Just came upon this excellent article posted on TVover.net and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in the technical challenges posed by IPTV and the state of the UK DSL industry.
Alexander Cameron shares his views in an informative article titled "Cutting Off the Air Supply" read the rest of this article
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
IPTV - cutting off the air supply, an excellent article by Narrowstep
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Jooster Content Programmer - Chen Jin Xing
Thank you to Jin for the fourth entry to our Jooster content programmer competition.
If you agree with Jin´s content choices leave a positive comment for him on this post, we will be announcing the winners and giving out the 6 Beta tokens at the end of the month.
If you would like to enter the competition click here - there is still time and Ive got 6 tokens so get scribblin!
Jooster Content programmer -Jin
Buzz. That is the key for Joost. To create content that will get water cooler talk the next day. To create content that gets people talking.I've taken a different approach than just signing popular content providers that already exist. While I would still sign popular and up and coming content providers, I would focus my content programming by having an anchor show for each of the major categories (reality television, sports, comedy, music, film). Here is how I would do it - originality and exclusively. I would do this through reality television and branch off to sports, comedy, music, film/drama from that.
Reality TV is cheaper and easier to produce than regular sitcoms. I would produce many different reality tv shows that can only be exclusively seen on Joost. I would have viewer involvement in the outcome of the show so users can get excited about it and talk about it then next day. I would give the users a chance to win prizes as well to encourage participation and more buzz. I would have a new episode/show everyday so users will come back for more. What would the reality TV shows be about? I would create a show by petitioning for the top writers, producers, and directors to submit their own original work. These will be shown on Joost for viewers to vote for. The top selected contestants will be put in a series of challenges on producing their own commercials, sitcoms, and short length movies that viewers can watch from day one. The grand prize? Your own original film/drama show to be shown exclusively on Joost. Now not only will the viewer's choice for the best writer/producer/director be the winner but they will stick around and see what he or she comes up with for their own show. Moreover, other contestants of the show who didn't win but still showed off their work and had fans could also be offered different shows.
I would create a similar reality tv show except target comedy writers and performers. The winner would receive their own comedy special and show.
For music I would turn to the top reality music show. I would get all the top participants who didn't win the Idol/Superstar series from all over the world such as Pop Idol (UK) and American Idol (US) and create an international world idol. Now this will generate buzz from all over the world with different countries having representation and will give exposure to these unknown artists.
For sports, I would try and create a brand new sport that would interact with Joost somehow. For example, in competitions, fans can choose what matchups they want to see. Like some of the other major categories, I would create a reality tv show that would try and find the best creator of the new sport in which people can see how it was first created from the very first day and feel like they are part of the action. Now that I've created some buzz and some income, I would go out and sign the producers of the popular YouTube "lonelygirl15". I would make the show daily and exclusively on Joost. There is already a loyal fan base from YouTube and Joost can use YouTube to create teasers and generate interest in the newest episode. These shows would be the anchor shows for each of my major categories to help bring buzz to Joost. The main theme would be to use reality tv to create new and innovating new shows, sports, and music. Once people see these shows, they will see some of the other content provided and be hooked on the experience – an original show they helped create from the start.
Great site, I hope I win an invite. Can't wait to try it out.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Jooster Content Programmer - Kenny
Thank you to Kenny for the third entry to our Jooster content programmer competition. If you agree with Kenny´s content choices leave a positive comment for him on this post, we will be announcing the winners and giving out the 6 Beta tokens at the end of the month. If you would like to enter the competition click here - there is still time and Ive got 6 tokens so get scribblin!
Jooster Content programmer - Kenny
If I were in charge of content programming for Joost I would try and create content that would keep users coming back for more.
I would do this by putting the most popular and best programming on at all times while adding features that will make users choose to use it rather than watch their own TV.
To appeal to the sports fan, I would target a deal with ESPN to broadcast their news, highlights, and games. I would also try and cut deals with the local teams to broadcast their games so a sports fan of a particular team can see each of their team's games. I would try and appeal to the fantasy sports players by allowing widgets to show stats and scores of players on their team. When there are multiple games on the same time, Users can choose to watch multiple games on the same screen and can select a particular game to watch it on the full screen. Of course, widgets will allow displaying on other statistics and scores that are easily selectable and can display player profiles and highlights of the games. To make it unique, I would try and get exclusive deals for games that aren't televised anywhere else.
