Technology360

BBC iPlayer usage prompts concern from service providers

It wasn't too long ago when web commentators were criticizing the BBC iPlayer, which uses the same distribution engine as Open Media Network, developed by former Kontiki chairman Mike Homer and recently gifted to U.S. public broadcasting.  Now it seems that iPlayer is so successful that it's causing ISPs some traffic problems.  According to informitv.com:

... In January, more than 2.2 million people used the BBC iPlayer, streaming or downloading around 11 million programmes, reaching up to half a million shows in a single day. In addition, there were nearly 16 million radio downloads in the same month.  ¶  That represents a significant increase in the 5.6 million hours of audio and video that was streamed by the BBC in the whole of 2006-2007. ...

Kudos to the Beeb.  With a different production structure and internecine rivalries, it's hard to see how American public media will ever collaborate enough to duplicate the UK's success for national programming, but I'm optimistic about its success at the local station level if we're willing to develop content partnerships with community non-profits, schools and universities, government agencies, etc.  --Dennis

T-Mobile and Orange to test 100-channel mobile TV

Richard Wray writes:

T-Mobile and Orange will today announce a partnership to run a commercial trial in west London of a new mobile TV technology which could allow handset users to tune in to up to 100 channels.  ¶  The technology, TDTV, has been developed by US-based NextWave Wireless at its British unit in Chippenham, Wiltshire, and could provide a cheaper and more efficient way to get broadcast TV on to mobile phones. The trial, due to start in late summer, will see several thousand Londoners given either a new handset - made by a far eastern manufacturer rumoured to be LG - or a wireless receiver, no bigger than a matchbox, which will transfer the channels to their mobile phones. ...

Link:  The Guardian.  --Dennis

The end for digital radio - or the start of a listening revolution?

And we thought that the Brits were doing digital radio right.

Owen Gibson and Katie Allen write:

Millions of people who have invested in new digital radios were yesterday wondering whether they would be left with little more than expensive ornaments after Britain's biggest commercial radio group all but abandoned the medium.  ¶  The owner of Capital Radio, Classic FM and Xfm was an enthusiastic champion of digital audio broadcasting (DAB) under its previous management, spending an estimated £80m on new transmitters and stations. ...

... Claiming the medium was "not economically viable", GCap will concentrate instead on its existing FM services and innovations in online listening such as technology allowing iPhone users to hear its stations. It hopes the moves will save £8.8m a year and help fend off a takeover approach from a rival group, Global Radio. ...

... With commercial players coming under pressure from the internet and the dominance of the BBC, some also claim they have failed to invest in creative new formats. The provision of digital radio in cars has been undermined by a lack of support for the medium in other European countries. And a vocal minority of listeners has complained about sound quality, claiming an early decision to compress the signal to allow for more stations has left it worse than FM. Coverage outside the main cities can also be patchy. The technology reaches 80% of the population but only covers 65% of the UK. ...

Link:  The Guardian.  --Dennis

On the continuing end of broadcasting as usual

Doc Searls writes:

... PORS (my new initialism for Plain Old Radio Service: AM/MW, FM, shortwave) is growing ever more anachronistic — and so are efforts either to A) give it with a digital gloss (as do the IBOC digital enhancements to AM and FM, which have made listening worse on old radios while reaching too damn few new ones), or B) replace it with something new developed decades ago (such as DAB), while still sounding like regular old radio stations (while listeners are moving by the millions to iPods and other alternatives over which they are the ones in control). ...

Link: Doc Searls Weblog.  If you're attending the Public Media 2008 conference in L.A. this week, you can ask Doc about this.  He's going to be joining Rafat Ali and Diane Mermigas on a "Technology and Trends" panel I'm moderating on Thursday.  --Dennis

Boy Scouts, Meals on Wheels to help with DTV transition information?

John Eggerton reports:

How far has the federal campaign for the digital-TV transition gone? The National Telecommunications and Information Administration considered deploying the Boy Scouts of America to help inform over-the-air analog TV viewers that they could lose their TV picture at 12:01 a.m. Feb. 18, 2009, just one year from today, unless they get a converter box, a new TV, or are already hooked up to cable or satellite.  ¶  Converter-box retailers held talks with Boy Scout organizations about coming up with a DTV-transition merit badge for helping some older ladies and gentlemen cross the digital divide, although the plan may be scrapped over concerns about sending scouts into strangers' homes. Meanwhile, the Federal Communications Commission is talking to the Meals on Wheels Association of America about delivering DTV education along with food. ...

