War of the Roses

Sky and BBC are heading for a real head on collision (assuming that it has not happened yet) which will determine how the media landscape looks in the years to come. They have seemingly locked horns and now it is a case of commencing battle. In many ways it makes sense as it is increasingly difficult to justify entities like ITV, Channel 4 and 5. There can only be one alternative to the standard. But this begs the question, what will be the standard of TV, and entertainment going forward? (See: James Murdoch and Mark Thompson)

I think ITV should now be jointly owned by Virgin and Sky (who are already present shareholders) and in effect become their respective One channels. (Sky One and Virgin1) I cannot for the life of me recall the last time I actually sat down and watched anything on ITV safe for Champions League football.

In other news, the following interesting statistics just landed in my inbox and I thought I'd share them with you. Apparently the social media landscape is ruled by 'chicks' (SIC). According to Tradespace gossip ..'social networks like YoutTube and LinkedIn are seeing a 50 -50 balance in terms of gender usage but ..the usage of Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Myspace and the ruling is simple, women are using and engaging with the social web more than ever.'(See: Who rules the social web?)

This is not surprising to me at all. As a Formula One fan, it goes with the territory that on certain race weekends during the season one has to wake up in the wee hours of the morning to catch the qualifying and race day live. Since the advent of Twitter myself and fellow F1 fans tend to pass this time tweeting our opinions and comments on the goings on as they unfold on screen. Anyway, so on race weekend at Fuji, I found myself in front of my TV at 0430 (GMT+1) and the only F1 tagged (#F1) tweets that were coming through were actually from 'chicks'.

Rest in Peace to Bruce Wasserstein the head of the Lazard investment bank and “the father of modern M&A”, who died on Wednesday 14/09/09.