Category: TV
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Do You Know What Product Placement Is?
Ofcom has just produced a slightly dry sounding report on “UK Audience Attitudes Towards Broadcast Media” based on some of its Media Tracker findings. If you work in UK commercial radio, then the good news is that most people don’t think you’re running too many ads right now. 51% of commercial radio listeners say that…
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Satire, Parliament and Dennis Skinner
Last week Labour stalwart Dennis Skinner was ejected from the House of Commons for the rest of the Parliamentary day for calling the Prime Minister “Dodgy Dave” during his statement on his father’s off-shore affairs to Parliament. The Speaker, John Bercow, didn’t like it, and Skinner was forced to leave. Skinner regularly entertains with his…
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F1 to Follow Cricket Into Obscurity
Here’s how F1 and Bernie Ecclestone do business: 21 December 2015 – Channel 4 wins terrestrial rights to Formula 1, after the BBC hands them back. There was rumoured to be a fight with ITV for them. Bernie Ecclestone, Chief Executive Officer of the Formula One group said: “I am sorry that the BBC could…
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Christmas TV… and Beyond
You may or may not have seen my Christmas Radio Times scans with my helpful annotations, but what did I actually watch over the period? Oddly, one of the most captivating programmes was All Aboard! The Sleigh Ride!. This was the BBC’s latest example of “Slow TV” and remarkably our family sat down and watched…
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The X-Files on UK TV
I must admit that I’m getting more and more excited about the upcoming new episodes of The X-Files. Even though there’s probably too much “revisiting” of old TV series going on, I’m more than happy to catch up with Mulder and Scully again. The six part series airs in the US, starting Sunday 24th January…
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Boxing Day 2015 – Radio Times
You’ve made it this far through. Hopefully Santa has been kind. But it looks like rain in good part of the country, so you may be thinking twice about that walk you were planning. Here are your viewing and listening choices through my ever-so-slightly myopic lens, courtesy of the Radio Times and some Post-Its. Here…
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Christmas Day 2015 – Radio Times
Happy Christmas all! You’ll no doubt be unwrapping presents, eating enormous quantities of food, having family arguments, and then perhaps sitting down and trying to decide what telly you should be watching. As ever, I’ve made my own suggestions to help you. You might even want to listen to the radio. Here’s the TV: (Click…
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Christmas Eve 2015 – Radio Times
You’re with friends and family. But what to watch or listen to? You know how I love to help out anyone who isn’t sure what’s worth your time. So here is my regular helpful guide to what to watch over the period, presented via the medium of an annotated Radio Times. (Click here to see…
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Virgin Media and the Premier League
Judging from recent interviews across the media, Virgin Media CEO Tom Mockridge is out and about shouting loudly about his company’s complaint about how the Premier League sells its UK TV rights. His complaint is broadly that the league only sells 168 of the 360 fixtures each season, artificially limiting supply to keep prices high.…
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BBC Store – Initial Thoughts
After much ballyhoo, the BBC Store is finally with us, and well, um, it sells downloads and streams. You buy episodes rather than rent them – although the prices are much of a muchness really with television. And then you play them back via the web, or in due course, mobile apps. To be honest,…
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The Joys of Online Streaming Sports
Picture the scene. You’re travelling and Twitter tells you that the final rugby World Cup quarter final is a tight affair. There are just minutes left, and a single score could send the match either way. The final “northern hemisphere” side are fighting to stay in the competition. You fire up ITV Player on your…
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From Darkness and Unforgotten
In the last week or so, two new dramas have started on BBC One and ITV with on the face of it similar themes. Both are essentially crime dramas, and both deal with dead bodies from years earlier being dug up. Who are the bodies, and how did they get there. We get brief flashbacks…
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Come on News TV – Use a Satellite!
A couple of years ago, I moaned on this blog about the growth of streaming video in place of satellite links in news programmes. In short, as services like Skype have grown, news desks are getting their correspondents to utilise broadband or 4G and smartphones instead of sending camera crews and satellite trucks. Now this…