Great things to read about British TV from March 2008 to today

Monday 05 October 2009, AM

What the Conservatives should do with the BBC |Media |The Guardian

One of the easiest ways of winning a cheer at this week's Conservative party conference will be to attack the impartiality or extravagance of the BBC. The corporation has never been a conference favourite but over the last decade the Conservative view has not counted for very much. According to the polls, the Tories are most likely to form the next government. - guardian.co.uk

BSkyB in rebrand to be most loved

Printed from http//www.ft.com/cms/s/0/dfffc888-b11f-11de-b06b-00144feabdc0.html Print a single copy of this article for personal use. - ft.com

www.ft.com

Sunday 04 October 2009, PM

Freeview backs down: apologises for re-tune woe - mirror.co.uk

- mirror.co.uk

www.mirror.co.uk

Freeview retune chaos drags on to 3rd straight day, voices of protest grow louder - International Business Times

Over 18 million subscribers of DTH service provider Freeview risked losing favourite television channels and radio stations unless they retuned their set-top boxes by Wednesday. According to Freeview, the simple exercise i.e. refreshing or rescanning for new channels can be done via remote control and will give user access to a new channel Quest, which is a mix of factual lifestyle and entertainment programmes from the archives of the Discovery Channel. A Freeview official said the retune is necessary as the company is preparing for the launch of new HD channels and to ensure wider access to Channel Five which, despite being a national channel, cannot be viewed in many parts of the country. - ibtimes.co.uk

www.ibtimes.co.uk

Saturday 03 October 2009, AM

BBC - BBC Internet Blog: BBCHD and DRM: A Response to Cory Doctorow

The BBC does get caught up in this debate from time to time. The BBC is a content producer, a licensee, and a distributor and we have a commitment to make our content as widely available and accessible as we possibly can to our audiences. We also want to be able to secure a proportion of high-value content from external sources to ensure our channels remain varied and attractive to licence fee payers. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

CBS Gets In The Zone

business.timesonline.co.uk

Wanted: chairman for ITV, an interest in television an advantage but . . . - Times Online

- business.timesonline.co.uk

Where are TVs leaders of the future? | Maggie Brown |Media |guardian.co.uk

Where should TV look for the rising stars of the future Where have all the talented executives gone in broadcasting The basic problem is that neither ITV nor Channel 4 seem capable of creating and nourishing a cadre of top managers, able to graduate eventually to being chief executives or, eventually, chairmen, trained in the tricky business of programme-making and programme-picking, or the tense, nervy business of making money from it. - guardian.co.uk

Channel Five may become a subscription channel

Panasonic demonstrates Freeview HD prototype

Moore blasts minister on Borders Freeview failings - politics.co.uk

- politics.co.uk

www.politics.co.uk

Hundreds complain after Freeview digital retune fiasco | T3 magazine

- t3.com

www.t3.com

Freeview: No apology over re-tune trauma - mirror.co.uk

- mirror.co.uk

www.mirror.co.uk

Friday 02 October 2009, PM

80,000 fine over Comedy Awards

Viewers were encouraged to continue voting on premium phone lines for the People's Choice Award after the winner had been announced. The fine on the ITV franchise holder also covers the over-riding of the 2005 People's vote. Channel TV was not knowingly involved in the incident but was responsible for making sure guidelines were followed. - news.bbc.co.uk

Media Talk: The Sun comes out for the Conservatives

download.guardian.co.uk

Friday 02 October 2009, AM

Freeview retune leads to storm of consumer complaints | Electricpig

We reminded you to retune your Freeview box yesterday but it turns out the process was not as simple or as seamless as it should have been for some people. Freeviews phonelines are in meltdown with complaints from cheesed-off consumers. The great Freeview retune was to allow more homes to get Five and push the system a little closer to Freeview HD roll out. - electricpig.co.uk

www.electricpig.co.uk

MP says no to a two tier Freeview - politics.co.uk

- politics.co.uk

www.politics.co.uk

Quest debuts on Freeview with 82,000 peak | News | Broadcast

It takes just 2 minutes and offers full, instant access to the Broadcast website along with a copy of the magazine delivered every week. - broadcastnow.co.uk

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Freeview Retune Causes Apparently Problems For Many - I4U News UK

uk.i4u.com

Daily Star: Simply The Best 7 Days A Week :: News :: Freeview retune site in meltdown

gt gt But millions who visited Freeviews website were met with a message which read This website is experiencing high amounts of traffic and is unavailable. For help re-tuning, refer to your instruction manual or follow the simple re-tune instructions below. gt gt The multi-channel service is being upgraded to give more homes Five, and also to pave the way for the supply of high-definition HD television. gt gt It involves major changes to the frequencies used to broadcast more than 50 TV channels and 20 radio stations. - dailystar.co.uk

www.dailystar.co.uk

ITV receives hundreds of complaints over Freeview retune |Media |guardian.co.uk

Digital TV viewers in 18m homes were yesterday forced to retune their set-top boxes as part of a Freeview plan to give Channel Five national coverage and ready the service for high definition channels. Some reports have put the number of households to lose the ITV digital channels at as many as 500,000. ITV said that it had received a total of about 400 complaints by lunchtime today. - guardian.co.uk

