Adam Buxton’s regular celebration of the music video, Bug, which has its home at BFI Southbank in London but has appeared at various other venues too, is to be adapted into a TV series for Sky Atlantic.

The eight part series will be a celebration of “innovative and groundbreaking videos”, with each episode featuring the production of an original music video, guests from the world of music videos and Buxton’s reliably amusing summaries of the YouTube comments some top pop promos have garnered in recent years.

Says Buxton of Bug in general, and the upcoming TV version: “I tell people that Bug is like going round to a friend’s house and having them open up their laptop and show you interesting and amusing things they’ve found or made, except not as tedious and shit as that sounds”.

PR reps for one time N-Dubber Tulisa Contostavlos have told Press Gazette they are suing media blog Fleet Street Blues over allegations they lied after the singer and ‘X-Factor’ judge’s infamous sex tape appeared online earlier this month.

As previously reported, shortly after the sex tape emerged on the net – and was swiftly taken offline by a cease and desist from Contostavlos’s lawyers – it was widely reported in the tabs and online that a representative for the singer had denied it was the star in the tape. The quote said the recording was “100% fake”, adding that Team Tulisa were “horrified that someone would go to the extreme lengths of fabricating a video … it is absolutely not her”.

Though, as also previously reported, that statement, generally credited to the singer’s lawyers, actually originated from last summer, when reports first started to circulate that someone was shopping a Tulisa sex video to porn firms in London. Once the actual sex tape went online earlier this month her lawyers went quiet on the matter, while her PR reps issued a clear “no comment”. Contostavlos, of course, subsequently took to YouTube to confirm it was her in the video, and that she was mortified that her ex-boyfriend Ultra had decided to make the recording available online.

It seems Fleet Street Blues may have said that that old denial from the singer’s lawyer was in fact a new denial from her PR reps, Hackford Jones, meaning that when Contostavlos subsequently fessed up, it looked like the publicists had been lying through their teeth. And, according to the Gazette, the firm’s Simon Jones is not impressed with having been accused of lying, and is now taking legal action against the blog, despite the offending post being removed.

Says Jones: “[There were] some pretty outlandish claims on the blog. At the end of the day, we all work in the media and mistakes are always made, but the point is I’m happy to hold up my hands if I’ve made a mistake, but I’m not happy to be accused of something I haven’t done. People [have] mistakenly attributed a quote to me with regard to the sex tape that wasn’t issued. The sex tape came out on the Sunday online, and from the moment it came online all we did was issue no comment”.

He continued: “Once that video came to light, we’re hardly going to be issuing denials that it was her, it’s clearly her on the sex tape. [But that's what this site said we did, and] everyone in the industry knows that I look after Tulisa, and it’s an industry blog. The thing I take most affront to is we feel our reputation is on not lying to the media at all and we stand very strongly against lying to the media… so to be pulled out as a poster boy for PRs who lie, it really galled me”.

The people behind the Fleet Street Blues blog are yet to comment, though the whole website seems to have gone offline since the PR firm’s legal action began. Meanwhile, Hackford Jones has also confirmed that Sky News is facing legal action over its claims Contostavlos lied to the court when her people applied for an injunction to stop any distribution of the sex tape. It’s thought those allegations were based on the assumption the injunction was being sought on libel grounds (ie by claiming it wasn’t her in the tape) rather than privacy grounds (because it was).

Jones concludes: “There’s been so much misreporting around this case, which is funny in a way because in this age of Leveson when you think that everyone should be fact checking, even today people are still running stories based on hearsay. You do get to the point where you think, ‘I’m sorry I have to set the record straight’”.

No word yet on whether Contostavlos’s other ex-boyfriend, fellow N-Dubber Fazer, plans to sue for libel third N-Dubz member Dappy, who claimed via Twitter that he recognised the penis that starred in the sex tape, and that it definitely belonged to his former bandmate, who, the Dapster reckoned, had uploaded the sex video in revenge for his and Tulisa’s messy break up. I’ve not seen the tape, or Ultra’s genitals, but perhaps Fazer was happy for the world to believe the cock on camera belonged to him for 48 hours. Even if that meant they thought he was also the cock who uploaded the recording.

Absolute Radio has announced it has recruited Johnny Vaughan, who, of course, departed the Capital Radio breakfast show somewhat suddenly late last year, after bosses there decided it was time for a new voice in prime time.

