There’s no moral in this story because, of course, it is about television. For as long as it has been around there have been moral panics about TV, as in ‘does what it puts on screen erode the moral fibre of a nation?’ As the word panic implies, the answer is, generally, no. Nowadays even […]
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will be canned in May 2026, its host announced this week. The CBS show was the most watched of the network late shows. The company says the decision is “purely financial”. CBS parent Paramount is in the throws of the merger with Skydance and recently settled a lawsuit with […]
5’s live coverage of the FIFA Club World Cup Final on July 13th, in which Chelsea beat Paris Saint-Germain 3-0, was watched by a peak of 2.4 million viewers on the linear channel. The entire match attracted an average audience of 1.7 million viewers on 5’s linear channel (12.7 per cent share of the available […]
In the immediate aftermath of the US bombing of Iran, The Rest Is Politics and The Rest Is Politics: US released live reaction episodes – drawing over 1.8 million views, streams and downloads across platforms in under 24 hours. Audiences tuned in at scale via YouTube, Spotify and podcast platforms, with over 50,000 watching live […]
Elon Musk’s previous comments that South Africa’s government was allegedly “racist” were raised during the tense meeting between President Trump and President Cyril Ramaphosa in the White House last week. Musk was present during the meeting but did not speak. South African billionaire Johann Rupert did speak and moved to quell tensions with remarks that […]
The head of CBS News has quit, as owner Paramount seeks to settle a lawsuit from US President Donald Trump. “The past few months have been challenging,” president and chief executive Wendy McMahon said in an internal memo reported by the FT. “It’s become clear that the company and I do not agree on the […]
The US-funded Arabic language Al Hurra satellite news channel is close to having to cease broadcasting with the Trump administration’s decision to cut its funding. Al Hurra, which launched in 2004 to counter anti-American sentiment, has a claimed 30 million viewership over the Middle East and North Africa. Local reports say that in notices to […]
US President Donald Trump has said he will be announcing the tariff rate on imported semiconductors over the next week – adding that there would be flexibility with some companies in the sector. This seems to be a row back after he removed extra tariffs on smartphones and tablets. “We wanted to uncomplicate it from […]
The Trump tariffs on imports have boosted the cable channels who cover those markets. CNBC and Fox Business Network both saw their ratings jump significantly in the days after the announcement on April 2nd, which US President Donald Trump dubbed ‘Liberation Day’. CNBC averaged 293,000 viewers during market hours, up 36 per cent. Fox Business […]
A federal judge in New York has thwarted the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the US international broadcaster Voice of America (VoA), calling the move a “classic case of arbitrary and capricious decision making.” Judge James Paul Oetken blocked the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which runs Voice of America, from axing some 1,300 […]