Delia Smith and Michael Palin of 'limited appeal', says leaked BBC list Any list such as this leaked internal document from BBC Knowledge should be treated with great caution simply because it doesn't contain facts and figures that are possible...

Government urges BBC to consider Worldwide sell-off HM Government: Operational Efficiency Programme: Asset Portfolio (PDF file) So what on earth is BBC Worldwide doing in a document with unlikely bedfellows such as the Dartford Crossing, the Met Office, Ordnance Survey,...

BBC fears part of licence fee may still be used for ITV regional news But the war won't finish unless the BBC learns to stop fighting - that seems to be the ongoing message from recent events as well as...

BBC director Erik Huggers gives a preview of Project Canvas Much has been talked about Project Canvas but until now there wasn't much to actually see of what it consisted of. Still incomplete and awaiting approval, Project Canvas promises a...

BBC's plea for anti-piracy measures on Freeview is turned down It seemed rather strange that the BBC of all broadcasters should suddenly propose something that could restrict an individual's right to record and keep a television programme, especially considering all...

Coup or crisis? Can the panel discuss … As the controversy surrounding BNP leader Nick Griffin's appearance on Question Time rumbles on, it's still hard to properly determine the long term impact that this has had. However it seems very...

ITV to drop Big Ben from News at Ten titles It's no surprise to learn that ITV bosses have decided to partly apportion the blame for relatively low ratings for the return of News At Ten on an old-fashioned a...

Broadcast Now: Andrew Jackson at centre of BBC row - before he even starts Perhaps the most bizarre yet of a series of incidents that have affected the BBC in some form over the last few years, it concerns the...

ITV faces regional news battle Conveniently forgetting about GMTV (in which ITV have, ahem, a majority shareholding), ITV plc is perhaps unsuccessfully trying to demand that any new regional news franchise operation - namely something that ITV wants but doesn't...

Digital Spy: Online England game attracts 500,000 Last Saturday, something truly momentous happened in the world of television that was arguably on a par with the launch of Sky Digital, yet this particular event was actually something that was missing...

BBC to crack down on swearing and violence Draft BBC Editorial Guildelines (PDF) Hmmm... 13.3.8 Any plans to re-use, reversion or make available archive material featuring members of the Royal Family or the Royal Palaces (except for news material showing...

Broadcast Now: Five mulls switch to pay-TV Originally being the smallest of the five 'national' terrestrial channels along with having a patchy analogue terrestrial TV coverage area even at its peak, Channel Five has always occupied a slightly awkward position...

ITV uncertainty could open doors to takeover bid, says analyst If you now have a distinct feeling along the lines that "We've been here before", then you are almost certainly correct, because despite the attempts made by Michael Grade to...

BBC's Sir Michael Lyons weighs into row over Strictly scheduling clash It seems very obvious at this point in time that the BBC Trust has to at least look as if it is doing a useful task, especially as the...

Ben Bradshaw and Sir Michael Lyons clash over BBC licence fee It's no wonder that the BBC Trust has turned into little more than a 'cheerleader' for the BBC when faced with a corporation that is usually either too timid...

Rule change allows TV product placement When Andy Burnham (the previous Culture Secretary) said that there was no room for paid product placement on British television, the general consensus was that this stance would be relatively short-lived and a change...

Public rejects Murdoch view of BBC, says ICM poll It's now a week since James Murdoch made his predictably controversial MacTaggart speech that was conceived from the outset to make a real impact, but according to the results of this...

Broadcast Now: Stephen Fry savages TV box-ticking Perhaps unsurprisingly, it turns out that BBC TV (and radio) producers are now self-censoring much more often than not because of the additional hassles of compliance that have been enforced in the aftermath...

James Murdoch hits out at BBC and regulators at Edinburgh TV festival James Murdoch attacks BBC and regulators in annual MacTaggart lecture speech shocker - who would have thought otherwise? Indeed it would have been a real surprise if both...

Channel 4 to launch 'creative overhaul' as it axes Big Brother Big Brother axed by Channel 4 Channel 4's decision to axe Big Brother admittedly wasn't that unexpected, but it still signifies the end of a somewhat ignominious era for...

