Web – Page 23 – Digital-Lifestyles

Live TV Streamed Worldwide to Reporters Phones by GMTV

GMTV streamed live via the web to foreign correspondents Video streaming specialists, Forbidden Technologies have announced a deal with GMTV to stream the breakfast programme live to its network of field reporters on location across the world.

GMTV trialled the broadcast application during the US elections, with international correspondents watching the show live via a standard (but secure) Web browser.

With the new streaming application offering the precise camera angles and comments made by studio guests and presenters, on-location correspondents can tailor their own pieces to reflect the mood in the studio.

This solves the problem of foreign correspondents having to deliver reports ‘blind’ to the debate in the studio, and should increase the consistency of reporting.

GMTV streamed live via the web to foreign correspondents The technology uses Forbidden’s ground breaking FORscene live compressor, that utilises advanced digital compression techniques to deliver a live video feed to PCs, Macs and laptops via the Web.

The technology also allows news camera crews in the field, to hastily compress and publish digitised content directly onto the Web, in a matter of seconds – definitely useful if you’ve got some mad bloke with a gun coming your way demanding you hand over the tapes.

Nestled up like a pair of love birds, Forbidden and GMTV are full of praise for each other and have pledged to work together during 2005, with their union bringing forth “new innovative streaming projects”.

Forbidden Technology
GMTV

Easymusic.com Aims to Shakeup Music Downloads

EasyMusic Cheaper legal download sites will shake up the online music industry, according to Easyjet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou.

Last month Haji-Ioannou launched his easyMusic.com download site, in collaboration with online music service Wippit, and predicts that cost-efficient digital downloads will take over from CDs.

He told the BBC World Service’s The Music Biz programme: “There were people who said when I started Easyjet that £29 ($54, €42) would ruin the airline industry. Far from it – it has made some companies less profitable, but it has forced them to compete, and therefore become leaner and more competitive.”

The easyMusic.com site includes tracks from more than 200 labels, including Universal, Warner, BMG, Sony and EMI, with single downloads starting at 25p, ($0.47, €0.36) and UK users can also pay by SMS.

It also plans to includes downloads on a ‘copyleft’ – the opposite of copyright – basis, giving downloaders access to new music for free.

But easyMusic.com is just one of number of new legal download sites launched in the last 12 months to take on market leaders such as iTunes.com.

According to figures from recording industry association IFPI, legal music sites quadrupled to over 230 in 2004, and the available music catalogue has doubled in 12 months to 1 million songs.
And while IFPI chairman and chief executive John Kennedy may say it is now the “priority” of the record industry to licence music “to as many services, for as many consumers, on as many formats and devices for use in as many places and countries as it can”, music sites may struggle to cut the cost of downloads unless they can persuade the record companies to cut back on their margins.

And of course many consumers still prefer to get their music for free – IFPI calculates there are 870 million pirate tracks on the Internet.
easymusic.com

Tim Berners-Lee Wins Greatest Briton Award

Tim Berners Lee It’s gradually becoming more common knowledge that the inventor of the Web, and what many people think of as The Internet, is an Englishman.

Tim Berners-Lee worked up the idea when working at CERN in 1989 and has now received another award, the first Greatest Briton awards.

Following the world changing invention, Berners-Lee consciously took the decision to give the idea away and not patent it, sharing it for the good of society.

To many this highlights the difference between the US and the UK, and possibility the US and the rest of the world. The idea of inventing, then freely sharing the idea, rather to only release the idea when they have figured out how to commercially exploit it. They view Berners-Lee generosity in stark contrast to events since the Web’s invention, with the rise of software patents. The opposing view is that those in the UK really don’t have the first idea about how to make a business from a good idea.

As one of the awards panelist, David Starkey said, “He chose not to commercially exploit his invention. He gave it away almost wilfully. If he had fully exploited it, he would make Bill Gates look like a pauper today.”

Tim now holds the 3Com Founders chair at the Laboratory for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL)at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is the overall Director of the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), an open forum of companies and organizations with the mission to lead the Web to its full potential.

Tim Berners Lee

HomeChoice VoD Hits 15,000 Subs, Reach Doubles to 2.4m

HomeChoice STB Video Networks Ltd (VNL) has announced that it’s broadband and Video on Demand (VoD) service, HomeChoice, now has 15,000 subscribers, since its relaunch in last September.

Eight in ten of their customers have also signed up to the company’s ‘triple play’ package that consists of broadband-delivered TV, broadband and voice calls.

It’s also taking this opportunity to announce that it’s going to be doubling the number of homes it can reach to 2.4 million in London and the Stevenage area, up from 1.2 million.

The VoD component of HomeChoice lets subscribers choose from over 1,000 movies, over 3000 music videos and hundreds of hit TV series, all available to watch exactly when you want.

