ScotWatch: Boo! The Hi-Ex Comics Convention has been cancelled next year. The BBC reports “Organisers said a lack of sponsorship and other pressures on their time meant they were unable to host an event “fans and guests deserved”" althogh they hope to have a new show in 2012.
FilmWatch: I always thought that RIPD was a superb title for a comic - if not the greatest actual comic. I wonder how much the film will align with the comic, and how much it will just use one of the best comic book titles ever concocted.
CNNWatch: Ahead of the Middle East Comic Con, CNN is reporting United Arab Emirates created manga-style comic books…
StripWatch: Beetle Bailey is 60. And still awful.
KickWatch: John Romita Jr talks about the different UK and US audiences for the Kick-Ass movie.
I’m confounded by people who complained about the little girl and the foul language and violence, because, you know, there are no children with foul mouths in the United States! But no, I’m very happy that the UK took to it the way it did, because even though it’s based in New York, this was a British production. I think that flair was there, and I think Matthew Vaughn doing the film gave it its strength in the UK and Europe. And I was very happy that the box office take was divided so evenly between the UK and the States.
This is The Bleeding Cool ComicChron Robot speaking. I come for your women. But for now I merely collate comic-related bits and pieces online. One day I will rule. Until that day, read on.
They say I am a work in progress. The fools.
Pádraig Ó Méalóid talks to Peter Hogan
And we were doing fairly well, for a small publisher. But Pete had managed to get himself hooked on heroin, and when he got clean again he hit a financial crisis and decided he was going to radically change his entire life. So he quit The Who, and shut down all his businesses – many of which deserved to be shut down, because they were insane. Recording studios on barges, for example. But Pete told me years later that his accountant was completely mystified as to why he’d shut the bookshop and the publishing company down, because they were actually making money. So it goes. The bookshop got sold, and has changed hands several times since then but is still a bookshop, which I’m quite pleased about.
Twitter / Bryan Lee O’Malley
Vol 6 is the last Scott Pilgrim book. You’ll just have to fanfic the “rest” …was that not clear?
The Economy of Webcomics: The KB Life Interviews Nick Langley
At San Diego Comic-Con International, our own Nick Langley participated in a panel on webcomics. Nick covered “The Economy of Webcomics” and brought in Super Fogeys creator Brock Heasley to discuss what went wrong with DC Comic’s Zuda line of digital comics. Kirrus of The KB Life interviewed Nick about the topic and the panel.
Influence Maps
The Influence Map meme is proving to be absolute catnip to artists, and there is something about the format that is utterly infectious. If I had any picture editing software on my computer, I’d maybe even give it a go myself (though mine would be comprised entirely of booze labels, crisp packets, guitarists and dead novelists with gigantic beards). Here’s some hotlinks to a few of my favourites that have been doing the rounds on Twitter and Deviant Art. Listed entirely in random order based only on the tabs in my browser running right to left as I composed this. So no sulking. I’m looking at you, Wynne.
S4C is sitting on a £26.1 million investment fund that could be used to plug expected cuts to its public budget.
The publicly-funded Welsh-language broadcaster’s commercial arm S4C Digital Media Ltd (S4CDM) made £33 million in 2005 from selling its stake in the SDN Freeview multiplex to ITV (LSE: ITV). It used the cash to create a digital investment vehicle.
But S4CDM has made only one deal since - a £9.5 million equity investment it led in 2008 in to Inuk Networks, an Abercynon startup operating a service for viewing TV on computers.
S4CDM still has £26.3 million in assets, according to 2009 annual accounts. But there’s little prospect of a return on the sole investment. Now, with the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) reportedly ready to cut 24 percent (£24.2 million) from S4C’s £101 million annual public grant over the next four years, S4C may come under pressure to use the funds for its core public service instead of digital investing.
“The purpose of the S4CDM fund is currently being reviewed,” S4C tells paidContent:UK.
The story…
Flush with cash from having sold the digital terrestrial spectrum that it had originally been granted by Ofcom, S4C invested in promising young Inuk together with Sir Terry Matthews’ VC house Wesley Clover in 2008.
