Twitter is a hit in the UK

Internet research company, Hitwise, reported that Twitter is one of the fastest growing web sites in the UK, with traffic rising tenfold in the past 12 months.

What started as a very dense community site around micro-conversations has had a 974 per cent traffic increase in the UK last year alone. This astonishing fast growth was said to be augmented by a number of global catastrophic events including Mumbai bombing incident and the Hudson airplane crash, during which active users of the site ushered in to provide real-time eye witness updates. In addition, Twitter has attracted a number of global celebrities like Barack Obama and Britney Spears, as well as popular TV personalities including Stephen Fry and Jonathan Ross.

Webuser has a pretty decent list for all celebrity users here, if you’d like to join the microverse.

Watch the Pope on Youtube TV

As reported on Wired, the most watched video sharing site Youtube recently launched a video channel available on Nitendo Wii and PS3 consoles, bringing in a vast archive of user and pro generated content direct to TV viewers, including video messages from the Pope Benedict XVI, a new channel launched by the Vatican. Youtube TV has been developed with the TV user in mind rather than the PC or laptop, this is a smart approach when taking web content to the TV, they’ve also tweaked it so that can watch a series of similar videos on an auto-play. See below for a demo of Youtube on PS3.

It was mentioned that the quality of watching Youtube on Wii and PS differs slightly, but overall Wii has the upper hand when it comes to delivery as it has more than 40 million consoles in use globally, as posted previously here.

Currently in Beta, Youtube TV is said to be providing APIs for developers.

How are you watching Barack Obama’s Inauguration?

With millions and possibly billions of global citizens expected to watch and celebrate the new US president Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremony tomorrow, it’s predicted that all major broadcast and internet sites will be inundated with live reporting. However, with so many options out there, how are you planning to watch the inauguration?

If you're not sure yet, below are where the celebration will be broadcast online:

• Barack Obama Inauguration website
• Online News sites i.e BBC or Sky HD
• Youtube or Hulu
• Mobile (via uStream.com)
• P2P app (Livestation)
• Webcast (Everything Obama page on Joost)
• Facebook (in partnership with CNN)
• Current & Twitter
• Photosynth 3D Panorama
  

Who Wants Widgets?

When any technology is suddenly hyped or gets a ramp in news coverage, it is always interesting to read the minority report. Farhad Manjoo's CES piece in Slate magazine is no exception. In this article he addresses a topic I commented on last week – the rise of widgets on the TV.

While Manjoo makes some good points, his central argument seems to be the tired old lean-forward vs lean-back user interaction that sums up the differences between TV and PC. For me, widgets are more subtle - I see them as an evolution of the European teletext service and the digital red button apps. Teletext and EPG are not lean-forward activities, they are just ways to augment the information that the TV provides the user. TV widgets will fulfil a similar function.

What about Flickr and Amazon though? Is one-click ordering a book really that interactively different than one-click ordering a movie? Is organising your photos really so different to organising your night's viewing? It doesn't feel different to me.

Open IPTV Forum publishes system and protocol specifications

The Open IPTV Forum published version 1.0 of their end-to-end specifications for an IPTV System yesterday. As active members of the Forum and a strong supporters of open standards, the team at ANT are pleased that the specifications are now generally available to the public, and we hope that they will help the industry as a whole to move forward and build some really exciting new services that show off the real potential of IPTV.

Apple drops DRM for good

Apple has announced that every song in its iTunes music store will be DRM-free and available in high quality 256bit audio by the end of March this year. iTunes music store has over 10 million music tracks and 75 million users, which makes it no.1 music retailer in the US.

Apple has also taken the opportunity to release iTunes 8 and revamp its music store price points, moving from a single price point of 99c in the US to a three tier pricing model: 69c for old music, 99c for tastemaker or emerging music and $1.29 for new singles from popular artists.

It's taken an incredibly long time for music listeners to change Apple's outlook on DRM, but it looks like the music executives are finally starting to understand and accept that in fact DRM fails to prevent piracy - indeed it only really serves to penalise and annoy law-abiding music downloaders.

Yahoo lands full on TV Widgets

Yahoo has re-emerged with yet another strategically important partnership in the TV space, as it announced that it will be offering a TV Widget service in partnership with Samsung.

It was revealed that the service will be offered on Samsung’s new internet-connected HDTVs with content feeds from Yahoo! news channels and Flickr, where viewers will be able to browse news and photos on a large screen. The widget service will provide updates on localised content such as weather forecasts, the stock market and shares information.

With the emergence of large HDTVs, services like this will help content providers to push both existing and new content through easily accessible widgets in real time. However, whilst TV widgets can’t be interacted with in the same way as a PC or lap top, they will give new media content providers a great opportunity to tie the widget, or application, more closely to the content.

The real value of widget technology can be achieved when it’s extended to multiple devices from games consoles, to set-top boxes and mobile phones further enabling end-to-end peer interaction. Here at ANT we’ve already experimented with similar services on the STB and will be launching more in the future so watch this space!