For reality TV, I would target some of the top rated reality TV shows like American Idol, Survivor, Big Brother, and the Amazing Race. For reality shows that require people to phone in and vote for their favorites, I would use Joost as an alternative to be able to cast the vote instantly. Also, since shows like Big Brother run 24 hours a day, I would have a channel where Users can view it anytime, rather than just 1 hr of the show every week. To make it more unique, I would show scenes that didn’t have time to make it on the regular TV show. For the big fans of the show, I would create separate channels where Users can customize the content they want to see. For example, an American Idol fan that has a favorite will be able to watch all performances by the one contestant.
For comedy, I would try and cut a deal with Comedy Central which displays comedian acts and shows. To make it unique and making users want to come back for more, I would try and do content deals with specific comedians to show live shows that can only be seen with Joost. I would also offer deals where if someone were to watch a comedian and wants to see them live, they can get exclusive offers for tickets and shows.
For music, I would show live performances and music videos all the time. MTV used to do this but now doesn't play any music. This channel would be dedicated to music all the time. Users can search for specific music videos and performances or even lyrics. Like for comedy, I would also offer deals where if someone were to watch an artist and wants to see them live, they can get exclusive offers for tickets and shows.
For film and drama, I would target the film distributors and cut deals with them so people can watch movies on demand. This would compete with NetFlix users who have to wait for their movies to ship. I would also try and reach deals where newly released movies will be able to seen as well on the same time. For newly released DVDs, I would give an option for Users to purchase it through Joost and be able to copy it onto a DVD.
Reading about Joost, I have realized that the possibilities are endless. With the right content, I believe everyone will be using Joost in the future.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Mattias Ljungman Biography
Mattias Ljungman biography
Mattias Ljungman has been working in Venture Capital since 2000. Investments that he has been in charge of includes the social networking site Lunarstorm, IPTV set-top box provider Amino Technologies (listed AiM) and the TV shopping channel Sit-Up TV (bought in 2005 by Telewest). Mr Ljungman has sat on the board of CLS Capital Partners, Keronite, WightCable, WightCable North, Mobilaris, Veg Tech, Roko Sports and
Prior to working in Venture Capital Mr Ljungman worked for the strategy consultancy LEK Consulting and for a fund management company called Valu-Trac.
Education: Mr Ljungman has a Masters of Science in Economics and Business from Stockholm School of Economics, Bachelors of Arts in Geography with a focus on Environmental Studies and a Minor in Economics from McGill Unviersity
Niklas Zennstrom Biography
Niklas Zennström biography
Niklas co-founded Skype in 2003 to offer consumers worldwide a free software for making superior-quality calls using their computer. Skype has since expanded its offering for all major computing platforms - Linux, MAC & PC and mobile/ handheld devices. With more than 100 million registered users (hopelessly outdated by the time you read this!), Skype is the fastest growing communications phenomenon in history.
Prior to Skype, Niklas founded and served as CEO at Joltid, a software company that develops and markets peer-to-peer (P2P) solutions and traffic optimization technologies for service providers. Niklas co-founded and served as CEO of KaZaA, the consumer file-sharing sensation that became the world's most downloaded Internet software in 2003.
Niklas also co-founded Altnet, the world's first secure P2P network that promotes commercial content and integrates the full value chain of promotion, distribution, and payment for digital content. Altnet was the world's largest issuer of DRM licenses.
Niklas was CEO of the European everyday.com portal, and held various business development roles at get2net. He started his professional career at Tele2, when there were only 23 employees, with the goal to expand the business footprint across
Niklas Zennström holds dual degrees in business and MSc Engineering Physics/ computer science from
When Niklas is not creating new cutting-edge disruptive businesses, he enjoys sailing, skiing, outdoor activities and travelling. Niklas is happily married.
Who are Atomico Investments?
