Digital TV Blog

The BBC has angered Strictly Come Dancing fans by refusing to refund their money after it cancelled the public phone vote on Saturday night.

The latest in a series of phone-in blunders by the BBC, the corporation’s last minute decision to abandon the eviction has been described by viewers as a “farce” which resulted from the inability to master basic mathematics.

In Saturday’s semi-final the judging panel gave contestants Rachel Stevens and Lisa Snowdon two very high scores, meaning that due to his low score, Tom Chambers would automatically end up in the dance-off, regardless of how many public votes he received. However, many viewers had already rung in to keep the Holby City actor in the competition by the time producers made the decision to cancel the phone vote.

Many viewers were particularly baffled by the BBC’s failure to foresee the voting confusion, which threatens to put a dampener on next week’s final. Hundreds have already complained about the mistake, which also saw the show finishing abruptly ten minutes before it was scheduled to.

An insider from the show said “It was such a simple bit of maths to get wrong. What made it most embarrassing is that people from outside the BBC who were watching the show had to alert them to what was happening.”
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The BBC may have to battle against pay TV channels to hold onto live coverage of the Winter Olympics in 2014 and beyond, as a collective bid from European public service broadcasters was turned down by the International Olympic committee.

Members of the European Broadcasting Union, which bids collectively and then sells the rights on to PSBs across the continent, have shown the games on free television for the last fifty years. But now that right has been taken away from them, as the IOC seeks to raise more money from separate deals in individual countries. So far pay-TV stations owned by Rupert Murdoch have won the rights to broadcast the games in Italy and Turkey.

The EBU has traditionally won the bidding because its 75 members broadcast to the largest television audience. It paid £298 million to show the Olympics in Beijing this year and £90 million for the 2006 games in Turin. The union successfully bid for broadcasting rights in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and the 2012 London Games.

An EBU spokeswoman said its bid for the 2014 winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and the 2016 Olympics, which as yet has no location, had been rejected by the IOC because the organisation had not offered enough money.
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The BBC plans to air documentaries on a weekly basis, after the 10 O’Clock news on Tuesdays.
The documentary series will not have a brand name or theme of its own; rather each programme will have its own title and message. A documentary about the survivors of the Marchioness cruise boat disaster on the River Thames which looks at the concept of ’survivors’ guilt’ has already been commissioned.

Jay Hunt, controller of BBC1, said that she wanted to find a “distinct home for outstanding documentaries”. She said that she wanted the programmes to have a ’storytelling’ focus and promised a greater variety of ‘refreshing’ factual output on the channel.

After much speculation that the veteran science show Tomorrow’s World would come back to TV screens, Hunt confirmed that a new science magazine show would be launched in the summer, but that it would take on a different title and format to Tomorrow’s World. “I want to bring science back to a general slot on the channel… from next summer a brand new magazine show will come back to BBC1,” she said.

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It was a national talking-point, drawing comment from the highest ranks of government and the media, but John Sergeant’s early exit from Strictly Come Dancing failed to win the Saturday night ratings battle against ITV’s X-Factor, which peaked at 12.2 million viewers over the weekend.

Meanwhile, the former political correspondent’s final waltz on Saturday night attracted an average of 10.2 million viewers – the best viewing figures of the year for the celebrity talent contest, but still not enough to overcome ITV’s X-Factor dominance.

The 64-year-old’s weekly bumbling performances on Strictly drew ever harsher criticism from the show’s judges, earning him the title of the “dancing pig”, but delighted the viewing public, who consistently voted him back onto the show, despite finishing bottom of the judge’s leaderboard three weeks in a row. However, Sergeant announced his resignation from the show last week, saying there was a “real danger” he might actually win.
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Top of the Pops is to return to our screens for two one-off shows over the Christmas period, despite earlier assurances from the BBC that the music show would not be brought back.

The Top of the Pops Christmas Special and New Year Special will be presented by Radio1 DJs Fearne Cotton and Reggie Yates.

Cotton said, “I am beyond excited at the thought of a return to the mighty TOTP studios for these one-off shows. Reggie and I feel truly honoured to be able to introduce this year’s number one - both shows are going to be huge.”

The BBC had previously rejected calls to bring the long-running show, which was axed in 2006, into this year’s Christmas schedule. However, yesterday the corporation announced a Top of the Pops comeback with not just one but two shows over the festive period.

