Category: TV related

Channel 4 Planning New Digital Services

Channel 4 is planning some new digital services in the UK to retain and grow its share of viewers. It has not been confirmed by Rob Woodward, commercial director of the company, if the new channels will be free to air or subscription only, but they are expected to cover music, factual and comedy. They’ll be carried on Freeview, that much is certain.

The new channels may be aimed at an older ABC1 audience (i.e. a bit more BBC2) than C4’s current younger mainstream audience.

More details when we have them.

Channel 4

Ofcom’s Digital Switch Over Report

“Driving Digital Switchover”, Ofcom’s report to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, contains 30 findings and recommendations for the UK’s move to digital broadcasting, and the decommissioning of analogue signals.

  • Ofcom are recommending that the switch, due to be completed by the end of 2010, should be phased in region by region, shutting down analogue channels one at a time. They believe that a firm timetable will encourage the adoption of digital broadcasting between 2007 and 2010.
  • Additionally, they suggest that the UK Government review the BBC’s obligations to digital and add further requirements, including: obligations on rolling-out digital transmission nationwide, providing public information, continuing to provide its channels on the free-to-view satellite platform, and providing on-air marketing of digital TV on a platform-neutral basis.
  • Importantly, Ofcom believe that free-to-view digital satellite will play an important part in increasing adoption of digital viewing, particularly with those who do not wish to subscribe to services such as Sky. Ofcom is considering regulatory intervention “to secure a viable free-to-view satellite proposition.”
  • SwitchCo is the body that Ofcom are suggesting is created to be responsible for managing the switch-over by the agreed date. The suggest that the body is entirely independent and not run by the government, any broadcaster or even Ofcom.

About the Report

The Report

BBC Live Quiz Show First to Use Java on mobile

Broadcasters have flirted with interactivity in quiz shows for a long time – and there have been a few examples lately using mobile phones to SMS answers. However, the BBC has teamed with Tailor Made Films to develop the next stage – proper interactivity on multiple platforms, including a mobile phone and web-based Java applets. The game can also be played on Freeview and through satellite set-top boxes.

The project has been on the go for about 18 months, and has evolved since its inception. SMS was considered in the early days, but was rejected as it was too restrictive.

Neil Pleasants, Managing Producer at Tailor Made Films told Digital Lifestyles why they favoured Java: ” Java is portable – you can take it to other countries and it’ll work. Digital TV platforms might as well be written in Martian, they don’t transfer — the platforms differ wildly as their capabilities.”

The BBC website explains the format of the quiz: “Come And Have A Go… offers viewers the chance to challenge the studio winners head to head. Playing on interactive TV, Java, or web, teams at home answer the same questions as the studio teams. At the end of the first part of the show a satellite camera is whisked off to join the top scoring home team – wherever they are in the UK. In the second part of the show, the home team competes live against the studio team for the cash prize.” The cameras are on motorbikes distributed around the country.

Neil went onto explain how Java has enabled them to sell the programme into other markets with the minimum of trouble: “We’re taking the programme worldwide. When we went into countries and explained the idea, they loved it. But they didn’t know about the actual technology. We’ve made the technology as simple as possible and that’s the key, because that is so essential everywhere.” Tailor Made films even have an idea for a branded phone.

Their first phase was getting the programme into Western Europe, America, Australia and Scandinavia – the second phase will be Eastern Europe, Middle East, Japan and China.

Java also allowed Tailor Made to build high levels of security into the quiz applet to prevent cheating, including timestamping. This is just as well: the guaranteed minimum prize is UK£30,000 (US$55,000, €45,000) the largest ever weekly prize ever given out on a British television programme.

Neil believes that content is maturing to match the platforms available: “This is as interactive as it gets.”

The official website

Tailor Made Films

Sun’s Java home

Japan Agrees on Digital Terrestrial TV Standard… for Mobile Phones

Japan’s six major television networks have agreed a standard for broadcasting and receiving digital television for mobile phones.

Fuji TV, NHK, NTV, TBS, TV Asahi and TV Tokyo have all signed up for the standard. “I think this will raise awareness among viewers about digital broadcasting and we hope it acts as a spur,” TV Tokyo managing director Katsumi Ueda told a news conference.

Services are due to start in April 2005, and will be free – but as yet, no handset or network providers have signed up. Interestingly, NEC released a prototype mobile phone that was compatible with Japan’s existing digital TV standard, but it suffered from power problems. See our recent article on DVB-H, linked below.

NEC’s digital TV mobile

Two Way TV diversify to content from iTV

Two Way TV, well know producers of interactive TV content, have announced two content deals.

First up is an interesting and significant deal with long-standing UK commercial network ITV which moves them away from just iTV (interactive TV) content to using the interactivity to supply additional types of content. The exclusive ITV contract allows viewers to browse and buy content through their remote control, whilst watching ITV interactive content and have it delivered to mobile handsets.

Initially video clips, ring tones, logos, wallpaper and Java games, will be offered to ITV viewers through an interactive service behind ITV1 and ITV2 on Sky Satellite. It will also be available through ITV’s 24:7 interactive services menu.

The first service to launch will be based around ITV’s football programming. Football fans will be able to buy classic terrace tunes, download pictures of their favourite players and buy video clips of classic football moments. They will also be able to get football related Java games.

TwoWayTV will also be offering a pop-themed service to provide chart ring-tones, celebrity logos and Java games.

Jane Marshall, the controller if ITV Interactive, said about the deal: “Interactivity is all about providing extra value for viewers and giving them more of what they want. This is a great way for us to broaden our relationship with our viewers, as well as creating new revenue streams for us.”

