Arguably the most influential media group and certainly the continuously most powerful single figure in British politics for thirty years have been broken politically in the UK, if not commercially. The government is now saying that we need to ensure that the kind of influence News International exercised "must never happen again". But we cannot default back to the status quo before Murdoch.
What should happen now as the judicial inquiry begins?
Why has the fall of Rupert Murdoch taken place, what does it tell us about the state of Britain and what is the key lesson for the media and government?
We will be adding responses to this thread as they come in - comments can carry on as normal.
Remember the Hutton Inquiry (2003) which awarded a 5-0 score in favour of the Government and against the BBC, to the sceptical astonishment of the public. Perhaps we should not leave everything to the wisdom of a senior judge, and think for ourselves about what should be done about the current press scandal.
It is also worth recalling the failure of past enquiries. Every single major public investigation into its workings of the Press Council - in 1961-2, 1974-7 and 1990 – was utterly scathing about its shortcomings. A cycle became established in which the Press Council expressed a mixture of defiance and misgiving, embraced limited reform, and was found wanting again. It was then re-branded as the Press Complaints Commission in 1991, and performed less well than its predecessor. So it is worth maintaining public pressure for effective press reform.
In addition to stronger anti-monopoly legislation limiting the concentration of media power, and the ability to intimidate, we need to re-conceive press regulation. Three obvious corrections are needed. Press self-regulation should be independent of press controllers. It should be funded adequately by a compulsory industrial levy. The new agency should have also sufficient (though limited) power and sanctions that cannot be ignored.
Perhaps, crucially, press self-regulation should also have larger ambitions. At present, its role is largely confined to handling customer complaints (embodied in the title ‘Press Complaints Commission’). Its successor should seek to change the culture of popular journalism by commissioning investigative research into the press, making a positive input to journalism education, honouring great journalists, and publicly naming and shaming bad journalism.
This way, the professionalizing project of press reform – that has taken root in countries as diverse as Sweden and America – could at last take wing in Britain.
James Curran is director of the Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Centre and author of Media and Democracy (Routledge 2011).
Most people would agree that large societies need journalists: otherwise, how would necessary information be circulated? To be useful, journalists must be, to some degree, trusted, and so must be free to investigate and publish. Those freedoms must be exercised consistently with doing those practices well: 'well', that is, by reference to the point of that practice, whether saving lives or circulating information, and to wider legal and ethical standards. Whether in journalism or medicine, we insist practitioners are free to exercise their practice, but this does not mean licence to do anything at all.
A balance is necessary between protecting journalists' general freedom to work without interference and protecting society, public culture and vulnerable individuals from the bad practices of journalists themselves. This balance has been lost in contemporary Britain. One body charged with monitoring it (the Press Complaints Commission) is toothless and captured by media industry interests. A political generation has reached power knowing that public office means working under the open threat of their private lives being revealed, regardless of their public relevance. Politicians know they can help turn 'the wrath of the tabloid press' onto their opponents, whether professional politicians or not. Key policing institutions, or some of their members, have, it appears, been in financially corrupt relationships with the very press we expect to report on the legal process.
Britain needs an institution, empowered by citizens and free from government interference, that can monitor whether journalists generally do their job well, or at times so badly that democracy is threatened. That institution needs the power to impose sanctions which, in serious cases of the latter sort, can prevent media institutions or particular journalists from practising.
Otherwise, why pretend that Britain is a working democracy? A society where the leaders of government, administration and law enforcement cannot do their job well for fear of what certain journalists will do to them is, as the late Tony Judt once wrote about the USA of George W Bush, not a democracy: it needs another name.
Nick Couldry is Professor of Media and Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London and author (with Angela Phillips and Des Freedman) of ‘An Ethical Deficit? Accountability, Norms, and the Material Conditions of Contemporary Journalism’ in N. Fenton (ed) New Media Old News (Sage 2009).
The fall of Rupert Murdoch has taken place not because of government ministers, the police, or other such figures in authority positions. It resulted as a consequence, quite astonishingly, of relentless muckraking on the part of excellent journalists who smelled a rat and followed its trail.
It is a truly fascinating moment – a watershed of some kind. We are now witnessing the same politicians who have cowered in Murdoch’s dark shadow for decades clamber over eachother to fire criticism in his direction. There is an undeniable stench about it – and perhaps just as the rotten core of News International has been exposed, so too has the spinelessness of the Westminster establishment.
No matter how it happened, however, the important thing is that it has happened. No longer will Murdoch be able to wield his all-pervasive influence on British politics. There will be no more backdoor meetings, friendly lunches and lavish parties: those days are over.
So the key question is now, where next? The investigation in to the full extent of the phone hacking – and its culture – could take months, more likely years. Over 3000 suspected victims have still to be contacted and there can be no doubt some of the worst revelations are yet to come.
Though amid the heightened climate of hysteria, it is important to keep a cool head. There must be a reasoned debate about how journalism, particularly tabloid journalism, can move forward after this ugly chapter. George Monbiot’s proposed introduction of a Hippocratic Oath for Journalists is a strong starting point.
There is a definite danger that politicians – with the broad support of the wider public – will attempt to impose new regulatory powers upon the press. This is a cause for concern. It is not in dispute that the self-regulating Press Complaints Commission (PCC) failed spectacularly on a number of levels throughout the duration of the hacking saga. (In a 2009 report, for instance, the PCC found "no new evidence to suggest that the practice of phone message tapping was undertaken by others beyond Goodman and Mulcaire" and dismissed the Guardian's coverage as "dramatic".) But it is not a given that the PCC should be scrapped altogether, as many, including prime minister David Cameron, have suggested.
Wholesale statutory regulation would dangerously inhibit freedom of the press, and we must remember that the print media is already bound by many laws (the Data Protection Act, the Human Rights Act, Defamation law etc.). It was a toxic, profit-crazed, scoop-obsessed culture at the News of the World that resulted in endemic phone hacking – not a lack of strong legislation.
This is where the discussion should begin. It is a bonus that after so many years there now seems to be, suddenly and without precedent, a broad consensus on the need for some kind of media reform. Every party and almost every politician is for once in agreement: as Murdoch’s empire crashes to the ground, it's time to build something new from the rubble.
Please forgive me for mentioning that post-marxist Louis Althusser (yes I know he was mental and killed his wife) but he understood what is key now: ideology is material. Murdoch knows this. What has happened is that the repressive apparatus of the state (the police) have been working with the ideological apparatus of the state (the media) in a deal brokered by politicians.
The answer is not regulation by the state or a little tidy up then. It is this. Bust open journalistic practice. Break the lobby system by which politicians keep feral hacks domesticated. Stop spin. Stop free stuff. Yes that’s you fashion editors, free holiday travel people. Yes that’s the end of that industry made of nothingness: PR.
Stop politics being about what can be sold. Then journalists won’t have to sell it? The press has enough to contend with now with Wikileaks and the blogosphere. What matters now is the public and there is no reason why ethics and entertainment are mutually exclusive. We do want to be titillated yes and there is nothing wrong with that. But with the truth. That truth is that the predators have invaded the state itself and it has pretended to control them but it clearly hasn’t: Financiers, the press, the police, and its own politicians.
Opposition to the failure of neo-liberal policy was always going to come from the least expected place and this it. Now.
Suzanne Moore is a columnist with the Guardian and the Mail on Sunday. You can read her full column on the News International scandal for the Guardian here.
‘Regulation’ has been the most prominent word in the political response to the tumult engulfing News International. Given that the press has supposedly been regulated by the Press Complaints Commission since 1991, and throughout the phone-hacking episode, it is unnerving to witness such fixation on a mechanism that already appears to have failed us once. Doubtless we will see a loyal prefixing of ‘tougher’ to the word ‘regulation’, and yet ‘tougher’ really should be a word too subjective to satisfy anyone with genuine concerns for solving the problem at hand.
David Cameron has already mooted the idea of a PCC redrawn along the lines of the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA), which has powers to refer misleading adverts to the Office of Fair Trading, who can then issue fines. Liberal Democrat MPs, led by Simon Hughes, have called for reappraisal of the criteria by which people are judged ‘fit and proper’ to own newspapers in the UK, and Nick Clegg has already suggested financial penalties for breaches of journalistic codes of conduct, prison sentences (rather than fines) for those found guilty of selling confidential information, and monitoring media plurality regardless of whether or not mergers and takeovers might be underway.
The proposals are all as well-meaning as they are belated, yet their most striking feature is a general lack of imagination, a bias towards strengthening the mechanisms by which complaints are dealt with, rather than aspiring to deal with the culture responsible for the complaints. It is, in short, a politician’s fix, regulation for the regulators, new statutes and consultations, and no serious endeavour to engage philosophically with media in the twenty-first century.
It’s interesting that the ASA has been brought forward as an early example for what the PCC might come to resemble. In the ASA we have an implicit acceptance that people be subjected to constant attempts to turn sovereign heads into a commercial space. Boundaries of taste are occasionally pushed too far, a handful of concerned citizens voice dismay, and the ASA begins a lengthy process deliberating whether or not their concerns are well-founded. Come the point at which the advert is removed, if it is removed at all, then it has already spent months successfully glorifying idiocy, objectifying women, and sexualising children. Likewise in the case of the PCC (in either its present or envisaged form), by the time some modicum of restraint has been imposed, Muslims have launched jihad, 90 million swine flu vaccinations have arrived, and an eccentric man with long-hair and a fondness for poetry is likely to have murdered his neighbour. The efficacy of any changes will require politicians to talk, not just about the ASA as an example, but about the role of advertising in newspapers themselves.
Research from the Reuters Institute for Journalism (RISJ), released in 2010, pointed to dependency on advertising revenue, rather than the rise of the internet, as the main reason for struggling newspapers in the UK. As companies reduce their advertising spend in line with economic forecasts, national dailies have seen a diminishing value in the 41% of their funding that is derived from adverts. The problem is even more acute in local newspapers, where the figure is 65%, and it is in this reliance that we find a primary cause of much morally reckless media. If funding depends on advertising, and advertising depends on circulation, an incentive is placed on cheap and sensationalist journalism at the expense of serious reporting of public issues. David Cameron went so far as to implicitly condone as much in his recent press conference, giving equal weighting to the ideal of a press ‘that investigates and entertains’. What needs to be addressed most urgently, however, is the danger of a medium that has been given the social mandate to inform, and yet must provide populist entertainment in order to fulfil its business functions. The conflict of interest between supermarkets as lucrative advertising clients, and a genuine discussion about the power of supermarkets, is one example in which the relationship is already threatening media credibility. At the online version of The Times, imposition of its fee-charging Paywall is an implicit recognition that informing the public plays second-fiddle to monetary requirements.
The alternative, no less unsightly, is the prospect of a subsidy to newspapers, although it takes a strong stomach to advocate the idea of journalism by government. The reality, in practice, is perhaps not quite so alarming, the British experience of the BBC provides a generally palatable example of publicly-funded broadcasting on our own doorstep. In print media, the RISJ findings cite Germany and Finland as states in which publicly-supported newspapers have returned stable performances throughout the recession, with neither country posing any strong likeness to totalitarianism. Italian and Austrian governments also subsidise newspapers, and a 10% tax on all advertising in Sweden is used to support newspapers that represent conservative views in predominantly liberal regions, and liberal views in conservative regions. The tax yields a surplus for the state, whilst the subsidy is targeted directly towards maintaining the diversity of public opinion.
Government involvement with the media will always generate probing questions, it would be an unhealthy scenario were it not to do so. What recent events at News International have demonstrated, however, is that the free market can represent a sponsor no less sinister than the state, a poor instrument for determining the value of truth. We must hope that our politicians can be sufficiently outraged, and sufficiently ambitious, to tame the beast, and not just chop off its head.
Julian Sayarer writes at thisisnotforcharity.com.


