ContentSphere - Music & Media in an Online Culture

On 4 June, BBC Trust provided its conclusion following the first phase of consultation on Project Canvas, BBC’s joint venture with ITV and BT. Trust issued a statement that the decision on the future Project Canvas will be delayed. Hence, one issue objected by several stakeholders has been adjusted. According to the tight time schedule, the final decision was to be published on 24 July.

Due to many stakeholders addressing missing information on the concept of Project Canvas, the BBC Executive has been approached by the Trust to provide more details. Additional information resulting from this inquiry as well as a revised time schedule will be published before commencing with the second consultation phase.

During the first consultation, the Trust received more than 800 submissions by stakeholders and license fee payers that in most part were in support of the project.

I’m looking forward getting to know more about the concept.

As you may remember, once there has been a Kangaroo that was destined rather not to have a fulfilled life.

By the end of February, we had to say goodbye to BBC’s joint venture Project Kangaroo which involved ITV and Channel 4. The Competition Commission’s decision set an end to mutual plans.

One obvious alternative even entered the scene before and rose to fame right afterwards: Project Canvas. This time, the BBC was about to be joined by ITV (again) and ISP British Telecom. They envisioned an open video video-on-demand solution, open to any content provider and content source, including internet.

If you were interested in how Kangaroo would have done, you should have been excited to see Project Canvas develop.
Continue reading "BBC & Project Canvas: Will the Digital..." »

Recent articles on this blog featured the problems broadcasting services have to face in the days of the internet. Just take a look at my del.icio.us bookmarks on the right to notice that the death of Project Kangaroo has been the opener to Project Canvas.

Today's informitv newsletter is concluded by a comment by Dr William Cooper, CEO informitv, addressing current issues. It's a brilliant one. Unfortunately, I can't find it anywhere on their site ("resource not found"). So here it is, straight from the newsletter...


Continue reading "Dr William Cooper, CEO informitv, on Challenges..." »

[German version] Actually, this article should have dealt with comparing Germany’s public service broadcasters current position and those of British PBS. I intended to comment on it since on one hand, there had been the turndown of "Project Kangaroo", the BBC’s joint venture with ITV and Channel 4. In Germany, on the other hand, the bill much debated for defining the legal foundations to PBS online integration (12th Amendment Act of Broadcast Treaty, abbr.: 12. RÄStV) had been signed a few months before.

Please notice: It should have. Having a closer look, each one's perspective on the bill whether affected or not, reveals some astonishing aspects. After all, even more it looks like a devastated allotment garden after a lively argument from "Picket Fences".

So what is the point of view of the persons involved? What are the issues the bill deals with it is discussed at primetime? Finally, what is the core of the matter all about?

Eventually, and maybe, there still will be a comparison between Germany and the UK. Let's see.

Digital Distribution and European Commission are expecting

The bill is not born out of anything similar to passionate love. Not really. In early 2005, the European Commission opened proceedings against Germany because of filed complaints regarding various aspects of financial regularisations of public broadcasting services.

Services affected, like ARD and ZDF, to a large extent are financed by fees. Recently, they started boosting online activities. This included media archives offering video and audio streaming for free. This was the day the bill was born. Concedings to the European Commission finally served to the closing of the proceedings. Later on, these concedings were to be integrated into the draft.

Continue reading "ARD/ZDF - The Journey Is the Reward: 12. RÄStV" »

4th February 2009 saw a sudden death to promising Project Kangaroo, the BBC's joint venture project in digital distribution along with partners ITV and Channel 4. Regulation had been expected, maybe a halt due to various reasons but certainly not the one issued by Britain's Competition Commission.

The basics of Project Kangaroo had been sketched as early as of 2004. BBC started out developing an IPTV solution for video on demand (VoD), aiming at recycling content. Despite some minor drawbacks, the Integrated Media Player (later known as iPlayer received a warm welcome and enabled a successful entry into digital distribution. In November 2007, the joint venture between BBC, ITV and Channel 4 was announced.

In the British Competition Commission's (CC) news release, CC chairman Peter Freeman calls the project a "threat to competition in this developing market" which "has to be stopped".

Why?

The CC argued the concentrated power of three out of four terrestrial broadcasting services would dominate smaller content providers, creating an online monopoly. In an attempt to urge all participating members to keep their role as competitors, aim was to support the user’s benefit.

One hop back…

I must admit, I was surprised to see the project completely stopped. The most obvious reason the BBC has to get digital is straight forward: Triple play and media convergence have been touted long since. Strategically, broadcast - and this means any broadcast service – has to stake its digital claim threatened by web services like Hulu, Joost, Apple's iTunes and YouTube.

The ubiquitous ease of mobile use can’t be achieved with old skool TV. It is not just for local ubiquity: Any content is available at any time. More importantly, as Trent Reznor does with his audience, it is a must to get interactive and get involved with viewers. The only way out is: go digital, get online and offer a sheer wealth of content otherwise lost in the archives.
Continue reading "BBC: R.I.P. Project Kangaroo - Along Comes Open..." »