Primer on Mobile TV Market

by on July 20, 2008 · 10 comments

Progress & Freedom Foundation released a new report this week entitled “A Primer on the US Mobile Television Market,” by Joseph S. Kraemer, Ph.D., who is an Adjunct Fellow at PFF and a Director at Law and Economics Consulting Group. It’s not a policy piece; it just focuses on the projected growth of the mobile television marketplace over the next few years. Kraemer explains why “mobile video is forecasted to explode over the next four or five years.” He notes that it is the logical evolution of the television marketplace:

mobile digital television is a logical extension of the digitally-driven development of television from passive entertainment to an interactive, high value, versatile medium. Each stage builds upon the set of earlier stages. “Personal television” adds functionality and value to “web TV” which did the same to “digital television” which, in turn, did the same to “analog broadcast television.” The development process is additive and cumulative. Although critically important, mobile television is just one aspect of the evolving “personal television” stage.

TV evolution
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Some Shameless iPhone Gushing

by on July 19, 2008 · 16 comments

After resisting the iPhone siren song for a year, I’ve finally surrendered and joined the 3G bandwagon. Getting a functional iPhone required three store visits and a combined 4 hours of waiting, but I think it was worth it. I’ll warn you in advance that this is going to be a bit of unabashed Apple-fanboyism.

As a long-time Mac user, I was expecting to like the iPhone quite a bit, but I’ve still been pleasantly surprised by the user interface. Apple’s UI engineers pay attention to detail to a degree that no other technology company can match. Most technology products—especially relatively new ones— tend to have a significant number of rough edges: places where the engineers got the feature working so it could be added to the marketing checklist, but clearly didn’t put in a ton of effort beyond that point. In contrast, consider the following random anecdotes:

  • One of the best-implemented features is the iPhone-native Google Maps app. Apple created a special application that presents Google maps in a way that’s speedier and better integrated than it would be if people just went to the Google Maps website in Safari. To change certain configuration options, you click an icon in the lower-right that activates a “lifted page” effect, where the map you’re looking at appears to be lifted up and folded partly over, revealing configuration controls underneath. That’s a clever touch all by itself, but what really impressed me was that it renders the underside of the “upturned page” to show a faint image of the “underside” of the map you were looking at, as if the map were slightly translucent and you were seeing “through” it. Totally useless, yes, but I think thousands of little details like this combine to make the UI “feel” more natural.

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    The medium is not the message

    by on July 18, 2008 · 6 comments

    Over on the Open House Project blog, John Wonderlich ponders what would sensible web-use rules for members or Congress look like. As I’ve noted here recently, both the House and Senate are looking to update the types of restrictions they place on how their members may use internet technologies. John writes:

    The question now before the Franking Commission is how to update what Pelosi and Capuano have both admitted are “antiquated” restrictions. They have to balance legitimate concerns — decorum, commercialization, and improper taxpayer funded political content — against what all involved parties have recognized as immense potential online. … What really constitutes commercial endorsement? When does conduct become unacceptable or undignified? What role should Congress play in enforcing those questions online? Where do the edges of “official duties” lie anyway? Are we treating the Internet differently than we do traditional media?

    It seems to me that the first step is to separate message and medium. House and Senate rules should address what is proper and improper content—that is, they should have rules restricting the use of official resources to produce political or commercial messages or content that is undignified (however they want to define that). In fact, they already have such rules. That sort of content regulation, however, should be completely separate from restrictions on the medium used to transmit the message. As long as a member stays within the content rules, the medium should not matter.

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    Felten on The Decline of Localist Broadcasting Policies

    by on July 18, 2008 · 9 comments

    Terrific piece here from Ed Felten on how new technologies and cultural trends are undermining traditional conceptions of “media localism.” It’s a theme I have written on at length, most recently in this essay on “Our Continued Wishful Thinking about ‘Media Localism‘.” Anyway, as Felten correctly notes in the conclusion of his essay:

    New technologies undermine the rationale for localist policies. It’s easier to get far-away content now — indeed the whole notion that content is bound to a place is fading away. With access to more content sources, there are more possible venues for local programming, making it less likely that local programming will be unavailable because of the whims or blind spots of a few station owners. It’s getting easier and cheaper to gather and distribute information, so more people have the means to produce local programming. In short, we’re looking at a future with more non-local programming and more local programming.

    That’s exactly right. As Grant Eskelsen and I argue in Chapter 6 of our new Media Metrics book:

    The decline of “localism” in media is a much-lamented but quite natural phenomenon as citizens gain access to news and entertainment sources of broader scale and scope. Although it is impossible to scientifically measure exactly how much “local” fare citizens demand—and defining the term is another challenge—we know that they still receive a wealth of information about developments in their communities. However, it is also evident that, left to their own devices, many citizens have voluntarily flocked to national (and even international) sources of news and entertainment. […]

    [But] the demise of “localism” has been greatly exaggerated. The relative decline in local media is simply a natural development resulting from the voluntary choices made by millions of American citizens, but the tools for producing, distributing, and acquiring local content are more robust than ever.

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    Why I love MythBusters…

    by on July 18, 2008 · 2 comments

    … they are going to try to recreate the Archimedes Death Ray. [GeekDad has the report.] Anyone who ever fried ants on the sidewalk using a magnifying glass as a kid will want to tune in! [Note: They tried it once before on a smaller scale, but the new experiment is much more grand.]

    [Seriously, MythBusters is the best science show on TV in years. I make my kids watch it with me.]

