I see. So deliberately clashing and denting shows is fine as long as it's the BBC doing it. Gotcha.

No, any channel can do what they like. ITV sometimes put shows against BBC shows to dent them like what they attempted to do last Sunday, BBC sometimes does it to ITV. Its the nature of the beast. But you know, its good to support the underdog like The Voice, its fresh compared to BGT and I hope it rates well and give BBC1 even more dominance on Saturdays.

I'm just saying because of the uproar that ITV's little move caused in this thread, that's all.

I don't particularly agree that shows should clash just to dent the other. As someone said, it's a bit like cutting your nose off to spite your face. The focus here should be ensuring The Voice launches to the best numbers possible, they shouldn't be getting distracted with trying to usurp BGT's dominance, as ultimately there's no guarantee that The Voice will end up doing that and then you end up with more problems.

Plus they will appeal to quite similar audiences. BBC's Sunday night line-up worked precisely because it was catering to an audience that weren't interested in watching Dancing on Ice. I don't see any parallels in this case.

Of course, STV retains its distinctive Scottish identity and people refer to STV far more than ITV1, so many Scots north of Selkirk would see it as their channel. I know there is BBC Scotland, but this is just a Scottish department of a London broadcaster and not as well liked. However, were that Taggart audience to be given an English equivalent, then 9 million would be its audience. Also good for Coronation St north of the Border, it actually has a bigger following per head of the population than in England.

Prisoner's Wives is a decent drama, it ought timeshift 20% for episodes 3 and 4. I suspect the problem may be that BBC1 are producing too much (high quality) drama recently (since 1/1/2012.) We have had the following broadcast in 53 days including today.

Sherlock 3
EastEnders 31
Casualty 7
Holby City 8
Public Enemies 3
Call The Midwife 6
New Tricks 1
Birdsong 2
Hustle 6
Inside Men 3
Upstairs Downstairs 1
Prisoner's Wives 4

Looking at BARB ratings, Inside Men is suffering more than Prisoner's Wives, the latter is timeshifting well so far, the former has dropped out of the BBC1 top 30.

Didn't ITV move Coronation Street to support Sunday night? They couldn't have done it to ham the BBC as they made the BBC fully aware of the move, and the latter altered their schedule accordingly. If a channel draws up a schedule to benefit them, that's fair enough. But if they risk clashing The Voice with Britain's Got Talent it'll be pretty obvious they care more about denting BGT than allowing The Voice the best ratings possible. Remember, it doesn't have Strictly's fan base...yet.

Should the BBC show less quality drama instead and show more reality shows and more Eastenders episodes then? Surely people watch the BBC to get something more stimulating than The Biggest Loser.

No of course variety is everything, I just think the reason a lot of shows rate <5m is not down to quality, just a finite number of viewing hours available. I tend to watch a lot of drama on timeshift personally - sport and news being the things I watch live mostly. I also watch around 10 films per week, plus some soaps. Sometimes there just isn't enough hours in the week to watch everything - it was easier with 3/4 channels, but often there was evenings with 'nothing good on.'

Technically speaking all DVR's record a time period rather than a show. Sky+ etc. is at the mercy of the EPG if that isn't updated to compensate for an overrun then your recording will start and finish in line with the originally announced schedule.


In fairness he's talking about the first season of Glee which wasn't clapped out.

I think his more telling comment is that they weren't interested in Homeland and then goes onto say that they're looking for shows that are 'passionate, honest and relevant'. I would have said Homeland fits into that descriptor quite nicely and I struggle to see how a show like Body of Proof or Dallas does but that's just me.

On the subject of Five's imports once again I will say that I think they need to diversify their imported dramas. The rate of production for the crime procedurals in the US has dropped in the US (particularly amongst the broadcast networks) so personally I think they need to make more acquisitions along the lines of Dallas or Once Upon A Time. Although ironically enough I have no interest in either of those shows. There is just a limited number of new crime drama on the horizon though so they need to start preparing for different genres.

Personally I'd like to see them dip their toes back into the sci-fi waters although I know FlashForward burnt them quite badly on that front.

I very much doubt the BBC are giving any thought to Talent's ratings in this way. The Voice is just the latest in a long line of attempts to find another hit talent show. I doubt there's going to be much or any of a scheduling overlap anyway.

The BBC just shrug their shoulders and get on with it where Talent is concerned. They know the show will eventually clap out of its own accord, anyway.

