Back in the free-wheeling days before the fall of Shah Mahamed Reza Pahlavi, educated young Iranians used to complain bitterly about the way that British and American films dubbed into Farsi used scripts that were full of silly local in-jokes that had nothing to do with the original movie – but much worse is to come from France with the launch next year of Epsis, a software package developed by Lagardere Group’s Matra Hachette Multimedia SA, which according to the Financial Times, enables broadcasters to supplant fixed images such as advertising billboards at sporting events with alternatives, so that for example local advertising can be sold for each country taking coverage of an international football or tennis match – bit tough on the players though: if the thing can track the billboard as the camera moves, it can also follow the flashes on the players’ clothes, so that instead of advertising Adidas or Reebok, Steffi Graf appears to be showing her preference for Mates condoms, and in place of the Sharp Corp logo, Eric Cantona and the lads appear to have the Virgin logo emblazoned on their manly chests.
