Straight to download?

After my legnthy post yesterday about iTunes finally selling TV shows in the UK - well 28 shows from mainly American broadcasters - but you get the idea - it got me thinking about the future of indie producers.

Some of the biggest and post popular shows on British Television are made by indies - or at least VERY large production companies not owned by the broadcasters.

For example Spooks, Hustle, The Amazing Mrs Pritchard and Life on Mars are all made by KUDOS.

How Clean is your house, Grand Designs, The IT Crowd and the Bill from Freemantle Media.

Cowards, The Last Chancers and The Estate Agents from Angel Eye.

Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned, TV Burp and Time Gentlemen Please from Avalon.

Ideal, Gavin and Stacy, Sensitive Skin, Saxondale, The Mighty Boosh and Nighty Night from Baby Cow.

My Hero and The Hairy Bikers’ Cookbook from Big Bear Films. Hartswood Films make Supernova, Coupling, Men Behaving Badly, Jekyll and more.

Hat Trick produce shows like Worst Week of My Life, Kumars at No 42, Game On, Father Tead, Drop Dead Gorgeous and of course Have I Got News for You.

Objective Productions produce Derren Brown, Perfect Night In, The Real Hustle and Peep Show.

Catherine Tate, Lenny Henry, Vicar of Dibley, The Thin Blue Line and more come from Tiger Aspect Comedy in addition to Murphy’s Law, Fat Friends and others from their drama department.

A combination of shows covering every genre imaginable that have made a massive impact on British televisual culture and culture generally. These shows would do REALLY well, even archive episodes from older series as buy to own downloads on iTunes.

It’s more than possible, if they can get the rights from the various other holders - for someone like KUDOS, Freemantle or Hat Trick to sell their shows, after the TV run through iTunes and by-pass the broadcasters.

It’s also possible, at some point in the future, for the bigger production companies to make shows that will ONLY be available through iTunes - shows traditional broadcasters pass up but would still have an internet market.

The problem of course, is still one of the cost of shows in the UK - if iTunes bring them down to 99p then it will set the Broadcast world alite - until then it’s going to be a damp sqiub.

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TV on iTunes UK

OK so this is something thats been promised for a while and is finally here - UK iTunes users can now buy TV shows through the digital media service.

An episode costs £1.89 in the UK store and the same show will cost $1.99 which, with the current exchange rate is 98p - so why aren’t TV shows in the UK on iTunes the same price as TV shows in the UK on 4OD and the like - 99p.

Why, as with everything else, are we having to pay an extra 90p per show over the cost of the same show in the USA? Also why is it called TV Programmes in the UK and TV Shows in the USA?

Still, at least they’ve finally got off their arses and launched it.

At launch it has shows from broadcasters including: ABC, Disney, Nickelodeon, MTV, Paramount Comedy and Playhouse Disney.

Which means that Apple have only got deals with two companies to sell TV shows on the UK store - Viacom and Disney - I’m guessing it’s only a matter of time and I expect indie producers to sell direct.

This prompted one user on ArsTechnica to say:

Well that wasn’t really worth mentioning. The only decent shows on there are South Park and The World Stands Up. It would be like if Apple launched in the US with the contents of CBeebies, Jack Dee at the Apollo, Footballers Wives and some drama off ITV. It may appeal to a few but it’s not TV content.

Give us stuff from the BBC, stuff from ITV. At the very least give us some good US shows. Until the likes of Red Dwarf and Blackadder get on I don’t really see the point of this.

Which is a good point but unfortunately the UK system is different - here, because it took iTunes so long to get off their arses and launch the store - all the broadcasters launched their own players.

Now you might get the likes of Kudos who makes things like Spooks and Hustle selling directly from iTunes and ITV productions might ’sell’ through the store - but the BBC and Channel 4 are tied to their respective players.

The BBC giving it free through the iPlayer and selling it through the BBC Shop and Channel 4 doing it all through 4OD.

Now personally I would prefer it all available through a single player but not at the prices Apple are selling at right now - twice the cost of the US store isn’t acceptable.

