RT is ace!

In the UK, Freeview’s best channel of 2010 is surprisingly RT - Russia Today. The documentaries are very good and not just about Russia and America. These documentaries would look good on any channel (BBC, CNN even SKYNEWS). Spotlight at the weekend has been very profound and thus more than interesting whether in English or dubbed into English. I like the goals from the Russian Premier League featured with just music The straightforward news is relevant and the business news is actually very good. Max Keiser and Alyona are also shockingly interesting and informed. Max works well in his format. The Sport News is surprisingly international with NBA, NHL as well as the Russian sport.

I suppose it comes across as: anti-American, anti-Bush, anti-Chechen, anti-FOXnews, etc, and very pro-Putin but less pro-Medvedev, pro-Serbia. However in the same way some left-wingers can read the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail ignoring the right-wing bits, so you can watch RT even if you are not an out and out anti-American.

new TV shows AND Educational moral hazard

Human Target, is currently on Fiver in the UK. It is ace! Light and clever and actually like it. This is perfect comic book (DC Comics). Unlike most US shows on Fiver, it is not swamped with too many attractive people which makes up for a lack of storyline or entertainment. It is also a remake. This is the latest US trend. In the US Crime dramas (Procedurals) you have seen a glut of cold cases (inlcuding of course the hit series of the same name), undercover operations with many such series, English accents, and gritty, and lighter.

Microeconmists are justifying their existence by applying commonsense. Let’s hope the UK government employs a few good ones. For instance the graduate tuition fees and loans are going to rocket up. What happens if you decide not to complete your degree. Will you have to pay anything back? So how smart is it to continue with your education if it costs so much and you might not get the degree you want.

Slow to air

Commissioning comedies in the UK which may be topical takes too long. E4 are going to do a comedy: PhoneShop. Too late!…needed to be done at the time of Wyclef Jean in Virgin Mobile ads or say four years ago at least for maximum effect. ITV had Mumbai Calling - about three or four years too late at least! Sit Coms which are supposed to be topical never work when they aren’t. Is the last sentence always TRUE or just usually.

August

The Belgian group the Subs.
We no speak Amerciano.
Coalition politics Australian style - the Coalition got beat by the old Labor Government in a coalition with some independents.
Liked the SquawkBox on tv.
Brussels Metro needs to get more ticket monitoring and this month it is.
Five HD is also getting plugged to death.
Just as I was thinking to myself if Daybreak’s Adrian and Christine will sit any closer they will be on each other’s lap and they do it as a prank or riposte to critics. Bill and Sian know how to do it.
Channel One was Virgin One…will its output be more up to date?
Coldest in the UK for a while

ITV and Channel FIVE - the way ahead

So ITV want to go back into the pay TV market. To do this with the HD channels, they need to create more of an experience in a cost-effective manner. Something like Sky News HD on the cheap. For instance on live football and the coming Rugby World Cup, in addition to the standard coverage on ITV1 and 4 they may need a more technical or tactics commentary, a ref-mic but hopefully not the dreadful Fanzone, fixed camera views behind the post, commentary in foreign languages (eg Serbian, Hindi, German, French etc), radio commentary or old fashioned-live solo commentary (Clyde Tyldesley never sounded better in a world cup match - sorry Jim Beglin). The need for some sort of premium experience is essential.
Making ITV4 overnight into say a Bollywood music or Hindi film channel for a couple of hours in HD could be a money-spinner as its customers record the programmes onto DVD or even VHS.
Providing 3D sports coverage may be worth subscription money!
As I have said before cheap US, Australian or even Italian football sport as live as possible in the UK makes sense if cheap enough and able to get through the UK‘s Ofcom rules. NRL or State of Origin games makes sense here. ITV 1 is a premium football channel and they have to be careful not to dilute it (now they no longer have Championship football). Of course sport like hockey etc may also be available.

Who would pay to watch daytime ITV4 in HD? 70’s programming surely cannot look that much better in HD!
Would a new ITV5 as a music channel in HD work OR CAN NEWS CHANNELS MAKE MONEY? Probably No and Certainly not. ITV radio might work though.

