Events dear boy

Arty Artichokes 

Politically things are fluid is one way of describing the current UK government - they're already  having some uncomfortable pressures exerted on them  regarding their new DUP  friends' attitude towards abortion being different from the mainland.


Perhaps though the arithmetic of the newly elected MPs  has been part of the Culture secretary's decision (as well as OFCOM advice) with respect to a referral to the Completion authorities - this would seem sensible as it will mean that talk of a grubby backroom deal will at the very least be delayed  and is perhaps a little piece of good news .


Or it might mean that News International will  look for another Tory to head up the government and takeover from Theresa..

Here we are

At a tidy £282

Trust??

I don't mean to nag but a further reminder to those with an interest in 'Participation TV' I'm running a survey it closes at the end of October and you could win a prize -please complete and do pass on the link to others...


Here's the link http://www.smart-survey.co.uk/v.asp?i=2760yswkw

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Along with the news today that the BBC is going to be losing around 12% of it’s staff (BBC Trust permitting) is news (far more interesting for this research) that the ITV report into their use of Premium rate phone calls is around.

Is there a common factor here in the shape of Michael Grade – who quit as Chair designate of the BBC Trust last year and who is now CEO at the helm of the UK’s pre-eminent commercial TV network?

ITV is of course at the centre of controversy over the SKY holding that meant Virgin Media (NTL at the time) could not be ‘cosied’ up to for a possible merger/takeover. Once the dust has settled on this lot (and don’t forget Channel 4 that the exchequer could be looking for funds) I predict the UK broadcasting business will be looking very different.

A break from 'Play'

Somewhat away from participation TV I can’t deny some interest in the SKY owning 17.9% of ITV story, sometime ago an experienced commentator wrote of an end game where ITV sold/bartered it’s share of ITV to RTL and became the controlling interest/owner of C5 – are we moving closer to that?

And while I’m straying from my usual call for responses to the ITV Play survey another story that grabbed me was BBC Worldwide’s purchase of Lonely Planet –How does this work (apart from fuelling calls for BBC to be sold off?), is this out of scope of the BBC Trust ?

How to get responses for a research

I'm not sure if anyone has tips as to how to get responses from letters?

When I first started this research I wrote to a few people to ask for input, Charles Allen (he’d been ITV boss when the channel launched) – no reply
Richard Woolfe (Sky) – no reply (and now he’s having employment tribunal trouble)
William van Rest –ITV Play at least I got a no.

Channel 5’s News supremo Chris Shaw kindly replied and did give a note of an article he’d written for the Media Guardian.

If anyone want s to help or has information about Telemedia (where the presenters are trained) I’d be grateful details to itvplaysurvey@btopenworld.com

And it gets worse for Sky

Ofcom to look at Pay TV

Hot on the heels of the issues sky has already been facing is the news that OFCOM are going to be looking at the UK pay TV business in a move triggered by their competitors BT Vision, Virgin Media (the former NTL cable business), Top up TV and sports pay TV operator Setanta, this is just what Sky does not need, they’d be wise to come to an accommodation with Richard Branson’s outfit at the very least. Any move to seriously dilute the dominance of Sky is likely to severely undermine their business across all platforms including broadband and their stated aim to enter the terrestrial market with a pay proposition.

It’s an unholy alliance who each have their own agenda but can unite against Sky, Sky needs to pick off the biggest in the gang and spread a little dissent in the camp.

Europeans cousins moving into digital radio

In a sure sign that there are downsides to being early adopters on a national scale the news from our French Cousins is that they are backing a few horses in the steeplechase that is replacement of analogue radio – read a little about a UK company that is keeping across the cheese eating surrender monkey’s strategy here

Brain going?

If I hadn't lost it I would have told you last week that it was Brain Awareness Week; sorry I'm late but the advice is probably still pertinent.

Twitter and Twits

Twitter

Have you heard about twitter? It’s rumoured to be the next big thing with a rapidly expanding user base apparently it’s somewhere between a blog and IM/sms text now I can see that it may appeal to youngsters but for me it sounds like another way to waste time crossed with a slightly spooky stalking element – if you think differently let me know and I’ll perhaps give it a go.

OFCOM’s other worry….Is Sky and Freeview.

Sky announced what might have been spoiling tactics for Virgin Media (formerly NTL) on Valentine’s day, the threat could lead to Sky leaving Freeview and a new generation of STBs to puzzle Joe Public – how will the increasingly beleaguered OFCOM deal?

Now I’ve previously been a fan of the way Sky have conducted their business, audacity has been their byword, but they might need to learn the taste of humble pie, there’s a real danger that their 17.9% share of ITV is going to be ruled out of court, that their loss of audience due to the lack of a deal with cable could affect their advertising rates on Sky News and Sky 1, 2 and 3 and now they might suffer from Freeview snubbing them.