Image: Johner Images/Getty Images. Design: Ashley Britton/SheKnows.
Divorce is tough for everyone, whatever the circumstances. You might have grown up dreaming of growing old with your soul mate or living your best life as a single person. But nobody dreams of the day they’ll walk into a courtroom ready to argue about custody and child support with someone they used to share a bed with. And if you have kids, divorce is even harder — because it’s not all about you and your ex. Your children may be even more affected by your divorce than you are because it isn’t their choice, and they’re too young to understand the complexities of adult relationships. So how do you talk to your kids about divorce? How do you explain to them everything they need to know — without overloading them and while absolutely emphasizing that none of this is their fault?
Telling your kids you’re getting divorced is potentially one of the most difficult conversations of your life. But by sticking to a few basic ground rules, you can make it a little easier.
Be prepared for your child to get upset. “Divorce is a type of loss and can trigger a grief response for everyone involved,” says Robinson. But it’s crucial that you resist the temptation to lessen their pain by giving them false hope that you’ll get back together. All this does is delay the healing process.
As soon as you’ve broken the news, reassure your kids that they are in no way responsible for the divorce. Tell them that your love for them is not changing in any way. And be prepared to reinforce this over and over throughout the time it takes them to come to terms with your decision.
You can provide further reassurance by letting your kids know what to expect from a different family life than what they’re used to. “Kids need structure,” says Robinson. Tell them what will change and what will stay the same. If they know who will pick them up from school, who will take them to their activities, when they’ll see their extended family on both sides and where they will spend weekends, they can get a sense of how much their lives will change on an everyday basis. The more practical concerns you can address, the more secure they will feel.
One of the hardest things about helping your kids get through your divorce is keeping your feelings about your ex to yourself. This is particularly difficult if your ex cheated on you or betrayed your trust in some other way. But involving the kids in those issues can have long-lasting negative effects on them, their relationships with both parents and even their own future relationships.
It’s not always possible to present a united front, but if you can both be present for the conversation, your child knows that even though the family is changing, you will both always show up for them.
Obviously, the way you talk to a preschooler about divorce will be very different from how you talk to a teenager about it. Older or more mature kids will have a greater understanding of divorce and may have spoken about family issues to their peers. If you have more than one child at different maturity levels, you may wish to talk to them separately, licensed marriage and family therapist Carrie Krawiec tells SheKnows. Consider how they have handled important information or upsetting news in the past before deciding how much detail to give them about the circumstances leading to your decision to divorce.
Don’t plan on just one conversation about divorce. This is a life-changing experience for your child that they might want — and should be encouraged — to discuss at different stages throughout their childhood and adolescence. “Be open to several little conversations over time,” says Krawiec.
On the other hand, your kid might not necessarily want to have those conversations with you all the time. “Sometimes, it helps a child to talk to someone besides a parent — like a teacher, grandparent, counselor or therapist,” psychotherapist Dr. Fran Walfish tells SheKnows. In that case, it’s your job to reassure your child that this is OK and that they haven’t hurt your feelings. “Give your child permission to have powerful emotions about the huge disruption in her life and encourage them to express those feelings — to whomever they wish,” says Walfish.
Divorce is a hugely difficult life transition. Robinson recommends having a good support system in place to help you navigate the emotional, legal and psychological aspects of divorce so you are your best self — and aren’t tempted to vent to your child.


In a move to lower the crime associated with theft the Namibia Wildlife Resorts (NWR) has started a campaign aimed at encouraging its domestic and international clients to start making use of debit/credit cards to make payments.
According to NWR, the campaign was borne after the rise of risks associated with carrying cash around to make payments.
"We do realise that we cannot entirely operate without cash being a means of payment, but we would like to encourage our clients to make use of alternative payment methods as this reduces their transactional costs as well as the risk of theft," said Talita B. Horn, NWR Chief Financial Officer.
The Resorts stressed that with the increase of tourists travelling to its establishments, it has worked tirelessly to ensure that there are sufficient card terminal points to make payments from.
"We hope that with these terminal points being placed at critical areas, our visitors will never have to carry cash to make use of our services or any purchases at our camps/resorts," stressed Martin Kantika, NWR Chief Information Officer.
Caption: NWR's Dolomite Resort is located in a previously restricted scenic area in the western region of Etosha National Park.
Read the original article on Namibia Economist.
Copyright © 2018 Namibia Economist. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.


Matthew Lickona: When the scandal breaks about author Laura Albert having created the author JT LeRoy, you give us several phone messages from Laura’s answering machine, urging her to get a huge book deal right away, to mine good publicity out of the bad publicity. But she didn’t take that advice. Instead, she went silent for ten years, and then let you make a film about her.
Jeff Feuerzeig: I can tell you what I know about how I came to make the film. A journalist friend of mine, Paul Cullum, who writes for LA Weekly, knew that there’s nothing I love more than a great “truth is stranger than fiction” story. He said that I ought to check out the JT LeRoy saga, which, when the scandal broke, was being labeled “the biggest literary hoax of all time.” It generated a massive amount of ink. I read it all, and I just had this feeling that there was more to the story, perhaps much more. There was one voice glaringly missing, and that was the voice of the author of the fiction — both on and off the page. So I reached out to Laura. I sent her my film The Devil and Daniel Johnston, which deals vividly with the intersection of madness and creativity — which I came to learn played a role in this wild story. The film spoke to her, resonated with her, and she decided she would share her story with me. I came to learn that other documentarians as well as Hollywood had approached her, and she’d said no to everyone.
ML: Why did she say yes to you?
JF: She complimented the artistry of my filmmaking, how I handled difficult subject matter like Daniel Johnston’s mental illness and his art. It was because of that — because of my craft. So I made this subjective film, with her telling her story, because I thought to myself, “Wow, if I could hear the person who wrote these books, who played this role of JT LeRoy on the phone and then was out there in public as JT’s British handler Speedie, that would be some film.” She was free to share anything and everything she wanted to share, and I found her to be very forthcoming.
ML: When you say the film is subjective, you mean that it’s mostly shaped by its subject?
JF: The agreement going in was the same as I had with Daniel Johnston: I have final cut, and my subject cannot change a frame. I am the documentarian, and she is the subject. But it’s immersive and subjective. It’s not that different from films I admire like The Kid Stays in the Picture, which is narrated by its subject Robert Evans, or the film Tyson by James Toback, which is all told by Mike Tyson. Errol Morris set a precedent for films like that with The Fog of War and The Unknown Known. I love that style of nonfiction filmmaking. It’s a choice: my biggest influence has always been the New Journalism of the ’60s and ’70s. When Tom Wolfe wrote about it in his article “The Birth of the New Journalism,” that, for me, was like the invention of fire. All the people he anthologized — Gay Talese, Norman Mailer, Joan Didion, Hunter Thompson, Terry Southern — they were all heroes of mine. They made nonfiction reading more literary. I’ve been trying to do that with my films.
ML: But you do include a few other voices besides Albert’s.
JF: They were a necessity, and I’m happy that they were happy to share their stories. They were people in the first act of the film; the therapist Dr. Owen, the transgressive author Dennis Cooper, the literary agent Ira Silverberg, the editor of the books she wrote. They were there before Savannah Knoop started being the body of JT LeRoy out in public, when the boy JT LeRoy was just a voice on the phone. Without their perspective, there was no way to tell the story.


