-
-
What on earth is My Current?
This week we've got mighty crocks, mighty money, mighty Taliban fire and as well as all that we'll tell you all about My Current.
/////////////////////////////
My tip of the week is to for you guys to get back on first name terms with My Current. It gives you a personalised news feed by showing all the stories that your friends have been interacting with so you get a great idea of what is happening in your current world. If you’re interested in Barbie dolls and fishing reels, then find someone else who likes those things and follow them on current. You’ll soon build your very own micro-community dedicated to the things you like. So get into My Current and prune the people you follow so you're following people with similar interests.
http://www.current.com/mycurrent
And remember, VOTE, this is your website, so if you don’t like something being on the front page then make sure you cast your vote. On the flip side, if you want to see more of something on current then share the topic with your friends and get voting on it! As ever, we’d love to hear your thoughts!
/////////////////////////////////
http://current.com/items/89358138_british_oap_snatched_...
DonkeyPong told the current crowds that a British OAP had been snatched by a crocodile in the Australian outback. Nasty stuff, especially when the pictures emerged showing just how massive the croc was! Matt512 wins the “weird interpretation” award for his enlightening comment, “Why did they take the crocodile away? I'd be pissed if I ate a chicken, then 10 large chickens came to my house and tied me up and took me away.”
http://current.com/items/89360224_itv_to_embed_ads_into...
MrKASADY clipped a story from the Daily Mail this week that those sneaky chaps at ITV are planning on embedding advertisements directly into our TV shows! There weren’t many positive messages coming back in about this story, so I think Earth_Corporation summed it up well, “This is truly sick”.
http://current.com/items/89350710_tv_presenters_dive_fo...
Mista_G told us about Ant and Dec’s brush with danger while they were in Afghanistan presenting a Pride of Britain Bravery Award. It was brave of them to show up, since they had to run for cover when the Taliban attacked Camp Bastion in Helmand Province. The comments took on an air of scepticism about the story, some suggesting it was all spin, tallmansam declaired “oh no not our lovely ant and dec! what would we do if we had no more saturday night takeaway!”
http://current.com/items/89355007_lottery_teen_to_be_na...
Finally there was the news brought to us by nhkis about the lucky 19 year old Ianthe Fullagar who won £7 million on the EuroMillions lottery and then thought it was a good idea to have a press conference about it before she went to University. Good idea? PurpleFox didn’t think so, “Eek, if I'd won that much money I wouldn't want everyone to know about it… Good luck to her though - hope she puts it to better use than some previous teen (or even adult) winners.”
///////////////////
ONE LAST TIP! If you think someone on your contact list will like this blog, then share it with them via the share this tool towards the bottom of the page!
Editor's Picks
http://current.com/topics/88803638_editor_s_picks
Follow us on Twitter
http://twitter.com/CurrentUK This week we've got mighty crocks, mighty money, mighty Taliban fire and as well as all that we'll tell you all about My Cur... more -
ITV to embed ads into TV shows?
The adverts will no longer be avoidable by going to make a cup of tea! The Daily Mail reports that ITV has revealed plans that it is to launch a method of advertising that embeds adverts such as company logos into blank spaces like walls or the sky during television programs. The adverts will no longer be avoidable by going to make a cup of tea! The Daily Mail reports that ITV has revealed plans that it is t... more
-
BSkyB Loses Appeal Over ITV Stake
BSkyB, which owns Sky News, has lost its appeal to keep hold of its 17.9% stake in fellow broadcaster ITV, the Competition Appeal Tribunal has ruled.
BSkyB had challenged a ruling by the Competition Commission that it had to reduce the stake to below 7.5%.
BSkyB bought the stake in 2006 for £940m, or 135p a share.
It was criticised by some at the time as a spoiling measure to stop cable group NTL - now named Virgin Media - from buying ITV.
Virgin Media, backed by Sir Richard Branson, had also appealed to the Tribunal, demanding that BSkyB should be forced to sell the whole stake.
The court said it accepted parts of the Virgin argument.
But it said it would wait to see the reaction from the different groups before deciding whether it needed to be further addressed.
"The Tribunal unanimously decides .... Sky's application is dismissed," Tribunal President Gerald Barling told the court room.
