Posts by
Richard G Elen
Tuesday 22 July 2008
Once again, a sizeable proportion of online users are being discriminated against by on-demand programme providers: this time by Five's TV-on-demand service Demand Five. If they were visually impaired, for example, this discrimination would probably be illegal - but...
Read all of 'Demand Five - another case of online discrimination'.
Saturday 12 July 2008
Of course, as everyone might expect, there was enormous demand for the iPhone 3G when it came out earlier in the week: it's obviously an excellent product with several of the features that people wanted added to the new...
Read all of 'O2 and iPhone 3G: Where 'first come first served' is a lie'.
Monday 23 June 2008
On the internet, news can sometimes travel too fast
Read all of 'Breaking the news too fast'.
Friday 9 May 2008
If you, like me, are an avid BBC Four viewer, you might have seen the extremely cool trailer for the recent Mediaeval (oh, sorry, we are spelling it the American way now, "Medieval") Season (a not very good YouTube...
Read all of 'Medi(a)eval Haze'.
Sunday 30 March 2008
As if GCap Media's stance on DAB was not obvious enough already, listeners to Classic FM who have not been blasted or lulled into inattention by the ads in the run-up to the news at the top of the hour...
Read all of 'We're not talking about it...'.
Sunday 9 March 2008
So here we are in this new media world. We download our music and give it to our friends, so the musicians who make it don't get any income. We write our blogs and splatter our opinions all over the...
Read all of 'How do we make any money?'.
Friday 7 March 2008
UK's world-class astronomy project faces closure Turning a blind eye to a magic kingdom of marvellous things For arch Government stupidity there can be few more stunning examples than the threat to close not only Jodrell Bank radio telescope -...
Read all of 'The world's most famous radio receiver to close?'.
Thursday 14 February 2008
eSkeptic: Journalist-Bites-Reality! – How broadcast journalism is flawed in such a fundamental way that its utility as a tool for informing viewers is almost nil. I'm in the process of reading Andrew Keen's book The Cult of the Amateur, in...
Read all of 'Trust and new media'.
Friday 1 February 2008
I've been a technology journalist of one sort or another since 1974, and in my view there are two fundamental requirements for the job: an ability to write, of course, but also an ability to research. You really need to...
Read all of 'Spiegel im Spiegel'.
Thursday 31 January 2008
Eliot (right) and Carolyn's on-screen 'avatar'. BBC copyright. Wednesday (Tuesday in Scotland) saw the latest in a new documentary strand, Wonderland, on BBC2. This week it was "Virtual Adultery and Cyberspace Love" and was billed as follows: "Carolyn is...
Read all of 'Nothing new under the virtual sun'.
Tuesday 4 September 2007
Five News to ban staged shots Is TV editing misleading? So Channel Five's new news editor, David Kermode, is banning a bunch of traditional interview techniques in a bid to try and restore trust in television news, after recent problems...
Read all of 'Mistaking technique for artifice'.
Saturday 25 August 2007
'Second Life' after the backlash Second Life's Real-World Problems This weekend the Hilton, in downtown Chicago, is playing host to the third Second Life Community Convention - SLCC 07 - along with around 800 'residents' of the on-line 'metaverse', or...
Read all of 'Third 'Second Life' Convention sees active media presence'.
?Anchorwoman? Canceled After One Airing We're used to so-called 'reality' shows crashing and burning, or getting themselves into deep water (or other substances). The latest tale that will hopefully contribute to the downfall of this tacky tabloid show format comes...
Read all of 'Another ?reality? show bites the dust'.
Tuesday 14 August 2007
"Big L time is three o'clock, and Radio London is now... closing down...." This is what we heard Paul Kaye say, forty years ago today, virtually to the minute as I write this. The "Marine Broadcasting Offences Act, 1967" was...
Read all of 'Free Radio: 40 years on'.
