Digital-Lifestyles

Business

Changes to business digitisation brings

  • CinemaNow Signs separate Content and Distribution deals

    CinemaNow, an Internet video-on-demand service, has announced a couple of deals recently. They have brought Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI) in to their portfolio of content that they can distribute. As part of the agreement, CinemaNow will offer Sony’s new release films the same day they become available in their traditional pay-per-view window along with previously released movies from Sony’s vast film library. All movies are offered on a 24 hour rental basis and priced at $3.99 for first-run films and $2.99 for library titles. Sony is the latest addition to the current roster of 20th Century Fox, Disney, Lions Gate, MGM, Miramax, Sony and Warner Bros.

    They have also signed their first European distribution deal with Tiscali, giving users in the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy streaming and downloading access to CinemaNow’s content.

    CinemaNow

  • TouchTunes patent links gaming machines to jukeboxes

    This week TouchTunes, a provider of digital-downloading jukeboxes across the United States, announced that the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued another patent (# 6,775,744 ) in its favour.

    The new technology patent covers a “Communication device and method between an audiovisual information playback system and an electronic game machine”.  Unable to reach representatives of TouchTunes, we have scanned the patent to try to get an understanding of the patents relevance and have come up with –

    • transferring payment from the video games machine to the jukebox
    • selecting the music on the juke box from the games machine
    • transferring the points won in the video game to be used as credits on the Jukebox
    • transferring information from the games machine, through the jukebox at the premises to the remote server

    The company already has a portfolio in excess of 16 patents granted in both the US and Europe. It has continuously filed for intellectual property (IP) protection in areas relegated to their business model and products.

    Speaking about the new patent John Perrachon, President & CEO of TouchTunes’ commented; “TouchTunes has been working diligently to develop world-class music-on-demand products and has developed interesting technical innovations it felt needed to be protected. These patents recognize the unique proprietary intellectual software and hardware inventions developed and implemented for its music-on-demand products.”

    Developing technology since 1993, the company is a pioneer in digitally downloading music for music-on-demand systems and applications.

    Dan McAllister, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for TouchTunes said; “This addition continues to demonstrate our commitment to distribution in the coin-op market.”

    TouchTunes has signed agreements with key industry players including Sony, EMI, BMG, Universal, Warner and their music subsidiaries. They have also signed agreements with various independent labels including Jive, Beggars Banquet and Epitaph Records.

    US Patent 6,755,744

    TouchTunes

     

  • UK Apple iTunes Too Expensive says Consumers’ Association

    Ever since Apple iTunes Music Store and Napster 2.0 launched in the UK, we at Digital Lifestyles have been thinking that the UK pricing has been unreasonably high, being out of step both with the US and Europe. The UK Consumers’ Association (CA) has today mounted a campaign to increase the public understanding of the problem.

    The CA has written to the UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT) explaining the situation and highlighting that the current position is possibly in breach of European law. Under Euro law all consumers in all member states should enjoy the same benefits that the single market brings – it’s like if citizens in Seattle had to pay more for their iTunes music than the rest of America. Clearly with a differential between iTunes UK (79p, 1.15 Eu) and Germany & France (0.99 Eu, 67.7p UK) there is not a level playing field. Those UK citizens who understand that they can use either the French or German sites to order directly on find they are charged the UK price if they are not able to supply as an address in either of these countries.

    Although the CA campaign is focused on iTunes, perhaps because of the mainstream press attention it has attracted, Apple are not the only service where UK consumers are overcharged. The differential on Napster UK is even greater when comparing their UK pricing at 99p (1.44 Eu) against Apple European iTunes at 99c Eu (67.7p UK). This becomes even more distorted when US prices are used as a comparison 99c US = (55.4p). Clearly albums bought on the any of the services multiply the differential by a factor of 10, as most of the albums cost ten times a much as single tracks.

