By Mansha Daswani for World Screen

Digital media may have radically transformed how we access and interact with content on a daily basis. But a new report from Deloitte indicates that despite all the dramatic changes of the last few years, the traditional TV advertising model can still be relied on.

Surveying 2,000 U.S. consumers aged 14 to 75 at the end of last year, the State of the Media Democracy report reveals that 71 percent of Americans rate watching TV on any device among their favorite media activities, up from 66 percent in 2007. Using the Internet for social or personal interests is a distant second at 46 percent, followed by listening to music at 35 percent.

The fondness for television is particularly true for baby boomers—those aged 45 to 63—with 81 percent rating watching TV on any device as among their three favorite media. Adults aged 64 to 75 are not far behind at 76 percent, followed by the 28-to-44 demographic at 68 percent and the 14-to-27 set at 62 percent.

And while multiplatform is key, live TV in the home is still the most common method for accessing content. Deloitte notes that 74 percent of U.S. consumers use their home TV system to view their favorite shows. And increasingly, that device is a flat-panel TV; 59 percent of U.S. homes own a flat panel, a dramatic increase from 17 percent in 2007.

The study notes that 32 percent use a DVR on their home TV system, while 21 percent use free online services and 20 percent on-demand TV services. Other methods for watching favored TV shows include using a show’s website (20 percent), DVD box sets (19 percent), video-sharing sites (13 percent), gaming consoles (6 percent), smartphones (5 percent), portable video players (5 percent), peer-to-peer networks (4 percent), handheld video game players (2 percent) and tablets (2 percent).

DVR usage is greatest among those aged 28 to 44, while online video services are preferred by the millennials (the 14-to-27 set). Deloitte notes that 37 percent of this demo watch shows online five to seven days a week, as compared with 22 percent of the 28-to-44 group, 13 percent of the 45-to-63 set and 19 percent of the “matures”—adults aged 64 to 77.

Ultimately, Deloitte says, the data supports the notion that traditional television advertising continues to be a viable model. In fact, 86 percent of those surveyed reported that TV advertising still has the most impact on their buying decisions.

Another key finding is that the Internet, mobile and social media channels are enhancing the overall television viewer experience, driving people to watch first-run programs and live events during their initial broadcast. And people are certainly talking about their favorite shows with others. Multitasking while watching TV has also become the norm for almost 75 percent of those surveyed; 42 percent are online, 29 percent are talking on cellphones or mobile devices, and 26 percent are sending instant messages or text messages. In addition, 61 percent of U.S. consumers now maintain a social networking site—as a result, delaying awareness of live TV outcomes is almost impossible.

“Consumers are not only watching television, they are talking about it, and those conversations are frequently taking place in real-time online and via IM/texting,” said Phil Asmundson, vice chairman and technology, media and telecommunications industry leader at Deloitte LLP. “By embracing the Internet as a platform that encourages audiences to participate in discussions about their favorite programs, television is maintaining its hold on the American public. People want to be part of the real-time conversation and they are embracing both platforms in a complementary fashion. And, because television has embraced the Internet and social media so effectively, the traditional television advertising model is alive and well.”

Deloitte also notes that 33 percent of American households now own a smartphone, up from 11 percent three years ago. “The growth in the smartphone market over the past few years is having a bigger impact on our lives than anyone might have imagined,” said Asmundson. “As the costs for these types of devices and the wireless services that come with them continue to fall, consumers are starting to shift their behavior, taking advantage of anywhere, anytime connectivity and handheld performance levels comparable to those found on their PCs. We expect smartphone adoption rates to continue to climb as new network technologies such as 4G begin to make the user-experience even faster and more seamless.”

Digital content delivery curbs signal theft, customizes entertainment

Philstar.com – Monday, January 17

MANILA, Philippines – Signal thieves had their heyday in the analog world when it was easy to splice cable TV lines or unscramble signals for free illegal usage. As pay television moves to digital and even high-definition (HD) platform, the prevalence of content theft has been minimized.

SkyCable, the Lopez-owned cable company that pioneered digital cable TV service in the Philippines in 2006, is at the forefront of the digitization process as it continues to introduce innovations in digital content delivery.

