An odd and tricky week

By Simon Wright (Personal piece)

I FEEL at the end of this week to be in a far more positive frame of mind about events, but even I have to admit, it has been an odd week for many of us.  It’s seen its fair share of sad events, which affected me and also brought tragedy on the University of Northampton.  I think this week has reminded everyone of the real perspectives in life because at the end of the day, no-one knows what is around the corner.

       Having believed that last week and the start of my third and final Uni year had been a blip extended into Monday.  It really shouldn’t have, but it did and again, I only have myself to blame.  I was buzzing last weekend, until I heard the tragic news of the crash in America that claimed the life of British racing driver Dan Wheldon in Las Vegas.  I didn’t take it well at all and seeing the accident really shook me up.  Throughout Monday, the crash video on YouTube kept replaying through my head and I lost my focus of the bigger picture, which was bad.  I’ve seen a tribute programme that Sky Sports did last night to the Brit, who won the prestigious Indy 500 event twice, which is a unique achievement.  He touched many people’s lives in motorsport and he will leave a legacy through that community and his many fans that have been saddened by his loss.  So, why did it affect me so much?  Basically, I’ve never witnessed death in motorsport, which as people who know me, is a passion of mine.  Throw in the fact that he was British and grew up in the tiny village of Emberton, within my hometown of Milton Keynes and that made me worse.  Now if that makes me an odd person; for me to love my hometown and British motorsport, then I’m sorry, but that’s who I am and whoever doesn’t like it, I don’t care.  In these instances, I’m a private person, couldn’t really share my thoughts on this sort of thing and that wasn’t a good thing.  As the week has gone on, I’ve felt better and more within myself, but I just didn’t feel like buzzing or smiling my face off on Monday.  I didn’t feel like it, no point faking it in my view.  In spite of that, I should have shown more motivation and belief in myself on Monday and had to have a serious think about myself that evening.  I wasn’t coming across well and it was time to refocus my energy and effort – no more excuses.

      For me, the rest of the week has ended up being far more positive.  A lot of my journalism course buddies are beginning to take stock of the fact that Twitter is turning into such a useful source for communication and keeping up-to-date with the news.  I got a BlackBerry last week (whilst all the signal problems were occurring) and can’t keep myself away from Twitter.  I will now aim to use this far more often than Facebook, especially for professional standards.  Note to self; no good moaning on Twitter now, just in case you get a famous journalist following you!  Maybe my tweet on Scottish poet Robert Browning in midweek wasn’t my smartest move, but there you go!

      I also feel that I made a significant breakthrough with my dissertation this week.  Although things had been going well, they had stalled in the past fortnight and I was in desperate need of gaining more research and academic references from books.  As a course, we have been strictly told to not rely on the internet, as it isn’t a preferable source.  The tutors are expecting between 10-15 books to be used in bibliographies come marking time and I only had six.  It wasn’t looking great, especially as books cost a load of money, which is always a commodity in this day and age.  I went to the Uni library in midweek and found far more useful information and books that I could have imagined.  Not only do I feel that I have saved a fair bit of money, which might have turned into a complete waste, but I feel that I have now made significant progress to begin typing up my first chapter next week, which is encouraging.

PARTNERSHIP: Me and Farida both know what it takes

      The post-group meeting from the Silverstone trip went fairly well too, despite my dismal mood on Monday.  Ideas have been drawn up for all three aspects that my group has to do now and I’d say we are in a strong position with at least two of the practical elements now.  The TV side of things isn’t looking fantastic as I write this, but that has the element to be changed, especially when you have the best journalist on the course that will always give 100 per cent and is working incredibly hard full stop.  No, I am not talking about myself here, I’m talking about Farida.  I don’t say much about friends on here, in case it embarrasses them, but this is what I will say about Farida.  She is committed to the cause, dedicated to her profession and has done so many work placements in the past two years; she has taken so much from them.  I’ve never seen anyone who I’ve gone through the education ladder as motivated and driven as her and I know that she is going places in journalism.  Plus, she is such a caring, trusting and respectful individual too.  In third year, I am slowly coming around to the belief like those Coca Cola adverts of ‘Eat football, sleep football, and drink Coca Cola!’  My motto for this is ‘Live journalism, breath journalism, succeeding at journalism!’  I know Farida is already doing this and I’m lucky to have met someone like her who you can have a laugh with and share information, but can motivate and drive anyone to do even more.  Oh and for all fellow journalists out there, follow her on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/FaridaZeynalova, it’s a great feed for her emotions! 

