Content

Content in its shift to become digital

‘Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room’, Gets Simultaneous Cinema/HDTV Release
In a break with cinema-tradition, HDNet Movies viewers will be able to see Alex Gibney’s highly acclaimed documentary “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” on the very same day the movie premieres in US theatres.
Cackling wildly in the face of convention which dictates that cinema releases always come first, the film, which debuted in the Documentary Competition at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, will appear on the US available HDNet Movies twice on opening night, 22 April at 8:00 pm and 11:00 pm EST.
After its one-day HDNet Movies premiere, the film will then be offered in traditional PPV, VOD and DVD windows.
“Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” was produced by HDNet Films, the high-definition production division of Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban’s 2929 Entertainment, and is being distributed by 2929-owned Magnolia Pictures. Using insider accounts and incendiary corporate audio and videotapes, Alex Gibney, the films director shows the almost unimaginable personal excesses of the Enron hierarchy and the utter moral vacuum that posed as corporate philosophy. It is expected that audiences will be shocked by the avarice of Enron’s traders and their bosses.
Cuban is well known for trying to smash commonly accepted business standards and conventions. “We want to reward HDNet Movies subscribers with great movies,” table-thumped Mark Cuban, co-founder of HDNet and HDNet Movies. “Our feeling is that people who want to get out of the house and go to the theater will do so.
Those who can’t make it, rather than missing the water cooler talk on Monday, will be able to see the film, only on HDNet Movies.”
The company has also announced production on a new drama, “One Last Thing…,” starring Cynthia Nixon, Michael Angarano, Sunny Mabrey and Wyclef Jean which will also premiere on HDNet Movies under the same day-and-date model.
HDNet Movies
5 April, 2005
‘Great For Music’ Handsets And ‘Find Music’ Programme Launched By Orange UK
Orange, the UK’s most popular mobile network, has wheeled out the initial line-up for its Great for Music handsets; the Nokia 6680 3G handset, Nokia 3230 and Sony Ericsson K300i handsets.
All the phones utilise the full range of music services available from Orange World, making it easy to download tracks, news and gossip, follow the hit40uk chart and buy videos, True Tones, wallpapers and tickets.
If all that proves too technologically challenging for confused customers, Orange are kindly staffing their stores with “phone trainers” to explain what button does what (we can’t help imagining a store full of lycra-clad sales assistants dancing to bad disco).
Music downloads from Orange World are to be included in the Official UK Download Chart, paving the way for tracks downloaded to Orange mobiles to be included in the Official UK Singles Chart for the first time.
“The Official UK Chart’s decision to include music downloads from Orange World in its Chart demonstrates that the music industry has recognised the rising importance of mobile music downloads within the digital music sphere,” said Mark Ashford, head of music, Orange UK. “The advent of digital music downloads on mobile means that up-to-date phones also act as music players, making digital music accessible for one in three people in the UK.”
A backslap of sponsorship deals will make it possible to book gig tickets through Orange handsets and download exclusive artist material and downloads.
“Enjoying music on your mobile handset is the going to explode in 2005. Therefore it is no surprise that Orange is committed to providing customers with the richest and most rewarding music experience possible. With Find music we are working with the best in both the music and mobile industry to help people buy, receive, listen and even interact with music in much more spontaneous and exciting ways.” enthused Julian Diment, head of brand and commercial partnerships, Orange UK.
Music downloads from Orange World cost £1.50 (US$2.8/€2.20) per track (£3.50/US$6.55/€5.10 for Fireplayer tracks), with users able to browse through the latest releases or search for the artist of their choice on Music Player.
Orange will also be trying to look hip and radical while promoting their corporate brand at the forthcoming Glastonbury and T in the Park events.
Orange UK
Nokia 6680 3G handset
Fireplayer
4 April, 2005
Napster Live, Music TV Series To Broadcast On UK’s Channel 4
Napster UK has teamed up with Channel 4 to broadcast a short series of live TV music shows, creating the first national terrestrial television programme to be run by a digital music service.
Napster UK has announced the deal to broadcast the predictably titled “Napster Live”, which will take the form of six 11 minute programmes featuring “established and emerging acts”.
Each episode will serve up an exclusive performance of two songs by a featured artist, along with an interview, biography and the all-important competition spot.
The programmes are being put together by independent television production company Blaze TV (who also knock out the weekly music show CD:UK).
