UK media regulatory body Ofcom have recently proposed a shake-up to the way that live TV displays subtitles, claiming that a mandatory delay period could be a method implemented in order to lessen the possibility of error.

The system would be one only made to ‘improve the quality’ of the broadcasting service, with a several-second gap believed by the organisation to be enough time to make any necessary amendments such as the one pictured.

That example occurred in an episode of ITV chatshow Loose Women, which along with a caption from BBC Weather provided visible instances of errors made in this department.

The plans come after Ofcom reviewed the current system and asked for feedback from TV viewers, with the primary recommendations to emerge being that the ‘timing and accuracy’ of live show subtitles was questionable and needed to be fixed, including ‘words lagging behind voice’, ‘freezing’, and typos.

A summary statement from the regulator read: “Viewers have made clear that there are continuing problems with the speed, synchronisation, accuracy and presentation of live TV subtitling.”

Ofcom representative Claudio Pollack added: “Ofcom wants to see an improvement in the quality of subtitling on live programmes for people who are deaf and hard-of-hearing. Our proposals will help identify the areas where broadcasters can make progress, leading to a better viewing experience over time.”

Although the implementation of subtitles by broadcasters is only formally required in the case of an ‘average viewing share’ of over 0.05% for its network, the demand is believed to be quite high, with 7.6m adults said to ‘actively use’ subtitles, though just 1.4m of them were classed as having a hearing impairment, so with its popularity extending far beyond necessity, is subtitling an issue that demands more respect than it currently receives for current live broadcasts?

From the amount of money they have each made and both being the 66-year-old faces of popular TV shows which are identical in nature (and under the same brand), it would be assumed that American entrepreneur and Celebrity Apprentice ‘boss’ Donald Trump would be on good terms with his English counterpart Lord Alan Sugar (who carries out the same role for The Apprentice on the BBC), but it appears as though that is not the case, after the pair publicly made their differences known in an argument on Twitter.

The argument was started by Trump, who stars in and produces the NBC series, and mocked Sugar’s net worth.

He wrote: “Sugar is nowhere near being a billionaire – and I know, he works for me!”

Sugar responded in type, writing: “You ignorant ego crazed liar. You don’t have the money you say you have. You’ve been bust 4 times. Work for you – bare face lie.”

A follower took Sugar’s side in the argument by telling Trump to “shut up” and that Sugar should be respected for his status as a Lord in the UK, to which the American came back with: “I’ve always heard that ‘titles’ can be easily bought – is this so?”

In a battle similar in nature to the stereotypical public arguments that rappers have, Trump gave an apt opinion that “only the haters disagree” in his self-belief that he is the better businessman when compared to Sugar.

He also noted that the Englishman should “drop to [his] knees and say thank you” for the success of the BBC’s version of The Apprentice, summarising: “Sugar – unlike you, I own The Apprentice. You were never successful enough… to do The Apprentice but I approved you anyway. Without my show you’d be nothing!”

While his argument falls flat a little with Sugar’s show having so far sustained itself well for 9 seasons without changing it to a ‘celebrity’ version, neutral observers would find it near enough impossible to call a winner between the pair in an argument on who is better. For small segments of what each version of Apprentice can deliver, please refer to the videos in a previous post…

For another year, the annual pan-continental TV spectacle of the Eurovision Song Contest packs up and prepares to set up next year’s event, although this time around there won’t be a lot of travelling involved for producers (only around 40km, if current rumours are to believed), after Denmark claimed the leading prize for the music competition hosted in Malmo (Sweden).

Their prize will be the chance to host the event in 2014, with the current likely destination city being either Herning (at the Jyske Bank Boxen) or Copenhagen (in Parken Stadium), the latter of which is literally only a bridge away from Malmo, potentially the shortest distance ‘between shows’ that did not occur from the same city hosting twice in a row.

In a 26-nation final in 2013 (whittled down from 39 competitors at the semi-final stage), Emmelie de Forest’s song “Only Teardrops”, the runaway favourite before the contest, took the spoils (for the third time in the history of her nation’s participation) with an impressive haul of 281, followed by Azerbaijan’s Farid Mammadov with “Hold Me”, earning 234 points.

In the UK, there was no such high ranking for 61-year-old Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler, whose performance of ”Believe in Me” only mustered 23 points and 19th position, although it was seen as a strong improvement on the previous year’s 25th place, and was also the second-best performer of the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) ‘Big 5′ automatic final qualifiers (Italy won the mini-battle in 7th, while the rest (Germany (21st), France (23rd), and Spain (25th) finished near the bottom of the overall standing).

Meanwhile, host nation Sweden (who like the lead financial contributors also took an automatic place in the final) finished 14th (62 points) with Robin Stjernberg’s “You”, while the wooden spoon of the contest came to traditional Eurovision specialists Ireland, after Ryan Dolan’s “Only Love Survives” finished last with 5 points despite having the advantage of performing last in the running order.

