Geographic – Page 82 – Digital-Lifestyles

Ofcom: Is the Internet Killing the TV Star?

Ofcom: Is the Internet Killing the TV Star? Big glasses-toting Buggles sang about ‘Video Killing The Radio Star’ back in 1979, but new figures from Ofcom suggest that the while Internet may not exactly be killing TV, it’s certainly giving it a bit of a duffing behind the bike sheds.

The research reveals that ‘TV reach’ (defined as a minimum of 15 minutes of consecutive TV viewing in a week) declined between December 2003 and December 2005, with the biggest fall amongst young people.

Over the two years, TV reach fell by 2.9% for 16-24 year-olds and continued to decline by 2.2% over 2005, with reach falling by 1.9% among 25-34 year-olds.

Ofcom: Is the Internet Killing the TV Star? Industry pundits are collaring the Internet as the reason for this decline, along with DVDs and gaming.

ITV1 slumped the most in multi-channel homes (i.e. homes with terrestrial and other channels), falling by 3.6% during 2005, while BBC2 managed to be the only terrestrial channel to increase its reach in multi-channel homes, rising 1.6%.

BBC channels hogged the TV action in multi-channel homes, snaffling 30.8% of the audience, way ahead of ITV at 22.6% and Channel 4 at 8.6%.

Digital growth
Digital TV is now accessible to two thirds of UK households, with 6.5 million viewers potentially launching a coastguard boat every time they turn on their sets.

Ofcom: Is the Internet Killing the TV Star? Consumer broadband continues its exponential growth, exploding from zero to 10 million connections in just over seven years, with some 70,000 new connections being added per week.

Digital radio remains a boom industry, with sales of DAB radios passing two million in the third quarter of 2005, and pushed on by a busy Christmas, hitting 2.7 million by the end of the year.

Ofcom report

Digital-Lifestyles eTech Meetup

Digital-Lifestyles, as media sponsors of eTech, will be heading over to the US on Friday in preparation of the much-hallowed event.If you’re heading over there too, do get in touch and we’ll have a Digital-Lifestyles meetup over there, to chat about all things digital. We’ll be there during the whole event, heading back late on the Thursday, but figure Tuesday/Wednesday would be best.

Google Digitises US Video Archives, Iraq Censorship Rumours Debunked

Google Digitises US Video Archives, Iraq Censorship Rumours Debunked Google has struck up a partnership with the US National Archives to digitise their historic movie collection and provide free access to the public through their video search service.

Initially offering 101 digitised films, the public will be able to view World War II newsreels and footage of the Apollo 11 mission and other Nasa material online.

Also included in the pilot are reels from a 1930s documenting the establishment of the national park system (be steady, my beating heart).

In a statement, US archivist Allen Weinstein declared the partnership as, “an important step for the National Archives in its goal of becoming an archive without walls.”

Google Digitises US Video Archives, Iraq Censorship Rumours Debunked “Our new strategic plan emphasises the importance of providing access to records anytime, anywhere. This is one of many initiatives that we are launching to make our goal a reality,” he added.

Google censoring Iraq content?
But what Google gives with one hand it appeared to be taking with another as The Register reported that the search engine giant was blocking US viewers from seeing a piece of Iraq footage on their video service.

Although available to non-US viewers, the innocuous clip – which showed US military personnel detonating a roadside bomb in a controlled explosion – was unavailable in the US with The Register (and, to be fair, several others) citing this as an example of a new regime of political censorship at Google.

Google Digitises US Video Archives, Iraq Censorship Rumours Debunked Happily, this was not the case, as a Google spokesperson explained: “Video uploaders, using Google Video’s ‘Advanced Options’ feature, can choose to blacklist countries. In this case the uploader blacklisted the US and only the US. When uploading the video the content owner set a preference not to show this content to users in the US.”

Of course, had Google not agreed to their highly controversial deal with China to censor search results recently, people would be less inclined to think them capable of censorship closer to home…

Google Video censors Iraq footage – for US only
National Archives via Google Video

Sky, Disney HD and VoD Deal Signed

BSkyB, the UK satellite TV behemoth, is getting closer to Disney. They’ve just announced a comprehensive agreement which covers both HD (High Definition) content, which Sky have said will be available in 2006, and the distribution of Disney content will be available on Sky By Broadband, their recently released free content-to-PC’s. service.

