Viewpoint - Coastguard cutbacks

Viewpoint - Mrs Palm & The Christian Right

Viewpoint - The UK Spending Review, BBC & S4C.

NightStalkers 2010

This is an update to an original poem that was originally written by me in 2004.
 
You'll never see us,
but we're always there,
watching,
listening,
waiting.

The cloak of night
cannot hide you from us,
it is our friend and ally.

We know the darkness
that lurks within
the black hearted souls
of the parasites
who feed on humanity

We live in shadows
and move with stealth.
We can be anywhere, anytime,
and you would never know.

To your eyes
we could be anyone,
the man in the sharp suit,
the woman in the black dress,
but you could never tell,
for the day person,
is just the show.

We are NightStalkers,
regular folk one minute,
hunters the next.

Our prey are the criminals,
who feed on the helpless,
who steal from everyone.

Their only goal is chaos,
their only love is money,
they have no care for others.

Our only goal is justice,
and justice will be served,
ice cold, hard and swift.

Don't go looking for us,
you won't know we are there,
until it is too late.

There is no detecting,
there is no escaping
the NightStalkers.

CNN Fan is back

Turns out they were only moving servers, but with their site having been recently hacked and the memory of that still fresh, I did wonder if something similar had happened again.

Never mind, all back up and running now.

Dish Network vs FOX. On the digital battleground.

This one almost passed me by, so it's nice that I actually caught up with this story now. Dish Network is having a contretant with Fox over their sports and entertainment channels, so Fox News and Fox Business are unaffected.

This primarily affects FX, Fox Sports Net and National Geographic Channel. However, in about a month's time, Fox Television Network and My Network TV could well be affected as well.

Obviously, both sides have launched websites detailing their case. But in addition to those, I'd like to remind you of one thing.

Fox is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also owns DirecTV, the direct opposition in the US Satellite TV market to Dish Network.

Murdoch likes people to think what he tells them to think. In that same area of satellite television, he owns Sky in the UK, Star in Asia and Foxtel in Australia. There are other subsidiary operations linked to those companies.

So Rupert Murdoch is used to getting his own way. The fact that Dish are standing up to him, is interesting. We will see how this story develops.

CNN Fan disappears again

The website cnnfan.org which is linked to the CNN Observations blog has once again disappeared mysteriously.

This time it happened at about 1923 GMT (2023 UK). It talks about the site having moved to a new location and that it may take up to 48 hours for your ISPs DNS servers to catch up. I'm dubious about the validity of this, and am watching CNN Observations for more details.

I will be tracking this story over the next few days.

Viewpoint - Conservative media domination

Sky Sports News to leave Freeview... why?

British Sky Broadcasting have once again shown that they have a very clouded view of the media landscape, clouded by their desire to get everyone paying extra for TV channels.

They have decided to replace Sky Sports News on Freeview with a timeshift version of Sky 3.

One question, why?

Sky Sports News has been one of the success stories of Freeview. It more than tripled it's audience, in the early going, and has continued to see success all the way, outperforming Sky News and Sky 3. So why take it off Freeview now, thereby potentially losing 2/3 of the audience that has been consistently there since it's arrival on Freeview back in 2002? And why replace it with of all things, a timeshift channel?

Sky's strategy here seems more to be professional suicide than successful broadcaster.

Hypocrisy and the Conservative press.

You can't rely on the Conservative newspaper press for anything, except hypocrisy.

You can't rely on them for facts, you can't rely on them not to change their minds in order to get the most readers, you can ONLY rely on them to be total hypocrites.

Case in point. The 2010 World Cup in South Africa. In particular the Vuvuzelas that have been so prevalent a sound at every match.

Yesterday, every conservative paper was practically begging for these horns to be banned from the World Cup.

Today, the Sun decided to slap their logo on 5,000 and give them away as prizes, so now we'll be hearing them at every Premiership match!

Total hypocrisy. The only thing that you can rely on from the Conservative media.

The begging of 'dollar-a-hollar' channels

A good television channel is worth any amount of money that you want to pay for it. Certainly, I would say that the BBC as a whole is easily worth the money that I pay in my licence fee and probably a lot more. But when it comes to digital television, I would say a lot of them are not worth anything at all, and I wouldn't regularly watch them unless you PAID me to.

