Hello,
Due to WarnerMedia’s plans to move to a subscription model for the CNN news channel, it will no longer be available on Virgin TV after 31 August. Customers can still watch and catch up on the latest news on major news channels such as BBC News, Sky News, Bloomberg and many others.
Many thanks, now piss off!
I really didn't see this coming, not least because CNN has become so well-respected for its news and political coverage, especially during the US Presidential election. This from thedrum:-
The UK is CNN’s largest market behind the US and Canada in terms of digital audience, and it grew by 73% in 2020. So on top of the TV carriage deals, it was ‘experimenting’ with the CNN livestream. It’s seen enough demand on the product to warrant the monetization. “As consumer behavior changes and we see significant digital audience growth in the UK, we see an opportunity to increase our offering in the digital space.”
CNN’s data suggests that the current audience of the livestream have high incomes, are well educated, are most likely to be in a management or c-suite role and predominately are in the 25-54 age group. It’s a group with a high propensity to pay for the product.
Raad says: “There is a strong appreciation for CNN in the UK, with last year’s Ofcom news consumption study rating CNN among the UK’s top news sources.”
It's all about money of course and capitalism:-
The global news provider is putting the livestream of CNN International, once readily available on its site, behind a subscription in the UK. CNN argues that the subscription income will help improve the product and make it more readily available to news lovers without them having to pay for TV packages like Sky, Virgin TV, BT and Freesat. The CNNI livestream will be accessible on mobile and desktop, and, at least at launch, Rani Raad says it will be ad-free – although that may change down the line.
That's disingenuous of course, so it looks like my love affair with CNN is coming to an end and I'm really sad. The quality of the journalism and political analysis really has been outstanding. The presenters have been refreshingly polite, incisive and extraordinarily well briefed and informed. The editorial policy has been balanced but ruthlessly focused on the search for truth. They had no truck with Trump, his acolytes, apologists and 'alternative truths', but always fearlessly 'called it out' for what it was, sadly in stark contrast to endless BBC equivocation.
I'm going to be much less well-informed after 31st August, especially concerning US politics and as an 'Americanophile' that saddens me enormously. It's been a fun journey though and as I say, was one of the major elements of my personal covid survival plan. Who'd have thought that by the wonders of the modern digital age an outfit in Atlanta Georgia could be so significant a factor in my living room here in northern England?
So many other news options.
ReplyDeleteOver to probation services in the news. Is there yet a HMPPS statement?
A terror attack might have been stopped had a convicted criminal been recalled to prison after buying items used to fake a suicide belt, an inquest found.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-58281243
Q1: 'Are you satisfied that, on the balance of probabilities, Sudesh Amman was lawfully killed?'
A: YES
Q2: 'Did HM Prison and Probation Service miss an opportunity which may have prevented the attack and the consequent death of Sudesh Amman, in not deciding to recall him to prison after being notified on 31 January 2020 of the purchases he had made on that date?'
A: YES
Asked about the mistakes leading to the attack, Dr Joseph Downing, a fellow in nationalism at the London School of Economics who studies security and terrorism, told MailOnline today: 'That's clearly incompetence. The problem is when something like this happens is that the person may do stuff in the preparation for an attack but it may be mundane. When it's something like buying equipment for a bomb then clearly there has been an oversight.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9911713/Streatham-terrorist-Sudesh-Amman-lawfully-killed-jury-finds.html
Carina Heckroodt, head of the London Extremism Gangs and Organised Crime Unit at the Probation Service, denied it was a 'missed opportunity' not to recall Amman to prison on January 31 after he was spotted buying items later used to fashion a fake suicide belt.
Ms Heckroodt’s witness statements, read before the inquest jury, said:
“On January 9, I attended a JOT (Joint Operational Team) meeting in London to discuss Amman.
“This meeting was attended by a number of people and included the police and the security service (MI5).”
Ms Heckroodt also said Amman was considered at that meeting to be “high threat” and it was “suspected he would use a knife to carry out an attack”.
She said she subsequently learned Amman bought some bottles of Irn Bru soft drink, a roll of tape and some kitchen foil from Poundland prompting her to call the Probation Service’s national security lead to discuss whether Amman could have breached the terms of his release from prison.
However, it was not felt Amman’s actions were sufficient enough to recall him to prison. He struck two days later.
Giving evidence, Ms Heckroodt said she was “satisfied” there was nothing about the purchases that suggested he had breached any licence conditions.
Rajiv Menon, representing Amman’s family, said: “Your failure to recall him was a most serious missed opportunity in this case.”
Ms Heckroodt replied: “I disagree, it was not a missed opportunity.”
But in their conclusion, the inquest jury said: 'Whilst the jury does acknowledge that several other avenues were explored in order to recall, there was a missed opportunity.'
They agreed that, based on its policy framework, HM Prison and Probation Service 'could have recalled Amman to prison if satisfied that his behaviour indicated an increased or unmanageable risk of serious harm to the public or that there was an imminent risk of further offences being committed'.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/police-poundland-metropolitan-police-london-streatham-high-road-b949359.html
What a shambles. If lower grade staff had been responsible there’d already be a probation statement throwing them under the bus.
DeleteFully sympathise with you re: Virgin. I have switched back to BT following a move and though a similar price and lower advertised speeds it runs all my gadgets much more smoothly than Virgins network and I found the customer service a lot less pushy even though the disconnect between BT and Broadreach is disconcerting. If there was an integrated state provider of internet services I would switch to it.
ReplyDelete