Top Gear budget cuts will be visible, says Jeremy Clarkson's partner It now seems to be the case that all BBC programming appears to be fair game in the quest for further money saving, judging from these comments made by...

Pull out of Project Kangaroo, broadcasters told With Project Kangaroo still trying to get off the ground, it's perhaps predictable that someone somewhere might conceivably suggest that ITV and Channel 4 ought to pull out of the project altogether despite...

Channel 4's targeting of BBC Worldwide assets is bold and, potentially, brilliant The assertion that Channel 4 is attempting to do something that "is bold and, potentially, brilliant" may be true to an extent, but this move is also potentially...

The BBC and Channel 4 go to war over which hosts the most lavish parties This new spat between ITN/Channel 4 and the BBC, which was caused by a report on last night's Channel 4 News that revealed how much...

Broadcast Now: NetPlay to launch Freeview channel CNN International may be replacing Nuts TV on Freeview in the New Year, and Bid TV may be bidding farewell in deference to something from Discovery Networks, but there still appears to be...

Strictly Come Dancing voting fiasco sparks 200 complaints Although the BBC has promised to carry over all phone votes on this occasion so avoiding any direct accusations of fraud, the inability to plan properly for a particular outcome does carry...

BBC outlines £120m partnership plans with other public service broadcasters After a couple of months where the BBC superficially seemed to be upsetting everyone from readers of the Daily Mail to the newspaper industry, it now needs to quickly start...

Caught in the storm Prior to the 1980s, UK TV broadcasting was predominantly a preserve of the BBC and regional ITV franchises plus a tiny number of cable TV channels, and this was largely because television studio, recording and transmission...

BBC Trust: Survey of BBC services aimed at 13-34 year-olds If you have a spare moment or two today, the BBC Trust are actively seeking views from members of the general public in relation to services primarily aimed at teenagers...

Broadcast Now: More woe for Richard and Judy Oh how the mighty have fallen. Richard Madeley and Judy Finnegan jumped ship from Channel 4 - where they had more than 1 million viewers for their chat show - to the...

Project Kangaroo punctured by Competition Commission Competition Commission statement (PDF file) Project Kangaroo is (or perhaps was, given the stance that now seems to be all too clear) an attempt to provide a "one-stop shop" for video-on-demand content from the...

John Barrowman apologises for exposing himself on BBC Radio 1 I was going to start this blog entry with the words "You couldn't make this up", but after recent events that are all too obvious this seems fairly predictable given...

BBC3 and BBC4 face budget cuts At least the downturn in the commercial property market has prevented the BBC from taking the easy, short-term solution of selling the family silver and has instead focused more attention onto the corporation's services;...

Government ditches plans to give Channel 4 £14m digital switchover help So the Government has decided rather tacitly to withdraw the earlier digital switchover help proposed for Channel 4 in deference to a more complete solution, which is not only...

BBC U-turn on decision to drop Christmas Top of the Pops Given my recent stance on the BBC's previous decision to drop Top of the Pops from the festive schedule, of course I'm pleased that it has been reinstated for...

BBC drops After You've Gone Usually the news that the BBC had axed a sitcom after three series would perhaps go relatively unnoticed unless it was particularly well-loved, but this news comes merely two days after the announcement that the...

Broadcasters sign up to TV product placement code of conduct It's a sign of the times that the commercial broadcasters have teamed up with the independent producers' organisation Pact to lobby their case for product placement in television programmes, although...

Media exacerbated house-price myths, says BBC's Robert Peston The subject of whether or not the media recklessly promoted the concepts of property renovation for profit as well as the surge in buy-to-let activity that was assisted by cheap mortgages has...

Radio 2's Dave Barber resigns ahead of on-air apology for Brand-Ross calls Apologies in advance for mentioning the 'S' word again, but I'll try to keep it relatively brief this time. Yes it's the return of 'Sachsgate', this time with...

