It is easy (I find it particularly easy) to criticise businesses that seem to spend endless energy, time and money on consumer research and focus groups. As with bringing in consultants, it often seems mostly a way for management to avoid making the decisions it’s paid to make or, at the very least, to establish […]
The European Court of Justice decision on the Portsmouth pub’s right to tune into a Greek version of Premier League football meant a day of headline reactions (mainly over-reactions really), before, by nightfall, all had agreed the judgement needed very careful consideration. The ECJ judgment said: “The Court of Justice holds that national legislation […]
The English Premier League may restrict the number of European countries that can screen its live matches if Europe’s most senior judges rule that it must sell its broadcast rights on a single market basis. The European Court of Justice next week hands down its judgment in the so-called ’pub landlady case’ a ruling […]
There are tipping points in all things. Not very long ago, it seems to me, technology companies, including CA vendors, were going to their pay-TV operator customers and trying to persuade them that the fantastic new functionality they had invented should be deployed. The response was often lukewarm; when your current business model produces profits […]
Following the sales boom of TV sets last year in Spain as a result of the analogue switch-off in April 2010 and the World Cup, the electronic industry is now reporting a huge decline in the sales of new TV devices of around 30 per cent in the first half of the year. Until June, […]
Russia’s giant Express-AM4 satellite, placed into a near-useless orbit on August 18th, has been found, and ground-controllers are in contact with the craft. They report that the satellite has partially deployed its solar arrays and is in a safe stand-by mode awaiting further instructions. Astrium, which built Express-AM4, say that the craft is so far […]
The normally quiet summer has been anything but this year. It has been full of Events. As a British Prime Minister from what we used to call ‘the ruling class’, replied when asked what caused him most trouble when in office: “Events, dear boy, events”. On that basis it has also been a bad summer […]
Channel 4’s catch-up service 4oD drew 3.4 million viewers in July, according to figures released for the first time by the broadcaster. Channel 4 shows also drove an unspecified increase in 4oD programme views, to 29 million in July. The broadcaster reported 242 million 4oD views in last 12 months, a 20.9 per cent increase […]
Sky Italia is launching an ad-hoc 3D channel on September 6, with movies, entertainment and sports featuring heavily. The hope is that the channel will become a driving force for sales of 3D TV devices, which are still rare in Italy. Subscribers equipped with an HD set-top box and special glasses, will be able to […]
Iran has launched ‘Hispan TV’, a global satellite news channel that is initially beaming its content to Latin America and in particular to Venezuela and the other Latino countries some of which have close political ties with Iran. BBC Monitoring is reporting that Hispan TV is part of the state-funded Press TV operation which […]