Technology360

KPLU gets airtime

Kerry Swanson of KPLU, a very good public radio jazz station in Tacoma, Washington, shared the following interesting email with several parties:  Dear KPLU:  "I am on a Singapore airlines flight from Singapore to London.  They now have broadband on the aircraft so am streaming your broadcast as we fly over the Caspian sea.  ¶  Your music is great and as a frequent traveler outside the US your music is comforting.  Thanks ..."  Pretty cool. --Dennis

BBC's online radio streams ahead

The number of people listening to BBC radio shows on the internet has grown by a quarter in the past month.  ¶  Online demands to hear radio programmes passed nine million in February - up more than 25% on the previous month. ..¶... Online listening to digital-only networks ... has soared by 83% in the last year. ¶ On-demand listening - when a web user chooses to listen to a show after it has been aired - rose to 4.4 million hours. ¶  Live listening hours on the internet increased from five million in January to 6.8 million last month. ... Link: BBC News.

Ofcom's "Spectrum Framework Review" Consultation

I received a nice note from Robert Horvitz at Open Spectrum International in the Czech Republic.  It contained a link to the Open Spectrum UK Response to Ofcom's "Spectrum Framework Review" Consultation [pdf].  This is well worth reading for those of you with interests in cognitive and software-defined radios and in open spectrum issues.  Also, OSI has a related news page with an RSS feed. --Dennis

Only You Can Save Television

Chris Anderson's The Long Tail weblog continues to offer some don't miss postings.  An exerpt: "...There is no shortage of smart people thinking about how TV can find its way out of its corner. But it's not easy. For starters, most of the networks are content renters , not content owners. (NBC, which bought Universal ten months ago, is now an exception). This means that the archives are often not theirs to monetize.  ¶  Rights also continue to be a total hairball, made even more complicated by exclusive geographic distribution deals (which conflict with the Internet's global nature) and syndication options. And then there's music, which is a nightmare. Want to know why you can't watch old WKRP in Cincinnati episodes? It's too hard to license the music that was used in the show. ..."  The Long Tail weblog.

HDTV Market to Boom

  As many as 10 million homes worldwide currently have high-definition TV sets, and that number will grow more than 50 percent to reach 15.5 million by the end of the year, according to a new study.  ¶  The study released Monday by market researcher In-Stat showed that the boom will continue in coming years and that by 2009, the total number of households that watch TV programs from an HDTV set will soar to 52 million.   ¶ But several stumbling blocks could slow the spread, including the need for more content and public confusion about the technology, ... Link:  CNet News.com.

Bridge Ratings: Internet and satellite radio projections

Dave Van Dyke writes:  "... We recently gathered as much data as possible regarding projected subscriber growth at satellite radio, Internet radio streaming usage and the projected availability of the Wireless Internet. We graphed the results to see just where all this shakes out. You may be surprised. Digital Audio Market Projections. ...¶... But for traditional radio, the point of fact is that it needs to remain focused on what it does and has always done. Be local and live and relate to its community and let the facts of the coming impact of technology remain clear.  ¶  According to this data, wireless Internet radio represents the biggest challenge - not satellite radio. The Internet radio solution will be aggregated in a portable device, much like an iPod or MP3 player with docking ports in your car and in every room in your home so it can be heard through car and home entertainment audio components. ..."  Link:  Bridge Ratings.

Watch TV Stations From The World Around: Online TV Player

Online TV Player allows you to view, in a geographically organized way, over 850 TV channels from around the world.  And these are not simply non-profit or educational channels.  There are full-fledged TV feeds from major TV stations in nearly 100 different languages (over 100 countries covered). ...  Link: Robin Good.  Note:  It also has 1,500+ radio channels. --Dennis

The Future of the 30-Second Spot

... Soon, however, viewers may no longer be assaulted by ads that all but demand to be ignored. Technology, cable and satellite companies are scrambling to offer advertisers the ability to learn enough about who you are and where you live so that the likes of Home Depot will be able to send a different, more suitable ad to an apartment dweller - say, an ad pushing a kitchen upgrade. ¶ With the growing popularity of digital video recorders like TiVo, as well as video-on-demand, viewers are fine-tuning their relationships with television in ways that would have been unfathomable just a decade ago, watching shows when and how they want - not when some distant, towering network demands. ¶ But the technology behind all that small-screen freedom cuts two ways. The same digital set-top boxes that turn your television into an ad-zapping, instant-gratification device also provide an opportunity for the advertising-dependent television business to rejuvenate and rejigger the time-honored 30-second spot. ... Link: The New York Times.

Channel overhauls its Net strategy

... As early as July, Clear Channel plans to take on some of its toughest critics with an aggressive new digital strategy. It may begin offering subscription online radio services, the ability to buy songs digitally or in CD format, or even ring tones directly from their Web sites. ¶ Perhaps most surprising of all, Clear Channel also plans to make some of its live morning shows available for downloading, commonly known as "Podcasting." ... Link:  Cnet News.com.  More on this at Billboard Radio Monitor.  --Dennis

mefeedia

mefeedia is a beta version of a videoblogger, potentially a flickr.com for video.  Worth checking out. --Dennis