Member Info for bald_eagle

"....Nigel's popularity continues to soar,"

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Well, that should be good for view for viewing figures. Which is at least part of the reason he is on the show. I'm not sure he is worth the reported £1.5m though. The danger is that real celebrities - or people I would be interested seeing in the jungle - will look at that figure in future years and use it as a base for their appearance fee. "I've got to be worth at least 3 or 4 Nigels, ducky"

"ITV's back catalogue is a very valuable commodity"

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How much money is it actually generating?

I know music rights suggenly got a lot more valuable after hedge funds crunched the numbers and spotted an opportunity to make a buck. But music may be slightly different in revenue generating capbility versus TV content....and therefore less valuable.

But equally content is king. If a company has a decent back catalogue then their streamin platform becomes more attractive to viewers. It is also presumably easier to do deals - on better terms - with the likes of Disney to share some content.

There is also the chance of resurrecting an old show, with new ideas & producers. But quite an expensive option I imagine.

Taverham, I agree with you. Why have regulations that are never enforced. The regulators in UK seem to have a reputation for incompetence & being toothless.....and UK government wants further de-regulation (dare I say 'light touch regulation'). I'm sure everything will be fine!

We seem to be lurching from one potential crisis (LDI) to the next (FTX) because nobody seems to understands the risks. Indeed FTX was an almost totally unregulated business and look at the mess that caused. Hard to see how de-regulation can fix anything.....better regulations might be the answer.

"If there was no risk at all, then the shares would be rated higher....."

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Smithers, thanks for your feedback. Listening to some of the comments it could be assumed that LGEN is a very low risk investment. But based on the high dividend alone there must be a fairly high level of perceived risk by the market.

I think generally in investing the higher the risk then investors require higher returns to compensate for that increased risk level. But equally in LGEN's case it could just be undervalued at the moment or perhaps market is factoring the return of Liz Truss at some point as PM?!

"There is no such thing as a free lunch" (springs to mind).

The change to gilt rates & base rates has seemingly created an opportunity for companies to offload their pension liabilities. The question is whether the companies taking on those liabilities have factored in changes to rates correctly, with enough of a safety margin. Are those deals 'a pig in a poke'.

I wish I knew....I'm a little bit uncomfortable believing the likes of 'Motley Fool', who I suspect aren't the sharpest tools in the investing box and seem to have a pumping up their own investments for short term gain.

I reckon Carol Vorderman is quite intimidating to some men. Quite an intelligent lady by all accounts with a strong opinion. She is also has a strong libido and has a few men on the go at any one time (again normally a male trait). I guess what intimidates men is that she is like them in a lot of ways and they don't know how to handle her....she doesn't flutter her eyelids and act demure. She justs gives them her unvarnished opinion and then kicks them in the b4lls. Quite a woman.

And she would probably look quite good under a jungle waterfall.....for her age! (sexist comment but true)

Rather foolishly I find myself unable to comment because I don't understand what risks & rewards are involved. I just hope they know what they are doing. Some financial instruments - LDI's for instance - aren't really understood by most people (sometimes even by people who should know e.g. regulators) and there may be hidden risks that only appear when something in the market they rely upon for their stability & rationale turns out not to necessarily be true. Hopefully LGEN are building their house on solid foundations (bedrock) and not in a swamp.

"Wouldn't it be a dream to have Carol Vorderman on the show? Farage would surely be no match for her superior intellect – he would come unstuck very quickly."

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She would eat him alive....probably quite literally!

"....we might just end up as puppets to the US"

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Where America lead, the UK follows....it has been like it for a long time. We don't descibe it as puppetry but as a 'special relationship'. It does seem a rather one sided 'relationship'at times!

Winstanley, 'I'm a celebrity' isn't a balanced political show, it's a bit of light entertainment (hopefully). The only input ITV would have in the content is in the editing process, which some may argue can be biased. But I doubt the producers are that interested in Nigels image or political views.....much more concerned about viewing figures I expect.

Perhaps they should have got Corbyn on as well for a bit of balance.....I wonder what his fee would have been?!

"I didn't vote Brexit but I believe in democracy so I accept the result."

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That's the problem with democracy, you never know what you will end up with if you have a bunch of populist m0r0ns in charge. And "Brexit means Brexit" after all....which means absolutely nothing!

I don't think the country voted for a Brexit created by a few dozen people in the ERG. But we are where we is and have to make the best of it.

Just heard on BBC that 'apparently' we got back control of our borders and allowed net UK migration to reach 745,000 last year (revised upwards from 606,000)....isn't that a tiny bit out of control?! (good job Forage is in Australia, he might have burst a blood vessel & spilled his pint on hearing the news)

"That's better we need another 3.5% rise in SP every day for a week...."

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A month would be even better!.....an 'O' level maths question perhaps, what would the SP be after a month of 3.5% daily rises?! (Answers on a postcode to Dame Carolyn)

". Close tonight the Mkt Cap of the whole of ITV is a lowly £2.4 billion....in y reckoning that is £600k less than the £3 billion that you indicated the studios were worth in February."

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If one believes the value of the 'Studio' business is £2-3bn then the rest of the business is effectively free. So it is hard to see hedge funds ignoring such a bargain....the 'only' thing complicating an offer is presumably the political problem of selling a UK institution like ITV to a foreign buyer.

"no way on gods earth the big tv companies won’t put in a bid now"

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I think we have been saying that, hoping that for years. Indeed there have 'probably' been offers to buy the studio business (the jewel in the crown).

"....old bastard level."

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oh, that makes me mad. i have a problem with my stop**** and i get censored!

What we need to do is employ a Trump to lead ITV. They have a vision that will value the individual parts of ITV at some astronomical figure (and presumably Saudi money will start to flood in)....and when paying taxes the value of ITV will be minimised by a bit of creative accounting.

Obviously Ivanka wouldn't do because she is a bird but one of the male mini-Trumps would be acceptable!

I think we all want an edge. The term 'educated guess' is probably the people we seek out, rather than 'finger in the air' type guess based on which way the wind is blowing.

Articles in Motley Fool are probably tending to the latter. Picking a number in the hope it happens is similar imo (unless it is based on some analysis)

Knowing risks & rewards is part of the 'educated' guess.

When I first encountered 'Tom' I felt uncomfortable with some of the attacks he was getting from other posters, for what seemed like 'fair comment' posts by Tom. I think I can now understand why he rubs people up the wrong way. It his obsessive attitude towards the CEO that concerns me. it is unhinged at times, even commenting on the way she dresses that borders on misogyny.

The world is a better place now I have him filtered (I recommend it)....although I still catch the ripples of the things he dumps into the discussion by the reaction of other posters.

PS It is fair comment to comment on the performance of a CEO but it needs to be rational imo.

I didn't think Liz Truss would make a very good Prime Minister....oh, I was right about that! (there's a first time for everything). There are some things that are almost inevitable (imo), I don't think the departure of Dame Carolyn is one of those. Her future is probably linked to the success of ITVX.

Haven't really heard her detractors say what she should be doing differently.

PS Not sure of the wisdom of a CEO personally responding to private investor concerns. Hopefully they have more important things to do. I expect it was a standardised response issued by the PR department.

I'm expecting the unexpected