Included in Channel 4’s ‘T4 Youth and Music’ programming, the first show will be screened at midnight on Saturday April 16 and feature rock band Garbage.
Other acts so far confirmed for Napster Live on Channel 4 include MOBO-winning UK R&B artist Estelle and UK rockers The Subways.
Napster Live already exists on the Napster digital music service as audio-only recordings, but the TV show will showcase a new format produced exclusively for Napster and Channel 4 by Blaze TV. Music from the TV show will be made available online at a later date on the Napster UK service.
“We’re incredibly excited to be teaming up with Napster on what feels like a truly unique and exciting proposition for 4Music,” frothed Neil McCallum, Commissioning Editor, T4, Youth & Music. “The bands booked are exactly the sorts of artists we’ve been supporting and this allows us to capitalise on bringing even more live music to a wider, up-for-it audience.”
“To extend the Napster experience to television is the logical next step in the UK roll out of the biggest brand in digital music,” purred Leanne Sharman, Napster vice-president and UK general manager.
Building up to a crescendo of mutual backslapping, Sharman added: “Channel 4 has a deserved reputation for groundbreaking and forward-looking programming as well as championing live music, so we’re delighted to make our TV debut on their platform. Napster is also extremely fortunate to have a partner like Blaze TV whose production skills, expertise and contact book have proven invaluable in creating this series.”
Not one to miss out on the quote frenzy, Conor McAnally, Blaze TV director of programmes, offered this insight: “In a world where the production and consumption of music are changing so drastically and so rapidly we are delighted to be involved with the market leader in music digital downloading and to have been given the opportunity to create exciting new programming for Channel 4 whose commitment to music, and especially new music, is unparalleled in the UK”.
Although eleven minute pop music programmes are hardly going to change the face of modern TV, Napster’s move reflects the inevitable convergence between online and terrestrial TV, with download charts already hitting the mainstream.
The series will be broadcast every Saturday night on Channel 4 from April 16, 2005 for six weeks.
Napster UK
Channel 4
4 April, 2005
R.E.M. On-Demand Music Channel Launched By HomeChoice
Video Networks, providers of the HomeChoice entertainment and communications service, has announced the addition of a brand new R.E.M. video-on-demand (VoD) channel to its platform.
HomeChoice customers keen to keep on losing their religion will gain exclusive access to the channel – which has been entirely designed and built in-house – from 31st March 2005.
Earlier this year also saw the re-release of nine of R.E.M.’s most successful albums including Green, Out of Time and Automatic for the People. The launch of the R.E.M. channel ties in with the band’s UK tour.
The V:MX R.E.M. channel is being trumpeted as the first artist specific video-on-demand package in the world and will sit within HomeChoice’s suite of V:MX music channels, which feature a library of over 3,000 music videos.
The R.E.M. channel will offer a R.E.M. videography (a what?!), featuring the nine re-released R.E.M. albums.
Sofa reclining HomeChoice customers will be able to access music videos – and associated live and documentary footage – by selecting the appropriate album cover using their remote control.
The functionality of the HomeChoice service will let customers create their own R.E.M. play list from the music videos on the channel and optionally purchase downloadable tracks by SMS.
While useful, this isn’t quite as slick as it sounds: if a viewer hears a track they want to buy, they have to click on the onscreen information button which will provide a number to text. A code is then sent back to them which they can enter when they log onto the Internet to download the music track. When we spoke to HomeChoice, they told us they were working on a more integrated way of getting pay-for content to their customers.
Naturally, there’s the usual ring tone guff provided for those who like to display their ‘individuality’ with irritating phone noises, with the channel offering 10 R.E.M. true tones of their most popular tracks, purchasable via SMS for £3 (US$5.60 /€4.40) each.
The R.E.M. channel will also include four competitions throughout the life of the channel, with prizes including an MP3 player pre-loaded with R.E.M. tracks, a pair of VIP tickets to R.E.M.’s concert in Hyde Park in July plus several R.E.M. goody bags.
The deal is what ghastly corporate types would call a “synergetic win win situation”, with Video Networks telling us that “no money has changed hands as both parties have brought certain elements to the channel and will then be sharing the revenue from the downloads and ring tones.” This would make sense, Warners/R.E.M. are providing a lot of content, and HomeChoice/Video Networks are providing a lot of design, programming and, of course, bandwidth. Video Networks have 34 people working in their in-house design studio and within the TV product team.
