Digital-Lifestyles

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  • BBC iMP Trial Extended – Trialist React

    BBC iMP trial ExtendedThe BBC has decided to extend the trial for the iMP Player until 28th February 2006, telling trialists that the extra time will enable it to “understand what you want from the service and how you are using it”. A new upgrade of the software is due to be rolled out to the participating trialists in January.

    Once this is over, the data from the trial will be processed to form a ‘Public Value Test’. That will then be put to the BBC Governors, who will use this to make a decision on the viability of launching a service.

    We’ve had mixed report from iMP trialists, which we found surprising – we thought everyone would be totally wowed by it, watching it 24 hours a day.

    The not-watching-24-hours-a-day could be explained by the frustration felt by a lot of trialist – that the content available is somewhat limited choice, and the content’s seven day expiry time.

    Content-wonks, like us and we suspect you, are aware that these limitations are a result of the need to negotiate and pay for the rights to distribute Radio & TV content via the Internet. Members of the public, who have other lives to lead, are naturally less aware of the reasons for the restrictions.

    Frankly it is easier (and cheaper) to obtain the relevant permissions for BBC content, than independently produced content and brought in content, such as films.

    BBC iMP trial ExtendedThe BBC’s reaction to such sniping is consistent, if not a little bland

    • This is a research trial
    • Their main focus is to assess the impact that iMP has on viewing habits
    • They want to understand if there’s possible appetite for such a service

    We think that providing a good range of high-quality content is a key to encourage users to try out the iMP and importantly, keep them using the application during the trial. Otherwise interest will fade – which is the experience we’ve heard from many trialists.

    Questions have been also raised on the iMP users forum about the integrity of the Microsoft DRM software, designed to limit the use and copying of the downloaded programmes. Strong security will be key, if the service is to be widened to include non-BBC content.

    It will be interesting to see if the service survives, and how the BBC’s own commercial trading unit “BBC Worldwide” reacts, having signed a content deal with BT whose own service is due to launch in 2006.

    BBC iMP

  • BBC iMP Review – A Naughty Little iMP

    BBC iMP Review - Naughty little iMPDespite so much current talk from the UK Telco’s and Sky on the magic that will provide an on demand broadcast TV proposition in the UK, tangible evidence of a working model beyond KiT in Hull and Homechoice is pretty sparse.

    The one organisation that is taking it seriously and putting some of their money behind it (sorry, UK TV license payers money) is the dear old BBC.

    Digital-Lifestytles has been keeping a close watch on iMP through each stage of its development from its initial announcement by Ashley Highfield at the Digital-Lifestyles theme day at IBC in 2003, through our uncovering that all of its content would be DRM protected back in Feb 2004, to the announcement of the trial, back in May this year.

    I’ve been lucky enough to be one of the trialists for the iMP (that’s integrated media player not interactive as so many insist on calling it) and I can tell you it’s not at all bad. Viewing TV on a PC screen is not ideal and that has probably influenced the programmes I’ve chosen – largely factual and quiz. The BBC counters that, a ‘box’, is under development to port the output to your domestic telly and reminds us that it’s already possible to view the content on a selection of mobile devices.

    BBC iMP Review - Naughty little iMPDespite the somewhat limited selection of programmes, which I’m told is largely down to copyright issues, it seems a positive move for a public sector broadcaster actually providing a service and solving the ‘problem’ of letting you see a programme you forgot to record or you later discover is worth viewing.

    The operation, as you’d expect from a Microsoft product is ‘workperson-like’ ,if rather un-exciting, but to all intents and purposes, to those with an always-on connection, downloading the content is free. The technology that allows programmes to be downloaded in faster than real time on a 2mb connection is a completely legal (I’m told) peer to peer application – everyone who is running the trial software, shares their content with other on the trial, without their having to do anything.

    The built-in DRM expires the programmes after seven days which, when compared to the analogue world, I haven’t noticed happening on my VHS tapes. It’s been necessary to quell the agonies protested by the copyright owners.

    BBC iMP Review - Naughty little iMPThe BBC is thinking beyond the present Windows-only solution. Speaking recently in London the BBC’s Project Director for iMP Ben Lavender reinforced the BBC philosophy of platform agnosticism and spoke of the desire to work on Apple and Linux solutions when DRM issues can be satisfactorily dealt with.

    For commercial broadcasters there’s an over-riding issue to deal with, should they choose to get involved. How would they deal with the ease which you can move through spot advertising, remains to be seen but that’s an issue they’re’ going to have to face soon one way or another.

