What Georged123 said basically.

C4 confirms it's line up for the IAAF World Athletics Champs - and they've poached Michael Johnson from the BBC, though I suspect he'll be back on the Beeb for the Olympics.

http://www.channel4.com/info/press/n...-championships

The presenter though a bit of a surprise - CBBC and Gadget Show host Ortis Deley. I assumed Rick Edwards would front it considering he has hosted C4's athletics and Paralympic coverage over the last couple of years, so for them to choose a less well known non-sports presenter instead is a bit of a surprise.

Ratings wise I doubt they'll be much to talk about - most coverage will be in the mornings, though it'll be interesting to see how the evening highlights do. I would guess they'd put them out from 8-9pm, although they might just do what they did with the cricket and stick them in a 7.30-8pm slot.

Wimbledon continuing on BBC2

Today at Wimbledon was dropped and Made in Britain will follow later.

I hope John Inverdale isn't being paid on a per appearance basis!

He's always spoken about them yeah.

I did not know that. I dunno whether they should be added in or not. I guess it's just like adding ITV1 HD to the SD figures.

I don't agree with combining ratings for a simulcast when it is on a different channel.

You wouldn't combine the ratings for the Queen's Christmas Message, even though that is identical across every channel which shows it.

I didn't realise TV3 showed any BBC programmes. I thought they all went to RTE. Do TV3 show it 90 minutes before BBC One, or are they a week behind?

Interesting press release.

C4 is showing 65 hours.

It only lasts 9 days but one day in the middle only has the 20km walk. So really 8 days implying 8 hours coverage per day.

Most days the morning session starts at 1am UK time. The evening session ends at 2pm UK time.

Jon Rawling (ex Five Live main athletics commentator amongst other things) looks a sensible choice for lead commentator.

I wonder if it will be presented from London? I suspect so - the phrase "in the studio" may well imply a studio in London.

More live BBC Football League games announced:

http://www.football-league.co.uk/pag...,10794,00.html

Newsnight finished at 11.30pm on BBC2, followed by a short version of Today At Wimbledon (which replaced the Mock The Week repeat).

Today at Wimbledon is going to have to change slots for next year. It's just not worth scheduling at all considering the amount of times they drop it. I understand they want to leave 9-10.30 free for other BBC Two shows - so as not to wipe out any primetime programming for two weeks - but they'll just have to accept defeat and send the highlights back to late night. Or perhaps a half hour show at 10pm.

I don't think they care much for highlights packages when they have such extensive coverage plus red button and online rights though. (And to be fair, ratings for Today at Wimbledon are very unimpressive when it actually airs). Roger Mosey was questioning whether one would even be used in a regular slot for London 2012.


I suspect so. IIRC, the BBC presented from London the last time the Championships were on the other side of the world in 2007. Not surprised to see them make the obvious move for Johnson - and Macey and Merry sound OK.

I'm a bit surprised more of the BBC names haven't been tapped for the commentary. It must be a bit gutting for the likes of Cram (whose really become the voice of Athletics to me) to miss out on the major milestone. Of course, all eyes are on the big 2012 prize at the moment, but they'll surely be getting a bit unsettled after that.

Completely rambled off from ratings (sorry, folks ) - but I agree, its going to be difficult to really get noticed with the morning timeslots.

Seven
18:00 Seven News 1.41m
18:30 Today Tonight 1.38m
19:00 Home & Away 1.02m
19:30 No Ordinary Family 0.64m
20:30 The Amazing Race Australia 1.08m
21:30 Air Crash Investigations 0.44m

Nine
18:00 Nine News 1.24m
18:30 A Current Affair 1.15m
19:00 The Block 1.44m
20:10 The Big Bang Theory (R) 1.00m
20:40 Rescue Special Ops 0.84m
21:40 CSI: Miami 0.68m

Ten
17:00 Ten News 0.75m
18:30 6:30 with George Negus 0.48m
19:00 7pm Project 0.78m
19:30 MasterChef Australia 1.58m
20:30 Offspring 0.94m
21:30 House 0.44m

7TWO
21:00 Wimbledon 2011 0.40m
*peaked at 0.63m during two hour slot.

Eleven
18:30 Neighbours 0.43m

Even so I don't think anyone would jeopardise being the voice of 2012 at the moment, and indeed I suspect most key BBC figures would have signed contracts through to 2012 long before C4 nabbed the rights.

Steve Cram of course made his name in television sport at C4 presenting their athletics coverage in the late 1990s, switching to the BBC when C4 ditched it in favour of the cricket in 1999 - so that makes it even more frustrating they haven't really got a notable name in the main presenting role.


As for Today at Wimbledon - the BBC definately need to change strategy - I hadn't thought about a truncated show on BBC2, but still think BBC1 at 10.35pm is the better option, and the slot most likely to bring in the viewers. It isn't so much about having a highlights show, but having a show to round up the day and look ahead to the next day.

Seven's Monday nights are just a disaster zone now, in complete contrast to the rest of the week. I know technically The Amazing Race still won its slot, beating the two scripted shows, but it was a series low and lower than where Seven should be in that slot. I'm not sure if Teen Wolf will improve things much next week, but it can't do any worse than Air Crash Investigations. Last night they nearly suffered the indignity of being beaten by their sister channel after 9:30pm, which posted strong numbers for the Tomic clash.