Vaughan’s initial job for the national station will be to front a series of programmes during the Olympics talking to all sorts of celebs about London’s fortnight of sporty nonsense. Absolute, of course, is one of the broadcast partners for the entertainments due to take place in London’s parks during the Games.

Confirming Vaughan was on board, Absolute’s COO Clive Dickens told reporters: “Johnny is at the top of his game, and is without a doubt one of the best talents in radio. We are very excited about hearing him back on air, as I am sure will his many fans. He will further strengthen our stellar ‘Faces For Radio’ line-up”.

While Vaughan himself added: “For two weeks this summer we’re celebrating the two greatest things Great Britain has given the world – sport and music. I’m really looking forward to celebrating both”.

US trade mag Billboard has appointed a new Editor for its weekly magazine, who will report to Editorail Director Bill Werde. Interestingly – given recent rumours Billboard has been looking into making its newsstand title more consumer friendly as industry subscriptions slide – the new editor, Joe Levy, has a background very much in the consumer press, having held senior editorial posts at Maxim and Blender, and contributed to Rolling Stone, Village Voice and Spin.

Confirming the new appointment, Werde told reporters: “I couldn’t be more excited to bring Joe Levy to Billboard. Joe is one of the best editors working today when it comes to music and broader entertainment. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture, a brilliant mind for incisive commentary and a deft hand with a story. As we work to ensure Billboard offers the best coverage across all of our platforms, this is a giant step for the magazine”.

It’s always absolute Odd Future mania here at CMU HQ, but this week has been made especially maniacal by the virtue of some UK dates coinciding with the premiere of OF’s new ‘reality’ TV show ‘Loiter Squad’. Hurrah.

Produced by ‘Jackass’ creators Dickhouse Entertainment (yes, really), the show comprises a mix of skits, sketches, pranks (plus the occasional live performance), and is available for UK viewers to screen via its American broadcasters Adult Swim.

So if you fancy watching a be-wigged Tyler, The Creator and friends hitting each other with bin lids, and other such stunts, look below to find the first of what may be many ‘Loiter Squad’ episodes.

As previously reported, Odd Future’s UK tour starts today in Birmingham, continuing on to London’s Brixton Academy tomorrow. Speaking of London, as of today the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane will be flogging OFGWKTA merchandise at a short-term pop-up shop, this exclusive sample sale ending on 2 Apr.

Radio 2 has recruited dangerous Dave Pearce, so that fans of mediocre dance music radio no longer have to pine for the one time Radio 1 DJ’s unique style of clubbing radio entertainment, last heard on 6music this time last year.

Says Radio 2 of its new ‘Dave Pearce: Dance Years’ show, set to air on Saturday nights at 10pm from 14 Apr: “Alongside the latest tracks currently on the UK’s dance floors, Dave will play new dance mixes, club classics from the noughties and 90s, and he will also uncover some lesser-known hidden gems from the 70s and 80s. Plus in a disco-tastic flashback, he’ll provide a slow jam track to stir up those last dance memories”. Fun times.

Simon Cowell’s ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ won in the ratings war against the BBC’s new expensively bought in talent show flim flam ‘The Voice’ on Saturday night, assuming you trust the TV ratings, which are only slightly more reliable than the radio industry’s RAJAR figures.

But according to the official stats, the first edition of ‘BGT’ for 2012, which sees Cowell himself return as a judge, was seen by 9.3 million viewers during its eighty minute time slot, while ‘The Voice’ pulled in 8.4 million viewers.

Though when the two shows went directly head to head for twenty minutes, ‘The Voice’ had more viewers than ‘BGT’, presumably because the BBC show aired first and was reaching its peak while the ITV programme was going through the customary introductory palaver.

As previously reported, when the schedules for this weekend’s TV output were being put together it looked like ‘The Voice’ and ‘BGT’ could overlap by up to 45 minutes, but in the end the Beeb went a bit earlier than planned and ITV a bit later, thus reducing the actual crossover.

Both sides will probably be pleased with the first night performance of their Springtime talent contests, though whether that will stop the sniping between reps of the two rival programmes remains to be seen.

