Technology360

Study: DVR Popularity Overblown [...or not?]

In a new study released during the opening session of the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau's local sales management conference Sunday, Ed Gordon, director of local and affiliate research at ESPN, reported that 57 percent of the [157] households that participated in a special trial elected to return their DVRs. ...¶... Conducted in 2004 by Horowitz Associates for ESPN, the study was designed to shed some light on how DVRs influence advertising acceptance. A third of those surveyed said they did not skip past the ads ("sometimes it's too much work to fast forward," one respondent complained), while those that did suggested that they continued to watch commercials that are relevant to their particular interests. ...  Link: MediaWeek.

But also see this:  TV Time-Shifting on the Rise: Worldwide PVR Unit Shipments More Than Double in 2004. Consumers are becoming increasingly familiar with the concept of time-shifting their television programming, and both pay-TV service providers and Personal Video Recorder (PVR) product manufacturers are reaping the benefits. Demand for PVR products increased tremendously during the past year, as unit shipments rose from 4.6 million in 2003 to over 11.4 million in 2004. Leading the surge in unit shipments were products designed for satellite TV subscribers and for consumers wanting a DVD recorder with an integrated hard disk drive.  ...  Link:  In-Stat.

The man behind the VJ movement

In an interview with Lost Remote, Michael Rosenblum makes it clear that local TV stations have no choice but to switch from two-person crews to one-man-bands, or video journalists. Why should you listen? Rosenblum coined the "VJ" name and brought one-man-bands to NY1 back in 1992. Since then he's trained VJs at the BBC, Oxygen Media and New York Times Television, just to name a few. And the VJ movement is just getting started. Earlier this month, KRON-TV surprised local TV newsrooms everywhere with the announcement that it will soon transition to VJs. ...  Link: Lost Remote.

Advertisers Want Something Different

... The world of advertising turns upside down when the advertisers - not the agencies - are the ones pushing the envelope. But that is what has been happening.  ¶  The advertising business is undergoing an upheaval, forcing executives to radically change how they do business. Marketers are trying desperately to stay ahead of the technological innovations that are changing how consumers view their messages - and are putting pressure on their agencies to adapt.  ¶  The ad firms are more eager to please than ever. The major public agencies face shrinking profit margins and sagging stock prices, leading to a shakeout and a frenzied effort to cut costs. ...  Link:  New York Times.

Next for BitTorrent: Search

... Bram Cohen and a small cadre of developers and entrepreneurs are in the final stage of launching an advertising-supported search engine dedicated to cataloging and indexing the thousands of movies, music tracks, software programs and other files for download over Cohen's popular BitTorrent protocol.  ¶  The free search tool will be the first large-scale commercial offering from BitTorrent, a five-person company headed by Cohen that so far has drawn most of its revenue from T-shirt sales and PayPal donations. ...¶... Although BitTorrent has become associated with online piracy thanks to its role in distributing copyright movies and television shows, the company is eager to highlight its utility as a completely lawful program for furthering free speech. That's the vision that drives the company, says Navin -- now anyone can publish their own movies, music or software, because BitTorrent all but eliminates expensive bandwidth costs. ...  Link:  Wired.

Talks on bipartisan House digital TV bill stall

Efforts to craft a bipartisan bill in the U.S. House of Representatives to set a permanent deadline for finishing the transition to digital television signals have broken down, Democrats said on Friday.  ¶  House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton's staff has drafted a bill to set the deadline for the completing the switch from analog to digital signals on Dec. 31, 2008, according to a copy obtained by Reuters. ...¶... Broadcasters have been worried that setting a permanent deadline would leave millions of Americans who rely solely on over-the-air broadcast television without those signals. Lawmakers, including Barton of Texas, had urged a subsidy plan to give some or all households converter boxes. ¶  However, the draft legislation did not include such a program, a breaking point for the committee's Democrats. ... Link:  Reuters.

Update:  House GOP open to digital TV subsidy.  Republicans in the House of Representatives are still open to a subsidy plan to help Americans who only get broadcast television afford the switch to digital television, a congressional aide said Monday. ...¶... a subsidy program was not included in the draft because the extended switch deadline would give more time to buy a converter box, said a Republican congressional aide, who declined to be identified. ¶ But Republicans would be open to an "appropriately-crafted program," the aide said, but declined to elaborate. ... Link: Reuters.

