Christian O'Connell didn't sound particularly convinced when he revealed the new name for Virgin Radio - Absolute - this week. And nor is this week's podcast panel, media consultant and former Talk Radio boss Paul Robinson, and Guardian media correspondent Owen Gibson. If nothing else, it's a gift to headline writers when the Rajars plummet - Absolute disaster, etc.

Also in this week's podcast, we bump up against the glass ceiling with Selina Scott, we pay tribute to Geoffrey Perkins with his longtime colleague Jon Plowman, and we check in with the shock jocks at the Republican convention in Minnesota.

Back to our normal time this week as we recover from Edinburgh - Steve Hewlett and Maggie Brown are in the pod to pick over the leftovers from the TV festival. Plus, erstwhile Media Talk producer Ben Green is over in Denver for the Democratic National Convention, and he reports on the media circus surrounding the event.

Media Talk is back, and we're in Edinburgh for this week's podcast, live-ish from the television festival. After the tribulations of the past year, this year's event has attempted to make the TV industry feel good about itself again. Which is presumably why they got Gok Wan to make fun of TV executives in an Edinburgh edition of How To Look Good Naked. Happily, this podcast is (almost) a Gok-free zone. Instead, we pick apart ITV boss Peter Fincham's call for the TV industry to remember that it's in showbusiness, with panelists Emily Bell, director of digital content at the Guardian, and Tim Hincks, the chairman of the TV festival's executive committee.

This week, Ofcom issued the BBC with a record fine for a whole host of wrongdoing across its radio and television phone-ins. Has the deception issue now been put firmly to bed? Janine Gibson thinks not.

Achtung baby!, as Bono might say.

This week, we're concentrating on Max Mosley's victory against the News of the World in the high court. Is this the "death of kiss and tell journalism" (thank you to the London Evening Standard for that headline, by the way)? What now for beleaguered Screws editor Colin Myler? Roy Greenslade gives us his thoughts.

On this week's Media Talk, we'll be examining the latest libel award in the Madeline McCann case. On Thursday, Robert Murat was awarded £600,000 from a number of British newspapers after various unproven claims were made against him. We hear from leading media lawyer Dan Tench , to learn more about this unprecedented case.

Also in the show, it's more doom and gloom for Newspapers as Trinity Mirror, Newsquest, and DMGT announced a sharp decline in advertising for the last couple of months. Share prices have also fallen across the sector so could this lead to the closure of titles in the future? Matt Wells asks expert Lorna Tilbian from Numis Securities what can be done to increase revenues.

Jeff Jarvis, our favourite blogger, has some fairly radical views on how to save newspapers which involve handing over the work load to companies like Google. He thinks newspapers should stick what they do best - journalism - and stop doing things that others do better like selling advertising, and developing websites. Why do hundreds of newspapers try and craft their own versions of similar website, when Google or Yahoo could do it for them?

We've also got your amusing poems about the BBC.

Joining Matt Wells are Owen Gibson, John Plunkett and Gareth McLean.

Post your comments on the blog below - after you've listened to the show.

The Beeb is bracing itself for an economic downturn - and on this week's Media Talk we discuss the corporation's latest annual report, executive pay, and the future of the licence fee (again). MediaGuardian's editor-in-chief Janine Gibson has spleen to vent. And then some.

We're live(ish) and on location in Glasgow this week as we discuss the big issues impacting the wireless world. Is DAB the future? Will there be analogue switch-off? Is the UK radio industry on the verge of a nervous breakdown? And is Tim Davie the right appointment as Jenny Abramsky's successor?

Another week, another wrangle over the licence fee and the future of public service broadcasting. On the latest Media Talk podcast, Maggie Brown helps me cut through the BBC's 88-page submission to Ofcom in the latest PSB review. It's much more interesting than you think...

