Friday, April 25

Kangaroo

A joint venture between BBC Worldwide, Channel 4 and ITV sees the introduction of Project Kangaroo. Kangaroo will offer users the chance to catch up on television programmesfrom the UK's four largest terrestrial channels even after the seven-day iPlayer window closes. It aims to do for online TV what Freeview did for digital. Kangaroo will also carry a library of other, more niche series.

With so many broadcasters involved Kangaroo has the potential to be even bigger than iplayer and will change the way we consume digital television dramatically that for some people they may only use the television for playing computer games and watch televison games. Therefore in the future there may be many people in the United Kingdom whose household may not even own a television.

Summary of Digital Television Expansion

By the end of March 2005 digital TV had reached 61.9% of households in the United Kingdom a growth of 2.5% up from 59.4% at the end of December 2004. In addition 3% of households were subscribing to analogue cable bringing the total figure up to 64.9%. In that quater of the year the total number of digital television households grew by 643,517.

By the end of 2005:
BSkyB’s subscriber numbers in the UK increased by 87,000 to reach 7,349,000 in the UK.

Freeview household numbers where estimated to have grown to around 5,059,350.

There where around 445,000 free-to-view digital satellite homes. This figure includes viewers who are no longer Sky subscribers but still receive the public service channels through their set-top box. Of the viewers that have stopped their Sky subcription service an estimated 300,000 still use their set up box to recieve all of the free-to-view public service channels.

In total there are now over 5.5 million free-to-view digital households. The total number of subscribers to cable television is now just under 3.3 million. Digital cable increased by just over 30,000 and now accounts for just over 2.5 million of the total. Latest estimates suggest that 25% of Freeview boxes are in households that already have digital (either Freeview, Sky or cable) on their main set. There are also a percentage of DTT boxes that are currently inactive mainly due to issues with reception.

Results taken from the ofcom website

Digital Television Statistics


In the first four months of 2006 45% of households recieved a digital television service whilst owning a mobile phone and having access to the internet. However 8% did not have acess to any of the three.
The number of households that receive a digital television service has increased, from 19 per cent in 1996/97 to 65 per cent in 2005/06. Now there is a number of interactive services available on digital television. In 2005, 33 per cent of adults with a television in their home could take part in game shows, although only 7 per cent actually did. While 28 per cent had the facility to buy products through shopping channels, only 5 per cent chose to do so.

Media Magazine - Just Press The Red Button (Key Points)

How technology has made it possible
The main difference to analogue is that the signals are compressed, which means much more information can be transmitted in the same amount of bandwidth. Freeview, cable and digital satellite viewers can all access interactive television content, meaning it is now available to well over half of all households. Some digital television boxes are connected to a telephone line, enabling a two-way transfer of information, similar to an internet connection. This has meant that Internet services such as banking and email have become available even to people without computers in their homes.

What does this mean?
One side effect of the rise of iTV is the potential that has arisen for fictional programming to become truly interactive. Broadcast in December 2005, episodes were available to view not just on Channel 4, but on MTV, E4, and available to download from the PSP website and on 3 mobile phones. The BBC has also begin to look at interactive drama, with viewers of an episode of Holby City having a choice of two characters to kill off.

Imagine a scenario in which the interactive content offers viewers four choices at each key point in the narrative, selectable by using the four coloured keys on the remote control. The number of choices effectively means the viewer is choosing their own programme from one of dozens or even hundreds of potential programmes. The cost of producing such a programme would be much higher and do audiences really want choice.

The trend in recent years has been towards personalisation, with iPods and PVRs letting consumers create, respectively, their own radio stations and television channels. PVRs (Personal Video Recorders) such as Sky+ have already worried advertisers, as they drastically cut down the amount of time people spend watching advertising. As more and more people adopt new technologies, institutions will be forced to find ways to make up for the loss in revenue, and this may mean exploiting iTV more. Ofcom will be keeping a close eye on developments, but there is little doubt that things will change.

Thursday, April 24

TV on iTunes

ITV makes classic shows available on iTunes
By Nicole Martin, Digital and Media Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:01pm BST 22/04/2008

Have your say Read comments
Millions of iPod owners can now watch their favourite ITV programmes on the go after the broadcaster signed a ground-breaking deal with iTunes.

TV fans want to watch their favourite shows whenever and wherever they want
Fans can download episodes of Cold Feet, Captain Scarlet and other ITV classics onto their computers and then watch them on their iPods or iPhones for just £1.89. Other programmes such as Inspector Morse and the adaptations of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey and Emma will be available to download later this year.
Dawn Airey, the managing director of ITV global content, said: "We want to give our viewers the opportunity to watch their favourite shows wherever they are.
"ITV has thousands of hours of classic content in the archive which we are bringing to a whole new audience via iTunes."
Viewers can already download BBC programmes, including Life on Mars and Torchwood, and Channel 4 favourites, including Shameless and Skins, from the iTunes website.
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The deals reflect the growing demand for television catch-up services and the changing habits of viewers who want to be able to watch their favourite shows whenever and wherever they want.
Last year BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4 announced plans to launch a joint online television service, aiming to provide a "one stop shop" for people who want to catch up on TV shows they have missed.
The service, provisionally called Kangaroo, will launch later this year and will offer more than 10,000 hours of "catch-up" and archived television shows, available for viewers to download for free or buy.
The iPlayer, which allows viewers to watch BBC programmes up to seven days after transmission, has already proved popular, with 2.2 million people using it in its first three months.

