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Girls - The Next Big Thing, Or Not?

It's a blindingly obvious thing to say, but the choice of which channel airs a television series can really determine how successful it might become, irrespective of the programme's actual overall quality and appeal. Case in point. Sometime in the...

Posted by Adam Bowie on July 9, 2012 2:02 PM

Sky's Acquisition Strategy

Yesterday came news that Sky has acquired the Showtime series, Nurse Jackie, starring Edie Falco and Eve Best (recently seen giving a terrific performance in The Shadow Line). This is the latest in a long line of Sky acquisitions that...

Posted by Adam Bowie on June 16, 2011 6:01 PM

Sky's Ratings

Since it's buried away a little on Sky's website, it's worth pointing those interested in TV ratings towards a piece that Sky One's Stuart Murphy has written about ratings for his shows. He illustrates the breakdown of viewership of an...

Posted by Adam Bowie on March 16, 2011 12:31 PM

Sky's Ratings

Since it's buried away a little on Sky's website, it's worth pointing those interested in TV ratings towards a piece that Sky One's Stuart Murphy has written about ratings for his shows. He illustrates the breakdown of viewership of an...

Posted by Adam Bowie on March 16, 2011 12:31 PM

Sexism and Sky Sports

Tonight Richard Keys has resigned from Sky Sports following a last ditch attempt to apologise in the form of an interview on Talksport this afternoon (Kudos to Talksport for getting that interview). He joins Andy Gray who's already gone. There...

Posted by Adam Bowie on January 26, 2011 7:36 PM

YouView

It really has been a busy few days, but one thing I was pleased to see happen was that Project Canvas - now YouView - will not be investigated by Ofcom. This is the IP connected TV service, that Sky...

Posted by Adam Bowie on October 22, 2010 1:12 PM

Sky Doing More Import Deals

The other day I tried to assuage fears that every decent US TV series was going to disappear from free to air screens following Sky's deal with HBO for the next five years. Today, I'm not so sure. Seemingly Sky...

Posted by Adam Bowie on August 2, 2010 10:45 AM

Sky's HBO Deal

Sky has completed a £150m deal for exclusive rights to all HBO's back catalogue and future programming for the next five years. There's a certain irony that over the years various Sky One channel controllers have claimed that they're going...

Posted by Adam Bowie on July 29, 2010 11:14 AM

Sky's Freeview Strategy

Media Guardian is today reporting that Sky Sports News is coming off the Freeview platform. Up until now, Sky had effectively been using the channel as something to promote their premium sports services. That's really why they never showed any...

Posted by Adam Bowie on June 17, 2010 11:33 AM

3D Football

Sky is trumpeting the fact that last weekend's fixture between Man Utd and Blackburn Rovers (a 0-0 "thriller") was watched by 200,000 viewers. A remarkable achievement based on average of 133 people per pub in the 1500 or so pubs...

Posted by Adam Bowie on April 13, 2010 2:34 PM

Should The Ashes Be Listed?

On Friday, a Department of Culture, Media & Sport consultation based around their Review of Listed Events closed. This consultation was based around some preliminary suggestions on the updating of the list of sporting (and other cultural) events for which...

Posted by Adam Bowie on March 22, 2010 6:51 PM

3D

This afternoon, I'll be watching Arsenal v Man Utd in 3D. No - I'm not going to one of Sky's un-named pubs which will be showing the game in 3D - instead I'll be in the ground. But with Avatar...

Posted by Adam Bowie on January 31, 2010 11:57 AM

Sky One After Harry Hill... Again

I don't blame a presenter trying to maximise their value, but if reports are true, then Harry Hill is shortly going to be signing a deal with Sky One and leaving ITV. Stop me if you've heard this one before....

Posted by Adam Bowie on January 13, 2010 11:28 AM

Sky Mobile

For a good year or so I've been using Sky's mobile service on my phones - in particular their Remote Record function that allows me to browse the Sky EPG and set my Sky+ at home to record the programme...

Posted by Adam Bowie on November 25, 2009 1:20 PM

Watching Football on the Internet

And so it has come to pass - this weekend's dead rubber between the Ukraine and England, will only be available online or at your local Odeon cinema. The prices seem to range from £4.99 if you book now to...

Posted by Adam Bowie on October 5, 2009 2:01 PM

Free To Air Listed Events Review

The DCMS has for the last couple of months been conducting a review into the listed events - those events that must be covered live on free-to-air television - Group A Events. That's event like the Olympics, the World Cup...

Posted by Adam Bowie on June 9, 2009 9:12 PM

Televised Sport Update

Last week, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided that it wouldn't award the EBU the rights to the 2014 winter Olympics and the 2016 summer games. In the past the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has collectively bought the rights to...

Posted by Adam Bowie on December 10, 2008 1:55 PM

Picnic Shelved

I never knew that it had been given the working title "Picnic", but it seems that Sky has decided to put the whole venture on ice. Let me explain, 18 months or so ago, Sky suddenly announced that it wanted...

Posted by Adam Bowie on September 15, 2008 12:58 PM

Freesat Launches

[Now updated a bit] Are we all excited by Freesat which launches today? Actually it's a good time for it to come onstream. OK, so the website (as linked to by the BBC Press Office) doesn't work, but it can't...

Posted by Adam Bowie on May 6, 2008 12:56 PM

Sky And The Champions' League

Media Guardian are reporting that Sky has won the majority of the Champions' League games for the three years beginning in 2009. It's thought that they offered more than £240m representing nearly a 50% increase over what they had previously...

Posted by Adam Bowie on March 18, 2008 9:07 AM