Seems like this time, not everyone is content to let Apple make all the profits:

NBC Universal’s television networks and the DirecTV Group satellite service on Monday said they plan to sell television shows on demand to DirecTV customers.

Selected shows from General Electric’s NBC Universal unit, which includes channels such as USA, Sci-Fi and Bravo will cost 99 cents, be available to DirecTV customers on demand within hours of broadcast and be distributed without commercials, the two companies said.

So is this move to the subscription model going to save TV from the death of the 30-second spot? Are there enough hardcore fans willing to pay a dollar an episode to make up for the lost revenue? We can’t wait to find out.

Those of you not living under rocks have probably seen one of the many Mark-Cuban-will-shatter-windows pieces that are floating around everywhere in the press these days. But over at Slate magazine, Edward Jay Epstein has an interesting take on the entire situation:

What has prevented the studios from closing the video window is simple: Wal-Mart. The company, which is the single biggest seller of DVDs, has made it clear that it does not want to compete with home delivery. Wal-Mart executives told Viacom’s home entertainment division in no uncertain terms that if any studio does away with the 45-day video window for a single title, they would risk losing access to Wal-Mart’s shelf space for all of its titles. Wal-Mart provided studios with more than one-third of their U.S. DVD revenue in 2004. In the face of Wal-Mart’s retail power, the studios have not dared (yet) to do away with the protective video window.

We here at BBB would normally give Mark a friendly slap on the back but we have some doubts. While this “Mark Cuban will save us from Big Studio Intransigence” is a catchy narrative, nothing has been said about Cuban’s own “no-window\” releases. Was there an amazing financial windfall as predicted by all these breathless hucksters? We don’t think the studios would hesitate for a second to start shattering their own windows if Cuban’s experiments were going well. Curiously, everyone has been silent on the cold-hard-cash front, choosing instead to pontificate on more conceptual matters.

Wal-Mart and the big studios are easy to villify but we don’t think even the power of Wal-Mart could keep studios from chasing after bigger profits. Something in Epstein’s math just doesn’t add up.

Sometimes an idea so shockingly bad comes along that you just stop whatever you are doing, sit up, and say “that is so fucking stupid” and this is one of those moments:

Hey, TiVo: since 1984’s Betamax decision, Americans have had the right to record TV shows even if the rightsholder doesn’t like the idea. That’s straight from the Supreme Court’s mouth. I don’t know what kind of special privilege the enteraintment industry has offered you in exchange for this spectacular display of wanton shark-jumping, but it wasn’t enough. I sold my TiVo when I left California. You can be goddamned sure I won’t be buying another one. Ever.

If you look carefully at that image you can see that Tivo now allows any show to decide whether Tivo owners can even record or for how long they are allowed to watch it.

I guess we now know how Tivo plans to survive its TV-Advertising-destroying nature.

As the BoingBoing article points out, there are plenty of Tivo competitors out there and they all just got a huge leg up.

In what is sure to be shocking news to everyone, certain companies are unhappy when someone else offers the same service for 98% less:

Skype service, which allows people to make calls from their PCs to regular phones, enables subscribers in China to dial to major Western markets in the United States and Europe for as little as 2 eurocents per minute (2.5 U.S. cents), compared with rates closer to $1 per minute from China Telecom.

China routinely blocks access to Web sites on politically sensitive subjects such as the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement and the 1989 crackdown at Tiananmen Square that left hundreds dead. But blockage of sites for purely economic reasons is much less common.

We here at BBB often poke fun at our own domestic telecom competitors but in most of the world there is only one telecom firm per country (most often a quasi-governmental entity). We can understand how China Telecom would be a bit unhappy with Skype but unfortunately, like the internet, the genie is out of the bottle. You can try to block a site here or there but technologically it is impossible to completely stop something. Skype isn’t the only VOIP company around…

If you woke up this morning and listened/read the news you could be forgiven for thinking you were teleported back to 1998:

Ebay in talks to buy Skype: reports

Shares of eBay Inc. fell nearly 4 percent on Thursday following published reports the online auction company was in talks to buy online telephone company Skype Technologies SA.

Google hires ‘father of the Internet’ Vinton Cerf

Cerf, 62, whose official title will be chief Internet evangelist, was hired away from telecommunications company MCI Inc. and charged with exploring new Internet applications for the Web search company.

News Corp expands Web grasp

News Corp. said on Thursday it would buy IGN Entertainment Inc., a Web network for video game fans, for about $650 million as part of a rapid-fire strategy to expand its online entertainment and media.

This is just the beginning of the craziness. Rupert Murdoch is on an internet buying spree freaking out about having missed the boat. Ebay has decided that it wants to take on phone service? Why not? That’s one of many areas that Google is aiming for especially now that they’ve hired Vint Cerf to come up with even wackier plans.

Too bad no one has any money left to play the stock market.

