Tim Lovejoy – Something for Everyone?

Tim Lovejoy’s career has featured stints with The Big Breakfast, Fifth Gear and even a short-lived (and ultimately unsuccessful) chat show, Tim Lovejoy and the Allstars. However, it is for his decade spent with Helen Chamberlain on Soccer AM that he is most likely to be remembered. Now presenting the BBC’s Sunday morning extravaganza Something for the Weekend, he is currently re-launching his flagship internet TV channel Channelbee.

I have to be frank; I didn’t expect much of Tim Lovejoy. Having sat through several cringe-worthy episodes of Soccer AM after boozy nights out, and then tuning into the frankly bizarre Something for the Weekend in the name of research, I felt positive I was approaching a deeply uncomfortable interview. His internet venture, Channelbee, was of more interest but I was sceptical as to whether the internet would ever challenge television and the radio as a viable medium for new content.

I also wondered whether Channelbee would merely be a conduit for the sort of puerile humour Soccer AM was famed for. A quick look at the review for one of Tim’s books revealed I wasn’t alone in having misgivings: “he is a rather vile, pseudo trendy character. Vacuous, unfunny, trite, unoriginal and offensively representative of lowest common denominator ‘lad culture’”. Nevertheless, I prepared to swallow my pride and asked Tim about the origins of Channelbee.
“I was just fascinated by the internet; it’s growing so quickly. To begin with, everyone was saying it is going to take over from television so I became intrigued by it. But the reality is, it won’t take over from television, a bit like TV didn’t take over from radio. It’s just a new medium”.

Internet television is certainly growing fast with more and more of us relying on BBC iPlayer as well as 4OD (Channel 4’s On Demand service) and YouTube to get our television fix – not to mention Sidereel and other more illicit television portal. Tim was quick to point out the shortcomings of internet television.
“Nobody is really making any decent content for it. They do re-runs of television shows on it, and there is user-generated content on it, and then there is a handful of people who aren’t that good at making content, who are making content. Then there are a load of fantastic advertising virals. So I thought, why don’t I start making some good content for the internet? The great thing about the internet is that it is on demand. It’s not like Eastenders: you can watch it when you want to watch it”.

Tim has assembled an impressive team, bringing in members of his award-winning Soccer AM team to assist his new venture. He attracted the attention of Simon Fuller, the founder of 19 Entertainment, who represents Claudia Schiffer and the Beckhams.

“He’s not short of a few bob or two”, quips Lovejoy.

I asked Tim the story behind the name Channelbee.
“I tried for the name ‘ChannelBroadband’ but couldn’t get it, so I then tried for the name ‘ChannelB’ and I couldn’t get that either. So I put ‘Channelbee’ in, just as a whim, and I got it, so I bought Channelbee.com, Channelbee.co.uk, I got them all. Then I sat around on it for ages, until one day I thought, let’s just go for it. If they can make billions of pounds out of an apple; why can’t I out of a bee?
“It turned out pretty well, because we have what’s called a sonic identity with a bee: the buzzing sound as well as the colours and the logo. It turned out to be not a bad name after all”.

Channelbee was re-launched in March: “it didn’t navigate very well, to be honest with you. We did a very soft launch in the beginning just to see what it would be like; but we now think that we can make it better so we’ve made a few tweaks”.

I asked him whether it had been successful.

“It has been a success in that we know what we’re doing now. We’ve got a lot of detail on there now. We’ve got a vibrant community; a good forum; and lots of people posting great content”.

At this point in the interview, it doesn’t take long for Tim to revert back to discussing his first love: football. He tells me how a journalist in the Guardian had first learnt about the sacking of Phil Scolari, the Chelsea manager, from Lovejoy’s Twitter. Lovejoy, in turn, had heard the news himself from a post on Channelbee’s web forum.

“With TV you’re slightly removed from your audience, with radio you’re a bit closer but with the internet you’re really close to your audience”.

Tim recently took over presenting Something for the Weekend, an eclectic entertainment show featuring a mixture of old TV clips, cookery and cocktails. I asked Tim how he has found the change from Soccer AM.

“Both of the shows are similar in that I just go on there and have a laugh. That’s how I make television: I just have fun. To begin with, the idea of Something for the Weekend wasn’t that appealing, and then I met the chef, Simon Rimmer. The chef and I thought, we’ll have a laugh doing this and that’s what I think TV’s about. I get a buzz out of live TV.

“I kind of miss Soccer AM in a way, but it needed a big change. I’d been there for such a long time and loved every minute of it but it was getting a bit tired; it needed to evolve. I’d rather put my effort into the internet stuff to be honest”.

Tim has claimed that a significant factor in his decision to leave Sky and set up his own broadcaster was that he could never really own an aspect of the medium by working for a global media company, and would always be just a presenter. I asked if he felt other television personalities might follow in his shift to the internet.

“You can see that happening already with the likes of Twitter. Stephen Fry has 250,000 friends on Twitter, so when he launches a new book, he’s got 250,000 people he can sell it to. People want to own their persona. Philip Schofield spends all his time twittering about his website. He wants to own a chunk of his own media”.

Tim went on to give his advice to any students looking to start a career in the media.
“Have a wash! No, my advice is to realise that everyone else wants a job as well. I took on a lot of people on work experience when I was doing Soccer AM and I always found the ones who annoyed me were the ones who thought that the world owed them a living. So just make sure when you do it that you’re humble. I was always first in, last out. It sounds stupid, but there are so many people out there that you have got to set yourself apart from everyone else and show that you are invaluable. Keep coming up with ideas. The whole thing about media is that it is all ideas driven; so the more ideas you have, the better”.

Obviously it takes time to gain a profile in the media world and there are wrong turns along the way. Tim claims he once interviewed for a position on the British television institution Blue Peter: “I think they realised in the audition that I didn’t really suit it. I was a bit too controversial maybe. Not really my thing. Good show but I can’t see myself on it to be honest”.

As the interview ended I must confess to feeling somewhat ashamed. My preconceptions about Lovejoy had proved to be unfair as he was relentlessly polite and friendly. Channelbee itself is an interesting venture; fans of Soccer AM (at least those who have a fast internet connection) will love it. Personally, it’s not for me. However, I concede that it still makes more sense than Something for the Weekend. Maybe I just haven’t had enough hangovers lately.