English Entertainment
Explorer Ed Stafford takes wife and toddler son on his biggest survival challenge yet in the new Discovery show ‘Man Woman Child Wild’
Renowned adventurer Ed Stafford has survived alone in some of Earth’s most hostile environments, often desperate for food, shelter and water, but now he’s putting himself to the ultimate test. In the brand-new documentary ED STAFFORD: MAN WOMAN CHILD WILD premiering on Discovery, Discovery HD and Discovery Plus App on May 11, Ed will live off-grid on a remote uninhabited island in Indonesia for one month. He will be totally self-sufficient fending for himself in this unchartered location, but there’s a twist – this time, he won’t be alone as Ed will be joined by wife Laura Bingham and 20-month-old son Ran, where they will have to survive as a family, on the beautiful yet demanding island.
Completely self-filmed Ed, Laura and Ran’s survival challenge will see them based on one of Indonesia’s 18,000 islands, deep in the Indian Ocean. One hour away from civilisation and with no provisions, they will have to totally fend for themselves, with no idea of the water and food sources in advance, and with the looming threat of tropical storms ever present.
In the experiment, Ed and Laura want to take themselves away from the modern trappings of life to explore how life is when lived ‘back to basics’. With screen heavy lives, how will it affect them and their relationships when stripped of the modern trappings and obligations. Will they discover a more natural, wholesome way of living away from the distractions of modern-day life? Will their relationships get closer and will Ran’s development accelerate?
Talking about the show, Ed Stafford said, “I thought it would be fascinating as an experiment, for a family to go out and see whether they can survive and leave behind all the trappings of everyday life. Discovery Channel bought into the idea and they thought it would make a very interesting TV programme. I think we learned a lot of lessons along the way.” Talking about what helps him the most at stressful moments, Ed said, “The thing that I use on expeditions that helps me above everything else, especially, in survival situations is meditating. It’s so important for me to be centred, to be aware, to be able to notice the things that are going on around you, but also to step back from your thoughts and your emotions and get to a place of calm.”
“Man Woman Child Wild – with the explorer’s family in the mix – is an iconic example of survival based television format, a Discovery content forte. Audiences love and engage with us for such kind of content,” said, Sai Abishek, Director–Content, Factual & Lifestyle Entertainment – South Asia, Discovery. “We continue our endeavour to premiere shows even during lock down. Ed Stafford has huge following in India, and we will premiere the second series of ‘Ed Stafford: First Man Out’ immediately after which will air from May 18th.”
This unique show, which started as an experiment, seeks to answer some very pertinent questions about the kind of lives we lead today, questions which have become even more important in light of the current pandemic that we are dealing with. Ed and Laura wanted to take themselves away from the modern comforts of life to explore how life is when lived ‘back to basics’. With screen heavy lives, how will it affect them and their relationship when stripped of the modern ways of living and social obligations? Will they discover a more natural, wholesome way of living away from the distractions of modern-day life? Will their relationship become stronger and will their son, Ran’s development accelerate?
Along with this exciting family show like no other, Ed Stafford will also be seen competing against the world’s top survivalists in a gritty, real-life race to get out of some of the most hostile environments on the planet on yet another Discovery Channel show: ‘ED STAFFORD: FIRST MAN OUT Season 2’, starting from 16th May.
To view all the action, unfold, tune in to ED STAFFORD: MAN WOMAN CHILD WILD, which premieres in India on Monday, 11th May at 8 PM, only on the Discovery Channel.
UK: The aerial is losing its grip. As broadband becomes the default way Britons watch television, the UK is edging towards a decisive, and divisive, question: should Freeview be switched off by 2034? The issue, highlighted in reporting by The Guardian, has exposed deep fault lines over access, affordability and the future of public service broadcasting.
For nearly 25 years, Freeview has delivered free-to-air television from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 to almost every corner of the country. Even now, it remains the UK’s largest TV platform, used in more than 16m homes and on around 10m main household sets. Yet the same broadcasters that built it are now pressing for its closure within eight years.
Their case rests on a structural shift in viewing. Smart TVs, superfast broadband and the Netflix-led streaming boom have pulled audiences online. Advertising economics have followed. By 2034, the number of homes using Freeview as their main TV set is forecast to fall from a peak of almost 12m in 2012 to fewer than 2m, making digital terrestrial television, or DTT, increasingly costly to sustain.
