English Entertainment
HBO & HBO HD makes March action-packed with spy thriller ‘Mission Impossible: Fallout’
MUMBAI: Flirt with danger, as Ethan Hunt swivels through Parisian streets and precariously leaps off rooftops in London, with the momentous mission of saving the world. HBO and HBO HD bring to you the ultimate action blockbuster ‘Mission Impossible: Fallout’, this Sunday, 17th March, at 1pm and 9pm. So, stack up on some popcorn and watch magnificent action and bone-breaking stunts performed by Tom Cruise himself! The movie of the year is presented to fans by Dubai Tourism, co-powered by Volkswagen, Poco by Xiaomi and Amazon Fire Stick TV, along with food delivery partner Swiggy.
This latest sequel in the 22 year-old spy thriller franchise, ringing in more than 3.5 billion dollars at the box office, elevates thrill and pace. Hunt’s mission is set against a ticking clock with three nuclear weapons set to explode in 72 hours. The famous spy plays a distinctive mental parkour against swerving loyalties and assassination attempts. Fallout matches these complications with equally stunning signature action sequences, including the HALO (High Altitude, Low Open) jump and a classic carnage with fist-fights.
Tom Cruise reprises the role of the world’s numero uno spy for the sixth time, showcasing his daredevilry through slick stunts performed without body doubles or special effects. Cruise’s Hunt meets familiar faces and names – Rebecca Ferguson returns as MI6 Agent Ilsa Faust and Simon Pegg as the much-devoted Benji. The plot includes dual threats, CIA chief Erica Sloan played by Angela Bassett, and Sloan’s top-level assassin August Walker, portrayed by Henry Cavill. Vanessa Kirby chips in as the deadly rogue trader, ‘White Widow’. Director Christopher McQuarrie creates a familiar sense of adventure, adding a pinch of complexity as we see Hunt throwing his moral compass askew for just a bit.
HBO and HBO HD will bring to viewers a chance to experience the thrill of being Ethan Hunt and dive into his adrenalin-pumping world. Through an Augmented Reality (AR) game on HBO India Facebook page, fans must dodge and narrowly escape obstacles in 30 seconds while riding a bike, just like the spy! They can reach the highest score and proudly share on their feed and with HBO!
Fans can also put their spy logic to test with Frapp and see if they match up to Ethan Hunt’s skills! HBO and HBO HD has associated with Frapp app, the highest rated internship app in India with over half a million downloads, for a unique experience. Using the app, participants can challenge friends to ‘Missions’ like quizzes, puzzles or tasks, to be completed within a few seconds – as does the agent in his espionage adventures!
Check out one of the highest grossing movies of 2018, ‘Mission Impossible: Fallout’ only HBO and HBO HD, and experience the magic on Sunday, 17th March, 1pm and 9pm. Use the #MI:FalloutMarch17onHBO on social media to post your experience.
UK: The aerial is losing its grip. As broadband becomes the default way Britons watch television, the UK is edging towards a decisive, and divisive, question: should Freeview be switched off by 2034? The issue, highlighted in reporting by The Guardian, has exposed deep fault lines over access, affordability and the future of public service broadcasting.
For nearly 25 years, Freeview has delivered free-to-air television from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 to almost every corner of the country. Even now, it remains the UK’s largest TV platform, used in more than 16m homes and on around 10m main household sets. Yet the same broadcasters that built it are now pressing for its closure within eight years.
Their case rests on a structural shift in viewing. Smart TVs, superfast broadband and the Netflix-led streaming boom have pulled audiences online. Advertising economics have followed. By 2034, the number of homes using Freeview as their main TV set is forecast to fall from a peak of almost 12m in 2012 to fewer than 2m, making digital terrestrial television, or DTT, increasingly costly to sustain.
But critics say the rush to switch off risks abandoning those least able, or least willing, to move online.