I would certainly say this is the case with your religious "dollar-a-hollar", evangelical channels, such as Daystar, TBN Europe, and especially right now, God TV. The channel that used to be known in the old days of 1995 as The Religious Channel, then decided that God TV wasn't a bad or indeed, totally blasphemous idea; they are now on the air, begging their viewers to donate money.

They need $4 million dollars in the bank by May 31st in order to pay transmission costs. The channel broadcasts across Europe and North America and I would think they will probably get their $4 million, but I wish they weren't.

People think that donating money to God TV will earn them a spot in the kingdom of Heaven. All it does is line people's pockets. The kind of programming that God TV airs, evangelical "dollar-a-hollar" programmes, is designed basically to get people to donate money to them under the pretense that it will gain them favour with their god. It's praying on their fear of death basically. It's not the kind of programming that I like to watch, and furthermore, I don't believe it's responsible broadcasting to be playing on people's fears.

They've already managed to raise over $1.5 million, so I fully expect them to reach their target. But I do think that that money could be better spent on other channels, who do far better programming. The public television stations in the US, like WNET New York, WTTW Chicago, WGBH Boston and so many others would love to use that money to provide programming that commercial operations won't provide, and the various public radio stations, WNYC, WETA, and all the other NPR, PRI and APM stations, could also benefit massively.

I'd rather viewers didn't waste their money on these so called religious channels.

Aftermath of the UK Election Debates.

Well, the final debate has ended, and we are now in the final countdown to election day itself. I have seen all the debates, and here's my take on all 3.

The first one, shown live on ITV1, was very much a surprise. Nick Clegg came out on top rather convincingly. Cameron came in a decent second, with Gordon Brown a poor third.

The second one, shown live on Sky News was much closer, with Cameron perhaps just edging it. Gordon Brown still way back off the pace.

Tonight, it seems, there is a difference of opinion as to whose won. Channel 4 News vote said Brown won by 2%, with Clegg second and Cameron a poor third. ITV News said Cameron won by 2% with Clegg second and Brown third. YouGov said Cameron won by 9% with Clegg second and Brown third.

I say tonight, Clegg won again, but not by much. Brown was the close second, and Cameron looked like he was way off the pace, constantly fighting a rear guard action, and not doing a good job of it.

So, to my mind, we're heading for a hung parliament. But how will Brown and Cameron react to the surge in the Liberal Democrats? I forsee an unlikely, but possible Brown/Cameron coalition, to keep Clegg out of power. Wouldn't say it was likely to happen, but I think it is possible.

Election Night on Television & Radio

The old saying goes "the revolution will be televised", and that most certainly is the case here. The UK General Election will definitely be televised like never before.

We'll deal with the usual suspects later, but first a quick look at what other channels are doing.

In Ireland, RTE1 will have coverage of the election, starting at 11.45 pm. Coverage continues until 4am, and then coverage picks up again at 8am for a short 75 minute update.

Overseas, BBC World will have live coverage from 2100 GMT, that's 2200 UK, and 2300 CET. Coverage continues until 6am.

s4C will also have live coverage, produced by BBC Wales, in the Welsh language, starting at 10pm UK and continuing until 6am.

Now onto the main suspects. BBC1 England, BBC2 Wales, BBC2 Scotland, BBC2 Northern Ireland, and the BBC News Channel are simulcating the main election programme from London, presented by David Dimbleby from 9.55pm. There is continuous coverage until 2pm on Friday, when BBC1 and the BBC News Channel have a delayed BBC News at One. The entire election schedule from 9.55pm Thursday to 2pm Friday is being simulcast in HD live on BBC HD.

For the first time, BBC1 Northern Ireland has its own Election Night programme, also starting at 9.55pm, going on until 6am. The reason for this is simple. In previous elections, Northern Ireland constituencies didn't start their counts until the next morning. This often meant that results didn't come in until about 4pm the next day. This time, counts will begin as soon as the polls close.

BBC1 Wales will have their own election night programme, hosted by Huw Edwards, again starting at 9.55pm and finishing at 6am. BBC1 Scotland's Election night programme also airs from 9.55pm to 6am, and is being simulcast nationwide on BBC Parliament. All the BBC1 regions will be back together at 6am for continuing coverage. The BBC2 nations return to normal BBC2 programmes at 6am as well.

