Back in March, organisers of the Mercury Prize announced a decision to shift the ‘album of the year’ awards show back two months to November, with the shortlist announced in September so that people don’t get distracted from ranting about the judges’ selections by the festival season. Now some other changes have also been announced – the ceremony’s location will be shifted from Grosvenor House to The Roundhouse and it will all be broadcast on Channel 4, rather than BBC Two.

The change of venue will allow more table space to be sold to the labels of nominated artists, but also will enable more fans to be let in as well. So that’s nice for everyone. Though having three stages to allow back-to-back live performances seems unlikely, so Channel 4 will film the event differently.

Shortlisted artists will also be invited to perform their nominated albums at a series of one-off events in October, which will also be broadcast on Channel 4.

The shortlist will be announced at The Hospital Club as usual, on 12 Sep – though this event will move to the evening and be televised for the first time too. The actual Mercury’s ceremony will be held on 1 Nov, though most of it will be televised the next night.

Mercury Prize MD Dan Ford told CMU: “It’s essential that the Barclaycard Mercury Prize proposition evolves and continues to deliver exciting and engaging experiences that appeal to music fans. By providing access to a whole season of Barclaycard Mercury Prize live events, broadcast coverage and online content, we will be able to help even more people discover and experience the amazing range of new music that comes out of the UK every year – generating more interest in the shortlisted artists and albums than ever before. It’s fantastic news that we are in a position to move forward with these plans in partnership with Barclaycard as part of their ongoing support of music in the UK”.

I think Barclaycard might be involved.

Coincidentally, Popjustice also announced yesterday that its Twenty Quid Music Prize will now be awarded on 1 Nov, with the shortlist announced on 12 Sep.

So, what’s this, not only are The Wanted insisting they have no beef with One Direction and would happily collaborate with their rivals on a charity record, now Capital FM – the pop station run by Global, which, of course, also manages The Wanted – has ended its 1D boycott. Pop music without pathetic pettiness is no fun at all.

As previously reported, Capital FM, now seemingly run by seven year olds, instituted a ban on One Direction after the ‘X-Factor’ boyband’s floppy haired lothario Harry Styles mistakenly thanked Radio 1 rather than the BBC station’s big commercial rival when picking up the BRIT Award for Best Single earlier this year. It was a bit of a faux pas given Capital was sponsoring that particular category, though one might have assumed Global Radio bosses would have taken it on the chin, laughed it off, and given Styles’ subsequent “Capital is great too” statement top billing on the company’s website.

But no, a 1D guest appearance was cancelled, the pop band’s songs were barred from the Capital playlist and, according to reports, editors of the station’s website were told not to mention the One Direction boys any more. All rather petty, and, given some in the music and radio industries have already raised concerns about Global owning both a pop management company and one of the UK’s biggest pop radio stations, possibly unwise strategically too, given One Direction’s main rivals are the Global-owned The Wanted.

Anyway, just as we noted yesterday that the 1D ban was still seemingly in place at Capital, last night at 7.45pm the group’s hit ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ was played out by the station’s James Barr. So, the ban, it would seem, is over. Until Harry pops up later today to thank Zane Lowe for playing his group’s track last night. Go on Harry, I dare you.

Xfm has been found to have breached OfCom regulations when it inadvertently broadcast the word “motherfucker” one Sunday afternoon in March when playing ‘Broke Up The Family’ by The Milk.

The Sun’s Gordon Smart, who was presenting at the time, immediately apologised after the track was broadcast, and Xfm said in its submission to OfCom that the track had been labelled a “clean radio edit” by the band’s record label, Simon Fuller’s Sony Music imprint Sign Of The Times. The station added that although all songs are checked for language by its staff before being broadcast, the person reviewing this particular song had removed their headphones before the offending word, which features at the end of the final chorus, had appeared.

In its ruling, OfCom said: “We noted that the licensee acknowledged that the broadcast on Xfm London of this example of the most offensive language on a Sunday afternoon was inappropriate and that the presenter made an on-air apology as soon as convenient. We have also taken into account all the background circumstances that led to the track being played as explained by Global Radio. Nonetheless, this was a clear example of lack of diligence in the application of compliance procedures leading to the broadcast of the most offensive language at a time when children were particularly likely to be listening, and a failure to apply generally accepted standards”.

