BBC PREMIERING CONTENT ON IPLAYER

Another example today of the move of all things away from television and onto the internet.

The BBC, of all people, announced on Friday that they have decided to take 40 hours of content and release it on iPlayer instead of terrestrial television.

The programming appears to be rather vague at this stage, with a spokesperson stating that there will be a range of content and the 12 month trial will start sometime this year.

The BBC have already flirted with piloting original content on iPlayer with Feed My Funny. This initiative made seven comedy pilots available exclusively on iPlayer and YouTube (several featuring UA clients of course), and lead to a commission of one of them, the hidden camera show Impractical Jokers.

And last year Pond Life – a series of five Doctor Who mini episodes, was downloaded 5 million times no less.

I see this as an interesting development, and maybe a pigeon step on the way to a world where we choose what we watch, when we watch it and on what platform. I am sure that the current TV scheduling will eventually become a thing of the past, maybe sooner than we think?

Here’s Diane Morgan  and Nick Mohammed in Games On from Feed my Funny to give you an idea of the format and high quality we can expect:

CHORTLE COMEDY AWARDS: VOTE NOW!

I’m going to have huge trouble with this year’s Chortle Awards as we have so many UA clients in the same categories.Adam Riches, who won the last Fosters Edinburgh Comedy Award, has not one, but three nominations: Breakthrough Act, Best Show and Best Character or Sketch Act. If you haven’t seen his wonderfully anarchic show Bring Me the Head of Adam Riches, you should not rest until you get a ticket, (possibly not sitting at the front though). He’s at the Soho Theatre in London until the 17th March.

Adam shares the nomination for Best Character or Sketch Act with the fabulous Idiots of Ants (they are the ones with the over 10 million hits on Youtube) .

Tim Key has been nominated for his Masterslut show which featured collections of pithy poems and short stories with some lovely short films. Time Out said it’s subtle, shambolic, occasionally moving and gloriously funny.

And it doesn’t stop there.

Stephen Merchant is nominated for his tour Hello Ladies; Joe Thomas of Inbetweeners fame, and Jack Whitehall star in the hilarious Fresh Meat which is up for Best Television; as is Sorry I’ve Got No Head (masquerades as a children’s show, but is one of the funniest programmes on TV) with Marcus Brigstocke, Nick Mohammed and David Armand.

Tim Key and Nick Mohammed pop up again in the Best Radio category for Party with Jonny Sweet; and The Wrestling starring Andrew Maxwell and yes, Adam Riches has been nominated for the Innovation award.

The voting is open and all you have to do is click the link HERE to start.