S4C’s contribution had been £6 million, giving it a stake of 20 to 26 percent, and was approved by the then culture secretary Andy Burnham by parliamentary order upon the S4C Authority‘s request, according to correspondence between the authority and the DCMS which was released to a Freedom Of Information (FOI) request this month.
The S4C Authority had thought the investment would “secure a continuing outlet for S4C Digital on a broadband network in the future”, watched particularly by young diaspora away at university, since Inuk’s main business was delivering IPTV to halls of residence.
But, despite the new money, within months, we heard Inuk was struggling under the weight of its costs. In December 2008, S4C’s then CEO Iona Jones flew home from a holiday to attend an emergency meeting on the matter and, on Boxing Day, S4C loaned Inuk a further £1 million, in return for an option on all Inuk’s property, equipment and intellectual property as security.
Early in 2009, Inuk appointed a strategist to review the business and, in April, sold the company to Move Networks, a Utah-based IPTV company.
Move paid Inuk in shares rather than cash, so S4C made no financial return on its investment.
Upon hearing about the imminent acquisition, the DCMS asked the S4C Authority to show it details of S4C’s new stake in Move Networks. What the authority supplied, on the same day Inuk’s acquisition was confirmed in public - according to the FOI request - was the press release announcement, which contained no mention of S4C or of Move’s shareholders.
Subsequent S4CDM annual accounts show that S4CDM’s £6 million Inuk stake had been swapped for 914,714 Move shares without making a profit or a loss.
But now Move itself is in trouble. In June, the company laid off much of its staff and said it, too, was seeking a sale - likely because its costs, too, had gotten ahead of it whilst building out its HD web video platform.
But S4C should not make much of a return on any sale. Move had already taken at least $70 million in investments from Steamboat Ventures (Disney), Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), Benchmark Capital, Cisco (NSDQ: CSCO), ComcastInteractive Media and Televisa, before S4C had taken any Move stock. S4CDM’s stake is, therefore, likely more dilute than its Inuk stake was. S4C is not even listed amongst the investors on Move’s website.
At least three potential suitors have talked with Move since June, according to recent industry reports, but no deal has been forthcoming - buyers are likely put off by the valuation which would be required for Move’s big-name investors to make a return on their $70 million. “No one is going to be willing to pay that much for the company,” StreamingMedia.com reported. “So, unless the investors can get stock in the company that eventually purchases Move, they will lose money on the deal.”
That means S4C would, again, not cash out of its £6 million Inuk investment; it would instead need to gain only stock in whomever might buy Move and hope for a later liquidity event.
However, S4C tells paidContent:UK: “The current book value of S4CDM’s stake in Move Networks is still £6 million.”
The options
All bets are now off when it comes to S4C’s future. The channel’s faithful and staff alike are alarmed by recent reports but acknowledge radical reform may take place.
Options for downsizing which S4C might consider could, theoretically, include abandoning today’s kind of 24/7 linear TV channel and instead becoming a multi-platform, on-demand-centric brand, commissioning less but higher-quality content for the coming era of mass time-shifting…
In three years, when UK TVs start shipping with integrated YouView, round-the-clock linearity will matter less than quality; VOD will be commonplace. As a brand pushing disaggregated video out through such devices, S4C could even offer multiple programming strands, cutting unloved output but maintaining the content it’s well regarded for, like its children’s segment.
The problem is, today, S4C’s VOD strategy is trailing. While other broadcasters are unbundling their shows for syndication through a burgeoning array of distributors like SeeSaw, YouTube, Sony (NYSE: SNE) Internet TV and iTunes Store, S4C’s VOD is available only on its own-brand S4/Clic catch-up site…
Right now; YouView is a distant prospect - S4C is the only one of the UK’s five public service broadcasters which is not a partner in the JV, although YouView’s first non-equity content partners are due to be announced in coming weeks.
If S4C favours a conservative continuation in its current form over this kind of reformation, then one option is clear - stop playing venture capitalist...
