Mike Slocombe

90% Of DVR Users Skip Ads
TV advertisers and execs could be heard blubbing into their double tall skinny lattes all over Soho as a new survey revealed that around 90 percent of current users fast-forward through ads.
The fine detail of the survey offered little comfort for the industry, with 97 percent of the coveted 18 to 34-year-old demographic saying that they skip ads all or almost all of the time.
With more and more consumers buying digital video recorders (DVRs), this could spell disaster for the advertising industry.
“This has always been advertisers’ biggest fear,” said Sarah Wade, a London-based account manager for the French market research firm Ipsos, whose survey asked about the viewing habits of 4,000 British TV households.
An earlier study by the media buying agency PHD had come up with the slightly less bleak – but still TV exec-depressing figure – of 77 percent of viewers who were armed with hair-trigger remotes, ready to fast forward any advert on sight.
Several companies like BSkyB already offer hard-drive based digital video recorders, with users warming to their ability to pause live TV and fast-forward through advertisements.
Although the technology is still bubbling under the mainstream, BSkyB says about half of new subscribers opt for its Sky+ DVR, and with cable companies selling DVRs that are built into set-top boxes, advertisers are set for a bumpy ride ahead.
According to the Ipsos study, only 6 percent of Britons currently own a DVR, although 35 percent of those without are interested in buying one.
Ipsos.com
13 July, 2005
UK MobileATM Banking Service Launches
Cashpoint network The Link and IT bods Morse and have got together to launch a mobile banking service across the UK.
After an extended brainstorming session with much flip chart flapping, the creatives have christened the joint venture MobileATM, and the service will provide services to the 37 banks connected to the Link network.
Customers signed up to the service will initially be able to check their balance, authenticate Internet payments, and transfer funds from their mobile phones.
Plans are afoot to extend the service to facilitate mobile payments direct from mobiles with customers being able to pay for items such as tube tickets and parking meters.
Unlike most existing mobile banking services where customers are automatically sent banking text alerts to their mobiles, the new service will allow customers to request information only when needed.
Andrew Bud, chairman of mobile firm Mblox, said: “This marks an important step in the delivery of financial services via the mobile phone. Monitoring and controlling cash using mobiles is rapidly becoming part of the economy.”
First Direct’s text messaging banking alert service has already proved a hit with their customers with 400,000 of its 1.2 million customers receiving balance statements by SMS.
Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB, the Co-operative Bank, Nationwide and Bank of Ireland are expected to be the first in line to use the service.
Users of the MobileATM service will need to have phones capable of downloading and running a small Java application, so those on older phones will have to upgrade or stick to bits of paper.
MobileATM
13 July, 2005
EU Seeks To Regulate Internet TV
‘The Man’ in the form of the EC wants to introduce regulation to the Internet by bringing in controversial rules to cover television online, according to a report in the Times.
Well, actually it’s ‘The Woman’, as Viviane Reding, the European Information Commissioner is hatching plans in Brussels to regulate areas such as taste and decency, accuracy and impartiality for Internet broadcasters.
Or good old ‘censorship’, as some may like to put it.
The consultation documents also looks set to relax regulations covering the amount of advertising that a TV channel can show, with the current limit of 12 minutes an hour likely to be scrapped. More adverts. Whoppee.
One of five “issue papers” to be released by Reding discusses the impact of technological change and concludes that “non-linear audio-visual content” (‘TV downloads’ in human-speak) need to be subjected to regulation.
Although some of the suggested changes – like the extension of rules governing the protection of children – are unlikely to ruffle any feathers, demands that Internet broadcasters provide a statutory right of reply look set to get the fur flying.
Ofcom’s already in a strop about the proposals, with Tim Suter, Ofcom’s partner for content and standards, snarling: “Whatever happens, it is not appropriate to take the set of rules that apply to television and apply them to other media. Where possible, we should be looking at self-regulation or co-regulation, because that is something that can deliver the goods.”
Internet-delivered TV is currently unregulated in the UK, so there is no compulsion for Web broadcasters to respect rules governing accuracy and impartiality or taste and decency that apply to all other analogue and digital channels.
The current big boys of UK Internet TV broadcasting, Home Choice, have formed their own self-regulatory body which mirror most of the existing rules, and Ofcom believes that this approach is sufficient for responsible broadcasters.
Ofcom argues that dodgy operators would be likely to operate offshore and thus be completely unhindered by any jurisdictions that the European Union dreams up.
The new rules will be based on the 1989 European directive, Television Without Frontiers, which set the benchmark for television regulation.
The proposals in the issues papers are not firm conclusions and broadcasters will have until 5 September to respond in writing, with a draft directive following by the end of this year.
