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May. 7th, 2013
My Problem With Sky Drama
May. 7th, 2013 07:33 pmI keep starting conversations with statements like, "I wouldn't mind seeing Elementary," or "Game of Thrones looks just up my street", or "I must know what happens to Cesare Borgia". And then there's nothing but radio silence from me on those topics. The problem is that over here, they're all on Sky Drama.*
Sky Drama is Rupert Murdoch's latest scheme fortaking over the world taking control of British broadcasting media. And as a plan goes I get it. Sky have pretty much cornered the market in sport by buying up all the major sports. And I'm sure he was looking around wondering why not everyone had Sky, and someone pointed out to him that there are people who don't like sports. And he probably went "but I have Sky Arts and because the BBC and Channel 4 are falling down on their public service broadcasting remits, those are the only places where you can see ballet and opera**."
So his assistant says "Not like that sir, I mean popular drama."
"We tried that, and it didn't work."
"Yes, but those shows were bad. This will work if we buy in some American shows that are going to get people's interest."
"It'll cost a lot of money."
"Not that much. Who's going to bid against Sky. The BBC can't, ITV and Channel 4 have no money and Channel 5 are only interested in crime dramas ***."
"They'll whine that we're not supporting British drama."
"That's the clever part of this plan, sir. We give some money to British creators to make things that they couldn't fund with the other channels."
"Sounds risky."
"Oh no, we only choose people with a track record, people that the public will recognise. That way we get plaudits for being risk-taking and have some security. It's a business plan that works for HBO."
~~~~
Well you get the drift.
I don't think it'll work in the long term, there's no vital need to see a TV programme as live **** the way there is to see your team win the league, but it means that, for the time being, there are an awful lot of cool programmes I can't watch until they are on DVD and affordable, because 1) I live in a block of flats so can't get a dish and more importantly, 2) I'll be blue before I give Murdoch more of my money that I have to *****.
* Sadly my internet connection is not suitable for the amount of aheming that I would need to do.
** sorry for the editorialising
*** and Once Upon A Time oddly enough.
**** There's the vital urge to see the next episode as soon as possible but it's a slightly different thing.
***** Unfortunately, 20th Century Fox get a fair bit of my money, one way or the other.
Sky Drama is Rupert Murdoch's latest scheme for
So his assistant says "Not like that sir, I mean popular drama."
"We tried that, and it didn't work."
"Yes, but those shows were bad. This will work if we buy in some American shows that are going to get people's interest."
"It'll cost a lot of money."
"Not that much. Who's going to bid against Sky. The BBC can't, ITV and Channel 4 have no money and Channel 5 are only interested in crime dramas ***."
"They'll whine that we're not supporting British drama."
"That's the clever part of this plan, sir. We give some money to British creators to make things that they couldn't fund with the other channels."
"Sounds risky."
"Oh no, we only choose people with a track record, people that the public will recognise. That way we get plaudits for being risk-taking and have some security. It's a business plan that works for HBO."
~~~~
Well you get the drift.
I don't think it'll work in the long term, there's no vital need to see a TV programme as live **** the way there is to see your team win the league, but it means that, for the time being, there are an awful lot of cool programmes I can't watch until they are on DVD and affordable, because 1) I live in a block of flats so can't get a dish and more importantly, 2) I'll be blue before I give Murdoch more of my money that I have to *****.
* Sadly my internet connection is not suitable for the amount of aheming that I would need to do.
** sorry for the editorialising
*** and Once Upon A Time oddly enough.
**** There's the vital urge to see the next episode as soon as possible but it's a slightly different thing.
***** Unfortunately, 20th Century Fox get a fair bit of my money, one way or the other.
Dead Man Down
May. 7th, 2013 11:10 pmSo I used my Cineworld card to see this.
Mostly I feel conflicted, and I think my friend L summed up the problem - "it's an arthouse filk about baking & Tupperware masquerading as an action film". And I really liked the arthouse flick parts, particularly the Tupperware scenes, and the action parts are terrifically filmed, but the merging of the two parts doesn't really work.
( I feel I am being mean because like I said, bits of it are good and it does something interesting )
Mostly I feel conflicted, and I think my friend L summed up the problem - "it's an arthouse filk about baking & Tupperware masquerading as an action film". And I really liked the arthouse flick parts, particularly the Tupperware scenes, and the action parts are terrifically filmed, but the merging of the two parts doesn't really work.
( I feel I am being mean because like I said, bits of it are good and it does something interesting )