Why Old Media Should Embrace New Media: Classic Example

George Santayana said "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Throughout the history of media, old media have tended to fight new media rather than embrace it. Here's another example and I post it here so that anyone trying to hold back interactive television or IPTV are better served by embracing new media.

"Radio Gains Listeners With Web Presence, between June 2005 and June 2006, 12 leading radio Web sites posted total unique audience growth of 33.5 percent." In addition, radio stations from around the world can be listened to at work. I would hypothesize that most of the listening is to local stations. On the other hand, it's also reasonable to hypothesize that people who have moved from one city to another (i.e., perhaps a distance of 50 or more miles) may continue to listen to the stations they were used to before moving.

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You may use this content (better still, argue with me!), but please cite my ideas as © 2006, Dr. Bruce Klopfenstein. Find any typos! Don't smite me, let me know! Best viewed in Firefox thanks to Microsoft going its own way.

103-Inch Plasma Now Available

Its effective display area is more than 89.3 inches wide by more than 50.2 inches high.

I received this news from http://www.twice.com/article/CA6354788.html on 19 July 2006. I'd like to see what JD Powers and associates say about plasma TVs, because, fairly or unfairly, my sense has been that people have been shying away from them due to known technical difficulties. I personally have a plasma display in my lab, and it began experiencing problems within 2 1/2 years despite the fact that it may have been used about 20 hours per week. Oh, the price is one only a rich innovator could consider: $69,000. This means the plasma display is worth more than most luxury cars.

A company rep is quoted in the press release that “Panasonic didn’t create the world’s largest plasma TV as a technology demo for a trade show,”
Panasonic's press release specifically says it is not intended to be a business display device (it certainly won't be mobile). My assumption is that business users will be about the only ones to pay this hefty price. And there will be no, repeat, no economies of scale in production because Panasonic plans to do a Burger King and build them only "to order."

Far more important to the plasma and HDTV world is that Panasonic plans to shit the 65W-inch 1,080p model, TH-65PX600U, with a $9,999.95 suggested retail price in September. This "manufacturer's suggested retail price" means that the real price likely will be lower in retail stores.

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You may use this content (better still, argue with me!), but please cite my ideas as © 2006, Dr. Bruce Klopfenstein. Find any typos! Don't smite me, let me know! Best viewed in Firefox thanks to Microsoft going its own way.

Source for new media products for the home

One of the most difficult things about being a professor of new media (that is not always recognized by our other peers) is that we're studying a moving target (our own little Heisenberg Principle). I stumbled across a site that carries news of new media products including those that have not yet been released for sale. The web site is ehomeupgrade.com. It appears you don't have to be a techie to understand it.

It's nice to know about sites like this. If you know of others, please let me know.

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You may use this content (better still, argue with me!), but please cite my ideas as © 2006, Dr. Bruce Klopfenstein. Find any typos! Don't smite me, let me know! Best viewed in Firefox thanks to Microsoft going its own way.

Space Shifting

Remember "doing more with less"? That was the catch-phrase when, for example, state budgets crashed in the 1980s. Then there was "right-sizing" to make "down-sizing" sound so much more OK. I'm not sure who started it, but especially during the halcyon "dot.com" days, industry insiders started talking about how their companies were involved in [fill in the blank] space. Example: "As more local business information becomes readily available to online users in local search....[are searchers] comparing local options with intent to purchase (genuinely influenced by marketers operating in this space)..." (Source: http://www.clickz.com/experts/search/local_search/print.php/3615086 accessed 19 July 2006).

Well, readers, I was listening to a webcast presentation by TiVo, and learned that "space shifting" has become the catch phrase for what others might call "the television revolution." The diagram above was accessed 19 July 2006 from http://investor.tivo.com/medialist.cfm from a presentation for Deutsche Bank Media on 13 June 2006. My student readers should know that there is a wealth of information available directly from companies (oh, how I don't miss the days of getting a print copy of a company's annual report).

So, space shifting means a few things. First, in simple terms, space shifting recognizes that TV is becoming as mobile as radio. It's taken a long time, and radio had (and still will for some time) the advantage when reaching mobile listeners or the famous "listeners outside the home" where most radio listening happens anyway. If cell phones in cars can be regulated, surely it won't take much for lawmakers to ponder whether car, Hummer, and truck drivers should be watching TV or video while they drive.

TiVo is among those who are working hard to make video content available anywhere you have internet access (for example, your computer at work). Those companies that already monitor employee's email will have no trouble blocking this, but the concept is another genie out of the bottle that can't be forced back in. It's certainly not bad news for advertisers. Wherever media content goes (in the U.S. anyway), advertising is sure to follow.

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You may use this content (better still, argue with me!), but please cite my ideas as © 2006, Dr. Bruce Klopfenstein. Find typos? Let me know! Best viewed in Firefox thanks to Microsoft going its own way.

OnCommand

From the looks of their web site, anyway, OnCommand is a distant second to LodgeNet for providing digital media services to the hospitality industry. By their own accounts, they have significantly fewer rooms and users/year as well. But these two appear to be the main competitors in this arena (er, eh, I mean "space").

The following is a direct quote from hoovers.com, accessed 19 July 2006:

Kick off your shoes, remote in hand, click on a flick, it's On Command! Through subsidiaries On Command Video (OCV) and others, the company is a leading provider of in-room entertainment services for hotels, motels, and resorts. The company supplies pay-per-view movies, games, and Internet access to more than 800,000 rooms, mostly in major hotel chains. On Command operates in more than 20 countries, and the firm has teamed with DIRECTV for programming and with Sony's PlayStation for video games. Its broadband Internet services, accessible by TV, are provided via its OCX platform. On Command is a wholly owned subsidiary of TV programming giant Liberty Media Corporation.