UTV criticises Channel 4 for backing out of digital radio project It may be true that if Channel 4 Radio had been up and running two years ago it could have survived an economic downturn. But crucially the ad revenue...

Lyons may regret speaking out as regional publishers call in lawyers Newspaper Society Press Release Based on a comment made by Sir Michael Lyons that slightly hinted that he might just conceivably be a fraction in favour of the BBC's...

What's so ironic about the above image, you may ask? Apart from the fact that it is taken from an episode of Friends that was shown on E4 tonight (nothing unusual about that!), there's the use of text underneath...

By suspending Ross and Brand, BBC boss Mark Thompson reveals himself a coward No matter what Mark Thompson and other BBC executives say or do from now onwards in relation to the ongoing 'Sachsgate' crisis, there will always be someone...

There's no Christmas without TOTP Put away the tinsel and pack away the tree; Christmas 2008 has just been cancelled. And it's not because the TV shopping channels insisted on spoiling the festive feel much too early. Although reported by...

Gordon Brown criticises Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross's BBC phone prank The transcript of what was said What started out as a "schoolboy prank" (except of course neither participants are schoolboys; they just behave like schoolboys from time to time)...

The real money shot These days, television often seems to be far more obsessed with looking good than offering real factual content, and while there's an element of truth in the fact that people like to watch good-looking people on...

Joy of Six: ITV regional idents This "top six" list of regional ITV idents controversially puts TSW in the top position ahead of ATV (the heretics); TSW's second ident in particular is quite impressive from both visual and technical perspectives,...

ITV, Channel 4 and BBC to launch HD channels on Freeview next year We're told that the future of broadcasting is high definition, yet ITV's HD proposal for Freeview contains no regional content whatsoever apart from something that's entitled "programmes...

Global Radio to reduce local news output and outsource travel reports Why can't company PR press releases really say what they mean? Instead of "Global said the aim was to create a significant national news centre providing a more professional...

Channel 4 axes radio projects With hindsight this decision was fairly predictable - especially given the current economic situation - but Channel 4 deciding to axe its digital radio project was still a surprise given the previous and supposedly long...

'Hot dog' ad offers taste of new-look Channel Five Poor Channel Five is only really watched for a bit of sport, CSI, Neighbours and perhaps a bit of cheap TV if you're feeling desperate, so for Five's new identity they...

BSkyB ordered to cut ITV stake Although a decision has now been made in relation to BSkyB and its ITV stake, namely that BSkyB has to sell at least some of its 17.9% "spoiler stake" in ITV so that it's...

NUJ warns of 500 ITV job cuts It's no surprise whatsoever to learn that Ofcom has 'bought' the economic arguments put forward by ITV plc in its determination to cut back on regional broadcasting, especially given Channel 4's predicted economic...

Banks in crisis, stock exchanges in turmoil - wonder what could be the cause of all of this? The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre recently uploaded a video to YouTube that neatly explains the cause of the chaos. (Their...

Kids still exposed to bad food ads The government decided that TV adverts featuring so-called 'junk food' which are shown during children's programmes are a bad idea, so it (and Ofcom) came up with a plan to prevent ads for...

Michael Grade: YouTube is a 'parasite' It's fairly easy to tell from Michael Grade's comments that he is still firmly rooted in the media 'old school', since he (and ITV plc) still appear to remain very fixed to the concepts...

BSkyB job losses expected as Picnic is axed Whilst the news of BSkyB abandoning their Picnic terrestrial pay-TV project isn't that surprising in itself, the official reason given for its discontinuing - namely Ofcom taking too long to reach a...

Setanta desperately needs more home wins From recent events it seems fairly obvious that Irish broadcaster Setanta is privately starting to panic as to the viability of its pay-TV subscription model, and data from media consultancy Enders Analysis seems to...

BBC postpones move from R&D headquarters Kingswood Warren Once the BBC R&D department were going to be relocated to a broom cupboard within the bowels of White City, and now...well...who knows? At least Erik Huggers has the right idea, although...