Absolute Radio and Abbey Road Studios have formed a new partnership to stage a series of live music events under the banner ‘Abbey Road Acoustic Sessions with Absolute Radio’, which will also be aired on Absolute’s website and stations.

Absolute Radio Marketing Director Clare Baker told CMU: “Absolute Radio and Abbey Road Studios have similar brand values – there is a huge synergy between our core music credentials. This partnership will produce a series of memorable music moments”.

Kerin McDonald, Head of Brand & Marketing at Abbey Road, added: “We are delighted to be working with Absolute Radio on these unique acoustic sessions, showcasing emerging talent as well as established artists at our iconic studios”.

The first event was a performance from fun. in Abbey Road’s Studio Three to a small invited audience, a video of which will go live on absoluteradio.co.uk this weekend and will be broadcast in full on the station’s Sunday Night Music Club at 10pm on 27 May.

So, the latest set of not especially reliable RAJAR figures are out, so everyone in the British radio community will be busy celebrating or commiserating the rise and fall in their respective listening figures, most of which can probably be explained away by statistical error. Here’s ten highlights…

1. Chris Evans saw his audience grow in the last RAJAR quarter to 9.23 million weekly listeners, and while that’s not his biggest ever audience since taking over the Radio 2 breakfast show, it does put him over two million listeners ahead of Chris Moyles over at Radio 1, which is presumably what really matters.

2. Radio 2 had a good quarter overall, getting very close to breaking its own listening record with 14.56 million wekly listeners. Ken Bruce and Jeremy Vine also helped with Radio 2′s overall performance by boosting their respective audiences.

3. Overall, Radio 1 saw its ratings slip in the last quarter in terms of listening figures and audience share (11.14 million listeners and 8.2% share compared to 11.67 million and 8.5% in the previous quarter and 11.83 million and 8.7% a year earlier).

4. It was a groovy quarter for 6music which, after its Sony Awards Best Station win earlier this week, posted record listening figures for the last RAJAR quarter, up to 1.45 million. Now they just need to find a way to shut up Huey Morgan, and all will be perfectomundo.

5. Capital FM is the biggest radio station in London with 2.26 million listeners per week – and it also now has by far the biggest breakfast show in the capital, with 1.26 million listeners versus Magic’s 793,000, Heart’s 759,000 and Kiss FM’s 750,000.

6. Elsewhere in the building at Capital owner Global Radio, Choice FM saw its audience size grow to 577,000 listeners, a 36.4% rise year on year, putting it ahead of sister station Xfm, which saw its audience drop from 604,000 a year ago to 409,000 in the first quarter of 2012.

7. Although Heart FM saw its audience slip 8% year on year in London, to 1.94 million, the Heart network (which now broadcasts in various places around the UK on FM) saw its listening figures grow year on year to 7.48 million. And while Capital’s London listening is higher than sister station Heart, UK-wide it is behind at 7.04 million (though that may be explained by reach – ie how much of the country is covered on FM).

8. Absolute Radio saw its audience slip quarter on quarter but grow year on year, to 1.6 million listeners. Though when you add in the other Absolute stations available via various digital platforms, Absolute is reaching three million listeners overall.

9. Possibly because the genre it champions is still dominating the charts, Bauer Media’s Kiss is doing rather well at the moment, with 4.4 million listeners across the UK, a 7.2% increase year on year. In London it is now ahead of Heart and not far behind Magic in terms of audience reach.

10. Back at the Beeb, Radio 3 saw the biggest fall in listening figures, down 15.8% year on year and 9.3% quarter on quarter, to just over 1.9 million listeners, ironically following a schedule revamp designed to make the station appeal to a wider audience.

Day two of last week’s Great Escape convention in Brighton included a focus on the music media, and the future of both the music press and music radio, in the UK and beyond. Before she joined the debate on the future of the music press, CMU caught up with the Sunday Times’ Serena Kutchinsky, and asked her what the music media might look like in ten years time – would print titles die out in her opinion, and where is digital publishing heading?