Two big interviews for you this week. We hear from Shiv Malik, the journalist at the centre of a high court case in which anti-terrorist police demanded he reveal his sources. We also speak to Arianna Huffington about the expansion of the Huffington Post, and the problems in the mainstream US media.

After Suralan hires Lee McQueen as his new apprentice - live blogger extraordinaire Anna Pickard joins me in the pod to give her view on the best bit of telly of the last twelve months. We reminisce about Nick, Margaret, Clurrr, Raef, Sophocles, and the rest of the cast from this season of The Apprentice. Should you want any more, there are even extended interviews with Lee and Alex Wotherspoon as your Media Talk Extra podcasts.

As the Trust clears the Beeb of overpaying for top TV talent like Jonathan Ross, Chris Moyles, and, er, Graham Norton - on this week's Media Talk, we're asking: are you getting value for money from the BBC? The Guardian's media correspondent Owen Gibson gives us his thoughts.

Over budget and overblown - on this week's Media Talk podcast, we discuss the BBC Trust's report into the big beast that is bbc.co.uk. Will heads roll over the £36m excess? Or will they just have another meeting? The MediaGuardian editor-in-chief, Janine Gibson, gives us her thoughts.

PCC, LBC, RTD - and if this week's show were also an acronym it would be FKNBRLNT. Probably.

Press correspondent Stephen Brook declares class war to discuss the Press Complaints Commission's annual report; Machiavellian manoeuvres at the Wall Street Journal; and previews his upcoming interview with Condé Nast's Nicholas Coleridge.

Radio 4 may have grabbed the headlines, but the real triumph was for the BBC World Service. In this week's podcast, Emily Bell and radio correspondent John Plunkett join me to assess the winners and losers at the Sony Radio Academy Awards.

Steve Hewlett and Stephen Brook are my guides through the media jungle, and we kick off with the story of ITV's £5.6m fine for fleecing viewers out of millions of pounds in the premium-rate phone scandal. Why was the fine not higher? And what of the extraordinary revelation that Ant and Dec were wrongly given the people's choice award at the 2005 British Comedy Awards, apparently because Robbie Williams only said he'd turn up if he was handing a gong to the pair?

What now for DAB? Will Channel 4 be radio's saviour? Or is it a case of 'in pod we trust'? In this week's Media Talk, Paul Robinson helps me analyse these issues and the other stories emerging from the MediaGuardian Radio Reborn conference.

Channel 4 published its annual report this week - and it didn't make for particularly pleasant reading. The Guardian's media correspondent Owen Gibson helps me crunch the numbers and answer the crucial question: what now for C4's beleaguered chairman, Luke Johnson.

Who will step into the void at the top of BBC radio? Last week, Jenny Abramsky announced she was stepping down from her position as director of audio and music to become the chair of the National Heritage Memorial fund. Helen Boaden's being tipped as the early favourite to be her successor - but does she want the job? What about the merits of Mark Damazer, Lesley Douglas, Roger Mosey, Fru Hazlitt, and Andy Parfitt? Radio correspondent John Plunkett gives us his thoughts.

This week, I'm joined in the pod by Sam Delaney. He fills us in on some of the extravagance and excess of the British advertising industry during its 1960s heyday, when young upstarts like Alan Parker, David Putnam, Ridley Scott and Charles Saatchi got very creative - and very rich. Sam's account of that era, Get Smashed, is out in paperback now.

How do you solve a problem like the BBC? That's the question we're asking in Media Talk this week after Kevin Spacey's criticism of BBC talent search shows such as I'd Do Anything and Any Dream Will Do.

This week, I'm joined in the pod by press correspondent Stephen Brook, and Robert Freeman, the Guardian's head of video. We hear from Jonathan Watts, our East Asia correspondent, about the media crackdown in China following a fortnight of bloodshed in Tibet.

Yes, I had a great holiday, thanks for asking. But I'm back into the swing of things this week with a top podcast that kicks off with news of Channel 4's big new statement of principles. Oddly, this co-incided with Ofcom's decision quietly to shelve the "public service publisher" idea. Could the two be related? Our panel, Emily Bell and Owen Gibson, certainly thinks so.

