Is the DVD Format War Already Over?

09/30/2006 - 04:08 AM >> Future Formats, The Digital Revolution, Tech Trends

Just when you thought the battle would get really ugly:

The format war around next generation DVDs may be over before it has begun, thanks to a breakthrough from a British media technology company.

Britain-based New Medium Enterprises (NME) said on Tuesday it had solved a technical production problem that makes it possible to produce a cheap multiple-layer DVD disk containing one film in different, competing formats.

People who think that the slow uptake of HD-DVD and BluRay is only because of the format war are missing the big picture. High cost and high bandwidth means that the age of the expensive shiny disc are coming to a close.

Comments (0)

Yahoo, Intel to pipe sports data to TV screens

09/28/2006 - 12:35 AM >> Convergence, Future Formats, Tech Trends

After a decades of speculation it seems convergence is finally starting to appear:

The service, called Yahoo Sports for TV, will let users get detailed statistics for ongoing games through a menu overlaid on a television screen and operated with a remote control.

We’ve seen a demo of the system and its quite impressive but we’ll have to see what happens when it hits the real world. Menus are great on a computer but take on an entirely different feeling when you are relaxing on the couch with a simple remote.

Comments (0)

The Myth of YouTube is Crushed

09/27/2006 - 03:38 AM >> Death of TV, Future Formats, Tech Trends

Whenever we pointed our sharp stick of wit at YouTube (a frequent target here on BBB) many people would criticize us saying that YouTube was the inevitable future of media.

Yesterday, for the first time, third party metrics on how many videos are being watched from these types of sites was released and the results may astound you:

According to a new video report that comScore Media Metrix will begin offering starting Tuesday morning, 37.4 million unique individuals watched a video on MySpace in July. All told, they collectively watched 1.4 billion videos.

By comparison, the audience on Yahoo watched 812 million video streams, making Yahoo the No. 2 most popular video site as measured by video streams. Yahoo ranks No. 1 as measured by unique streamers (similar to unique visitors), but barely beats out MySpace.

YouTube ranks No. 3, having generated 649 million video streams in July.

Not only is YouTube not number 1, it is actually number 3. As if to rub it in, the number 1 site is less than six months old (congrats Rupert).

Naturally YouTube will cry foul and argue that the methodology for measuring traffic was flawed but regardless of their protests, the myth that YouTube is an unassailable juggernaut is dead.

Comments (0)

NBC embraces TV 2.0 part 2

09/26/2006 - 05:54 AM >> Convergence, Death of TV, Tech Trends

He may be stating what has been obvious to everyone for years but at least he is admitting it:

NBC Universal Chief Executive Bob Wright on Monday predicted more advertising will occur within television shows in the coming years—through sponsorship or product placement—as ad-skipping devices become more popular.

“The skipping issue is going to have a lot of different dimensions,” said Wright, speaking at an Advertising Week event in New York. One outcome, he said, would be that “advertisements will move more into the program.”

He goes on to tout “event programming” just like the Olympics that NBC has the rights to this year (what a coincidence). It seems that NBC is on a tear to embrace the inevitable this week.

Comments (0)

Struggling NBC Embraces TV 2.0

09/25/2006 - 10:32 AM >> Convergence, Death of TV, The Digital Revolution

Competition does a funny thing to corporations, sometimes it even makes them consider changing their ancient patterns:

If you work at NBC Universal, beware the ides of September. Peacock staffers are sweating bullets over the impending release of what the company is calling TV 2.0, a proposed top-to-bottom reorganization of the network to streamline it for the Internet age.

Still ranked in last place among the TV networks, NBC is now deciding that some urgency has entered into the Internet-TV equation. We’ll wait and see whether they see the light or are merely adding new window dressing.

Comments (0)

TV viewership hits record high?

09/22/2006 - 09:56 AM >> Death of TV, Tech & Society, Tech Trends

Many of you have probably already heard about the new Nielsen stats out today:

The total average time per household in 2005-06 was eight hours and 14 minutes per day, a three-minute increase from 2004-05. Also resetting the record was total individual time, up three minutes from the previous year to four hours and 35 minutes.

