Doctor Who wins at National TV Awards

January 22, 2010  Filed Under News, 4 Comments » 

Even in Britain the awards keep coming. This week the National TV Awards chose Doctor Who, Ant and Dec and Coronation Street as some its favourite fare.

Doctor Who took out the Drama award beating The Bill, Casualty and Shameless. David Tennant allowed veteran actor Bernard Cribbins, who features in “The End of Time”, to make a speech. Tennant, who used the 2008 ceremony to announce his departure from the series, later won an “Outstanding Drama Performance” award.

Stephen Fry was also presented with a special recognition award.

Entertainment Presenters – Ant and Dec
Comedy …

7TWO to launch November 1st

October 23, 2009  Filed Under News, 199 Comments » 

Channel Seven has unveiled its free-to-air digital channel 7TWO, a broad entertainment channel set to launch on Sunday, November 1, 2009 at 12noon on Channel 72.

Channel Seven’s Director of Programming and Production Tim Worner said, “I am pleased to announce that 7TWO will be the new home for premiere episodes of our international hits including J.J Abrams’ Lost, Ugly Betty, Heroes and 24,” said Worner.

“We’ve been strategic in putting together a program schedule for 7TWO that allows us to grow our audience between our two channels, without sacrificing one for …

ITV axes shows, cuts staff

March 5, 2009  Filed Under News, 21 Comments » 

ITV is preparing to slash prime-time drama, cut stars’ salaries, show more repeats and axe 600 jobs in the biggest wave of cutbacks in the channel’s history.

Executive chairman Michael Grade blamed the ’short-term horrors’ of the economic downturn for the company’s worst-ever annual results. ITV posted pre-tax losses of £2.73billion. The equivalent of $300 million AU will be slashed from the programming budget by 2011 in the biggest cuts in the broadcaster’s 54-year history.

Amongst confirmed casualties, there will be no new episodes of popular crime drama Wire in …

Coronation Street to be sold?

February 16, 2009  Filed Under News, 3 Comments » 

The impact of the global recession continues to impact on air with speculation that long-running British soap Coronation Street may be sold off to an independent production company due to severe cutbacks at ITV.

The legendary series may no longer be produced by Granada Television. And as an “interim measure”, Emmerdale may start to be made in Manchester rather than by Yorkshire Television in Leeds.

Last week, ITV’s executive chairman Michael Grade conceded, “I have seen the cycle come and go over the years. I have never seen anything quite as dramatic or …