Robert Freeman's in the presenter's chair this week to discuss the Prince Harry media blackout. Just how do you keep a secret in the internet age?

On this week's podcast, we get the low-down on the shake-up at ITV, we rummage around the in-tray of the new man in charge of BBC Radio Five Live, and we ask why no-one watches the Oscars anymore.

On this week's podcast, we ask if the media is at fault in its sensational reporting of the suicides in the Bridgend area. We hear from the mother of one of the teenagers who died. Plus, we run the rule over the deal between the BBC and iTunes, and we look at the huge increase in Google's UK ad revenue.

There's also time for a verdict on Natasha Kaplinsky's first week on Five news, as well as Gareth McLean's view on the week's TV. Robert Freeman and Jemima Kiss are your panel for the week.

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We've got a lovely new look to our audio pages, which means a new, easier-to-navigate Media Talk archive. And there'll be a new theme tune soon, too. In the meantime, this week, we've got an interview with the fantastic Nick Davies, who has turned his investigatory instincts on his own profession. His hugely readable Flat Earth News, which argues that the British media is structurally set up to produce distorted stories, has already caused a storm. I put the criticism of his book to him. Lots more too

Click here to play this week's episode and to get more details.

In the week that the BBC announced that it's cancelling Grange Hill, I'm joined in the pod by star pupils Maggie Brown and John Plunkett. We discuss the success of the iPlayer, and future of on-demand television.

Plus, we ask who'll take over Ally Ross' column in the Sun? (Perhaps it'll be Gareth McLean, who fills us in on the transfer of Neighbours to Five).

Alastair Campbell says the media is awash with a culture of negativity - is he right? We examine the former spin doctor's Hugh Cudlipp lecture with press correspondent Stephen Brook and media consultant Steve Hewlett. Also on this week's podcast, we're at a Bafta debate on the future of reality TV, with panelists Natalka Znak, the driving force behind I'm A Celebrity, former BBC director general Greg Dyke and ex Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie. We also talk to Philip Glenister and Keeley Hawes, stars of the Life on Mars follow-up, Ashes to Ashes.

On the show this week: death-watch journalism. Whether it's Britney, or Lindsay, or Amy, we seem obsessed with the messy decline of (mostly female) celebrities. Why is that? Also, we talk to Lucy Kellaway, creator (and killer) of the fictional FT character Martin Lukes. Plus more on the licence fee top-slicing debate. And, while we're "on the air", so to speak, some breaking news. Maggie Brown and Owen Gibson are in the pod, and Gareth McLean is on hand for his top TV insights.

We've been accused of being London-centric, so this week we're on the road - in Oxford. It's the annual media convention there, and the waters have been stirred by the revelation that sharing the licence fee is back on the agenda (see previous post). Dynamic duo Emily Bell and Janine Gibson are reunited to pick over the event. We hear from culture secretary James Purnell, BBC chairman Sir Michael Lyons, and a host of other luminaries. Join us from our Oxford drain broom cupboard.

Happily, there are some real stories to get our teeth into in this week's podcast, and we kick off by asking how the media got it so wrong in New Hampshire. Roy Greenslade, professor of journalism at City University in London, is on hand with the answers. Plus, we hear from Trevor McDonald on the return of News at Ten, and John Plunkett is on hand to talk about the radio stories of the week. Stephen Brook, press correspondent for MediaGuardian.co.uk, and TV previewer Gareth McLean, complete the lineup.

Will a new year mean a new start for ITV? The troubled commercial broadcaster is hoping to turn over a leaf with a new schedule launching next week. Will it be enough to lay the ghost of 2007? With me in for the first media podcast of 2008 is Janine Gibson, editor-in-chief of MediaGuardian, to talk over Michael Grade's plans. Plus we cross to LA for the latest on the US writers' strike, as Leno and Letterman go back to work. Also, is it the end of the line for live blogging? And we pick over the entrails of the Christmas TV schedules with Gareth McLean.

