Technology360

Accenture: ... How New Content and Technology are Redefining the Future of Media

Accenture has published a new paper by Jamyn Edis and Alexis Rose that's worth reading.  The executive summary:

Accenture’s Global Content Study 2007 surveyed more than 100 leaders and decision-makers in the media and entertainment sectors, including television, film, music, radio, video games, publishing,
interactive entertainment and advertising. The study solicited opinions from executives around the globe — across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific — to gauge their views of where the greatest opportunities and challenges will come over the next five years. Key findings include:

• 62% of executives look to “new platforms” as being the most important key to growth, followed by 31% “new content” and 7% “geographic expansion” as the key growth lever.
• Of these new platforms, online and mobile dominated; a combined 43% viewed online as most important (of which 17% represented a distribution of content through online portals or entertainment/information sites, and a further 13% through social networking sites and 13% through eCommerce sites), while mobile drew 17% of responses.
• 53% of executives surveyed indicated that “short form content” offered the largest opportunity for “new content,” with “long form” or “full length” video content (greater than 60 minutes) garnering 11% of responses. In addition, “video gaming” was viewed as a key growth area, according to 13% of executives.
• Asked what they believed was a top threat to the business, over half of the executives (57%) identified “consumer-based competition” or “user-generated” content; 46% of respondents viewed “piracy or IP theft” as a top three issue.
• However, despite the perceived threat, 68% of respondents believe that they will be able to harness user-generated content to create revenue within one to three years.
• Nearly 80% of those surveyed believed that there was no bubble in the Web 2.0 space, with 70% of respondents also observing that social media was a natural, “evolutionary” progression for media (versus 25% calling social media “revolutionary” and 5% calling it “a fad”.) As a reflection of this upbeat perception, over 90% of the executives said that their companies would become involved in social media over the next 12 months.
• Half of executives indicated that advertising could grow to become the most prevalent business model in the industry within five years, with digital advertising driving growth.
• Content remains king (according to 37% of respondents), although the crown is under attack by technology companies (26%) and telecommunications players (9%).
• Critically important is the need for digital readiness and a future technology road map. Only by transforming their organization and capabilities can media and entertainment expect to maximize the opportunity that digital offers. This includes increasing reach (through multi-platform distribution), engagement (through social media and interactivity) and monetization (through digital advertising). ...

Link:  Accenture [PDF].

Thanks for the tip to Terry Heaton.  His comments on the report are at Accenture: Biggest Media Threat Is Consumer-Generated.  Link:  Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog.

Accenture's Gavin Mann has an overview of the report here.  --Dennis

Creating Spectrum Within Spectrum

Terry Heaton has posted another in his terrific series of essays.  He sets it up:

As media companies struggle with disruptive innovations eating away at the foundation of their business model, they’re throwing everything but the kitchen sink at trying to sustain the unsustainable. One solution would be to transfer the world or worlds in which they now compete to the Web as a whole, instead of trying to compete for attention in a world of unlimited reach and range.  ¶  I flew over Philadelphia on Tuesday, a city — like others — that has all of its sports arenas in the same location. Each shares the parking space, and freeway access can sustain the traffic required for such big crowds, all of which makes it very convenient for sports fans. There are many examples of this in “real” life, so why can’t we see that this might also be smart online?  ¶  Why? Because it would mean competitors cooperating to create the location.  ¶  Ain’t gonna happen? Never say never.

And, within the essay:

... What makes the Web so different is that it is an entirely open network, although the deep pockets of the status quo are lobbying everyone with breath to change that by creating tiers of service. The argument in Congress is that we're running out of bandwidth, which means a TON of money to beef up the Internet, and the people spending that money should be entitled to profit from the build-out. While that's certainly true, the reality is that this disguises what is essentially an attempt by the incumbents to restore some form of command and control mechanism (tiered pricing) to the open network. This means that those with money will be the only ones able to advance the spectrum, and this is exactly the old profit model wearing new clothes. But I digress.  ¶  On the Web, all of these individual companies are merely pixels on the overall page, blips in a spectrum of equal blips. There's no doubt that mass marketing muscle in the worlds within which the incumbents currently play gives them an advantage over the other blips, but it doesn't influence the essential infrastructure. This is why innovations from other blips can explode across the entire Web and why we're seeing new models being developed everywhere. ...