“Currently, there’s a lot of hype about the demise of print but not that much evidence it’s actually happening”, she mused. “Print is still relatively healthy. Websites have huge reach but haven’t yet found an effective revenue generating mechanism. Digital sales currently account for less than 1% of total ABCs. So print and digital formats are likely to continue to co-exist for at least the next ten years”.

She continued: “Tablet publishing is the new great white hope and the blueprint is there for this to become the dominant platform, offering an integrated, enhanced reader experience with room for longer format articles. Plus, the ability to have all your magazines stored on one device means you’re likely to read more, which is a positive for the industry. But the price of devices such as the iPad is currently preventing them from being ubiquitous. This is one area where the evolution over the next ten years is key but I think it’s still too early to make a definitive statement”.

Focusing in particular of the music press, Kutchinsky added: “In terms of titles, I think we all suspect that the NME will be digital only. Its print circulation is down to 27,650, yet its publishers claim an audience of over one million thanks to their digital platforms. If they can pour their energy into improving their digital offering and focusing on spin-off, brand enhancements such as NME Extra and NME Radio then there might be a future for what is still a strong brand. On the flip side to that, established online-only publications such as Drowned In Sound, Pitchfork and Resident Advisor might see revenue opportunities in physical products down the line, whether they be printed annuals, compendiums of best content presented in a box set, or other limited edition formats”.

Joining Kutchinsky on the new music press panel was Dan Miller from VICE, who likewise observed that while the future will obviously be dominated by digital, print still had its place. Similarly optimistic about the future, despite the many challenges faced by the magazine publishing sector just now, Miller also reckoned that those titles which properly engage their audience will be able to find revenue streams beyond somewhat lacklustre banner advertising – whether that be branded content, an area where VICE has led, or the subscription route, the option where Kutchinsky’s employers are the pioneers.

Miller told CMU: “The landscape will almost certainly be dominated by digital, but print will definitely still survive across some multi-platform titles. The success stories will be those that identify their audience and consistently engage and challenge them – be it through branded content or exploring subscription models”.

Amazing Radio, the independent music radio station that has broadcast online and on the DAB digital radio network since 2009, has ended its DAB broadcasts because of contractual difficulties between it and the operators of the Digital One network. The specifics of those difficulties are not known, but a petition has already been launched to pressure the digital radio operator to get Amazing back onto its platform.

Although initially playing music from just unsigned acts, the Amazing station has grown over its three years on air to encompass a wide range of independently released music too, and has won a sizable fanbase for its eclectic, independent and ad-free approach.

The petition reads: “Amazing Radio plays just new music. If you got involved in the Save 6music petition then you’re probably aware of Amazing Radio which gives new artists their first play and could be said to act as a filter for 6music. The station is commercial free”.

It continues: “On 14 May 2012 the station pulled off air on DAB due to a contractual dispute with the platform provider. The station continues, as upbeat as ever, online and on apps. However, normal radios that you can just switch on in your kitchen or car are always preferable to online listening or apps with data limits. We therefore call upon the parties involved to resolve this impasse and for Amazing Radio to resume transmission on the DAB network”.

The petition is online at this web address, with more information on this Facebook page.

Sinead O’Connor has hit out at claims made in an Irish Independent article at the weekend about the circumstances surrounding the cancelation of her recent world tour and the sacking of her manager Fachtna O Ceallaigh.

O’Connor began a tour in support of her latest album, ‘How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?’, in March, but cancelled the remaining dates in April, telling fans via her website that she was “very unwell due to bipolar disorder”, having suffered “a very serious breakdown between December and March”, which, she revealed this week, had led her to attempt suicide in January. She added that she had been advised by her doctor not to tour at all but had initially forged ahead because she “didn’t want to ‘fail’ or let anyone down”.

Around the same time she also fired O Ceallaigh, and it is this which Irish Independent reporter Niamh Horan focussed on in Sunday’s article. Horan quoted a source as saying: “Fachtna received a very colourful email from Sinead. And things deteriorated after that”.

