"program" news and stories

All year long, there has been discussion about whether the TV advertising regulator, Ofcom, would institute a ban on junk food ads on programs that were targeted to kids. Recently, Ofcom said that they would be instituting guidelines for advertising, but that they would not restrict the commercials shown during prime time, a statement which prompted some to believe that the restrictions might not be too severe. Ofcom, however, has just published its guidelines and they call for a "total ban on junk food advertising around all children's programming, on all children's channels" and on any show that would specifically appeal, for any reason, to under 16-year-olds. Due to their decision to include kids up to the age of 16, some awards shows and music channels will be affected.

Ofcom has given marketing companies until March 2007 to comply with the new regulations and to change their ad campaigns, but TV channels that are kids-only networks have until the end of 2008 to comply, so as not to cause such a significant loss of revenue.

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MasterChef Goes Large is coming to BBC America this fall, giving food-loving US viewers a chance to check out a great British reality show. The show is a remake of an older, more subdued British show, simply called MasterChef, and is a culinary competition that challenges amateur cooks to face off against each other to see who is the Master Chef - sort of like Top Chef, only with a seemingly greater emphasis on sheer culinary skill, passion and talent and less on interpersonal conflicts. At least, as much as can be hoped for in any sort of reality show.

The number of contestant s narrows as the season goes on and the chefs face multiple types of cooking challenges. In the Invention test, each chef has less than one hour and a set of ingredients that must be used within the time gram to create a dish. The Pressure test puts the amateurs into real kitchens to see how they fare, as well as giving viewers an inside look at some great restaurants. And for the Final test, chefs are expected to put out their best 2 course meal for a review by the judges.

The show premiers on BBC America on October 2, but if you want to get in the mood to watch, blogger Maki of i was just really very hungry played along with the invention challenges when they aired in Europe earlier this year and tried to make 40-minute meals using the same ingredients that the MasterChef contestants were given to work with.