Thursday 2 August 2007
BBC Corrupted by Microsoft Free Software Foundation plans protest against "corrupt" BBC BBC Trust backs calls for Linux iPlayer So, let's look at this story in a little more detail. What this is fundamentally about is that the BBC's iPlayer,...
Read all of 'The BBC Sells Out'.
Wednesday 18 July 2007
DELETE---It's all very well all this wailing and gnashing of teeth going on at the BBC and aired in public. We know that the phone-in quiz business was industry wide, but it's only the BBC that, so far, is...
Read all of 'The wrong mea culpa'.
Sunday 15 July 2007
Treasury makes complaint to BBC about Gordon Brown film Hot on the heels of the Queen/RDF storm in a teacup, Newsnight is apparently in trouble with the Treasury over a piece made by independent film-maker Jamie Campbell in which a...
Read all of 'The ethics of the edit suite'.
Friday 13 July 2007
Well, it's one angle that hasn't been explored a great deal by the rest of the UK media (another writer has suggested it briefly here). As has been pointed out, we don't (yet?) know where in the chain the clips...
Read all of 'Should the BBC do more in-house?'.
Thursday 21 June 2007
Do not go to work on an egg It really seems to be beyond the bounds of reason for the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC) to stop the British Egg Information Service (BEIS) re-running the famous Tony Hancock "Go...
Read all of 'Sorry, you're not allowed to go to work on an egg'.
Sunday 13 May 2007
And now, finally, we know when Tony Blair will leave Number Ten. As the media - and Blair himself - continue to be concerned with what his legacy will be, our regular correspondent Russ J Graham considers what future historians...
Read all of 'Blair's Broadcasting Legacy'.
Friday 23 March 2007
Recently we've been watching two interleaved documentary series on BBC Two by two award-winning people: Adam Curtis's stunning three-parter The Trap (Sundays, 21:00); and Are We There Yet (Tuesdays, 19:30) by former World In Action and Panorama journalist John Ware....
Read all of 'Putting two documentaries together gives new answers'.
Friday 9 March 2007
The real global warming swindle You'd have thought that the arguments about global warming were more or less over. After all, even the Bush administration is appearing to go along with prevalent scientific opinion in accepting that CO2 emissions are...
Read all of 'Margaret Thatcher causes Global Warming'.
Saturday 24 February 2007
Not such a pretty picture - RTS Journal vol 44/2 You'd think the headlong rush to acquire large flat-screen TVs - that cost more to run, have a larger carbon footprint, and give a poorer picture than the CRT-based sets...
Read all of 'Flat-screen chaos'.
Monday 5 February 2007
Jeremy Paxman's recent article in the BBC house magazine Ariel, republished (presumably) here, seems to have stirred up a lot of fuss for all the wrong reasons. Well yes, of course, Paxman is entirely right to bemoan the fact that...
Read all of 'Unbiased doesn't mean equal time'.
Monday 22 January 2007
Hmmm. First we have the BBC presenting stories about WMDs that the Government doesn't like - stories that turn out, after quite a while, to have been very close to the truth - and then the resulting turmoil, unwarranted departure...
Read all of 'Who's Next? One guess.'.
Saturday 20 January 2007
So the first of the bullies is out on her ear and Big Brother has attained its highest ratings of the series. Two stunningly unsurprising interim results. Other lacks of surprise we can expect in the future include some weak...
Read all of 'When a bigger audience doesn't help'.
Sunday 7 January 2007
Hacker web sites and forums have been talking for the last week or two about a claim that the AACS (Advanced Access Content System) copy protection system used on both the HD DVD and Blu Ray Disc HD disc formats...
Read all of 'Measure and Countermeasure'.
Sunday 17 December 2006
Do flat-screen TVs eat more energy? Bad news this month for those of us considering a flat-screen Hi-Def TV who are also energy conscious: they can take more energy than a conventional CRT (Cathode Ray Tube)-based set. This came as...
Read all of 'Flat screens a bad idea - for now?'.