At the moment my computer behaves like a dog because I have iTunes, 4OD, Sky Anytime, the iPlayer, uTorrent, Democracy (or whatever they call it now) and a few others loading at start-up as this is the only way of getting the full range of shows.

See my previous rants on mobile players HERE and HERE and HERE.

Other takes on this story include the Guardian suggesting it might affect 4OD, SKY Anytime and others which is an interesting point but I think the two will go side by side.

4OD will still offer the on demand stuff for a week after it comes out as a quick run as well as some exclusive archive content - iTunes will offer the buy to own stuff for after it’s been on 4OD for a while.

The Telegraph has taken the standard - reporting it approach with a bit of info on the fact it is happening and have pinned the whole thing around the iPhone.

Other services like Mad.co.uk and Scenta have also gone for the just reporting approach but with the extra mention of the competition Apple will face in the UK market from British Broadcasters.

Brand Republic have also taken the competition approach and most seem to suggest/hint at future partnerships.

There’s also more information from BBC News Online. None of those sites mention the ‘massive’ difference between the UK and US stores over the cost of TV Shows though.

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Bands at Jersey Live

As well as just getting a new laptop to play with - this week is the run up to the Jersey Live music festivals - the second biggest event in my ‘coverage’ diary. That is, events I need to cover for bbc.co.uk/jersey.

The biggest is the Jersey Battle of Flowers which happens in the middle of August - but the difference between the Battle of Flowers and Jersey Live is that the Battle of Flowers coverage is organised by the BBC Jersey management team and the Jersey Live coverage is organised by me and Claire.

This is mainly due to the fact that an indie music festival doesn’t really fall within the remit of a radio station targetted at people over 45 - so it falls within the remit of the website team which is targetted at 18 - 35 year olds.

Over the course of the next five days I would normally be working flat out on band previews, news from the festival, preperation galleries and interviewing the bands and DJs taking part.

This year we haven’t had time to organise interviews in advance so hope to catch the bands backstage at the festival and I’ve just spent all weekend putting together an interactive band guide.

Check out the guide >>>

If you’re into any of the bands playing the festival feel free to have your say on that bands page. It’s basically using the same template set up for Glastonbury, Reading, Leeds and the BBC Radio 1 weekender event.

This year we’re doing a couple of other things differently - each band page in the guide, after the festival will include a two paragraph review of their performance and photos we’ve taken of them on stage/around the festival - that and if we catch them and interview.

We’ll be out with our video camera asking people what they think of the festival and if I can get it working we’ll be posting photos of festival goers to our mobile portal during the two day event.

If we can’t get the mobile portal thing working then we’ll be posting the photos to bbc.co.uk/jersey and to our flickr page at flickr.com/photos/bbcjersey.

We’ll also be setting up flickr and you tube groups so you can share your photos/videos with us and if you tag them forpublication we’ll put them on bbc.co.uk/jersey with a link and credit.

So that longwinded explanation is why I’m not going to be blogging much this week - that and the fact that my parents have come over for a suprise visit - so I’m working half days until Friday.

Then of course It’s all weekend on Saturday/Sunday, lates on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then on Thursday we start preparing for the Jersey International Air Display and the Jersey Marathon.

Isn’t life fun

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Moving it all around

As you might remember from a post on 7 August I’ve been waiting for a laptop to arrive from Toshiba, this is part of the Talk Toshiba campaign that invites bloggers and regular forum contributors to review a Tecra A8 or other Toshiba product.

Well this morning I got a call from my wife to tell me the laptop had arrived and that I was NOT allowed to come running home and play with it - that I had to stay at work.

So I managed to stay at work and to rub salt in the wound ended up having to work really late. It’s now 9pm and I’ve only just got home and turned on the laptop.

While I’m writing this the Tecra is going through the installation process - it comes with Windows installed but in need of setting up - all seems fairly straight forward - now all I need to do is remember my WiFi WPA code

This isn’t the review - this is just me saying ‘hey look - I’ve got a laptop to review - aren’t I special. The actual review will come the day after I give the laptop back - that will give me time to try it out in a number of different situations and using a number of different bits of software.