“We are really aggressive about digitization because it is really the way forward as far as pay TV is concerned,” says Rodrigo Montinola, VP for marketing of SkyCable. “What digitization really does is provide more options and benefits for customers. But digitization is not the end. We want to eventually be able to encrypt.” 

Montinola explains that in an analog platform, what cable operators can offer is limited. In the case of SkyCable, only two packages are offered to customers prior to digitization, one package having more channels than the other.

“The reason for that is when you are on analog the only way you can differentiate the two packages is trap the channels that should not viewed by specific customers. So you can only imagine that it is not too difficult for ‘enterprising’ customers to get the signals that they are not allowed to get,” he explains.

With digitization, the traps were rendered obsolete as the television signal is now delivered via the digital set-top box that defines what channels customers are subscribed to.

As the only cable company with a full suite of digital offerings, SkyCable is pushing for the digitization of the industry in general.

“If everybody digitizes and everybody encrypts then there will be no more illegal connection. We are able to raise the standard, everybody will benefit and it would be much better for the industry,” he says.

From digital to HD

Just as THX and 3D technologies are becoming the new standards for movies, digital and HD standards are starting to be adopted for home TV viewing.

When SkyCable introduced the digital set-top box (digibox) four years ago, it has more than encryption and curbing illegal connections in mind. It wants a system for delivering content customized for individual customers.

Digitization itself, says Montinola, will not curb piracy or illegal tapping. It is a tool that can be used to encrypt and provide choices for subscribers.

When it introduced, for example, its first digital TV package with roughly 30 free channels and 20 local channels, it drastically brought down the price to P280 per month. Customers were given the choice to add more channels of their choice ranging from P20 to P100 per month for each addition.

Topping up the basic plan with preferred channels such as Star Movies for P100, Fox Crime for P20, Solar Sports P150, ESPN and Star Sports for P150 and NBA Premium TV for P150 also requires no lockout period for subscribers. After one month, one can opt out of the service or add new channels.

Montinola admits that SkyCable’s foray into the prepaid service is not that successful unlike the benefits reaped by the larger telecom industry when it introduced prepaid cellphone services as it turned digital.

“What we learned from the experience is cable subscribers want continuous television service with no service interruptions like electricity, water and other utilities,” he says.

Still another advantage of the digital platform is it provides clearer signals, more crisp images. This, however, will be already surpassed by yet another evolution in the technology space: the coming of high-definition television, which provides substantially higher resolution than standard definition (SD) broadcasting.

Montinola reveals that this early, as operators all over the world are still rolling out HD systems, it is already emerging as the killer application for sports broadcasting. With advantages such as motion picture clarity, panoramic widescreen format and cine-matic digital sound, the first content made available on HD were the sports channels NBA Premium TV and ESPN HD.

Movies followed suit with HBO HD, Star Movies HD, Fox Crime HD and other channels optimized for great viewing such as History Channel (HD), Discovery HD World and National Geographic Channel HD.

While SkyCable’s HD service was launched in 2009, the service has only been accelerated in the last quarter because of limitations in the availability of content in HD.

Montinola says they would make the HD channels available as soon as they become available.

The next step: Personalvideo recorder

If you can record television programs with no tapes or disks and can do it when you’re not at home or while watching other shows, then digitization would have been optimized.

“Another interesting feature of a personal video recorder (PVR) is time shifting. When you are watching a program and you need to answer a call, you can pause the show and continue watching when you return from where you left off,” Montinola explains.

In more advanced countries, especially in the US, PVRs have become mainstream devices. Though the full benefits of digitization are already available, operators have to build a business case for it. SkyCable’s own PVR will be launched in February and it has both digital and HD capabilities.

If the way forward is digitization, digital content delivery is the next big step in customized entertainment. – By Eden Estopace (Philstar News Service, www.philstar.com)

By BRIAN STELTER

LAS VEGAS — The blending of television and the Internet is inevitable. But will it happen in concert with the major cable and satellite distributors, or in spite of them?

That question loomed large at theConsumer Electronics Show last week as manufacturers promoted Internet-connected television sets and companies like Cisco and Sony talked about “redefining television.” All involved know that connecting the Internet to television and vice versa could solidify the distributors’ place in the food chain — or greatly erode it.

