BBC geezer heads up Iplayer replacement project
,----[ Quote ]
| Last week Highfield, who was head of future media at the Beeb, upset ISPs by
| saying the BBC shouldn't have to cough up to help ISPs with the cost of
| additional network traffic caused by the Beeb's Iplayer service.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/04/14/bbc-geezer-heads-iplayer
Related to this in the news:
YouTube, Google Video Grab 77% of Vid Market
,----[ Quote ]
| Google may dominate around two-thirds of the search market, but the company's
| grip around the online video market is tighter. Hitwise reports that YouTube
| and Google video combined grab over 77 percent of US video visits.
`----
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/04/14/youtube-google-video-grab-77-of-vid-market
Don't be Neutral about Net Neutrality
,----[ Quote ]
| It was with a certain smugness that I viewed the heated US debates about “net
| neutrality” - the concept that Internet traffic should be delivered from end
| to end without paying any attention to what that traffic represented. I was
| delighted that the idea that the rich could buy priority delivery for their
| bits showed no signs of catching on over here, where we seemed to have a much
| more sensible and egalitarian approach.
|
| [...]
|
| When traffic is sent over the Internet, a bit is a bit is a bit: there is no
| discrimination according to whether that bit is part of a word (email), a
| sound (an mp3 file) or video (streaming video). It is simply bunged in with
| all the others and delivered as best as the interconnecting networks can
| manage. That's network neutrality.
|
| Those against it, like the eloquent Mr Berkett, want to prioritise some
| bits – not, of course, because they believe strongly that email must always
| get through, while boring old videos can hang around a bit, or vice versa –
| but simply because they think that can squeeze some extra money out of people
| in doing so. And remember, this is *extra* money, because both the people
| sending bits, and the people receiving are already paying for their
| connectivity. So it's not even double-dipping, but triple-dipping.
`----
http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open-source/blogs/index.cfm?blogid=14&entryid=703
Related:
BBC Director General grilled by MPs on iPlayer
,----[ Quote ]
| During the meeting there is discussion of iPlayer’s total cost to the licence
| fee-payer - the BBC representatives are unable to give a figure, but start
| the bidding at £20m, excluding staff costs. Thomson gives incorrect
| information - that Mac and Linux versions of iPlayer have the same
| functionality as Windows versions - and has to change his evidence at the
| end. Perhaps it was this confusion that prompted Dr John Pugh MP to follow up
| the encounter with a letter direct to Mark Thomson today discussing platform
| neutrality in greater detail. A copy of this letter has been passed to the
| Open Rights Group.
`----
http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2008/01/10/bbc-director-general-grilled-by-mps-on-iplayer/
BBC Corrupted
,----[ Quote ]
| Today the BBC made it official -- they have been corrupted by Microsoft. With
| today's launch of the iPlayer, the BBC Trust has failed in its most basic of
| duties and handed over to Microsoft sole control of the on-line distribution
| of BBC programming. From today, you will need to own a Microsoft operating
| system to view BBC programming on the web. This is akin to saying you must
| own a Sony TV set to watch BBC TV. And you must accept the Digital
| Restrictions Management (DRM) that the iPlayer imposes. You simply cannot be
| allowed to be in control of your computer according to the BBC.
`----
http://defectivebydesign.org/blog/BBCcorrupted
BBC iPlayer Protests
,----[ Quote ]
| Who are the people responsible for creating this mess?
|
| * Mark Thompson, BBC director general (DG)
| * Erik Huggers, group controller at BBC Future Media & Technology
| * Ashley Highfield, director of new media and technology
|
| Right now, there is very considerable concern within the BBC that the actions
| of the Director General and his team are sending the corporation in the wrong
| direction. The BBC has been embroiled in a number of recent controversies,
| all linked back to the DG's leadership.
`----
http://www.defectivebydesign.org/iPlayerProtest
Why Linux Users Should Be Furious At BBC
,----[ Quote ]
| Recently the BBC had a bit of a wake up call regarding numbers and how many
| Linux users were really out there. Why does any of this matter? It has to do
| with something the BBC provides called the iPlayer. Seriously, relying on
| ActiveX is so "1990's" that it's painful, and as luck would have it, the
| Linux users who wish to use this BBC player made sure that the BBC knew that
| they were making the sought after content inaccessible to those people using
| Linux.
|
| No iPlayer for Linux Users, But There Will Be An Alternative. Based on what I
| have been able to gather thus far, it looks like we will see an Adobe Flash
| option coming out soon. Then again, who really cares? Seriously, if the BBC
| is this foolish to ignore how much Linux growth is taking place both in the
| UK as well as the surrounding countries, then maybe people ought to be
| looking elsewhere? Is it because this is indeed, the BBC? So there is the
| belief that this is the people's media? Up until now, I enjoyed much of what
| the BBC had to offer, but this entire thing is enough to have pushed me away.
`----
http://www.osweekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2731&Itemid=449
Beeb slammed for 'fawning' to Bill Gates
,----[ Quote ]
| BBC viewers have flooded the corporation with complaints over how it
| covered the launch of Microsoft Vista earlier this week.
|
| In one cringingly servile interview worthy of Uriah Heep, the
| Beeb's news presenter Hugh Edwards even thanked Gates at the
| end of it, presumably in appreciation at being allowed to give
| the Vole vast coverage for free.
|
| In other TV news items presenters excitedly explained how Vistac
| ould be obtained and installed - details courtesy of the BBC's
| website.
|
| But British viewers, currently forced to pay a £131.50 licence
| fee to maintain the BBC's "impartiality", were less than impressed.
|
| Scores got in touch to complain that so much was Auntie up Bill's
| bum that you could barely see her corset.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37411
BBC may lose chunk of licence fee
,----[ Quote ]
| UK MEDIA regulator, Ofcom, reckons that a share of revenue from the TV
| licence should go to commercial broadcasters rather than just to the BBC.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/04/10/bbc-lose-chunk-licence-fee
BBC: Death by a thousand top-slices
,----[ Quoet ]
| So it looks like the end of the unique, state-centric model for funding the
| BBC. An incoming Conservative administration is unlikely to be more
| sympathetic to the BBC, with its stifling bureucracy and monopoly control
| over a compulsory tax.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/18/bbc_top_slicing/
Feeling the heat at Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| A couple of years ago you reiterated that IBM was Microsoft's biggest
| competitor and you said not just on the business side, but overall. If I ask
| you who is Microsoft's biggest competitor now, who would it be?
|
| Ballmer: Open...Linux. I don't want to say open source. Linux, certainly have
| to go with that.
`----
http://www.news.com/Feeling-the-heat-at-Microsoft/2008-1012_3-6232458.html?tag=ne.fd.mnbc
Microsoft's SEC:
,----[ Quote ]
| A prominent example of open source software is the Linux operating system...
| To the extent open source software gains increasing market acceptance, sales
| of our products may decline, we may have to reduce the prices we charge for
| our products, and revenue and operating margins may consequently decline.
`----
http://www. microsoft.com/msft/SEC/default.mspx
BBC Says Microsoft, Sony Too Controlling on Streaming Video
,----[ Quote ]
| Though already accessible via the Nintendo Wii, the BBC has said that its
| streaming video service iPlayer is not presently available for the
| PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 because of Sony and Microsoft's tight control over
| their platform's offerings.
`----
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/52161
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