As we speak I’m transferring files I use regularly (my book for a start) to an 8gb memory stick that will act as my My Documents folder while using the laptop.

So my apologies if things, ie blogging, is a little thin on the ground over the next couple of days while I get my life transfered and into the habbit of using a laptop.

Oh and first impressions of the Tecra - light, bright, comfortable layout - Lets just say I’ve been looking at the Toshiba website to see how much the newer models cost.

(PICTURE: Taken on my Sony Ericsson W810i so apologies for the crappy quality) 

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One man and his fridge

As some of you may or may not be aware I’m in the process of writing a book that has the provisional title of ‘How to be a Geek’, it’s basically a guide to being a geek for the not so geeky.

Well I’ve been telling everyone and anyone that will listen about my idea, even though I’m still only half way through Chapter One and don’t know how to continue.

As well as your ordinary man on the net, I’ve told two well known comedians about my book idea.

The first was Dave Gorman. Now I have to admit to a slight abuse of position over this one, but I didn’t get much so I feel ok about it.

Basically Dave Gorman was being interviewed on BBC Radio Jersey about something or other and I got the presenter to put my book idea to him and ask if he thinks it’s worth continuing.

He said yes.

The next comedian I asked was Tony Hawks - basically I’d just finished reading Piano in the Pyraneese (a book I’d suggest you read as it is VERY good) when I saw Tony Hawks e-mail at the back (or it might have been on his website when I looked him up afterwards).

Although I don’t know why I choose to e-mail him after Piano in the Pyraneese instead of any of his other books I’ve read - maybe it’s because this one made me laugh more than others.

Either way I e-mailed him to tell him about my book idea and he seemed to think it’s a good idea as well.

The thing is though - thats not what this post is about - all of the above was so I could get around to suggesting an event Tony Hawks is putting on for Charity in London - I can’t go but one of you might enjoy it.

SPECIAL ONE OFF FILMED PERFORMANCE
Directed by David Scheinmann

Round Ireland with a fridge
Tony Hawks

Royal Geographical Society
1 Kensington Gore
London
SW7 2AR

Thursday 6 September at 7.00 pm

Lecture: Round Ireland with a fridge

Tony Hawks, recounts his hilarious adventures in Ireland, accompanied by his faithful fridge. Both he and the fridge will outline ‘fridge philosophy’; the secret of becoming and then staying happy. Not to be missed, for that reason alone.

Profits will go to ChildAid to Russia and the Republics.

Tickets: £10

Call 020 8460 6046 to book tickets. And hurry!

If you go write a review on your blog and let me know what you think - I’ll link to any blog with a review of the event.

Other books by Tony Hawks include Around Ireland with a Fridge, Playing the Moldovans at Tennis and One Hit Wonderland.

The new series of Genius with Dave Gorman starts later this year on BBC Radio 4.

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Carbon Footprint

Well it looks like I’m doing fairly well on the whole carbon footprint point.

I’m not normally dragged in by banner ads, OK I am normally dragged in by banner ads - especially if they’re animated, but this time I was tempted by the idea of a carbon calculator.

I was reading a story on the Guardian site about GCSE’s being 19th Century exams (that’s another post all together) when I was drawn away from the article by an advert for the DirectGov Carbon Footprint Calculator.

Well after answering a series of visual questions it turns out I’m a fair chunk lower than the national average.

The national average is 10.22 Tonnes per year and mine is 3.81 Tonnes per year of course the fact that I can’t drive and live just 10 minutes walk from work helps.

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The Name Game

There was a time, a decade or two ago when choosing a name for a child was relatively straight forward - inspiration would come from a relative, book or the bible.

It’s not like that any more - now you have to come up with something unique, original and … well different. The problem with that is that all the ‘nice’ names have already been taken - so either you have to be less than original or give your child a stupid name like - frog prince or something bizarre.

