Annie Dell’Aria: "The architecture and design of the new Battlestar Galactica’s (SciFi, 2004-2009) narrative world mirrors the complex political, ethical, and moral questions posed by the narrative arc of the entire series."

Bobbie Johnson: "From the outside, the British and Irish market looks like a vast patchwork of services and providers: perfect territory for a big, swaggering giant to come in and clean up. In fact, the truth is just the opposite: For Netflix to get anything like the success it has had in America, it will need to find out a way to get around Rupert Murdoch and the BBC, two of the world’s most powerful media forces. They have no reason to work with Netflix and every reason to actively work against it."

"One of the important things about telly was that sometimes it stopped. We can feel nostalgia for the sour-sweet satisfactions of the cathode ray tube whining down to a faint white dot, then a spectral after-image, before vanishing altogether." On closedown and its potential reintroduction.

"Paid-for references to products and services are now permitted for the first time in shows produced in the UK, including soaps and one-off dramas."

The actual Ofcom report referenced in the Guardian story, for further digging into figures. For example, the Guardian didn't think this was worthy of note: "Children are likely to have a TV in their bedroom, with this being the case for half of 5-7s (49%), two-thirds of 8-11s (67%) and three-quarters of 12-15s (77%)."

An interview with Eva Weber, the director of both City of Cranes and the Solitary Life of Cranes. "What I didn't realize was that making this film might actually take longer than it would for the crane drivers to put up a 50-storey building."

"Part city symphony and part visual poem, this award-winning film explores the invisible life of London, its patterns and its hidden secrets, through the eyes of crane drivers" Beautiful. Available until early January, UK only (there's a DVD for sale though).

"As an iPlayer/Sky+/TiVo-addled nation, we refuse to watch TV together. And now we can't keep up with the TV we've harvested, we've lost the sense of perspective to let anyone else discuss it within our earshot. The only thing truly 'spoiled' is us." I'm not quite as militant as Grace Dent, but really: if it's been out a while, there's only so far I'll tiptoe.

Warren Ellis: "Buried in the OMM's web presence, once a month, is a multimedia presentation by Morley. Not just a music column, but video of the interviews he conducted in support of the month's subject or theme, music files, filmed performances, and, most unsettlingly, a Flash file that places an immense screen-filling Morley as rambling disco ringmaster."

Posted on recommendations alone, but: a Jonathan Meades documentary series, in which he "takes a quixotic tour of Scotland, a country which has intrigued him since he first encountered lists of towns only known from football coupons.".

Warren Ellis: "As an antidote to this audiovisual paraquat they intend to spray into our children's eyes, I say the BBC should re-run Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds. Bear with me."

On the birth and death of the British TV manufacturing industry, with interesting digressions on the fact that we still make programmes and the future of the screen as a focal point for living rooms.

I'm linking to the io9 pointer to Jonathan Wright's piece in the Guardian rather than the original because it has a comment by JMS on it. Anyway, from what I've seen of Torchwood (the first half of season one and the whole of Children of Earth), the arc series worked far better than the standalone ones.

Chris Heathcote recommends Japanese TV, to watch live online. I wonder aloud why the Japanese are willing to make their TV available, when the British and American networks aren't.

I can't say I'm surprised. "[The US version] kept trying to distance itself from its best qualities — great high concept, immersion in ’70s NYC from the perspective of a modern cop, terrific cast, odd sexual dynamics — by forcing itself into the procedural cop show format" (Partly posted as an attempt to poke Tom Armitage into expanding on the idea of a functional TV show, and also for the Dollhouse references.)

A paper by Claire Monk on Monkey Dust, the obscure (but popular in 2lmc) animated sketch show on BBC Three, from The Journal of British Cinema and Television, concentrating on how it's London-centric. The full-article PDF seems to be free.

"the British are subject to two utterly random forces that regularly test their stoicism and their patience: the weather and the buses." On two icons of British TV in the seventies.

I was a bit of a fan of this back in the day. Its erratic scheduling made it a bit hard to keep watching, but it's a shame it's going. Hopefully, as has happened in the past, it'll shift channels (hell, I'd be happy if Sky News took it on).

"Scriptwriter Steven Moffat was today named lead writer and executive producer on hit BBC1 drama Doctor Who [replacing] Russell T Davies." About time too. Here's hoping for less use of the Tardis as deus ex machina, then.

"98.2 percent of American households have a television. By some measures, that even beats the penetration rate of basic adult literacy skills, which was last pegged in 2003 at 86 percent"

Good stuff in here. In particular, another aspect of computing I'd ignored- TV makes you tired but not sleepy, and so does computing. Books, on the other hand, let you recognise sleepiness.

More post-Shirky commentary, this from Tom Armitage, arguing that TV-by-choice is different from TV-that's-on, taking in participation and radio as he goes.

Chris Heathcote argues that Clay Shirky's much-linked talk on "social surplus" is weirdly anti-consumption and values the Internet more highly than TV for no good reason. Can't say I entirely disagree (cf growth of web video).

On BBC Two's White Season: "The BBC has made a grave error in locating the problems of Britain's poorest and most pressurised people in race rather than class." Sounds about right to me.

As a counterpoint to my wibblings of earlier today, here's a (well written, unlike mine) piece arguing that television doesn't decrease literacy. I don't think TV makes us stupid, but I'm far from convinced it helps us be better at reading books.

I'm wondering why the comments are quite so harsh on this, when I've not seem the same geographic complaints about iTMS or iPlayer. Is it the technology (comparisons with YouTube) or the price (free implies freely available), or something else?

"Film critic Mark Kermode [...] was a cinematic snob, convinced that the small screen had no redeeming qualities. So what happened when we asked him to watch some of the most acclaimed TV in recent years?" He liked some of it.

Scathing putdown of Channel 4. I wish the Humphrys interview on Today last week had been so biting.

"I know no-one likes change but the nature of the show is change" thing is, there's good change (Ecclestone) and bad change (hey, wouldn't it be, like, todally kewl to have Daleks fighting Cybermen, omfg!). I'm not sure I care about s3 let alone s4.

Broadband seems to be able to replace broadcast, although you really have to be in the US to do so legally. Also of note: "À la carte content costs money. TV shows at $2 a pop, and movies at $10-plus, add up." Murdoch's rubbing his hands already.

"The Daily Mail has ceased to review television programmes" just as it becomes possible for a review to be useful. For torrents, you don't want forthcoming schedules, you want past reviews

I really hope that british TV doesn't die out, because there's been some great stuff in the past.

"two self-selected castes: Those who made television and those who watched it." ... "we don’t exploit this amazing data-processing power for creativity, but for fetishistic clerical work"

I haven't had a TV for ages, but there does seem to be a growing trend of people making do without broadcast TV. Brad has a good list of reasons.

Just so I can say "Clerkenwell officially full of wankers"