Thursday 7 December 2006
Going on from my comments about radio-advertised charities the other day, last night I went to a presentation at the Royal Geographical Society by the Population and Sustainability Network (PSN). The theme of the evening was "Population Increase ? the...
Read all of 'More reasons not to give goats at Christmas'.
Tuesday 5 December 2006
I notice that Classic FM is running a joint promotion in the run-up to Christmas with the theme "The Alternative 12 Days of Christmas". Every day participants can win one of a number of "alternative" gifts ? such as "four...
Read all of 'Where does the money go?'.
Wednesday 29 November 2006
That's the question that I am sure many people at the BBC are asking at the moment. On the face of it, Grade's departure is an enormous slap in the face for the Corporation. But is that really the case?...
Read all of 'Betraying ? or just leaving?'.
Sunday 26 November 2006
Unless I'm away, items seldom stay long on my Sky+ system: I've usually watched them and either wiped them or archived them to DVD before the week is out. So why is last week's Torchwood still on my hard drive,...
Read all of 'Over the top'.
Saturday 25 November 2006
Is it me, or has the BBC's Click technology programme gone completely off the rails while I wasn't looking? I haven't seen the programme for some time and happened to switch on News 24 this morning just before it...
Read all of 'Click off'.
Thursday 23 November 2006
Just as the war between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray Disc is ensuring that comparatively few people buy either HD disc format (leaving the way open to downloads superseding packaged media on video as well as audio), along comes something to...
Read all of 'Beatles breathe new life into hi-res audio'.
Al Jazeera's English service gets into its stride Despite US protestations, nobody can surely now be in any doubt that "Al Jazeera is the new frontier" as Sir David Frost claims in their trailers. Looking at the English language service...
Read all of 'Changing the news agenda'.
Tuesday 17 October 2006
Samsung launches BluRay player in the UK (BBC Radio 4, Today, Business Report) The first player from one of the two high-definition optical disc formats has been launched in the UK: it's Samsung's BluRay Disc (BRD) player and it'll cost...
Read all of 'Hi-Def disc format war begins today.... not.'.
I don't know about anyone else, but I discovered a cool little sci-fi series a few weeks ago, A Town Called Eureka, running on Sky. Unfortunately I missed the first few episodes and as a result I looked the show...
Read all of 'Cleverness and stupidity combine to annoy'.
Monday 28 August 2006
A slightly unfortunate side-effect of Charles Allen's recent MacTaggart lecture in Edinburgh is that it has reignited a rather annoying debate around the metaphorical water-cooler and elsewhere, on the future of Channel 4. This is a debate one would rather...
Read all of 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'.
Wednesday 9 August 2006
So Allen steps down, and it would appear that ITV has favoured its shareholders at the expense of its viewers. As one commentator put it: "ITV has tried to be blatantly populist but has failed to be popular...". And the...
Read all of 'Still busy making money'.
Monday 10 July 2006
It's surely a truism, but in my view the big problem with commercial broadcasting is... the commercials. Or, more accurately, the crass, ill-conceived and inappropriate ones. Typical is the supermarket chain that will break the mood of a peaceful programme...
Read all of 'Unnatural breaks'.
Sunday 9 July 2006
Many thanks to Malcolm Smith for bringing this to our attention. Alexandra Palace Television Group Chairman: Richard E Norman CBE; Treasurer: Tony Wilding; Secretary: Frank Phillip ****URGENT PRESS RELEASE**** Alexandra Palace TV Heritage Faces Destruction John Thompson, curator of the...
Read all of 'Alexandra Palace TV Heritage Faces Destruction'.
Tuesday 27 June 2006
The Independent: Sony does battle with Toshiba over new DVD formats Many of us involved in the home entertainment business are keeping our eyes on the progress of HDTV, and also on the success (or, more likely, otherwise) of the...
Read all of 'Never mind the quality, feel the convenience'.