Cowell has thrown a few shots over at ‘The Voice’ camp in recent weeks, in the main questioning whether it’s right for the BBC to spend over £20 million buying in an existing international TV format to take on his shows over on ITV.

Meanwhile, ‘The Voice’ judge Will.i.am, who previously appeared on the ‘X-Factor’ and now manages one time ‘X’ queen Cheryl Cole, this weekend dissed Cowell’s record for supporting the acts that come through his telly talent show ventures, in particular criticising Team Syco for their work on the career of 2010 ‘X’ finalist Cher Lloyd, who the Black Eyed Pea reckons should have had much more success since exiting the ITV show and signing to Cowell’s label.

Perhaps she’d have got more out of the experience if she’d entered the competition with management in place, who could have coordinated things before, during and after her appearance on the ITV show.

Of course that’s not previously been allowed under ‘X-Factor’ rules, partly to ensure an amateurs-only ethos, partly because acts with professional representation might be at an advantage when it comes hype building ahead of big viewer votes, and partly because the ‘X’ show’s business partners want first dibs on any management contracts worth having amongst the contest’s finalists.

But producers have revealed that from this year acts with managers already in place will be able to compete, which in theory could mean more established artists whose careers have waned, or which never really took off in the way they hoped, could appear. Which would certainly add to the freak show style curiosity shop element of the programme, especially during the earlier heats.

An band called Underline The Sky have filed a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority against previously reported new bands competition Live And Unsigned, claiming that they were one of the winners of the competition in 2010 but are yet to receive all the prizes that adverts for the contest promised would come with victory.

The band say that they were promised two festival sets as part of their prize, including an all-expenses paid trip to perform at a festival in India, plus an amplifier worth £1500, but have so far received nothing. By taking their complaint to the ASA, the band presumably reckon they were misled by the competition’s advertising materials in breach of the Authority’s code of conduct, though the powers of the advertising industry regulator are somewhat limited in a case like this.

Organisers of the five year old new bands competition, which this year is being filmed for a Sky TV programme, say that all the acts who took part in their 2010 edition were notified about the withdrawal of the amp prize before competing, and that the two festival sets promised fell through because the events themselves were cancelled. Live And Unsigned’s Chris Grayston added that alternative prizes of greater value had been offered, but either declined or ignored.

Responding to Underline The Sky’s ASA complaint, the BBC found some other bands also disgruntled with what they had received after winning elements of past Live And Unsigned competitions, though more past participants and winners seemed pleased with their experiences and winnings when questioned by the Beeb’s reporter, including another artist whose prize had had to change post victory.

Among the critics were 2009 indie genre winners The Loaded Dice who said that the promise of a 20 grand investment was tied to a management contract the band didn’t feel they could sign, while The Trinity Band from Derby, overall winners of the contest in 2011, were also disappointed, saying a trip to play a festival in Canada was “a shambles”, and other UK dates organised by Live And Unsigned promoter Future Music fell though.

They told the BBC: “How are we out of pocket when we have just supposedly won a £50,000 investment? After winning the so called ‘largest unsigned competition in the country’ we believed there would be a machine or system in place, interviews set up, or a team working on this for us. There wasn’t”. But Future Music countered that it had, in fact, invested in the 2011 winners, but that they lacked the “organisation and drive to be a very successful band”.

Whether the ASA will rule that past advertising by Live And Unsigned actually breached its code remains to be seen, though – as with any hyped unsigned bands competition – the issue here might be more about managing expectations than delivering on a list of prizes. One of those who spoke positively about Future Music’s competition to the Beeb stressed that participating was a good experience providing wannabe bands were realistic about what can be achieved in the battle of the bands arena.

Thom Rylance from Manchester band The Lottery Winners: “If I’m asked, which I often am, if I would recommend a band to enter Live And Unsigned I’d say: ‘Of course you should, but don’t expect to just become famous overnight, even if you win it, because it just doesn’t work that way’”.

There has been lots going on in radio land of late, so here’s a very quick update.

First up Fatboy Slim is joining Xfm to present ten programmes, a series of hour-long mixes under the name ‘On The Road To Big Beach Bootique 5′. It will go out on the station each Saturday at 6pm up to the weekend of the Big Beach Bootique event, which will take place at Brighton’s Amex Stadium on 2 Jun.