They could buy out Channel 5 and More 4 American series and get reasonable viewers with the one big hit (a sort of NCIS in the last year in the US - despite being against American Idol)

A man who knows what he is talking about: David Elstein explained in the Times recently how The Guardian is the best drama on Five. Cheap to purchase and plenty of repeats. And I thought it was NCIS after allowing for viewership. He also mentioned the cross promotion in Richad Desomnd's Newspapers of Five.

Yippee AlJazeera English on Freeview and it ain’t bad! Like the Keiser Report on RT
World Cup - ITV better than BBC but I managed to miss Danny Baker on Match of the Day (2 I presume). Jonathan Pearce and Peter Drury best commentators. I may be in a minority but I actually liked the Barnsley-born monotone Mick McCarthy as number 1 pundit. Loved Edgar David’s style and Clarence Seedorf it too good as BBC pundit.
The People's Republic of South Yorkshre also provide the Wprld Cup Final Referee - as I expeted refereeing woth British commonsense means ignoring the rules!

Germany douze points - after the Eurovision, and beating England - surely not the World Cup! Well done Spain - Dutch Cloggers and Dirty Dutch (not the DJ Chuckie album - which has some good tunes) made the British press.

Recent Russian spy scandal in USA - More Chuck than NCIS, Burn Notice or CSI: Miami. Certainly not Cold War style James Bond but may be more Man From Uncle if we are going much further into the past, Those Russians are everywhere (eg tennis) except at the World Cup. I think Sleeper Cell is way off though.
Mind you, based on the press coverage it is in the public interest that the attractive Russian brunette should be allowed to live in GB! However, perhap a show on RT would be acceptable (Freeview 85)!

Of course when I talk about Mossad, I only know about Ziva David in NCIS (Channel 5 viewers)

Mathematically, the following is now erroneous
England back after Robbie Earle is equivalent to England doing very well in the World Cup.

The Closer is back on More4 in the UK

April 2010 - a review

Volcanic Ash -
Eruption - I Can‘t Stand the Rain was a hit before we had all heard of Umbrella. The group name rather than the song title is most relevant

Perhaps the French should have re-opened Sangatte to deal with the queues at Calais

I agree with Nick, this should be on the advertising hoardings!

Bigot-gate

I guarantee 4th

ITV- Programmes are better

ITV's programmes are improving but viewers need to read the schedules! I happened across Season 7 of Monk on ITV1 on Saturdays at episode 2, thanks to reading a tv listing. Fortunately, these can be seen on itvplayer. When new seasons of US/Cult programmes happen, ITV need to let us all know! We know Dollhouse is on as it was regularly promoted on ITV4.
The IPL was excellent - although you could see the lull in games mid-way through the tournament. The other thing about the IPL was the top calibre of cricketer - apart from the world T20 cup-winning Pakistanis. What other cheap top-notch sport is out there which can be broadcast live on ITV4? May I suggest the Australian (Rugby League) State of Origin series as I believe Sky have not purchased these yet?

Employment for sportsmen?

One thing which has been mentioned on the Channel 9 coverage is that at least one of their floor managers in the NRL coverage used to play at the top level, for Parramata I think. This begs the thought that footballers and cricketers in the UK need to consider broadcasting not just punditry as their next career. For instance cameramen, directors etc could be ex-players. It seems obvious to me that it would be better to have ex-footballers in more of the roles. Also a tactics/analyzer red button whereby coaches and others interested in tactics can hear and see the game through that viewpoint would be desirable.

More ways to save ITV

- sell 3D rights to SKY for sporting events or organise it themselves eg World Cup 2010
- try and organise 3D for its sport coverage
- sell other secondary rights to SKY as SKY can compete adequately with ITV but not BBC1
- sell the equivalent of red button coverage to SKY
- ITV1 is the only mass audience commercial TV channel which can allow certain years of sponsorship and advertising eg X-FACTOR,
- ITV4 should have even more cheap live sport - IPL is the latest addition (and if Morgan does well, watch those Irish viewers grow). NRL would be a good candidate
- ITV4 or a new ITV5 should also have quality foreign language drama (an equivalent of Wallander, or French dramas etc. Note STV have captured some of the cheaper Irish and Australian dramas)

BBC's top football commentator?

