Related news roundup - 12 Dec

Posted by andrew pascoe on December 12, 2009 · Leave a Comment 

A few highlights from the world of IPTV, VoD, and more from the last few weeks:

  • Dec 7: BT - through their wholesle arm - are trialling an initiative called “Content Connect” whose aim is to improve video delivery by hosting popular video content at the actual ISP.  There’s a good Guardian article here (which says that the trails include BBC and 4oD content). There is also a presentation from BT Wholesale on Content Connect from 12 months ago, posted on Scribd here.
  • Dec 3: Five announced that it has bring its on-demand catalogue to YouTube, joining Channel 4. Broadband TV News article. PaidContent UK article.
  • Dec 2: Seesaw - the Arqiva-owned VoD initiative that was Project Kangaroo - has signed up its first content: some shows from BBC Worldwide.  DTG post.
  • Dec 2: Freeview HD was turned on. It was more a technical milestone than a c0mmercial one, but it gets a mainstream Freeview HD push closer. Broadband TV News article.  It was also announced on the same day that (regular) Freeview passed the mark of being in 10 million homes.
  • Also, at the Freeview HD launch, Freeview MD Ilse Howling also commented that they are looking at brining IPTV services to DTT. Digital Spy article.
  • Nov 28: Reportedly, BBC iPlayer won’t be coming to the Xbox 360 anytime soon, because of Microsoft’s policy of charging for content access (through Xbox Live) conflicting with the BBC’s public access remit . Telegraph article here.
  • Nov 27: Tivo has partnered with Virgin Media to return to the UK - they’ll be powering a new Virgin set top box (STB). Broadband TV News article.
  • Nov 27: The BBC released some detailed iPlayer usage statistics (likely in a bid to be seen to be more open, and also to demonstrate the appetitite for on-demand). The BBC Internet Blog post is here. The file itself is available here (PPT - 2.4mb). And CXO magazine have made some of the stats into an infographic here.

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New Project Canvas costs see an increase

Posted by andrew pascoe on November 4, 2009 · Leave a Comment 

C21 Media and Guardian.co.uk both have articles covering new information on Project Canvas reportedly released by the BBC Executive today. C21 Media article is here. The Guardian article is here. We’ll update the post when the full info is released on the BBC Trust or BBC sites, but below are some of the points from the two reports:

  • The total project cost, for the first four years, has been revised up to £115.6m.
  • This would put the cost for each of the current 4 partners at £24.7mill, after a projected £17mill in cost recovery
  • However the project is going to be opened up to 6 partners in total, which would bring the cost per each partner around the original forecast cost £16mill.
  • These two new project partners could be non-public service broadcasters, a change to the BBC’s original plan for the partners to only be PSBs. (There is no change to the actual participation - from hardware producers to content providers - being open to all-comers.)

Update (14:30): The statement and all the relevant documents can be found here on the BBC Trust site. The Trust is soliciting  feedback on the revised proposed structure and cost until 18 November.

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Sky criticises the BBC for Canvas, again

Posted by andrew pascoe on October 12, 2009 · Leave a Comment 

Still to grok this properly, but for those coming here via search in particular:

  • The FT this morning ran an article covering Sky’s criticisms of the BBC’s involvement in Project Canvas. The article is here. It’s based on Sky’s submission to the second and latest BBC Trust consultation on Canvas. (Sky incidentally did the same thing with their response to the initial consultation - released it to the media & then published on their own site. Their full response hasn’t been published yet, but it will likely be here on their news page when it is.)
  • Richard Halton, project director of Canvas, has just published a response here on the BBC Internet blog, on behalf of all the Canvas partners (so, BBC, ITV, BT, FIVE).

Update - 18.29: Here is Sky’s full submission to the BBC Trust’s second consultation - PDF file here.

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Canvas & related news roundup - 22 Sep

Posted by andrew pascoe on September 22, 2009 · Leave a Comment 

Whew - it’s been a while since our last update - apologies!

