Ross and Brand both apologised for their behaviour

 fines and most importantly, funds.

By the end of 2008, the realities of the economic crisis firmly outweighed the unrealities of life on the air and the front pages, as broadcasters and publishers fought to secure their financial futures.

But understandably, the headlines dwelt on the succession of "fiascos" and "crises", at the BBC and elsewhere.

2008 saw the high-profile resignations of Strictly Come Dancing favourite John Sergeant, Radio 2 controller Lesley Douglas, presenter Russell Brand and the suspension without pay of Jonathan Ross.

His oft-reported salary (said to be ?18m over three years) gave a public funding foundation to the row over the phone harassment of the actor Andrew Sachs.

The fact that Ross was not sacked was compared unfavourably with the later treatment of the Today presenter Ed Stourton, who learned about his own planned "sacking" from a newspaper journalist.

Financial gloom

By contrast, 2008 saw BBC business editor Robert Peston elevated to guru status, after a string of scoops about the banking crisis and its knock-on effects.

These in turn led to official questions about where he'd got his stories and whether his reports had exacerbated the crisis.

The media themselves were not immune from the financial gloom.

The year saw hundreds of journalists and other media workers lose their jobs at ITV, Virgin Media, the BBC, Channel 4 and a host of newspaper groups, including Trinity Mirror, the Telegraph, Associated Newspapers and Newsquest.

But some of the media's financial problems were self-imposed - with notable libel and privacy payments and fines imposed by regulators.

The News of the World had to pay ?60,000 in damages - and much higher costs - to Max Mosley after falsely accusing the Formula One boss of taking part in a "sick Nazi orgy".

Paul Dacre, editor of the Daily Mail, later made a rare appearance in the headlines when he publicly accused the judge, Mr Justice Eady, of introducing a privacy law by the back door.

Ofcom fines

Express Newspapers had to pay the Find Madeleine McCann campaign £550,000 after libelling her parents, Kate and Gerry. Seven of their friends received a further £375,000, which was also paid into the fund.

And Robert Murat, wrongly accused of complicity in Madeleine's disappearance, received £600,000 from 11 newspapers and a further payment from Sky News.

In the phones saga, ITV was fined more than £5.6 million pounds by Ofcom for its transgressions of previous years. Its subsidiary GMTV paid out a further £2 million.

More than 13 million people saw Tom Chambers win Strictly Come Dancing

 producers may find themselves in difficulty, as well as the channels, as advertising shrinks and budgets are cut.

But at the end of a year when the headlines have been dominated by the "fiascos" and "crises", let's not forget the success of the creative output.

There've been huge Saturday night audiences for Strictly Come Dancing, the X Factor, Doctor Who and Britain's Got Talent.

There's also been high praise for many dramas, comedies and documentaries on the major TV and radio networks - not forgetting the coverage of the Olympics, the US election and the banking crisis.

And now all this is available to millions of viewers and listeners "on demand", via the iPlayer, mobiles, itv.com and the Sky+ box.

In terms of changing the way people enjoy radio and TV, surely that - in the words of John Sergeant - is strictly fantastic!