By Eric Pfanner

Sunday, March 4, 2007
LONDON: For 3.3 million cable television viewers in Britain, "Lost" has disappeared. So have several other popular American series, including "24" and "The Simpsons."

The shows vanished from cable last week when British Sky Broadcasting, the satellite television company, pulled several of its channels, including those that broadcast the U.S. series from Virgin Media, the main cable provider in Britain.

The companies ostensibly ended their relationship because of a simple disagreement over the cost of carrying the channels on cable. But analysts say that the dispute boiled over publicly because the companies are fighting a broader battle over the British pay-TV market. This has turned the likes of Homer Simpson and the castaways of "Lost" into pawns for some far more powerful media figures: On one side, Sir Richard Branson, the British entrepreneur behind the Virgin brand; on the other, the Murdochs.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is the largest shareholder in Sky, and one of his sons, James, is the chief executive. Sky, with more than eight million subscribers, has long dominated pay-TV in Britain, relegating cable to also-ran status.

Suddenly, however, Sky faces a revitalized competitor in Virgin Media, the result of a recent merger between the two main cable providers, NTL and Telewest. Branson entered the picture when the combined company bought the British operations of Virgin Mobile, giving him a stake in the cable operator, which licensed the Virgin brand name from him.

Branson, who has climbed aboard airplanes, hot-air balloons and elephants for marketing stunts that helped build Virgin Atlantic Airways into a competitor to British Airways, wasted little time in trying to raise Virgin Media's profile.

Last autumn, Branson prodded Virgin Media to explore a bid for ITV, the largest commercial broadcaster in Britain. But that effort failed when Sky instead swooped in, buying a 17.9 percent stake in ITV — enough to foil Virgin Media's efforts to add a big content-creation and over-the-air broadcast business to its portfolio.

Virgin Media cried foul, protesting that Sky's move went against the spirit of British rules on concentration of media ownership, given that News Corp.'s British assets also include several newspapers — the Sun, the Times and the News of the World. British media laws state that Sky can own up to 20 percent of ITV, as long as it does not exert undue influence, but the government announced last week that it had asked the media regulator, Ofcom, to examine the deal.

Analysts say an Ofcom investigation, regardless of the outcome, was probably a political necessity, given a perception that News Corp.'s papers have been cozy with the Labor government of Prime Minister Tony Blair. That image was strengthened by widely published photos showing Rupert Murdoch seated next to Gordon Brown, the chancellor of the Exchequer and the presumptive heir to Blair, at a panel discussion during the World Economic Forum in Switzerland in January.

After Sky's ITV deal, Branson accused the government of being "scared stiff" of Rupert Murdoch. Branson said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph that he felt no personal hostility. "I like him, actually," Branson said. "If you asked him the same question about me, you would get the same answer."

Neither Rupert nor James Murdoch has commented publicly on the dispute with Virgin Media. A spokesman for Sky said accusations that the investment in ITV would weaken media choice in Britain "don't hold up," given that the satellite broadcaster offers a range of different news channels.

"Virgin is not a victim," the spokesman said. "Virgin is trying to use regulation as a commercial tool."

The Branson-Murdoch rivalry moved out of dealmakers' suites and regulatory offices and into viewers' living rooms with the decision by Sky to withhold its channels from Virgin Media.

Several weeks ago, Sky had already antagonized Virgin Media by running advertisements warning cable viewers that they might lose access to channels like Sky One, which shows "Lost," and Sky's 24-hour news channel. Virgin said it objected to Sky's attempt to raise the fees for running the channels on cable, despite the fact that viewership has fallen. Sky maintained that the price increases were justified because it was adding new channels to the package for Virgin Media, and because of additional investments in the existing ones.

The claims and counterclaims, detailed in a flurry of newspaper advertisements and press releases last week, grew more strident as the deadline for the negotiations approached last Wednesday, with each side accusing the other of acting in bad faith. At one point, Virgin and Sky even argued over who had initiated a telephone call between James Murdoch and Steve Burch, the Virgin Media chief executive.

Behind the seemingly petty aspects of the dispute are big changes in the competitive relationship between the two companies, Virgin Media said.

"This is not just about the carriage agreement," said Neil Burkett, chief operating officer of Virgin Media. "We now have a very viable proposition under the U.K.'s most loved and best- known brand."

Cable television has suffered from a reputation for bad customer service in Britain, analysts say. Burkett said Virgin Media was taking steps to improve that, along with making investments in video on demand and improved content offerings. The company is also trying to appeal to customers by marketing a "quad play" of telecommunications and media services — television, fixed-line and mobile phone calls and broadband — in one package.

Sky has responded to that challenge by rolling out its own broadband offering. Both sides, facing a threat from free digital television beamed over the airwaves, have also announced plans to add so-called digital terrestrial services.

Both Virgin Media and Sky may have to do a bit of damage-control in the meantime, analysts say. Virgin Media tried to make light of losing the Sky channels. On its electronic program guide, it briefly replaced the slot for Sky News on Thursday morning with a listing reading, "Sky Snooze, try BBC."