Creating a digital investment arm, with the aim of securing carriage for S4C through online disruption, may have been admirable. Facing austerity, however, S4C could write off any Inuk losses, consider how lucky it was to have been granted won a spectrum license that eventually netted it £33 million, close S4C Digital Media and transfer the £26.1 million reserve to S4C proper, where it would plug the anticipated reduction in grants precisely.
Today in automotive <b>news</b> - Beyond The Commons - Macleans.ca
14832311 Responseshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww2.macleans.ca%2F2010%2F09%2F20%2Ftoday-in-automotive-news%2FToday+in+automotive+news2010-09-20+15%3A11%3A07Aaron+Wherryhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww2.macleans.ca%2F%3Fp%3D148323 to “Today in automotive news” ...
Eric Boehlert: Fox <b>News</b> Has a Christine O'Donnell Problem
Why? Because now Fox News has to explain to viewers why O'Donnell is ready to serve in the US Senate even though she's not ready to appear on Fox News Sunday. Awkward.
Newsy: The Story Behind its Innovative <b>News</b> App
Today we're starting a new interview series on ReadWriteWeb, focused on product innovation on the Web. I'll be interviewing a number of startup founders over the coming weeks, ...
robert shumake
Today in automotive <b>news</b> - Beyond The Commons - Macleans.ca
14832311 Responseshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww2.macleans.ca%2F2010%2F09%2F20%2Ftoday-in-automotive-news%2FToday+in+automotive+news2010-09-20+15%3A11%3A07Aaron+Wherryhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww2.macleans.ca%2F%3Fp%3D148323 to “Today in automotive news” ...
Eric Boehlert: Fox <b>News</b> Has a Christine O'Donnell Problem
Why? Because now Fox News has to explain to viewers why O'Donnell is ready to serve in the US Senate even though she's not ready to appear on Fox News Sunday. Awkward.
Newsy: The Story Behind its Innovative <b>News</b> App
Today we're starting a new interview series on ReadWriteWeb, focused on product innovation on the Web. I'll be interviewing a number of startup founders over the coming weeks, ...
ScotWatch: Boo! The Hi-Ex Comics Convention has been cancelled next year. The BBC reports “Organisers said a lack of sponsorship and other pressures on their time meant they were unable to host an event “fans and guests deserved”" althogh they hope to have a new show in 2012.
FilmWatch: I always thought that RIPD was a superb title for a comic - if not the greatest actual comic. I wonder how much the film will align with the comic, and how much it will just use one of the best comic book titles ever concocted.
CNNWatch: Ahead of the Middle East Comic Con, CNN is reporting United Arab Emirates created manga-style comic books…
StripWatch: Beetle Bailey is 60. And still awful.
KickWatch: John Romita Jr talks about the different UK and US audiences for the Kick-Ass movie.
I’m confounded by people who complained about the little girl and the foul language and violence, because, you know, there are no children with foul mouths in the United States! But no, I’m very happy that the UK took to it the way it did, because even though it’s based in New York, this was a British production. I think that flair was there, and I think Matthew Vaughn doing the film gave it its strength in the UK and Europe. And I was very happy that the box office take was divided so evenly between the UK and the States.
This is The Bleeding Cool ComicChron Robot speaking. I come for your women. But for now I merely collate comic-related bits and pieces online. One day I will rule. Until that day, read on.
They say I am a work in progress. The fools.
Pádraig Ó Méalóid talks to Peter Hogan
And we were doing fairly well, for a small publisher. But Pete had managed to get himself hooked on heroin, and when he got clean again he hit a financial crisis and decided he was going to radically change his entire life. So he quit The Who, and shut down all his businesses – many of which deserved to be shut down, because they were insane. Recording studios on barges, for example. But Pete told me years later that his accountant was completely mystified as to why he’d shut the bookshop and the publishing company down, because they were actually making money. So it goes. The bookshop got sold, and has changed hands several times since then but is still a bookshop, which I’m quite pleased about.
Twitter / Bryan Lee O’Malley
Vol 6 is the last Scott Pilgrim book. You’ll just have to fanfic the “rest” …was that not clear?
