Category: Content

Australian cable company Optus are floating the idea of running pay-TV via DSL after their successful trial.

The launch of the iMac reportedly brought very large numbers of viewer to its Webcast. Of course it’s a totally ideal audience, keen computer users who are passionate about their product being shown the newest toy by their demigod. Obviously there’s no discussion of cost of the event, 11 Terabytes is a lot of data/cash – and the fact that Apple are investors in Akamai must have helped. With actual figures of the bits shipped given this time rather than the vague ten million viewers given for the fabled Madonna concert, it’s far more believable. It’s a commonly held belief in the streaming industry that the Madonna 10m figure given was totally fictitious.

RealNetworks announce lots of PVR, PDA and other consumer hardware companies to build RealOne Player into their products.

The BBC announce their pivotal role in the ‘Curriculum Online’. It could be very positive for the UK industry, as long as the money is spread around rather than just placed with a small number of large broadcasters.

News: Future Looks Bright for VOD – TVinsite

News: Most Won’t Pay Premium for Fast Web Access – allNetDevices

Comment: The key point in this article is that users don’t see faster email and Web browsing as enough of a reason to get BB – they want compelling BB content and it’s key that they can’t get elsewhere.

News: TiVo signs first deal with cable TV provider – SF Gate

News: Baseball officials plan live video streaming – CNET.com

Comment: This is the kind of content that will start to make a difference to the adoption of broadband. People will hear others talking about ball games that they haven’t seen and have no way to seeing — they’ll ask them about it and what other content is available thought a BB connection & if there’s sufficient, they’ll have it installed.

News: CNET Drops TV Show to Focus On Broadband – EContent News

Comment: Two strong drivers – they have a BB audience and they have demand for segments of their programming. They say 70% of users of news.com use a BB connection, so they have an enabled audience. They also say viewer of their TV content do not want to sit through their currently linear TV shows, so I imagine they’ll make it searchable and viewers will be able to create their own show online.

I’ll be watching the development of this keenly.

News: Chello broadband announces more than 500,000 subscribers – Europemedia.net