| British TV & Radio News November 2011 |
| 75 years of BBC TV |
| Wednesday, November 2 2011 |
The BBC will today mark the 75th anniversary of the first regular 'high definition' television broadcast at Alexandra Palace, the venue where it was staged.
On November 2, 1936, the television revolution was launched after the first broadcast in high definition was conducted at the North London venue, reports BBC News.
The term high definition was used in the 1930s to differentiate the broadcasts from previous systems, which used mechanical technology that delivered as few as 30 lines of resolution.
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High definition has been reintroduced since the late 1990s to denote the next-generation of broadcast technology that delivers a significantly sharper resolution than standard definition.
In 1936, only a single channel was broadcasting for two hours a day to an audience of hundreds, but today there are hundreds of channels airing programming to millions.
A series of activities will go ahead this weekend at Alexandra Palace to mark the anniversary, including the public being able to tour the studios that were used by the BBC until 1981.
Alexandra Palace was the BBC's primary broadcasting base until the late 1950s, with a break during the Second World War when the transmitter was commandeered to defend London from Nazi bombing raids. Over the years, the venue has hosted broadcasts of various acclaimed shows aired by the BBC, including Muffin the Mule and the Open University.
"The BBC's place in the history of Alexandra Palace was sealed when the first public service broadcast in the world was made from the building in 1936," said Alexandra Park & Palace Trust chairman Matt Cooke.
The head of BBC History Robert Seatter said: "On this momentous 75th anniversary, we are delighted to be working with Alexandra Palace to open up these unique studios where television really began."
London Mayor Boris Johnson added: "The 75th anniversary of the world's first television broadcast service by the BBC from Alexandra Palace is a fantastic opportunity to reflect on London's role as a pioneer and innovator."
Next October, the digital switchover will complete in Northern Ireland, marking the end of analogue TV signals and the start of the digital TV era. |
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| Channel 5 HD coming to Freeview |
| Thursday, November 3 2011 |
Channel 5 HD will join Freeview in Spring 2012 if Ofcom gives it the thumbs-up - but it’s not going to Freesat. The lowbrow broadcaster has submitted an application for the fifth slot on the Freeview HD multiplex with highlights such as Neighbours, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Big Brother and Europe League Football.
The bid document mentions Sky and Virgin Media - where Channel 5 HD can already be found - but clearly omits Freesat on several occasions.
Channel 5’s technical plan promises to deliver 50 per cent of content in native HD at launch, rising to 82 per cent by 2012, with other programming upscaled.
It plans to launch in the run-up to the 2012 Olympics, to take advantage of increased publicity for high definition TV, and potentially alongside the launch of BBC Two HD.
It’s intended to be a 24-hour channel, although Channel 5 discusses the potential for other broadcasters to use of the daytime and late night hours.
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| Channel 5+1 to launch in December |
| Friday, November 4 2011 |
Channel 5+1 will launch on Freeview, Freesat and BSkyB in early December. The broadcaster said the new channel, which will give viewers the chance to catch up on Channel 5 shows such as Big Brother, CSI and children's strand Milkshake, is also "expected" to be available on Virgin Media at some point next year.
Channel 5+1 will join the broadcaster's existing one-hour timeshifted spin-offs from digital channels 5* and 5USA.
5* and 5USA are expected to join Channel 5+1 on the Freesat platform in December. Channel 5 is expected to move its channels to the new Astra 1N satellite positionesd at 28.2° east, aloowing 5* and 5USA to go free-to-air. Still no confirmation on when or if Channel 5 HD will join Freesat. |
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| More4 Revamp in 2012 |
| Tuesday, November 8 2011 |
Channel 4 is entering its next phase of creative renewal with a revamp of More 4, a raft of new programming and plans to up its spend to an all-time high of £600m next year.
Chief executive David Abraham revealed the ambition at the broadcaster’s Upfront event for advertisers on 2 November. He committed to at least maintaining the £576m spent on screen this year, and is hopeful that it will hit £600m even if there is a dip in the ad market. It is understood a predicted surplus of around £70-80m will be used to boost its budget in that event.
The overhaul of More 4 will refocus it as a lifestyle channel, with international documentaries strand True Stories moved to C4.
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The strand, a mixture of acquisitions and commissions, will play on a week night in a 10pm slot from early 2012 and receive a 25% increase in investment.
More 4’s new identity will also be closely aligned with 4oD and the launch of a ‘digital scrapbook’, which will allow viewers to collect online C4 information together in one place.
Recipes, guides, tips and advice will be kept in the scrapbook, which is due to launch in April 2012 on channel4.com initially, with the ambition of being integrated with 4oD.
Richard Davidson-Houston, head of Channel 4 Online, said the development would allow viewers to follow an interest from linear TV to interactive platforms. “It moves us beyond the traditional web-publishing model and allows us to have a closer relationship with our audience, providing us with valuable information and insight,” he added.
