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ESPN Wins
Premier League Rights Disney-owned ESPN
has won the rights to screen 46 live Premier League matches next
season which were formerly held by Setanta.
The US broadcaster is thought to have paid about
£90m for those games. Setanta paid £131m, but the league had already
received about £40m from the Irish pay-TV company in down payments
for the 2009-2010 season.
ESPN has also bid successfully for 23 games for
three seasons from 2010 in a separate deal. Both sets of rights
reverted to the Premier League on Friday after Setanta, their
previous owner, failed to make a £10m payment to the rights holder.
BSkyB, which already owns four out of a possible
six packages of 23 live games next season, has failed to win any
additional matches for the 2009-2010 season, which begins in August.
Sky already holds the right to five out of six packages for the
three years from the 2010-2011 season.
Under EU competition rules, Sky is barred from
owning all of them but it is thought to have bid for one of the two
packages of games.
ESPN has twice tried to buy rights to Premier
League matches, before but it has been outbid on both occasions.
ESPN has also reached a distribution deal with
BSkyB, which will screen the Premier League games it was awarded
today from next season and beyond.
The US company said it had reached an agreement
with Sky, but would also make the games "widely available across
multiple pay-TV platforms".
ESPN also said that as part of the Sky
arrangement, BSkyB would make games available to "commercial
customers".
Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore
said: "The Premier League is extremely pleased to have added ESPN as
a UK rights holder.
"They have a formidable worldwide reputation and
experience in sports and I am sure we will enjoy a long and fruitful
relationship with them."
ESPN International managing director, Russell
Wolff, said: "Premier League football is one of the world's most
sought-after sports properties, and we are very excited to be
expanding our business in the UK with England's top football
product.
"This move demonstrates our commitment to British
sports fans and our ongoing commitment to delivering football to
fans around the world across a variety of media."
19:30
June
22 2009 - waveguide.co.uk
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Home and Away
Takes A Break
Five is to give the Australian soap Home and Away a break
over the summer to stockpile future episodes.
The channel decided to take the soap of air for four weeks because the UK is
catching up with Australia, where the series takes an annual Christmas
break.
The suspension will extend the current transmission gap of two weeks to
around six weeks.
The soap will air until July 31 and then return to screens on August 31.
17:45
June
22 2009 - waveguide.co.uk
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Ofcom Rules
On Product Prominence
The Alan Titchmarsh Show, on ITV1, breached broadcasting
rules after products were given undue prominence during celebrity
interviews, Ofcom has ruled.
The regulator received a complaint about an interview with Jane Seymour,
over concerns that her jewellery and clothing ranges had been heavily
promoted.
Another complaint was received about an Alan Titchmarsh interview three days
later with Stephanie Beacham, who recently appeared as Ken Barlow's love
interest in Coronation Street.
The viewer was concerned that a skin care range was 'promoted in a prominent
fashion' on the show and Ofcom noted that Beacham had helped to create the
products.
Those responsible for the compliance of the show said no payment or other
'valuable consideration' had been received by them or the production company
for the references made to the products.
Ofcom ruled that both interviews breached regulations which say no undue
prominence may be given in any programme to a product or service.
The Beacham interview also breached a rule that states products and services
must not be promoted in programmes.
Ofcom also found that the Paul O'Grady show breached rules after O'Grady
held up a beauty product called Ageless to the camera.
Channel 4 said the pot of serum was part of an ongoing joke to exaggerate
O'Grady's age and that of his audience.
15:43
June
22 2009 - waveguide.co.uk
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Gruffalo For Christmas
Modern children's classic The Gruffalo is to appear on TV
screens this Christmas in a one-off animation on BBC One.
The 30-minute programme will feature the voices of Robbie Coltrane, Helena
Bonham Carter and Rob Brydon.
Author Julia Donaldson said she is "very excited" by what she has seen of
the animation so far.
The Gruffalo tells the tale of a mouse, who creates an imaginary monster
which becomes only too real.