You don’t know what you’re doing! Not having the best football commentator in the country as your number 1 at the world cup is silly. BBC - hang your head in shame at the apparent demotion of Jonathan Pearce UNLESS IT IS A WAY OF SAVING MONEY. Anyway, I do like the golden voice of Dave Woods on FIVE and of course his rugby league commentary on the BBC.
Finally, both BBC and ITV have discovered that if you have a drama stretched over five days at 9pm can get you reasonable levels of viewers and share. Even CSI on FIVE can be hurt by this and live football.

STV - where to go

STV - should find time to diversify more into sport at which Scots are good at or play a lot. STV should seriously consider giving more coverage to Curling and more Magners League and the level below. I have always assumed that the cost per hour of sports is the cheapest production in TV. I know there is a danger that STV could be mocked but come the next Winter Olympics, they may reap the rewards...Ski-ing, tennis and other sports may be too expensive but could be cheaper in conjunction with another eg SKY or even ITV. The Rugby World Cup reminds STV, UTV and HTV Wales that they will need their own after match programmes...
STV may face competition from BBC ALBA to amke things worse for its sport coverage.

Music for insurance events

These are some of my favourite tunes but only one is possibly associated to insurance events:
UK Flood 2007 ie
Rihanna - Umbrella

And the ones which should have applied:

Lucifer - House for Sale - big hit in the Netherlands a long time ago - song for every recession and negative equity

Red Hot Chill Peppers - Snow should have been re-released in the UK a few months ago!

ITV's FA cup woes - disaster just averted

Spurs, Villa and Man City going out of the FA Cup over a six-nations weekend could have spelt disaster for ITV’s future FA cup ratings in the UK. As it turned out replays could be a blessing in two ways. The ITV hierarchy do not want us to see workman-like Birmingham City (or is that the coaching genius who is Alex McLeish) win dour games. However, ITV do like an angry Neil Warnock. Chelsea’s next round match against Stoke or Man City should be televised and the ITV shareholder should be hoping for Man City to beat Stoke from a financial viewpoint as well as Spurs and Villa getting through. However, there may be some tasty replays and clichés still to be seen and heard on ITV1 and ITV4 before the next round commences.
Meanwhile, SkySports News are always keen to remind us after each round how average attendances are generally falling at FA Cup ties compared to league fixtures...
thoguh Southampton's rose which they also pointed out as regularly.
FIVE up their game this week with Liverpool FC (in the Europa Cup) and The Mentalist, alongside NCIS which is struggling to compete with Midsomer Murders when it is shown on ITV1. Even, I watch the latter and I am a big NCIS fan as I still watch virtually all the repeats on FIVE and most of them on FIVE USA. The reason for watching Midsomer is that the ITVPlayer does not show Midsomer but Demand FIve and my VCR allow me to watch NCIS. The current big guns in FIVE's tv armoury are brand new CSI and CSI:NY, brand new The Mentalist, new to Five "NCIS" and the UEFA Cup. Brand new NCIS is the top-rated programme on FX. Also LIVING has first-run rights to CSI:MIAMI another of FIVE's top-rating programmes

NCIS is restarting again from the beginning this time on FIVE USA, and is alongside the CSI franchises, also a top-10 programme on that network. NCIS is also probably the best value programme on FIVE. Repeated very often on second-run rights nowadays, the US success of the show is phenomenal - miles ahead of other dramas even while up against American Idol.

Will 3D TV be succesful enough in the United Kingdom?

Note how three-dimensional is now spelt differently: 3D. This is essential...the internet (was a longer word which) eventually became the web.

It will be profitable but more slowly than HD as the TVs are not readily available yet. This assumes that after Avatar's ongoing success and the acclaim (or is that publicity) on SkySportsNews and SkyNews that their 3D on a big TV coverage got of the Arsenal v Man U game. As long as the Cinema/BBC 3D offering of rugby union this weekend is not bad then the answer will be...yes.

How much would subscribers be prepared to pay for HD and 3D on top of the standard definition subscription? Clearly ITV HD should be able to generate revenue from this, eventually as will of course the BBC after breaking the distinction between Black & White and Colour licence fees and trying to grab a share of the HD subcription fees.

Finally, could the Rugby World Cup be a moneyspinner for ITV (ie England win and big performance or for S4C if given coverage rights).