Link:  Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog.  --Dennis

Online radio from newspapers

Mark Ramsey has an interview with Ron James and Marc Balanky of the San Diego Union-Tribune, a newspaper which is building an online radio presence.  Link:  hear 2.0.

Interview with founder of Pandora.com

Mark Ramsey has an interesting  audio interview with Tim Westergren, founder of the innovative Internet radio company, Pandora.com.  Link:  hear 2.0.

Can Internet Video Deliver A Nielsen Ratings Point?

Allan Leinwand writes:

... The Internet needs to deliver to the entertainment industry a metric of success that translates into revenues and mindshare –- in other words, a rise in one Nielsen ratings point (approximately one million viewers at the same time). Nielsen ratings points generate advertising revenues and help future advertising sales. That is how the entertainment world brings in dollars and that, as they say, is the bottom line. So when will being delivered over the Internet cause the Nielsen ratings of your favorite show go up by a point? My bet: a lot sooner than anyone thinks. ...

Link:  NewTeeVee.  --Dennis

Digital broadcasting set to transform communication landscape by 2015

  In the U.S., virtually all writing about the digital broadcasting transition is framed in marketplace terms.  Often, this commentary has a pessimistic spin as did an article in the Charlotte Observer from the NAB Radio Show that I posted on Thursday, Bad times ahead for terrestrial radio.  However, in Europe and some other parts of the world, the benefits of the transition are seen in more social democratic terms, as in this press release from the International Telecommunications Union in Geneva:

A treaty agreement was signed today at the conclusion of ITU’s Regional Radiocommunication Conference (RRC-06) in Geneva, heralding the development of ‘all-digital’ terrestrial broadcast services for sound and television. The digitalization of broadcasting in Europe, Africa, Middle East and the Islamic Republic of Iran by 2015 represents a major landmark towards establishing a more equitable, just and people-centred Information Society. The digital switchover will leapfrog existing technologies to connect the unconnected in underserved and remote communities and close the digital divide. ...

Link:  ITU.  Thanks to David Liroff for the link.  --Dennis

NTIA Approves First Coupon Converter Boxes

Doug Lung reports:

Digital Stream has obtained the first NTIA approval for an ATSC digital-to-analog set-top converter box. The converter will be available at major retailers starting in January 2008. NTIA found the two Digital Stream converters, D2A1D10 and D2A1D20, met all of its requirements, are RoHS-compliant and exceed Energy Star requirements. The suggested retail price for the converters was estimated to be $69.99. ...

Link:  TVTechnology.  Thanks to John Shutt on the OpenDTV list for this tip.  There are no pictures or specs available on the Digital Stream web site other than the press release linked above.

Also see Steven Sande's, Radio Shack to stock DTV converter boxes.  Link: Digital TV Facts.  Remember, folks, that these subsidized boxes are designed to make your existing analog television work with the new digital standard.  They are not designed to permit you to view HD programming in high definition on your new HD monitor.

And also see Steven's NTIA announces DTV transition initiatives, where he writes:

... That ... would seem to suggest that Best Buy will participate in the government’s DTV converter box coupon program. I hope Geek Squad will offer installation help to consumers who need it—hands-on, in-home help remains a crucial missing piece of DTV transition efforts to date.  ¶ People can debate whether the government and the television industry are doing enough to accomplish a seamless DTV cutover, but the partnerships already developing are cause for optimism. ...

Link: Digital TV Facts.  --Dennis

Bad times ahead for terrestrial radio

Mark Washburn writes:

... Michael Harrison, publisher of the talk-radio magazine Talkers, told a group at the National Association of Broadcasters Radio Show that competing technologies -- like Internet, Wi-Fi, podcasts and cell phones -- would all but fill the niche they now occupy.  ¶  "These are dark times for terrestrial radio," Harrison said. "And most people in terrestrial radio are in denial of it." ...

... Harrison, who entered broadcasting in 1967 and has published Talkers since 1990, said he believes most listeners will abandon the traditional AM and FM radio services and migrate to new technologies in the next two decades.  ¶  "The next 15 years will be the demise of terrestrial radio as we know it and the rise of the extraterrestrial," he said. Just as Vaudeville gave way to movies and horses to the automobile, he said, radio will be overtaken by gadgets that serve people's needs more efficiently. ...

