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For many, 2007 was television’s annus horribilis, beginning with the Big Brother racism controversy (see Big Brother Controversy Could Force C4 To Rethink Remit) and travelling onward through claims of fakery and telephone fraud. Unsurprisingly then, the issue of viewer trust was one of the big themes of the recent MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival.Andy… Continue reading TV Festival Looks At Viewer Trust

Last year’s annual MacTaggart lecture saw outgoing ITV boss Charles Allen use the platform to strongly criticise Channel 4. In 2007, under a cloud of deception and viewer mistrust, Newsnight anchor Jeremy Paxman took his turn on the podium to deliver a scathing speech.Paxman outlined the trivial and more serious “contemptible” allegations of dishonesty and… Continue reading Paxman Scorns “Contemptible” Annus Horribilus

Vint Cerf, one of the creators of the internet and currently Google’s chief internet evangelist, made some bold predictions at the recent MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival (MGEITF), conjuring up visions of a Martian internet and super-fast downloads.Presenting the Alternative McTaggart lecture at the festival, Cerf’s speech was quite different from Jeremy Paxman’s lament for… Continue reading MGEITF 2007: Internet ‘Godfather’ Looks To The Future

July was a good month for commercial revenues for terrestrial channels, which saw an overall increase of 9.6% year on year. Only GMTV recorded a dip in its monthly revenue, as the fallout from the phone-in controversy bit (see GMTV MD To Leave Following Phone-In Scandal).Channel 4 had the best monthly increase amongst the terrestrial… Continue reading TV Market Round-Up – July 2007

New software for the Playstation 3 will allow the console to become a personal video recorder, letting users record and playback digital terrestrial television.The PlayTV software will be available first in the UK, France, Germany and Spain from early next year, with more countries to follow.Recorded programmes can be streamed over a wireless internet connection… Continue reading PS3 To Become PVR

For the second month in a row, ITV1 was the only terrestrial channel to see a year on year rise in its viewing share in all homes.All other terrestrial channels felt a slide in their share for the month in all homes, with BBC One seeing the greatest fall of almost three percentage points.All ViewingITV1… Continue reading Television Viewing Round-Up – July 2007

Channel 4 has announced it is to “rest” the Celebrity Big Brother format, following a shake-up of the channel’s 9pm weeknight slot.This year’s series brought huge controversy to the channel following alleged bullying and racism from several housemates including Jade Goody (see Big Brother Controversy Could Force C4 To Rethink Remit).Julian Bellamy, Channel 4 head… Continue reading Peak Revamp Spells “Rest” For Celeb Big Brother

Worldwide sales of mobile phones to end users in the second quarter of 2007 reached 270.9 million units, a 17.4% increase from the same period last year, according to new figures from Gartner. It predicts worldwide mobile phone sales will reach 1.13 billion units in 2007. Carolina Milanesi, research director for mobile devices research at… Continue reading Worldwide Mobile Phone Sales Grew 17% In Q2 2007

Nearly three quarters of the public claim they will not take part in a television phone-in competition again, judging them difficult to trust following this summer’s scandals.The poll was commissioned for the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International TV Festival (MGEITF) for its “Trust Me…I’m in Telly” panel debate, which will feature Andy Duncan, chief executive of Channel… Continue reading MGEITF 2007: Phone-Ins Lose Popularity Through Trust Issues

An extra 24,000 customers have signed up to BT’s IPTV service, BT Vision, in the past two months, according to reports in the trade press.The customer base has more than doubled since the last figures released at the end of June, according to unofficial figures from a source at BT Vision.The source stated that BT… Continue reading BT Vision Subscribers Up 24,000 in Two Months