MediaGuardian briefing

Media briefing                                                                                          Thursday 22 Jan 2015 g
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Green party likely to be included in new plan for general election leader debates Broadcasters expected to offer role to SNP as they address David Cameron’s concerns of head-to-head with Nigel Farage  Page 3: The Sun brings back topless women Campaigners dismayed by tabloid’s decision after reports 44-year-old practice had been quietly dropped  Elementary, my dear Clarkson: Sherlock pips Top Gear in 2014 iPlayer charts Record year for on-demand viewing sees Sherlock Holmes reboot take three of the BBC’s top 10 most-watched on-demand programmes  Vessel sets sail with ambitions to shake up the online video market Startup launches public beta of $2.99-a-month app, which will offer ‘early access’ to videos from top YouTube creators  Juror in trial of Sun journalists discharged due to ‘pressure and stress’ Deliberations in trial of four current or former Sun journalists accused of making illegal payments public officials to resume for ninth day with 11 jurors  Running costs of BBC's London headquarters are triple UK average National Audit Office tells corporation to ‘make better use of space’ as report reveals New Broadcasting House accounts for third of BBC’s property running costs while housing fifth of its staff  Sky holds talks with O2 owner in bid to add mobile phones to media package Telecoms firm fears being left behind as only operator not to offer mobile alongside landlines, broadband and TV  London councils go on defying Eric Pickles over publications Four local authorities continue to publish in defiance of the law  New press regulator wants to put ‘red pencil’ through complex industry rules Chairman Sir Alan Moses says Independent Press Standards Organisation has shown publishers and editors new guidelines  Facebook promises less hoax stories and spam posts in users' news feeds Social network will also annotate suspicious stories with a warning, but maintains it’s still a platform not a publisher
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Chris Evans 'buying a new alarm clock' after tardy arrival for Radio 2 show Chris Evans turned up half an hour late for his Radio 2 breakfast show on Wednesday, turning the clock back for anyone who remembers his, er, occasionally erratic timekeeping hosting the breakfast show on Radio 1. Vanessa Feltz, who presents Radio 2’s even earlier breakfast show, filled in for 30 minutes until Evan took the microphone just after 7am. Feltz spent most of her extra time talking about a picture in the papers of her fellow DJ with the Duchess of Cornwall. A decade and a half later he’ll host the breakfast show on Radio 2? Yeah, right. “Christopher Evans has issued an edict: he is going to be half an hour late to the programme, will I please take over,” Feltz said. “By royal appointment, by royal command, I will do whatever he tells me to do. My wish is his command.” Later, Feltz wondered if Evans had gone back to Buckingham Palace and got carried away. “I’m thinking the party just continued. I reckon they had a Twiglet, some Ferrero Rocher and then I think Chris didn’t go home. I think Charles joined in, the whole thing was fun, fun, fun.” Just in the nick of time Evans turned up – so quickly in fact that Feltz didn’t get the chance to say goodbye. The way he was. Evans presenting the pilot for his Radio 2 show “Today’s show is dedicated to anyone who may have missed the first half hour, probably the best, the very best since we started our five-and-a-half-year run,” he told listeners. “Seriously, catch up with it on iPlayer. It was off the chart.” Later, he thanked “Lady Vanessa” and said he owed her a “big drink, a bucketful, not that she does. Anyway, we’ll figure it out”. A Radio 2 spokeswoman said: “Chris’s alarm didn’t go off this morning and he arrived just before 7am. He’s buying a new alarm clock.” If Evans starts asking Radio 2 controller Bob Shennan for Fridays off, it really will be history repeating itself. But then 90s nostalgia is still all the rage, right?