Month: January 2005

Telewest Announce PVR for the UK

Telewest PVRFollowing the release of their Video On Demand (VOD) service earlier this week, UK cable company, Telewest, has announced that they are to offer a PVR later in the year.

The signing of the deal with Scientific-Atlanta will provide them with a PVR featuring three tuners, enabling the recording of two channels while watching a third. Coming with a 160Gb hard disk, Telewest are quoting a recording capacity of 80 hours.

When we spoke to Telewest on a more exact release date, they said it would be second half of 2005. Pressing a little harder, they said they hoped it to be the third quarter.

Given the date of the release isn’t firm, neither were Telewest’s answers to our more detailed questions, but here’s what we got. If subscribers take the service, the PVR will be a replacement for their current STB.

It will be a Personal VR rather than a Digital VR, as customers will be able to link the recording of series, as possibility more – at this time undecided.

The existing Telewest service offers a 24-hour Electronic Programming Guide (EPG). They’re currently saying that they don’t know if this is to be extended or not. To us it would be pretty bizarre if it didn’t go to at least a 7-day service – filling up your 80-hour hard drive in a single 24-hours would take some doing.

The price of the box remains undecided. Internally they haven’t decided if there will be a one off fee or if they will continue with the current arrangement for their Set Top Boxes (STB), rental.

The PVR will feature as standard high-definition TV (HDTV) support, not that Telewest has HD at the moment but they say it’s coming “in the future”. While we assume everyone will eventually be delivering HD, we would have thought that if they’re paying for a HD capable box, they’re likely to be supporting it soon.

Eric Tveter president and chief operating officer at Telewest Broadband said “Telewest Broadband’s unique combination of personal video recorder and television-on-demand services will mean our customers have the best of both worlds — freedom from the TV schedule with PVR control, and on-demand access to a wider selection of movies and TV content. It’s not about offering people more TV, but giving them the freedom to watch exactly what they want, when they want.”

Right on Eric.

Telewest

TiVo effect, TV still doesn’t know what to do

TiVo with remoteIn a long line of articles where TV execs try to ponder how to stop losing sleep and preserve their once comfortable lives, Meg James in the LA Times covers the impact of PVR’s, in particular TiVo, and how the TV industry is still trying to adjust to its impact.

It’s warming to see that there are still articles coming out, with quotes from TiVo users such as, “Once you’ve used one, you can’t imagine life without TiVo,” as Charlie Flint of Marina del Rey, California did. It’s somewhat reassuring that the impact is still as great for new users as it was when TiVo was first introduced.

One thing that doesn’t get mentioned in connection with this, and this is something that TV people should have sympathy with, is that ad breaks, do exactly that, break up the programme. Interrupting its flow.

This has been more than amply proven in the UK where The Simpsons have moved from commercial-free BBC2 to the advertiser-supported Channel 4.

Previously used to watching the show from beginning to end, without interruption. When watching the show, on TiVo of course, the story is interrupted by having to skip through the adverts.

Interestingly the exact opposite of the programmes sponsor desired intention is achieved. I have now come to resent the Pizza chain, as they are associated with interrupting my viewing pleasure.

One of the reasons that articles like this continue to make press is that estimated figures coming out of research houses and banks make worrying reading for the TV, and therefore the entertainment world.

By 2010, half the US households with TV sets are expected also to have digital recorders, according to a recent Smith Barney report. The tipping point could come as early as 2007, the report said, when the television industry may lose as much as $7.6 billion — or about 10% of its annual ad revenue — as advertisers seek other ways of reaching consumers.

A number of alternatives are suggested including pay-per-play, product placement in shows.

In one, viewers would pay $1 to see an episode of a show On Demand, “much as music fans do when they download a song from Apple Computer Inc.’s iTunes music store,” appearing to forget that the iTunes users don’t pay another $1 when they listen to the song the following week, as would be that case with a VOD show.

It’s gratifying that Meg James ends the article with a wise quote from her interviewee, one that the TV industry should be listening to, “I’m now trying stuff that I never would have watched before. I’ll give it a shot and set the TiVo, then watch the show later … when nothing else is on,” TiVo-user Flint said. “I’m watching probably 50% more TV than I used to.

LA Times – Looking for New Ways to Make Viewers Pay
TiVo

Michael Powell, FCC Chair to Go

Michael Powell FCCThe Wall Street Journal is reporting that US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman, Michael Powell, will be leaving his position today.