All that glitters is not gold (Peter Fincham's Edinburgh Television Festival speech) Now that the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival is over, what can we learn from what happened there, and (perhaps more importantly) did the attendees learn anything from...

Ex-BBC TV executive Cotton dies The death of Bill Cotton perhaps signifies a form of closure for an era that arguably represented the pinnacle of BBC light entertainment and may never ever be repeated within our lifetime, especially as the...

Viewpoint: Ofcom is key player in ITV drama So Michael Grade is threatening to hand back ITV plc's Channel 3 regional licences since it's now claimed that under the current setup they are starting to become unworkable, but whether or...

ECB attacks BBC for failing to bid for television rights So what's the real reason behind the English Cricket Board moaning about the BBC's refusal to bid for terrestrial TV cricket rights? Perhaps it's because both Channel 4 and Setanta...

Plans for reduced public service role are good news for ITV Despite much talk of 'radical' solutions being required for the "digital age" - whatever that is, although for the majority of people it just means more repeats, woefully produced...

Whilst flicking through the channels this evening I noticed that QVC has already started to sell Christmas decorations. In July....

ukfree.tv: Why Freesat did not launch with 230 channels At the moment this story has only appeared on one website as well as being fairly one-sided (there's no rebuttal from Sky), so bear this in mind when considering its overall...

Ofcom chairman disputes BBC's 'unique link' with licence fee payers There's more than a hint of trying to defend the indefensible when Ofcom chairman David Currie yet again attempts to weaken the connection between the licence fee and the BBC,...

The "what's on" wars: BBC Local vs commercial radio Now is not a good time to be involved in commercial UK radio, it seems. Advertisers are trimming their marketing budgets in anticipation of a possible economic recession, and this has...

The Cambs Times: Fen Radio expected to close by the end of July As of today this story may not be widely reported, but it seems that radio group UKRD is on the verge of handing back a second local...

Channel 4 ponders move into regional news as ITV retreats Currently ITV plc has a big dilemma on its hands. Its share price is several times lower than it was three years ago, and the current economic situation means that...

Bannister says anti-fakery regulations are damaging BBC output It may be true that after the recent premium rate interactivity scandals, both television and radio have become rather more bureaucratic as a result, with more form-filling and back watching to be...

Digital Spy: BBC phasing out quarter-size credits As somehow befitting a modern broadcaster, it's taken a while but they got there in the end, namely that someone within the BBC has finally realised that the recently-imposed corporate end credit promotion...

BBC: 'We'll share expertise to save licence fee' This could theoretically end up being the best solution to the lingering problem of how best to support broadcasters with public service remits when money is hard to come by and when...

ITV News: Beat the property slump Tonight's "Beat the property slump" on ITV1 (which for the next couple of days can be seen again via ITV Catch Up if you have the Silverlight plugin) contained an interesting media-related accusation: "One...

Product placement: UK to oppose European Union directive, says Andy Burnham Now here's a surprise that some people may not have seen coming, namely the fact that Culture Secretary Andy Burnham is actually defending the integrity of television programmes over...

Doctor Who Restoration Team Forum: Colour recovery Colour Recovery Working Group » Full gamut colour recovery During the early years of colour television in the UK, colour videotape recording was very expensive, therefore videotapes were often reused or junked...

MTV fined £255k for offensive material Maybe MTV deserves the fine just for the mere notion of showing lots of cheaply-produced, derivative, clichéd and target audience-obsessed identikit reality TV fodder such as Totally Jodie Marsh. At any time....

EU minded to block BBC aid for Channel 4's digital switchover This if anything is potentially good news for both the BBC and (paradoxically) Channel 4, namely that the European Union seems to think that diverting cash from the licence...

Is it too late to save the Whale? Whatever James Whale himself might say, flogging double-sided bed linen, toasters and gold bangles is still a demotion from his previous radio presenter job on TalkSport; Bid TV's advertised salary (circa £25k)...

