Posts from
January 2004
Saturday 31 January 2004
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...
Read all of 'A match made in heaven?'.
Friday 30 January 2004
Andrew Gilligan, who was BBC Radio 4's Today programme's Defence & Diplomatic Correspondent has resigned from the BBC with immediate effect....
Read all of 'Breaking News from Action Central: Andrew Gilligan Resigns'.
Thursday 29 January 2004
Can I just wonder why Gilligan has not yet gone?...
Read all of 'Gilligan'.
Well, I was very sorry, and to a certain extent shocked about the news Greg Dyke had resigned. He has done so much for the BBC, and UK broadcasting in general, and he really deserved to stay. Of course, he...
Read all of 'A Bad Day for the Beeb'.
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...
Read all of 'Greg Dyke Resigns'.
Wednesday 28 January 2004
Reuters 'short' on the resignation of Gavyn Davies The main news story here is not that Gavyn Davies has resigned, but that the Chairmanship of the BBC is in the gift of the Prime Minister. Mr Blair now has two...
Read all of 'All the colours of darkness'.
BBC News: Hutton Reporters' Log This interesting page has comments from the vast range of reporters who have been covering the Hutton Inquiry for the BBC. It's interesting in that it shows just how many people the BBC needs to...
Read all of 'Here is the news... And the people reporting it.'.
BBC News 24 is reporting that Gavyn Davies will tender his resignation as Chairman of the BBC to the board of Governors when they begin their informal meeting later tonight. More on this story as we get it....
Read all of 'BREAKING NEWS from Action Central: Gavyn Davies Resigns'.
Well, it is interesting to hear the final report from Lord Hutton. I doubt I will ever plough through all 300-odd pages of it, but, I have been disappointed. To be honest I didn't think the BBC would get criticised...
Read all of 'More on Hutton'.
Well, now that the Hutton Report has been published, let us take a moment to put the report into its proper perspective. The media continues to accuse the BBC of broadcasting a false report. Let us get this in perspective,...
Read all of 'The Hutton Report'.
Tuesday 27 January 2004
BBC News Online - Nick Higham on Hutton Not wishing to prejudice the Hutton report, but this article is a must read. Whatever side of the political spectrum you are on (for the record: socialist, ex-Labour as of the attack...
Read all of 'Hutton'.
MediaGuardian: BBC to be reined in, says Jowell's adviser MediaGuardian: Watchdog eases burden of ITV licence Impressive. On the same day, the MediaGuardian is gleefully reporting an opinion that the BBC should have ITV-style programme quotas but barely bats an...
Read all of 'The tale of two broadcasters'.
Monday 26 January 2004
Media Grauniad story The Grauniad's well-known and much, much regretted rabid anti-BBC stance (made worse because it is evidently all from a biased view that the BBC is a 'competitor' to GMG's media operations) makes the rest of the world...
Read all of 'BBC's Hutton 'Google AdWords' buying spree'.
Puff-piece pretending to be news 'ITV mulls soap spin-offs' So, ITV1 isn't doing too well. We need a solution, and fast. I know! More crappy soap operas! They're not at all mostly the problem with the doomed channel in any...
Read all of 'Bankrupt for ideas? Moi?'.
MediaGuardian: War of the news walls I'm going to stake my reputation on the line. Not that I have a very big one, but I'm hoping to gain one from this. In an interview with the Media Guardian, ITV News...
Read all of 'ITV News: lofty goals, almost no chance.'.
News at Ten Thirty "Mr Mannion also told Media Guardian he wants the ITV News Channel to beat BBC News 24's ratings within a year." Of course. Is this while BBC News 24 is still on the air? Honestly, if...
Read all of 'ITV getting big ideas'.
Independent: Lights go out for good at the BBC's Pebble Mill studios Bye bye Pebble Mill....
Read all of 'Pebble Mill: the end of an era.'.
Friday 23 January 2004
MediaGuardian: Sky lifts lid on multichannel TV habits So Sky is hoping to get 20,000 subscribers to see how they use their service so that they can target their users better (and probably help get more cash out of their...
Read all of 'Big Sky Brother is watching...'.
Wednesday 21 January 2004
BBC News: ITN newsreader Suchet to retire Quite how John Suchet has managed to remain a lot lower key than Trevor MacDonald when he has a much better onscreen personality, I just don't know......
Read all of 'Bye Bye John Suchet.'.
BBC News: Actors call for more credit on TV Equity are complaining about the rushing of credits and their presentation in a split screen environment. It's a tricky issue. The BBC claims on one hand that channel surfing increases by...
Read all of 'Credit Where Credit Is Due?'.
Friday 16 January 2004
Thursday 15 January 2004
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...
Read all of 'Channel launches ain't what they used to be...'.