It’s the largest distribution deal that Disney has arranged outside the US and also mentions the deal covers video-on-demand (VoD). The VoD section of the deal does cover Sky-By-Broadband, but could also cover their yet-to-be-detailed, EasyNet-delivered VoD service, which interestingly isn’t mentioned in the release.

News release follows …

SKY, DISNEY MEDIA NETWORKS AND THE WALT DISNEY STUDIOS TEAM UP FOR MORE FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT, HDTV AND LEGAL BROADBAND MOVIE DOWNLOADS

Two New Channel Brands – Disney Cinemagic and ESPN Classic – To Launch As Part Of New Arrangement

Disney Channel and Playhouse Disney Become Available to Millions More Viewers As Part Of ‘Kids Mix’ Package of Basic Channels

Walt Disney Studio Movies Available From Sky HD and Sky by broadband

Jetix distribution on Sky digital extended

Disney Media Networks, The Walt Disney Studios and British Sky Broadcasting (Sky) today announced plans to bring a wider choice of channels to Sky digital customers and to work together to exploit new opportunities in high definition television and broadband. The wide-ranging series of agreements expands the portfolio of great content from The Walt Disney Company available to Sky digital customers and extends the relationship between the two organisations.

Two new channel brands – Disney Cinemagic and ESPN Classic – will be made available to Sky digital customers for the first time, while Disney Channel and Playhouse Disney will be available to millions more Sky digital viewers as part of the Kids Mix package of basic channels. There will also be more ways to enjoy great films from The Walt Disney Studios as movies distributed by Buena Vista International Television join Sky’s legal broadband download service, Sky by broadband, and its forthcoming high definition television offering, Sky HD.

From 16th March, Disney Cinemagic, a new premium channel brand for families, will be the first place on television to see Disney’s latest animated films such as Pixar’s The Incredibles. Subscribers to Disney Cinemagic will also enjoy regular access to other great Disney favourites such as Lady and the Tramp and Cinderella. Disney Cinemagic will be available to Sky digital customers as a stand-alone premium channel or as a bonus channel for subscribers to Sky Movies 1 and 2.

From the same date, Disney Channel and Playhouse Disney will be available to Sky digital customers as part of the ‘Kids Mix’ of basic channels. Disney Channel will be even more kid-focussed, complementing Cinemagic, and offering live action favourites like That’s So Raven, popular animation series and Disney Channel Original Movies, including High School Musical which is currently taking the States by storm. Playhouse Disney, a channel targeted to preschoolers, will premiere the new CG animated, learning-focussed series, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, in May.

ESPN Classic, launching on 13th March as part of Sky’s ‘News and Events Mix’, will be the only sports channel in the UK devoted entirely to the greatest moments and legends of sport with a mix of all-time classic highlights, matches, movies, interviews, profiles and documentaries. ESPN Classic, part of ESPN Inc., the world’s leading multinational, multimedia sports entertainment company, will be available 24/7 on channel 442. Launch night alone will include Borg vs. McEnroe – the Great Wimbledon Rivalry, England’s 2003 Rugby World Cup Final victory over Australia and the 1984 European Cup Final between Liverpool and AS Roma.

Through a distribution agreement with Buena Vista International Television, Sky Movies will continue to offer a package of current and library Walt Disney Studio films,,with customers enjoying access to forthcoming Sky Movies premieres such as Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe; The Aviator, Finding Neverland, Sin City and Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. In addition to the extension of existing pay-TV and pay-per-view rights, the new agreement gives Sky the ability to offer these titles in High Definition format and on a video-on-demand basis. These titles will also be available, for a set period, via the Sky by broadband service, which since last month has allowed dual Sky Movies subscribers to download films to their personal computers to enjoy when they want at no extra cost.

Under an amended distribution agreement, Sky digital customers will continue to enjoy access to Jetix and Jetix+1 for up to a further five years from the expiry date of the current deal in 2007. Jetix offers a dynamic programming mix of action, adventure and cheeky humour, both animated and live action, for kids with a core focus on 7-11 year olds, with programming highlights including Power Rangers, Jackie Chan Adventures, Totally Spies and A.T.O.M Alpha Teens on Machines.

