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Connectivity: The Bridge of Spies

Connectivity promises much – much convenience, much saving, much service. All good. But a connected home is a vulnerable home, vulnerable to privateer hackers after plain mischief or your credit card details, and state-sponsored hackers after goodness knows what in the name of security. Governments around the world have wrangled with civil rights advocates and […]

March 8, 2017 Nick Snow

Do telcos and TV really mix?

I know, the question sounds ‘so last century’. Today, it seems natural that any organisation that possesses the infrastructure that can carry content to the home should do so – it is a competitive necessity. There is no argument on that, and many telcos have made a big success of their television proposition either acting […]

March 6, 2017 Nick Snow

Nothing Neutral about Trump

Journalism might be the first draft of history (as well as a lot of less honourable or important things) but, even so, it is too early to be bringing a name to our current era. But there can be little doubt that in the fullness of time, The Age of Unpredictability will be a candidate. […]

February 8, 2017 Nick Snow

Sky v Discovery: Russian Roulette

It’s like the 70s all over again, suddenly the world is all about brinkmanship. President Trump seems keen to confront all except President Putin, his only serious rival for biggest ego on the planet. But they’ll fall out and the planets will collide; hopefully in a hissy twitter spat rather than a shooting war. Talking […]

January 27, 2017 Nick Snow

An Echo of the future….

There was a kind of funny story all over the press here last week. Amazon Echoes in California (where else) started ordering doll’s houses for their owners. In a true case of echoes within echoes, a local TV show in San Diego was reporting how a young girl had told Alexa – the Echo’s operating […]

January 10, 2017 Nick Snow

Murdoch: Back in the room

How often can a whole intricate takeover saga, ranging over months, be brought to mind by the phrase ‘the custard pie incident.’ The incident, of course, was patriarch Rupert taking one for the team when he made his mea culpa appearance before the Commons media committee in 2011 as he sought to limit the ever-spreading […]

December 13, 2016 Nick Snow

Openreach: An open and shut case

Frustrated by the ‘don’t worry we know best’ negotiating stance of the UK’s incumbent telco BT, regulator Ofcom has finally made the first move to legally split the broadband provider from the rest of the company – specifically notification of the European Commission of the beginning of the separation process. Of course, this in itself […]

November 29, 2016 Nick Snow

AT&T/Time Warner: Too big to fail. Or succeed?

The mega-media- merger to end all mega… etc. That is until the next one comes along. Except – if it goes ahead – this really might be the last of this kind of deal. This takeover will be sold hard as a ‘traditional’ vertical integration play – a content owner and a pipes owner come […]

October 24, 2016 Nick Snow

UHD over promised and under-delivered?

If I had to choose an industry not to be in as the digital world looms larger than ever, I might well choose printing (which reminds me: read the Sep/Oct issue of Euromedia here). In 2016, it is a savagely tough way to make a living. But not all that far behind on your list […]

September 29, 2016 Nick Snow

Is VR 3D all over again?

It’s the question that pops up among the never ending stream of news releases, press briefings, blogs and articles about the latest consumer technology. Is this new tech the next big thing or the next colossal bust? Inevitably, comparisons to the spectacular rise and fall of 3D TV are made, but are they valid? Have […]

September 8, 2016 Mark Ringwald