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Month: January 2009

  • Copyright Extension

    A great film explaining why extending sound copyright is not in performers’ interests but just record companies’. And, of course, our worst interests. More at soundcopyright.eu.

  • The Independent

    A new year seems to mean that every newspaper worth its salt has to run some kind of promotion, and this Saturday’s Independent had a very good offer: a free DVD of David Frost interviewing Richard Nixon about Watergate ahead of the release of Frost/Nixon in a week’s time. That was enough for me to…

  • The Wrestler

    Professional wrestling has always had a strange alure for me. I can’t say that I’ve ever watched very much of it, but the idea that something that was presented as sport, wasn’t fairly contested is just something that goes against all my sensibilities. Of course, these days it’s presented at “Sports Entertainment.” There’s also the…

  • Slumdog Millionaire

    I’d been looking forward to seeing Slumdog Millionaire from director Danny Boyle since I first heard about it. It was such a remarkable idea for a story, based on the book, Q&A. Now despite what you may have seen in the film’s own advertising, this is not the “Feel Good Film Of The Year” –…

  • More Digital Britain Leaks

    If you want to know what’s going on with the Digital Britain report, forthcoming from Lord Carter as metioned yesterday, it seems that you need to keep reading the Financial Times. There is talk in today’s piece about a broader broadcaster that would encompass Channel 4 as well as supplying alternative news programmes to the…

  • Have You Got Any Christmas Presents You Don’t Want?

    There’s a shop in Berwick Street that can help…

  • Too Demanding For Watch

    There’s a wonderful story in this week’s Broadcast magazine. In a piece that explains how UKTV chanel “Watch” is having a bit of a rethink, it explains that challenging fare like Cranford, Mistresses and Love Soup is too “demanding” for its viewers. Instead they’re going to show more Dancing with the Stars and Wipeout (aka…

  • Digital Britain

    One of the most interesting documents likely to be published in the UK in the next few months is Lord Stephen Carter’s Digital Britain report. The draft report is due to be published by the end of this month, and it’s likely to cover things like public service, broadband and digital radio. The recent DRWG…

  • Follow The Inauguration on CNN?

    A news report announces the fact that CNN launches on Freeview this week – effectively replacing Nuts TV. That’s got to be good news for Freeview viewers, giving them an additional news service alongside the BBC News channel (never News 24!) and Sky News (will it remain on Freeview?). But The Guardian’s report (perhaps based…

  • Visual Radio 1

    BBC Radio 1 is running a week long trial of a beta visualisation version of the radio player for a couple of programmes this week. I only caught a few minutes of Moyles this morning, but it seemed to work very well, and was a very interesting experiment in what can and can’t be done.…

  • Yawn

    Lots of areas of the media are getting excited about the annual Golden Globes handed out by an organisation called the “Hollywood Foreign Press Association”. I’ve written about this self-appointed, self-elected organisation before – and the fact that it has very little if anything to do with, well, the foreign press. Now everyone loves a…

  • Celebrities Inappropriate Advertising

    Last Friday was the last in Clive James’ current run of A Point of View (Harold Evans takes over this Friday). You have about 24 hours to download the podcast, otherwise you’ll just have to read his words. James got on to the habit of Hollywood actors promoting products that once they’d never have been…