Category Archives: Television industry

Al Jazeera English announces plans to move from London’s Shard to Qatar

Posted on by

Move of London’s live broadcast centre to Doha could involve dozens of job losses

Al Jazeera English plans to close its live broadcast centre that operates from London’s Shard skyscraper and move programming to Qatar, with the possible loss of dozens of UK-based jobs.

In an email to staff, the network’s managing director, Giles Trendle, said Al Jazeera was “looking to undertake a restructure involving the move of AJE live programming to Doha. The move would include the news bulletins between 1900GMT and 2300GMT produced from London, and The Stream programme produced from Washington DC.”

Continue reading...

UK to abolish law requiring press to pay legal costs when sued

Posted on by

Government to roll back section 40 legislation, recommended by Leveson, as part of media bill

Ministers will push ahead with plans to abolish a key piece of press regulation law, unpicking one of the main recommendations of the Leveson inquiry into the culture of the British newspaper industry.

The government said they would roll back a rule that could require news outlets to pay the costs of the people who sue them unless the news outlet is signed up to a state-backed press regulator. Labour indicated that opposition MPs will not object to the plan, meaning it is likely to sail through the House of Commons.

Continue reading...

Oscars TV ratings improve – to third worst ever

Posted on by

This year’s Academy Awards with Jimmy Kimmel at the helm drew an average TV audience of 18.7m – and a bigger share of younger viewers

The audience for the 2023 Academy Awards broadcast improved substantially on last year’s unimpressive figures, with a 12% jump on what was the second worst ratings performance in history.

Early ratings from Nielsen, supplied to the Hollywood Reporter, said that the show on ABC attracted an average of 18.7m viewers, compared to 16.6m in 2022. The audience share in the key 18-49 age demographic also improved, from 3.76 last year to 4.0.

Continue reading...

Pressure on BBC chair mounts over Gary Lineker suspension

Posted on by

Executives race to resolve Match of the Day presenter standoff as senior Tories stop short of backing Richard Sharp on impartiality

BBC executives are scrambling to repair relations with Gary Lineker and stave off a staff mutiny at the corporation, with hopes that the presenter could be back in post by next weekend.

The row left the BBC’s chair, Richard Sharp, fighting for his future on Sunday night as Jeremy Hunt stopped short of backing him to guard the corporation’s impartiality in the wake of the row.

Continue reading...

Losses deepen at GB News as network moves to fend off rival TalkTV

Posted on by

Hiring costs for presenters such as Nigel Farage and Jacob Rees-Mogg balloon while advertisers stay wary of right-leaning channel

GB News made a loss of more than £30m in its first year on air, as the right-leaning news channel invested in hiring presenters to combat the launch of rival TalkTV.

The controversy-prone channel which launched in June 2021 racked up a pre-tax loss of £30.7m in the year to the end of May 2022, a period in which it hired former Ukip leader Nigel Farage to host a nightly primetime show.

Continue reading...

‘Sleaze-slinging’ Fox News denounced by family of January 6 officer who died

Posted on by

Condemnation of ‘so-called new network’ comes after Tucker Carlson shares footage from attack courtesy of Kevin McCarthy

The family of Brian Sicknick, the US Capitol police officer who died the day after the January 6 attack on Congress, condemned Tucker Carlson and Fox News as “unscrupulous and outright sleazy”, after the primetime host made his first use of security footage from the riot bestowed by Kevin McCarthy, the Republican House speaker.

A statement on Tuesday said: “The Sicknick family is outraged at the ongoing attack on our family by the unscrupulous and outright sleazy so-called news network of Fox News.”

Continue reading...

Rupert Murdoch testified that Fox News hosts ‘endorsed’ stolen election narrative

Posted on by

Network owner also admitted in $1.6bn defamation lawsuit deposition that Trump’s claims were ‘damaging to everybody’

Newly released court documents reveal that Rupert Murdoch, the billionaire owner of Fox News, acknowledged under oath that several Fox News hosts endorsed Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

The mogul made the admission during a deposition in the $1.6bn defamation lawsuit brought against the network by the voting machine company Dominion Voting Systems, which has accused Fox News and its parent company, Fox Corporation, of maligning its reputation. In his deposition, Murdoch said that the hosts Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro “endorsed” the false narrative promoted by Trump.

Continue reading...

Jane Hill and Ben Brown among anchors axed as BBC merges news channels

Posted on by

Insiders say departure of popular BBC News presenters – with Martine Croxall also going – could prompt ageism row

Some of the BBC News channel’s most famous faces, including Jane Hill, Ben Brown and Martine Croxall, have been axed before the launch this spring of a channel that combines international and domestic news.

The trio have become familiar to UK viewers during times of political and economic turmoil and their departure could prompt a row about ageism, according to BBC insiders.

Continue reading...

Barbara Walters, pioneering US TV news anchor, dies at 93

Posted on by

First female network news anchor in US achieved a celebrity status on par with the rulers, royalty and entertainers she interviewed

Barbara Walters, the foremost American TV interviewer of her generation and the first woman to lead a US network evening news program, has died aged 93.

Over the course of her 50-year career, Walters was queen of the “get” – a term for securing the first interview with prominent figures making news, whether that was a movie star, politician or figure of criminal notoriety.

Continue reading...

Sky could lose £150m a year from plan to relax ad limits on UK’s free-to-air TV

Posted on by

Ofcom reviews longstanding rules that allow pay-TV companies more ad minutes than public service rivals

The pay-TV provider Sky could lose as much as £150m a year in TV advertising revenue from proposals aimed at enabling the UK’s biggest free-to-air broadcasters to make more money and better compete with streaming services.