“We want to use all this technology to make a better consumer experience,” Glenn Britt, chief executive of Time Warner Cable, said in an interview after speaking on stage here. A better experience, it stands to reason, will help Time Warner Cable and other cable companies retain customers, protecting the lucrative subscription TV business from the prospect of cord-cutting. It will also help manufacturers sell more hardware for the living room.

During the trade show, however, there was a point in every demonstration where fantasy collided with reality — and it was usually when the cable and satellite distributors came up.

“The idea here is to work with cable,” said Google’s Rishi Chandra as he showed off Google TV to Julius Genachowski, the Federal Communications Commissionchairman, on Friday afternoon. When working together, Google TV can seamlessly find live television channels, recorded shows, on-demand options and Web streams. So far, though, it works that way only with Dish Network.

“Right now,” Mr. Chandra said, “we’re limited.”

After seeing television setups at the show, Mr. Genachowski said, “They’re incentivizing the cable companies to innovate.”

At the show, media and technology executives largely agreed with that sentiment. And signs of innovation were evident: Time Warner Cable, one of the biggest cable operators, announced that it would start delivering programming via its network straight into some Sony and Samsung television sets, removing the need for a set-top cable television box.

The so-called smart TVs receive video via the Internet, protect the video as directed by the content owners, and display it all with a program guide that is much slicker than the ones that most people are saddled with now. Time Warner Cable customers who buy the television sets will have a cable television app on the program guide next to a YouTube app and a Facebook app, all tied together by a search bar.

Many distributors “will have an app for us” over time, predicted Stuart Silloway, a training manager for Samsung Electronics America.

Also last week, Comcast and Time Warner Cable announced that they would replicate their live channel lineups on tablet computers. Other distributors like Verizon andCablevision are working on similar features. (Of course, the channels themselves are also scurrying to reach consumers on tablets, too.)

The move onto tablets is part of a recognition by the Comcasts and Verizons of the world that they have to keep up with changing consumer habits.

“If you buy a video subscription from us in your home, our goal is to make the video available on all your devices,” Mr. Britt of Time Warner said, echoing the goal of the “TV Everywhere” concept espoused by his and other companies. He added, “People don’t see PCs and phones and tablets and TVs as different things. They are all just video display devices.”

Making a television subscription available on all those devices is wrenchingly difficult, because of a maze of copyrights and sometimes contradictory content strategies. At first, the live streams to tablets will be available only in customers’ homes, the distributors indicated last week. But that is still progress.

Stand-alone boxes that bring the Internet to big-screen TVs have not caught on with the public, but including that functionality in televisions may make it more popular.

It was learned last week that the remote controls for some Blu-ray players and connected televisions will come with red Netflix buttons this year, which is sure to “cause some consternation among those concerned about cable service cord-cutting,” wrote David Joyce of Miller Tabak and Company in an analyst’s note. But Mr. Joyce is optimistic that cable and satellite companies will adapt.

Sensing a big business opportunity, companies are lining up to bolster “TV Everywhere” and, thus, the cable companies. John Chambers, the chief executive of Cisco, proclaimed at a news conference Wednesday that “video is the next voice.” He said that Cisco had a software and hardware architecture package called Videoscape to blend television and Internet video sources.

In demonstrations, Cisco imagined an on-screen guide with three columns — the largest column being the television channels provided by the distributor, the second column being Web content, and the third being videos and photos from friends and family members. That guide was replicated on laptops, tablets and smartphones.

Cisco and Motorola, with a prototype of something it called “MediOS,” want customers to be able to quickly shift a television show or a Web video from one screen to another, and to be able to see what friends are watching at the same time. But that will take deals with distributors — and big investments.

As an example, the Google TV setup works well when it is fully tied into a distributors’ system, as it is with Dish Network. “But because there’s no integrated ability to control tuners — to stream content — it’s not standard,” Mr. Chandra told Mr. Genachowski on Friday during a tour of the trade show floor. “It’s going to take years and years and years to negotiate the integrations,” Mr. Chandra added.

For content owners, it is a confusing time. At the trade show, companies like News Corporation and the CBS Corporation held court with all manner of manufacturers and in a couple of cases announced new pacts. CBS will soon start allowing users of Boxee, an Internet television software package, to buy episodes of shows like “CSI.”