      However, whilst some of us go from strength to strength, others have opportunities taken away from them.  I started this blog talking about an incident that affected me, so I’ll finish mentioning about the tragic events of the early hours of Wednesday morning.  I’m sure a lot of you have seen the news reports of the crush at the Lava: Ignite nightclub in Northampton which claimed the life of 22-year old student Nabila Nanfuka.  Nabila was a third year student at the University of Northampton, studying Leisure & Tourism.  I personally didn’t know her; I know some on our course did.  These sorts of incidents just show how life can be so precious to us and remind us of the cruel twists of fate that can just happen, when you don’t expect them to.  RIP Nabila and thoughts go out to her family and friends at what must be a very difficult time for them.  I know there was an emotional memorial service on one of the campuses yesterday and I do hope the University will do something to mark Nabila’s time of studying here.  She shouldn’t be forgotten by anyone who is currently studying at the University of Northampton.

      It’s been an odd week, full of ups and downs, satisfaction and vindication, fate and tragedy.  What will October’s final week bring; who’s to say, but hopefully a quieter week for everyone after this week’s dramas.  For me, this involves a flying visit home to Milton Keynes and I can’t wait!

Thank you for reading!

RIP Dan Wheldon and Nabila Nanfuka

TV classics (or rejects!) - The Premiership

IN THE summer of 1999, smooth talking Des Lynam made the shock decision to leave the BBC, to take the role as lead football anchor for ITV Sport.  He would front live FA Cup and UEFA Champions League football, alongside shared coverage of major international tournaments.  Just over two years later, he was back in his traditional role of presenting Saturday evening Premier League highlights.  However, ‘The Premiership’ turned into one of the biggest flops in ITV’s distinguished history.

     There was big surprise when ITV outbid the BBC for Premiership highlights in the summer of 2000.  The three-year contract cost the commercial broadcaster £185million.  The BBC’s MOTD team was left devastated by the news and trundled through the remainder of their Euro 2000 coverage looking depressed and downcast.  In fact, when watching Gary Lineker that summer, it felt like we were about to watch a funeral procession, let alone a major football match!  Always critical of late starts, Des Lynam wanted the new programme to be an early Saturday evening show, rather than the traditional 10.30pm slot, feeling it would appeal to all audiences.  He aimed for 6pm at first, but this idea was scrapped due to Sky’s curfew time lock it had on Premier League rights.  9pm was too late, due to ITV’s compact Saturday evening entertainment line-up, so the decision was taken to screen ‘The Premiership,’ at 7pm every Saturday evening.  It would turn into one of the most horrendous timing misjudgements of all time!

     U2’s Grammy-award winning track ‘Beautiful Day’ was selected as the music theme and although it has no comparison on the Match of the Day theme tune, it was still a brilliant choice of music for football.  Major drinks giant Coca Cola was signed up to sponsor the programme, using ‘Leggsy,’ (its mascot) in some hilarious break bumper parodies.  Alongside lunchtime show On The Ball and the doomed afternoon results show, The Goal Rush – ITV was the new place for Saturday football entertainment.

     On Saturday August 18 2001, ‘The Premiership’ debuted with Middlesbrough v Arsenal, Liverpool v West Ham United and Sunderland v Ipswich Town being chosen as the three featured games.  ITV would send its four main commentators; Clive Tydlesey, Peter Drury, Jon Champion and Guy Mowbray out to featured matches, whilst reporters such as Ned Boulting, Russ Williams and Gabriel Clarke would cover the less featured matches.  Terry Venables and Ally McCoist would be the main pundits alongside Des in the studio, with Robbie Earle and Ron Atkinson also being used on occasion.  ITV decided to pioneer two new technology pieces which failed miserably.  The ProZone programme saw Venables hopelessly being able to keep up with technology and had to rush through key moments of games, struggling to explain what this new data meant.  Also, Andy Townsend, former Chelsea and Aston Villa midfielder would be at a key match from the weekend in a pathetic ‘Tactics Truck!’  If lucky, Andy might be joined by a Premiership player who had nothing else to do on their Saturday evenings to analyse a game in better depth, but this experiment was quickly abandoned.  It worked for Channel 4 with Test Cricket and Channel Five for their live UEFA Europa League coverage, but this format simply didn’t work for highlights.  Townsend’s Tactics Truck was torn to shreds by avid football fans and journalists, calling it “totally inept and excruciatingly painful.”