Wii bit of TV from Nintendo

Nintendo is set to offer TV on the Wii game console, the move marks an interesting development in the IPTV and broadcast industry, as it’s reckoned that 40 million households worldwide use the Wii and almost half are connected to the internet. Nintendo will be looking to build on advertising and content revenue with the new service. It is expected to begin in Japan this spring and will be rolled out globally by the end of the year with exclusive content including cartoons, cookery programmes, brain-training quizzes and lifestyle shows.

Tiscali cuts Italian IPTV service

On the eve of New Year, Tiscali announced that it will no longer continue its IPTV service in Italy, much to the surprise of its 50,000 customers. Already, Tiscali's exit has caused remarks about the state of the company’s position in the IPTV and broadband market and whether it will seize significant stronghold in the highly competitive UK market. Both Telcos and ISP operators like Sky, Virgin and Vodafone are increasingly towering over with better integrated network bundles.

Dead kangaroo?

Project Kangaroo has been well publicised in the past year or so as the three main terrestrial broadcasters in the UK attempt to team up to deliver an iPlayer-type service that will aggregate content and serve it up on demand via broadband.

The Competition Commission put a halt to the project in December claiming that it simply isn’t fair to other retail and wholesale content providers.

The Commission has tasked the terrestrial trio to examine its structure and to specifically examine “the terms of exclusivity between the joint venture and its parents.” It’ll be interesting to see how they respond to this, failing that the future of the project is uncertain.

Consuming Content Differently

A record 15 million people may have tuned into watch the final of X Factor last weekend, I wasn’t one of them.

We headed out to the supermarket for a spot of pre-Christmas shopping. While the rest of the country was tuned to the Grand Final, the shopping isles of Tesco were completely empty.

When they got home around an hour after the show had sta
rted they were able to skip the adverts and annoying pre-song interviews thanks to the joys of a PVR.

I wonder how many other viewers opted for a similar tactic it’s just so easy to do, as a consumer this makes a lot of sense but for the advertisers paying for prime time exposure this isn’t what they want to see.

ITV in Catch Up rebrand

Almost 12 months to the day that the BBC launched iPlayer, ITV is renaming its itv.com on demand offering. From today the ITV platform currently know as Catch Up will go by the moniker of ITV Player. The service allows punters to view a selection of the best ITV shows for 30 days.

Undocumented TV support for the iPhone

Both the Apple iPhone and iTouch have TV support but it hasn’t been published as part of the specification. So how do we know? According to Make Magazine, the developers of Moto Chaser, a motorbike race game, set up a demo of the iPhone's video-out capabilities in only an afternoon after being set a challenge.

Using the undocumented MPTVOutWindow class and iPod A/V cables, it's possible to program an iPhone to have television output. What's cool about this is that since the iPhone be both the game platform and a controller, since it contains Wiimote-like accelerometer features.

Neat eh?

Channel 4 targets students with niche ads via IPTV

Channel 4 is the first commercial terrestrial broadcaster to launch targeted advertising via one of the UK's main IPTV services, Inuk. Ads will be carried around Channel 4 content on the IPTV network and specifically target students.
From our perspective, it’s an important step and one that the industry has been talking about for some time. Yet it’s still only scratching the surface of what’s possible with targeted advertising. Using students as a test bed is, however, a great way to trial the technology with a very media savvy audience. How will the 80,000 students who subscribe to the network respond? The proof is in the pudding so they say. So let’s see what news emerges from Channel 4 over the coming weeks and months.

ITV takes on advertising challenge with Graffiti Advertising

ITV has made a bold move in developing a new form of unavoidable advertisement, nicknamed “Graffiti Advertising,” that can be embedded in television programmes. But ITV isn’t the only broadcasting industry player to be concerned about declining advertising revenues. In the US, cable networks and DVR makers have also been testing "speed bumps" that show an advertisement during fast-forwarding and billboards that appear on paused screens. Many more service providers and broadcasters must address the challenge of generating advertising revenue in the rapidly changing world of TV.

ITV has identified the ongoing challenges in attracting traditional advertising revenues, citing the rise of personal video recording and the fast-forward button as a significant contributing factor. The broadcaster is now trialing new technology, known as “automatically placed overlay advertising”, which uses complex computer algorithms to find clear space, such as blue sky or blank walls, in video footage in which to display advertising logos or messages.

Gartner reports further IPTV growth

Gartner has published a report which predicts that worldwide IPTV subscriptions will rise sharply; reaching nearly 20 million by the end of 2008. The uptake of IPTV in Europe has always been strong and, unsurprisingly, the research shows that the largest number of subscribers are based in Western Europe.

This latest research reflects a pattern we’re seeing at ANT. Whilst at IBC earlier this month we witnessed a marked change in the discussions we were having with visitors to the ANT stand. Operators are now far more focussed on what they want to deliver and when their new services will launch. These discussions quickly lead to conversations regarding the next round of applications for IPTV. ANT demonstrated a portal approach at IBC which allows you to access online photos, videos and radio stations in addition to core TV applications such as the EPG. The introduction of on-screen chat whilst watching sporting events also proved to be popular among visitors to the stand. These new and innovative community based applications are set to drive the next generation of IPTV deployments.