In the world o’ Project Canvas news:

  • According to this interview in PC Pro with the BBC’s Canvas project director, Richard Halton, the BBC “hope to hear back from the BBC Trust”‘ by Oct 1. Could he mean the the Trust’s provisional conclusions on the Canvas consultation will be published by Oct 1? Halton in the same Q&A also suggests there’ll be something more to announce regarding Channel 4 soon (although surely they’re a little busy now replacing Andy Duncan?).
  • Project Canvas was actually covered in the New York Times two days ago - the article is here. The Euro-wide HbbT is also covered. Interestingly, Richard Halton on timing: he hopes that Canvas will be in use for the 2012 Olympic games. Is Canvas internally starting to pushout its  consumer start milestone timings?
  • At the Westminster eForum event (15 Sep), Richard Halton also announced an intention to have a software development kit (SDK) available for Project Canvas by summer 2010. Broadcast Now article here.
  • From the IBC (14 Sep) Microsoft announced they are considering incorporating Canvas as part of Mediaroom - its IPTV product offering - if it was truly open with no proprietary standards. There’s a ConnectedTV post here with more info.
  • Going all the way back to early this month  (3 Sep), Broadcast Now ran an article explaining how the DTG (Digital TV Group) is stepping up work on fleshing out the core technical specifications, and that related to that and other steps related to developing the standards, the BBC is continuing to hire personnel to work on Canvas.

In related VOD & IPTV news:

  • Ofcom published proposals (14 Sep) on how to regulate video on demand services. The Ofcom consultation page is here.
  • At the IBC, Erik Huggers formally announced plans to create Open iPlayer - this was the initiative that was until now known as Project Marquee, and is based around opening up the technology behind iPlayer to other public service broadcasters   Broadband TV news article here. It sounds though like the Open iPlayer - which as the BBTV News article highlights still needs approval from the BBC Trust - might be made available to broadcasters from other countries also.
  • After releasing an upgrade for the Sony PS3, the games console is now making up 10% of BBC iPlayer views. ITProPortal article here. The other big TV-based iPlayer implementation  is Virgin TV which historically accounts for approximately one third of iPlayer streams, and of course there is a Nintendo Wii implementation as well.

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Related news roundup - 2 August

Posted by andrew pascoe on August 2, 2009 · Leave a Comment 

Once more into the breach of VOD/IPTV/regulation/general video news from the last fortnight:

  • Arqiva, the broadcast & radio infrastructure provider, was confirmed to have purchased the assets of the Project Kangaroo VOD project. The Guardian (article - 24 July) has the purchase price at about £8million and covering the hardware, software technology, related IP, and the intended to be consumer-facing “See Saw” brand name.  PaidContentUK (article - 24 July) has more info from Arqiva’s strategy director, saying the purchase is a “natural progression” for them, that the offering will be one to consumers, and that they are currently busy actually doing content deals. NMA (article - 31 July) says that Arqiva has it rumoured to have appointed Pierre-Jean Sebert as CEO of the new Kangaroo. The article says that Sebert for the last 3 years has been director of the rights negotiation and multimedia channel development at Reel Enterprises.
  • Microsoft UK got a lot of coverage of its announcement that it will launch a free-to-view VOD service, showing archive content from BBC Worldwide. It’s launching with (just) 350 hours of programming - shows include Peep Show, Hustle & Hotel Babylon. (Independent article  here  - 30 July). Pre-roll ads will be used to monetise (with launch ads all being bought by GroupM agencies including MEC & Mediacom - TheRegister article).
  • ITV has closed its future technology department. The department, headed by Simon Fell, was involved in ITV’s launch of HD & mobile & online services (including those ads to be inserted into VOD clips layed over white/blank spaces)   (article from BrandRepublic).
  • BT Vision continues to struggle to acquire new customers in any sizeable numbers. From Broadband TV News (article here) after accounting for inactive customers[(I'm not sure what BT are defining as an "inactive"] they have added just 10,000  new customers for the quarter ending June 30.
  • Sky will launch a true pull VOD offering to its HD customers next year, according to Paid Content UK - article here. (HD customers because the HD set top boxes have the ethernet connection needed.) Still with Sky, its like-for-like profit rose by 4% year on year (the total profit rise was much larger for the year to July, due to much less of the ITV stake writedown occuring in the last financial year than the previous one). Sky added 124,000 new customers in the last quarter.  Telegraph article is here.
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Summary of new information on Canvas

Posted by andrew pascoe on July 27, 2009 · 3 Comments 

It’s hard to know whether it was the Friday-lunchtime release, or if there is some sort of Project Canvas fatigue (already!?), but the additional information on Project Canvas released by BBC management has received very little coverage so far.

