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Category: TV

  • Scheduling Queries

    If like me, you’re suddenly feeling the chill, then you’ll know that autumn is well and truly here. And with it comes what was once known as the “New Season” of TV programmes. Sunday nights are interesting. The Guardian made much of the fact that the BBC has scheduled the final series of Spooks against…

  • Strike Back: Project Dawn

    I know, I know. You’ve been missing Ultimate Force. It ended its run in 2006, with Ross Kemp moving onto bigger things as he took on gangs for Sky One. In the meantime, if you wanted a military action adventure series set around the world, then you were left short. Well Sky One is here…

  • Channel 4 and List Programmes… Back Again

    Back in April, I noted that I thought it was foolish that Jay Hunt had said that Channel 4 would no longer be making list programmes. I pointed out that in 2007, Kevin Lygo had said the same thing. And that subsequently, Channel 4 had continued to make list programmes. Memories are terribly short in…

  • Why Local Television Plans Are Doomed

    Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, has just released details on the latest part of his plan to start very local television services in the UK. I talked a little about this earlier in the year. Allow me to expand a little more. As you may or may not be aware, local TV is something of…

  • F1 on Television

    The news that the BBC is sharing Formula 1 rights with Sky leaves me personally unperturbed. While some of the rule changes introduced in recent years do seem to have led to some actual over-taking, other forms of motorsport seem more interesting, and seem less like engineering competitions. However, my own ambivalence towards the “sport”…

  • Following Le Tour

    No. Sadly, I don’t mean spending large parts of July in a camper van driving between the Pyrenees and the Alps, joining the multi-national throngs clinging to the mountainsides. I mean following the Tour, on-air and online. Assuming that you’re not “available to view” during the daytime on weekdays, your first decision is whether to…

  • Where’s Current TV’s Big New Show?

    In January this year, liberal-leaning TV pundit, Keith Olbermann announced that he was leaving his MSNBC show in the US. He was appearing on a news network that, in some way tries to “balance” the otherwise “fair and balanced” Fox News. Both networks – as they appear from this side of the Atlantic – appear…

  • TV Scheduling and Piracy

    If there’s one thing that UK TV broadcasters have largely worked out in the last few years, it’s that the ease of accessing television shows through nefarious internet-related means makes it smarter if you try to minimise the risk. Sky has learnt this lesson the hard way in the past, and now regularly schedules its…

  • The Apprentice

    This week’s episode of that most upmarket of reality shows was decidedly downmarket. OK. It’s probably not that upmarket a show. The two teams were set the task of creating a new premium free magazine (or “freemium” as Lord Sugar miscalled it) to give away. They also had to pre-sell advertising for their first issue…

  • Sky’s Acquisition Strategy

    Yesterday came news that Sky has acquired the Showtime series, Nurse Jackie, starring Edie Falco and Eve Best (recently seen giving a terrific performance in The Shadow Line). This is the latest in a long line of Sky acquisitions that have come after the show has performed strongly on what we used to call “terrestrial…

  • Television Bits and Pieces

    Starting tonight, ITV1 is stripping its latest drama, Injustice, over five nights at 9pm. I still believe that this is a pretty stupid way of scheduling a drama, unless it’s so far superior to everything we usually see that it really is a special event. But that’s never the case, and although I’ve yet to…

  • All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace

    I am very excited about this: It starts on Monday 23rd May at 9pm on BBC2.

  • Things a TV Channel Controller Should Never Say

    If you’re a TV executive you should be very careful when you axe something or say that you’ll never do something again. Recently Jay Hunt, Channel 4’s new chief creative officer said that the channel would no longer be making list programmes. That’s fine. They’re lazy, relatively cheap, and have run their course. But what’s…