It may be the week after Christmas but there's no rest for the pod squad. We've put down our presents and we're up with our review of the year, featuring broadcasting consultant Steve Hewlett and Media Guardian's John Plunkett, with contributions from the MediaGuardian.co.uk team. We've got fake noddies, dodgy quizzes, terrible ads, and sacked editors. Plus that rant by Heather Mills. What more could you want to lift your bloated spirits? Happy New Year!

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It's the last one before Christmas, but podfans, there's still one to go before the end of the year. Sadly for Channel 4, Ofcom wasn't in festive mood when it came to Channel 4 and GMTV this week, with whopping fines for each of them. C4 biographer Maggie Brown says the broadcaster must now hope to draw a line under its terrible 25th year, while columnist Steve Hewlett reckons ITV executives are sweating over the regulator's decision to delve deeper into the murky world of X Factor voting.

Black behind bars: we wonder what makes a media mogul believe his own hype, as the former owner of the Daily Telegraph ponders his six-year jail sentence for fraud. Our own media mogul Steve Hewlett and aspiring magnate John Plunkett are on hand to speculate.

Plus, we wonder whether the delay to the launch of Channel 4 Radio is symptom of wider problems with the project; we are outraged by the sponsorship of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards and those adverts for digital radio sets on Radio 5 Live.

So, what to make of the executive shakeup in the Murdoch empire? I talk to former Murdoch editor Andrew Neil, who says to prepare for the first big media battle of the 21st century as Rupert takes on the New York Times. Stephen Brook, press correspondent for MediaGuardian.co.uk, fills us in on the London end of the story, and Emily Bell, director of digital content at the Guardian, explains the worldwide interest in the Murdoch dynasty.

The "Hunt" is over for a new BBC1 controller - but what do we make of the womaan who said only three weeks ago that she didn't want the job? The Guardian's director of digital content, Emily Bell, and media consultant Paul Robinson are on the case in this week's show.

This week as big broadcasters get together to co-market broadband video services (codename: Project Kangaroo), we pay tribute to Verity Lambert, pioneering BBC producer of Doctor Who and discuss how far sex equality in TV still needs to go.

Also, Observer reporter David Smith on being dragged over the coals by the US military during his embed in Iraq with them, and we have a trio of panellists: Emily Bell, the Guardian's director of digital content, media commentator Steve Hewlett and MediaGuardian.co.uk's Stephen Brook. Plus, special guest host, Robert Freeman, head of video at Guardian Unlimited.

On the show this week, we ask if the police should have any role in investigating concerns about journalism, after Ofcom rejected a complaint lodged by the West Midlands force about the portrayal of alleged Muslim extremists in an edition of Dispatches on C4. Kevin Sutcliffe, the commissioning editor of news and current affairs at Channel 4, is on the pod.

This week the new-media giant Bebo announced a deal with some old-media behemoths like the BBC to put clips and shows onto the UK's biggest social networking website. What's in it for Bebo? And is this a chance for traditional broadcasters to reconnect with the 'lost generation'? We talk to Bebo's director of strategy, Evan Cohen.

Plus, we look at Yahoo's China crisis with our panelists Steve Hewlett and Emily Bell, and we interview David Marsh, editor of the Guardian's latest style guide.

We kick off this week's show at the Society of Editors conference in Manchester. Our man Stephen Brook mingled with the media bigwigs, and heard Independent boss Gavin O'Reilly claim the internet was not the biggest threat to printed newspapers. And Michael Billington, from our colleagues at GMG Radio in Manchester, reports on the big issue discussed at the conference- trust.

Also, with award-wining writers on the picket lines in Hollywood, you're bound to get a better class of banner. ("We write the storia for Eva Longoria" is a particular favourite.) Jeanne Wolf, a reporter with Parade.com, joins us from LA to explain the strike.

