Pie for the Sky
I have something of a love/hate relationship with Sky. Hardware-wise, it's streets ahead of its great competitor Virgin Media, whose unresponsive and utterly frustrating EPG and V+ system I currently wrestle with on a daily basis. If it had been my choice to switch from Sky when I moved away from my smoke-infested Crouch End flat (making a fresh start and all that) then I wouldn't have much cause for complaint. The galling thing is that I was told specifically by my new landlady that the building management people did not like to see dishes on their walls. I have pathetically acquiesced to these demands despite half the people in this block brazenly using dishes in spite of several sternly-worded (but alas empty) threatening letters, thereby advancing the idea that cheating gets you ahead and reinforcing the old maxim of nice guys always finishing last.
That certainly applies to poor old Vince Cable, slapped down and humiliated after being stitched up by the Torygraph as part of a sinister campaign (er... make that alleged sinister campaign) to destabilise the coalition and ensure Mr Murdoch gets his sticky fingers fully into the Sky TV pie. The Murdoch factor is by far the worst thing about Sky, besides Jamie Redknapp and the embarrassingly sycophantic pro-Taylor bias of their darts coverage, obviously. Many would argue that Mr Branson, despite his successful attempts to create a Nice Bloke facade, is not much of an improvement, but at least he isn't on the cusp of having such unprecedented influence over the UK media.
With Vinny C out of the picture it's clearly going to happen - Murdoch can convincingly argue that he's heavily influenced the result of several general elections thanks to the Sun's backing of the winning party. With New Labour this was probably more a case of bandwagon-jumping, but the Currant Bun's influence on Major's 1992 victory was huge and certainly the Tories are going to do everything in their power to accommodate our Antipodean overlord after benefiting from his backing last year. And so we will likely end up with UK Fox News Mk II, which might provide some LOLs but will certainly not be good news for fans of intelligent political discourse.
To be fair, until the recent news coverage I hadn't been aware that Murdoch doesn't own all of Sky in the first place. Perhaps this goes to show that his bogeyman image is not fully deserved. And the old empire is starting to show cracks. The Times/Sunday Times online paywall seems doomed to failure faced with the wealth of free competition (much of it of equal if not better quality). Plus there was the incredible Edinburgh speech from 2009 which saw Murdoch Jnr launching into a mad tirade against the BBC for having too much power, the hypocrisy of which would have been laughable if it wasn’t so bitter.
No, my real problem with Sky is that I don’t have it anymore, meaning I may miss out on the latest crop of quality US drama imports. This of course is down to Sky’s ring-fencing of HBO’s entire new output and seemingly most of its archive for its much-trumpeted new Sky Atlantic channel. They've also snaffled Mad Men from the Beeb, although that's nothing new as they've done the same with 24, Lost and House to name but a few. Maybe Sky failed to buy these shows from the start because they couldn't see their potential, in which case they're stupid, or perhaps they were craftily waiting to see whether they’d be hits first, which is a mealy-mouthed little strategy. Either way it’s bloody annoying for those of us who don’t want to spend half their lives downloading the latest shows from the States and who are stuck without Sky either by accident or by choice.
You’d think they’d let Virgin show Atlantic even if it was for a hefty subscription, but we’ll see. They’re certainly spending enough cash on the predictably portentious ads on all their free channels. Being able to record two programmes while watching another and free ESPN (all the big Premier League matches!... except the ones Sky Sports have first dibs on!) are no match for Boardwalk Empire, Treme and an EPG which actually responds every time you press the buttons. Give us a break, Rupes, and then we might feel sorry for you. A bit.
That certainly applies to poor old Vince Cable, slapped down and humiliated after being stitched up by the Torygraph as part of a sinister campaign (er... make that alleged sinister campaign) to destabilise the coalition and ensure Mr Murdoch gets his sticky fingers fully into the Sky TV pie. The Murdoch factor is by far the worst thing about Sky, besides Jamie Redknapp and the embarrassingly sycophantic pro-Taylor bias of their darts coverage, obviously. Many would argue that Mr Branson, despite his successful attempts to create a Nice Bloke facade, is not much of an improvement, but at least he isn't on the cusp of having such unprecedented influence over the UK media.
With Vinny C out of the picture it's clearly going to happen - Murdoch can convincingly argue that he's heavily influenced the result of several general elections thanks to the Sun's backing of the winning party. With New Labour this was probably more a case of bandwagon-jumping, but the Currant Bun's influence on Major's 1992 victory was huge and certainly the Tories are going to do everything in their power to accommodate our Antipodean overlord after benefiting from his backing last year. And so we will likely end up with UK Fox News Mk II, which might provide some LOLs but will certainly not be good news for fans of intelligent political discourse.
To be fair, until the recent news coverage I hadn't been aware that Murdoch doesn't own all of Sky in the first place. Perhaps this goes to show that his bogeyman image is not fully deserved. And the old empire is starting to show cracks. The Times/Sunday Times online paywall seems doomed to failure faced with the wealth of free competition (much of it of equal if not better quality). Plus there was the incredible Edinburgh speech from 2009 which saw Murdoch Jnr launching into a mad tirade against the BBC for having too much power, the hypocrisy of which would have been laughable if it wasn’t so bitter.
No, my real problem with Sky is that I don’t have it anymore, meaning I may miss out on the latest crop of quality US drama imports. This of course is down to Sky’s ring-fencing of HBO’s entire new output and seemingly most of its archive for its much-trumpeted new Sky Atlantic channel. They've also snaffled Mad Men from the Beeb, although that's nothing new as they've done the same with 24, Lost and House to name but a few. Maybe Sky failed to buy these shows from the start because they couldn't see their potential, in which case they're stupid, or perhaps they were craftily waiting to see whether they’d be hits first, which is a mealy-mouthed little strategy. Either way it’s bloody annoying for those of us who don’t want to spend half their lives downloading the latest shows from the States and who are stuck without Sky either by accident or by choice.
You’d think they’d let Virgin show Atlantic even if it was for a hefty subscription, but we’ll see. They’re certainly spending enough cash on the predictably portentious ads on all their free channels. Being able to record two programmes while watching another and free ESPN (all the big Premier League matches!... except the ones Sky Sports have first dibs on!) are no match for Boardwalk Empire, Treme and an EPG which actually responds every time you press the buttons. Give us a break, Rupes, and then we might feel sorry for you. A bit.
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