Just when you thought the war between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD was about to heat up:

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co. will bring out a DVD machine next year capable of playing both Blu-ray and HD DVD if backers of the rival standards fail to agree on a unified format, a newspaper said.

Competition between the two camps has hampered the launch of the next generation of optical disks, which will have greater capacity and higher definition, as movie studios hesitate to commit to printing disks on either standard.

That war was over before it could even start. Damn you Samsung! We were all looking forward to wasting all our money on a soon-to-be obselete format.

Of course, it will still probably be cheaper to just hook up a Mac Mini to the TV and forget the whole standards war to begin with.

Bad news people. Bad news. Do we really want to give Bill this much power? What are you thinking!? From CNet:

For the first time, the Windows operating system will wall off some audio and video processes almost completely from users and outside programmers, in hopes of making them harder for hackers to reach. The company is establishing digital security checks that could even shut off a computer’s connections to some monitors or televisions if antipiracy procedures that stop high-quality video copying aren’t in place.

In short, the company is bending over backward--and investing considerable technological resources--to make sure Hollywood studios are happy with the next version of Windows, which is expected to ship on new PCs by late 2006.

Do we even have to bother to mention that Russian hackers will crack this in less than 24 hours rendering the entire excercise a complete waste of time? All it will do is make our computers slower and more expensive (but thats what buying Windoze does in general). Hey, yet another reason to go out and buy that Powerbook you’ve been drooling over.

Forrester Research just released a major study that examined the impact of Internet usage on other media:

While its conclusion that Internet usage detract from other media is not new, the study delves deeper than others, separating consumers into various categories, including technology “optimists” and “pessimists” and “tenured nomadic networkers.”

Folks making up the latter category have had Internet access in their networked homes for at least five years and own a laptop computer. These nomads watch just 10.8 hours of TV each week.

Basically: non-tech savvy people watch 14 hours of TV a week with tech people watching 1.5 - 3.2 hours less. However, they do not change their radio, video game or newspaper habits. Conclusion: the Internet is absolutely killing off TV (albeit slowly) while leaving other media unscathed.

Now if only we can get used to our new nickname “tenured nomadic networkers.” We think BigBrainBoys has a better ring to it, don’t you?

This cute little (no pun intended) article over at Wired asks whether new small DVD formats like Sony’s UMD for the PSP and Warner Bros. “Mini-DVD” will generate any consumer interest. The article list some intersting info:

However, UMD seems to have clearly upstaged Warner Home Video’s Mini-DVD format with a 2.5-inch screen, which was introduced in the 2004 holiday season.

Warner is the only studio to have committed titles to the Mini-DVD format, which will play on standard DVD players as well as handheld players created for the 3-inch DVD discs (UMDs will only play on PSP units). It’s also the only movie studio that hasn’t announced titles for PSP.

You’d think that studios would be tired of the format wars but they are constantly finding new ground to battle over.

We found this amazing little piece of software through our friends over at BoingBoing:

HOWTO Stream from iTunes to your mobile phone (without Apple’s permission)

DittyBot is a script for OS X that uses a clever combination of mobile email and VoIP to stream music from your iTunes collection to your cellphone. Using your phone, email the title/artist info for a song in your iTunes library to DittyBot, which is running on your Mac, pulling down mail every minute. DittyBot receives the request, calls you with Skype, and plays the song back to you over voice-over-IP using iTunes. Wow.

This a good example of the law of unintended consequences. As all of our daily interactions become digital it becomes very easy to turn anything into a dumb pipe. Using your cellphone to stream music from your home computer may not be very practical for the average joe today but this is just a sign of what is yet to come.

Gizmodo has late breaking news on the imminent death of Telecom:

Everything is still rumors so nobody knows whether it will be a merger or if Yahoo will be buying Skype outright, but regardless it will a big step up in the world of instant messaging.

Skype is one of the most popular Voice-over-Internet providers and adding their technology to Yahoo! Messenger could bring vritually free phone calls to tens of millions.

In a decision that was not entirely unexpected the FCC has now ordered all internet-phone companies to provide 911 service to their customers.

In a 4-0 vote, the FCC decided on Thursday to require Internet phone companies to improve 911 access within 120 days.

Analysts say the ruling could boost expenses for Internet-phone companies, most of which don’t have deep pockets. And some doubt that Internet phone companies can meet the FCC’s 120-day target, noting that the wireless industry still has some problems with 911 access despite a decade’s worth of effort.

The irony here is that while VoIP has exploded to over 1.5 million customers nationwide in just a couple of years, they are still completely dependant on local phone companies to provide 911 service. Naturally these dinosaurs aren’t so hip on helping to build their own grave. What a surprise.

The good news is that the ruling will now force local bells to provide 911 service to VoIP customers. Yay government.