They picked up The Walking Dead which rated okay, it had a terrible slot on Sundays at 10pm. Still think American Horror Story should be acquired by 5 as a companion show but I reckon they'll pair it with OUAT.

Dallas should rate well although whether it can sustain its audience depends on whether it good or not.

I was one of the last to convert from analogue to digital and will admit having only the four channels by 2007 was becoming limiting and a barrier to conversations.

Request. Please can we all stop using TBH during Lent this year? It really is meaningless!

Im sorry Fudd but I cant believe how you can say moving Corrie was done to support ITV and not harm the BBC.

Corrie at 8pm meant forcing DOI, an already struggling show, to a very early start and getting its lowest ever rating. A direct Corrie clash with Call The Midwife would have probabaly seen a low Corrie number so the lead-in for Wild At Heart would have been the same or possible lower than the usual DOI figure. The Beeb moving Midwife to 20:30 probably helped ITV a bit by not hurting Corrie as much but the extra Corrie viewers around at 20:30 seemed to boost Midwife anyway.

IMHO you are bang on there.

Jeff Ford (Channel 5 controller) had a lot of interesting things to say today:

- Despite launching their own production arm, he stressed commitment to the U.S. acquisitions going forward, but only those capable of 1.5 million viewers. He also said they would look at imports from Australia for the digital channels, but not foreign language imports.
- He said Homeland was "too niche" for Channel 5. Whilst I think the show is great, he's probably right. 2m was a good start on a competitive night but on C5 it would have launched lower, and sadly, the only way from there is down.
- The new production arm will focus on factual ent and produce up to 5 shows a year, starting with Marco Pierre White's Kitchen Wars.
- In the longterm, there are plans for "home-grown, cost effective drama and scripted comedy." This is certainly welcome news.

Source and more: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118050589?refCatId=14

1989 was the BEST BRITS EVER!!! Never been a greater show.

I agree with that and I don't think the BBC think that way either.

Yes BGT will clap out one day, as will most shows, but I'm not anticipating any massive declines this year.

I hope cost effective drama means co-productions rather than doing it on the cheap, I think they should try and do one new drama a year whether it be a series or a one-off. As for Channel 5 productions, I think they should consider partnering with someone like BBC Worldwide, ITV Global or Shine to develop shows that could be successful for the channel and also could be exported so they could make money from it.

Homeland wouldn't have worked on Channel 5, it is the right fit for Channel 4 but I think they should looking for more cable dramas that fit their channels.

After one of the worst TV football games of the season, something's finally happened on ITV1 with the last touch of the game.
I suspect many have switched to Masterchef or One Born Every Minute in the meantime.

Low budget does not necessarily equate to low quality - see Alan Bennett's Talking Heads for proof. One actor in one set; you can't get much more low-budget than that.

Possibly a Channel 5 prime-time drama would have a similar budget to BBC1 daytime drama Doctors and Doctors is quite well respected. The main giveaway to its low budget is the lack of patients in the surgery waiting-room cos they can't afford to pay for many extras.

In drama the big costs will be lots of actors, lots of extras, lots of set, elaborate costumes and elaborate set-piece stunts. So a writer with a low-budget avoids all that but he needn't necessarily stop him/her coming up with a good story.

Opportunity Knocks was a ratings hit for 14 years and only ended in 1978 because host Hughie Green annoyed his bosses at Thames TV and not because its viewing figures were falling.

I hope they show some good Aussie dramas on 5*, im sure Dancc could point them in the right direction, if they asked him.

As for Channel 5 drama, oh boy "cost effective" does not read as well as Jeff Ford thinks it does, whatever they produce I hope its worth while.

Rafters is crying out for a UK home, has been for some time. Also, ABC had a legal drama a while back which looked interesting called Crownies that might suit 5*.


It's a vague description and could mean lots of things. We've discussed in the past ways it could work like pilots, one-off dramas, co-productions, etc etc. I'm just glad to hear them talking about the idea. We've known for some time that homegrown comedy/drama is difficult to do on C5's budget so it should not come as a surprise to anyone that they are starting off small.

Co-productions is the way forward, a lot of expensive dramas are co-production, Downton Abbey, Sherlock and Upstairs Downstairs are all co-produced by Masterpiece and BBC America has funded Being Human as well as the America episode of Doctor Who. I think the pilot season which we've mentioned before would be a fantastic way of picking a potential series.