Somali Drought

I see that there is now some TV coverage of the Somali drought - hopefully this will raise awareness of the problems in East Africa, the coverage is being enabled by ebu Reuters too are bringing the problems to the world's attention.








Barclay's PE

Now you might wonder about the UK's (and world at large's) Agenda - while researching I was directed at this website and found it thought provoking.










Anti Spin Story on TV!

On Sunday I watched the BBC 1 showing of Poliakoff's Gideon's Daughter and greatly enjoyed it - it was about the importance of people above spin and was worth watching -nice to have something with a worthwhile message - sorry for the delay in reporting but I had to find out what it was about first!

Somali TV
so Somali TV has now started under the guise of Univ TV and can be seen in Europe on the Hotbird satellite- the company is working with Shebasat and although there are some doubts from Aden (the man behind the project) on how long the service will survive I hope they get the chance to carry the message for Somalia and the people who are hungry there, take a visit here to find out more on their plight.

ITN and one of it's investors.


The Mail on Sunday is again running a story about ITN and potential buyers for it- I'm really not clear if this is kite flying by the newspaper as they hold 20% of ITN and might be looking to offload or boost the value of their holding. Truth is this is tied up with what happens to ITV my view (still) is that changes are afoot - not sure if these will be good for the viewer but feels inevitable to me. As cable gets it's act together ITV needs to have some firmer proposition for its shareholders.





Fridge defrosting

We've been having trouble closing the fridge door for some months now and I actually decided to defrost it- made me think how I was my father's son - When I was a youngster my dad managed to damage the interior of our fridge by putting a toaster inside and melting some of the plastic - I merely broke our fish slice chipping away at the ice - anyway door closes now and I'm sure we'll save some CO2 emissions with it's improved performance .

Goodnight and Good Luck

great film, nice to see something where the cuts aren't every 3 seconds and the message matters - gather that Mr Clooney now has Warren Beaty's mantle as a Hollywood 'political' film director - he acted well in it too. The film's based on fact and is about someone (Ed Murrow) standing up against the witch hunt being carried out by Senator McCarthy's HUAC -think the theme's worthy of re-visiting . The cinematography is stylish and there's an almost documentary feel to the production also for me coming in at 93 minutes is welcome -longer films invariably lead me to take a nap.

Wagamama

After the film we went for a bite at the local Wagamama which was (as usual) busy. I like Wagamamas and not just bacause we saw Konnie Huq and her boyfriend the erstwhile Blue Peter bad boy Richard Bacon there once. The food seems to be cooked (rather than re-heated)and the staff are real people who have an idea about what they're doing- there's obviously some good leadership there.




FreeSat delays

Saw that the Independent today ran a story on the arrival of a satellite alterative to Freeview - it's something I wrote about a couple of times for Digital Lifestyles here and here - I wonder if the idea has died a death if so probably please James Murdoch as it'll keep his numbers up for BSkyB.

Car Crash (while watching) TV

Actually I wasn't watching the TV but Debbie was - loud crash outside followed by alarm noises and of course we went to see what was happening, low level sort of problem, nobody hurt but loads of swearing , what is wrong these days? People sometimes need a bit of a reality check and politeness doesn't cost a penny.

A valuable lesson for Red Ken

I expect some of you will like Ken Livingstone - I'm afraid I think he's a fraud and I'm pleased to hear that he's been censured for his behaviour with respect to likening a Jewish reporter to a concentration camp guard -he's representing London and should behave in a civilised way regardless of the fact that (like me) he doesn't admire The Daily Mail's editorial line.

Pay Day

Well I got paid - it's nice after a few months away from straightforward money into bank account type transactions - Somalian are not regular payerts and I've been involved in dodgy dealing recruitment agencies (or was it down to Eutelsat) -recruitment companies are not even good at doing the sincerity -they only want to be your best friend for a few brief minutes -it's pretty clear who's paying them.


St Mungo's

I've not really felt 100% this week and Wednesday's journey into work was a bad one but someone called round to our home canvassing support for St Mungo's and it put it into some perspective -what about if you've no home and are out on the streets of London at this time of the year - least I could do was sign up for a monthlty contribution perhaps you'd consider? Well done to the young man who called he was charming and seemed willing to put up with the cold for this good cause.

BT media and Broadcast

Lots of my old colleagues are directing me to a digital lifestyles story - gather the buyers are the cash rich Barclay's Bank - I expected Petra will have more soon.