The rumours of his departure have been circulating for a long time, but what is unexpected is that he is resigning the day after George Bush’s inauguration.

Powell has had his detractors and his supporters. He’s acted as a liberaliser – opening up the VoIP market, and, in some peoples eyes, a restrictor – last year he authorised fines in excess of $7.7 million for indecent programming.

He will, for us, for ever be remembered for calling a TiVo “God’s machine“.

Overall we think he’s been an enthusiastic supporter of technology advances. We hope his replacement will show a similar enthusiasm.

WSJ – FCC Chairman Powell Plans to Step Down (reg. req.)
Seattle Post-Intelligencer – Officials: FCC Chairman Powell to resign

Paid-for music downloads up 10x in 2004: IFPI Report

The IFPI, has reported very positive sales figures for the 2004 and have even higher hopes for 2005.

The IFPI was previously known as the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, but it looks like they’re probably trying to phase the full name out – it’s far from easy to find it explained on their site. They’re the equivalent to the non-US RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), to which it is affiliated.

Building on their IFPI Online Music Report of last year, they have found some pretty positive figures.

Online sites that are able to sell music have quadrupled from 50 in the previous year to 230. The tracks that are available to purchase through these sites have doubled to 1 million, and paid-for downloads are up nearly tenfold to 200 million. For the full run down of stats, it’s best to check the IFPA site.

It’s with the benefit of hindsight that John Kennedy, IFPI Chairman and CEO now says “The biggest challenge for the digital music business has always been to make music easier to buy than to steal.” From our recollection, this was certainly a minority view within the music business previously. Their previous approach had been to try and stop the unpaid-for file sharing, while not being particularly co-operative with companies wanting to sell their music. As we all know, it was the release of Apple iTunes music store that changed their view.

We’re encouraged to hear they’re now grabbing digital distribution with both hands. “The record industry’s priority now is to licence music – to as many services, for as many consumers, on as many formats and devices for use in as many places and countries as it can,” Kennedy said in a statement.

Giving further details of the guidelines for signing up distribution services he said, “The straightforward conditions are that the business must be legitimate, the music must be correctly licensed, and record companies and other rights holders must get properly paid.” All good, except there is still some discussion within the industry on what “get properly paid” entails in digital distribution, with many feeling that electronic distribution should bring lower prices than current rates.

The IFPI say they see the “digital music market taking off in 2005”. If 2004 saw paid-for downloads up more than tenfold to over 200 million, they must be jumping with joy in anticipation of the figures for 2005.

IFPI Digital Music Report 2005

Creative’s Zen Micro – iPod Fight Back Plans Emerge

Zen Micro Creative Labs

The word has been going around that Creative Labs intends 2005 to be the year that they unseat Apple as the major supplier of music players. They reported selling 2 million in the last two months and certainly, with the growth of digital music, the prize for success would be large.

Some of the details of Creative’s marketing plans are now starting to surface by way of UK sales house Emap advertising.

They’re putting a considerable amount of money behind the campaign, with £3m being muted by Brand Republic (reg. req.). Not only will it run over 13 channels, but Emap’s in-house creative team is making a 70-sec video that has three different endings, targeted at the pop, rock, and urban audiences. The channels are owned by three different operators (Emap, Sky, and Chart Show) and representing 60% of the music channels available to UK Sky satellite viewers.

By attaching themselves to TV music channels that their 16- to 34-year-old target audience watch, they’re hoping for ‘cool’ association, as well as being permanently in front of them.

The campaign will focus on the 5/6Gb Zen micro player which, in our view, has the looks to become an object of desire.

Buy the Zen Micro from Amazon (UK, US)

Ubiquitous Viewer – Phone Access to PC from Toshiba

Toshiba Ubiquitous ViewerToshiba has announced software to remotely execute programs on a PC, via a mobile phone. They call it Ubiquitous Viewer.

Software that gives remote access to your computer from another has been available for years, with a particular favourite within the Digital Lifestyles offices being the open source VNC (Virtual Network Computing).

The way these packages used to work, was by an application running on the host (remote) computer and another on the client (local). Keystrokes and mouse movements are read from the client, sent over a communication line (dialup/IP) and executed on the host. Graphical changes to the screen on the host machine are collected, compressed, sent down the line and replicated on the client.

While this approach is basic, it has the advantage that any software application could be run.