Says Xfm Programme Director Andy Ashton: “Norman’s position in Xfm’s history is unquestionable, with so many amazing records and mixes over the years supported by our network. I’m extremely excited to announce this new show as part of our 20 year celebrations and I cannot wait to see the impact Norman will have on Xfm’s weekend offering for the spring and early summer season”.

Second, Donny Osmond is joining Smooth Radio to host a new Sunday night ‘lifestyle show’, which I think is a new UK version of his existing American radio programmed, which is recorded in Las Vegas. Says Smooth Radio’s Brand Programme Director Steve Collins: “It is great to be able to bring an artist such as Donny to Smooth Radio. Our listeners have grown up with his music and have followed his life story so we are delighted that he will be joining our line-up each Sunday evening”.

Staying with Smooth Radio, it also announced this week that two of its daytime shows will be swapping over. David Jenson will takeover drive time from 4pm to 8pm, while Carlos will move to Jenson’s current early afternoon slot, from 1pm to 4pm.

Third, Capital FM is making a bunch of changes to its networked programmes from next week, which air on the Capital branded stations all around the country. Daytime presenter Roberto is bowing out, as is overnights and weekend DJ Luke Smith.

That means evenings guy Rich Clarke gets Roberto’s mornings slot, late night presenter James Barr moves to early evenings, and another current overnighter, Will Cozens, gets the late show. Did you follow all that? Weekend DJ Emily Segal and Choice FM’s Pandora will then share the overnight shifts between them.

Meanwhile in the East Midlands, presenters of the two local Capital FM shows in that region are swapping slots, so that Twiggy and Emma will get drive time and Dino and Pete breakfast. Capital FM East Midlands’ Programme Director Dick Stone told Radio Today: “We are looking forward to Dino and Pete bringing their dynamic mix of chat, fun and music to the breakfast show after Easter and delighted to introduce Twiggy and Emma to drivetime. We are convinced the shows will be the perfect way to both wake up to at breakfast and drive home with in the afternoon”.

Finally in radio news for now, Capital owner Global Radio also announced it had bought Cornwall-based station Atlantic FM this week, and that it will duly relaunch the station as a new outpost of the Heart Radio network. That announcement led to the boss of UKRD, which operates another station in the county, bemoaning the continued loss of truly local radio services in the UK, and to gloat that his Pirate FM station was now the only properly local commercial radio service in the region.

William Rogers told Radio Today: “The sell out by Atlantic’s owners to London based Global will inevitably mean job losses and programming coming from outside the county. So much for Atlantic’s owners’ commitment to Cornwall as made in their application document to OfCom. We will continue to serve the county, be based in the county, employ local people and work with local businesses. We have no intention of dumping our involvement with Cornwall like the owners of Atlantic have sadly done”.

US children’s TV network Nickelodeon has confirmed previously reported rumours that it is working on a new project with One Direction. Exactly what form their TV show will take isn’t clear, but the company said via Twitter last week: “The rumours are true, our live-action slate does include a development project for One Direction. Welcome to the family!”

The news has proved unpopular with many of 1D’s UK fans, who believe variously that the band should be making a show back home, or that Americans won’t ‘get’ them, or are just annoyed that this hitherto credible underground music group will suddenly have loads more casual teen fans damaging that all important credibility.

Charlotte Church may no longer be pursuing her legal action against News International regards past phone hacking, but she is set to go to court in a libel dispute with the Mirror Group over an article that appeared in The People newspaper. Though, actually, this one will probably now be settled out of court too.

The Sunday tabloid claimed last November that the singer had proposed to her boyfriend while somewhat the worse for wear in a karaoke bar in Cardiff. So pissed was Church, in fact, according to the article, that she had to be “physically helped out of the pub”. The tab then quoted an eye witness as saying “we helped her to the taxi afterwards”. But the singer and her partner were, in fact, miles away from the Cardiff bar that night, with Church performing at a concert.

The Mirror Group conceded the story was made up nonsense, but asked that Church’s libel claim be dismissed on the basis that being pissed and/or proposing in public – or both – were not sufficiently embarrassing things to be accused of for there to be a case for defamation.

But Church’s lawyer did not agree. According to The Guardian, David Sherborne told the court: “The effect and impact on the claimant [of this story] is not trivial. She is a 26 year old mother of two children and a professional singer. This was not a positive story about Charlotte Church … the message that is clearly conveyed to the reader, and the meaning that he or she could take, [was] that in proposing to her boyfriend [Church] made … a very public and embarrassing spectacle of herself”.