BBC News: BBC to investigate daytime show Yes, it's another 'fakery scandal' rearing its head again, just like the (still) fairly recent events of Crowngate, Sachsgate, etc., that the BBC presumably thought it had finally seen the back of. Having...

Engadget: Sony's laughter-tracking PS3 patent You may have noticed recently that most digital cameras can now take a photo automatically when they detect when the person being photographed is smiling. Sony in their infinite wisdom have now filed a patent...

Some MediaBlog readers might just remember something I posted nearly a year ago that attempted to explain the effects of the credit crunch, albeit in a somewhat unorthodox fashion. Anyway, I mention this again because the puppet theatre responsible for...

Broadcast Now: Grade slams STV opt outs Michael Grade in "cannot understand STV's attitude" shocker; who would have thought it? From a purely commercial viewpoint, STV's decision to drop the new 9pm incarnation of The Bill seems to have been...

Broadcast Now: ITV digital channels may leave Freeview If such a thing had happened merely two years ago it would have been a bigger deal than it is today. That's my opinion as to the potential impact of ITV withdrawing...

Broadcast Now: BBC slammed for low Edinburgh turnout It seems to elude some people that an arts festival might conceivably be covered in a radically different way to a pop concert. The Glastonbury Festival had a handful of stages combined...

Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson faces row over new Gordon Brown slurs Perhaps as predictable as night following day, controversial TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson has again stirred the proverbial hornets' nest courtesy of an insult made about Prime Minister Gordon Brown...

FT.com: Archives reveal BBC shared its fee It was perhaps inevitable that historical research into the BBC's iicence fee would at some point unearth claims that the fee had previously been nonexclusive to the BBC from time to time, therefore...

MPs sign motion against top-slicing licence fee Ben Bradshaw attacks BBC bosses It was perhaps inevitable that there would now be open conflict between the BBC and certain government ministers over the issue of so-called "top-slicing" in respect of the...

BBC News: ITV 'to charge for Talent clips' At least proving that Michael Grade has either a good sense of humour or a complete lack of perspective, he's just announced that in order to properly monetise reality TV, ITV.com plans...

ITN newsreader Alastair Stewart calls for 'Beeching' inquiry into BBC Weirdly misappropriate-yet-somehow-highly-appropriate analogy of the month: TV presenter demands inquiry that results in major cutbacks based on short-term desires which most people end up regretting many years later. Well that's...

ITV1 slumps to all-time ratings low This is rather hard to believe even allowing for ITV1's lax summer schedule combined with Wimbledon tennis and the slow but continuing growth of multichannel television; namely the fact that ITV1 suffered the worst...

BSkyB's Mike Darcey attacks 'culture of dependency' in UK television Up to now, BSkyB has enjoyed a near-privileged position as the UK's dominant pay-TV operator, and this has been tolerated not just because of any claimed political influence that News...

Once every so often, a news story breaks of great enough importance that gets the media into such a tizz it makes everything else take a back seat for a while, although the hype on this occasion was just about...

BBC's Mark Thompson attacks plans to 'top-slice' licence fee BBC pledges crackdown on 'intrusive and humiliating' broadcasts If politicians tend to live in a world of their own, as evidenced by the recent MP's expenses scandals, then broadcasters also tend...

Setanta goes into administration with loss of 200 jobs After numerous ups and downs that somewhat mirrored the trials and tribulations of football itself, the Setanta saga finally draws to an ignominious conclusion after several aborted attempts at a rescue...

Ben Bradshaw tells BBC: to save the licence fee, share it It's not surprising that the final Digital Britain report has provoked a wide range of reactions, and it was perhaps inevitable that the so-called "top slicing" of the TV...

Primeval dropped by ITV BBC set for clash over plans to give part of licence fee to rivals These two media stories may be fundamentally different in their nature but they both somehow relate to one pressing subject; notably the...

Broadcast Now: Five wins final Freeview HD slot Broadcast Now: Freeview HD plans in doubt Whilst bidding for something like a slot on the new Freeview HD multiplex, the very, very last thing you want to do prior to the...

Broadcast Now: Top 10 tips for producing cheaper TV This Broadcast Now article provides some guidance for producers wanting to cut back on expenditure during the credit crunch, but I feel that it's actually possible to save even more money....