Roger Lynch, Chairman and Chief Executive, Video Networks Ltd said: “The addition of this on-demand channel is not only a true coup for R.E.M. fans but also ensures Video Networks continues to offer the most innovative music content on TV in the world today.”
The R.E.M. music channel will be automatically available to all shiny, happy customers who currently subscribe to the HomeChoice music package.
The negotiations for the deal with Warner Music have been underway since the beginning of 2005, brokered by a Video Networks BizDev person, who joined them from the music business. The service launches on 31st March 2005 and is available for a total of 16 weeks.
Home Choice
Video Networks
R.E.M. official site
4 April, 2005
EuroSport, RTL Nieuws Launch TV on Vodafone Netherlands UMTS
Vodafone Netherlands have added two further ‘channels’ to their current 20 plus channel UMTS (3G) service.
The first provides live access to the Eurosport channel where subscribers can listen to Dutch commentary. The version running on the Vodafone UMTS handsets is exactly the same as what is shown on TV, with a slight delay to allow for the encoding of the video.
Vodafone are a significant sponsor of sport around the world, covering F1 motor racing, a number of football teams, cricket, rally championships, Sking, even hurling and football in Ireland.
The second additional service is RTL Nieuws, RTL’s news channel. Rather than take a live stream, the news is packaged in to a 20 minute show, comprised of items of between 30-seconds and 2 minutes. The on-demand service is refreshed six times a day.
This joins the news service NOS-journaal, the public service news channel that has been running on Vodafone Live! for some time.
To date, Vodafone has EuroSport and RTL Nieuws exclusively and their addition brings the total number of TV channels available to 23, joining CNN, Playboy Channel, 2GOTV and MTV.
The charging for TV service over UMTS is worth spending a short while looking at. For data transfer 3G/UMTS services have been charged on a price per kilobit transferred basis.
Seeing the confusion this would cause with the consumer watching TV (how would they have the faintest idea how much they had spent watching a TV show), Vodafone took the decision to charge TV viewing by the minute.
In Holland, Vodafone customers pay 2.5 Eurocents for each minute they watch, so a 10 minutes session costs 25 Eurocents (US$0.32/£0.17). Time for another acronym? What You Watch Is What You Pay, WYWIWYP? No, we can’t see it catching on either.
As yet there are no bundles available, but we would imaging this is just a matter of time and competition. As yet, there’s no competition for this service. Vodafone were the first provider in Holland to launch UMTS with their Connect Card in Feb 2004 and followed this up with the first launch of the consumer service.
TV over UMTS works on all eight of the 3G handsets available on Vodafone Netherlands.
Vodafone Netherlands
NOS-Journaal
1 April, 2005
Space Invaders Revolution Coming To Nintendo DS
Everyone’s heard of Space Invaders haven’t they? Those who haven’t, will surely have been sitting in a very dark room with their fingers in their ears, singing “La, la, la, la” very loudly to themselves since 1978.
It’s a game with fantastical legends surrounding it, like the one about the Bank of Japan having to increase the circulation of 100-yen coins to cope with them sitting in Invader machines.
Since the original release, it’s been remade a quite a few times with varying success. Until now, the most recent release was the 25th Anniversary edition in 2003, where they went hell-for-leather releasing all sorts of branded goods as diverse as watches, bags, shoes and even cushions.
Not wanting to let a good thing go by, Nintendo has announced the latest version of Invaders – Space Invaders Revolution for the Nintendo DS.
The games original creator, Mr Tomohiro Nishikado, oversaw the development of the DS version at his development company, Dreams – how times have changed, he was originally responsible for creating the whole of the game.
It’s not just a copy of the original, Nishikado describes it accordingly, “With Space Invaders Revolution, I wanted the team to take the game back to its roots – whilst at the same time adding features which would appeal to modern gamers.”
The new version sounds like it has some of those interesting features, such as rules that change as you pass between levels.
Of course, for fans of the original, there’s an exact duplicate, rewritten for the DS, not a version running the original code in an emulator as we assumed.
We’re pleased to report that some of the scoring strategies from the first version, work in Classic mode. The Nagoya-uchi (the “Nagoya attack”), or “death row” technique works perfectly (this is when the invaders have reached the very last row, just before the ground, the player’s base is immune to bullets from the bottom row of invaders). We can’t report the same for the 22 shots = 300 points from the UFO technique, as each attempt to date has lead to a loss of counting.