BSkyB said: "We will review the judgment carefully and decide on our next steps in due course." BSkyB, which owns Sky News, has lost its appeal to keep hold of its 17.9% stake in fellow broadcaster ITV, the Competition Appeal Trib... more -
Setanta in World Cup highlights deal with ITV
England football fans unable or unwilling to face trips to Minsk, Astana or Kiev to follow their team’s World Cup fortunes will be glad to hear that a deal has been done to televise highlights of the matches on terrestrial television.
There was considerable upset, especially among tabloid newspaper sports editors, when Setanta, the sports channel operator, failed to reach an agreement with either the BBC or ITV that would allow them to show highlights of the team’s 4-1 defeat of Croatia on September 10.
Setanta has exclusive rights to televise England away games for the next four years.
The broadcasters could not come to terms after Setanta, which paid the FA £5m for the live and highlights rights, demanded a £1m payment for the game.
Both terrestrial broadcasters offered £250,000 in the first instance and although ITV later increased its offer to £500,000, no deal could be done on the day.
Instead, Setanta suspended its encryption for a short period so that viewers with access to its sports channel on satellite, cable or Freeview television were able to see the highlights on the same night.
ITV then paid an undisclosed sum to show the highlights the following evening, drawing an audience of 1.6m, 12 per cent more than had watched the match live.
Now it has agreed with Setanta, again for a cost that has not been made public, that it will show highlights of England’s remaining three away World Cup qualifying games.
England are scheduled to play Belarus on October 15, Kazakhstan on June 6 2009 and Ukraine on October 10 2009. That last game is likely to decide who will qualify in the group for the World Cup finals in South Africa in 2010.
ITV, which already has the rights to England’s home qualifiers, is expected to show the highlights of the three matches at 10.30pm, after its evening news broadcast. England football fans unable or unwilling to face trips to Minsk, Astana or Kiev to follow their team’s World Cup fortunes will be gla... more -
BSkyB concerns over Project Kangaroo
BSkyB has added its voice to concerns about Project Kangaroo, the online television service planned by ITV, Channel 4 and BBC Worldwide, the broadcaster’s commercial arm.
Kangaroo will offer catch-up television and programmes from the three broadcasters’ archives, mostly paid for by advertising, via a service similar to ITV.com or the BBC iPlayer.
Many of the channels on Sky’s subscription TV service draw heavily on archive programming. In its filing to the Competition Commission, which is investigating Kangaroo, Sky argued that the service “might be expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition” in the nascent video-on-demand sector.
Sky also said Kangaroo’s “access to direct and indirect state funding”, because its shareholders are public service broadcasters, gave it a “unique” advantage.
“Kangaroo’s existence may reduce the likelihood of VOD offerings by existing competitors and potentially decrease the likelihood of new entry,” Sky said.
Sky claimed the content provided by its in-house production capabilities would put Kangaroo’s shareholders high on the list for retailers wanting to acquire VOD content, reducing competition for whole rights.
The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 make up 70 per cent of all UK viewing, although Kangaroo argues that online it is unlikely to gain a similar market share owing to competition from international technology providers such as Google and Apple.
Chris Goodall, analyst at Enders, said: “Kangaroo is bound up with regulation of pay TV in the UK in general. There has to be a question whether the British system is overly protective towards the terrestrial broadcasters.”
BT and Tiscali, which both offer on-demand video downloads through their broadband services, are also critical. Kangaroo’s power will give it “de facto exclusivity”, owing to control over content production, Tiscali said, having an “unhealthy effect” on content producers and TV providers. “The small producers will not be able to survive if Kangaroo squeezes their margins too hard.”
Project Kangaroo declined to comment.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008 BSkyB has added its voice to concerns about Project Kangaroo, the online television service planned by ITV, Channel 4 and BBC Worldwid... more -
ITV Boss: YouTube is a parasite
The Chief Exec of ITV has claimed that YouTube is a parasite that lives off the company's £1billion per year programming budget and says he is not worried by the rise of such companies.
Since the former BBC chairman joined ITV PLC its share value has plummeted, this despite a stated goal of reviving the broadcaster's fortunes. The Chief Exec of ITV has claimed that YouTube is a parasite that lives off the company's £1billion per year programming budget a... more -
United Kingdom Talk Thursday 4th September 2008
Thursday's edition of my three times a week talk show.Watch the show here on CURRENT TV on Tues, Thurs & Sats.
In today's show :
Shocked and horrified.
2 chest hairs.
Scratching.
Feeling pain.
