Articles by Ian Beaumont

Ratings Review: BARB Week Ending 02 September 2007

Published 12 September 2007

The first set of ratings for the new Autumn season have been released by BARB and it makes for interesting reading. Sky One, which was once the top rating satellite/cable/digital…

US Cable News Ratings: Countdown’s best figures!

Published 31 August 2007

It’s time to talk about the growing Countdown. No, this is nothing to do with the Channel 4 game show which started on the same day that the channel did,…

Ratings Review: JNLR year ending Jun 07

Published 24 August 2007

The Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) figures for Jun 06-Jun 07 have been released by Ireland’s media regulator, the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI). These are the figures for radio…

And now, the non-news, about the newscaster!

Published 22 August 2007

Hot on the heels of one piece of bad journalism from the Daily Star yesterday, comes a very different journalistic boo-boo from the ultra-conservative Daily Mail. This time, making a…

Repackaged 18 month old news? Must be the silly season!

Published 21 August 2007

Stories may go in and out of television and radio news bulletins and newspapers depending on how much has happened in the meantime, but rarely do you get stale news….

Editorialising the News

Published 1 July 2007

Politics subverts purpose

SNP wants “Scottish Six”… again!!!

Published 8 June 2007

So, the Scottish National Party wants to reignite the campaign to bring a “Scottish Six” bulletin to BBC1. Perhaps it would be more helpful in general if there was much…

New Home for the Neighbours

Published 18 May 2007

Five nabs Neighbours. To follow up on what my esteemed colleague Andrew Bowden posted earlier, it looks like it will be an aussie double bill of soaps, as for the…

Ratings Review: BARB 05th June 2007

Published 17 May 2007

I haven’t been following the ratings too much recently, but I do notice in the latest publicly available figures on the BARB website, some very interesting stats. It is noticeable…

Watching the news on the net

Published 8 May 2007

So, the recent trend for news channels to broadcast on the net continues. The most recent addition is BBC News 24, which can now be watched live on the net….

Editorialising The News

Published 20 April 2007

I would call myself something of a news junkie. I like to tune in to various news sources to get different perspectives on the news. This is a way of…

OFCOM investigates UK pay TV

Published 20 March 2007

At the request of BT, Setanta, Virgin Media and Top Up TV, OFCOM are to investigate the world of UK based pay television. Whilst I am all in favour of…

A Television Legend returns to the Cornish airwaves!

Published 19 March 2007

Yes, it is true. A legend of the television industry has returned to the broadcasting ether. This particular legend first arrived on South West televison screens in 1961, and disappeared…

Breaking News. ITV Play to close. Hooray!

Published 13 March 2007

Well, I have to say this is great news for people like myself who have a love of the broadcast media. The overly commercial venture known as ITV Play, is…

Priorities on Sky News???

Published 21 January 2007

Now, usually, I do not criticise 24 hour news channels for their choices of stories. There are thousands of stories out there every day, and each channel has to decide…

Graphically Unbalanced??? Looks like it.

Published 12 January 2007

Fox News Channel constantly advertise themselves as “Fair and Balanced”, but the reality of these chyrons, or lower thirds, is quite different. Newshounds has the screenshots. We Report, You Decide!

Al-Jazeera International: Do Conservatives want to see it?

Published 5 November 2006

There have been many rumours around the net about the launch of Al-Jazeera International. So many and for so long, that this has become one of the most anticipated launches…

Ratings Review: BARB Week Ending 15th October 2006

Published 26 October 2006

It has taken a day or so of analysis of the publicly available BARB data, but there are one or two interesting conclusions out of this week’s data. It doesn’t…

Bias In The Media – Don’t conservatives get it?

Published 23 October 2006

I have noticed something in my observations of the various blogs and commentators on the internet, and that is that there is no single “enemy” organisation for conservatives. Bill O’Reilly,…

Ratings Review: BARB Week Ending 24th September 2006

Published 11 October 2006

Well, there are a few surprises coming out of the latest publicly viewable ratings. On the channel side, we see that the joint highest rating channels right now, according to…

New on the radio: Atlantic FM

Published 6 July 2006

Well, having been listening to the FM radio all day, rather than the DAB radio, I have been pleasantly surprised by the new station on the block in my area….

“No Spin Zone” spins out of control!

Published 9 June 2006

Over 2 million Americans and many others around the world watch Bill O’Reilly’s “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox News Channel. But yesterday, the programme, which is often refered to as…

Programmes in the Pod

Published 3 June 2006

The impact of podcasting on the future of TV and radio

BBC News 24… Remixed and Released!

