Twelve years ago ITV triumphantly snatched TV rights for the Formula One from the BBC and has been showing the Grand Prix’s ever since. However from 2009 things are all changing again. The BBC has made a deal with F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone to show the 2009 – 2013 F1 seasons exclusively in the UK.
The BBC contract covers all platforms and promises new innovations including online and on-demand coverage. Bernie says ”The BBC has some innovative ideas to consolidate and expand our UK fan base.” It comes at a time when the BBC has been losing more and more sports to ppv and subscription based channels.
The BBC does have a lot to offer the F1 fans. For a start the main one I can see is HD. Formula One has been filmed in HD for a couple of years now for other markets. However now that HD has become so mainstream and that BBC already has an up and running HD channel – there is every reason to expect that the BBC will broadcast every grand prix in HD.
Hardy Candy is Madonna’s 11th studio album. However with Justin Timberlake popping up in 5 of the 12 tracks on the album and asking at the end of the album ‘Who is the master and who is the slave’? this smacks of desperation by Madonna. Her last album was not received well in the US and this album is an attempt by her at winning back the hearts and charts of America.
To that end the album was produced by successful songwriter/producers Timbland and The Neptunes. This really shows in the songs. There is a very hip hop theme to many of the tracks. Most of the songs feature a few poppy tuning rhymes sung by Madonna before some sort of nonsensical rapping with electronic effects by either her or a collaborative artists. Read the rest of this entry »
I cannot wait for GTA 4 to come out. I have pre-ordered my copy from Game (who have very nicely included 500 Microsoft XBOX 360 points for my troubles) and will no doubt be playing it daily, for weeks after it is launched. Although we have heard titbits of news about the new game Rockstar really is letting the mystery behind the game sell it for them. They know its going to sell big whatever they release!
To be honest I would be happy if the game was similar in content to San Andreas and in HD graphics!! Anything else is a bonus! However there are a few things else on my wish list. The biggest of these is online play. Luckily this has been confirmed by Rockstar and Microsoft, although some of the multiplayer modes have been kept secret for now. I just can’t wait to chase my friends across a massive map, hunt them down and kill them horribly. Read the rest of this entry »
Deep Space Nine is my favourite series of all time. I have recently finished watching it and want to spread the joy.
A few months back I got excited at the launch of new TV channel Virgin 1. They had advertised to be “The new home of trek”. They committed to showing my favourite TV series of all time, daily, in a primetime slot. This made me very excited, it had been a very long time since I had seen this show on TV, and on VHS rentals for blockbuster!
I started watching the show every day (well SKY+ it anyway) and despite the poor broadcast quality on the virgin channel (audio and video compression was very high) I really got into the show and couldn’t wait to watch each new episode. However, Virgin 1 did the dirty on us Trek fans. At the end of series 5, the show suddenly stopped. Read the rest of this entry »
We’re just weeks away from the launch of a new free-to-air service that promises a new way to get FTA channels - including new and existing HD channels. Receiver boxes should start appearing in retail outlets sometime next week and the service should start broadcasting soon after that on the same Astra 28E satellite that Sky uses (you can use your existing dish!).
This week some interesting news about the service has leaked out. The first pictures of the EPG and box of the Humax Freesat box were leaked on the Digital Spy forum and are believed to be genuine. The website also claims to have some technical specs on the box itself.
Read the rest of this entry »
This morning eating my toast I noticed BBC News 24 has changed to BBC News. Well done! I always thought BBC News 24 sounded crap and showed the channels age. I mean what news channel isn’t 24 hours these days? The new name comes with new on screen graphics and idents.
The change also coincides with a change to the studio and is just weeks after a revamped version of the BBC website launched.
All in all I think the changes are good for the BBC. It creates a unified news brand across media. However I’m still not sure on some of the branding with the grey and red. Maybe it will grow on me?
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