31 October 2003
There was lots of doom and gloom mutterings about the ITV Digital fiasco – analogue switch off just not going to happen; DTT is a dead technology; five channels are…
28 October 2003
Strange testpage A search on Google for Transdiffusion brings up a new look for LogofreeTV. This site, which started out with the admirable aim of campaigning against the various screen…
28 October 2003
New contempary comedy and drama station from UKTV tells the Media Guardian. Sounds just like PlayUK but with drama instead of music to me…
26 October 2003
A brief history of CBM. Crown Castle fail to sell space to Turner. Boomerang, TCM and CNN running on a time shift basis won’t be appearing on DTT. Crown Castle…
26 October 2003
One of the many ideas for a replacement for ITV Digital was to do an element of pay-TV with mostly free-to-air programming. Ex-BSkyB bosses David Chance and Ian West were…
24 October 2003
Oddly parochial story from ‘The Scotsman’ All of you people left without access to ITV, Channel 4 and five on Sky will be very pleased to discover that you can…
22 October 2003
As someone kindly pointed out the other day, that old Channel 4 out-of-hours stalwart, “The Art of Landscape” is back, but this time on FriendlyTV (Channel 268 on Sky). It’s…
21 October 2003
BBC NEWS report It was inevitable. When huge numbers of your shareholders try to get rid of you, there isn’t much hope of you clinging in there. And so it…
20 October 2003
It seems past failure won’t necessarily bring about the reward of a plum job in the new world of ITV. The OnDigital saga is just one reason why many of…
17 October 2003
And so it begins. London News Network is to be the first casualty of the Carlton/Granada combination, with the role of producing London’s news programme being taken over by ITN…
15 October 2003
MediaGuardian article BSkyB are about to embark on a huge sales push of their Sky Plus box – a set top box which includes a hard drive recording system, which…
10 October 2003
Grauniad speculation Oh good, the same bunch that have made ITV such a success in the last decade will continue in power for the next phase of ITV. Plus a…
10 October 2003
Reuters speculates… A Disney channel, but not branded under the Disney name. Sky Travel to go General Entertainment, but not until there are 2 million ‘subscribers’ to the Freeview service….
10 October 2003
Eastern Daily Press news story Of course, you have to expect the regional newspapers, struggling for so long, to welcome – or at least fail to notice the shortcomings –…
8 October 2003
Croner news release “Some day a sympathetic writer will have to analyse the effect of mergers – and there are hundreds of them – and the impact they have upon…
8 October 2003
So, the decline and fall of ITV is complete. What does a 20-year-old Australian care about the Granada-Carlton merger? Well, you’ll have to wait for a future article! Unlike most…
8 October 2003
Name dropping signals end of an era for Granada So, farewell then Granada TV Manchester 3. You were staid And old fashioned But you had dignity. Keith’s mum says She’d…
7 October 2003
BBC Business News Video Clip: Rory Cellan-Jones on BBC News BBC Business News Q&A BBC Entertainment sees things from a programme perspective BBC voxpops filler on Carlton-Granada merger The Guardian…
7 October 2003
It is hard to imagine that the Granada/Carlton merger, mooted for so long, could do anything other than steepen ITV1’s slide into mediocrity. In the best (or worst) Thatcherite tradition…
7 October 2003
The estimated savings from the combination of Carlton and Granada’s broadcasting businesses are around £50m a year… One of the first things to go? Well according to a report on…
7 October 2003
The ITC have approved the “merger” of Granada and Carlton. Most likely outcome: both companies continue to exist as seperate entities, but the broadcast licences of both will be merged…
7 October 2003
The year was 1999 and BSkyB tried to buy Manchester United Football club. In many ways it seemed the perfect deal – a large broadcaster with a huge reliance on…
5 October 2003
Press release Sky News are to launch a 9pm news programme targetted at the Republic of Ireland, to go out on the pre-existing version of Sky News with RoI adverts,…
3 October 2003
One interesting thing from the ITC press release marking the end of news at when is this delightful little paragraph: "The change will also mean that most of the regional…
2 October 2003
Granada writes An update to Telemusications – a very detailed article by Dave Jeffery, originally published by EMC in September 2002, is nothing less than hardcore presentation: the fonts of…
2 October 2003
ITC Press Release The useless ITC, now marking time waiting to become part of the useless OfGums, have finally – finally – finally – decided: no more News at When….
30 September 2003
The Authority No new articles, but some additional nice illustrations from the Transdiffusion archives.
30 September 2003
After 17 years, Chris Tarrant is leaving Capital FM’s breakfast show in Spring 2004. His replacement? Johnny Vaughan. Why? Well according to the press release, "He’s modern, he’s down to…
29 September 2003
A year and a half ago, the screens went black on ITV Digital as the company pulled the plug. Since then we’ve come a long way. A new free-to-air based…
28 September 2003
The sorry saga of ITV’s journey downmarket continues. Like an alcoholic always going to have “one last drink”, the executives at the Network Centre want to have the kudos of…
27 September 2003
The BBC’s Nick Higham on selling off ITV – again The question no one is asking (not even Nick Higham here) is: would ITV as it stands now be worth…
26 September 2003
Programme news isn’t really what this blog is for, so I apologise unreservedly. But hey this is just one piece of news that I simply have to break the rules…
25 September 2003
The BBC Loses a Bit of Its Luster Thanks to regular contributor Joseph Gallant for pointing this piece of, er, journalism out. He says “I found this story on the…
24 September 2003
Everyone wants something for nothing – even ITV. The national broadcaster moaned bitterly when the BBC withdrew funding for Solus cards which allow owners of Sky minidishes to view free-to-view…
23 September 2003
ITV1 REFRESHES ON-AIR LOOK See also here EMBARGO: NOT FOR PUBLICATION BEFORE WEDNESDAY 27TH AUGUST 2003 because we’re scared ITV1 REFRESHES ON-AIR LOOK not that it was stale or ill-thought-out…
23 September 2003
Whilst the Transdiffusion Broadcasting System has been around for about 40 years (we’re celebrating the big 4-0 next year for very complex reasons), 22 September is our anniversary on the…
22 September 2003
48 years of Independent Television, and ITV is celebrating by… doing nothing. No press release, no party, no special idents, no story on the awful ITV.com. Nothing at all. But…
22 September 2003
It appears David Liddiment has realised what some of us decided four years ago – ITV would be better off if it hadn’t originally ditched News at Ten, according to…
21 September 2003
8pm on 22 September marks our 4th birthday on the web. Contrary to the impression I gave below, there’s no big splash of an update (senior management has spoken –…
21 September 2003
BBC News on end of RI:SE Poor C4. The Channel Four Daily, The Big Breakfast, an unexpected interregnum, and RI:SE (in two flavours). The Channel Four Daily (C4D) was an…
21 September 2003
I’m pleased to report 7DAYS has now had its new look completed (to be uploaded this evening, and thus ‘soft-launching’ this ‘blog), after a surprising amount of work! Next stop…
20 September 2003
Well, time to kick off MediaBlog in style. Or not – since this Blog officially doesn’t go ‘live’ until Monday evening. However, you can get a brief insight into my…
20 September 2003
A bit boring, this, but worth the effort to get it right. I’m told. RJG
1 September 2003
Obviously, this is currently under test. But you knew that.