Ofcom report signals UK appetite for IPTV technology

Ofcom published its annual Communications Market Report 2008 report yesterday. One of its key finding is that there is a huge demand amongst UK consumers for features delivered by IPTV. It comes on the heals of BARB’s research which showed that on demand services weren’t denting traditional TV services.

But Ofcom reckons that viewers are watching programmes when they want and how they want, rather than just relying on the TV schedules. Time shifting and over the top services delivered via the Internet are both on the rise.

The proportion of people with an internet connection who are watching TV programmes online more than doubled from 8 to 17 per cent in twelve months. The BBC iPlayer, which enables viewers to watch programmes up to a week after they were broadcast, delivered more than 700,000 daily video streams in May 2008.

Nearly a third of internet users (32 per cent) watched video clips and webcasts in 2007, compared to a fifth (21 per cent) in 2006. The number of UK internet users who watched YouTube, reached 9 million in April this year, nearly 50 per cent more than a year ago.

TV catch-up services fail to dent traditional viewing in the UK

Web video catch-up services such as the BBC iPlayer aren’t eating into traditional TV viewing despite their growing popularity, according to a report for ratings body BARB. Audiences watched an average of 2.34 hours of commercial broadcasts between January and June, up 4 per cent on last year. Meanwhile, commercial broadcasters are still looking for ways to generate revenues from these early web offerings.

Thinkbox, which conducted the research on behalf of BARB, says that both broadcast and online TV platforms are growing simultaneously underlining how they fulfill different needs for viewers and that they can co-exist and indeed promote each other.

Whilst online TV is only used by a fraction of the viewers that watch traditional broadcast TV, it’s clear that this is a growing market and can bring value to advertisers looking to reach niche audiences in the long term. However, advertisers face a big challenge in that they’ll need to find new, creative methods for capturing viewers’ attention via this relatively new medium.

Beijing Olympics: A test for TV

The Beijing Olympic Games will surely be a test for the TV industry. For the first time in Olympic history, there will be complete global online coverage of the events.

Major broadcasters such as NBC and BBC, technology providers like Adobe and Microsoft and content networks like Google's Youtube are all getting ready for the online battle.The Athens 2004 Olympics broke all global TV viewing records with near 4 billion unique people watching the games at least once, and a cumulative audience at around 40 billion. However, at that time online broadcast coverage was only available to a few territories.

But times are a-changing. This will be the first games when online streaming video will be availabile to mass audiences. NBC will offer more than 2,000 hours of live video coverage and 3,000 hours of on-demand video on its website. The BBC holds the exclusive rights for the Olympics content in the UK and will bring daily highlights to its iPlayer service. Meanwhile, Youtube has managed to get the rights for online video coverage of the event in the 77 territories that aren't officially covered by Olympic sponsors.

The increasing popularity of streaming video combined with the expectations raised by the Beijing Games will surely boost web traffic and possibly be the greatest test the broadcast and telco industries have faced to date.

Chinese tune into IPTV ahead of Olympics

Chinese tune into IPTV ahead of Olympics

Telco operators in China are experiencing record numbers of new subscribers signing up to their IPTV services ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games next week, say reports in the Shanghai Morning Post.

China Telecom is estimated to be receiving around 3,000 applications for IPTV services each day, thanks in part to a replay function that allows users to revisit programmes aired within the past 48 hours. Shanghai Telecom has also said that it will promote a new service during the Olympics that will enable viewers to watch different sporting events on different windows in the same screen.

Limited content has previously been cited as one of major factors for slower IPTV uptake in China. The Olympic Games will be the first major test for IPTV in China so all eyes will be on the major operators…as well as the athletes, of course;-)

Standards For TV

ANT leads a pack of companies that is lining up to deliver open standards for TV appliances according to a new report by ABI Research.

While PC and consumer electronics giants fight it out to deliver hardware into the living room there is no argument about the software standard to render content to the screen.

The report titled Web-Based Living Room User Interface Overview says that the supply chain for the TV industry is consolidating around HTML-based content services and sees these as the next major revenue opportunity.

Microsoft Opens Up

Microsoft has released the Beta version of its Mediaroom Presentation Framework. The company has made it available to nearly 150 businesses worldwide enabling operators to design their own IPTV-based services applications either directly or through third parties.

Microsoft has finally realised that opening up to third party developers is important in helping to move the industry forward. The company has taken a lot of stick from industry competitors in the past regarding the closed nature of its Mediaroom IPTV solution. However, this latest move is great news for operators, vendors and content developers alike. Open standards are critical in helping service providers deliver the next wave of innovative TV applications.

ANT has been advocating the important of standards for IPTV for some time and is an active member of the Open IPTV Forum. Richard Baker, Executive VP of Sales and Marketing at ANT, talks about it at length in a recent interview with Tracy Swedlow for Interactivetvtoday.com.

Is the Long Tail the wrong tail in IPTV?

This week, the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) convention took place in San Francisco, where the impact of digital media on the music industry was the focus. The group, which represents music retailers, including record stores and e-tailers, discussed how trends such as file sharing and the rise in the power of the consumer has changed the way the general public consumes content. Initiatives such as Radiohead’s album ‘giveaway’ last year and Coldplay’s recent fee downloadable single has showed that free downloadable content can work side-by-side with traditional retail methods.