In commenting on the announcement, Anne Sweeney, Co Chair of Disney Media Networks and President, Disney-ABC Television Group, stated: “This agreement, which marks our largest distribution deal outside the US, is great news for viewers, who will now be able to access an even broader array of Disney content, either through their TVs or via broadband on personal computers. The strategic utilization of new technologies to meet consumer needs is of paramount importance to the growth of the Disney Media Networks Group, and we look forward to this deal enhancing an already rich association with Sky, and our viewers in the UK and Ireland.”

Richard Freudenstein, Sky’s Chief Operating Officer, said: “These agreements show the range and quality of Disney content. Working with outstanding brands like Disney and ESPN allows us to offer great entertainment for every family member and to break new ground in multi-platform content distribution. With today’s announcement, we are creating another compelling reason for families to join Sky digital and demonstrating again the strengths in content and innovation that position Sky well for sustained growth.”

George Bodenheimer, Co-Chair, Disney Media Networks and President, ESPN, Inc and ABC Sports, said: “ESPN has built up a passionate bond with sports fans and we are very excited to extend this with the launch of ESPN Classic in the UK on the Sky platform. We are confident that ESPN Classic, a dedicated new sports channel designed specifically for the UK market, will capture the attention of the UK sports fan as it has in over 40 countries across Europe.”

Islington’s Free WiFi ‘Technology Mile’ Expands to 4Km

Islington's Free WiFi 'Technology Mile' Expands to 4Km Islington’s free WiFi cloud to extended well beyond the initial Technology Mile.

Back in June 2005 we covered the story that Islington Council, London, were to carry out a trial to bathe their streets with WiFi, giving free access to the Council online services and the Internet generally.

It’s great to hear that they’ve judged the trial as a success at around 1,000 users a week, and are expanding it well beyond its original one mile Upper Street coverage.

Islington is a very strange mixture of ultra-rich city workers with bucket-loads of cash and many people from the opposite end of the wedge-world who families have lived there since it was a pretty rough area, which was only 20 years ago.

It’s hugely encouraging that the extension of the free WiFi is up the Holloway Road, which generally isn’t the posh end of town. Equal access to all has been a concern for some time.

They calling it a ‘canyons of coverage,’ which if you have to pick a name, I guess isn’t too bad. The council have been working with Wi-Fi whizz’s, ~~Cityscape~~ Cityspace, and are spreading the signal using wireless transmitters located on lampposts below the height of the buildings on either side of the street – a good idea, as electrical current is drawn from the lamp posts too.

The strange contrast to this story is the one we covered two days ago, where the City of London is going to get blanket WiFi coverage. Apart from the location (about 1 mile away), the big difference is the price of Wifi access – free vs a shocking £5/hour.

Islington Technology Mile

2 Mch SMS GIVz U RSI (Click To Translate)

2 Mch SMS GIVz U RSI According to a new survey from Virgin Mobile, mobile telephone text messaging has become so popular in the UK that millions are complaining of injuries to their thumbs and fingers.

With more than 93.5 million text messages sent every day, there’s a whole load of keyboard action going on all over Blighty, and all that button pushing has led to a massive growth in the number of people suffering RSI (repetitive strain injury).

The survey found that thirty-eight per cent more people suffer from sore wrists and thumbs than half a decade ago, with 3.8 million people complaining of text-related injuries a year.

2 Mch SMS GIVz U RSI Despite the agony, it seems that Brits are prepared to go through the pain barrier to keep bashing out their texts, with more than twelve per cent admitting to sending 20 text messages a day – with a seriously obsessed ten per cent blasting out as many as 100 texts a day!

You probably missed it – we certainly did – but yesterday (Feb 21) was apparently National Text Message Injury day in the UK.

2 Mch SMS GIVz U RSI Designed to highlight the very real problems of RSI, Virgin have sponsored a very useful site, practisesafetext.com which comes with useful tips and advice on how to keep your textin’ digits in full button-pushin’ order.

