Comic Relief 2011 - Doing something funny for money

By Jason Wright (Entertainment Expert)

SINCE its inception back in 1988, Comic Relief has raised more than over £400 million to help disadvantaged children in both UK and Africa, thanks to its successful Red Nose Day campaign.  Over the last few years, the record for fundraising in a campaign has always been broken and this year was no exception.

     A massive £74.4 million was raised on the night on Friday and where as the final total on the last Red Nose Day finished up on just over £80 million, this figure is expected to topple this when the final totals are published in a few months time.  In total, the biggest donations came from the following:

BT raised £1.7 million for their sponsorship of the Celebrity Desert Trek

Sainsbury’s raised £10 million for sales of official merchandise, a new record for the supermarket

TK Maxx raised £3 million for sales of official t-shirts

Maltesers raised £1.1 million for a public competition

Walkers raised £1.2 million for sales of four special crisp flavours

British Airways raised £801,000 for sales of special scratch cards on selected flights

BBC raised £2.9 for some of their stars attempting various tasks

The remaining £53.7 million was provided by public donations

     BBC One again provided a full evening’s worth of entertainment to help fundraising initiatives.  The programme featured comical sketches of Doctor Who, Outnumbered, Miranda and MasterChef, which featured an appearance by none other than Prime Minister David Cameron himself.  Also, Blue Peter presenter Helen Skelton attempted to pull off a high wire walk between two of London’s tallest buildings and Radio 1’s Chris Moyles and Comedy Dave succeeded in fronting the station’s longest ever show, at a staggering 53 hours, setting a new Guinness World Record in the process.

     David Walliams also proved his stern material to survive long hours by attempting to appear on as many panel shows in 24 hours.  ’24 Hour Panel People’, which was broadcast on the BBC website, saw Walliams joined by a selection of guests to participate in various shows past and present, including 8 Out Of 10 Cats, Have I Got News For You, Never Mind The Buzzcocks and They Think It’s All Over.

     Nine famous faces endured an energy-zapping trek across the Kenyan desert to raise nearly £2 million which featured Scott Mills, Lorraine Kelly, Kara Tointon, Dermot O’Leary and Olly Murs.  Meanwhile, Ant and Dec were challenged by Comic Relief to gatecrash as many shows as they could in 24 hours unannounced and steal various items to auction off.  Daybreak, This Morning, Loose Women and The One Show were among those that were targeted.

     On the music front, the campaign has brought out two songs.  Rising boy band The Wanted provided the official track ‘Gold Forever’, the first original song for Red Nose Day since 2005.  However response of the track was largely negative.  The other is another comical edition which has Peter Kay on board again, reprising his alter ego Geraldine McQueen to team up with Susan Boyle to perform ‘I Know Him So Well,’ originally sung by Elaine Page.  As expected, this has gone down as a huge hit and it won’t be surprising if it claims top spot in the charts next Sunday.

     All in all, it has been another successful night for the charity.  Now everyone is indeed wondering how they will top those events for 2013.  A whole 731 days must pass before then.

News Corp takeover sparks legal claims

NEWS Corporation, Rupert Murdoch’s empire faces legal challenges from several companies, after getting permission to fully takeover BSkyB.  BT, Trinity Mirror and the Telegraph Media Group are considering taking matters further in a deal which would see Sky News become an independent news channel.

RELAXED: Jeremy Hunt seems satisfied with News Corp's intentions

     Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has given the go-ahead for News Corporation to go ahead with its ambitious plans.  Under the proposal, Sky News would become an independent public limited company, which would give Murdoch his complete power to fully takeover BSkyB.  Sky News would have an independent board, but News Corp would still retain nearly 40% of its shares in the news provider; the heartbeat of 24-hour news worldwide.  The remaining 60% stake would be owned by BSkyB shareholders.     Hunt has defended the move saying; “I believe that these proposed undertakings by News Corp will address concerns about media plurality.  The undertakings given offer Sky News more independence from News Corporation than it currently has.” 

EXCELLENT: Sky News logo (1994) has provided a brilliant service

     Sky News has been part of the BSkyB family since it launched on February 5 1989.  Had Murdoch not decided to relinquish Sky News, it would have left him with 100% complete control of BSkyB, alongside The Sun, The Times, The News of the World and 20^th Century Fox underneath his News International banner.  By allowing this change, it will give Murdoch the prize he wants more than anything.  Under the new plans, Sky News would have to restructure its news channel, alongside appointing a board of directors and an independent chairman.  News Corp would also guarantee funding for Sky News for the next decade.       

     However, the opposition against this takeover are furious.  They feel the new deal is a complete whitewash.  The coalition government have come under fire from these opponents for their relatively friendly relationship with the Murdoch family, especially as The Sun, the UK’s No.1 selling newspaper is politically supporting the Conservatives.  Ex-BBC board governor Sir Christopher Bland is convinced that the deal would be very bad for the UK media industry.  “The point is that the proposal does not address the fundamental issue, which isn’t about Sky News, which is an excellent service.  The issue, which should be outlined by the competition, is the power News International has over television and newspapers in the UK.”

     Clearance has yet to be fully given though, as these opponents to the takeover have until March 21 to try and changed the mind of Culture Secretary Hunt.  If that process ends up not working out, this could end in a messy little wrangle involving the courts; a process that is bound to drag on and on.  It is safe to say that we haven’t heard the last of this protracted takeover. 

Sky Sports Price Cut - But They Are Not Happy!

Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 have been deemed too expensive and have been asked to cut their prices by the media regulator, OFCOM.  However, Sky isn’t very happy with this forceful move by the regulator.

The chief executive of BSkyB, finds OFCOM’s findings as ‘extraordinary,’ and insisted that they want to ‘appeal against the decision via the courts.’  On the other hand, OFCOM has previously warned Sky about its prices, largely because Sky holds the majority of rights to key sporting events, such as The Ashes, the US Open Tennis and FA Premier League football.  They insist that today’s ruling will make Sky Sports more available now to nearly ten million new customers.

However, the regulator stopped short of price cuts in Sky’s varied selection of movie channels, which has angered some of BSkyB’s closest competitors, like BT and Virgin Media.  If a move is agreed to cut the price of Sky Sports to the normal customer, Sky will be allowed to bring some of their pay-TV channels like Sky1 to Freeview, which had been agreed over two years ago, until Virgin Media’s buyout of ntl: telewest.  The broadcaster now has six weeks to outline a template contract to other pay TV providers, with OFCOM set to make a final announcement before the World Cup finals this summer.

Sky is the largest operator in the pay-TV market at the moment, with nearly ten million subscribers.  Under the new proposal, OFCOM has suggested the Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 shall be made available for a price of £10.63 per subscriber, whereas the current subscriber would be paying £17.14, a reduction of over 10%.  This news comes after a three-year investigation, in which OFCOM has denied claims of foul play tactics and everywhere was done on a ‘fair and square basis.’ 

Virgin Media, BT and the normal or new subscriber are the main winners and Sky the losers, as they have already insisted of their intentions to appeal against the decision.  The bidding war involving pay-TV prices has certainly well and truly begun.