Hopefully 2008 will be a better year for the BBC, ITV and C4
18.12.2007
As this is my last blog of the year before we all shut up shop for the festive season, I thought, what better time to take stock and look back on the year’s most humorous events!
It’s been a series of blunders, scams and PR disasters in TV land which has really grabbed all the column inches and headlines this year. Whereas marketing and PR are usually about winning as much attention as possible for your programme or channel, this year's efforts have mostly been about the opposite. In the game of corporate pass-the-parcel that has dominated the year, PR's success will be measured according to the fewest number of column inches you were unfortunate enough to attract.
C4 started the year off on the wrong foot, with January’s Big Brother series dominated by a racism scandal attracting 54,000 viewer complaints and rebuke from Ofcom. Blue Peter then hit the headlines in March after being exposed to have faked a premium rate phoneline competition for charity and was later fined £50,000 by Ofcom. Things didn’t improve for the Beeb either, as later on that year in July, the Queen was misrepresented in a preview tape shown on BBC1. September did not even bring a summer break for the Beeb, as Blue Peter, again, was revealed for faking results in a poll to name the show’s cat.
But it’s not all bad news. In March ITV signed a four year £275 million FA cup and England deal and C4 won the digital radio and multiplex bid in June.
BBC1 Controller Peter Fincham resigned over Crowngate in October and the Beeb also announced 1,800 job cuts. The doom and gloom continued throughout October as a Deloitte report revealed millions were defrauded by shows such as Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway and Soapstar Superstar.
But it was a welcomed month for the Beeb as Cranford and Strictly Come Dancing boosted BBC1’s ratings and the channel remained the highest watched in the UK.
I expect the TV stations will all be hoping for a much more ‘smooth’ and hopefully ethical approach to 2008……but with a new series of Big Brother on the cards and reality TV hitting an all time high……..who knows that the New Year will bring!
Happy Xmas to anyone who reads this blog!
It’s been a series of blunders, scams and PR disasters in TV land which has really grabbed all the column inches and headlines this year. Whereas marketing and PR are usually about winning as much attention as possible for your programme or channel, this year's efforts have mostly been about the opposite. In the game of corporate pass-the-parcel that has dominated the year, PR's success will be measured according to the fewest number of column inches you were unfortunate enough to attract.
C4 started the year off on the wrong foot, with January’s Big Brother series dominated by a racism scandal attracting 54,000 viewer complaints and rebuke from Ofcom. Blue Peter then hit the headlines in March after being exposed to have faked a premium rate phoneline competition for charity and was later fined £50,000 by Ofcom. Things didn’t improve for the Beeb either, as later on that year in July, the Queen was misrepresented in a preview tape shown on BBC1. September did not even bring a summer break for the Beeb, as Blue Peter, again, was revealed for faking results in a poll to name the show’s cat.
But it’s not all bad news. In March ITV signed a four year £275 million FA cup and England deal and C4 won the digital radio and multiplex bid in June.
BBC1 Controller Peter Fincham resigned over Crowngate in October and the Beeb also announced 1,800 job cuts. The doom and gloom continued throughout October as a Deloitte report revealed millions were defrauded by shows such as Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway and Soapstar Superstar.
But it was a welcomed month for the Beeb as Cranford and Strictly Come Dancing boosted BBC1’s ratings and the channel remained the highest watched in the UK.
I expect the TV stations will all be hoping for a much more ‘smooth’ and hopefully ethical approach to 2008……but with a new series of Big Brother on the cards and reality TV hitting an all time high……..who knows that the New Year will bring!
Happy Xmas to anyone who reads this blog!
