Silence is golden

Bless me, Blogosphere, for I have sinned. It’s been months since I last posted here.

I have no real excuse, I just kept putting it off until I had something realy interesting to say, but then I’d got out of the habit and, well now it’s 2009.

What’s been happening? Well, the world carrried on, the media industry is stil just as messed up as before, most of the vegetables in my back garden died, and well, you get the picture, life carried on just fine.

I will try and get back to posting my general and industry musings here. Meanwhile, however, do have a have a look at my warious other web presences on Facebook, Twitter, etc…

Richard

BBC Proms

It seems like such a long time ago that I watched the first night of the Proms on BBC2 TV. Well tonight I watched the last night. A full-on British tradition. National Anthem and all. And Bryn rocked, even in that somewhat questionable waistcoat (but the Falstaff costume wa brilliant!).

The BBC do deserve recognition for continuing with this most excellent of summer festivals, against ever changing fashion, trend and, of course, budgets.

But I still ask, as ever, was it really as musically accessible as it could or should be.

Nevertheless, my congratulations to the Proms & Maistro team. Looking forward to next year already.

Long Live the Studio

Is it just me, or are there more big studio shows being made on TV at the moment?

It certainly seems that way to me. And that’s good news. I think.

We’ve been through a very long period of decine in studio use. Or rather a major increase in location TV work. But perhaps that has plateaued now and the commissioners have remembered, or maybe rediscovered, the flexibility and real value of the great British TV studio.

In fact we never really lost it. The few regular studio show we managed to keep over the last decade were enough to sustain the facilities and, most importantly, the skill set, in this most perculiar discipline.

Major primetime jugganaut shows like X-Factor and Strictly Come Dancing, both hugely successful exports, completely depend on this incredibly high skillbase.

So I’m glad to say, ‘long live the studio!’ Back here to stay. Again. Hopefully…

BBC Compliance

I watched “Long Way Round” on BBC1 earlier. It was originally a Sky One (& US) commission, where Ewan McGregor & his mate Charlie Boorman ride motorcycles from London to New York, the long way around.

A fascinating, good fun series and one that I’ve watched a few times already on Sky. However, since the success of the follow up “Long Way Down” (John O’Grotes to Capetown), which was commissioned and broadcast on BBC1, they’ve picked up the rights to re-show it themselves.

A sensible decision, though I don’t understand why the late night slot or the tendency for double episodes. Rather wastefull. Surely it would be better for a primetime slot on BBC3?

Anyway, what I found interesting was the compliance changes for BBC broadcast. There was an awful lot of pixelation/blurring out of the commercial branding on the bikes. I’m a tad confused by this, to be honest. I always thought it was a bit blatent on Sky, but surely it must have passed their compliance checks, and in theory they should be very similar to the BBC ones now.

However, there also seemed to be quite a lot of editing too. Now, this could have been for timing issues, to a certain extent, as a BBC hour is much longer than a commercial one. But my suspicion is that actually the edits were compliance related again. I distinctly remember bits about the specs of the bikes that were pretty integral to the ’story’ that were absent tonight.

My question is, who is in the wrong? Was it the BBC being overcautious, since the RDF Queengate scandal? Or was it Sky letting through major paid for branding in the programme content? Or perhaps a bit of both.

Face it, BBC overkill and Sky rule-stretching. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, Either way.

Product Placement is on it’s way to the UK. And it’s needed, as long as we regulate it carefully, which I’m sure Ofcom will do well.

Fixed fuel highs

Today I had 2 run-ins with fuel.

Firstly I needed to fill up the Car with unleaded petrol. £54. Fifty four pounds!!! I still manage 400 miles to the tank, but WOW, that’s SO expensive! It just can’t go on, people can’t afford it. But equally I cannot forsee it going down.

The other fuel run-in was when I went online (not with my nonfunctioning broadband, you understand!) to see about changing my gas & electricity supplier. Amazingly, despite the headlines, I managed to sign up to a new rate for combined duel fuel supply. Going via Uswitch.com not only did Eon present a significant saving on my previous account with Scotish Power, but it is capped until October 2009. Yes, you read correctly, today I signed up for cheap, price capped fuel from Eon. I’ll let you know what happens. Somehow I predict a problem…

And I used moneysupermarket.com to change my car insurance. Various changes to my old policy, but a very good deal.

These price comparison websites are well worthwhile. I’m rather impressed!

Broadband news coming soon…

Regulation news

The first 3 headline stories on the main BBC news at 10pm this evening were all international reports – the Turkish bombing, the Indian bombing and Radovan Karadij. 2 of them not even European.

I watched it and was reminded that we Brits are a nation where international news is consumed at an equal, or perhaps even higher level, than domestic reports. Tales of the Prime Minister’s woes were relegated to much later on in the broadcast.