In relation to IPTV, it was highlighted on the Telecom View website that the industry will not really become mainstream unless distributors and marketers include the channel as a tactic rather than something to fight against, much like the music industry has (to some extent). Therefore, distributors would release content via video-on-demand services at the same time as DVDs – rather than viewing the medium as an afterthought. Blockbusters will continue to be the main attraction for viewers. However, we think that the main strength of IPTV is its almost unlimited capacity. Storing content for niche, micro audiences is key and high volume of downloads for this type of media will result in the success of IPTV, not the huge number of downloads for the latest Harry Potter movie. It’s often easy to forget that IPTV can be much more than ‘regular TV on the PC’. The technology can allow us to interact with programmes in a variety of ways never seen before.

On-demand services to generate over $1 billion by 2012

According to a new report by Screen Digest, the on-demand media services will generate $1.1 billion consumer spending by 2012.

Screen Digest says that of this figure, two thirds will be new revenue while the rest will replace traditional DVD spending. The fact that two thirds of the revenue will be new money shows that on-demand services can and will offer something different than merely pushing out more TV.

New technologies will enable better ways in which to search, locate and consume content and will invariably mean additional content becoming available to the consumer following the long tail rule.

Let’s hope that the additional content does not mean more variations on the reality TV shows that dominate the UK TV schedule.

Consumer connection is driver for IPTV market

The ability to provide direct feedback to advertisers makes IPTV a compelling platform according to a new report on the IPTV market (PDF download).

The management consultant claims that consumers are confused by definitions of IPTV and says that the most viable strategy is most likely to a hybrid approach made-up of delivery over platforms such as digital terrestrial, satellite or cable and broadband.

Technology aside, operators need to focus on a marketing led solution with advertising and content critical to success according to the 24-page report titled ‘Show me the money’.

The report cautions that this requires thinking beyond premium content and exploitation of the long tail. Ultimately it claims that the opportunity to provide a proactive feedback mechanism to advertisers will drive new commercial models.

France dominates IPTV

France is the vanguard of IPTV in Europe according to a research report from Informa Telecoms & Media (via VNU) with more than 10 times as many subscribers than second-placed Spain. Europe hit 7.9 million IPTV subscribers in 2007, with France making up more than 75 per cent of this total, where France Telecom, Free, Neuf and Telecom Italia have attracted more than 5 million customers.

ANT at IPTV

The ANT team will be demonstrating its new Intelligent User Interface
(UI) design at IPTV World Forum at Olympia, London kicking off tomorrow, and running through to Friday.

At the core of this new UI is a function that builds a profile of the user behavior based on the viewing habits which can be logged by ANT Galio, ANT's next generation platform for TV delivery. Every remote control key press is processed by ANT Galio meaning this information can be logged and used to help filter the mass of content available.

ANT has also explored how broadcasters can launch bespoke creative advertising and sponsorship initiatives that are not possible through regular broadcast channels.

If you're at the show drop by and see us on stand 163.

Upswing for Sony?

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) sets the outlook for the electronics industry for the coming 12 months.

This year didn't disappoint. Warner Bros. announced that it is to discontinue the HD-DVD format, effectively pledging allegiance to Blu-ray. And although Toshiba put a brave face on it at the time, the announcement has culminated in Toshiba surrendering the next-generation DVD format war to Sony.

Maybe now we can move away from the tedious characterisation used by virtually all the analysts in describing the general public as being "confused" by the format wars. To my mind, there was no confusion, just frustration.

The public was never confused by which format was the right one to buy - they were very clear that they shouldn't buy until the war was declared over.

So what do we expect moving forward? Sony will increasingly push PS/3 as a triptych offering games, DVDs and online content. Especially given rumours of the Blu-ray spec being revamped to make the Ethernet socket mandatory, thus favouring the PS/3 over all the other stand-alone Blu-ray players.

Microsoft is left with a painful decision: either it concedes 360 does not compete with PS/3 for playing high def DVDs or it coughs up the Sony tax.

For now, Microsoft appears disinclined to pay such a tax and Paramount has announced further online content availability for the 360. But does this give Sony a three-legged chair to Microsoft's two-legged equivalent?

Global IPTV Market to reach 103 million in 2011

A new report by Research and Markets has revealed that the global IPTV market is expected to reach 103 million subscribers by 2011.

With the nature of IPTV meaning that audiences are much more fragmented, some marketers will not be keen on facing this challenge. However, it would be ill-advised to ignore the 103 million consumers that will be part of the IPTV audience. Some forget that this is not television in a different box at different times – IPTV is a revolutionary new medium where the potential to tinker and play with more creative and involved messages surpasses what was available before.

A cross between the personalisation, individuality and technology of the blogging and internet community crossed with the mass market potential of mainstream TV – IPTV is missing one thing at the minute though - creative marketers ready to take a chance and explore this medium.

BBC iPlayer fuelling IPTV growth

According to Screen Digest (as reported in today’s Guardian Unlimited), more than 1.5 billion TV shows and specialist programmes will be downloaded or streamed this year fuelled by the success of the BBC’s iPlayer service.

