English Entertainment
Star World lines up a host of special events
MUMBAI: English general entertainment channel Star World has announced that it will air a slew of special events over the next two months. These range from a music awards show to a pageant.
Kicking things off is an over two week long initiative Miss World 2005 Vote For Me. This is aimed at building hype around Miss World by familiarising viewers with participants. This year, over a hundred beauties from every continent will vie for the honour of serving with a combination of grace and external beauty. Last year, viewers were allowed to have a say in who wins by SMS voting.
It’s no different this year, but viewers will get the chance to vote almost one month before the main pageant itself. The top two vote-winners from each continent will automatically enter the final round in the main pageant itself. This month, get introduced to each continent’s bevy of beauties in separate half-hour programmes starting 21 November 2005.
Miss World will then air live on 10 December 2005 at 6:30 pm with a repeat at 10 pm. The event takes place in Sanya..
There will also be an host of music related specials. The 33rd edition of the American Music Awards airs live on 23 November 2005 at 6:30 am with a repeat at 8 pm. This is one of the big four events in the annual American music calendar.
Last year, Outkast, Alicia Keys, Usher, Sheryl Crow, Reba McEntire, JayZ, Marc Anthony, Linkin Park and Toby Keith were but a few of those who appeared and were honoured. This time around viewers can expect lots of music royalty, live performances, funny speech moments and fashion.
Fans of The Beatles can check out Tribute To John Lennon: John And Yoko: Give Peace A Song on 8 December at 9 pm. 25 years to the day after his death, John Lennon is still considered the godfather of modern pop music. But more than that, he was also a visionary, a lover, an artist and a humanist. On this 25th anniversary of his death, two new specials pay tribute to his life, his legend and his legacy.
The show follows the creative process behind Lennon’s keystone album Imagine, featuring footage John and Yoko Ono shot themselves. it documents the recording of seminal peace anthem Give Peace A Chance during John and Yoko Ono’s infamous 1969 ‘Bed-In For Peace’ in Montreal’s Queen Elizabeth Hotel. How the recording was made and who sang on it is a fascinating tale of 60’s culture, politics and music. In this special, the directors track down 27 of the 40 to 50 people that had been in the room that day, and got them to talk about the experience.
Give Peace A Song also features the longest interview given by Yoko Ono in the last 25 years, as well as a wealth of pictures that have never been seen before. Un-aired archival footage, out-takes from John & Yoko’s own movie of the event, home movies taken by visitors, and the photographs of the only photographer given unlimited access to the Bed-In – Gerry Deiter. 8 December 1980 was the day when John Lennon was killed.
On the reality front the channel will air World’s Most Shocking Moments on 13 December 2005 at 9 pm and on 14 December 2005 at 11 am. Before the Twentieth Century, when disasters struck, whether they were man-made or natural, people relied on newspaper reports and word of mouth to hear about the incredible events. Today,cameras roll all over the world 24 hours a day, and we can witness the world’s most fantastic events, be it wonderful or shocking.
Star World then goes on to celebrate Christmas in the company of Kenny Loggins on 25 December 2005 at 9 am. The special will feature over 10 songs, and is peppered with stories of Loggins, his wife, his children and his celebrity friends. There will be solo and group performances of the songs by Loggins himself and his wife, Clint Black and his wife Lisa, as well as Olivia Newton John.
Then on Boxing Day 26 December 2005 at 11 am the channel will air Justin Timberlake Down Home In Memphis. In this one-hour special, the pop heartthrob and long-time boyfriend of Cameron Diaz heads south to his hometown to hold a concert. Along the way, he gives viewers a personal tour of Memphis, highlighting the town’s musical legacy. Don’t expect a documentary-style exploration of the city, but do be prepared for lots of interesting personal tidbits about the city. A highlight of the show is Timberlake’s special rendition of Let’s Stay Together with soul legend, Reverend Al Green.
Towards the end of the year the channel celebrates the career of the king of pop Michael Jackson. The show airs on 30 December 2005 at 10 pm and on 31 December at 4 pm. This takes viewers on a journey through the unparalleled career of perhaps the world’s most gifted entertainer. Combining digitally-restored original music videos with live performances filmed over the years from Jackson’s Off The Wall and Thriller eras,
This is a document of the man’s genius, as well as a reminder of how far he has fallen. One can listen to classics like Billie Jean, Thriller and Black Or White. Experts from the music industry will talk about how those songs have transformed the music industry . Viewers will hear from Beyonce, Missy Elliot, Mary J.Blige, Jennifer Lopez, Quincy Jones and Wyclef Jean talking about Jackson.
On 31 December 2005 at 9 pm the channel will air Warovski Fashion Rocks For The Prince’s Trust . This yearly benefit hosted by Prince Albert II of Monaco for the Prince’s Trust has become something of a society event.Held at the Grimaldi Forum in Monte Carlo, this groundbreaking fundraiser pairs top designers with top music artists to put up a one-of-a-kind show and all for a good cause.
Hosted by ex-supermodel and actress Jerry Hall, the lineup this year includes hit acts like Kasabian, Blondie, Craig David, Mariah Carey, Bon Jovi, Jamie Cullum, as well as edgier fare such as Roisin Murphy of Moloko, new R&B sensation Amerie, art rockers.
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.