ITV1 is providing a serious amount of election coverage as well. Their Election Night programme from ITN also begins at 9.55pm and will continue until 6am. GMTV takes over coverage, until 9.25am when ITN returns with another hour of election coverage until normal service resumes with This Morning at 10.30am.

Sky News has election coverage all through Thursday, with their results programme kicking off at 9pm, and continuing all the way until 5pm Friday.

At the moment, we do not yet know what the other major international news channels are doing for this. Al Jazeera, CNNI, EuroNews and many others haven't released any information yet. It would be strange for CNNI not to be covering it in depth as they have covered all the debates so far. They have also done Election Night programmes in previous election years live from London. As soon as I know more, I'll update you.

On radio, Radio 4 and Radio 5 Live have separate Election Night programmes of their own, both beginning at 10pm. Radio 4's coverage until the end of Today at 9am, whilst Radio 5 Live continues their coverage until 7pm Friday night. BBC Local Radio stations will have their own election specials airing overnight on Thursday. Most will begin at 10pm and finish around 5am or 6am. Some like BBC Radio Solent are finishing at 3am.

As for commercial radio, well, Absolute Radio will have an Election Party from 11pm to 6am. Some local stations may well provide coverage. Certainly in my local area, I remember Pirate FM providing coverage overnight, mixed with music.

BBC World Service is also providing continuous news coverage during the results process. The coverage begins at 9pm UK with Newshour, continues at 10pm with an Election Special, then various news programmes continue the coverage from 5am to 3pm. Listeners in the UK will be able to hear the coverage on DAB digital radio.

Amanpour to leave CNN.

TV Newser is reporting the worst kept secret of the week.  Christiane Amanpour is leaving CNN to join ABC News in the US as anchor of “This Week”, the weekly political and public affairs programme.

This will mean that Amanpour will finish at the end of April before Christiane takes over on This Week in August.

When Amanpour does finish, CNN should move Connect The World to 8pm, and put World One on at 9pm, before Back|Story at 10pm, all times are UK by the way.

OFCOM and ‘sexy’ phone-in channels

OFCOM has repeatedly had problems regulating the kind of sexy phone in channels that appear on Sky in the 900s section of the EPG. 

Just recently, OFCOM fined two companies for broadcasting sexy material straight after the watershed on FTA channels.  Now, bear in mind, the watershed is 9pm.  By OFCOM’s own definition…

“…The watershed only applies to television. The watershed is at 2100. Material unsuitable for children should not, in general, be shown before 2100 or after 0530.”

It was material unsuitable for children, and it was broadcast after the watershed, yet they were still fined.

Additionally in the same Broadcast Bulletin, OFCOM found the channels in breach on about 10 separate occasions, despite the fact that only 1 of these occasion actually contravenes OFCOM’s own rules about R18-strength material.  All other incidents related to material comparable to those seen in movies rated 18 by the BBFC.

This is why I find the whole business of regulation these days to be totally out of sync with reality.  We see more violence on television dramas and movies than we see sex, and sex is regarded as the more corrupting, yet there has been many occasions when words encouraging violent acts have brought those acts about.  That’s called Incitement, and its against the law.  Yet the right wing will say, “NO, sorry, you can’t encourage someone to commit a violent act.”, yet in the same breath, they will say that the depiction of sex is a “…corrupting influence…”.  There’s only one thing to say to a viewpoint like that.

“THAT’S A TOTALLY HYPOCRITICAL AND NONSENSICAL VIEWPOINT.  The facts do NOT back up your views.”

But then the right wing doesn’t seem to let facts get in the way of their own delusions.

In OFCOM’s case here, they are trying to walk what they consider to be a tightrope, when in fact, beneath that “tightrope” is a canyon the size of the Grand Canyon, with the pro-censorship brigade on one side, and reality (and just about everybody else) on the other.  There’s no fine line between the camps, there’s a huge gap, and you’re NEVER gonna satisfy the pro-censorship camp, so don’t waste your time trying to. 

Besides which, the Virgin Media, Freeview, Freesat and Sky platforms all have a facility called PIN protection.  Basically, you can block access to programmes and channels you don’t want kids to watch by setting a PIN. 

