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Facebook and Cambridge Analytica
I’ve been following the stories surrounding Cambridge Analytica and Facebook for some months now, and in recent days, following stories from The Observer, The New York Times and Channel 4, the story has really blown up. However, I do think that the story, while completely valid, and asking some really critical questions, perhaps over emphasises…
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The Business Models of MoviePass and cPass
Over the weekend, a new company raised its heads above the parapets. cPass is a new subscription cinema going scheme that allows members to see one film a day at the cinema for a monthly fee of £9.95. Cinema membership schemes aren’t unheard of, but they tend to be more expensive. Cineworld has its Unlimited…
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Netflix: $8 Billion and 700 NEW Shows?
How much programming is Netflix actually making? The answer is a lot, but I think that the widely reported numbers are a little misleading. Heavily retweeted earlier today was this: Wow. Fact of the day: Netflix plans to spend $8bn on content this year. That’s roughly 700 (!) new series and 80 films. Shows how…
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Snow and Mist
Snow and Mist from Adam Bowie on Vimeo. The country has been covered with snow for the last week or so, but it’s not straightforward to get some spectacular drone shots because of the weather. Consumer drones aren’t capable of flying while it’s snowing. And you also have to consider wind speed, and there’s been…
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Things Annoying Me Right Now
People labelling their Tweets “Breaking” before highlighting a story they believe is more important than others. People you generally respect getting so annoyed that a news organisation doesn’t reflect their personal choices, that the news organisation is suddenly worthless. Left-leaning British commentators weighing in pointlessly against right-leaning US gun advocates on Twitter. It’s not that…
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Premier League Rights Update
Yesterday evening came news that the bulk of the Premier League packages for 2019-2022 have been sold to the incumbents, Sky and BT. But revenues are actually down this time around. Sky is paying less than it was previously for a package of 128 matches across the year, both in overall terms, and in the…
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Shutting Down AM
Today, Ofcom published a short consultation based on a request from Absolute Radio to shut down a number of AM transmitters and reduce the power on some others. In essence the request, which I confidently expect to be quickly agreed to, has three main details: They want to close down completely 12 AM sites, and…
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RAJAR Q4 2017
As ever, 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…
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No Sense of an Ending
Warning: This piece contains spoilers for the 2014 series Amber, 2014 series The Missing and 2018 series Kiri. There has been a trend in recent years for drama series to give is slightly more nuanced endings than we have sometimes expected. Perhaps all the questions haven’t been answered. Perhaps its unclear by the end, which…
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The Tabloid Guardian
It has now been over a week since The Guardian, and sister paper The Observer, both rebranded. Perhaps more saliently, they also reshaped themselves, moving from the unique “Berliner” format to a tabloid. Now in some respects I feel unusual these days in still buying a physical printed paper. “It’s all online.” “You can get…
Podcasts, Radio, TV, Books, Cycling, Photography and More
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Yellowface/All The Lovers In The Night
Yellowface by R F Kuang I first came across R F Kuang with last year’s very enjoyable Babel, an alternate history of the British Empire told in a world where magic exists and is controlled by an elite group of individuals. Yellowface is very different, but no less enjoyable. It’s a book about books, and…
Hadrian’s Wall
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