Judge Michael Tugendhat agreed with Team Church that there was a sufficiently strong case here for the singer’s libel action to proceed to court. The judge said that The People’s report was “capable of bearing the meaning attributed to it [by the claimants] and that is capable of being defamatory”.

MTV has used SxSW to confirm a new alliance with direct-to-fan firm Topspin which will result in the music telly network launching a new online network (in the US initially) called Artists.MTV, which will enable artists to sell stuff direct to the broadcaster’s online audience utilising Topspin’s technology and fulfilment services.

Confirming the new Topspin partnership, MTV’s Van Toffler told a South By launch event, according to Hypebot: “We are creating the artist platform in part to give back to the artists on whom we built our business”. The new site is due to go live in June.

While Topspin chief Ian Rogers told Billboard: “It is great for us. But I think it is generally great for artists. MTV has a fire hose, but they can’t use if for every artist, obviously. But it does actually scale because first of all they’ve got great SEO. That does scale for every artist on the platform. And they use mostly unsigned bands for [song placements] their shows. They’re completing the loop now from driving traffic from those shows to the web”.

Topspin is already involved in an initiative to let artists sell merch via their YouTube channels, and such partnerships presumably help the company compete against others in the direct-to-fan space, because as part of its package it can offer access to sizable mainstream audiences via web partners.

The launch editions of the BBC’s ‘The Voice’ and the new season of ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ on ITV1 will clash later this month, but only for 20 minutes.

As previously reported, it was revealed late last week that the first episodes of the rival broadcasters’ big talent shows would launch in a head-to-head battle on 24 Mar, even though in the second screening age people increasingly want to watch these programmes live so they can bitch about them on Twitter and Facebook.

BBC insiders accused ITV of bringing the launch of ‘BGT’ forward to compete with their expensive new talent show acquisition, while bosses at the commercial broadcaster criticised Beeb execs for staging such a blatant ratings war by scheduling their new talent show into ITV’s customary talent show spot.

As the final schedules for 24 Mar were being firmed up earlier this week, the BBC brought the start time for ‘The Voice’ forward quarter of an hour, so the overlap would be 35 instead of 50 minutes. ITV responded by likewise bringing ‘BGT’ forward fifteen minutes, though late yesterday saw sense and pushed its programme back fifteen minutes from its original time instead. All of which means there will only be a 20 minute clash.

But for those 20 minutes what will you be watching? Will.i.am saying “Yeah, yeah, like, yeah, like, yeah” to a baffled Tom Jones, or Alesha Dixon demanding of Simon Cowell and David Walliams “but when’s this kid going to start dancing?” Personally I’ll be shunning both shows and sitting back, as I so often do, to not watch ‘The Big Lebowski’ on DVD. Which is an in-joke that only one CMU reader will get, so let’s hope he sufficiently appreciates it for the rest of you.

With One Direction’s debut album currently at the top of the iTunes chart in the US (actually it’s at number one and two if you count the standard and deluxe versions of the record separately), and with the boy band (well, their fans really) causing chaos in central New York as they performed on ‘The Today Show’ earlier this week, rumour has it talks are underway to give the ‘X-Factor’ creation their own TV show Stateside.

The 1D boys have been touring in the US with a pop outfit called Big Time Rush, who were created S Club-style for a Nickelodeon show, and it’s seemingly telly execs linked to that programme who are talking up the potential of an American TV format being built around the British boyband.

The Daily Star cites an American TV industry source as saying: “We’ll be having meetings with One Direction when they come back for the [upcoming Nickelodeon] awards. A series is definitely being talked about”. So that’s something to look forward to isn’t it? No, it isn’t.

Still, kudos to the British boybands (1D and The Wanted) for all their American successes. Though let’s not forget, if you want the British artist who is really big business Stateside, and who is generating the serious cash through both recording and live work, then you should be talking to the super singing lady who is rolling in the deep money; you know, someone like you, who can set fire to the rain. I’m talking, of course, about… Sade. Yep, Sade was the most successful British singer in the US last year. Not Adele.

