Posts by
Andrew Bowden
Friday 29 August 2008
A couple of weeks ago I unpacked a Grundig Freesat HD set top box. In the cardboard packing was a set top box, power adapter, SCART lead and a remote control. I then wandered over to the office's LCD TV...
Read all of 'HDTV - your personal route to confusion'.
Thursday 28 August 2008
There's an element of inevitability about this one - and the one surprise is that has taken so long.
Read all of 'Taking on the big guy'.
Monday 11 August 2008
"On BBC One now, Britain from Above, whilst on BBC Two in sixty minutes, it's Britain from Above".
Read all of 'Two Programmes with the same name?'.
Thursday 24 July 2008
If you haven't seen the BBC's Olympic monkey, then it's time to head over to the BBC website now.
Read all of 'The Story of the Monkey and the Olympics'.
Tuesday 17 June 2008
Here's an interesting one. The Guardian are reporting that the Scottish Government are consulting about a possible ban of alcohol related TV ads before the 9pm watershed. It's a question that has been raised nationwide, but so far not discounted.
Read all of 'No booze ads in Scotland?'.
Friday 23 May 2008
One upon a time, the adage was that you joined the BBC to get the training, then when you could, you disappeared off for the better wages in the commercial world.
Read all of 'Low pay in the newsroom'.
There is absolutely no doubt at all. Not one bit. You can guarentee that is there's one programme that's going to set the "decline of broadcasting" brigade off, it's new CBBC programme Gastronuts, which, according to the Guardian, will "encourage kids to stew worms, catch farts in jars and bake toenail cakes".
Read all of 'What would happen if we didn't fart? CBBC will tell us!'.
Thursday 22 May 2008
There's a certain irony that ITV apparently failed to meet its quotas for out of London production. Irony that a network which was founded on regional principles, to spread power and away from the capital, is now firmly rooted in London, and makes most of its programmes there.
Read all of 'London based and proud'.
Saturday 12 April 2008
On the more trivial side of broadcasting news recently is the revelation that popular TV personalities Ant and Dec have rushed out and bought the rights to their old shows SM:TV Live and Byker Grove, apparently in a bid to stop digital TV channels buying the rights and showing their previous work without their permission. Or presumably, at all.
Read all of 'Don't be afraid of your past!'.
Friday 11 April 2008
The first signs of new management ideas at GCap Media are slowly being revealed. Whilst the company is not yet part of Global Radio (the move has to be agreed by shareholders first), it would seem highly unlikely that the potential new owners would have not been consulted first on todays announcements.
Read all of 'GCap changes tack'.
Tuesday 1 April 2008
So it's finally happened - GCap has succumbed to Global Media, with the company being sold for £375m.
Read all of 'GCap Media: 2005 - 2008'.
Tuesday 25 March 2008
It's not even been a year since the change, but it seems XFM's bold vision of an exciting world of giving listeners the power, and ditching it's daytime presenters has been a resounding success!
Read all of 'Resurrect the DJs, Resurrect the DJs!'.
Thursday 20 March 2008
Where Dave leads, "Fiver" apparently follows as digital channel Five Life, is getting a new name.
Read all of 'Attack of the silly TV station names'.
Wednesday 5 March 2008
Well it looks like the battle has finally ended. Surely? The news that the House of Lords have refused to hear an appeal from Christian Voice in their attempts to procecute the BBC for blasphemy for showing Jerry Springer: The Opera.
Read all of 'Jerry Springer's non-blaspheming opera'.
If you're one of those people who think that the BBC would be insane to sell off its flagship building, then you might be encouraged by something on Media Guardian this morning.
Read all of 'TV Centre potentially safe and GCap maybe ready to fall'.
Monday 11 February 2008
The GCap/DAB story just keeps coming up with new twists as more articles get published. In an article about the economic viability of DAB on the Media Guardian website, there's an interesting comment from Fru Hazlitt.
Read all of 'The GCap/DAB saga continues'.
Whilst most of the emphasis has gone onto GCap closing digital stations and selling its stake in DigitalOne, this mornings announcement also included some other major news that stands the chance of being less widely considered by the press. GCap are selling XFM.
Read all of 'GCap Abandons XFM'.
Wednesday 6 February 2008
Over the last few months we've been rolling out a new feature at Transdiffusion. Nicknamed "More About", it involves putting in a link next to articles to find out similar articles on particular subject.
Read all of 'The popular and unpopular with TBS writers'.
Tuesday 29 January 2008
It can't have come as much of a surprise that BSkyB have been instructed to reduce their stake in ITV plc from 17.9% to at most 7.5%. Nay, not even to BSkyB itself. So much so, that there's almost nothing...
