Related news roundup - January

Posted by andrew pascoe on January 31, 2010 · View Comments 

Some noteables from the IPTV/Vod/TV world for January 2010:

  • 28 Jan - In Sky’s Dec quarter results call, it made no mention at all of a pull VoD service - something it had/has committed to launching sometieme in 2010. PaidContent:UK.
  • 25/26 Jan - SeeSaw - the online VoD service that arose from Project Kangaroo :
    • began the move from alpha testing to wider beta testing , eventually opening to 10,000 users over the next month - news is everywhere
    • launched into the beta phase with content from 4oD and Five, in addition to the publicly announced BBC Worldwide content deal, leaving ITV as the only public service broadcaster it is not carrying. It has also announced deal with Digital Rights Group (DRG) and Perform
    • will have Cadbury, Nivea & Sainsbury’s as launch advertisers - BrandRepublic story
    • has appointed Video Initiatives as its sales hours - same BrandRepublic story / New Media Age says some of the ad inventory - Channel 4 and Five’s - will be sold by the broadcasters’ own sales teams. Seesaw was also, back in December, looking for a head of advertising
    • Update - 17 Feb - SeeSaw today came out of invite-only beta, allowing anyone to access the site.
  • 25 Jan - The BBC’s online spin-off of soap East Enders - E20 - racked up 1.7 million views in its first 2.5 weeks. E20 is available on both the EastEnders website, and iPlayer (although the views figure is not split out). BroadbandTVNews.
  • 25 Jan - The Guardian has a good look at what newly appointed Channel 4 chief executive can (and cannot) bring to the broadcaster.
  • 25 Jan - Research from Informa suggests that global IPTV penetration will be a 70million households by 2014 - representing 5% of total households.  TechDigest.TV
  • 21 Jan - BT has launched a new fibre network, with the aim of delivering 40Mbps connections to 10 million homes in the next two years - more info including price details & Virgin Media’s reactions over at The Guardian
  • 20 Jan - YouTube is getting into live sport:  it will livestream the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament happening in March. For the UK, because the rights were with now-defunct Setanta, at the moment it means YouTube will be the only place to see the action. The deal includes everywhere but the US market, and gives Youtube exclusive online streaming rights. It’s not clear how much the deal is worth, or what the ad revenue split between the IPL and YouTube is. PaidContent:UK & Guardian articles.
  • 15 Jan - The BBC Trust has launched a review of the BBC’s on-demand services. While the 4 services being reviewed are delivered via iPlayer - 7 day catchup via the internet, 7 day catchup via Virgin Media cable, live TV simulcasts, & podcasts - the review does not cover iPlayer itself.  BroadbandTVNews.Anyone wanting to respond to the review, including a survey, can do so here at the BBC Trust site (the review closes 12 March).
  • 15 Jan - The iPlayer usage stats for December were released - the PDF from the BBC is here -  showing a continued steady big rise in usage. As TechRadar and NewTeeVee both point out, about 1 in 8 views of iPlayer content is now coming from non-PC based devices.
  • 14 Jan - FreeSat have confirmed that the BBC iPlayer will come to Freesat HD general availability over the next few months. MediaWeek article.
  • 4 Jan - The BBC continues to defend itself - this time with a report prepared by Deloitte that shows the corporation creates £7.6bn worth of value for the UK economy annually. The Guardian. On a related note, outgoing ITV chairman Michael Grade in a Guardian op-ed piece argues that the government needs to act to protect the British PSBs from overseas players.

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Canvas & related news roundup - 22 Sep

Posted by andrew pascoe on September 22, 2009 · View Comments 

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 - 05 July

Posted by andrew pascoe on July 5, 2009 · View Comments 

After a period of quiet from us, below is some news from the world of VOD, PVRs, and more:

  • BrandRepublic: Ofcom released the latest stage of its report into the subscription TV mrket, with its recommendation being a load of sports should be added to an anti-syphoning list. Understandably, this has upset BSkyB, who are entertaining legal challenges.
  • The Guardian: Freeview confirmed its goal of getting 50% of households onto Freeview HD by next summer (in time for the football World Cup. The first regions for Freeview HD broadcasts will come online by the end of this year.
  • PaidContentUK: Joost’s CEO Mike Volpi is leaving his post (but remaining chairman), as the company admits its portal ambitions are going nowhere. It will become a “white label video provider”.
  • The Telegraph & BroadcastNow: ITV is funding some of the Digital Britain research into viability and success of micro-payments for content, and is considering introducing them in the future, both as a part of its VOD offering and a part of its Canvas offering.
  • PaidContentUK has a summary of Hulu-related news / non-news, including the possibility of UK broadcasters getting an equity stake in the venture.
  • LATimes: Cablevision in the US has had the legal obstacles to its offering of a cloud-based PVR removed. Users wouldn’t be limited to just the physical storage space available on the set top box in their home.
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Related news roundup - 15 June

