Blurred Keys

Adammaguire.com has the story that Channel 6 looks set to be broadcasted on the Sky Digital platform. The station has said that they will make a “major announcement in relation to the Channel’s carriage” at a press conference this Wednesday.

The channel is currently only on NTL and Chorus cable services. The news follows the recent introduction of Channel 4 to the Sky Digital offering in Ireland. 

Sky News Ireland is closing, but the company’s subscriber numbers for Ireland are up and the company is looking to launch Sky-branded broadband in Ireland…

Subscribers to Sky
Digital increased 14,000 in the three months to September reaching a
total of 441,000 subscribers in the Irish market, BSkyB said today. - siliconrepublic.com

Sky Ireland is seeking opportunities to launch a broadband service in Ireland, ENN has learned. - electricnews.net

Sky News Ireland is to effectively close, with a discontinuation of the current two nightly Irish broadcasts and reduction to skeleton staff levels. [Adam Maguire has more details >>>]

The latest edition of Murdock’s trilling read, ‘the Sunday Times’, features Sir Tony O’Reilly implying that there is some kind of conspiracy to defraud the newspaper industry, saying there is a need for action over copyright theft on the internet in which newspapers are the victims.

“I can see the newspaper industry getting together the same way as the recording industry got together, except in a more effective way,” O’Reilly told the Sunday Times.

O’Reilly is chief executive of Independent News & Media who publish Irish Independent, Sunday Independent, Belfast Telegraph, Evening Herald, Sunday World the Star and a number of regional papers  – they also own titles in New Zealand, United Kingdom, South Africa, and India. According to the company’s website, they operate “over 70 on-line editorial and classified sites”. (In addition, O’Reilly is chairperson of Waterford Wedgwood, and Eircom.) 

Video advert for ‘24′ DVD on Times Online - can print newspapers do that?

O’Reilly went on to attack the internet as an advertisement medium, saying that some things aren’t suitable to advertise online. Really? What exactly? While at the Sunday Times website Blurred Keys was entertained by advertisements for cars, DVDs, holidays, online poker, along with branding for insurance. A quick look at the Indo’s site gives advertisements for mortgages, Tesco, and motor insurance. The advert for the DVD box set of the TV program ‘24′ on Times Online was a video (pictured above) - can newspapers do that?

In further outburst of conservatism, and a dig at blogs, Sir Tony states “You can trust newspaper writers. Can you trust a blogger?” – well sir, Blurred Keys trusts some blogs a hell of a lot more then we trust newspapers linked to certain people.