Week of March 26, 2007

From Guitar Hero To Jukebox Hero

Friday, March 30, 2007

MTV has joined up with the creator of the wildly popular video game Guitar Hero to develop a full band version of the game entitled, appropriately enough, "Rock Band." Adding a social aspect to a video game that was a one man show could make the phenomenon even bigger.

TiVo The File Sharing Hub

Thursday, March 29, 2007

The key to recent TiVo initiatives is its role as a networked device. You can connect TiVos to a wireless network and do things like present real-time traffice, weather, and even download movies from Amazon. One of the real interesting announcements of the networked TiVo is the one that you expect in networked devices--the ability to share content. This week, TiVo announced an agreement with One True Media that allows users of a TiVo to share their personal content with other TiVo users.

The thought of people sharing movies and television shows from one TiVo to another across the Internet certainly is frightening to broadcast television, which is trying to control and monetize this type of initiative via the Internet. As a result, TiVo is only allowing the transfer of personal photos and movies. The trouble is that it is extremely easy for someone to transcode TiVo programs into generic files that can be traded using a computer on the same network as a TiVo. This also makes it extremely easy for someone to view pirated movies downloaded via file-sharing methods like bittorent on your TiVo--Just download and drop it in your One True Media TiVo channel.

Podcasting Study

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Edison Media Research recently released a study on podcasting, which showed that awareness of the technology had increased from 2006 to 2007, but the number pf people using it had grown much more slowly.

Edison's Tom Webster does a great job of analyzing the results here. His top recommendation, that podcasters sell the benefits rather than the features, is dead on. This is a lesson that has been repeated many times, not just in the media but also in every area of commerce. Focus your message on what the consumer gets out of the deal. The coolness of your technology or your business model will get you the early adopters, but not the mass audience.

FCC: "IBOC, HD A-OK"

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

The FCC has given final official approval for the IBOC (In Band On Channel) technology used for HD radio in the US. What does this mean? Not much, beyond the fact that station will no longer be applying for "provisional" authority. It also officially gives the go-ahead for multicasting (HD-2 and HD-3 side channels) and AM digital broadcasts at night. There is still no mandatory conversion to digital for radio - unlike television - which must switch off their analog frequencies by February 17th, 2009.

This lack of urgency to do the conversion, even more than the slow appearance of reasonably priced receivers in the market, may be what ultimately create the biggest problems for HD radio.

Mobile Trends At CTIA

Monday, March 26, 2007

Tech blog site GigaOm has listed the top five trends for the biggest mobile content and technology convention of the year: CTIA, and they look accurate to us:

1. Mobile TV
2. Mobile Advertising
3. Mobile interface changes in philosophy thanks to the iPhone
4. Lack of new headsets
5. Mobile user generated content