C4 chief creative officer Jay Hunt’s ambition is for C4 to be “jam-packed with innovative new shows” for 2012. “We want to deliver large audiences and make some mischief; C4 should have a view on the big issues of the day,” she said. One element will be a When Britain Worked season, looking at the industrial revolution.
Darlow Smithson drama series The Mill has been ordered by C4 history commissioner Julia Harrington and will be based on the 20,000 letters, wage books, contracts and diaries from the Quarry Bank Mill in Cheshire. The story will unfold from the view of the workers, with Garrow’s Law producer Dominic Barlow as executive producer.
And British motor racer Guy Martin, who Hunt introduced in BBC1’s The House That Guy Built, will rebuild iconic machines and buildings from Britain’s industrial past in North One’s six-part Guy Martin: Building Britain. It was also ordered by Harrington.
In a major scheduling decision, C4 will strip Monkey Kingdom’s live Home For The Holidays for 10 days culminating on Christmas Eve.
A soon-to-be-married couple’s relationship will be tested via decisions, temptations and games as their ill-suited extended families are brought together in a single house. The two families will have the chance to win £500,000.
Baking, which gave BBC2 a massive hit in the shape of Great British Bake Off, is the basis of Betty TV’s male-skewing Fabulous Baker Boys, and Blast! Films’ 10-part Three Nines will use a mix of fixed-rig and camera crews to look at the three emergency services in Blackpool. |
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| Channel 5 News contract awarded to ITN |
| Tuesday, November 8 2011 |
Richard Desmond's Channel 5 has axed evening entertainment news programme OK! TV, after the broadcaster agreed to shift its news contract from Sky to ITN.
Today, ITN announced that it has won back the contract to produce Channel 5's news programming on an initial three-year deal starting in early 2012.
The agreement, which followed a competitive tender process, involved 5 News returning to ITN where the programme launched in 1997 and was produced until 2005, when it shifted to Sky News.
It was made possible after Sky and Desmond's Northern & Shell group, which manages Channel 5, reached a deal to terminate the 5 News contract ahead of the original date of December 2012. The new ITN contract will mark the end of OK! TV, which was introduced in February as a replacement for Live At Studio Five.
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"OK! TV, our daily entertainment news show, has been in our early primetime slot since February," said a Channel 5 spokesman. "Being part of our former arrangement with Sky News, OK! TV is set to come off air on December 16."
Desmond intended the show to dovetail with his OK! magazine and deliver an early evening ratings boost for Channel 5 with entertainment news and celebrity interviews.
However, the show was hit by various problems, including initial host Denise Van Outen walking out just days before the first broadcast, and having to be hastily replaced by Kate Walsh.
Under its new deal, ITN will produce "distinctive" news programme throughout the day for Channel 5, using a bespoke state-of-the-art newsroom and studio at Channel 5's London headquarters.
A new editor for 5 News will be announced shortly, following David Kermode's announcement in September that he will be joining ITV's struggling Daybreak programme.
"ITN broke new ground and changed the landscape of news broadcasting by launching 5 News back in 1997," said John Hardie, the chief executive of ITN.
"We are delighted to be working with Channel 5 again and we see the evolution of its news service as a major pillar of our output.
"This significant contract win reinforces ITN's important role in the UK's media landscape and reiterates our position as the pre-eminent producer of commercial television news."
Channel 5 director of programming Jeff Ford added: "Over the last six years, Sky News has provided a news service which has helped to place Channel 5 at the forefront of public service news distribution.
"As we enter our second year under new ownership and with recent boosts in ratings and overall audience share, we continue at pace as a competitive terrestrial broadcaster.
"Through this new deal with ITN, we have a partner which will help to take us into the next phase of our news distribution and we look forward to a long and fruitful partnership." |
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| BBC iPlayer syndication rules relaxed |
| Thursday, November 10 2011 |
The BBC Trust has relaxed its rule that BBC programmes can only be shown on-demand through iPlayer. This could mean that there could be some kind of BBC iPlayer on Sky, Sky have refused to replicate iPlayer entirely on its catch up service, Sky Go.
Virgin Media has offered BBC iPlayer on its Tivo box for some time, Sky has long complained that the BBC requires it to take all BBC iPlayer programmes and display them in an iPlayer-style setting, rather than being able to pick and choose the BBC programming that it actually wants to show.
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Talks between the BBC and Sky have been going on for some time, apparently culminating in the revisions to the BBC's syndication policy.
The revised policy reads, "The trust considers that there is generally public value in syndication and that it is in the interests of licence fee payers that they can access BBC on-demand content from as many platforms and devices as possible."
It also adds, that BBC iPlayer programmes should "usually" be badged and clearly labelled as BBC content, although it concedes that, "Circumstances may occasionally arise, however, that justify special arrangements that depart from this model." |
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| Freeview Ad Campaign |
| Tuesday, November 15 2011 |
Freeview, the UK's digital terrestrial television service, is to launch an £18m advertising campaign this week aimed at improving awareness of the company's brand.
The campaign marks a significant shift by Freeview from "tactical product promotions" of services such as personal video recorder Freeview+ and Freeview HD, to a focus on the brand itself.