Link:  Charlotte Observer.  Internal link added.  Thanks to Kurt Hanson's Radio and Internet Newsletter for the tip.  --Dennis

The impact of wireless Internet on radio listening

Bridge Ratings is out with another interesting report, this one on the impact of emerging wireless Internet services (WiMax, et al.) on traditional radio listening.  It caught my eye because I've been advocating, so far without much success, marrying these devices with HD Radio to expand channels available to listeners via terrestrial radio.  This report suggests it will impact TSL of both terrestrial and satellite stations:

... By year 5 of in-car Wi-Fi acceptance, traditional radio can expect to see the amount of time spent listening to fall below 19 hours a week and by year 8 when we project that more than 23% of the U.S. public will have adopted wireless Internet technology in-car, weekly time spent listening to traditional radio will fall below 18 hours per week.  ¶  What about satellite radio? ¶  Satellite radio has found its greatest audience in-car but has the most to lose with wireless Internet radio reception. This study as well as previous Bridge Ratings studies conducted for the satellite radio industry, show that satellite radio subscribers consumer satellite radio at a far greater weekly rate than do listeners to traditional radio.  ¶  As wireless in-car becomes more accepted, weekly time-spent-listening to satellite radio will also be impacted. ...

Link:  Bridge Ratings.  --Dennis

Back in the saddle, sort of

A nice person at a public radio reception in  St. Paul actually noticed that I'd not posted in awhile.  My wife and I just finished a nice Caribbean cruise and now I'm doing a couple of days of business travel.  Postings for the next couple of weeks may be fewer in number but I'll try to get some things up here.  --Dennis

How TiVo Can Get Its Groove Back

Janko Roettgers has some interesting ideas on how TiVo can innovate:  open up the box, become the ultimate programming guide, get on the social Web, and unbundle cable.  Link:  NewTeeVee.  --Dennis

Unlicensed broadband devices in TV spectrum "white space"

Broadcasters (MSTV, et al.) have been fighting the introduction of unlicensed broadband devices in the spectrum they occupy citing interference concerns.  Both sides have been conducting tests.  The New America Foundation's Wireless Future Program  has been an advocate for this more permissive use of the TV spectrum and it has issued a new policy brief by Sascha D. Meinrath and Michael Calabrese, The Feasibility of Unlicensed Broadband Devices to Operate on TV Band 'White Space' Withoug Causing Harmful Interference: Myths & Facts.  Link:  New America Foundation (see attached pdf).  --Dennis

Cable gets a win at the FCC

Ted Hearn writes:

... After an 11-hour delay to the start of its monthly meeting, the FCC voted 5-0 at about 10 p.m. to require cable systems to distribute local TV stations that demand carriage in both analog and digital formats for a three-year period starting Feb. 18, 2009. That’s the day after all 1,756 full-power TV stations must turn off their analog signals and rely exclusively on their digital feeds. Cable systems that are all-digital are exempt from the FCC’s dual carriage mandate.  ¶  [Chairman] Martin’s [original] plan called for dual must carry without the 2012 sunset, which the FCC did reserve the right to extend. Lobbying pressure from the National Cable & Telecommunications Association forced Martin to yield not only on perpetual dual carriage but also on a second priority: Requiring cable systems to transmit “all content bits” in a digital TV signal, thereby eliminating the use of signal compression and statistical multiplexing that husband bandwidth. ...

Link:  Multichannel News.

Also see Brooks Boliek's, Analog, digital a must for cable.  Link:  The Hollywood Reporter.

Update 13 September 2007:
Here is the FCC news release.  Link:  Word  PDF.  --Dennis

The iPod touch: great ID meets the robber baron tradition

No doubt about it, Apple's iPhone and iPod touch continue that company's record of high class industrial design.  But if Steve Jobs's taste and focus make for great-looking consumer products, his tightly-integrated hardware/DRM/software business model is more a throwback to the great (and sometimes unfairly labeled) "robber baron" industrialists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  Ironically, this business style is about as far from the culture of the Web as any company active in this space today.  I hope Apple's design sense goes on forever, but the days for its business model are numbered.

The touch takes the iPhone, removes the mediocre camera and mediocre 2G GSM radio, and substitutes a Wi-Fi radio, and the maximum memory is a small 16 GB (though that is double the iPhone's).  My son, writing from Rotterdam, had the following reaction to the touch:

... This ipod, the full touchscreen ipod, I've been waiting for so long, it's incredible, exactly what we all wanted - except - 8gb/16gb?  This is next to nothing!  My ipod, the grandpa of ipods from a whole 4 years ago, is a 15gb.  ...