Takeaway owners in Redcar and Cleveland are being encouraged to produce healthier options on their menus.
The Council's public health teams are going to provide free takeaway 'master classes' to try and tackle the problems associated with high fat, salt and sugar intake.
It's hoped it'll help tackle the obesity problem too.
Takeaway owners with a food hygiene rating of three and above can book on to one of two sessions to be held on Wednesday 13 April.
We all enjoy an occasional takeaway, but unfortunately the takeaway business has developed a reputation for serving calorie laden and relatively unhealthy food.
“We want to help takeaways overcome this reputation by introducing healthier ingredients, preparation and cooking methods without compromising on taste or profits.


I had hoped that after Christmas those robo and other pesky calls would disappear. How foolish I was.
I still get a couple a day and they are very disruptive and aggravating. Does anyone ever consider that there are people like me that cannot easily get to a phone? Getting up from a chair can be difficult and walking can be slow (and every step needs to be taken carefully); when needing to walk steps to get to the phone it is done with caution and slowly.
I have several times had the same phone call more than once in a day. And sometimes a couple times in a week. There is no way I would consider doing business with any of these inconsiderate businesses or solicitors.
You want my business, send me information and I will look at it. We do not have the money to give to every one of you that tries to contact us. If I want something, I will search out to find it. All you do is irritate me. And for gosh sake, stop asking me how I am when you really don’t care and the “voice” does not even wait for an answer. That one really irritates me.
Thank you for letting me vent my frustration even though I doubt that the people that make these calls really care. I assure you, you will never get my business.
The Leader-Telegram on March 7 “revisited” Seymour Cray’s impact on supercomputing.
Cray’s beginning was in Chippawa Falls in 1972 and he later developed Cray Computer Corp. — now a major player in supercomputers, employing some 65,000 people and now located in Seattle.
The article, while a pean to a native of Wisconsin, left me wondering how supercomputers work in our day-to-day life. NOAA.gov/climate reveals the role of supercomputers recording climate change: global average temperature rising; carbon dioxide (ppm) rising 40 percent since the Industrial Revolution; spring snow cover melting earlier; global average sea level accelerating since 1993; global average temperature near the Earth’s surface rising; ocean heat in the top half-mile of the ocean has risen significantly over past two decades; heat-trapping gases have gone up by 30 percent since 1990; glaciers are losing ice, the average thickness of 30 well-studied glaciers has decreased more than 60 feet since 1980. The bar graphs are visually impressive.
The use of supercomputers in registering climate change is awesome and gives us data we would not otherwise have. Seymour Cray’s legacy is the worldwide information we need to respond to accelerated climate change.
Man-made global warming is a hoax. In March, I’m looking out my window and seeing eight-foot piles of snow and am experiencing temperatures at record-breaking lows.
When you have record-breaking snow in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Ireland and Saudi Arabia this winter, carbon dioxide is not the problem. Yet, I’ve heard in the media that our extreme cold (and even the Syrian war) is due to our global warming.
Any school child knows that the sun defines the climate on Earth. Right now our sun is at the solar minimum. Lack of sunspots causes a weakening of irradiance from the sun. For the first time in a long time the sun has gone an entire month without any sunspots (February 1-28).
Some astrophysicists say we are entering a grand solar minimum, like the Maunder and Dalton minimums (Google them) that caused “mini ice ages” in the past centuries. It lasts for decades. We’re due. I hope they are wrong.
Al Gore and your lemmings please stop feeding the public the carbon dioxide hoax.


Bangalore: Come June every year and Infosys Technologies Ltd, India’s second biggest software services exporter, turns trainer for the nearly 30,000 students it recruits from engineering colleges every year.
Goldman Sachs counts the lack of quality education as one of the 10 factors holding India back from rapid economic growth. Analysts say it raises costs, including salaries as firms vie for the best information technology (IT) recruits and reduces firms’ competitive edge.
“Ideally, education should happen in colleges, it should not be happening on company campuses," said Srikantan Moorthy, head of education and research at Infosys, whose Campus Connect programme in 430 colleges is aimed at “industry-ready" recruits. “But a gap does exist and we can’t wait for the government to put in place an education system that addresses our needs."
There are growing cries to revamp India’s education system which focuses on learning by rote. The calls for reforms include opening up primary and secondary education to private investment, easier entry of foreign universities seeking to establish campuses in India and better monitoring and evaluation systems.
Nasdaq-listed Infosys, which develops software applications, spent $175 million (Rs838.25 crore) on training and education in the year to March at a time when the economic downturn crimped margins.
It is not the only one. Rival Tata Consultancy Services Ltd has a faculty development programme in 150 engineering colleges, while Wipro Ltd’s founder Azim Premji has set aside some of his personal wealth for primary education, and Anil Agarwal, chief of Vedanta Resources Plc., has committed $1 billion to a university.
The Tata group and Aditya Birla Group set up colleges years ago as acts of social responsibility. Now, multinationals such as SAP AG, International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) and Cisco Systems, Inc. are designing curriculum and training faculty to meet their needs.
“The talent gap is compromising their growth big time," said Janmejaya Sinha, managing director of Boston Consulting Group (BCG), which estimates there was a 30% rise in IT salaries from 2004 to 2006 because of a war for talent between firms. “It is one of the biggest operational risks they face."
At least half of India’s billion-plus population is below the age of 25, a section referred to as its demographic dividend. But about 40% of its workforce of about 400 million people is illiterate and another 40% comprises school dropouts, said BCG in a recent report.
Demand for graduates over the next five years is likely to be 13.8 million. But with only 13.2 million students graduating over the same period, India will face a shortfall of 600,000 graduates.
About 1.3 million unskilled and unqualified workers will also weigh on the economy over the same period, BCG estimates. “More than one million people lacking the ability to participate in the workforce have the makings of a potential demographic disaster," Sinha said. “We will have an army of young people left behind and increasingly frustrated with their lot. They not only have the potential to derail India’s growth prospects, but also challenge the basic fibre of our society."
With a literacy rate of 61%, India scores poorly compared with other Bric nations—Brazil, Russia, India, China—in terms of average number of years in secondary education. Rival China already produces more than three times the number of PhDs every year.
Home to one of the world’s oldest universities, now only 10% of the roughly 20 million who enrol in the first grade every year finish high school. Female participation is abysmal.
With the education sector deemed “not for profit" and limits on private investment in primary and secondary education, there is a thriving cottage industry of coaching centres and tutors.
Hundreds of private tertiary colleges charge high fees. Yet, according to critics, many students graduating from these expensive colleges are practically unemployable. The best colleges, including the Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institutes of Management, were set up at least 50 years ago.
“Without hundreds of millions of Indians receiving a better basic education, it will be virtually impossible for India to achieve its ‘dream’ potential," the Goldman Sachs report said.
For the new Congress party-led government, education is a priority: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (universal education programme) helped bring 20 million children into school. It also plans to quadruple the number of universities to 1,500 in 10 years.
A Right to Education Bill, passed by Parliament this month, provides children aged 6-14 the right to free and compulsory education in a neighbourhood school. These are vital but inadequate measures, companies say.
“Of all the big issues challenging corporates, education is the starting point," said Dilep Rajnekar, chief executive of Azim Premji Foundation, which plans to set up a university. “If we manage to get the education bit right, then a lot of things can go right in this country."


Crisis-ridden Jet Airways was Tuesday forced to ground three of its Boeing 737 planes due to non-payment of lease rentals, leading to cancellation of around 20 domestic flights, according to sources.
With three more planes taken out of operations, the number of aircraft on ground due to non-payment of lease rentals by the carrier now stand at six in the last two days, the source added.
"Jet Airways has defaulted on aircraft lease rentals and it has been forced to ground three more narrow-body Boeing 737 planes," a source in the know of the development told PTI.
A response from airline, which struggling with cash- crunch since the past many months, is awaited.
Due to the fresh grounding of the planes, the airline, which is negotiating with its partner Etihad for additional cash infusion, has cancelled as many as 19 flights to/from Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Port Blair and Bengaluru, the source added.


She also said that she did not see the press as “the enemy of the people,” the oft-repeated phrase employed by President Trump to attack members of the media.
Ivanka Trump broke with her father’s administration on Thursday, calling President Donald Trump’s policy of separating families at the U.S.-Mexico border a “low point” during her time in the White House, and saying she "vehemently" opposed the policy.
“That was a low point for me as well. I feel very strongly about that, and I am very vehemently against family separation and the separation of parents and children, so I would agree with that sentiment,” she said when asked about the policy at Axios’s “Conversation on Workforce Development” Forum.
“I think immigration is incredibly complex as a topic," she added. "Illegal immigration is incredibly complicated. I am the daughter of an immigrant. My mother [Ivana Trump] grew up in Communist Czech Republic, but we are a country of law. So, she came to this country legally."
She also said that she did not see the press as “the enemy of the people,” an oft-repeated phrase employed by the president to attack members of the media, usually because of negative coverage of his administration.
She also discussed special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, saying she has not been contacted by Mueller’s office and had not known anything at the time about the 2016 Trump Tower meeting where top members of the president’s campaign met with a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin.
Trump responded to her comments regarding the media late Thursday, attempting to recast his past negative remarks aimed at the media by saying she correctly said that the media is not the enemy of the people.
"They asked my daughter Ivanka whether or not the media is the enemy of the people. She correctly said no. It is the FAKE NEWS, which is a large percentage of the media, that is the enemy of the people," he tweeted.
However, in a July tweet before his summit in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the president did not criticize "fake news," but specifically said, "Much of our news media is indeed the enemy of the people."


HIGH POINT, N.C. — The High Point Police Department identified the man fatally shot Tuesday night as 23-year-old Tyreek Naquan Sparks, Sr.
Police responded to a shots fired call at 409 Lake Ave. at about 10:24 p.m. and upon arrival, located one adult victim suffering from a gunshot wound to the head.
Sparks was pronounced dead at the emergency room.
Police do not have any suspects in the shooting and the investigation is ongoing.