Read all of 'BSkyB forced out of ITV'.
Monday 28 January 2008
Not being a sports fan by any means, this was a story I almost missed. But it's a story that is actually quite interesting. It seems that in Euro 2008 this year, ITV1 will not be showing the competition final....
Read all of 'ITV say nein to the Euro 2008 final'.
Wednesday 9 January 2008
Sarkozy wants to create a French BBC It's been barely a year since international news channel, France 24, hit the airwaves. The station - which broadcasts in English and French - was created in the Jacques Chirac era, with an...
Read all of 'France 24 - Fin'.
Friday 4 January 2008
Channel 4 pulls out of digital speech station When it was started seven years ago, it was seen as the first big competitor for Radio 4. As ever, the hype never really lived up to the expectation and for some...
Read all of 'The end for Oneword?'.
Wednesday 5 December 2007
Springer opera court fight fails "As a whole [it] was not and could not reasonably be regarded as aimed at, or an attack on, Christianity or what Christians held sacred" The latest stage in the seemingly never ending saga of...
Read all of 'No Voice for Christian Voice'.
Monday 26 November 2007
We're not normally ones for abusing our blog for some shameless self promotion. Honest. So to make up for the cunning lack of any, here's some for our new look Media News pages. Every day, a highly trained set of...
Read all of 'Shameless Self Promotion for our improved Media News section!'.
Tuesday 20 November 2007
Broadcasters agree Freeview HD plan HD is the future of television (just as digital, colour, 625 lines on UHF, 405 lines on VHF and children, children, future, future, were) so the announcement today that the four main broadcasters have come...
Read all of 'Freeview goes high def'.
Tuesday 23 October 2007
News at Ten back - with Sir Trevor Just when you thought ITV's late evening news bulletin had settled down after all the years of faffing around - killing off News at Ten and moving to 11pm, then moving it...
Read all of 'News at When? Why, it's at ten! Again.'.
Wednesday 17 October 2007
First town switches to digital TV Well it's started. Whitehaven has become the first town in the UK to take part in digital switchover. At about 2am this morning, analogue BBC Two was switched off in the town, to...
Read all of 'Good Morning Whitehaven'.
Thursday 20 September 2007
UKTV G2 gets unlikely new name: Dave For reasons best known to themselves, UKTV have announced that they're rebranding the clumsily named UKTV G2 to Dave. Yes. Dave. Apparently this was because "everyone knows a bloke called Dave". Everyone except...
Read all of 'Say Hello to Dave'.
Friday 24 August 2007
C4 headquarters to get giant logo When it comes to landmarks, London has a few. From the Palace of Westminster and its famous clock tower (and Big Ben bell!) and St Pauls Cathedral, through to the more modern Millenium Wheel...
Read all of 'Great Big Dockoff 4 for London'.
Monday 9 July 2007
Trial area gives thumbs-up to digital switchover "Research reveals that all 25,000 households in the lead area of Whitehaven are intending to convert to digital TV" proclaims the Media Guardian. Which isn't exactly a big surprise... Whilst there have been...
Read all of 'No Mass Switch Off, Following Mass Switch Off'.
Friday 6 July 2007
BBC Editors Blog: Taking Sides Audience fragmentation raises questions for TV news, says Ofcom How do you get people who don't watch the news, to engage in it? Well Ofcom have had an interesting idea. Maybe abandoning the requirement for...
Read all of 'Our top headline tonight - those left-wing pinko scum are at it again!'.
Friday 18 May 2007
BBC pulls out of Neighbours fight And the hot story on Ramsey Street this week is that the BBC has withdrawn from the bidding for the programme, after contract renewal would have left it paying over three times the current...
Read all of 'No more Neigbours on the BBC'.
Thursday 17 May 2007
Xfm stations axe daytime DJs What do you call a radio station without presenters? Well, Xfm it looks like. The network of alternative music playing radio stations has today announced its ditching the DJ during the daytime - 10am through...
Read all of 'Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ'.
Tuesday 15 May 2007
Ofcom finds 'stark' future for kids' TV Ofcom's findings that children's television has tripled in five years since 2002 is not that surprising, given the BBC launched two digital spin-off channels, and ITV launched CITV. However the story that the...
Read all of 'Oh, won't someone think of the children?'.
Friday 23 March 2007
MediaGuardian: TV nation: first mass survey finds homely bias in what we watch A survey for Ofcom, part of its first public service broadcasting annual report, shows that more than two thirds of viewers think the main five channels don't...