Atomico Investments.
"We set out to be a different kind of investment group. We exist in the space between angel investors and venture capitalists.
We invest in internet, telecoms, technology and media companies. But more than that we invest in global companies who want to change the world.
When we invest our money, we also invest our advice, knowledge, experience, inspiration, and the access to a fabulous network of people."
Manifesto:
We believe:
Strong businesses come from working with people with diverse experience and ideas.
We’re entrepreneurs, just like you.
We invest in entrepreneurs, not business plans.
We like businesses that have ambition to transform customers’ experience in a market and seek to possibly change the world
We are an investment group, not a venture capitalist.
We won’t take over your business. We will make our advice and our network available to you. Our job is to support the entrepreneur.
We believe in trust, instinct and judgment.
It doesn’t matter where you’re from. The next global business will come from anywhere in the world
In five years we will see more eBays, Googles and Skypes
We try not to say ‘no’. Instead we say ‘what if…’.
We don’t want to win any awards. We do want to help realise your vision.
The Atomico portfolio:
wunderLOOP is the market leader in integrated behavioral targeting services for advertising, content and e-commerce. wunderLOOP is built on over seven years of research and development by leading psychologists, mathematicians and advertising experts. With its ability to enable real-time targeting, wunderLOOP is unique in its ability to really understand the consumer. This gives wunderLOOP the potential to take online advertising to the next level for the benefit of both consumers and advertisers alike.
The team behind wunderLOOP includes Michael Kleindl (Chairman) who co-founded Adlink, Ulrich Hegge (CEO) who was the former board member of Gruner+Jahr, Electronic Media Services, Sven Bagemihl (Sales & Marketing) who was the former MD of Advertising.com Germany and Donald Hamilton (MD UK) who was the former MD of Adlink UK.
www.wunderloop.com
Decentral.tv is developing an innovative new platform for interactive broadcasting. Interactive Broadcast Broadband Communities will enable new TV content that involves the participation of viewers and communities.
Decentral.tv was founded in July 2005 by Erik Abair and Daniel Graf, creators of the world’s first MP3 Jukebox and key figures behind Philips Streamium product line.
FON is building the largest WiFi community in the world.
Members called Foneros share their wireless Internet access at home and, in return, enjoy free WiFi wherever they find another Fonero’s Access Point. To join the community you just need to buy a FON social router, which enables you to securely and fairly share your home broadband connection with other Foneros.
FON founder Martin Varsavsky previously founded seven companies including Jazztel, Viatel and Ya.com.
IQube is an investment company that actively assists early stage companies and entrepreneurs to grow and achieve commercial breakthrough. IQube allows the entrepreneurs to focus and flourish by helping them manage back office services like property facilities, business advice, accounting and PR.
|Founder Johan Stael von Holstein is a seasoned entrepreneur who has previously co-founded Icon MediaLab and Letsbuyit.com among many other companies.
Last.fm are building the world's largest social music platform.
Last.fm taps the wisdom of the crowds, leveraging each user's musical profile to make personalised recommendations, connect users who share similar tastes, provide custom radio streams, and much more.
Last.fm founders Felix Miller, Martin Stiksel and Richard Jones have been working together since 2003.
Technorati is the recognized authority on what's going on in the world of weblogs. They help people search for, surface, and organize bloggers and their daily posts
Technorati tracks the number of links to, and therefore the relevance of blogs, blogs (vlogs), podcasts, and amateur movies and videos; all in real-time.
Founder David Sifry was previously cofounder and CTO of Sputnik, a Wi-Fi gateway company, and Linuxcare.
We invested in Viagogo a while ago. Viagogo is a ticketing reseller company whose slogan is “an online ticket exchange where you can buy and sell live event tickets in a safe and guaranteed way.” Their mission is to bring efficiency and transparency to what has traditionally been a murky market place, thus allowing consumers to buy and sell tickets in a safe and guaranteed way..
Now this is not a new market but Eric is a powerful operator. Prior to viagogo, Eric founded StubHub.com, the leading
Eric now aims to change the European ticketing market and we have placed our bets on him making this happen.