Screen Digest reports that the BBC’s on-demand video services, including the seven month old iPlayer service accounted for 30 per cent of UK’s free-to-web-services. Admittedly, I’m a huge fan of the BBC’s service. Trying to maintain a healthy work-life balance means that I can’t always stay up to watch Curb your Enthusiasm or the Might Boosh. With that in mind the service is a Godsend.

We are already hearing rumblings over the cost of the bandwidth for the current level of iPlayer viewership, so it will be interesting to see how it plays out if the predicted growth does indeed happen (this goes back to the net neutrality debate previously discussed).

Game on

The latest news from the Microsoft camp at CES is that users of BT's combo broadband/movies BT Vision service will be able to view their service through Xbox 360s by mid-2008. The plan is that the XBox will become a media hub over time, although the lack of a Freeview Tuner still needs to be addressed.

Convergence of gaming platforms and IPTV is something that could potentially take-off, especially with younger audiences, with one box solving all your media needs. However, BT’s platform has yet to reach initial projections in the UK so the tie-up could struggle from the out set. This does, however, leave plenty of opportunity for other gaming companies to get in on the action early through their own strategic partnerships.

BBC says IPTV hot for 2008

The BBC has named IPTV as one of the hot technologies in the UK for 2008.

More than half of homes in the UK now have sufficiently speedy broadband connection for IPTV services according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

BT and Virgin Media have both established services but O2, Orange and Tiscali UK are expected to follow according to the BBC.

For its part the BBC will continue to push its over the top iPlayer service which allows users to view to catch up TV programmes over the web.

The UK now has the potential to catch up with successful high-profile European deployments such as France Telecom and Telecom Italia.

What will you be watching on TV this Christmas Day?

TV is as big a part of the UK Christmas experience as turkey and presents. Who can forget Den giving Angie divorce papers on Eastenders in 1986, Del and Rodney finally hitting the jackpot in 1996 or the Queen’s ‘annus horribilus’ in 1992?

Actually, many of us could forget the Queen’s Speech according to new research commissioned by ANT into the ultimate Christmas Day TV. Her majesty’s words of wisdom limped into the top 10 at number nine, and the charts were dominated by blockbuster films and comedy programmes like Only Fools and Horses. Interestingly, in the 18-24 age category the ultimate Christmas TV program was The Simpsons, which made only number eight in the overall list.

But audiences have been declining for Christmas Day TV for years now, so is TV’s importance to the big day also in decline? I’d say not – the difference is that there is much more choice now, in terms of volume of channels available and ways to watch the content, such as IPTV. Viewers are no longer dictated to by the schedules, and with content freely available for download we are genuinely not far from away from having our own personal Christmas Day TV schedules.

Amateur movie makers move over

Home movies have reached the end of the line. As production values online improve, web viewers and advertisers are turning away from user generated content. Web sites that once made a decent income from premiering skateboarding cats and bungee jumping dogs are shifting focus to professionally produced programming.

The evidence? Bebo has opened up it pages to media companies, ManiaTV has closed down its user generated channels and Hollywood has spotted the marketing opportunity that the web provides as a new channel for promoting movies.

Advertisers’ clearly want to follow web traffic, but there is a broader driver. They also want to protect their brands online. Premium brands are understandably uneasy about aligning themselves with user-generated content.

UK TV rivals come together for on-demand

In a completely unprecedented move, the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 are in 2008 to launch a joint on-demand service. The new service will bring together around 10,000 of hours of television programmes in the one place, including access to both current shows and archive material.

With all three parties already having their own on-demand services, this move could be viewed as surprising. But they have realised that consumers are more likely to use a site that has output from all major broadcasters rather than individual sites. It also prevents (for the time being) content being sold by another provider, which takes the away the control over pricing and packaging, a fate that has already hurt the music industry.

2007 has been a landmark year for the TV industry, with the push towards IPTV and TV over mobile, and this announcement ensures that 2008 is going to be equally significant for the industry.

India ripe for IPTV

Microsoft and Reliance Communications will launch India's first high-definition internet television service next year.

The Indian market has all the right conditions for IPTV – a large TV-viewing population which is fond of TV and entertainment, a movie industry which produces the most films worldwide annually, and eased broadcasting restrictions which mean that scores of news and entertainment channels which have sprung up in the past decade.

However, whilst there are about 71-million homes in the country of 1.1 billion people who already have television, 61 percent of them currently have pay TV, mainly through cable and satellite, according to industry figures. Some say this could slow uptake of services, but perhaps it’s really pricing and content deals that will make or break it.

Broadcasters fight back against internet upstarts

US broadcasters NBC and Fox have finally unveiled Hulu.com, their belated response to YouTube. The site will carry free ad-supported video clips from the two networks' shows as well as content from MGM and Sony.

Broadcasters have finally worked out that user experience and content are the two drivers of customer subscriptions and are fighting back against internet over the top TV entrepreneurs.

Digital TV – right here, right now

Whitehaven might not be the first place one would think of when it comes to innovation in television, but the small Cumbrian town is the first in the UK to undergo the official switchover from analogue to digital TV.