    When we queried the UK Napster price back on 1 June 2004, Adam Howorth, Communications director at Napter UK told us: “it’s simply down to the higher wholesale price we get from the record companies in the UK. If they would reduce their prices, so would we.”

    Overcharging UK citizens had always been the way business has been done, but most had imagined that this discrepancy would evaporate with digital goods. The old arguments that were always given; it’s a small market; goods are hard to distribute; it’s more expensive to support, all fall away with digital distribution. It is to Apple’s great shame that they have continued the overcharging, while clearly understanding all of the advantages that digital distribution brings.

    We will be watching with interest the reaction of the British public to this. It may give an indication to their reaction when they start to realise that the DRM-protected goods that they are beginning to buy do not work on all of their various devices.

    Consumers’ Association

  • Sendo settle mobile phone case with Microsoft

    UK mobile phone maker, Sendo, has settled its outstanding legal case with Microsoft in an out of court settlement. The financial terms have not been made public, but part of the deal includes Microsoft giving up their 4% stake in Sendo, that they had originally paid $12m (~€9.78) for in 2001.

    Back in 2002 there was considerable attention paid to the Sendo when, after having been trumpeting how they were going to be releasing the first Microsoft-power mobile phone, they suddenly announced they would be. This happened much to the surprise of everyone, including we would suspect Microsoft, given they were a minority share holder in Sendo.

    Sendo’s case alleged that Microsoft had used some of Sendo’s exclusive technology in handsets that Microsoft were developing with other mobile handset manufacturers.

    Sendo

  • Judiciary Committee Votes Custodial Sentences for File Swappers and Spyware

    The US House Judiciary Committee has voted for criminal penalties for individuals that install spyware on PCs and for movie pirates.

    A new copyright bill, the Piracy Deterrence and Education Act is calling for sentences of up to three years in jail for individuals who illegally share US$1,000 (€819) worth of copyrighted material over the internet. That, plus the promise of being sued by the RIAA should be enough to deter most people from ripping off music.

    When the House Judiciary Committee approved the Piracy Deterrence and Education Act, Congressman Lamar Smith, a Republican from Texas, said in a statement on his website: “Piracy of intellectual property over the Internet, especially on peer-to-peer networks, has reached alarming levels… This legislation increases cooperation among federal agencies and intellectual property owners, and assists federal law enforcement authorities in their efforts to investigate and prosecute intellectual property crimes.”

    Additionally, people who install spyware on victims’ PCs for the purpose of stealing identities and personal details will also face prison sentences. The Internet Spyware Prevention Act, sponsored by Bob Goodlatte and Lamar Smith is to go towards the full Congress and suggests jails sentences of between two and five years depending on the severity of the case.

    Since the CAN-Spam act was entirely toothless, time will see just how effective these two pieces of legislation will be if they finally become law.

    Lamar Smith

  • Altnet Sue RIAA

    Altnet are suing the a group of companies, consisting of Overpeer, MediaDefender and the RIAA, over patent infringement. Altnet, a peer-to-peer company and joint venture between Brilliant Digital Entertainment and Joltid, claim that the companies have infringed a patent Altnet hold whilst undertaking their copyright campaign with peer to peer networks to root out illegally distributed music and files.

    The patent itself refers to a technique that can read the digital fingerprint of a file held on a network, thus identifying a music track, video or other infringing file. Altnet approached the companies with the technology in 2003 with the view to entering licensing agreements, but had no success. Since then, the three accused companies have used fingerprinting in their campaign to rid P2P networks of infringed IP, without Altnet’s permission. Subsequently, the company sent a number of cease and desist letters to discourage further infringement.

    Joltid was founded by Kazaa’s creators after Sharman Networks picked up the popular P2P client. Altnet’s P2P technologies are used by Atari and Intervideo, amongst others, to distribute and sell content.

    Overpeer has denied infringing any of Altnet’s IP, but the RIAA is yet to make a statement. Overpeer and MediaDefender claim that their techniques involve swamping P2P networks with desirable, though entirely fake, files to put downloaders off trying to acquire infringing content.

