Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Winning the RWC: it's complicated, in reply to John Armstrong,
Having said that, I was this close to buying a flat-screen jobby the other day solely for the purposes of seeing the outside two inches of the semifinal coverage. Mercifully my anticonsumerism and general tight-arsedness stayed the madness just in time.
I was talking to someone in the business recently who said that new TVs were cheaper in NZ than pretty much anywhere else in the world. You can buy a 720p set with built-in Freeview and various other do-dads (like playing your internet files off a flash drive) for under $500 now. There's actually a massive e-waste problem with old CRT sets developing -- they're valueless and people just throw them out.
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Hard News: Winning the RWC: it's complicated, in reply to Sacha,
No HD or even digital receiver here, and Maori TV’s picture was actually better than the other free-to-air channels. More recent analogue transmission gear perhaps?
Intriguing! Because on both Sky and Freeview it looks markedly worse than their usual picture.
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Hard News: Thinking Digital, in reply to George Darroch,
I might be naive, so this is a genuine question, but how would an opposition political party have such a conversation with a government body?
NZ On Screen is a trust, so there wouldn't seem to be an impediment to an MP talking to them.
The UFB proposals seem to have come as a surprise to all stakeholders too. Someone as reasonable as Paul Brislen didn't need to have that sprung on him.
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Hard News: Winning the RWC: it's complicated, in reply to Marcus Turner,
Do you ever worry that we might do to rugby what we did to kiwifruit, by exporting the expertise?
Yes. That's why the NZRU has to stick to its policy of picking only domestic players for as long as possible. It will never be able to match the salaries offered by northern hemisphere clubs, so it has to make eligibility for the All Blacks the prize for staying here and playing domestically.
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Hard News: Winning the RWC: it's complicated, in reply to John Armstrong,
Absolutely. I’ve developed a strong loyalty to Maori TV’s coverage during this tournament
You're not alone -- insofar as the ratings system can give an answer, Maori Television actually had the biggest free-to-air audience for the ABs' quarter-final.
It was a bit different for Sunday's semi:
TV ONE 659,400
Sky Sport 653,300
TV3 397,800
Maori TV 262,700I suspect a good degree of the public engagement has been related to the fact that rugby is, for these few weeks, available live on free-to-air television.
But although I've enjoyed dipping into MT's coverage occasionally, the dreadful picture quality has precluded me watching any big games there.
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And a word about the specialness of New Zealand rugby in the context of this tournament ...
Not only are three of the four teams to reach the semis coached by New Zealanders, there were 38 New Zealand-born players and several other coaches scattered through through the other teams.
Given the size of the player base and the financial resources available in a small country, that's remarkable. We really are bloody good at this game.
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Hard News: Winning the RWC: it's complicated, in reply to hamishm,
Yeah, be interested and passionate and enjoy the thing, have a great time! But realise that it is just a game. While we might share some of ideals that the game does, strength, agility, whatever, those are part of the picture, we have to be a bit deeper than that, I think.
Oh, quite. A large component of my dread about NZ not winning this year comes down to a dread of the wailing and gnashing and general dickishness that would inevitably follow such a result.
I cannot even fathom the ghastliness of the All Blacks losing at this point in the competition.
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I've been talking to Brenda Leeuwenberg, the manager of NZ On Screen, who's currently having trouble logging in here, but noted that the somewhat confusing new role proposed for NZ On Screen in the Labour document is not the result of any discussion whatsoever with NZ On Screen itself (or, I think NZ On Air). That's pretty messy.
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Hard News: Thinking Digital, in reply to BenWilson,
One thing I do like in Labour’s policy is the desire to make all government software open source. That’s a vision.
But it's not a cure-all and it is prescriptive. A stronger argument needs to be made in its favour.
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Hard News: Thinking Digital, in reply to George Darroch,
I should say that I’m very impressed with the roundness of thinking shown by Labour in their policy proposals.
So am I. I just wish it was more clearly and coherently expressed.