Posts by Gareth Ward
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I really don't see how the Adams thing isn't orders of magnitude more serious than Collins and Oravida but that's probably just example 372 of me not getting political media scandal...
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Hard News: The Web, in reply to Grant McDougall,
Presumably Google must've learnt from Jeeves and their ilks' mistakes and the rest is history.
I believe the answer to that is PageRank* - Google's original algorithm for search ranking. To follow up Russell's point re the academic origins of the web, I understand that the PageRank patent is Stanford's, not Google's...
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Hard News: Telecom and TV, in reply to Russell Brown,
Which means it's set on a contest with Sky that it basically can't win.
I'm not completely sure that's true. Certainly the US experience suggests a SVOD player can "win" against cable TV interests (although Netflix's recent outsize growth is at least partly down to their $2b annual content-production budget)
IF they can hit with a ~$20/mo plan loaded with a fairly decent content spread (including the Freeview suite) on really straightforward lounge-hardware then offshore experience would suggest they could see some success. That IF is a fairly significant one though...In the US the cable providers took only tentative steps to directly compete for fear of self-cannibalisation, Sky could be in the same position
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Hard News: Telecom and TV, in reply to Russell Brown,
Yes. I want to hear more about using Apple TV
Well my AppleTV is set to use a US DNS service (trivial instructions/$) and then set to the US iTunes Store, giving me acces to the Netflix app (and/or Hulu Plus if that seems preferable). I only watch Netflix via my TV, as watching TV via laptop/tablet still seems like a lesser experience. Netflix + DNS is USD13/mo.
We haven't really watched broadcast television in a very long time (apart from morning Winter Olympics coverage for the kids over breakfast).I note that some occasional sports fans are known to pick up their parents' Sky Go credentials, but that's laptop/tablet/phone so probably not enough for the serious sports fan...
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there's low-hanging fruit out there. Local webseries are being made, they're even being funded by NZ On Air. But most people still don't have a good way of watching web video on their televisions. Why not aggregate the best stuff, run live feeds from events and shows, do all the things that television has become too risk-averse to do?
Sorry are you saying a Telecom venture should do that? They'd never be able to monetise that and/or gain the sort of scale they operate at. I think it's (very) valid as a differentiator on your broader television play, but not as a standalone play. Not for them anyway.
I would have guessed the primary target for SVOD customers are precisely those heavy PVR users who have gotten used to a trove of 4-5 specific shows. I know Netflix got me out of an expensive Sky contract. But there is a benchmark of quality content required to land that (it is just a benchmark though, Netflix does just fine without HBO/Showtime etc) sort of proposition.
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Hard News: Poor Choices, in reply to Emma Hart,
One of the things his parents had to endure was people trying to use that death to campaign against boy racers.
Having experienced a "news-covered" death in my family a few years back, we were appalled by the immediate attempt to turn it into an "issue" - especially when said "issue" was so transparently a media angle to shift copies. And believe me, there was absolutely no valid campaign to be had...
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Interesting, first thing I thought of when reading this post was Baldwin's column - but not to pile in on him. More as a useful (and somewhat rare) data point from the "other end of the story" (as he is undoubtedly presenting himself overly favourably).
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Hard News: The Mayor's marginal enemies, in reply to Bart Janssen,
Obviously it wouldn't be smart on LB's part to actually complain
From the Mayor's office Twitter account this morning, they'll be asking for a retraction on the Japanese consulate threats story. Never happened according to the consulate...
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While I was never a physical subscriber (what am I, 45?! ;) ) the Len Brown story is the direct point where I deleted all Herald bookmarks/apps and vowed to never follow a link to the Herald or pick up a copy in the cafe.
MIDDLE CLASS PROTEST HIZZAH! But it was a very direct loss of eyeballs/clicks/revenues and I can't imagine I'm the only one.Also, this Len Brown Derangement march is begging for another fake-sign infiltration no?
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My father-in-law had a brief period of leave from commanding tanks at Alamein in '42 so a mate suggested they pop over to this "rock city place in Transjordan" they'd heard mentioned. Utterly devoid of "tourism" and with no idea what they were going to find.
I really want to see the place but hearing that story made me realise I'll bitterly resent the tourist hordes when I do...