Bringing UGC content to TV

Current TV is a content sharing and aggregating site that is making a brave effort in bringing in amateur web content to the mass TV audience. Just last week, it launched a brand new programme called Webmash, an all round entertainment programme that beams the weirdest news, the funniest videos and other unmissable web gems onto your screens.


It may not be in everyone’s taste to watch yet another “Harry Hill’s TV Burp” type of content, but the programme makers at Current TV seem to invest quite a bit of time rifling through the internet and cramming the best bits into a thirty minute entertainment show.

What I like about the idea is that unlike traditional TV shows the content is 100% user generated, meaning the cost is almost next to none. Who knows, programmes like this could become a perfect watershed lull breaker before we settle down in front of our TV screens for mainstream favourites like TopGear and the Apprentice.

Webmash airs at 8pm, Monday to Thursday on Current TV, which is available on Sky 183 and Virgin Media 155.

Red Dwarf breaks non-terrestrial records

New episodes of sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf attracted over 2.6 million viewers over the Easter weekend.

The three-part 21st anniversary special "Red Dwarf: Back to Earth" pulled in the highest ever ratings for the UK TV channel Dave, which renamed itself to the Dave Lister channel for the duration.

Part 1, broadcast on Good Friday 10 April between 9pm and 9.30pm, attracted an average digital audience share of 11%, beating BBC2 and Channel 5 for the same time slot. A further 342,000 watched on the timeshift channel Dave ja vu an hour later, with 226,000 recording the show and then watching it from PVR within 3 days.

This makes the Red Dwarf revival the most popular non-terrestrial-analogue commission in the UK, beating the 2006 Torchwood launch episode on BBC3 and the first instalment of Terry Pratchett's "Hogfather" on Sky1.

Red Dwarf ran for eight series on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and remains the channel's highest rated show. At its peak, Red Dwarf pulled in around 8.5m viewers and has been broadcast in more than 25 countries.