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Nate Anderson writes:
... What eventually came out of the meeting was an interesting mix of policies: a Frontline-style public/private partnership for public safety, a weakened form of "open access" for new commercial licensees, and no wholesale requirement. ...
Link: Ars Technica.
The NAB reports:
... On July 24, ABC became the first network to launch Internet streaming of full-length programming in high definition, with a player providing full-screen 16:9 images at significantly higher quality than previously available. The service was launched in beta form, with episodes of Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, Lost, and Ugly Betty, with more programs to follow in the new season later in the year. The ABC HD service is available free of charge to consumers at: http://dynamic.abc.go.com/streaming/landing. ...
Link: NAB TV TechCheck (pdf). Thanks to Ralph Hogan. --Dennis
From a Pew Internet & American Life press release:
Fifty-seven percent of online adults have used the internet to watch or download video, and 19% do so on a typical day. ¶ The growing adoption of broadband combined with a dramatic push by content providers to promote online video has helped to pave the way for mainstream audiences to embrace online video viewing. Three-quarters of broadband users (74%) who enjoy high-speed connections at both home and work watch or download video online. ¶ The Pew Internet & American Life Project's first major report on online video also shows how many video viewers have contributed to the viral and social nature of online video. More than half of online video viewers (57%) share links to the video they find with others, and three in four (75%) say they receive links to watch video that others have sent to them. ...
Link: Pew Internet. --Dennis
Like Mark Ramsey, I've been posting about the dramatic implications of mobile WiMAX for the radio broadcasting and satellite radio businesses. He brings a credible research perspective to the question and I think this essay is particularly important. He writes:
... In fact, as this new Google/Sprint deal suggests, the availability of audio entertainment wirelessly and in real-time will permanently alter the very experience and definition of radio. ¶ That's because the portable radio-like devices will be pointless unless they are much more than redundant to radio. Like the Internet itself these new gadgets will be en ecosystem, a platform for plug-ins which are produced by programmers in every corner of the world and which add an infinite variety of functionality and customization - gadgets which enhance the radio experience in multiple sensory dimensions making it, as a result, much, much more than radio alone. ...
Link: hear2.0. --Dennis
Gartner has published its 2007 hype cycle chart for a large number of consumer technologies.
Click on image for larger version. Note the relative positions of digital terrestrial radio (HD Radio) on the far left and digital terrestrial television (DTV) on the far right. Via Bobbie Johnson at The Guardian Technology blog. --Dennis
I have accounts on a few social networking sites -- Skype (which I'd describe as a social VOIP service), LinkedIn, Facebook -- each of which involves networking among friends and acquaintances. I've also checked out Gather and MySpace. Except for Skype, which I use for actual phone calls, my use of other social systems has been mostly responding to various requests from others to be added. While many of my colleagues are enthusiastic about the possibilities for relationship building, especially for public media, so far for me personally it's been more chore than treat. Perhaps that's just the natural result of it being early in the game.
Om Malik has a couple of interesting posts relating to this. See Why do we have Facebook Fatigue? and Can privacy be a premium service?.
Update 31 July 2007:
Wired editor Chris Anderson writes about Why I Gave Up on Second Life. Link: The Long Tail. --Dennis
Rob Paterson has a continuation post of sorts of one to which I linked earlier this week (If markets are conversations - if media will be conversations - then what will we do?) and to a new report on public radio social media experiments to which I also linked. Check it out. Link: FASTForward Blog. --Dennis
Jim Puzzanghera writes:
Millions of TV sets that rely on antennas may go dark in a little more than 18 months, and the government needs to do much more to help people who own them see the light, senators said Thursday. ¶ "I think there's high potential for a train wreck here," Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) told Federal Communications Commission and Commerce Department officials during a hearing on the transition to digital-only signals. ...
... Democrats appear poised to push for more money and public service announcements to prepare TV owners. U.S. officials have budgeted $5 million to tell people about the switch and coupons that will cover most of the cost of a no-frills converter box. The coupons will be available Jan. 1 on a first-come, first-served basis. ...
Link: Los Angeles Times. Thanks to Katy June-Friesen at Current.
