Message From Michael
January 22, 2007
JOOST RIGHT – TELEVISION PERFECTED
SLINGS OF OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE
BIG BROTHER HASN’T FINISHING SINGING YET
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT, ALFIE
MARSHALL MCLUHAN, WE HARDLY KNEW YE
COCKTAIL CHATTER – THE TIGER WOODS OF TV

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JOOST RIGHT – TELEVISION PERFECTED: At least, that’s the feeling you get reading Wired magazine, but they’re not alone in singing the praises of Joost. Formerly known as The Venice Project, it is probably the closest thing we’ve seen to the marriage of TV’s and PC’s that we referred to in last week’s MfM. Now, the real test – let me see if I can explain it. Basically it is a system which allows you to watch television on your PC. Okay, big deal, right? There are lots of systems doing that – AOL’s In2TV, BitTorrent, Brightcove, iTunes, Google Video, even UGC site YouTube has cut a deal with CBS. The difference is the high quality of the picture delivered, the variety of searchable content and the fact that you can still check e-mail or read a PDF document (in other words, use your PC normally) at the same time. What is even more interesting, as tech site Playfuls.com says, is that the Joost controls and menu have a ‘glass-like’ appearance so you can see your desktop menu but watch the video underneath at the same time. The reason is the P2P (Peer To Peer) system of distribution. After all, the creators are the same two who created file-sharing network Kazaa and Skype, the free voice-over IP telephone system which they sold for $2.6 Billion. Janus Friis and Niklas Fennstrom are the Danish answer to Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page. But unlike Kazaa which got the two in trouble with various corporations and copyrights, the video in this is mainstream approved.Still not clear how it works? Let’s say you want to watch Fear Factor. You query the network. If no-one has ever asked for it before, the show is pulled from the 40 terrabyte main server, but then here’s where the P2P comes in to play. The show is then split into segments (with targeted ads – which makes it appealing to advertisers) and stored in pieces on the hard drives of the various computers on the system. So, the next time someone asks for the show, it’s pulled piece by piece in sequence from the various computers. The beauty of this is that the smaller chunks of data mean that the broadband pipes don’t get clogged. So, in reverse of normal downloading situations, the more people accessing the video the better. Somewhat immodestly but semi-accurately, Friis says, “we’ve taken the best about television and added the best things about the Internet.”

SLINGS OF OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE: From the people who brought you the Slingbox comes the SlingCatcher. Regular readers will remember the Slingbox which lets you access anything you have on your home TV through your laptop no matter where you are. Now, they’re going the other way, with the SlingCatcher allowing you to take anything on the Web and on your computer and put it on your TV. What is probably equally amazing is the price tag of under $200. Sling Media and CBS also unveiled a beta version of a system that will allow consumers to share clips from live or recorded TV at the Consumer Electronics Show. And the folks at Sling Media say by the end of the year they’ll have another device which will allow you to transmit anything you have on Cable, Satellite TV or on your DVR to any other TV set in the house wirelessly.

BIG BROTHER HASN’T FINISHED SINGING YET: To state the semi-obvious, these are not the only ones to watch. Monolith Microsoft and chairman Bill Gates says/promises/threats to make the Xbox 360 into a set-top that will not only let you play games but also allow you to watch high-def DVD’s, download movies, music and games from the Internet and record, time-shift and play live television on one system. Meanwhile Apple and its chairman Steve Jobs is following up its successful iPhone announcement with a promise/threat that it, too, will create a set top box that will make it easy to connect computers to TV sets. Plus, Motorola and Cisco’s Scientific Atlanta say they will have similar multi-purpose set top boxes out by the end of the year. And, finally, I couldn’t talk about all this without mentioning, again, Sony’s attempts to build support for its Blu-Ray technology through its PlayStation 2 while competitors are pushing the new HD-DVD. And may the best system win. Hopefully.

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT, ALFIE: This may mean nothing, but I have to note a couple of ‘minor’ developments that may presage something much bigger. CBS is launching a campaign on YouTube called 15 seconds in which people post their own 15-second ‘inspriational’ message. Microsoft is launching a new site that asks users to upload content about their life-changing moments. Of course, both corporations plan to use the ‘messages’ for marketing purposes – CBS in its SuperBowl coverage and Microsoft to boost its new Vista system. But, even so, it ties into several other articles I’ve read about people’s search for something more from the Internet and Life. Readers of last week’s MfM’s will remember the issue of trust, belief, and just getting away from it all, being part of the predictions/ trends. Researcher Ipsos goes so far as to say, “the future will be dominated by competition for public trust.” They say the reason is that people are trying to sort through the cluttered information economy marketplace.SIDE NOTE: New York-based research firm eMarketer reports that one in four TV households were able to access VOD (Video On Demand) in 2006 and one in six had a DVR (Digital Video Recorder). And, of course, the VOD and DVR penetration is expected to rise over the next three years. But not so ‘of course,’ the firm says despite established wisdom that these devices will cut into traditional TV advertising, the dollars will be offset by spending in other areas.

FOOTNOTE: With everything I read, even I occasionally miss the “big” story. The perfect example is the story one about Joost. Luckily I have colleagues like Janet Sharik and David Hazinski watching my back, so to speak. I had heard about The Venice Project off and on for nearly a year but, as David put it, those talks were mostly at the Geek level until the recent unveiling.

MARSHAL MCLUHAN, WE HARDLY KNEW YE: This is a break from what I traditionally do in MfM, avoiding commentary and focusing on facts and factoids. However, an article in the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media raised a question in my mind. The article by Donald Fishman, of Northwestern University, was a reflection and re-thinking of media theorist Marshall McLuhan’s role as “the patron saint of the digital age.” I know I don’t have to explain the author of The Gutenberg Galaxy, the ‘medium is the message… global village and hot and cool media’ to the smart readers of MfM. But it just made me wonder where -- as Fishman described McLuhan -- is the… provocative thinker… popularizer… public intellectual… willing to engage in a wide-ranging dialogue about the role of media in society” of the 21st Century.

COCKTAIL CHATTER: The Parents’ Television Council says violence in prime time television has risen 75% over the past six years. The networks averaged 4.41 violent incidents an hour in the year studied – 2005. NBC was the worst with 6.79 incidents an hour, followed by CBS (5.56), Fox (3.84), and ABC (3.80). It seems almost a related note to say that Jerry Springer’s bodyguard and head of security (the guy who bounces people) will get his own talk show in a deal announced, ironically, by NBC. And as long as I’m on a celebrity gig, Mr. Blackwell has announced his 47th Best and Worst Dressed Awards with, no surprise, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, tying for first place honors as “two peas in an overexposed pod.” Paula Abdul made the list as ‘fallen fashion idol’ while new House majority leader Nancy Pelosi made the best dressed list. And finally, on a decidedly more serious note, congratulations to News Director Dave Vincent and his folks at WLOX/ Biloxi. They are the Tiger Woods of Award winners, scoring a grand slam of virtually every award possible, with the latest award -- a DuPont-Columbia for their coverage of Hurricane Katrina.

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