In normal play, the DS version doesn’t make a great use of the dual screens. You can use the lower, touch screen as a controller, tapping the on-screen buttons, in some of the games and sometimes graphics do pass between the two.
New Era Mode has plenty of challenges in it, as you fight your way through 60 levels, bringing in puzzle elements to the tried and tested formula.
It’s published by Rising Star Games with a license from Taito (the original developers) and will be available in the shops during Q2 this year.
Nintendo DS
Taito
Space Invaders, 25th Anniversary edition
1 April, 2005
Vodafone Access Control: Mobile Porn Block Offered To Dutch
As of early May, Dutch Vodafone customers will be able to say ‘nr!’ to saucy adult content offered via Vodafone live! from their mobile phone.
A new ‘Vodafone Access Control’ service created in partnership with De Kijkwijzer allows sleaze-allergic customers to customise their mobile needs by allowing them to block adult content.
But who the chuffin’ Nora is De Kijkwijzer, do we hear you ask?
A quick rattle of the keys at babelfish tells us that De Kijkwijzer means “Look indicator” and their Web site reveals that it is a “classification system to advise and warn parents and educators about the possibly harmful influences that children may experience from a programme or film.”
This classification is carried out by suppliers of audiovisual productions for the Dutch market, including both public service broadcasters and commercial broadcasting organisations.
With hand-rubbing porn-shifters keenly eying up a growing – and lucrative – mobile multimedia market, it makes sense for telcos to be able to reassure parents that young Timmy’s new handset isn’t going to become a mobile gateway into the portals of smut.
With this in mind, Vodafone will only be offering sexually explicit content to its ‘postpaid’ customers, a service only provided for over 16s.
Using ‘Vodafone Access Control’, customers wanting to avoid titillation will have the ability to block access to the saucy stuff by simply calling Vodafone Customer Services.
The service will only be offered in Holland, but we expect other telcos to follow suit.
Vodafone
De Kijkwijzer
30 March, 2005
E680i, E725: Motorola Previews New Music Phones
After the humiliating no-show of their much hyped (and currently in-limbo) iTunes phone at CeBIT earlier this month, Motorola have hit back with two new music phones.
The Motorola E680i is a stylised version of its first Linux-based music phone, retaining the integrated FM tuner and tri-band GSM/GPRS 900/1800/1900 MHz coverage with improved Bluetooth support capable of outputting stereo audio courtesy of the AD2P profile.
The handset boasts dual stereo speakers with virtual surround sound and can handle just about any music format you care to lob at it, including MP3 and WMA, AAC, MIDI and WAV.
The E680i comes with a large 65K colour touchscreen with QVGA (240 x 320 pixels) resolution and the same 0.3 MP integrated digital camera as found in the E680.
There’s also the usual basic suite of applications, support for J2ME, handwriting recognition, messaging support (including e-mail), and USB 1.1.
The handset is slated for release in the Asia Pacific in April 2005, but there’s been no pricing or worldwide availability announcements from Motorola yet
Motorola E725
Sporting a ‘slider’ form factor, the E725 is a music player-cum-smartphone featuring a 1.9″ display (176 x 220 pixels resolution) with dedicated music keys, 5-band graphic equaliser and dual stereo speakers with virtual surround sound.
The E725 offers support for CDMA2000 1xEV-DO which – in English – means that it can rapidly download full music tracks over the air directly to the handset. Naturally, users can also sync the handset with their PCs and make use of the memory expansion slot supporting miniSD cards up to 2 GB.
All the rest of the features of the E680i are present and correct: an FM radio, a 0.3 MP camera, a 3.5 mm earphone jack, USB, a memory expansion slot (supporting miniSD cards up to 1 GB) and the same dual stereo speakers with virtual surround sound.
The E725 also sports a set of daft ‘rhythm lights’ for funky disco people who think its waaaaay cool to have a series of LED lights pulsating to the beat of the music currently playing.
The E725 is expected to arrive in North America in the second half of 2005, but, once again, Motorola are being coy about pricing details.
Motorola
29 March, 2005
BPI: UK CD Sales Beat The World
New figures released by the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) confirm that UK music fans are the numero uno, mad-for-it music buyers in the world, with each tune-loving Brit buying on average 3.2 CDs per person per year.
The announcement comes after the UK record industry announced its best ever year for album sales, with British-signed newcomers the Scissor Sisters and Dad-pleasing rocksters Keane topping the album charts in 2004.