See also Steven Sande's Let's avoid that digital TV 'train wreck':
The shutdown of analog television broadcasts in 2009 offers “high potential for a train wreck,” according to Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.). Is the digital TV transition a disaster in the making? ¶ It’s still too early to tell. Alarm bells were rung at today’s Senate Commerce Committee hearing, where an AARP official raised the prospect of senior citizens losing their television service and taking it out on Congress. That’s exactly what would happen, too, if we switched over tomorrow. Surveys continue to show low levels of awareness about what will happen on February 17, 2009, when over-the-air broadcasters will complete the change to digital TV. Personally, I’m not despairing—not yet. ...
Link: Digital TV Facts. --Dennis
We humans create information faster than we create ourselves. Arguably, the advance of technology has been the effort to extract value from this information -- to distribute it more widely, to stuff more of it into pipes and storage devices, and most importantly to find it when we need it. The "Semantic Web" is the the best candidate for the next epochal change in this "arms race." Jennifer L. Schenker has two good articles on it (the second is the "Taming..." link at the end of this quote):
... Now, as the next generation of Internet technology edges toward the market, European companies and policymakers are determined not to suffer the same fate. In a bid to get ahead of U.S. researchers, they are underwriting research into the so-called Semantic Web—also sometimes called Web 3.0—to the tune of hundreds of millions of euros. "The U.S. and Europe are competing on funding something that could have an extraordinary strategic impact," says Whit Andrews, a research vice-president at technology consultancy Gartner (IT). ¶ At stake is nothing less than the future of the Net. Developed in part by Berners-Lee, who is now based at MIT, the Semantic Web goes well beyond today's relatively static information highway to add richer media and support for vast pools of unstructured data—in effect, making all the world's knowledge available online. It also connects the information in ways that will let users discover novel associations among unrelated data. That has big implications for fields ranging from the military to medical research to business intelligence (see BusinessWeek.com, 4/9/07, "Taming the World Wide Web"). ...
Link: BusinessWeek.
See also the Semantic Web article in Wikipedia. --Dennis
About FCC rules relating to the upcoming auction of some spectrum currently occupied by UHF television broadcasters, David Oxenford writes:
... Users of the Internet, led by Google, have argued for an open system, where a subscriber pays for access to the wireless spectrum, and can essentially connect any device or receive any service, just as long as it does not damage the network. This is much like the current wired telephone network, where a consumer can connect a telephone or a fax machine or a laptop computer and get access to the network. Proponents of this model contend that it will encourage technological development as companies compete to develop different applications that can run on the network,and provide a "third pipe" into the home providing high speed Internet access to compete with that provided by cable and telephone companies. Some might assume that content providers like broadcasters would favor that open approach so that their content can be easily delivered to the consumer, without the broadcaster having to cut any sort of deal with the network provider to get access. ...
Link: Davis Wright Tremaine's Broadcast Law Blog.
Also see Eric Bangeman's Google announces intent to bid on 700MHz spectrum auction, if...:
... The four conditions outlined by Google in its letter announcing its intent to bid would go a long way towards ensuring that the freed-up spectrum fulfills its potential as a "third broadband pipe." Under a truly open network, consumers would be able to use any application on any device that they want. Also, winning bidders would be forced to license their spectrum at wholesale prices, which would keep one or two companies from gobbling up all the spectrum and limiting competitor (or even customer access to it). Lastly, ISPs would be able to interconnect freely to the 700MHz network at any technically feasible point. ...
Link: Ars Technica.
Then see Miguel Helft's F.C.C. Heading Toward Rejection of Google's Wireless Auction Conditions:
... The commission’s chairman, Kevin Martin, proposed his version of so-called “open access” rules that would apply to about third of the spectrum being auctioned. These would allow consumers to connect to the wireless network with any device running any application. The two Democratic commissioners said they supported the idea, and the two Republican commissioners said they were undecided. ¶ But a key point Martin, a Republican, would not support, and that Google insists on, is a rule forcing whoever wins the spectrum at the auction to wholesale parts of it to other companies who want to resell it. ...
Link: New York Times.
Finally, check out Robert X. Cringely's Is Google on Crack?: Eric Schmidt bets the ranch on wireless spectrum. Link: PBS. --Dennis
In an important essay, Dave Van Dyke, president of Bridge Ratings, writes:
... 2010 will be a tipping point for radio in many ways. ¶ From developing behaviors of radio listeners, changes in the ways they use radio are occurring more rapidly than perhaps is commonly known. Much like time-lapse photography where you don't recognize change unless you piece together views of behavior over long periods of time, the change in media has truly been a rapid development over a short period of time and radio's 'light at the end of the tunnel' is more likely to be an on-coming train than an end to difficult times. ...
