Podcasts, Radio, TV, Books, Cycling, Photography and More


  • HBO Max and Paramount+: What It Might Mean For Sports

    Today the deal was done, and Paramount took over Warner Bros. Discovery in a massive deal that has much of Hollywood quaking. There were some last minute wrinkles with a deal being struck a couple of weeks ago with a group of US Attorneys General, with the general view being that they folded and didn’t…

    HBO Max and Paramount+: What It Might Mean For Sports
  • The Rising Cost of Streaming

    The Rising Cost of Streaming

    There seems to be barely a week that goes by right now when a streaming service doesn’t announce a price hike of some description. And I’ve just had an email from Netflix about their price increase. Here, as far as I can tell, are some of the UK price rises coming soon. Netflix says that…

  • Trent Park – Autumn 2023

    Trent Park – Autumn 2023

    It has been a while since I made a drone video and published it here, so here’s one shot at the weekend in Trent Park, just at the northern tip of London. The changing colours have come late this year. The following day, I was racing through the same park as part of a team…

  • L’Étape du Tour 2023

    L’Étape du Tour 2023

    This entry is also available as an episode of Explore from The Cycling Podcast much of which I recorded at this year’s Étape. Listen to the episode below. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts! In October each year, ASO, the organisers of the Tour de France and now the Tour de France Femmes, announce the…

  • RAJAR Q3 2023

    RAJAR Q3 2023

    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…

  • YouTube Podcasts in the UK and the YouTube Advertising Conundrum

    YouTube Podcasts in the UK and the YouTube Advertising Conundrum

    This is something of a follow-up to my recent piece about YouTube and podcasts. As ever, these are my personal views and don’t represent those of my employer. This week, YouTube officially launched podcasts in YouTube Music in the UK. Separately, some details of how advertising in podcasts on the YouTube platform might work. From…

  • Premier League UK TV Rights – More Games, Fewer Packages

    Premier League UK TV Rights – More Games, Fewer Packages

    Regular readers will know that I’m a little obsessed with the TV rights to Premier League football, and I only last wrote about the upcoming rights round a month ago. According to the very well connected FT (£), the Premier League is likely to offer fewer rights packages this time around, but with more games…

  • Edison Podcast Metrics UK – Addendum

    Edison Podcast Metrics UK – Addendum

    Last week I wrote about Edison Research’s newly published Top 25 UK podcasts in Q2 2023. Go back and read that if you haven’t already. Melissa Kiesche is Senior Vice President at Edison Research and is responsible for the data, and James Cridland interviewed her on this week’s Podnews Weekly Review and it’s well worth…

  • YouTube and Podcasts

    YouTube and Podcasts

    Introduction Earlier this week, Google announced that their Google Podcasts app will be discontinued in 2024. They are instead pointing listeners to YouTube Music: “Looking forward to 2024, we’ll be increasing our investment in the podcast experience on YouTube Music — making it a better overall destination for fans and podcasters alike.” To facilitate this…

  • The Sycamore Gap

    The Sycamore Gap

    Such awful news that possibly the most famous tree in the country was cut down by a vandal. I was lucky to visit the area in 2017 and of course I had to capture photos the iconic tree.

  • Kennedy 35 by Charles Cumming

    Kennedy 35 by Charles Cumming

    Kennedy 35 is the third of Cumming’s BOX 88 series of novels featuring the secret Anglo-American spy organisation that exists in the fringes of the intelligence services. In the present day, Lachlan ‘Lockie’ Kite is the head of the UK division. We find him hoping for some rapprochement in his marriage to Isobel who has…

  • Box 88 and Judas 62 by Charles Cumming

    Box 88 and Judas 62 by Charles Cumming

    I have read a few Charles Cumming novels over the years, but hadn’t caught up with his latest spy series. Box 88 introduces us to Lachlan Kite and the secret Anglo-American intelligence organisation that he is part of – BOX 88. The story is told in two timelines – a contemporary one where Kite is…

  • The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey

    The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey

    Penguin has recently re-published some of their classic crime and espionage novels in new “bottle-green” covers, remembering the classic green covers of their crime novels of old. For no reason at all, I picked up a novel I’d vaguely heard of but never read from a Waterstones display. The Franchise Affair was first published in…

Hadrian’s Wall

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