When you privatise businesses they become a new beast. Public service provision goes out of the window and profit and shareholders become all.

Thanks to Margaret Thatcher, we are all now reaping a capitalist model that has screwed almost all of us. The oil has gone to the Middle East, the gas and electricity has gone to the French government, the railways have gone to pot and the telecoms, well they remain with BT.

So much for competition… The national debt was reduced by 2% and the subjects in this country have to pay forever (even before Brown’s PFI kicks in) at a vast price. Just like the US, the UK is mortgaged to the hilt because it places no premium on infrastructure and emphasises lining the pockets of a tiny, tiny proportion of our population (who are major contributors to political parties).

So, let’s draw a line in the sand today and, if we are to tax people for content, charge a National Entertainment Licence. Part of this should ensure, without fail, that everyone in this country has a decent broadband connection and a decent digital signal for radio and TV (just as they have a postal service).

The remainder should be apportioned for public service content, i.e. the provisioning of content that is not considered commercial that might be in a minority language or cover subjects that don’t involve a bunch of absolute morons taking talking endlessly on camera for ten hours a day about how much they hate each other. Not repeating celebrity love island choir singing, or Jane Austen period dramas which any commercial channel might produce…

So, once unifrorm provisioning has been achieved, let’s also be brave with the content. Let’s reform OFCOM and get it to do its job. Let’s make the BBC truly accountable and producing non commercial content and let’s decide if Channel 4 is a public service broadcaster or a pornographer.

If this sounds like an agenda, then it may be. Perhaps I should stop bullshitting on this blog and go out there and truly try and improve our media, and the lives of the people who have to consume this media.

A soap box is born.

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A Level Playing Field

Further to a comment on my recent posting, I think it’s worth pointing out Dan Rayburn’s clarification of the BBC/Akamai story, but I think there’s no smoke without fire. Quarterly figures show that Akamai are loosing ground and smaller ISPs find it easier to pick them off on price.

It remains my contention that Akamai need to vertically integrate – upwards and downwards if they are to survive the onslaught from the Tier 1 players that is just beginning.

I like the company and find them very professional to deal with and supportive and responsive in their provisioning, but, rightly or wrongly, once you’re dealing with players of a certain level, nothing in this market makes up for price.

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Smoke & Fire

I’ve just found that, perhaps due to the advent of mobile broadband, my local Starbucks has disabled the plugs in its public areas just as I’m working there (well, watching the Tae Kwon Do…). But what they don’t know is that I have a battery that lasts for

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SIgn Of The Times ?

It had to happen. My happy existence watching the Olympics on both TV and over the internet has been disrupted by bad buffering on the latter. That can be very annoying in the middle of the Modern Pentathlon between a couple of bouts of Tae Kwon Do. Strangely, this is a problem on IE but not on Firefox – a buffering problem, perhaps. I will investigate further.

But, frankly, I’ve been amazed at how well the BBC service has stacked up – six or more streams available at, I’d guess, 350Kbps on a 24 hour basis – and using Flash not WM.

That’s another USP that Microsoft has lost for its video streaming technology. Only DRM to go…

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Flash In The Pan

I’ve received legal letters from my previous employers trying to gag me, and, at the same time, an invitation to tell them how to help develop the software that I opriginally specified.

There seems to be a new team in charge now from a different company, even though I have not voted for or approved this as a significant shareholder. But let’s look at what’s happened to Eurpoe’s leading internet TV company under the ‘control’ of David McCourt. after he personally sacked the incumbent – and successful – management team, and brought in his own ‘people’.

The top of this graph is when David McCourt (or Run DMC as he is now called by a fellow shareholder, employee and sufferer) took over as CEO, the bottom is where he sold out, and then even re-negotiated a poorer deal for shareholders just a week ago. Due to this guy I have lost well over $6m dollars whilst he issued himself more and more shares in the company for free. All from a guy that poromised $8 a share to shareholders when he took over the company. He is a liar.

The US is a difficult place to go public, but it still provides scandalous levels of protection to people like this who destroy shareholder value. The previous management of Narrowstep were foolish to trust such a liar, and the shareholders are now paying the price.

OK, Olswangs, does stating these facts contravene my gagging order ?

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Backwards Step