The Economy of Webcomics: The KB Life Interviews Nick Langley
At San Diego Comic-Con International, our own Nick Langley participated in a panel on webcomics. Nick covered “The Economy of Webcomics” and brought in Super Fogeys creator Brock Heasley to discuss what went wrong with DC Comic’s Zuda line of digital comics. Kirrus of The KB Life interviewed Nick about the topic and the panel.
Influence Maps
The Influence Map meme is proving to be absolute catnip to artists, and there is something about the format that is utterly infectious. If I had any picture editing software on my computer, I’d maybe even give it a go myself (though mine would be comprised entirely of booze labels, crisp packets, guitarists and dead novelists with gigantic beards). Here’s some hotlinks to a few of my favourites that have been doing the rounds on Twitter and Deviant Art. Listed entirely in random order based only on the tabs in my browser running right to left as I composed this. So no sulking. I’m looking at you, Wynne.
S4C is sitting on a £26.1 million investment fund that could be used to plug expected cuts to its public budget.
The publicly-funded Welsh-language broadcaster’s commercial arm S4C Digital Media Ltd (S4CDM) made £33 million in 2005 from selling its stake in the SDN Freeview multiplex to ITV (LSE: ITV). It used the cash to create a digital investment vehicle.
But S4CDM has made only one deal since - a £9.5 million equity investment it led in 2008 in to Inuk Networks, an Abercynon startup operating a service for viewing TV on computers.
S4CDM still has £26.3 million in assets, according to 2009 annual accounts. But there’s little prospect of a return on the sole investment. Now, with the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) reportedly ready to cut 24 percent (£24.2 million) from S4C’s £101 million annual public grant over the next four years, S4C may come under pressure to use the funds for its core public service instead of digital investing.
“The purpose of the S4CDM fund is currently being reviewed,” S4C tells paidContent:UK.
The story…
Flush with cash from having sold the digital terrestrial spectrum that it had originally been granted by Ofcom, S4C invested in promising young Inuk together with Sir Terry Matthews’ VC house Wesley Clover in 2008.
S4C’s contribution had been £6 million, giving it a stake of 20 to 26 percent, and was approved by the then culture secretary Andy Burnham by parliamentary order upon the S4C Authority‘s request, according to correspondence between the authority and the DCMS which was released to a Freedom Of Information (FOI) request this month.
The S4C Authority had thought the investment would “secure a continuing outlet for S4C Digital on a broadband network in the future”, watched particularly by young diaspora away at university, since Inuk’s main business was delivering IPTV to halls of residence.
But, despite the new money, within months, we heard Inuk was struggling under the weight of its costs. In December 2008, S4C’s then CEO Iona Jones flew home from a holiday to attend an emergency meeting on the matter and, on Boxing Day, S4C loaned Inuk a further £1 million, in return for an option on all Inuk’s property, equipment and intellectual property as security.
Early in 2009, Inuk appointed a strategist to review the business and, in April, sold the company to Move Networks, a Utah-based IPTV company.
Move paid Inuk in shares rather than cash, so S4C made no financial return on its investment.
Upon hearing about the imminent acquisition, the DCMS asked the S4C Authority to show it details of S4C’s new stake in Move Networks. What the authority supplied, on the same day Inuk’s acquisition was confirmed in public - according to the FOI request - was the press release announcement, which contained no mention of S4C or of Move’s shareholders.
Subsequent S4CDM annual accounts show that S4CDM’s £6 million Inuk stake had been swapped for 914,714 Move shares without making a profit or a loss.
But now Move itself is in trouble. In June, the company laid off much of its staff and said it, too, was seeking a sale - likely because its costs, too, had gotten ahead of it whilst building out its HD web video platform.
But S4C should not make much of a return on any sale. Move had already taken at least $70 million in investments from Steamboat Ventures (Disney), Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), Benchmark Capital, Cisco (NSDQ: CSCO), ComcastInteractive Media and Televisa, before S4C had taken any Move stock. S4CDM’s stake is, therefore, likely more dilute than its Inuk stake was. S4C is not even listed amongst the investors on Move’s website.