    My verdict – I give it a thumbs up as long as a large enough library of content can be made available. For drama and the like, I’d want an easy method of outputting to the living room TV.

  • BBC iMP: Public Trial For 5,000 In September

    BBC iMP: Public Trial For 5,000 In SeptemberBBC New Media is to extend trials of its interactive Media Player (iMP), allowing viewers to download material from 500 hours of its television and radio programming.

    The latest phase of trials for BBC New Media’s interactive Media Player is scheduled to begin in September 2005 and will run for three months.

    The interactive Media Player lets viewers catch up with TV and radio programmes up to seven days after they have been broadcast, with the BBC offering legal Internet download programmes to their PCs.

    The latest road test follows smaller trials last summer where the BBC used a limited number of people and a small amount of rights-cleared programmes to test the concept of using peer-to-peer technology and digital rights management (DRM) to protect rights holders.

    This time around, the BBC is offering around 190 hours of TV programmes and 310 radio programmes, in addition to local programming and rights-cleared feature films.

    BBC iMP: Public Trial For 5,000 In SeptemberThe 5,000 trialists will be able to search for programmes they want to watch, filter programmes by channel, select subtitles and, in the case of some series, to collect and watch episodes that they may otherwise have missed.

    Ashley Highfield, BBC director of new media and technology, effloresced with a curious mix of similes: “iMP could just be the iTunes for the broadcast industry, enabling our audience to access our TV and radio programmes on their terms — anytime, any place, any how – Martini Media.”

    “We’ll see what programmes appeal in this new world and how people search, sort, snack and savour our content in the broadband world,” he added.

    Currently, issues with rights, distribution and navigation are limiting the menu, leading to fears that without the necessary killer content to attract audiences, take-up of the service may stall.

    Highfield has stated that the BBC was looking to tackle these issues through services like Creative Archive and iMP, and called on the industry to do the same.

    BBC iMP: Public Trial For 5,000 In SeptemberThe pilot will use DRM software to delete programmes seven days after the programme has aired on TV, ensuring that users can no longer watch the content after that time. The digital rights system will also prevent users emailing the files to their chums or sharing it via disc.

    The BBC iMP pilot will use peer-to-peer distribution technology to distribute the content and Geo-IP technology to restrict the service to UK Internet users only, with Siemens Business Services, BBC Broadcast and Kontiki, assisting with the technical and play-out elements of the trial.

    The Kontiki system is already being beta-tested by the Open Media Foundation in trials of a public service allowing controlled peer-to-peer distribution of rights cleared audio and video.

    BBC iMP
    Kontiki

  • More details of BBC iMP revealed – All content DRM’d

    More details of the intriguing BBC interactive media player, iMP, first made public at IBC 2003, were revealed this evening at a AIGA meeting in London. Sara Watkins, Executive Producer, Broadband, BBC New Media gave the audience further details of what iMP will do and importantly, what it will not.

    The most significant revelations were concerning the protection of the content. All content will be DRM’d, only available for a limited period time, once downloaded. As expected, it will also only be available to UK broadband users. In a break with the BBC’s long-standing support of Real, Microsoft DRM will be used for the technical trial, but it appears that no final decision has been made.

    Sara started by running a video giving an overview of what the BBC hope the iMP will be and where it might go.

    As was known previously, the EPG (Electronic Programming Guide) will cover fourteen days; seven looking forward and seven backward. The programs that have been broadcasted will be downloadable to the computer simply by clicking on them. A preview of a piece can be watched before committing to download a complete show.

    Although it was not mentioned in this presentation, in previous discussion we have had we understood that upcoming programs could be selected to download, once they have been broadcasted.

    People will also be able to recommend programmes it to friends.


    The iMP, originally envisaged by BBC man Ben Lavender, will be a PC-only application that will be downloaded from the BBC website.

    Further into the future they are looking forward to having the content on other devices, such as portable music players and even further forward, towards mobile phones. This portable content will initially be limited to audio, as the rights to these programmes are nearly all owned solely by the BBC.

    Running through the demonstration version of the product, we were shown the player would have four sections

    _Library area

    A list of the content residing on the computer will be shown, as you would expect from any filing system. A new revelation was that the rights information for each show would be displayed on the right hand side of the screen.

    Each separate show will be capable of having its own DRM setting, primarily how many days it will reside on your machine and therefore, how quickly you will need to watch the show before it become unavailable.

