BBC goes a-podcasting!

So, even the venerable BBC goes a-podcasting! It has launched a site (www.bbcaudiozone.com) for secure downloads of radio and broadcast content. It only hastens the end of prime-time. Increasingly, media will be about content, not where and when you consume it! In order to get the essence of this, think about the fact that for the better part of the 20th century, the broadcast media was largely about listening or watching something at the convenience of the broadcaster, not the consumer. The change in rules has tremendous implications for advertisers and content pricing.
Here is the link and the story is pasted below that.

http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k7/july/july179.php

MUMBAI: BBC Worldwide has announced that its division BBC Audio has launched BBC Audio Zone, a BBC audio content download site through Audible.co.uk. BBC Audio Zone (www.bbcaudiozone.com) will allow users to sample, purchase and download most of the company’s spoken-word audio in a fast and secure way.

Users can download their favourites onto their iPod, MP3 player, mobile phone, or even burn CDs. The site offers more than 1400 BBC Audio titles, including well-known comedy talents from the past, like Around the Horne and Tony Hancock, to the present, such as Little Britain and Mitchell and Webb. The range of unabridged and dramatised audio books includes complete works from Alan Bennett, Michael Palin and Phillip Pullman alongside selected old favourites from Douglas Adams. Customers will also see a list of categories such as crime and thrillers, children's classic fiction and self-development amongst others, so they can easily be directed to their favourite genre. As part of the launch, three major online magazines; radiotimes.com, topgear.com and bbcgoodfood.com will all feature direct links to BBC Audio Zone, guiding their readers to the download site. In addition, the new BBC Audio Zone will be highlighted on Audible's home page and a click on the link will take the consumer straight to the BBC Audiobooks' 'shop' which will feature an Editor's Pick, new releases and the top 20 bestsellers.

Promethus Unboxed!!

Amazon and Tivo are now selling TV shows.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/11/technology/11tivo.html?ex=1341806400&en=1e7027f1a483e036&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Here are some straws in the wind....

1) Your content can come as a video podcast and travel wirelessly to your television or Media Centre PCs

2) New TV and audio systems go beyond MP3 compatibility to offer USB access

3) USB drives and iPod memories get bigger

4) Home projectors are getting cheaper, home theatres can be bought for a song

5) PC screens are getting cheaper, cooler, better.

Add all that up, and you know the Long Tail is getting longer. Are media buyers listening?

When television meets the Net, Joost happens...

I have said in the past that television is heading for death. I actually mean prime-time..here is more proof, from a company that now supports TV, but effectively takes us one step further in its own way to make the Net closer to killing prime-time, although the current business model is built around good ole TV.
Check this link out..
http://www.joost.com/about.html