British Chiropractic Association (BCA) spokesperson Dr Matthew Bennett offered a few tips of his own, advising texters to change hands if it starts to hurt, vary the hands and digits used and don’t text for more than a few minutes without a break.

2 Mch SMS GIVz U RSI As a recent sufferer of RSI (brought on by long hours sweating over a hot Logitech as I try to bring you, dear reader, the latest stories), I strongly recommend you try out some of the exercises.

You might look a bit of a berk while you’re doing them, but anything that keeps your pint-holding hand in good shape can surely only be a good thing.

Headline Translation – too much texting gives you RSI.

Ofcom VoIP Consultation Announced For UK

Ofcom has just announced another consultation on Voice over IP (VoIP) use in the UK as a follow up to their last, which they called New Voice Services: A consultation and interim guidance, and released on 6 September 2004.

We feel this is sufficiently important to instantly flag up, so now only cover the key points. More details will follow.

Ofcom estimate is that there’s around 500,000 VoIP users in the UK, we can only assume that this is both software (Skype, gTalk, etc) and hardware (Vonage, etc). Sounds low to us and at the time of writing, Ofcom hasn’t responded to our request for clarification.

Subjects for discussion/debate –

The obvious of 999 emergency service comes up, but the use of language is pretty interesting. Ofcom say they want to ‘increase the incentive for VoIP services to offer 999 access,’ so potentially no insistence. VoIP providers will love this, as they’ve tripped up in other countries with this.

The scope _does_ appear to cover number portability which is good for the consumer.

As yet unclear, but in our view important. Will there be a move to enforce interoperability between different providers of the service? It would be very pro-consumer, but would put the noses-out-of-joint for quite a few VoIP providers, especially Skype.

Any comments in response have to be with Ofcom by 3.May.06. They’re not going to rush themselves in making their views on the process know in a big rush, they plan to make a statement in August 2006.

Ofcom – Consultation Documents on Regulation of VoIP Services

Sport1, Film1: First HDTV channels in Holland

The World Cup In Germany this year is going to be the big opener for HDTV in Europe.

When I was in Berlin mid-last year there was a lot of talk about it, and with the annoucment below, it’s clear that that HD mania isn’t going to just be restricted to Germany, as Holland follows suit.

Sport1, a new pay-TV channel will be the first HDTV channel in Holland and on the back of it they’ll be launching Film1 – no prizes for guessing what they’ll be putting on that.

Dutch Sport1 and Film1 to launch HDTV channels with World Championship football

News release follows

Amsterdam, 21 February 2006 – New Dutch pay-TV service Sport1 will air the World Championship football in Germany in the HDTV (High Definition Television) format to kick off the first Dutch HDTV channel fully dedicated to sports. A Sport1 HDTV channel will launch early June, driven by the start of the World Championship on June 9, and will also show matches from the main European football competitions as well as a wide variety of international sports in the HDTV format. Launching at the same time in early June, a Film1 HDTV channel will show the latest Hollywood movies in the HDTV format.

The launch of these two channels is an important step forward in making the superior HDTV broadcasting available in the Netherlands. chellomedia, the owner of Sport1 and Film1 in the Netherlands, has concluded an agreement to this effect with the digital cable platforms of UPC, Essent, Multikabel and CaiW. These Dutch cable operators are currently preparing their technical infrastructures for the launch of HD services. Digital cable is optimally suited to HDTV transmission due to the very high capacity of the cable infrastructure.

chellomedia, which bought the film and sports rights for the Netherlands from Canal+ last year, first concentrated on the launch of Sport1 and Film1 as a digital pay-TV service. The main goal was more content and more channels for the consumer at a lower price. The launch of HD channels for Sport1 and Film1 is a logical next step in the strategy to become the leading provider of sport and film content in the Netherlands. Another step, in advance of the launch of the HDTV channels is the change to broadcast Film1 and Sport1 in the anamorph widescreen format (16:9), coming from the older 4:3 screen format related to analogue television (as far as the content allows for this).