Thursday 22 June 2006
by Joseph Gallant Living in the United States, I only got to see one season of BBC's long-running Top Of The Pops: in 1987-88. That season, CBS transmitted the programme in a late-night Friday slot, adding segments presented by Nia...
Read all of 'TOTP's Demise - An American View'.
Friday 9 June 2006
Tango Clear - Bravo Sony Bravia - Balls You know that commercial... the one that starts with aerial views of a city; gently-edited shots of streets and street corners... beautifully scene-setting music (Heartbeats, performed by José González from his album,...
Read all of 'Sony's clearly been Tango'd'.
Wednesday 7 June 2006
At 3pm on Friday, 7 June 1946, a BBC Television Service announcer drove up to the doors of Alexandra Palace in a chauffeur-driven car. She stepped out and walked up to a TV camera. Then, captured on newsreel film...
Read all of 'It was sixty years ago today...'.
Wednesday 22 February 2006
While reading a piece on how the BBC intends to set aside £100m for UK films over the next ten years (excellent news!) ? assuming a positive outcome regarding the licence fee, of course ? I was prompted to wonder...
Read all of 'What we want (other people) to watch'.
Thursday 26 January 2006
I cannot imagine that there are many Transdiffusion writers - or readers, for that matter - who are not fans of startup themes of one sort or another. Virtually all the stations we write about have had themes, just as...
Read all of 'A Theme For All Reasons'.
Friday 16 December 2005
Just a quick note to wish a very Merry Christmas and seasonal greetings to all our readers, editors, contributors and supporters. Check out our special Christmas Card and read the Review of the Year - including a commemoration of broadcasting...
Read all of 'Merry Christmas from Transdiffusion!'.
Friday 28 October 2005
I must admit to finding myself slightly bemused, bothered and bewildered at the appearance of the two Tory party leadership contenders at the National Television Awards earlier this week. Coming on stage to present the Most Popular Drama Award to...
Read all of 'What are THEY doing here?'.
Thursday 6 October 2005
Thompson brands New Statesman claims 'nonsense' (Media Guardian) I read that BBC Director General Mark Thompson has sent news staff an email denying today's New Statesman report that chairman Michael Grade tried to sack Radio 4's Today presenter John Humphrys...
Read all of 'Humphrys on the ropes - or not'.
Sunday 18 September 2005
Blair 'attacked BBC over Katrina' Interesting that Rupert Murdoch is apparently now Tony Blair's mouthpiece on media matters. In a recent speech at Bill Clinton's Global Initiatives forum the News Corporation tycoon told the audience that the Prime Minister is...
Read all of 'Having it both ways'.
Wednesday 27 July 2005
As we come up towards ITV50 in a couple of months time, and in the wake of Lord Bragg's variable-quality self-congratulation for the so-called 'People's Channel', there is a lot of ITV-bashing going on. Some of us see the third...
Read all of 'Is ITV-bashing justified?'.
Friday 22 July 2005
We are sad to note the death of Ray Herbert, one of John Logie Baird's co-workers, on 20 July 2005. Ray Herbert was one of the last remaining former employees of Baird Television Limited, joining the company after it had...
Read all of 'Television Pioneer Dies'.
Thursday 30 June 2005
It's interesting that my colleague mentions the competition between OneWord and BBC (Radio) 7. I've discovered that when I listen to the radio, I'm listening more and more to BBC 7 (well, in fact I quite often listen to it...
Read all of 'BBC 7: A good reason for DAB'.
Tuesday 28 June 2005
MPs seek to block BBC free downloads The All-Party Internet Group apparently wants to stop the BBC making its archives available on-line for nothing. They're concerned that it could miss out on a valuable source of revenue if the Corporation...
Read all of 'Make up your minds'.
Tuesday 24 May 2005
It would appear that the BBC unions significantly overestimated the effect they could have on broadcast output, if yesterday's efforts are anything to go by. Despite an apparently good turnout, I am sure that ordinary viewers and listeners will have...