Skype

so the entry tonight was going to be a gloomy one about how people let you down and recruitment companies are a pile of dog's mess - but things are not too bad just had a good chat session with my old mucker Mr Kevin Lynch of Avid - Kevin's one of life's gentlemen - also very bright, I was lucky enough to meet Kevin about 13 or 14 years ago he helped me out on more than one occasion.



Poor Show

But a little moan - I've met with a pension adviser a couple of times over the last few weeks and he's given me a form to return to him with an addressed envelope that he provided but no stamp - not sure how much a stamp costs but this has really given me a bad impression and I will let him know.

Pilat Media Expands

I was pleased to hear in the office yesterday at the company I work for (that's Pilat Media) we've bought a complimentary outfit based in Amsterdam - the company will provide a solution for smaller broadcasters and enrich our customer offering - good call!

VC investment

I've been looking at what I should do about my pension, the guy advising me also mentioned the idea of putting some dosh into venture capital trust investment as this is tax efficient- I think the idea is that the fund is actiually a low risk one and the advantage is more the tax relief as opposed to growth certainly something I will look into.


Massage Time?

Like being able to have financial advisors I'm in now the fortunate position of being able to enjoy a massage session at work, not sure how beneficial it was but the woman performing the massage was very strong for a small person and I certainly still felt the effect the next day - will give it another try soon.

Decline in Commercial TV's News Output.

Over convivial drinks it was interesting to hear Martin's view of the dumbing down of UK TV's News coverage on the main commercial channel in the UK, ITV - I don't watch the lunchtime news and after over 10 years working at ITN I could be biased but Martin's objective views forced me to go and have a quick trawl to find out if there was a basis for his concern. I found this a useful analysis which brings out some of the issues.

Looking at the changes in the broadcasting landscape since Mrs Thatcher in the 1980's targetted the broadcasting unions 'restrictive practices' it's instructive; what was once a heavily regulated limited service of TV in Britain has moved (like so much of western society) to the economics of abundance, now to a lot of people abundance is attractive but it has a downside too.

A useful analogy could be low cost food (at affordable prices) do we have loads of healthy salads and an occasional treat- if you go around Asda of a weekend you'll see this is sadly not the case, now I don't want us to have the food police on our backs but there are concerns to address here.

With a super abundance of TV what we got on ITV is a sweet sticky splurge of news, a news service whose budget is cut to the minimum such that it will barely satisfy a weakened regulator but still with things to give us a boost and make us feel good.

Why would ITV seek to devalue the news service - simple; ITV currently has just 40% of the shares of ITN but would like to own it all to make this cheaper it provides too little funding and undermines ITN by openly considering Sky as a news provider.
Who loses - the viewing audience who see streams of stories designed to trail ITV programming. (My advice read a paper and listen to the radio and discuss - see how your views and ideas stand up, play devil's advocate -most important think)

Nice meal

Saturday night and we went to our closest Portugese restaurant Domingo's -not only are the people there a friendly family but the food is nicely cooked and there is a human being providing music - very nice; if you're in West London give it a go.



Bus trip from hell

Friday is a good day to leave work a little early, it's been half-term at UK schools and traffic was lighter than usual, I'd heard that there was a 'jam' at Hanger Lane so I experimented ...

Big Mistake- I took the underground from Stonebridge Park to Wembley Central and somehow the time plates slipped and I moved into a fourth dimension, landed up in post nuclear holocaust hell that is a bus ride from Wembley to Ealing.
The driver of the 297 was from some unknown country and/or continent was trying to be a comedian he was 30 minutes late and we were to blame he declared independence and stopped the bus mid route - all very strange- must get a bike.


blair morphs into brown

The last week or so has been a revelation on how far Labour has moved in becoming the establishement despite several years of in-fighting there is now a process around an orderly transition, it's not clear if it'll work; the last time it was tried (somewhat similarly) was when Harold Wilson made way for the more Labour James Callaghan, Callaghan failed to win a UK election as leader and I worry that the same may happen to Gordon.
( There's an odd thing around James's - Wilson was a James as is Gordon.)

Brown has sometimes looked a little like a figure in a Greek tradgedy, despite many people knocking Blair (and Brown) the UK has been a great success in the last 9 years and the majority of the UK population has benefited as never before, it's not been perfect but it's not been bad- good luck Gordon. To me he is that rare thing a sincere politician who is not in it for his own good alone.

Navarro's

what better place to meet with old friends ?-I recognise that I'm lucky to have met up with this gang but slightly intimidated to know that this could be read by them!

BT Media

on a totally unrelated matter rumour is that BT's M&B could be shrunk by either Barclays or Arquiva buying the best bits if it -News as we get it from good old Petra .