Read all of 'Perception and Innovation'.
Sunday 18 March 2007
Making Your Mind Up website I didn't watch Making Your Mind up last night but caught a bit of the rather shambolic results programme (spectacularly they announced one person to be the winner, only to five seconds later decide they...
Read all of 'Congratulations. We've lost Eurovision again!'.
Friday 2 March 2007
BBC News: Consumer body angry at BSkyB row In the latest stage of the Sky-Virgin debacle, The National Consumer Counci are threatening to put in an official complaint to the government, in an attempt to "knock heads together" (perhaps they'll...
Read all of 'The Sky's The Limit For The Control Freaks'.
Thursday 1 March 2007
Following on from the Sky blackout for Virgin customers, it's also not going to be long before Sky turn something else off. The free months subscription they gave me to "entice" me from my freesat setup, to paying them a...
Read all of 'Pay for my TV? Not likely!'.
Tuesday 13 February 2007
I confess I'm still trying to work out why on earth Sky are pulling three channels out of the Freeview offering, so it can attempt to flog a brand new set top box to people just so they can get...
Read all of 'Have Sky Finally Lost It, Big Time?'.
Monday 29 January 2007
Dacre's attack: The accused answer back Left-wing, pinko, commie scum newspaper, The Independent, give those recently attacked by Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre, a right to reply. Perhaps most pertinant is this comment by former BBC Director General, Greg...
Read all of 'Responding to Paul Dacre'.
Friday 26 January 2007
Britain is moving on - and leaving Paul Dacre behind Lance Price puts up a sterling defence of the BBC following Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre's recent attack. Unfortunately for Lance, it's published by that bastion of the loony left...
Read all of 'Defending the BBC'.
Tuesday 23 January 2007
Media Guardian: Dacre attacks BBC 'cultural Marxism' Following on from Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre's attack on the BBC, rumours are that the corporation are acting swiftly and look set to announce a raft of programming aimed at keeping "conservative"...
Read all of 'Pleasing the Daily Mail'.
Monday 22 January 2007
Media Guardian: More licence fee 'slicing' possible Media Guardian: TV and C4 cross swords over funding gap With a price tag of £300m, Ofcom's proposed new public service publisher has to be funded somehow, and it seems that the Television...
Read all of 'Public Service Funding'.
Friday 1 December 2006
Media Guardian: Channel 4 to keep Big Brother If the rumours are true, Channel 4 are planning to subject the UK viewing public with another three years of boring, self-obsessed, shouting, moronic idiots who all think they're God's gift to...
Read all of 'Three more years of total quality television.'.
Tuesday 28 November 2006
BBC News: Alan 'Fluff' Freeman Alan Freeman has died, aged 79. For other forty years, Fluff was a radio institution - from Pick of the Pops to his legendary rock shows which mixed metal with classical music, and he will...
Read all of 'A radio legend? Not 'arf.'.
Wednesday 18 October 2006
Media Guardian: Beyond soap - BBC embraces villains, plot twists and Latin style of telenovela So the Brazillian style soap opera, or Telenova, is coming to the UK. The difference is that there's a fixed number of episodes - self...
Read all of 'The BBC goes Latin.'.
Wednesday 20 September 2006
Media Guardian: Launch of ITV region delayed Actually the news that ITV's new Thames Valley region (a combination of Meridian West and Central South) is going to launch a month late on 4 December isn't exactly the most exciting...
Read all of 'ITV Thames Valley to be late'.
Wednesday 9 August 2006
Media Guardian: Charles Allen ousted as ITV chief while broadcaster considers name change Now they're shot of Charles Allen, ITV Chairman Sir Peter Burt is looking at solving the problems with ITV plc. The solution? As he says in a...
Read all of 'Bye Bye ITV plc?'.
Monday 7 August 2006
Media Guardian: ITV planning move for Big Brother If it's true that ITV are trying to poach Big Brother then there is only one question - canny move to bolster their ratings, or a desperate move from an organisation running...
Read all of 'A sign of desperation?'.
Thursday 27 July 2006
What can be said about ITV at the minute? It's Big Brother "beater" is doing appallingly (with an added bonus that Channel 4 is beating it in the ratings). The company ditched one (admittedly awful sounding) Saturday night show after...
Read all of 'Will the last viewer turn out the lights?'.
Tuesday 6 June 2006
Media Guardian: ITV axes 40 news jobs Ding ding, all change please! Hot on the heels of Mike Neville's departure, and ITV have announced a raft of changes to its regional news service. Tyne Tees's North East Tonight will remain...
