Programmes George Orwell couldn’t possibly have foreseen that his 1949 literary classic 1984 would become the basis for commisioning editors’ great new programme ideas. With celebrity’s own personal hell being banished to Room 101 on BBC2, Channel 4 decided to use the book’s main protagonist Big Brother for its summer schedule.Already a big hit in… Continue reading TV Viewing Round Up – July 2000
The last round of bidding for broadcasting rights to Premier League football matches not only raised unprecedented amounts of money for the league itself, but also ushered in what could be the future for making profit beyond ad revenue when screening matches. NTL won rights to show 44 matches as pay-per-view (PPV) events, but recent… Continue reading Insight Analysis: Viewers Will Resist Pay Per View TV, Says Survey
A leading force in ITV has finally emerged as Granada Media made the pounce for the television assets of United News & Media just over a week ago. The £1.75 billion deal with UNM makes Granada the undisputed leader of Britain’s main commercial TV network. The group gains control of the Meridian, Anglia and HTV… Continue reading Feature: Northern Star Rises Across ITV Network
RevenueAgency estimates put year on year growth in terrestrial television revenue (including GMTV) at 19.6%, with the total now at £245 million. This comprised ITV revenue’s 20% rise to £169 million, Channel 4’s growth of 15.3% to £53 million, Channel 5’s revenue rise of 33.8% to £18 million and GMTV’s 7.5% year on year increase… Continue reading TV Market Round-Up – June 2000
Programmes June must have been torture for those people who don’t enjoy sport. If you somehow managed to avoid football’s Euro 2000 tournament on either of the main two terrestrial channels, you probably couldn’t miss Test Match cricket, Formula One grand prix or the first week of Wimbledon 2000.Surprisingly, considering how badly England played and… Continue reading TV Viewing Round Up – June 2000
Revenue Total terrestrial revenue (including GMTV) rose by 14.3% year on year to reach £251 million, according to agency estimates. Of this, ITV’s revenue rose 15.4% to £173 million; Channel 4’s grew by 9.8% to £54 million and Channel 5 saw its revenue rise by 17.6% to £18 million.Revenue at breakfast franchise GMTV grew by… Continue reading TV Market Round-Up – May 2000
A decline in viewing figures for ITV’s Nightly News programme prompted talk of a court battle last week after the ITC insisted that the network bring forward the time of its 11pm news slot. ITV had asked permission to scrap the News at Ten a year earlier but after the schedule change lead to a… Continue reading Feature: How Much More News Can We Take?
Programmes May comes along and the viewers start melting away quicker than England’s back four. With a dearth of decent new programmes in the schedules, terrestrial television is beginning to resemble UK Gold with its output. In times of crisis programme makers always rely on the safe, tried and tested programmes to grab big audience… Continue reading TV Viewing Round Up – May 2000
It is unlikely that TV presenter Keith Chegwin ever thought that the more private parts of his anatomy would come under close media scrutiny. Having made his name in children’s television shows some twenty years ago he’s better known these days for location slots on breakfast television. Neither genre is known for its smut, but… Continue reading Feature: Channel Five Stirs Up A Storm With Naked Programming
The large television audiences gained by international football matches and competitions are a key bargaining tool for commercial TV networks to squeeze more revenue out of advertisers. Top home nation games can achieve by far the highest viewing figures of the whole year’s schedule, with an audience that is larger than average across the men,… Continue reading Feature: Advertisers Line Up As Euro 2000 Kicks Off