Yahoo!: Internet Users 'Mesh' Web With Television

Many consumers with broadband access view the Web as an adjunct to television--a medium that provides detailed information about TV programs, plots and characters, according to a new study commissioned by Yahoo! and Mediaedge. Nearly four out of 10 consumers with broadband access (37 percent) look up Web sites related to TV programming, according to report, "It's a Broadband Life," expected to be unveiled today. For the study, Forrester Research surveyed 3,207 U.S. adult consumers online, and researchers from HeadlightVision conducted in-home interviews in 17 households.  ¶ The report also revealed that 34 percent of broadband users look up Web sites mentioned on TV ads. Almost one out of five--18 percent--take part in online polls mentioned on television, and 11 percent go online to learn about characters in a show. ...  Link:  Online Media Daily.

The Future of Television

Newsweek has a trio articles on the on-going transformation of television.  Links (at MSNBC):  The Future of Television, Television Reloaded, New Ways to Drive Home the Message.

Consultant/speaker Phillip Swann criticizes them at TVPredictions.com, saying it "overlooks that most Americans are afraid of new devices." --Dennis

Piracy is Good?

Mark Pesce has a pair articles in Mindjack that are recommended reading.  Thanks for the tip to Monty Solomon. --Dennis

From Part One: Hyperdistribution (How Battlestar Glactica Killed Broadcast TV) ... The British aficionados of the series provided torrents for each episode within a few hours of each broadcast. Many fans in the US picked them up and watched them; so did many people in Australia.  ¶ While you might assume the SciFi Channel saw a significant drop-off in viewership as a result of this piracy, it appears to have had the reverse effect: the series is so good that the few tens of thousands of people who watched downloaded versions told their friends to tune in on January 14th, and see for themselves. From its premiere, Battlestar Galactica has been the most popular program ever to air on the SciFi Channel, and its audiences have only grown throughout the first series. Piracy made it possible for "word-of-mouth" to spread about Battlestar Galactica. ..."

From Part Two: The New Laws of Television.  "There are two principle components of the new value chain of television hyperdistribution: the producer and the advertiser. An advertising agency is likely acting as an intermediary between these two, connecting producers to advertisers, working out the demographic appeal of particular programs, and selling ad payload into those programs; this is a role they already fulfill - although at present they work with the broadcast networks rather than the producers. There is no role for a broadcaster in this value chain; the audience has abandoned the broadcaster in favor of a direct relationship with the program provider. That said, the broadcasters are uniquely qualified to transform themselves into highly specialized advertising agencies, connecting advertisers to producers; this is something they already excel at.  ¶ This is clearly a viable economic model: the producer gets paid at least as much for their programming as they would have received from a broadcaster, and probably more; the advertiser gets a cheaper ad buy; and the audience continues to receive free television programs. This is a win-win-win scenario, unless you're a broadcaster. ..."

Also in Mindjack, Pesce has an article called Redefining Television which reviews developments in production, consumer electronics and distribution and ends with, "... All of this can be summed up in a very neat phrase: as broadband succeeds, broadcasting will fail. And nothing, short of the economic collapse of Western civilization, is going to impede the uptake of broadband. It will continue to transform our culture, and the delivery of our cultural products. That's very good news, because it opens up a world of possibilities which have nothing to do with the politics and economics of broadcast licenses, and everything to do with creativity."

High-Definition PC Video Conferencing?

Slashdot has a report that two companies at Networld+Interpop demonstrated HD videoconferencing products.  Link:  Slashdot.  --Dennis

Sprint + Intel = Mobile WiMax?

Sprint and Intel have announced a joint effort to advance the development of IEEE standards-based 802.16e mobile WiMax, which can provide high-capacity wireless broadband coverage and services throughout metropolitan areas. ¶ The companies will collaborate on technical specifications, perform equipment trials and conduct interoperability testing to examine possible next-generation wide-area wireless broadband devices and services. Ubiquitous wireless broadband access will help meet blossoming demand among businesses and consumers for rapid wireless Internet connectivity and integrated multimedia services. ... Link: dailywireless.org.