Ok, so who wants to change from LA Fitness to this gym?

This week it was announced that Jonathan Allan is to become the new sales director of Channel 4. Having never met the man I can’t personally comment on his suitability for the job (questions have been asked about his lack of sales experience), but the challenges awaiting Jonathan are plain to see. The appointment has been greeted with a mixture of criticism, applause, and surprise in the industry. It was widely expected that the role wouldn’t go to a traditional TV sales person and the appointment of an agency’s forward thinking Managing Director demonstrates the broadcasters eagerness to embrace a “new digital generation”. The plethora of excellent programming available on 4OD such as Misfits, Teachers, and Shameless, mean the online sales team have plenty to work with under his stewardship. But then there are also complex issues for Jonathan to take on, such as the delicate state of Channel 4’s ad sales contract with UKTV.

Having written a hugely optimistic blog last year ago about my excitement over the new TV drama series The Event (Clearly not enough people shared my enjoyment of the show as it was cancelled after the first series having first been moved to the early hours of Tuesday mornings) I am now trying to get excited about The Killing, which begins tonight on Channel 4. With the Danish series of The Killing (Forbrydelsen in Danish) being such a huge success, it was only a matter of time until a US version was made. If it is able to get me anywhere near as riveted as Sky Atlantic’s fantastic Game of Thrones did, I’ll be an instant fan. Centred around the murder of a young girl and the subsequent police investigation, it sounds like the sort of plot one can expect on a Monday or Tuesday drama on ITV. I’ve watched a few clips though and it certainly seems to have an edgy appeal. Just a pity Sean Bean isn’t in it.

Channel 4 has had recent ratings success with Camelot and Embarrassing Fat Bodies, but Big Brother’s move to Channel 5 this summer leaves questions over just where Channel 4 will go to for guaranteed ratings. With Friends ending its 15 year run with the broadcaster in Autumn, the schedules will be unrecognisable from last year. With ITV expecting a strong autumn thanks to the return of The X Factor, new Ant and Dec fronted show Red or Black, and The Rugby World Cup, the former Managing Director at OMD faces a tall order, and could certainly do with a new success to match the likes of Undercover Boss or 24 Hours in A&E, or a drama series to capture the publics attention. Perhaps The Killing will be just that success…I’ll hold on for a few weeks before i get too excited though.

I went to an interesting debate last night about how divided Britain has become – young v old, rich v poor, urban v rural etc etc. The question was then raised about if we’re so divided, what is it that unites us? Is it our shared love of the great British sense of humour, or an endless capacity to watch live sport?  For me the one thing that all Brits share is their fascination with the weather. Thoughts?

This new Social Media thing has been on the rise for nearly a decade, so much so sports stars have taken to using it. But the ultimate pat on the back for the simple way Social Media makes interacting is even professional footballer’s get it. Phil Neville and Seamus Coleman recently had an argument on Twitter (possibly in jest), and Rio Ferdinand & Wayne Rooney nearly fell out over Rooney’s recent hair transplant, again on Twitter.

But now it seems a footballer is using Social Media for good, well, some good. Owen Hargreaves has been beset by injury for the best part of 5 years. He was released by Manchester Utd this summer and is currently without a club. In an effort to prove to the footballing world his fitness, Hargreaves has created his own Youtube channel and is updating it daily with videos of him going through his (very tough) paces. A personal favourite is this one showing him sliding around with some weird contraption attached to his wrists and thighs. Very strange.

Hargreaves bucks the trend for most footballers and actually comes across as a nice guy, so I for one hope he is fully recovered and makes a return to a top Premiership team (preferably Arsenal) and the England squad. Watch this space for updates.

It’s time for Wimbledon again so there’s little surprise that it’s raining. It looks like the ball boys are going to extinct pretty soon though if the machines have anything to do with it……

TOTO – tracking of thrown objects from Dennis Barteit on Vimeo.

At the end of last week the Kaiser Chiefs launched their innovative take on releasing an album in this digital and user-generated age. Fans are able to create their own 10-track DIY album whereby they can choose their favourite Kaiser Chiefs songs from a list of 20 on the band’s website.

Not only this, but users can then create their own microsite and sell their album for a £1 personal profit. This seems awfully generous of the band considering all the hard work they probably put into it!

I think that this is an ingenious way of keeping up with the way their fans are now buying music as well as offering a unique way of engaging them. I’m not sure every band will go down this route of offering their entrepreneurial fans financial remuneration for bothering to choose 10 of their favourite tracks however I think that innovative ways of releasing albums such as this will keep the money going back to the artists and not lost somewhere in cyberspace.

Well it’s been social media week here at Maxus so we thought it’s time we shared some good old fashioned stats with everyone about the rise and rise of social media:-

Last night, I saw the premiere of MTV’s Geordie Shore – the UK equivalent to Jersey Shore.  I tuned in, with baited breath to find out whether this was going to be another gem of scripted reality (similar to The Only Way is Essex) or a return to car crash TV in the vein of Big Brother.

The programme was (as anyone who watches the US version will know) an hour of car crash TV featuring half naked women, lots of alcohol and men who fake bake so much that they could easily glow in the dark.  This was definitely a return to reality TV at its worst, but this is precisely why the audience will tune in.  The fake and artificial situations of programmes such as The Hills and Made in Chelsea has meant that TV shows have been forced to employ soap opera writers to direct real people in scripted, sensationalised storylines to get ratings.  Geordie Shore bucks this trend by bringing the brutal reality of what young twentysomethings in Newcastle get up to in their spare time without the need of a script.

There is no denying that the characters in the show could be putting on a front to get the media attention that they crave and the show is edited to highlight the most dramatic storylines, but ultimately this show depicts real people in real situations.

The recent success of the The Only Way Is Essex at the BAFTA’s has proved that there is an appetite in the TV schedules for programmes featuring scripted reality, but will this return to TV in the style of Big Brother, depicting fame hungry individuals getting up to all sorts of alcohol induced madness mean that traditional reality TV is back?

So we had a double hit of the new series of the appretice this week which was definitely something most people in the office tuned in to. Here’s a well edited piece which casts a new light on the show though….

You’ll have to excuse the bad commentary on this video but i’m sure if we pooled all the iphone and android handsets in the office we could create the largest screen ever using this application…..

Junkyard Jumbotron from chris csik on Vimeo.