Broadcasters and Web TV - The Sleeping Beauty of Broadcasting

Extra Extra, Read all about it!

Hulu no longer free!! Future of Broadcasting is here………

Parodied call of a Extra Newspaper circa the 1920’s

Broadcasting interests in Jamaica, specifically the Big Three (3), namely RJR Communications Group, CVM Communications Group and LOVE TV/Radio, must be very excited with the recent happenings in the United States of America, specifically as it relates to Hulu as stated in the article “Hulu launches $10 video subscription service”, published Tuesday June 29 2010 by RYAN NAKASHIMA, AP Business Writer, (https://www.news.yahoo.com). After Telecom Provider AT&T made the decision to have Metered Internet Usage, essentially Capped Internet on the now infamous day Wednesday June 2^nd 2010 as stated in the article “For New AT&T users, no more "all you can eat" data”, published June 2 2010 By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer, Yahoo News (https://www.yahoo.com), in the article “AT&T phases out unlimited data plans”, published Wed June 2, 12:07 pm ET, by Ben Patterson, Yahoo News (https://www.yahoo.com), in the article “AT&T to end unlimited use of mobile data plan”, published Thursday June 2 2010, by Ryan Kim, Chronicle Staff Writer (https://www.sfgate.com), in the article “AT&T's new pricing takes smart phones to the masses”, published June 3, 2010 4:00 AM PDT by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News - Signal Strength and in the article “New AT&T data plans for iPhones, iPad, more”,  June 2, 2010 2:39 AM PDT CNET News – Crave, changes are being slowly made as to how Developers write applications or Apps as they are called that can run over 3G Internet, becoming more efficient in their usage of the 3G bandwidth as stated in the article “Data Caps force developers to be efficient”, published June 14, 2010 4:00 AM PDT by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News- Signal Strength (https://www.cnet.com), such as charging Skype Callers to make Skype-to-skype calls VOIP calls over 3G, with Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) based Skype-to-skype calls being free as stated in the article “Skype for iPhone now support 3G, but free ride's ending”, published June 2 2010, by Ben Patterson, Yahoo! News (https://www.news.yahoo.com) and the newly minted and highly popular Apple iPhone 4.0, now all the rage in San Francisco and New York at Apple and AT&T Stores alike as stated by Senior Editor, Brian Tong in the video “CNET The Apple Byte”, aired Friday June 25^th 2010, by Brian Tong, Senior Editor, CNET News, CBS, (https://www.cnet.com) and corroborated by the blog “Live blog: iPhone 4 goes on sale”, published June 24, 2010 3:00 AM PDT by CNET News staff, CNET News - Wireless, (https://www.cnet.com) on Thursday 24^th June 2010 when the Apple iPhone 4.0 landed completely outstripped the hype of the previous Apple iPad launch that debut earlier on the weekend of Saturday April 3^rd and Sunday April 4^th 2010 and the article “iPhone 4 goes on sale at AT&T stores”, published June 29, 2010 5:48 AM PDT by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News - Signal Strength, (https://www.cnet.com) with the atypical long lines, chaos – just for a taste of the Apple and satiate their gadgetry sweet tooth.