    Altnet Chief Executive Officer Kevin Bermeister said in a statement: “We’ve exhausted every means of trying to work with these defendants and those they represent to patiently encourage and positively develop the P2P distribution channel. We cannot stand by and allow them to erode our business opportunity by the wholesale infringement of our rights.”

    Altnet

  • BitPass Secure More Funding as Content Spurs Micropayment Growth

    Good news for micorpayment companies – now that there are actually things worth buying, the forcast for the industry is very healthy indeed. Recent research by TowerGroup estimates that the market for internet and mobile payments will reach US$11.5 billion (€9.52) by 2009, in the US alone. Mobile payment companies like SimPay in Europe must be popping the champagne corks as mobile phone adoption in Europe is traditionally ahead of the US.

    To capitalise on the expected growth, BitPass has secured an additional US$11.75 million (€9.72 million) in funding from a group of investors including Worldview Technology Partners, Steamboat Ventures (the venture capital arm of The Walt Disney Company), RRE Ventures and others. Existing investors Garage Technology Ventures, Cardinal Venture Capital and Amicus Capital also participated in the round.

    The money will be used on the company’s sales and marketing efforts, plus enhancing the company’s product and customer service support.

    BitPass’ payment system is geared towards a wide range of online content, such as music and games, and offers secure anonymous payment. No software is required either – just a recent browser.

    BitPass is backed by Guy Kawasaki, who said of the company: “BitPass is the most exciting opportunity I’ve seen since the Macintosh. Since my days at Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), I have loved technology that empowers the little guy. BitPass does exactly that. This could create a business model for companies and individuals where there was none before.”

    BitPass

  • Zach Leonard Joins The Cloud

    Zach Leonard, former Managing Director, UK and EMEA, of the Financial Times has joined The Cloud as Chief Operating Officer. Zach will lead the commercial arm of the business, taking overall responsibility for marketing, sales and business development at the company. Whilst at the FT, Zach launched and managed FT YourMoney and FT MarketWatch.

    The Cloud have also recently acquired Peter Elliot, formerly heat of international IT at Orange and Gerard Small, ex-Group Finance Director at Colt Telecom.

    The Cloud is Europe’s largest public access WiFI network, with more than hotspots in more than 4,300 location – and growing by at least a 100 more every week.

    On the news, Zach Leonard said: “I am very excited about my new role and the challenge of developing new business opportunities for The Cloud. My main focus will be to articulate and implement new customer propositions, to acquire new site estates, to build awareness of The Cloud, and, ultimately, to manage The Cloud’s drive to build wireless broadband access in the enterprise market. The wireless broadband sector has enormous potential, and I am looking forward to being part of a team that is focused on making wireless broadband a success.”

    George Polk, CEO of The Cloud, said: “We are delighted to welcome Zach to the team. His appointment, combined with our recent hires in technology and finance, provides The Cloud with a very strong and seasoned senior management team. The company will benefit greatly from this combination of individual expertise and broad experience, which will ensure The Cloud is perfectly placed to meet the challenges inherent in its continued growth and development.”

    The Cloud

  • Patrick Parodi, Mobile Entertainment Forum – The IBC Digital Lifestyles Interviews

    This is the seventh in a series of eight articles with some of the people involved with the Digital Lifestyles conference day at IBC2004.

    We talked to Patrick Parodi, Chair of the Mobile Entertainment Forum about what the MEF has set out to achieve and the future rolls our mobile phones might take on.

    Patrick has a dozen years of experience in designing, planning, and launching wireless network services in more 20 markets world wide. In addition to his current role at Packet Video Networks, he has worked for Diveo, Skytel, Teleworx and TVAnswer in various business development and marketing positions.

    Some of our readers may not have encountered you, or the Mobile Entertainment Forum.  Could you give us some background on the MEF and your involvement?