But Virgin Media later bowed to pressure from a consumer group, the National Consumer Council, announcing that it would allow customers to cancel their subscriptions with no penalty because of the loss of the Sky channels.

Burkett at Virgin said that he did not expect negotiations on the Sky channels to be reopened.

For its part, Sky has said that it stands to forfeit about £60 million, or $116 million, a year from the loss of channel carriage fees from Virgin Media, as well as from reduced advertising rates, because the channels will now reach 3.3 million fewer viewers.

Sky appeared to be gambling that it would make up some of that lost revenue by appealing to Virgin Media subscribers who cannot live without "Lost."

"There's only a certain amount of premium content," said James Healey, media analyst at Ernst & Young in London. "And if you've got that, you may not be willing to play nicely with the other children in the group."

On Advertising: BBC creeping toward commercialism
By Eric Pfanner

Sunday, March 4, 2007
LONDON: The BBC Trust, which oversees the British Broadcasting Corporation, recently deferred a decision on whether to allow the BBC's popular news Web site to carry advertising outside Britain. But with an agreement to post clips of its programming on YouTube, the online video-sharing service owned by Google, the BBC appears to be taking a tiptoed step in a commercial direction.

Though BBC-branded magazines and Web sites like "Top Gear," a car enthusiasts' publication, and BBC television channels outside Britain have long carried ads, commercials are a touchy subject at home for the august public broadcaster.

Some BBC employees and members of Parliament have opposed the proposal to allow the international BBC news site to sell ads, arguing that commercials would taint its coverage. Rival Web publishers object that allowing the BBC to support its news operations with advertising is unfair, given that the BBC is subsidized with more than £3 billion, or about $5.8 billion, a year in funding from license fees imposed on British television viewers.

Under the agreement with YouTube, which was announced Friday, the BBC is making material available for three branded "channels" on YouTube. One, which has already begun, features clips from new BBC shows and promotional material for series like "Doctor Who." This channel, like the BBC's domestic television channels, will not accept ads.

Two other channels on YouTube will accept advertising. One of them, showing news clips, will be available only outside Britain when it becomes available in a few weeks, the BBC said. But the other, featuring clips of entertainment from BBC Worldwide, the broadcaster's commercial arm, will be available in Britain, too, marking a change of sorts.

"YouTube is a key gateway through which to engage new audiences in the U.K. and abroad," said Mark Thompson, director general of the broadcaster, in a statement.

"It's essential that the BBC embraces new ways of reaching wider audiences with nonexclusive partnerships such as these."

Though analysts described the move as a modest step for the BBC, given that only clips, and not full shows, will be available on YouTube, they said it could alter perceptions of the BBC, which recently won a renewal of its charter — though with significantly less public funding than it had sought.

The agreement "adds weight to the argument that the BBC is moving away from its position as a publicly funded broadcaster and becoming a more commercially focused organization," said Chris Khouri, an analyst at Datamonitor, a market research company based in Britain.

The partnership could be an effective branding and advertising vehicle for the BBC itself, Khouri said. Many video clips from the BBC and other broadcasters already end up on YouTube and other video sites anyway; the new arrangement allows the BBC to benefit by creating a branded space on the site, where viewers can click through to sites linked to BBC shows.

"We hope to open up an entirely new audience for their content, while deepening their relationship with their existing viewers," said Chad Hurley, chief executive of YouTube.

Google and the BBC declined to disclose financial details of the arrangement, other than to say that they planned to share revenue from advertising sold for the YouTube channels.

Editorial control over the channels will rest purely with the BBC. Google will be responsible for selling advertising on the BBC- branded channels.

Analysts say advertising on YouTube has been relatively slow to take off. But Google described the BBC deal as a coup, calling it the first agreement between a major international broadcaster and YouTube. In the United States, YouTube's relations with some big content owners are tense; Viacom, for instance, has demanded that it take down more than 100,000 clips from Viacom- owned services like MTV.

Viacom has instead reached an agreement with Joost, an online "television" platform being developed by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the brains behind the Internet telephone service Skype and the peer-to-peer service Kazaa.

Joost and other similar new ventures hope to support their services purely through advertising. License fees and subscriptions, it seems, are so "old media."

- http://www.ichingresources.co.uk (I Ching: The I Ching (Book of
Changes) is an extraordinary oracle: complex yet beautifully simple, ancient
yet with a strongly modern voice, all-encompassing yet direct and
specific, and, above all, dependable . . .')

- http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/r/runes.html (Rune casting)

- http://flytrapinteractive.com/~complimentary/iching (online iching
reading)


- http://psychcentral.com/addquiz.htm (Temper quiz: 'Use this
questionnaire to help determine if you need to see a mental health professional
for diagnosis and treatment of ADD or ADHD in an adult . . .')


God Fearing Christians' Porn Revelation

A new poll of 1,000 US Christians carried out by religious website ChristiaNet.com has discovered that one in two men are addicted to pornography and one in five women.

