Podcasts, Radio, TV, Books, Cycling, Photography and More
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Media Mergers/Takeovers
There are three different media mergers or takeovers happening right now that could seismically upset the existing media ecosystem to a greater or lesser extent. These are: While each of these three is different, in scale, and importance, whether they go ahead seems to me to rest on how you define the markets they operate…
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Spotify’s Top 50 UK Podcasts
Spotify Unwrapped is the company’s big promotional push at the end of each year, which dutifully allows listeners across the world to share their listening habits from the previous year (well – 11 months). As well as providing listeners with their own personal lists, Spotify also publishes a lot of cumulative data. Here’s what Spotify…
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Edison Research Top 25 Podcasts in the UK: Q3 2025
Edison Research has released its latest UK podcast rankings for Q3 2025. A reminder that this survey is conducted amongst at least 2,000 weekly podcast listeners each quarter, and they are counted regardless of which platform they listen (or watch) podcasts on. The methodology is the same as that used in the US, where they…
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UEFA Champions’ League TV Rights
Although I haven’t seen an official release from UEFA, there are lots of media reports saying that Paramount has won the rights to the Champions’ League (UCL) in the UK, for four years from 2027/28 bidding “well in excess” of the £1bn that TNT currently pays over the 2024/25-2026/27 three year cycle. TNT Sports, previously…
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RAJAR Q3 2025
This post is brought to you in association with RALF from DP Software and Services. I’ve used RALF for the many years, and it’s my favourite RAJAR analysis tool. So I am delighted that I continue to be able to bring you this RAJAR analysis in association with RALF. For more details on the product, contact Deryck Pritchard via…
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Spotify, The Ringer, Netflix and YouTube
I am intrigued by the recent announcement from Spotify that a range of their podcasts from The Ringer (which is owned by Spotify) will be coming to Netflix. In recent years, The Ringer has leant heavily into video for their titles. And now, complete episodes will air exclusively on Netflix – in the US initially.…
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Mirroring
It has been a while since I posted a video. I’ve always been a big fan of Bosch and Bosch Legacy, but the former had an amazing opening title sequence featuring reflected shots of the downtown Los Angeles area. I’ve gone for a slightly different vibe, with a series of shots of the autumnal leaves…
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Plus ça Change, Plus c’est la Même Chose
Back in 2024, I noted that the area near where I work, was seeing the final bicycle shops in the area close down. We’d gone from a surfeit of bike shops to basically none at all. The final shop to shut was Evans, now owned by Mike Ashley (Sports Direct et al), which shut its…
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Whitewebbs XC 2025
My running club hosted its first ever race this weekend. I was one of a small crew on Saturday afternoon laying out the course. Then a much larger crew helped marshal the course, be timekeepers, car park attendants, hand out race numbers and much more. Overall, a massively successful event with more than 100 runners…
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Summer Reading
It has been ages since I wrote about what I’ve been reading, so here’s what I’ve read over the last couple of summer months. Apple in China by Patrick McGee This is a fascinating account of Apple’s history seen through the lens of its manufacturing, how over time that morphed into a growing dependence, and…
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“Half the people on the planet will be AI…”
Huh? This is a quote from the CEO of a new podcast company in a piece in the Hollywood Reporter. Jeanine Wright was formerly Chief Operating Officer at Wondery and is now heading up Inception Point AI which basically plans to flood the market with AI generated podcasts which might be produced for less than…
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Ice Road: Vengeance
I have watched this so that you don’t have to. Ice Road: Vengeance is one of those films that once upon a time would have been on the shelves of Blockbuster as you quizzically looked at the box, trying to remember whether you could recall the film’s cinema release. You couldn’t, because it didn’t get…
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Edison Research Top 25 Podcasts in the UK: Q2 2025
Last week, Edison Research published their latest list of the Top 25 podcasts in the UK for Q2 2025. This is the most visible chart of which podcasts are being listened to, since the charts from providers like Apple and Spotify aren’t true charts for the whole industry, and tend to be tweaked for newness…
Hadrian’s Wall
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