The Media Show

Yesterday, the BBC director general, Tony Hall, announced what he called "the greatest commitment to arts for a generation" with the launch of BBC Arts. What is the future of arts on TV and what can BBC Arts learn from Sky Arts? Joining Steve will be Sir Peter Bazalgette, chair of Arts Council England, Gillian Reynolds of The Telegraph and the BBC's new director of arts, Jonty Claypole. Turkey's p...

Following his BAFTA speech on Monday, Lenny Henry talks to Steve about why there is not enough ethnic diversity in broadcasting and what can be done to improve this. Andrew Bridgen MP explains why he wants non-payment of the licence fee to be decriminalised - an idea that, according to reports, interests David Cameron. And, has the coverage of L'Wren Scott's death breached editors' guidelines on h...

Channel 5 has announced it has commissioned a series of new one hour live debates to tackle a range of issues including obesity, crime and debt. It follows the The Big Benefits Row: Live and The Big British Immigration Row: Live, the former brought the channel 2.6m viewers with an 8.9% share. Steve Hewlett talks to 5's Commissioning Editor for Factual Guy Davies about the planned programmes, and d...

Reports say that the BBC is considering making BBC3 a wholly online channel, following a speech given by BBC director general Tony Hall last week in which he said "tough choices" would have to be made if the corporation is to make savings. We get the latest from Broadcast magazine editor Chris Curtis, on whether the move would go any way at all towards delivering Lord Hall's £100m savings target b...

The Director General of the BBC, Tony Hall, has defended the use of the licence fee and dismissed calls, by some critics, for it to be shared with other broadcasters. Speaking to industry leaders at the Oxford Media Convention, he said the corporation faces tough choices in coming years as it faces competition from the likes of Google and Apple, and added that the status quo is not an option. He s...

MPs have expressed concern about the future funding and growing commercialisation of the World Service. The BBC Trust has agreed that, subject to clearance from government, the World Service can broadcast a limited amount of advertising and sponsored content that is not news and current affairs, from 1 April, when the BBC moves to licence fee funding. Steve Hewlett asks Peter Horrocks about how th...

Danny Cohen, the head of the BBC's television output, has promised viewers that the corporation will not make any more all-male comedy panel shows. Back in December, BBC producers were told that they had to address this following new sex-representation objectives set by the BBC Trust. Steve Hewlett gets the views of stand up comic Jenny Eclair who, despite having a host of TV credits under her bel...

Former BBC director general Mark Thompson apologised to MPs this week for the failure of the £100m Digital Media Initiative. The project, that was meant to allow BBC staff to create, share and store content in a new digital system, was suspended in 2012. The DMI project is one of a series of controversies at the BBC that has prompted parliamentarians to grill former and current bosses. Steve Hewle...

Public spending watchdog the National Audit Office has criticised the BBC for "not having a sufficient grip" on a failed IT project which wasted almost one hundred million pounds. The Digital Media Initiative was abandoned in May last year. Guardian reporter Tara Conlan joins Steve with the latest details of the story. Britain's biggest pay-TV operator BSkyB is due to report its latest results tom...

Ed Vaizey, minister for UK Culture, Communications and Creative Industries is today asking senior figures in TV, film and arts to explain the lack of diversity in their industries. We talk to two people attending that meeting; playwright and actor Kwame Kwei Armah and senior TV executive Pat Younge, and ask the founder of the Cultural Diversity Network, Clive Jones, why he thinks black, asian and...

The Culture, Media and Sport Committee has begun an inquiry into the Future of the BBC, ahead of the corporations current Royal Charter ending in December 2016. It will look at the role of the organisation, how it's funded, and discuss alternatives to the present licence fee. Steve Hewlett speaks to the Chairman of the Committee, Conservative MP John Whittingdale about the scope of the inquiry and...

A leading lawyer and the editor of The Times have joined the panel that will appoint the members of the new press regulatory board. Lord Browne of Eaton-under-Heywood and journalist John Witherow are joined on the panel by the former editor-in-chief of the Manchester Evening News, Paul Horrocks, and the former chairwoman of the Commission for Social Care Inspection Dame Denise Platt. However, the...

