Leigh Holmwood
guardian.co.uk,
Tuesday February 12 2008
BBC News 24 is to launch its first regular entertainment news show since Zero30 in the late 1990s, with a weekly programme co-hosted by Blue Peter presenter Gethin Jones.
E24 will be a weekly roundup of news from the world of film, television and music with behind-the-scenes reports and interviews with stars of that week's shows, gigs and events.
Jones, who became a household name following his stint on BBC1's reality show Strictly Come Dancing, will front the programme alongside News 24 presenter James Dagwell.
The 15-minute show has been commissioned for a six-week pilot run and will air weekly on Saturdays at 10.45am and 5.45pm from February 16, with a repeat at 5.45pm and 9.45pm on Sundays. E24 will also be available on demand from the BBC's website.
The new show follows in the footsteps of Zero30, which morphed into Liquid News and moved to BBC Choice in 2000 and then onto BBC3 in 2003.
Liquid News, which featured a wry take on entertainment and showbiz, was originally presented by Christopher Price until his untimely death in April 2002, when Paddy O'Connell took over.
It was axed in November 2003 following a rejig of BBC3's schedule.
BBC News 24 currently provides entertainment news updates twice nightly from Monday to Thursday at 6.30pm and 9.30pm.
Wednesday 13 February 2008
Wednesday 6 February 2008
Sky+ takeup hits 3 million
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Wednesday February 06 2008. It was last updated at 08:31 on February 06 2008.
Satellite group BSkyB set another record for customer growth for personal video recorder service Sky+ in the three months to the end of December, with takeup pushing through the 3 million barrier.
The company said today 3,131,000 households in the UK and Ireland had the service at the end of September, after unprecedented growth of 434,000.
This was more than 100,000 up on the earlier record of 327,000, set in the previous quarter.
Sky now has a total of 8,832,000 pay-TV customers, with 167,000 net additions made in October, November and December, keeping it on track to hit 10 million by 2010.
The pre-Christmas period is always Sky's best performing quarter, although takeup was the lowest recorded since Sky became a digital-only service in 2001, down from 183,000 in the same period in 2006.
BSkyB's chief executive, Jeremy Darroch, who took over from James Murdoch in December, said Sky was achieving its goal of drawing more customers to its range of products - including high-definition TV, broadband and telephony.
Sky Broadband customer numbers were up 260,000 or 28%, to reach 1,199,000 at the end of the December, just 18 months after the service was launched.
The company aims to have 3 million broadband customers, or 30% of its subscriber base, by 2010. Darroch said the company was "moving beyond the peak" of its £400m investment in the venture.
Sky said it added 64,000 high-definition subscribers, taking its tally to 422,000 at the end of September. Its Sky Talk telephone business grew by a record 236,000 to 915,000.
Churn - a measure of how many customers left the service - fell to 10%, while Arpu - average revenue per user - hit a record £421.
Sky also reported that revenues over the six months to the end of December were up 11% to £2.458bn.
The company made a loss of £112m, factoring in a £343m impairment resulting from the fall in the value of its 17.9% stake in ITV. Its operating profit for the period was £307m.
Darroch said today that the group was considering its options following last week's government decision that Sky should sell down its stake to below 7.5% on competition grounds.
It has another three weeks to decide whether to appeal against the ruling, which followed the advice of the Competition Commission.
Satellite group BSkyB set another record for customer growth for personal video recorder service Sky+ in the three months to the end of December, with takeup pushing through the 3 million barrier.
The company said today 3,131,000 households in the UK and Ireland had the service at the end of September, after unprecedented growth of 434,000.
This was more than 100,000 up on the earlier record of 327,000, set in the previous quarter.
Sky now has a total of 8,832,000 pay-TV customers, with 167,000 net additions made in October, November and December, keeping it on track to hit 10 million by 2010.
The pre-Christmas period is always Sky's best performing quarter, although takeup was the lowest recorded since Sky became a digital-only service in 2001, down from 183,000 in the same period in 2006.
BSkyB's chief executive, Jeremy Darroch, who took over from James Murdoch in December, said Sky was achieving its goal of drawing more customers to its range of products - including high-definition TV, broadband and telephony.
Sky Broadband customer numbers were up 260,000 or 28%, to reach 1,199,000 at the end of the December, just 18 months after the service was launched.
The company aims to have 3 million broadband customers, or 30% of its subscriber base, by 2010. Darroch said the company was "moving beyond the peak" of its £400m investment in the venture.
Sky said it added 64,000 high-definition subscribers, taking its tally to 422,000 at the end of September. Its Sky Talk telephone business grew by a record 236,000 to 915,000.
Churn - a measure of how many customers left the service - fell to 10%, while Arpu - average revenue per user - hit a record £421.
Sky also reported that revenues over the six months to the end of December were up 11% to £2.458bn.
The company made a loss of £112m, factoring in a £343m impairment resulting from the fall in the value of its 17.9% stake in ITV. Its operating profit for the period was £307m.
Darroch said today that the group was considering its options following last week's government decision that Sky should sell down its stake to below 7.5% on competition grounds.
It has another three weeks to decide whether to appeal against the ruling, which followed the advice of the Competition Commission.
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