Published 18 May 2006

Well, this is an odd move, but one I applaud. The BBC have revamped the music that counts down to the top of the hour on their 24 hour news…

First, fair, Fox?

Published 30 April 2006

A fair and balanced commentary from Ian Beaumont

The Anglia Knight returns to our screens.

Published 13 January 2006

Okay, it will only be for viewers of the Anglia region, but as EDP 24 reports, the knight is to return as part of the new title sequence for Anglia’s…

Caller dies live on the radio

Published 6 January 2006

This is not the sort of thing I like talking about, but it definitely is a shaker. A phone-in caller to a local radio station in Liverpool, died whilst he…

Australian Media Magnate Kerry Packer dies, aged 68

Published 27 December 2005

He was the richest man in Australia, a man who caused a ton of controversy when introducing World Series Cricket in 1977. Much like some of his fellow Australian media…

Ratings Review: BARB Week Ending 20th November 2005

Published 1 December 2005

In this Ratings Review segment, I will highlight the worst performers according to BARB’s publicly available ratings, in this case, ranked according to their performance on the Weekly Reach ratings….

Memories of a fun radio team

Published 1 December 2005

I have been listening to a classic local radio pairing on BBC Radio Cornwall, reunited after 15 years. Former Westcountry continuity announcer Chris Langmore has been reunited with former Late…

Ratings Review: RAJAR Quarter 3 2005

Published 27 October 2005

Well, there are no real surprises in the big headline stories from these figures, publically available from the RAJAR website. BBC Radio 2 continues to hold the status of Most…

From ITV to plc

Published 3 September 2005

Merge, merge, merge and miss the boat

Ian Stirling

Published 1 August 2005

Local legend

Richard “Twice Nightly” Whiteley. A TV legend dies.

Published 26 June 2005

BBC News is reporting the death of Channel 4 and Yorkshire Television presenter Richard Whitely, who was nicknamed “Twice Nightly” for regularly appearing on both Countdown and Calendar on the…

Ratings Review: BARB 12th June 2005

Published 23 June 2005

We have a new leader in the BARB Multichannel Stakes. Originally, it was Sky One. Then ITV2 took over the mantle. Now, the new king of the multichannel empire is…

BBC Radio 1 to air in USA on Sirius Satellite Radio.

Published 21 June 2005

It seems that the concept of radio by satellite is very much here to stay, and even the BBC is onboard with the concept. The BBC World Service is already…

Thoughts on the BBC Strike.

Published 24 May 2005

Having spent some time reflecting on the stirke at the BBC, I find myself in the unenviable position of being able to see both sides, to see that, yes, the…

Thoughts On Election Night

Published 7 May 2005

Well, having reviewed the night of the general election, there are several points that spring up in my mind. First, one thing that ITV actually did right, was to have…

ITV Digital Mark 2?

Published 1 May 2005

This is money.co.uk is reporting that industry insiders believe that Charles Allen could be looking to revive ITV Digital by purchasing Top Up TV. Now, combine this info with the…

Ratings Review: W/e 27 February 2005

Published 9 March 2005

Well, after a couple of weeks where the freely available ratings didn’t show anything special, this week has proved rather different. First of all, Sky One has had a breakout…

Ratings Review: BARB w/e 06/02/2005

Published 16 February 2005

Well, it’s got to be said that there are few big surprises in the freely available channel data from BARB. Sky Sports 1 raised its rating again this week to…

BBC Sport Channel on the way?

Published 11 February 2005

Well, the Evening Standard yesterday reported that the BBC plans to launch an Free-To-Air sports channel, sometime after 2006. Quoting BBC Controller of Sport Peter Salmon, they speculate that the…

Ratings Review: BARB w/e 30/01/2005

Published 9 February 2005

Well, as per last week, Sky One has been beaten by both ITV2 and Sky Sports 1. However this time, the ratings show that whilst ITV2 was helped by American…

Hospital Radio Awards Nominees announced

Published 9 February 2005

The announcement has been made of all the nominees in the various categories of the National Hospital Radio Awards, which will be presented at the HBA Spring Conference in Belfast…

OFCOM details Digital Switchover Timetable.

Published 9 February 2005

Finally, OFCOM have actually published a proposed timetable for the region-by-region switch off of Analogue Terrestrial Television (ATT). The proposed dates for switch off are, in switchover order… 2008: Border,…

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