Read all of 'Wrong, wrong, wrong'.
Friday 6 May 2005
Paxman v Galloway (transcript and video) Election coverage highlight for many must surely be the acrimonious exchange between the BBC's Jeremy Paxman and George Galloway of Respect, moments after the latter had been declared the winner in a bitter...
Read all of 'Galloway and Paxman, head to head'.
Monday 25 April 2005
Full biography We regret to inform readers that noted composer Robert Farnon passed away peacefully on the night of Friday, 22 April 2005, at a hospice near his home in Guernsey. He was 87. Farnon was widely regarded as one...
Read all of 'Robert Farnon dies peacefully at 87'.
Thursday 21 April 2005
Teyrnged Elan Closs Stephen Hopkinss, Cadeirydd S4C, i Gwynfor Evans "Gwynfor Evans realised the power of television to influence and change culture and language and he was determined that Welsh would have a proper place in the medium. His part...
Read all of 'S4C Chair Elan Closs Stephen Hopkinss's Tribute to Gwynfor Evans'.
Thursday 24 March 2005
A few weeks ago I was flicking through channels on my Sky ?freesat? (the quotes are because ?Freesat? is actually, believe it or not, a BBC trademark) system upstairs to see what I could actually receive, and I stumbled across...
Read all of '?Fox News is not fair and balanced?, says Ofcom'.
Monday 21 March 2005
Over 2000 more jobs to go at BBC - this time from production The news that 2050 additional jobs, this time primarily from the production side, are to go, is a shock. If the BBC is to live up to...
Read all of 'Enough is enough'.
Monday 7 March 2005
The Green Paper on the future of the BBC largely leaves well enough alone, thank goodness. At least it doesn?t appear to propose causing any lasting damage. I suppose I should congratulate Tessa Jowell, and perhaps the Prime Minister, for...
Read all of 'Nothing is better than something'.
Wednesday 8 December 2004
Skateboarding with a Ming vase Amidst controversy surrounding the massive job cuts and extensive reorganisation at the BBC announced yesterday by the DG, Mark Thompson last night delivered the New Statesman Media Lecture in which he placed the announcements in...
Read all of 'Thompson states his case'.
Although some of us were expecting some major reorgs at the BBC, including bits and bobs of something-or-other moving to Manchester, I am sure the loss of so many jobs came as a surprise to many people. I really don't...
Read all of 'Smaller may not be so beautiful'.
Monday 29 November 2004
Howard Goodall?s 20th Century Greats In what is evidently going to be a cracking good four-part series on 20th century composers who will be remembered in the future much as Beethoven, Mozart and Bach are today, Howard Goodall kicked off...
Read all of 'Never mind the aspect ratio: hear the music'.
Saturday 30 October 2004
Jonathan Miller's Brief History of Disbelief, BBC Four If you, like me, are of the opinion that the only documentaries that make it on to TV these days are those overloaded with oft-repeated CGI sequences and which re-state their meagre...
Read all of 'Documentaries the Old-Fashioned Way'.
Wednesday 13 October 2004
BBC digital channels 'poor value for money' Evidently I am one of not very many people, as the channel I watch most of all is BBC Four, criticised today in a report commissioned by Tessa Jowell from Professor Barwise of...
Read all of 'When good programming goes nowhere'.
Tuesday 12 October 2004
Former DG... blames 'dumb' programmes on women execs Much as one can admire Alasdair Milne (left, in a photo from some time ago) as a programme-maker (eg Tonight in the 50s) and for standing up to the Government (over coverage...
Read all of 'Grumpy Old Ex-DGs'.
Friday 17 September 2004
Reaching middle age, Horizon appears to have slowed down The current season of Horizon marks the 40th anniversary of what we must still, I imagine, regard as the BBC's flagship science and technology series. But what a shadow of its...
Read all of 'Science at a snail?s pace'.