The news was welcomed by Jimmy Saville, who presented the show when it first went on air in 1964. “Let’s try it for Christmas, see how it works…,” he said. “When it started in 1964 it was a good programme.”
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John Sergeant has spectacularly decided to quit the BBC talent show Strictly Come Dancing, saying there is a “real danger” he might actually win.

Sergeant, 64 and the oldest contestant on the show, sparked mixed reactions from the audience and judges. Despite consistently finishing bottom of the judges’ rankings after a series of lamentable performances, the public kept voting the so-called “dancing pig” back into the show.
He said that he had decided to call it a day because his continued popularity with the general public was beginning to “irritate and annoy people”.

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Wallace and Gromit are to make a comeback this Christmas in their first Christmas Special for 13 years.

The new 30 minute feature film, A Matter of Loaf and Death, sees the scatty, cheese-loving inventor and his astute pooch open a punningly-named bakery at their home - Top Bun - only to find a ‘cereal killer’ is targeting all bakers in town. Much to Gromit’s consternation Wallace becomes preoccupied with his new love interest, a former bread commercial star named Piella Bakewell (*rolleyes*), and once again the canny canine is left to uncover the murderer.

The film reunites Oscar-winning animator Nick Park with Bob Baker, who co-wrote A Close Shave and The Wrong Trousers.

A Matter Of Loaf And Death took Park and his team of animators two years to make altogether, each second-and-a-half of screen time the result of a whole day’s painstaking work. The film had originally been given the name Trouble At T’Mill, but this was changed after executives decided that international audiences may not get  the northern accent.
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John Sergeant, the political correspondent whose hapless dancefloor antics on Strictly Come Dancing have earned him the nickname of a “dancing pig in Cuban heels”, has moved a step closer to winning the dance contest on a wave of public support.

Despite finishing bottom of the judges’ rankings, the rotund 64-year-old and his dance partner Kristina Rihanoff were voted back into the next round by a doting public, whilst the actress Cherie Lunghi became the latest celebrity to leave the show.

Sergeant may be popular with the viewing public, but his continued presence on the show is beginning to irk his fellow contestants, who have given their support to Lunghi, a professionally-trained dancer who had been tipped to win the contest. Breaking with protocol, Lunghi’s dance partner James Jordan yesterday expressed exasperation at the result: “I think Cherie had a lot more to show. This is supposed to be a dance contest. Please, please, people at home, vote for the dancing.”
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Britain took an important step towards going digital as analogue transmitters in the Scottish Borders were switched off last night.

Tens of thousands of viewers in South East Scotland were affected by the move, as Analogue BBC2 was switched off at 12.31am in the first stage of the nationwide programme. Engineers from the broadcast technology firm Arqiva turned off the analogue signal at the main mast in Selkirk and its 11 relay transmitters - smaller transmitters which take the signal into more remote places. The BBC’s digital channels were up and running by 5am. The remaining analogue channels are due to be switched off in three weeks’ time.

The Border region, which encompasses South East Scotland and Cumbria, will be the first in the UK to become fully digital in a nationwide digital switchover programme which is expected to finish in 2012. A previous trial was carried out in the west Cumbrian town of Whitehaven last year.
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Producers at Channel 4 may be coming up with some four-letter words of their own, as Alexander Armstrong pulled out of a deal to host Countdown at the 11th hour. Last month the comedian, better known for his part in The Armstrong and Miller Show, was offered a contract to become the fourth presenter in the popular quiz show’s 26-year history. He had previously said that would like to follow in the footsteps of previous hosts Des O’Connor, Des Lynam and the late Richard Whiteley.

But Armstrong reportedly withdrew days after looking embarrassed when ribbed about his prospective Countdown role on BBC1’s Have I Got News For You last Friday.

Armstrong will be the third person to turn down the Countdown job, after impressionist Rory Bremner and Sky Sports presenter Jeff Stelling. His sudden withdrawal leaves Channel 4 just two months to find a suitable replacement before filming of the new series begins in the new year.

A source at Channel 4 said “It is a race against time to get someone because the series begins filming in January. We were desperate for Alexander to do it.” The Channel has said that it is currently talking to a number of people about the presenter role, but that as yet “no decision has been made”.

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