In a response published via her website, O’Connor said that this was simply not true, and that she had sent “a perfectly reasoned email for perfectly poignant reasons” that ended their professional relationship, which she said had deteriorated in recent months. This was, she said, because he and the rest of her management team had failed to support her as she struggled with severe mental distress at the same time as promoting an album and touring.

O’Connor says that her touring schedule breached agreements in her management contract for the amount of time she could be away from her children in any month. She added that the promotional schedule running concurrently with the tour was also “unreasonable in my opinion and even at times inhumane”, making it difficult to manage her illness, and that she was not consulted about most of the commitments scheduled. She also claims that some people around her had told her that delays and problems on the tour were her fault because of this.

She said: “I was shocked when I found myself expected to carry out unreasonable tasks and stay sane fit and healthy, while not being given space, time, or assistance of any kind to get medical help. I was very shocked and wounded to the core to find myself the subject of criticism and angry complaints rather than care. I was never told when I did anything right. And I was often told what a stress and trouble I am”.

Read the Irish Independent article here.

And O’Connor’s full statement here.

As celebrity phone hacking victims such as Hugh Grant, Steve Coogan and Charlotte Church all appeared in front of the government’s Leveson Inquiry into media ethics during its first chapter, it was generally expected that George Michael – always open about his dislike of the British tabloids – would follow.

But he didn’t. And when that phase of the inquiry finished, we wondered where he’d gone for a bit, and then forgot all about it. But Michael has now claimed that he was asked to go up in front of Leveson but declined.

The claim came following a lengthy rant on Twitter about the British press and the current government, beginning with an expression of disappointment that no newspapers had picked up on comments he made last week about gay teenagers in the US being taken to bootcamps in order to be ‘cured’ of their homosexuality. His attention quickly turned to The Daily Mail, which he accused of being “every bit as guilty of hacking and lying as Murdoch’s unch”, before moving onto recent events in the Leveson Inquiry.

He continued: “[Murdoch] has been called ‘unfit’ to run a major media company by MPs. Understatement of the year? And it’s so funny that the Conservatives in government are defending him! Trying to cover their arses when those lily white buttocks of theirs are already on display for the whole world to see. Cameron must be the most cowardly PM we’ve seen for decades”.

Finally, he said: “I was asked to talk to the Leveson inquiry, but I declined. It’s all bullshit. It has been several years since two hacking journalists were sent to prison for bugging the royal family … Shame on our political system for its refusal to take this further. The day they make this sham real and start genuinely prosecuting people, I would more than happy to help. Until then, what’s the point?”

But a spokesman for the inquiry subsequently told The Guardian: “The inquiry has never asked George Michael to appear”.

This morning Michael took to Twitter again to respond to this claim, and to dish a bit more dirt. He wrote: “So apparently I’m lying about being approached by the Leveson Inquiry. A ‘spokesman’ says that I was never asked to participate. By which I suppose they mean they didn’t actually have my phone number, so they spoke to my legal team. Funnily enough, had they wanted my phone number they could probably have got it from News International”

He continued: “Truth is, though I didn’t want to participate, I sent the inquiry a letter from the poor man who was blackmailed (literally) into giving News International a completely fictional account of meeting me on Hampstead Heath. Poor bastard… he wrote a letter to me to apologise for the story, which made the front page of the News Of The World several years ago”.

Michael went on to say that the man in question explained how two journalists had told him that they had photographs of him having sex with a celebrity on the Heath and that they would publish them unless he told his side of the story. Unaware of who the celebrity was supposed to be, he said (according to Michael) that he was bullied into handing over a statement confirming that he’d had an encounter with a man there, but was only told the story would claim the other man was George Michael once he had handed over his statement. Upon being told this, he apparently replied: “But that’s impossible because the man I met was about six foot four and had a Dutch accent”.

Michael concluded: “I thought that the letter, written by a man whose only crime was to be chosen as someone perfect to humiliate me, was a perfect example of just how horrific the methods of News International had become, and that the inquiry may be more sympathetic to a member of the public than just another celeb complaining about their lot. So I sent it to them. I was going to save it for the memoirs, but fuck it”.

He concluded: “Oh, and I forgot to mention that I’m five foot eleven, and can’t do a Dutch accent to save my life”.