In part this is due to the success and ratings dominance of the BBC, a well funded state broadcater. However I doubt the commercial ITV/ITN News at 10 would have been much if any different. And that is down to public appetite for international news.

As an industry we have become used to the incredibly detailed, over-regulation by OfCom and it’s predecessors and I often find myself critisising or at least questioning them. However one rule I whole heartedly support is the required absence of direct sponsorship of news programmes.

Overseas broadcaters do not enjoy this particular regulation and as such find their news funding becomes reliant on content that is ‘compatible’ with the sponsor’s brand or image. One only has to look at the ‘Land of the Free’. No bad news and no international news (Well OK, once a week, but that hardly counts).

This is one example where we should infact be grateful for the heavy handed over-regulation we enjoy. Others around then world are not so lucky.

We must not underestimate the value of our Public Service Broadcasters. Please, lets make sure we don’t take them for granted and that we keep them for a long while yet.

Charles Wheeler night, BBC2 & 4

Two and a half weeks ago the veteran BBC journalist Sir Charles Wheeler passed away. He was just one year younger than the corporation and had spent virtually all of his profession career in it’s service. Previously he had risen to the rank of Captain in the British armed forces during WW2.

Stationed in Berlin, once it was over he decided to stay there and looked for work as the Berlin correspondent for a British newspaper. No one wanted him, so he joined the BBC, because, as a friend advised him, ‘they’ll take anyone’. Oh how things change (and what a stroke of luck for Aunty!)

Retrospectives seem to be staple fare for BBC2 at the moment, even more so than usual and tonight was no exception.

Part of the Timeshift strand, ‘Charles Wheeler: a tribute’, and the companion programmes on BBC4, was a fantastic insight, moving epitaph and sincere postumous honour to this broadcast & journalistic megalith. He is still a standard to which we should aspire within our industry, but perhaps not necessary including his penchent for always keeping to the edge of frame!

Hopefully this evening’s broadcast coinciding with the announcement of BBC2 controller Roly Keating’s move to a newly created role within the vast BBC archive does not sign an end to this kind of honour and respective programming. (Let the commissioners’ musical chairs at the terrestrial channels begin again)

I seem to say this a lot now, but where is his replacement? Who is the next Charles Wheeler? Noone obvious comes to mind, waiting patiently in the wings. There must be a young(ish) journalists out there, with similar appetite for the skills, knowledge and integrity, but are we attracting them to British broadcasting? Are we developing and nurturing the talent? Sadly I fear the answere is probably not.

Note to self, must also now watch the “Wheeler on America” series…

The new Brucey

I’ve just watched a bit of ‘Step up to the plate’, the new BBC1 daytime cooking show from Cheetah/Endemol UK. A sweet, simple cook-off format of 2 professional chefs versus amatuer family cooks, preparing 3 courses to be judget by restaurant critic Lloyd Grossman.

Simple premise, but well presented and good daytine fare.

The surprising bit was the presenter – one Anton du Beke, yes he of dancing fame.

Obviously early days, perhaps his first show, but there’s real promise there. He could have a good presenting career ahead of him, if he plays his cards right.

The new Brucey – smiles, dances and Brylcream to boot…

Well done Cheetah!

The reading list continues

I’ve remembered another book I’m reading and enjoying. It’s Peter Arnett’s ‘Live from the battlefield’, a biography of the famous CNN reporter’s experiences. I hunted it down after reading Rober Wiener’s ‘Live from Baghdad’ recently. And that’s another book I liked.

I seem to be a typical bloke, enjoying my biographies and non-fiction books in general (‘Catch 22′ is an exception to the rule and and recent departure). Especially those related to journalism and broadcasting.

I am basically a frustrated broadcast journalist. There, I said it.

Anyway, I think I may have too many books on the go at the moment…

The Proms and all that Jazz. Nice.

Is it really Proms season already? Where did the year go?

I must say that I was rather pleased to see it regain it’s rightfull place on BBC2, as opposed to BBC4 like last year. I’m not entirely sure whether it’s because it deserves the higher profile exposure or that it leaves BBC4 free to continue doing what it does best – being the place to think… Either way, or a bit of both, hopefully it will last the whole season out on BBC2, though I suspect the TV coverage might again be a tad sparse.

Talking of the coverage, what was the studio set all about? It had the feel of a football match with half time commentary and analysis! Very odd and quite unexpected. Gone was the feeling of actually being part of the auditorium audience, reaplaced with distant TV spectator.

Oh, and why was there a Dragon’s Den business expert on the couch passing judgement on the music? Remind me again what her connection to music is? Oh yes, she played the piano at school. And has a new series of DD starting… It begins…

BTW, where were the half time oranges, that’s what I want to know?