With BBC2 switched off today, and the other analogue channels set to follow suit by 14 November, some 25,00 homes in the area will have to get a set-top box, cable, satellite or broadband system to watch TV. The rest of UK will be completely digital by 2012.

But how will this affect the viewer? Whilst people are ready for the switch in terms of having the right equipment, some might be a little daunted when confronted by the variety of options in front of them for the first time. So the industry, more than ever, needs to ensure that services are easy to use and that user interfaces are straight forward and simple to navigate. Get this right and set-top box sales will continue to grow.

ANT confident about IPTV market growth

ANT is ideally placed to take advantage of future IPTV market growth, according to Simon Woodward, CEO of ANT Software, in a recent interview with international investment news site Wallst.net.

Simon highlights that some of the company’s successes include its software being licensed to all Tier 1 set top box manufacturers and its inclusion in 70% of operator deployments worldwide.

You can hear Simon’s interview in full by clicking on this link

Do we want more TV ad time?

Interesting story in the Media Guardian today, about Ofcom and whether it should raise the amount of TV advertisement time.

Currently broadcasters can carry an average seven minutes of advertising an hour, which can rise to eight minutes between 6pm and 11pm – that amount is capped at 12 minutes per hour. If Ofcom brings us in line with Europe, the average can be increased to 12 minutes at all times, an increase of around 50 per cent.

The problem, is that there is no demand for more TV advertising, with people either irritated at the current level of interruptions to their viewing, or the more tech-savvy increasingly using hard drives to record programmes and skip past the adverts altogether. Throwing more time at TV adverts is at best short-sighted. There will come a time when TV ads as we know them now will not exist, so the industry needs to look to new ways to drive revenue instead of burying its head in the sand..

Saleha Williams Shakes-up TelecomTV's Broadcasting by Broadband Panel at IBC

The consumer should be at the heart of the debate taking place between broadcasters, network operators and IT providers, argued Saleha Williams at one of TelecomTV’s opening broadcasts at IBC. The “Broadcasting by Broadband” panel session looked at how broadcasters are having the carpet pulled from under their feet as their knowledge becomes redundant in the new IP world. It asks whether the communications industry can offer advice and knowledge in understanding the networks.

Saleha battled it out with Nortel and Microsoft, maintaining that technology for technology’s sake is not what the industry needs.

To view the full interview please visit TelecomTV’s web site or click on the link here. You may be required to register.

UK telcos slow on IPTV uptake

New research from Screen Digest shows that the UK is trailing behind the rest of Europe in the roll-out of IPTV services. In the UK, BT is the only provider to operate a national IPTV service.

The main driver for telcos turning to TV is that they’re losing their share in the broadband market. Delivering TV as an additional service will help them attract subscribers, reduce churn, and also enable them make money through advertising.

Aren’t telcos are treading a thin line by taking so long to make the leap to IPTV? Increasingly, viewers are turning to alternatives such as video/TV on the PC and social networking sites for entertainment. Surely, a big selling point for IPTV is that it can bring together the traditional elements of the living room TV and video-on-demand, whilst also adding new and exciting applications? For example, connecting friends and family, sharing images and music, interactive gaming and much more.

Do consumers actually want mobile TV?

A new survey by Continental Research has revealed that the number of subscribers to mobile TV is actually decreasing. How significant is this for the industry?

At this stage, not very. In other parts of the world mobile TV is much more established and has proved to be a success. The UK has never been an ‘early adopter’ market and there is enough momentum behind mobile TV to ensure that this early blip in adoption will be overcome.

What the industry does need to do though, is make sure that it has a compelling proposition for the average consumer. In terms of content we are getting there, but operators need to make their charging models clear and above all, affordable. Making mobile TV easy to use is crucial, and a user-friendly navigation system could be instrumental in boosting subscription numbers. Once everything is in place I’m confident mobile TV will really take off in the UK. To borrow a line from the movies – “if you build it, they come!”

Review of OTT services

There’s a good summary of current over the top (OTT) services (via The Trend) in The London Paper.

Canal MOOZ has also published a list of the 13 places to watch TV online for free.

OTT is increasingly seen as a staging post on the road to full blown IPTV services whereby operators publish content on the Internet and delivery it via a user’s ISPs infrastructure.

ISPs reject over the top TV

ISPs claim that they can’t handle the video traffic that the BBC iPlayer is capable of generating. At 350MB for an hour programme it is not surprising that networks are starting to creak – and the service only has a limited number of beta users to date.

ISPs developing their own IPTV services are also surely concerned about over the top (OTT) services cannibalising their own revenue streams. It is the same issue that arose with the development of IP telephony; as usage rose, it consumed bandwidth and threatened voice revenues hence it is commonly throttled by ISPs.

But there’s a bigger issue here. OTT services such as BBC iPlayer aren’t really comparable to traditional TV in the home. In fact, it’s unlikely that TV on the PC will appeal to consumers beyond niche markets such as students at certain times of the day. Research into viewing habits shows that even when we do watch online video we like short sharp bursts of content, hence the popularity of Youtube.

