We Love Censorship!

04/28/2006 - 01:58 PM >> Hack the Planet, Tech & Society, Wireless

Who needs the FCC when you have Verizon Wireless?

A Verizon Wireless content-guideline document, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, shows that the company has developed a long list of restrictions, including off-limits expletives and curse words, highly specific rules for how much bare skin models can show, and a ban on any derogatory references to Verizon Wireless itself.

Isn’t it funny that while the left hand slaps Google and Yahoo on the wrist for censoring search results in China, the right hand quietly censors us? Is censorship somehow OK when implemented by corporate rather than government overlords? We must have missed the memo on that one.

The walled-garden approach to content that the these wireless carriers are pursuing will completely backfire as people rush to get their uncensored internet content.

Thanks guys, and remember not the let the door hit you on the way out.

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Welcome the Latest Entrant to the IPTV War

04/26/2006 - 05:22 PM >> Broadband, Convergence, Death of TV

You’ve probably already heard:

Introducing Yahoo! Go™ on your TV

Now you can take Yahoo! off your computer and put it in your living room for everyone to see. View photos, search for video clips and watch movie trailers on your TV. Plus, your own digital video recorder (DVR) lets you record and watch your favorite shows anytime for free.
Be part of the Yahoo! Go for TV Beta!

If Google, Fox, and Apple are doing it you can bet that Yahoo is not far behind. Interestingly, Yahoo’s service actually hooks up your PC to your TV in a sort of Tivo-esque blend. Definintely a novel approach considering the traditional firewall between TV and PC.

Unfortunately, everyone in the BBB labs are left out:

A Windows®-based PC with minimum system requirements

* Windows XP® operating system (Yahoo! Go™ for TV is not compatible with Macintosh® or Linux)

One of you will have to give it a try for us and give us an update in the comments.

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Them TV people are running scared

04/21/2006 - 06:22 PM >> Broadband, Convergence, Death of TV

We will not bore you with the details as you’ve probably read this quote eight different times today already:

“Conventional wisdom, it’s an enemy at a time like this,” said Beth Comstock, president for digital media and market development at NBC Universal, part of General Electric. “In media today, I don’t think there is a single rule that can’t--and frankly, probably shouldn’t--be broken.

“This isn’t just about driving growth,” she added. “It’s about staying in business.”

Normally we’d just chalk this up to hype but then we learned that even the Emmys are changing their tune:

“iPOD” EMMY NOMINATION!

We just got word that It’s JerryTime has been nominated for a 2006 Emmy Award in the brand new “original entertainment programming created specifically for non-traditional viewing platforms” category. The award ceremony is on April 22nd. Orrin and I wanted to share this great news with you and to thank you for your support!

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Fox puts reruns on the Internet

04/18/2006 - 08:56 AM >> Broadband, Death of TV, Tech Trends

Yet another IPTV announcement, this time from Fox:

News Corp.’s Fox network has signed a six-year agreement with its 187 affiliated stations that will let it show reruns of its television programs on the Internet, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site on Thursday.

The revenue-sharing agreement allows Fox to make 60 percent of its prime-time schedule available online the morning after the shows air, the Journal reported.

The formula is complex, but stations essentially will get a 12.5 percent cut after costs, the paper also reported.

It is interesting that Fox managed to convince the skeptical affiliates to allow such a deal. Fox is also smart to move away from the iTunes pay-per-download model towards an advertiser supported model.

Pretty soon this will just be the normal course of business.

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CNET launches video-on-demand network

04/17/2006 - 10:50 AM >> Broadband, Death of TV, Tech Trends

It is just another in a long string of TV-over-IP announcements:

CNET Networks on Monday said it will launch “CNET TV,” a new video on demand network over cable, on digital video recorders made by TiVo and on the Internet as it broadens its reach to viewers.

It is unclear yet how exactly this content will be distributed but the inclusion of Tivo in the deal gives us a clue. Those of you who follow BBB regularly will realize that Tivo has long been the trojan horse for IPTV in the living room. Since every Tivo is essentially a fully functioning Linux computer it has always been possible to bypass people’s cable and satellite providers and download directly to the box.

Perhaps now Tivo is ready to push this into regular usage.

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Reuters Finally Notices TV on Internet Trend

04/05/2006 - 09:43 AM >> Broadband, Death of TV, Tech Trends

Those folks at Reuters sure are perceptive:

The widely hyped merging of the PC and TV is finally taking shape in a way that only a few people imagined in the late 1990s Internet boom.

From independent producers like Mondo Media to big media companies like MTV, and even kids who post videos on community sites like YouTube.com, the World Wide Web is becoming a sort of worldwide TV network for audiences seeking offbeat entertainment not shown on mainstream television.

Where do we even begin? During the dotcom boom years, full-motion video over the internet was so overhyped as to be a self-parody.

But we’re glad that Reuters takes the time to correct themselves:

...the late 1990s when the dot-com boom fueled the notion that eventually all TV would be delivered on the Web, on-air broadcasting would become wired webcasting and computers would be the TV sets of the future.

“Really, I had this vision 6 years ago,” said Mike Tuinstra, chief executive officer of Joecartoon.com Inc. “It’s just now kind of happening.”

So remember that you read it at Reuters first: TV is coming to the internet. If only we listened to Mike Tuinstra in 1999! 

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Hollywood knocks on the download door

04/03/2006 - 09:40 AM >> Broadband, Copyfight, Future Formats

In a victory for PR and Marketing:

Several major film studios are announcing plans Monday to make movies available for download onto PCs.

Consumers would be able to save the films to watch any time, and would pay between $10 and $30 to download, depending on how new the film is. New movies are expected to be released for download the day the DVD goes on sale.

The industry has been moving toward online distribution for a while, though just how eagerly is subject to debate. The new services, available through MovieLink and CinemaNow, should prompt repercussions along the distribution line, from DVD sales to cable TV to the video rental business.

Those of you who are regular readers of BBB will recall that MovieLink and CinemaNow (gotta love those iNterCap names) have been the long forgotten stepchildren of hollywood and the tech industry. What is amazing about this story is that it is a story at all. These services have been available for years (although the details have changed a bit) this is nothing new. Perhaps in light of the success of the iTunes Music Store selling tv downloads, the ugly stepchildren feel a little more confident these days.

We tried to checkout the details at the MovieLink site but encountered a stern:

Sorry, but as of May 2, 2005, Movielink no longer supports Windows 98 and ME operating systems.

Movielink also does not support Mac or Linux.

In order to enjoy the Movielink service, you must use Windows 2000 or XP, which support certain technologies we utilize for downloading movies.

And a similar warning pops up at CinemaNow:

You must use Internet Explorer Version 6 or higher on a PC running Windows 2000 or later in order to use the CinemaNow service.

Uh oh, we think we can predict how successful this Microsoft DRM‘d crap is going to be already.

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