Tag: TV
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Amazon Prime Premier League Fixtures – Redux
I’ve repeatedly tried to explain why the Premier League was foolish to package rights to every fixture across two of their Match Days as a single TV package when they sold their latest UK TV rights last year. Amazon Prime ended up buying those packages after neither Sky nor BT felt they were worth buying.…
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What Do Disney+ and HBO Max Mean for Sky?
Disney+ and Sky Earlier this year, we finally got some detail on Disney’s upcoming new service, Disney+. The new streaming service will launch on November 12 this year in the US at a monthly cost of $6.99 – discounted a little to $69.99 if you pay for a year up front. Or you can pay…
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I Like to Watch by Emily Nussbaum
Emily Nussbaum is The New Yorker‘s TV critic, and this is a collection of her writing about TV from that magazine and others that she had worked for previously. There are often short introductions to these pieces, and a couple of brand new pieces – one of which takes up a significant proportion of the…
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Champagne Superova: Sport and TV
Sunday was an incredible day for sport. Personally, I spent quite a lot of time flicking between ITV4 and Eurosport’s coverage of Stage 9 of the Tour de France, with South Africa’s Daryl Impey winning from a breakaway on France’s national day. But I was also watching quite a lot of cricket – especially early…
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The Biggest TV Show in the World
A question. What is the biggest TV show in the world? That’s a good question. And, despite the image I’ve put at the top of this piece, I don’t think the answer is Game of Thrones, the series that has just aired its last episode (Don’t worry – no spoilers here). But what does the…
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The Good Fight
Once upon a time, I wrote down a list of all the TV shows that I know I should have watched, but never got around to. These days it’s more of a list that floats around in my head. At the top of that list is Breaking Bad, but there are plenty more. And it’s…
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Apple’s TV Offering: Difficult to Get Excited
On last night’s BBC Ten O’Clock News, there was a story on the [re-] launch of Apple TV [+]. I suspect that this had become a diary item after Apple announced that they’d be announcing something yesterday, because in the end, I’m not sure that there’s a great deal to talk about yet, and the…
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The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley
Alex Gibney’s new documentary has been something I’ve been looking forward to watching for some time, since he takes on the story of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. Now, he has a tough act to follow, because John Carreyrou of the the Wall St Journal’s book, Bad Blood, is the definitive telling of the story, coming…
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Das Boot
I first saw the original 1981 Wolfgang Petersen version of Das Boot on TV sometime in the late 80s. But it wasn’t until a 1998 re-release of the extended director’s cut of the film, that I saw in a cinema on Lower Regent Street, that I can honestly say that I saw it properly. That version…
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Digital Movie Libraries in the UK
Buying a digital movie or TV series in the UK is an utter mess. You can buy movies or TV series from a number of sites including: iTunes, Google Play Movies, Amazon, Sky Store and Rakuten. But if you buy something in one of those places, you can only watch it via that company’s app…
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Close
Finding something new to watch on Netflix can be incredibly hit or miss. I’ve mentioned before that I think Netflix’s marketing leaves something to be desired. While the “above the fold” promotional spot on Netflix is highly important to them and clearly drives a lot of viewing to shows or films that get that position,…
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Sports TV: UK v US
Yesterday evening, UK time, the NFL championship games took place, deciding which teams will contest the Super Bowl. I have an on/off relationship with the NFL – but will flip over to catch a bit every now and then. So last night, when I wasn’t watching Les Miserables on BBC1, I caught a bit of these games…
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Netflix’s UK Drama Originals
One of the issues that Netflix has to face is how it can satisfy all its users in every country around the world. If you set up in France, you need to produce local French programming. If you set up in Australia, you need to produce local Australian programming. To some extent, Netflix has been…