Posted by andrew pascoe on June 15, 2009 · View Comments 

In video & industry-related news from the last week:

  • BBC News: Setanta is still around, and is reported to be talking to Endemol about the producer taking a stake. There’s also a bid for 51%, for £20, from Access Industries.
  • FT.com: Dan Marks, CEO of BT Vision (and also deputy MD of BT consumer) has quit. He has cited Sky’s dominance in sport rights as a critical factor in such poor BT Vision uptake.
  • The Independent: Expands on the story of BT officially coming out and claiming that video-intensive content providers like the BBC should subsidise the cost to the ISP with an article that no other ISPs are prepared to make similarly public claims.
  • Ofcom: FIVE has officially been awarded the last (last for the next 3 years) HD Freeview slot.
  • ITProPortal: Ofcom’s latest report from their tech research programme suggests that the costs needed to upgrade ISP networks to handle video demands equates to an additional £1 - £3 per subscribing household per month. The full report is available here on the Ofcom site here (PDF). That particular section is on page 4.
  • Brand Republic: Blinkbox is to start offering paid streams (DTR) of films, after a change in their agreement with Warner Bros.
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Related news roundup - 03 June 2009

Posted by andrew pascoe on June 3, 2009 · View Comments 

A few quick links from the worlds of online video / digital TV / the like from the last few days:

  • From CNET: YouTube has created a version of its video site - called YouTube XL - designed for lean-back viewing, for those who access their web browser via a TV screen (say, plugging in your laptop to the TV, or using Windows Media Center).
  • From BBC news: The discussion over who should bear the brunt of online video costs has risen again, with BBC News highlighting that the basic BT broadband package throttles its speed down to under 1mpbs in the evenings. BT (who let us not forget is partnering with the BBC on Project Canvas) has come out saying the BBC should have some responsbility for the video traffic it is causing. The BBC News takes BT to task on not having the speed throttling notice more promiment (on the main product page for example).
  • Not new, but from Ofcom: Their code on EPGs (electronic programme guides). While on EPGs,  this article in The Telegraph from Emma Barnett, on Bauer radio brands dropping off of the Sky platform, gives outsiders a rough idea of EPG costs - a yearly EPG slot costs c.£14,000 plus an additional fee of £7,000.
  • Another one from The Tele: It says Google and BBC are in talks to get an international version of  the iPlayer on Youtube.  Sounds very odd indeed.
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Ofcom gently warns Project Canvas

Posted by andrew pascoe on April 27, 2009 · View Comments 

There was a lot of coverage last Friday of Ofcom’s letter to the BBC regarding Project Canvas - on both news sites & blogs, and spread around Twitter.  This  article by The Guardian’s Mark Sweney seemed to break the news. (If you want to read the letter itself, it can be found here at the Ofcom site (as a PDF).)

While it is not clear whether the letter is part, or all of, Ofcom’s formal submission to the BBC Trust’s first consultation on Canvas, it is safe to assume that if there is in fact another document as their submission, it would have similar content and sentiment.

Jumping to conclusions?

A lot of articles and blog posts have come out with phrases like “Ofcom clashes with BBC”, and still others have come very close to already writing Canvas’ obituary by presuming the project will be stopped for being anti-competitive. That Project Kangaroo (the BBC / C4 / ITV video on demand JV) was prohibited outright for being anti-competitive seems to be offered as further proof (as well as letting everyone run wild with “son of Kangaroo” labels).

Of course, there is nothing to say that Ofcom or the OFT won’t be the ones to kill off Canvas citing anti-competition concerns. But let’s not overlook that Ofcom’s letter also mentioned, amongst other things, that it thought the whole project needs better explaining and communication. And  the letter was sent to the BBC Trust, now, at the beginning of the consultation process, and not in July after the Trust has made its decision.  While it doesn’t make for as sexy a headline, perhaps the communications regulator is geniunely raising its potential objections now, so the project can address them as it moves forward, and continues to become a reality.

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