Valentine's

so a very pleasant evening last night with a trip along the Thames on the Silver Sturgeon run by Silverfleet - London is a fantastic city and a trip down the Thames is always a revelation with views of the Mermaid theatre and Canary Wharf it was magical (food and company good too).


BBC World Service

work trip today to BBC's Bush House - what a fantastic building and by and large a worthwhile operation it's about 12 years since I was there before working on a different project and the culture seems to have remained. Also great to find that the eople I was with had some shared points of reference. Could be that I'll be back there in the not too distant future. It was also encouraging to find that the BBC is fully aware of the drought crisis in Somalia - the Somali service of the the BBC WS is widely listened to by Somalis around the world.




Smoking?

Now I don't think I'm the only person who is somewhat ambivalent to the UK smoking ban that's on the way - I'm not a smoker and would advise people that it's a waste of money and potentially going to shorten your life but by and large it's you that will suffer and we're all going to die sometime -Politicians will pat themselves on their collective backs and say they're looking after us. It's odd, is it advancing years- but this nannying (from all political parties) is getting on my wick and making me stick up for things I'm against (like fox hunting) - any chance of being treated like grown-ups and allowed to enjoy our freedoms before we all have our ID cards surgically implanted?

Free DVDS?

Why is it that so many UK papers feel obliged to give away DVDs? for me it has actually got to the level that it is a disincentive -I've not watched any yet - free ones this w/e are The Big Sleep and Take the money and run - any ideas what I should do with them (polite please)?
Here's a reason given for the freebies by the BBC website.


Share dealing

now I'm not very experienced in share dealing but have hopefully just completed a deal on the Halifax web site - surprisngly easy (and I think I've made a profit) shares I've dealt in are Pace Micro, I think they may well go higher but I'll set a rule where if the shares rise 10% I will move into something else (and probably if they lose 20%) - we'll see, if all goes well next company I will invest in is All new Video, also a firm believer in ITV so any spare dosh could go there.

Bskyb

talking of investmnt I see Sky is getting more involved in adult content - not sure if this means they'll do better as an investment.

Somalian Drought

Now I’m a regular user of Skype and one of the contacts I’ve established there is with Mukhtar “Bill” Ainashe, Bill has brought to my attention the terrible situation in Somalia I feel duty bound to try and raise the profile of this impending catastrophe and ask you all to do what you can.

Here are some sites that will give you more details of the problem

News from Somalian relief worker Austin Kennan

EU aid

Drought Newsletter

Somali News

I intend to canvas support where I can and ask you to do the same.

To me there seems to an opportunity for the West to demonstrate that they are not anti Muslim and only concerned with the oil rich Middle east – please lobby your politicians and see if we can feed these hungry people - show some humanity.

I will be asking those involved with the planned Somalian TV channel to use the channel to publicise the problem.

If you have ideas on who I should lobby please let me know

BT results

so BT results have shown growth on the so called 'new wave' part of their business and the profits are higher than anticipated but the stock market has written them down - why? Well one answer could be that the times are still challenging with traditional customers leaving thefixed line business they'll soon be struggling with a single cable company and Sky - expect further shedding of staff and more radical change at the giant UK telco.

Sky

Now I'm less than thrilled by Sky -is it a TV comapny or a platform? The sooner it splitts in two the better it's two halves will perform but the changes at the top there don't indicate that it'll happen anytime soon.
HDTV could well take time to establish itself the 2006 world cup will be a key indicator of UK appetite for the immersive experience SKY have a lot riding on it.

Arquiva
on the subject of Media look out for Arquiva making another acquisition in the very near future.

Further consolidation of suppliers in the broadcast industry

story today that Tandberg TV who supply digital TV compression systems to Sky and other large broadcasters are somewhat confusingly taking over Skystream .

Skystream have strengths in the area of IPTV likely to be the distribution of TV in the years to come.

The takeover follows the takeover of another, somewhat similar high-tech digital TV oufit Scientific Atlanta by IP experts Cisco at the back end of 2005.



Should he be locked up?

So on balance I think Abu Hamza should be put away but there's a danger of him becoming something of a martyr (and he's a criminal) - which won't help, as for Omar Khayam it seems like using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut to return him to the 'nick' , he's been stupid (again) but he's relativley young and further time in prison does not seem to make sense to me - is what he's done now much worse than Prince Harry and his Nazi outfit at a fancy dress ball?



OFCOM proposes Coca Cola TV?