With the BBC’s free satellite package not too far off and bigger bills for Football things are not looking quite as good as they did a couple of months back, a few compromises and a little less testosterone might be called for.

Sky Quickie

Now it seems that Sky have got a couple of things right one being taking the decision to be above the premium call fiasco by opting out of such services, I recall hearing Richard Woolfe (Sky One controller) talking about the pitfalls on BBC radio 4's moneybox. The other thing is putting pressure on Virgin Media's Call centre -which seems suspiciously like NTL/Telewest's call centre- not sure if the failure to agree on Sky's channels was designed to do this but it's one of the outcomes.

More bad news for Sky

Following Sky’s disclosure that it could face a £20m reduction in profits as a result of the failure to reach agreement with Virgin Media (was NTL) comes the news that the BBC trust has approved the long awaited satellite version of Freeview. This is undoubtedly bad news for the folks out at Osterley but many observers consider an alternative platform as long overdue, C4 is expected to be part of the offering but will a 17.9% Sky owned ITV also be there?

BBC reacts quickly to premium phone hysteria by Chugger* Holmes.

News that while the larger than life Eamon Holmes was simulcasting across BBC Radio and TV he was also cadging money for BBC charities was met with horror, in their favour the BBC have now decreed that such phone-ins will henceforth be live. Me I think it’s not for the BBC to be an arbiter of the charities and consider such commercial concepts should be removed from the public broadcaster. (Eamon, the hardest working man in Showbiz also available on Sky News)

(Charity Mugger)

Ericsson swoops on Tandberg tv

Convergence takes a further twist with the news that the company that enables many of the DVB (digital TV) services in the UK and the rest of the world Tandberg TV) is being stalked by mobile phone giant Ericsson it certainly shows that further consolidation fuelled by the predicted growth in IPTV is going to be the only show in town (for a while).

Hopefully not the last laugh

We went to see The Last Laugh ( known in Japan as Warai no Daigaku) a comedic play by the Japanese writer Koki Mitani I can’t help feeling that this already sounds slightly pretentious (which I like)

The plays starred Martin Freeman (Tim from The office) and Roger Lloyd Pack (Trigger from Only Fools ..).

It was slightly dark and had some value in questioning the value of humour and how arts can flourish even when censorship is the norm– worth catching if you get the chance, if only as an opportunity to be slightly pretentious.

Darling’s Sky Chalice and institutional leftism at the BBC

Always mildly suspicious of reports from the Mail stable on SKY and ITV but I think there could be some truth in this one.

The New labour pact with News International goes to the heart of the electability of a Labour Government, with the removal of Blair there’s likely to be a reassessment of how Sky’s dominance of commercial TV affects democracy, in truth the question is not about if Sky bought into ITV as a spoiler to NTL Virgin but can they get away with it ? I wonder if James Murdoch will alter anyone’s mind on this before he leaves for the U.S.A.

If I was holding ITV or Sky shares I’d be unloading them now, Sky does not need regulatory issues and ITV although improving has some way to go.

The Sunday Times has a provocative piece by Robin Aitken around the BBC’s stodgy slightly left of centre world view, I’m in agreement but not sure how it should be tackled, Channel 4 is not much better and a right of centre bias is just as bad- true independence is perhaps a pipe dream but the idea that the BBC is something other than a state broadcaster is a view held by all at the BBC but not so many outside of it.

Health

Checked my Blood pressure again it’s 125/78
So the aim is to

• Lose weight.
• Eat a healthier diet low in saturated fat, cholesterol and salt.
• Be more physically active.
• Limit alcohol to no more than two drinks a day .

Get a first life

As promised I made a trip to Second Life – seems pretty hopeless and a bit of a waste of time, I guess it's suitable for Trekkies and other low-lifes but think the web has plenty of better uses.

batlle of the giants (not)

Virgin versus Sky (1,2,3, News etc)

The battle between the major commercial digital platforms is heating up with Sky threatening to pull some of its channels from Virgin Media's Cable line-up. (actually it's not renew the agreement).
Sky are saying that Virgin are unwilling to pay a realistic rate for carriage of their great channels ( my words )

And the facts?

 * The channels threatened are Sky One, Sky Two, Sky Three, Sky News and Sky Sports News

 * The Sky movie and sport offerings will not be affected.

 * Sky’s top offerings are Lost and 24 and to a lesser extent Battlestar Galactica.