Viewpoint: Canvas will explode UK TV, but BBC must stand back Google creeps into the living room with YouTube XL With today's announcement of YouTube XL clearly stating Google's ambitions to dominate the TV over internet (IPTV) market along with...

BSkyB tables £160m bid for Virgin Media channels, reports say Whilst many broadcasters are still bitterly complaining about an advertising downturn (ITV's short term Britain's Got Talent/football windfall notwithstanding), BSkyB still seems oblivious to the financial storm that currently surrounds...

Granada name to disappear from ITV businesses When Apple Inc.'s Steve Jobs first introduced the Apple TV set top box (which displays media content downloaded from the iTunes Store) during one of his famous presentations, Jobs referred to the product...

Broadcast Now: Channels agree five-year ban on revisiting Kangaroo If you want ample evidence as to what degree the Competition Commission hated the whole idea of Project Kangaroo, then look no further than this agreement drawn up between them and...

Ed Richards warns against setting 'meaningless' radio switchoff date Today's Radio 3.0 conference in London seems to have basically regurgitated the usual set of proclamations along with a few announcements along the way (Bauer's withdrawal of radio stations from Sky...

Radio Today: Bauer withdraws from Sky platform If you want further evidence that commercial radio is still in a spot of bother despite a healthy number of listeners, look no further than this announcement that Bauer is withdrawing five of...

BSkyB cries foul over BBC Trust's Project Canvas consultation When BSkyB gets publicly upset over something it's usually because there's a potential risk of its market dominance being curtailed in some form as a result. Project Kangaroo may have controversially...

Thinking for inside the box (Peter Bazalgette's plan to fix TV in a recession) Given the extent of crisis within the television industry (and other media industries as well, although it's television that's the natural focus here), it's no surprise...

ITV to axe The South Bank Show when Melvyn Bragg retires next year The news that The South Bank Show is going to be axed isn't surprising at all to be honest, but it's yet another unwelcome ITV landmark in...

Broadcast Now: C4 not up the viewers' Street There seems to be an endemic problem with programme commissioning nowadays, and it appears to revolve around the types of programming that make it to air. Perhaps broadcasters have spent too much...

Ofcom head Ed Richards sounds death knell for ITV regional news Yes we know that the media industry is going through hell at the moment - and this is particularly true of local media - but there is still something...

Government must be bolder on digital radio, says Global chief Stephen Miron You can clearly hear the sound of desperation in Stephen Miron's voice as he pleads to central government for urgent action to be taken on that hot potato...

Michael Grade to step down as ITV chief executive This move comes as a modest surprise given the fact that Michael Grade was scheduled to stay on as chief executive for another year, but if he has done everything he...

'More than 50 local radio stations could close without regulatory shakeup' There's no denying that local radio in general is in a spot of bother, to put it mildly, and some hard decisions will have to be made as a...

Media companies back MPs on BBC Worldwide curbs Well of course other commercial media companies would back calls for BBC Worldwide's commercial activities to be reined in, since to claim anything else would be akin to turkeys voting for Christmas....

BBC fined £150,000 over Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross phone prank scandal 'Sachsgate' was basically the culmination of what can happen when star talent who have their own production company are given too much control over their own radio show,...

Is TV drama too metropolitan and middle class? The Broadcast Interview: Ben Stephenson Recently there has been a fair amount of discussion in relation to the quality (or otherwise) of UK television drama productions, and this has been in part...

Channel Five boss claims government sees logic of merger with Channel 4 It seems that Dawn Airey and RTL have spotted a gap in the broadcasting wilderness and are desperately trying to head for it. But what are the realistic...

Chris Moyles reprimanded over 'gay' spoof lyrics to Will Young song The BBC has a problem. Indeed it has several problems, but a recurring theme in recent years seems to be exactly how to deal with its on-air talent. Or...

BBC must cut £400m from budget – Mark Thompson Back in December, the BBC's projected shortfall for the next five years was going to be in the region of £140m. At that time, BBC Three's programming budget was scheduled to...