Most importantly to folks in my business, it continues the crippled version of the Safari browser.  Like a TV cable box with parental controls, it lets you access only media on the web that "Dad" Jobs wants you to access -- in this case, the iTunes Store of course, YouTube and one of the newest media companies, Starbucks (see Gerd Leonhard's reaction to the Starbucks announcement).  Only this isn't to keep you from naughty lyrics, it's to ensure you don't use any media that doesn't give Apple a cut.

The paucity of memory on the touch is puzzling, especially when Apple simultaneously released the iPod Classic with 160 GB of storage.  Why limit what you can store on the only device they have that permits paid downloads from iTunes?

On the subject of the Classic's large storage, read Bob Lefsetz's progressive vision of what Apple should do with this storage:

... It’s like we’re living in the twilight zone. The labels are stuck in the nineties and the public is in the twenty first century. Who even HAS 4,000 albums?  ¶  A lot of people. Oh, not as CDs. But as MP3s, stolen from the Net, their friends, their family.  ¶  People WANT music. The labels just can’t figure out how to sell it to them.  ¶  Took them over three years to even deliver it easily online at a reasonable price (2003’s iTunes Store). But, they still haven’t given people what they want. How about a 160 gig iPod PRELOADED with the greatest hits of the sixties? Or the history of dance music? Don’t bother to steal the music, you can get it, for an extra fifty bucks. ...

Link:  Lefsetz Letter.  Right on.  In the end, preloading will win out over even the iTunes Store -- because folks will realize that its superior pricing rationality and security will kill off virtually all piracy.  If the 2007 iPod Classic holds 40,000 songs.  With Moore's Law progression, we'll have a 1 TB iPod in five years.  Will be a nice retirement gift.  Hint, hint.

--Dennis

P.S.:  The picture above (taken at about the same age as Steve Jobs is now) is of "robber baron" James J. Hill, "The Empire Builder," whose railroad's advertising in Scandinavia and then its tracks were largely responsible for getting my grandparents and thousands of others to Minnesota in the 1880s.

Tagging and HD Radio

No, this isn't tagging in the Web sense, as in "folksonomy" (del.icio.us, et al.), but rather new capabilities built into certain HD Radio receivers that will enable listeners who are using those receivers to listen to stations that are encoding their music in a certain way to tag songs as they hear them and have those data sent to iTunes for purchase of the songs.

Two recent articles in Radio World describe the process:

From Polk, JBL Radios Combine HD-R, iPod & iTunes Tagging:

... Using Apple iTunes tagging, users can buy songs they hear on HD Radio stations. The radio stores information about the tagged songs to its memory and transfers the tags to an iPod when docked. When the consumer connects the iPod to his/her computer, iTunes automatically presents the songs in a new Tagged play-list for the consumer to preview, buy, and download. ...

Link:  Radio World.

And from ‘Go Commerce’ Available for iTunes HD-R Tagging and Analog RDS:

... Jump2Go Founder/CTO Allen Hartle told Radio World that with its proprietary technology, the company is the sole provider of the behind-the-scenes service that synchronizes a staion’s programming with the iTunes unique song identifiers that make RDS and HD Radio “tagging” possible. This is in addition to iTunes-based e-commerce fulfillment on station Web sites.  ¶  The tagging service for Apple iTunes and HD Radio begins with a station’s automation system, using BE’s The Radio Experience software relaying on-air events to the Jump2Go data center for “tagging.” The Jump2Go service assigns the unique iTunes identifier to each song and then the tag data is inserted into the IBOC bitstream. (For RDS tagging, songs get two identifying numbers, one for iTunes and another Jump2Go number that the company could use for other MP3 player song services such as the Microsoft Zune in the future, Hartle said.) ...

Link:  Radio World.

Mark Ramsey, an HD Radio skeptic, seems to think they're nuts in a post, And the good ideas keep on coming...  Link:  hear 2.0.