Link: Navigate the Future. --Dennis
Andrew Keen (The Cult of the Amateur: How today's Internet is killing our culture) and David Weinberger (Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder) had an interesting debate on Web 2.0, the full text of which has been posted by the Wall Street Journal. --Dennis
I've posted recently about the Clearwire and Sprint WiMAX partnership because I think it's a signal that the broadcasting and consumer electronics industries need to get ready for WiMAX-to-the-dashboard. Jacqui Cheng gives us another signal with a story about Google coming to the party. The story ends:
... Google's current collaboration with Sprint will provide a boost as Sprint and its WiMAX partner, Clearwire, try to raise the profile of WiMAX. The wireless broadband technology has had a hard time getting off the ground in the US, but Sprint plans to roll the high-speed wireless tech out in Chicago, Baltimore, and Washington D.C. by the end of the year, and 17 more US cities by April of 2008. The company says that it hopes to reach 100 million people by the end of 2008.
Link: Ars Technica.
Also see Cheng's 2008 WiMAX rollout scheduled for Chicago, Indy, Denver, and more. Link: Ars Technica. --Dennis
Jake Shapiro points to (and writes the forward for) a new report of this title from the Center for Social Media at American University by Abbey Blake Levenshus. Here's the executive summary:
How are public radio stations taking advantage of social media tools to expand their base and enhance their service to their mission? Through a survey of U.S. public radio stations and case studies of four stations successfully using social media, this study provides a snapshot of the realities for U.S. public radio stations wanting to use social media to engage audiences. Results of a survey of 77 station staff, along with case studies of four stations’ social media projects, reveal ambivalence about social media. Station executives both seek to explore social media opportunities and also resist experiments, because of lack of knowledge, because of resource allocation, and because of institutional culture. Current experiments at early-adopter stations demonstrate that social media experiments do require resource reallocation and still lack persuasive and appropriate metrics but nonetheless have returned significant benefits to the stations, particularly in terms of serving the core mission of public broadcasting: contributing to a rich and participatory public culture. More methodical goal setting and appropriate metrics will permit stations to document both their successes and their challenges.
No, not even close, fortunately, but there are some similarities that lead one to think of it.
Yesterday and today, Laura Sullivan did two disturbing and important stories for NPR's All Things Considered on the frequency of, and miserable prosecution record for, rapes among Indian women on the nation's reservations. She focused on reservations in South Dakota and Oklahoma. This kind of reporting is why I've worked in public broadcasting all these years and it's great that NPR does it so well (disclosure: I'm on its board of directors, and tonight especially proud to be so).
I grew up in southeastern South Dakota -- a state in the heart of flyover country that, to the extent it's known at all, is known as home of Mount Rushmore. And the heart of South Dakota between Wall Drug and the Corn Palace is home to a number of Indian reservations, some of the poorest such in the country. In a largely invisible state, these vast expanses of the land no one else wanted are themselves invisible. All too often, the only time one reads of reservation life (or death) is in the Sunday Sioux Falls Argus-Leader or Rapid City Journal, which will carry one-sentence stories about the death of someone with a Sioux name who was walking along some deserted road on a Saturday evening and found dead in the ditch.
I've been following Darfur closely because one of my brothers, of whom I am also very proud (and also a blogger), is nearing the end of his third tour with an NGO doing food relief in Sudan. Sudan is a low visibility country on a low visibility continent and Darfur is an isolated region within it. Rob's work has primarily been in the southern part of the country where, until recently, civil war raged for decades and where food was used as a weapon on both sides. But he has been to Darfur on evaluation teams and the scale of the tragedy there is breathtaking.
Ethnic cleansing has been over for more than a century in South Dakota (I don't mean to pick on my home state -- you can probably substitute the name of any reservation state in the central or mountain time zones). But its effects are long-lasting. And there's no janjaweed there. But tell that to the rape victims which, per Sullivan's reporting, are disproportionately victimized by non-Indians.
