ITV & Friends Reunited: Becoming Friends Disconnected

ITV & Friends Reunited: Becoming Friends DisconnectedWhen ITV announced that they were going to be buying Friends Reunited way back in 2005, we thought it was a terrible idea and went into some detail as to why we thought so …

We think that Friends Reunited has done an amazing sales job on ITV. It’s a site that would appear to be in decline rather than its ascendancy. Their expansion into Genes Reunited, Dating and Jobs Reunited would appear to point to them thinking the same.

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A Tough Week For YouTube

A Tough Week For YouTubeYouTube will be hiring more lawyers and policy wonks, we suspect, following a week of complaints and legal challenges to the content that is stored on their servers and show to people around the world.

Yesterday the House of Commons’ Culture, Media and Sport Committee published a report (PDF) with included “Risks from the Internet, particularly social networking sites and sites hosting user-generated content.” Most of the media used this to focus on YouTube and how evil it is.

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Ofcom Proposes Restrictions On Cash Cow Participation TV

Ofcom Proposes Restrictions On Cash Cow Participation TVThere’s no shock that Ofcom have today detailed new Broadcasting Code rules intended to control the once-bonanza income generating TV programmes using Premium Rate Services (PRS) phone lines.

The new rules make it clear that both radio and TV programmes cannot, as their primary focus, be encouraging viewers to call in using PRS. The focus should be editorial.

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WightCable Get AirSpan WiMax Kit

WightCable Get AirSpan WiMax KitWe wouldn’t normally cover something as apparently dry as this, but personal interest is a factor here.

Having space-shifted from London to The Isle of Wight just over three years ago, it’s really pleasing to see that the holder of WiMax license for the Island has applied to locate the WiMax aerial and kit in the town that we moved to – Ventnor.

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BBC TV Now on iTunes: At The Right Price?

BBC TV Now on iTunesA selection of BBC TV programmes are, from today, available to be bought on iTunes.

BBC Worldwide, the commercial side of the corporation, has penned the deal, which has been long anticipated.

Individual episodes will cost £1.89 with some available as a series bundle, an example being the Catherine Tate Show, selling at £9.99 for six episodes.

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Mobile Internet: Ad Revenues And Mobile Web Growth

Ad Revenues And Mobile Web GrowthThere’s still plenty of gold in them thar’ Mobile Advertising hills, with new research from Jupiter predicting revenues to hit 1.3 billion Euros in Europe by 2012.

Research bods Jupiter say that the growth of free mobile Internet access deals and the ‘limited consumer willingness’ to pay for mobile content coupled will lead to the development of ad-funded business models.
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£27,000 Mobile Phone Bill Shock

£27,000 Mobile Phone Bill ShockA Vodafone customer in Darlington got the shock of his life before new year, when he learned from Vodafone that he’d racked up a huge mobile data bill.

A ‘friend’ of his had told him that he could wire his mobile phone to his laptop to use it as modem. After signing up for a £41.50/month deal, Ian Simpson from Darlington, thought he could use it without limit.
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Is The TV Content Industry Finally Starting To Wake Up?

Is The TV Content Industry Finally Starting To Wake Up?MTV Networks Chairman and Chief Executive Judy McGrath said of Web distributed content and TV content, at the Reuters Media Summit, “One does not diminish the other by any stretch of the imagination. That is kind of our hat trick.” Wow what a change around that is in the TV world.
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