Read all of 'ITV regional news moves on'.
Monday 5 June 2006
BBC News: Popular news anchor stepping down Media Guardian: Newsreader quits after 40 years Mike Neville is perhaps one of the best known regional news presenters in the UK. He's a legend in the North East, and in the area...
Read all of 'Mike Neville to leave North East Tonight'.
Friday 2 June 2006
The Telegraph: Council tax inspectors watching Big Brother House I can't stand Big Brother myself, nor the obsession the media seems to have with it. However every now and then there's a Big Brother story that comes out and makes...
Read all of 'Silly Season Cometh'.
Tuesday 23 May 2006
So not content with just putting three minute versions of the News 24 countdown music online, it appears BBC News have gone one better. An invite to send in your own remix! Only two entries at the time of writing,...
Read all of 'Remix It Yourself'.
Sunday 14 May 2006
Cellcast launches new Freeview 'radio' Cellcast, the interactive digital broadcaster, today announced that it was launching a new platform on Freeview, the free to air digital TV channels. The group said it was pioneering new 'visual radio' on digital terrestrial...
Read all of 'Breakthrough in meaningless press releases'.
Thursday 20 April 2006
Media Guardian: Broadcasters get green light for more pay-TV There's much regulation in the TV market in the UK - indeed tight regulation made the UK TV market what it is today. However you sometimes have to ask, is there...
Read all of 'Free to Pay?'.
Monday 27 March 2006
The Independent: The sooner we lose analogue, the better Media Guardian: Television's no-brainer "Digital TV shouldn't just offer more TV; it should offer more good TV." The words of Creative Industries minister, James Purnell writing in the Independent. He goes...
Read all of 'Quality vs Cash'.
Media Guardian: Confusion over TV signing Ofcom: Television Access Services Review If there's one topic that's certain to raise an argument on some message boards, it's someone wandering in and ranting about the "little man stood there waving their hands...
Read all of 'Survey Signing Surprise'.
Monday 13 March 2006
Media Guardian: ITV faces battle for control of Ireland's TV3 Emmerdale at 7pm, followed by Corrie at 7:30. There's another show at 8pm but it's back to Corrie half an hour later. Nope, not tonight on ITV1, but tonight on...
Read all of 'The battle for TV3'.
Friday 10 February 2006
BBC News: US public TV shows 'facing cuts' The US's PBS network isn't exactly the most well funded public service broadcaster in the world, yet despite that, it's childrens programming has crept across the globe - and not just Sesame...
Read all of 'Grouch Wants More Guns'.
Wednesday 8 February 2006
Media Guardian: FilmFour relaunches as free-to-air Some good news for film and Freeview fans as Channel 4 officially announce that FilmFour is to go free. However its stable-mate, FilmFour Weekly will close. FilmFour was Channel 4's last bastion of pay-TV,...
Read all of 'FilmFourFree'.
Monday 6 February 2006
Media Guardian: US rebels call for ITV to be broken up Calls from investors to break up companies to "release value" happen all the time in the world of the public limited company. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes...
Read all of 'Break Up, Make Up'.
Thursday 26 January 2006
Radio days: Tales behind the UK tunes Not that we're obsessed with the Radio 4 UK theme or anything (oh no) but the Independent today features an interesting piece about some of the songs that form the theme....
Read all of 'What's in a song?'.
Wednesday 25 January 2006
Save the Radio 4 UK Theme BBC Press Release: New early morning schedule for Radio 4 Will punter power save the Radio 4 UK theme from the axe? Well we all know, Radio 4 listeners aren't a group to be...
Read all of 'Radio 4 UK Theme Petition'.
Thursday 19 January 2006
Media Guardian: HBO could move into UK In the UK it's another name for quality - programming of a high quality that people will pay for. The Sopranos, Sex and the City, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Larry Sanders Show. There's...
Read all of 'HBO UK'.
Monday 9 January 2006
Media Guardian ITV unveils new look Brand proposition of ITV1. "Emotional moments we all share". A mass group hug of ITV1 viewers who are all crying, or just the "urgh!" of people as they watch some Z-list celebrity eat worms...
Read all of '...and don't forget to cry'.
Friday 6 January 2006
Media Guardian: Bets off for ITV reality show In many ways it was like the dotcom rush - if we go interactive, we'll soon be swimming in cash! Press red to bet on this. Press red to play the...
Read all of 'What? No Betting?'.
Tuesday 20 December 2005
Freeview 'not up to the job', says Sky Well they would, wouldn't they?...
Read all of 'Oooh! Handbag!'.
