Horticultural Channel TV -3rd April

[Lotsaveg]

I recently bought an Apple iMac and the picture quality is better than my TV! Watching Youtube video such as the Horticultural Channel is really clear.

[seanjc]

Hi. Sean here from The Horticultural Channel. Sorry for not getting here sooner, life has been busy busy busy. Here is a response to some of the comments made in this thread.

Lotsaveg - I'm planted Broad Beans up until the end of April. 'Express' is a good variety and does well for late sowings.

Twosheds - The presenters are not professional TV folk and after a very long time doing research for this series the two main themes that came out were people wanted friendly amateur presenters and looser editing. So many people have different views and it can be difficult to include all of them but I will keep an eye on the amount of y'knows and amazings - especially when the presenter is not in shot.

Bronwen - James Nesbitt lives by me and we've met in the park a few times. I often get side glances from people in the shop who think I'm him but just ignore them now - unless they are obviously gardeners ;-)

chrismarks - We are using AVID and the white balance tells us it's 99% perfect but will take a second look on forthcoming programmes. Chickens have been dropped due to the feedback I received about the information given.

baggyman - Not shown on Virgin this year.

Kristen - The programme on youtube is broadcast is HD. We have been talking with a major seed company about sponsoring the rest of the series. Everything was going perfectly then on the day they should have returned the contract they pulled out. Reasons being that an element of the 2011 government budget is going to effect their company and that had to put themselves first which is understandable. This happened very unexpectedly and very late in the day. We are now talking to the broadcaster and will have to wait until Tuesday to see if we will be on TV this coming Sunday. Being off TV is only temporary and we will be back as early as the second show in May if not this coming week.

The idea for this series came in December 2010 and the sales team started contacting sponsors/advertisers in February but we have discovered that all budget had already been spent for 2011. We are now in a better position and have gained insight into the industry which we will use when the new round of advertising budgets open.

It was always going to be a chicken-and-egg situation with the first series as advertisers aren't going to put money into something that had never seen. We are now building a solid viewership via this forum, facebook (http://www.facebook.com/thehorticulturalchanneltv), youtube and the national press. We will even made Alan Titchmarsh, Carol Klein, Toby Buckland and yes, HM The Queen will make an appearence in forthcoming shows - there is a lot of exciting things planned for the rest of the series.

Lotsaveg - I haven't seen the show via Apple TV so it's good to hear everything is looking good on it. The videos on youtube are in HD so you'll see all our wrinkles.

Hope that answers all the points in this thread. Now off for a mug of tea!

[Lotsaveg]

Thanks for the feedback Sean,

I've really enjoyed your programmes so far. Advice appears to be 'spot-on' and I'm really looking forward to watching how all the things you've started develop.

I find the problem with other TV gardening programmes is that they never seem to follow up on the projects that are started. It's fine showing us how to plant various seasonal vegetables for example, but there's an awful lot more required to nurture them through to a successful harvest. Hopefully you'll be keeping us updated with your sowings and the problems that need addressing.

Great to see you're a fellow Beepol bumblebee owner!

[bronwen]

Thanks for keeping us up to date and responding to people's comments seanjc! I hope the show is on air this sunday, and also hope that the show can keep going as planned throughout the year. I am surprised to hear the idea for it only came about last December! Also, wow.. HM The Queen.. how exciting!!

[Kristen]

Good luck with the sponsorship deals, and getting back on the box

[Two_Sheds]

The presenters are not professional TV folk ... people wanted friendly amateur presenters and looser editing.

Well I couldn't do it, and as you say, horses for courses. Best of luck to you, I hope you get back on TV as soon as. I'm happy to spread the word via facebook - I'll put a link on my page right now

[Maccabee]

I hope you're back soon. I've really enjoyed the show so far. It may not be as slick as GW, but the content imo is far superior, especially for us newbie veg growers. Keep up the good work

[pauco]

Thanks for the update Sean.
The programme is a breath of fresh air, & in my opinion off to a good start, as a newbie to veg-growing it has good content.
Good luck for future filming.

paul.