Topless.
Daylight bulbs.
Flower bulbs.
Pet news.
Cooking for your pets.
Webcam.
Screaming.
A new gadget and very good service.
You just can't get a decent loaf abroad.
Oh the mess.
Who thinks they are still 11 ?
More help for Catherine.
Dane is not a hairdresser.
Robert on upgrades.
Who is sending texts ?
Orange trouble.
Ingrowing nails.
Play Radio.
Joy not too well.
A gorgeous bloke - but you'll have to wait for the story !
A new heart.
A lovely email from Gloria.
Being nosey.
Monica has trouble "going".
Shaving.
Pulling strange faces.
The old ITV.
Food fit for humans.
Max.
chris@unitedkingdomtalk.co.uk
WWW.UNITEDKINGDOMTALK.CO.UK Thursday's edition of my three times a week talk show.Watch the show here on CURRENT TV on Tues, Thurs & Sats. ... more -
Kick out plotters, Sugar tells PM
Apprentice star Sir Alan Sugar has told Gordon Brown to "kick out" members of the government failing to support his leadership.
Anyone else laugh when they saw this? It just came naturally for me to snigger.
"You're FIRED!" Just had to do that ...
(But if you like the idea, fine ...) Apprentice star Sir Alan Sugar has told Gordon Brown to "kick out" members of the government failing to support his leadersh... more -
Kangaroo Stopped In Its Tracks
Plans for an online TV/Video on demand service from all three UK terrestrial networks looked to be scuppered yesterday.
Kangaroo, as the project was to be known, aimed to collect up to 10,000 hours of classic programmes from BBC, ITV and Channel 4 and make them available online. However, an inquiry in to how compatible this would be with UK competition laws appears to have put the project on ice indefinitely. Plans for an online TV/Video on demand service from all three UK terrestrial networks looked to be scuppered yesterday. ... more -
United Kingdom Talk Saturday 14th June 2008
Saturday's edition of my three times a week talk show. Watch the show here on Current TV on Tues, Thurs & Sats.
In today's show :
Cat juice.
One big ITV.
Happy Birthday Estelle.
Polar bears.
Suko - on the Eurovision Song Contest.
A garden tea party at my house ?
I'm a horse.
Crisps everywhere.
Face mask.
Which Wayne is which ?
Join in my experiment - BINGAY on UNITED KINGDOM TALK.
Medicated ?
Who's the new girl in Dr Who ? She says she knows him.
It's all been ironed !
Soap.
Acid breath.
A video quiz - coming soon.
James Dean and his celebrity friends.
Who left my window open ?
Anglia.
Abbreviations.
Do I need "permission forms" ?
This old fool !
My friends house in Australia and the birds everywhere.
http://unitedkingdomtalk.forums4free.org/
Email :
chris@unitedkingdomtalk.co.uk
WWW.UNITEDKINGDOMTALK.CO.UK Saturday's edition of my three times a week talk show. Watch the show here on Current TV on Tues, Thurs & Sats. ... more -
ITV: shares hit by move to oppose product placement
The culture secretary, Andy Burnham, said today that the British government would not accept the European Union directive allowing product placement on UK television.
Burnham said that product placement risked further harming trust in TV, already rocked by last year's series of deception scandals, adding that as a viewer he did not "want to feel the script has been written by the commercial marketing director".
The government's unexpected opposition to product placement will cause concern at ITV, which has previously signalled its support for the practice. ITV's share price had fallen nearly 3% by lunchtime today, down 1.7p to 55.4p.
Today's announcement will shock the UK advertising industry, which is seeing declining returns from traditional TV commercials.
The UK ad industry has been lobbying for the rules on the promotion of products to be more relaxed, as they are in the US.
Burnham said he believed product placement would "contaminate" programming and that there should be a firm line on screen between editorial content and advertising. The culture secretary, Andy Burnham, said today that the British government would not accept the European Union directive allowing pro... more -
ITV fined record £5.675m over phone-ins
Shows including Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, Ant and Dec's Gameshow Marathon and Soapstar Superstar have all been penalised in Ofcom's fine for misleading viewers for a very large figure. Shows including Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, Ant and Dec's Gameshow Marathon and Soapstar Superstar have all been ... more
-
Free UK satellite TV service starts
A free satellite television and radio service from the BBC and ITV is being launched across the UK. Freesat is available to 98% of homes, including those that are unable to receive Freeview through a TV aerial.