The Musicians Union has hit out at BBC Scotland’s decision to axe a specialist music show called ‘Global Gathering’. Presented by Mary Ann Kennedy, the MU says the radio programme “has played a fundamental and unique role in the musical life of Scotland for over a decade, bringing together the various strands of Scotland’s musical identity, from indigenous roots to newest innovation, far flung diaspora to welcomed refugee, community movement to the biggest concert stages”.

In an open letter signed by a plethora of musicians, music people and MSPs, supporters of the show say: “Mary Ann Kennedy and producer Sean Purser have been at the forefront of the movement to position Scotland’s contemporary music on a global stage – from KT Tunstall’s earliest radio sessions to the legacy of the programme’s spiritual inspiration, Martyn Bennett; revelling in the successes of Karine Polwart, Lau, Salsa Celtica, thePeatbog Faeries and many others to breaking ambitious new acts such as The Treacherous Orchestra, India Alba and Man’s Ruin”.

They continued: “[Kennedy and Purser] also connect to the grassroots of Scotland’s many communities – from the Balkan diaspora to the country’s long-established Asian community and all points round the globe – a vital human connection promoting understanding through music. Without Mary Ann Kennedy’s ‘Global Gathering’, BBC Radio Scotland will have no music programme which adequately reflects the cultural diversity of contemporary Scotland, no female presenters presenting any of their specialist music strands and no specialist traditional music producers in their Glasgow headquarters”.

Anger has been brewing in the Scottish music community since the BBC first announced its intent to axe the ‘Global Gathering’ show back in February. There was originally talk of the programme ending last month, but it’s still in the schedules at the moment, so presumably the MU hopes that with a bit of pressure from both the musical and political communities, the show can still be rescued.

Sky 1 boss Stuart Murphy has been promoted to the job of Director for all of BSkyB’s entertainment channels, which means he will also oversee Sky Atlantic, Sky Living and Sky Arts, the latter an increasingly important provider of music and culture programming. The existing directors of the other three channels will now report into Murphy.

Confirming the rejig, Sky’s MD Of Entertainment, News & Broadcast, Sophie Turner Laing, told reporters: “Over the past three years, under Stuart’s leadership, we have seen Sky 1 become a true destination channel, offering our customers some of the finest drama, comedy and entertainment programmes on television at the moment. I have no doubt that in his new role, he’ll bring the same vision and drive to the rest of the portfolio, working with the team to look at the next steps for the rest of our – already first class – entertainment channels”.

Deezer yesterday announced a strategic partnership with Artrocker which will see it provide free streaming audio via the music magazine’s website.

The streaming music service will sponsor the reviews section of Artrocker online, making streams of featured albums available for free through the browser. A ‘jukebox radio’ service featuring tracks selected by Artrocker journalists will also be available via both the Artrocker site and within the Deezer platform.

Deezer’s announcement of the partnership notes that where its player is embedded on the Artrocker site, music will play through the browser without the user having to install any software, “unlike certain other streaming services”, a reference, of course, to Spotify’s recently launched Play Button widget, which let’s media embed playlists, but which then opens up the Spotify player to actually stream the content (forcing an install for those not already using the streaming service). That said, a sign-up is required on the Deezer/Artrocker service if users want to listen to any more than a 30 second preview of any one track.

Confirming the partnership with Deezer, Artrocker’s Commercial Director Chris Hornby told CMU: “We are excited about working with Deezer as they not only provide us the perfect platform to broadcast our reviews sections, which we are very proud of, but the partnership also allows us to extend our brand to a larger and more diverse audience. The launch of Artrocker Jukebox Radio is something we have always wanted to do since starting Artrocker, so we are over the moon that people will be able to visit www.artrocker.tv and listen to the non-stop brilliant cutting edge music we so passionately champion”.

Meanwhile Deezer UK’s Mark Foster said: “We are thrilled to be entering into this partnership with Artrocker. Always at the forefront of new music, Artrocker is the go-to destination for discovering the best music and as such this partnership marks an exciting new chapter in Deezer’s commitment to helping users discover new artists, and songs they will come to love”.