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You may use this content (better still, argue with me!), but please cite my ideas as © 2006, Dr. Bruce Klopfenstein. Find a typo? Please tell me! Best viewed in Firefox thanks to Microsoft going its own way.

LodgeNet

About LodgeNet

LodgeNet Entertainment Corporation ( http://www.lodgenet.com/ ) is the world leader in interactive TV and broadband solutions to hotels throughout the United States and Canada as well as select international markets. These services include on-demand movies, on-demand games, music and music videos, subscription sports programming and television on-demand programming, as well as high-speed Internet access, all designed to serve the needs of the lodging industry and the traveling public. LodgeNet provides service to more than one million interactive hotel rooms and serves more than 6,000 hotel properties worldwide. LodgeNet estimates that during 2005 approximately 300 million domestic and international travelers had access to LodgeNet's interactive television systems. In addition, LodgeNet is a leading innovator in the delivery of on-demand patient education, information and entertainment to healthcare facilities. LodgeNet is listed on NASDAQ and trades under the symbol LNET.

Source: http://ca.sys-con.com/read/247202.htm, accessed 19 July 2006, 4:30 PM EDT.

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You may use this content (better still, argue with me!), but please cite my ideas as © 2006, Dr. Bruce Klopfenstein. Best viewed in Firefox thanks to Microsoft going its own way.

Learning from the hospitality industry

One industry that is "under the radar" for those of us who study media for a living is the use of television and other digital (read: Internet) services while staying in a hotel or even a cruise ship) is the hospitality industry. Who cares? Well, I do. I'd love to see the data on how travelers use interactive television in their rooms. That's right! The hospitality industry has some trade secrets that would be nice to know about. I heard a statistic one time that said the average movie in a room was played for only a few minutes. I have a theory on that if it's true, and I'm sure you can figure it out as well.

We can search the hospitalitynet web site by search terms such as LodgeNet or OnCommand. See the posts above this one for information on those 2 companies.

Kudos to Ken Freed for being on this story! Definitely go to media-visions.com/itv-hoteltv.html.

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You may use this content (better still, argue with me!), but please cite my ideas as © 2006, Dr. Bruce Klopfenstein. Find a typo? Please tell me! Best viewed in Firefox thanks to Microsoft going its own way.

The U.S. is behind the world in iTV, except in the motel room....

As scholars like me try to understand how interactive television (including video on demand) will change the television viewing experience and beyond, there are precious few examples from the U.S. to examine. There are some previous trials and current rollouts, but corporate America operates in a sea of secrecy. In other words, the proprietary commercial research on how people are using, say, their TiVos, is not available to academia, although the data do exist. This is a pity.

There is an exception in the U.S. when it comes to interactive television: the hospitality industry. Movies-on-demand in motel and hotel rooms have been around for years, and the companies that provide the services once again have, presumably, wonderful data on how viewers use their services (which are now included on cruise ships). According to journalist and iTV expert Ken Freed (http://www.media-visions.com/itv-hoteltv.html), the two leading companies in the U.S. are On Command and LodgeNet. Old media enthusiasts will recognize the name Liberty Media, and they now own On Command. Ken's article is so well done, I don't need to repeat it here.

But what can we learn from in-room interactive television services where there is a captive audience? Do these companies attend annual conventions and talk about their research data? I wish to find this out, and will happily accept anyone's help.

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You may use this content (better still, argue with me!), but please cite my ideas as © 2006, Dr. Bruce Klopfenstein. Best viewed in Firefox thanks to Microsoft going its own way.

HDTV as Painting: Nice Example

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This ad for Korean firm LG Electronics (not to be confused with Longines) appeared in the July 2006 issue of Hotels magazine. Notice the sunlight coming into the room as well. When I did my participant observer research for a major consumer electronics dealer, I couldn't believe how many people wanted to put their TV sets above the fireplace (don't worry, they have fire-proof wires, etc.). This is a radical shift in the TV placement in our den, living room, family room, etc. I suppose this means more to the home builder than anyone else. Floor plans may be changing.

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You may use this content (better still, argue with me!), but please cite my ideas as © 2006, Dr. Bruce Klopfenstein. Best viewed in Firefox thanks to Microsoft going its own way.

Call for Papers: Interactive Television

I am beginning a list of conferences that are calling for papers that have something to do with interactive television. While I am doing this for my own salvation, this is why I created this blog so I could share my notes with the rest of the world.

Arranged, if known, but deadline date. Want to co-author a paper with me? I'm up for that.

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You may use this content (better still, argue with me!), but please cite my ideas as © 2006, Dr. Bruce Klopfenstein. Best viewed in Firefox thanks to Microsoft going its own way.

rec.arts.tv.interactive

Usenet "news groups" predate the web by many years. They were public bulletin boards that were originally dominated by computer science students and faculty, but the topics quickly expanded. Google bought Usenet (would sounds like "Google bought the earth's atmosphere") which is probably good news to newbies.

rec.arts.tv.interactive is a group I'd love to see become more active. I thought by posting it here in my blog, it might get a little more attention.

For those of you new to what google calls "groups," their names are like telephone numbers in that the most general name is first and then the names become more specific. Hence, rec. is an enormous general category, arts is very big, tv is not as big, and interactive has 8 members if I am reading the group correctly.

I am working on culling calls for papers to post on my blog and to rec.arts.tv.interactive

If anyone knows of any conferences that are looking for iTV papers (the conference itself can be more general), please either post a comment here or sign up for rec.arts.tv.interactive and post it there.

More to come.

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You may use this content (better still, argue with me!), but please cite my ideas as © 2006, Dr. Bruce Klopfenstein. Best viewed in Firefox thanks to Microsoft going its own way.