“White people gone bananas over Apple” indeed is a phase worth repeating! Adjustments can also be seen in the FaceTime video calling feature, the highlight of the Apple iPhone 4.0 as stated by the video CNET Buzz Report, aired Thursday June 10^th 2010, by Molly Wood, Executive Editor, CNET News (https://www.youtube.com/cnettv), which uses Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) but utilizes the GSM Network to initiate the calls. Hulu was also on the list as having changes its usage habits to fit with the new belt-tightening, efficiency based mantra as it relates to using Wireless Broadband as opined in the article “Hulu to soon charge for content, sources say”, published June 9, 2010 9:53 AM PDT, by Lance Whitney, CNET News - Digital Media, (https://www.cnet.com), an obvious play to buy time while they upgrade their network to handle the coming traffic of LTE (Long Term Evolution). Now it is official: Hulu is now a pay service as stated in the article “Hulu launches $10 video subscription service”, published Tuesday June 29 2010 by RYAN NAKASHIMA, AP Business Writer, (https://www.news.yahoo.com), as everyone had suspected was the plan all along, as the affiliate partners could not be serious about allowing all broadcasters content for free forever. But what is so special about Hulu’s model? Simply put, it is the future of Broadcasting. Ever since the other newly minted device, the much lauded and hyped Apple iPad that debut on the weekend of Saturday April 3^rd and Sunday April 4^th 2010 and stormed to a fun filled victory of one million (1,000,000) Apple iPads in twenty eight (28) days as stated in the article “Apple sells 1 million iPads”, published May 3, 2010 6:16 AM PDT by Jim Dalrymple, CNET News – Apple (http://www.cnet.com), their has been much vacillating and airy-fairy commentary on the device and how it is a “game changer” in terms of its design being a “touch of genius” as stated in the article as stated in the review “Early reviews: iPad is 'beautiful', 'blazingly fast', 'has a touch of genius'”, published Wednesday April 1 2010 by Ben Patterson Yahoo! News (https://www.news.yahoo.com), an improvement on previous suggestions for a tablet by Microsoft as stated in the article “How Apple's iPad Succeeded where Microsoft Failed” published Tue Apr 6, 8:00 pm ET by John C. Dvorak Yahoo! News (PC Magazine) despite still no multitasking, no flash support, no front facing or rear facing camera, no-E-Ink for reading, no external ports (possibly missing to prevent hackers?), no dock or kickstand and worse, a problematic Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) service as stated in the article “Apple Addresses Complaints about Weak iPad Wi-Fi” published Wednesday April 7^th 2010 by Barry Levine, Yahoo! News (newsfactor.com). Even its name, the Apple iPad, the butt of jokes from middle-school as stated in the article “iPad's Widely mocked name won't stifle sales”, published March 28, 2010, 10:51PM EST By Connie Guglielmo, Business Week Computers (https://www.businessweek.com). Despite not being sun friendly as stated in the article “Users say the iPad, sun don't mix”, published Tuesday Apr 6, 2:18 pm ET, Yahoo! News (https://www.news.yahoo.com) or scratch-proof as stated in the article "The iPad's Screen: To protect or Not?", published April 9, 2010 10:40 AM PDT by David Carnoy, CNET Reviews – Computers (https://www.cnet.com) and the potential it and its related tablet-like copycats have to dampen netbook sales, if the price is right as stated in the article  " iPad, tablets expected to dampen Netbook sales", published April 6, 2010 8:17 AM PDT by Lance Whitney CNET News – Crave and " Netbook Sales Sag as the iPad Arrives” published April 7, 2010, 12:27AM EST By Cliff Edwards, CNET News – COMPUTERS (https://www.cnet.com).

Indeed, the Apple iPad has already begun to change the way in which webs site builders and app store designers design their apps as they now can take advantage of the larger real estate in terms of screen size as stated in the article " iPad Already Changing the Way Web Sites are Built", published Thursday April 1, 12:01 pm ET Dan Hope TechNewsDaily Staff Writer Yahoo! News (LiveScience.com) and is already beginning to look like the next gaming platform of the summer as stated in the article “iPhone vs iPad: 20 games compared”, published April 6, 2010 4:00 AM PDT by Josh Lowensohn CNET News - Web Crawler, (https://www.cnet.com), with even Hulu and other traditional websites such as YouTube that usually support Adobe Flash considering porting their content using the new upcoming HTML5 protocol, may in limbo and is as yet to be ratified due to internal infighting at the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) as stated in the article “Growing pains afflict HTML5 standardization”, published June 28, 2010 4:00 AM PDT by Stephen Shankland, CNET News - Deep Tech (https://www.cnet.com), which comes with built in support for video playback, thus freeing the Apple iPad and other tablet-like devices from being dependent on Third Party companies for video and audio playback, such as Adobe FLASH. Oh, how the times have changed!

So Hulu is changing too in light of all these development as it relates not only to Telecom Providers but also as it relates to how potential viewers consume media as stated in the article “Hulu launches $10 video subscription service”, published Tuesday June 29 2010 by RYAN NAKASHIMA, AP Business Writer, (https://www.news.yahoo.com). The way Hulu does it is also clever and sweet: all recent content (as in shows that week), are free to watch in 720p, but archived content older than the current week requires a subscription fee of US$9.99 per month, with paying customers being allowed to stream over Wireless 3G or 4G Broadband on smart phones or on computers via ADSL, AT&T , Verizon or Comcast Triple Play Cable Internet or via AT&T or Verizon FIOS at 720p or HD (High Definition), freeloaders getting the 420p, all advertisement supported. So simple!