“The concept of broadband delivered TV and VoD is very new to the entertainment-buying public and to already have 20 per cent market share of new DSL subscribers in our coverage area so soon after our launch is a great achievement. This gives us the confidence to significantly expand our network”, said Roger Lynch, Chairman and CEO VNL Ltd.

VNL initially made inroads into launching its phase 2 footprint in December 2004 when it enabled five new exchanges, including Stevenage – its first exchange outside of the M25. By ‘unbundling’ the exchange, called LLU (Local Loop Unbundling) in the trade, Homechoice is able to provide customers with a 6.5Mbit connection. 2.5Mb are used for TV and VoD delivery, and up to 4Mbit for Internet connection.

The company’s major marketing push for the re-launched HomeChoice service began in September 2004. During Q4 of 2004, VNL was responsible for one in five new DSL net additions in its initial launch footprint of 1.2 million homes.

The company has continued to build on what it offer its subscribers. In August last year, HomeChoice signed a retail deal with BSkyB enabling its subscribers to watch Sky Sports and selected Sky Movies channels on the service. It has also added telephony to its offering, and is about to launch a music download service that will allow HomeChoice customers to buy downloadable music tracks as they appear on screen. It also plans to double the speed of its broadband service from February, at no extra cost: 512Kbps will raise to 1Mb, 1Mbps to 2Mbps, and 2Mbps to 4Mbps.

HomeChoice

RAJAR: UK Internet Radio Listening Increases, Again

This morning RAJAR released their Q4 UK Radio listener figures, over radio, via the Internet and on TV.

For those who don’t follow this kind of thing, RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) is the organisation that monitors and reports the radio listening habits of the UK population, by taking a listening diary of 32,000 people from a pool of 130,000 people around the UK. The figures sound large, and they are. It’s the largest media survey outside the US.

While the details of who is listening to which UK radio station is of great interest to those in that business, the part that caught our attention was the ‘new’ ways of listening to radio, currently via TV-delivery and over the Internet.

RAJAR-Dec-2004-Radio-via-Internet It’s worth clarifying that the Internet figures include any listening of the radio on a computer, whether live streaming, using services like the BBC’s RadioPlayer/Listen Again, or Podcasting (download and play).

RAJAR are reporting 16.3% of the UK population, approximately 7.8m people, have used the Internet to listen to radio stations.

RAJAR-Dec-2004-Radio-via-Internet-UK-Growth The largest area of growth has been in people listening to UK National radio stations over the Internet. This has increased from 8.3% a year ago to 10.8% of the UK population, equating to just short of 4.8m people. It is thought that this is probably due to an raised awareness that the Internet can be used to listen to the radio, helped in no small part by the BBC pushing the service.

Due to synchronicity or just good planning, it’s of note that a new version of BBC RadioPlayer is released today. Providing very fast access to previously transmitted radio content, it comes with a feature that suggests additional programming that may of interest to the listener, based on the program they have selected to listen to. Once Internet listeners become comfortable with features like this, the number of hours listened to online will be significantly boosted.

Strangely the number of people listening to non-UK stations via the Internet has dropped 1.1% from 4.1% to 3.0%. Quite why this would be the case is a slight mystery.

While listening to the radio through a TV might sound like a very strange idea, it’s becoming increasingly popular and includes delivery over Freeview, Sky and Cable TV. Those with a DVR connected to their Freeview box are also benefiting from being able to record radio programmes and play them back when it suits them.

29.7% of the sample (equating to around 14.25m people) reported that they had, at one time or another listened to the radio through their TV. This is up 8.4% from the same month last year.

RAJAR told us that the people listening via non-traditional means appears to be in addition to their normal radio listening.

As these ‘new’ forms of radio listening are clearly gaining favour with the UK public, we feel there would be significant benefit in gaining a more detailed breakdown in how people are using the Internet to access radio. It would be of benefit to all those involved.

RAJAR are in the process of evaluating new ways to monitor radio usage. They are carrying out trials of electronic ‘listening’ devices that are carried or worn by the user. These would replace the manually completed diary version that’s currently used.

RAJAR
National stations – summary
London stations – summary
Detailed figures
New version of the BBC RadioPlayer

Music Download Giant Napster Considers Film Service

napster provide film Napster, one of the largest players in music downloads, is considering offering a film download service. The new service would sit alongside its music offering and help to give the company a competitive edge over its rivals. The technology is already in place to download movies, so the same service model could easily apply to films, television programmes and video games, now that broadband connection speeds are getting faster and more prevalent.

