Podcasts, Radio, TV, Books, Cycling, Photography and More
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David Lynch
The first time I watched a David Lynch film I was 14. Dune had just come out, and I was a science fiction loving teenager who’d only just read Frank Herbert’s opus with a film tie-in cover. I lapped up the film, warts and all. Granted, Sting’s golden underpants didn’t quite sit right with me,…
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Trees in the Abstract
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Boxing Day TV & Radio – Radio Times – 2024
Yes – I’m back for one final look at the TV and radio you could be watching or listening to. Although to be honest, have you thought about going out for a Boxing Day walk or something? But if you’re dead set on staying at home, and not binging on various new offerings from Amazon…
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Christmas Day TV & Radio – Radio Times 2024
Merry Christmas to all my readers! Yes – it’s the big day, and for some reason, you’re unclear which TV or radio is worth listening to. That’s despite the fact that only BBC1 has really bothered this year. Nevertheless, here is my regular rundown of what’s worth your time, something I’ve been offering the world…
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Christmas Eve TV and Radio – Radio Times – 2024
For reasons that are now lost in the mists of time, every Christmas I go out, buy the double issue of that year’s Radio Times magazine, and annotate the key days over the festive period with my thoughts on what is and is not worth watching. I’ve been doing this since 2009, and I’m still…
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Sky and Warner Bros. Discovery Make Peace
Regular readers will know that I’ve been fascinated by what has been going on between Sky and Warner Bros Discovery (WBD). In short, WBD is going to launch Max in the UK in 2026, but for many years now, there has been an output deal between WBD’s HBO and Sky. This has meant that massive…
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Edison Podcast Metrics UK Q3 2023
The latest Edison Podcast Metrics UK have just been published for Q3 2023. What has changed? Well Joe Rogan still tops the charts, while The Rest Is Politics climbs to number two pushing The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett down to number three (not number 90). Edison Research notes the following: Edison Podcast…
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Books Update
It has been ages since I wrote about the books I’ve been reading recently. So let’s have a canter through them. City of Silk by Glennis Virgo is set in sixteenth century Bologna, and we follow the story of Elena, a talented seamstress who has figuratively and literally escaped from the Baraccano orphanage. She dreams…
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More UK Podcast Charts
NOTE: I’ve added a significant update below (22/11/24) You know that I love a list! Well over the past few days, a couple more podcast charts for the UK have emerged. First, Podtrac has released its October 2024 chart for the UK and a number of other countries. I dug deeper into Podtrac’s first chart…
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Did Podcasts Win the US Presidential Election?
In short: we don’t know. There have been several pieces that speak of the presumed importance of podcasts in the 2024 US Presidential Election. Even Elon Musk says as much. But I don’t think it’s as simple as that. Let’s start with a few figures. 47% of Americans listen to podcasts every month, and 34%…
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More on Podtrac: Australia
This is a follow-up to a piece I just published which looked at the newly launched Podtrac ranker for the UK and compared it with Edison Research’s equivalent ranker. Even allowing for the variability of these kinds of things with different methodologies, there were some profoundly questionable results. And to be clear, recall surveys like…
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A New UK Podcast Ranker
Last week Podtrac announced the availability of its podcast tracker in 30 countries including the UK. Podtrac has for a while been publishing US figures including a list of Top Podcast and Top Publishers, but this is an opt-in methodology. In other words, the publishers that appear on those lists have chosen to let Podtrac…
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Sports Disappearing from Free-to-Air TV
There were a couple of bits of news over the last week or so that have continued a trend that seems to have only grown in recent years – the disappearance of live sport from free-to-air TV. First came news that Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) has signed an exclusive deal with the European Broadcasting Union…
Hadrian’s Wall
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