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There’s been a lot of talk about this issue… Maybe too much talk.

Nah. There really hasn’t been enough talk at all. Firstly, I encourage everyone to have a look at the discussion paper for themselves. You can find it here on the DCITA website.

The paper talks about many aspects of the media but, as you may have guessed, I want to focus on television and two major suggestions:

1. Multichannelling
Section 2.2(b)(i) suggests that: “current restrictions on commercial television broadcaster multichannelling would be removed at the end of the simulcast period”. At present these restrictions are in place to, effectively, give subscription television a head start. Meanwhile the Government is complaining that Australia “follows other markets in terms of the range and types on consumer equipment available” stating that our smaller population is to blame.

This logic is flawed because it is based on speculation rather than historical evidence. Historically we’ve seen that when a compelling reason is present, Australians take up new technology faster Continue reading “Avoiding the Digital Challenge (part 1)” »

From the current home of the Commonwealth games comes another leg in the sport that is Boxcutters. Let’s see what goodies we’ve got for you this week…

The games really haven’t been the ratings bonanza for channel 9 that they hoped – or promised – and we take a long hard look at the coverage and what it has meant for the ratings.

We’ll “C” what Ross doesn’t buy.

In the community service announcement section of the show, we’ve got a warning for anyone who browses the web and is only seeing Lost when channel 7 decide to send an episode out.

For the weather watchers out there, we’ve got some very exciting news from the ABC.

And we’ve got almost too much news to fill us up to the full 70 minutes.

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Plaudits, comments and criticisms are all welcome at: send us email

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The games kicked off last night with the military precision that’s reminiscent of any episode of Boxcutters… like this one.

We talk about the Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony – one hour of killer content sqeezed into four hours of air time.

Senator Helen Coonan unveiled a discussion document on the proposed new Australian media laws, while bringing up the hoary old chestnut of advertising on the ABC and just in time to be buried by the nation’s distraction with the games. We dig through the 40 page release to find out what they’re hiding.

Ross brings some Crap TV to our attention and Brett finds another reason not to buy those flirt messaging ads.

We take a look at Bert‘s culpability for the ratings woes of channel 9.

And we notice the ABC are ignoring the White House goings-on in favour of all the relationship drama going on around The West Wing – if you believe their promos.

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If you’re at a bit of a loose end because Bert’s not on at 5:30 and you really couldn’t give a stuff about the games that have replaced him, send us an email to pass the time at: send us email

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Sometimes the weeks just fly by. You decide if this is one of those.

Ross is away this week and sitting in his seat is the amazingly beautiful Marieke Hardy.

Be soothed with the idea of us filling your ears with all the TV related News you can handle.

Our discussion of the ratings this week and the Oscars telecast cause controversy throughout the television world.

Raywatch rears its ugly head again. When will these current affairs programmes learn that we are onto them?

We also have some new shows and a comment on people ripping us off.

Boxcutters is a world of fun fun fun!

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If you plan to rip us off, why not send us an email first? Just write to: send us email

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Remember when your mother used to tell you that these jokes always end up badly? Here is living proof.

This week on Boxcutters you can hear the wonders of:

Our discussion on how Nine digs itself deeper into a ratings hole;
Those basketball playing cars are back in I Don’t Buy It;
Ross points the finger in Raywatch;
Bleep bloop bleep bloop;
And we discuss the many disasters that make up Crap TV

Boxcutters: where we cram 45 minutes of material into a 70 minute show.

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Or download this episode through the Direct Link

Question our opinions by sending us messages to: send us email

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SBS drops South Park episode on the Pope

AN EPISODE of cartoon program South Park that features the Pope has been pulled from Australian television.

The final episode of the current series of the long-running US animated series — which had been scheduled for Monday — has been “deferred”, according to an SBS spokesman.

Because of sensitivities about religious cartoons in the wake of the Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, SBS would have to give “some more thought” to the scheduling of the Bloody Mary episode.

“Given the current worldwide controversy over cartoons of religious figures, we’ve decided to defer this program,” he said in a statement yesterday.

The episode shows a statue of the Virgin Mary spurting menstrual blood on the Pope.

It was shown in New Zealand on Wednesday night, prompting a vigil by hundreds of Catholics outside broadcaster TV Works. Despite the protest, 200,000 New Zealanders watched the program, six times the usual audience.

South Park has been doing the same old thing for years. How does it make sense for SBS to take this action now?

Well screw the Catholic fundamentalists. Get your Bit Torrent client onto this torrent. I’ll have it seeding for the next couple of weeks for anyone that wants to see what all the fuss is about.

Illustration: Cathy Wilcox

Dear Viewers,

I’m pleased to present you with the brand new Boxcutters store which you can find at:
www.cafepress.com/boxcutters.

Thanks to Mick who, after having to deal with three guys who can’t make up their mind, produced an excellent logo.

Mothers Day is coming up and wouldn’t your mum just love a Boxcutters tracksuit to keep her cosy?

Maybe your new baby needs a Boxcutters bib to wear while eating lobster.

Perhaps you just want to get yourself a mug or a t-shirt.

Put your hand up and say I DO BUY IT!

Brett just posted this comment:

Just thought I’d register a resolution on the whole logged in thing here. We’ve got some new code that takes your registrations and can indicate what your status is.

You’ll see up on the left, just under the Search box, a couple of links. If you’re logged in, it will give you options to go to the Site Admin – just a fancy way of saying the place where you write posts and stuff – if you’re a contributor – and a link to Logout.

Otherwise, you can Register or Login.

You might also like to know that the following messages appear on the commenting page to tell you if you’re logged in or not:
nolog
and

And that should make it easier for everyone.

I’ve just stumbled on this piece of news and thought I’d let y’all know about it:

Ricky Gervais takes podcasting paid-for

The Ricky Gervais Show is to become the first paid-for Podcast.

The show features British comedy personalities Ricky Gervais, Steven Merchant and Karl Pilkington. Their irreverant brand of monkey-based comedy has seen the weekly half-hour podcast storm to the top of the iTunes charts and stay there.

The first run of 12 episodes was sponsored by UK newspaper the Guardian and were free to download via iTunes. Following on from the success of the show, the second run of episodes will be hosted on Audible.com and will be accessible only to those who’ve paid a subscription fee.

For the foreseeable future, Boxcutters will remain a free podcast – don’t you worry about that

This week on Boxcutters we talk and talk and talk. For example:

we cover the coverage of the winter games on 7;
Josh brings us some Raywatch contenders;
there’s news that two new hosts are required to make up just one Eddie McGuire. We talk about Garry Lyon and James Brayshaw and footballers, in general, who aspired to a media career once the boots come off;
Ross takes aim and unloads his anger about Magda’s Funny Bits and Clever;
Brett‘s got a quick review of channel 7‘s new big gun, Commander in Chief;
and we take a browse through some of your letters to us.

It’s a crazy, mixed-up world out there in TV land but we’ll help you through and hopefully get you just a little more relaxed and comfortable with what’s going on.

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Avoiding the Digital Challenge (part 1)

Boxcutters Episode 27

Boxcutters Episode 26

Boxcutters Episode 25

Boxcutters Episode 24

SBS drops South Park episode

The Superstore of Love is Open!

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Interesting Podcast Development

Boxcutters Episode 23

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