Link:  Broadcasting & Cable.  Help that elderly person cross the street and give him a $40 coupon, too.  --Dennis

Analog TV RIP, one year from today

One year from today, over-the-air broadcast television stations will cease analog transmissions and they will rely exclusively on their digital transmitters that are, for the most part, already on the air (low-power translators and LPTV stations will continue on in analog for an unspecified time after that).  WRAL-TV in Raleigh began digital broadcasting 11½ years ago, but it was only in the last two years that receivers that kinda sorta work became available and only in the last half year that sales began to take off.  The government is subsidizing converter boxes for those who want to view DTV on their old analog sets (these won't give you HDTV, even with a digital monitor).  Consumers who are converting are finding a very different viewing experience -- the signal is perfect except when it's not there at all.   Moving the antenna is often necessary to get all stations in your area, but moving also means you have to rescan all your channels.  Rabbit ears once sufficed but, what's that you say?, the FCC designed this system to require outdoor antennas up 30 feet in the air?

It's been a long strange trip and, true to the name of the rock group that made that phrase famous, we'll see if we broadcasters can survive this transition or if we'll become the new "grateful dead."  --Dennis

NY Times: Is PBS Still Necessary?

Charles McGrath writes:

For the eighth straight year the Bush administration has ritually proposed taking a hefty whack out of the federal subsidy for public broadcasting. ...  ¶  Every year, though, it gets a little harder to muster the necessary outrage, and now and then a heretical thought presents itself: What if the glory days of public television — the days of “Monty Python,” “Upstairs Downstairs,” “The French Chef” — are past recapturing? Lately the audience for public TV has been shrinking even faster than the audience for the commercial networks. The average PBS show on prime time now scores about a 1.4 Nielsen rating, or roughly what the wrestling show “Friday Night Smackdown” gets. ...

... Considering how much it costs to create new topnotch programming, the best solution to public television’s woes is the one that will probably never happen: more money, not less. ...

Link: New York Times. 

In comparison to public TV, McGrath makes favorable comments about public radio (I'm affiliated with both).  In fact, public television invests less of its economy in national programming than does public radio, though it's relatively small in both cases.  Viewer-sensitive revenue (memberships and the noncommercial advertising we call underwriting) makes up less of public TV's economy (about 40%) than does listener-sensitive revenue in public radio (about 60%).  So one could make an interesting argument -- not one I'll develop here beyond stating the hypothesis -- that public radio stations are closer to their listeners than public television stations are to their viewers. 

Update 19 February 2008:
Also see the comments appended to this NYT article.  --Dennis

Many Obstacles to Digital TV Reception, Study Says

Oh, really?  That's been obvious to many of us for years, so the headline comes off like one from The Onion (such as "Local Girlfriend Always Wants To Do Stuff").  But these problems have now been "validated" by new study.  Roy Furchgott has a good review of it:

... The study by Centris, a market research firm in Los Angeles, found gaps in broadcast signals that may leave an estimated 5.9 million TV sets unable to receive as many channels as they did before the changeover. It may affect even those who bought the government-approved converter boxes or a new digital TV. To keep broadcast reception, many viewers may have to buy new outdoor antennas, the study found. ...

Link: New York Times.  --Dennis

Toward an Embarrassment of Niches

This clever title from Skip Pizzi, who writes:

... One recent study, conducted and reported by a respected music industry publication, The Lefsetz Letter, compared the overall music sales — both physical and digital — of the calendar year 2000 (the peak sales year to date for the industry) with sales in 2007, and found that the 2007 figures were down about a third (–36%) from the 2000 sales.  ¶  Then Lefsetz compared the individual sales of each of the top 10 selling records for those two years with one other (i.e., sales of the #1 record of 2000 compared to the #1 record of 2007, #2 with #2, and so on), which you would expect to approximately reflect the same one-third drop — but they did not.  ¶  Instead, the records that occupied each of the top 10 slots for 2007 were off from over 50 percent to nearly 70 percent compared to the sales for the records in those same positions for 2000.  ¶  This substantially disproportionate drop for the bestsellers of 2007 indicates that music sales are clearly trending toward greater diversity and choice. ...

... Consumption patterns are shifting, and these may significantly affect radio formatics, particularly for music.  ¶  Here are the high-level bullet points that influence any course corrections that terrestrial radio might consider:

• As blockbuster sales decline and niches grow in importance, music promotion will move away from traditional radio formats and seek more specialized outlets.
  
• As big names sell fewer records but continue to receive most terrestrial radio airplay, music labels will seek increased compensation to make up for sales losses through new royalty payments from broadcasters.
  
• Metadata matters, particularly for less well-known artists.
  
• One-to-many is giving way to many-to-many, and unilateral purveyors of taste (e.g., radio programming gurus) are giving way to “communities.” These virtual communities are defined along multiple axes, one of which is geographical. Terrestrial radio’s limited coverage can be turned to a strength for such localized communities.
  
