

There have been rumours circulating on various TV-related forums such as Digital Spy that the BBC were on the verge of introducing animated on-screen "Coming Next" captions that appear whilst a programme is showing (which have also been described as...

ITV dumb to do Dumb Foreigners It's ITV doing what it likes to do best, that is to commission mindless clip shows that show people being attacked by bears or stung by bees. Ho ho ho, how amusing. But what...

Dyke 'promoted Freeview to save licence fee' With hindsight it seems fairly obvious that Greg Dyke's Freeview scheme was a way of ensuring that the BBC cannot be funded via the smartcard route in the future by ensuring that there...

Panorama scheduling is terrible, says Dimbleby Here is a key situation whereby there is a direct conflict between "BBC the public service broadcaster" and "BBC the broadcaster that wants to grab as many viewers as possible in order to justify...

Sky viewers to miss out on ITV3 Contradiction of the week (so far, anyway) comes courtesy of ITV in its bid to get ITV3 a slot on SkyDigital. It is widely known that Sky tried to keep ITV3 off Freeview...

Channel 4 and BBC discuss alliance Much has been speculated about Channel 4's future - commercial or otherwise - since the channel now relies almost totally on advertising revenue for its funding in what's now a very competitive market. Not...

BBC shows Changing Rooms the door The recent high profile failure of ITV's "The Block" helped to underline the fact that the love affair with makeover shows seems to be well and truly over, and although some are appropriating the...

ITV apologises for Ramsay outburst All this is rather pointless, to be honest. ITV gets a slap on the wrist from Ofcom (Ouch! That hurt, er, not a lot...) for broadcasting uncensored Gordon Ramsay-speak; anyone who knows who Gordon Ramsay...

ITV renovates schedule by dropping The Block The Block must have looked good on paper - with the series format outperforming Big Brother in Australia - but ITV just expected to take a 'winning' format, throw in tried and tested...

ITV Sales: ITV announces launch Of ITV3 Before everyone stops reading this in expectation of sheer boredom, there's an interesting point to be gleaned from this news story press release. Let's take a look at some of what ITV3...

'Documentary soap' blighting BBC The rise and rise of the 'docusoap' has been well documented over the last few years; it's a format which has been made possible in recent times through the availability of cheap and small video cameras,...

ITV boss hits out at swearing (contains strong language) It has frequently been said that television is only a reflection of what happens in real life, but on closer inspection it's usually the case that it's the other way round....

BBC plans another Perfect Day Launched in the autumn of 1997, the BBC's 'Perfect Day' campaign was hugely memorable and distinctive, though its impact was mainly due to an inspired choice of song which topped the charts when released as...

Limit child TV viewing to an hour each day, study urges With evidence such as this proposing that children should watch as little television as possible, the future of the BBC's CBBC Channel may now begin to appear less...

ITV to reprise TV classics OK, so BBC One has recently - and perhaps rightly - been criticised for "lack of variety", but it's a hotbed of cutting edge innovation by comparison to what's being planned for ITV1. Words fail...

Ofcom to allow TV shock jocks Recently Ofcom has come under pressure from broadcasters (particularly Channel Five) to allow the equivalent of 'shock jocks' on British television, and although the broadcasters' argument centres principally around the noble concept of 'freedom...

Grade orders review of BBC1 schedule I'm glad that I'm not the only person in the world to feel that BBC One has become rather dull as of late, with the temptation to compete head on with ITV1 being too...

Digital Spy: Sky 'tries to keep' ITV3 off Freeview Whatever you think of the tactics of BSkyB, this move may actually be doing Freeview viewers a favour. Of course it depends on the exact content of ITV3, but given the...

Big Brother descends into chaos and violence Reality series such as Big Brother may gain good viewing figures, but this latest incident illustrates exactly what can happen when broadcasters raise the stakes in order to generate an 'incident'. Whether...

The announcement that Sky will be offering HDTV channels by 2006 will be interesting not only for people with expensive flat screen TV's but could also fundamentally affect the future digital TV strategy of other channels and perhaps even Freeview...

Soap bubble is near bursting It's interesting that David Liddiment (of all people) should write a piece of this very nature since he was Coronation Street's producer at the time when a third episode was introduced on Fridays. He reveals...

Digital Spy: UTV "significantly outperformed ITV peers" Whilst ITV plc has been preoccupied trying to erase all of its former regional identities to create a sea of blandness in order to supposedly avoid confusing its (assumed to be) half-witted viewers,...

Broadcaster gets apology from BBC as history repeats itself Here's a news item which is quite amusing to read since it is obvious that only a junior researcher would make such a fundamental mistake as to plagiarise whole sections of...

Investors tell ITV to ditch Allen for Dyke You can almost feel sorry for Charles Allen at this point; his ITV plc has spent a lot of time and effort trying to placate shareholders by showing more soaps, Pop Idol,...

Thompson named BBC director general Choosing Greg Dyke's long term replacement was never going to be easy, especially under the circumstances of the selection process and the requirements imposed by the forthcoming charter review. Though as with the choice of...

Sky boss hits back at Channel 4 If it wasn't obvious before it should be by now; I'm talking about the fact that Sky seems to exist in a parallel universe to the rest of the UK media industry. Indeed...

BBC's £15m advertising under attack The last few months have been a particularly tough time for the BBC, so any fresh criticism of what the BBC does is likely to reverberate rather more than it would have usually done,...