This does have a sort of "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" feel to it, though it does provide an interesting new avenue for revenue and another incentive for people to buy HD Radio receivers.  I'm inclined to support it, though, since I'm attracted to the idea of marrying HD Radio and Internet radio in one box and we need all the incentives for people to get started in HDR that we can find.  --Dennis

Reports of TV's Death Greatly Exaggerated ...

... says emerging media professional Jeremy Lockhorn.  In part 1, he says to go interactive:

... If you're a digital agency or a marketer who's significantly investing in online media, you're already aware of this. It's like expanding banner ads, but on TV. Simply by empowering consumers to interact with your ad, you increase the likelihood they'll remember what you're trying to tell them or take action. We've proven this with ads like the one we built for the launch of Levi's Redwire jeans. ...

Link:  ClickZ.

And, in part 2, he talks about targeting:

... We've used advanced targeting techniques on the Web for years, and many advertisers have benefited from innovations in contextual and behavioral targeting. One of the more powerful targeting strategies is leveraging Atlas targeting capabilities to serve an extremely relevant ad based on what we know about an individual's relationship with the client. We might serve one ad to someone who's never been to a retail site, for example, and a different ad to someone who made a purchase, and yet another ad to a user who made multiple purchases. The process gets really interesting when you start layering dynamically generated creative assets, which can pull in the latest prices, react to such things as current weather conditions, and more.  ¶  The result? Hyper-relevant creative and no need to produce a ton of creative assets. Many of our clients currently employ these approaches for online banner ads. But what if you could apply the same basic thinking to video? ...

Link:  ClickZ.  --Dennis

Media Audit: Local TV Sites Paying Off

Katy Bachman reports:

Local TV Web site strategies are beginning to pay off. One in four adults have visited a local TV Web site in the past 30 days, according to a new study from The Media Audit. Among Internet users, nearly 40 percent are regularly visiting the local TV sites. ...

Link:  Mediaweek.  Thanks to Mark Ramsey's hear 2.0 for the tip.  --Dennis

Are people who pay for content just chumps?

It's been said many times that content wants to be free.  Or perhaps it's really that we want content to be free. 

Parents who lecture their children on not downloading illegal content are themselves tapping the mute or TiVo fast-forward buttons during commercials, thereby robbing advertisers of some part of the audience they're buying.  That describes my house pretty well.  Voluntary payments don't work very well either.   We pubcasters say that some nine in ten listeners or viewers do not contribute in a given year -- but actually that over-estimates the contributing percentage because the denominator is taken from weekly cume, while annual cume is a much greater number.

We've seen anti-DRM sentiments become an ideology among an influential segment of Internet and DVR users.  Mainstream file-sharers and commercial-skippers all have some personal justification for what they do:  Like, commercials are annoying -- time is precious and skipping saves me 20 minutes an hour -- record companies rip off their artists anyway -- the RIAA and MPAA are bullies -- I've already paid for it here, but want to use it there and their stupid DRM won't let me do that.  Young people generally just hear "blah-blah-blah" when parents warn about downloading movies or music.  You might as well be speaking Latvian. 

Are people who pay for content just chumps?

If so, there  are a lot of content professionals who are depending on those chumps to make a living -- a very few make a very nice living.  Unlike Andrew Keen, I think it's wonderful that amateur content can now be distributed so easily and I'm doing whatever I can to encourage that.  But for those of us in the content business, a way of encouraging both wide distribution and discovery of amateur content and at the same time providing an economic base for excellent professional content is the central problem of our industry today.

The best thing I've read in a long time from a content creator's point of view comes from singer-songwriter Jill Sobule -- though, frankly, I'd not heard of her before this.  She's a professional, but like all professionals, her work needs discovery also.  In an essay titled, Calling All Recording Gurus: I've Got Nothing to Prove, but I Still Need Your Help (See My Video!), she writes of the dilemma for artists like her:

... None of my musician friends are mourning the demise of the record industry. Most of us got crummy deals anyway and never saw a penny of royalties. My nephews expect really expensive birthday gifts from me, as they think that I must be rolling in dough, having been on MTV a few times. I always acquiesce, not wanting to tell them the truth.  ¶  For us, in this YouTube, long-tail, Kara-and-Walt world, it’s an exciting time. But it’s also confusing. How do I release my next recordings? Do I still put out a CD in the traditional way, or just go digital? Do I send demos one last time to the remaining majors or go indie (this time with a company that lasts longer than a year) and get a, say, 50/50 deal? Do I just finance the whole thing myself–musicians, studio, marketing, publicist, radio, promo, video, etc.? And where do I get the money? How do I pay the rent? How do I support my gambling and morphine habits? ...

