Advanced Television

Nick Snow

Nick Snow

Nick Snow is the founder of Advanced Television Ltd and is publisher & editor-in-chief of advanced-television.com and Euromedia. In 1984 he worked on the debut issue of Cable & Satellite Europe, and over the years his companies have published many of the industry’s most highly regarded titles. He is also a screenwriter, producer and playwright.

Netflix: Far from immortal

I seriously doubt any media company has ever had as many namechecks as Netflix over this last couple of years. We are as guilty as any, but then that’s what happens if a business is a game-changer; the company appears in thousands of ‘wow what a success’ stories and just as many ‘oh my, what […]

October 16, 2014

Clouds gather. Shift Happens.

SCTE Denver. Shifts Happen was the pithy up sum on how cable has to keep on keeping up with every new innovation that tries to eat its lunch. It was provided by retiring Time Warner Cable CTO Mike LaJoie and was the prelude to a keynote by Tony Werner, Comcast’s current CTO, where he ran […]

September 24, 2014

Beware of 4K fever

4k and UHD really are the talk of the town just now and are bound to dominate IBC. The September issue of Euromedia, released at the show, contains a comprehensive survey of industry views on the technical validity and real time line of this ‘next generation’ high def era. More than one observer warns it […]

September 2, 2014

Rupert runs. Really?

Fox has dropped its bid for Time Warner. The surrender was unequivocal; “We’re done, period,” said Chase Carey, Murdoch’s right hand man. Fox was done in by an inclining Time share price and a declining Fox one; a toxic mix for a bid relying on Fox stock as currency. Murdoch, doubtless grudgingly, immediately spent $6 […]

August 7, 2014

King Content, King Rupert?

Exactly three years ago, Rupert Murdoch was wiping custard pie from his shirt as his now ex-wife struck out at his assailant in the House of Commons Media Committee room. Even before the pie, Murdoch had confessed it was the ‘humblest day’ of his life. The foam wiped away more easily than the inevitable impression […]

July 24, 2014

Targeting and collateral damage

blinkx, the ad targeting company, took a real pasting when it recently issued a profit warning. It said it was partly down to the damaging blog from a Harvard academic that cast doubt on the veracity of the company’s audience traffic data. It also said it was down to “industry-wide issues of efficiency and effectiveness”, […]

July 2, 2014

M&A: Back in the room

For the last few years, M&A has been off the menu; recession tends to dull the corporate appetite, no matter how many dishes the desperate investment bankers offer up. But business doesn’t stop and many companies have harvested a lot of cash or shed a lot of debt. As economies uptick shareholders start expecting accelerated […]

June 4, 2014

Speed, a Neutral issue?

The need for speed is not always associated with high intelligence; think young men (or, even worse, middle aged men pretending to be young) on motorbikes. On the other hand in motor racing those that can afford the best technology can usually go quickest. The same can be said for service providers. And, as in […]

May 14, 2014

Targeted ads, let the sleeping dog lie

Ironically, given that its purpose is to draw attention, targeted advertising is the dog that didn’t bark. For as long as most of us can remember it has been talked of the great untapped resource, just waiting to be unlocked by convergence; the ‘Mother Load’ that would justify much investment in technology and content. The […]

April 23, 2014

Devils and deep blue seas

There are some people who owe politicians and journalists a lot. These people are estate agents and parking wardens. A few years ago, these groups would routinely rank at the bottom of any ‘respect’ poll in the UK, now, thanks to MPs expense scandals and the phone hacking debacle, they no longer need worry about […]

April 4, 2014