Monday 19 December 2005
ITV News Channel to close before Christmas Set your videos, shed a tear and say goodbye to the nation's third and least loved news channel - a month earlier than expected. Still, it's not all bad news. After all, we...
Read all of 'And Finally...'.
Saturday 3 December 2005
...to be available in John Lewis this Christmas by all accounts. But wouldn't it clash with your own wallpaper, and therefore long tacky and wrong?...
Read all of 'Floral Print Sky Plus Box...'.
Monday 28 November 2005
Sky supremacy a 'marketing trick' According to researchers from the University of Cardiff, 79.4% of stories which Sky News labels as "Breaking News" are in fact, 'routine, predictable events'. In contrast, ITV News Channel had 32.1% whilst BBC News 24...
Read all of 'Not Quite Broken Yet'.
Saturday 19 November 2005
'Closure' plan causes panic at ITV News Just under three weeks ago, the ITV News Channel saw its hours on Freeview - the platform where it gets most of its viewers - cut in half to make way for ITV4...
Read all of 'ITV News Channel Gloom'.
Friday 18 November 2005
RTL Group announces strategic relationship between Five and Top UP TV "Five is confident that this relationship will present a number of opportunities to launch new free-to-air services during the course of 2006. " The words of an RTL press...
Read all of 'Investing Five Style'.
Monday 7 November 2005
Media Guardian: TV on mobiles proves a turn-off When it comes to mobile phones, I'm a bit of a luddite. Mine gets used about once a week, primarily for sending text messages. So watching TV via my handset hasn't exactly...
Read all of 'Watch me on the mobile'.
Wednesday 2 November 2005
ITV News hours cut on Freeview for ITV4 I'm sure you were all glued to the set last night for the launch of ITV Bore, sorry ITV4. But spare a little thought for the old ITV News Channel. For the...
Read all of 'And finally... Is this the end of the ITV News Channel?'.
Monday 31 October 2005
BBC News: Newsreader Ford retiring from BBC BBC News: Kaplinsky fronts BBC evening news Following on from the departure of Michael Buerk and Peter Sissons, another long time legend of the news announces her departure - Anna Ford is leaving...
Read all of 'The News Shuffle'.
Friday 21 October 2005
BBC News: BSkyB swoops on internet provider It wasn't exactly a well kept secret, but Sky have pounced on internet service provider, Easynet. It's a move which will make it easier for the company to provide video-on-demand services, seen as...
Read all of 'Sky Goes Broadband'.
Wednesday 12 October 2005
Media Guardian: 'I'm a poacher and a gamekeeper' It's always good to get in the mind of TV critic, producer and TV anorak extraordinaire Victor Lewis-Smith, one of the people behind Associated Rediffusion. And if you take this article with...
Read all of 'The Widespread World of Rediffusion'.
Tuesday 4 October 2005
BBC News: Comedy legend Ronnie Barker dies For the very last time, it's goodnight from him....
Read all of 'Ronnie Barker'.
Monday 3 October 2005
Media Guardian: BBC 'needs more independently-produced news' So how long before Sky News are pitching to produce the BBC's News at Ten then?...
Read all of 'Indie News'.
Media Guardian: Product placement is no panacea, says Channel 4 sales chief When it comes to product placement, I always think of two moments. The first is the James Bond film, Goldeneye, where Perrier logoed lorries are crashed into, and...
Read all of 'Extra Pocket Money'.
Friday 16 September 2005
This is Rubbish Money: £2,000 to go digital So according to the Daily Mail, analogue switch off could cost up to £2000 per household. Fact. Well it must be cos it's in the paper... Obviously the Daily Mail is being...
Read all of 'Switchover Misinformation'.
Digital UK - helping the UK go digital The Digital UK website has now been launched - extolling the virtues of digital TV, and explaining why we, as a nation, are going that way. However I hope using the website...
Read all of 'Digital Crash'.
Wednesday 7 September 2005
BBC News: BBC and ITV to start Sky TV rival Typical isn't it? Just weeks after a buy a viewing card for my dodgy, second hand satellite set top box, and ITV announce they're going in the clear. Well guess...
Read all of 'Freesat Looms'.
Tuesday 16 August 2005
BBC releases first offerings from the BBC Archive Radio 1's Superstar VJs The BBC's much talked about Creative Archive - where parts of the BBC archive are opened up to the public - has finally made its first release, with...
Read all of 'From The Archive'.
Thursday 28 July 2005
Media Guardian Setanta set to challenge Sky for slice of the action Am I the only one to be getting completely fed up of down right misinformation from the press about Freeview? Take this little quote from the Media Guardian....