Of course Adele having to pull out of so many live dates due to her poorly throat probably helped Ms Adu claim that crown, but why not read this Guardian article on just how big Sade is in the US just now?

Ahead of this weekend’s tenth anniversary celebrations, BBC 6music announced some new shows last week with a revamp of its Saturday schedule. The station will provide a new home for Gilles Peterson following his dropping from Radio 1′s output, and in a slot much more friendly than his long running show on the nation’s favourite, airing from 3-6pm each Saturday.

Elsewhere Liz Kershaw will lose an hour of her early afternoon slot, ‘The Craig Charles Funk And Soul Show’ will run an hour earlier, Tom Robinson will get a new Saturday night programme, and Jon Holmes will take over what optimists like myself continue to call the Adam & Joe slot, from 10am-1pm.

In other 6music changes, Stuart Maconie’s ‘Freakzone’ will move to an 8pm Sunday evening slot, while it’s been confirmed that the station’s early breakfast show, fronted by Chris Hawkins, will be relocated to the BBC’s new Northern HQ in Salford.

The BBC’s latest attempt at a talent show to take on the ITV/Syco Machine – the much previously reported bought in ‘The Voice’ – is set to premiere on the same night as the latest run of Simon Cowell’s ‘Britain’s Got Talent’, with a 45 minute overlap between the two shows.

And while you might think that in the Sky Plus/iPlayer age such scheduling clashes shouldn’t matter anymore, remember this is also the ‘second screening age’, and shows like this are increasingly capitalising on an audience who have only a lukewarm interest in the actual show, but a big interest in bitching about it on Facebook or Twitter – making first airings important again.

The Beeb claims that it finalised the launch date for its new show first, and ITV then deliberately brought this year’s ‘BGT’ monstrosity forward to compete, though the commercial broadcaster says its talent franchise is having to run a month earlier this year because Euro 2012 and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee will steal some Saturday nights from the series in the early summer. And ITV, for its part, reckons the BBC is at fault here, deliberately scheduling its expensive talent show acquisition to compete with ITV’s big earner.

There is still some room for manoeuvre because the schedules for the weekend of 24 Mar will be properly confirmed early this week, though unless one side or the other is willing to postpone launch or move to a Sunday slot – and that seems very unlikely – the two big talent shows of the spring are likely to go head to head. Which means if you, like me, intend to watch neither, probably best to steer clear of the social networks that night.

Producers of the US version of ‘The X-Factor’ are reportedly revamping the line up for the franchise’s second series Stateside, after it achieved only moderate successes on its first outing. Judges Nicole Scherzinger and Paula Abdul, and host Steve Jones, are all out (which presumably means Jones can return to speaking in his proper accent), meaning three new celebs are required for series two.

Rumour has it that producers were talking to Whitney Houston about a judging role before her sudden death last month, and that Janet Jackson – another possible – expressed interest but couldn’t do it because of existing clashing commitments. So now the favourite to join incumbents Simon Cowell and LA Reid behind the judging desk is one Britney Spears. A source told The Hollywood Reporter that Spears’ agent (and fiancé as of last December) Jason Trawick is currently locked in negotiations, but a deal could be struck as early as this week.

Elsewhere in ‘X-Factor’ judge news, word has it Gary Barlow may not be able to return to the UK version of the show this year, despite wanting to, because of all the celebrating of the Queen’s 60 years of rule that he’s committed to. Co-writing a song, making a TV show and organising a big gig on the Mall all to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee will make the Take That geezer very busy just as the X-2012 auditions are getting underway.

But Cowell is apparently doing everything he can to accommodate Barlow – which may or may not include persuading the Queen to move her Jubilee celebrations. If it hadn’t been for Queen Victoria, they wouldn’t be due for another fifteen years anyway. Damn Queen Victoria and her messing with Simon Cowell’s telly franchises.

Melanie C and Jason Donovan have both signed up to help Andrew Lloyd Webber find a new Jesus. Both have musical theatre credentials of course, though it’s not clear what their qualifications are for selecting a new messiah.

Auditions will begin today for a new Lloyd Webber-fronted ITV show, which is presumably based on the idea that the tedious composer being given a fifth TV talent show to plug his multi-million pound West End revivals business is clearly the first sign of the apocalypse, so we might as well speed up the second coming and find Christ via the same format.

