The Media Show

US entertainment group ABC has brought such classics as Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy to TV. As president since 2010, Paul Lee is responsible for all development, programming and scheduling. He joins Steve to discuss the enduring popularity of Modern Family, the importance of diversity in the commissioning process, and how research into the Great Depression, of all things, has influenced...

Telecoms group BT has entered exclusive talks over a £12.5 billion deal to buy Britain's biggest mobile phone operator EE. It signals BT''s ambitions to dominate the UK's mobile market, twelve years since it left the sector. BT will be hoping to persuade a growing number of homes to purchase all four of its services - home phone, mobile, broadband and pay TV. Steve Hewlett talks to analyst Claire...

The BBC's plans to close BBC Three as a broadcast channel and re-invent it as online service in Autumn 2015 have been submitted to the BBC Trust. The proposals will generate savings of £50 million. Eighty percent of the new budget will be spent on long form programmes like 'Murdered by My Boyfriend' and twenty percent will go on non traditional content such as micro videos and listicles. Tradition...

Retired teacher Christopher Jefferies was wrongly named in the press as the suspect accused of the murder of his neighbour Joanna Yeates in December 2010. His life was turned upside down. He later sued several newspapers for libel, received an apology from the police, and gave evidence to the Leveson inquiry. A new ITV two part drama 'The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies' is to be aired next w...

Shadow Minister Emily Thornberry resigned last week after posting a picture on Twitter showing a house in Rochester draped in the St. George's flag, and a white van outside. The homeowner Dan Ware, in an exclusive interview with The Sun, branded her 'a snob', and had his own manifesto published in the paper. Steve hears from Lauren Fruen, the graduate trainee who secured the story for the Sun, and...

Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen is leading a move to scrap the licence fee. He's sent a letter to the Culture Secretary Sajid Javid, urging him to review how the BBC is funded. In the letter, he says the corporation should be planning for a future without the licence fee and investigating subscription-based payment instead. So, how feasible are his suggestions? And why has the man who led the debat...

BBC One is the UK's most watched channel, with more than 40 million viewers tuning in each week. A BBC Trust review published earlier this year found the channel consistently produced high quality programmes but many viewers felt that the channel appeared to play it safe in programming and scheduling - particularly during peak time. In her first radio interview, since taking up the position, Charl...

The BBC Trust has approved a new service for Radio 1 and 1Xtra, which will see it having its own TV channel on the BBC iPlayer from next week. It's hoped the channel will lead to an incremental 310,000 hours of viewing per month, and help the BBC establish a relationship with its younger viewers. But whilst it can offer the services, can the BBC offer the content that young people want? Steve Hewl...

The Guardian newspaper is launching a new website for its US readers today. It's the latest step in a global digital expansion, which has seen it move into the Australian and American markets. But with a strategy that focuses on being 'open' - not behind a pay wall - and with annual losses of upwards of £30 million a year, how can the group afford to keep content free? Andrew Miller the CEO of Gua...

Two of the founding members of the BBC Trust leave their position this week. David Liddiment and Alison Hastings have seen the governing body through some tough times over the last few years, dealing with upsets like Savile, executive pay and the collapse of the Digital Media Initiative. Steve Hewlett talks to them about the challenges, dilemmas, and their views on the future of what some have des...

The BBC, ITV, Sky and Channel 4 have announced a joint plan to hold three debates ahead of next year's general election. If politicians agree to take part, one debate would see Nigel Farage appearing alongside David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband. The broadcasters have written to the parties with their proposal. However, the plan has been criticised, with suggestions that negotiations will be...

Facebook has apologised to drag queens, and those with transgender status, after it closed some accounts following reports they were fake because they weren't using their legal names. However, a coalition met with Facebook at its headquarters in San Francisco, and they can now use their pseudonyms. Steve Hewlett talks to Lil Miss Hot Mess, who organised a rally in San Francisco against the policy,...

An online investigation published by the Sunday Mirror has led to the resignation of Conservative minister, Brooks Newmark, complaints lodged with press regulator IPSO and The Metropolitan Police and an apology issued from Editor-in-Chief Lloyd Embley to the women whose images were used without consent. Alex Wickham, a reporter for the political blog Guido Fawkes, has been revealed to be the freel...

