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Here isn’t the news

Strange times in the UK news market. GB News continues to generate its own headlines by setting new records for Ofcom breaches, while Talk TV announces it is shutting down its broadcast version. News UK has decided its niche news channel was a bit too niche – the fact star turn Piers Morgan had already […]

March 5, 2024 Nick Snow

Paramount end game?

It seems like we’ve been waiting for ‘the other shoe to drop’ and someone to buy Paramount for a long time. Even the group’s own CEO holds staff ‘town halls’ openly discussing likely bids while enjoining them to concentrate on their jobs and his own growth plans. That will be a good trick, if they […]

February 1, 2024 Nick Snow

2024, less will be more

At this time last year, I was writing about the shameful shambles that was the inevitable disintegration of Richard Sharp’s tenure as BBC Chair. A cash machine crony of Boris Johnson, his tenure was nothing short of embarrassing all round. It has taken a year for a new Chair, Samir Shah, to be named. The […]

January 4, 2024 Nick Snow

AVoD: A Very Onerous Deal?

Streamers, both global and national, are using advertising to boost their SVoD or catch-up services. Global streamers recognise that in macro-economic hard times sign-offs can be rescued by a lower price tier supported by advertising. National catch-up services recognise that ads are so irritating to viewers that they can charge some of them to upgrade […]

November 8, 2023 Nick Snow

Dominion sees end of KRM reign

You could be forgiven for assuming that Keith Rupert Murdoch answers to no one but himself. And there’s plenty in that – though his companies have been public for years, they have, in effect, been fiefdoms following the iron will of their leader. And that will has led his companies to participate in several groundbreaking, […]

September 21, 2023 Nick Snow

Charter: The streamer showdown

Going dark is an extreme, but not very unusual, tactic when MSOs are negotiating package carriage deals with content companies. So far, so what? as Charter – America’s #2 cable operator – dims the lights on Disney’s channels as contract talks drag. What is different, is that Charter hasn’t shied away from (quite the opposite) […]

September 4, 2023 Nick Snow

And, so, it is written

Barbie and Oppenheimer – Barbenheimer – (not a portmanteau any of their creators were expecting), have had big opening weekends. Indeed, Barbie is in the all-time top ten and is #1 in the ‘by a female director’ league. Both are ‘original’ dramas in the sense that matters most. They are not original stories – Barbie […]

August 28, 2023 Nick Snow

BT: Tough gig

BT has a new CEO in Allison Kirkby, though she is not new to the company having served as a NED since 2019, the same time Philip Jansen became CEO. BT is the definition of a lacklustre stock. This despite being in a major growth area and holding a huge market share. It is, to […]

July 31, 2023 Nick Snow

Streamers are failing the stress test

The Covid pandemic was a once in a lifetime stress test for many sectors. No customers on the streets represents the darkest of times for hospitality, retail and live entertainment. For streamers, though, ‘Happy Days’. Time on everyone’s hands and nothing else to spend their money on. The bump to their subscriber numbers and revenues […]

June 13, 2023 Nick Snow

Arrivederci Silvio Berlusconi

RIP Silvio Berlusiconi, another of the titans who dominated media in the eighties, nineties and beyond. At a MIPCOM press conference in 1984 or 85, (the Com and some random satellite dishes had just been added by the wily MIP founder Bernard Chevry), the panel was Ted Turner, Robert Maxwell and Silvio Berlusconi. I remember […]

June 12, 2023 Nick Snow