Link:  All Things Digital.  Yes, watch her video there and go to her web site and download the (legitimately) free 90-minute live performance.  It's terrific!  --Dennis

Ten years of posts

It occurs to me that this month marks a ten-year anniversary of sorts for this blog.  I'm pretty sure that it was in September of 1997 that I began a little email list of things that caught my eye for members of the PBS New Technologies Committee which I was about to chair.  The list grew by word of mouth and I soon had to host it on Topica.com to manage it.  By the time I started this weblog in late 2003 -- largely to provide a discipline for me to keep up with my own reading -- it had grown to not quite 100 people.  I overlapped the list and the blog for quite a while, but eventually that got to be too much like work, so I discontinued the mailing list (though you can now subscribe by email through the FeedBlitz option on the right).

This blog was originally hosted on Radio UserLand, but after a number of problems with slow posting, I moved it here to TypePad.   Since moving here, there have been more than 3,300 posts.  FeedBurner today estimated over 600 RSS and email subscribers for the first time -- a bit of a milestone.  Though that loyal band is a small part of overall readership.  Unique visitors were in the 6,000-7,000 per month range through February of this year, when for some reason it started growing, increasing to the 9,000-10,000 range through June, hitting nearly 14,000 in July and just over 18,000 in August.  Can't tell any patterns, but by far most visitors here come through a search engine or a link from another blog.  Interesting to me at least and perhaps typical of other blogs. 

If you're one of the loyal types, many thanks for continuing to read this stuff!  It's you that makes it worth spending a few hours each week doing this.  --Dennis

Antenna advice for improving FM reception

About a month ago, I posted a short article to the Northwest Public Radio weblog on improving FM reception by using a decent antenna -- something that in my experience most listeners neglect.  It's gotten such a good response that I'm repeating it here.
________________________________

I've been reminded recently by conversations with relatives that people are often unaware of the need to use a good antenna for FM reception.  FM frequencies fall between channels 6 and 7 on your television set, so the same principles apply to FM reception as for TV reception.  I received an email yesterday asking about antennas from a listener in Bellingham who is in the "shadow" of Sehome Hill from our KZAZ transmitter on King Mountain.  If you're in such a "shadow" or if you live a long distance from one of our transmitters (or shorter distance from one of our translators or from a lower power station like KZAZ, KNWO or KNWV), outdoor antennas are best.

Here's an expanded version of my reply:

Antenna options depend on the radio.  Most clock radios won’t accept anything other than the strand of wire hanging out the back and most boomboxes rely on a built-in telescoping rod antenna.  However, more sophisticated radios will have either a pair of screw terminals or a coaxial connector similar to what you would find on a television set.

The easiest option is to get an FM “ribbon” antenna (sometimes called a “T antenna”), generally made of “TV twinlead,” at Radio Shack or Wal-Mart.  They’re under $5.  Make sure the end of the lead-in matches the input (screw terminals or coaxial) on your radio.  You can buy them either way.  The coaxial ones are harder to find, but you can easily find a 300-ohm to 75-ohm transformer (sometimes called a “balun”), also for a few bucks, at the same place.  Make sure it is laid out in the shape of a T.  You may need to experiment with orientation for the best reception.  [Click on the image for a larger version.]

If you have a soldering iron, you can even make one out of a discarded piece of 300-ohm TV twinlead.  Cut a piece that's 63 inches long.  Strip off one-half inch of insulation at either end and solder the two wires together at each end.  Now cut one wire in the center of this 62-inch antenna and again strip the insulation back one-half inch.  Solder a random length of twinlead to this and connect the other end to your radio, following the orientation directions above.

An alternate indoor antenna is a set of TV “rabbit ears.”  Extend the elements to 31 inches each and spread them out.  This alternate has the disadvantage of being kind of ugly, but it works well for an indoor option. 

Radio Shack and Amazon also sell small amplified indoor FM antennas for $30-$75, both on the Web only.  They should work well and will definitely look better in your living room, but I haven't tried them.