OfCom has found Jazz FM to have been in breach of broadcast rules when it accidentally played five minutes of hardcore pornography – or “clearly audible sounds of sexual activity”, as the regulator put it – over the air.

As previously reported, the incident happened during an edition of ‘Funky Sensation with Mike Vitti’ at 7.15pm on 18 Feb. Jazz FM initially said it had been due to an “unauthorised access to the live feed”, which was vague enough to make it sound like someone might have hacked into the station’s system and piped the sex noise in maliciously. Although later Vitti said that “there was unauthorised activity and behaviour in the studio”.

In it’s response to OfCom, Jazz FM explained that a member of studio staff, who has since left the company, had opened a personal email during the broadcast which contained a link to pornographic content. When they clicked on the link they had accidentally left the fader on the sound desk up, which was how the audio from the video they were watching came to be made available for all listeners to hear.

Unfortunately, it was then not possible for an on air apology to be issued, said Jazz FM, because the show had been pre-recorded. Therefore, it had to wait until the following week’s edition.

OfCom found that while the station had not broken rules regarding the content of broadcasts to which children may be listening, due to the target audience of the show and the time at which it was broadcast, Jazz FM did however breach rules which state that “broadcasters must ensure that material which may cause offence is justified by the context”.

The regulator noted that due to “repeated instances of the most offensive language in the context of the clearly audible sounds of sexual activity” this porny section of the show was “likely to have gone beyond the expectations of the audience for a DJ-led weekend, early evening programme of this type”.

It was also concerned that, although an apology had been issued on the Jazz FM website and via social networks within 40 minutes, it did not have appropriate systems in place to offer an on air apology in a more timely fashion.

But cheer up, Jazz FM. At least you’re not on TV. Imagine if you were broadcasting the news at, say, 9.30am and suddenly the programme was accidentally replaced by three minutes of hardcore porn. Imagine! That would be much worse. So spare a thought for Canadian channel CHCH, which did just that last Friday.

In the case of CHCH, the problem was due to something which occurred off site. Head Of News at CHCH, Mike Katrycz explained in an on-air apology: “This was a problem that originated, not at CHCH, but at a cable company. Apparently some cable lines had been cut, and in the splicing back together some inappropriate content went to air. Again it was beyond the control of CHCH, but we do apologise to our viewers”.

That’s right, someone accidentally fired a load of porn down the news pipe. Who knew that could even happen? Seemingly the cable company in question, Shaw Cable, isn’t sure either, as CHCH has stated that it is still waiting for an answer.

See CHCH’s full statement, along with the video of Katrycz’s apology, here. And for old time’s sake, have a listen to Jazz FM’s porn broadcast here, courtesy of Radio Fail.

Audioboo last week confirmed an official partnership with the BBC. Some of the Beeb’s radio programmes have already been using the audio-clips sharing service to pump out snippets of their output, but the tie-up is now official. Audioboo already has similar partnerships with GMG Radio and Absolute Radio.

Confirming the stepping up of his company’s relationship with the BBC, Audioboo CEO Mark Rock told reporters: “Music has been done, text has been done, but no one has yet captured the uniqueness of the spoken word on the internet. We’ve had some fantastic content uploaded by the BBC since AudioBoo’s initial launch. It’s great now to formalise this relationship in an official partnership and work closely with the broadcaster to enhance its presence on both AudioBoo and all the social platforms we distribute to”.

Gary Barlow will return on the next series of ‘The X-Factor’, assuming his concert for the Queen’s Jubilee doesn’t go horribly wrong and land him in the Tower.

Barlow is the first member of the ‘X’ cast to be confirmed for 2012. Some changes to the line-up of judges is expected after the talent show’s ratings wobbled a little last year, though whether that will mean a full return to the show for Simon Cowell remains to be seen. Obviously his commitments to ‘X-Factor USA’ forced a reduction of his involvement in the UK version last year.

Confirming the Take That man would return to ‘X UK’, Cowell told reporters: “It’s great to be able to confirm our first judge for this year’s show. Gary has earned his place and I’m excited to be working with him again”.

Kerrang! is teaming up with the Official Charts Company to launch it’s very own rock chart taking in sales data, and TV and radio airplay. The chart will then be aired on the Kerrang! TV and radio stations, and published in the magazine and on the website. So, very multimedia.