The Times
Europe’s Information Society
13 July, 2005
Accenture ‘Digital Home’ Study Finds Big Barriers To Convergence
Hefty prices and consumer-baffling technology continues to hold back the development and adoption of space age converged digital home solutions, according to a survey by Accenture.
The survey – which involved 2,600 consumers in the US, UK, France, Germany and Japan – asked people their opinions on a converged digital home; i.e. a home system covering entertainment (home theatre, TV and hi-fis), healthcare (remote measure blood pressure sensing, pulse and temperature), home management (controlled security sensors, locks, fire detection and cameras) and the virtual office (voice, email and fax).
In no uncertain terms, cost was flagged up as the biggest barrier to purchasing a digital home solution, with more than three-quarters (80 percent) unhappy with the wallet-draining prices of home systems.
Consumers also wanted things simplified, with more than two-thirds (70 percent) saying that they would prefer to have a single provider for the content, services and digital devices.
“Despite strong consumer desire for a single aggregator for converged or complete digital home packages, many companies in this space provide only a portion of the content or services that comprise the complete digital home,” said Al Delattre, a partner in Accenture’s Communications & High Tech practice.
“In order to truly meet consumer needs, stronger collaboration and partnerships among hardware, content and service companies is imperative,” he added.
The survey respondents were served up four different types of digital home formats – home entertainment, home heathcare, home management and virtual office offerings – and asked for their feedback.
When asked what benefit would most encourage them to wedge out for a converged digital home solution, the greatest number of respondents, 56 percent, said, “save money,” followed by, “make life easier” (46 percent), “improve home energy efficiency” (41 percent), “save time” (40 percent) and “make my life at home more fun” (34 percent).
Although consumers show strong interest in the digital home concept, it’s not just the cost that is making them a tad wary: the survey revealed concerns about data privacy and security (40 percent), complexity of installation (35 percent), equipment becoming outdated quickly (33 percent), and the need to replace current home equipment (32 percent).
The bad news for box-shifting hi tech companies is that a mere 4 percent of all respondents said they could afford a converged digital home service now, although 48 percent believed such a service would be affordable in one to five years.
Nearly one-quarter (24 percent) reckoned they’d never be able to afford such a service.
But it’s not all doom and gloom, with consumers expressing a willingness to pay additional fees each month for services designed to enhance ease of use and convenience.
In the survey, 65 percent of respondents said they’d be happy to shell out for digital home services and content in a subscription or leasing model, and that they’d be willing to pay an additional US$20 (~€16~£11) to US$50 (~€41~£28) per month for automated, value-added services like secured data backup, system support, and specialised content such as medical data collection.
“Consumers will increasingly become more of a development driver for digital home solutions,” said Delattre. “But it is clear that the technology itself is just one piece – business models and customer support are almost as important as the product itself. Without demonstrated and specific consumer preferences to drive adoption of the digital home concept, it will continue to be just that – a concept.”
Accenture
12 July, 2005
.mobi Domain TLD Approved For Mobile Phones
Consumers on the move will soon be able spot websites which have been specifically designed for mobile phones courtesy of the .mobi suffix.
The new suffix, which we originally picked up on back in March 2004 was approved by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), will join the popular “.com”, “.org” and of course “.info”, and other top-level domain names when it goes live in 2006.
The new domain name was requested by a heavyweight gang of mobile phone operators and handset makers who teamed up to create a joint venture tasked with encouraging companies and Web site designers to create mobile-specific Web pages.
The member companies include Hutchison 3G, GSM., Ericsson, Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung, Telefonica Moviles, T-Mobile and Vodafone.
The companies hope that the new mobile-optimised websites will encourage consumers to upgrade their phones and access the web more while on the move – and thus generate lots of lovely lolly for their coffers.
“As .mobi will encourage the usage of advanced functionalities in mobile devices, the market potential for those devices will increase,” the companies said in a joint statement.
For some old timer designers it’ll feel like being back in the mid 1990s with the new mobile sites having to take into account the small screens, limited memory and frugal bandwidth available on mobile phones.
Although the new suffix makes perfect sense for British babblers (who call their phones ‘mobiles’), it’s a little more confusing for the Finns, where mobile phones going under the curious name of “kannyka,” which sounds like something that Ali G may have come out with. Aye!
ICANN
12 July, 2005
EU Raids Intel Offices
European Commission heavies made an unscheduled visit to Intel offices in Europe today as the chip maker’s offices were raided in connection with suspected anti-trust violations.
The European antitrust regulators started booting in doors two weeks after rival U.S. chip-maker Advanced Micro Devices filed a lawsuit claiming Intel used its market dominance to coerce computer makers away from using their AMD chips.
European Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd explained, ‘Directorate General Competition officials, accompanied by officials from national competition authorities, are conducting inspections of several premises of Intel in Europe as well as a number of IT firms manufacturing or selling computers.”