The analysis

In fact Sky One has consistently managed to deliver far less than one would expect, it has a few shows that are audience pullers but to say they are sparsely spread is a severe understatement, the channel underlies the feeling that Sky is not in the TV business but is merely an aggregator of content both in terms of external channels and its own.
Virgin loves to play the underdog and is being given the opportunity by Sky to do so here, Sky usually surefooted is missing a trick making the competition look more important than it is.
Look at Virgin Media's statement and note how they hate being called Virgin NTL (they've issued a cease and desist order to Sky).

And some hotspots for people who are on the side of the angels..

Mean or green try here
Send out some positive vibes from this spot
Tips on some places to live are here

it's all about Money- and Sky

Sky and DTT

The fallout from Sky’s announcement that they will launch pay TV services on their terrestrial bandwidth carries on in a muted fashion with OFCOM doing their deliberations.

Assuming that Sky’s plan is a serious one (some commentators are voicing the opinion that Sky used the idea merely to spoil Virgin Media launch knowing that OFCOM would not permit) then part of the impact is going to be around the STB (Set Top Box),
Now MPEG 4 is what Sky say the new channels will use, the current DTT standard is MPEG2 a move to MPEG4 is interesting in that it's the system being used on Sky’s Satellite High Definition service and also being used in the UK terrestrial HD trials (incidentally also the system used in France for Digital TV), so will Sky’s box be able to receive MPEG2 and MPEG4 –I think this would be an essential a future proof MPEG4 box with download capability and HD ready would be great- is it likely to be on the cards for summer 2007- NO

Now not everyone knows it but there is already a pay proposition on Terrestrial TV, it’s called TOP UP TV, the people behind it are some ex Skyers and it uses MPEG2 and Mediaguard (for it’s live services like Setanta) and a proprietary Thomson system for its programmes that are described as Top Up TV Anytime – so will there be interoperability between Sky pay on terrestrial and Top Up TV – I think to say unlikely is putting it mildly (unless OFCOM insist and then I think it’ll take some time or Sky will decide it’s not of interest).

So is Sky’s plan merely a short term spoiler ?– I don’t think so as I’ve said before Sky, BT and Virgin Media are fighting for the same coveted place in the home and if Sky can get the right STB in the home be it Satellite or terrestrial then they have the chance to deliver both linear live services and an on demand service (along with broadband home security and goodness knows what else).

I would say this is good news for Pace, Amstrad and other makers of little boxes that you put near your telly.

Mobile phones as electronic purse/wallet

Another technology that seems to be of the day – is the electronic purse, now when I was in HK about 10 or so years ago a trial was done in some of the shopping Malls where low value items (a coffee and a paper for example) could be bought electronically – I’m not sure what it proved. Fast forward a few years and we have the successful roll out in London of Oyster cards, handling cash is expensive and time consuming and London Transport ticket counter queues on a Monday morning or the beginning of the month were legendary (and a terrible way to start the week).

What do the majority of people not leave their home without – their mobile phone.

This week I’ve been reading of how money transfers are made using mobile phones both in the developing world and increasingly from the ‘West’.

Bring this lot together and you’ve got the cashless society- let’s revisit in a year or two to see how it goes. Or if you have a view/experience let me know.

Landscapes and shifts

Plates shift

This week has seen further shifting of the tectonic plates of UK broadcasting, it’s becoming clearer and clearer that there is a battle around the core media/communications access and activity in the home, this is the battleground that Sky, BT and Virgin Media are all fighting over.

Sky has something like double the income of the BBC but it is not about broadcast content, Virgin Media has an interest in content to drive its business, the re-brand could help them sort out the perceptions of poor service but only if the service is resolved, I heard the Virgin brand being described as ‘Teflon coated" but even Teflon wears off eventually!

BT has to see revenue beyond broadband and may find it necessary to move its position from being an aggregator, the employment of Michael Barry, from MTV may be an early sign that broadcasting brilliance is an area of expertise where they have to look outside the ranks of grey techno suits.

I’m not sure how the BBC or commercial TV i.e. ITV, C4 and channel five should respond to the changing landscape, history tells me that Murdoch will win but Branson is undoubtedly a clever operator as his battles with BA proved and BT should not be underrated, a minor political storm has been created around limiting Sky’s ambitions

We need more people like Bruce Lacey (he looks a bit like 'Rigsby' here doesn't he?)

I had in my mind memories childhood of a crazy inventor figure, managed to work out that it was Bruce Lacey, as well as working with the Beatles and Bonzo Dog Doodah band (Viv Stanshall, Neil Innes and others) he’s known as an artist find out more about him here. Bruce is still alive and to me epitomised the English eccentric I hope there are others around who can inherit his mantle – Me, I’m certainly tempted to try.