While Motorola and Apple have been playing a now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t game with iTunes mobile, Gizmodo has finally managed to snag some screenshots. Now I know what you’re thinking: you think that this is the coolest thing since sliced bread. Unfortunately the history of wireless corporate incompetence in the USA is legendary and we humbly predict that Motorola will turn iTunes Mobile into something akin to what “Gigli” was to Sony. Remember folks, you heard that here first.

The future DVD standard is one of our fave topics here at BBB because it will have a huge impact on the future of entertainment. As we’ve said before, the new format war between Sony and Toshiba is more than just a reprise of the VHS vs. Betamax war of the 80’s. If these guys were smart they’d just come up with a unified standard already. Because at this rate, by the time one of these formats makes it to market, we’ll be downloading movies instantaneously to our cellphones.

Although initial reports indicated that Toshiba and Sony were on the cusp of a wet, sloppy make-up kiss over their competing Blu-ray and HD DVD standards, Toshiba totally wrote this note that was like, “What? Psh!.” And the they were all, “absolutely no decision has been made for unification on any basis,” which—OMG—and I guess Sony was still talking to Matsushita, right? And Mat was getting all skranked out because Sony was talking about letting Toshiba’s friends start making the new discs, and it was all, “Oh no. No you don’t.” So, yeah, it’s all so crazy! I think this means that Sony and Toshiba are still broken up, the whores. Right? They’re total whores.

The pesky thing about those of you who don’t absorb knowledge like BBB is that there are all those annoying acronyms out there. It’s like when you’re not looking they’re fucking like rabbits and producing new acronyms some of which stand for other acronyms! Like Paris Hilton would say (if she was capable of speech) “Its, like, so confusing!”

Well, we have good news for you. Two of your favorite wireless technologies are combining into one:

This week the Bluetooth people adopted UWB as a future fast connection. What not many people have spotted is - the big winner in this could be UWB. Sure, Bluetooth is a slow protocol for headsets, and UWB is, potentially, much much more. But Bluetooth is established. It’s in phones and regulators understand it. If Bluetooth likes UWB, that could really be a major factor to convince the people that are blocking UWB - operators and regulators outside the US - that UWB is safe to use.

If you have no idea what all that meant then you should just give up now. The future is going to be ruled by 13 year-old girls who can text message each other faster than you can speak.

It seems like everyone is jumping into the independent media fray these days:

Infinity plans to convert San Francisco’s 1550 KYCY, an AM station, to listener-submitted content. The station, previously devoted to a talk-radio format, will be renamed KYOURadio.

Infinity, one of the country’s largest radio operators with more than 183 stations around the country, will invite do-it-yourselfers to upload digital audio files for broadcast consideration by way of the KYOURadio.com website.

“I’m excited,” said Infinity Broadcasting CEO Joel Hollander. “We’re creating a new way to let a lot of people participate personally in radio—sharing their feelings on music, news, politics, whatever matters to them.

“I also think this is going to be a really interesting way to develop new talent,” he added.

The station’s producers will screen submitted content to ensure it meets quality standards and does not violate FCC broadcast guidelines. Approved podcasts will be simultaneously broadcast over the AM airwaves and streamed online at KYOURadio.com.

Despite all the bumps in the road with carriers and Apple, Motorola is finally starting to release the new audio technologies for cell phones:

The No. 2 maker of mobile telephones is set to unveil a service called iRadio that will let users download pre-selected audio content from a range of providers on their home computers, dump it on their cell phones and listen to it on their car stereos.

https://upload.video.google.com/

Your work deserves to be seen.

You’ve made a great video. Now who will watch it?

Whether you produce hundreds of titles a year or just a few, you can give your videos the recognition and visibility they deserve by promoting them on Google - for free. Signing up for the Google Video Upload Program will connect your work with users who are most likely to want to view them.
Sign up and upload…

We’re accepting digital video files of any length and size. Simply sign up for an account and upload your videos using our Video Uploader (please be sure you own the rights to the works you upload), and, pending our approval process and the launch of this new service, we’ll include your video in Google Video, where users will be able to search, preview, purchase and play it. Find out more here.
For major producers…

If you’re from a TV station or production facility, we have a separate process to help you join the Google Video Upload Program.

They are certainly not the first to launch an internet TV platform but they certainly seem to be one of the most well thought out:

Announcing a new platform for internet television and video. Anyone can broadcast full-screen video to thousands of people at virtually no cost, using BitTorrent technology. Viewers get intuitive, elegant software to subscribe to channels, watch video, and organize their video library. The project is non-profit, open source, and built on open standards. Today we’re announcing the project and releasing our current sourcecode. The software is launching in June.

Sony has just been granted a patent for a new invention to directly beam data into your brain:

The U.S. patent, granted to Sony researcher Thomas Dawson, describes a technique for aiming ultrasonic pulses at specific areas of the brain to induce “sensory experiences” such as smells, sounds and images.