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Posted Saturday, 31 May 2008
Advertisers in the US are growing more concerned about the planned digital television (DTV conversion in the United States on 17 February 2009. The date is carefully timed - it’s after the Super Bowl, but before the NCAA basketball tournaments.
Unfortunately for broadcasters and advertisers, the conversion comes in the middle of a sweeps month. The Nielsen Ratings service, which calculates television viewership a broad-based sample of American households, has released some surprising figures. Senior citizens seem more prepared for DTV than previously believed. Households with two or more television sets are more likely to have at least one set that is not ready for DTV, despite an endless barrage of television announcements about the conversion plan. Hispanics and African-Americans and younger households are more likely to lose their television service:
Using its ratings panel, Nielsen found that 9.4 percent of households, or roughly 10 million homes, were “completely unready” for the switch as of April 30, meaning that all their television sets would go dark next year. An additional 12.6 percent of households were partly unready.
See this New York Times article for more information.
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Posted Monday, 26 May 2008
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Digital television or DTV is coming to the United States on 17 February 2009, when all television stations must shut down their analog broadcasts and convert to a digital signal.
The FCC has a web site about the transition at https://www.dtv2009.gov
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Posted Tuesday, 20 May 2008
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I predicted this in my 29 April 2008 billso.com article: Netflix is unveiling a $100 set-top box today. The device is a 5-inch square box that hooks into a broadband Internet connection and streams movies from Netflix. A 1 mbps connection seems adequate, although HD movies may require more pipe.
Customers won’t need a computer to manage their Netflix account or view movies, as the box also connects to TVs and home theater components via component TV cables and HDMI.
Roku is one manufacturer that was already been revealed in the AP article. We already knew about LG. Others are coming. Read the AP story for more details. Reviews from Wired and Cnet, along with pictures of this rather ordinary looking black box, are available from this brief Engadget article.
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Posted Friday, 16 May 2008
| Monday, 19 May 2008 |
| 17:00 HST @041 | to | 22:00 HST @250 |
If you have a television in the state of Hawaii, and you want to see if your set is ready for digital television, tune into KGMB during its Monday 19 May 2008 newscasts at 5, 6 and 10 pm.
The station will do a 10-second switchover to its DTV signal, simulating what will happen on 17 February 2009 when the analog television channels go dark.
If you have more than one television set, test them all.
It doesn’t matter how you get your TV signal. The test will work with local cable, satellite and antenna systems.
If your TVs show the picture and audio, not static, during the KGMB test, you’re ready.
If not, you’ll need a new set top box from Time Warner Cable or a local electronics store.
See KGMB’s article, FAQ and the Honolulu Advertiser for more information.
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Posted Thursday, 8 May 2008
Google is teaming up with Clearwire, Sprint, Time Warner Cable, Comcast and Intel to build a national WiMAX network. See the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Branding Post for more details.
The new joint venture will retain the Clearwire brand name and Clearwire’s existing consumer WiMAX business. Sprint contributes its network infrastructure and 2.5 gHz frequency allocation. It’s possible this deal will clear the FCC and antitrust regulators, because Google isn’t a major owner in the JV.
Yesterday, a Wall Street journal blog referenced my billso.com article of 18 April 2008 in a discussion about Yahoo and Google’s possible cross-licensing deal. The Clearwire deal is a more direct combination that may help the JV partners lock in consumers, businesses and advertisers.
Too many partners?
I’m reluctant to believe if this large joint venture can actually work. Sprint is the lead partner with a 51 percent stake, and this seems like a desperation move to being acquired outright by Deutsche Telekom or another company.
Pricing and marketing may determine if consumers will pay any attention to this JV. Can Clearwire and Sprint can offer their existing customers some compelling reasons to get some new hardware and try WiMAX? Verizon earns 23 percent of its wireless revenue from data calls on that company’s EVDO and other networks.
Google does need a vast network in the US to support its Android smartphone platform, and the company can’t wait or afford to build it from scratch.
WiMAX would give Google an alternate medium for data service, instead of relying on one telecom carrier as Apple has done with AT&T. Even with 3G service, the iPhone’s data transfer rates will seem slow when the user can’t get WiFi access.
Yes, the iPhone does support WiFi. But I’m sure Clearwire and its partners will market Android phones that support WiFi as well as WiMAX and the sponsoring carrier’s cell phone service, but the battery drain for a typical mobile device user may be a serious problem.
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