Note Summary

Sky Sports: Purchase rights to broadcast.
BSkyB recently paid £1.62 billion for broadcast rights from 2010 to 2013.
1992 - Present
Since beginning of the EPL.
Popular crit.:
One of the main points raised is that Sky has built an incredibly valuable property in the EPL, and with the financial backing of BSkyB and its many other ventures, it would be ‘commercial suicide’ for anyone to try and bid the kind of prices that Sky can.

Most of the experts say that it will be many years before Sky can be challenged on the sale of EPL rights.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/feb/16/sky-sports-rights

Ofcom and the EU’s investigation into Sky’s 13 year monopoly of English football broadcasting rights.
possibility of Ofcom and the EU forcing Sky to sell some of its broadcasting packages to its rivals as its monopolisation of the industry is seen as being unhealthy for competition.
battle between the European Commission and the League, as the EC feels the league is not doing enough to investigate this matter.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2005/sep/12/football.ofcom

Sale of Premier League Rights

From my research, I have learnt that the Premier League is the most profitable football league in the world. Its current total club revenue currently stands at approximately £1.4 billion, 40% higher than its nearest competitor Italy's Serie A. However, I am more interested in the data regarding the amount of money the league makes from the sale of broadcasting rights. 

The broadcasting rights for the 2010-2013 period have just been sold, with Sky obtaining 5 of the 6 packages available. The other goes to Ireland-based Setanta. The premier league has netted a total of £1.8 billion, which is just marginally higher than the sale of the 2007-2010 rights, which netted £1.7 billion. Setanta has pain an incredible £159 million for the right to broadcast one package, which is 23 games. This is half the amount of games they broadcast in the 2007-2010 period. 

  

Final Question

My question is:

"How have the sale of broadcasting rights affected how the English Premier League is broadcast and viewed"

The three texts I have chosen are three different ways that EPL football is broadcast. I have used one Pay-tv channel, one terrestrial channel and also another illegal method which streams football free online. 

I will now obtain some textual analysis and institutional data regarding these texts.  

Critical Review on 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'

Overall, the Rotten Tomatoes tomatometer has given The Curious Case of Benjamin Button a rating of 72%, based on an average calculated from all the reviews on the site. The summary states that the film is an 'epic fantasy tale' with 'fantastic performances'. The 3 reviews I will be looking at are by:

1. Peter Bradshaw (Guardian UK) - Score 1/5
2. A.O. Scott (New York Times) - Score 4.5/5
3. Ian Freer (Empire magazine) - Score 5/5

Peter Bradshaw, Guardian UK

The reviewer seems to dislike the structure of the story and how incredibly flawed it is. He picks out the films long run-time, the sometimes badly created CGI effects which cause characters to look artificial, and the lack of any apparent insight or lesson to be learnt. The reviewer praises the film for how it makes charactres look older, but complains that when attempting to make them look younger, their skin comes across as metalic. 

He also comments on how Hollywood has found a market for these movies among older audiences, saying they are simply nostalgiafests from the south. He also complains about the lack of media or medical attention paid to Bejamin, despite his condition. 

Taking a look back at this reviewers history, he rarely awards fours and fives. Movies which have been given huge critical acclaim recently have been reviewed as 3/5, for example Slumdog Millionaire and Milk, both of which won oscars. I didnt learn anyhting in particular from this review. it seemed to just pick out the bad points but not give any constructive criticism. 

A.O. Scott, New York Times

This reviewer commnts mainly on how this story has been expertly crafted into a full blown love story for the big screen, and indicates how he feels the movie investigates the backward experiences of its main character. He talks heavily about how the movie invites us to contemplte on the complexity of the different situations present in the movie. He says that although these situations are not always dramatically satisfying, they are interesting and intriguing.  Like the previous review, this also relate the movie to Forest Gump, indicating that it is a hybrid. 

I did learn a bit from this review about the directors focus on his settings and characters in place of SFX. I feel this review brings through the reviewers positive thoughts about the film, but also reflects the other side of the coin and points out its flaws. He says how emotionally detatched Benjamin is form his own condition and how Benjamin is simply an 'object for contemplation' rather than a 'candidate for our empathy'.

Ian Freer, Empire Magazine

 

Welcome

This is the first post on my new blog for my A2 Media Critical Research. I will use this blog to display details of my latest ideas and research for the Critical Research module. I am yet to decide on a topic for my research.