One senior media executive deemed the Internet TV marketplace a “jump ball,” with television makers, distributors and content owners all participating. “That’s why we have to talk to everybody,” said the executive, who insisted on anonymity because those talks are private.

What is still lacking, in large part, is consumer education about Internet-connected TVs — but that will change. The Sony chief executive, Howard Stringer, announced Wednesday that Sony would start a worldwide advertising campaign called “Television Redefined” this year.

“The next evolution is upon us: the marriage of the television and the Internet,” he said that day, without specifying who would officiate at the wedding.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/10/business/media/10tv.html?hpw

MSM launches Sony Entertainment and SAB TV on mobile; to launch mobile game based on CID

By afaqs! news bureau, afaqs!, New Delhi, January 10, 2011 
Section: News Category: Digital

The channels will be available on the mobile TV platform, MiMobi.TV, which has more than four million users.

Multi Screen Media (MSM) has entered into a strategic partnership with Hyderabad-based firm, Apalya Technologies to make its content available on mobile TV.

To begin with, the media company will launch two of its TV channels — Sony Entertainment Television (SET) and SAB TV — on the mobile TV application, MiMobi.TV, owned by Apalya Technologies. “Later, Multi-Screen Media may roll out its branded mobile TV application,” Nitesh Kripalani, vice-president, business development and digital syndication, Sony Entertainment Network tells afaqs!.

MiMobi.TV is a TV channel agnostic platform/application, which offers TV content from more than 100 channels — including Times Now, STAR One, Zoom, Fashion TV, India TV, Aaj Tak, NDTV 24X7, Imagine and UTV Bindass — to more than four million subscribers.

MiMobi.TV is available on almost all mobile operators, such as Idea, Vodafone, Airtel, Aircel, BSNL, MTNL, Reliance, Tata Docomo and Tata Indicom. It can be downloaded by sending the keyword, ‘TV’ by SMS to 58888.

Thus, mobile phone users will be required to download the MiMobi.TV application to access MSM content. SET and SAB TV content will become part of the TV content package offered by MiMobi.TV.

Apart from watching the channels live on the application, MiMobi.TV users will be able to access some programmes on demand as well, says Vamshi Reddy, Founder & CEO, Apalya Technologies.

“We want to make our content available on most of the digital platforms. That is the key idea behind the launch of SET and SAB TV channels on mobile TV platform,” Kripalani points out.

He expects that the availability of affordable smartphones and the launch of 3G services will fuel the adoption of mobile TV in India. “The initial adoption of SET and SAB TV on mobile TV platform is expected to come from tier I cities, and later from tier II and III towns and cities.”

Kripalani also reveals that the company will launch a mobile game based on its popular show, CID, in the next few months. MSM launched a mobile game for Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) in November 2010.

By Greg Sandoval

Last month marked the second anniversary since the Recording Industry Association of America, the trade group representing the four largest music labels, stopped filing copyright lawsuits against people suspected of illegal file sharing.

At the time, the RIAA said it would seek help in copyright enforcement efforts from Internet service providers, the Web’s gatekeepers, which are uniquely positioned to act as copyright cops. Under a proposed RIAA plan, the ISPs would first issue warning letters and gradually increase pressure on customers who illegally shared songs, and even suspend or permanently terminate service for repeat offenders. RIAA execs said then that some ISPs were weeks away from announcing the adoption of what they called a “graduated response” program.

Two years later, we’re still waiting. Not only have the largest ISPs declined to cut off accused file-sharing customers but one ISP, Time Warner Cable, did more than anyone to derail a litigation effort launched this year against file sharers by independent and adult-film studios. An RIAA representative declined to comment for this story

Instead of befriending the entertainment industry on copyright issues, the major bandwidth providers appear to be a foe. The top ISPs have also conspicuously failed to support an antipiracy bill introduced in the U.S. Senate–and backed by the major entertainment sectors–late last year. If passed, the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act would authorize the government to shut down U.S. Web sites suspected of piracy as well as order ISPs to block access to similar sites overseas. Two ISP execs, who spoke to CNET on condition of anonymity, were dismissive of the legislation and are skeptical it will pass.