BBC Trust to scrutinise 'distinctiveness' of BBC's digital ambitions This is a tricky issue which may never be resolved to the true satisfaction of the BBC's commercial competitors, namely in respect to having a new series of controls to prevent...

A loss of faith In the past, 'good' television and film-making has often involved a degree of artifice, so it was perhaps inevitable that TV producers under pressure to produce good programmes would in turn use that artifice to influence...

BBC should privatise Radios 1 and 2, says Richard Eyre Ex-commercial radio man wants BBC Radios 1 and 2 to be privatised, which is a rather strange assertion to make on the face of it unless he's signing a death...

Fed up with local radio playlists? Blame audience testing In recent years the majority of commercial radio stations have somehow lost all their so-called 'rough edges' that once made them distinctive, and this has been attributed to a number of...

Andy Duncan 'fed up' by Channel 4 funding 'squabble' Hot on the heels of the BBC Trust chairman Michael Lyons declaring that the BBC's piggy bank wasn't to be raided by media's Uncle Tom Cobbley, we have Channel 4's Andy...

BSkyB's digital terrestrial pay-TV plans on hold BSkyB's planned digital terrestrial pay-TV service known as Picnic - something that most people outside of Sky had probably forgotten about by now - has been delayed yet again by Ofcom, although Ofcom...

Ant and Dec to return comedy award Just when you thought things couldn't get worse for ITV, another major revelation about ITV is made public at the same time as Ofcom finally announced its £5.675m fine against ITV; a revelation...

Money for old soap: ITV press ad from 1989 (Media Guardian) Back in 1989, ITV was obviously feeling the heat from "Mr. Murdoch's Sky Channel" and the forthcoming BSB as well as the cable TV companies that were proliferating their...

Freesat Website Freesat officially launched at 12.30pm today, and here are a few points that may be of interest: - No sign of Channel 4 HD yet even though the standard definition Channel 4 is (now) free-to-air. It may appear...

Digital Spy: ITV HD to be Freesat exclusive? This could be a potentially interesting twist to the low-key feud between ITV plc and BSkyB, which is attributed to BSkyB blocking potential suitors to a painless ITV plc takeover with its...

Attenborough delivers warning to BBC After last week's duo of lectures purporting to be supportive of public service broadcasting in some form but perhaps hitting the self-destruct switch instead, we now have words from a stalwart supporter of public service...

Will the producers behind the premium-rate phone scams now be individually prosecuted in the wake of ITV's £4m fine? (a) Since ITV has now been punished there's no need to investigate any further (b) Making a scapegoat out of Simon...

Digital radio needs a makeover, says Ofcom According to Peter Davis who is Ofcom's director of radio and multimedia, DAB just requires a "Freeview-style relaunch" and also claims that "It's not Ofcom's role to save DAB". That last comment may...

Murdoch attacks BBC over iPlayer We've already had Peter Bazalgette attack the BBC's public service dominance in a speech this week, so I suppose it just had to be the case that one of the Murdoch boys (in this case,...

Privatise Channel 4, says Big Brother mogul Want a lively debate combined with a whole host of potential contradictions? Then hire Peter Bazalgette as a guest speaker as what happened with the Royal Television Society last night, so brace yourself...

BBC Programme Catalogue - Now out of action permanently, it seems When a public version of the BBC Programme Catalogue was made available online a while back as a 'beta' version, it became an invaluable resource for anyone interested in...

Ofcom raps BBC over Live Earth swearing Last summer's Live Earth concerts turned out to be controversial not only for the nature of the BBC's coverage (judged by some to be non-partisan though that's a whole separate debate), but also...

Heart and Galaxy local shows cut How local should 'local radio' be? The problem is that there's no straight answer, despite Global Radio chief executive Ashley Tabor assuring us otherwise. He points out that the Global strategy is to offer...

Top of the pile when it came to today's April Fool jokes was an inspired effort from the BBC which cleverly used special effects to make something happen that wouldn't naturally be the case, namely to make penguins fly....