A statement from the European Union head office added, “Investigations are being carried out in the framework of an ongoing competition case.”
Intel spokesman Chuck Malloy confirmed that the raids took place, adding that his company was cooperating fully while insisting that it was “all a stitch up and society’s to blame” (or words to that effect).
The EU has been investigating claims about Intel using unfair business practices to persuade clients to buy its chips to the exclusion of rivals’ chips for some time.
An initial investigation was demanded by Advanced Micro Devices several years ago, but in 2002 EU antitrust regulators reached a preliminary conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to bring any charges.
AMD kept up the pressure, nagging regulators into looking into Intel’s business practices again, with the commission sending out formal notices to France, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Italy and Germany last year.
These requested information on government procurement tenders for computers containing requirements that they specify Intel chips or request a chip speed exclusive to Intel.
Late last month, AMD sued Intel for billions of dollars in a Delaware federal court, insisting that Intel bullied 38 computer companies into buying Intel chips.
Intel told them to stick their allegations when their chips don’t shine, suggesting that they were just whining away like a big girl because of their secondary market position (we’re paraphrasing slightly here).
Much as we enjoy corporate fisticuffs, we reckon that the issue would be best resolved without assisting zillions of smarmy lawyers to get even richer.
We reckon a playground fight would be far more fun.
Fight Fight!
Intel
AMD
12 July, 2005
Skype Zones Offers Wi-Fi VoIP On The Move
Boingo Wireless and Skype have fluttered eyelids at each other, gone for a quiet snog and, ruddy faced, jointly announced Skype Zones, a partnership that offers global Wi-Fi access to Skype customers at (ahem) “revolutionary” prices.
Skype Zones will let Skype’s 45+ million users access the popular VoIP service via Boingo’s network of 18,000 Wi-Fi hot spots worldwide, using a customised Skype version of the Boingo Software.
Currently, unlimited Wi-Fi access for Skype Internet telephony calls is being charged at $7.95 (~€6.53~£4.50) per month, although terms and availability may change as the service is still in beta.
Customers can access Skype on the move via the Skype Zones software which includes Boingo’s Wi-Fi sniffer, connection management and roaming authentication capabilities.
Once connected, laptop flipping punters will be able to make Skype calls and access features such as presence, global user directory, contact lists and instant messages with the Skype software.
“Partnering with Skype demonstrates the evolution of public-access Wi-Fi to include VoIP and other value added applications by allowing greater connectivity and productivity on the move,” said David Hagan, Boingo president and CEO. “Skype’s convenience and call quality have made it as important to travellers as email, and we expect Skype usage to increase traffic and revenue at our network of hot spots.”
Fluffing up the big pink cushions of corporate love, Niklas Zennstrom, Skype CEO purred passionately about his new partner: “Boingo is a world-class company that offers Skype users unprecedented global communications mobility and accessibility, at an aggressive, market disrupting price.”
“Affordable broadband access is fundamental to open communications, and partnering with Boingo to deliver unlimited Skype access around the world at such a compelling price point will generate new customers for both companies,” he added.
The combined Skype Zones service is available immediately as a beta test, with Skype inviting user feedback to help them fine-tune the service.
The Skype Zones client is available for Windows PCs and can be downloaded from the Skype store or the Boingo Web site. The software includes a directory of Boingo’s 18,000 hotspots.
Monthly access to Skype Zones is $7.95 per month for unlimited Skype access or $2.95 (~€2.42~£1.66) for a 2-hour connection.
UK users may find the pricing offered by Ready To Surf a little more ‘revolutionary’, as it gives free Wi-Fi access to make Skype calls in 350 Internet locations across the UK.
Boingo
Skype
Ready To Surf
12 July, 2005
Camera Phones Used For London Bombing Coverage
The growth of photo and video-capable phones has resulted in news agencies sourcing more and more content from members of the public who have used their mobiles to record disaster scenes.
As the story of yesterday’s terrible bomb outrages in London unfurled, news agencies told their reporters on the scene to ask witnesses if they’d taken any images with their camera phones, with the main UK TV networks also running notices instructing viewers to send in any videos they had taken.
Elsewhere, Websites, bulletin boards and blogs also formed a valuable source for news agencies hungry for stories, with Sky tracking down and then interviewing a tube blast victim whose photo had been posted up on a Web site.
Mobile video footage also played a major part in news bulletins, with shaky mobile video footage taken from inside a blackened tube train leading some news updates.
Footage of the destroyed bus was also shown extensively on TV with Sandy MacIntyre, director of news for Associated Press Television News, paying US$250 (~£144~€209) for the amateur video clip.
