Posted by: RFM on: September 13, 2009
Bree arrives home in a new silver Lexus and all the other Desperate Housewives gather round to admire it. James Bond taps into a terror network using a Sony laptop. In Moonlight, Beth Turner takes a picture of the crime scene with her iPhone…
All of the above are examples of product placement, a form of [...]
Posted by: RFM on: August 24, 2009
Here are a few stories I’ve been sitting on for a while:
Mountains Out Of Molehills | Information Is Beautiful
Newspaper ABCs. This is an interesting story. Although newspaper circulation figures have been steadily falling anyway, a lot of figures have been artificially inflated by means of the inclusion of “bulks”: giveaway copies you might find on [...]
Posted by: RFM on: June 15, 2009
Media Guardian carries the news that Primeval has been dropped by ITV. As a cheap substitute for Doctor Who, Primeval did its best to capture that Saturday evening family audience, but with half the original cast missing and an obviously slashed special effects budget, the last series struggled.
It still managed over 5 million viewers, but [...]
Posted by: RFM on: April 26, 2009
Most people realise that an “internet sensation” can happen overnight, spread around the world in 24 hours, and be over within a couple of weeks. Most people, but not ITV, who are struggling to come to terms with the success of Susan Boyle on YouTube. According to estimates in this Observer article, ITV have missed [...]
Posted by: RFM on: February 25, 2009
Here’s a potentially huge story:
via ITV proposes merger with Channel 4 and Five to create broadcasting giant.
ITV are about to announce really bad results. Channel 4 is struggling. Five is more or less where it was 10 years ago, with a tiny audience share, but the average person only watches Five for an hour and [...]
Posted by: RFM on: September 15, 2008
ITV chairman Michael Grade (who has had stints in charge of Channel 4 and the BBC before joining ITV) calls YouTube a “parasite” – what does he mean?
“The day that Google or Joost or any of these people start investing £1bn a year in UK content is the day I’ll start to be worried,” he [...]
Posted by: RFM on: July 2, 2008
1. Journalist Christopher Hitchens caused controversy when he wrote a column featuring the opinion that the US troops’ habit of “waterboarding” suspects in Iraq and elsewhere fell short of being actual torture. So he was challenged to try it for himself. His conclusion?
2. Among other things, top-rated Top Gear is criticised for showing a drink-driving [...]
Posted by: RFM on: June 25, 2008
1. Redesigned full-colour Sunday Times will launch this weekend.
2. BBC disses ITV.
3. Gaydar Radio (does this really exist?) is annoyed by yesterday’s story (see below) about the Heinz ad, and is calling for a boycott of Heinz. Which of Heinz’s 57 varieties could you not live without? Do consumer boycotts work?
4. From the Telegraph: apparently, [...]