-- BRAND NEW Townhomes ACROSS the street from Schuler Elementary w/ almost 1,800 SF of finish on the main and upper levels + can additional SF in the basement. Walk in the front door to the living room with open concept to the kitchen and dinning. The kitchen has all the most haves...Large W/I Pantry, Island, quartz counters, LVP flooring and SS appliances. 2nd level has 3 LARGE bedrooms and 2 baths. Master suite has double sinks, tile floors and a HUGE W/I Closet that has access to the Laundry room. Laundry room checks all the boxes with folding table, tile flooring and access to the master closet. 2 spare bedrooms share a hall bath. 2 Car attached garage. Still time to customize and make your own selections. Basement finish can be completed prior to closing. Contact us today for more info on all units available. HOA cares for Exterior Maint./Bldg., Lawn Care & Snow Removal.


Something going on in your community? Big plans? Open floor for announcements.
Roundtable. Ideas, suggestions, action items, community building.
Can/Will DNDC host a D1 candidate forum this year? Other groups are starting to streamline similar events into specific areas of interest, but none are currently focused on community/neighborhood (how well do you know the community and resources you wish to represent?).
Is a monthly meeting still warranted, or is every other month a better option? What representation are we looking for, and do we have enough (short answer, no)? Are we covering (or not covering) important topics? Discuss!
Delridge Neighborhood District Council meeting is held on the 3rd Wednesday of the month, 7 pm–9 pm.
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Keeping an eye on your pension fund means keeping an eye on your company. Its financial status, a sale or takeover or changes in policy can have a huge impact on your future benefits.
"Individuals really have to be informed consumers . . . and realize nothing in this life is guaranteed," said Denise Loftus, manager of Work Force Education at the American Association of Retired Persons.
you've already earned may be insured, you still take a big hit. That's because a typical pension plan provides disproportionately larger benefits for the later years of employment. It's often the case that a worker earns half the benefit in the first 30 years and the last half in the last 10 years, said Donald S. Grubbs Jr., a Silver Spring pension actuary and consultant.
"If the plan terminates when you're 55 and you'd been planning to work until 65, you're only going to get about half the benefit you would have gotten," he said.
To make matters worse, the benefit is figured in today's dollars and is fixed even though it won't be paid until years later, when those dollars will be worth much less because of inflation. If you could have stayed in a plan until retirement, your benefit would be improved because it's normally based on salary and years of service. Both of those would have been higher.
When a defined-contribution plan, such as a 401(k) or Employee Stock Ownership Plan ends, employees receive a lump-sum distribution. To preserve the tax advantages, they need to roll over -- or reinvest in a qualifying retirement plan -- the distribution.
If you think there's little chance that your pension plan might be terminated, think again. Companies have the legal right to end a plan and are doing just that in increasing numbers.
According to the IRS, more plans were terminated last year than were started. Employers ended 16,300 defined-benefit plans and defined-contribution plans in 1990 but started just 1,900 defined benefit plans and 11,400 defined contribution plans.
Pension actuaries lay much of the blame for the drop in plans, especially defined-benefit plans, to the burden of complying with federal rules.
"The problem with defined-benefit plans is that many plans are being terminated, especially by small companies," said Robert Preston, a Connecticut pension consultant. "In some cases, higher medical costs soak up the dollars. But companies are just fed up with the regulations; they're tired of the hassle. The average employer doesn't understand how onerous running a plan is, and when they find out, they drop it."
A study, however, by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., the government agency that insures private defined benefit plans, laid the blame on structural shifts in the economy. What was responsible, it concluded, was the shrinkage of heavy industry, where defined-benefit plans are concentrated, and the growth of the service sector, where defined-contribution plans are more common if a retirement plan is offered at all.
And, while many companies substitute a defined-benefit plan with a defined-contribution plan that allows workers to make tax-deferred contributions, such plans usually do lower-paid workers little good, said Karen Ferguson, director of the non-profit Pension Rights Center. That is because a low-paid worker often can't afford to set aside any part of the paycheck. Furthermore, a defined-contribution plan doesn't guarantee any monthly benefit at retirement and, in fact, is often raided -- by the worker -- before he even gets to retirement.
Yet another wrinkle involves what happens when a financially solvent company decides to terminate its pension plan. The government requires it to use the pension funds to buy annuities from insurance companies that will make certain workers, including those not yet vested, receive benefits they had earned up to that point. The problem is those benefits won't be paid for some years, when they retire.
The PBGC, however, says its responsibility to insure a pension ends once a plan is halted and annuities are bought; it does not insure the annuities although it does scrutinize the choice of an issuing company.
"The choice of an insurance company is part of the fiduciary responsibility that requires pension administrators to be prudent and wise," said Robert Liebross, a pension attorney with the AARP. "But what constitutes prudent and wise is up in the air. There is a dispute on what criteria should be used."
Companies also can change plan rules to slow or freeze improvements or even reduce benefits.
"They can change the plan as long as they don't reduce the benefits someone's already earned," said Cathy Ventrell-Monsees, manager of advocacy programs at the AARP.
While employees don't have a legal recourse to stop a company from tinkering with its plan, sometimes they can apply pressure if they know about such plans ahead of time. In at least one case, Ferguson said, picketing employees stopped a company from raiding its pension plan.
"An employer is less likely to make changes that will hurt you if he knows that employees are watchful."
There also is little that a worker can do if his company goes broke and the pension fund is underfunded.
"From a lay person's point of view, your pension is only as healthy as your company," commented the AARP's Loftus.
PBGC spokeswoman Jane Hoden said that, while pension underfunding is not necessarily cause for alarm, it can be. "A low funding ratio coupled with serious financial problems -- bankruptcy, a fall in stock market values or low bond ratings -- are indications of plan termination," she said.
Liebross, the AARP attorney, suggested some other red flags: a history of layoffs, bonuses and raises being frozen, salary givebacks and, if you're in a position to know, whether a company is late paying its bills.
While in most cases the PBGC guarantees basic benefits, employees still lose out on the higher benefits they would have earned if they could have worked until retirement. They also lose out on any prospects for improvement -- benefits guaranteed by the PBGC are frozen.
If a company's financial future appears dim, Loftus said, workers might ask themselves if they have any options to pull out what they've already earned and get another job.
In all case, employees should keep track of where they stand.
Ferguson advises examining your individual employee benefits statement. Available from your plan administrator, a benefits statement tells you how much pension you will get at age 65 if you left your employer now.
"You need to know exactly what you will get," said Ferguson. "A lot of disappointment results from not reading carefully. Know what you can count on getting now if the company decides to stop your plan."
"The big problem is that these statements include projections [which project what you pension would be if you worked until age 65]," Ferguson added. "People tend to read that instead of what you've earned to date -- the accrued vested benefit. And benefits for a surviving spouse or early retirement will reduce that. People should ask the plan administrator what would happen if the company stopped the plan today."
The question to ask, she said: "Just what benefits would I get?"


Trade talks with the European Union (EU) continue stalled two months after they were postponed due to the political crisis in Honduras.
Although a spokesperson for the EU said this week there are no immediate plans to resume negotiations, Central America’s foreign trade ministers are pressing forward with the aim of coming to an agreement soon.
Formal negotiations for a trade agreement began in October of 2007 in Costa Rica and were expected to conclude this year, after four rounds of talks. But internal conflicts in Central America and policies within certain countries delayed the process and pushed diplomats into additional rounds.
“When there is a crisis in one country, the whole process of integration gets interrupted, which is what happened with the Honduran (crisis),” said Rafael Sánchez, a London-based analyst and author of “The Politics of Central American Integration.” He added that it “sets back external relations because it damages an international image.” Sánchez was referring to the June 28 Honduran coup in which President Manuel Zelaya was ousted and Roberto Micheletti was installed to head the de facto government.
An Association Agreement with the EU is predicated on the Central American nations meeting certain benchmarks in terms of integration, including working together to develop common policies, implement a customs union, and reduce vulnerability to natural disasters.
Since 2000, trade among the countries of Central America has grown from $2.6 billion to $6.3 billion. According to the Foreign Trade Ministry (COMEX), there has been an expansion of free trade in sectors, including all agricultural and industrial goods with the exception of coffee, sugar cane, alcohol and oil derivatives (representing roughly 94 percent of all products).
Border crossings have been improved in El Salvador and Honduras, and some countries have relaxed immigration rules. Sánchez said intra-regional cooperation within the region is critical because it allows Central America to become a bigger market.
At a late-July conference in Guanacaste in one of his first meetings before fellow heads of state as president of SICA, Arias lamented the setback in negotiations due to the Honduran conflict.
Yet, Costa Rica remains one of the biggest obstacles to integration, due to its resistance to open migration within the region.
Christopher Patten, commissioner for external affairs with the EU’s European Commission, pointed out that the two regions began the integration process the same way, which may lead to a similar end.
Yet, with four-hour waits at border crossings and a transportation system that does little to reduce time and distance, the jigsaw puzzle pieces that are the nations of Central America are still looking for a better fit.