Jott it! Voice it!
We have just invested in a really cool company that solves a simple problem. Jott digitises your “to do” lists. It uses your mobile phone to jott down thought, an idea, a task, an action item, a phone number, a gift -- it's anything else you want to offload -- to your email
Jott also lets you JottCast your friends or colleagues directly from your phone. At the beep, you record your Jott, the service automatically translates that to text and sends email and text messages to the people you want to JottCast. Tell me that is not an addictive!
The founders are John Pollard and Shreedhar Madhavapeddi both of whom have +11 years at Microsoft. These guys have solved a simple need and the solution is simple and “just works”.
WeatherBill sells weather derivatives to protect small businesses against adverse weather conditions. This is achieved by having an online platform which allows companies to purchase coverage that automatically pays for adverse weather conditions without any claims hassle. WeatherBill also provides free tools to help businesses understand how weather impacts their financial performance. Weather-prone industries -- from construction to travel -- are all set to benefit.
David Friedberg is the CEO of Weatherbill which he co-founded together with other former key members of the Google team.
The founders of Atomico Investments:
Biographies:
Zennstrom, Niklas
Ljungman, Mattias
Standing on the shoulders of giants - Zennstrom shapes his new Empire
Niklas Zennstrom shapes his new Empire with the Atomico investment in Wunderloop.
Paul Durman of the Timesonline gives us this report:
THE founder of Skype, the London-based internet telephony sensation, and two of his original backers are investing in a German company that hopes to revolutionise web advertising.
Less than three-and-a-half years since Skype’s launch, the firm has more than 170m users who made 32 billion minutes of calls last year. This success — and Ebay’s $2.6 billion (£1.3 billion) purchase of Skype 18 months ago — has made founder Niklas Zennstrom a celebrity in technology start-up circles
Zennstrom is investing in Wunderloop, the internet advertising firm, along with Klaus Hommels and Howard Hartenbaum, two highly regarded technology investors. Hommels was European Angel Investor of 2006, while California-based Hartenbaum was featured last week on the Midas list of leading venture capitalists produced by Forbes magazine.
Hommels, who is a partner with Benchmark Capital in
This improved targeting could improve the revenue generated by adverts 10 or 15 times over.
The technology is already being used by leading web brands including AOL and T-Online, the internet arm of Deutsche Telekom. Tiscali, the Anglo-Italian firm, was also recently signed up as a customer.
Hartenbaum, a partner with Draper Richards in
Wunderloop will receive an estimated €8m (£5m) from investors. Hommels and Hartenbaum are putting in their own money, while Zennstrom is investing through his Atomico Investments. Also investing are the Samwer brothers, founders of the Jamba ringtone company that was responsible for Crazy Frog.
The pieces are all starting to fall into place and Zennstrom seems to have his finger in all the hot pies. WTD blog posted this excellent flow chart of the Zennstrom Empire and his headline poses an interesting question -
Zennstrom is investing in Wunderloop, the internet advertising firm. Here comes the new Rupert Murdoch Web 2.0. / Voice 2.0. Empire.
Are we witnessing the birth the of a new type of media mogul?
I hope so, because this new media Empire will be a better place than the current status quo. Bring on the free stuff, bring on the innovation and investment, bring on the freedoms of the web, and to finish this interesting post I´ve another little question for you.
Who would you rather have running the infrastructure of your media distribution - Zennstrom or Murdoch? right ...next!
Behind the scenes at Joost - meet the crew
"TV was the evolution of Radio and Joost is the evolution of TV"
Henrik Werdelin - Executive Vice President
Gates slams doubters on Internet TV
DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) -
The Internet is set to revolutionize television within five years, due to an explosion of online video content and the merging of PCs and TV sets, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said on Saturday.
“I’m stunned how people aren’t seeing that with TV, in five years from now, people will laugh at what we’ve had,” he told business leaders and politicians at the World Economic Forum.
The rise of high-speed Internet and the popularity of video sites like Google Inc.’s YouTube has already led to a worldwide decline in the number hours spent by young people in front of a TV set.