Many have asked us if this is inconsistent with our death-of-tv point of view. What many fail to understand here is that TV is at its peak,and it is a long way down. Three minutes hardly the double and triple digit growth rates of the other media. Just plot out your graph for a couple years and see what happens. Still, some don’t get the message:

“These results demonstrate that television still holds its position as the most popular entertainment platform,” said Patricia McDonough, senior vp planning policy and analysis at Nielsen. “At this point, consumption of emerging forms of entertainment, including Internet television and video on personal devices, seems not to be making an impact on traditional television viewing.”

Even she is hedging her bets with “at this point.”

Then again, no one believed us when we said California would ban talking on cellphones while driving.

Comments (0)

We Want Our Holographic TV

09/21/2006 - 09:31 AM >> Death of TV, Future Formats, Tech Trends

Hold on to your hats, 3D TV is here!

The heart of the system is the digital light processing micro-mirror chip, made by Texas Instruments and currently used in television, video and movie projectors.

These devices incorporate a computer that processes an incoming digital signal several thousand times a second, changing the angle of each micro-mirror to reflect light from a regular light bulb. The resulting image is a two-dimensional video projected onto a screen.

One of Garner’s innovations was to replace regular light with laser light. Such light is coherent, meaning that it comprise light of a single wavelength, with all light waves travelling ‘in phase’ with one another. Light from a white light bulb comprises many different wavelengths that are out of phase.

Interesting that essentially they are using off-the-shelf technology with some modifications. They still predict that we won’t see commercial 3D TVs until 2020 (and if the adoption of HDTV is used as a guide it will probably take 100 years longer than that).

Comments (0)

More than 90 percent of British children have a cell phone

09/20/2006 - 01:35 AM >> Tech & Society, Tech Trends, Wireless

We know that we just got through trashing cellphones just in time for CTIA but this article should warm the hearts of our wireless industry readers:

Some 51 percent of all 10-year-olds in Britain own a mobile phone, but that figure rises to 91 percent by the time children hit the age of 12, according to a survey.

[...]

On average, 11- to 17-year-olds send 9.6 text messages a day, almost three times as many as their parents and makes or receives on average 3.5 calls a day. Adults make or receive 2.8 calls and send 3.6 texts on a daily basis.

While the U.S. cellphone market is always technologically stuck in the Paleozoic era it is always worth remembering that even the limeys have more advanced wireless tech than we do. One day we might eventually catch up but it is this kind of social upheaval that have many investors betting big on wireless. [via Unwired]

Comments (0)

If this doesn’t scare you…

09/19/2006 - 02:40 AM >> Convergence, Tech & Society, The Digital Revolution

A few postings ago we thanked our lucky stars that the FCC doesn’t regulate the Internet. We should be careful what we wish for:

Martin said he didn’t think the FCC had the authority to regulate online content, as it does with broadcast, but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t like to. He told Senator Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) that he thought “all policymakers should try to make the Internet a more decent place,” but said that was a challenge, pointing out that it had been challenging enough in the broadcast space, where the FCC does have authority to regulate decency.

1. He admits they have no right to regulate the net.
2. He admits that they’ve done a terrible job regulating TV & Cable.
3. He still wants to regulate the net.

Scared yet?

Comments (0)

New technique to combat ad-skipping?

09/18/2006 - 02:15 AM >> Convergence, Death of TV, Tech & Society

From the who-thought-this-was-a-good-idea department:

The advert for its new drama “Brotherhood” will show a single image on the screen for the entire 30-second slot, and therefore retain its “sales message” when viewed even at the 12-times speeds enabled by Sky and other digital recorders, also known as personal video recorders, or PVRs.

Making an advert unbearably boring for the vast majority of viewers to enhance the experience for a small minority will just drive more people into the arms of PVRs.

Comments (0)

Next Page >>