The broadcasting regulator, Ofcom, is reviewing historical rules that restrict the UK’s public service broadcasters (PSBs) – ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 – from running as many minutes of advertising on their main channels as rivals such as Sky are allowed.

Continue reading...

Amazon agrees deal with Games Workshop to create Warhammer TV series

Posted on by

Former Superman star Henry Cavill linked to project, and agreement includes film and merchandise plans

Amazon has struck a deal with the high street games chain Games Workshop to create a series based on its hit franchise Warhammer, the science-fiction fantasy miniature war game, potentially featuring the former Superman star Henry Cavill.

The London-listed Games Workshop, which has a £2.7bn market value and runs about 530 stores, has struck a deal with Amazon to develop the company’s intellectual property into film and TV productions as well as sell merchandise.

Continue reading...

ABC News pulls hosts TJ Holmes and Amy Robach off air after romance revealed

Posted on by

US network says the anchors, who are married to other people, will be temporarily pulled from GMA3 as their romance is ‘an internal and an external distraction’

Two TV anchors working for ABC News in the US have been pulled from air after their workplace romance came to light, amid a storm of public gossip and tabloid coverage.

TJ Holmes and Amy Robach, who have worked as hosts on Good Morning America spinoff talkshow GMA3 since 2020, were revealed to be in a relationship last week after paparazzi photos of the pair were published online. Both Holmes and Robach are married, but after the photos were published a representative for the pair said they had both separated from their spouses and the relationship only began recently.

Continue reading...

French regulator called on to withdraw licence allowing CGTN to broadcast from London

Posted on by

Chinese state broadcaster transmits from Chiswick studio despite Ofcom revoking UK licence last year

France’s media regulator is under pressure to withdraw a licence that allows the Chinese state broadcaster to beam its programmes across Europe from a studio in west London.

Ofcom revoked the organisation’s licence to transmit in the UK last year but the China Global Television Network (CGTN) was able to continue broadcasting following authorisation from the French authority.

Continue reading...

Sarah Harris to join The Project after Peter Helliar, Lisa Wilkinson and Carrie Bickmore quit

Posted on by

Studio 10 presenter will co-host Ten’s flagship news program with Waleed Aly in a move the executive producer says will ‘re-energise’ the show

Ten’s Sarah Harris is joining Waleed Aly as a co-host on The Project next year following the recent exodus of three of the program’s presenters.

While the departures have been framed as a personal choice, sources say flagging ratings and revenue at the flagship news program may be the reason behind the exit of three highly paid presenters within weeks.

Continue reading...

Two-thirds of UK’s biggest advertisers to cut television spend

Posted on by

Traditional TV shunned in favour of digital media and last-minute promotional campaigns

More than two-thirds of the UK’s biggest advertisers intend to cut back spending on traditional TV next year, as the recession fuels a shift to digital media and last-minute bursts of promotion.

A survey of 59 UK advertisers has found that 67% will make the deepest budget cuts to ads on broadcast TV, according to the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA) and the media investment analysts Ebiquity.

Continue reading...

Netflix with ads draws some big brands – but others are unimpressed

Posted on by

L’Oréal and Budweiser owner advertise on Basic with Ads but high prices for slots put off some agencies

Netflix has launched its first subscription package featuring ads in a drive to reignite growth by attracting cost-conscious users, but the hurried launch, high prices for slots and accompanying demands have left some advertisers unconvinced.

Basic with Ads, which went live in 12 countries this week, costs £4.99 a month in the UK – £2 less than its cheapest ad-free package – and hopes to lure households whose budgets are shrinking in the cost of living crisis.

Continue reading...

HBO Max series ¡García! brings fictional Francoist spy to small screen

Posted on by

Show portrays adventures of agent who wakes from cryogenic sleep to find himself in modern Spain

Three years after the remains of Francisco Franco were finally removed from the granite chambers of the Valley of the Fallen, another relic of the dictatorial regime is stirring from a long slumber deep inside the monument’s damp and bone-stacked caverns.

Fortunately, the relic in question is not a long-dead falangista but rather a fictional Francoist secret agent whose adventures in contemporary Spain have moved from the pages of three graphic novels to the small screen.

Continue reading...

Newsmax bans Lara Logan after QAnon-tinged on-air tirade

Posted on by

Rightwing networks says war correspondent turned pundit will not be invited back in view of ‘reprehensible statements’

The rightwing US TV network Newsmax said it had no plans to interview Lara Logan again, after the award-winning war correspondent turned rightwing pundit launched a QAnon-tinged tirade on air.

Speaking to host Eric Bolling, Logan said “the open border is Satan’s way of taking control of the world” and claimed world leaders drank children’s blood.

Continue reading...

Netflix reverses subscriber decline with help from Stranger Things and Dahmer

Posted on by

Streaming service adds 2.4m subscribers in past three months to comfortably beat forecasts after ‘challenging’ first half of year

Netflix added 2.4m new subscribers in the last three months, more than twice what had been expected and reversing back-to-back quarters of decline, the company announced on Tuesday.

The streaming company had been expected to add 1m new subscribers over the latest quarter, which included the release of hit shows including the latest series of Stranger Things, Sandman and Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.

Continue reading...

ABC calls for mandate to ensure it hosts federal election debate

Posted on by

Bid follows national broadcaster being turned down last election by Scott Morrison to appear in leaders’ debate despite its broad reach

The ABC has called for legislation to ensure it hosts and broadcasts at least one leaders’ debate during a federal election campaign.

The public broadcaster made the case for a mandated ABC election debate in a submission to the inquiry into the 2022 federal election, which continues its public hearings in Canberra on Tuesday.

Sign up for our free morning newsletter and afternoon email to get your daily news roundup

Continue reading...