    The examples given were

    Eastenders (most popular UK soap) might be available for two weeks
    An episode of Blue Planet (recent super budget natural history programme) might be available for two days.

    The amount of compression applied to each piece of content will vary, so the video quality will vary. More popular programmes will be lower quality but programmes that would benefit from better quality will receive it, such as Blue Planet.

    _Traffic area

    As per standard peer-to-peer (P2P) packages – showing what is being transferred to and from your machine at any time.

    It was reiterated that P2P file sharing technologies would be used to automatically exchange content between broadband-connected computers running iMP, thus saving the BBC a considerable amount of money on individually serving each files.

    _TV and radio guide areas

    No real details were given about this.

    Stages of development

    The BBC plan to carry out an internal technical trial, where they will work out the logistics of how to get the content from its original source (tape, etc), how to will be encoded, archived and make it available.

    Later in the year, possibly around Easter, a closed network of users will be given the product to test it. During this phase they hope to understand how effective the interface design is.

    Following these stages they will enter a product development mode – taking all of the learning and re-polishing the product. No date was mentioned for a public release.

    During the Q&A session another interesting revelation concerning the Greg Dyke’s idea floated at RTS Edinburgh 2003, the Creative Archive. The content that makes up the Creative Archive will be downloaded using a similar application, but will not be restricted by DRM enabling people to re-edit it, or use it to make other programmes. Importantly it will not be the complete BBC archive, the examples given was – it will be nature programmes but it will not be show such as Dad’s Army (An old very popular comedy show first show in the 1970’s).

    AIGA London

    Transcript

  • BBC iPlayer On-Demand Service Gets Green Light

    BBC iPlayer On-Demand Service Gets Green LightThe BBC Trust has given the go ahead for the BBC’s iPlayer service (iMP).

    Expected to launch later this year, the iPlayer service lets punters watch TV shows online seven days after the initial broadcast, with viewers also able to download and store programmes on their PCs for up to 30 days.
    (more…)

  • Senate Moves to Outlaw P2P Applications

    Orrin Hatch, Senate Judiciary Committee chair has moved his focus to P2P applications, claiming that they encourage children and teenagers to infringe copyright.

    In a recent statement, he said: “It is illegal and immoral to induce or encourage children to commit crimes. Tragically, some corporations now seem to think that they can legally profit by inducing children to steal. Some think they can legally lure children into breaking the law with false promises of ‘free music.’”

    Fairly emotive language. Given that FTP software and email are much more popular ways to distribute potentially infringing content, will legislation curbing those applications be next? Who makes the decision on what is an appropriate program? Clearly the legislation can be misused to stifle the development of legitimate applications and businesses.

    The bill is backed by the RIAA and co-sponsored by Senate majority leader Bill Frist, Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy.

    Hatch has argued that the new bill will not make devices such as iPods and CD recorders illegal – indeed the freedom to make non-infringing copies goes all the way 1984 Sony Betamax case where the US Supreme Court ruled that VCRs and similar copying devices were legal. Hatch asserts that the bill only targets companies that “intentionally induce” consumers to infringe copyrights – but the law is vague enough to allow it to be targeted at many common devices, say P2P groups such as P2P United.

    The RIAA regard the legislation as tightly focussed, and RIAA chair and CEO Mitch Bainwol praised it in a statement this week: “This bill places the spotlight squarely on the bad actors who have hijacked a promising technology for illicit means and ignoble profits. Legitimate uses of peer-to-peer are upheld, while those who intentionally lure consumers into breaking the law are held to account. Under this legislation, the path to legitimacy remains clear: Respect the law and block the exchange of works the copyright owner has not authorized.”

    The sponsors of this bill are being blinkered into a view that is entirely concerned with the profits of one group – the music industry. The backers of the Induce act are rallying towards just one group at the moment, because that’s where the money is.

    What about all of the legitimate applications for P2P software? P2P technology has a promising, legal, future ahead of it if it does not get hobbled by these misinformed people.

    Take, for example, the BBC’s Interactive Media Player project. The only way to distribute this content economically is to rely on a P2P network – yet all content will covered by a digital rights management system.

    Of course, the bill will only outlaw the production of P2P applications within the US – it has no teeth elsewhere, and will not apply to programs developed abroad. Using a P2P application is not illegal – he will have to outlaw the possession of such a program to have any real effect. And they wouldn’t do that, would they? Don’t bet on it – remember it was Hatch who suggested the development of software to destroy the computers of people who downloaded illegal music files.

    More details on BBC iMP

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