Sunday Round Up: BBC, ITV, Love Thy Neighbour, Lego, Tobacco display ban
This Sunday we highlight media and marketing news such as the impending tobacco display ban, a new girl targeted strategy by Lego, and the BBC's new religion expert's claim that God had a wife.
BSkyB shareholders are expecting to cash in on Murdoch’s full takeover of the company and will drive up the company’s share price following the go-ahead being given by the Government. The Observer says that leading shareholders will squeeze Rupert Murdoch for as much as £10 billion in order for him to achieve the full takeover of the satellite broadcaster.
The decision by the BBC, ITV and other commercial broadcasters to cease subsidising televised film from the House of Commons and Lords, is likely to see taxpayers pay an extra £1-million-a-year to broadcast Parliamentary debates. From August Parliament will be left to foot the broadcasting bills for all of its debates following the decision by the broadcaster to stop paying half of the annual costs says The Mail on Sunday.
The same paper also reports that the BBC’s new religious commentator has claimed that God had a wife. Writing in The Mail on Sunday, Dr Francesca Stavrakopoulou who will front documentary series Bible's Buried Secrets on BBC 2 has decided after years of research that God is not a solitary figure.
Lego is planning to target girls with a new toy range with the company’s UK managing director Marko Illincic admitting that the company’s products are to focused on boys. In an interview with The Observer, Illincic says that between the ages of two-five, girls play with Lego as much as boys, and is now ‘working hard’ to find products that appeal to older girls.
The Government is expected to announce its display ban for tobacco display on No Smoking Day, which the industry believes could see the closure of many local retailers. The Independent on Sunday reports that the coalition will announce plans to stop businesses displaying tobacco products, which the industry says could cost around £70 million to implement.
Finally, Villagers featuring in a new Channel 4 documentary claim to have been ‘manipulated’ in order that the show can portray them as bigots. The Sunday Express carries that story that the villagers of Grassington claim that the show is deliberately setting out to present them as racists having given the TV crew free reign for two months.