UK Ratings: So Long, Sir David
Mark J.
episode of Sir David Attenborough's last nature series for the BBC
after many decades and much acclaim. "LIfe in Cold Blood," a series
about reptiles, took its 9 p.m. time period handily last night against
ITV's fictional Royal Family drama "The Palace," a Stephen Hawking
documentary on Channel 4, the Scarlett Johannsen movie "A Good Woman"
on BBC2 and a reality comp called "Breaking Into Tesco" on Channel 5:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/mar/04/tvratings.television
Sir David, at the age of 82, is walking away from any further series
on a major scale, but he still intends to write and host one-shot
specials for the Beeb. It is assumed that "Life in Cold Blood," like
most of his recent series, will be seen on Discovery in the U.S., and
one would hope that Discovery will keep his narration intact and not
put an American celebrity in his place, as they did with replacing him
with Sigourney Weaver for their airing of "Planet Earth."
And I was surprised that C5 would be allowed to do a show with the
title "Breaking Into Tesco"--not for endorsing crime (because it's not
that kind of show), but for having a series built around a major
supermarket chain in a country where the regulators have long frowned
on any kind of product placement in programming. The premise of the
show is that a group of cooks are competing to have their recipes sold
by the chain. I'd like to know how C5 got this by Ofcom.
Adam Bowie
>
>
> Sir David, at the age of 82, is walking away from any further series
> on a major scale, but he still intends to write and host one-shot
> specials for the Beeb. It is assumed that "Life in Cold Blood," like
> most of his recent series, will be seen on Discovery in the U.S., and
> one would hope that Discovery will keep his narration intact and not
> put an American celebrity in his place, as they did with replacing him
> with Sigourney Weaver for their airing of "Planet Earth."
I expect that, for a while at least, he'll still be doing narrations
for forthcoming docs. That was his only real role in Planet Earth (I
believe that the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD versions of this series retain
Attenborough in their US editions if you've got the kit and want the
original commentary. The series makes a great demo disc for the
technology anyway - UK TV showrooms always have this on repeat).
> And I was surprised that C5 would be allowed to do a show with the
> title "Breaking Into Tesco"--not for endorsing crime (because it's not
> that kind of show), but for having a series built around a major
> supermarket chain in a country where the regulators have long frowned
> on any kind of product placement in programming. The premise of the
> show is that a group of cooks are competing to have their recipes sold
> by the chain. I'd like to know how C5 got this by Ofcom.
You're right that product placement is not allowed in the UK. When
American Idol is shown on ITV2, those Coke glasses that sit in front
of the panel are always blurred. But if Jack Bauer and co are driving
Nissans or Fords, or using Dells due to a deal the production company
or network made, then there's nothing to be done. Of course the Bond
films are full of product placement, and air relatively untampered
with on a regular basis.
As I understand it, the Tesco programme was made with Tesco's
approval, but without any editorial input from the brand. So it's seen
as a "behind the scenes" type show. I didn't see it, so couldn't say
how blatant the plugs for the supermarket chain were.
I suspect that product placement rules will be relaxed in the future
in the UK and Europe because advertising revenues are being hit so
hard, and spot airtime is being fast-forwarded ever more as people use
PVRs to an ever greater extent.
Adam
dsi...@yahoo.com
> A milestone last night in UK television, as BBC1 aired the last
> episode of Sir David Attenborough's last nature series for the BBC
> after many decades and much acclaim. "LIfe in Cold Blood," a series
> about reptiles, took its 9 p.m. time period handily last night against
Not sure I see the difference in subject matter between the three, but
point taken.
--Dave Sikula