So far we’ve more or less managed to avoid naming our children frog prince or oogyawoogybo - instead plumping to take two slightly original names and band them together to create a double barrelled Christian name (not that we’re Christians mind - and even if we were our children wouldn’t be until they were old enough to decide for themselves).

My eldest, who is very bright and will be seven in November is called Oceana-Skye and the name seems to suite her - my youngest, who is an ADHD riddled little git, but still very bright and fun, who will be four in September, is called Jaden-Taylor.

So as you can see - so far so good - unfortunately my wife has it in her head that the next baby (due in January) also needs to have a double barrelled name.

Now it’s bloody hard thinking of an original name that isn’t overly stupid, very very hard in fact - when you need to add another name to that AND make sure it ‘works’ with the first part of the name - it gets near impossible.

So far our thinking seems to be restricted to girls names only - even though we have no idea what we’re having and won’t have any idea until the scan at the end of August.

Against my wifes wishes I’m going to tell you the names we’re thinking about so far - the reason she doesn’t want me to publish it is in case any of the other parents in Jersey due at the same time decide to use our names - rendering them second rate.

Personally I’d be happy just to call it Oliver if it’s a boy or Olivia if it’s a girl - but that would be FAR too common and even more easy on the brain cells.

So our thinking at the moment is (don’t tell my wife I’ve told you) Aisha-Sophia, Liberty-Sophia and if it’s a boy London-James (James being my fathers name and my middle name).

Of course that will all change within the next few weeks as we see the second scan, have time to actually think about it (Summer holidays last FAR too long) and start reading books and web pages.

A recent study showed that something like 75% of parents wouldn’t mind if their child decided to change its first name when it got older - I have to say I’m in the 25% that would be bloody pissed off.

For each of my children I’ve spent, or at least had to listen to my wife spending, the best part of six months thinking up the perfect name - you’ll like the sodding name, live with it for the rest of your life and stop being so ungrateful all the time!!!!

There are numerous baby name generators out there - but according to my wife the names they churn out are far to commonly used. So it’s back to trowling through lists of obscure names from around the world and drawing on our poetic reserves to find two that fit together.

Maybe a new source of inspiration could be famous musical writing partners - how about John-Taupin (second part might be ok if it wasn’t for the fact that it sounds like a Lord of the Rings Character).

I quite like Lennon as a name - Lennon-McArtney - problem there is the McCartney bit - sounds too much like a surname - how about Lennon-Cartney as a double barrelled first name - I like Oliver-Lennon for a boy (but Oliver is too common and Lennon could be an evil dictator type person).

So what about Gilbert-Sullivan - I’m not calling a child Gilbert. How about Lloyd-Rice - nope sounds like a company selling rice products in a beautifully tailored bags.

Bacharach-David doesn’t really work either although Jagger-Richard (dropping the S) could possibly work then there’s also, bringing it a bit more up to date, the partnership of Doherty-Barat - the first bit might work as Doherty could be a good boys name - but Barat sounds too much like he might end up building lots of cheap homes on the edges of green belt land.

Music partnerships don’t really work for names - inspiration however will come to you in a similar way as the lyrical and musical greats get inspiration for a new song - like a flash at the weirdest of moments.

Thank you and goodnight.

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Aunty gets Digg

As you can see from the picture about the BBC has embraced the world of social news services - with the inclusion of links to Digg, Delicious, Reddit, Facebook and StumbleUpon at the bottom of story pages.

This is something you’ve been able to do in various ways before, but they’ve either been ugly, longwinded or very slow (due to it going through a proxy).

It’s also something news sites like the Telegraph, The Times and others (not the Guardian) have had as a feature since their most recent re-launches.

Well now you can bookmark a story you find particularly interesting with a single click on the BBC but if it’s a popular story then Digg, reddit or StumbleUpon will probably already have it listed - which always leaves me feeling slightly deflated.

It’s great that it has been added, it’s great the facility is there, but the problem is, and this is only a minor niggle - it feels like all new BBC News services - it’s just been tagged on to the end.

I know it isn’t a big deal and doesn’t really change the fact that it is there or take away from its usefulness - but it just feels tagged on.