Despite her mid-table finish, Bonnie Tyler was pleased with her achievements at the Malmo Arena, stating afterwards: “I got the feeling tonight that I got at the Grammy awards. I’m sure a lot of people will be disappointed on my behalf but I have really enjoyed my Eurovision experience. I did the best that I could do with a great song. I don’t feel down and I’m ready to party. The songs at the top of the table totally deserve to be up there. Of course I would have liked to bring it back to the UK but it’s been a night to remember. What an incredible atmosphere. I really enjoyed that performance, I got out there and gave it some welly. When all those lights came on it felt like magic, all twinkling lights everywhere. I really hope Europe enjoyed it.”

Attendance-wise, the crowd in the arena was estimated at 11,000, while the all-important TV viewing figures totalled an estimated 120m worldwide, 7.7m of which watched from the UK, seemingly signalling ‘money well spent’ for all competitors for a few hours’ worth of prime-time programming.

The results of the contest in full, along with videos of the most notable performances of the night, can be seen below, but of course even with the justified ‘vote for your neighbours’ allegations from the lower-performing nations, it should be remembered that the contest isn’t just about winning… it’s about coming second, then you don’t have to take on the expense of hosting it next year. So congratulations to Azerbaijan…

Eurovision Song Contest 2013 results:

1. Denmark, 281 points
2. Azerbaijan, 234
3. Ukraine, 214
4. Norway, 191
5. Russia, 174
6. Greece, 152
7. Italy, 126
8. Malta, 120
9. Netherlands, 114
10. Hungary, 84
11. Moldova, 71
12. Belgium, 71
13. Romania, 65
14. Sweden, 62
15. Georgia, 50
16. Belarus, 48
17. Iceland, 47
18. Armenia, 41
19. United Kingdom, 23
20. Estonia, 19
21. Germany, 18
22. Lithuania, 17
23. France, 14
24. Finland, 13
25. Spain, 8
26. Ireland, 5

While strongly rumored to be one of the possible bidders for Hulu (as well as DailyMotion), search engine giants Yahoo are believed to have completed a takeover of a high-profile online brand, with their directors approving a $1.1b ‘all-cash acquisition’ bid for Tumblr.

Board members of Yahoo are said to have offered their ’unanimous agreement’ for the deal, and are believed to be planning an official announcement on the matter today (20 May).

The deal for the photo-blogging site, if completed, will see the service’s current CEO David Karp carry on his role (overseen by Yahoo) ‘for at least four years’, with the Tumblr management also retaining a ‘significant level of control’ on the site photo-blogging site.

Having been rumoured for ‘several weeks’, the interest in Tumblr taken by Yahoo is thought to be part of a strategy by CEO Marissa Mayer’s to make the site ‘cool again’. This plan would presumably cover any interest Yahoo have in video platforms Hulu and DailyMotion as well as the current Tumblr proposals

If completed, the deal would enable Yahoo access to Tumblr’s audience base of over 117 million monthly visitors and 108.4 million blogs, although current opinion amongst many of these users is that Yahoo’s tendency towards advertising could be detrimental to their enjoyment of the site’s relatively commercial-free experience.

While it would take some PR expertise to get around the most nay-saying of opposers, will Yahoo’s potential deal become a positive one for Tumblr, or will many see it as a desperate attempt from the search engine to keep up with rivals that will inevitably fall flat?

As a number of potential ‘real TV’ sitcoms face their demise with network cuts ahead of the new broadcast season later this year, one of their online counterparts has also suffered the same fate, with the big-name series remake of hit 2009 comedy survival film Zombieland shockingly being cancelled by the site.

The trial episode was made available for streaming on the US version of Amazon’s website last month alongside 14 other prospects (an unknown number of which will qualify as the first original series for the website’s ‘Instant Video’ service), though Rhett Reese, the creator of the most notable format in that batch (and alongside show collaborator Paul Wernick co-wrote the original movie), has revealed his show was not selected, and has been dropped out of contention early on in the process.

He tweeted the news to his followers, writing: “Our Zombieland series will not be moving forward on Amazon. Sad for everyone involved.”

Unlike many shows that publicly take the attitude of ‘better luck next time’, though, Reese did  leave a parting shot at the people he felt were to blame, critics and fans of the movie who didn’t give it a sufficient chance. He summarized in another message: “I’ll never understand the vehement hate the pilot received from die-hard Zombieland fans. You guys successfully hated it out of existence. Anyway, we did our best, and we’re very proud of our team.”

With the show having been a heavy favorite for inclusion on the service, the lack of Zombieland in the Amazon viewers’ options to recommend for renewal will certainly shake things up for the remaining 13 formats as they compete for the groundbreaking honours, but only a few can remain standing by the end of the selection process…