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Department of Homeland Security will never monitor ideology or political beliefs, the head of the agency said Wednesday, responding to criticism of a recent report on right-wing extremist groups.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says the U.S. will never monitor ideology or political beliefs.
"Let me be very clear: We monitor the risks of violent extremism taking root here in the United States," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a written statement.
"We don't have the luxury of focusing our efforts on one group; we must protect the country from terrorism whether foreign or homegrown and regardless of the ideology that motivates its violence."
The report, "Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment," said right-wing extremist groups may be using the recession and the election of the nation's first African-American president to recruit members.
Though the nine-page report said it had "no specific information that domestic right-wing terrorists are currently planning acts of violence," it said real-estate foreclosures, unemployment and tight credit "could create a fertile recruiting environment for right-wing extremists and even result in confrontations between such groups and government authorities similar to those in the past."
The report compared the current climate with that of the 1990s, saying a recession, criticism over outsourcing of jobs and a perceived threat to U.S. power at that time fueled a resurgence of right-wing extremism.
Cafferty: What to do about rise in extremism?
However, it said, "Despite similarities to the climate of the 1990s, the threat posed by lone wolves and small terrorist cells is more pronounced than in past years."
It warned that the groups may use proposed restrictions on firearms and the debate on immigration as recruiting tools, and said the groups may try to reach out to veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The willingness of a small percentage of military personnel to join extremist groups during the 1990s because they were disgruntled, disillusioned or suffering from the psychological effects of war is being replicated today," the report said. It noted that Timothy McVeigh, the bomber of the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995, was a military veteran.
Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh decried the report on Tuesday, saying, "There is not one instance they can cite as evidence where any of these right-wing groups have done anything," according to a transcript of his remarks on his Web site.
"You have a report from Janet Napolitano and Barack Obama, Department of Homeland Security portraying standard, ordinary, everyday conservatives as posing a bigger threat to this country than al Qaeda terrorists or genuine enemies of this country like Kim Jong Il," he said, referring to the leader of North Korea.
Michael Savage, another conservative commentator, also criticized the report.
"What does Big Sis say these right-wingers are concerned about?" he wrote on his Web site, referring to Napolitano.
"Illegal aliens, the increasing power of the federal government, gun grabs, abortion and the loss of U.S. national sovereignty. In other words, anyone who is worried about preserving our borders, language and culture is on Big Sis' watch list."
In her Wednesday statement, Napolitano said the agency is on "the lookout for criminal and terrorist activity but we do not -- nor will we ever -- monitor ideology or political beliefs."
She said she was briefed on the general topic, which "struck a nerve as someone personally involved in the Timothy McVeigh prosecution."
Napolitano said she intends to meet with American Legion National Commander David K. Rehbein, who sent her a letter Monday stating his concern about the report.
"Timothy McVeigh was only one of more than 42 million veterans who have worn this nation's uniform during wartime," he wrote. "To continue to use McVeigh as an example of the stereotypical 'disgruntled military veteran' is as unfair as using Osama bin Laden as the sole example of Islam."
He added, "I think it is important for all of us to remember that Americans are not the enemy. The terrorists are."
Napolitano said in her statement that she will tell Rehbein that the Department of Homeland Security honors veterans and employs thousands, including Deputy Secretary Jane Holl Lute.
The Obama administration in January issued a warning about left-wing extremists. Both reports were initiated during the administration of President George W. Bush.


The first post-Katrina trial over the flood exclusion in a homeowners policy ended with insurance groups proclaiming victory last week. U.S. District Judge L.T. Senter ruled that the great majority of damage to a Mississippi home was caused by flood, and therefore was not covered under the terms of a homeowner policy written by Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company.


Community chess launched in North Street last week, when the Chichester Business Improvement Initiative (BID) came together with sponsor Patisserie Valerie, and a street magician who came up with the idea.
The free chess games, outside the Butter Market, are available to all, and has proved popular since its launch on Tuesday.
The scheme was piloted for five days previously, and is already a social hub in the city.
City Centre Manager Kim Long was approached by street entertainer and magician, Nick Stein with the idea and together with Patisserie Valerie they have worked to put it into place.
Mr Stein noticed many other countries play board games outdoors, so wanted to bring the idea to Chichester.
He said: “I’ve played chess since I was a child and having seen free chess available in cities throughout the world, I was convinced it would work here.
Anyone can sit down and play a game of chess, and there is an opportunity to play speed chess, where Mr Stein will challenge chess champions to a one-minute game, where the player gets a minute each overall to complete all their moves.
The chess games will be a permanent feature, and run from Monday to Saturday, at 10am-1pm, weather permitting.
There are talks of moving the games into the Butter Market at Patisserie Valerie if the weather is bad.
The scheme is part of the BID initiative, tasked with delivering a series of improvements to the city centre over the next five years.
Mrs Long could see the benefits of the scheme and said: “This is just the sort of thing BID is here for, to draw more crowds and custom to Chichester city centre businesses.
“I was thrilled when Nick approached me, as it’s such a simple idea, with such a big impact.
Patisserie Valerie voiced an interest in the city centre initiative, so Mrs Long offered them the opportunity of sponsoring the chess equipment and providing refreshments to players.
Helene Bailey, store manager of Chichester’s Patisserie Valerie, comments: “I am delighted we are able to support such a great scheme.
“As a national company, we are always on the lookout for ways to get involved with the towns in which our cafés are based.
“We know that no two locations or the people in them are the same and as the store manager of the Chichester branch, I have a personal interest in ways in which we can support our city centre.
The chess sets will be available for free games outside the Butter Market on North Street on sunny days, overseen by Nick Stein who is happy to take on challengers.
Players are invited to make a donation to support chess clubs in schools, the first recipient being The Academy in Selsey.


MCX Mentha oil slipped Rs 61.80 to Rs 1,483.90 at around 10.45 am.
Bumper crop harvest has been discounted in the market and market is moving upwards on rising demand from end users.
Mentha oil prices plunged 4 per cent on Monday morning as there was a rush to take profit.
Prices of the commodity have rallied over 15 per cent in the past month. According to Motilal Oswal, spot markets are witnessing strong consumption demand amid restricted supplies.
“Despite the peak season of harvest in June, prices of mentha oil have risen over 20 per cent since the beginning of June as farmers held back stocks. Farmers are holding back stocks as they are expecting prices to rise to Rs 1,800 a kg in the next 2-3 months. As per preliminary estimates, acreage under mentha crop will rise this year as the farmers are encouraged by higher price in recent past,” Motilal Oswal said.
The commodity mostly makes its way to food and flavourings. In addition to being a popular flavoring agent in food and confectionery preparation, natural menthol has cooling and soothing effect on skin and mucous membrane of human body, making it a useful ingredient in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics industry.
The oil in the crude form is made free of moisture by treatment with dehydrating agents like sodium sulphate, filtered and stored in airtight containers, preferably made up of aluminium or galvanised iron.


Explainer: Did he or didn't he? What might an obstruction case against Trump look like?
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A key element of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiry into Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S. election was whether President Donald Trump unlawfully acted to impede the investigation, a crime known as obstruction of justice.
But Barr, two days after Mueller submitted the confidential report on March 22, told U.S. lawmakers in a four-page letter that he as attorney general concluded that the evidence amassed by the special counsel “is not sufficient” to establish that Trump committed criminal obstruction of justice.
Then-FBI Director James Comey and other U.S. intelligence officials attended a Valentine’s Day counterterrorism briefing at the White House on Feb. 14, 2017. After the briefing, Trump, who had taken office just weeks before on Jan. 20, asked everyone but Comey to leave the room, according to testimony Comey gave to Congress in June 2017.
Normally, the U.S. attorney general would have overseen the Russia inquiry. But Sessions in March 2017 recused himself because of his own contacts with Kislyak, the Russian ambassador, while serving as a Trump campaign adviser. Oversight fell to Rosenstein, who subsequently appointed Mueller.


The contract allows UDRI to continue to provide the Air Force with rapid support in the areas of component failure analysis, material and mechanical property evaluations, and corrosion assessments on a wide variety of Air Force systems.
Researchers will investigate materials and process-related issues in structural and electronic materials, environmentally friendly and energy-efficient technologies and protective coatings in advanced aerospace systems as well as legacy systems, from the development phase to production and operational phases.
The contract included an initial award of $11.7 million for research, evaluation and testing in the areas of corrosion prevention and control.
"Our goal is to support the Air Force Research Laboratory in its goals to reduce the cost associated with corrosion maintenance, create safer working environments and increase the availability of Air Force systems," said Dennis Buchanan, UDRI division head for structural integrity and program manager on the program.
The program will also facilitate the transition of emerging materials and process technologies to various Air Force and Department of Defense systems.
Work will be performed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base as well as at UD.


