Value of the vacant spectrum to Google

And here’s a new twist on the digital switch overs.
Google wants the old television airwaves.
At least in the US it has these desires
Its got plans for mobile devices that would use local wireless airwaves to “access ‘white spaces’ between television channels”.
“Consumers could watch movies on wireless devices and do other things that are currently [...]

A “free” World?

“Free” is the new black…at least that’s the view of Chris Anderson, author of “The Long Tail”. His new book explores the phenomenon of “free” on the internet. This article in Wired Magazine is by the man himself, summarising the book.
The article makes fascinating reading because he whisks the [...]

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to release TV show via bitTorrent for free, and free of DRM protection

The future for public broadcasters?
From TorrentFreak via Watching TV Online

CBC, Canada’s public television broadcaster has plans to release the upcoming TV-show “Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister” for free via BitTorrent. This makes CBC the first North-American broadcaster to embrace the popular filesharing protocol.
According to an early report, high quality copies of the show will be [...]

How reliable are forecasts?

One of our industry participants has commented that surprises from the last 10 years in the media communication sphere, includes a reduction to the quality and diversity of news services through their truncated presence online.
A recent study conducted in the US and cited by Wired magazine would tend to support this view.
I include the full [...]

AOL buys Bebo

The attached article from C21 is yet another pointer to the ambitions of current media magnates (in this case, AOL-Time Warner) to “own” the users of new media: a central issue for the development of our scenarios. Bebo is a particularly interesting buy, given its development of “Kate Modern” and its growing relationships [...]

Ready for the next digital revolution!

Nicholas Carr is the author of “Does IT Matter” which caused a major storm when it was published (Amazon quotes him saying “In May 2003, I published the article “IT Doesn’t Matter” in the Harvard Business Review. Called “the rhetorical equivalent of a 50 megaton smart bomb,” the article challenged the conventional wisdom that [...]

Internet TV

A stimulating piece from Australian Reseller News (ARN)/ IDG Communications, 6 March 2008:

Hugh P.

Internet TV — there will be blood

Technology key to the widespread adoption of Internet TV.

Mary A. C. Fallon (DOS Resource Guide, Demo.com) 06 March, 2008 13:12:38

The surge of Internet TV entrepreneurs promise movies and TV programs on any screen, anywhere, [...]

World Indigenous Television Broadcasting Conference

The first World Indigenous Television Broadcasting Conference will be held in Auckland from March 26-28.
The conference is of interest to the project for three reasons:

Growth of indigenous broadcasting around the world indicates health and ongoing relevance and utility of public service broadcasting objectives (although Shaun Brown will be at the conference to argue the case [...]

“Glancing”

There is a new word in the media lexicon – not viewing but “glancing”. This describes the way we might receive new digital radio services in OZ – which are a combination of sound and image (still or multimedia – but not video which is prevented under legislation).
ABC Media Report 
The ABC are interested in [...]

Touch – the new frontier for television?

Thinking idly about interfaces, the overflow of unused and uncared for buttons on remote controls, and the limitations of the mouse for people with arthritis.
Interactive television has dropped off the radar a little in terms of industry buzz, perhaps something like this could function both as an interface for negotiating channels, adjusting settings and engaging [...]