At least three potential suitors have talked with Move since June, according to recent industry reports, but no deal has been forthcoming - buyers are likely put off by the valuation which would be required for Move’s big-name investors to make a return on their $70 million. “No one is going to be willing to pay that much for the company,” StreamingMedia.com reported. “So, unless the investors can get stock in the company that eventually purchases Move, they will lose money on the deal.”
That means S4C would, again, not cash out of its £6 million Inuk investment; it would instead need to gain only stock in whomever might buy Move and hope for a later liquidity event.
However, S4C tells paidContent:UK: “The current book value of S4CDM’s stake in Move Networks is still £6 million.”
The options
All bets are now off when it comes to S4C’s future. The channel’s faithful and staff alike are alarmed by recent reports but acknowledge radical reform may take place.
Options for downsizing which S4C might consider could, theoretically, include abandoning today’s kind of 24/7 linear TV channel and instead becoming a multi-platform, on-demand-centric brand, commissioning less but higher-quality content for the coming era of mass time-shifting…
In three years, when UK TVs start shipping with integrated YouView, round-the-clock linearity will matter less than quality; VOD will be commonplace. As a brand pushing disaggregated video out through such devices, S4C could even offer multiple programming strands, cutting unloved output but maintaining the content it’s well regarded for, like its children’s segment.
The problem is, today, S4C’s VOD strategy is trailing. While other broadcasters are unbundling their shows for syndication through a burgeoning array of distributors like SeeSaw, YouTube, Sony (NYSE: SNE) Internet TV and iTunes Store, S4C’s VOD is available only on its own-brand S4/Clic catch-up site…
Right now; YouView is a distant prospect - S4C is the only one of the UK’s five public service broadcasters which is not a partner in the JV, although YouView’s first non-equity content partners are due to be announced in coming weeks.
If S4C favours a conservative continuation in its current form over this kind of reformation, then one option is clear - stop playing venture capitalist...
Creating a digital investment arm, with the aim of securing carriage for S4C through online disruption, may have been admirable. Facing austerity, however, S4C could write off any Inuk losses, consider how lucky it was to have been granted won a spectrum license that eventually netted it £33 million, close S4C Digital Media and transfer the £26.1 million reserve to S4C proper, where it would plug the anticipated reduction in grants precisely.
robert shumake
Today in automotive <b>news</b> - Beyond The Commons - Macleans.ca
14832311 Responseshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww2.macleans.ca%2F2010%2F09%2F20%2Ftoday-in-automotive-news%2FToday+in+automotive+news2010-09-20+15%3A11%3A07Aaron+Wherryhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww2.macleans.ca%2F%3Fp%3D148323 to “Today in automotive news” ...
Eric Boehlert: Fox <b>News</b> Has a Christine O'Donnell Problem
Why? Because now Fox News has to explain to viewers why O'Donnell is ready to serve in the US Senate even though she's not ready to appear on Fox News Sunday. Awkward.
Newsy: The Story Behind its Innovative <b>News</b> App
Today we're starting a new interview series on ReadWriteWeb, focused on product innovation on the Web. I'll be interviewing a number of startup founders over the coming weeks, ...
robert shumake
Today in automotive <b>news</b> - Beyond The Commons - Macleans.ca
14832311 Responseshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww2.macleans.ca%2F2010%2F09%2F20%2Ftoday-in-automotive-news%2FToday+in+automotive+news2010-09-20+15%3A11%3A07Aaron+Wherryhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww2.macleans.ca%2F%3Fp%3D148323 to “Today in automotive news” ...
Eric Boehlert: Fox <b>News</b> Has a Christine O'Donnell Problem
Why? Because now Fox News has to explain to viewers why O'Donnell is ready to serve in the US Senate even though she's not ready to appear on Fox News Sunday. Awkward.
Newsy: The Story Behind its Innovative <b>News</b> App
Today we're starting a new interview series on ReadWriteWeb, focused on product innovation on the Web. I'll be interviewing a number of startup founders over the coming weeks, ...
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