Weekly story

Tesco sells more than 400,000 Hudl tablets in three months

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/09/tesco-sells-more-than-400000-hudl-tablets-in-three-months

Tesco took a very large risk of offering their own make Tablet, so called the Hudl. The gamble has now paid off, as Tesco have announced that it sold more than 400,000 of Hudls since its launch. Tesco had tough competition with loads of rivals such as Apple, Google, and Amazon, as all three of them have very successful selling tablets as well. Tesco claim that they sold roughly 100,000 were sold in December and the rest of the 300,000 from the start of the launch. They also claimed that as the demand was very high in some stores, the stock ran out and then customers were being offered to buy it from ebay for £180, whereas the normal price is £119. Other store chains, including Aldi and Argos, also offered their own tablets, all like Tesco running Google's Android software. None has so far released any sales figures.

Key statistics:

Stock ran out, which shows how much the high demand was.
400,000 Hudls sold since its launch
100,000 sold in December, which helped boost sales.

My View:
I personally think that the demand of tablets has touched the sky. Everyone want something new which is why people are buying so many different tablets. Whenever someone goes to buy a tablet they have a very large range of tablets to choose from as ever company is now coming up with their own tablets. Tesco have sold a very large amount of its tables since its launch which shows people just want to discover all the new technology out their for them. 6-7 years ago it was all PC's making the money and now its all the tablets. I think that PC's are now in decline and not many people would buy them as they know they won't be able to carry it around with them, whereas a tablet could even fit in their pocket.

Weekly story

Telegraph Media Group made £60m profit last year

http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/jan/10/telegraphmediagroup-mediabusiness


The Telegraph Media Group have made a another year very successful for themselves. They made more than £60m profit last year. This is known as their third very successful year that the company managed to increase its profits. Sirs David and Frederick Barclay both owners of the the Daily and Sunday Telegraph refuse to obey the newspaper publishing sectors downward market trend. Rival titles, such as The Times, The Independent and The Guardian, have been recording losses for several years. In 2012, TMG made £58.4m, and in 2011 its profit was £55.7m.Evidently, TMG's advertising revenues have remained relatively stable. It has also enjoyed a boost in subscriptions since it launched its online metered paywall. That was introduced internationally in November 2012 and was extended for domestic users in March 2013.

Key statistics:

Telegraph Media Group have made a £60m profit in 2013

In 2011 they made £55.7m profit 

The Guardian, The Times and The Independent, have been reporting losses for several years now. 

My View: 

I think they as the Telegraph media group has made such an big amount of profit last year, this means the business is doing very well. It shows how Newspapers are still on going and are not in decline. The reason why i think this is because of the amount of profit made. Even though it has a paywall it is  still very successful, unlike other companies like the Guardian who are giving most of their content away for free, but are still make a loss in there business.I think companies who are making a loss should either close the company or think of a different way to attract the audience, as newspapers are not in demand as they were in the olden days. 

Black Mirror: The National Anthem?

The message of the Black Mirror is that internet has such power that no one can control it. Things go viral in seconds. For example that video of the girl was on Youtube for 9 minutes and in them 9 minutes it had 50,000 views. This shows how many people are getting information as quick as a click. The reason for the video getting so many views is because people don't have to log in on to their computer just to watch what is happening. They carry everything in their pocket, in other words a smart phone.

A smart phone is the source which allows people to get information in seconds and it is all updated information. One example of where in the show, the mum goes to her kid saying the kidnapper probably wanted money and then the kid says no mum, they want him to do a pig. This shows that the young kid has updated information as they interact online and as they are getting updated information every minute, he knew everything about the story.

The audience have been desensitisation, they are not shocked about what is happening around them. The reason why they are not shocked is because pornography is so easy to access now for anyone, that it has gone just an ordinary thing. Many people just find it general now because they can easily access it online. Most of it is normally free which is why people find it very common now.

Weekly story #4

UK entertainment spending rises

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jan/01/uk-entertainment-spending-film-music-streaming

On Wednesday figures were published about how Netflix and Spotify have increased the number of sales of entertainment products such as music, films, video games. The reason of popularity of watching TV and films is because of Netflix, Amazon Lovefilm and Apples iTunes. These three has increased 40% in spendings on digital videos and downloads, streams and subscriptions rising to £621m. Sources like Spotify and Deezer have allowed the music streaming tracks doubled to 7.4n. Services like Netflix, LoveFilm and Blinkbox are transforming the video business by making content available over multiple devices. The biggest-selling DVD in the UK last year was Skyfall, which shifted 2.96m copies, easily beating The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which sold 2.07m, according to figures from the British Video Association. The biggest-selling TV show on DVD was the second season of Game of Thrones, followed by the BBC shows Top Gear: The Perfect Road Trip and two series of Mrs Brown's Boys.

