Beeb saying Simon Cole has fallen on his sword.

"Former Sky News managing editor, Simon Cole, who authorised e-mail hacking will leave the company, BBC understands"

I think they overbid for the HBO output deal, they could have easily just cherrypicked shows like Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire while not having to be saddled with duds like Luck.

It's very difficult to see where the majority of programmes on Sky Atlantic would sit on other Sky branded channels.

Sky1 used to show premium cable shows like Weeds and Deadwood, but neither seemed right for the channel.

Likewise, C4 showed The sopranos, Six Feet Under and True Blood, but would they have been suited to BBC One, ITV1 or Sky1?

Cleverdicks would be suited to BBC2 but not Sky1, Sky Living or Sky Arts.

Sky1 launched The West Wing in the UK, but dropped it after one season and it went to C4. It would be 100% suited to Sky Atlantic.

With regards to ITVs tactics versus The Voice.

Not a direct comparison I know but on the few occasions when the £250,000 has been won on DOND they've always leaked it which suggests that heightens viewer interest.

I have only just started watching The Cube

Will The Voice continue to play on Sunday throughout late April and May?
Perhaps they will play in a Strictly type structure - main show Saturday; results - Sunday?

That is a load of rubbish even by the standards of the papers lately and quite tenious.

Maybe the BBC should give ITV a list of what programmes they are allowed to show opposite the voice. The Cube isn't even that big a show!

The idea that This Morning viewers will by default like The Voice & The Cube, all completely different programmes, because they are hosted by Phillip & Holly really is ridiculous.

I'm surprised they don't complain about ITV running ASFF against SCD because it will annoy fans of the Kay/Daly family!

The only reason I still subscribe to Sky is brilliant shows like Luck, Friday Night Lights and Mad Man.

I hate GOT and Broadwalk.

It's not all about viewing figures its about the reputation of quality. The prestege of having Mad Men is worth a million viewers by itself.

More fool the British public for not watching 2 of the greatest dramas of all time (Mad men and FNL)

That's a short list. Individual boxsets might work out cheaper?


Okay, but those are the only two that do actually rate and make the whole thing feel semi-worthwhile. They are also the only two that you sense could just as easily be housed successfully on Sky1, even if they are less suited to that brand overall.


And I ask again, what's the use in having this reputation for quality if it doesn't translate into being a channel that people actively want to watch?

Even the mood on the Virgin subforum has changed from "OMG WHY DO WE NOT GET SKY ATLANTIC!! SO UNFAIR" toy throwing style postings at launch to "Sky Atlantic can stick it where the sun don't shine!"


Just because they're not sitting down and watching them when Sky Atlantic tells them to, doesn't necessarily mean they are not watching or haven't watched. There are other ways. Friday Night Lights, which is now down to a miniscule following of 20k (approximately EIGHT people in BARB homes), has already been on telly anyway through ITV4. The first few seasons at least.

Sky Atlantic is not an attractive proposition for viewers in 2012 because it's at least 10 years too late and the kind of shows they are acquiring/need to acquire are not only in short supply, but they're also better suited to VOD services and boxset viewing.

I've always thought Sky Atlantic would have been better as a more premium channel airing the HBO shows as HBO do - without ads. It would probably need to be thrown in as a bonus with Sky Movies or Sky Sports rather than free to all Sky customers - but Sky obviously believe there is advertising revenue to be made as I suspect the shows on Sky Atlantic reach an audience Sky1 and Sky Living don't.

Exactly. Which is why Atlantic is the UK's most timeshifted channel.

And don't forget all those Sky Go viewings - I bet a fair few of the 144 million in January alone, were for Atlantic programmes.

Anyway, Sky must love the column inches from the broadsheets talking about Atlantic and its shows.

Or put another way, most people are at work when This Morning is on so Phil and Holly will only be seen at night on their two current offerings. Some people won't be aware of their daytime show. Also any attempt at points scoring against The Voice has backfired as ratings have been up there with BGT, which is going through a revival at the moment.

Also Daily Mail readers are more likely to approve of middlebrow entertainment that BBC One shows than ITV1. If people think the Daily Mail is completely anti- BBC, they also have a dislike of what they perceive as the vulgar nature of commercial television and openly despise reality shows. Somehow I kind of agree with them.

Does anyone know why the Daily Show isnt on next week, the show has aired new episodes this week, yet both Digiguide and Radio Times are showing a repeat of "My Place In the Sun"

I know it is Easter Monday and all, but is that really reason to not air it?

I think sky viewer tend to time shift ALOT!!
We watch none of it live, we record and watch at the weekend when there's nothing else on, or else stockpile episodes and watch a few together. Mad men is great as is GOT and Boardwalk, real quality drama.

