Leading article: Golden age of television

Wednesday 30 June 2010 00:00 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

How the wheel of television has turned. Twentynine years ago an exciting new channel called MTV was launched in New York, aimed specifically at young music fans. And later this year an exciting new channel called Vintage TV will begin broadcasting in Britain, designed to appeal specifically to the tastes of the over-50s.

Hosts on Vintage TV (who will include Paul Gambaccini, Debbie Harry and Rick Wakeman) will serve up a variety of music, films and shows for those who find the likes of Russell Brand and James Corden something of a turn-off. It will be interesting to see whether the new channel will have the same cultural impact as MTV three decades ago. The broadcasters certainly have a large and growing demographic to aim at.

Good luck to them. But we fear they might be making a mistake with the name. For if there is one thing that the baby boomer generation don't like it is being reminded of their, well, vintage. How about The Boomer Channel (TBC)? Or Hip TV? On second thoughts, the latter might have unfortunate medical connotations for those of a certain age and brittle limbs. Probably safer to stick with Vintage after all.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in