HDTV: far better picture and sound
Jeroen Bergman, Managing Director of chellomedia Benelux added: “A growing number of consumers are buying high quality flatscreen TV systems for their homes, with which they enjoy a better viewing experience. HDTV transmission here provides a huge improvement of picture and sound quality over current standards of transmission. HDTV offers television viewing of the future. There has not been such a technological revolution since the move from black and white TV to colour. We are proud to be among the initiators of the future of a new standard of television viewing.” Consumers need a HDTV ready TV set and HDTV ready digital decoder for viewing in the HDTV format.

Film1 and Sport1
Film1 and Sport1 are Dutch pay-TV services of chellomedia, the European content and digital services division of Liberty Global, Inc. Film1 boasts four movie channels and broadcasts first-rate films that are making their first appearance on Dutch television. These vary from blockbusters to independent and art house films.

Sport1 is a 24-hour sports channel with an extensive range of live sports. This channel can be extended to maximally eight sport channels, enabling viewers to decide for themselves what matches to follow. Sport1 televises all the major European soccer leagues, as well as the UEFA Champions League, the English FA Cup and the Copa Libertadores, as well as hockey, basketball, baseball, darts, golf and tennis.

City of London Gets Blanket WiFi

City of London Gets Blanket Wi-Fi The City of London is to get blanket Wi-Fi, with city slickers able to access the Web anywhere within London’s famous financial district, the Square Mile.

The scheme, run in partnership with London-based WiFi vendor The Cloud, is set to go live in the next few months and provide Wi-Fi access on streets and in open spaces throughout the City.

The Cloud’s unique open network concept lets different service providers offer WiFi services to its customers and supports high speed internet access, rich email access, music, video and other entertainment services, as well as the all-important VoIP services

The City network will comprise around 150 WiFi network “nodes” lurking inside lampposts, closed-circuit TV poles and street signs, offering connectivity to an estimated 350,000 Londoners as well as the hordes of tourists who regularly tramp through the area.

“This will allow people to have continuous online access, whether in a taxi or an open area, across the financial centre,” said Peter Bennett, a spokesman for the Corporation of London.

City of London Gets Blanket Wi-Fi Unfortunately, unlike the free Wi-Fi service a few miles away in Islington, north London, the service won’t be free, with online access rates dependent on the rates charged by service providers.

Roaming Wi-Fi enabled punters without a provider will have to fork out a fairly hefty £5 ($8.70 US) per hour to use the service.

Michael Snyder, the chairman of the City of London’s Policy Committee, said that the network would help the City maintain its position as the world’s leading financial centre, letting city workers and visitors to stay in touch with their office via handheld devices while on the move.

“The City is a fast moving environment and we are responding to the increasing time pressures faced by workers by providing the technology for them to stay up to date, wherever they are in the Square Mile,” he added.

City of London Gets Blanket Wi-Fi The move follows an announcement that The Cloud would be installing network hubs and rolling out WiFi in nine cities across Britain, including Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, Oxford and Liverpool.

Three other London boroughs are also scheduled to go wireless in the next few months, which should help the UK keep its number two world ranking for wireless hotspot locations

According to figures from the Wi-Fi Alliance, the UK – along with the WiFi-tastic US – accounts for nearly half of the planet’s 10,800 wireless locations.

The Cloud
City Of London

ShoZu Mobile Photo Application: Brief Update

ShoZu Mobile Photo Application: Brief Update We covered ShoZu winning an award to last weeks 3GSM. Sadly we’d hit problems trying to test it out, but here’s the update.

Thanks to the top brass at Shozu for getting in touch to remedy our installation hiccups. Before the contact, we’d loaded another browser (Firefox over Safari, which didn’t hang) and managed to get the WAP download link onto our trusty Sony k750i.

The next problem we hit was of our impatient making. When getting the downloaded app authorised to use the phones Internet connection and access out photo’s on-board, we didn’t read the message fully and only fixed the Internet problem – the message didn’t reflect this.

We’ve now got it working and have been playing with ShuZo.

The problems we hit getting/authorising the ShuZo app on a myriad of mobile phones will be found by many others, and as far as we can see, there’s no obvious way to tackle it without being very patient and holding the hand of the user.

Looks like a clear need for a standard for getting active mobile applications working across handsets.

ShoZu