Channel 4 posted its biggest deficit of all time last year in what was a chastening financial year, with content boss Ian Katz deciding to reject his bonus.
The Gogglebox network, which at the start of 2023 avoided being sold off by the government, revealed a deficit of £50M ($65M) for full-year 2023, with bosses stressing today at an annual report briefing that it had prioritized content spend over keeping the deficit down.
Eden officially becomes U&eden and goes free to air [on Freeview, Freesat, & Freely, it went free to view of Sky a few days ago] on the 16th, with new idents to boot. U&YESTERDAY+1 [which only broadcast for 2 hours from 5-7am to only show infomercials] closes on that day as well. It’s current scheduling will remain, mostly showing repeats of shows from U&W & U&YESTERDAY, with nature shows mainly on Sundays & early mornings.
Also, Alibi & Gold rebrand into U&alibi & U&GOLD on November 7th. Both of these channels will retain their current idents, with the new branding stuck on top [as of now]. This makes sense, as both of these idents sets are younger [albeit, nearly a decade old now] compared to Eden’s, which are a 2012 revision of its launch idents from January 2009.
Coronation Street and Emmerdale will now be available to watch first on ITVX each morning.
Fans of the long-running soaps will be able to stream episodes from 7am, ahead of their usual broadcast on ITV1.
The change, which comes into place from Monday 14 October, coincides with the introduction of a new Soap page on ITVX.
Shouldn’t be a surprisd though. Shows like Love Island, Made in Chelsea and Geordie Shore inhabit the same space and are more risque. Big Brother would be quite boring in comparison now.
I don’t think that’s the reason at all as Big Brother is seen as the antidote to those sort of shows.
It’s probably MAFSUK literally occupying the same space and getting 2m viewers an episode which is the bigger obstacle.
Well, it’s the same thing. That show is outrageous and pushing the limits of reality. The producers’ intervention is obvious and the show is so contrived. Big Brother tries to be a social experiment. Although it does have its fair share of intervention which affects the outcome, it just will not be as “shocking” as those other shows now.
I wonder if this will include the big yearly Christmas Day episodes?
You’d think they’d want them first run in the night but I hope not cause if they’re released at 7am UK time then Aussie viewers can watch on Xmas night roughly 5/6pm on Dailymotion.
I think ITV have actually released the Christmas Day episodes earlier the last couple of years anyway becasuse they don’t usually get a look in thanks to the BBC dominance, and they’ll be even more dominant this year with Gavin and Stacey returning.
I do think there is something of a false demand for daily early releases - people are feeling they have to watch early just to avoid the spoilers that others watching early, and the media, now post. Personally I think it’s rather short sighted of ITV to make it even easier for viewers to abandon them in the evenings for Netflix etc. and though the overall soap ratings probably won’t change much it could impact their early evening news ratings and lead in for the 9pm shows.
New idents on the new FTA U&Eden - the frosted glass wordmark looked kinda cool:
Their off-air loop has also updated with the new wordmark.
Jeremy Clarkson has revealed that he recently underwent emergency heart surgery, including the insertion of a stent, after he was suddenly taken ill after returning home from holiday.
The show will launch in December with a Christmas special and then series one in 2025 will include a run of 24 episodes.
Update
I suspect the next series will shine a light more on the health of farmers. Millionaire has now been recommissioned now the Meghan column is distant history - to be fair to Clarkson as disgusting as that column was the fallout was managed superbly, mainly as the apology felt genuine rather than PR managed.