English Entertainment
Star World ramps up programming next month
MUMBAI: English general entertainment channel Star World has announced a slew of shows that it hopes will keep viewers tuning in for more.
They run the gamut from a hit sitcom to a family drama.
Kicking things off on 3 August 2006 is The Office. This is the US broadcaster NBC’s version of BBC’s show im the UK. For the uninitiated, the show looks at the humdrum everyday goings-on in a typical nine-to-five workplace, straight out of the ‘Dilbert’ school of work ethics. The Office is a mockumentary of the office Dunder-Mifflin, a paper product company.
The show has won praise form the characters and the many mini-plots. As the camera follows the Dunder-Mifflin staff around, viewers are treated to a plethora of stories and character backgrounds. There’s Michael Scott, the manager/dense buffoon who may not be diabolical, but is certainly oblivious to what’s going on around him. There’s Pam, the permanently-engaged sweetheart receptionist who’s with a habitual jerk who is constantly putting off their wedding date.
There’s also Jim, the witty and charming nice guy who harbors a secret crush for Pam despite her engagement. Dwight meanwhile is somewhat nerdy, Lord of the Rings obsessed, and comically abrasive/intrusive to the point that no one takes him seriously. Steve Carrell won a Golden Globe Award this year for his portrayal of Scott.
Those in the mood for family drama can check out Sons and Daughters from 24 August. The zany and slightly troubled members of a family try to make it through life as comedy ensues. In the center of the mess is Cameron (Fred Goss), who is happily married to second wife Liz (Gillian Vigman), with three children.
Cameron’s teenage son from his first marriage has officially moved in-and has a little-well, a lot-of trouble becoming comfortable in the new environment. Cameron’s sister Sharon (Alison Quinn) seems to have the perfect life-although her husband, Don (Jerry Lambert), are both in denial about their sex-less marriage. Then there’s Jenna (Amanda Walsh), the gorgeous little half-sister who had her life upturned when she became a single mother. Jenna doesn’t really know what’s good for her.
She always goes for the bad boys like Tommy White (Greg Pitts), while the nice guys like Wylie Blake (Desmond Harrington) love her. Equally problem-filled Colleen (Dee Wallace Stone) and Wendal (Max Gail), the parents of the siblings, try to keep their family in order somehow. Colleen, though, is admittedly uptight and impulsively judgmental. Even though they’re all a little nuts, the Halbert family hangs in there and keeps it all together.
The supernatural thriller Ghost Whisperer kicks off on 29 August. Jennifer Love Hewitt plays newlywed Melinda Gordon. She communicates with earthbound spirits – ghosts who cling to the living because they have unfinished business which prevents them from moving beyond the familiar plane of existence we call life. Inspired in part by the work of famed medium James Van Praagh and Mary Ann Winkowski, a real life communicator to spirits, Ghost Whisperer explores the spiritual side of life and death.
Actor Charlie Sheen saw his acting career being revived with the comedy Two And A Half Men. This kicks off on 31 August. Sheen and Jon Cryer star along with young Angus T. Jones as three males from two generations, each learning what it really means to be a man. Charlie’s casual Malibu lifestyle is interrupted when his tightly wound brother, Alan, who’s facing a divorce, and Alan’s son, Jake, come to stay with him. Together, these two and a half men confront the challenges of growing up-finally.
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.
