All entries for Thursday 08 February 2007

Sillyband

Er… whoops. David Miliband’s made a bit of a cock-up on Question Time, suggesting that Gordon Brown will be less popular than Tony Blair…

“I predict that when I come back on this programme in six months or a year’s time, people will be saying ‘wouldn’t it be great to have that Blair back because we can’t stand that Gordon Brown’.”

It’s a shame, because he’s a pretty decent politician and incredibly clever. He’d be a good foil to the Dour One.

But the odds on Miliband ever becoming Labour leader will have just taken a big knock. Silly billy.

Christopher Doidge : 08 Feb 2007 23:52 |  Tags: David Miliband Gordon Brown Government Labour Party Politics Tony Blair |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Sky wave the white flag at the Beeb

Listen…

That’s the sound of the retreat.

Sky are to pull Sky News, Sky Sports News and Sky Three from the Freeview platform in order to use the space for pay-per-view football and films.

I’m not personally worried by the loss of the latter two, but the absence of Sky News from Freeview is bad news all round.

The channel’s been on the slide ever since its expensive revamp in 2005, culminating in the loss of the channel’s boss, Nick Pollard. BBC News 24 has pulled ahead in the ratings, largely thanks to cross-promotion from BBC One and the increased number of recognisable ‘faces’ on the channel, such as Huw Edwards and Ben Brown.

But the news that Sky News is to retreat from such a popular platform (almost certainly losing a large percentage of its viewers) suggests Sky has little faith in the future of their news operation. The latest figures from BARB suggest 9% of the population see a bit of Sky News every week – but only being available on Sky and Cable will probably reduce this substantially.

Sky News also has incredibly low advertising rates – they’re not exactly rolling in cash, even if the channel’s a bit of a loss-leader for the Sky brand.

But it’s not just bad news for Sky. The demise of the ITV News Channel in 2005 was bad enough, as it was just becoming half-decent when it was killed off. But soon there will be little competition for BBC News 24. And not even the most ardent of BBC fans want to see an end to the rivalry between the two.

It’s not good for journalists, and it’s not good for viewers.

Christopher Doidge : 08 Feb 2007 23:06 |  Tags: BBC News 24 Freeview Journalism News Sky News Television |  Comments (4) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

The view from my window, 7.48am

Christopher Doidge : 08 Feb 2007 07:48 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem