Archive for June, 2008

1080p for all, at last

Word on the street is that since the launch of Freesat a couple of months ago, take up of HD TV equipment has really started to take off. According to sales figures, there are approximately 10 million HD TV sets currently in use in British households, half a million of which are being used in conjunction with the Sky HD service, which, incidentally, is set to take a price tumble tomorrow.

Virgin, which has proudly boasted its own V+ HD digital TV service since inception, also commands a portion of this figure. However, it is thought until now, the majority of HD Ready TV sets have been purchases with the purposes of enjoying next-gen home entertainment in the form of Blu-Ray and HD DVD players, not to mention the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Yes, and the Wii, although we realise it’s technically not a next-gen console…

Anyway. Just as Freeview and Freeview Playback drove the increase in sales of switchover-ready Digital TV sets, Freesat looks all set to do the same for HD-compatible kit. Like Freeview, the main selling point of the Freesat package is the one-off install fee, no subscription deal which sees punters able to sign up for a whole bunch of HD channels all in one go.

If that wasn’t enough HD access to keep people happy, the BBC are reportedly trialling HD transmissions over Freeview, using the Guildford transmitter as a test bed, putting paid to rumours that HD on Freeview would never happen. The broadcast utilised the newfangled DVB-T2 spec, which apparently offers 30% more capacity than the standard DVB-T, on which the existing Freeview equipment runs.

Justin Mitchell, head of the DVB-T2 development team at the BBC, said: “This is a big step forward in enabling the introduction of full HD terrestrial on Freeview by the end of 2009.”

The DVB-T2 specification means that Freeview punters will almost certainly have to buy a new set-top box, which prompts the question why bother waiting when you could just shell out for Freesat now? Well, the problem with Freesat is that it requires a dish to be fitted to the side of a property, and for structural and contractual reasons, this isn’t an option.

2009 is also well in advance of the 2012 switchover and just in time for the Olympic Games, meaning that every British household ought to be able to see that high-watermark acheivement of graphic design that is the London 2012 Olympics logo in super-high 1080 progressive scan resolution.

Sky supersize Hi-Def telly package price

With the take up of HD TV in the UK soaring since the arrival of the HD video formats, next-gen gaming consoles and now Freesat, Sky have upped the ante on the competition by slashing nearly £100 off of the asking price of its high definition service, giving its current HD box the name Sky+ HD. Kind of confusing if you ask us, seeing as the current Sky HD box already has Sky+ style functionality, but sometimes life’s hard y’know?

From tomorrow customers will be able to purchase a Sky HD box for £150 when taken alongside a £10 a month subscription to Sky HD Mix. Currently, this package costs £249 on it’s own with the basic channel mix. Sky have branded the subscription Sky HD Mix, to differentiate it from the Sky+ box and Sky+ HD box.

The Sky+ box will also be priced at £150, which could be reduced to £75 if taken with Sky Broadband and Talk - aka See Speak Surf - or Sky Multiroom.

I have a cunning plan…

Cate Blanchett delivers one of her most memorable roles as Elizabeth (9:00pm Tonight, More4), which documents the rise of one of the most prominent figures from British history, and the early years of her reign.

As a Protestant and a reformist, she has more enemies than she realises both at home and
abroad – the fervent political and religious backdrop is set right at the very beginning of the film, where three Lutheran ‘heretics’ are roughly shaven before being burned at the stake. Criticised for portraying Catholics in a bad light, the film is nonetheless enjoyable as a kind of English Renaissance-based thriller – much of the film is spent clandestine locations, with conspiratorial whisperings abound.

The costumes and settings are vibrant, lush and lavishly rendered, and the supporting cast is equally star-studded, featuring La Haine star Vin Cassel appears as Henri of Anjou, a would be suitor of Her Maj, future Pirate of the Carribean Geoffrey Rush as spymaster Francis Walsingham,  post-Man United Eric Cantona as the French ambassador, a pre-Doctor Who Christopher Ecclestone as the conniving dastardly Catholic Duke of Norfolk and a pre-James Bond Daniel Craig as fanatical, head-stoving Jesuit assassin John Ballard.

Its hard to believe that Elizabeth is now ten years old, probably because of the fairly recently release of (not quite as good) follow-up Elizabeth: The Golden Age still relatively fresh in people’s minds.

More Prime Time Reality Family Fun

Amateur choir is to be given a prime-time face-lift on a new show hosted by Myleen Klass and Nick Knowles. Last Choir Standing, to be shown on BBC1, will scour the country for the choir with the most talent, passion and pizzazz. The two presenters will be joined by a panel of judges, X-factor style – the much-loved Tenor Russell Watson, Holby City actress and west-end singer Sharon D. Clarke, and seasoned choral conductor Suzi Digby OBE. The 27 choirs who make it onto the programme will gradually be whittled down to six, when the audience decide who to keep and who to boot.

The choirs couldn’t be more diverse, from a group of hip-hop street kids who struggle to follow the music or the conductor and the all-male Hertfordshire Police Choir to a group of handbag-wielding housewives singing Britney Spears.

Singing in choirs is apparently one of Britain’s favourite pastimes with over 25,000 registered choirs and at least half a million members. “It’s one of the things the UK truly excels at,” says Suzi. “More than any other country, we have an amazing amateur tradition. We are the only country with a 1,000-year unbroken tradition of cathedral choir schools. It is one of the things we really do well.”

Nonetheless, choirs have not always been seen as cool and many of us hold back from singing in public. “There was this idea that if you were going off to choir practice, you were a sad loser,” Suzi continues.

“People also get a psychological block about singing. Parents say their children can’t, siblings laugh – it doesn’t take much for it all to shut down.”

Still, the programme aims to raise the profile of choral Singing. Co-host Nick Knowles, better known as the host of DIY SOS and City Hospital, enthuses that “The public will be treated to some fantastic performances from all the choirs, and it will ultimately be up to them to decide who will be the Last Choir Standing. This will be entertainment television at its best – getting the whole country involved.”
Last Choir Standing will air on Saturday Nights on BBC1 next month.

GNVQ Business version of Alex de Gale gets Brum FC job

Apprentice runner-up Claire Young, who narrowly lost out in the final of the entrepreneurial battle, still got to hear those cherished words “you’re hired” after securing a top job at Birmingham City FC.

The favourite to win, who was pipped to the post by the affable Lee McQueen, has reportedly secured a deal at the club that well exceeds the £100,000 position Sir Alan Sugar was offering the successful finalist.

Birmingham City refused to comment this morning, but it is believed that Miss Young, who is 28, was given a job offer after impressing managing director Karren Brady. This fulfilled a promise made by Ms Brady who told Alan Sugar “If you don’t give her a job, I will”. She added “I like Claire’s confidence. She’s a go-getter.”

Miss Young revealed her admiration for her new boss after her interview with the club, telling reporters “I couldn’t ask for a better opportunity. Karren Brady is a great role model.”

Nicknamed “The Rottweiler” for her foul language and aggressive tactics, Miss Young won over viewers by displaying a flair for business.

Her fellow runner-up, Alex Wotherpoon has also found success since the series ended, having been offered several modelling contracts.

Analogue radio shutdown begins

Plans have been put forward for a digital radio switchover in a report by the government led Digital Working Group.

The report said that no date for the switch had yet been fixed, but experts estimate that it could be completed by 2020. Listeners would be given at least two years’ notice of the transfer from analogue to digital radio.

In the report, the Digital Working Group said that all national and regional stations should switch to DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) in the medium term, while small local and community stations continue to air on FM. Before a switchover could take place, coverage would have to be improved across the country and the signal strengthened. Car manufacturers would also have to be persuaded to fit DAB as standard.

Whilst every home in Britain will have switched over to digital TV by 2012, the future of digital radio is less certain, with a number of smaller digital stations having shut down already because of lack of support. Fru Hazlitt, chief executive of GCap Media, the largest group of commercial radio stations in the UK has declared that investing in DAB was “not economically viable” for the group: “In the short term, without massive investment and improbable changes in government policy, it is not a platform in which we can grow.”

In May this year, GCap dropped Planet Rock and TheJazz, two of it’s niche DAB stations. Planet Rock was recently saved by the intervention of Queen guitar legend Brian May, whilst TheJazz, unable to muster support, faded into digital obscurity. The infamous Birdsong radio station - which plays an uninterrupted stream of bird noises - has also recently warbled its way back on to DAB.

Third Channel goes on a PSB-light diet

ITV plans to slash its public service output before the digital switchover in 2012 as it struggles to attract more viewers.

The broadcaster wants to reduce the number of programmes it airs, focussing its attention on those which attract advertisers. Children’s and regional programmes in particular will be affected by this change. The cuts are thought to be a response to fears that the economic slowdown will cause revenue generated by advertising to plummet this year.

Already ITV has put plans in place to ofset the decline in revenue that a move to digital will bring, by cutting down on children’s programmes and ordering a radical restructuring of its regional news services, reducing the number of regions which receive their own news bulletin. It is thought that these moves will save the broadcaster around £40 million a year. ITV is looking at cutting jobs, and is expected to announce a decision on this by the end of the year. It has already told staff that they will have to reapply for their jobs in the summer. However, it has stopped short of slashing public service broadcasting altogether from its output. Such a move would result in a fine from Ofcom, and more crucially, could knock ITV from its spot as the third terrestrial channel in digital listings published by Sky Virgin Media and others.

Ofcom, responsible for ensuring that public service broadcasting is maintained in the digital age, has admitted that the value it receives from ITV’s analogue spectrum will fall sharply from about £140 million this year to £45 million by the time of the switch-over. This also means the regulator will lose some of its power over how much public content it can demand from ITV.

However, help may be at hand, as the BBC is set today to announce measures to help commercial broadcasters make the switch to digital whilst increasing public service output. It will propose sharing its regional news resources with ITV in order to help them cut costs, and offer help to independent commercial stations in order to increase digital radio coverage, which currently stands at 90%. Mark Thompson, Director General of the BBC believes that this may help allay Ofcom’s fears of a dumbing down of public service broadcasts as commercial broadcasters attempt to cut costs.

The Ring Two and The Silence of the Lambs

This Saturday sees a double whammy of psychological horrors in the form of The Ring Two (11:45pm, BBC1) and Silence of the Lambs (11:00pm, ITV2) hitting our screens.

The Ring Two is the follow up to the well-received American remake of the Japanese horror classic Ring, which concerns a cursed video tape which causes anyone who watches it to inexplicable die seven days after watching it. Big budget Hollywood remakes of cult items tend not to go down well, sometimes due to studios not comprehending the source material and making something which alienates hardcore fans (Tank Girl) and confuses the hell out of mainstream audiences not familiar with the subject (Tank Girl).

However, the 2002 version of The Ring was so successful, that Hideo Nakata, director of the original Ring movie, agreed to sign on as director for the spin-off sequel, which follows an entirely original storyline, based six months on from events at the end of the first movie. This atmospheric follow up traces the origins of the ghostly, mute Samara Morgan and explores the mother-son relationship between Rachael (Naomi Watts) and Aidan (David Dorfman).

Over on ITV2, we are treated to (yet another) repeat of the now-classic film which made both Sir Anthony Hopkins and Dr. Hannibal Lecter household names. The eminently quotable The Silence of the Lambs caused outrage upon its initial release for its violence, liberal application of bodily fluids and unsympathetic presentation of transsexuals – look closely and you’ll see that Buffalo Bill’s mattress is decorated with swastikas. The Fall also make an appearance on the soundtrack, with the track ‘Hip Priest’ underscoring the claustrophobic endgame sequence. Whilst not a sequel per se, it’s release followed on from the celebrated Manhunter, the first of the Hannibal novels to be given a film treatment. Manhunter, of course got remade as Red Dragon, with Hopkins reprising the role of Lecter.

On a side note, Film Four seem to be running a kind of Angelina Jolie tribute evening tonight, showing her fairly recent screen pairing with Brad Pitt Mr. & Mrs. Smith (9:00pm, Film Four) in between CGI-centric Saturday Matinee homage Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (7:00pm, Film Four), and the emotional drama Girl, Interrupted (11:15am, Film Four), for which Jolie bagged herself an Oscar for her performance.

Satcaster in Scottish Switchover Stink-up

The decision to award Sky the contract for a digital switchover help scheme has been criticized by a Scottish MP.

The scheme, set up by the British government, helps elderly and disabled people make the switch to digital TV by converting one of their televisions to digital. Individuals aged 75 or over as well as those eligible for certain benefits will be offered digital equipment fully installed by Sky at a cost of £40, or free for the less well off, enabling them to access over 200 Freeview television and radio channels without subscription. They will also receive extra Sky channels and the Sky Plus digital recording facility free for two months, after which period they can opt to pay for the additional service or simply retain their Freeview channels.

However, the Liberal Democrat MP for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk has criticized the scheme sharply, saying that the digital market is no long a level playing field for Sky’s competitors: “What it fundamentally does take away is the idea that the transfer to digital television is done on a neutral basis, without any particular choice between the different television platforms. This is giving Sky an unprecedented marketing opportunity to some of people who are the most vulnerable in our Borders’ communities.”

He said that people on the scheme would have to pay for installation if they opted for an alternative provider which “seems to me absolutely crazy”.

However, chief operating officer of the Switchover Help Scheme Tony Noakes insisted that the decision to award the contract to Sky was a fair one: “The Help Scheme chose Sky as the standard offer because it represents best value for money and a high-quality service for eligible people. People using the Help Scheme in Scottish Borders will be free to choose from a range of other ways of going digital.”

Totally Mexico

Alex De Gale, the most aggressive and obnoxious idiot to be allowed into TV’s Pavlovian charnel house so far has been evicted by Big Brother chiefs after she apparently threatened to have her fellow housemates gunned down drive-by style once the show was over. A short transcript of her lunacy follows:

“I’m not throwing water at anyone. It’s bigger than that… personal offence is never forgotten. Do you know what I mean?

We are just inside the house. I’ve got a very, very, very, very, very strong team outside the huse.

I just can’t wait to see my mans and them and see what their plans are, who they got… I’m not talking about those mans, I’m talking about my gangster friends. They got some instructions to follow out.

I get to go out, see everyone’s friends, I get to see their family. I get to do the s**t that I wanna do. Pow, pow, pow.”

Angela Jain, Head of E4 and Big Brother at C4 said: “Alex’s comments will be widely interpreted as having been intended to intimidate. Other housemates have said they found her comments to be threatening and we believe that is a reasonable conclusion for them to have reached given the way Alex has behaved previously.

“Big Brother has very clear rules about housemates’ conduct and that kind of behaviour is not acceptable. She had already been spoken to twice about her behaviour and, like all housemates, was clearly informed before entering the house that she faced eviction if she acted in an unacceptable manner.”

This was indeed the final straw for Big Brother after the insane chip incident, and an incident this Tuesday, which seemed to have all the hallmarks of last year’s Jade Goody/Emily Parr racist double whammy.

Alex, who describes herself as a ‘non-practicing Muslim’, (kinda like a vegetarian who occasionally eats chicken) launched into housemate Mohamed, criticising his faith – the same one she allegedly subscribes to.

The 23-year-old Croydonian, accused him of misogyny, saying “Because you are Muslim, you look down on [women],” to which Mohamed, visibly annoyed said; “I don’t look down on [women]. My mum and I are very close and all the women in my family are strong. Don’t say things like that. It really pi**es me off.”

Blogs have been congested with anti-Alex remarks, and Facebook groups have reached apoplectic status.

Alex was called into the diary room around 8pm on Wednesday, where she was told that she would be removed from the house without any further contact with the other housemates. She was quietly ushered out of the house before an official announcement was made, so as to avoid any gathering crowds: a post on the Facebook group ‘ALEX HAS GONE AND THIS IS WHAT BB HAVE SAID..’ reads; “she wont get the booing she deserves now”.

It turns out that Alex is going to be in for a nasty shock when she gets home however. An article published a couple of days ago on Sky.com revealed how Alex’s black BMW has been keyed and tagged with graffiti reading “fake”, “bitch” and “slut”, which must officially make her the most hated BB contestant in TV history. Knowing her, she’ll probably be proud of that title.