Banks are so excited about Apple Pay they've been advertising it heavily across the web. Here's the home page from the New York Times yesterday.
When you look at your smartphone, you probably don't spend much time thinking about the poor calculator, day planner and digital camera it helped send to the dustbin of history. But starting today, that same phone is taking aim at another victim: your wallet and the credit cards you carry in it. Both are on "deathwatch" as Apple rolls out Apple Pay for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. While the impact of the new software will be limited at first, it will usher in a new era of convenience and security that will ultimately bring benefits to everyone -- whether or not they are iPhone users. Here's what you need to know.
I'm still not sure what Apple Pay really is. Can you help?
Apple Pay is really two ways to pay rolled into one. The most visible of those will be using your iPhone to pay in retail stores, verifying your ID with the fingerprint sensor. That version of Apple Pay will replace the traditional credit-card swipe. The other version is Apple Pay inside of apps. It's currently iOS only (Macs need not apply) because it requires the TouchID sensor. On apps that support it, you'll be able to complete a purchase with a finger as you've been able to do in the App Store since last year, assuming you enabled that feature). Mostly, Apple exec Eddy Cue told the Wall Street Journal, the company figures it will be used for those in-app purchases.
But they won't just be limited to power boosts inside of games like Candy Crush. An online retail app could use it to enable one-touch purchasing and even grab your shipping information without you having to enter anything into those tiny fields on your phone screen. Apps that don't support Apple Pay but want your credit card and address info are going to quickly look archaic; don't think merchants aren't aware of this. Buying on your iPhone is about to get a lot easier, for better or for worse.
What devices work with Apple Pay?
To use Apple Pay at a retail store, you'll need an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus. They're the only phones in Apple's lineup that have the necessary NFC (near field communications) chip as well as TouchID. For the "app-based" version of Apple Pay, the iPad Mini 3 and iPad Air 2 have the Touch ID sensor as does the iPhone 5s. They'll get part of the experience as a result.
For users of iPhone 5, 5c and 5s who want to use Apple Pay out in the real world, there is an option short of buying an iPhone 6 but you'll have to wait until early next year. The Apple Watch has the NFC chip in it, too and can link up with one of those older phones. That will allow you to pay by swiping your wrist over the payment terminal. It's not a cheap way to go given the Watch will start at $349, but if you're getting one anyway, it's a perfectly reasonable workaround.
Are my credit cards "compatible" with Apple Pay?
In most cases, the answer is yes but there are some important exceptions. When Apple announced the technology earlier this year, it made a point of saying that the largest banks -- and their credit cards -- would work with Apple Pay at launch. That means Citi, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Capital One and JP Morgan Chase are good to go. Barry McCarthy of First Data, which does credit card processing for "thousands of banks," says his company is helping make it possible for everyone else to get on board too. In fact, since Apple unwrapped Apple Pay, it's managed to sign on 500 regional and local banks, whose cards should work by early next year, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook. If you have any doubts about a particular card, you can just try to register it with Apple Pay and that'll let you know if it's ready.
That said, certain types of cards just won't work at all -- yet. Store-branded cards are not part of the initial rollout nor are prepaid cards and most corporate cards. All are planned for future versions of Apple Pay, but it'll be a while.
What's this business about registering a card with Apple Pay?
Most people will already have one card in the system because it's associated with your iTunes account. To add others, you'll be able to scan them in with your iPhone's camera. Once you see how it works, you probably won't need much help. Apple Pay is part of the Passbook app, which many have used with an airline boarding pass or perhaps some Fandango movie tickets.
A lot of people are saying this isn't any more convenient than swiping a card. Aren't they right?
A lot of people said no one would want the iPhone too. Mobile payments are already catching on, with 15% of all Starbucks transactions being conducted through their own app, which is also no more convenient than swiping a card. Oh, and swiping your card is going to be replaced in 2015 by "inserting" your card. In my limited experience using the new terminals, they're mostly awful and awkward. Waving your phone over a compatible payment device -- whether it's an iPhone or an Android phone with Google Wallet -- is going to seem like a pleasure very soon, if it doesn't already.
And with app integration, you might find Apple Pay a far more convenient system very soon. McCarthy of First Data described how it will work at Panera Bread, using their app. You'll be able to order ahead and pay inside the app. "It's crossing between e-commerce and point of sale," he said, describing the technology. No swipe anywhere, no bill, all integrated.
Besides Panera, is anyone going to accept Apple Pay?
First, a clarification. There is no "accepting Apple Pay." You may have read an article or five suggesting that retailers don't plan to support Apple Pay, implying there is some special thing they have to do to work with Apple. What a retailer needs is nothing more than a NFC-equipped point-of-sale terminal. Those aren't everywhere yet. Apple says 220,000 merchants have them; First Data says that's out of 8 million retail points of sale in the U.S. But if the NFC reader is "live" it supports Apple Pay, whether or not the retailer has a deal with Apple Pay.
That said, forward-thinking retailers made a point of being ready to support the technology. McDonald's, Subway, Macy's, Whole Foods, Walgreens (along with subsidiary Duane Reade) and others are part of the first wave. The above slide from last week's iPad event show others who will be rolling out support over the coming months.
Best Buy and WalMart are saying they won't play with Apple Pay. Why?
Two reasons, neither is good. First, they are burying their heads in the sand about NFC. Every merchant in the U.S. needs to support chip-based credit cards by October 2015 or face the liability risk of fraudulent transactions on their own (today, that risk is borne by issuing banks). It's true that retailers can accept so called EMV cards without supporting NFC, but doing so entering the holiday season is going to be a decision those retailers will live to regret. Today, the speed of credit-card checkout is something we mostly take for granted and with chip cards, that's about to change. Support for NFC isn't about making Apple happy, it's going to be about making customers happy.
The second reason some retailers are being obstinate is a quixotic endeavor to do mobile payments called MCX, for Merchant Customer Exchange. Gap, CVS, Exxon Mobil and a whole host of companies have agreed to collaborate on a payments solution whose advantage to consumers centers mostly on integrated loyalty-program features. MCX itself admits the technology will be supported at about 110,000 points of sale when it's at "full scale" sometime down the road -- half the number Apple Pay will work at tomorrow. But at least MCX's app, CurrentC, supports most credit cards right? No, actually it starts out with support for basically none. "CurrentC will offer customers the freedom to pay with a variety of financial accounts, including personal checking accounts, merchant gift cards and select merchant-branded credit and debit accounts. Additional payment options will be available in the coming months," the consortium's announcement states.
Here's a teaser for my annual predictions column that runs every New Year: CurrentC will fail to gain adoption in 2015 and at least 1/3 of merchants on the list will make clear they will support NFC. That support will allow customers to use Apple Pay -- and Google Wallet. CurrentC and MCX will cease to exist before the decade is out.
I'm scared of this kind of thing in a Target/Home Depot/Chase-hack world. Can you reassure me?
Yes, in fact: Apple Pay is pretty much the most secure way to pay by credit card ever mass deployed. McCarthy notes that: "There’s multiple layers of security," in the system. He points out that you can't use the cards without scanning a fingerprint but perhaps more importantly, your card numbers are no longer transmitted across the network or stored by merchants. The way that works is something called "tokenization" and it's a huge advance in security. Even Apple won't keep your card information, except for the one card it has on file with iTunes for now.
The other cards are protected using something called the secure element in the iPhone and when you make a transaction a special number will be sent to the processor instead of your actual card number. That "token" is useless to a thief or hacker. If your iPhone does get stolen, you'll be able to shut it down with Find My iPhone. Though without your fingerprint, no one is going to be using your pilfered phone for purchases anyway.
In short, no system is perfect and perhaps some security vulnerabilities will yet be uncovered. But most of the major breaches to date have involved hackers getting hold of card numbers stored with retailers. With Apple Pay, those kinds of hacks are going to become obsolete. Other payment systems will move to tokenization, too, though it will take time. Apple's combination of the secure element, Touch ID fingerprint sensor, and ability to bring banks on board to accept its tokens is a testament to its market power and the iPhone's 42% share among U.S. smartphone owners. This is going to be more challenging to make happen elsewhere for anyone, yet more possible because Apple has laid the groundwork.
How important is this for Apple?
In the short run, only a little. Apple could sell 30 million of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus before the year is out, but that's less than 10% of the iPhones in the world currently. The company is going to get 0.15% of the money spent through the technology without it costing you and me anything extra (the take will come out of the banks and payment networks share). Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray told the WSJ he thought that could amount to $118 million next year and $310 million in 2016.
These dollars are almost entirely going to be pure profit. Now given the company made $37 billion last year, it's still a drop in the bucket, but one that could eventually grow to be at least a cupful. It could take more than a decade for Apple Pay to contribute even 10% of Apple's profit, but it's not difficult to imagine that happening down the road. And if it's wildly successful, Apple could potentially act as a banking middleman and take an even larger cut. Think that's crazy? It's one of the few things keeping Sony afloat.
Apple Pay is also a reminder of the company's ability to lead the world in nearly impossible directions. Google's Wallet is very similar to Apple's offering but met with a lot of resistance, was blocked by wireless carriers and has thus far had minimal impact on mobile payments. Apple Pay takes some of the best elements from what Google tried to do but simplifies things based on Apple's unique control of both hardware and software. Cook and company were also able to marshall support from those 500+ banks and dozens of retailers to give Apple Pay the necessary critical mass to succeed. Now it's time to make it happen.
I'll be back soon with a real-world test of the technology.


Singer Kaya Jones describes the scene when a gunman opened fire during an open-air concert on the Las Vegas strip.
Singer Kaya Jones was on stage moments before a gunman opened fire during the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada on Sunday night. The assailant attacked concertgoers from the 32nd floor of a nearby hotel, killing at least 50 people and injuring more than 400 others, in the deadliest shooting in United States history.
“We left got onto the bus, arrived at the next stop which was their bar that’s local for a quick after performance—as we got there the guys jumped on stage, we started to get information that there was an active shooter that people were hit on stage, I think Jason [Aldean] was three songs in when it began-- so we were moments away from that—he could have picked at any moment to shoot,” Jones told The FOX Business’ Stuart Varney on “Varney & Co.” on Monday.
The gunman, who killed himself as police raided the hotel room, has been identified as 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, used at least 10 guns to spray the crowd with countless rounds of ammunition, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
Jones described the atmosphere around her as stun, horror and outrage once she heard the news.
“We went down to the bus, then we knew we weren’t safe on the bus—we came back up and pretty much were barricaded inside of the bar—there was one person with a gun with seven rounds and in that moment, you know, luckily we had an FBI agent who was on his honeymoon and he showed his information and said ‘I’m not carrying, does anyone have a gun?’ and handed it over to him and he stood guard at the door,” she said.
President Trump reacted on Twitter, offering ‘condolences’ and ‘sympathies’ to the victims and families of the shooting.
He described the act as “pure evil” during a news conference on Monday and will visit Las Vegas on Wednesday to meet with law enforcement, first responders and the families of the victims.


