links for 2006-12-29

Posted on December 29, 2006
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links for 2006-12-21

Posted on December 21, 2006
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links for 2006-12-20

Posted on December 20, 2006
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links for 2006-12-19

Posted on December 19, 2006
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Interactive TV lets viewers edit shows

Posted on December 19, 2006
Filed Under Broadband, Technology, User Generated | Leave a Comment

New interactive TV service being trialled will allow users to set preferences and even determine the outcome of programmes.

“The concept, based on technology developed by BT and a variety of broadcasting and content companies, lets the viewer structure news bulletins, documentaries and even dramas to suit their preferences, initially using text messages, though eventually through remote controls”.

Scotland’s answer to The Simpsons: they’re horrible, but you’ll like them

Posted on December 19, 2006
Filed Under Good Things, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Good news. The Scotsman reports that BBC Scotland has commissioned a one-off radio show called World of the Clan.  The idea comes from Oscar nominated Sylvain Chomet and will feature actress Ashley Jensen, co-star of Ricky Gervais in television’s Extras, who will play a radio DJ.

Edinburgh-based Mr Chomet said he was confident that the characters’ bad behaviour would make them as loveable as The Simpsons.

He said: “It’s taking a cliché about the Scots and making it worse. Clichés are not really based on any reality. It’s like saying all Frenchmen have berets and strings of onions.

“Like The Simpsons, they are horrible, but you like them with all their bad behaviour,” Mr Chomet explained. “These characters are like that.

“It’s like watching your neighbours, because the story just goes on and on.”

Local advertiser move into TV via Spot Runner

Posted on December 19, 2006
Filed Under Advertising, Future, Newspapers, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

WSJ reports on how small busineses are tailoring off-the-shelf TV ads for as little as $499 …

The ads are courtesy of Los Angeles ad firm Spot Runner, which uses its Web site to offer a menu of ready-made ads designed for different types of businesses. With a click of the mouse on their computers, doctors, dentists, real-estate brokers and others can select a format and add personal information such as phone numbers and logos.

In time this is likely to lead to even more pressure on the local newspaper market.

And while local advertisers’ individual marketing budgets are usually pocket change to big ad agencies and media companies, the sector in aggregate generates a sizable amount of money. Local newspapers, for instance, generated $17.5 billion in ad revenue in the first nine months of this year, according to TNS Media Intelligence — much of it from small businesses. With television now seeing weaker growth in traditional advertising, these small marketers are beginning to look attractive. 

 

 

Start-up will seek out content being used without permission

Posted on December 19, 2006
Filed Under Copyright, Digitisation, Future, Newspapers, Paid Content, Search, User Generated, Weblogs | Leave a Comment

Start-up founded by ex-Yahoo and Verisign execs will help content owners work out if there material is being used withlout permission. Might not be welcomed by social networking / blooging sites:

Attributor analyzes the content of clients, who could range from individuals to big media companies, using a technique known as “digital fingerprinting,” which determines unique and identifying characteristics of content. It uses these digital fingerprints to search its index of the Web for the content. The company claims to be able to spot a customer’s content based on the appearance of as little as a few sentences of text or a few seconds of audio or video. It will provide customers with alerts and a dashboard of identified uses of their content on the Web and the context in which it is used.

And.

Its co-founders, former Yahoo Inc. executive Jim Brock, and Jim Pitkow, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who has sold companies to Google and VeriSign Inc., claim to have cracked the thorny computer-science problem of scouring the entire Web by using undisclosed technology to efficiently process and comb through chunks of content. The company says it will have over 10 billion Web pages in its index before the end of this month.

links for 2006-12-18

Posted on December 18, 2006
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