English Entertainment
Star World Premiere HD to air ‘The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story’
MUMBAI: Ryan Murphy, the name synonymous with creativity, has created some of the most popular shows on television. From the hit series Glee to his provocative American horror story anthology, Murphy has consistently broached the entertainment industry with needles of innovation and now he is back with yet another anthology series American Crime Story. The extravagant show maker who has designed the series in a way to tell one true story per season has managed to find drama for its first instalment in one of the most publicised criminal trials in the history of crime – The O.J. Simpson murder trial. Titled The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, the show that has been one of the most anticipated on global television, premieres in India this Monday, 8 February 2016 at 10 pm only on Star World Premiere HD – the channel that is tantamount to day and date television.
With its mix of race, gender, celebrity status and politics, the OJ Simpson trial gripped America in 1995 and 20 years after the verdict, Ryan Murphy’s 10 part series revisits and unfolds the events of the eight-month criminal trial wherein a famous basketball player and actor (O.J. Simpson) was accused of brutally killing his wife (Nicole Brown Simpson) and her friend (Ronald Goldman). The case that started off as a high profile celebrity case quickly went on to become famous with a magnitude that affected the American economy greatly costing the nation an estimated $480 million in loss output on the day of the verdict. The series focuses on exploring the chaotic behind-the-scenes dealings and manoeuvring on both sides of the court, and how a combination of prosecution overconfidence, defence shrewdness and the LAPD’s history with the city’s African-American community gave a jury what it needed: reasonable doubt.
The show has a power-packed all-ensemble cast including Cuba Gooding Jr. (O.J. Simpson), John Travolta (O.J.’s defence attorney Robert Shapiro), David Schwimmer (O.J.’s loyal friend and attorney Robert Kardashian), Sarah Paulson (Head Prosecutor Marcia Clark), Courtney B. Vance (American lawyer and lead for the defense team for O.J. Johnnie Cochran) and Selma Blair (the murdered Nicole’s close friend and Robert Kardashian’s ex-wife Kris Jenner) all in lead roles on the show.
Speaking of making a show based on a real-life story that tapped into America’s ugliest obsessions – race, sex, drugs, money, fame, Ryan Murphy stated, “There was some people involved who did not want to speak to us, and they wanted no involvement with us, and there were some who were, and there were some who wanted involvement that we did not go after.”
O.J. Simpson continues to be one of the most famous celebrities of all time – it is debatable whether he is a basketball player, an actor or a criminal celebrity simply popular for his presence across all crime tabloids that ever existed. From being heralded as the trial of the century 20 years back, its television counterpart is all set to mark its premiere this Monday, February 8 at 10 pm on Star World Premiere HD in a bid to becoming a television event in itself, 20 years later in 2016.
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.
