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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…

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…

New contempary comedy and drama station from UKTV tells the Media Guardian. Sounds just like PlayUK but with drama instead of music to me…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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….

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 –…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Russ J Graham on those who have been kicked out of ITV

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,…

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…

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…

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….

The Authority No new articles, but some additional nice illustrations from the Transdiffusion archives.

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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 –…

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…

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…

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…

A bit boring, this, but worth the effort to get it right. I’m told. RJG

Obviously, this is currently under test. But you knew that.