IDTV

Helium - a wiki that pays

A new twist on the community-created content idea - but one that pays. Helium is a new US-based content site with international ambitions. The idea is a sort of cross between Wikipedia and Digg: registered members write articles about things that interest them, and submit them to a vetting process which involves other registered members of the site, who then give the article a rating.

The article is then posted - and if it gets a high enough rating, and garners enough hits, the author starts getting paid for his work. The good stuff, defined by the 'wisdom of the crowds', automatically rises to the top, hence the name 'Helium', and receives the highest level of revenue.

It seems like a clever idea. I've posted a few articles to see what happens, although I suspect the audience is probably too US-centric to be interested in the sort of stuff that I like writing about.

I should also declare a family interest: my younger brother wrote the code for the site's search-engine! We'll see how it develops - but have a look, and see what you think....

Mobile TV: the evidence reviewed

On Tuesday I gave a presentation to the 'DVD and Beyond' conference in London about Mobile TV, which came to the conclusion (among other things) that DVB-H was the most likely standard to be adopted in Europe; that there was a market for broadcast television to handheld devices, but not a mass-market one; and that the business model looked exceedingly risky.

The presentation contained a lot of detailed research evidence from a wide variety of sources, and visitors to this blog who are interested in the topic can download the presentation here (but be warned, it's a zipped 3 Meg file!).

In an email to me after the conference, its organizer, Dr Jean-Luc Renaud, told me: "Your ability to present dense and complicated material in a user-friendly way is legendary, and I learnt an amazing amount about mobile TV." I hope you do, too!

Sky buys into ITV

"British Sky Broadcasting Group plc ('BSkyB') announces that it has acquired a
stake in ITV plc ('ITV'). BSkyB has today acquired 696 million shares,
representing 17.9 per cent of the issued share capital of ITV, at a price of 135
pence per share. The total consideration amounts to approximately GBP 940
million, which will be funded from the group's existing cash balances and its
currently undrawn revolving credit facility." Link: BSkyB - Corporate - Press Release.

Well, I guess that scuppers NTL's proposed acquisition of ITV! It also probably scuppers the BBC/ITV Freesat initiative... 

As always with BSkyB, one has to admire their audacity.... Wonder what Ofcom will say?

Sling to your cell

Uncertainties over the viability of mobile TV business plans have increased following the announcement that the Slingbox technology will be extended to encompass mobile phones.

A Slingbox essentially lets you watch what appears on your TV set anywhere in the world on a laptop via a broadband connection. Now 3G operator 3UK has done a deal with Sling to allow you to do that on your cellphone.

Because of the unexpectedly high amount of in-home viewing that trials of mobile broadcast TV have demonstrated, any commercial services were always going to be ripe for cannibalisation from Freeview (once it became portable) and pay-TV operators like Sky (once they decided to invest in portable PVRs).

But Sling poses a fresh threat to the mobile TV model outside the home, because the thinking was always that there was 'unused airtime' to be exploited by consumers on long commutes. Sling-enabled 3G phones can now shoehorn themselves into this space, too, without anyone having to invest in expensive new mobile broadcast networks.

The beauty of the Sling model is that the mobile network operator doesn't have to broadcast a large amount of TV channels: in effect, the consumer deploys their own in-home TV set-up as a sort of domestic video-on-demand server. Definitely a development to watch....

Sky Broadband? Not for me...

Am I alone in being underwhelmed by BSkyB's new broadband venture (see here for their latest quarterly figures)? After heavily marketing their new broadband service, they have secured one million registrations - but only connected up 74,000 customers. By my calculations, that's a conversion rate of just 7.4 per cent.

I wonder how many people realize what the process is: you register the fact that you're interested, and then you have to wait for their sales people to contact you to 'invite' you to purchase the Sky broadband package. Only at that point are you categorised as having made an order.

So when Sky talks of '20,000' orders a week, this is nothing to do with demand: it's just the maximum figure their sales teams are able to manage.

I should know: I registered my interest in July and I've yet to be contacted by a sales team, although I've had three letters since then saying, effectively, 'we'll get round to you eventually.'

Well, I'm not waiting any longer. Later this week, I'm swapping back to BT from NTL. I wonder how many other would-be Sky Broadband purchasers have made the same decision... 

Google tries to ward off YouTube copyright threat

From our "we told you so" department (see here)...

"Google is engaged in a frantic round of negotiations aimed at persuading traditional media companies to supply their content to YouTube, the video website it bought last month for $1.65bn, and ward off a potentially crippling round of lawsuits."

Link: FT.com / Companies / Media & internet - Google in bid to halt YouTube legal threat.