Monday, March 30, 2009

MIPTV Day One

I always forget the feeling of gearing up to MIPTV mode. It's meetings meetings meetings pitches pitches pitches, a rumbling stomach and too much coffee. Still, a lot of fun.

Weather slightly off, lots of rain - not at the moment though - but more on it's way I've heard.

A mere couple of dozen of Twitterers so far, seems like the TV industry isn't quite up to scratch yet. And the question everyone is asking - how can we make money in new ways, with ad revenues shrinking... If I hear a good solution, I'll post it here.

Still, people are interested in our formats. All good, next meeting in 15 minutes.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Jam

I must admit, this is a TV show I am not really sure if I could watch. I'd LIKE to watch it, but could I? Time will tell...

GAME - a pretty cool-looking movie

Well, this here looks interesting. Filmstalker talks about the new Gerald Butler movie GAME, this time with a leaked trailer.

It's about a future where people control other people in MMORPGS. Only thing is that the people they control are REAL people... and one of them is about to realize what's going on.

Pretty neat, check out what there is to check out here.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Hectic spring

...or, spring is perhaps not the correct term, seeing it was -12C when I woke up this morning. Still, hectic is the right adjective methinks.

The Space Trainees will go into production in some weeks, lots to do before that (and during that). MIPTV 2009 in Cannes is up next week, much to do before that as well. Then there are other projects - interactive cross media quiz shows, a green media social web thing for young people that should be initiated ASAP, a workshop in Belgium on it's way... Looks like it'll slow down sometime in July. I hope.

Will try to update this blog with interesting stuff, not promising anything though. But will probably Twitter from MIPTV, when I find the time to go to something interesting...

/S

Monday, March 02, 2009

Down, down, down....

Buy and hold, the callsign for generations of investors who couldn't be bothered with the day-to-day trade of stocks, futures, bonds etc, is definitely not the thing anymore.

Everyone, from Warren Buffett to my mother, is saying that this recession is going to last, last and last some more. This is what the ones I believe in - Mish Shedlock, Karl Denninger, Barry Ritholz et al - have been saying for the last 2 years as well.

Well, here we are. With the dismal news of the biggest banks in the US and their economic state of affairs coming out late last week, the Asian markets are at this moment some 3-4% down, Europe is opening in the red and I do not believe the bailouts of AIG and the banks by the US government will do much to help US confidence and the Dow Jones later on today.

We're looking at a stock market that has lost more than 50% of it's value in 1½ years. It's going to lose a lot more. the S%P 500 is projected to land at about 250, from the 700+ it's now on. If you have stocks, either you're in for the LOOOOOOONG haul (2015-16 or something) or you should cut your losses now.

These are interesting times. I do hope we'll all get out unscatched in the end - singed, but not burnt, hopefully. Although I'm not betting on it. The last time the outlooks were this bleak, a chap named Adolf saw hos opportunity...