Month: May 2016

  • Champions’ League on BT

    Since I had a look at the Europa League viewership the other day, I thought it was only fair to consider the Champions’ League Final – particularly as some every-so-slightly misleading press information seems to have escaped. First off, it’s worth saying that this year’s final was one of the worst directed finals I’ve seen…

  • Predicting Every Fixture at Euro 2016

    In a frankly bizarre move, the Vote Leave campaign has offered a £50m prize to anyone who can predict the result of every fixture at the upcoming Euro 2016 tournament. Now, I’m not quite sure what the purpose of this is in terms of politics, although the referendum takes place during the tournament. I’m told…

  • The Fragmentation of the UK Radio Sector

    I’ve yet to properly write about the recently published RAJAR report, Audio Time, based on the last MIDAS survey. That will come. But it does implicitly present some food for thought about the future of radio in the UK, identifying some of the threats it may face. “Amongst 15-24s, the weekly reach of radio is…

  • Watching European Football Finals on TV

    Well the first results are in. BT is very pleased that BT Sport got a record audience on Wednesday night for the Europa League Final – the first big final of their three year exclusive contract for UEFA Champions’ League and Europa League coverage. According to Media Guardian, it drew an average of 1.6m viewers…

  • RAJAR Q1 2016

    Once again, 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 continue to be delighted to be able to bring you this analysis in association with them. For more details on RALF,…

  • Live Football on the Radio

    No, I’m not writing about the new Premier League contracts for UK radio. They do seem a bit overdue though, and I’m slightly sad that Absolute Radio has made clear that it’s not bidding for live coverage from next season. So I expect some kind of carve up between Five Live and Talksport, with Talksport…

  • Leading Questions

    These are my own views, and do not represent those of my employer. Now we’ve got that out of the way, we’ll continue. It’s fairly understood that depending on how you ask a research question, you can get different answers. In research terminology, questions that can elicit a particular response are called “leading questions.” You…

  • The End of Digital Downloads?

    That’ll teach me for writing this too quickly. I based this on a Digital Music News report which was published Wednesday evening UK time. A few hours later, and ReCode was reporting that Apple is planning no such thing. Of course plans change all the time, and record labels can get angry. So who knows…

  • Kyrgyzstan

    I recently got to visit the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan for work, and had a great few days. Clearly, I took my camera, and I’ve published a short piece about it, on a separate page under a new heading. So click here, or navigate via Writing above. While it should work fine on any…

  • Podcasting: Data/Tech Improvements or Leave Alone?

    A couple of interesting pieces on the development of podcasts, and Apple’s role, have been published recently and thought worth thinking aloud about (that’s effectively what my blog is – me thinking aloud). The New York Times published a piece that suggests major podcasting groups have been talking to Apple asking for extra functionality from…

  • YouTube v Radio

    I'm expecting a strong response from @matt @adambowie @DavidLloydRADIO and @Radiocentre https://t.co/xkiklRp7my — Phil Riley (@rileyorionradio) April 29, 2016 Since Phil Riley, Chairman of Orion Media, suggested it, I thought I’d have a look at what’s happening here. YouTube has just published a strong blogpost penned by Christophe Muller, Head of YouTube International Music Partnerships,…