Media Week: Green light for launch of ITV?s third channel Apparantly ITV are developing ITV3, which will show the amazing combination of films and lifestyle programming, as well as providing a chance to develop new programmes for ITV1. It's all...
Read all of 'And you thought ITV couldn't get any worse...'.
Tuesday 13 January 2004
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....
Read all of 'The End.'.
BBC to broadcast silent orchestra My latest artwork is 4'34" long and is also completely silent, save for a distant sound of someone giggling whilst rolling about on a pile of money. I'll be pleased to get a cheque from...
Read all of 'Nice work if you can get it'.
ITV prepares for News at Ten shift It's been muttered about for months, but we're edging closer and closer to News at Ten being put out of its elongated misery. Like the rest of ITV, this once great institution has...
Read all of 'Bye Bye News at Ten (again)'.
Soaps and sports are public service TV, say viewers The "opinion formers", those that control our media or those with vested interests elsewhere have long told us what is public service broadcasting. The arts. Pompous political shows. Heavyweight documentaries. Anything...
Read all of 'Public Service Soaps'.
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...
Read all of 'Zero rated'.
Monday 12 January 2004
A new channel for people with no lives A rousing two cheers for Murdoch's latest venture - FX-TV, a 'lad's channel' which will launch all too soon with a mixture of celebrity gossip, tits, bums and puerile nonsense pretending...
Read all of 'FX UK'.
Arts host says BBC should share licence fee with any pretentious idiot who would like some free money for tat. Of all people, Melvyn Bragg should know better. You'd think. But anyone who believes that television would improve if the...
Read all of 'Artsing about'.
BBC pulls Kilroy-Silk show after anti-Arab comments I am in two minds about whether Kilroy should be axed for his article. I am not aware of the specific issues he tackles on his morning programme, but I would assume that...
Read all of 'Killjoy?'.
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......
Read all of 'Emmerbeat'.
Friday 9 January 2004
Bragg: BBC4 a 'fig leaf' for arts coverage Lord Melvyn Bragg's comments yesterday are interesting to see. I don't think they are right. Yes, BBC 4 is certainly a place where the arts programming is now placed rather than BBC...
Read all of 'Bragging about arts'.
Thursday 8 January 2004
Scotsman.com report bizarrely celebrating less political regionalism in the kingdom Perhaps, after all, we can now see how come regionalism, that noble goal of broadcasting in this country since 1922, has gone quietly unto the dark. Here, The Scotsman -...
Read all of 'Scottish politics coverage to have even worse coverage.'.
Tuesday 6 January 2004
allAfrica.com on Zambian censorship of the BBC World Service's 'Network Africa'. I'd imagine that corruption, a chained press speaking with one voice, and oppression of those with views other than those that the Government wishes them to have, would be...
Read all of 'Censorship, or why the world needs the BBC'.
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...
Read all of '"Let's play battleships..."'.
Monday 5 January 2004
Financial Times report on the blandname 'ITV' It seems, although it's barely believeable, that the brandname 'ITV' has monetary value. The FT reports, from that curiously-isolated high-money perspective that it has, that the 3 companies still outside of the cruddy...
Read all of 'A crime by any other name would still smell of...'.
Sunday 4 January 2004
Any 'blog like this can become a place to whinge about the ills of the world. Indeed, I do a lot of that here about television (only as a public service, in order to save you the bother, of course)....
Read all of 'My point being...'.
BBC News report Former BBC-1 continuity announcer Michael Aspel is suffering from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system. The cancer is under control through chemotherapy and other treatments and is not believed to be life-threatening. Get well soon,...
Read all of 'TV star Michael Aspel has cancer'.
Saturday 3 January 2004
A new year and it's straight into our latest update! In this edition of Transdiffusion News: Radio One revolutions, did you get the Pure Evoke II for Christmas? London News Network closes, Lew Grade in the 1950s, BBC infrastructure, fall...
Read all of 'Transdiffusion Network - Update'.
Friday 2 January 2004
Tawdry but gramatically interesting piece from the Daily Record about Hogmany television. The verdict: BBC-1 won but were awful. SMG [don't click this link - it'll play music at you] lost and were unremarkable. But SMG gets the last laugh...
Read all of 'It gets grimmer the further north you go'.
Hands up if you'd noticed the ITC had gone? Thought not. But hang on... According to the redirect page: "The ITC has ceased to exist from 18 December 2003... Ofcom is the new communications sector regulator and will have wide-ranging...
Read all of 'Hands Up...'.
It's not often that the free newspaper Metro gets mentioned in this publication, but I feel the need to make my first post of 2004 to MediaBlog, a slightly pointless one. In a 60 second interview with radio presenter Lauren...
Read all of 'Quote of the Day'.
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...
Read all of 'Channel 4 audience dips below 10%'.
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