— The company behind The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph received a £25 million interest-free loan during 2007, a year in which the business lost £11.1 million before tax. The soft loan came from an “intermediate holding company” and is presumably a cash injection. Two years ago a further £25 million was injected into the business via a share issue. This came on top of the original £665 million purchase of the Telegraph titles by Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay. Last year’s loss was slightly more than the previous year’s £8.8 million, and came after £23.8 million of write-offs, stemming largely from a decision to switch printing from West Ferry in East London to News International’s site just north of the capital (NI also publishes The Times). Before the one-off items, and interest payments of £22 million, though, profits were £1.6 million ahead, at £34.3 million.

— Fancy getting up in the small hours to see Michael Phelps swim at the London Olympics? A problem for NBC, the broadcaster with US rights to the Games, is that it is tricky to find a sensible time that would allow swimming to be broadcast in US prime time. You would have to hold the pool events at 3am to ensure they were live at 10pm in New York and 7pm in LA. Not practical. NBC seems philosophical about this. Executives talk of a “taped Olympics”, in which all the key events would be transmitted as if live the evening after. The question, though, is whether that can be credible in the age of the internet.

— Mark Damazer, the controller of Radio 4, periodically draws up a wish list of who he wants to hear on Desert Island Discs. Top of the list are Arsène Wenger, Bruce Springsteen and Kevin Spacey. None, so far, has been willing, but what with Spacey declaring this week at the Pride of Britain Awards that he had never been more impressed with his adoptive home, surely the Usual Suspects star would consider it? Damazer was promising to pen a letter in pursuit of his man.

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