Predictions for 15/08/2023

[cdd]

These nostalgic threads that are being dug out have made me think we should come up with some predictions for 2023 that we can all look at in 10 years' time. (Assuming this site still exists(!))

Maybe there should be a prize for whoever gets the greatest percentage right.

Here are mine:

• There will be a non-FPTP voting system in the United Kingdom
• The UK will join the Euro (or some other Single Currency)
• The idea of TV 'channels' will be history - all programming will be on-demand or streamed live.
• The BBC will change its logo
• There will be less than half the number of bank branches than there are today
• There will be another Big Number Change - or at least a serious reorganisation of mobile numbers
• There will be no manned checkouts at any major supermarket

[wells]

The 5th and 7th are the only ones that I can see happening, but maybe number 3, but probably still till early.

[robschneider]

STV and UTV will become affiliates of ITV and will buy their programmes direct from the network rather than be part of the network, if that makes sense.

Significantly more broadcasting on both TV and Radio will be IP based.

The high street as we know it won't exist as more and more shopping moves online.

Facebook will become the car, not the destination - it'll be the gateway to nearly everything.

[all new Phil]

I'm going to go against all that. I think online shopping has reached its peak and will decline slightly. I agree about the IP-based TV and radio, however I don't think on demand will become the norm and linear channels will still exist how they do now.

I also, depressingly, predict another war. Probably against Russia.

[rdobbie]

• Electric cars will be more viable and commonplace thanks to developments in fuel cell technology, although the government will soon realise its loss of revenue from petrol sales and crank up the tax on electric cars (unleaded petrol was once heralded as a "green" fuel and had low tax – until we all started using it).

• The UK will no longer be a member of the EU.

• Teenagers will be amused when their parents dig an old Samsung Galaxy S3 out of the drawer and tell them "this was amazing at the time".

• Laboratory-grown meat will be readily available and increasingly popular with consumers (I hope).

• I agree that the BBC will have a new logo. I'm going to take a punt on the three blocks remaining in some form but a new semi-serif font.

[robschneider]

Phil, I think you might be right about shopping thinking about it. I wouldn't be surprised if we see a "backlash" against such high levels of automation and being able to speak to a human who is based in the UK may well become a point of difference for some companies.

There'll be another major round of consolidation in commercial radio, which is kind of going through what ITV did between 1993 and 2004 at the moment. We'll end up with three major players - what's currently Global, Bauer and UTV I imagine. The "tier 2" licenses are going to get even more commercially vulnerable and sooner or later the regional groups they've formed are going to have to hunt as a pack.

[WillPS]

Most of Britain's electricity will come from nuclear reactors.

The Virgin Media network will be considered obsolete and as a company will either not exist or provide only services for businesses.

The average city centre will have overall shrunk, with a steep drop in the amount of retail but a rise in leisure/dining.

"Tesco Extra" will either no longer be a thing, or the brand will represent a much smaller average store size, with the surplus space being used or sublet for gyms and restaurants.

Sky's digital satellite subscription service will be dead.

[Sput]

My counterpredictions:

Most of Britain's electricity will come from nuclear reactors.

Can't build nuclear power stations that quickly.

The average city centre will have overall shrunk, with a steep drop in the amount of retail but a rise in leisure/dining.

I think increased in population as these things will be replaced or added to by housing.

As for my own:
[*]Apple will have shrivelled but will still be in business
[*]Facebook will have iris recognition
[*]Twitter will still be irrelevant, but will now be recognised as such

[WillPS]

My counterpredictions:

Most of Britain's electricity will come from nuclear reactors.

Can't build nuclear power stations that quickly.

The average city centre will have overall shrunk, with a steep drop in the amount of retail but a rise in leisure/dining.

I think increased in population as these things will be replaced or added to by housing.

I didn't say they had to be new reactors, or reactors which are in the UK alone. I agree that a chunk of what is now retail in cities will become high-density housing.

[Sput]

I didn't say they had to be new reactors, or reactors which are in the UK alone.

Don't worry, you're still wrong!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_po ... #Operating
Since peak nuclear energy production (26% in 1997), more plants have closed than are scheduled to stay open or be built (which doesn't happen in this timescale), so domestic production won't dominate.

Electricity imports are typically only a few percent of the total, so even if France were all nuclear it still wouldn't happen.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... ricity.pdf

[WillPS]

We'll see eh.