Tuesday’s hearing was the last before Greider will sentence Damas on Friday, either to life in prison or to death.
Raising his head from the defense table, Mesac Damas, who pleaded guilty last month to killing his wife and five children, wrote a note on lined yellow paper to Collier Circuit Judge Christine Greider on Tuesday morning.
“Go ahead, continue your work, may my blood be upon your shoulders,” he wrote, signing the note “COG” — Child of God.
Tuesday’s hearing was the last before Greider will sentence Damas on Friday, either to life in prison or to death. Damas waived his right to a jury when he pleaded guilty to six counts of first-degree murder in September.
As he has done on occasion, Damas refused to talk or really participate in any way as prosecutors and his defense attorneys made their closing arguments. And he refused to talk when asked repeatedly by Greider to clarify whether he wanted her to consider the mitigating evidence and testimony presented in his favor Monday by his court-appointed lawyers.
Ultimately, Greider ruled that Damas’ silence meant he had been clear in September when he waived his right to have evidence presented on his behalf. His lawyers disagreed with Greider’s decision.
“Without him answering in a criminal court, you can’t assume he’s agreeing with anything that’s being done here,” said James Ermacora, one of Damas’ two lawyers.
In her closing argument to Greider, which lasted over an hour, Chief Assistant State Attorney Amira Fox laid out the evidence against Damas to prove aggravating factors — among them that the September 2009 killings were heinous and atrocious, as well as cold, calculated and premeditated — that would allow Greider to impose a death sentence.
There were receipts for the filet knife Damas bought at Walmart and later used to slash each family member’s throat, video of him buying the knife and the knife itself — its blade bent in the violent attacks.
Most powerfully, Fox used Damas’ own words against him, reading long passages directly from Damas’ statement to a Collier County Sheriff’s Office detective, detailing what she called a “murderous rampage.” Damas plugged his ears with white tissues during her presentation, and dabbed his eyes.
In his statement to the detective, Damas talked about being outside his family’s home the night of the killing, watching his wife, Guerline Dieu Damas, for 2½ hours before entering. He talked about how he fought with her, bound her with duct tape and worried about her alerting the neighbors before killing her.
He told the detective about going upstairs and methodically moving his children — Megan, 3, Maven, 5, and Marven, 6 — from one bedroom to another before killing them. He talked about pausing before he killed his 1-year-old daughter Morgan and his oldest son, Michzach, 9. He considered letting them live.
Fox questioned testimony from a defense expert who said Damas believed his mother-in-law had put a curse or a hex on him before the killings.
“It’s beyond reason to think that the defendant’s mother-in-law would put a curse on him that would have him kill her daughter and her five grandchildren,” Fox said.
Prosecutors, she said, proved their case against Damas.
“We would ask the court to impose a sentence of death on the defendant,” Fox said.
Ermacora questioned whether the children’s deaths were premeditated and argued that Damas was not thinking clearly at the time of the killings. His client, he said, has brain abnormalities and a history of mental illness. A defense expert Monday suggested Damas’ brain defects are consistent with schizophrenia.
“Mr. Damas throughout the proceedings has exhibited bizarre behavior, and you almost don’t need to be an expert to realize there must be something wrong with Mr. Damas,” Ermacora said.
Ermacora asked Greider for a life sentence, rather than death, as Damas has said he wants. Greider said she cannot simply rubber stamp Damas’ request.
With Damas waiving his right to have evidence presented on his behalf, it’s unclear exactly what defense evidence Greider will consider when making her decision. Greider allowed Ermacora and his co-counsel to present their witnesses Monday, even though Damas had said he didn’t want them.
“Despite him saying it at times he wants the death penalty, I’m saying to you, your honor, that you do not have to sentence Mr. Damas to death despite all these aggravators,” Ermacora said.
If Greider does sentence Damas to death Friday, he will be the second person from Collier County on death row, joining Brandy Jennings, who was sentenced to death in 1996 for killing three people during a holdup at a Naples area Cracker Barrel.


The movie is 298k and should take no more than 2.5 minutes to download over a 56k modem.
It is designed to be played on computers with at least a 400Mhz processor and users with slower machines may experience performance problems.
If the game appears to be running slowly try closing down any other applications you may be running.
If the game becomes unresponsive click anywhere within the game area.


Two musicians are suing Britney Spears, claiming that two tracks on her multiplatinum second album, Oops! ... I Did it Again, were based on a song they wrote. Michael Cottrill and Lawrence Wnukowski claim in the lawsuit that they authored, recorded and copyrighted a song called "What You See Is What You Get" in late 1999 and submitted it to a Spears representative. The song was rejected but, the musicians say, the 20-year-old pop singer later released two songs – "What U See (Is What U Get)" and "Can't Make You Love Me" – that were "virtually identical" to their song. Oops, what a coincidence.


It's not often that comments made by Whoopi Goldberg on a national TV show have direct relevance to something here in the city of Boulder, but in a roundabout way the dressing down that Goldberg gave New York Mayor Bill de Blasio does.
On Jan. 16, Goldberg in a now famous rant ripped de Blasio on the subject of bike lanes in the city. Among other choice comments, she told the mayor that he had "screwed the city up." His offense? Under his watch New York City had built or converted from auto traffic lanes another 83 miles of protected bike lanes. These were in addition to the 113 miles his predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, had added. Goldberg evidently was fed up with the increased traffic congestion on her commute to work, congestion that had been made significantly worse as a result of her route being "road dieted" down from six lanes to two and a half.
The attack by Goldberg about a subject near and dear to the hearts of liberals, multi-modal transportation, stunned de Blasio. The next day in a press conference de Blasio remarked that he "didn't expect, in the context of a national show ... it to get so local and so specific." But de Blasio who still envisions himself as a candidate for president surely knows that the "Vision Zero" plan that he implemented in New York, and which has spread to cities including Denver and Boulder, is controversial on a national scale.
For those who are not familiar with it, Vision Zero is an organization whose goal is to reduce the number of traffic deaths to zero. A fantastic goal for sure, but at what cost? And that is where Vision Zero differs from most other programs. They don't have much use, or some say any use, for cost-benefit analysis of the programs they want cities and states to implement. They rather take a moral approach that one death is too many and the cost to achieve that goal is not relevant.
But back to the issue at hand. De Blasio is not alone in his ignorance of the widespread skepticism and hostility towards massive expenditures of tax dollars on multimodal transportation infrastructure for bikes, trains and buses at the expense of road and highway maintenance and improvements. Another proponent of Vision Zero, Denver's Mayor Hancock, appeared last week on KOA radio talk show host Mandy Connell's show. After spending considerable time on Denver's efforts to be the first city in America to have safe injection sites for illegal intravenous drug users (another dubious first for Colorado), Connell broached the subject of light rail and bus transportation in Denver. She told Hancock, "If you look at mass transportation across the country, none of it is self-sustaining, so it's always going to be subsidized, and when you only serve 4.7 percent of the population the other 95 percent is getting surly. It's like, why are we spending all this money when we should be working more on our roadways?" She continued, "They see roads in disrepair. The see potholes and they see other things, and then they see that single train going down the track all by itself with one guy in it." Hancock responded, "Today 73 percent of the people in Denver move in single-occupied automobiles. This is not acceptable." Connell then responded that a lot of people are "resentful that government is telling them, 'You've got to change your behavior,' instead of the government being responsive to what they want."
And whether or not Connell realized it, she had hit the nail right on the head of what ticks off so many people, not only here in Boulder but evidently in places as different and as far away as Middle America and Paris, France. For just about every time politicians ignore over and over again what people are telling them they want, such as the ability to get to and from work with as little headache as possible using the cars they want to use, you eventually end up with yellow vests burning things every weekend in Paris or the guy with yellow hair that everyone in Boulder seems to hate living in the White House.
The cause and effect is hard to ignore when you see it happening over and over again.


Pacific Northwest readers ought to become more acquainted with the writings of Bette Lynch Husted. Too often her valuable books have been overlooked.
Her first book, "Above the Clearwater: Living on Stolen Land" (2004), an autobiographical volume, traces Husted's life from a dysfunctional family in backcountry Idaho to graduate school and teaching in eastern Oregon. Next came "At This Distance" (2010), a collection of poems overflowing with reflections on human-landscape connections. Then, "Lessons from the Borderlands" (2012), another memoir provocatively detailing the author's personal, family and teaching experiences.
Now, "All Coyote's Children" (Oregon State University Press, 237 pages, $18.95), Husted's debut novel. This lyrically written work of contemporary fiction focuses on the much-challenged life of Annie Fallon, a recently widowed farm wife and teacher in eastern Oregon. She has mysteriously lost her husband, Jack, who disappeared into the mountains searching for their troubled son, Riley. These traumatic tests prove too much for Annie, and she is committed to rehabilitation before the novel opens. Now she is back on the Fallon farm, trying to reassemble her life.
Husted's novel begins on the dark side but gradually makes its way along a path of hope and healing. First Annie has to survive and then move toward recovery. In her traumatic journey, she finds encouragement and support from family, community and neighbors and friends. She learns, step by step, to carefully share her story and to listen to the stories of friends. Even her now-gone husband has left her a package of teaching and personal notes that help her to recover.
Husted has produced an intense story, sometimes so bleak that it is difficult for a reader to proceed. Yet the late Portland author Ursula K. Le Guin is dead center in her conclusions about the novel: "The emotional intensity of 'All Coyote's Children' might be overwhelming, if the characters weren't so humanly loveable."
A handful of major characters carries much of the author's heavy and somber lessons. Annie's close relationship with son Riley, his buddy Alex and his girlfriend Mattie illuminate her dual abilities to mother as well as to learn from young people. From a different angle, Jack's aunt, Leona, serves as the sympathetic parent Annie missed in her own alcoholic mother. Several other characters provide cultural complexities and diverse viewpoints, adding much to Husted's complex story.
The author's clear poetic talents emerge in her poignant treatment of human-land relationships in northeastern Oregon farm country and nearby mountains. Her depictions of weather, change of seasons and flora and fauna capture one's attentions - and admiration.
No less interest-whetting are Husted's sensitivity to cross-cultural links, borders and barriers. For the most part, Annie sees and comprehends connections between white and Native peoples and parents and offspring, but the author also provides samples of the racism, conflicts and jealousies that divide and complicate family and community. As Annie's story unfolds, she realizes anew how to avoid the racial-ethnic and age differences that separate and how to embrace the stories and support that provide paths through her challenges.
Mattie, Riley's girlfriend and Leona's granddaughter, furnishes a defining metaphor that illustrates what seems to be the author's intriguing worldview. The world is a sphere, Mattie points out, uniting the past and present and thus preparing for the future. The world is also an encompassing place, demonstrating how varied cultures should listen and learn from one another.
The final pages of the novel furnish potential solutions for Annie's difficult journey. She gradually perceives that, as a united group, she and her friends are "all coyote's children." Joined, they can make it.
Thoughtful, superbly written and redolent with inviting characters and ideas, Husted's first novel deserves the attention and prizes it should receive.