Content owners like the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 should therefore be asking themselves how they can get their next generation services to the TV and onto other devices such as mobiles and gaming platforms.

ANT's Saleha Williams on TelecomTV

TelecomTV has sided with ANT Software agreeing that Microsoft’s application for a patent that will allow advertisers to target viewers via bio-sensors and cameras in their homes as 'scary'.

ANT believes that such big brother tactics are unlikely to work and suggests that sponsorship of programming, combined with one to one highly targeted IPTV based advertising, will be the preferred model for TV advertising in the future. To see the full interview with Saleha Williams, Executive VP Commercial at ANT, click here.

Middlewhat?

Multimedia Research Group has reported that the continued growth of the global IPTV industry, specifically in Europe, Asia and North America, rests squarely with “misunderstood” ‘Middleware’.

Our experience is that everyone has very different opinions of what exactly middleware is. Some have even confused what ANT Software offers in terms of user interface solutions with middleware.

Here’s our definition: Middleware is specialist computer software that extends the general capability of a system to enable and optimise specific usage. Let us know what you think…

Microsoft barking up wrong tree for TV advertising

Microsoft has applied for a patent that it plans to use to help TV advertisers provide more targeted adverts by placing a camera that sits on top of a TV. It would be able to detect the presence of a person and maybe even identify them.

There’s no doubt that TV needs to look at its advertising model very seriously, as the way in which people consume television is changing rapidly. But we’re not convinced that people would welcome the presence of a camera like this in their homes.

However, we do support moves to look at alternative revenue streams within TV advertising. One option is using the user interface, or menu, to host advertisements. However people consume TV – via mobile, downloaded from the internet, pre-recorded using Sky Plus or an equivalent system, or the plain old fashioned front room / sofa way – there will always be a menu used to navigate through the choices. As TV schedules get more personalised, it stands to reason that menus will do so as well, so what is there to prevent targeted advertising around those menus?

OTT...Friend or Foe?

Over the top (OTT) is currently a hot topic in the broadcast industry especially so with the debate regarding net neutrality continuing to make headlines in the telecoms sector.

OTT TV means the provision of a TV service over the top of someone else’s network infrastructure – 99% of the time without any carriage payment (just think YouTube).

We’re great supporters of OTT but there are some obvious challenges that the industry must address…Having invested heavily building the necessary physical infrastructure, the net neutrality debate is fundamentally centred around the telco finding viable business models that will cover their investment. Whatever the outcome of these discussions we’re certain that OTT will have a massive impact on the TV industry for years to come.

TV ad revenues under threat

There was a great article in yesterday’s Observer that looked at how viewers are increasingly calling the shots in terms of how they consume television, and how this in turn is shaping how the industry generates revenues from advertising.

The premise of the piece argued that although TV still plays a massive part in our lives, audiences are becoming fragmented thanks to the likes of YouTube, MySpace and Google. Television schedules will become obsolete as people can now watch TV when they want and on the medium of their choice, and this will have a massive impact on the ability to generate advertising revenue. The journalist went on to cite how ‘TV’s share of the global advertising market dropped this year for the first time since its inception’ and outlined a number of ways in which TV has can claw back the lost ad revenue.

Some of these have their merits, a couple of others less so. But one option overlooked was using the user interface, or menu, to host advertisements. However people consume TV – via mobile, downloaded from the internet, or the old fashioned front room / sofa way – there will always be a menu used to navigate through the choices. As TV schedules get more personalised, it stands to reason that menus will do so as well, so what is there to prevent targeted advertising around those menus?

At ANT we provide user interfaces for around 70 per cent of the world’s IPTV market, and have recently made the push into the wider digital media world, precisely because of the reasons outlined in the article. TV viewing is changing and the advertising industry urgently needs to change with it, and we believe that using the user interface could be a real solution to this dilemma.

Mobile TV comes into focus at Berlin event

The Medienwoche Berlin-Brandenburg media event in August/September is to take an in-depth look at the state of mobile TV in Europe.

Mobile TV has been the ‘next big thing’ for a while now without ever really taking off outside of the Asia-Pacific region. Why is this? Is it cultural differences, or just a question of the content and/or technology not being of sufficient quality yet?

Whatever the reason, the situation is expected to change over the next 12 – 18 months. T-Mobile UK has just launched Pocket Comedy TV, a mobile TV channel, and there are a number of pilot projects cropping up across the sector. People are gradually getting used to the idea of watching television on their mobile handsets, which means that the industry will have to move quickly to meet the demand.

Our prediction is that within a few years mobile TV will be as common as texting is now, providing operators can get their pricing strategy right. With the European Commission this week calling for a standard for mobile TV it may not be long before the small screen becomes the mainstream.

Cable & Wireless launches UK's first nationwide IPTV platform

Cable & Wireless has announced a £70 million deal with Inuk Networks which will see it enabling the delivery of television, telephony and broadband services.

The service will be delivered through Inuk subsidiary Freewire which currently has an initial focus on the student market, with over forty universities representing over 100,000 student rooms. Cable & Wireless will also white label Inuk's IPTV platform to other wholesale DSL customers that want to provide their customers with a digital television offering.