     Despite getting critical acclaim on the opening weekend from the News of the World, the viewing figures were disappointing.  Only five million watched the opening 7pm show, two million lower than The Weakest Link, which was BBC’s head-to-head competition.  The Daily Mirror was a strong critic of The Premiership’s lack of match action and ITV’s determination to show those annoying commercial breaks whenever they could.  A week later, viewing figures dropped to 3.1million; ITV’s worst Saturday night viewing figures for a decade and although the average slightly picked up, the 7pm experiment was a doomed failure.  Under pressure from the likes of Cilla Black, who was concerned about the later time for her show Blind Date and advertisers, ITV’s controller of sport, now FA chief executive Brian Barwick had little alternative but to shove the show back to a traditional 10.30pm slot from November 2001 onwards. 

    Afterwards, the show never really recovered and in 2003, the BBC won back the highlights rights from the 2004/05 season onwards.  The Goal Rush ended in December 2003, after spectacularly dismal ratings and in May 2004, both On the Ball and ‘The Premiership’ made a quiet and tame exit after three failed seasons.

     You have to give ITV some credit for attempting such a bold move, but this was a gamble that spectacularly backfired.  The Premiership will always be remembered as a ‘Desater!’  

Product placement - Is it the future of British television?

By Jason Wright (Entertainment Expert)

BRITISH programmes have become synonymous with one thing; they have to use made-up brands and companies.  Unlike broadcasters worldwide and films, broadcasting law prohibited the use of advertisement in programmes, known as “Product Placement.”  During the 1990s, PIF’s about the use of this feature not being allowed could be regularly seen on ITV and Channel 4 on behalf of the Independent Television Commission (ITC), now OFCOM.

     Product placement is as mentioned, the use of brand advertisement within a programme, a company pays the broadcaster a cash value to have products of theirs appear in a certain programme.  It has been used for several years in US, for example on American Idol, the judges drinking glasses are sponsored by Coca Cola.  It had seemed though that nothing like this would come to Britain, until now.

     In autumn 2009, OFCOM earned a government grant to allow the prohibition of product placement to be lifted, providing certain requirements and limitations were agreed upon.  However it is only now that these changes are starting to come into force.  Last Monday, ITV1’s flagship daytime show This Morning became the UK’s first example of Product placement with Nescafe’s popular Dolce Gusto coffee maker appearing in view in the set’s kitchen.  To date, it is so far the only use of this feature but other shows, mainly the soaps will soon be expected to follow suit.  Surely, it won’t be too long before we see Heinz Tomato Ketchup used in many breakfast scenes in Corrie and PG Tips teabags purchased in the post office shop in Emmerdale.

     There are some exceptions within the law of course.  Broadcasters must display a P logo as shown at the top of this blog on the titles of the programme and also at the close of the programme and after an ad break to remind and inform viewers.  The BBC is not permitted to use product placement in any of its shows because of its government funding.  Children’s programmes, news bulletins, and programmes of a nature to current affairs, politics and religion can’t use this advertisement venture.  Likewise, companies that have products that are classed as junk food, or any alcohol, tobacco goods and companies that appeal to gambling (e.g. betting, bingo) are barred from using product placement to show their items.  This of course means, amongst others, that pints of Newton & Ridley, Corrie’s fictional beer, will still be pulled at the Rovers instead of being exchanged for the likes of Carling or Carlsberg.

     So what will this mean for advertisers and the TV programmes in general?  Well in this current financial climate, product placement may just be the saviour to those advertisements that are struggling to get their message out.  It is extremely expensive nowadays to purchase a space in a programme break to advertise and even more for those who are brave enough to advertise at cinemas.

     It will open up a whole new world for the companies that are likely to get involved as many viewers will surely be convinced to try or purchase a product that is used in a programme.

2010: A year of the best TV adverts

Here is my favourite selection of TV commercials from 2010.  Included are the likes of dogs, bees, Homer Simpson, Little Britain and Nigel Mansell.  Enjoy watching!




































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