LEUSDEN, Netherlands — The shouts of schoolchildren playing outside echoed through the gymnasium where an obstacle course was being set up.
They were not for the children, though, but for a class where the students ranged in age from 65 to 94. The obstacle course was clinically devised to teach them how to navigate treacherous ground without having to worry about falling, and how to fall if they did.
“It’s not a bad thing to be afraid of falling, but it puts you at higher risk of falling,” said Diedeke van Wijk, a physiotherapist who runs WIJKfysio and teaches the course three times a year in Leusden, a bedroom community just outside Amersfoort, in the center of the country.
The Dutch, like many elsewhere, are living longer than in previous generations, often alone. As they do, courses that teach them not only how to avoid falling, but how to fall correctly, are gaining popularity.
This one, called Vallen Verleden Tijd course, roughly translates as “Falling is in the past.” Hundreds of similar courses are taught by registered by physio- and occupational therapists across the Netherlands.
Yet falling courses — especially clinically tested ones — are a fairly recent phenomenon, according to Richard de Ruiter, of the Sint Maartenskliniek in Nijmegen, the foundation hospital that developed this particular course.
Virtually unheard-of just a decade ago, the courses are now common enough that the government rates them. Certain forms of Dutch health insurance even cover part of the costs.
While the students are older, not all of them seemed particularly frail. Herman van Lovink, 88, arrived on his bike. So did Annie Houtveen, 75. But some arrived with walkers and canes, and others were carefully guided by relatives.
Falling can be a serious thing for older adults. Aging causes the bones to become brittle, and broken ones do not heal as readily.
Today, 18.5 percent of the Dutch population — roughly 3.2 million people — is 65 or older, according to official statistics. In 1950, about the time some of the younger course participants were born, people 65 or older made up just 7.7 percent of the population.
Across the Netherlands, 3,884 people 65 or older died as result of a fall in 2016, a 38 percent increase from two years earlier.
Experts say the rise in fatalities reflects the overall aging of the population, and also factors such as the growing use of certain medications or general inactivity.
“It’s same as with young children: More and more old people have an inactive lifestyle,” said Saskia Kloet, a program manager at VeiligheidNL, an institution that offers similar courses.
Even inactivity in one’s 30s or 40s could lead to problems later in life, she noted.
Like many people her age, Hans Kuhn, 85, worried that her daily routine — and the ability to live alone — would end if she ever lost her balance and fell.
She has lived in her house for decades, and alone since her partner died years ago. Its steeply winding staircase is equipped with a motorized chair on a rail to help reach upper floors. “I only use it when I have to bring lots of heavy things upstairs,” said Ms. Kuhn, herself a retired physiotherapist.
Ms. Kuhn’s entire house is a study in efficiency and simple modifications that can make all the difference for an older person. Hand grips are installed in just the right places, as well as ramps to accommodate her two walkers.
There is a stationary exercise bike to keep her moving, and a weight machine made from a big can of beans and string to maintain her upper body strength.
Even as she feels herself grow frailer and less flexible, she knows how to stay fit. “My main problem is I’m very afraid of falling,” she said.
So she joined the course, which meets twice a week. On Tuesdays, the students build confidence by walking and re-walking the obstacle course. Thursdays are reserved for the actual falls.
In order to learn, the students start by approaching the mats slowly, lowering themselves down at first. Over the weeks, they learn to fall.
Indeed, seeing one another helplessly sprawled across the gym mats gave way to giggling and plenty of dry comments, knowing jokes, general ribbing and hilarity.
“Stop your chattering,” Ms. van Wijk warned a group of well-dressed women who were supposed to be concentrating on the correct way to let themselves fall onto the foot-thick blue mat.
In preparing their bodies for a possibly apocalyptic event, the students appeared to forget about their age.
Mr. van Lovink, the cyclist, asked if they would learn standing on one leg. “Why would you want to do that?” replied Ms. van Wijk.
“To be able to put on my pants,” Mr. van Lovink said seriously, but to the amusement of his classmates.
Ms. van Wijk advised them all to always sit when putting on their pants.


It’s not news that OTT video presents a disruptive threat to traditional pay-TV businesses. But is that true specifically in Africa, where internet connectivity still isn’t ubiquitous and the cost of data is restrictive?
Can pay-TV operators on the continent rest easy and keep partying like it’s 1999? Clearly not. OTT video is taking off in Africa, and while far from the juggernaut seen in other parts of the world, it’ll only get bigger. So if you’re an African pay-TV operator, what’s the plan?
At the risk of stating the obvious, the first step is to embrace the change. To that end, we’ve launched two OTT products, DStv Now (TV Everywhere service, free to DStv customers) and Showmax (SVOD). We also set up a separate unit, MultiChoice Connected Video, to manage and develop them because OTT requires different tools and metrics, and arguably a different mindset to traditional pay-TV.
How are we doing? At the current run-rate, our OTT services generate almost half a billion play events annually. Showmax alone has delivered more than 11 000 years’ worth of video since launch. DStv Now’s usage is growing incredibly rapidly, with viewership in 2018 20 times higher than just two years earlier.
So far, so good. Perhaps unsurprisingly, viewing activity correlates strongly with the availability of uncapped and/or affordable internet access, which means South Africa dominates OTT video on the continent, with Kenya and Nigeria some way back, but most definitely still interesting.
Why run two different OTT services?
Strategically, they have very different jobs to do. TV Everywhere sets the scene for the future where the full range of live channels and VOD content is on offer, and the customer’s key choice is how they want it delivered – via satellite or via the internet. Perhaps more importantly, TV Everywhere reduces churn dramatically. In the case of DStv Premium, churn is almost 40% lower for customers who use DStv Now in addition to using the normal DTH service. Suddenly the OTT threat looks like an opportunity.
Meanwhile, the SVOD service is there to cater for those not keen on traditional pay-TV. It’s impossible to write about SVOD without mentioning Netflix – it’s a great service, it’s priced well, and it operates on an almost incomprehensibly huge scale.
So how can an African service compete? A key myth to dispel is that this is a winner-takes-all game.
Our experience has been that customers happily sign up for more than one service as long as each service gives them something unique. In the case of Showmax, we’ve got a mix of local content (e.g. Mzansi Magic, kykNET), top international content (everything from HBO through to Adult Swim), and we’re building on the huge success of our first Showmax Originals, Tali’s Wedding Diary and The Girl From St Agnes, with more originals in the pipeline.
So in our view, there most definitely is a future for African SVOD services. The secret is to not just emulate what’s already out there. In other words, if one sets out to be a less-good version of Netflix, that’s not going to cut it. We’re playing our own game, which means leveraging our strengths in international content acquisition, in local content acquisition and production, in local payments, and in local distribution. We need to earn the right to compete so, yes, that means looking at what other services do, but it also means looking at what they aren’t doing. And the fact that so many people subscribe to both Showmax and Netflix proves the point that coexistence is possible.
The dilemma for a pay-TV operator is what if they make their SVOD service too good – doesn’t this just incentivise people to cut the cord (or dump the dish) and move online? We don’t see it that way. As long as what we do is net additive to the customer base and makes financial sense, then we’re moving in the right direction.
My experience launching an OTT service from within a satellite TV operator in the Nordic region, where, incidentally the proportion of homes with uncapped broadband is far higher than in South Africa, was that cannibalisation wasn’t an issue and instead we managed to grow the overall base when we added an OTT offering.
Like most things in Africa, it would be a mistake to take trends from elsewhere in the world and assume the story will be the same here. While the pay-TV universe may be shrinking in markets like the US, there’s still plenty of growth to come in Africa. Pay-TV subscriptions across the continent are set to grow 55% between 2018 and 2023 – an increase of 14.5 million subscribers (source: Digital TV Research).
That’s a prize well worth fighting for. The cream on top of this is SVOD, with African revenues in 2023 projected to be more than four times higher than in 2018 (source: Digital TV Research).
So yes, we’re going to continue to invest in SVOD, and no, hobbling our offering to protect our DTH service doesn’t make sense. In fact, in 2019 and beyond, our intention is to ramp things up with revised platforms and new features. We’ll double-down on local content and originals, and widen our range of apps. Another crucial area is to solve the data challenge for customers, which means new telco partnerships and a continued push to get to the holy grail of fixed price, uncapped mobile data for video.
The next few years are going to be a period of intense activity for OTT in Africa. Loads of new homegrown services will come on stream (pardon the pun), and many more international entrants will do their bit to get a slice of what will one day be a massive market. Most will fall by the wayside, but some are going to shine.
Niclas Ekdahl is CEO of MultiChoice Connected Video.