The figures confirm that the UK rules the sound waves with each resident buying on average 3.2 units in 2004, followed by the USA (2.8), Germany (2.2), France (2.1) and Japan (2.0).
Incredibly, the UK releases around 26,000 albums per year – second only to the US in the number of releases – with the UK market recording an overall 3.0% increase in volume sales over 2004, helped by a robust albums market.
With a record 174.6 million units sold, the UK CD albums market continued to outperform its international counterparts in 2004, growing by 4.5%.
These latest statistics follow recent BPI research showing 55.4% of the UK population between 12 and 74 shelled out for at least one album last year.
After a massive increase in online and offline unauthorised access in recent years and doomsayers lining up to predict the end of record companies, this represents a significant achievement for the UK recorded music industry.
It also raises questions about recent BPI lawsuits against alleged P2P file-swappers and the promotional role the networks may be playing.
BPI Chairman Peter Jamieson says: “The strength of the UK market in the face of worldwide decline is a testament to the skills and courage of UK record companies who have never stopped taking risks in signing and developing some of the best talent in the world.
Improving prospects for recorded music internationally is also good news for the UK since after the US we remain the world’s biggest exporter of music.”
Jamieson added: “The UK is a nation of music lovers, so it’s not surprising to see the UK at the top of this list. A slew of great new British artists have met UK music fans’ demand for great music.”
The growth in digital sales has played a major part in helping the global music business tackle its five year slump, with 200 million downloads sold in the world’s four leading digital markets (US, UK, France and Germany) last year.
The arrival of high-profile legitimate digital music services such as iTunes helped lift UK single-track sales by 4.0% in 2004 with 5.7 million downloads sold, breathing life into the British singles market.
With album bundles and sales of digital EPs also doing good business in the UK, the Official UK Charts Company estimate that the total UK market for downloads topped 9 million units in 2004.
Peter Jamieson commented: “The main choice today’s music fan now has to make is whether to get music legally or illegally. As these figures show, more and more music fans are now making the right choice and helping make great British music.”
These trend-bucking figures reflect the UK’s huge enthusiasm for music, and although the industry must be chuffed with the growth of legally downloaded music, we wonder what impact the exponential growth of broadband in the UK may have on future sales.
BPI
24 March, 2005
Skype v1.2 Update Released
An updated version of the hugely popular Voice-over-IP (VoIP) application Skype has been released.
The skinflint’s phone application of choice, Skype for Windows v 1.2 includes a host of tweaks and new features including a centralised Contact list option and a ‘Getting Started Wizard’ that eases the pain of making that first freebie call.
The program is now able to instantly import contacts from other desktop services and applications such as MS Outlook, Outlook Express, MSN Messenger, and Opera Internet-browser.
“The latest Skype software for Windows builds on previous versions and takes Skype portability, ubiquity and quality to a new standard for modern communications,” enthused and backslapped Niklas Zennström, Skype CEO and co-founder. “We are grateful for the user input that helped shape this latest version, and applaud the Skype development team for the excellence.”
Skype have aimed to make the program less daunting to new users, with a new ‘Getting Started Wizard’ appearing up on start-up, ready and willing to handhold new users into the magical world of free Internet calls.
The wizard acts as a one-click launch pad to Skype’s frequently-used functions, such as importing contacts, searching Skype’s global user directory, editing personal profiles, configuring privacy settings, making test calls and accessing online help.
Another notable improvement is the centralised contact list. Whereas user’s contact lists were previously stored on the user’s home machine, it now resides on an Internet server, accessible over the Web from any Internet-enabled device.
Users can now also initiate multiple file transfers, play around with updated sounds and fiddle about with a feast of additional customisable settings. Skype continues to provide Instant Messaging-style chat, conference calling for up to 5 participants and cross-platform communications.
The soaraway Luxembourg-based company has so far signed up 29 million registered users for its free peer-to-peer based Net phone calling, making it one of the fastest-growing services on the Net.
Customers have – not surprisingly – flocked to sign up to Skype to enjoy VoIP free calls, and the company is now looking to squeeze some cash out of the hordes of freeloaders by offering attractive, paid-for ‘bolt on’ services.
This forms part of Skype’s strategy to make its Net-only product significantly more useful to consumers and potentially a mean competitor to traditional phone providers.
Skype is currently the leading Internet telephony product worldwide, with more than 31.4 million registered users, a figure that the company claims is growing by more than 160,000 new users per day.
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Skype
Download Skype
24 March, 2005