Two programmes that are in some way related to two long-running series that originally started barely two months apart many years ago (during the winter of 1963-4) ended up by some quirk of fate being shown next to each other...

Ofcom refuses to guarantee spectrum Since nobody will make money from public service broadcasting, it's perhaps a depressingly predictable response in an era when central government is more interested in pound signs than public service. If such an adminstration had...

Jowell: BBC Salford move 'expected' Tessa Jowell's comments relating to the BBC's proposed move of key departments to Salford seem to imply that the move will definitely go ahead, but these statements can easily be interpreted to mean different things...

No this isn't a post about Steve Irwin (and he isn't in the above picture), but Sky Three tonight decided in their infinite wisdom to plaster "Robbie On The Road: We Are Not Alone" across the top of the...

Transcript of the proceedings This evening on the BBC Parliament channel there was coverage of a Culture, Media and Sport committee meeting that discussed various aspects of the regulation of quiz TV channels as part of an ongoing inquiry...

Tech Digest: 4oD launches next week Channel 4: How to use 4oD Channel 4's 4oD service is perhaps one of the most significant media news stories this year, but you could be forgiven for not knowing about it because its...

Grade steps down from BBC Although some might disagree with this sentiment, it's arguable that Michael Grade somehow just wasn't quite right for the BBC, and the corporation seems to be having major problems relating to its licence fee settlement...

ITV dumps Love Island ITV dumping Love Island after a disappointing second series was as predictable as night following day, but what is amusing is the response from Simon Shaps, namely, to quote: "Mr Shaps said he did not now...

Branson: Sky already controlling ITV As of today, Richard Branson's pubilcity machine swung into action in order to exert pressure on Ofcom, the Government, BSkyB and anyone else who just happens to be listening that BSkyB is the big bad...

Murdoch buys say in ITV's future Two days ago, James Murdoch said that he didn't see "much of an impact" relating to an ITV/NTL deal, so therefore the reason given for BSkyB today buying a 17.9% stake in ITV -...

ITV and NTL 'in merger talks' ITV is in trouble. NTL is in trouble. Both have complimentary business strategies (don't laugh). So on paper at least, an ITV/NTL merger makes a great deal of sense, if only to prop each...

Commercial challenge to BBC iPlayer Relating to the British Interactive Publishing Association's "challenge" to the BBC's iPlayer proposal, it seems very self-evident that the BBC's commercial competition is too busy worrying about the BBC. Or maybe not, since its members...

ITV to launch innovation arm The announcement that ITV is going to create a new department (ITV Imagine) that will be devoted to generating creative ideas looks like a step in the right direction, at least on paper. In essence...

Where did it go wrong for Channel Five and Dan Chambers? Rightly or wrongly, Channel Five still seems to be stuck in that "no man's land" between the average satellite/cable channel and the long-established four terrestrial channels; it has the...

I've been looking forward to watching Torchwood - the new Doctor Who spinoff series "for adults" - for a long time, and didn't mind the prospect of seeing it first on BBC Three because normally they turn off their...

Sony BRAVIA Advert Website Sony ad bursts on to screens Normally a new television commercial can go to air relatively unnoticed, but when it's the followup to a critically acclaimed advert featuring lots of multicoloured balls bouncing down a street...

BBC threatens to abandon Manchester move It seems fairly obvious that the BBC won't get all of its own way relating to the forthcoming licence fee settlement. Although Tessa Jowell is in favour of a larger-than-inflation rise for the licence...

Stroud licence tangle at Ofcom From the end of this month, the town of Stroud (in Gloucestershire, not far from Cheltenham) will be without a local radio station as UKRD closes down Star 107.9, but what's unprecedented is the fact...

BBC News: TV host seriously hurt in crash Top Gear has been a runaway success for the BBC in its recent incarnation, with its mix of irreverent humour and factual presentation appealing to a much wider audience than traditional motoring...

End of the line for Jane Hall You really, honestly, truthfully couldn't make this up. A series which had finished filming in May 2004 was originally scheduled to be shown in October of the same year but instead gets pulled...

The caterer's revenge Charles Allen's MacTaggart Lecture at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival was either judged a 'success' or 'failure' depending on the person you spoke to afterwards, but two facts have emerged from this get-together that seem abundantly...

Guardian: Loss of the "networked generation" Ofcom's "The Communications Market 2006 - Overview" One thing Ofcom seems to be good at - apart from annoying people - is publishing surveys, presumably because there's no need to tell anyone what to...

BBC News: Charles Allen quits as ITV chief MediaGuardian: 'ITV needs content king' It's still uncertain who will properly replace Charles Allen, let alone whether ITV plc will survive until then without succumbing to a hostile takeover (all eyes...

Ofcom proposes new spectrum charge If it wasn't readily apparent before this announcement, it should be blindingly obvious by now. The government (it seems via Ofcom) wants to earn as much money out of the digital switchover as is technically...

