Alan needs business class

See this.

Actually we are slightly forgiving on the business class issue. What is less forgivable is that an organisation which is funded by the taxpayers thinks it should be immune from public scrutiny and accountability.

Immer Schlimmer

So yesterday I am wondering why Hulu cant provide a service in the UK. Today it seems that they have given up, for the moment at least, on plans to launch in the UK.

This is bad news, we imagined that the arrival of Hulu would change the game in a big way. It would have been nice to have a single piece of software that provided access to all the channels, now we are stuck with iPlayer, ITVplayer and 5player (might have made that one up), etc. This development might even result in a redesign of the system.

However the good news is that I am off on holiday and wont be giving the matter much thought. Dont expect any updates for a couple of weeks.

Hulu to charge

According to this story, Hulu are planning to start charging for some content. "Hulu Plus" will apparently cost $9.95 a month. Thats less than a TV Licence.

More to the point though why can they not provide a service in the UK? Perhaps a charging structure will make this more likely.

Time Lords not voting for Tories

Obviously the BBC cant be seen to take sides in the election, after all it has a duty to be impartial. But suppose that people at the BBC were to state thier position as indivduals, that would be alright perhaps.

Thus David Tennant (among others) has decided to express his concerns about what would happen to the BBC following a Tory win.

My question though is why anyone would vote for a bigger licence fee; which seems to be the alternative to a freeze. The BBC talent lives in rather a cosseted world of their own and really imagine that we share thier concerns. I rather doubt this letter will dissuade any would be Conservative voters.

Candidate Cant Cover Complaints

So we may have been wrong about the importance of the election debate, it turns out that it might actually have changed the course of events.

On the other hand our criticism of the BBCs labour leaning stance turns out to be spot on. Who did the BBC employ to field complaints about election bias? A labour candidate no less! He has now been moved to another post but this seems to be because he tweeted that his job was "crap" rather than because of his political affiliation.

Election Debate - Not Here

The first election debate is one of those moments when Nomad regrets that, bereft of a TV Licence, he will be isolated from a decisve moment in the nations history. Or not as the case may be. Indications are that not many people are greatly bothered. A vast audience is not expected for the debate.

Election night itself is also a great television moment. However this year it will be somewhat undermined by an increased number of counts that are carried out the next day. Nomad has, in any case, solved the problem of election night by going on holiday. It seems reasonable to assume that the election will not be televised in Croatia.

Do it Yourself Broadband

Fed up with waiting for BT, the good people of Rutland have set up thier own telecom company to provide FTTC connections to rural areas. See their website.

Interestingly they see video download as a major driver. Which rather proves the point we are trying to make on this blog.

TVersity loses its sparkle

We upgraded to version 1.8 of TVersity and have regretted it ever since. After an initial struggle which reverted the system to the free version we managed to reinstate the Pro version. However it has become impossible to play anything from BBC iPlayer and also from some Youtube channels. Additionally the settings appear to be lost when you navigate away from the settings page (the input settings appear to carry on functioning though). If it aint broke dont fix it; thats what they say.

Support from TVersity appears to be very poor, in fact the whole enterprise appears to be struggling. Perhaps we should revisit the topic of media server software.

BBC makes news by promising no Bias

We know that we did promise fewer posts having a go at the BBC. On the other hand it is hard to resist this particular gem.

"Above all, the BBC will aim to be the standard-bearer for fair, accurate and impartial journalism across the UK......we will show neither fear nor favour in how we report the election" says Mark Thompson.

Really? Surely this is written into the BBC Charter, is it not actually the law of the land. Next Gordon Brown will promise to stand down if he loses the election, tellers will promise not to falsify the counts and the Queen will promise not to appoint a minority government.

Why on earth would the DG feel that he needs to clarify the impartiality of the BBC during an election? Could it be that he is aware of a certain partiality that normally operates within the BBC?

Bank Holiday

Its a holiday weekend so Sky cant be bothered to update the news podcast (or the Youtube channel). Needs to try harder!

"Freeview"

Is "Freeview" really "Free" if you have to pay £145.50 to watch it?

Just a thought.......

BBC adopts DRM

Yes, Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a spawn of the devil. No person with a brain can think otherwise. However the adoption by the BBC of DRM (the subject of a current OFCOM consultation) could turn out to be a significant one. The BBC claim that this is needed otherwise the content available on thier HD "Freeview" service will be restricted.

However if the BBC are allowed to adopt DRM in some form why dont they take things to thier logical conclusion and become a subscription service.

Computerworld has an interesting post on this topic. The author is upset about the loss of free content but he has not missed the big picture either, stating that "Employing DRM would undermine the argument for continued funding through a television licence – something that is hardly in the BBC's interest."

We are not really too upset about this development; the BBC and DRM, they richly deserve each other!