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Category: TV

  • ITV Multichannels Going Subscription Only?

    According to a report in Media Guardian, ITV has been considering taking its channels from free to view to subscription only. The reasoning is that despite losing out in terms of viewers and their associated advertising revenue, there’d be enough gains to be made in getting a small share of the Sky revenue to make…

  • Deja Vu

    I know Channel 4 is strapped for cash, but this is ridiculous. On Sunday 24th May at 18:20 – a week ago – C4 showed Night at the Museum, the comedy film starring Ben Stiller. This was the film’s terrestrial premiere, and was timed for the weekend of the opening of the sequel Night at…

  • Dreadful Dreadful Television

    The most recent issue of The Word magazine, and most recent edition of their podcast both discuss “Monkey Tennis” – the phenomenon best illustrated by the Alan Partridge clip where he desperately attempts to win a commission from a BBC controller: Jump to 4:55 for the really good stuff – although it’s all excellent. In…

  • How You Can Use Parliamentary TV Coverage…

    …or not. I’d completely forgotten this, but then I saw last week’s edition of Have I Got News For You presented this week by Alexander Armstrong. The MPs’ expenses scandal is the gift that keeps on giving as far as satirical programmes go, but when illustrating the resignation of the Speaker, Armstrong pointed out that…

  • Teleshopping… Coming To A Channel Near You Soon

    Over at Media Guardian, their big Ofcom news is that C4 has been cleared of any bullying on Celebrity Big Brother, but I don’t think that’s the big news from Ofcom today. The really interesting news is the changes in advertising that are being announced. There are some smaller changes like the number of breaks…

  • And What Is Andy Duncan On About?

    Channel 4’s Chief Executive, Andy Duncan, has been appearing in front the House of Commons culture, media and sport select committee. He’s been complaining about the BBC buying acquired – that is to say, American – programming. C4 was outbid for the 13 episode Harper’s Island, which is still to air here. That may be…

  • What’s Sky One Up To?

    Broadcast magazine has a story about Sky One (or should that be Sky 1?) trying to lure Harry Hill from ITV1 to its channel with his BAFTA winning TV Burp. ITV has the series signed up for the autumn and winter, but beyond that I guess that negotiations remain open with indepedent producer Avalon. The…

  • TV Sponsorship

    A very strange story is in today’s Times. The presenter of ITV1’s Tonight programme, Jonathan Maitland, writes about product placement and sponsorship on TV. First of all, Maitland seems to confuse product placement and sponsorship. As he says, Andy Burnham seems to have ruled out product placement, although I’m not sure that any shift in…

  • What I’ve Been Listening To (And Watching) This Week

    Spoon Jar Jar Spoon on Radio 4 A nice little documentary about Tommy Cooper that delved into the world of magic in London during the sixties and seventies, when there were magic shops all over the place, and clubs where magicians hung out. The late Ali Bongo was also interviewed for this. And if you’re…

  • Cricket This Summer

    Interesting piece in today’s Guardian about how the ECB is going to use social networks to popularise cricket this summer: Facebook and Twitter are both bandied around. All very noble and forward thinking, but to use a massively over-used expression, they’re ignoring the elephant in the room. “This is the biggest summer of cricket ever…

  • Guardian and Sky Question

    There I was earlier today, reading the sports section of The Guardian – the printed version. As well as lots of coverage about tonight’s game between Chelsea and Liverpool (and what a thriller that turned out to be!), there were a couple of pieces about tomorrow night’s quarter-final second legs. The piece about Manchester United…

  • Down The Tube

    So what do we make of the news that BBC2 is going to make a TV version of the excellent Radio 4 comedy Down The Line? Well obviously there’s a top-notch list of castmembers attached led by Paul Whitehouse. And it’s following hot on the heels of other Radio 4 comedies transferring to TV –…

  • The Prisoner – Coming Not So Soon?

    Broadcast Magazine has a new picture of Sir Ian as Number 2 in the ITV/AMC remake of The Prisoner. Slightly worryingly, the piece says that AMC is planning on airing it later this year, while ITV is showing it in 2010. Might I suggest that this is a bad idea if ITV wants to avoid…