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    Newspaper Deathwatch?

    by on July 18, 2008 · 628 comments

    Over at Technology 360, Dennis Haarsager points out that there’s probably too much gloom-and-doom out there in the blogosphere regarding the future of various media platforms. He did phrase searches “to see how the media stacked up in the death department.” He got back the following results:

    > “death of television”, 13,000 results
    > “death of TV”, 28,200 results
    > “death of radio”, 227,000 results
    > “death of newspapers”, 331,000 results
    > “death of blogs”, “death of the blogs”, “death of the blog”, 81,400 results
    > “death of the web”, 215,000 results
    > “death of the net”, 746,000 results
    > “death of the internet”, 1,910,000 results

    No doubt—as Mark Twain might have said—the rumors of the death of media have been greatly exaggerated. And, as Mike Mansick of TechDirt points out, not all papers or media outlets are facing gloom and doom scenarios.

    Nonetheless, many traditional media sectors and providers do find themselves in troubled waters today as tsunami of creative destruction tears through their markets. In our new “Media Metrics” report, Grant Eskelsen and I show how two sectors in particular—radio broadcasting and newspapers—are getting hammered particularly hard by a sort of “media perfect storm”:

    * loss of protected markets or “protected scarcity” = there’s just no guaranteed audience anymore
    * rapid technological change = the way media is created and transmitted has been completely transformed
    * massive inflow of new competitors / platforms = no way to stop the deluge of new voices, including user-generated content
    * loss of consumer confidence and allegiance = people have plenty of other places to turn their attention
    * loss of advertiser confidence and allegiance = advertisers have plenty of other places to promote their goods and services (including direct-to-consumer appeals and ‘word-of-mouth’ marketing efforts)
    * loss of investor confidence and allegiance = shareholders have lots of other places to invest their capital today

    The results have been particularly grim for newspaper in recent months as various reports have noted.
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    It’s Tough Being a Rock Star

    by on July 18, 2008 · 4 comments

    Pity the poor musician:

    The Times quotes, Herbie Flowers, who played bass on Lou Reed’s Walk on the Wild Side and David Bowie’s Space Oddity: “The term of protection for performers has not kept up with life expectancy and it is high time it was changed. I played on a couple of very successful tracks, and it would be unfair for me to stop receiving income for these performances after 50 years — probably just at the time when I will need it the most.”

    I wonder if he realizes that the vast majority of people “stop receiving income” from their jobs the moment they stop doing them. You can be sure, for example, that I won’t be continuing to pay my dry cleaner 50 years from now for the pants he cleaned last month.

    Hat tip: Rob Hyndman

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    Best Albums Since Your Birth

    by on July 17, 2008 · 605 comments

    Sorry, this post has absolutely nothing to do with the tech policy issues we cover here at the TLF, but since I do not have a personal blog of my own, I just couldn’t help but post this silly list somewhere. Late last night, I was reading Nick Carr’s blog and saw that he had picked up on some sort of online music meme about listing your favorite album for every year of your life. Oh man, this is just the sort of worthless Internet distraction that keeps me up till 2:00 in the morning thinking about it for no reason. And, sure enough, I actually fell asleep at my keyboard typing out my favorites. Finally finished the stupid thing at lunch today. Anyway, here it goes (favs first and runners-up after):

    1969: Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin II; The Doors – Soft Parade; Rolling Stones – Let it Bleed

    1970: Miles Davis – Bitches Brew; Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin III, Freddie Hubbard – Red Clay; Van Morrison – Moondance

    1971: The Who – Who’s Next; Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers; Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin IV, Pink Floyd – Meddle; David Bowie – Hunky Dory

    1972: Rolling Stones – Exile on Main Street; David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust; Roxy Music – Roxy Music; Steely Dan – Can’t Buy a Thrill;

    1973: Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon; The Who – Quadrophenia; Paul McCartney & Wings – Band on the Run

    1974: Van Morrison – It’s Too Late to Stop Now; David Bowie – Diamond Dogs

    1975: Led Zeppelin – Physical Graffiti; Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here; Kiss – Alive

    1976: Eagles – Hotel California; Boston – Boston; Steve Miller – Fly Like an Eagle; Aerosmith – Rocks

    1977: Pink Floyd – Animals; Steely Dan – Aja

    1978: The Police – Outlandos d’Amour; Van Halen – Van Halen; Styx – Pieces of Eight

    1979: Led Zeppelin – In Through the Out Door; Pink Floyd – The Wall; Van Halen – Van Halen II; The Clash –London Calling

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    CWA Wants Better Broadband Data, As Does Internet for Everyone

    by on July 17, 2008 · 5 comments

    WASHINGTON, July 17 – Communications Workers of America this past week teamed up with a group of telecommunications companies, cable operators and non-profit groups to push for Congress to pass broadband data legislation.

    In a Friday letter and a Monday press release, the groups wrote “to express [their] strong support for Congressional action to promote greater availability and adoption of broadband high-speed Internet services.”

    They want “a national policy” to encourage more broadband deployment, and they cite economic statistics about broadband’s potential.

    And, as a first step, these companies and CWA want Congress to pass the Broadband Census of America Act, H.R. 3919, or the Broadband Data Improvement Act, S. 1492.

    Curiously, last month another large coalition announced a similar campaign. They call themselves Internet for Everyone.

    Continue reading “CWA Wants Better Broadband Data, As Does Internet for Everyone“

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    Goodies on the WashingtonWatch.com Blog

    by on July 17, 2008 · 0 comments

    Just wanted to highlight some of the fun I’m having at the new WashingtonWatch.com blog.

    The second post in the insanely popular “and a pony” series is up.

    On whether to subsidize commercial fishing, we capture the essence of the seagoing entrepreneur: “This government isn’t doing squat.”

    And just when we’re getting a handle on what’s happening, Will the Budget and Spending Process Collapse?

    Click over, vent your spleen in the comments, subscribe to the feed, whatever.

    Now back to the show . . .

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