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News Picture Quality

Is the quality of the video we're being served on the news decreasing over time? I rather suspect it is. What am I talking about? Well go back to last Wednesday morning, and watch BBC Breakfast. This is a programme...

Posted by Adam Bowie on May 7, 2013 10:26 PM

Radio Times 13 April 2013

Because I've not done one of these for ages. And because it's the battle of the reality shows starting tonight as The Voice and Britain's Got Talent go head to head. So here's a new Radio Times scan to...

Posted by Adam Bowie on April 13, 2013 12:17 AM

Time Team and Channel 4

Today saw the final regular Time Team of the current - and last series. There are a couple of specials in the next two weeks, as well as the odd special in the future. But that was the last of...

Posted by Adam Bowie on March 11, 2013 12:17 AM

Some New TV Notes and Thoughts!

Why have one Meteor "quick turnaround" documentary tonight when you can have two? Yes, both BBC Two and Channel 4 have decided that there's enough footage from Russian dashcams to fill an hour explaining to viewers what meteors are. Now...

Posted by Adam Bowie on March 3, 2013 1:12 PM

House of Cards

Unless you've been keeping your head under a rock, you'll know that a week or so ago, the streaming video service Netflix launched one of its first original series, with an adaptation of the 1990s BBC series House of Cards....

Posted by Adam Bowie on February 13, 2013 8:56 PM

Black Mirror: Series 3 Proposal

I really enjoyed the first episode of Channel 4's new run of The Twilight Zone Black Mirror. It was a well worked tale of future possibilities, played out wonderfully by Hayley Atwell and Domhnall Gleeson as loving couple suddenly separated...

Posted by Adam Bowie on February 12, 2013 1:03 PM

Some Recent TV Thoughts

Sorry, this is going to be a bit of a disparate entry about all things television. ITV As most people have noticed - well most people in the UK - ITV has rebranded, and no longer do we have ITV1....

Posted by Adam Bowie on January 27, 2013 7:05 PM

Radio Times - 25 December 2012

My very occasional suggestions of what to watch on radio and television this Christmas. As ever - these are best viewed large (radio, TV) so that you can read my comments. A very happy Christmas to everyone who reads...

Posted by Adam Bowie on December 24, 2012 10:21 PM

Sound on TV

In this week's Media Talk Media Guardian podcast, there was a brief discussion a tthe end about the sound issues with some of our recent big TV dramas. In particular Parade's End and Birdsong were mentioned with viewers complaining that...

Posted by Adam Bowie on September 3, 2012 9:18 AM

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

YouView Launch

George Entwistle may be the new Director General of the BBC, but the current one, Mark Thompson, was to be found in County Hall this morning alongside representatives of the other shareholders for the launch of YouView. Lord Sugar...

Posted by Adam Bowie on July 4, 2012 11:13 AM

The Daily Show - Back Daily in the UK

Since it's easier to moan than to be positive, I thought it was worth giving kudos to Comedy Central UK who are bringing the regular daily edition of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart back to the UK screens from...

Posted by Adam Bowie on June 26, 2012 12:53 PM

The Premier League's £3bn Deal

First of all - wow! I mean WOW! £3bn for the new Premier League rights. A 71% increase on the 2010/11 - 2012/3 deal. In the current economic climate, that has to be a spectacular result for the Premier League,...

Posted by Adam Bowie on June 13, 2012 7:43 PM

The Righteousness of the Twitterati

Actually, that title is inaccurate. What I really mean is the righteousness of a certain "mob mentality" on social media, and Twitter in particular. I refer, of course, to the apparent view that yesterday's coverage of the Jubilee by BBC...

Posted by Adam Bowie on June 4, 2012 5:36 PM

One Night

On BBC1 this week, there's been an excellent drama over three nights, with a final fourth episode tonight. One Night tells the goings on over a single twenty four hour period in an inner-city part of London. Each episode tells...

Posted by Adam Bowie on March 30, 2012 10:19 AM

Sport on TV - Racing

Channel 4 has just done a deal with the Racecourse Media Group to become the exclusive free-to0air broadcaster of horse racing of all forms of horse racing in the UK. At first glance, it'd seem to be a good...

Posted by Adam Bowie on March 19, 2012 9:32 AM

Promise TV

[I wrote this on Google+, but decided it should probably exist, in a revised version, here too] I remember hearing about Promise TV several years ago at Open Tech 2005, so it's nice to see that there's a real product...

Posted by Adam Bowie on February 20, 2012 2:21 PM

When Awards Ignore Social Media

As I type, BBC1's coverage of the BAFTA awards has just started on BBC1. We have Stephen Fry hosting again this year. The show started at 9pm. But here's the thing. I already know many of the winners. Or at...

Posted by Adam Bowie on February 12, 2012 9:05 PM

Borgen

With two series of The Killing out the way, it's time to move on to the next big Danish TV drama. And that would be Borgen. I say "move on to" it, but as of yesterday we're eight episodes into...

Posted by Adam Bowie on January 29, 2012 1:25 PM

Two Screen TV

At the end of Sherlock on Sunday I picked up my phone and pulled up Twitter to see what everyone had been saying about it. Since I'd watched it live, there was a lot of #sherlock activity. Amongst people I...

Posted by Adam Bowie on January 9, 2012 7:37 PM