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 […]
The Great Streaming War of the early 2020s is finally over. Like so many wars, this one ends with many losers, but no clear winner. And we, the viewing audience, are left with too many choices and too much cost. Let’s briefly recall why the Streaming War was fought. Not long ago, SVoD (streaming video […]
Few have more admiration for Rupert Murdoch than me. He has been dominating the ‘new media’ space all my working life, and that is true for virtually everyone reading this. What I admire particularly is that KRM has – unlike any number of other faceless corporates or ‘characterful’ entrepreneurs – regularly bet the farm on […]
Sir Richard Branson’s rocket company Virgin Orbit has filed for bankruptcy in the US after failing to secure new investment. The satellite launch company had already halted operations and laid-off staff but says it hopes to find a buyer for the business. In truth, it was always an also-ran contender in the competitive launch business […]
Everyone knows the old fable about the Emperor and his lack of clothing. One person eventually calls out his nakedness and, eventually, everyone agrees; the collective illusion, the group think, is broken. The first truth-teller has to be brave, or have nothing to lose. But, in some ways, the most important figure is the second […]
It takes someone with the self-confidence born of being born into one of the founding families of second-generation television to call out that the third-generation simply isn’t working. James Dolan is the chair of AMC Networks, the content spin-off of Cablevision, one of the founding father companies of the US, then global, cable and pay-TV […]
Richard Sharp, the current Chair of the BBC, may have been an outstanding banker. He worked for both JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs and, presumably, made them a lot of money, certainly made himself rich. Is that the definition of a good banker? Did he do it more outstandingly than any of the other individuals […]
On the same day the DCMS has confirmed an earlier leak that it is dropping its mad idea of privatising C4, Matt Hancock, the gurning TV celeb and former DCMS Secretary, closed his personal app (he launched it five years ago, in case you’re not a follower). Does this coincidence indicate that the grown-ups are […]
To be able to count is often mentioned as ‘the first rule’, most usually of politics, but also of economics and of business. It can, and should, also be applied to streamers. And in so many ways. First: how many are there, and how many does the market want? Depending a little on your interpretation […]
The satellite dish is symbolic of the television revolution that took place in un-cabled countries in the 1980s. This is particularly true here in the UK where the ‘Dish war’ between Sky’s cheap bird baths and BSB’s new-age squarials was fought out. Rupert Murdoch’s Sky was victorious but had to merge with the ‘enemy’ rather […]