In a move targeted at the younger video-game generation, Napster won’t be the first company to enter the legal movie download market. In the US, MovieLink and CinemaNow are already offering a service to a growing customer base in America. Films on these sites start at around $2.99 (£1.59 Euro 2.29). However, similar to the music industry five years ago, the film industry is struggling to keep piracy at bay with technologies that allow movies to be downloaded quickly and in full to users with high-speed Internet connections. The Motion Picture Association of America has already filed lawsuits against pirates and is cracking down on distribution networks such as eDonkey and BitTorrent.

Regardless, legal film downloads will be a winner and are the future – just like audio downloads. Since broadband, film downloads have surged considerably, and around one in four people online have now downloaded a film, according to the MPAA. Such statistics have encouraged Napster and others to keep an eye on the market.

Since Christmas, Napster UK has reduced the price of its entire music catalogue of over 1 million tracks by 20 per cent. In response to record sales, the more aggressive pricing strategy will mean that full albums now cost £7.95 (US$14.89 Euro 11.43), while individual tracks cost 79p (US$1.48 Euro 1.14) when bought by Napster subscribers or purchased with Napster Pre-Paid Cards and Online Music Vouchers. Pricing for movies has yet to be announced, but it’s obvious they’ll have to be a lot cheaper than the latest DVDs for the service to takeoff.

Napster – UK
Napster – USA
MPAA

Online Documentary Channel Planned by UK Channel 4

The Chief Exec of Channel 4, Andy Duncan, has been floating the idea of launching an Internet-based documentary channel, that would carry archive footage from previously transmitted shows.

Duncan also announced that Channel 4 is to “double the amount it spends on ‘public service’ Internet sites”, which he revealed was currently in the low millions, reported Brand Republic.

We understand from Ofcom that the comments were made during their PSP pitching day.

Andy Duncan moved from the BBC, where he was the mastermind of the highly successful Free-To-Air service, Freeview. He’s been speaking publicly a lot about re-positioning Channel 4, although not all of his comments have been well received.

When Digital Lifestyles spoke to Channel 4 today about the Internet-based channel, there were still only sketchy details available; in their words it was “work in progress.” They did confirm that new programmes would be commissioned specifically for the site and that content would be downloadable.

Channel 4 told us more details will become available in the New Year and the launch is muted for Spring 2005.

Channel 4
Ofcom

MPAA Judge Finds ‘bulldozer’ approach ‘improper’

Last week, members of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) filed 11 lawsuits against hundreds of people they accused of using file-sharing networks to share infringing copies of movies. However, the Federal Judge ruled the ‘bulldozer’ approach improper, ordering that the case should be put on hold for all but one of the defendants.

The move by the MPAA to group defendants into arbitrarily-joined actions was probably thought of as a ‘neat’ and easy way to get the message across to other US citizens participating in file sharing. ‘Bulk’ suing could also save a heck of a lot of paper shuffling and administration work.

The MPAA sued groups of “Does” (John Doe) identified by numerical IP address and requested the discovery of names from the users’ Internet Service Providers (ISPs). However, Judge William Alsup ruled that because claims against the 12 defendants were unrelated, suing them together into one big case was improper. “Such joinder may be an attempt to circumvent the filing fees by grouping defendants into arbitrarily-joined actions but it could nonetheless appear improper under Rule 20,” the order states.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has filed friend-of-the-court briefs, objecting to similar misjoinder in many of the cases filed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) against alleged infringers.

“This decision helps to give due process rights to the Internet users accused of infringement,” said EFF Staff Attorney Wendy Seltzer. “Lumping them together makes it more difficult for everyone to defend against these claims.” EFF is also concerned about the movie studios’ failure to produce evidence of infringement against even Doe #1 in this case.

In a separate case, Warner Brothers Entertainment has secured a $309,600 judgement against an actor for allegedly making promotional ‘screener’ copies of ‘The Last Samurai’ and ‘Mystic River’ available for bootleg DVD copying and unauthorised Internet trading.

Carmine Caridi, a former recurring actor on ‘NYPD Blue,’ is accused of copyright infringement and is facing a default judgement of $150,000 per film and $9,600 in attorney fees. Caridi and co-defendant Russell Sprague were caught because the screeners were individually watermarked for each recipient.

According to Warner Brothers, Carmine Caridi, as a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, signed an agreement before he received the 2003 awards season screeners promising not to circulate them. It is believed that he immediately sent the VHS screeners to another address where they were copied onto DVD and converted to digital files that were posted on the Internet.

BT And Blueprint Jointly Develop Innovative Music Distribution Service

In yet another move in the legitimate digital music market, BT and Blueprint have jointly developed a new service based on Blueprint’s Open Royalty Gateway (ORG) and Song Centre software that allows copyright holders to take more control of their material.