But critics say the rush to switch off risks abandoning those least able, or least willing, to move online.
“I don’t want to be choosing apps and making new accounts,” says Lynette, 80, from Kent. “It is time-consuming and irritating trying to work out where I want to be, to remember the sequence of clicks, with hieroglyphics instead of words. If I make a mistake I have to start again.”
Lynette is among nearly 100,000 people who have signed a “save Freeview” petition launched by campaign group Silver Voices. She fears the government is about to “take [Freeview] away from me and others who either don’t like, can’t afford, or can’t use online versions”.
Official figures underline the fault lines. A report commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport estimates that by 2035, 1.8m homes will still depend on Freeview. Ofcom’s analysis shows those households are more likely to be disabled, older, living alone, female, and based in the north of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Freeview is owned by the public service broadcasters through Everyone TV, which also operates Freesat and the newer streaming platform Freely. After two years of review, DCMS is expected to set out its position soon, drawing on three options proposed by Ofcom: a costly upgrade of Freeview’s ageing technology; maintaining a bare-bones service with only core PSB channels; or a full switch-off during the 2030s.
The broadcasters have rallied behind the third option. They argue that 2034 is the logical cut-off, when transmission contracts with network operator Arqiva expire. By then, they say, the cost of broadcasting to a dwindling audience will far outweigh the returns from TV advertising.
Ofcom agrees a crunch point is approaching. In July, the regulator warned of a “tipping point” within the next few years, after which it will no longer be commercially viable for broadcasters to carry the costs of DTT.
Others see risks beyond economics. Questions remain over whether internet TV can reliably deliver emergency broadcasts, such as the daily Covid updates, in the way that universally available DTT can. The UK radio industry has also warned that an internet-only future for TV could push up distribution costs and force some radio stations off air if PSBs no longer share Arqiva’s mast network.
“It is a political hot potato,” says Dennis Reed, founder of Silver Voices, who says he has “dissociated” his organisation from the government’s stakeholder forum, which he believes is “heavily biased” towards streaming.
The Future TV Taskforce, representing the PSBs, counters that moving online could “close the digital divide once and for all”. “We want to be able to plan to ensure that no one is left behind,” a spokesperson says, adding that rising DTT costs could otherwise mean cuts to programme budgets.
The numbers show the scale of the challenge. Of the 1.8m Freeview-dependent homes projected for 2035, around 1.1m are expected to have broadband but not use it for TV. The remaining 700,000 are forecast to lack a broadband connection altogether.
Veterans of the analogue switch-off, completed in 2012 after 76 years, recall similar fears of “TV blackout chaos”. Around 6 per cent of households were labelled “digital refuseniks”, yet a targeted help scheme and a national campaign, fronted by a robot called Digit Al voiced by Matt Lucas, delivered a largely smooth transition.
This time, the BBC is less keen to foot the bill. Tim Davie, the outgoing director general, has said the corporation should not fund a comparable support programme for a Freeview switch-off.
Research for Sky by Oliver & Ohlbaum suggests that with early awareness campaigns and digital inclusion measures, only about 330,000 households would ultimately need hands-on help ahead of a 2034 shutdown.
Meanwhile, viewing habits continue to fragment. Audience body Barb says 7 per cent of UK households no longer own a TV set, choosing to watch on other devices. In December, YouTube overtook the BBC’s combined channels in total UK viewing across TVs, smartphones and tablets, albeit measured at a minimum of three minutes.
That shift may accelerate. YouTube has recently blocked Barb and its partner Kantar from accessing viewing session data, limiting transparency just as online platforms consolidate power.
“When the government chose British Satellite Broadcasting as the ‘winner’ in satellite TV it was Rupert Murdoch’s Sky instead that came out on top,” says a senior TV executive quoted by The Guardian. “There already is such an outsider ready to be the winner in the transition to internet TV; it is YouTube.”
Freeview’s future now hangs on a familiar British dilemma: modernise fast and risk exclusion, or protect universality and pay the price. Either way, the aerial’s days as king of the living room look numbered.
