I also watched the series and quite enjoyed it.

I am surprised by its reprisal though cosidering its poor ratings on both HBO and BBC for both the series and pilot episode.

Looking at the ratings in the UK the pilot got 6.9 million which is excellent. Then for the series episode 1 got 5.8 million, but things went down hill from there with episode 2 getting 3.9 million and by episode 6 it had fallen to 3.4 million (with a small rise to the final episode). I'd imagine the BBC would have hoped for ~5 million+ for each episode, but the ratings werent awful awful just poor.

It appears from this link http://uk.eonline.com/uberblog/watch...h_on_true.html that it is not certain that the new programmes will be made but lets hope.
It seems like HBO may be going it alone, or waiting for the BBC to come onboard with cash before they OK it.


With the F1 I suppose as a Sky Sports subsriber it wont fully effect me, however it is a dissapointment its not going to be fully on the BBC. I'd imagine in 2018 Sky would want full rights to all live races with the BBC left with a small highlights package. MOTD is obviously the crown jewels for the BBC, along with Wimbledon, the World Cup and The Olympics. Id imagine anything else could be up for grabs. When are the Six Nations rights next up? I'd imagine that would be high on Skys want list with England and Home Nations games usually having high ratings.

Yeah. Without giving too much away, I think I've gone too high with my prediction for Someone's Daughter, Someone's Son. I don't mean this in a disrespectful way, and indeed fair play to ITV for commissioning such a programme, but it does sound pretty morbid for a Friday night. And even an established show in a similar sort of genre like Real Crime struggled at 9pm on Monday nights last summer with ITV1's audience share falling to just 10% for one instalment. The only thing in its favour is the fact that all other terrestrial channels are posting underwhelming figures at 9pm on Fridays at the moment so it may pick up some casual viewers since it's a new series.

In short I think you're right that there could be worse to come. Lewis will be a welcome returnee though as that show repeats well.

Well I would certainly be curious, what interested me about it was that it featured Africa in a way I had not come across before-quiet rather affluent suburbia. The feature length pilot was a cut above really-beautifully shot and with a good storyline and deserved its rating. I think the series struggled a bit because it couldnt easily repeat that.

I did predict much lower ratings for Charles and Diana, but it did better than my prediction, still im surprised it was watched by as many as it was.

The EE rating is suprising the show is good at the moment, unlike many im enjoying the Moons, Micheal is just a preplaxing character, I can never get a handle on, whilst Lola is alot of fun.

Got to say im surprised at how these One Show best are holding up, really they should have totally flopped by now.

Thanks. Seems unlikely given how low the audience went the last time they did that, but they might do it just to make a statement. Since there was a time when it was common knowledge that ITV were more than a little bit scared of Big Brother, airing an all-foreign tie against the launch could be a good way of saying "we aren't at all bothered by you now" and well, I'm sure that would suit Channel 5.

To be honest I'm more concerned by what Channel 4 might be planning for that night. DigiGuide is showing 24 Hours in A&E but that can't be right can it as the previous week is supposed to be the last in the series? Unless it's a repeat/compilation.

The Six Nations is up for renewal very soon - the current £40m per year deal runs till 2013.

There was a report in the Telegraph before the F1 deal that said the BBC were in pole position to extend until 2016. I can't lay my hands on that at the moment, though - all I can find is this:

http://www.neilmonnery.co.uk/2011/07...main-bbc-2016/

And I've got no idea whether that Neil Monnery is of any repute.

Interesting that he would speculate the BBC could save money on its renewal - as much as £10m a year, which would be a great result. As I understand it, ITV provided some stern competition from the last rights in 2007 - but they've put a lot into football since then, so it would make sense if they didn't enter the race.

That would leave Sky - and while they'd evidently be willing to pay much more, the Six Nations committee would be very cautious I imagine. They'd want some FTA coverage and how you split the games would be very difficult. Besides, there still exists a lot of bad blood from decade ago when England unilaterally sold their own rights. My hunch is that if possible, they'll want the whole tournament on one platform. Which would rule out Sky so long as the BBC are tendering a properly competitive bid.

For reasons I won't spoil, the cricket highlights on Channel Five (7pm) and Sky Sports (8pm) could get a decent audience later.

It's already been confirmed (well, reported) that TXF have booked Wembley Arena for 10th/11th.


Wasn't their talk back in January that the BBC wouldn't actually be showing the Superbowl next year?

And I've given up trying to work out the figures - everytime you think you've worked it out another report produces another set of figures.


I do wonder from a PR point of view whether the BBC would have been better off walking away completely as at the moment they're getting all the flack for a deal (though far from ideal) that keeps their hands in, rather than Sky Sports and F1 getting the blame for taking coverage away from FTA.