It will carry 80 digital TV and radio channels, including free high definition programmes, with that number due to rise to 200 by the end of 2008. Users will make a one-off payment for a dish, set-top box and installation, but will not pay a monthly subscription.
Good news for those of you who want to watch Doctor Who in high definition, I suppose. A free satellite television and radio service from the BBC and ITV is being launched across the UK. Freesat is available to 98% of hom... more -
ITV to drop episode two of Pushing Daisies
UK TV fans are in uproar after ITV decided to skip episode two of 'Pushing Daisies' starring Anna Friel to make way for Euro 2008. 5.7m tuned into the first episode on Saturday after an extensive marketing campaign. Bizarrely, the series will go straight from the first show to the third, showing the skipped episode at some point later in the summer.
England have not qualified for Euro 2008.
Luckily I taped the show and will head straight home and delete it this evening, No ad revenue for ITV from me on a Saturday night! UK TV fans are in uproar after ITV decided to skip episode two of 'Pushing Daisies' starring Anna Friel to make way for Euro... more -
Warning of 'Jeremy Kyle' future
Ahh! Jeremy Kyle! Torries must be thinking He'll kill us all...he could really...annoying person. A lack of father figures is creating a "Jeremy Kyle generation" of men with little chance of work and a high rate of criminality, the Tories have warned.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Chris Grayling also criticised the "monstrously inappropriate" example set by footballers and other celebrities.
Ministers had been "morally negligent" in their attitude towards helping young men, he added.
But the government said it was "committed" to providing opportunities.
ITV1's Jeremy Kyle Show - a daytime discussion programme in which members of the public often confront one another - was described as "a form of bear-baiting" and "trash" last year by a judge sentencing a guest who headbutted a love rival on camera.
...of ALL the things for politicians to reveal concern about. Ahh! Jeremy Kyle! Torries must be thinking He'll kill us all...he could really...annoying person. A lack of father figures is cre... more -
British Comedy Awards on TV? You've got to be joking!
Last night saw a host of the UK's finest comedians and presenters descend on London's Television Centre for the 2007 British Comedy Awards, hosted by the one and only Jonathon Ross. The night was, as expected, full of unsurprising choices.
If you're sitting there, thinking 'that's tonight's TV sorted,' then think again!
ITV have been scrambling to secure broadcasting rights and have even paid a £700,000 blocking fee in an attempt to fend off the competition. Whether this will hold up is yet to be confirmed, but seeing as corruption investigations into the 2006 ceremony are still underway, it's not looking too good!
Check the link to see the surprising winners... Last night saw a host of the UK's finest comedians and presenters descend on London's Television Centre for the 2007 British... more -
I Want My iTV: Business Week Cover Blows
What could have been an awesome piece on the future of TV technology...wasn't.
Please post links here that actually show good research on the future of TV tech!
From BusinessWeek.com: " Hi, First of all, this article SUCKS! Sucks to a degree, which I am taking my precious time in writing a comment about it. I can't believe that your boss let you publish this article. At first I was ecstatic by receiving the new issue and when I saw the cover I was thrilled. Why? Because? it targets me! I am an American that lives in London and is addicted to internet television. But when I started reading... I was appalled by the lack of research; the lack of knowledge and how sour it was. Why? You don't know what you were talking about! How old are you anyway? You did first grade level research and if you had dug a little deeper?you would have found tons of information." What could have been an awesome piece on the future of TV technology...wasn't. ... more -
ITV Viewers Cheated Out of £7.8 Million
Ofcom is launching an investigation into the charges of ITV's abuse of premium phone lines during some of the network's most popular shows. And this means some big ratings holders like X-Factor are going to air tonight without SMS and red-button voting. Shame! Ofcom is launching an investigation into the charges of ITV's abuse of premium phone lines during some of the network's most... more
-
ITV faces £70m fine
ITV last night faced the prospect of a fine of up to £70m after some of its flagship Saturday night shows were at the centre of the most blatant examples yet of viewer deceit involving premium phone lines. Admitting a "serious cultural failure within ITV", its executive chairman, Michael Grade, said he was shocked by the scale of the revelations. ITV last night faced the prospect of a fine of up to £70m after some of its flagship Saturday night shows were at the centre of the mo... more
-
related topics
ITV
Contributors (39)
ITV