ITV lunchtime news could be cut to 30 mins 18th July 2006, 10pm: BBC One - 10 O'Clock News, 4.5 million viewers Channel Five - CSI: NY, 2.4 million viewers BBC Two - Grumpy Old Holidays, 2.3 million viewers Channel...

ITV shares lose more ground There is certainly a strong possibilty that by this time next week ITV plc will have been taken over by another company. ITV's share price fell below the psychologically important £1 barrier at close of...

Neighbours could air on BBC3 This is interesting. The originally planned remit of BBC Three was intended to have a higher percentage of imported programmes as part of its schedule, but that particular proposal was rejected as being 'not imaginative...

Thompson: BBC faces ongoing change To be honest I'm not entirely sure that Mark Thompson is fully aware or even prepared for the possible long term consequences of what he is proposing for the BBC, or indeed whether the planned...

BBC risks rivals' ire with fantasy radio MyBBCRadio is precisely the sort of technology-led innovation that the BBC has the capability to do extremely well and will be totally different to what the UK commercial radio sector has to offer...

ITV to end kids' TV production It has been suspected for some time that ITV was losing interest in childrens' TV, even when it was still going ahead with the launch of the CITV Channel, and today's announcement simply underlines...

Show's over for Top of the Pops Over ten years ago, the (then) controller of BBC1 Alan Yentob was in a meeting with various other BBC employees, and during that meeting they collectively decided the Top of the Pops had...

Ofcom threatens Radio 1 over swearing The advent of the podcast has meant that people can download the so-called 'best bits' of Radio 1's high profile shows such as Chris Moyles (breakfast) and Scott Mills (late afternoon 'drivetime') for listening...

BBC to create single news brand Ah, the fun of corporate branding. Mention Sky News to someone and unless they work for Sky they are most likely to think of the rolling news channel, whilst BBC News conjures up...

BBC and ITV team up to launch mobile television This is rather clever. By teaming up together to endorse and develop a joint mobile TV project, the BBC and ITV are establishing such a service ahead of the analogue TV...

'Radio 1 and 2 should be sold' Let's think logically for a moment. The selling of Radios 1 and 2 would create two giant commercial radio stations that would make one or two large companies (not necessarily British) very happy...

Panorama jobs under threat BBC brings back wrong Guy to News 24 Today's news of further planned cuts to the BBC's current affairs department comes mere days after probably the most embarrassing incident to have ever affected BBC News. Could...

Allen derides Dyke bid for ITV Hidden away in this article is the revelation that the launch of the BBC (and ITV)'s Freesat service has been delayed until the first half of next year, which all things considered isn't surprising...

MediaGuardian Comment: In praise of ... digital television BBC Four may now be rivalling Men & Motors (in numbers at least if not target audience), but have things really changed since Janice Hadlow took over as BBC Four controller? More4...

Viewers look after their own Ofcom report ITV has previously claimed that viewers just aren't interested in regional output anymore apart from news and sport, hence it has wound down much of the old regional ITV infrastructure; the end result...

ITV Play Website Friends get to play on ITV ITV Play launched at midday today, and watching it was a thoroughly depressing experience for anyone who still believes that commercial television should at least be of "merchantable quality". Its Freeview...

Allen survives ITV challenge but pressure remains The fact that two organised attempts at a non-hostile ITV takeover should fail aren't at all surprising: ITV still isn't weak enough to be desperate for such a move, and recent asset disposals...

BBC and Channel 4 dominate RTS awards Full list of winners Numbers don't often tell a story, but in this case they can tell you a great deal about the current state of British broadcasting. The BBC and Channel 4...

Grampian TV axed in Scottish relaunch Say what you want about the use of a predominantly single ITV brand in England, but with the sole exception of LWT (which technically speaking is now an irrelevance) ITV plc still hasn't gone...

BBC licence fee could cost £1bn and 9,000 jobs, claims report How commercial stations could follow TV's lead The radio industry suffers a downturn at the hands of both itself and the rising popularity of MP3 players such as the...

TV bedfellows upset teachers Digital Spy: In Full: New Sky EPG Lineup Presumably Sky feels that addicts of soft porn and chatlines could do with a touch of educational enlightenment, given the strange channel placing of Teachers' TV in the...

How Murdoch plans to win friends and influence people Why is BSkyB currently indulging in a frenzied attempt to brainwash MP's into the virtues of the "Sky way"? The most likely answer is that it's trying to undermine the BBC...

Save the Radio 4 Theme Times Online: UK dream If you have any interest whatsoever in the world of media (and you wouldn't be reading this if you didn't), you couldn't help but notice the furore that has recently escalated...

O'Grady to take tea with Richard & Judy On this evidence it looks as if Simon Shaps will probably lose his job quicker than I predicted......

Brand of gold This MediaGuardian article on the forthcoming ITV rebrand is a good read if you want an interesting and simultaneously amusing/depressing/frustrating insight into the world of channel branding and marketing. ITV will shortly launch new idents and branding...

Sky joins Microsoft in video on demand deal Five years ago such a deal would have been earthshaking when combined with the dominance of SkyDigital over everything else in the UK market at the time; ONdigital was moderately popular but...