This smacks of censorship by stealth, and to be frank, it is not OFCOM’s job to be am self-appointed censor.  That the BBFC’s job.  And if material is shown that IS comparable to material shown in films that have been rated by the BBFC as 18, then OFCOM HAS NO BUSINESS TRYING TO CENSOR IT.

First on Viewpoint: New CNBC Europe graphics

This morning I woke up to new graphics and a new ident for CNBC Europe.  I first noticed the new look on Squawk Box Europe this morning.  They are using a new (to me) font, which may have been specially done for them.  Italicised, it closely resembles Crillee, which was used for credits and titles in Star Trek: The Next Generation. 

The new graphics are airing on Worldwide Exchange, so perhaps US viewers can now see them.  I certainly seem to be ahead of the pack on this story, nobody else seems to have noticed, and no reporting on this was done last week, so I must guess that I’m first with this news.

The new font is being used on the ticker, lower thirds, and full screens.  The hotboards have also been redesigned.  Everything looks far simpler, and less extravagant.

I hope to have some caps up shortly.

Suggestion for RTE: Put RTE News Now on satellite FTA.

Yes, you read that correctly.  I am actively suggesting that RTE puts their online news channel, RTE News Now, onto Astra 2 alongside their other channels, but with one notable difference.  Whilst RTE1 and RTE2 are on the Irish Bonus Pack, and not available to UK viewers, they should put RTE News Now free-to-air on both the Sky platform and the Freesat platform.

All this would be though is a precursor to the eventual launch of the long planned RTE International.  RTE said they hoped to launch it by the end of 2009, but that obviously hasn’t happened.  So far, no word on when RTE International will launch.

Also, a word of advice to RTE about RTE International.  Don’t immediately worry about creating a whole new news service for it, you don’t have to do a “BBC World News” straight off the bat.  Get the news bulletins that air on RTE1 and RTE2 onto the channel.  Get an RTE News: Breakfast programme to air between 7am and 9am.  The fact that RTE1 doesn’t have a breakfast news programme is shameful, and getting more shameful every week, that such a programme fails to launch. 

Keith Olbermann: A cry for help

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I can understand where he’s coming from.  I lost my mother back in October.  Different disease, same emotions, and thank the gods that she was being treated on the National Health Service.

Viewpoint – John Terry’s sacking

“Hope For Haiti Now” – a global telethon.

“Hope For Haiti Now” is something of a first.  A global telethon that  will truly be seen worldwide.

CNN International will be airing the 2 hour telethon at 8pm ET / 5pm PT / 0100 GMT / 0200 CET.  It is also being aired internationally on National Geographic Channels around the world and MTV channels around the world, including China.

In Canada, the CBC and CTV are both airing the telethon.  So far, I have heard nothing about any UK or Irish terrestrial broadcasters taking the telethon.  US Local broadcasters, including affiliates of ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, The CW and PBS, are airing the telethon at 8pm local time, except in the Central time zone where it airs at 7pm. 

Any further news on broadcasters airing the telethon, I’ll let you know.

Keith Olbermann refutes Brown smears

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

NBR without Paul Kangas, but with a new look

On December 31st 2009, an era ended at Nightly Business Report when co-anchor and one of the founding team there, Paul Kangas, retired after just over 30 years at NBR.

He started as the Stocks anchor back in 1979, when WPBT first produced The Nightly Business Report.  Linda O’Byron and Merwin Sigale were the original anchors.  Susie Gharib joined NBR in 1998, and for nearly 12 years, they were the team bringing the world of business news every day to an appreciative American and later global audience through the internet.

Tom Hudson, also of Chicago based syndicated programmer “First Business” is now co-anchor in Miami, taking over from Paul Kangas, but it would be impossible to “replace” him.

However, that’s not the only change.  A new anchor, a new format, though some elements have remained exactly the same, a new studio set, which is entirely virtual, and a new graphic look, NBR has undergone a massive overhaul that wouldn’t have been necessary otherwise.  But because it was the end of an era, NBR needed to do something that would catch people’s attention.  And whilst the blogosphere hasn’t been hot with the new look, Newscast Studio has some info, though little is really known.