Advanced Television

Off Message

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

CPE and the obesity debate

In the July/August issue of Euromedia is our Annual Survey of the CPE sector; providers and vendors views on where we are and where we are going – in the age of the cloud and the virtualised world, what kind of set top will subscribers homes need? The debate has a first world problem feel […]

September 1, 2016 Nick Snow

UK takes a bullet for BT

A number of headlines today advise that BT has dodged a bullet as Ofcom has not forced it to sell Openreach. The market agrees, and BT shares picked up 3 per cent on the news. Meanwhile, shares in UK plc sunk further than ever as the bullet BT dodged further wounded the country’s already bleeding […]

July 26, 2016 Nick Snow

VR: Virtually a Reality?

Virtual Reality is becoming part of the furniture of all media business conversations in the way that 4K did three or four years ago and 3D did seven or eight years ago. Which one will VR go on to resemble – the one that is becoming a standard for TV and marks the beginning of […]

June 30, 2016 Nick Snow

Bonne Chance indeed

If you’d asked me to predict the outcome of the Brexit vote I’d have said it would be Remain, for sure. When I left the coverage at about 1am on Friday, the pollsters had called it for Remain. That’s the same pollsters that called a coalition government at the last election. If only they had been […]

June 28, 2016 Nick Snow

EU in or out? Dog fights and dog whistles

Liberty Global is donating nearly €900,000 to the Remain Campaign lobbying for the UK to stay in the EU when it comes to the seminal referendum vote next week. Ironically, the Brexit campaign would say liberty (from Euro law makers, red tape etc, etc,) is what they are campaigning for. They’d also say Liberty is […]

June 17, 2016 Nick Snow

Blood and Sand and BBC reform

In 1908, Vicente Blasco Ibáněz wrote Blood and Sand, a novel about that most visceral of activities, bullfighting. It so captured the imagination it was made into a movie no less than four times, most famously with Rita Hayworth in 1941. When it comes to BBC reform, it is tempting to draw in an analogy […]

May 12, 2016 Nick Snow

Big Data – no Big Easy

Broadcasters could be forgiven for wishing the digital train would occasionally slow down or at least rest a little longer in one station before moving on to another. For many years, of course, it was very straightforward – a signal was sent, by a variety of means, to a TV where it was watched or […]

April 22, 2016 Nick Snow

Here’s the TV News: It’s not great

Newspapers used to be – sometimes still are – the playthings of powerful people, the kind of people who didn’t want to do anything as grubby as get elected, they just wanted to control those who were through the ‘power of the press.’ Now that the press is in decline surely it is a good […]

March 31, 2016 Nick Snow