The BBC yesterday confirmed it is to axe 10 of its World Service radio services to find the money to launch an Arabic-language television station. The decision is powerful testimony to the extraordinary growth of al-Jazeera, the Arab satellite station which in less than a decade has developed from the personal indulgence of the Emir of Qatar into a global player on the international broadcasting stage. Founded in 1996 the Qatar-based news network - which became a potent media force in during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq when its ability to report events in the Middle Eastern domain from an Arab perspective contrasted with the difficulties faced by other media organisations - al-Jazeera was recently voted the fifth most influential global brand (behind Apple and Google). That status can only increase from next year when it launches an English-speaking international version, with a raft of top ITN and BBC executives behind the scenes, and Sir David Frost - who has interviewed seven US presidents and six British prime ministers - signed up as its big-name presenter. Sharon Osbourne, one of the judges on ITV's The X-Factor, was named most popular expert on TV, a new category. The X-Factor also won best entertainment programme.Tony Warren, the creator of Coronation Street, was presented with a TV Landmark award.. Billie Piper, who played his assistant Rose Tyler, won best actress.The series, written by Russell T Davies, kept many elements familiar to fans of Doctor Who, including the Tardis and the Daleks, but was reinvented for a new generation.Nearly 13 million people tuned into the first episode - the biggest audience since Tom Baker's heyday in the 1970s. Within days of the start of the first series, however, Eccleston quit, saying that he did not want to be "typecast".
A Christmas special, a second series and a spin-off are in the offing.Jamie Oliver's School Dinners, the Channel 4 show which highlighted funding problems in school dinners, was named most popular factual programme.Oliver, who took a petition to the Government urging it to improve school dinners, was given a special recognition award.Little Britain was named best comedy programme over The Simpsons, Will and Grace and Max and Paddy's Road To Nowhere. The BBC's decision to revive Doctor Who was vindicated last night when it swept the board at the National Television Awards. The 13-part, £10m series was crowned most popular drama at the award ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in London, which is voted for by viewers. It saw off competition from Desperate Housewives, The Bill and the ITV prison drama Bad Girls.Christopher Eccleston, who played the Time Lord, was named best actor. "I used to work in the music business, and I couldn't live without music But this, innovation, its impact on civilisation, it's.. well, it's everything.". But the Welsh," he says, gesturing at a long stand with several dozen inventions from Wales, "they know what they're doing.
The Welsh Development Agency is the model of how to do it properly, and we should learn from them."Elsewhere, competition to attract people to the stands is fierce, with alluring female acquaintances having been roped in to hand out leaflets and, at one stand, strip to their underwear and get into a bath in front of an innovative set of blinds displaying a great view of the Lake District.Despite such almost-naked ambition, the camaraderie among the inventors is obvious Ideas are exchanged and help offered Kramer surveys the scene with a satisfied smile. The Government should give them that opportunity."Kramer finds the Government's stance similarly scandalous. "Business Link centres aren't set up to assist us," he says, "and the Government only comes on board when someone is already doing well. "Now I'm getting older," he says, "I want to give something back But it shouldn't be left to people like me and Kane.