Freeview Retuning Exercise Attracts Hundreds Of Complaints - ITProPortal.com

The retuning also paves the way for the gradual nationwide digital switchover as well as the forthcoming introduction of Freeview HD which will also require new set top boxes. 18 million households with 25 million television sets, set top boxes STB and other Freeview devices have had to be retuned today in order to continue receiving channels. The process will almost certainly wreck any schedule or series recordings. - itproportal.com

www.itproportal.com

Freeview re-tune websites crash under demand | 1 Oct 2009 | ComputerWeekly.com

Websites telling TV viewers how to re-tune their digital Freeview TV boxes have crashed under demand. In July, the government's national flu website was swamped within minutes of going live. Designers of the flu advice website admitted they had underestimated demand and they were forced to quadruple capacity to keep the service going. - computerweekly.com

www.computerweekly.com

Thursday 01 October 2009, AM

Dodgy DCMS survey on BBC top-slicing : | OfcomWatch |

www.ofcomwatch.co.uk

Freeview website crashes as millions log on to find out how to retune set-top boxes | Mail Online

Baffled TV viewers brought down Freeview's own website on Tuesday while a second site, set up to guide them through the retuning process, failed yesterday morning. The Freeview website crashed due to high demand, leaving people in the dark as to how to re-tune their equipment Freeview's helpline was also receiving 200 calls a minute from those facing problems. More than 20million digital TV set-top boxes linked to the Freeview broadcasting system need to be retuned to maintain access to key TV and radio channels. - dailymail.co.uk

www.dailymail.co.uk

Complaints over Freeview retune

Freeview's Ilse Howling on how to do it Hundreds of people with Freeview are complaining after losing some channels when they tried to retune their set-top boxes and TVs. A Freeview spokesperson said viewers with problems should try again. People with Freeview were advised to retune their TV sets, set-top boxes and digital recorders from lunchtime on Wednesday. - news.bbc.co.uk

www.marketingmagazine.co.uk

Critics attack Freeview for lack of TV-retune marketing - Marketing news - Marketing magazine

Across the UK, 18m viewers are required to retune their receivers as Freeview implements changes to its transmissions. The changes are vital to allow Freeview to launch an HD offering. Despite the scale of the changes, a communications campaign was only launched on 18 September and some critics believe the platform was far too slow to inform its customers of the details. - marketingmagazine.co.uk

Wednesday 30 September 2009, PM

The Sun, impartial news and political speeches 30/09/09

downloads.bbc.co.uk

Wednesday 30 September 2009, AM

iwoot pocket TV: Freeview in the car | Electricpig

picoStick worlds smallest Freeview tuner Pocket tellies are hardly anything new of course, but the iwoot pocket TVs ability to keep a signal at well beyond the legal speed limit is impressive up to 180km/h, especially when you consider Navman readily admitted to us that its Freeview satnav cant handle even innner city driving speeds. Its still not an excuse to watch TV while driving, mind, but with a battery good for 3 hours of TV, the iwoot pocket tellie will at least keep the kids traps shut on a lengthy roadtrip. It should even work on some trains too, but if you were hoping for a bit of Peep Show on a Virgin Pendolino train, youre out of luck they rocket along at up to 155mph. - electricpig.co.uk

www.electricpig.co.uk

Freeview website titsup ahead of big retune - The Register

Just hours before millions will be required to retune their televisions, the website explaining how appears to be struggling under the pressure. At time of writing Freeview.co.uk and its special retune section were unavailable. Freeview, a consortium of broadcasters, was unavailable for comment. - theregister.co.uk

www.theregister.co.uk

8 out of 10 sets say they prefer digital | Broadband TV News

A 15 percentage point increase in the conversion of secondary television sets over the past 12 months has taken the proportion of UK sets that have been digitally enabled to 80. The Digital Progress Report, issued by the regulator Ofcom, for the second quarter of 2009 shows that by the end of June 24.3 million secondary sets had been converted. Until recently television sets in the nations kitchens and bedrooms had been a cause for concern in the digital switchover process. - broadbandtvnews.com

www.broadbandtvnews.com

18m Freeview homes in TV retune

Freeview's Ilse Howling on how to do it More than 18 million households with Freeview will need to retune their set-top boxes and TVs later. The service is being upgraded to give more homes channel Five, while those that did get Five will find themselves unable to watch it until they retune. TV sets, set-top boxes and digital recorders will need retuning from lunchtime. - news.bbc.co.uk

The BBC is encrypting its HD signal by the back door |Technology |guardian.co.uk

Planet Earth filmed and broadcast by the BBC in HD. Some background licence-fee-paid television must be free to receive in the UK. Unlike cable and commercial satellite signals, free-to-air television is carried on public airwaves, which broadcasters are allowed to use for free. - guardian.co.uk