The very best antenna is a dedicated outdoor FM antenna pointed at the transmitter.  These are not expensive, but installation requires a helper to orient for best reception.  Be careful up on your roof!  An outdoor VHF television antenna is a good substitute, but beware when buying because some VHF TV antennas have a “trap” for FM signals in order to reduce interference to television stations.  Make sure it's rated for FM also.

--Dennis

Cable Ads Mark Switch to Digital TV

John Dunbar writes:

The cable television industry has launched a $200 million advertising campaign to assure customers they will still be able to watch their favorite programs after the transition to digital broadcasting.  ¶  The ad campaign includes four 30-second spots to be aired on both broadcast and cable networks. Ads began airing in the Washington, D.C., market this week.  ¶  The spots open with a graphic that reads: "By law TV stations will end analog broadcasts on February 17, 2009, and broadcast exclusively in digital." That's followed by cable customers assuring viewers that "every TV set you have that's hooked up to cable will work just fine." ...

Link:  Washington Post.  I'm trying to decide if this is good for broadcasters or not.  On the one hand, it will definitely raise viewer awareness about the transition.  On the other hand, any over-the-air viewers who move to cable because of this will be less reliant on broadcasters for their television than those who choose to stay with OTA.  And there's a potential of confusion between the cable messages and those from the upcoming NAB campaign.

Updated 7 September 2007:
Brooks Boliek has more on cable's campaign in The Hollywood Reporter.

Speaking of the NAB campaign, they've just announced the campaign will launch by the end of the month.  It appears that its timing was moved up in response to the cable effort.  See John Eggerton, NAB to Launch DTV-Education PSA Campaign This Month.  Link:  Broadcasting & Cable.  --Dennis

New Way to Count Listeners Shakes Up Radio

Sarah McBride has a good article on what's being found when Arbitron switched Philadelphia and Houston to the Portable People Meter measurement system.  Rock is back.  Link:  Wall Street Journal.  Click for larger image.  --Dennis

Interview with Ashley Highfield, Director, BBC Future Media & Technology

Robert Andrews has a very interesting interview with Ashley Highfield covering such subjects as the (excessive) time it takes to greenlight emerging media projects, the iPlayer and the various complaints it's attracted, and online advertising.  There's a summary at this link (paidContent.org), at the bottom of which are links to the complete transcript and an audio version.  --Dennis

11 video download stores compared

Interested in how a selection of paid video sites are operating?  Steve O'Hear has a useful comparison of 11 video download stores:  Movielink, Direct2Drive, BitTorrent, CinemaNow, Amazon Unbox, Xbox Live Video Marketplace, Jaman, Guba, iTunes Store, HungryFlix, and Streamburst.  Link:  last100.  --Dennis

Online advertising vs. radio advertising

Fred and Paul Jacobs look back at two eye-opening presentations from Gordon Borrell and Jason Calcanis at last year's Jacobs Media Summit 11.  They're linked here and highly recommended regardless of whether you're in commercial or public broadcasting:

Gordon Borrell shared the raw correlation between the size of dedicated digital sales staffs and revenue generation (watch his presentation here).  And unfortunately, radio lags behind other media (especially newspaper) in both metrics.  Maybe this new report will spur our industry to begin investing in dedicated digital sales people.

At that same Summit, Jason Calacanis simply told radio people, "Surrender!" - and develop an entirely new model based on the inherent strengths of the medium.  While his comments made some uncomfortable, they were painfully true (watch his presentation here). His message was that radio needs to accept the reality that it is being overtaken by digital media.  But at the same time, he saw radio as perfectly positioned to profitably participate in the digital space for three simple reasons:

1. We know how to create outstanding audio content (compared to the weakly produced podcasts that proliferate today),
2. We know how to sell it,
3. We have the raw cume to drive consumers to our content

Link:  JacoBLOG.  --Dennis

Jumpstarting Innovation: Using Disruption to Your Advantage

Lynda M. Applegate writes:

... Disruptions in the business environment cause economic shifts that destabilize industries, companies, and even countries.  They allow new entrants or forward-thinking established players to introduce innovations—in products, markets, or processes—that transform the way companies do business and consumers behave.  ¶   These disruptive innovations are not just novel inventions.  Successful innovators take ideas and turn them into opportunities by adding a business model that creates sustainable economic value for all stakeholders.  They then go one step further and exploit the opportunity by creating a sustainable business. ...

Link:  Harvard Business School Working Knowledge.