    The Mobile Entertainment Forum is a global trade association representing all participants in the mobile entertainment value chain.

    It started out 4 years ago with a few technology providers for mobile games and messaging coming together, along with Booz Allen Hamilton, to consider the cross industry issues facing mobile entertainment. I’ve personally been involved with the Forum for 2 years, first as Board MemberVice Chair and recently as its Chairman.

    The organization has grown to over 65 members from all segments of entertainment and communications. What united our members under the MEF banner is their committed to growing mobile media as a major component of their revenue, whether they are a technology company, a broadcaster, a record label or a mobile games company. The diversity of our membership reflects the diversity of the industry and points to the need for a Forum where views and opinions can be shared on how the industry can grow faster. Our objective is to bridge the gap between entertainment and communication through advocacy, education and the launch of specific MEF initiatives.

    The emphasis is on growing mobile revenues responsibly. Companies join MEF in order to play a leading role in setting the right commercial parameters in this evolving new industry. The coming together of the traditional entertainment and mobile industries certainly creates a need to develop a common understanding of how this business is emerging such that sensible business models are adopted allowing all players to participate in creating end user value. MEF members are addressing vital issues such as the adoption of mobile digital rights management and the creation of mobile communities.

    Both of these initiatives are led by members who have come together to share information and learning in order for others to understand how they can participate in the creation of this new business. We also believe it is very important to communicate this learning and the opportunities created by mobile entertainment to those new to the industry, in particular those in the traditional entertainment and media industries.

    An example of how MEF has helped move the mobile entertainment business forward is the recent launch of the MEF’s UK ringtones chart, which measures, publicizes and legitimizes the development of this growing market. The Mobile Entertainment Forum is also looking to ensure that the right regulation gets adopted –one that provides sensible guidelines for protecting consumers whilst ensuring healthy revenues for all players. Hence, our Regulatory Committee has recently submitted comments to the EU’s e-Money Directive and how it applies to mobile.

    “All boats float with the incoming tide.” We are at the early stage of a new industry called mobile entertainment. It is vital that all parts of the mobile entertainment business have a common voice and recommend ways to resolve core issues and help the market grow. This is what I believe the Forum is providing to its members. A common voice.

    Tell me about PacketVideo Network Solutions?

    To keep with the boat and tide analogy, PacketVideo Network Solutions (pvNS) provides software for the “boats” who want to enrich the mobile media experience with video and music. The company is owned by Alcatel, and was formerly a division of PacketVideo. With over 20 commercial launches worldwide, pvNS is recognized as the leading provider of software solutions centered around the pvServer to mange and distribute mobile video and audio services.

    Right from day one the sole focus of pvNS has been the creation of products and services for mobilemedia.

    PacketVideo Network Solutions has chosen to employ AAC as their mobile music format.  Can you tell me what drew you to AAC?

    Like any other technology company when it comes to formats we have to be agnostic. We can run bench tests and believe that one format is better than another, but if that format doesn’t make it onto devices then we shouldn’t be backing it. For mobile music it’s fair to say that AAC (and AAC+) is our preferred format simply because it provides the consumer with the best experience.

    It also happens to be the format that has been adopted as part of the 3GPP standard and will find its way in more devices than any other format on the market. That being said, we’ll work with other formats too – whether proprietary or open.

    Can you tell us a little about your IBC session this year?  What are you hoping to cover?

    I’m very honored since this year I’m actually participating in two panels at IBC.

    The first is on mobile devices and networks (The business of handhelds – who will survive – Saturday 11 September at 14.00 – 15.30 hrs. Location: Room L) and the second is on the new business models surrounding the broadcast business (Future Business Models – Sunday 12 September. at 16.00 – 17.45 hrs Location: Forum). Both have extremely provocative titles and are chaired by great people (Bernard Pauchon of TDF, and Kate Bulkley who writes about this space).

