media week- top stories

C4 sale?

The furore around Celebrity Big Brother has meant that there is once more talk about a possible sale of Channel 4, this may be an over reaction to one particularly unpleasant programme but the management at Channel 4 has not managed the situation well. OFCOM will be undertaking a look at the channels future and by making heavy investments channel 4 has distorted its financial position to indicate that it is having problems that it is not, while moving into radio and other non-core areas (themed lifestyle exhibitions spring to mind).

BBC licence fee

Although the BBC did not get all it had asked for the licence fee settlement is far from a disaster, there’s no danger of channels being shut and the management can try and contain some of the worst excesses that are part of the organisations culture. The change at the BBC continues with BBC resources expected to be sold this year along with earlier sales of Technology (Siemens) and Presentation (Red Bee) this has represented a move from the traditional state broadcaster to something much closer to a Commissioner/Publisher model (like Channel 4).

Sky

Today’s newspapers indicate that Bskyb may be losing its current CEO, James Murdoch who having got both HD and Broadband rolling out could be in the frame for a move to the USA, he’ll need though to be around to deal with the likely ramifications of the investigation around Sky’s purchase of a large part of ITV.

And on the Vinyl

Today a very influential LP is meandering along as I type Brian Eno's 'Ambient 1: Music for Airports' - not a Desert Island type Disc but nice to have playing along in a non-threatening way.