Channel 4 turns 25 this week, we celebrate with Maggie Brown, author of a new history of the network. It has been a difficult year for the 'Jekyll and Hyde' channel, as she calls it, and its history can be seen as a series of very different ages.

The bongs are back - and this time for good. But as ITV announces the return of Sir Trevor McDonald to a revived News at Ten, a former editor of the programme, Stewart Purvis, tells us why it was wrong to have ditched it in the first place. And he predicts that Sir Trev is unlikely to stay for much more than a year or so. Meanwhile our podcast panel, Janine Gibson and Steve Hewlett, are still outraged about the Deloitte report into the phone-in fraud at ITV. The announcement about News at Ten, they say, was designed to deflect attention from the controversy about premium-rate phone lines - and it worked.

Also this week, we discuss the resignation of Roger Alton as editor of the Observer, and the resignation of Roy Greenslade from the NUJ. I talk to a reporter on the Irish Times who is facing jail for refusing to disclose a source, and John Plunkett joins us to discuss the latest radio listening figures.

Everyone thought the Deloitte report into the premium rate phone scandal at ITV would be bad, but did anyone think it would be this bad? Executive chairman Michael Grade was touring the TV studios in a desperate attempt to prevent a BBC-style bloodletting at the network, but our panel is scathing. Emily Bell, director of digital content, and Owen Gibson, media correspondent, are aghast at the report's findings.

Things are looking pretty grim across London too, with staff at the BBC reportedly in tears as the extent of director general Mark Thompson's cuts was confirmed. NUJ president Jeremy Dear tells us that the BBC's news and current affairs output should be protected, not slashed.

Steven Barnett, professor of communications at the University of Westminster, tells us why he thinks why the former BBC1 controller Peter Fincham should not have been forced out of his job. This week's panel, Steve Hewlett and Janine Gibson, disagree, and think that Mark Thompson, the BBC director general, has made things even harder for himself as he tries to persuade the staff and the BBC Trust that he needs to make thousands of staff redundant. Plus, we have an intriguing revelation about the travel plans of Mr and Mrs Thompson.

In this special extra helping of the media podcast, we discuss the crisis engulfing the BBC team today. Joining me are Guardian media correspondent Owen Gibson, and editor-in-chief of Media Guardian, Janine Gibson. We discuss the implications of Peter Fincham's resignation as controller of BBC1, and ask if Jana Bennett, director of BBC Vision, can hang onto her job.

In this week's media show we pick over the ruling by the Competition Commission that BSkyB's stake in ITV is anti-competitive. Will Sky have to sell or reduce its stake? And what will such corporate upheaval mean for ITV?

Plus, the crisis in children's television: we hear from Mike Watts, whose production company makes Horrid Henry and who's chairman of the children's and animation committee at the producers' group Pact.

On the show this week, we talk to the head of the BBC World Service's Burmese language section about how her staff have been getting their information to report the popular uprising in the closed state. Although journalists are banned, the BBC and other news organisations are getting their material from many other sources.

Plus, after a judge described the Jeremy Kyle show as "bear-baiting", we ask an experienced psychiatrist to describe the long-term effects of appearing on this type of "confessional" talkshow.

In this week's show, blogger and media commentator Jeff Jarvis welcomes the decision from NYTimes.com to remove the pay wall from its op-ed pages. Paid-for content on news websites doesn't make business sense anymore, he says, as users increasingly access stories through blogs and social-bookmarking sites.

On the show this week, we talk to James Purnell, the new secretary of state for culture, media and sport, who has called for the broadcasting industry to stop being so introspective and cheer up a bit. We also pick over the extraordinary coverage of the McCann case, and we look at ITV's plan for recovery. Janine Gibson and Emily Bell are reunited on the podcast panel, plus we have Gareth McLean's take of the week.

