The big boys should cry

Traditional broadcasting has taken a knock, with the results of a survey that shows viewers are more loyal to individual programmes than they are to channels.

They also express frustration with having to watch programmes when they are scheduled, commercial breaks, and the inability to rewind. One in three respondents got round this by watching TV programmes on something other than a trad TV set.

Quoted in The Guardian, David Wolf of Accenture, which conducted the survey, said television was rapidly shifting from its origins as a "clearly identifiable stand-alone medium".

"People are experiencing new consumption opportunities and moving away from traditional, linear programming," he said. "Today's youth are more dissatisfied with the traditional television experience and increasingly excited by the availability of new choices."

Just as with other media - from music to newspapers - content, and the kings of content, are the new masters.

If the Facebook fits...

I was working with some French journalists today, and happened to show them the front page of The Telegraph with the pictures, lifted in part from their Facebook pages, of some of the gap-year victims of the bus crash in Ecuador.

They were appalled. "In France," they said, "we could never publish this."

I'd actually been intending to show them something entirely unrelated, so was caught off guard. Of course, I gave the standard British defence of using such pictures. But afterwards, I did wonder.

I wondered in part whether we can justify using images that the photographers and subjects intended to be shared purely among friends. Yes, I know all the arguments we can use to explain why we should, I'm just not sure I believe them any more. And I wonder how many of our readers believe them.

A death has been announced

Actually it hasn't quite been announced, but we can predict it.

The ISPs are miffed at the amount of bandwidth the BBC's i-player is taking up.

The success of this application means that the death of live television is here. In future, most TV content will actually be web-delivered.

Of course, we can still expect live TV to premiere big productions but, apart from the major programmes, most TV will be watched on demand - as and when the audience decides it would like to see it.

Infact, the whole idea of watching or listening to something when the broadcaster decides we should already feels alien. Many of us watch or listen to TV and radio when we have the time.

When do I listen to Radio 4?

When I'm running.

What do I listen to?

The three programmes I like.

Thank God I no longer need to listen to what is presented to me. No more You and Yours, no more Woman's Hour. No more - thank you Jesus - Veg Talk.

And really, when you think about it, the idea that we can only listen to what is being presented at that moment is a very odd one- one that the internet has killed stone dead.