The news these days in the rest of the world is so dominant and so wretched that things seem relatively peachy back home. They aren't. And journalism like this does a great service to us all. Follow the links in the first sentence to hear or read the stories. --Dennis
The Yankee Group's Boyd Peterson has written an interesting report around a term they've trademarked called the "anywhere consumer," "...an individual unfettered by the shackles of time and place, who connects to content, social and commercial interactions at any time from anywhere." Link: Yankee Group (pdf). --Dennis
Rob Paterson describes working with two public broadcasting organizations, writing:
... I think that it is clear that not only will markets be conversations where consumers have a voice - think Dell Hell and Jeff Jarvis - but also the media. The media will have to listen as well. They will have to host conversations as well as have them. Their relationship with their listeners, viewers and readers will have to change as it will have to change in all enterprises. They will have o change their voice and their relationship with their customers and inside. ¶ The challenge is - How do you do this when you never have done this before? For it’s not just about will - it’s about habit. It’s about learning a whole new way of being. This post is an introduction to how hard this is to do. How hard it is when you want to do this but don’t know how. ¶ Over the last 2 years I have had the honor of working with NPR and with some stations in both TV and radio as they struggle to make the same shift from “One to Many” to Hosting a Trusted Space where Many to Many could have a safe conversation. As a system we learned what we had to do and how important it was to do this for our future. The new challenge is - to find out how best to put these ideas into action. ¶ I am working directly with 2 stations right now. KETC, St. Louis and WOSU Columbus. We are struggling with what do we have to do to change our relationship with our audience from a “Kinetic” to a “Participative” relationship? ...
Link: FASTforward. Interesting post. --Dennis
Then suggest you read Lee Gomes' unusually lucid explanation of the topic in his column today in the Wall Street Journal (paid subscription required or go to page B1 of the paper edition). --Dennis
Michael Rosenblum spoke to the NETA Board Planning Conference in New York this weekend. This is from his blog posting of what he said:
... I think PBS has enormous potential to become an engine of change in the new world of democratized video. Perhaps it is better positioned than anyone else to effect this change - this need for publishing instead of producing. ...
Link: Rosenblumtv. --Dennis
David Jennings has a interesting review of a fascinatingly prescient 1973 book by anarchist Colin Ward. Anarchists have always been symbolized by the round bomb and seen as short on theory. But read this sample:
... Anarchy in Action is no call to guerilla direct action to undermine the state apparatus. But it was both radical for its time, and prescient. "Anarchists are people who make a social and political philosophy out of the natural and spontaneous tendency of humans to associate together for their mutual benefit," writes Ward near the start of the book. He goes on: "we have to build networks instead of pyramids." So are we all anarchists now, and what does it mean to be an anarchist in the era of Web 2.0? I read this book because I had a hunch that there was a common thread running through old theories and current practice, and I wanted to see how strong this thread might be. ...
Link: D J Alchemi. --Dennis
Steven Sande writes:
As momentum builds for the digital TV transition, Motorola has been notably absent from the DTV converter box party. ...
Link: Digital TV Facts. --Dennis
Capitol Hill and telecom watcher Drew Clark says:
... right now television and radio broadcasters have never been weaker than in 1982, when Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., uttered these famous words: “The NAB can’t lobby its way out of a paper bag.” ...
He then has some interesting analysis of the interest in the UHF TV spectrum, and ends with:
... But for those who believe that the NAB is amenable to reason, and economic incentives, here’s the next puzzle: what will it take to entice broadcasters to sell, give up or vacate the remaining airwaves? There are plenty of telcos, techies, and community activists that believe they can do better with them. All they need now is a game plan to help the broadcasters out of their paper bag.
Link: DrewClark.com.
To be read in conjunction with The Art of Spectrum Lobbying. --Dennis
Claude Brodessesr-Akner has an interesting summary of remarks by CBS Chief Research Officer David Poltrack to the Television Critics Association this week. In summary, monster hits matter, don't fear the web or TiVo, YouTube won't replace the boob tube, DVR users sometimes notice ads, and prime time just got longer. Link: Advertising Age. --Dennis
I'm a customer of both Sprint (multimedia phone and PC wireless card) and Clearwire (WiMax-ish WISP for my home), so the news of this collaboration is very interesting. Clearwire has also recently entered into marketing partnerships with DirecTV and EchoStar. More importantly, I think, this accelerates the development of mobile WiMax which, with other advanced mobile IP technologies, will quickly bring IP to the dashboard. Soon I won't have to use my notebook PC and Sprint EV-DO card to listen to NRK's Alltid Folkmusikk channel when I'm driving -- ja, youbetcha! Here are two articles (thanks to Dave Ostrom at my university). --Dennis
In Sprint Moves to Build WiMax Network, Kim Hart writes:
Sprint Nextel is taking a different path to high-speed wireless than its rivals: Instead of bidding billions of dollars on airwaves in a federal auction, Sprint is building a network that uses WiMax technology, a move that has attracted plenty of criticism. ¶ Sprint yesterday mapped out more plans for its network by announcing a 20-year partnership with Clearwire, a three-year-old start-up that provides wireless Internet service and is headed by entrepreneur and early Nextel investor Craig O. McCaw. Both companies hope the partnership will help build the new network faster and cheaper. ¶ WiMax, like the better-known WiFi technology, connects cellphones and laptops to the Internet at speeds comparable to cable modems. Proponents say WiMax signals cover larger areas and are less susceptible to interference than WiFi and can connect more devices at higher speeds than the networks operated by such Sprint competitors as AT&T and Verizon Wireless. ...