Whilst the No Vote has halted plans for a full-blown Scottish Broadcasting Corporation, with Charter Renewal on the horizon, the pan-UK public broadcaster is unlikely to escape political pressures to decentralise more power from London. To discuss the ramifications for funding, commissioning and regulation are Tim Suter - former Ofcom and BBC executive, Glyn Mathias - Ofcom content board member fo...

The media regulator Ofcom has rejected London Live's request to reduce programming commitments. After just four months on air, the local TV station asked to produce just one hour of London content during the prime time evening slot, compared to the current three. It also wanted to scrap its commitment to 10 hours of repeats every day. Steve Hewlett hears from Peter Davies, Director of Content Poli...

It's been revealed how police investigating 'Plebgate' obtained the telephone records of Tom Newton Dunn, the Political Editor of the Sun, without his consent. The law generally requires the police to go to a judge to argue for the disclosure of journalistic sources. However, it transpires the Met police used the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) to obtain data which revealed his sourc...

Rona Fairhead, the former FT Group chief executive, has been announced as the Government's preferred choice as BBC Trust chair. Her nomination comes at a challenging time for the BBC, in the run up to Charter renewal and concerns over governance. Steve hears from John Gapper, former colleague, and Associate Editor of the Financial Times, about what she could bring to the role; former Culture Secre...

Social media companies have tried to stop the distribution of the video of James Foley's execution by blocking the accounts of those who shared it. The clip, posted by the group IS, sparked a debate about the ethics of sharing the content. To try and stifle the message, hashtags like #ISISmediaBlackout emerged to starve IS of coverage, and it quickly gained traction. Steve Hewlett talks to Hend Am...

The BBC has come under criticism for the way it covered a police raid on Sir Cliff Richard's home. BBC News decided to film and broadcast a search of the singer's home last week, using a helicopter flying over his home in Berkshire. Since then, the organisation has been accused of breaking editorial guidelines, and will now face questions by the Home Affairs Select Committee. Steve Hewlett talks t...

The company which was awarded the licence to run Local TV for Birmingham has gone into administration. City TV, trading as BLTV, was awarded the licence in November 2012 and was supposed to be on air by November this year. Its head, Debra Davis, told the Media Show that it's failed to find enough investment. Administrators say they now hope to find another operator. Steve McCabe Labour MP for Sell...

Public council meetings in England can now be filmed and tweeted about, following the introduction of new legislation. Local government secretary Eric Pickles today signed a Parliamentary order allowing press and public to film and digitally report from all public meetings of local government bodies. It follows a spate of cases where journalists and bloggers have been asked to stop filming or reco...

A House of Lords report says that The European Court of Justice's demand for internet search engines to respect individuals', "right to be forgotten" is unworkable. The ECJ ruled in May that links to data should be erased on request, which has led to Google receiving more than 70,000 applications. Emma Barnett talks to Lord John Sharkey who sits on the committee which authored the report, and asks...

For rolling news services, there are tough choices to make in the newsroom over how to cover the MH17 disaster and the conflict in Gaza - which story to prioritise, how to deploy, and which angles to cover. Whilst, for reporters, there are the challenges of verifying stories and working in hostile environments. Steve Hewlett discusses how the news makes it onto our screens, and issues of taste and...

The Director General of the BBC, Tony Hall, has announced plans that have been described as a, "historical moment", for BBC production. He wants to scrap quotas, which currently guarantee 50 per cent of TV programmes are made in-house. Whilst still to be approved by the BBC Trust, it's a move which has been largely welcomed by the independent sector, and rival broadcasters. Steve Hewlett talks to...

A viral video of public sex acts filmed in a Magaluf nightclub recently emerged in the mainstream media. The coverage has prompted some commentators to cry misogyny and exploitation by the media and others to lambast the girl in question, not only for promiscuity but naivety in the digital age. To discuss public interest versus prurience by Eleanor Mills, Sunday Times Editorial Director and Chair...