• A potentially controversial point, but worth considering (at least academically): In terms of maximizing competitive agility, terrestrial radio ownership limits may be inverted. ...

Link: Radio World.  Thanks to Kerry Swanson for the tip.  --Dennis

Public Media in a Zero-Distance World

Doc Searls begins a post with this title by linking to Michelle Thorne's post, Public Broadcasters Opt for CC (as in Creative Commons) in iCommons.org, itself a worthy reading excursion.  But he goes on to make this interesting observation:

... We’re one good UI away from the cell phone becoming a radio. (Thanks to the iPhone, it already serves as a TV.) And we’re one smart cell company away from radio- and TV-as-we-know-it from being replaced entirely — or from moving up the next step of the evolutionary ladder.  ¶  Public broadcasters know that. That’s one reason they now call themselves “public media”, a move that separates the category from its transport methods. It’s also why they’re thinking hard and long about the role their online transmissions and archives play in a world without physical borders. ...

Link:  The Doc Searls Weblog. 

I'd add that it's not just cell phones, but other portable devices as well that blur the lines among computers, phones, PDAs, etc.  I just got a Nokia N810, a Linux computer the size of a PDA with a spectacular screen and the first decent speakers I've seen in a portable device.  Oh, and its browser supports Flash.  Oh again, it comes with Skype, so it's a WiFi phone.  My intent was for it to replace my HP PDA and a Sprint smartphone with pretty good media software but pathetic speakers.  It lacks PIM software but the media portion is great.  The development community should have a PIM up and running in no time.  I'm using it mostly for radio, email and RSS.  --Dennis

TV Stations Seek Shows to Put Online

Brian Stelter visited the National Ass'n of Television Program Executives (pronounced "GNAT-pee") conference in Las Vegas and writes:

... As broadcast growth flattens, local stations are increasingly looking to their Web sites for new sources of revenue. Some stations are creating original programming for the Web, but it is far easier for them to purchase the online rights to syndicated shows. This week, for instance, 200 television station Web sites introduced “Big Shot Live,” a national online talent competition promoted through “Entertainment Tonight.” Some stations, under an agreement with Warner Brothers, are now showing the syndicated sitcom “Two and a Half Men” on their Web sites.  ¶  If ventures like these are successful, local affiliates may wind up playing the same role online that they do on television, in which they buy up what is essentially used programming from producers. As Oprah Winfrey and Alex Trebek can attest, syndication is a backbone of local broadcasting: affiliates purchase the local rights to specific shows and sell ads alongside the content. ...

Link:  New York Times.  --Dennis

KCRW Launches Amped-Up Internet Radio Player

Eliot Van Buskirk has a post about public radio station KCRW's new (in beta) player.  A number of such efforts are underway in public broadcasting.  He writes:

Santa Monica College's KCRW, which has already attracted a relatively large online following for its webcasts, doubled down on its digital strategy with a new web-based streaming application that lets users choose mix and match radio segments into their own customized stream.  ¶  The service has a slick, easy-to-use, multipane interface with components that slide out of your way as needed.  Segments and mixes can be embedded on blogs and social networks, which should help KCRW's reach grow significantly. ...

Link:  Wired.  Thanks to Arthur Cohen in PRPD News for Programmers for the tip.   --Dennis

Program pledging competing with station pledging?

Wired editor-in-chief and author of The Long Tail book and blog, Chris Anderson listens to public radio via podcasting and writes in his blog about responding to an embedded podcast appeal from This American Life to help with its $100k/year streaming bill but not responding to his local station's pledge week.  He does acknowledge that the money local stations aggregate for TAL far exceeds this $100k, without which that show and others like it wouldn't exist in either broadcast or podcast form. 

Also implied in his comments are a contradiction to the old saw in broadcasting that people listen to radio stations but watch public television programs.  There's a lot of truth in that, but public radio (for those not familiar with me, I manage Northwest Public Radio's stations among other things) is an unusually program-oriented medium, so podcasting works well in that context.  But does our listen-to-radio-stations approach to pledging work against that?

Check out Anderson's posting.  Link:  The Long Tail.  Thanks to Tim Eby for the tip.  --Dennis

Slacker's portable device is shipping

Slacker, an online music service that learns from user responses, is now shipping its portable listening device (think of it as a radio), according to Joanna Stern in Laptop magazine.  Her article carries an interview with Slacker's marketing VP that's worth reading, especially for what's coming next.  Slacker's approach is compelling because it combines personalization with portability in one device, and can update without a USB tether.  --Dennis