Radio Murdoch arrives to kick Radio 4 while its down

[buttgammon]

As it's on DAB it still has to conform to Ofcom's due impartiality rules, so across all programmes there needs to be a political balance.

A Nazi and a Labour centrist on everything, then.

[jonnycuba]

Right wing fart sniffing circle. Hope the studio has windows.

[idunnosomename]

amazing jess "i have the times magazine permanently as my twitter avatar" phillips hasn't got a show yet

[idunnosomename]

haha long caused the privileged little scrotum to delete his twitter. good work



i know this sort of hounding is kinda gross but for giles coren, a clearly disturbed and completely untalented shithead who is allowed a massive public platform, fuck it

[Sebastian Cobb]

You know the bit in Twins where Danny DeVito realises he's just made up of all the junk DNA that didn't go in to making Arnie?

That's kind of how I feel about Giles Coren.

[idunnosomename]

I didn't know Twins was so rich in material that it could be used allegorically

[idunnosomename]

my favourite thing about times radio (which is radio times backwards) is that simon hedges followed the twitter account and i clapped

[Uncle TechTip]

Radio Semit! We'll have none of the anti-Semitism thank you.

[Blinder Data]

Blue Tick FM

Melt Radio

Sensible sounds for sensible listeners

[idunnosomename]

it launched today but people asking alexa to play it got a station in Malawi

which is much better than listening to giles coren

[Sebastian Cobb]

listening to a mic'd up communal toilet in a dysentery clinic is better than listening to Coren.

[idunnosomename]

i put that sort of thing on to go to sleep with sometimes.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Desolation

[idunnosomename]

This is dying on its arse isnt it. Ive had to block targetted ads because theyre so frequent

[Famous Mortimer]

They keep getting all these awful people in the same building and then not blowing it up. I feel like this gag has gone on too far now.

[steveh]

The presenters are the only people you see talking about it on social media and the audience for the station must be tiny.

News Corp. just reported a $1.5bn loss with almost every part of the business losing money and I can't see them continuing to support Times Radio when it has no revenue and they're closing other businesses.

[idunnosomename]

lol

[Phil_A]

I'm not convinced there's even a market for a subscription radio service in the UK (it was a disaster when Fubar tried it, I think they ended practically just giving away subscriptions and then just made the whole thing free anyway), so this was on a hiding to nothing even if it wasn't so obviously partisan and niche.

This was pure arrogant folly and deserves to fall flat on it's arse.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I'm not convinced there's even a market for a subscription radio service in the UK (it was a disaster when Fubar tried it, I think they ended practically just giving away subscriptions and then just made the whole thing free anyway), so this was on a hiding to nothing even if it wasn't so obviously partisan and niche.

This was pure arrogant folly and deserves to fall flat on it's arse.

Is it subscription, I thought it was advert free but broadcast free on DAB?

[Phil_A]

Is it subscription, I thought it was advert free but broadcast free on DAB?

Ah, I thought it was subscription only. I can't pretend I've looked into it too deeply, to be honest. I don't think I'm the target audience for this sort of thing

[Sebastian Cobb]

Ah, I thought it was subscription only. I can't pretend I've looked into it too deeply, to be honest. I don't think I'm the target audience for this sort of thing

Had a look, it's free but its purpose is to drive people to the times online subscriptions.

Unlike many other commercial radio stations, there is no spot advertising, though certain programmes are sponsored. Alongside sponsorship, the station raises revenue by generating subscriptions to the Times and Sunday Times online.[9] There are frequent announcements encouraging listeners to take out a subscription, especially after items directly related to a newspaper article.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_Radio

[idunnosomename]

They're trying to make The Sensible Times into a brand to rival the BBC, forgetting that there is more to the BBC than just a monkey journalist headshot they know talking about the news and themselves

[dissolute ocelot]

Alongside sponsorship, the station raises revenue by generating subscriptions to the Times and Sunday Times online.

I was curious as to how Wikipedia referenced that "fact", based on the number of subscriptions it's likely to generate. It's sourced to an Economist article[nb]paywalled but you know the tricks[/nb] which uses the word "try" a lot and is largely about how journalists are so ugly and incompetent that all newspapers' attempts at video have failed miserably.

As readers have become less willing to pay for news, papers have tried alternative formats. Until recently the main hope was video. Seeking advertising and prominence in Facebook's news feed, papers piled into making short films. But video was "particularly unsuited to the way that journalists actually look", says Claire Enders, a pitiless analyst. "Some of them did the most ridiculous turns." The experience was unprofitable as well as humiliating: ad revenue was thin on the ground and Facebook changed its algorithm, no longer rewarding video publishers. The heralded "pivot to video" has since become journalistic shorthand for doom.

The Economist calculates:

Times Radio will not run ads. With a rumoured annual budget of around £3m ($3.7m), breaking even will therefore mean persuading 10,000 listeners a year to take out a £312 digital subscription to the paper.

I seriously doubt they have anything like 10,000 listeners in a year.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Well I guess Sky News, prior to its sale to Comcast could be considered a video sister news outlet to The Times.

[Sebastian Cobb]

These new Waller-Bridge characters are leaving me cold.

https://twitter.com/FloraEGill/status/1297834075676344320

[idunnosomename]

i thought she'd be all over this WAP bandwagon

just get an onlyfans flora. you can do some kinky cucking of refugees by getting your mum to send them back where they came from

[George Oscar Bluth II]

They're trying to make The Sensible Times into a brand to rival the BBC, forgetting that there is more to the BBC than just a monkey journalist headshot they know talking about the news and themselves

The thing I find really interesting is Private Eye keep saying the Times' strategy is to become a lifestyle brand for metropolitan liberals and...the problem with that is the actual content of The Times itself. Melanie Philips, Jeremy Clarkson, moral panics on the front page about Land of Hope and Glory and trans people...

It's hard to see how they manage that. It's a fairly standard news and sport operation with a rightwing culture war booster bolted on. Very odd.

Also very sad that the radio listening figures have been suspended for covid for some reason. Would be so interesting to find out what Times Radio gets because, as someone said earlier, the only people I see tweeting about it are presenters and people appearing as guests.

[Sebastian Cobb]

The thing I find really interesting is Private Eye keep saying the Times' strategy is to become a lifestyle brand for metropolitan liberals and...the problem with that is the actual content of The Times itself.

Well it explains this i suppose.

[idunnosomename]

I swear that picture was taken in 2006

[Sebastian Cobb]

I swear that picture was taken in 2006

that's the botox mate