[CAnet - news] 2007 - The Big year for Broadcast TV over the Internet?

For more information on this item please visit my blog at 
http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/
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 [Around the world broadcasters are preparing plans to launch delivery of
prime time TV shows over the Net. CBS is rumoured to be planning a major
initiative to offer all their prime TV fare over the Internet a day before
it is broadcast on the airwaves.  The new Apple TV box may also provide a
significant incentive as it allow TV viewers to wirelessly connect their
computer to the TV in order to watch movies and shows downloaded or streamed
over the Internet.  A good example of this trend is in New Zealand where the
national broadcaster is making all their video fare available to download
over the Net (but so far they have decided not to use P2P like BitTorrent
for file transfer). With the advent of Joost and Internet triple play
companies like Inuk, 2007 could be the big year for broadcast TV over the
Internet. The biggest stumbling block besides the last mile bandwidth
problem, still seems to be content and protection rights - I find it hard to
imagine the current content business model will survive which is entirely
dependent on failed DRM schemes, take-down orders and lawyers. Thanks to
pointers from Donald Clark and Dewayne Hendricks -- BSA]


I found a site where you can get streaming video of lots of current  
and old TV shows, plus a selection of other media types such as  
anime.  Its called 'TV Links': <http://www.tv-links.co.uk/>.  Worth  
checking out if you're interested in catching up on some shows that  
you've missed over the years.  For instance, I've checked out some  
early episodes in the 'Black Adder' series from the UK.  The video  
and sound quality is surprisingly good.

-- Dewayne


Television NZ Ltd has just launched its on demand TV services.  A limited,
but fair, offering originally (don't know if some of it is restricted on
geographical location).  They are working hard on the copyright for more
content.  

http://tvnzondemand.co.nz/content/ondemand_index/ondemand_skin 


Using Akamai around the country to spread the network load - but at
200MB+ per 1/2 hr show, this will cripple even further the limited
regional backhaul NZ has and further the growing clamour for "more fibre in
the ground" and for community-backed open access passive infrastructures.


>From David Farber's IPer list

Begin forwarded message:

Hi-def's DRM: Dead with Rigor Mortis: In a timely illustration for  
the camp that contends Digital Rights Management doesn't work, never  
did and never will (see "Jobs endorses unchained melodies"), the  
proud hackers over at the Doom9 forums announced their latest  
breakthroughin high-definition DVDs. Previously, hackers had found  
ways, albeit cumbersome, to uncover the "volume key" that would  
unlock individual Blu-ray and HD DVD discs (see "You couldn't seem to  
agree on one standard, so we took the liberty of hacking them both  
for you"). Now a hacker known as Arnezami has teased out the  
"processing key" that can be used to unlock, decrypt, and backup  
every HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc film on the market.

As Cory Doctorow notes at BoingBoing, this is a copy-protection  
scheme that took years to develop and it was broken wide open in  
weeks. "For DRM to work, it has to be airtight. There can't be a  
single mistake. It's like a balloon that pops with the first prick.  
That means that every single product from every single vendor has to  
perfectly hide their keys, perfectly implement their code," Doctorow  
writes. "There is no future in which bits will get harder to copy.  
Instead of spending billions on technologies that attack paying  
customers, the studios should be confronting that reality and  
figuring out how to make a living in a world where copying will get  
easier and easier. They're like blacksmiths meeting to figure out how  
to protect the horseshoe racket by sabotaging railroads."


>From Dewayne's list

Why piracy is still more common than legal video downloads 12/27/2006
9:27:38 AM, by Ryan Paul

<http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061227-8500.html>

A recent study conducted by consumer and retail analysis group NPD  
claims that peer-to-peer (P2P) video downloads (which in the study  
are synonymous with illegal downloads) are outpacing purchases from  
legitimate video download services five to one. The study, which was  
performed with NPD's VideoWatch tracking software on "the home  
computers of more than 12,500 U.S. households," states that 8 percent  
of Internet-using households downloaded video content from P2P  
services, whereas 2 percent paid to download video content from  
legitimate providers. The study also indicates that nearly 60 percent  
of video files downloaded from P2P sites were adult-film content,  
while 20 percent was TV show content and 5 percent was mainstream  
movie content.

Avast, matey! Opt-in!

The opt-in methodology used by NPD could lead to significant under- 
reporting of P2P downloading since those who are voluntarily tracked  
by NPD's software are probably going to be less inclined to violate  
copyright law. Chances are that the ratio of "legal" to "illegal"  
downloading is further tipped in piracy's favor than NPD's study  
indicates. Nevertheless, assuming that NPD's study approximates  
reality, one could attribute the strength of piracy and the limited  
adoption of commercial and P2P-based video downloading to several  
factors.

First, legal movie download services are still relatively new, and  
the movie industry's trepidation has prevented a diverse body of  
content from becoming commercially available. I still don't know of  
any legal video download service that offers my favorite episodes of  
Babylon 5, for instance. If the new digital economy is all about the  
so-called "Long Tail," then online video stores are missing a major  
opportunity by not playing their cards and rapidly expanding their  
selection. This is doubly true since the "selection" of content  
available on the P2P networks is truly impressive. P2P wins the the  
selection category hands down. This is doubly true when you consider  
that NPD found that 60 percent of P2P downloads were pornographic in  
nature.

Another obvious factor is Content Restriction Annulment and  
Protection (CRAP) technologies, more commonly known as DRM. Consumers  
who pay for digital video downloads want to be able to play those  
videos with the software of their choice, without a lot of trouble or  
the imposition of additional limitations. Consumers also want to be  
able to convert legitimately downloaded content to other formats so  
that it can be played on mobile devices. Pervasive DRM and high  
prices make legal video downloading much less appealing to the  
average consumer.



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