Hard Copy

Cable cut

There has been a changing of the guard at Videotron, one of Britain's leading cable companies. The reason? "Personality conflicts." Nick Cane, formerly managing director, has left "to pursue other opportunities". In his place, Quebecois Louis Brunelle has stepped in, ready to reimpose the control of Videotron's owners, a Montreal-based cable company. We're assured there will be no changes in strategy and operation. Too bad: Videotron has one of the worst after-sales service records of UK cable operators.

Dress nonsense

According to research just conducted on behalf of Vogue, the magazine is officially Britain's most glamorous. Well, they would say that, wouldn't they? Actually, the most intriguing part of the survey was perception of the prices of goods advertised in the mag. Asked how much an unidentified women's suit (actually from M&S) would cost if it was advertised in Vogue, readers replied pounds 209 - over twice its real price of pounds 85.

Go CanWest

CanWest, leader of one of the consortia bidding for the new Channel 5 licence, has offered to spend about pounds 80m a year on programming, far less than its competitors for the potentially lucrative franchise. But that amount looks positively rich compared to the pounds 40m-a-year budget the company first bandied about in advance of its formal bid in May - much less than half what Virgin, Pearson and BSkyB, the other contenders, had set aside.

It's all in the game

A battle is brewing between BSkyB, Rupert Murdoch's satellite broadcaster, and ITV. Mr Murdoch managed to entice Trevor East, (pictured), ITV's controller of sports, to jump ship to become head of sports for News Corporation Television, Mr Murdoch's TV holding company. ITV is baulking; it's not accepting Mr East's resignation. Expect some weeks of negotiation before East is liberated to join Rupert's team.

Rude? Moi?

Jeremy Paxman tells it like it is at the launch for his new BBC1 series You Decide - With Paxman. Asked whether he himself had ever been rude or gone over the top, he said: "Only an insufferably arrogant buffoon would say they have never made a mistake."

They were tango'd

Product Placement of the Week Award goes to Tango for successfully sneaking a man dressed as Napoleon, and equipped with a bright orange floppy latex hand, into the backgrounds of most news reports from College Green, opposite the Houses of Parliament, on the evening of the leadership contest last Tuesday. The stunt, of course, bore no relation to the one played by Armando Ianucci for his Saturday Armistice show the previous weekend, in which an old woman, in a purple checked two-piece with matching hat, attempted to sneak into as many news report shots as possible.