Mobile-sourced footage was used by several US networks with some TV executives commenting that it was the first time that video taken from a mobile phone had been used during the coverage of a major story.
Jonathan Klein, CNN’s U.S. chief believes this “citizen journalism” will become a more important part of coverage in major news events. “No question about it,” he said. “There’s been a lot of talk in terms of the increased democratization of the news media relating to blogs and the like. This is another example of the citizen journalist.”
Still images taken by mobiles were also extensively reproduced in newspapers all over the world, with a photo by commuter Alexander Chadwick appearing on the front pages of both The New York Times and The Washington Post, as well as other international and domestic publications.
News organisations are increasingly relying on amateur photography and video to help tell major stories, with NBC News President Neal Shapiro describing yesterday’s coverage as “a portent of things to come.”
Jonathan Klein, CNN’s U.S. chief, also predicted that mobile phone footage will play a more important part in major news events coverage, bringing about what he describes as an “increased democratisation of the news media relating to blogs and the like.”
AP News
AP story
11 July, 2005
Apple To Become Mobile Phone Operator?
The Apple rumour mill has been cranking into overdrive over the weekend after Forbes reported that the company may be considering becoming a mobile phone operator.
With Apple already rumoured to be developing a hybrid iPod/cell phone with Motorola, the article claims that “the pieces are in place for it to happen later this summer”, adding that companies like Virgin and Walt Disney have already proved that a new network model can allow all kinds of businesses to easily enter the mobile market.”
Disney will be launching its family-centric ‘Disney Mobile’ wireless phone network sometime next year, aiming to serve up a family-friendly mobile service with custom handsets and premium phone content (i.e. irritating ringtones and Disney-based games).
Since all the calls will be routed through Sprint’s national cellular network, Disney won’t have any infrastructure investment costs, but will gain access to a dedicated, direct marketing channel to da KidZ, scooping up network revenue and gaining a new content outlet.
Forbes predicts that Apple’s reputation for creating cool, user-friendly handheld gadgets could ease their transition into the mobile business.
In July last year, Apple announced its partnership with handset maker Motorola to create an iTunes-capable phone, but the product failed miserably to materialise at its scheduled CeBIT March 2005 launch.
However, a report in the Sunday Telegraph yesterday claimed that Motorola will finally “unveil the first fruits of its partnership with Apple next month with the launch of its iTunes mobile phone at the V Festival.” The festival runs from 20th to 21st August 2005.
So far Apple is keeping Mum on the rumours about it entering the mobile market, although Steve Jobs has frothed enthusiastically about the cellular marketplace in the past:
“The mobile phone market…is a phenomenal opportunity to get iTunes in the hands of even more music lovers around the world.”
Forbes.com concludes that Apple is not the only big company that might roll out a cellular service this year with analysts suggesting that uber-brands like Nike and Wal-Mart could be planning their own networks.
Forbes
11 July, 2005
Legal UK Music Downloads Top Ten Million, Up 743%
The UK record industry trade association the BPI has revealed that download sales in 2005 have raced past the ten-million mark – almost twice the amount for the whole of 2004.
Sales are racing ahead of last year’s 5.7 million legal download total, with 5,562,638 single track downloads registered between April-June 2005 compared to just 659,377 for the same period last year – up a thumping great 743.6% for the quarter.
Purring wildly, BPI Chairman Peter Jamieson said: “The record industry has enthusiastically embraced the new legal download services since their emergence in the mainstream little more than a year ago and now we’re beginning to reap the rewards.”
Illegal music downloads remain a thorn in the side of the industry, but the growth in legal downloads now outstrips the growth in dodgy file sharing with Jamieson adding, “The battle against illegal files-haring will continue, but we are delighted to have hit this milestone so soon”.
Big gains in DVD single sales have compensated for the continuing decline in CD single sales (down 23% to 5,721,873) with an overall 52.4% improvement in single sales being recorded (including downloads).
Once again, the death of trusty old vinyl has been exaggerated, with quarterly sales for seven inch vinyl up by 87.3% on last year, although figures are comparatively small (288,780 between April-June 2005 against 154,216 for the same period last year).
Data compiled by the BPI shows annual sales of seven-inch vinyl singles climbing up to 1.4 million units, representing a huge 64% improvement year-on-year – the best 12 months for the format since 1998.
The resurgence of vinyl has been attributed to British indie and rock acts love affair with their near ancient format, with bands like Iron Maiden’s, Libertines, Babyshambles, Kaiser Chiefs and Franz Ferdinand all releasing songs on vinyl.
BPI Chairman Peter Jamieson added: “Despite the incredible growth in download sales, there is still a huge demand for the collectible physical formats. It would be wrong to write-off physical formats just yet. Record companies are committed to meeting consumer demand in whatever format people want their music”.
BPI report
11 July, 2005