OFCOM's judgement day (or one of them anyway)

There is some news that the so called 'whistle-blower' Bob Winsor will get his judicial review heard in court in early September.

Bob bravely tried to bring attention to the scandal that was the participation TV fiasco run by all of the terrestrial broadcasters (to a greater or lesser extent) about 4-5 years ago.

Along with some deception there was some action that looked pretty shady - hopefully some light will be thrown on what went wrong.

(For those who are not aware of what went on there's some background on the case here ).

Way out west

Last w/e we visited my brother in Cardiff, now Cardiff is a city that I thought I knew as it was where I studied Electrical and Electronic Engineering many years ago but it has undergone the change that so much of Britain has in the last quarter century or so.

Cardiff has been for some time a place of paper pushers rather than manual labour but now with the docks gone there is even less of an industrial landscape and gentrification is the name of the game.

There are some fantastic shops a bright new John Lewis shopping centre and many cultural attractions - we visited the Wales Millennium Centre where we had a fantastic meal and enjoyed Calendar Girls (a play adapted from the earlier film featuring Jennifer Ellison - right) we also had a great curry the previous night at Mint and Mustard.

What does this mean for the UK and Welsh economy? Are we placed to compete with Germany (or even France) - I fear not, will dramatic spending cuts help? Again from me a 'no' I don't believe they will.

From Cardiff we went on to Bath a city I know less well and probably one that does not have a great industrial past, but a city now very much based on tourism and services - worrying.

has ITv a pay strategy?

I was interested to read that Adam Crozier might have a pay TV strategy for ITV - but somewhat puzzled by what it will deliver for ITV.

Much as the UK has been labelled as the junior partner in the US/UK special relationship it appears that ITV is becoming a junior partner in a SKY partnership - as what it is bringing to the table is somewhat questionable I would worry - ITV2, 3 and 4 have slightly downmarket viewers of oft repeated or generic content (often at the low end of SD)how it will work remains to be seen. Certainly didn't help the share price short term.

Perhaps their new CTO Paul Dale will have some brighter ideas (that's chief technology officer if you hadn't guessed)?