Great once again for The Block, helping Nine to a memorable win in the main channel shares (Seven still won including digitals). Meanwhile on Ten, House bowed out to terrible figures for its season finale. It's been unforgivably low all season, demotion to Eleven beckons for that one next season I think.

that House rating is awful, that show really needs to be axed or move to ELEVEN.

A couple of interesting articles.

Adrian & Christine to be moved to evening show ? (although the article itself sounds like a load of rubbish)

http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/tv/20...5875-23231589/

And X Factor Final to be at Wembley Arena (and Cowell will be there) :

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...t-Wembley.html

Promo campaign for Candy Bar Girls has moved into second phase now. Second set of ads much less trashy and overly provocative than the first.

Billboards are also going up: http://yfrog.com/z/klewbntj

I think the scheduling of this show also pretty much confirms that Big Brother will be launching on Channel 5 in week commencing 15th August.

With this at 10pm on Thursdays over 6 weeks, proceeded by Cowboy Builders at 9pm for 9 weeks, where could BB go if it launched any sooner?

The billboard campaign is weird because they just have the word lesbians and nothing else. Obviously they are trying to create their own version of Essex, Gypsy Wedding, type show which may backfire.

I'm surprised they haven't commisioned a medical series given the success of Junior Doctors and various Channel 4 medical shows like 24 Hours in A&E and OBEM.

ITV would be very unwise to do this, where would 630pm Regional news go to for a start? It would take a ratings hit during 6.00-8.30am and 6.00-7.00pm every day.

Mirror says:

"It would be part of an ITV news hour between 6pm and 7pm."

So they are deeming the Chiles / Bleakley show to be "News"???????

Also if Regional News remains separate it would be a "News 90 minutes"

Or maybe they are thinking of cramming National News, Regional News and Chiles / Bleakley all into 60 mins? If so it can only mean even more dumbing down (the opposite of the aim for Daybreak!!!!!!)

so basically they would just be doing in and out links to the news?

Anyone else a little bit confused?

Chiles and Bleakley at 6:30pm is an interesting idea. Media Guardian had an article a few months ago saying ITV wanted a 30 minute gameshow to fill that 30 minute slot, so they clearly want to cut the news to half an hour. Chiles and Bleakley could fill the slot, but I can't help but think that viewers just don't care about them as a duo any more. Chiles is doing OK at ITV overall as the football is doing well and his Sunday show did alright, but Bleakley hasn't done well at all. Not sure I can see a 6:30pm show working but I guess it's worth a shot as they aren't really working in the mornings.

I suspected TXF Final would be at Wembley this year and I think it's a great idea, and something a lot of people have been saying they should do for a while. Also the article confirms that the final will be on 10th/11th December, which I think is better for the show than 17th/18th. Cowell being there will boost it a bit too.

Going back to something D.M.N posted a while ago, I'm surprised that Red or Black will be on 3rd-10th September rather than the week before, but I guess it means it will get an X Factor lead in for the launch and the final. I can't see the Tuesday break causing too much of a problem either. Also, it means that there will then be 8 weeks between Red or Black and The Jury, which is perfect for Doc Martin and 71 Degrees North. It means they end up with an awkward week at the end of August/start of September but they'll fill it. The Fred West drama Appropriate Adult will probably air over the Bank Holiday weekend.

As for Scott & Bailey, good news about it being brought back for a longer run. I think Mondays in Autumn 2012 are most likely for it as there won't really be room in the Summer and there probably won't be Doc Martin next Autumn so they'll have a gap to fill.

What about this - or a variation of - for the Evening line-up?

17:00 - ITV Evening News
17:23 - ITV Regional News
17:40 - The Chase
18:30 - Today with Adrian and Christine
19:00 - Emmerdale
19:27 - ITV News Update
19:30 - Coronation Street

Obviously in a similar fashion to now the 'News hour' - although in reality 5pm to 5:40pm will run without commercials hence The Chase's shorter running time.

I suspect they will run into regional opt out & Ofcom issues if they try this. There must be 30 minutes of regional news between 6-10pm so that cant be pushed before 6pm. The ITV News could as it used to be at 5.40 anyway, so in theory a 5.40 News followed by 6pm regional news and a 6.30 show could work, but that would break the 5pm hour up when its finally working with The Chase.

Alternatively you could have them alternate with The Chase at 5pm, but I doubt any of this will happen.

More likely the Mirror got a bad connection

Some Live +7 figures for May, I'd added what the equivalent overnight share would have been as well: http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pre...27/live7.shtml

- 03/05 - EastEnders: 8.62m > 11.02m (+2.40m)
- 14/05 - Doctor Who: 6.09m > 9.90m (+3.81m)
- 25/05 - The Apprentice: 7.45m > 10.15m (+2.70m)
- Russell Howard's Good News: 1.00m > 3.50m (+2.50m)
- Two Pints Of Lager: 558,000 > 2.50m (+1.942m)