ITV chief Michael Grade to challenge 'perverse' ban on product placement Product placement has been a 'hot' issue for commercial broadcasters for what seems like a long time - this MediaBlog entry dates back to June 2005 - and by...

ITV executives write protest letter to Michael Grade Well done Michael Grade for having the temerity to sack the chief architect of ITV's recent failure to achieve a content-led turnaround for ITV as it stands, namely the director of factual...

ITV admits defeat on content-led turnaround I'll say this now; Michael Grade had exactly the right idea for a turnaround strategy for ITV plc as it stood, but the 'r-word' intervened to prevent that dream from fully happening. Of course...

ITV proposes merger with Channel 4 and Five to create broadcasting giant In a way you can kind of see the business logic in this idea, namely one large commercial broadcaster that's fit to take on BSkyB and the BBC...

MPs' report expected to question BBC and Channel 4 linkup Over recent months, around 90% of the media-related ministerial report 'leaks' have been 'surprisingly' accurate, so we can assume that any doubts in relation to a Channel 4-BBC Worldwide tie-up...

Commercial radio could launch new digital stations if regulation is eased So what has the RadioCentre got up its sleeve to save DAB from the jaws of possible obsolescence/apathy caused by expensive transmission charges and rampant short-term thinking within the...

BSkyB wins Premier League TV rights package back from Setanta All things considered, this makes a total mockery of the recent Competition Commission decision to disallow Project Kangaroo on the basis of creating a (perhaps highly theoretical and ultimately irrelevant)...

Jeremy Clarkson apologises for calling Gordon Brown 'a one-eyed idiot' I said yesterday that: "Will BBC employees end up being too afraid to say anything remotely controversial just incase the remark(s) might be construed by someone somewhere as being offensive...

Carol Thatcher race row: thousands complain to BBC BBC defends dropping Carol Thatcher over 'golliwog' jibe It seems that the BBC can do nothing right in recent months, with a string of incidents ranging from the trivial to the justifiably...

Project Kangaroo: 50 jobs to go as broadcasters rule out appeal Project Kangaroo blocked by Competition Commission So it seems that the 'olive branch' created by Project Kangaroo, namely a removal of the joint rights selling operation from the project,...

Merger of Channels 4 and Five still possible, says Dawn Airey The ever-hopeful and clearly optimistic Dawn Airey is still making noises about a merger between Channel 4 and Five despite current indications strongly hinting otherwise, although this scenario could...

digital britain - interim report: Government outlines plans for UK’s digital transition Today saw the publication of (Lord) Stephen Carter's interim report entitled "Digital Britain", which in one sense is a government response to Ofcom's previous report; indeed "Digital Britain"...

How the call for aid to Gaza left the BBC in the thick of battle As the controversy surrounding the BBC's stubborn refusal to air the DEC Gaza appeal rumbles on after the event (ironically giving the appeal much more...

The Bill cut to once a week Although the motive for trimming back ITV1's The Bill to a once a week, post-watershed slot is mainly financial (drama in particular being expensive to produce), this could represent an long overdue opportunity...

As mentioned on the Digital Spy forum, this may have happened close to an ad break but is an example of the latest technique that's now used by certain US channels (on cable TV in this case) for promoting...

BBC and Channel 4 in talks to buy Virgin Media's UKTV stake If the BBC and Channel 4 can join forces to purchase Virgin Media's UKTV stake, then this not only solves some of the "keeping Channel 4 alive" problem...

BBC licence fee 'digital surplus' could help fund new PSB body, says Ofcom Ofcom: Report summary plus links to full versions Now that the long-awaited report from Ofcom has finally appeared, some of the rampant speculation (along with accompanying deliberate...

ITV fined £220,000 by Ofcom over regional quotas It has taken Ofcom a year to punish ITV for a regional programming expenditure shortfall in 2007 (likewise a two year delay for 2006), meaning that ITV has finally been fined for...

BBC director general backs merger of Channel 4 and Five It won't be long before Channel 4 finds out its long term fate later this month, but before that happens there's the usual round of speculation and opinion-making that precedes...

Let Channel 4 make its own shows, says shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt Bearing in mind that the Conservative Party occasionally seems to change certain policies depending on whatever consensus happens to be in vogue at the time, it's perhaps...