The details of Toshiba’s Ubiquitous Viewer are still sketchy, but what we do know is it’ll allow users to open productivity software, such as the MS Office suite, and to read and modify files. It also supports access to PC-based e-mail, Internet browser and other PC applications.

Internet browsing through a phone to your PC? This is the only one we find a little bizarre, it’s a bit like reading a book through a telescope.

Given the support for “other PC applications” and the photograph, the Ubiquitous Viewer looks like it works on the same principles as the old-school solutions.

To access the remote machine, a password must be entered once. The transfer of data is over a secure connection, as it uses the Web standard secure socket layer (SSL) encryption

The service will initially be released at the end of March 2005 in Japan on KDDI’s service using CDMA1X mobile phones. Following this, they intend to take it other countries.

Quite what the experience will be like on a mobile screen is unclear and frankly this type of solution will only be used in desperation when you must have access to some information that you’ve forgotten.

It is a good example in our view of the future – no matter what the restrictions of the device, any that provides access will be acceptable, until you can move to a location or device that is superior.

Toshiba

Centrino Chips Get Updated by Intel

Today Intel release information about their new Centrino range of chips, aimed at notebook computers.

The release of the code-named “Sonoma” chip has been delayed for several months as Intel ironed out some problems they had been having with the chips. Intel hopes it will further bolster their current 85% dominance of notebook chips.

Such is the keenness of the laptop manufacturers to bring the machines to market that Sony have already released their FS range and Toshiba the less than catch-ly named Dynabook VX 470LS notebook. It is understood that 80 laptops with the new chippery will be available from today, with that number growing to 150 by the end of the year.

Intel have been very crafty with the Centrino range, which includes microprocessor; wireless; and supporting chips providing sound and graphics, as the Centrino brand cannot be used unless the entire bundle of chips is bought from Intel.

As is always the case with the introduction with a new range of chips, the new models will come in at about the same price of the previous high end chips and the current offering will slide down in price. Expect some bargains.

Intel

ntl On Demand Brings VOD to Glasgow

ntl VOD BBC Pick of the weekToday ntl turned on its much-anticipated Video On Demand (VOD) service in Glasgow.

Accessible to all Glaswegian ntl subscribers who have the digital TV service, it features free and paid for content including advertiser-free children’s programmes, a ‘Pick of the Week’ option showing a selection of top shows from the previous seven days, a film service, a music video jukebox service, and adult content.

No new equipment is needed at the subscriber’s house, as the software in their current Set Top Box (STB) is automatically updated.

The content is accessed either by pressing the On Demand button on the remote control or by pressing the Red button while watching one of the promotional channels.

The Pick of the Week channel will be provided by the BBC in a six month initial trial. The editorial decision of what is included will rest with the BBC, and it’s expected that a range of shows will be available, including favourites (not ours) such as Eastenders. Each show will be available for seven days from its transmission and it’ll be free to access.

The viewer will have the option to pay for content too, giving then 24 hours access to the content. The cost of the items will be added to their monthly bill.

The film service is supplied by FilmFlex, a separate company run by On Demand Management in a joint venture with Sony and Disney, with “Hundreds of titles, current and classic” films available from 50p to £2. Out of general interest, On Demand applied for the FilmFlex trade mark back in September 2004.

Over 30 hours of Children’s advertiser-free programming is on offer for 20p-50p. Music videos can also be paid for (range 20p-£1.50) with over 35 hours available.

The high price ticket at £7 and largest number of hours of content (over 50) available goes to the Adult content supplied by Playboy.

Coincidentally, Glasgow was also the city chosen to launch ntl’s digital TV service back in May 2000. We imagine that the number of subscribers is manageably low (we did ask for actual numbers but, “this isn’t broken out”), giving ntl a chance to observe the performance of the system and gather feedback, before spreading it around the UK.

ntl are saying they plan to roll it out regionally over the UK during the next two years and all of their 1.4 million Digital TV customers will be able to receive the service. When we asked about the number of non-digital customers, we were told it was in the single percentage figures, possibly as low as 2-3%. Although asked, they decided to keep the order of the planned rollout cities to themselves.

In a statement Simon Duffy, Chief Executive Officer of ntl, said, “VOD is TV the way it’s meant to be.”

Telewest also launched a VOD service today, Homechoice have offered VOD in London and KIT have also been providing VOD in Kingston-upon-Hull for a number of years. ntl
On Demand management

Ofcom Strategic Review of Telecommunications Gets UK Parliament Inquiry

The UK House of Commons launched an inquiry into Ofcom’s Strategic Review of Telecommunications (SRT) yesterday.