As the mouse travels through the woods in search of a nut, he meets a fox,
an owl and a snake, all of whom want to eat him.
He tells them he is on his way to see his friend The Gruffalo, who
conveniently likes to snack on the creature he is talking to.
The new animation will be a mixture of models and CGI.
Coltrane will voice the Gruffalo, with Bonham Carter narrating and Brydon
playing the snake.
Helena Bonham Carter and Robbie Coltrane will voice the main parts.
Comic James Corden has landed the part of the mouse; the owl will be voiced
by John Hurt; while Tom Wilkinson will become the fox.
The book, which has won several prizes for children's literature and has
been made into a West End and Broadway play, has sold more than 4 million
copies.
15:01
June
22 2009 - waveguide.co.uk
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The Stig Reavealed
The Stig, the mystery driver on the BBC's motoring series Top
Gear has been "revealed" as racing driver Michael Schumacher.
The seven-times Formula One champion dressed as the show's elusive driver -
who tests high performance cars and whose identity has been kept a secret -
on last night's show and removed his helmet during an interview with
presenter Jeremy Clarkson.
However it remains unclear whether he really is The Stig or whether it was
just a stunt.
The driver had previously been named in newspapers as
ex-stunt driver Ben Collins, who has worked on such blockbusters as the Bond
film Quantum Of Solace - but the BBC refused to confirm or deny these
rumours.
Clarkson said that while filming the scenes leading up to the Stig's
identity being revealed, "hardened emotionless camera crews said the hair on
the back of their neck prickled".
"As a television moment, it's up there with Neil Armstrong walking on the
corpse of JR Ewing."
The original Stig, driver Perry McCarthy, was replaced after he revealed his
identity in his autobiography in 2002.
08:43
June
22 2009 - waveguide.co.uk
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University Challenge
Rules for the forthcoming series of University Challenge have
been tightened by the BBC to make it clear the quiz is for students only.
In the previous series, the programme had been surrounded by
controversy after it was revealed that Sam Kay, a member of the winning team
was no longer a student but an accountant, had broken the competition's
rules.
The Corpus Christi panel, led by the "human Google" Gail Trimble, was
subsequently disqualified and stripped of their title which was awarded to
Manchester University.
A new rule book says that team members and the reserve in the
next series must be students in both the academic year when the competition
starts and the immediately following academic year, as filming will take
place over both.
The BBC plans that after the next series all future University Challenges
will be filmed over a single year.
It is the first time the BBC has changed the regulations since the show
began in 1962.
A spokesman from the Granada, the production company that makes the
programme for the BBC said: "We have critically assessed the rules of
University Challenge and we have expanded on the principles that underpinned
previous series of the programme in consultation with University registrars.
"We have particularly scrutinised the rules of eligibility in order for the
students and universities to have complete clarity and confidence and to
avoid any doubt.
"We have clarified that a student is someone who is currently enrolled with
a University or University College and who is following a recognised course
of study at that University or College and whose final award in that course
of study has not yet been communicated by that University or College.
"Due to production requirements and timescales already in place, the next
series will be filmed over two academic years but thereafter all future
series will be filmed in one academic year.
"Each contestant of entered teams will now be individually responsible for
the accuracy of their submission and successful applicants will be required
to enter into a Contestant Agreement again incorporating eligibility
requirements and quiz rules.
"Prior to each recording participants will be asked to reaffirm their
eligibility to take part and this will be verified by the registrar of their
respective universities. If they are found to be ineligible to compete, the
reserve member will be asked to take their place. "We are confident that
with these procedures in place we can look forward to a great new series."
07:40
June
22 2009 - waveguide.co.uk
Reader Comment
Up to this point it was my understanding that that is what
the rules already said. If they didn't then I don't think the Oxford team
should have been disqualified since they obviously weren't deliberately
breaking the rules. It's not their fault if the rules were open to
misinterpretation.
- Deke
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