English Entertainment
Star English has much to cheer at Golden Globes
MUMBAI: Star India’s English entertainment bouquet, consisting of Star World, Star World Premiere HD and FX, is known for showcasing the best and latest in English entertainment from across the world. Star India remains the first choice for premium urban audiences seeking quality English entertainment. Cast from some of its leading and critically acclaimed shows like Taraji P Henson (Empire), Jon Hamm (Mad Men), Maura Tierney (The Affair), Lady Gaga (American Horror Story – Hotel) and Rachel Bloom (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) have struck gold at the 2016 Golden Globe awards this year.
The leading lady from Empire, Taraji P Henson, won her first Golden Globe for best actress in a television series drama for her groundbreaking role as Cookie. Taraji’s character is the heart of the series and provides unforgettable catchphrases, heartbreaking line readings, and natural comedy in a tour de force performance that makes you miss her every second she’s not on screen. Empire Season 2 is currently airing on FX and FX HD every Sunday at 10 pm.
The Mad Men superstar Jon Hamm won the Golden Globe for best performance by an actor in a television series drama. Jon Hamm popularized the character of Don Draper in the series which captures the world of advertising in the 1960s like never before. Despite his outward disenchantment and egotism, the character of Don Draper demonstrates a strict code of personal ethics, insisting on honesty and chivalry in his subordinates, but not always in himself. Mad Men returns to television with FX and FX HD from 29 January 2016 and will continue to air from Monday to Friday at 11 pm.
Maura Tierney from The Affair won the award for best performance by an actress in a supporting role in a series, limited series or motion picture made for television. As a jilted wife slowly coming to terms with a life she never had planned for herself, Maura Tierney found a perfect balance of comedy and tragedy in her character Helen’s situation The Affair Season 2 is coming soon on FX and FX HD as part of special programming for Valentine’s Day on 14th Feb
The singer-actress Lady Gaga won Best Actress in a miniseries or motion picture for television for her role in American Horror Story: Hotel. Gaga plays Countess Elizabeth who is the owner of Hotel Cortez, a ritzy hotel set in modern day Los Angeles, California. Elizabeth is an uber glamorous socialite who secretly maintains her stunningly fierce good looks by using her special clawed gloves to murder people and drink their blood. American Horror Story – Hotel airs on FX and FC HD on every Saturday at 11 pm.
The Crazy-ex girlfriend star Rachel Bloom grabbed the Golden Globe for best performance by an actress in a television series—musical or comedy. Bloom plays a successful Manhattan lawyer Rebecca Bunch who follows her high-school ex, Josh Chan, to the humdrum suburbs of California. The occasional musical numbers in the series act as comedic interjections, but they also telegraph the show’s darker themes, reminding us that our protagonist is slowly unravelling. Crazy ex-girlfriend airs on Star World Premiere HD every Thursday at 10 pm.
Star India has a successful track record in bringing the best of international television, a stellar cast and outstanding performances. The network is home to the shows that have helped these stars acquire world acclaim.
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.