It's an all-important catchword in TV circles - "chemistry". Get the mix right between presenters, and the audience will welcome them in. Get it wrong, and shows can easily flop. But how do TV executives decide whether a combination will work? Is it pure chance, or are there ways to determine whether sparks will fly for the camera? In this special programme, Steve Hewlett talks to agent Michael Fo...

Today the BBC Trust published a report by PwC into the BBC's failed Digital Media Initiative (DMI) technology project. Serious weaknesses were found in the management of the programme. Also, this week the Public Accounts Committee criticised a 'culture of cronyism' at the BBC for allowing excessive payouts to be made to some of its top departing executives. The journalist Simon Jenkins and Jean Se...

In his first broadcast interview since becoming Chief Executive of News UK, Mike Darcey shares his thoughts on the success of Sun digital subscriptions, competing with the Daily Mail, press reform and page 3. An aspiring press self-regulator has emerged; the Impress Project says it wants to be independent, affordable, and accountable to the public. But will a regulator that's in support of the rec...

As David Cameron concludes a trip to China in which the country's love of Downton Abbey has become clear, we discuss the opportunities for exporting British TV programmes. Eleanor Mills, editorial director of The Sunday Times, and new Chair of Women in Journalism, on the action that's needed to tackle what she believes is a macho culture on the news desks of some national newspapers. Why the comme...

The first of a new network of up to 30 local TV stations proposed by the government in areas including Belfast, Edinburgh, Cardiff and London, launched this week in Grimsby. Estuary TV will be available to 350,000 homes in East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire. It's hoped other services will open over the next year. Steve Hewlett asks Lia Nici, Executive Producer at Estuary TV, about what's on off...

In this week's Media Show from Salford, Steve speaks to the Scottish minister for culture Fiona Hyslop on her vision for broadcasting in an independent Scotland. It's been suggested that Scotland would have its own public service broadcaster based on the existing staff and assets of BBC Scotland, should it gain independence, so could this work? And Steve questions how the government could ensure p...

BT TV's chief executive Marc Watson on his long term view for BT Sport, now it's won the rights to show Champions League football. President of Condé Nast International Nicholas Coleridge on the history, and the future, of magazines, as the trade body for the industry, the PPA, celebrates its centenary. And why small local commercial radio stations fear they won't survive the digital switchover. P...

The Sunday People, one of Britain's oldest Sunday newspapers, has finally developed an online presence. Under the stewardship of Trinity Mirror executive Sue Douglas, People.co.uk is being described as 'news without the boring bits'. Steve Hewlett asks Sue Douglas why she was so keen to take the helm of the digital offering, and discusses how she can turn a weekly newspaper into a 24 hour website....

Newspaper publishers have lost a High Court battle to stop Government ministers going to the Privy Council to seek the Queen's approval for a new royal charter to regulate the press. We discuss what the next chapter in the story of press reform might be. Steve Hewlett visits the offices of JacksGap, where he meets Jack and Finn Harries, the brains and talent behind the new media phenomenon. Now wi...

Yesterday, the BBC DG Lord Hall was asked what the BBC was doing to improve programmes for black audiences - he said he wasn't satisfied the BBC appeals enough. Steve asks Pat Younge, the BBC's most senior black executive, how big a problem there is for black viewers. Journalist Bim Adewunmi and Simone Pennant of The TV Collective, a former TV producer, discuss whether the main channels need to ch...

Steve Hewlett talks to Janice Hadlow, the controller of BBC Two and Four about losing The Great British Bake Off to BBC1 and her priorities for the channels. How can BBC2 and BBC4 be distinctive in a multi-channel world? Sir Ray Tindle joins Steve to explain how his local newspapers have remained profitable when many around him are losing money - and what he thinks of plans to regulate local news....

The Privy Council - an ancient body which advises the Queen, and mostly made up of senior politicians - has rejected press proposals for a royal charter. Alternative plans proposed by the government after cross-party talks will now be re-examined, with ministers saying they might consider some of the industry's ideas. Some publications, like the Guardian, say the differences between the two charte...

The Mail has been caught up in a storm of criticism over its Ralph Miliband stories and how it responded to Ed Miliband's demand to reply, but is there anything the current press regulator could do with complaints over cases like this? Would the situation differ under any of the systems being considered following the Leveson report? Is there a clear enough distinction between fact and opinion? Tha...