Independent music

It's as if David Jensen opened The Roxy for nothing, as ITV develop a chart-based pop show. Yes, ITV do already have a well regarded pop show that's finishing in March, but nobody ever thought they properly think these things through. And the forward thinking, music as frontispiece producer behind it? Chris Cowey, the man who helped bring Top Of The Pops to its knees by bringing in features, overseeing a dip in viewing figures, hiring Kate Thornton etc. Oh, we know Andi Peters finished the show off properly, but the groundwork had been done. "I want to do for music television what the Premier League did for football" Cowey says, which presumably means three or four big labels reaping all the income and rewards while leaving the indies to starve. Well, it is prime-time ITV.

Interestingly, Cowey and The Official Charts Company are considering promoting a new chart which, it says here, incorporates "sales, downloads, file sharing and airplay". a) That's just the old network chart, and b) file sharing? Of the illegal kind?