Why I'm Not Excited About Sanctioned Bit Torrenting Of Network TV Shows

Bob Cringely, you were a Bit Torrenting business model genius four years ago, but it's only now that the broadcast world is ready to seriously contemplate what you were doing.

I recently read that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is about to be the first North American broadcaster to provide a series of a network show in high definition video files through Bit Torrent, the peer-to-peer file sharing distribution platform.

I've been impressed for many years at Bit Torrent's incredible ability to provide distribution of very large media files to users at incremental costs. Cringely's Nerd TV was one of the first examples I noticed around four years ago. I haven't seen too many legitimate uses since, except in the downloading of game patches, etc. by publishers. But as interesting as the CBC's exercise is, I think it's more of an experiment than the first wave of how broadcasters distribute their content.

I work for a TV and film producer, and while my focus is digital media, the company relies on a tried and true business model to produce and sell programs -- the same model broadcasters rely on to acquire them.

Shows are often commissioned by a broadcaster for exclusive use in a given territory. This means iTunes sales, which can be limited to specific countries, work well with this business model, as do streaming-only agreements (not downloads). But when it comes to web rights, either broadcasters work out an agreement with the producer to make certain materials available on the web globally, or they build a digital fence around content, limiting access to only certain regions. This is the strategy the BBC is using with its iPlayer as well as ABC.com's streaming of full length shows, among others.

Bit Torrent just doesn't make this possible. And in the case of shows like Canada's Next Prime Minister, where resale outside of Canada is just not likely, a file-sharing release to a limited worldwide audience makes sense.

Companies, such as those that produce hit programming for networks, make their biggest profit from reselling their shows around the world to broadcasters. And these broadcasters also get access to hit programs from other countries for a fraction of the cost it took to produce them, often acquiring the digital rights for the show in their region as part of the deal.

So while Canada's Next Prime Minister is a great foray into DRM free distribution online, I don't expect to see HBO or the producers of LOST (or ABC for that matter, which is in the process of morphing it's ABC.com destination into a video platform) rushing to join in with their high-quality content.

Also, it's worth mentioning that Bit Torrenters, myself included, make up a small majority of online users. However vocal we are, I don't expect my mom, dad, sister or wife to find shows this way.

I'll be curious to see how the CBC's experiment unfolds, particularly as I assume they will be seeding show files from their servers (thus mitigating the sometimes painfully slow bit torrent downloads I have endured). Will people take notice? Will it help the show?

Perhaps, however, this will lead to a different approach to content. As more users go online and discover video through destinations such as ABC.com, I think Bob Cringley got it right with Nerd TV almost half a decade ago.

Producers & networks, create something unique that doesn't fall under the rules of the existing business broadcaster model and provide it through Bit Torrent. Then sell ad space and track torrent downloads. Measure the effectiveness of web site calls to action embedded in the show. Balance production costs with expected returns (realistically, they will be low) and see where it takes you. Now this is something to get excited about.

Making millions when the boss isn't looking

From The Globe And Mail - It's one of the fastest-growing, most lucrative departments at CBS Corp. right now. But the company's president, Les Moonves, has a far more blunt way to describe how the network has turned March Madness basketball into an Internet gold mine.

“People sit at their computers and waste away their afternoons watching basketball games while their bosses are looking the other way,” Mr. Moonves told analysts recently in New York.

When asked about the advertising dollars CBS expects this year from online broadcasts of the annual U.S. college tournament starting today, Mr. Moonves simply added: “We are having our best year, by far. Ever.” | Read full article

Apple talking to labels about unlimited music

From The Globe And Mail - Apple Inc. is mulling a plan to upend its iTunes business by giving people unlimited free access to the music library if they're willing to pay more for the iPod and iPhone devices they use for playing and storing the digital media, according to a report published Wednesday.

Some analysts threw cold water on the plan outlined in the Financial Times, however, saying Cupertino-based Apple would risk creating an "accounting nightmare" and alienating some artists if it started giving away songs on its iTunes online store. | Read full article

Big picture in a small package

Sony's OLED TV is vivid, small and ‘cute'

ust when you thought it was safe to buy a TV again, along comes the next wave of technology to make your recently purchased wall-sized liquid-crystal or gas-plasma television appear quaint.

It's a display technology called organic light emitting diode, or OLED, and Sony is the first to reach the consumer market with it as a standalone TV, which Sony has placed in its Bravia series. The XEL-1 model is a cute little thing, small enough to pass for a digital picture frame on a desktop, but one that happens to deliver TV.

Aside from the new screen, the XEL-1 is a basic TV with a couple of à-la-minute goodies tossed in. It comes with a remote control and two HDMI ports to connect to video from, say, a Blu-ray disc player and an HDTV set-top box. There's also a memory-stick port and a USB DMeX connection so you can watch content from Sony's Bravia Internet Video Link service. That service requires another box (selling for about $249), which will stream, via your cable Internet service (not DSL), Internet video, music videos, movie trailers and RSS feeds from AOL, Yahoo, Grouper, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony BMG Music.

