Nuts TV launches tonight, it promises:

A page 3 girl reading book at bedtime, a hunt for Britain’s fittest barmaid and a nightly news bulletin called Rude News.

John Humphreys on the Today programme was suitably outraged at more evidence of media dumbing down, but do people realise how difficult it is to do crap on the telly?

I once edited a strand of BBC News24 which aimed for items on celebs, gizmos and gossip but these subjects were difficult to treat with any verve in a news studio. The problem is that few magazine formats work on TV because unlike a real paper magazine, you can’t turn to the bit of trivia that interests you. The viewer has to sit through loads of rubbish that doesn’t titilate.

The other problem is that the internet now provides tons of sex, gadgetry, games, and celebrity news online in an easily accessible format. Why watch a TV show about it? That’s one of the reasons for the recent decline in Lads Mags anyway.

Anyone can produce bad TV. But it’s possible to produce good down-market TV: take Dick and Dom or Ant and Dec. But they really have to have brilliant presenters and an original format with great content to have any impact.

Of course, NUTS TV is not looking for an audience of millions, so they may well thrive. I doubt they will present much of a challenge to Panorama or Channel 4 News, but it will be interesting to see if this kind of Freeview Show will lure that key audience group of spotty youths away from ITV.