But following a series of TV adverts screened before Christmas, the relationship was deemed to have fallen foul of the BBC's strict rules on commercial interests – though the chef said on Tuesday he was not clear how, precisely, he had broken the broadcaster's guidelines.
Plans for televised election debates were thrown into fresh doubt when broadcasters tried to break the deadlock over the line-up by proposing to include the Green party, the Scottish National party and Plaid Cymru in two of three proposed debates – only to find their plans met with fierce objections from the Liberal Democrats and the Democratic Unionists.
"The total pot of money available to invest in original TV production is shrinking, and unless something changes, may shrink further". He emphasised that the UK's broadcasters would have to "break the habit of a lifetime and actually work together".
12.3 million Americans tuned in to the finale of series three in February, making it the highest-rated show of the day, and breaking the viewership record for broadcaster PBS.
12.3 million Americans tuned in to finale of series three on 17 February, making it the highest-rated show of the day, and breaking the viewership record for broadcaster PBS.
In Britain, the success of BSkyB, a subscription-based satellite-television service that has broken the monopoly of terrestrial broadcasters such as the BBC, was built on Sky's acquisition in 1992 of the rights to live Premier League football.
The Advertising Standards Authority found seven cases of broadcasters breaking the rules relating to alcohol advertising – which bans ads in or around programmes targeted or likely to appeal to under-18s – after acting on research from an Ofcom investigation.
Mr Johnson broke off from the broadcaster's monthly board meeting at Channel 4's headquarters in Horseferry Lane in London to read a statement about Celebrity Big Brother to the journalists who had been camped outside all day.
Earlier this week, a kerfuffle broke out after the broadcaster Melvyn Bragg told the Sunday Times he had decided to back Armitage rather than the 80-year-old Soyinka over concerns the Nobel laureate would not "bother to come to Oxford".
My colleague Mark Brown recently reported on BBC4's cancellation of 25th anniversary repeat of Dennis Potter's landmark drama The Singing Detective – because negotiations broke down between the broadcaster and Potter's estate.