Read all of 'Mis-information from Media Guardian'.
Tuesday 5 July 2005
Certainty or Security ? The Path to Digital - a speech by the Chief Executive of Ofcom "If commercial TV wants to cross-promote commercial radio that is part of the same group, then that too can be building public...
Read all of 'Meaningless Statement Of The Day'.
Monday 4 July 2005
Media Guardian : Who'll be the big winner in 2012? Will Sky be number one? Will Freeview be instead? Or will we all have gone video-on-demand loopy? And how will TV pay for itself if we skip all those ads?...
Read all of 'Who Will Win? Who Knows'.
Media Guardian: ITV seeks help from above for the God slot So ITV wants cash to keep on doing its public service bit. Now if ITV was in a pure digital enviroment, and didn't have it's lucrative analogue licenses, I'd...
Read all of 'Cash For God (Slot)'.
Tuesday 28 June 2005
BBC: Cult closes 15 July Go and enjoy their testcards section whilst you still can....
Read all of 'BBC's Cult Website to Close'.
Tuesday 21 June 2005
Media Guardian: Who's in the frame for Robinson's job? "It's astonishing that the BBC could find no one amongst its vast army of journalists deemed good enough to be political editor and have poached back someone they failed to spot...
Read all of 'Poacher turns Gamekeeper'.
Media Guardian: Film and football spearhead Sky broadband launch Obviously the cablecos didn't move fast enough - Sky's now on the video on demand trail and lets face it, so far there hasn't been a single battle that the cablecos...
Read all of 'Video On Demand for Sky'.
Tuesday 14 June 2005
Media Week: Telewest and NTL expand reach of on-demand TV When it comes to providing video-on-demand TV, there are two companies perfectly placed to provide it - NTL and Telewest. With their huge, and expensive cable network covering 15m or...
Read all of 'Cable Saviour?'.
Friday 10 June 2005
Ofcom's Digital Television Update: 2005, Quarter 1 Ofcom's latest update on digital penetration puts the UK at around 62% digital, up 2.5% on the end of 2004. Delving further into the stats also shows that the growth rates for pay-TV...
Read all of 'Digital Penetration'.
Tuesday 31 May 2005
E4 is currently showing Big Brother with a large graphic labelled "live" on screen. E4+1 is currently showing Big Brother with a large graphic labeled "live" on screen. Obviously they're both live cos the logo on screen says so. Yet...
Read all of 'When is 'Live', not 'Live'?'.
Tuesday 24 May 2005
Wednesday 18 May 2005
The Times: ITV gloats as BBC weathers storm Apparantly ITV rejected the software that the BBC is now using for its weather graphics because the graphics "just left the viewer confused". Mind you, what's the betting if the new BBC...
Read all of 'Weathering The Storm?'.
Friday 6 May 2005
Well if you too didn't see Sky News's studio (also simulcast on Five) well you didn't miss much. Rather drab and boring actually - rather grey and with the presenters sat there with lots of computer screens. Like the ITV...
Read all of 'More Electioneering'.
Tuesday 26 April 2005
Channel 4 to Launch E4 on Freeview E4 is to go free to air - as long as you have Freeview anyway. Don't go expecting to start getting it for nowt if you have satellite. And when it launches at...
Read all of 'What To Top Up To Now?'.
Tuesday 19 April 2005
It's not often you watch a television programme and are startled by some piece of information. Tonight I was. I was watching The King Of Bling, a Watchdog and You and Yours co-production none-the-less, about the fall of auction shopping...
Read all of 'There's Definitely Something In The Water'.
Friday 15 April 2005
Media Guardian: Labour commits to 2012 digital switchover I'm sure voters across the country will be biting at the bit to vote on the key issue on this election. Yes, analogue switch off. And thanks to the Media Guardian, we...
Read all of 'Election's Switch Off'.
Thursday 14 April 2005
Media Guardian: Channel 4 can't do without Big Brother The word on the street is that Channel 4 just can't live without Big Brother and ultimately the money it brings in. Channel 4 seems to becoming increasingly uneasy about the...
Read all of 'Dumbing Down, Cash Cow or both?'.
Thursday 7 April 2005
The Times: ITV begs for a little help from BBC to beat strike With a 36 hour strike in the offing, it's with a hint of irony that ITV's saviour is the BBC's studio facilities in Television Centre. Which is...
Read all of 'How to keep on air during a strike'.