60% of the women surveyed confessed to having 'significant struggles with lust' in the past year while 40% were involved in sexual sin, which fellow evangelical site Christian Post suggested was caused by porn on the web.

"No one is immunized against the vice-grip clutches of sexual addictive behaviors," ChristiaNet.com said in a press release, ""The people who struggle with the repeated pursuit of sexual gratification include church members, deacons, staff, and yes, even clergy."

The findings emerged weeks after news broke that the Catholic Church has started inserting confession booths in strip clubs in Boston, reportedly coercing lap dancing establishments into hosting them inside.

"They said if I didn't allow the confession booth to be installed, they'd organize a citywide boycott and would work to get my liquor license suspended," Hot Foxx owner Joe Sharkey told World Weekly News.

"At first, the customers mainly complained about it. But as soon as the hurch 'suggested' we offer a 25 percent discount for anybody who used the confession booth, it became very popular," he added.

- http://users.forthnet.gr/ath/nektar/kma/main.htm (Animated karma sutra
positions)

- http://www.spaceandmotion.com/karma-sutra.htm Karma sutra tips)

- http://www.sexinfo101.com/sp_index.shtml (Sex Positions Guide)



Broken Penis Terror Threat

Caribbean newspaper the Jamaican Gleaner warned this week that men
engaging in 'aggressive intercourse' risk breaking their penis, with
victims suffering bruising which can swell up to the size of a small orange.

"At the time of injury, a loud cracking noise is typically heard
followed by immediate pain," the Gleaner reported, "It may occur in any
coital position but happens frequently during woman- on-top intercourse."

Though the terrifying condition is not a real fracture, Men's Health
magazine said it could have dire consequences if left untreated, warning
in 2004 'if a penis fracture is left unattended, complications like
scarring, severe angulation/ deformation and even impotence can result'.

"It's really the case of the nature of one's sexual activities,"
Urologist Dr Damien Png told the magazine. "As with any activity, the more
acrobatic and rougher it is, the higher the risk of injury," he warned.


Bible Bashers Boost Pot and Smite the Simpsons

Biblical scholar/ letter-writing fanatic Stan White condemned America's
Drug Enforcement Agency over their ever escalating war on marijuana suggesting the notoriously shady secret police force are actually in league with the Devil.

"Caging humans for using the God-given plant must halt. The only
biblical restriction placed on cannabis is that it be used with
thankfulness," Mr White explained in a letter published in leading US newspaper the
San Francisco Examiner.

"Cannabis should be legalized, and one reason that doesn't get
mentioned is because it is biblically correct since God our father indicated he
created all the seed bearing plants, saying they are all good on
literally the very first page of the Bible ( see Genesis 1:11-12 and 29-30 ).
The work of the Food and Drug Administration along with the Drug
Enforcement Agency is not only ludicrous, it's 'Luciferous.'," he added.

In more bible related lifestyle news, Texan preacher Reverend Bob
Harrington attracted international attention when he attacked US celebrity
role models Jessica and Ashlee Simpson for using 'horniness' to sell
their music.

"Jessica and Ashlee will reap the dismal crops they are sowing,"
Reverend Harrington suggested in an interview with Australia's New Weekly
magazine.

"Their breasts will sag and their faces will wither and they will be
left with nothing but a hollow shell," he predicted, "They don't
represent American standards and certainly not Christian standards," he
claimed.


Pot Links:

http://cannabis.net/articles/jesus-cannabis.html (Did Jesus use
cannabis? 'Ancient wines were always fortified, like the "strong wine" of the
Old Testament, with herbal additives: opium, datura, belladEnna,
mandrake and henbane. Common incenses, such as myrrh, ambergris and
frankincense are psychotropic; the easy availability and long tradition of
cannabis use would have seen it included in the mixtures . . .')

http://www.equalrights4all.org/religious/bible.htm#Quotes (Marijuana
and the bible quotes)

http://www.weedcollege.com/potman/potman.html (Pacman on pot game)





"The spouse who wants less sex is the one who has control. The other person goes berserk then because they know it, and feel rejected." (Village Voice)Psychotherapist Esther Perel, author of Mating in Captivity: Reconciling the Erotic and the Domestic, says control rather than gender, defines sex


"A woman who's dressed to thrill is less likely to go home with you. You don't want to be the third of 25 guys to approach her that evening." (Men's Health)Sexpert Emily Dubberley (author of Brief Encounters: The Woman's Guide to Casual Sex) advises men on the pull to pursue 'the woman in the background'.






- http://www.irva.org/SimpleRemoteViewing.html (Remote viewing: 'you must
be willing to fail to succeed. You have to try things - take intuitive
risks, trust impressions you might not be sure of, acknowledge a
thought you have that "doesn't make sense" - in order to gain the experience
to tell the difference between correct and incorrect data . . .')

- http://www.mdani.demon.co.uk/para/esp1.htm (ESP Test)

- http://www.easysurf.cc/psi1.htm (Telepathy test)