The new Jesus will reach the masses via a tour of Britain’s arenas. Free bread and fishes with every ticket presumably.

The BBC might launch its own download store, competing with Apple’s iTunes, though limited to TV programmes. Reports suggest that the proposed download platform – being developed via an internal venture called Project Barcelona – would complement the Beeb’s existing iPlayer service, allowing TV viewers the option to download new and old programmes at approx £1.89 a show, rather than access short-term programme streams.

According to paidContent, the Beeb itself – rather than its commercial spin-off BBC Worldwide – is developing the proposals to respond to ambitions within the Corporation to make as much new and archive BBC programming available for download as possible to licence payers in the UK. Currently only a fraction is available via BBC Worldwide’s deals with services like iTunes.

Such a move will be swamped with politics of course. First up, the Beeb will have to negotiate deals with any third parties with interests in its programmes, in particular the independent producers who make a chunk of the Corporation’s output.

There will also no doubt be questions asked about what it will cost to digitise the entire BBC archive, whether its right to re-charge licence fee payers for content their licence fee funded, and what impact the downloads will have on BBC Worldwide’s DVD business, which brings in extra revenue to subsidise the licence fee at BBC central.

Then there are the technical questions about how these downloads will work, what devices they will play on, and how users already downloading BBC shows to their iTunes player will be affected. And that’s before commercial media owners and digital operators file the customary moans about the BBC exploiting its size and state-funded archive.

All of which makes this an ambitious plan, but an interesting one nevertheless. I wonder if anyone has even thought about the licensing challenges involved in making classic ‘Top Of The Pops’ episodes available for download.

The boss of RadioCentre, the trade body for a chunk of the commercial radio sector, has called on government to drop music genre requirements from the licences that many commercial stations operate under, and to change copyright law so that those who listen to radio services in public places do not need a music licence in addition to that already paid for by the broadcaster.

Andrew Harrison was speaking at the Westminster Media Forum about government plans to review the Communications Act. The RadioCentre chief said that he welcomed plans to reduce the regulation that governs the radio sector; legacy regulations which, he argued, made less sense as the radio industry competed with new unregulated media online.

But, he added, he feared that the momentum for deregulation plans had diminished somewhat, and could come unstuck amidst political movements for more regulation of the wider media and concerns about media plurality (political debates both caused by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, the former by phone hacking at the News Of The World, the latter Murdoch’s ambition to own both News International and Sky News outright). He urged ministers to treat radio – a relatively small industry that punches above its weight in terms of impact and reach, he said – as a special case.

As for specific objectives, current obligations to make locally-targeted programmes locally to where they air, a frequent bug bear of the radio sector, and rules governing advertising and in-programme sponsorship were topics raised, though Harrison also focused on two key music issues.

First, he noted government issued licences still controlled what music many commercial stations must play. This system – dating from the era when FM stations in any one region were not meant to compete head on – was increasingly problematic, Harrison agued. In reality media regulator OfCom has become more willing in recent years to bend original music genre obligations, but it’s true that as radio owners merge previously local services to become quasi-national networks, some obligations to provide niche programming in off-peak in some areas do get in the way.

Said Harrison: “Radio stations are still licensed by music formats, which dictate the proportion of a particular genre they can play – a blunt instrument in an era of infinite music choice available through smartphones, downloads and streaming. Of course no other music service is required to seek permission from a government agency when determining the music that they play. Nor is the music industry itself given quotas by government on the sort of music they should promote or support”.

Staying with music, Harrison then focused on an issue of much more direct relevance to the music industry, the licence fees it pays to record labels and music publishers for the music it plays (another favourite moan of the broadcasters). Harrison said his members felt there was now a “disproportionate cost to our business of copyright for licensing music in the digital age”, while particularly focusing on the fact that any business owner wanting to play the radio on their premises, even just for staff, needed their own licences from PPL and PRS, what Harrison continues to dub as “double taxation”.

With work-place listening key to radio ratings, it looks like RadioCentre could be lobbying anew for a change in public performance licensing rules when the music being played in public has already been licensed by a broadcaster – a move that would be strongly opposed by the collecting societies, who are pushing the requirement for workplace music licences more now than ever before as their label and publisher members pressure their royalty agencies to up periphery licensing income.

Which could make any Communications Act review interesting for the music industry as well as the broadcasters and net providers.