television

That is what I say to my mates who have more than two kids…i am always joking…but it seems like many things it has some basis in fact.

Source: Martin Lewis http://bit.ly/16qlt7W

India’s population will overtake China’s by 2021, putting a huge strain on resources and public services. And though the country’s overall birth rate has fallen a lot, it’s still explosive in rural areas (pdf).

So how to get rural women to have fewer children? As we just discussed, coercive sterilization is probably not the best way to go. But things you might expect to bring the birth rate down, like higher female literacy or urbanization, don’t necessarily seem to do so, as Stanford professor Martin Lewis explains.  Read more »

An ad for a web-hosting firm has been banned because it features Pamela Anderson dancing in a bikini…

An advertisement featuring Pamela Anderson dancing provocatively in a bikini has been banned in Britain.

The TV commercial for web-hosting firm Dreamscape Networks shows a man in a business meeting fantasising about his boss, played by the former Baywatchactress, covering herself and her brunette assistant in cream.

After a number of complaints from viewers, Dreamscape executives tried to defend the clip by arguing it portrays Anderson as an “attractive, dynamic and confident” businesswoman.

However, bosses at the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) have now ruled the advert cannot be aired again in its current form, as it suggests female colleagues are viewed as sexual objects.

“We considered the ad was likely to cause serious offence to some viewers on the basis that it was sexist and degrading to women,” ASA said.  Read more »

This is what we need instead of all the cooking and home renovation shows.

A year ago I visited the headquarters of the Danish public broadcaster DR to film a piece about the international success of their dramas Borgen and the Killing.

The two protagonists in those series were strong, feisty females who took no nonsense from anyone.

So it seems a little surreal to be back in Denmark now to talk to the same broadcasting company about their new show, called Blachman, in which a woman – aged 28-85 – is required to stand naked in front of fully-clothed men and to remain silent as those men talk about her body.

“It’s not reality TV!” protests the show’s inventor and host, Thomas Blachman. “And it’s poetry, not porn.”  Read more »

It could only be academics who would suggest Dr Who is racist. They probably got a grant for it too.

Doctor Who has been accused of many things during its 50 years on TV – most to do with cheesy special effects – but “thunderingly racist” is probably not one of them.

A group of academics claim the popular British sci-fi show is steeped in attitudes “that continue to subjugate people of colour” and shows contempt for “primitive” people.

In a new book, Doctor Who and Race, they argue that the Timelord is dismissive towards his black companions and question why he is more interested in battling Daleks and Cybermen than fighting slavery.  Read more »

Oh dear, Coro star Bill Roache aka Ken Barlow is in a spot of bother.

Coronation Street actor Bill Roache has been arrested for rape.

Voting is open in the 2013 Freeview Awards.

Categories include favourite channel and best TV show, along with questions on viewing habits.

My favourite free to air channel is Prime.

Favourite free to air show is Dr Who, which is two episodes into the new series…with the new sidekick Carla…who just quietly is the best looking sidekick in quite some time.

Go and vote, you can go in the draw to win these:

Something for everyone. Blondes, Boobs, Gingers, Conan, Chelsea:

Conan O’Brien returns to his old set for the first time and surprises Chelsea Handler in the shower. See why he’s out for vengeance in this hilarious “Chelsea Lately” sketch!

Anyone who thinks media are fair and a balanced and don’t manufacture stories, think again.

Tabloid television program A Current Affair has been found by the broadcasting watchdog to have breached accuracy, privacy and complaints-handling codes in its report on Olympic gold medallist Neil Brooks.

In a 19-minute segment aired in March of last year, reporter Amanda Paterson – a former colleague and friend of Brooks – confronted him on camera and called him “a disgrace to Australia”.

She told viewers she was on a “race around the world exposing the swimming superstar’s scandalous sins” and claimed Brooks had “dozens” of victims in four countries, resulting in “millions and millions in missing money”.

Read more »

Clare Curran looks set to commit Labour to an election year policy of bashing up Sky TV at the least or pushing to break up their alleged monopoly.

She has no concept of risk and reward in business…failing to recognise that the original investors in Sky TV put up considerable amounts of their own money to try something new in the NZ market. They have been successful with their business model and now people like Curran are moaning and demanding the ‘government’ destroy their property rights by breaking them up.

This is like David Farrar campaigning constantly against Telecom to break up their business. It is shameful for Farrar, and perhaps understandable for socialists like Curran, but it is arranging for the state destruction of private assets.

Labour’s broadcasting spokeswoman Clare Curran says Government regulation is needed to rectify New Zealanders’ lack of free-to-air television access to major sports.

Her party opposes Sky TV’s buy-up of major national sports over the past decade. “Sky have held at bay the prospect of regulation probably for decades, and very successfully. I have said for a couple of years now that that has to stop,” says Ms Curran.  Read more »

This is perhaps the best explanation about broadcast television ever:

If you own a broadcast channel, your job is to develop as many shows as possible that attract a wide audience. The formal term for most of these shows is “produced for a mass audience” but the common term is “relentless crap.”

This compares with cable or subscription television:  Read more »