The new service for hosting, managing and distributing music and related content online, promises to accelerate the growth of the market by addressing key problems hampering the development of online music businesses, such as time to market, copyright protection, capital expenditure in IT and networking technologies, control of rights and the margin structure of the present models.

BT brings to the table IT, networking and data storage knowledge, while Blueprint offers experience in media management software and music industry relationships. Blueprint will provide the software framework and industry interface, with BT utilising its digital content hosting platform and international network to deliver a global reach.

The solution enables rights holders – artists, writers, publishers and record companies – to host their songs, videos, ringtones and other digital media files while having a direct commercial relationships with retailers. Content can be delivered directly to any number of media-enabled devices, including PCs, digital audio players and mobile phones. Of course, online-only distribution also dramatically reduces the time it takes to get digital files to market, but the system has to be successful in managing rights and digital licences, reporting royalties and sales to rights holders, and offering a wide variety of digital media to consumers using variable pricing structures.

An interesting feature of ORG is that it allows rights holders to actively manage their content, including setting business rules for pricing and location, electronic contract creation, sales tracking and royalty reporting. In addition to handling ‘major label’ music content, ORG allows independent labels and artists, many of whom control their own rights, to encode, package and upload their content to the service and then manage contracts. Blueprint will also work with retailers, letting them mix and match content to create their own offers and campaigns through a service called Song Centre.

On the other hand, the service could, however, let artists or smaller labels bypass the majors and sell their music directly to retailers or consumers. Referral and reward programmes, using viral recommendation, also means that consumers can earn back the cost of the music they purchase, by rewarding them with a commission each time one of their friends buys recommended content.
The service has already been used by EMI for Robbie Williams’ recent No.1 hit single ‘Radio’ with Australia and New Zealand’s leading music retailers, Sanity and Sounds. Audio, video, visual and mobile content was bundled together for sale, and linked into a competition utilising Blueprint’s referral and reward technology to drive additional opportunities to win prizes. The service is now powering the global Robbie Williams ‘Greatest Hits’ digital download store.

Blueprint
BT

Thomson: ContentGuard and Verisign deals

Paris-based Thomson have been busy. They’ve done two deals that will have an impact.They have become a strategic investor in ContentGuard, a closely-held developer of Digital Rights Management (DRM) intellectual property. With this investment, Thomson enters into a partnership with current investors Microsoft and Time Warner Inc.

Digital Rights Management describes a wide range of technologies that have been developed to allow movies, music and other digital content to be accessed by consumers over the Internet while protecting that content from unauthorised copying and counterfeiting – a technology championed by Microsoft and its Windows Media Player software.

Thomson has agreed to purchase an aggregate 33 per cent voting stake in ContentGuard from Microsoft, Time Warner and Xerox, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. The announcement follows Time Warner’s April 2004 purchase of most of Xerox’s stake in ContentGuard.

The three companies (Microsoft, Time Warner and Thomson) are using the announcement to promote the development of inter-operable DRM systems, accelerate the deployment of consumer devices that support Digital Rights Management, and encourage content owners to launch new distribution channels.

The move is also interesting because Thomson is a long-standing technology and services provider to content owners and network operators, thus bringing a unique perspective that should complement the interests of ContentGuard and its co-investors. Thomson also has a lot of experience in IP licensing, which should further help to support ContentGuard’s licensing activities and accelerate and broaden the acceptance of DRM and ContentGuard’s intellectual property.

“The development of Web services and new content distribution systems requires a complete ecosystem of participants. Thomson’s investment alongside Time Warner and Microsoft shows that media, software, devices and services companies are committed to developing the infrastructure for Web services to flourish”, said Bill Gates, chairman and chief software architect, Microsoft. “This partnership will help propel the licensing of DRM intellectual property. With the participation of Thomson, a recognised leader in IP licensing, we add a European headquartered partner that will make this important technology more accessible in other parts of the ecosystem, particularly services and devices.”

“Today’s announcement marks yet another important step in our work on DRM, and expands our collaboration with key partners on this strategic initiative,” said Ron Grant, senior vice president at Time Warner. “We look forward to working with Thomson, Microsoft and others on offering consumers exciting new digital media products and services while simultaneously protecting content.”

In another move, Thomson and VeriSign have joined forces to create an authentication and authorisation service for movies, music and games delivered over digital networks. The new service, which will likely debut next summer, will be used to process secure transactions and for other back-office functions. It is geared at the subscriber digital entertainment market over broadband networks, which is a fast growing industry.

VeriSign’s Internet transaction authentication and network infrastructure technologies will be used, while Thomson will capitalise on its experience in content security, management and distribution. Both companies also plan to develop proprietary technologies to authenticate and authorise digital content and to build an interface for home networking devices such as video recorders, mobile devices and computers. These features could help protect movies and other content from piracy.

Thomson
ContentGuard
VeriSign