“I don’t want to be choosing apps and making new accounts,” says Lynette, 80, from Kent. “It is time-consuming and irritating trying to work out where I want to be, to remember the sequence of clicks, with hieroglyphics instead of words. If I make a mistake I have to start again.”
Lynette is among nearly 100,000 people who have signed a “save Freeview” petition launched by campaign group Silver Voices. She fears the government is about to “take [Freeview] away from me and others who either don’t like, can’t afford, or can’t use online versions”.
Official figures underline the fault lines. A report commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport estimates that by 2035, 1.8m homes will still depend on Freeview. Ofcom’s analysis shows those households are more likely to be disabled, older, living alone, female, and based in the north of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Freeview is owned by the public service broadcasters through Everyone TV, which also operates Freesat and the newer streaming platform Freely. After two years of review, DCMS is expected to set out its position soon, drawing on three options proposed by Ofcom: a costly upgrade of Freeview’s ageing technology; maintaining a bare-bones service with only core PSB channels; or a full switch-off during the 2030s.
The broadcasters have rallied behind the third option. They argue that 2034 is the logical cut-off, when transmission contracts with network operator Arqiva expire. By then, they say, the cost of broadcasting to a dwindling audience will far outweigh the returns from TV advertising.
Ofcom agrees a crunch point is approaching. In July, the regulator warned of a “tipping point” within the next few years, after which it will no longer be commercially viable for broadcasters to carry the costs of DTT.
Others see risks beyond economics. Questions remain over whether internet TV can reliably deliver emergency broadcasts, such as the daily Covid updates, in the way that universally available DTT can. The UK radio industry has also warned that an internet-only future for TV could push up distribution costs and force some radio stations off air if PSBs no longer share Arqiva’s mast network.
“It is a political hot potato,” says Dennis Reed, founder of Silver Voices, who says he has “dissociated” his organisation from the government’s stakeholder forum, which he believes is “heavily biased” towards streaming.
The Future TV Taskforce, representing the PSBs, counters that moving online could “close the digital divide once and for all”. “We want to be able to plan to ensure that no one is left behind,” a spokesperson says, adding that rising DTT costs could otherwise mean cuts to programme budgets.
The numbers show the scale of the challenge. Of the 1.8m Freeview-dependent homes projected for 2035, around 1.1m are expected to have broadband but not use it for TV. The remaining 700,000 are forecast to lack a broadband connection altogether.
Veterans of the analogue switch-off, completed in 2012 after 76 years, recall similar fears of “TV blackout chaos”. Around 6 per cent of households were labelled “digital refuseniks”, yet a targeted help scheme and a national campaign, fronted by a robot called Digit Al voiced by Matt Lucas, delivered a largely smooth transition.
This time, the BBC is less keen to foot the bill. Tim Davie, the outgoing director general, has said the corporation should not fund a comparable support programme for a Freeview switch-off.
Research for Sky by Oliver & Ohlbaum suggests that with early awareness campaigns and digital inclusion measures, only about 330,000 households would ultimately need hands-on help ahead of a 2034 shutdown.
Meanwhile, viewing habits continue to fragment. Audience body Barb says 7 per cent of UK households no longer own a TV set, choosing to watch on other devices. In December, YouTube overtook the BBC’s combined channels in total UK viewing across TVs, smartphones and tablets, albeit measured at a minimum of three minutes.
That shift may accelerate. YouTube has recently blocked Barb and its partner Kantar from accessing viewing session data, limiting transparency just as online platforms consolidate power.
“When the government chose British Satellite Broadcasting as the ‘winner’ in satellite TV it was Rupert Murdoch’s Sky instead that came out on top,” says a senior TV executive quoted by The Guardian. “There already is such an outsider ready to be the winner in the transition to internet TV; it is YouTube.”
Freeview’s future now hangs on a familiar British dilemma: modernise fast and risk exclusion, or protect universality and pay the price. Either way, the aerial’s days as king of the living room look numbered.