Link: Washington Post.
In Clearwire and Sprint: Racing Ahead, Tom Giles writes:
Shares of Clearwire, a provider of wireless Internet access, surged on news that it's pairing with Sprint Nextel to create a nationwide network designed to provide mobile Internet access at faster speeds than typically available now. ¶ The fruit of their cooperation will be the first coast-to-coast network providing broadband using WiMAX, a technology related to Wi-Fi with a wide-reaching signal so that users need not keep close to a hotspot at home or in a coffee shop to stay connected (see BusinessWeek.com, 7/11/07, "Will Mobile WiMAX Crack Fortress Europe?"). The companies plan to market mobile WiMAX services under a common service brand. ¶ Sprint Nextel ... and Clearwire ... had been planning separate WiMAX systems, but they say combining forces will let them build a network more quickly and cheaply. ...
Link: BusinessWeek.
Steve O'Hear writes:
According to a survey carried out by iSuppli, nearly two-thirds of U.S. consumers want their televisions to link to the Internet. This, it’s suggested, could path the way for an explosion in sales of network-enabled consumer electronics devices in the next few years. ...
Link: last100. --Dennis
Daniel Langendorf writes:
... With a more fragmented audience it’s easier for advertisers to reach the people they covet. “Audience fragmentation is a good thing,” [Vincent] Dureau[, Google's head of TV technology,] told conference attendees, “You can make your audience more specialized. With more specialized channels you can actually insert more relevant content that’s more likely to reach the intended audience.”
"You can actually make more money, because you can increase the relevancy of your ads. You can cut down on the number of ads - and still reach more people. At the end of the day, you’re changing the attitude of the consumer. They’ve reached a point where they expect the ad to be relevant and they’re more likely to watch it.”
Sounds like Google TV AdSense. ¶ He also argued that ad skipping is a “godsend.” If advertisers can determine which ads are being skipped and which are not, they can improve getting their ads in front of people who actually want to view them. Important to this initiative, he said, is building web-based technologies into TV set-top boxes that can track such information. ...
Link: last100. --Dennis
I've been slow this week to read my feeds, and Gens Johnson of my staff beat me to a post by Laurie Sullivan of Om Malik's great NewTeeVee blog. She writes:
... iSuppli, a market research firm, projects that professionally produced video will will bring in nearly $5.9 billion in revenues in 2011, up from $423 million in 2006. ¶ At present 3- to 10-minute videos are popular because they can be downloaded quickly over today’s broadband networks, running at typically 3 megabits per second in the U.S., and 8 megabits in other parts of the world. As speeds soar past 20 megabits per second, longer form videos could be downloaded quickly. Longer videos would mean more advertising opportunities. ¶ The professionally produced video business, including professionally produced and distributed advertising-supported news, sports and entertainment, will account for 79.3 billion streams worldwide by 2011 up from 3.7 billion streams in 2006, iSuppli projects. ...
Link: NewTeeVee. Thanks, Gens. --Dennis
The New America Foundation has released a report by J. H. Snider with this title, but the subtitle, "America's $480 Billion Spectrum Giveaway, How it Happened, and How to Prevent it from Recurring," is more descriptive. Snider has written widely on spectrum issues, often for the NAF, where he is Research Director of its Wireless Future Program. His points frequently include the inefficiency of current spectrum allocations (television broadcasting being one of the biggest), that the public should receive compensation for use of the spectrum (which would incent efficient use), and the importance of allocating additional spectrum to wireless IP delivery. One might describe the effects of the first and third as moving spectrum from my mother to my children.