Comcast as content owner 
Executives from entertainment companies brush all the bad news aside. They say the same thing they’ve said for two years: Just wait. They say there’s a big announcement from some of the major ISPs coming around the corner. This time, they might be right about at least one ISP.

A year ago, Comcast announced it would pay $30 billion to acquire NBC Universal, parent company of one of the six largest Hollywood film studios and major TV networks. The deal for NBC Universal, home of “The Bourne Identity,” and TV show “30 Rock,” was supposed to be Underestimating ISP power completed by the end of 2010 but it continues to draw scrutiny from regulators.

Nonetheless, the acquisition is expected to go through this year and that means Comcast has bet big on content. Film industry insiders say Comcast, with nearly 17 million high-speed Internet customers, has indicated it plans to get tough on piracy, though nobody seems to know what that means. A Comcast representative wasn’t immediately available for comment.

Beyond Comcast, however, there still appears to be little appetite for a get-tough-on-piracy attitude at competitors such as AT&T and Time Warner Cable. The reasons the RIAA and the Motion Picture Association of America, which has also pitched the ISPs on a graduated response, have failed to sell the program to the ISPs are varied: the ISPs don’t want to alienate customers, the costs of implementing the plan are potentially high. It boils down to there are very few benefits for ISPs if they fight piracy and few consequences if they don’t, insiders say.

The bandwidth providers are bigger than their entertainment counterparts, wield more power in Washington, and much of the public supports them on this issue. And the big ISPs are more than capable of pushing back on the entertainment companies.

Underestimating ISP Power
Evan Stone, the Dallas-based lawyer who this year began filing copyright suits against suspected film pirates on behalf of makers of adult movies, learned this the hard way. After filing a lawsuit last year on behalf of Larry Flynt Publications, the adult-entertainment empire that includes Hustler magazine, Stone needed to obtain the names of thousands of suspected film pirates. He first retrieved the Internet protocol addresses of the suspected film pirates. Stone then asked ISPs to identify the owners of the IP addresses.

Time Warner Cable informed him the company would hand over the names of only 10 subscribers a month. Stone seethed. “If you’re a pirate in these times,” Stone told CNET, “TWC is the ISP to have.”

But that was only the start of his troubles. When he pressed TWC to hand over more names, Larry Flynt Publications cut ties with Stone. While it’s hard to connect the dots, there’s no doubt TWC had leverage since some of Flynt’s movies are distributed over TWC’s channels.

Stone “wanted us to put pressure on the cable operators, but it’s not our goal to go after them,” Michael Klein, Larry Flynt Publications’ president, told AVN, a publication that covers the adult-film sector.

In a similar case, TWC offered to provide a minimum of 28 names to Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver, the law firm that represents a dozen independent film companies that filed copyright complaints against thousands of alleged film pirates this year. At the rate TWC proposed, it would take years for the filmmakers to obtain all the defendants’ names. The courts overseeing the cases signaled they wouldn’t hold up the legal process for this. As a result, Dunlap was forced to drop thousands of defendants from one of the complaints.

Meanwhile, Stone said other major ISPs have resisted helping him discover names. He said his other adult-film clients are prepared to take the ISPs to court and that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is on their side. The DMCA requires ISPs to take specific action with regard to repeat copyright infringement committed by their customers or else lose protection from liability under the law’s safe harbor provision.

So, do ISPs need the big film studios and music labels or is it the other way around? Some regional ISPs have booted accused film and music pirates off their networks. One of the more aggressive appears to be Qwest. But similar to Comcast’s situation, Qwest has a financial stake in the entertainment industry. The company, which operates in 14 western states, is owned by tycoon Philip Anschutz, an investor in the movie “The Chronicles of Narnia,” and owner of the Regal Entertainment Group, the largest theater chain in the world.

Self-interest, it seems, is perhaps the only way to get an ISP to play cops and robbers with its own customers.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20027202-261.html#ixzz1A8I9J692

Wednesday 29 Dec 2010

(Nov 24, 2009) The granularity of user decisions is much finer on the Web, which is dominated by the instant gratification of the user’s needs in any given instant. Content must cater to this rapid pace.

Read more at Nielsen Norman Group