More than 10m households in the UK have the subscription-free Freeview service on their main television set, while a total of 18m have it on at least one TV in their homes. |
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However, knowledge of the Freeview brand and what it offers remains patchy, and the company is keen to tackle this issue as Britain heads towards the completion of the digital switchover in October 2012.
The TV ad, due to debut this Friday on ITV1 and Channel 4, will highlight "the quality of content and easy-to-use technology that Freeview offers consumers free from subscription".
Created by Leo Burnett, the opening 60-second ad follows a viewer as he collects a series of helium balloons representing the various content and technology available through Freeview.
The man keeps collecting until he has so many balloons that he is lifted into the air, as the voiceover says: "How good is that?"
The first TV ad in the campaign will launch on November 18 during I'm a Celebrity…Get Me out of Here! on ITV1 and Come Dine with Me on Channel 4.
Freeview's marketing communications director Guy North said: "The Freeview brand represents everything that television should be about today - quality television programmes for people to enjoy, in the format they want, without the worry of how much it's going to cost them each month.
"The campaign will specifically target those people who may be considering an alternative to pay television to take a look at what's available on Freeview and how to make the most of it with Freeview+ and Freeview HD.
"Freeview has always had a genuine desire to provide great TV for free and we've bought happiness to millions of viewers - the new campaign brings this to life."
Alongside the TV ads, there will also be digital activity including pre-roll videos shown on the ITV Player and 4oD catch-up services, as well as banner advertising promoting Freeview's various offers.
iPhone users will be able to engage with the Freeview brand via a TV-themed app enabling them to create "their own helium squeaky voice". An online game will also be launched next year.
More than 70m Freeview products have been sold in the UK since the platform launched in 2002, including the recent landmark of 3m product sales for the Freeview HD service. |
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| Channel 5+1, 5USA, 5USA+1, 5* & 5*+1 confirm launch on Freesat |
| Wednesday, November 23 2011 |
Channel 5 have announced that Channel 5 +1, 5 USA and 5*, along with their +1 timeshift channels will all be launching on the Freesat platform in December.
The channels is will be a great addition to the platform and clearly shows Channel 5′s intentions to bring all their channels to the wider audience.Channel 5 have said ' Channel 5, our main channel, is currently available on this service. Channel 5+1 will launch on this service on EPG channel number 128 on Tuesday 6th December.
Our digital channels 5* and 5 USA, as well as their relative +1 services, will launch on this service on Thursday 8th December. The relevent EPG channel numbers wil be as follows: 129: 5 USA, 130: 5 USA +1, 131: 5*, 132: 5* +1.
Channel 5 HD, will not be joining freesat at present, this is due to a contract with Sky which expires in July 2012 when it will launch on both Freesat and Freeview. |
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| East Anglia goes digital |
| Wednesday, November 23 2011 |
The final digital switchover in East Anglia has been completed. Analogue TV signals in Norfolk and north Suffolk were switched off permanently on 23 November, extending Freeview coverage to virtually all homes in East Anglia.
The changes affect existing Freeview viewers who may find some of their channels missing. The services have moved to new frequencies and can be restored by retuning Freeview TVs and boxes.
Viewers in some areas may also find their digital TVs or boxes load more than one regional service. Advice on prioritising the preferred regional service is available from Digital UK.
There are 3 transmitter groups in the Anglia TV region that have completed the switch from analogue to digital TV. |
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| Racing Post to launch live Greyhound TV |
| Wednesday, November 23 2011 |
RACING POST is delighted to announce the return of live greyhound racing into homes across the UK and Ireland from mid-December, with the launch of a new three-times-a-week programme, Racing Post Greyhound TV.
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Hosted by Racing Post, in co-operation with bookmakers Ladbrokes, William Hill, Coral and bet365, plus leading betting exchange Betfair, the programme will be broadcast on Sky digital channel 231 and Freesat channel 402.
Live evening racing will be shown from Hove and Monmore on Thursdays, Romford and Sunderland on Fridays and Crayford and Newcastle every Saturday from 7.15pm to 10.45pm. The programme will be free to view and will also have a webcast presence on racingpost.com and on founders’ websites.
Kevan Moretti, Racing Post’s head of business-to-business services and executive producer for the new programme, commented:
“This is a terrific opportunity to help re-energise greyhoundracing, and help popularise greyhound ownership. We know that greyhound owners love watching their dogs run on Sky and we are very hopeful we can make this imaginative and exciting new initiative work for everyone involved with greyhound racing. The opportunity to promote greyhound racing on Sky Digital in the Racing Post and on the internet should bring some fantastic benefits."
Bruce Millington, editor of the Racing Post added:
“Apart from Sky’s excellent coverage, armchair greyhound fans have not had a lot to feast on in recent times. I know there will be a healthy appetite for Racing Post Greyhound TV. Dog racing remains one of our core ingredients and we’re delighted to be involved in this exciting new project.”
The programme’s first transmission date will be announced in due course along with the line-up of presenters. |
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