I generally admire the work of the NAF and have spoken at one of its events. While I think his writing is thoughtful and constructive, I've also been critical that he and other wireless advocates frequently low-ball the number of Americans who depend on over-the-air reception and that he presents an analysis of how spectrum should be allocated for broadcasting that misses the realities of consumer behavior and broadcast economics: paraphrasing -- they have one standard definition channel now, so they should be able to get by with one of their current six megahertz in the digital world.
I've only had a chance to skim the paper, but it will be important reading for broadcasters, if only to keep us from taking the public spectrum we occupy for granted. And you just might learn something.
Link: New America Foundation.
Update 21 July 2007:
If you're interested in the above, also check out: NAB: Back to the Paper Bag on this weblog. --Dennis
In The Passive Mass Audience Has Left the Building, Dave Evans has some tips about interactive marketing. He writes:
... Marketers are moving into social networks, both as participants and platform owners, because they can market in ways not possible in a broadcast environment. Broadcast can reach lots of people, no doubt about it. But to get a message where it really needs to go: on my to-do list or into my friend's inbox with my name in the sender field, you must be part of the social goings-on. You must also market via a platform that allows consumers to add value to your message, to validate that value through friends' approval or disapproval, and to let you know (as a marketer) what worked and what didn't. You can achieve all this in a social network. ...
Link: ClickZ.
And see also this related essay from Gary Stein: Advertising on Social Networks: The Third Wave. Link: ClickZ.
More on this topic from Pete Plackshaw: Meaningful Relationships with Social Networks. Link: ClickZ. --Dennis
Dan Gillmor gave this topic as a keynote at the Citizen Reporters' Forum in Seoul in June. He's posted much of the talk, which begins:
... We’ve come a long way. There’s a growing recognition and appreciation of why citizen journalism matters. Investments, from media organizations and others, are fueling experiments of various kinds. Revenue models are taking early shape. And, most important, there’s a flood of great ideas. ¶ But we have a long, long way to go. We need much more experimentation in journalism and community information projects. The business models are, at best, uncertain — and some notable failures are discouraging. Dealing with the issues of trust, credibility and ethics is essential; as are more tools and training, including a dramatically updated notion of media literacy. ...
Here are the headlines for what follows:
Link: Center for Citizen Media Blog. Recommended reading. --Dennis
Steve O'Hear has a nice article on Miro, formerly known as Democracy Player, from the Massachusetts-based Participatory Culture Foundation. Link: last100. --Dennis
William Cooper writes:
LiveStation is new software platform that enables live television channels and radio stations to be broadcast efficiently over the internet. ... [I]t is designed to provide live streaming, rather than video on demand... ¶ LiveStation is being developed by a London company called Skinkers, based on technology from Microsoft Research in Cambridge, England. ... The peer-to-peer system provides the basis of the Skinkers Live Delivery Network, an enterprise-class platform designed for the efficient delivery of real-time data. LiveStation is one of the first applications to be built on this software infrastructure. ...
Link: informitv.
Deborah McAdams has an interview with the CEO of Skinkers, Matteo Berlucchi, about LiveStation. Link: FierceIPTV.
Steve O'Hear has a review of LiveStation. Link: last100. --Dennis
Because of a large increase in the amount of comment spam posted on this blog -- most of it probably done by machines -- I've decided to turn on TypePad's authentication feature. I value legitimate comments, so regret to have to put you through this extra step.
Well, I just got around to testing this and, instead of having you identify a graphically displayed word, it makes you register. That's too much to ask, so I'm going back to the moderated version and just keep deleting the 10-15 spam comments per day. Arghh.
--Dennis
Here is Sondra Russell's latest New Media News Digest. She works for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and writes the following News Digest on an almost weekly basis. Used here with permission. Her email address is srussell [at] cpb [dot] org. --Dennis
SONDRA’S SUMMARY
> The top story this time is that the MacArthur foundation is exploring virtual worlds. Why is this story top news for public broadcasters? Because the MacArthur foundation is a major supporter of public broadcasting, and the foundation’s interest in Second Life might inspire a forward-thinking station to try something in the virtual world space as well.
> The key theme this time is that internet radio is really getting the squeeze. The U.S. Court of Appeals has declined to delay the increase in royalties that will likely kill off many small streaming radio sites – the ruling is due to kick in on Sunday. SoundExchange offered a cap on some annual payments for large webcasters, but only through 2008. In related news, Lala.com has stopped its Beta version of a free music streaming service, despite a promise to pay royalties to participating record companies.
