Television dinosaurs need to go

Take cooking, gardening, property and reality TV shows out of the programme listings and you are left with some huge gaps to fill in the schedules.

It seems that TV executives are playing it safe and dull. It is formulaic with no imagination.

With another mind numbing Big Brother on its way and desperate attempts to generate some interest in something that delivers little more simulation than a test card you would think that a little originality is being sought.

This last week has seen the Joe Strummer biopic "The future is unwritten" hit cinema screens, it chronicles punk band the Clash. I think there is a correlation between punk and the current situation TV has put itself in.

In 1975 rock has become predictable, boring and stale, fed on a diet on self congratulatory and self indulgent uninspiring trash. The age of the rock dinosaurs and I do not mean TRex. We are at that same point. We need a TV punk revolution. We need TV that is judged on originality, intelligence and is entertaining.

If TV advertising revenues are down and executives blame the Internet they should think again. Internet, Internet TV, blogs and many other media channels are not just succeeding because they are new or exciting, but because many of their editors and writers want to say something that engages with their audience.

If TV wants to fight for audience share it needs to not rely on a little sensationalism, proven but increasingly ineffective formulas and the inertia of viewers not to turn it off.