The UK broadcasting and telecom watchdog having opened the floodgates for product placement is now floating the idea of TV channels owned by large corporations, the idea is that Satellite and cable channels should be able to be owned by corporations (including gambling and booze). The planned channels sponsorship would extend to commercial television channels and radio services which to me is worrying in that editorial lines will become even more blurred than they are now and objectivity would be sent to the rubbish bin by the bean counters.

Channel 4 to take over the world?

The latest news from Horseferry road is that Film 4 will go FTA (and be on freeview as rumoured for some time) during the summer of 2006, this upsets Sky as it further devalues their proposition. Channel 4 are also pressing ahead with their plans for more involvement in radio and have appointed Gill Hind formerly GCap Media's director of mergers to help get others on board (like EMAP) in a bid to own a national radio multiplex .

ITV

Looks like change will come at ITV sooner rather than later, there is now much talk of the company being split to release shareholder value - the idea would be a production company and a broadcaster, a recent study highlighted the value of various TV programmes in terms of the audiences they deliver, this article zooms in on the fact that they could be considered over reliant on a few 'gems'

Pensions

Had a chat with the pension guy today, it's an area we all avoid but very very important I want to retire early but to do this I need some money and the truth is there are not enough people out there working to support me in my old age (and the problem is Europe wide) We have a pension crisis
The Gov't don't want to face it but they'll have to - we've all got to work longer or save harder (or win the lotto). And strangely (it might seem) we need more immigrants to come in with their big families and somewhat lower expectations.

And gas

The other problem we have is that energy prices have been too low for too long we waste it and it'll be old people who suffer as the prices become more realistic. Lets get insulating try to wrap up and huddle together.

SMS texting by Skype?

I was wondering if I could text out of Skype now I've not managed to find a resource for this but here's a good place to visit if you're interested in the txt field.
I've tried this as a free text service (PC to mobile) - and am still waiting to receive my message!

BT results

BT results out on Thursday and they'll be a real indicator of where the giant is going - steady nerves are needed at the top over the next few quarters as LLU starts to bite and mobile continues to penetrate even further. The problems at C&W will likely affect how this sector is viewed.
Here's a great story from the register on the uses of mobile technology.
It's worth noting that there are codes of practice related to the use of such applications.

OFCOM's next chief?

Ed Richards is a bright guy and in tune with Labour on broadcasting - does he have further to go - the Observer seems to think so. If you're concerned with UK broadcasting and the role of a Public Service broadcaster I would think about joining the VLV. (I'm a member!)

Chinese meal

Great meal last night at our local Chinese restaurant the Premier Peking - sadly seemed very quiet for a Saturday night- even though the place was nicely decorated for the Chinese New Year festival. Maria is always on hand and the menu is extensive (and for sure not expensive).

TV as an Industrial process

So having learnt something of how some of the largest broadcasters in the world manage themselves it becomes pretty clear to me that Media is every inch a business (and what Art there might be is being harnessed to commerce like a clapped out old carthorse). We already have some fairly sophisticated tools around TV but as IPTV gts a firmer footing these will be further refined at using the available data to hone the interplay between the producers (as in industrial) and their audience, is this good? Well it's pretty inevitable .

So the IT crowd

This evening a double bill of a new TV comedy show on the UK's C4, the show is aimed at extracting the 'Michael' from the Geeks who support the modern PC driven office and has been pushed heavily over the last few weeks - my reaction- It's okay but the anticipation was better than the show (it's certainly a rich seam to mine so it could grow on its audience and some of the Father Ted team are behind it) .

And a French situationist comedy

So France has permitted legal (ish) downloading and the UK record companies are up in arms following the parliament on the other side of the English Channel's vote which saw fit to legalise "unlimited" P2P sharing of music and film files (about as bad a cock up as the UK parliament saw this week when Blair ommitted to vote) . The Government over there is meant to be embarrassed by the vote. The law now will allow intenet subscribers who pay an extra monthly fee of €7 to download unlimited music for personal use through peer-to-peer websites. Owners of rights reckon this could make loads more titles available to internet users around the world (which they don't want) but supporters say the money from the charge will be available to share out to the rights holders and artists - what do you reckon?

Salaryman.

so as I said there could be some longer gaps as I resume grindstone duty. Day 2 at the coalface and I'm getting the idea of the service/product we're involved in and managing to recall some of the names I've been thrown. It's worthy of note how bus travellers are different from those on the tube (or perhaps it's just people who work in Wembley).

Greek Food

if you are in Ealing do visit Joseph at Wine and Moussaka, the food's good and he's a charming host - all seems better after a bottle of cold Retsina!