> The think piece this time is that it’s time for some “summer reading” . As things slow down at the office this month and next, I invite you to spend a little time exploring sites that are getting lots of media attention but that aren’t necessarily on your list of frequently visited. Two good sources: the 50 best web sites according to Time Magazine, and the Compete Attention 200. The former is an annual collection of outstanding sites in five different categories, ranging from Arts & Leisure to Web Services. The latter is a list of the top 200 sites that U. S. users are paying the most attention to this month. In the “no surprises here” category, they both feature a lot of social networking sites.
New Media News Digest, June 19th – July 12th, 2007
INTERNET
Foundation With Real Money Ventures Into Virtual World
From the NYT: "For the first time, one of the nation’s largest foundations [The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation] is venturing into virtual worlds to play host to activities and discussions and explore the role that philanthropy might play.”
The Compete Attention 200 for June 2007: Where DO we spend our time online?
From Compete, a ranking of the sites getting the largest share of attention among US Internet users: "The web continues to socialize: media and networking sites gain attention across the board."
50 Best Web Sites According to Time Magazine
This special feature categorizes interesting sites into “Arts & Leisure”, “Audio & Video”, “News & Information”, “Social Networks”, and “Web Services”.
TELEVISION
The Next Net: NBBC Becomes National Bye-Bye Company
From Business 2.0: "The short-lived National Broadband Company (NBBC), NBC-Universal's attempt to create a TV syndication network for the Web is now being sucked into the NBC-Fox joint venture to create a YouTube competitor. Thus NBBC joins the deadpool
Sony Airs Paired-down Versions of Classic Shows
from ClickZNews: "Sony Pictures Television is airing paired-down versions of its classic shows on MySpace. The name reflects the three- to five-minute length of each Web episode, which is edited down from half-hour and one-hour shows."
TiVo, Amazon to sell movies straight to TV sets
From Reuters: "TiVo Inc. on Tuesday said many of its customers can now order pay-per-view movies and television shows from Amazon.com's download service directly from their TV, without a personal computer."
RADIO
Judges clear way for higher Internet radio royalties
From the LA Times: "A federal appeals court panel has declined to delay a substantial increase in royalties that Internet radio stations owe for playing music, clearing the way for the hike to begin on Sunday."
SoundExchange offers compromise to large webcasters
SoundExchange, the group set up to collect royalties for performers and record companies, said it has reached out to the Digital Media Association (DiMA) and proposed a voluntary cap on the minimum fees for music played over the Web.
Lala's Free Streaming Goes Dark
At first, the new service was slow but workable, and I gave Wilco's new Sky Blue Sky a spin. Very slick. Then came the day the music died. Users notices the disappearance first."
For legal advice relating to the July 15th effective date for the Copyright Royalty Board rate decision, broadcasters should consult their own communications law attorneys. Public radio managers should also consult information sent out late last week on the A-Reps list and to Station Resource Group members. Having said that, David Oxenford of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP has prepared a very useful overview of the situation. Link: Broadcast Law Blog. Thanks to Stephen Hill for the tip.
Also see John Paczkowski's, Web Broadcasters Postpone Plans for 'Milennium of Silence.' Link: Digital Daily (All Things Digital).
Updated 16 July 2007:
More from Gordon Finlayson, Webcasters wake up Monday to an uncertain future. Link: DownloadSquad.
And from Eric Bangeman, SoundExchange offers temporary reprieve on 'Net radio royalty increase, Link: Ars Technica. --Dennis
I always look forward to Terry Heaton's wise essays in a series he entitles "TV News in a Postmodern World" (though I'll confess that I don't know what postmodern means in this context, and the points he makes are valid well beyond TV news). His new one, with the title above, is well worth your time. Link: Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog.
From a Pew Internet press release:
Nearly half (47%) of all adult Americans now have a high-speed internet connection at home, according to a February 2007 survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The percentage of Americans with broadband at home has grown from 42% in early 2006 and 30% in early 2005. Among individuals who use the internet at home, 70% have a high-speed connection while 23% use dialup. ¶ The 12% growth rate from 2006 to 2007 represents trails the 40% increase in the 2005 to 2006 timeframe, when many people in the middle-income and older age groups acquired home broadband connections. ...