In the years ahead, more and more viewers will hanker after the flexibility offered by online video and abandon conventional broadcast television, with its fixed program slots and advertisements that interrupt shows, Gates said.
“Certain things like elections or the Olympics really point out how TV is terrible. You have to wait for the guy to talk about the thing you care about or you miss the event and want to go back and see it,” he said.
“Internet presentation of these things is vastly superior.”
At the moment, watching video clips on a computer is a separate experience from watching sitcoms or documentaries on television.
But convergence is coming, posing new challenges for TV companies and advertisers.
“Because TV is moving into being delivered over the Internet — and some of the big phone companies are building up the infrastructure for that — you’re going to have that experience all together,” Gates said.
YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley said the impact on advertising would be profound, with the future promising far more targeted ads tailored to each viewer’s profile.
“In the coming months we’re going to do experiments to see how people interact with these ads to build an effective model that works for advertisers and works for users,” he said.
Advertisers are already racing to adapt their strategies to the growing power of the Web, and more and more promotional cash is tipped to migrate from television to Web sites in future.
Thanks to Reuters and Ben Hirschler for the articleJoost is no Red Herring
They shook up the music industry and challenged the telecommunications sector. Now the Scandinavian duo that created Internet telephony service Skype is aiming to take on the television and cable industries.
Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, who were also behind popular peer-to-peer music-sharing site Kazaa, unveiled their much-anticipated Internet television service Joost.
News reports hailed Joost—in part because the duo seems to have the Midas touch—and appeared to suggest the team was on the verge of revolutionizing the way people watch TV. But building Joost into a broadcasting powerhouse won’t be easy: For the first time, the duo will need to outmaneuver powerful competitors and form partnerships with major content producers that have so far remained on the sidelines.
Joost, formerly known to the digerati as The Venice Project, certainly seems compelling enough. It will let viewers watch TV for free over the Internet. The service will feature channels that users can flip between to find shows and a keyword search function so viewers can pull up programs on demand. Joost will also let users chat among themselves as they watch Internet TV. Joost says it wants nothing less than to merge the best of television with the best of the Internet.
The Luxembourg-based company, which the Scandinavian twosome reportedly funded with proceeds from the $2.5-billion sale of Skype to eBay, aims to offer global audiences to professional content creators. It plans to generate revenues from advertising and undisclosed “interactive services” delivered over its peer-to-peer `platform, the same technology that powered Kazaa and Skype.
Joost also promises to alleviate some of the pain Internet users feel when trying to locate content, such as television shows, online. News Corp.’s Fox network, for example, posts programs to the company’s MySpace social networking site, making the content sometimes difficult to find.
“The ability to get content from multiple sources through one interface could make [Joost] very successful,” says David Hallerman, senior analyst at research firm eMarketer.
Timely Play
Joost’s timing appears impeccable. Online video consumption is booming as Internet users flock to new sites and services, including Google’s YouTube video-sharing site. A key difference is that YouTube deals mainly in short, low-quality video clips created by individual users, while Joost plans to offer full-length, professionally produced TV shows and movies. Joost also says it plans to eventually move the Internet service to television sets through set-top boxes.
But industry analysts say Joost must overcome several hurdles. Aleksandra Bosnjak, media analyst at Ovum consultancy, notes that Joost will eat up a hefty amount of bandwidth, which could be problematic for consumers who have bandwidth caps on their Internet service.
A greater issue is that Joost has signed up few content providers. So far the startup has inked deals with Warner Music, TV-production company Endemol, September Films, and Indy Car Series. But leading movie studios and television production firms are all notably absent from that lineup and without compelling content, Joost will be hard-pressed to turn a profit.
“If the service is advertising-based, then they need to get people watching in order to generate revenues—and without attractive content, that’s not going to happen,” says Ms. Bosnjak.
On the advertising front, Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile, chewing gum maker Wrigley, and cosmetic manufacturer Maybelline, owned by L’Oreal, have agreed to give Joost a try, but the company must entice many more advertisers if it is to succeed.
