English Entertainment
Watch Kendrik Lamar, Drake, Cardi B, Camila Cabello and the entire music universe at the industry’s biggest award night – The 61st Annual Grammy Awards exclusively on Vh1 India
MUMBAI: Music awards don’t get bigger than the GRAMMYS! Music industry’s most coveted and nonpareil annual award ceremony returns tofelicitate talent par excellence. Unanimously reckoned as the highest honor for a musician, The Recording Academy recognizes artists for their exemplary achievements in the industry on this starry night. Hosted by fifteen-time GRAMMY winner Alicia Keys, the 61stAnnual Grammy Awardswill airexclusively on Vh1 India,this Monday February 11 at 7:30am, with repeat telecasts at 2pm and 9pm.
“Vh1 India has continued to reign as the undisputed leader in showcasing the best and biggest music events from all over the globe. Widely reputed as the pinnacle of music industry awards, the GRAMMYS is also one of the most anticipated events for music enthusiasts and viewers in India. As die-hard fans of icons like Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Cardi B, Lady Gaga and many more nominated artists, wait with bated breaths, Vh1 ensures they can experience the excitement ofthe awardsas it happens at the Staples Center in LA.“ said, Hashim Dsouza – Head of Programming, English Entertainment, Viacom18.
Making her GRAMMY performance debut, current nominee Camila Cabello will take the stage on music’s biggest night, along with performances by co-nominees Cardi B, Dan + Shay, Post Malone, Shawn Mendes, Janelle Monáe, and Kacey Musgraves. The Recording Academy further expanded its performances lineup with a special tribute to eight-time GRAMMY winner and 2019 MusiCares® Person of the Year – Dolly Parton, who makes her return to the GRAMMY stage for the first time since 2001. Dolly's special tribute segment will also feature her classic hits sung by Little Big Town, Maren Morris, Kacey Musgraves and Katy Perry.
Dominating nomination categories, Hip-Hop kings Kendrick Lamar and Drake lead the race with eight and seven nods respectively, while Brandi Carlilebecomes the most nominated female artist with six nods. Marking its first major recognition outside of the Korean music space, K-pop band BTS earned a nomination for ‘Best Recording Package’. Also nominated in this year’s Grammy awards are Indian-origin artists Falguni ‘Falu’ Shahfor Falu’s Bazaar, Snatam Kaur Khalsa for Beloved andPrashant Mistry (Engine-Earz Experiment) for Symbol in the following categories – ‘Best Children’s Album’, ‘New Age Album’ and ‘Best Immersive Audio Album’ respectively.
The 61st Grammy Awards will also honor Lifetime Achievement Recipient Diana Ross for her profound contributions to music and a landmark career comprising of 42 chart-topping songs, 91 singles & 59 albums with a special 75th Diamond Diana Birthday Performance at the ceremony.
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.