Thus this new development bodes well for the Big Three (3) Broadcasters, namely RJR Communications Group, CVM Communications Group and LOVE TV/Radio in Jamaica, as albeit the Apple iPad Wi-fi (IEEE 802.11n) or the Apple iPad Wi-fi (IEEE 802.11n) + 3G or any other table announced since the Apple iPad came on the scene is yet to get support from any Telecom Provider and 3G rollout is still in its infancy in term of adoption for Telecom Provider CLARO, with LIME now just rolling out to Montego Bay as stated in the article “LIME to build S$40m 3G network for Montego Bay”, published Sunday June 27, 2010, by Janeta Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer, janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com, The Sunday Gleaner, (https://www.jamaica-gleaner.com) and Digicel, which had promised WiMax 4G Mobile (IEEE 802.16d) in 2009 as stated in the article “Digicel to offer mini laptops with 4G service next year”, published Friday September 4^th 2009 by Lavern Clarke, lavern.clarke@gleanerjm.com,The Daily Gleaner, (https://www.jamaica-gleaner.com), with ZTE Corp of China as their build out partner of their new WiMax 4G Mobile (IEEE 802.16d) Broadband Network as stated in the article “DIGICEL SIGNS ZTE AS 4G MOBILE WIMAX INTERNET PARTNER”, published Sunday, September 27, 2009, The Jamaica Observer, (https://www.jamaicaobserver.com) and now confirmed as ongoing as stated in the article “Digicel quietly testing 4G for August launch”, published Sunday June 27^th 2010 by Mark Titus, Gleaner Reporter, mark.titus@gleanerjm.com, The Jamaica Sunday Gleaner, (https://www.jamaica-gleaner.com). So it is early days yet. However, with the Big Three (3), namely RJR Communications Group, CVM Communications Group and LOVE TV/Radio to soon achieve DSO (Digital Switch Over), possibly via piggy-backing Radio and Television signals over  Digicel’s WiMax 4G Mobile (IEEE 802.16d) Wireless Broadband Network despite the foot-dragging as stated in the article “Slow road to digital switch-over - Cable groups mum; Flow ahead but network coverage behind”, published: Saturday  August 15, 2009 by Mark Titus, Gleaner Writer, The Daily Gleaner (https://www.jamaica-gleaner.com), it WebTV still relevant? After all, the Big Three (3), namely RJR Communications Group, CVM Communications Group and LOVE TV/Radio do already stream their content via their various web portals some offer RSS feeds and podcasts are available albeit I am yet to see video podcasts and the platforms are not standardized. Also no marketplace exists for downloading audio and video podcasts from the Big Three (3) and there are no apps for Apple iPhones or smart phones running Google Android OS to listen to content on any of the media houses web portals, with the exception of IRIE FM, a radio station. Thus WebTV remains a viable means of making money from the sale of content and advertising that is not being fully exploited as it is the case with Google’s five years experiment with YouTube as stated in the article “Time Warner, YouTube ink distribution pact”, published August 19, 2009 12:34 PM PDT by Larry Dignan, CNET News - Digital Media, (https://www.cnet.com) and the article “At YouTube, adolescence begins at 5”, published May 16, 2010 11:06 PM PDT By Brad Stone,The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com).

The benefits of DSO and WebTV are detailed in several of my blog articles, such as “Road to Damascus experience to make Broadcasters  see DSO Benefits”, (https://www.mythoughtontechnologyandjamaica.blogspot.com), DSO Benefits, how MNP (Mobile Number Portability) along with DSO can eliminate piracy as stated in my blog article “Piracy Solution via MNP, DSO and legislation”, (https://www.mythoughtontechnologyandjamaica.blogspot.com), a semi-technical dissertation on how this can be achieved at the lowest cost possible as stated in the my blog article “Google TV and DSO - an example of how a set top box for TVJ and CVM can be built”, (https://www.mythoughtontechnologyandjamaica.blogspot.com). The finale of my blog articles deals directly with the focus of this article, which is WebTV and its implication as it relates to advertising, stressing on the fact that WebTV requires no license on the part of the broadcaster as stated in my blog article “CLARO, Youtube and the coming of WebTV”, (https://www.mythoughtontechnologyandjamaica.blogspot.com), and combined with 3-D, can be a means of thwarting piracy as stated in my blog article “3-D anti-piracy technology to thwart Digital Video Piracy”, (https://www.mythoughtontechnologyandjamaica.blogspot.com). Make adjustments to my suggestions and Hulu and add in a service where by which subscribers can download content on demand, be it via a podcast of video podcast and show transcripts in lovely HD and with subtitles, as is the case with YouTube and Broadcast Television and Radio is saved. Thus, further explanation would not suffice, as the obvious is now a sore on the noses of the Big Three (3) Broadcasters and the Broadcasting Commission: adopt WebTV along with DSO or lose out on lucrative local and foreign advertising and promotion of local brands and content as with the expansion of Telecom Provider’s Wireless Broadband Networks the Big Three (3)will continue to read statistics about the declining listenership and viewership from the All Media MRSL Surveys………..via you Apple iPad from CLARO of course…………but that is grist for the mill till another time.