Big Brother is not having a vintage season, at least according to the viewers, who are clearly not annoyed enough by Charley. The average audience is down 17.7 per cent, at 3.6 million, with a steeper decline among 16 to 34-year-olds. Sister channel E4 has also failed to benefit from the customary Big Brother spike; market estimates suggest its viewing is slightly down this year, not good for a digital channel. Kelvin MacKenzie continues to look for trouble, and perhaps a job too.
Bumping into a senior executive at Daily Mail and General Trust, he demanded: “When are you going to sack Bernard?” referring to the chief executive of GCap Media, the Classic to Capital radio group in which DMGT holds about 14 per cent. Unfortunately, at least according to this investor, Ralph’s position is secure. JPMorgan is supposedly advising Carlyle on its approach to Virgin Media, which would be quick work, given that it advised its target in its bid for ITV last year. That, of course, means that almost every banker is conflicted out of the deal, but doutbless some fine minds can be drummed up. The Entertainment Retailers’ Association demanded that the newspaper circulation body, the ABC, not count this week’s sales of The Mail on Sunday, because the title is giving away Prince’s next album, Planet Earth, this Sunday. Pretty petty, but they do have a point: giveaways of products (such as T-shirts) to promote a record are banned.