Pay for iPlayer? Are you Crazy?

Lorraine Heggessey, former Controller of BBC1 sure thinks we should: Users of the BBC iPlayer should be charged “micro payments” to use the online catch-up service said Lorraine Heggessey, chief executive of TV production company Talkback Thames. Ms Heggessey was speaking at a BBC event on Tuesday. Tony Cohen, chief executive of Talkback’s parent company Fremantle Media, has also spoken out in support of a … Continue reading Pay for iPlayer? Are you Crazy?

X-Factor 6:3

At 7pm BST it was time to get your commenting fingers back here to add your thoughts about tonight’s third installment of X-Factor! Would the judges hear one another speak above the crowds? Would there be anyone who genuinely surprised them (or us)? Or would it just be another Apprentice-style drinking game? Find out by… [not clicking here sadly – didn’t make it back in … Continue reading X-Factor 6:3

X-Factor Season 6 Is a Failure

Charlie Brooker has Season 6 nailed: it pre-emptively wrecks the live shows. How can the viewer possibly salivate at the prospect of watching a successful auditionee cope in front of a live studio audience when they’ve already seen them slay an entire stadium in week one? Where’s the jeopardy going to come from? Unless ITV suddenly reveal they’ll be singing live in a Thunderdome, dodging … Continue reading X-Factor Season 6 Is a Failure

Disney Buys Marvel – A Good Thing?

As the whole world will now know, Disney has bought Marvel Entertainment Inc for $4 billion. My first thought was alarm – Marvel has spent the last 10 years moving forward away from a corporate owner who had rabidly emasculated it. Marvel Comics at least under editor-in-chief Joe Quesada since 2000 has rediscovered what made its characters cool, be it Mark Millar & Bryan Hitch’s … Continue reading Disney Buys Marvel – A Good Thing?