Says Dave Young, Director Of Programming at Kerrang! TV: “The Official Kerrang! Rock Chart cements Kerrang!’s position as the UK’s bible for rock music, at last giving both rock fanatics and the music industry a long-missing essential barometer of what’s hot on the scene”.

He continued: “The new chart is another perfect example of how Kerrang! consistently works as multiplatform media brand, sharing and amplifying creative ideas and then relaying them to millions of passionate followers accessing those ideas ‘anytime-anyplace’. In that spirit we look forward to marching onto the Kerrang! Awards – it’s going to be a noisy summer!”

The Guardian has shut its Manchester-based local TV station Channel M, part of the media firm’s former bid to develop very locally focused television programming.

Channel M was initially linked to the Guardian Media Group’s other Manchester-based media, such as the Manchester Evening News and City Life, but after the newspaper group sold its regional newspapers the TV service was more closely linked to the GMG Radio division. The operation has been scaled back significantly in recent years, so that only three people will lose their jobs as part of the closure.

Confirming the demise of Channel M, GMG Radio CEO Stuart Taylor told reporters yesterday: “We’ve been in a holding pattern with Channel M for two years awaiting the outcome of the government’s future plans for local TV. Sadly, we don’t feel they provide us with the framework needed to grow Channel M into a profitable business that delivers the quality service viewers and advertisers expect from GMG. I want to thank Channel M Controller John Furlong and his team for all they have done through this difficult period”.

Two and a half years after taking up position in charge of NME, Krissi Murison has announced that she is leaving in order to become Features Editor of The Sunday Times Magazine. A replacement will be announced at the music weekly “in due course”, said IPC Media.

Murison originally joined the NME team in 2003 in a work experience position, working her way up to Deputy Editor, before leaving in February 2009 to become Music Editor of Nylon magazine in New York. Though she returned later the same year to take over the position of NME Editor from Conor McNicholas, who had been in the role for six years.

Once at the reigns, Murison reworked the magazine to offer more in depth articles and features with a cleaner design, which proved popular with many in the music industry. She also shifted the apparent target demographic from the younger audience the magazine had courted under McNicholas to a more mature one. However, the redesign failed to reignite the publication’s circulation, which had fallen rapidly under McNicholas and continued to drop significantly despite Murison’s improvements.

Announcing her departure, Murison said that her time with NME had been “exhilarating, inspiring and completely unforgettable”.

Meanwhile NME Publishing Director Emily Hutchings added: “Everyone at NME is obviously sad to see a talent like Krissi go but due to her great achievements while working as editor she leaves NME in great health and the brand is stronger than ever”.

ITV is moving ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ into a slightly later time slot so that it no longer clashes with ‘The Voice’ on BBC1.

As previously reported, the two rival talent shows have been clashing for 20 minutes since they launched last month. At one point it looked as if the crossover could be up to 40 minutes, but TV bosses agreed to alter their time slots slightly to avoid too big a crossover. Now the clash will be reduced to zero, as ITV pushes its talent franchise into a later slot in the schedules.

Although ‘BGT’ has outperformed ‘The Voice’ overall some weeks, in the 20 minute crossover period the BBC show has always faired better, and last weekend that resulted in the bought-in singing contest out performing ITV’s dancing dog show in totality.

According to The Guardian, ITV will later this month move ‘BGT’ back to 8.30pm to avoid any clash. But this isn’t because of ratings concerns, you should all know, but because ITV is concerned about the quandaries its viewers are having during the clash spot each week.

Said an ITV spokesman: “Viewing figures for ‘BGT’ are up year on year. By moving to 8.30pm we are ensuring that as many people as possible have the opportunity to watch the show in full”.

Who wants to watch Geri Halliwell doing stuff? Anyone? Well, she’s been given a show on Sky Living that will follow her around as she does stuff. So if you want to see her doing stuff, then that’ll be right up your street.

A source told The Sun: “Geri is keen to do some TV as she’s seen the other girls doing bits and bobs. Sky Living reckon she fits their female-skewed brand. Geri is really excited about the project, which is at the very early stages”.