The media boycott of the Rugby World Cup is growing, with newspapers joining news agencies in restricting their coverage, or in some cases, pulling out completely. Why has the row happened and is the sport being too greedy? Mark Sweney of MediaGuardian.co.uk has been following the story.

Our podcast panel, Emily Bell and Steve Hewlett, are on hand to comment on that plus the news that Alan Yentob, creative director of the BBC, has been drawn into the 'noddy' row. Apparently he doesn't do all his interviews, but films reaction shots to make it appear as if he was there. Tut, tut.

The first concrete step taken after Jeremy Paxman's MacTaggart lecture comes from Five News. Its youthful new editor, David Kermode, has decided to ditch the "noddy", and other editing techniques that he describes as "hackneyed". Is this a serious move to restore trust in TV or will it not make any difference? If nothing else, it is sure to get the rest of the industry watching Five News again. We hear from Kermode in this week's show.

After a few weeks sunning ourselves in the Caribbean (well, that's where Steve Hewlett was anyway), Media Talk is back with a bang from the Edinburgh TV festival. We've got Jeremy Paxman laying into TV bosses after a year of shame for the television industry (copyright Media Guardian), with top reaction from the big names in British broadcasting - and Kelvin MacKenzie.

After the excitement of the past couple of weeks, I thought we might be able to draw a line under the whole Queen/trust/fakery issue for a while, but then GMTV's Paul Corely went and resigned. Will anyone else follow, we wonder? Not likely, given past form, but Janine Gibson and Chris Tryhorn are at least impressed at Corley's decision to do the decent thing. Bafta award-winning documentary maker Brian Woods, meanwhile, welcomes the fact that we're having a debate about how programmes are made.

In this last edition of Media Talk before we take a short break for August, Jeff Jarvis gives his verdict on the CNN/YouTube debate, and Mark Honigsbaum reports from the United States on the Facebook faceoff. Hope you enjoy - and join us when we re-appear, with a special on-location show from the Edinburgh TV festival.

What a week it has been, with no shortage of things to talk about. In sympathy with Mark Thompson's travails at the BBC, we launch a Media Talk charity appeal for the corporation. No fake competitions, I promise. Plenty of (semi) serious chat too: we look at the implications of this week's events for the BBC, RDF and the industry in general with the help of veteran documentary maker Paul Watson, and your podcast panel, Janine Gibson and Owen Gibson (no relation).

Barely a week seems to go by these days without a TV executive being hauled on Newsnight or the Today programme and asked if he or she has considered resigning. BBC1 controller Peter Fincham's troubles rather overshadowed the speech by director general Mark Thompson in which he outlined (even more) cuts in the BBC - let's hope they're not in the PR department. We look at both issues in this week's show.

Today's big media stories broke after we recorded Media Talk, though Owen Gibson can be heard discussing the latest astonishing twist in the Richard and Judy scandal on the Newsdesk podcast here. Meanwhile we question Helen Boaden, the BBC's director of news, on whether the BBC should have pulled Alan Johnston out of Gaza earlier.

We have a podcast of all the talents this week. Former Sky boss Dawn Airey and broadcaster Andrew Neil give their verdicts on Tessa Jowell's time as culture secretary, while Emily Bell, our director of digital content, remembers a telling anecdote about her successor, James Purnell. Owen Gibson, the Guardian's media correspondent, makes his podcast debut in a show that also hears theatre critic Michael Billington plead guilty to AA Gill's charge of attending West End shows with a carrier bag.

It's time to bring back Media Talk's answer to Any Questions in this week's podcast. Gareth McLean will be performing the role of Shirley Williams, and he is awaiting your probing questions.

On this week's show, we tried not to talk about Facebook too much - but it was a bit hard not to, as we have launched our own Facebook group, which I urge you to join. We welcome Steve Hewlett back after his week in hospital following an altercation with a mountain bike in Turkey, and Emily Bell drags herself away from updating her Facebook profile to be with us.