Sky’ s The Limit

‘FOR all the huff and puff about Rupert Murdoch’s ambitions to take over the role of Britain’s biggest broadcaster from the BBC, his Sky TV channels still pour out an unrelenting stream of sport and American-made shows.

How could this have been allowed to happen?

You’d suppose that if Sky had genuine ambitions to be the No. 1 broadcaster it would set about making some decent programmes.

A look at the BBC’s tired schedules – EastEnders, more EastEnders, panel gameshows and DIY makeovers – suggests that Sky’s challenge to be better than the Beeb is not exactly Herculean.

Sky News shows that Sky has the powers to be up there with the best of them. The channel is informative, entertaining and well produced – it is everything the Beeb’s News 24 is not.

But the elements that make Sky News a success are missing from elsewhere in the Sky portfolio.

Tonight, Sky One – the would-be BBC 1 – has a slew of Star Trek Episodes surrounding two homemade shows: Britain’s Hardest and Mile High.

Mile High is the comedy show set a mile above ground level, where the air is rich is nitrous oxide – we can think of no other reason why anyone is laughing.

And Britain’s Hardest is just terrible.

If Sky want to beat the Beeb, it has to try harder. Any broadcaster that employs Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen deserves to be ground into so much dust…’

Posted: 23rd, February 2004 | In: Celebrities Comment | TrackBack | Permalink