06/07/2012 Newswatch

Now it is time for NewsWatch with Welcome to NewsWatch. Coming up in

a few minutes, one fewer objects to the way ITV News portrays the older

generation. It sort of suggests that people, once they are past 60

cot all they are fit for is the bowling green or bingo parlour. Why

are pensioners, over-sixties, subjected to this stereotyping

imagery? Before that, on Tuesday the chief executive of Barclays,

Bob Diamond, fell on his sword in the wake of the interbank scandal.

Some would say this is a soap opera. The BBC's business editor Robert

Peston was called on to shed light on the resignation on that night's

News at Ten but they did not seem to be much lighter round. Several

wags took to Twitter, including For some NewsWatch view was that

the problem was not one of lighting but the familiar charge of

excessive coverage. One would think the way the BBC is covering the

news that Barclays Bank was the only game in town and that Syria

and all the rest of it no longer exists. ITV News is absolutely full

of Syria and other things, of wider interest, but all the BBC thinks it

is interesting is Bob Diamond, on and on and on. Bob Diamond, Bob

Diamond, Bob Diamond. I have had the television on for a couple of

hours and I have heard nothing but Bob Diamond, Bob Diamond, and

gobbledegook about firewalls and smoke screens. Please, get the

reporters out there and give us some news, not just one item to

death. Bob Diamond may have lost a job but George Entwistle gained one

this week. He has been chosen to run Britain's biggest broadcaster.

The BBC has announced the corporation's new director general

will be George Entwistle. Is currently the head of BBC vision

but will take over from Mark Thomson in the autumn. Memo to the

News at One, it is a good idea to spend -- to spell the name of your

new boss correctly. That is and whistle without a letter H. Yes,

that is it. At that very moment that name was being announced, not

-- Mark Ronson was sitting at the new catch-up TV platform YouView

together with Lord Sugar. Where do you want to start? The idea is to

combine the channels currently available on Freeview was on demand

content from the internet. The BBC has invested �10 million with ITV,

Channels four and five, BT, Arqiva and Talk Talk chipping in, but

critics wonder if the service first announced in 2080 under the name

Project Canvas and delayed from two years ago has missed the boat.

YouView's chief executive Richard Holt enjoys been out. What is in

this for viewers? Why should they buy your box and what will they get

if they do? We think it is a fantastic product. It is an easy to

use box that gives you live television for the channel's you'd

get today and combines them with the catch at services of the

broadcasters who you have just mentioned, the BBC, ITV, Channel

Four. And on demand material from the internet if you choose? That is

right and now a TV from Sky and STV will be on the platform as well.

Say I want to see last Thursday's Newsnight, can I still it with your

new box? Yes, the great thing about YouView is it is on your main

living room TV, but it is very simple. The same guide you would

look at to find programmes tonight, you can go backwards to last

night's TV, the previous night, press OK on the programme you want

to watch and there it is, on demand. How far can you go back? Last month,

or seven days? It did -- it is up to the individual broadcasters. ITV,

30 days and the BBC has made Desert Island Discs available on the

service but that is up to the broadcast. But just a fraction

under �300, isn't this rather expensive? I think given that what

is giving you is a PBR, the ability to pause come a record and rewind,

high-definition and a great catch- up Service, it is not much more

expensive than similar products on the market today and is cheaper

than similar boxes when they launched. For a combination of

reasons the activities of the regulators and technical problems,

you are two years late from your announced launch date. Isn't that a

problem and to some extent have you missed the boat with this product?

I think our perspective on this is YouView stands in the market today

as a unique product so in that sense we feel we are setting the

pace rather than following and you are absolutely right, we have

absorbed some of the delays you have described but I think when we

put the product in front of journalists and media yesterday,

their initial reaction was this feels very different and exciting.

The BBC has invested �10 million of licence payers money in this. Is it

a good deal for licence payers? believe so. The BBC has

consistently invested in the future technology and it has got a very

good technology of backing -- it has got a good record of backing

winners, Freeview and iPlayer. As Mark Thomson said, YouView is the

certain that series. competition has increased and

although you are launching before the Olympics wouldn't it have been

better to have a bit of or running so there was momentum for the

Olympics rather than getting it into the shops just before the

flame goes down the street? Every chief executive wants to do six

faster, cheaper, better, that is a reality, but given there are 12

million people out there with Freeview who have rejected pay-

television, this is a great upgrade for them. Richard Halton, thank you.

For some more of your comments, week in which we got closer to

explaining how matter attains its mass. It is present throughout the

cosmos, through stars and our own planet Earth. Some call it the God

particle because without it the universe would not exist, yet no

one has detected the Higgs boson until maybe now. Brian Jackson

followed the reporting of this story across Wednesday and detected

Not irrelevant, I am sure. Another viewer was concerned about the

relevance, or lack of it, or the news that Tom Cruise and Katie

Holmes are getting a divorce. Tom Stickland looked to Twitter to make

Meanwhile, Terry Whitham things we have seen too much of a staple of

This week the BBC launched a season of programmes about ageing, called

When I'm 65, which, by the way, I certainly am. But as the older

generation depicted on news programmes? But not well according

John Batten took exception to Another NewsWatch fewer, Jeff

Heenan-Davies, shows these concerns. He went into our Cardiff studio to

explain why. There was a news item on BBC One on the News at Six about

pensioners and it was accompanied by footage of people playing bowls,

old geezers playing bowls, and curly perm for women playing bingo.

My feeling was this was an easy option to illustrate people of a

certain age. I think, you know, the BBC and it is not just the BBC,

could do better, be more creative. The dream of a happy retirement

without money worries seems further away than ever. The surely we can

find something to illustrate people over a certain age in a better way.

It's sort of suggests that people, once they have passed 60, all they

are fit for is the bowling green or bingo parlour. People my age and

older are doing all kinds of things, scuba-diving, hill-walking, going

to Las Vegas and playing the tables. They are not all playing crown

bowls and sitting in a corner waiting to die. Pensioners are

already under pressure from higher food and energy prices and women

feel... I feel a bit more imagination could be employed.

After all, there is a lot about not stereotyping and stigmatising

certain elements of society and quite rightly so, so why are

pensioners and people over 60 subjected to this kind of

stereotyping imagery? Thanks to Geoff for that and for all of your

comments. Next week we will be discussing the choice of panellists

and audience on BBC One's discussion programme, Question Time.