Above is an article I took from the Daily Telegraph’s website that was published recently on the 22nd of April 2008. It shows the true extent of the development of how we consume television in the modern era. Ipods only became popular in last five years and not many people five years ago would have predicted the growth and success of this Apple product. It is remarkable that something that had such an introduction on the way we consume music, has converged with other media technologies to offer buyers such a variation and excellent product for their money. Being able to download television programmes of the consumer choice gives them a great way to catch up with their favourite programmes. Many programmes are on such high demand from customers that the times we consume television is dramatic. Nearly gone are the times of prime time television, as people know that if they don’t watch their favourite television programme they can always watch it another time at their own convenience. People now know that they do not have to be watching their television when their favourite programmes come on because they can either watch the repeat, record using Sky+, watch the omnibus, watch it on the internet through services such as iplayer and now on their ipod all made by the companies to improve convenience, improve their reputation and to stay up to date with the constant changes in new media technology.

Tuesday, April 22

Interactive TV

Interactive TV is a mix of teletext/ceefax and the internet. It offers users information on demand as well as two-way services over your phone line, such as e-mail, online shopping and banking. Sky’s equivalent of the red button is sky active and offers users games, news, offers and features whereas the BBC has BBCi, the Beeb’s interactive service.

Freeview

Freeview offers extra channels form the standard TV aerial without a subscription fee. As long as your house is within the coverage area offering forty TV channels and twenty-four radio channels. Freeview comes via a set top plugged into the existing TV box.

Digital Switchover

The UK’s old television broadcast signal that is known as analogue is being switched off and replaced with a digital signal. The digital switchover will take place between 2008 and 2012 with the time of the switchover dependant on where you live within the UK. Anyone buying a new television will have to look out for the digital television symbol (below) on the product and therefore leading to a successful and quick switchover.
Companies that offer digital services are:
Tiscali
Small World
Freeview
Virgin Media
Sky
Wight Cable
Top Up TV
Freesat
BT Vision

There are many advantages that digital television has for viewers the main benefit being that the customer has more channels to chose from as well as the channels you already had. Customers are also able to sign up for subscription channels, therefore offering them more a variety. The quality of performance is also of substantially better quality and the inclusion of new features such as the red button interactivity.
There are disadvantages of the digital switchover such as the fact it costs people money that may need to spend on something more important and also the fact that some people are happy with the channels they already have.

Sky Anytime on PC

Sky Anytime offers Sky viewers a chance to get more for their Sky subscription by catching up on television programmes they have missed. It offers viewers the chance to get a preview of upcoming programmes. They offer customers the chance to escape the schedules to watch what you want, when you want, where you want.

Sky

Sky is the most known digital television provider and as a company they offer many services to its customers that benefit their entertainment. They offer many different channels as a basic set, but on top of that they also offer customer different boxes from Sky HD to Sky +. There are also many other various TV packages on offer to chose from giving the customer what they want to watch. Other products Sky offer are broadband and phones.

How we consume music

Below is an article on how social networking has changed the way people consume music taken from http://blog.luon.com/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=379

Social networks are changing the way people consume music at a time when piracy is on the rise and the rate of growth of legal downloads has slowed. - Some 53% of people actively surf social networking sites to find music. - Some 46% of those surveyed wished it was easier to purchase music they had discovered on social networking sites, for instance via a "buy now" button on the site.- A further 30% said they went on to buy or download music that they had discovered on a social network site. If there isn't an integrated purchase function, people will go elsewhere, including illegal downloads, to get the music they want

The way we consume music has changed dramatically in recent years and gone the times people would only consume music via the radio and at rare concerts. The new era of consuming music has rapidly changed and will continue to develop as the way people consume music continues to be so popular. The access to consuming music has increased dramatically in past ten years and within almost every new electronic good it offers the buyer the added bonus of being able to listen to music from it, for example the mobile phone has changed to accommodate music.

There are many other ways in which access to music results in increased listening with the main change being the development of the mp3 player. Gone are the days of the cassette player and now even the cd player, once so popular is also on the decline into which it will be pushed out of this competitive market. The introduction and growth of the ipod and mp3 player has produced the decline of the above. Television is now a great way in which many people consume music from the music channels to the many radio stations such as Sky offer. Increased concerts and the introduction of the digital radio have also led to the positive wave of consuming music in which people have many choices into how they want to consume music and the type of music of their preference.