Technology360

Merger in the Works?

More on the rumored XM/Sirius merger from blogger Glenn Fleishman. --Dennis. "Reports have come in this morning [1/26] that XM and Sirius are in merger talks. I don’t know how monopoly issues play out in this case — or in Canada where each is a partner to Canadian firms seeking satellite digital radio licenses — but I can’t imagine a merged entity produces more exciting programming or offerings, nor would it make sense to keep two separate networks operating. It would certainly allow them more bandwidth from a combined fleet of satellites which might allow them to move into video more aggressively and other data services. ..." Link: Droxy (Digital Radio).

Music's future: Smaller, faster, richer

It's a bit disorienting: slip on a set of headphones, turn up the volume and, while you move about the room, the music stays put -- as if coming out of five speakers stuck on a wall. ¶ Software engineers in Germany who developed the widely used MP3 audio file format have taken the technology to a higher level with a next-generation format that delivers cinema-like multichannel audio. ... Link: CNN.com.

Rumors fly about a possible Sirius-XM merger

The New York Post has reported that satellite radio competitors Sirius and XM have recently been involved in low-level merger talks. According the the article, the two companies have talked about merging a couple of times before, but discussions have never reached an advanced stage involving a price tag for the merger. Even though the Post claims a possible merger has gained renewed urgency and their media industry sources indicate the companies will eventually merge, others, including Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin tried to douse the rumor flames. ... Link: ars technica.

Eyes on the Prize Hits P2P

A group of file-sharing activists is practicing a little civil disobedience of its own in order to bring the documentary series Eyes on the Prize to a wider audience. ¶ As Wired News first reported, Eyes on the Prize, the 14-part series chronicling the civil rights movement, can no longer be broadcast on television and has never been released on DVD because of copyright restrictions. ...¶... Old VHS tapes that remain in schools and libraries were the only way to view the landmark series, until now. Downhill Battle enlisted the help of a group called Common Sense Releasers to digitize the series and convert it to MPEG-4 format for distribution on the internet. The group hopes people will organize community screenings of the series around the country ... Link: Wired News. Thanks to David Liroff for the tip. --Dennis

News Website VG Nett Second Only to Its Paper Edition

Norwegian news website VG Nett is now read by more people than the paper editions of the traditional runners-up, Dagbladet and Aftenposten. In the fourth quarter of 2004, VG Nett had a daily readership of 820,000 people, while Dagbladet had 789,000 (paper edition) and Aftenposten had 733,000 (paper edition). ¶ The only paper bigger than VG Nett is the parent itself, VG (Verdens Gang). ... Link: Poynter Online - E-Media Tidbits. I read Norwegian (at about the 3rd grade level) and visit this site once or twice a month. It's a remarkable piece of work and this is a remarkable accomplishment. That weekly readership equates to 2 of every 11 citizens of the country. --Dennis

The Future Of Music

John Patrick:  "The IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) [get a hint about the contemporary nature of the organization?] sees the digital music market taking off in 2005. I don't think anyone would disagree after looking at a few key facts. The number of legitimate music download sites quadrupled to more than 225. The number of tracks of music available soared to more than one million. Purchased downloads increased by more than tenfold and exceeded 200 million. ¶ The IFPI says that "Music on the internet and mobile phones is moving into the mainstream of consumer life, with legal download sites spreading internationally, more users buying songs in digital format and record companies achieving their first significant revenues from online sales". It should be no surprise that the supply of music available digitally is proliferating and the fact that that consumer attitudes about digital music are changing should have been anticipated not just reported. The remaining question is whether the music and video industries yet understand what is going on. ..." Link: patrickWeb.

Cable could rule if it plays its cards right

Cable has reached a turning point where it can beat the phone giants in the race to dominate home entertainment and communications, but the price could be steep, consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers says in a study of cable industry prospects out Monday. ¶ The report urges operators to roll out packages of sophisticated video, Internet and phone services before companies such as BellSouth, SBC and Verizon complete a $10 billion investment in fiber-optic lines. Those lines will let them offer cablelike TV along with phone and Internet services that will rival bundles from cable operators, which are beginning to add phone service. ... Link: USATODAY.com. Thanks to paidContent.org which contains a link to the PWC report. --Dennis

Google and Yahoo Are Extending Search Ability to TV Programs

Google and Yahoo are introducing services that will let users search through television programs based on words spoken on the air. The services will look for keywords in the closed captioning information that is encoded in many programs, mainly as an aid to deaf viewers.  ¶  Google's service, scheduled to be introduced today, does not actually permit people to watch the video on their computers. Instead, it presents them with short excerpts of program transcripts with text matching their search queries and a single image from the program. Google records TV programs for use in the service. ...  Link: New York Times.

Expanded Digital Services a Boom to Cable TV Operators

Cable modem service and digital video service have helped North American cable operators more than double their average revenue per subscriber in the past five years, according to In-Stat. Thanks to infrastructure upgrades in recent years, virtually all leading cable TV operators are now able to offer these new services across their entire operational footprint. ¶ “These expanded digital services are allowing cable operators to differentiate their services from competing telecommunications and pay-TV service providers,” says Mike Paxton, In-Stat analyst. “In effect, cable modem service and digital cable video service is permitting the creation of a compelling service bundle that attracts new customers to cable TV services, while helping to keep existing customers from changing their service provider.” ¶ In-Stat has also found that: • Cable modem service revenues have become increasingly important to cable operators. Worldwide revenues for cable modem services exceeded $18 billion in 2004, up from $14 billion in 2003. • There were 42 million worldwide cable modem subscribers at the end of 2004, up from a total of 31 million at year-end 2003. • Worldwide digital cable TV video service subscribers reached 42 million at year-end 2004, a 20% increase over subscriber totals in 2003. North America accounted for 27 million of these digital cable TV video subscribers. ... Link: In-Stat press release.

Digital music, free and clear

Peer-to-peer music sharing has always been a dodgy trade, as record company lawsuits have targeted digital music providers and downloaders, alike. Startup Mercora says its IM Radio technology works for both sides—and now it’s also got cash. ¶ Mercora ... received $5 million in Series A funding Monday from Silicon Valley’s Norwest Venture Partners, to finance its Internet radio network. Mercora IM (Individual Modulation) Radio, which uses streaming audio, lets users listen to music from other users’ computers. ¶ Just like any other peer-to-peer file-swapping service, Mercora allows users to search music by artist or song title. But unlike Kazaa or Morpheus, which have been hobbled by the wrath of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and several legal challenges, Mercora doesn’t allow users to download songs onto their computers. ... Link: Red Herring.