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News From Australia: ICE Interactive and Ericsson Australia collaborate for providing GPRS wireless backchannel solution
for interactive TV (22FEB01) (ICE)
ICE Interactive Ltd. and Ericsson Australia "will demonstrate the integration of a GPRS wireless backchannel link with an interactive television applications platform" at the Broadcast World/Wireless Infocomm Exhibition, February 26-28, 2001, in Sydney, Australia. The news announcement quotes ICE Interactive managing director Carl Braden as stating, "An important feature of the system is use of a GPRS wireless for the backchannel rather than fixed line infrastructure. The increased bandwidth coverage provided by emerging wireless networks such as GPRS and 3G, represents a significant infrastructure opportunity for iTV. These technologies will expand network options for iTV network operators, reduce the cost of installing iTV and increase accessibility for consumers." - Other Wireless News: Cell phone companies look to computer and software companies for partnerships for developing new products (22FEB01) (SCMP.Reuters)
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Other Mobile News: Nokia says music, video, and picture messaging would replace text messages on mobile wireless devices
(22FEB01) (Mercury.Reuters)
- An Australian Journey: Jeremy Cavanagh looks at the digital TV industry in Australia (link.changes) (22FEB01) (TVBEurope)
- Tower Work Outages Said To Cause Blurs: Australians complain about blurry analog TV screens and confused if caused by intro of digital television (22FEB01) (AustralianIT)
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24/7 Media sets up a broadband & professional services division in Sydney, Australia, to provide
interactive TV software and consulting services to content aggregators and distributors (22FEB01) (SCMP.Reuters)
(related.link)
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Future Of Digital TV: BSkyB chief technology officer Geoff Walters discusses designing digital television which shouldn't be
done by committee and that TV is different from the PC (link.changes) (22FEB01) (TVBEurope)
TVBEurope cites BSkyB chief technology officer Geoff Walters as indicating, "Television ... is quite different. Although a huge number of television sets are sold in the UK each year, some households have not changed their reception equipment for years, so a regular change-out of equipment cannot be sustained." TVBEurope further quotes Walters as stating, "When we undertake a major upgrade of software, all the set-top boxes - from the first one we sold in 1998 to the latest one we sell - must give as perfect as possible a viewing experience and be able to receive all the services we introduce as the platform expands and grows." -
US Senate Commerce Committee to hold digital television hearings on March 1 and
US House Energy and Commerce Committee also tentatively schedules
digital television hearings for March 15 (link.changes) (22FEB01) (EM)
Electronic Media (EM) cites US House Energy and Commerce Committee spokesman Ken Johnson as indicating "one key topic will be the difficulties that smaller-market stations are having meeting the 2002 deadline for getting their DTV signals on the air." EM further quotes Johnson as stating, "For many stations in America, there simply isn't a business plan that works" for digital television and "we've gotten off track and in some way we need to get back on track." -
FCC staff recommends denial of Gemstar-TV Guide request to force Time Warner Cable to carry
interactive program guide for free (21FEB01) (USAToday)
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Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing's study "Impact of Digital Features on Household TV/PC Viewing
Decisions" finds digital TV subscribers in the US are more likely to use interactive program guides, watch more TV, more likely
to watch pay-per-view, and less likely to rent videos (16FEB01) (CTAM)
The CTAM study found "59% of digital cable and 52% of DBS customers use the Interactive Program Guide (IPG) more frequently than any other source." -
Telewebber News: Media Audit finds aggressive local TV stations see value of convergence between local TV news
broadcasts and their websites in the US (22FEB01) (Newsbytes)
(related.link)
Newsbytes cites Media Audit co-chairman Bob Jordan as indicating, "The survey of both online and traditional media in more than 80 US markets found that at least four network affiliate Web sites have overtaken the daily newspapers in the communities they serve." Newbytes further cites Media Audit as finding TV network affiliates lead newspapers in Cincinnati, Denver, Des Moines, and New Haven while TV network affiliates are in "tight second" place behind newspapers in Raleigh/Durham and Nashville.