Early prototypes reported there would be an Ethernet port to connect the XEL-1 to your home computer network, but that seems to have fallen by the wayside in the production model. | Read full article

If You Can’t Let Go, Twitter

From The New York Times - SOMETIMES, you just have to trust your relatives. You have to be willing to let them leave the house unchallenged. Suspend disbelief and let them take the car.

That’s what I tell my three daughters, anyway. But it never works out like that.

They just can’t let me go. | Read full article

In CBS Test, Mobile Ads Find Users

From The New York Times - Pssst, hey you! There’s a cheap latte waiting at the coffee shop on the corner!

CBS plans to announce on Wednesday that it is trying one of the first serious experiments with cellphone advertising that is customized for a person’s location. Its CBS Mobile unit is teaming up with the social networking service Loopt, which allows its subscribers to track participating friends and family on their mobile phones.

The ads will appear on two Web sites that are tailored for mobile devices, CBS Mobile News and CBS Mobile Sports. | Read full article

Social Sites Don't Deliver Big Ad Gains

As Microsoft Corp. makes a $44.6 billion bet on Internet advertising with its unsolicited offer for Yahoo Inc., there are signs that some of the biggest new places where consumers are flocking on the Web -- social networking and video-sharing sites -- are yielding advertising revenue slower than some Internet companies had hoped.

The latest warning that the hottest Web properties are proving difficult to make money from came from Internet giant Google Inc. While announcing disappointing fourth-quarter earnings Thursday, Google executives said the company was having a harder time than it expected generating ad revenue on social-networking sites and ... | Read full article

Traditional Media Ready to Elevate the Conversation Online — with Moderation

From MediaShift - Major media sites have started to get the religion of audience participation, but there’s been one big hitch: How do you harness the audience’s knowledge and participation without the forums devolving into a messy online brawl that requires time-intensive moderation?

Over the years, traditional media sites have tried forums, killed them, and tried them again, this time with more moderation. But still, the unruly aspect of online commentary continues to upset people, as the Hartford Courant’s public editor Karen Hunter recently railed against the “uncivil discourse” on her site’s comments, blaming it on anonymous commenters and calling for a requirement that people use their real names. Then Topix CEO Chris Tolles defended anonymous contributions, comparing unregistered commenters on Topix to those that register and found that while unregistered comments are slightly more likely to violate posting guidelines, three times of all comments came from unregistered commenters.

What has changed in the last year is that major media companies are no longer arguing over whether they should have comments under stories or blogs; instead, the debate is about how they should moderate them and even highlight the best ones in eye-catching editorial spaces. Many sites are embracing the concept of “news as a conversation,” and trying to create active conversations among reporters, editors and readers online. The New York Times released a more robust commenting function recently, where readers can recommend each other’s comments, and there are “Editor’s Selections” for the best comments in a thread. And last weekend BusinessWeek.com started highlighting one commenter per day on its home page, with a photo of the commenter. | Read full article

Headwinds for online advertising

From The Globe And Mail - The explosive growth of online advertising may slow somewhat because consumers are beginning to find some of its techniques intrusive, consulting firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu believes.

While many consumers find advertising annoying, Deloitte said there are signs they are taking a particular dislike to ads in the online world. It cited a survey last year of consumers in the United States that found the majority noticed print ads more than those online, but also found them less invasive.

People are also objecting to advertisers following their every move online, according to Deloitte. Perhaps the best demonstration of that came last month when Facebook pulled its Beacon ad program that tracked the purchases its members made online and then alerted their social networks.

A slowdown in online ads would be discouraging news for companies looking to expand beyond traditional advertising, as well as for the media companies and websites that rely on online ads for growth.

Nevertheless, Deloitte expects this segment of advertising will expand further in 2008. “Even if the growth of online advertising does slow in 2008, slower growth should be put in perspective. Online advertising is expected to generate tens of billions of dollars worth of revenues in 2008 from a relatively small, addressable market.” | Read full article

CBC Radio show adds a wiki

From The Globe And Mail - Much of what we call "public" radio often isn’t that public -- if by public you mean interactive -- apart from maybe the call-in shows, where everyone gets to rant about how the prime minister is a moron. Some radio programs are trying to change that, however, including a couple that are featured on our national broadcaster, the CBC.

Spark, a show about technology and culture hosted by founding Definitely Not The Opera host/producer Nora Young, has launched not only a blog (something many shows have), but has taken the idea one step farther and has added a “wiki.” The term wiki -- which comes from a Hawaiian slang term meaning “quickly” -- refers to websites that anyone can edit or contribute to easily. One of the most popular examples is Wikipedia, the “open source” encyclopedia, which allows anyone to add a fact or create an entry.

Ms. Young says that she hopes that listeners will use the Spark wiki, located here, to offer thoughts about show topics, to contribute questions for guests who might be coming up on the program, and generally to interact with her and the rest of the show staff. | Read full article