Sky Atlantic Gets Free Advertisement, Courtesy of The Times

In sync with the barrage of billboard and print advertising for Sky’s imminent launch of Sky Atlantic on February 1, a new channel for UK viewers which claims to feature the best of American television, perhaps most notably past, present and future HBO shows, The Times has snuck in a cheeky advertisement disguised as news.

Todays edition of The Times features the following nugget of ‘news’:

UK Mad Men Catch Up

Fans of the hit American drama Mad Men will be able to see it here straight after it airs in the US. The show will move from the BBC to Sky Atlantic, a new channel available to subscribers. Sky poached Mad Men in October.”

There it is, no mention of that fact that both Sky and The Times are owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, a man known for using his vast wealth and influence to buy out competitors. No mention of his recent power grab for total control of BSkyB or the accusations that Jeremy Hunt, the man responsible for deciding whether or not to allow this to happen, is not impartial and has a history of being pro-Murdoch (Click Here for Details).

The last sentence sums up the attitude of The Times. Sky ‘poached’ Mad Men, like the cheeky scamps they are, taking the best shows from the BBC and putting them behind a paywall, those rogues!

At least torrents are the last line of defense between good television and giving Murdoch money…