U-turn, or just a new set of paints.

So Channel 5 are back in with Canvas, Hmmm. did someone over in Murdockville not put up a very good case for staying out? Is the Sky not the limit any more?

I used to find it strange that anything the BBC did was immediately poo-poo'd or lambasted by RM and his crowd no matter what it was. These days, I just find it sad and predictable.

Newsbytes

Canvassing Support.

Bertelsmann who own the UK's Channel 5 have pulled them out of the Project Canvas consortium, just when broadband was looking to be a serious competitor to DTT and DSAT for streaming output to the punter.

For those of you who want to know the consortium had the idea of another set-top box, this one dedicated to picking up streamed content on the web and letting you watch it on your TV. Considering that the only serious web-based competitor to this is Windows Media Edition, I thought this would be a winner.

One caveat on that though..... there's still over 10 million people who either don't have or don't want broadband, which may put a crimp on what the consortium are doing if it were delivered tomorrow, but as they are taking their timer and developing this slowly, I think Bertelmann are leaving the party too early.

via El-Reg

Crossed eyes forever!.

UBIsoft's UK marketing mogul Murray Pannell has gone out on a bit of a limb recently and said that there'll be a 3Dtv in every home by 2013.

Yeah,.... right,......

OK, I think he might seriously look at the current sales figures for HDtv - they still aren't great for either the sets or the set-top boxes. I honestly think he needs to rethink himself. I wouldn't even know where to find what the figures for those who still don't even have DTT, not a show-stopper, but still a significant number I would have thought.

via The Independent

Out-foxed.

I'd never heard of Martha Lane Fox until all the quango-culling happened when the Con-Lab coalition came to power after the last election. She was head of what was called the "Digital Public Service Unit": one of Gordo's last few inceptions before he and the Labour party lost their remit to govern. She's put herself forward as a sort of digital champion.

She's published a document which is both a masterpiece and a travesty of publishing. Her "Manifesto for a Networked Nation" is - if you can bear to read through it before your eyes give out with the ludicrous colour scheme and almost infinite changes in font - is a laudable aim. She has done her homework reasonably well, even if she is colour-blind. And don't think her website raceonline2012.org is any better: it fries the eyes as well.

via Digital Spy - which is far easier to read than her manifesto

Plenty to discuss..

Is it me or do these two look very alike - possibly even the same person?

Even journalists are human!

I got this one pointed out to me recently - It shows just how your average newsreader stays sane having to pass on the gloom, doom and despondency that news agencies make their living with. From personal experience - having worked in such an organisation this is mild and fairly good natured. I have seen an anchor who, the moment the transmission lights went off ran screaming from the studio and punched a hople in a partition wall in the make-up room.


I know an anchor that took advantage of not being seen below the waist and read a very sombre news item in black tie and jacket... and the filthiest pair of jeans you've seen in your life! Just a pity pocket video cameras didn't exist back then.

Visible Protests?

What ever you do, try not to work for a media or news company (or even their service cmpanies) if you want a quiet life. Working for one of our customers means occasionally having to walk past or - at worse - through a demonstration outside their offices. In the many, many years I've been going to this particular company's buildings only once has the protest I've encountered actually been aimed at the company itself. More often the only reason the protest is there is so the protestors give themselves a chance of getting their point aired to the general public.
The most recent one was a human rights issue with the current Iranian government. Having scanned all the media sources following the event, it appears the only people who noticed this group were the people actually trying to get passed them.

Freeview Tuning problems

"It's not our fault!" That's what Freeview are screaming. Well, I'm sorry but you are not entirely blameless in this fiasco, neither are the manufacturers. I am ready to accept that a small amount of the problems can be laid fairly and squarely at the consumers door, but only a small amount. The UK Govenrment must also take a very minor part of the blame here too, and I don't mean Westminster, I mean Whitehall - were the power really resides.

Tee biggest problem? No-one really thought seriously about one thing that bugs a lot of the and independent industry experts and support operations: backwards compatibility. Over the past few years it's become a "dirty word" for the decision makers, it's messy, it means they can't force people to buy our new shiny box with more bells-n-whistles (which no-one will really ever use!).

Yes, I know, I'm old and cynical, but I've been around the media industry too long not to be.

Big Brother gone? I doubt it.

Initially, anyone of the same opinion as myself would say "At last! Some relief!" as today's London Times announces: "Channel 4 finally evicts Big Brother". This sentiment would be echoed by fellow residents of Borehamwood in Hertfordshire where the programme originates in the UK who have to endure the fireworks at 11pm every time there's a major eviction. (The Google maps image is the front of Elstree Studios.) However, I can't see that Endemol - the producers - would let a good thing go and I can quite see the programme itself dragging on hosted on a different channel for a good few years yet.

There's no doubt that it's still popular with certain audiences: the queues for the Friday night evictions at the studios testify to this, but after ten years, the format is a little tired and the production team are deliberately looking for more outlandish contestants to keep the ratings up in the UK. How the other 41 places around the globe are faring is anyone's guess!

Endemol's site states:

Big Brother is all-seeing, all powerful and getting even bigger across the globe. There is no limit to the Big Brother phenomenon.

Well, maybe there is a limit, we'll just have to wait and see.