BBC News is in need of a major redesign to bring it inline with the web2.0 world. There are so many new concepts, ideas and services surrounding the new web that the old News Template is creaking a bit.

The story pages on the Guardian site are suffering a similar problem at the moment as well. The homepage re-design looks great but the stories don’t live up to their introduction.

I’d like to see News Online re-designed to more natively include these links (instead of shoving them at the bottom) and possibly even innovate with things like ‘thought clouds’.

By ‘thought clouds’ I mean quotes from blog posts (BBC Blogs and other ‘known and trusted’ blogs) at the bottom of a news story - so something like a story on Steve Jobs being named the worlds first ‘Supreme Commander’ could include a couple of quick ‘thoughts clouds’ on a positive and negative prospective.

Something like this (ignore the stupid story - I needed a filler).

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Get me my longbow

I know I live in Jersey and this doesn’t specifically apply to me, although I did live in England until I was 18, I feel the need to rectify my law breaking.

According to a bit of a filler of a Times article “In the UK, all men over the age of 14 must carry out two hours of longbow practice a day.”

I can honestly say, in the 12 years since turning 14 I’ve never actually picked up a longbow - in fact I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a longbow outside of the fictional entertainment media.

As I moved to Jersey at the age of 18, and am not sure the same law applies here, I’m working on the assumption that I have four years worth of longbow practice to catch up on - first task - work out what a longbow looks like, how to legally buy one, and where I can actually practice it for two hours a day.

Second task is to remember to practice for two hours a day - this wasn’t such a problem when I was practicing guitar, drums or singing for a couple of hours a day as a teenager - but that was because I enjoyed those things and could do them from the confort of my bedroom.

The problem with longbow practice is that - to do it from the comfort of my bedroom, given that my bedroom looks out on a road with a row of houses directly in front of me - I would have to practice by shooting the cars parked in the resident parking zone.

My new neighbours are fairly nice, I don’t know them well as I’ve only been in the new house about a month, but I don’t think that amicable relationship would last very long if I started shooting at their cars with some kind of long … bow.

Still, it’s nice to know that the next time I go to England I can piss in public as long as I keep my right hand on my car and aim for the back wheel - the only problem is that I don’t drive - does it count if you do it up against somebody elses car?

The Times: Silly Laws

I haven’t worked out what this one means though - but then again Tax Law has always been a baffling area - I just fill out my annual return as quickly as possible, give it back and pay whatever I’m asked come the end of the year.

“Under the UK’s Tax Avoidance Schemes Regulations 2006, it is illegal not to tell the taxman anything you don’t want him to know, though you don’t have to tell him anything you don’t mind him knowing.”

Jersey has its share of slightly strange laws as well - most of which I can’t remember. The only one I can think of at the moment is that it is legal to kill a Frenchman on a certain beach at a certain time of year - but it’s probably an urban legend.

Another I’ve found with a web search is that “it’s against the law for a man to knit during the fishing season on the island of Jersey.”

Now I do live in Jersey and am slightly worried that I have no idea when the fishing season is, I don’t particularly like boats at the best of times, not knowing the fishing season could cause me to fall foul of this law - fortunately I don’t know how to knit either and now have another VERY good reason for not starting.

Do you know any other strange laws?

My favourite comment on the strange laws came from someone on the Times online version of the story - it was from someone called KR (clearly not their real name) from Stockport (clearly not a real place).

They said, and I have to say they as KR could be male or female, although the comment does hint at the respondent being male given that it was about men over 14 practicing with their longbows.

Anyone Mr (good assumpting I think) KR said: “Number 13 [longbow practice] is very sensible. My neighbours and I will start obeying it immediately at the local yob-gathering point. Can’t break the law now, can we.”

Now I like this comment, it made me laugh, however if I saw it written in the Daily Mail instead of the Times I might feel it prudent to warn Longbow salesmen in the Stockport area to look out for mobs of people looking to shoot teenagers on street corners.

I don’t think it counts as practice if you use it in a real life situation.

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