My view:  I personally believe that Netflix is a really good source which allows people to watch films for very cheap. This is the thing which has made sales increase this year and i believe it will increase sales in the upcoming years. This is all related to new and digital media, the advancements developments have allowed this to happen. As technology is developing fast i think in the upcoming years things will change even more.

Weekly story #3

Global Radio has made an extreme loss

Ashley Tabor’s Global Radio reported losses of nearly £30m, but revenues rose by 4.2%, compared to an industry average of 1.4%  The owner of Global Radio saw losses widen to almost £30m for the year to the end of March, thanks to a substantial payment to shareholders, while operating profits grew by a healthy 11% to £37m. The UK's largest commercial radio operator reported a 4.8% year-on-year rise in revenues from £209.4m to £219.5m. The company said this was an "excellent performance" against the wider commercial radio industry, which it says grew revenues by just 1.4%. Operating profits rose by 11.4% year on year from £33.3m to £37.1m.

Statistics:

-The UK's largest commercial radio operator reported a 4.8% year-on-year rise in revenues from £209.4m to £219.5m.

-Staff costs rose from £55.8m to £57m as numbers grew from 1,059 to 1,111.
-In June last year, Global repaid £50m of loans "from a connected party".

My View:
It is very surprising that radio platform is still generating revenue because it was old tradition and no one uses it. The reason why it is surprising is because people now days like to interact they don't like the old tradition ways to get information or to listen to music because the internet fulfils that desire of them. There are so many sources which allow the audience to download the music, it allows them to listen to it whenever they want. People don't have to wait till their faviuorte song comes up on the radio. They can access it in seconds because of the developments in new and digital media.

Weekly story #2

You think Facebook is free? Well, it'll only cost you private life

A European company researched  last week and found that Facebook was "dead and buried to teenagers" as the young audience are using more interactive social networking sites such as Snapchat Instagram and Whatsapp. The reason why most young audience complain why don't use Facebook now is because they say there parents have started using it and no children would want to get stalked by their parents on a social networking site. Facebook and other companies like Facebook make money from our data and content, they use all of that to get the perfect ads popping up for us. These companies have perfected surveillance as a business model. They spy on us for commercial gain.  Services on the internet, we click through to a digital emporium where we sacrifice our privacy. Every click, message and electronic trail is mined for profit. Every digital stroke makes money for them. The more time that you spend, the more money they make. There is little they don't know, almost nowhere they can't follow and nothing they can't tell about your digital life. The net has effectively been captured. Government spying agencies on the one hand and Facebook and Google on the other are warehousing our data, mining our lives and minting theirs.

My view:
I think that this could freak out loads of users and whatever you do at whatever time, you are getting spyed on. That's the only which they could make profits from, so there is no way I think the audience would be able to get these ads off their page. Privacy is one main factor, privacy has had an big impact on the users and on Facebook as they have lost their young users. The reason why they have lost their young users is because they say that they don't their parents to be stalking them on Facebook because many young children are claiming that their parents have started to get the hang of Facebook and that they use it more than their children. This means that Facebook might have to create more stronger privacy, so that the children could hide their profiles from their parents.

Weekly story #1

Facebook 'dead and buried to teens'

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/27/facebook-dead-and-buried-to-teens-research-finds

Facebook is 'dead and buried' to old teenagers an European company have researched that the old teenagers move to other market leading social networking sites such as, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp and Snapchat. They have found out that 16-18 year olds parents are now using Facebook and there children are using other social networking sites. They are using other platforms to communicate with their friends.
"Facebook is not just on the slide - it is basically dead and buried," wrote Daniel Miller, lead anthropologist on the research team, who is professor of material culture of University College London. Parents were once worried about their children using Social networking sites such as Facebook.
"What appears to be the most seminal moment in a young person’s decision to leave Facebook was surely that dreaded day your mum sends you a friend request," wrote Miller.
"It is nothing new that young people care about style and status in relation to their peers, and Facebook is simply not cool anymore."
Information that people choose to publish on Facebook has generally been through a psychological filtering process, researchers found - unlike conversations, photos and video shared through more private tools such as Skype, or on mobile apps.

My view:

 I believe that the reason why Facebook is losing its young audience is because of other social networking sites which give a much more advanced opportunity to its users to communicate in a advanced way. This is why I think Facebook is losing users and it is getting very boring which is why it has lost nearly all of its young audience. The reason why I think parents and old people have started using it is because they have just discovered it, for them its a new way of communicating which has fascinated them to use it.

I think soon the old audience would get bored with Facebook as well because it will seem boring to them and they will then most likely to use the social networking sites which there children use now. By then I think their children will be defiantly using another social networking site which fascinates them. Its like follow the leader, normally children are meant to be following their parents but now parents are following their children.

Parents used to be very worried about their children using social networking sites such as Facebook because they use to think that it was a dangerous place for there children to be on. Now children can argue that why are you using it then because nearly all parents are on Facebook now.