June 5, 2008

More problems for the BBC

by David Allen
Controversy has once again been raised at the BBC, this time it involves the football catch up show “Match of the Day”, which is where the games from the Premier League are shown in shortened versions for fans to catch all of the action. However there are problems ahead for the show as the bookmaker, Blue Square, has closed the betting on the show's “Goal of the Season” competition. ...

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BBC paid graffiti artist to spruce up sets

by David Allen
If anyone has seen the set of Eastenders recently they may have noticed that there is some pretty realistic graffiti that has been carefully or not so carefully placed around the set. Clearly this is not the work of the props people, so did a young tearaway break into the set one evening? Well that is almost right, in fact the BBC actually paid real life graffiti artist, Andrew ...

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BT to charge for BBC content

by David Allen
For subscribers of BT Vision there may be a strange feeling hitting them when they find that they are going to have to pay for content from the BBC. This is despite the fact that this is free content when shown on the TV and even when viewed through the BBC iPlayer on demand service. Recently subscribers have been able to view BBC content without the need to pay through ...

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June 2, 2008

Sky beats off the competition

by David Allen
In a survey conducted by the price comparison people uSwitch, Sky TV have come out on top to win the best overall customer satisfaction category. The uSwitch Digital TV Customer Satisfaction Awards are presented every year and represent a well rounded selection of the UK public. There are no age, race or location requirements, which makes the awards very satisfying for the winners. Sky TV who won had a customer ...

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Huge BBC salaries are value for money

by David Allen
For some time there has been a looking glass over the salaries of the BBC’s high rollers. One such star springs to mind, Jonathan Ross and his estimated £18 million three year deal. This really alerted people to the sort of money people are earning at the BBC. So in order to make the whole situation clear, the BBC Trust Chairman, Sir Michael Lyons has been discussing the ...

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May 29, 2008

Digital TV forces advertisers to offer more

by David Allen
With so many different set top boxes available to digital TV viewers and also having the ability to skip adverts, there is a need for agencies and businesses to make an advert worth watching in order to get their message across. Tonight, during the first ad break of the food programme “Come Dine With Me!” at 20.10 pm, there will be UK television history being made, with the first ...

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Promos made by Gorillaz for the BBC

by David Allen
The BBC are pulling out all of the plugs this summer as they prepare for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and are sending hundreds of staff over to China. But the corporation are going to have to splash out on some pretty spectacular promos, just in case there is anyone in the UK who doesn’t know that the Olympics are on this summer. Out of all the musical talent ...

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May 28, 2008

Digital TV not satisfying customers

by David Allen
So far the digital switchover has been hailed a success, however a survey conducted by the price crunching site Uswtich, has found that over twenty five per cent of digital viewers are not very impressed with what they are seeing. It is estimated that around £4.2 billion has been spent on these services through Sky, Virgin Media and Freeview. The latter is being regarding so far as the best ...

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The BSkyB and Virgin battle to end?

by David Allen
In recent times there cannot have been a rivalry to match that of BSkyB and Virgin Media within the TV sector and yet could this dispute be coming to end? The people at BSkyB say no, but there could be a reason for that, are they planning to take over Virgin Media and end this dispute once and for all? The rumour mills are churning and the talk is ...

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May 27, 2008

BBC to send a hundred staff to Euro 2008

by David Allen
It may seem strange, but despite the fact that England are not even playing the Euro 2008 Championships being held in Austria and Switzerland in June, the BBC is still planning to send out over a hundred staff to cover the games. One of the latest recruits to get paid to comment on the games is former England manager Steve McClaren, who actually failed to get his team to ...

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Calls for BBC to pull out of Eurovision

by David Allen
The Eurovision song contest seems to have been on the BBC for a long while recently, first there was the choosing of the song and then the heats and semi finals etc, but what for? The hope of the UK lay in the hands of someone who should be experienced at reality TV, after all he did lose the X factor. But coming last has sparked a row, there ...

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May 23, 2008

Doubts over the future of News at Ten

by David Allen
The are problems on the horizon for the main ITV news programme “The News at Ten”. It was brought back by Michael Grade and the addition of Sir Trevor McDonald was believed to make the programme as popular as it used to be, however the viewing figures have not been spectacular, throwing doubts on it future. As if that was not bad enough the presenter Sir Trevor is said to ...

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Champions League big hit for ITV

by David Allen
When a high profile game like the Champions League Cup Final between Man Utd and Chelsea goes into extra time its bad news for everyone except it would seem ITV, for the extra time meant extra cash, around £1 million extra in fact. In total it is believed that ITV made around £10 million for the entire match from advertising, which just goes to prove why there is so ...

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May 22, 2008

BSkyB Introduce the Sky Player

by David Allen
In the scheme of market forces, BSkyB have been doing a little bit of tweaking to the Sky Anytime service. To compete directly with the BBC’s iPlayer and the other similar services, BSkyB have renamed Sky Anytime to the Sky Player. If you say them both quickly there is little difference to choose between the names. But with the introduction of the new device, is this going to cause ...

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ITV not making enough shows outside London

by David Allen
The media regulator Ofcom would appear to have got its hands full with ITV at the moment, as now they have found that ITV have not been spending enough on making television programmes outside of London. They are supposed to keep to the quota, which has been set by the regulator. In this case the figure is set at fifty per cent. But according to Ofcom the actual amount ...

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May 21, 2008

21 million downloads for iPlayer in April

by David Allen
Since the launch of the iPlayer from the BBC late last year, there have been some seventy five million downloads made from the service, with twenty one million requests being made in April alone. The service seems to grow month on month, April's figure being up on the previous month by twenty per cent. The most requested programmes may not come as a surprise The Apprentice just beating Dr ...

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May 20, 2008

VHS beats VoD for now

by David Allen
The old faithful video recorder is still out gunning the new technology when it comes to viewers watching programmes to catch up on what they have missed. In a survey by YouGov over two thousand people answered questions on how they choose to watch their favourite TV shows. It was found that despite the availability of new technology such as personal digital recorders and video on demand, the standard VHS ...

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ITV may not have to pay £2 million fine

by David Allen
The bosses at ITV must have been sniggering a little when the media regulator Ofcom handed down the fine of £2 million for the “Ant and Dec” phone vote rigging scandal. Little did anyone know that the actual fine could be as low as £50,000! A legal loophole has ensured that ITV will not have to pay anywhere near the £2 million fine which is supposed to be in ...

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May 19, 2008

BBC 3 wants earlier start time

by David Allen
In order to stay in line with the competition on other channels, the BBC is looking for permission from the BBC Trust to allow the channel BBC 3 to start earlier than the current 7 pm weekday slot. They believe that by starting a couple of hours earlier on the weekday schedule, this would give them a chance to capitalise on the teen market place which is their ...

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May 16, 2008

Five and ITV say no to Licence Fee Cash

by David Allen
As the public service broadcasting question continues, both ITV and Five have ruled themselves out of receiving any cash from the licence fee pot. However, this would mean that both channels could be considering pulling out of public service broadcasting altogether. It has only been Channel Four who has been voicing openly about getting a share of the cash that is generated through the licence fee. ITV may continue ...

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