Bradshaws warning to the BBC: you must change to survive - UK Politics, UK - The Independent

Marr, who has been attending the conference in Brighton, was even confronted in the main conference hotel by the Communities minister, Ian Austin. Jon Cruddas, the prominent Labour backbencher, revealed that he has refused to appear on the Marr programme. Aides at No 10 are keen to stop the row from rumbling on throughout the conference, but it is understood that they will pursue the matter with the BBC when the conference closes tomorrow. - independent.co.uk

www.independent.co.uk

Tuesday 29 September 2009, PM

Eight out of ten TV screens now digital ready

The total number of digitally-enabled TV sets in the UK has reached 80 due to a surge in the conversion of secondary TV sets. The report also reveals that there were 29.7 million Freeview-enabled sets, of which 9.9 million were primary and almost 19.8 million were secondary sets. DTG Staff 29.09.2009 Links open in a new window. - dtg.org.uk

www.dtg.org.uk

Tuesday 29 September 2009, AM

Chapters within programmes: finding the bit you want

Chapters is the term we're using to describe sections of a programme, rather like the chapters of a DVD. In some cases a programme might have back to back chapters, like a book, but in other cases producers might just identify key moments in the programme e.g. the big interviews. Firstly, they allow listeners or viewers to navigate back and forth through programmes e.g. jumping to the start of an interview, or replaying an item you found interesting. - bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Virgin Media listing on LSE brings name back to UK markets |Media |The Guardian

Virgin Media its primary listing will remain on New York's Nasdaq exchange. The company's shares are expected to start trading in London at 8am on Thursday this week, with the aim of encouraging more investors from the UK and the rest of Europe to join its shareholder base. However, Virgin Media's primary listing will remain on New York's Nasdaq exchange and the company has no plans to switch fully to London. - guardian.co.uk

ITV investors furious over shambolic hunt for CEO - Business News, Business - The Independent

One of ITV's largest shareholders was furious after the company terminated talks with the preferred candidate Tony Ball on Friday. Insiders at ITV hit back, saying the issues arose from Mr Ball's side. It emphasises how important it is to have independent and strong characters in the roles of chief executive and chairman. - independent.co.uk

www.independent.co.uk

Internet catch-up challenges TV in Europe

Just as in the United States, Internet television has become increasingly popular in Europe. So much so that some European broadcasters want to add the Internet to their broadcast programming schedule. In Britain, the BBC and several partners are working on a more ambitious project to bring catch-up TV and a variety of other programming and interactive services to television sets as soon as next year. - broadcastengineering.com

broadcastengineering.com

Q

On Wednesday morning, 30 September, the Freeview service is being updated. Some TV and radio channels will move position. If people don't retune their equipment they will no longer receive them. - news.bbc.co.uk

Freeview users must retune sets tomorrow - News, TV Radio - The Independent

More than 18million digital TV set-top boxes linked to the Freeview broadcasting system must be retuned tomorrow or viewers could lose key television and radio stations . At the same time, 7.7 million television sets which have Freeview digital technology built into them will also have to be retuned. The exercise is the result of major changes to the frequencies used to broadcast more than 50 television channels and another 20 radio stations to rooftop aerials. - independent.co.uk

www.independent.co.uk

How to re-tune your TV | Articles | GMTV

www.gm.tv

The Press Association: Freeview viewers reminded to retune

www.google.com

Monday 28 September 2009, PM

ITV uncertainty could open doors to takeover bid, says analyst |Media |guardian.co.uk

Outlining other factors affecting the company, De Groote said the improving state of the advertising market was offset by ITV's pension deficit of around 538m. Shares in ITV slipped by 0.55p to close at 44.84p today. To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editormediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. - guardian.co.uk

www.thisissuttoncoldfield.co.uk

MP demands action in digital disruption

Story updated byEChamberlain, at 1346 on 04/01/13 BEM award was 'lovely surprise' for long-serving civic... Story updated byscrfc_12s, reposted at 0715 on 04/01/13 CTddorf commented I am privileged to know Kim Popratnjak and of all the fantastic... Story published byLPatel, at 1658 on 03/01/13 Honours list recognises hard work of town trio awarded top... - thisissuttoncoldfield.co.uk

ITV to sell digital channel network for USD250m

www.strategyeye.com

Monday 28 September 2009, AM

STV ready to tackle ITV again |Media |The Guardian

Good call a shrewd businessman, Roy Thomson launched Scottish Television in 1957. It has echoes of a tussle five decades ago, at the birth of the ITV network. Other potential bidders for the central Scotland ITV franchise were scared off. - guardian.co.uk

Six months on and ITV is back to square one | Steve Hewlett |Media |The Guardian

A leaderless British broadcaster is hardly news these days. The company has been searching for a new chief executive since last April and has now, with the announcement that talks with the former Sky chief Tony Ball are off, drawn a complete blank. You just can't have chief executives choosing their chairmen. - guardian.co.uk