ITV has axed DCI Banks after five seasons. The current fifth season began here on BBC First last month.
Twenty-First Century Fox has posted a notice today that it has reached a preliminary deal to buy British pay TV giant Sky for a deal worth approx $14.1 billion.
Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc. (“21st Century Fox”)… confirms that it has reached an agreement in principle in relation to a possible offer (the “Possible Offer”) to acquire all of the outstanding shares in Sky it does not already own at a price of £10.75 per share payable in cash less the value of any dividends subsequently paid by Sky.
The Independent Directors of Sky have indicated to 21st Century Fox that they are willing to recommend the Possible Offer, subject to reaching agreement on the other terms and conditions of any offer.
In the past several years, 21st Century Fox has consistently stated that its existing 39.1% stake in Sky is not a natural end position. A proposed transaction between 21st Century Fox and Sky would bring together 21st Century Fox’s global content business with Sky’s world-class direct-to-consumer capabilities, which have made it the number one premium pay-TV provider in all its markets.
This is one of BBC One’s new idents for 2017. It’s pretty bad.
Patricia Routledge, best known for playing Hyacinth Bucket in Keeping Up Appearances, was made a Dame in the Queen’s New Year’s Day honours, for her services to theatre and charity.
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I wouldn’t call that an ident at all - it’s simply a video with the BBC One logo and their new ‘oneness’ (cringe) tag line slapped on top
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There’s an idea there, but it hasn’t been executed well.
What BBC One has tried to do with this refresh is try to convey their ‘oneness’ with the community and place emphasis on their public service commitments as well. The only problem with the execution is it’s lazy. A few people exercising and swimming does not effectively communicate the core meaning behind the rebrand. They needed to do something more profound or eyecatching. It doesn’t help that almost everything about those two idents is dreary as. A grey beach and a bland room with unflattering depictions of people, and then you see the BBC One logo. What does that tell you about your brand? What appreciation does that give me of the BBC in general?
Compare this effort to one of the ABC’s idents (a dingo singing the ABC notes in a country landscape): you have the outback (a quintessentially Australian backdrop), you have the ABC worm front and centre, and you have the iconic ABC notes. It’s a really effective piece of branding, because you’ve just pelted the viewer with every important aspect of the ABC’s branding in a short 10 second window. The ABC notes are there, as they have been for decades; here’s a playlist of ABC idents from the 1990s with the same iconic notes. There are so many layers of branding in the dingo ident which call back to fond memories and make the viewer appreciate the history and importance of the broadcaster: its role in Australian culture, its reflection of our society, its own history.
I’m saddened that BBC One never developed a brand along the same lines, but regardless, they still could’ve rebranded the channel along familiar lines by continuing with the same musical notes they had during the 2006 circles era with new idents focusing on another aspect with some landscape shots of London or something.
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If you ask me, the new BBC One Idents are terrible. A decade or so of running mostly the same look and the best they could come up with is a concept which appears to be awfully inspired by ITV and ABC ME (except with less creativity/variety in puns) Idents? Really, the much panned “Rhythm & Movement” BBC One Idents from 2002-06 look absolutely fantastic in comparison. At least those ones had some nice music!
Anyway, I completely agree with matlock. The current Idents we get on the ABC’s main channel here in Australia are far better.
Even if the local news is still only produced in SD, at least the ABC can also do localised variations of it’s main HD channel…
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New Channel 5 Show
Documentary series following six British families embarking on the one-way trip of a lifetime - emigrating to Australia to start a new life.
The first program focuses on Northamptonshire man Justin Bradstreet, who went backpacking in Australia in his youth and now wants to settle there with his partner and daughter. However, the reality of living in Adelaide may not measure up to his happy memories
New show “Let It Shine”, which features Danni Minogue, beat “The Voice UK” in the head to head ratings battle. “The Voice UK” ratings were the lowest season launch of the series to date.
Channel 4 has renewed My Kitchen Rules UK for a second season of 40 x 60 min episodes.
Is this one more like the Aussie version?
Is the new season of The Voice the first one produced by ITV?
Yes it is.
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Rumours abound on TVForum that the BBC is heading for a total overhaul soonish. Not just a single channel, but a whole suite of channels.
Meanwhile, BBC Three refreshed its current branding a little. It’s apparent the similar branding was rushed out last year before the channel headed online only; the newer look simply updates and gives polish to the look.
BBC One used one of their OLD idents before Panorama (the british 60 minutes?). This proves how bad their “oneness” idents are, if they can’t use it for programmes like Panorama.
They seem to announce the end of series earlier and earlier these days.
Inspector George Gently will finish with its eighth season, consisting of two movie-length episodes.
Anyone who likes a good promo should checkout this BBC Science promo on TV Forum.
In case you have missed, Sir Michael Parkinson was named honorary Australian of the Year during a ceremony at Australia House in London last week. He was presented with the award by High Commissioner Alexander Downer.
The 2017 National Television Awards were held in London on Wednesday. Winners include Mrs Brown’s Boys, Call the Midwife, and Ant & Dec. Graham Norton was presented with the Special Recognition Award and paid tribute to Carrie Fisher, who was one of very few stars to become friends with him. (She suffered a heart attack during a flight back from London where she appeared on an episode of The Graham Norton Show, in what will now be her last interview, and died a few days later)
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Something I haven’t seen mentioned yet: Sky and Discovery are in a carriage dispute and it’s gone public, as per this TV Forum thread.
Basically, Sky and Discovery have been negotiating a new carriage deal for a year, and Sky has been only willing to offer an amount below what Discovery received a decade ago. This is partly because the costs of Sky’s Premier League rights deal will jump over 80% in 2018, and there is some belt-tightening as a result. This has already seen some cutbacks at Sky News UK and the entertainment production side of things.
Discovery owns some lifestyle and documentary channels as well as Eurosports (broadcaster of the Australian Open and Olympics), and they’ve gone public, urging people to complain to Sky as to pressure the broadcaster into caving. Discovery shelled out a fortune for the Olympics so they’re quite pissed at a weak offer by Sky.
Super interesting battle being played out. Sky’s rivals are probably rubbing their hands together in delight, since the channels are likely to disappear off Sky’s EPG in the next few days.