I do think the Six Nations is the one thing the BBC wants to protect due to the nations involvement - though must admit as much as my attitude has been "blame the government, not the BBC" for the F1 deal I wouldn't be very happy at all if the Six Nations ended up split between the BBC and Sky.

It is probably the one thing I would get Sky for (indeed I might get it for the Olympics as to get the full BBC interactive coverage you need Sky, Cable or Freesat). My main reason for not getting it at the moment is I don't see why I should pay £10 a month for HD and another £10 for "multiroom".

I don't like Lola.
Normally i agree but Monday and Tuesdays episodes were terrible.
Tuesdays was one of the worst ones i've seen in ages but it picked up a little on Thurs and Fri.

I think once all the big storylines happen then ratings are going to be around the 7m mark

As expected I guess for last night; although a tad poor for EastEnders.

I read that he is just another bum from the neighbourhood. Anyway considering I am he I thought I'd answer in this thread.

The BBC have made the decision that due to all the nations being involved and the fact the sport is traditional and accessible to young people compared to F1 that they would choose Six Nations over F1. They were prepared to dump F1 completely but have been able to restructure the Six Nations contract so they can afford to keep F1 at a vastly reduced rate. The BBCs golf output is still under serious threat but Wimbledon is not. The All England club are highly unlikely to even put the rights out to tender again as they have made it very clear that the preferred bidder is the BBC. They have cleared enough budget for MOTD as long as they can get it in the ballpark figure they paid last time although if ITV blow them out of the water they won't be able to match but they are not expecting that.

As for my repute - well I'm not exactly fielding calls left right and centre from these people but I do hear the odd thing on the grapevine shall we say from people who are far closer to the situation than me. It was just something that one than one person who should know what they are talking about passed on to me.

If it's wrong then I apologise but the fact they had to clear around £30-40m a year from their budget and have in one foul swoop saved £25m p/a + £5-8m production costs a year then I suspect the blog post is fairly accurate...

Draw for the groups for the 2014 football World Cup in progress.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/8394903.stm

Have ITV got the rights for England's home matches during World Cup 2014 Qualifying?

BBC News are making a right hash of it because their astons are covering some of the team names.

Over 5000 replies already on the BBC F1 decision blog...............

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/sportedit...etwe.html#more

Spain and France in the same group

England, Montenegro, Ukraine, Poland (yet again), Moldova, San Marino.

The football team will be happy they've been kept away from France. The moneymen may be disappointed.

For the otrher home nations:

Croatia, Serbia, Belgium, Scotland, FYR Macedonia, Wales
Germamy, Sweden, Republic of Ireland, Austria, Faroe Islands, Kazakhstan
Portugal, Russia, Israel, Northern Ireland, Azerbaijan, Luxembourg

Not a bad draw for England.

Are the BBC journalists on strike today? I thought it was Monday, but it's Gavin Grey presenting on the news channel tonight.

LOVING the Big Brother promos on C5. They are doing well with this so far.

Do we know if there will be more advertising?

Although of course with so many comments they are simply unreadable, most of which are under moderation.

It is also worth noting that officially the BBC don't count a complaint on a blog as a complaint.

I thought I would watch the Marriage Ref to see if it was as bad as what the ratings suggest, well by watching it i can safely say that we as a nation have a million or so brain dead people if they can sit through such rubbish

The F1 contract is set in stone now for 2012-18, Sky will never get the full exclusive live F1 contract, only for current BBC budget issues - they would not have got a look in this time, I would expect the BBC approached Sky with this deal for the express purpose of protecting all F1 races on BBC1 (albeit 50% are going to be time delayed - for races like Australia, Japan, Malyasia, India, Bahrain this won't be a bad thing - as they can be shown in full in primetime.)

Six Nations Rugby will be broadcast on the BBC up to and including the 2013 tournament. Olympics has to be shown free to air due to Olympic regulations. Wimbledon likely to remain on BBC for the forseeable future, due to the amount of schedule space BBC clears, also they guarantee highest ratings.

Two bits from TVScoops on Twitter:

- 'Odd One In' and 'Penn & Teller: Fool Us' are back later this year for Xmas specials
- 'Red & Black' begins on Saturday 3rd September.

i.e. There's still one of each in the can, according to Radio Times both last nights editions were 7/8, so the 8th editions can be dropped into the low-rating post Christmas slots.

Well I don't know about Odd One In but a Fool Us Xmas special was planned before the series even started, as until recently it was billed as a 7 part series not an 8 part series. Having said that, Wikipedia says a further episode will be made and there will be 2 Xmas specials, showing how this year's winners did, and with 8 more magicians competing, which makes sense as there are 8 magicians who took part but weren't shown during the series.

Red or Black starting on 3rd September is as expected I think.