Can TV Copy the Music Industry? Sky’s Ad/Subscription Paradox & Latest BBC Cuts

About this episode

Jimmy and Peter discuss the potential for the music industry's rights model in television, advertising on subscription channels, and the latest BBC cost-cutting plans.

Jimmy and Peter chat about whether the music industry’s rights-roll-up model could ever work for television after a listener question about untapped TV archive potential. From there they tackle the thorny question of how channels like Sky still run adverts on premium subscription channels and what that says about the future of ad-funded TV. They also unpack the latest BBC cost-cutting plans ahead of charter negotiations and the Government’s BBC Green Paper consultation (including the mysteriously under-marketed “Freely”), before rounding off with the latest on the ITV–Sky/Comcast takeover talks slowing down thanks to the messy reality of splitting ITV Studios from the broadcast business. Plus ,  what hiring a Cabinet Secretary and a Director General has in common, Peter’s airport immigration story that inspired a cavity-search comedy sketch and a detailed account of Jimmy’s use of the fast-forward feature on his TV... Jimmy Mulville is the co-founder and Chief Executive of Hat Trick Productions. His list of hit shows includes Have I Got News For You, Father Ted, Derry Girls, Outnumbered, and Episodes. In the US Hat Trick launched Whose Line Is It Anyway…

People in this episode

Hosts: Jimmy Mulville, Peter Fincham

Topics covered

• music industry
• television rights
• advertising
• subscription models
• BBC cuts
• ITV takeover talks

Keywords

• TV archive
• ad-funded TV
• Sky
• BBC Green Paper
• ITV Studios
• Cabinet Secretary
• Director General

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Hat Trick Productions, Sky, BBC, ITV, Comcast, TalkBack

Books & works: Have I Got News For You, Father Ted, Derry Girls, Outnumbered, Episodes, Whose Line Is It Anyway, I’m Alan Partridge, Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Da Ali G Show

More episodes of Insiders: The TV Podcast

• 2026 World Cup Kick Off · June 12, 2026 · 37 min
• Should a Man Write the Sarah Everard Drama? 400 Female Screenwriters vs. The BBC · June 5, 2026 · 35 min
• Why Do Great TV Shows Often End So Badly? How To Tell an Actor They’re Being Killed Off & Why Polymarket has Changed Reality TV Forever · May 29, 2026 · 37 min
• Michael Grade on Solving the BBC’s Big Problems, MAFS UK Allegations & Running Channel 4 · May 22, 2026 · 36 min
• Eurovision Turns Off Anti-Booing Software | The BBC BAFTA Backlash & A Wordle TV Show!? · May 15, 2026 · 34 min
• Why Helena Bonham Carter left The White Lotus | Celebrity Traitors, AI & David Attenborough · May 8, 2026 · 35 min