Friday 1 April 2005
Media Guardian: ITV lands Freeview contract So it's finally official - ITV have got one of the new extra Freeview slots, reportedly paying between £5m and £6. And the programming that will fill this space? Likely to be a new...
Read all of 'ITV4 on the way'.
Monday 21 March 2005
Capital + GWR = GCap Media GCap? You have to wonder, don't you......
Read all of 'Worlds Worst Radio Group Name?'.
Friday 11 March 2005
Media Guardian: After FilmFour, it's film flops Maybe the advocates of deregulating television are right - if there is a demand in the market, someone will fill it. After all, if there wasn't demand for the worst movies in the...
Read all of 'I Really Feel Like Watching Something Utterly Dire!'.
Tuesday 8 March 2005
BBC Complaints - Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up Saturday's Making Your Mind Up was a live show and despite all our efforts we did have one small "wardrobe malfunction" which, needless to say, was completely unintentional. Javine's nipple appeared for...
Read all of 'A Tale of Two Countries'.
Monday 7 March 2005
Media Guardian: C4 radio 'will not be using Brother format' The news that Channel 4 is to buy a controlling stake in struggling digital radio station OneWord isn't a huge surprise - it's been rumoured for long enough. But it...
Read all of 'Radio Four'.
Monday 28 February 2005
Media Guardian TV ratings: February 25-27 So the Simpsons aren't exactly dragging in the viewers on Friday evening for Channel 4, which makes you wonder if all the cash the station spent, was really worth it?...
Read all of 'Poor Ratings, Lots of Cash'.
Thursday 3 February 2005
Media Guardian: ITV News hits ratings low Dear Ofcom As you have no doubt seen, despite our best efforts, the number of people viewing our flagship late night bulletin have been slowly and steadily decreasing. We are increasingly becoming concerned...
Read all of 'Secret Intercepted Memo From ITV. Honest.'.
BBC News: Women in News or 'News Tarts'? About the only reason for this article sitting on the Newsnight 25 website is that it's written by a Newsnight reporter, but non-the-less, Martha Kearney's piece on the role women have played...
Read all of 'News Tarts'.
Friday 28 January 2005
Scotsman.com: Scottish ITV News Plan Unveiled So Scottish and Grampian have announced proposals to launch a Scottish only evening bulletin to replace the ITV News at 10:30. Ironically the bulletin would still be produced in London....
Read all of 'The Scottish Ten Thirty'.
Friday 21 January 2005
Press Gazette: In The Beeb We Trust Apparently in a survey of 2,178 people, 624 of them (28%) named the BBC as the news provider they trust the most - making them the highest scorers in the survey. Indeed, they...
Read all of 'Whom Do You Trust?'.
Tuesday 18 January 2005
Media Guardian: Fearful US TV networks censor more shows The news that Fox are going to pixelate a bare pair of buttons from a cartoon that was first shown five years ago uncut, on the face of it sounds rather...
Read all of 'A Cut Too Far'.
Thursday 13 January 2005
Media Guardian ITV shares surge on bid talk Lots of people have been lined up as potential bidders for ITV but there's something interesting about the idea that the former head of a company who sold up all his ITV...
Read all of 'Clive Hollick's new employer may bid for ITV'.
The Independent: Five mulls launch of new children's channel Digital Spy: sit-up to launch two movie channels Everyone has to have a multi-channel strategy these days, from Five planning to launch a new kids channel based on its early morning...
Read all of 'Milkshake Anyone?'.
The Grundiad: Teletext to go digital with ITV Media Grundiad: ITV brings Teletext to digital service Following on from its agreement with Channel 4, Teletext has signed a deal with ITV to make a version of its digital text service...
Read all of 'Teletext, ITV and sloppy reporting'.
Friday 7 January 2005
Media Guardian: BBC goes ahead with Springer opera Outrageous! Controversial! Ban it now! Words there not about Jerry Springer, but the view of some people when Mozart and Strauss were composing all those years ago. Nowadays opera is seen as...
Read all of 'Ban It Now!'.
Saturday 25 December 2004
...to be watching programmes in the wrong aspect ratio and you being the only person who even notices, yet alone cares, tra-la-la-la-laarr, tra-la-larrr......
Read all of 'Tis the season...'.
Friday 3 December 2004
Media Guardian: 'regional news needs public funding' So ITV's campaign to reduce its costs and indeed what it has to produces, continues with a campaign to get public cash to pay for its regional news programmes. But should we be...
Read all of 'To Give To ITV, Or Not To Give To ITV. That Is The Question.'.
