Out with the old, in with the new! We’ve stubbed out the fag end of 2005 and welcomed in the squeaky clean, nearly smoke-free 2006. Full of the decisive spirit of the new year, we have chosen eight issues that will unquestionably redraw the cultural map in Scotland over the next 12 months. Reckon you can bump along in your cosy old ways? Think again. Thanks to the growing impact of technology and a raft of political decisions, the times are most definitely a changing.
The google box
Our growing relationship with broadband is going to have profound consequences for television and radio, argues Neil McIntosh.
if
W i
Is easy to see. 2006 will be the year when the internet collides with TV and translorms the relationship we have with the goggle box.
Sign one: Britain is linally learning to love the internet. Hall of British internet users have broadband. and 40% of that group are watching less TV as a result. liirst. easy prediction: expect the UK to continue to fall for broadband and fall out with broadcast TV.
Sign two: Apple. perhaps as early as January. will
unveil an improved version of its video il’od. Watching video on the move ~- pop videos. broadcast TV or homemade clips ~ will be something many more ol‘ us are doing by 2007. Apple may also unveil a set-top box that lets us ‘time shift’ TV. While that won‘t be a great
innovation — Microsoft has been doing this for
years — Apple‘s marketing muscle means it could do to TV schedules what the iPod did to albums. Sign three: BT and Sky are getting ready to
unleash TV over broadband. thus bringing limitless choice (it channels and video on demand to our TV sets. Welcome to the (ioogle box. B'l' will launch in the summer. and expect a similar move. perhaps on a smaller scale. lrom Sky. ll’TV. as it is known. will erode the hallowed concept of primetime because suddenly we’ll be allowed to watch what we want. whenever we want.
[i it all sounds l‘zii'-l‘etc‘lietl. just ask radio how quickly the internet disrupts things. This time two years ago. podcasting (the delivery ol' audio files over the net to your portable music player) hadn‘t been invented. It was named word ot' 2005 by one
dictionary. and top podcasts are being BT downloaded by thousands each day.
Because big To record labels won’t let their music be Used in potlczts‘ls TV (yet). this is a medium lilled with talk and unsigned bands. Some think podcasting might bring a renaissance in intelligent talk radio. or democrati/e the discovery of musical talent.
The world of print books and newspapers ~ has been sullering all this disruption l'or a while. Books lace less of a threat from the online revolution than. say. TV. becatise nobody has invented a comfortable way to devour 70.000 words on screen. But do expect to see more (cheap. naive) online talent being signed tip to appear in print. swapping freedom and audience for kudos and a modest advance.
l‘or newspapers. things look grim as they continue to struggle with the internet‘s abundance of free news and analysis. They‘re torn between trying to compete online. and turning a healthy prolit.
Neil McIntosh is assistant editor of Guardian Unlimited. His weblog is at completetosh.com.
Six people and projects you thought you might never hear about again, but who are back with a vengeance
ALAN WARNER (Apr) From the man who is fast becoming the person who dreams up the best novel titles. The Worms Can
Carry Me to Heaven features a Spanish playboy discovering he is HIV- positive.
BLACKADDER (autumn) Richard Curtis has long had a cunning plan to bring back his finest creations after their demise in the WI trenches. The time is nigh.
16 THE LIST 33—19 Jan 2006
7 the man of steel with Bryan
Singer in charge and
unknown young Des Moines actor taking the I titular role.
NEIL DIAMOND (Feb) From ageing. spangly Vegas showman to gnarled troubadour. Uber-producer Rick Rubin does for Diamond what he did for Johnny Cash.
SUPER“ RETURNS (Jul) The long awaited cinematic return of
MIGHTY BOOSH (Mar) Having wooed us with their surrealist doings on the box, messrs Barratt and Fielding come to our live stages for the first time
since they were cruelly denied the Perrier in 2000.
MIAMI VICE (Aug) Crockett and Tubbs are back in all their 803 finery with Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx taking on the lead roles. Michael Mann is in charge of directing the TV show he was executive producer on.