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In an era when consumers can get the content they want from broadcasters, from online content aggregators like Netflix and Amazon, direct from production companies, from new entrants with the muscle to change the market (like Apple) and, frankly, from various degrees of piracy, everyone is looking to maintain revenues to survive. The general agreement … Continued

There is a channel in the UK called ITV2. As its name suggests, it is part of the ITV network, the largest commercial broadcaster in the country, and as one of its secondary channels is afforded the opportunity to re-use content in syndication. A striking feature about ITV2 is its station idents. These consist of … Continued

A television channel used to be a fairly simple affair: A presentation director, supported by a team of operators and runners, kept a stack of VTRs (Video Tape Recorders) fed. In turn the operator would cue and take a programme part, then some commercials, maybe a trailer or two, then another programme part. There might … Continued

During the spring of 2017 MSA Focus embarked on a highly successful Asian Roadshow, which saw representatives from MSA Focus tour the Asia-Pacific region providing a series of introductory demonstrations of their next generation broadcast management solution: ForeTV Pulse. As reported at the time, ForeTV Pulse was very well received and a number of more … Continued

£8.3 billion. That’s how much Sky and BT, two giants of the domestic broadcast world, paid to the Premier League for television rights for the next three years. On the face of it, this appears to be an extortionate figure but the opportunity to grab exclusive, territorial access to those rights is just too great … Continued

If you want to get a snapshot of just how complex an issue this is, try googling film rights for television. The first page or so largely points you to advanced guides for accountants. It might help to think through how movies recover their sometimes colossal production costs. They are made for cinemas, and that … Continued

MSA Focus is proudly based in Cardiff, the capital of Wales. As an international business, the company could have its headquarters anywhere. And, to an outside observer, Cardiff might seem like a strange choice for a media company. But Cardiff is actually a major media hub, and has been for a long while. The British … Continued

The last time I contributed a blog to these pages, it was about cyber security. I said then that everyone – software developers and broadcast users – needed to think very carefully about it. I will return to this subject in a few moments. You really do not need me to tell you that the … Continued