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…