If there is one place on TV for promoting interactive television, it could be through local TV news broadcasts where a favorite local TV newscaster on a daily basis directs the TV viewer to visit a website or to click on an interactive link appearing on the TV screen. Related to this, Microsoft could be in a good position to work its way from the TV network level at CBS and NBC/MSNBC down to the local TV network affiliates for the promotion of WebTV Plus and maybe even for the higher-scale UltimateTV (since satellite TV in the US can now offer local TV channels). -
BBC setting up new wholly owned subsidiary BBC Technology Limited for broadcast and internet-related technologies
(21FEB01) (BBC)
(related.link)
(related.link)
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Spiderdance joins AOLTV certified developer program (21FEB01) (Spiderdance)
(related.link)
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HAVi signs up Fujitsu, hLAN, Konica, PowerTV, ProSyst, and Texas Instruments as new members for
Home Audio Video interoperability (21FEB01) (HAVi)
(alt.link)
- On2 4Q highlights include obtaining new customers Warner Bros, Equator Technologies, Noos, and Showtime, and furthering On2 business plan to license On2 proprietary video codec technology to manufacturers of set-top boxes, electronic gaming devices and wireless applications (21FEB01) (ON2)
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Ecoin becomes exclusive licensor of On2 internet technology for video codecs for use in set-top boxes, electronic gaming devices,
and wireless applications in Korea (21FEB01) (ON2)
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Samsung Zapstation Can Store 30 Hours Of Video Or Up To 10,000 Songs: ZapMedia and Samsung to produce
Samsung ZapStation with 30 gigabyte harddrive, CD-DVD player, and CD ripper for accessing digital audio and
video entertainment on the internet (21FEB01) (Newsbytes)
Newsbytes quotes ZapMedia president and CEO Eric Hartz as stating the Samsung ZapStation "is designed to go in the living room and allow people to see the Internet on their televisions. Access to the Web can be broadband or dial-up. It gives access to the ZapMedia entertainment portal, which lets people stream music or video, buy CDs or surf the Web." -
Moving Beyond Internet On TV: Future of internet-ready TV in question (15FEB01) (LATimes)
(alt.link)
The Los Angeles Times quotes Microsoft WebTV Networks president Bruce Leak as stating, "Our experience in this space has shown that the TV is probably not the right place to innovate in the near term, for lots of reasons." The Times further cites Leak as indicating, "The best target for WebTV is homes without computers ... and that number is steadily shrinking. That's one reason Microsoft is promoting a successor to WebTV, called UltimateTV, whose main feature is digital video recording." The Times also quotes Liberate Technologies executive vice president and chief strategy officer David Limp as stating, "We learned through the school of hard knocks - and I think Microsoft did as well with the original WebTV Classic - that bolting a browser onto a television is not a successful consumer proposition. The highways are littered with in-television Web-browsing products." -
You've Got Headaches: Tracie Broom gives a 2 rating to AOLTV, says AOLTV is painful,
and you'll find your old TV experience utterly ruined (20FEB01) (CNET)
CNET's Tracie Broom writes, "Once you finish playing with the new features and want to get back to ordinary channel surfing, you'll find your old TV experience utterly ruined.... The $249 Philips AOLTV makes watching TV as slow and cumbersome as surfing the Web with a graphic-intensive, clumsy interface." Section headings in the unfavorable CNET review of AOLTV are "You've got headaches" and "Keyword: painful". See the next link for the USA Today's similarly unfavorable review of AOLTV. -
Give AOLTV Rabbit Ears: Edward Baig says flaws abound for AOLTV, is an exercise in frustration, and turns
purchasers into beta testers (21FEB01) (USAToday)
USA Today's Edward C. Baig writes, "Unfortunately, most of [the AOLTV] features work slowly, clumsily, or not at all. AOL executive Carlos Silva admits this is merely the 'starting point' for AOLTV, and that a version 1.0 product is nowhere near as polished as, say, AOL's more mature version 6.0 of the online service's software. But it seems to me the trend toward turning purchasers into beta testers is getting way out of hand."
IMHO, the retail versions of WebTV Classic and WebTV Plus when they first came out were much more well polished than the retail version of the AOLTV box. People buying the AOLTV box could be considered testers in a continuing unofficial beta test for what is supposed to be a final retail product. As previously reported by TechWeb, Time Warner's Gerald Levin was previously quoted to have testified before the US Congress that "AOLTV will only get tens of thousands of users. We'll have to learn what users want." The AOLTV box is a stepping stone/box towards putting AOLTV services on more advanced set-top boxes. Note to the AOLTV folks: Dumb Down The IPG and put in the capability to get rid of IPG categories or be able to set up your own categories. -ruel -
DemandVideo to deliver instant on-demand video entertainment on TV using the Liberate TV Platform Compact software
(21FEB01) (Liberate)
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- Tiboco BV launches internet-on-TV pilot program in Holland using Ravisent's e-Surfer embedded-software internet browser and set-top box (21FEB01) (Ravisent) (alt.link)
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Ruel's Spotlight Website: Tiboco TV Internet Company (21FEB01)
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Ratings turkeys on high-profile digital TV channels in UK (20FEB01) (MediaGuardian)
MediaGuardian reports, "Programmes on some of the most high-profile digital TV channels are being watched by so few people they hardly register on ratings charts." -
Not TV But Tablet PC: Danaos Peripherals Ltd. selects Dauphin Orasis Tablet PC for use in maritime shipping industry
for wireless applications on seagoing vessels including wireless LAN, internet access, email, accounting, inventory tracking,
onboard and offshore communications, onboard and offboard remote maintenance, WAP applications, crew management,
and training (20FEB01) (Dauphin)
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Consumer Electronics Association's "Digital Download" survey finds consumers want free public access to
online content and are more likely to purchase similar content after sampling it online (20FEB01) (CEA)
(related.link)
The news announcement quotes Consumer Electronics Association CEO Gary Shapiro as stating, "Almost every technology innovation from the VCR to the CD has enriched the same copyright owners that initially attacked it. Consumers want free and public access to content online, and those same consumers are more likely to purchase similar content once they experience it online. The challenge for our industry is to develop new business models, products, technologies, and services which provide a balance between the legitimate interest of content owners and the desires expressed by consumers in this survey."
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