YouGov's Channel of the Year Online Survey Here's an interesting survey which has been created for the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival in conjunction with BBC Broadcast. There are four groups of questions in the categories of "Channel Awards" (for...

BBC slashes documentary jobs Perhaps too easy to overlook is this story that could potentially have deep and very serious repercussions for the quality of factual programming in the UK; put simply, the BBC has decided to make some redundancies...

Black Tuesday for ITV as ratings crash Whilst a 'ratings crash' can happen to any channel at any time, it was rather amusing to notice that ITV1's share of the audience fell below 10% during a programme entitled "All New...

Thompson issues public service challenge Whilst it is good that ITV should be forced to account for the reason(s) why it should throw away the remainder of its 'public service obligations' for the privilege of showing even greater quantities of...

MediaGuardian: Viewers desert BBC channels Another day, another "BBC is down the pan" story, but this time the news is both good and bad. Good in that considering the 300-plus channels that are now available, the number of viewers not...

ITV plans 'blank screen' gameshow Given that staring at a blank screen is infinitely more entertaining than the majority of current ITV programmes, it was perhaps inevitable that the idea would be plagiarised at some point, though unsurprisingly they have...

BBC and C4 face threat of analogue charges The scenario: The pace of digital takeup has probably now slowed down again after a promising period late last year with the sales of 'Freeview' boxes, so Ofcom decides that something else...

Michael Grade is new BBC chairman My first instinct was that I wasn't quite sure that he would be entirely suitable for the post (remembering how Channel 4 went downhill during his stint as chief executive), but there again...

ITV backs 'top slicing' BBC licence fee Yet another highly predictable outcome, though the only logic here is that ITV wants to see a weakened BBC but not a neutered one (which would totally devastate its ad revenue). But ITV...

Media Guardian: BBC4 to explode myths of 60s TV Just how this will be handled should prove to be very interesting, since it is very difficult to subjectively and accurately compare the television output of the 1960s versus today; for...

Apparently Portsmouth TV, the local RSL TV station for the Portsmouth area has been off air for the last couple of weeks whilst it has gone into "administrative receivership", although it is currently in the process of changing owners and...

MediaGuardian: Four's war of independence There has been lots of talk recently about the future of Channel 4, with suggestions ranging from a merger/"reverse nationalisation" with Five to a more hostile takeover from ITV (possible if Channel 4 was cut...

Axed DJ accuses BBC of failing black community There is a danger that this story will be seen by some people purely as a race issue, but here's a quote from David Robey, the station's managing editor that sums...

MediaGuardian gives an old story a new(ish) twist This story about the ICM/Panorama poll appeared on the BBC website last week but has predictably resurfaced, though comments from Sir David Attenborough along with some predictable BBC-bashing has given this old...

MacUser: BBC to give free access to archive footage Here's a piece of good news for a change, with further details of the BBC's earlier pledge to make clips of archive programming available online that contains some interesting additional information....

MediaGuardian: Ofcom urged to crack down on 'glib' ITV The fact that ITV is going through so many changes at the moment has proved to be a testing time for the newly-formed Ofcom, and so far (and predictably) it has...

MPs back campaign to save ITV Nottingham Unfortunately I feel that the MP's involved in trying to persuade ITV plc to back down from doing this might as well throw in the towel. Indeed in the not too distant future...

BBC sunk in Boat Race row This highlights the anomaly that faces a public service broadcaster such as the BBC when faced with sporting events that are determined to become more sponsored and commercial as ever (and you thought that...

Viewers shun Vaughan debut This is another somewhat predictable outcome based solely on overnight viewing figures (something BBC Two controller Jane Root is wisely trying to steer clear of, but her channel is somewhat sheltered from having to prove a...

MediaGuardian: Watchdog raps Channel 4 and Top of the Pops It seems that new media regulator Ofcom already has its work cut out with TV channels either breaking rules through the quest of trying to attract viewers or through...

MediaGuardian: Dyke mooted as new ITV boss Much as I dislike the prospect of a pseudo-single ITV, I have to grudgingly admit that the combination of Greg Dyke and ITV might theoretically help to make the channel watchable again. And...

BBC director general Dyke stands down By standing down at this point, Greg Dyke hopes that a line can be finally drawn under the whole Hutton Report affair; in the short term this may be wishful thinking, but it was...

Slow start on FX opening night Once upon a time a launch of a new TV channel was a major national event, but these days with numerous digital channels available even a so-called 'major new entertainment channel' can launch and...

Granada green lights ITV merger Even though you know it's going to happen, it still has a profound impact when it finally takes place....

Audience with no one: 55 days on TV According to this article, "More than 55 days' worth of programmes on the BBC's digital channels last year were watched by so few viewers that they scored zero on the official ratings...

ITV plans classic soap spin-off Rearrange these words into a meaningful sentence: totally lost the ITV plot has. It's a shame that supporters of a "single" ITV have to learn they're wrong the hard way......

Andy Hamilton on BBC One comedy scheduling Although Andy Hamilton may have a personal axe to grind over the mistreatment of his 'baby', it is true that recently the BBC seems to have adopted the same last minute aggressive rescheduling...

Media Guardian piece on C4 This news may be two days old but I only spotted it this morning - now why isn't this surprising when Channel 4 is essentially showing the same types of programming as other channels? When...