Stargate Archives

Monday 22 June 2009

Footy again

Setanta defaulted on their Scottish footy rights so they are now up for grab, three years remain on the contract at roughly £30 million a year. ESPN have bought the old Setanta Premier League rights giving them 46 games for the 09/10 season dropping to 23 for the next three years, not sure how they will be able to sell that to the people paying mainly for the footy.

Saturday 20 June 2009

CC safety

Just received a call from my credit card company querying a number of transactions in the space of an hour.
Out of the 5 suspects only one turned out to be genuine and that from a Canadian DVD retailer who I've used on and off for years. Well over a £1000 was billed to my card so it's been cancelled and the charges froze, I'm being sent some documentation to look at and then sign and a new card should be with me in a week or so.

Never a dull moment in sports tv rights

The Friday deadline passed and the Premier League didn't see the £30million they were owed and so Setanta have been stripped of their rights to next seasons 46 televised games, the likely hood is that despite being viable before entering the PL market it's unlikely they will be able to take that step back as they may default on other sports as new subscribers dry up.
In F1 we see the teams which make F1 watchable pulling out, quite right because when the rule making body and the vested interests who take the top slice of the cash think they are more important than the teams and people providing the spectacle a change is needed. If there is no more movement on the differences between Bernie/Max/FIA and FOTA then who exactly is going to pay the hundreds of millions of pounds to host, broadcast and advertise in F1 as it will be without Toyota, Renault, Maclaren, BMW and Ferrari etc.

Thursday 18 June 2009

So much for my day off.

The boss came around the other day and asked me and another guy to come into work on Friday despite our normal department still on short time, well you are not going to refuse but well even after two weeks you get used to a 3 day weekend:)

Monday 15 June 2009

Primeval Cancelled?

Reports are coming in that ITV have decided to cancel Primeval after 3 seasons stating a desire to limit high cost scripted drama pre-watershed. Given how well reality TV has done for them in the early evening slots it comes as no surprise a far more expensive and audience limited series is for the chop.
Mind you the loss of two key characters in the third season didn't help matters and ultimately it was decline although rumours of a theatrical project or US funded version still circulate.

Friday 12 June 2009

Day Off

In the middle of my imposed day off, nice day so that's a bonus.
I spent the week working not in my usual manufacturing part of the company but in the warehouse picking and packing UK orders, quite alarming how much stock the company imports or buys from other UK manufacturers. One other bonus is that I am now working where I park the car thus cutting 5 minutes off the time I get home, it's the little things:)

My SG1 coasters arrived yesterday, no one in so had to collect them and had to google map the post office address, turned out it was about half a mile away as the crow flies but in the vastly expanded Shipley View estate which was my stomping ground as a kid.

Friday 5 June 2009

Inheritance Trilogy by Christopher Paolini

I've just finished the trilogy of books (one more to come so it won't be a trilogy anymore) written by Christopher Paolini the first of which was made into the movie "Eragon".

Eragon
Eldest
Brisingr

Not surprisingly the books wipe the floor with the movie adaptation as the movie and even though it leaves you hanging at the end (perhaps for a sequel) the short cuts taken in the movie really don't do the books justice.

Thursday 4 June 2009

Flash Forward Trailer




Looks quite good.

Laid off work tomorrow (Friday), had a change of pace today as I went to the other location and worked in the warehouse/dispatch department, a lot to learn in a short space of time but what pissed me off was leaving the building walking past my card and going to my normal building to clock out then walking back to my car, ok it was only 10 minutes but what a pointless waste of my time:)