    My views on both topics will be very mobile user centric. Although there are many different networks (GPRS, 3G, DMB, WiFi, DVB-H etc…) and many different creators and owners of digital content, there is only one end user.

    This end user wants personalized, real time, and localized content. If you look at the value of the ring tone business (roughly 2.5 Billion dollars in 2003) you realize that it is almost 10% of the value of the music industry! Now the question: Are people paying to listen to the music or to personalize their phones?

    Clearly content is going mobile and content on a mobile is only “king” if it provides that added value which is created through personalization. Some are calling it conversational content…others communitainment.

    The mobile phone is the most personal content receiver we have in our possession and there are now over a billion of them worldwide. This is just the beginning.

    Broadcasters are catching on to mobile phones as a revenue stream and way to extend brands – will customers pay for content they might get free through the internet or television?
      The simple answer is no. The way broadcasters are generating money on mobile is by using mobile networks as reply paths. The advent of reality TV and the ability for audience participation via SMS has blown away the level of interactivity expected by the iTV industry. Ask any mobile operator what the impact of Endemol has been on the mobile data business.

    The question to ask now is, will the operator networks or even broadcast networks be able to deliver valuable content to mobile devices? The answer is yes, but not without a serious effort in understanding the new time and space dimensions created with the mobile. The value to the user is directly proportional to the contents ability to relate to the new dimensions of time and space being created.

    Content will be valuable once it is wrapped into a service or application combining in real time, communication, personalization, and localization.

    Think about how you feel when you grab your mouse to surf the web. Your attitude is “what can I get for free?”

    When you connect with your mobile, you are conscious of the fact that each connection and each transaction results in money being spent. Therefore you are more disposed to pay for the right content. I am particularly curious to what happens with the overlay of location based services on mobile networks. This will result in “localized” content which also have a profound impact on end user value creation.

    Do you see the mobile phone eventually replacing all of the devices we carry around with us from day to day – like our music players and wallets?
      It’s tempting to say yes, but my answer is just a little more subtle. I think the phone will morph into a device that can carry out all these functions and more, but I don’t think that means it’ll replace all these other devices. I think it will certainly be our main portable electronic device and I think for those times that we want to carry one device we’ll choose the phone.

    However there will be times that we’ll want to carry a specialist device that’s designed to do just one task insanely well.

    A 5 Megapixel digital camera for instance. For a long flight I may still want a bespoke machine for watching films on a 15 cm portable screen, and there’ll probably be a bespoke music player that offers more functionality than a phone for a long time to come.

    So it’ll be horses for courses – but the phone will be the no.1 portable electronic device. It is unique, addressable, and affordable.

    Patrick is a panellist in the ‘Future Business Models‘ session between 16:00 and 17:45 at the IBC conference on Sunday, 12th September in Amsterdam. Register for IBC here

    Packet Video Network Solutions

  • Disney Puts the Brakes on MovieBeam

    Disney has decided not to expand their MovieBeam service into new markets until at least 2005. The service, launched a year ago, uses a set-top-box to download films via broadcast TV signals. The box can hold up to 100 films, which viewers can then rent for US$1.99 to US$3.99 (€1.64 to €3.28). Subscribers then watch the content on their televisions, and can control the film as if they were watching a DVD, by pausing and fast forwarding or rewinding sections. Films are updated on the box regularly, without user intervention.

    The lack of expansion is not because the service has been unpopular – instead, Disney say that the service has been successful, and has attracted interest from companies interesting in partnering with them.

    MovieBeam is currently only available in the Salt Lake City, Utah; Spokane, Washington; and Jacksonville, Florida areas, and Disney had intended to launch the service in three more markets by the end of the year. However, the company is now in discussions with technology and electronics companies on how best to take the service national in the USA in 2005 or early 2005.

    MovieBeam customers are due for a remote upgrade to their service in October this year, with improvements to the user interface and new content such as short films and current trailers.

    Info source: Stefanie Olsen, CNet and Disney

    MovieBeam