Erick Shonfeld asks:
... On the Internet, does live TV even matter any more? The TV schedule is a product of the historical limitations of broadcast television, where you have to broadcast the same shows to everyone at the same time. But those limitations are falling away. Even in cable and satellite TV, the growth of pay-per-view and on-demand channels proves that if you give consumers more choices, they will grab them. The Internet is the ultimate on-demand television system, where the choices of what to watch and when have no practical limits. ...
Link: Microsoft Plays With P2P TV, The Next Net.
Thanks to Om Malik, Do we really need Live TV on the Net?, Link: NewTeeVee. --Dennis
A lot of us have held up WKRN, Nashville's ABC affiliate, as an example of a station that really got it. Former GM Mike Sechrist hired the best consultants -- Gordon Borrell, Terry Heaton and Michael Rosenblum -- and put together innovative local news and community-centric web entries. However, Mike and some of the other architects of this exemplary effort are now out, casting a shadow over these innovations. Michael Malone has the story. Link: Broadcasting & Cable. --Dennis
Jake Shapiro has some good links and comments on Chicago Public Radio's innovative :Vocalo project. Link: Jake Shaprio.
Emerging from the discussion over Internet music copyright royalty rates in the political realm is the notion now being pushed by the music industry that radio may be hurting rather than helping music sales (think back to decades of music industry payola to the radio industry). See, for example, Olga Kharif:
... Some experts argue that radio, long seen as an industry ally, is now more of an enemy. In a study published earlier this year, University of Texas at Dallas economics professor Stan Liebowitz argues that radio acts as a substitute for music sales. "I am not disputing that radio is very good in picking which songs are going to become very popular," says Liebowitz, the director of Center for the Analysis of Property Rights & Innovation at the university. "But if radio didn't exist, we could see a 50% to 60% increase in record sales." How so? Instead of listening to the radio in their cars, Americans might buy more CDs or digital recordings, he says. ¶ It's with such conclusions in mind that the music industry is embarking on a multipronged strategy to get all types of radio paying to play. Spearheading many of these efforts is SoundExchange, which collects royalties on behalf of labels and artists. Headed by former entertainment lawyer John Simson, the organization has emerged as a force in policing the radio side of the industry much as the RIAA has taken the lead in strong-arming illegal downloaders. ...
Link: BusinessWeek.
Liebowitz's work has received a lot of criticism in the blogosphere. See, for example, Mark Ramsey, [1] Surprise! The music industry lies! Link: hear2.0. And Music Industry Lies Make Radio Industry Headlines. Link: hear2.0. --Dennis
Umair Haque advises looking at the value chain, not at the technology:
... I haven't discussed Joost because, honestly, I think it's irrelevant. It's focused on the wrong segment of a value chain already fading into irrelevance. ¶ Let me explain what I mean by that. ¶ Joost doesn't really redefine the long-standing equilibrium between content and distribution. And, in fact, that's the mistake which leads to an error cascade for Joost - it's entire existence, strategy, approach to value creation, etc is premised on the now long-obsolete idea that media is a function simply of content and distribution. ¶ In other words, Joost can't build a radically more efficient, productive, or useful value chain - because it's too busy simply rebuilding the same old lame mass media value chain, just made a tiny bit more efficient via p2p distribution. ¶ There's very little radical - or even interesting - about this. Neither content nor distribution is where the revolution is taking place. ...
Link: Bubblegeneration. --Dennis
Bridge Ratings collected data on Internet radio listening in the days surrounding the "Day of Silence" last month. Here's what they learned, according to president Dave Van Dyke:
... 1. We learned that 21% of the American public listens to Internet Radio on a weekly basis. That's up from 19% earlier this year.
2. We learned that of this 21% that listen weekly, more than half (55%) did NOT listen to Internet Radio on Tuesday, the "Day of Silence".
3. More interestingly, we found that 45% of that 21% DID listen.
4. 62% of the sample found their preferred Internet Radio station silent on Tuesday.
5. What did this 62% do when they found out their preferred Internet Radio station was silent? 72% of them found another Internet Radio station to listen to.
6. By Wednesday, the day after, audience levels returned to normal. 89% of the 21% had listened. ...
Link: Navigate the Future.
Update 8 July 2007:
But in a short post, How To Fix the Music Industry, Umair Haque advises media: stop obsessing about CRB rates and get to the important work of "strategic reinvention." Link: Bubblegeneration. Also, follow the link on this article or here to the interview by KCRW GM Ruth Seymour with SoundExchange's John Simson, et al. --Dennis