Here is a summary of what we’ve seen written so far:

  • The most comprehensive, no-nonsense summary of points is this post at PaidContentUK. I won’t repeat it all here, but go have a look.
  • Broadband TV News in this article covers the the co-operation: how DTG (Digital Tv Group) will work closely with Canvas, as well as open up their membership to ISPs.
  • Brand Republic / Media Week focus on the timetable and timings, leading with the feted 2010 launch. Article here.
  • The FT’s article from Sat’s print edition has a nice general summary, as well as mentioning the EPG prioritisation issue, and that there will be plenty of commercial opportunities.

And here is the BBC Trust’s statement from Friday, and each section of the additional info (all PDFs): S.1 Venture proposal,  S.2 EPG and enabling access for content and service providers , S.3 The agreement of the Canvas specification and industry engagement, S.4 IP distribution and related issues, S.5 ‘Project Canvas’ and fit with wider BBC platform strategy , S.6 Costs.

[Update] There’s also a reaction here from @Nevali.  And @BenedictEvans has some thoughts in his tweets.

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Breaking: Additional Project Canvas information from BBC management

Posted by andrew pascoe on July 24, 2009 · 1 Comment 

More than 7 weeks ago the BBC Trust made its first public announcement regarding its consultation on Project Canvas: “We need more information”.

Today (at about 1pm) that additional information - given to the BBC Trust by BBC management - was published.

We’ll have a wrap-up of responses and coverage (as well as some of our own thoughts) over the new few days, but in the meantime here is:

- the full statement (including a revised consultation timeline)

- the actual additional information to the areas the Trust highlighted (most linked from that page as PDFs)

And of course, to see coverage/responses as they happen around the web, you can do a Twitter search , a Google News search, and a Google Blogsearch.

(Update - 27 July: Here’s a new post linking to some of the press coverage so far.)

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Related news roundup - 19 July

Posted by andrew pascoe on July 19, 2009 · 1 Comment 

  • Broadcast Now: Rahul Chakkara, controller of TV platforms at the BBC, is understood to be leaving the corporation, after deciding not to move north to Manchester in 2011. The site reports that the R&D division is leading Canvas, along with the TV platforms group.
  • BrandRepublic: Carphone Warehouse is now not as keen as it once was to close the IPTV operations of Tiscali. CEO Charles Dunstone has said they’ll look at all options, including becoming a part of Project Canvas.
  • PaidContentUK: The Project Kangaroo shutdown cost BBC Worldwide £9.1million, it was revealed in their  annual report released this past week.
  • And finally, TechRadar has a great summary of Project Canvas to date. Read it here.
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Lost: 1 new consultation timetable for Project Canvas

Posted by andrew pascoe on July 16, 2009 · Leave a Comment 

Today (July 16) marks 6 weeks since the BBC Trust announced that its original timeline for consultation/approval process on Project Canvas was going out the window.

The reason for new a timeline stems from the Trust in the announcement on June 4 recognising that, while in principal Canvas is merited, there was nowhere near enough substantive information provided by BBC management (a call also loudly made by many stakeholders including Sky, Virgin Media, Intellect).

So the Trust asked the executive for more information. And a revised timetable was to be drawn up the the executive to reflect this development.

It’s now 6 weeks later, and there has been no new timetable publicly announced. Where is it, and when will we see it?

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Project Canvas news roundup - 05 July

Posted by andrew pascoe on July 5, 2009 · Leave a Comment 

A collection of all things directly related to Project Canvas from the last two weeks:

  • TechRadar: BSkyB’s (Sky’s) director of strategic product development, Gerry O’Sullivan, confirmed that they are definitely still interested in what opportunities Canvas could present them. Not too surprising, especially given the Canvas spec is understood to also include some way of having paid content in addition to the bulk free content. O’Sullivan speaking at the Intellect Consumer Electronics conference after seeing a demo of the service: ‘ “I mean to be quite honest I’ve learned more from listening to Erik [Huggers] about Canvas today than I’ve ever heard before.” ‘.
  • At the Intellect Consumer Electronics conference this week, the BBC’s Canvas point man apparently showed a demo of the service. If anyone was there, get in touch - we’d love to hear a description of what was shown.
  • At TechRadar: One thing that is available from the conference is a transcript of a short video promo explaining Canvas, also shown by Huggers. It’s not clear whether the promo was made internally, or by one of the ad agencies thought to be have been pitching for the account (it’s also not publicly known if a winner for the pitch was ever decided, and whether there’s an agency currently working on  how to communicate Canvas to the public).
  • TechRadar: Still at the same Intellect conference, Sony UK head Steve Dowdle has said the UK focus of the Canvas standards worries him, citing the figure of 4% global market share that the UK makes up.
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