I don't think it was an auction, it was a private deal.

£30m per year, £576k per week, with four hours a day of programming it works out at £20K an hour.

To get all the new stuff and the archive, it seems a bloody good deal to me.

It may be a 'dud', but Luck still fills five hours a week and ratings have gone up since not registering in week three.

The only problem here being that the programming cost is only part of the story. The amount of money that Sky has spent and continues to spend on advertising Atlantic and its content is somewhat staggering. How much do you suppose some of the original Sky1 content would benefit from the advertising push that was given to Mad Men for example? And the amount that was spent on promoting the launch of Atlantic – a niche channel with next to no original content – was utterly absurd.

More over its worth remembering that the Sky Atlantic programming budget covers very few shows because there's still next to no original content on the channel. Or content in general in fact,


It can't be the only reason for the existence of a channel and right now for Atlantic it feels like that is the only reason it exists.


Completely disagree. And the notion that you have to create a whole new channel to air Mad Men might be one of the most incredible things I've ever heard.There isn't a single new series on Atlantic that couldn't air on an existing Sky channel.

I would however agree that some of the older HBO library content would be out of place but I don't think that should be airing on Atlantic either. Why isn't the HBO library just offered OnDemand as an exclusive to Sky subscribers?


Can you explain the logic behind this?


Ad free is certainly something Sky should explore for Atlantic and lets face it the vast majority of content on the channel isn't going to bringing in much ad revenue anyway. I actually think that would help to provide some identify to the channel and make it a much better selling point as a channel. it would be interesting to see if they could take the hit of not making it premium and not attaching it to a movie package - all this excellent content, free and ad free. Although obviously they'd need to get some more excellent content.

Also they might want to take a leaf out of some of the cable networks in the US and try launching a new or returning show with a simulcast. In fact that might have been something to do with Mad Men or Game of Thrones this time around. Broadcast episode one on Sky Atlantic, Sky1 and maybe Sky Movies and whatever else they can think of. Grab a bigger audience, show them what they're missing and drive more eyes to the series and to Atlantic as a whole. That might also have tempted some of the non-Sky subscribers who get Sky1 or Movies to jump ship to Sky for Atlantic.

I'm very split on the HBO deal.

On one hand I think its great but on the on the other hand it is sticking them with a lot of content they probably don't want and wouldn't chose to have. A deal for the archive might have been my preferred choice. But by the same token buying some of these shows individually could have worked out very expensive indeed so...

Exactly. There could have a been a bidding war for Luck!!!

I'd guess if so much is being watched on Sky+ or Sky Anytime the ads are not being viewed anyway.


Not a bad idea at all.

Also worth remembering that channels like HBO and Showtime basically put all their focus on one night and then repeat throughout the week, while Sky Atlantic is trying to take that content and fill an entire schedule. Perhaps a Sky Premiere style schedule of the same shows every night would work better - although they'd have probably needed to launch with that strategy to make it work.

I was thinking the same thing but the current provisional schedule is:

8.30 London Marathon
2.00 Sunday Politics
3.05 Human Planet
4.05 Lifeline
4.15 Songs of Praise
5.00 TBA
6.00 BBC News
6.15 F1: Bahrain Grand Prix
7.30 The Voice UK

No idea what that TBA at 5pm would be, maybe just a red herring? Also it does seem that EastEnders omnibus now might be permanently on late night Fridays. It certainly isn't switching to BBC2 when timings are tight anymore anyway.

ITV don't have much choice with the BGT Final really. Surely some of it will face The Voice?! Potentially splitting it over 2 nights could work in their favour, but ITV are generally quite stubborn over this sort of thing so a complete head-to-head clash shouldn't be ruled out. I see the headlines now.......worst rated BGT final ever, BGT in crisis and so on.......

I'm surprised Sky Atlantic hasn't bought Damages as there is still two more seasons that haven't been shown on UK TV.

critical acclaim can be double edge sword and it can be a turn off for casual viewers, for comedy this is particularly true as critics raved about shows like 30 Rock, Community but they don't get numbers that not so acclaimed shows would get. I'd rather watch a show that was entertaining but hated by critics than a critically acclaimed show which was slow and a bit boring.

5pm might be a Countryfile compilation or Antiques Roadshow repeat. I wonder if the EE Sunday omnibus is becoming more surplus to requirement with the BBC3 repeat and iPlayer (becoming available to more and more people on their TV sets). Perhaps the only reason BBC1 don't drop the omnibus completely is that the actors would complain about the instant drop in wages with the loss of a repeat fee.