Friday 10 September 2004
Big Brother in 'torture' row - MediaGuardian For the presumably small number of people who haven't made the connection already, the spectacle of reality television getting more and more horrendous - as is happening not only in Germany but arguably...
Read all of 'This time, it's real. Why?'.
Thursday 22 July 2004
BBC news chief Sambrook moves job In what is presumably one of the final bits of fallout from the toxic nuclear waste (painted with whitewash to fool us, of course) that was the Hutton Report, comes the announcement from the...
Read all of 'Fairly balanced, falling upwards'.
Monday 5 July 2004
BBC online services: redefining the remit "The BBC has just under four months to redefine the remit for its online services, the government has said. The Graf Report, commissioned by the government, also said at least 25% of the BBC's...
Read all of 'Misbegotten beliefs'.
Monday 26 April 2004
Avid readers of this occasional column will notice that it has been a while since we last looked in on the old Victorian mansion where Madame Arcati and our fellow sitters congregate to contact the spirits of our dear, and...
Read all of 'Sense and sensibilities'.
Saturday 3 April 2004
Early yesterday morning, we were surprised by a knock at the door. On stumbling downstairs and opening it, I was astonished to see Madame Arcati. She was so excited at having apparently perfected her Ectoplasmic Speaking Tube, thereby allowing direct...
Read all of 'Broadcasting in the World Unseen'.
Saturday 27 March 2004
Well, Madame Arcati still has some work to do on her apparatus for receiving voice messages from The World Unseen, if last night's efforts are anything to go by. Attempting, as we are wont to do, to contact the departed...
Read all of 'Ariel's Organ'.
Friday 12 March 2004
My nautical independent television pioneering, and, sadly, defunct correspondent Captain T.B. has chosen to indicate quite categorically to me, in the latest seance held in our front room yesterday evening with, as always, the invaluable intercedence of Madame Arcati, that...
Read all of 'Birt crony in line for the chair, says message from Beyond'.
Monday 8 March 2004
Majority 'want change to TV fee' says ICM/Panorama poll According to the BBC's own research, aired on Sunday in "What's the Point of the BBC?", 70% of people in the UK (not necessarily viewers, by the way) would like...
Read all of 'Would alternative funding pay for specialised programmes?'.
Thursday 26 February 2004
BBC Charter Review - Your BBC, Your Say It has not received a vast amount of attention, but the fact is that not only is BBC Charter Review taking place, you can also take part in it, by making your...
Read all of 'Make your voice heard about BBC Charter Review'.
Tuesday 24 February 2004
Beyond the Charter - The BBC after 2006 "Far-reaching change is needed to enable the BBC to achieve its full potential," begins the press release announcing the publication of "Beyond The Charter", a report on the BBC by the Broadcasting...
Read all of 'Getting the BBC Out of the Way'.
Tuesday 17 February 2004
Leaving aside for the moment the possibility that recently-leaked government documents might have oozed out deliberately to minimise their chances of ever coming to pass, the whole idea of breaking up the BBC along regional lines does not seem to...
Read all of 'It ain't broke'.
Wednesday 4 February 2004
Ouch! Unpleasant to listen to the unpleasant Lord Birt, unlamented late BBC DG, laying into the Corporation in the Lords this afternoon. When Dyke departed the other day, people cheered him and shook his hand; when Birt left some years...
Read all of 'Birt Blasts Beeb'.
Wednesday 22 October 2003
As someone kindly pointed out the other day, that old Channel 4 out-of-hours stalwart, "The Art of Landscape" is back, but this time on FriendlyTV (Channel 268 on Sky). It's running from 04:00 to 09:00 hours and from 10:00 to...
Read all of 'Quiet blast from the past'.
Tuesday 7 October 2003
It is hard to imagine that the Granada/Carlton merger, mooted for so long, could do anything other than steepen ITV1's slide into mediocrity. In the best (or worst) Thatcherite tradition of eschewing small, human-sized enterprises in favour of enormous trans-national...
Read all of 'ITV Loses its Place'.
|