Ofcom, the uber-regulator that among other things, oversees telecoms in the UK, started its SRT in January 2004. It was long overdue in the eyes of many, as it was the first comprehensive strategic review of the UK telecommunications sector for 13 years.

Now the UK House of Commons, Trade and Industry Committee will be looking into the workings and results of the SRT, in particular how it relates to the “extensiveness and competitiveness” of broadband in the UK.

The SRT is divided in to three phases; Current position and prospects for the telecommunications sector; Options for Ofcom’s strategic approach to telecommunications regulation; and Proposals; the first phase was published at the end of April.

Ofcom identified two key problems in Phase One; an unstable market structure in fixed telecoms, dominated by BT and with alternative providers that are, in the main, fragmented and of limited scale; BT’s control of the UK-wide access network hadn’t been addressed to date. They then posed some questions; primarily about the future of BT.

Phase Two was published in November 04 and used some relatively strong language (pretty diplomatic in the normal, non-Quango world), which we summarised as “Ofcom to BT: Equivalence or else”. It’s still open for public consultation until 3 February 2005.

Yesterdays announcement from the Trade and Industry Committee, said in the light of the Committee’s Report on the UK Broadband Market, the inquiry will be looking into OfCom’s STR process to date, the interim conclusions reached in the Phase Two document, and the direction of the remainder of the Review. They’ll be paying particular attention how it relates to the competitiveness of the broadband market in the UK, including local loop unbundling, and the “functional separation of British Telecom”.

A spokeperson at OfCom told us that they “had already briefed the Committee” and “welcomed their interest” in the SRT. When we asked about the previously expected Spring delivery of SRT Phase 3, we were told that they “still planned” to meet it. Frankly they were playing their cards pretty close to their chest.

We called the office of the Committee, but given the 21 enquiries they have on currently, no one was available for comment at the time of publishing the story.

If you have any view on the area covered by the Committee, they’re asking for written evidence on these or any other related issues by Friday 18 February 2005 via email ([email protected]). If you do write please CC ([email protected]) us in, we’d be interested in see the issues raised.


Alerted by OfcomWatch
Trade and Industry Select Committee
Ofcom – Strategic Review of Telecommunications

HD Radio – More Channels or Music Sales to Bring Income?

The US radio industry is looking to make additional income from music downloads, we’re told by Reuters – while listening to the radio, they’ll be able to select the playing track for paid download.

The piece announces the catch-all snappy name of HD Radio, that’s iBiquity Digital’s offering, which digitised the FM and AM bands. European readers will be well aware of equivalent FM services under the banner of DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) which has been available for a considerable period of time, and the currently lesser known drm (Digital Radio Mondial, not Digital Rights Management) which offers FM-quality listening on the AM frequencies.

The benefits brought by HD Radio/DAB/drm are digital compression of the audio, enabling more radio stations to be broadcast on the same amount of frequency. As the broadcast is digital, additional information can be distributed with it, such as the name of the artist and track playing.

As with all things compressed for digital distribution, there is a balacing act between number of stations and the audio quality of those stations. Digital doesn’t have to equal quality. The quality of the audio isn’t assured – the amount of the compression directly controls the quality.

US “terrestrial radio”, as it is being called by some to differentiate it from its satellite-delivered competitor, is under pressure from numerous sources; satellite radio (XM AND Sirius); Nokia’s Visual Radio; Internet-based radio stations; digital music player; podcasting, and don’t appear to have acted that quickly to respond.

The current cost of radios to receive HD radio are in the range of $500-$1,000 (~€382-€764, ~£270-£540), but as we’ve seen in the UK with DAB, it’s just a matter of time before these drop to the £49 (~€70, ~$91) levels, as more efficient chip sets become developed and a mass market is formed.

We found the comments by Jeff Littlejohn, executive vice president of distribution development at the dominant US radio station company, Clear Channel, the most illuminating, “We don’t think the business model associated with downloads is nearly as attractive as adding additional audio channels.”

In Clear Channels view there’s still more money to be made from advertising revenue than from music downloads, not least because they don’t have to share the revenue raised with the record companies – who are not known for their willingness to take small proportion of sales.

Radio Broadcasters Mull Digital Music Stores: Reuters