New video download to revolutionise media

Here is one more innovation--something I knew had to happen, and have been saying so for years now. You can now download videos in a neutral format a bit like pdf in print and this is from the same company--Adobe!
Read on below for details and keep this simple point in mind: Now we can download full-scale video programmes, possibly take it on an iPod and watch it as we like.
I have spoken on this blog in the past about the "end of prime time as we know it."
Here is one more milestone crossed on the road.
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Adobe Unveils Next Generation Internet Video Solution
4/16/2007 5:27:08 AM
SAN JOSE, Calif. and LAS VEGAS - Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) has announced the Adobe® Media Player™ at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) trade show. This desktop application expands Adobe’s Internet video solutions, adding to an emerging ecosystem that enables new ways to distribute and monetize media, while helping viewers discover and view high-quality content both online and offline. Leveraging Adobe’s Emmy® Award winning Flash® architecture, the Adobe Media Player delivers more engaging video experiences to viewers while offering content publishers new abilities to distribute, track and build businesses around their media assets.
“Akamai and Adobe have a longstanding partnership that enables the world’s leading media companies to deliver consistently high-quality Flash Player video experiences to global audiences,” said Paul Sagan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Akamai. “Adobe continues to be an industry leader in their approach to innovation by delivering new ways for audiences to experience rich, interactive content. We are excited about supporting this latest initiative that will make it easier for our joint customers to facilitate broad distribution of Adobe Flash-based video.”
“Adobe Flash has revolutionized the distribution of video content across the Internet and Adobe Media Player builds on this leadership position,” said Bruce Chizen, chief executive officer at Adobe. “NAB is a great venue to preview the new capabilities Adobe is bringing to market later this year - as we build out a technology portfolio that will drive new advances in Internet video authoring, playback and commerce.”
New Capabilities for the Internet’s Leading Video Format
Delivered as a lightweight download, Adobe Media Player delivers innovation for both viewers and content owners. For viewers, Adobe Media Player enables higher quality Flash format playback, the ability to download and view videos offline, ways to discover interesting new shows, full screen playback, one-click viewer ratings, and a powerful Favorites feature that automatically downloads new episodes of favorite TV shows or video podcasts. The player is cross-platform, based on open standards - including RSS and SMIL - and brings viewers the highly desired ability to play the Web’s most popular video format outside of their browser.
For content publishers, Adobe Media Player enables better ways to deliver, monetize, brand, track and protect video content. It provides an array of video delivery options for high-quality online and offline playback, including on-demand streaming, live streaming, progressive download, and protected download-and-play. The Adobe Media Player enables a wider selection of monetization and branding options including viewer-centric dynamic advertising and the ability to customize the look and feel of the player on the fly to match the brand or theme of the currently playing content.
Advanced Analytics and Content Protection
The technology provides content publishers a standardized toolbox to deploy a variety of innovative new advertising formats, and to compile permission-based analytics data, both online and offline, to better understand their audiences. Building on Adobe’s rich history of document protection technology, Adobe Media Player plans to offer content publishers a range of protection options, including streaming encryption, content integrity protection and identity-based protection.
Adobe’s Emerging Internet Video Ecosystem
Adobe Media Player is a key part of Adobe’s emerging ecosystem for the creation and delivery of next generation Internet video. It complements and leverages other Adobe components including: Adobe Flash® Player; the newly announced Adobe® Flash® CS3 Professional; Flash® Media Server 2, server software for streaming media applications; Flash® Lite™ mobile video playback technology; Adobe’s range of media authoring tools such as Adobe Creative Suite® 3 Production Premium for video, audio and motion graphics production; and Adobe Media Encoder for compression and live streaming.
About Adobe Media Player
Adobe Media Player is developed using Apollo, the code name of Adobe’s recently announced application runtime that empowers content publishers and web developers to build and deploy rich Internet applications (RIAs) on the desktop using technologies such as Flash, PDF, and HTML. Adobe Media Player is planned to be available as a free beta download from the Adobe Web site later in 2007 with full availability expected by the end of the year, from Adobe and a wide range of media and technology partners.

Content? King? Really?

Content is king, did someone say? Here is an article that raises disturbing questions on the future of the big media....because search engine Google can threaten and coopt them, while they swim in uncertainty.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1599716,00.html

Foldable, portable electronic paper

Fascinating stuff. Foldable, portable electronic paper is in the making, and this could mean you could sometime in the future read a downloaded newspaper which will largely feel just like the old paper!

Here is the story:
http://in.tech.yahoo.com/070406/137/6e83g.html

More evidence of how TV is dying (but video is not, if you please!)

I came across a news item today about how someone just plugged a small video projector to his mobile phone at an airport and got fellow passengers at the lounge viewing a large wall screen -- watching something of HIS choice!!
Also read this very interesting research forecast about a video projector that can fit into one's pocket. Miniaturisation of the media in digital format clearly means that "every person is a broadcaster" and "every phone is a channel!"
As I have never tired of saying on this blog, this has tremendous implications for the media industry and the future of media buying/branding/advertising et al.

Here is the link:

http://www.primidi.com/2004/07/03.html

Read your newspaper on your mobile handset!

The TV is sort of dying, and the newspaper might have a re-incarnation. Here is how....

Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India, Wednesday, January 31, 2007 -- (Business Wire India) -- Pressmart a leading ePaper technology expert and IMImobile an established end-to-end mobile VAS enabler today announced the availability of "mPaper".

This unique collaborative technology partnership will enable news publishers an opportunity to tap the fastest growing mobile mass market of young and technology savvy subscribers who wish to read news and access their favorite newspaper content while on the move. mPaper opens up a new window of business opportunity for content publishers as well as news carriers to offer daily newspaper on a mobile screen in their original format.

To begin with, nine major operators from India and other nations will offer this service over WAP portals for their customers. The mPaper is unique; it offers features like archives, search & saving news item and will be available on a monthly subscription. The New Media Delivery PlatformT enables a managed delivery service to publications that value the velocity and dynamism of Web 2.0 space without losing their print identity on WAP-compliant handsets."

Through our partnership with IMImobile, we have opened up a new business avenue for our customers to deliver their branded news content over the powerful mobile medium." Sanjiv Gupta, CEO, Pressmart, Said. "At present, Pressmart has many leading newspapers, providing content over the internet using its ePublishing products. By combining IMImobile's mobile data technology with Pressmart's epaper technology, we will deliver revolutionary products to our customers. Our goal is to work with IMImobile as our strategic technology partner to deliver exciting new mPaper solutions in the future."The newspapers that will be immediately available include brands such as Hindustan Times (Mumbai and Delhi editions), Deccan Chronicle (Hyderabad and Chennai editions), DNA, Indian Express, The Asian Age, Financial Express, The New Indian Express, The Telegraph and Pioneer. "mPaper will become an exciting new category of technology that will give people an unique newspaper reading experience from their favorite WAP enabled handsets," said IMImobile, CEO, A R Vishwanath, "We're pleased to have collaborated with Pressmart for developing mPaper for mobile users. It will be a whole new way of reading news for people with a mobile lifestyle who want their news on the move."
The mPaper technology aggregates news from publishing partners and on-the-fly converts the text and image content to suit the variety of handset models. Pressmart and IMImobile plan to roll out other SMS, MMS and Voice based services using the newspaper content. For the first time, even vernacular content will be available on the mobile. Leading Indian language newspapers will be rolled out on this service soon..

More of "See-I-told-you" --How Internet will transform TV

OEC: BC-DAVOS-INTERNET/TV BUS-PUB-ENT-SFWR-US-CH-WEU-EUROPE-WWW 01-27 0359 BC-DAVOS-INTERNET/TV
DAVOS-Internet to revolutionise TV in 5 years -Gates
By Ben Hirschler
DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 27 (Reuters) - The Internet is set to revolutionise television within five years, due to an explosion of online video content and the merging of PCs and TV sets, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said on Saturday.
"I'm stunned how people aren't seeing that with TV, in five years from now, people will laugh at what we've had," he told business leaders and politicians at the World Economic Forum.
The rise of high-speed Internet and the popularity of video sites like Google Inc.'s YouTube has already led to a worldwide decline in the number hours spent by young people in front of a TV set.
In the years ahead, more and more viewers will hanker after the flexibility offered by online video and abandon conventional broadcast television, with its fixed programme slots and advertisements that interrupt shows, Gates said.
"Certain things like elections or the Olympics really point out how TV is terrible. You have to wait for the guy to talk about the thing you care about or you miss the event and want to go back and see it," he said.
"Internet presentation of these things is vastly superior."
At the moment, watching video clips on a computer is a separate experience from watching sitcoms or documentaries on television.
But convergence is coming, posing new challenges for TV companies and advertisers.
"Because TV is moving into being delivered over the Internet -- and some of the big phone companies are building up the infrastructure for that -- you're going to have that experience all together," Gates said.
YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley said the impact on advertising would be profound, with the future promising far more targeted ads tailored to each viewer's profile.
"In the coming months we're going to do experiments to see how people interact with these ads to build an effective model that works for advertisers and works for users," he said.
Advertisers are already racing to adapt their strategies to the growing power of the Web, and more and more promotional cash is tipped to migrate from television to Web sites in future.