And there will be plenty of competition for advertisers from other newcomers. Google’s YouTube might deal in amateur video fare, but movie download services such as Movielink, Apple iTunes, and file-sharing programs such as BitTorrent all covet a chunk of the online video market.
The odds are fair that Mr. Zennström and Mr. Friis will score a third hit, but success this time around is no sure bet.
Thanks to Red Herring for this super article.
Joost on Vista - The first bug but Joost has it zapped!
I am very interested in Vista, its going to take a big chunk of my time and effort (I´m very low on the former and high on the latter) in the not too distant future and Im sure thats the same for all of us.
I think 2007 will be the coming of the Internet TV age - led I believe by Joost, but it will also be the year of massive IT upheavals as millions of ordinary users come to terms with a new and potentially scary environment - The year of Vista.
The question of how Joost will run on this media centric OS has been intriguing me (seeing as I just invested in the top of the range Dell XPS 2010 and will be upgrading to Vista as soon as its available)
Paul Stamatiou was lucky enough to get his hands on a copy of Vista and he kindly gives us the lowdown on how it faired.
Paul´s account had me worried until his last entry at 5:19 pm. He found the Joost support forum. I will hold my praise for the moment until I get news from Paul that Joost is operating flawlessly on Vista, but my initial feeling is, Joost has got this cracked.
When you put that into context - Joost Beta software running on a beta OS. You just have to take your hats off to everyone at Joost.
Paul Stamatiou - The Vista Challenge
Last week I got a copy of Vista Business edition through my MSDN Academic Alliance account at Georgia Tech. Obviously, I was compelled to install it and test it out. I was able to successfully get a dual-boot OS X and Vista setup working so I bring to you today, The Vista Challenge. I will be using Vista for an entire day and will see if I can do so without booting into OS X. I will be chronicling my experience and challenges, so be sure to keep coming back for updates.
The Timeline
2:20 PM Just woke up.
2:34 PM First boot. I’ve been waiting a while for all these default gadgets to load up. I find it funny that the “Feed Headlines” gadget only lets you choose between 3 Microsoft feeds.
2:35 PM Feeling triumphant as I learned how to disable the Windows sidebar.
4:37 PM Installing Google Talk, Gaim 2.0.0 Beta 6 and Joost.
4:39 PM Joost gave me an error and won’t run in Vista, darn.
4:44 PM Sound Works! No idea why but it just started working on the iMac. I am very happy. Time to install iTunes and listen to my roommates’ music and/or iTunes radio.
4:58 PM Playing around with Windows Media Player and URGE. “Meh” comes to mind.5:08 PM Reading up on BitLocker - the drive encryption that comes with Vista Ultimate. I have no need for BitLocker as I plan on loading up Vista through Parallels via Boot Camp so I can’t encrypt it. Unfortunately, the current release of Parallels can’t access Vista through Boot Camp.
5:19 PM I found a workaround for getting Joost to run on Vista.
And this is what the chaps at Joost had to say:Software Conflict in Vista - Found a temporary bug fix ;)
Hi,Yep
Found a bugfix for the "Conflict error" in 0.7.2 version..1. Disable "Compability mode on ALL TVP exe files, ONLY if you played with it in the 0.7.1 or < version.
2. Try starting the TVP, now only ONE error comes up (AcGenral.dll+some path to a directory or something)
3. Find the C:\Windows\AppPatch\AcGenral.dll file.
4. Now rename this files to something as "1AcGenral.dll".
5. You need to have Administrator permission, AND do this first to claim your right back in Vista to modify the file...
6. Right click on file Properties>Security>Advanced>Owner>Edit..>Other users..>Advanced..>Find Now>
YOUR_ADMINISTOT_USER_ACCOUNT>OK> ok to all boxes.
Now AGAIN Right click on file Properties>Security>YOUR_ADMINISTOT_USER_ACCOUNT>Full Control>Add..>ok
(Well that what microsoft calls usability! - they gone too secure - try to find a balance - instead of going in totally terror panic!)
7. Now finally you can rename the file..
8. Start TVP, and enjoy its working!
This excerpt was taken from The Vista Challenge or go to the Joost support page.
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