Wednesday 1 December 2004
Media Guardian: ITV unveils festive line-up Whilst the Media Guardian seems to portray ITV as actually trying to compete this Christmas, once you scratch beyond the surface it's quite clear that ITV isn't deviating much beyond its recent christmas formula....
Read all of 'The Old Bankers'.
Monday 29 November 2004
Media Guardian: Emily Bell on Public Service Broadcasting It's not often I agree with the views of Guardian Unlimited Editor In Chief, Emily Bell, however today I found myself nodding firmly in agreement with Emily. In response to Channel 4...
Read all of 'The News At End'.
Thursday 18 November 2004
Media Guardian: Freeview 'to overtake Sky Digital in 2005' Daily Telegraph: Sky leaps as subscribers gather for Christmas The industry believes that Sky will be overtaken by Freeview as the primary digital platform, by Christmas 2005 - set top boxes...
Read all of 'Where next, Sky?'.
Wednesday 17 November 2004
Media Guardian: New TV channel offers home to classic variety acts A TV station with Joe Pasquale? Bobby Davro? Brian Conley? Jethro? It's like 1980s Saturday night television all over again... All they need to add to the list is...
Read all of 'Run Away!'.
Monday 15 November 2004
Say hello to The Office of the Adjudicator, created by Ofcom and the Office of Fair Trading, and funded entirely by ITV plc, with the sole purpose of acting on disputes between ITV plc and the media buyers - that's...
Read all of 'Bizarre, Unknown, Broadcasting Regulator Of The Day'.
Monday 8 November 2004
Media Guardian: C4 could be part-funded by license fee Media Guardian: Ofcom reveals vision for new 'public service publisher' So on one hand, Channel 4 could be so desperate for £100m a year that it has to be injected with...
Read all of 'The Channel 4 Conundrum'.
Tuesday 26 October 2004
BBC News: Legendary radio DJ John Peel dies Goodbye John Peel - without doubt one of the greatest broadcasters of our time....
Read all of 'John Peel'.
Saturday 23 October 2004
BBC News: Sky launches 'freesat' digital TV Media Guardian: 'Sky in a box' targets Freeview In its relentless push to make us give them a sizable amount of cash each month, this week Sky slipped out two new packages. The...
Read all of 'A Tale of Two Sky Offers'.
Saturday 16 October 2004
Media Guardian: ITV tightens grip on GMTV The concept of a seperate franchise owning the 6-9:25am slot on Channel 3 is one wedded in history - a time when television wasn't the 24/7 experience it is today. The desire therefore...
Read all of 'ITV gobbles up its breakfast'.
Wednesday 6 October 2004
BBC News: Walking into the sunset Michael Fish says goodbye on his final forecast. The weather just won't be the same....
Read all of 'So long... and thanks for all the Fish!'.
Tuesday 28 September 2004
"Paul slept on it last night but, when he woke up this morning and discovered there was no wood in the Aga, he decided enough was enough." DELETE---Reality TV gets heavyweight as Paul Daniels storms out of The Farm due...
Read all of 'You're wrong on Iraq! And there's no wood in the cooker! I quit!'.
Monday 27 September 2004
bbc.co.uk/weather: Today's Broadcasting Team Thanks to the power of the web, you can now schedule your weather viewing and listening on the basis of who is presenting. Now when is the wonderful Dan "And that's the weather (point) for now...
Read all of 'And now the weather with...'.
Wednesday 22 September 2004
Media Guardian: Fax of life "Imagine the hull of a ship," he says. "And the pages are like barnacles. The more barnacles build up, the slower the ship goes." The editor of Ceefax explains why there are often empty pages...
Read all of 'Who is 30 tomorrow then?'.
The Times: NTL plans sale of its TV towers to help clear debt The old IBA transmitters look like they're on the market again following a decision by NTL to sell its network of transmission towers. Recently the ex-BBC towers,...
Read all of 'The Tower Market'.
Saturday 18 September 2004
Ofcom: 55 % of UK households receive digital television ..we're becoming a digital TV Britain....
Read all of 'Slowly but surely...'.
Friday 10 September 2004
MediaGuardian.co.uk : German Big Brother attacked over nipple piercing When John Humphries' speech to the 2004 Edinburgh International Television Festival spoke about how low TV has got in the UK, it probably didn't go down very well with those particular...
Read all of 'Seedy, Cynical, Harmful to society. But it's worse in Germany.'.
Friday 3 September 2004
If the terms RSS, Atom, XML, syndication or aggregator don't mean anything to you, it might be worth skipping to the next post or reading BBC News's article, The really simple future of the web. If they do and you...
Read all of 'MediaBlog Atom Feed'.
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