The ITV mobile content service will launch during the second quarter of this year. Two Way TV will also launch similar services on NTL and Telewest in the walled garden under the Two Way TV brand. Viewers will be able to buy games and ring tones from these services.

Secondly, Two Way TV is renewing its partnership with the Israeli broadcaster Connect-TV and is licensing of a new set of games to the company. Connect-TV has been broadcasting Two Way TV’s games services on the MATAV and TEVEL cable networks in Israel for the last two years.

“Two Way TV’s games have proved very popular in Israel and we are delighted that they have agreed to renew our games licenses. Their innovative games have carved out a strong niche in the marketplace.” says Tammy Friedman, the chief operating officer of Connect-TV.

Two Way TV

USDTV Launch USA’s First Over-the-Air Digital TV Service

It’s a broadcast model that’s been available in the UK for a while, but US Digital Television (USDTV) have introduced a digital TV service employing unused digital spectrum leased from its broadcast partners.

The subscription to the service is US$19.95 and includes channels from Fox, Disney and ABC. The set-top box to receive the broadcasts are made by Chinese manufacturer Hisense, and will set viewers back a reasonable US$99.

USDTV promise better picture and sound over analogue cable – and many of the broadcasts will be in HDTV too.

The service is currently available in Las Vegas, Albuquerque and the Salt Lake City Metro Area but is set to expand into an additional 30 areas by the end of 2004.

USDTV recently arranged US$8.5 million in private equity funding from NexGen Investments and Stonebridge Capital – and if they deliver on a number of prerequisites investors say they’re in line for an additional $12 million in funding.

USDTV

Hisense tap into digital TV market

Half of UK Homes Now Receive Digital TV

With penetration of 50.2% of UK households, the total number of homes in the UK watching digital television now stands at 12.3 million, up 423,000 in Q4 2003. This number includes 3.2 million free to air digital viewers using Freeview and ITV Digital boxes, and PC cards.

The report will be submitted to the secretary of state for culture, media and sport at the end of March.

Ofcom

1st July 2005 – the Broadcast Flag Comes to American Television

From July 2005, every digital TV tuner sold in North America, whether a card or standalone television set, will incorporate a chip listening out for the Advanced Television Systems Committee Flag, or “broadcast flag” as it has become known.

Devised by the Motion Picture Association of America, the broadcast flag is a technology where broadcasters will be able to control whether or not a home viewer can make a digital copy of a particular programme. If a programme has the flag set, receivers disable their digital outputs – so if a viewer wishes to make a copy, it will have to be onto analogue tape, or onto special low-resolution DVDs.

Needless to say the flag has had a somewhat mixed reception – as do most initiatives where the default position is to mistrust the customer.

But what will the flag be capable of in the future? Further incarnations of the technology could be used to prevent viewers from skipping adverts, or even preventing time shifting.

“Losing Control of Your TV”

Scientific Atlanta Planning Games Console

In what’s beginning to become a crowded market, Scientific Atlanta have announced that they are working on a games console. No specifications have been released yet, but the company claimed the device could compete with current games consoles from Sony and Nintendo. Chief Executive James McDonald said their new product would offer “the same performance you get out of those game boxes.”

Scientific Atlanta do not expect their Explorer hardware to be available to buy on the high street but will instead be installed by cable operators in subscribers’ homes. Games will then be downloaded to the box on a pay-per-play or perhaps a “buy outright” charging scheme.

Set top box builders and suppliers are working on ever more sophisticated hardware to compete for the coveted space under your television – getting the most compelling media gateway into millions of homes is worth a lot of revenue.

It will be interesting to see how the new console compares with Infinium Labs’ notorious Phantom console, summarised here a few weeks ago. What content will be available for Scientific Atlanta’s new console? It’ll need a lot of software to be able to compete with the systems already in the market, and with the potentially huge library of adapted PC games available to the Phantom.

Also allegedly about to emerge is the DISCover Console – a PC based system that boasts of the simplicity of a console. It allows users to play games simply by dropping the disk in the DISCover’s drive, rather than having to install and configure each game. The DISCover may cause problems for both Infinium and Scientific Atlanta based on the technology they eventually use: their website claims “‘DISCover® technology is protected by U.S. Patent No. 5,721, 951: a “home entertainment system for playing software designed for play in home computers.’ No one can manufacture a game console that plays PC games without infringing on this patent.”

Scientific Atlanta

DIScover, Not console yet, but you can buy a nice hat.

The Phantom still sleeps

BSkyB Announces Next Stage for Sky+

The Sky+ personal video recorder is set to evolve under new plans from BSkyB: they want to transform the PVR into a video and audio jukebox that subscribers can download films and music to.

Other plans include integrating five separate tuners – a move which will allow subscribers to record four channels simultaneously whilst watching a fifth.

Sky are also working on a technology that will allow Sky+ users to download content from their set top box to their portable video player so they can watch recorded programming whilst out an about.

Sky hopes to make £400 from each subscriber per year by the end of 2005. By building new functionality into their Sky+ product and then charging on a service by service basis, they should be able to earn significantly more revenue per customer, on top of the basic £15 subscription fee.

Since most domestic users are unlikely to ever want to record four separate programmes whilst watching a fifth, it seems to Digital Lifestyles that BSkyB will probably use this new capability to download films and programming to the PVR automatically, to a dedicated area of the hard disk. This will then allow Sky to promote the programming and offer it to to subscribers on an impulse buy, pay-per-view basis.

Media Guardian on Sky’s plans