IPTV has yet to take off in the UK. BT Vision is the only other provider to offer IPTV services in the UK, but it can’t do multicast unlike Cable & Wireless. Freewire has an established customer base in an influential market sector.

But it remains to be seen whether Cable & Wireless will benefit from a first mover advantage albeit to a limited market segment. BT Vision hasn't done anywhere as near as well as expected, so this is the operator's chance to take a leadership role in an emerging market.

IPTV moves beyond early adopters and innovators

Recent forecasts from Alcatel-Lucent show that IPTV subscriptions are set to reach between 70 million and 100 million by 2010.

Simon Woodward, CEO of ANT Software Limited, comments:

"Alcatel-Lucent is forecasting very high, but that shouldn’t detract from the fact that, yes, the market is growing, and fast. There’s been continuous hype over subscriber numbers over the past few years and expectations have been high, but today the technology has reached maturity. Operators who were the first to innovate in IPTV are starting to see the benefits from their early investments as they start to compete heavily with their triple and quadruple play offerings.

“Europe outstrips the rest of the world in the uptake of IPTV – particular hot spots are France, Spain and Italy. For example, France Telecom is spearheading change with its successful mass-market deployment.

“In the past, operators were reluctant to invest heavily in IPTV following high profile delays in rolling out new services. However, the industry is now moving beyond that and service providers are generating real revenues and reducing customer churn through IPTV.

“The next round of innovation will be through sophisticated applications aimed at drawing in consumers. It’s these applications which can set IPTV apart from other broadcast mediums – whether it’s the ability to IM whilst watching the football or sharing a pictures and music with friends. There are endless applications which can be enabled through IPTV – only your imagination can hold you back.”

ANT Software at IBC 2007

ANT will be showcasing its next generation solution for the delivery of digital content, ANT Galio Client, at IBC 2007.

Operators are continuing to compete on the quality of their service and the user interface is at the heart of the viewers’ experience. The ability for operators to add new, exciting applications combined with the flexibility to personalise services can give a significant edge – providing it is done quickly and easily. No solution is more adaptable or better geared to the consumer than ANT Galio Client.

NEW DEMO: Scientific Atlanta demos ANT Galio on Cisco stand 1.471
At IBC 2007, Scientific Atlanta will be demonstrating ANT Galio and showcasing ANT’s industry grade suite of applications. ANT Galio offers unsurpassed delivery, control and presentation of digital media. Building on over fourteen years’ experience in the delivery of digital TV, ANT Galio provides operators with a solution that combines total flexibility with performance and robust control.

User Interfaces developed for ANT Galio achieve speeds comparable to the monolithic fixed applications found in many of today’s digital TV interfaces and are significantly faster than modified internet browsers.

MySpaceTV Launches

MySpace has launched a TV service intended to take-on YouTube in the online video world.

MySpace has a pressing reason to take on YouTube more directly. Just as MySpaceTV is being fashioned to compete with YouTube, engineers at YouTube are busy developing social-networking features including enabling users to chat while they watch the same clip and share their favorite videos. So, the social networking site has some heavy competition on its hands.

This announcement, coupled with the Sony/Honda announcement about minisodes (edited four-to-six minute versions of thirty-to-sixty minute television shows) a few weeks ago, is a real sign that the industry is maturing beyond the niche, experimental stages. In fact, there are three key things worth noting which underline a new and exciting time for online video:

1/ Online video is now multi-country and multi-language – a classic sign of

maturation in the technology sector

2/ Users/viewers are now demanding higher quality (professional in

MySpaceTV’s case) content which is helping move the perception of online

video from niche to mainstream

3/ The Honda/Sony partnership shows inventiveness and a willingness to

experiment with the revenue models that will be essential for the industry’s
long-term self-sustainability. It also illustrates how players can make money

from the “long tail”

Media watchdaog gives BSkyB surprise consultation on pay TV

Ofcom is investigating BSkyB’s plans to replace SkyNews, SkySports News and Sky Three with three new pay-TV channels in time for the start of the Premiership football season. The move will allow the broadcaster to take a larger slice of digital terrestrial TV's success. Last week Ofcom statistics showed that Freeview has now overtaken Sky as the most popular digital television service, which has grown rapidly in the first three months of this year.

The UK broadcasting industry is going through an astonishing rate of change and in the past five years we’ve seen major developments in technology not last seen since the introduction of the colour TV. The impact on business is an extraordinary level of competition and a rush to develop new and exciting services and applications for customers. Sport is one area where the broadcasters can make significant inroads with customers, almost locking them in once they have access to content rights. Who will win out only time can tell…

User experience is king

Saleha Williams, ANT Software’s Executive Vice President Commercial will be participating in a panel discussion at the TV Evolution Summit in Madrid (25 to 27 June). The event is about the future of the TV experience and Dr William Cooper of Informitv a discussion about how consumers are setting the pace of development for TV applications and content.

ANT CEO Speaking at Broadcast Asia

ANT Software’s CEO Simon Woodward will be speaking at IPTV Forum at 15.45hrs at Broadcast Asia Expo on 21 June. His presentation is titled ‘Make or Break? The Power of User Interface on Entertainment Devices and Services’.