Why "Good Enough" Is Good Enough

In an article that reinforces one of Clayton Christensen's observations, Stephen Baker writes:

... Are communications getting worse? Not by a long shot.  We're surrounded by miraculous machines and services, most of them calibrated to a level software engineers have long called "good enough."  In the right circumstances, good enough is great for the entire economy.  A marketplace that's not hung up on fail-safe standards is open to risk and innovation, and drives down prices. Ever since the dawn of the PC--the archetype for a good-enough machine--inventors have been freer than ever to piece together and launch their visions.  Some are brilliant, some are half-baked, many are a blend of the two. A precious few are up and running 99.999% of the time--Bell's old standard. But they cost far less to build.  ¶   The rise of good-enough technology raises different questions for do-it-yourselfers and major corporations alike.  It's no longer whether we can afford a technology, but more often whether we can afford the disruption if and when it fails.  Is it critical?  Do we have backup in place?  Many of us face this question every time we venture from our office with a cell phone.  We don't have "one machine that works all the time," says Dave Morgan, chairman of Tacoda Inc., a New York advertising company.  "We have lots of alternatives that work most of the time. ...

Link:  Business Week.  --Dennis

Vnunet: Digital Radio iPods expected on Wednesday

Iain Thomson writes:

... a reliable industry insider has told vnunet.com that the announcement will include plans to bring digital radio to the iPod along with an option to buy music using the device.  ¶  The source said that the new iPods will be able to receive digital radio, and will include a 'buy-now' function to allow the user to download and buy tracks as they are being played. ...

Link:  vnunet.com.

However, Nick DePlume cautions:

... While it is possible the new iPod will be the first to pack some sort of wireless capability, suggestions of digital radio playback should be taken with a grain of salt. ...

Link:  Think Secret.

Thanks to John Paczkowski for both these links from, And Lo, Jobs Appeared and Said 'No, This Is the Best iPod Ever,' and It Was, and There Was Much Rejoicing.  Link:  Digital Daily. 

Count me as one of the skeptics, though I'd be happy to be wrong on this one because of the lift it would give HD Radio -- if, indeed, that's what they mean by "digital radio."  However, it's my understanding that the existing chipsets for HD Radio receivers are quite power hungry -- hence the general lack of HDR portable models in the CE marketplace today.  So making that work in an iPod form factor seems like a real stretch to me unless there has been a breakthrough in power requirements for the HDR receiver chipsets. 

On the other hand, maybe what is meant is a WiFi digital radio with some sort of streaming addressability similar to the Torian Wireless Infusion that I own.  That just might fit into that form factor.  We'll see tomorrow, I guess.

Update 5 September 2007:
OK, it's tomorrow now and, indeed, it was a WiFi radio.  It will permit users to log into iTunes directly and buy music.  And its storage is strangely tiny -- only one-tenth the size of the new iPod Classic.  See Natali T. Del Conte's, Apple Announces iPod touch with Wi-Fi.  Link:  PC Magazine. --Dennis

Single-frequency network proposed for over-the-air transmission in New York City

ION Media Networks (formerly Paxson Communications Corp.) and Richland Towers have announced the completion of successful testing of a single-frequency network (SFN) for New York City.  In brief, a SFN uses multiple synchronized transmitters at different locations, operating on the same frequency, to replicate the coverage of a traditional "big stick" single-transmitter system.  At least one such system for digital television broadcasting is operating in an initial configuration for public television station WPSX at Pennsylvania State University.  From the ION press release:

... The Richland DTx single frequency network consists of a main, high-powered “hub” site in West Orange, N.J., providing coverage to most of the market area; and five low-power DTxT sites that serve the remainder of the area. Multiple rounds of testing were conducted at the main West Orange site and a transmitter site at 4 Times Square in Manhattan. The test teams obtained field measurements from the two sites and compared them to measurements taken from five stations transmitting from the Empire State Building. Field strength, signal quality, reception and all other parameters for the DTx network were comparable to or better than those from the Empire State stations. The test results are being made available to other interested broadcasters. ...

Link to the related article in Broadcast Engineering. 

Public television stations frequently operate with transmitters that are not located at the cluster of antennas used by commercial television stations in a market (my Pullman, Washington station is one such) and therefore operate at a disadvantage in terms of receive antenna orientation.  SFNs offer a solution to this problem.  --Dennis