End BBC grip on licence fee You can tell that the Conservatives aren't in power yet (and desperate for ideas) as they end up grasping an old policy that was rejected by a select committee which included at least one...

Digital Spy: Channel 4's DAB mux faces more delays This isn't really that surprising but such news will just conspire to add more gloom to radio industry executives; it now looks increasingly likely that Channel 4 Radio (usually tipped as...

Ofcom scraps 'public service publisher' plans The only surprise was what took them so long, namely Ofcom finally conceding defeat with the (expected) scrapping of the 'public service publisher' idea. A recent change of Culture Secretary could have triggered this...

The Register: DAB: A very British failure Radio Today: Secret DAB talks at RadioCentre The recent news of GCap's intention to almost totally withdraw from the DAB digital radio platform may be currently overshadowed by GCap's dealings with both its...

Digital radio rift at Channel 4 Channel 4 has a countdown conundrum all of its own to solve, namely whether to press ahead full steam with the launch of three radio stations in the face of weakening support for DAB...

Fincham replaces Shaps in ITV shakeup Fincham for Shaps: it's time for a new era at ITV When Michael Grade took over the helm of ITV, he didn't immediately sack half of ITV's creative team because coming from an 'old...

Fire fighting: ITV's revamp In an attempt to turn its schedule around, ITV had recently gone for a relatively brave approach in terms of ITV1's programming which will take a while to attract viewers that are more accustomed to the...

BBC under fire from ITV over awards sponsorship Normally the BBC doesn't have problems with covering specific events (sporting or otherwise) that have a commercial sponsor, because avoiding any mention of the relevant sponsor would be highly impractical as well...

Last night was an important occasion for BBC Three, as it unveiled both a new(ish) schedule and a whole new look for the channel. The blob idents became history with a 'pink world' concept taking its place; presumably the...

Times Online: GCap's Fru Hazlitt switches off digital radio What ostensibly seems like a short-term cost cutting measure in a bid to make GCap seem more profitable for potential suitors could end up having a catastrophic effect for the prospects...

Digital Spy: Ofcom's HDTV plans "jeopardise" Freeview You just have to laugh at the intentions behind some so-called "surveys". Ask people whether they would prefer five high definition channels as opposed to (say) four, and the inevitable response for most...

BBC News: BBC considers enlarging credits When the BBC introduced a new style of end credits for its TV programmes last year, the intention was to enable a new style of "end credit promotion" (or ECP) to be used wherever...

'BBC outbid rivals by £2m to keep Ross' Like a pack of hounds closing in to kill its prey, Channel 4's executives are banking on any perceived missteps in how the BBC has spent its licence fee money on 'big...

Digital Spy: BBC Three unveils new look, new ethos It's been five years since the launch of BBC Three together with distinctive idents that feature 'blob' characters, and five years is a long time in the world of fast-paced 'youth'...

Tonight was the first occasion that an advertiser sponsored a terrestrial channel for a few hours (as opposed to just a programme) since the UK television sponsorship regulations were relaxed by Ofcom at the start of this year. Car...

Waking up to a new era Today is the 25th anniversary of the launch of Breakfast Time, which was the BBC's response to the soon-to-launch TV-am, a new ITV contractor that was shortly due to launch a nationwide breakfast television...

First-night defeat for News at Ten Mark Lawson: Sir Trevor back - with same old news Last night's relaunch of ITV's News At Ten may have lost out in the ratings to the BBC's 10 O'Clock News (3.8 versus 4.9...

More BBC staff to move to Salford Despite the best of intentions, you can't help but think that something somewhere has gone badly wrong with how the reorganisation of the BBC has been planned. The concept of splitting the BBC...

Two digital radio stations to close Barely two weeks into 2008 and digital radio has now lost not one but two radio stations. The final closure of Oneword was just a formality after Channel 4 sold its stake last week...

Rovers Return for another bite at Friday nights This new schedule for ITV1 (commencing January 12) is probably the most important thing to happen for the channel in many years, although its overall significance may not be immediately obvious....