Month: February 2017

  • In Advance of The Nightly Show

    This evening, ITV launches its big new entertainment gamble – The Nightly Show. They’ve taken over The Cochrane Theatre near Holborn, and for the next eight weeks they’ve also taken over The News At Ten’s slot. (Recall, this is the slot that only a year ago, the then Media, Culture and Sport Minister was wondering…

  • Misleading Infographics

    I find few things more annoying than thoroughly misleading infographics. At the weekend, I was flicking through the latest copy of The New Statesman, and came across an advertorial published by Western Union addressing overseas trade. The most startling part of the two-page spread was an infographic showing the top UK export destinations. Now leaving…

  • Sneaky Pete

    I only seem to write about television very occasionally these days. I suspect I struggle because there’s so much to catch up on at any given time, there’s no time left for writing. Sneaky Pete is a new series from Amazon Studios provided free to their Prime customers. The hook as far as Amazon is…

  • “A portion of the proceeds”

    This may seem unfair with respect to charitable giving, but I wonder if there are any more mealy-mouthed phrases than, “A portion of the proceeds”? You hear this regularly when people are going to be donating something to a charity. The issue is that a “portion” might be anything from $0.01 to 99% of the…

  • RIP Steve Hewlett

    Earlier today, the death of journalist and broadcaster Steve Hewlett was announced by Eddie Mair on Radio 4. He was 58. Since September last year, when Hewlett had announced he had cancer, he’d been giving Mair a series of interviews describing his various treatments, struggles and trials. The interviews ran fairly regularly on Monday editions…

  • Amazon Echo – A Longer Term Test

    I bought my Amazon Echo on its official UK release back in September last year. I wrote about it at the time, but I thought it might be worth checking back in here to see exactly how I’m using it. Right off the top, I’ll note here that I use Alexa multiple times a day,…

  • Anker SoundBuds Sport IE20

    As a rule of thumb, the headphones you got with your latest audio device are probably rubbish. I.e the headphones that came with your phone. Every phone I’ve bought has come with some kind of included headphones (or more accurately “headset” since there’s a microphone on them), and in nearly every case, they have been…

  • Hans Rosling – Forming His World View on Facts; Not Feelings

    In my recent RAJAR piece, I made reference to the sad news that Professor Hans Rosling had died. Rosling was a Swedish professor of global health, and had found fame in a series of videos and programmes – notably beginning with a widely shared TED talk – that elucidated stories behind data in a way…

  • YouTube-ing

    YouTube is a wonderful thing. From music, to how to’s, to clips from films and TV, to game walkthrough’s and a myriad of thousand other subjects. But I confess, that I’ve always struggled with the “YouTubers.” Now that’s not to say that there aren’t personality-driven YouTube videos that I watch. There are the guys at…

  • RAJAR Q4 2016

    Once more, this post is brought to you in association with RALF from DP Software and Services. I’ve used RALF for the past 9 years, and it’s my favourite RAJAR analysis tool. So I am delighted that I continue to be able to bring you this RAJAR analysis in association with RALF. For more details…

  • Discovery and Sky Do a Deal

    [A follow-up/continuation of the piece I wrote the other day about the fallout between Sky and Discovery in the UK and Germany.] On Sunday morning there was an epic final at the Australian Open. Somehow the top 8 men’s players in the world conspired not to make the final, and we got a “throwback” final…