Has Terrestrial Television Lost Out To Digital Channels?

This week it was revealed, in an article on the BBC's very own news site, that "BBC 'missed out' on Yes, Prime Minister comeback" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20908049) with the creators saying that they refused to film a pilot of their new version of the classic BBC sitcom thus taking the show to UKTV's 'Gold' instead, a trend happening more and more with digital stations getting big hitters appearing on their channels.

Now whilst I think the writer's refusal to film a pilot smacks a little of 'do you not know who I am' syndrome and the BBC needs to see if the show, in its new format, will actually be funny, they do have a point in that the show was very successful on the BBC and in the recent stage show, which this new version is based on, and if UKTV, with a vastly smaller budget than the Beeb can take the risk, why can't they?

Comedy on the BBC is in a strange place. My favourite sitcom on television at the moment 'Not Going Out' - soon coming back for a sixth series - was cancelled and saved not so long ago in a frankly ridiculous decision, and comedy shows I'd expect, if not on the BBC, at least on "terrestrial" television, have appeared on digital channels, in particular on Sky channels who seem to be showcasing lots of great new shows, one being the hilarious 'A Touch of Cloth' two-parter, co-written by Charlie Brooker, a regular contributor to shows on the BBC and Channel 4. I'm not privvy to the negotiations - and the money offered - that got the show onto Sky, but it would have been a perfect addition to either of those mentioned channel's line-ups.

This isn't to say the BBC isn't still doing great comedy shows. Their 'Bleak Old Shop of Stuff' from 2011 was a great commission, as was Brooker's series of 'Wipe' shows including the most recent one this week, and they are still mostly unrivaled when it comes to comedy panel shows, but there seems to be a lack of risk taking in comedy. Only last year Channel 4 showed a pilot of Milton Jones' 'House of Rooms', an absolutely hilarious thirty-minutes, that has still not been commissioned.

And even when they do have some great comedy they don't capitalise on it. 'John Bishop's Britain', a brilliant show, good enough to get a second series, is still not available on DVD. I, for one, want to own that. The BBC has a large gold mine of old comedies that should see the light of day again or at least get a DVD release. Who remembers Al Murray's great but short lived sketch show from a few years back, still not available to take home?

In short, the BBC and its terrestrial cousins are doing some great things with comedy but needs to do more. If these relatively small-fry digital television stations can commission whole series that stand up to  their originals (Gold and 'Yes, Prime Minster', Watch and its major contributions to Primeval Series' four and five, and showing off its new Canadian spin-off, Dave and 'Red Dwarf) then why cannot the big hitters? If they're not careful they will drive more and more viewers over to these small channels.

Shows like 'A Touch of Cloth', 'Red Dwarf', 'Primeval', 'Yes! Prime Minister' and more should have been jumped on by the big four traditional networks to show. They need to take more risks and make bigger comedy shows or instead of making jokes about 'Dave' in their shows, they'll be losing out to them.

Are ITV letting Primeval fail?

Returning to a topic I’ve covered several times over the past year or so, I want to ask the question that has been on my lips for a long time: are ITV letting Primeval fail?

For those of you not familiar with the trials and tribulations of the programme, the show – which looks at a team investigating rips in time through which past and future creators enter our era – was cancelled after the third series and only saved by a global deal that saw ITV show series four first followed by digital station Watch, with Watch getting the premiere for series five. Finally, almost a year after series five debuted ITV start showing it on Saturday.

Now I’m not going to say ITV have an easy sell with Primeval series five. It was shown on television last year and has been on DVD and Blu-Ray for nearly as long. But they’ve not exactly gone out of their way to promote it to the not-unsubstantial audience already out there that have yet to see the series, which in my opinion is the strongest one behind series three.

I’m not going to be naive and say that ITV must be champing at the bit to re-commission Primeval due to their financial troubles, but with an audience of 4.6m on average for last year’s series it’s not a small audience and it’s the closest thing they have at the moment to Saturday teatime drama. Though we are getting a series follow-up in Canadian spin-off ‘Primeval New World’ I don’t think I’m the only one who would like a UK-based sixth series, promoting British actors and actresses and set here in Blighty. The UK doesn’t have enough home-based drama that can be sold abroad – Primeval and Doctor Who stand very much alone in this field – and the loss of Primeval will be a great shame. Though nearly eighteen months since the cameras last rolled on the series it’s still not too late to get everyone back together for a sixth series.

But I don’t see it happening. Why? Well, aside from the focus now moved to the North American version, ITV are certainly proving either incompetent at marketing the show or intent on letting it fail to justify not renewing it.

Television adverts promoting its return have only started airing within ten days of its return. Itv.com/primeval remains down since series four ended. @itvprimeval hasn’t been updated since the 9th March last year; their Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/ITVprimeval deathly quiet. If you go to itv.com there’s nothing on the front page: no publicity for the returning which is now only six days away.

Contrast this to Watch’s marketing for series five when it debuted on their channel last year. Granted, they had to make the effort to promote the series on a minority channel but, especially considering their lesser budget compared to ITV, did one of the best marketing campaigns for a series ever with specially filmed on-air promos featuring the cast, a strong website and a month-long Facebook fan page which gave its members a special treat each and every day to whet their appetite. If they can manage it, why can’t ITV?

I would love a sixth series of Primeval to see more storylines and how the characters develop and have a credible alternative to Doctor Who, which is treated with far more respect by the BBC than Primeval ever has been ITV. Unfortunately I don’t think we’re going to get it through a combination of factors from the unavoidable, such as the financial issues faced by drama creators, but also by the things that have been done badly or could have been done better, such as the disappointingly poor promotion by ITV. Even their publicity last year for series four was hardly earth-shattering, but at least they had information on the website, a Twitter handler and a generally bigger buzz, all things that don’t cost many pounds to undertake.

As ITV are promoting the fifth series with ‘The beginning of the end’ I hardly think the future of the show looks rosy, poorly marketed and hidden away in the schedules amongst the buzz of Euro 2012 and against a month, June, that’s typically one where people would rather go out than stay in and watch television (though the typical British weather is putting paid to that at the moment).

ITV, you disappoint me.

(But, you know, if you’d like someone to update the online pages over the next week for free I would happily do it to help boost the viewing figures – message me!)