Broadcast Projects is in attendance at the US / Spain business days being held at ParcBIT on April 23 and 24 in Mallorca, and we´re pretty impressed impressed by the place. Keith Silver, Deputy Senior Commercial Officer of the US Embassy Madrid, responsible for international trade and development, today presented the services of the embassy, as well as the business opportunities and highlighted the business opportunities between the Balearic Islands and the US. In attendance were government officials responsible for promoting technology and innovation investment in the Balearic Islands, as well as participants from many different business sectors interested in export opportunities.

Key companies already at ParcBIT, which is just amazing and has wonderful facilities with more than 2400 people already working there in what appears to be a very thriving and stimulating environment, include Microsoft´s Innovation Center for Tourism Technologies, and many more. Check out the full the list here.

The ParcBIT Innovation Unit aims to fast-track investment in the Balearic Islands. It is part of the support network for innovation, new technologies, the promotion of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship to develop different institutions and agencies of the Balearic Islands. This unit serves Balearic businesses and entrepreneurs, and has a focus on innovation to improve its competitiveness. ParcBIT offers a one stop shop and is an ideal location, being very well connected with flights to Palma just one or two hours away from all major European cities. We hope more technology companies will check out this great opportunity.

If you are interested in learning more about technology innovation and investment in the Balearic Islands, please contact us.

In London on 2nd May the market trends, dynamics and policy implications of Connected TV will be addressed by the UK Chapter of the International Institute of Communications in a seminar that will be hosted by Ofcom. Planned speakers include David Mahoney (Ofcom), Chris Hutchins (Liberty Global), plus other speakers including representatives from the European Commission. The conversation will look at how broadband TV is affecting the TV market, the evolving demand and usage patterns for connected TV and issues such as risks for competition, issues of compliance, content regulation and audience protection. The discussion will also address whether the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMS) is fit for purpose in the context of this rapidly shifting landscape.

EuroReg 2013 is another event of interest, taking place on 24 May in Vienna. Organised by the Austrian Regulatory Authority for Telecommunications and Broadcasting (RTR-GmbH) and the Austrian Communications Authority (KommAustria) in partnership with the Swiss Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) and the German media authorities, the conference will address the converging broadcasting world.

Set against the backdrop of Connected TV, second screen, Smart TV, Hbb TV, and on demand TV services the conversation will focus on the changing market, new business models and consumer expectations. Top speakers will present and discuss their concepts of the future of television services, including which aspects are to be regulated by the market, and which by regulatory bodies. Among the companies and organisations present at the conference will be the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation ORF/Vienna, M6 Group/Paris, ProSiebenSat.1/Munich, ZDF/Mainz, the German media authorities, OFCOM/Biel, Ofcom/London, CSA/Paris, the European Commission/Brussels, Samsung/London, Liberty Global/Amsterdam, ACT/Brussels and many more. The conference will be held in German and English. Simultaneous interpretation will be available for guests and speakers.

Broadcast Projects will attend both events.

Event Details:

Connected TV and Platforms: evolution or revolution? Market trends, dynamics, and policy implications will take place Thursday 2 May 2013, 17:00 for 17:30 Start at Ofcom, Riverside House, 2a Southwark Bridge Road, London EC1. Attendance is free to IIC Members and £30 for non-Members.  Click here to download the registration form and return to j.grimshaw@iicom.org with CH1-13 in the subject heading.

“EuroReg 2013” will take place 24th of May 2013, 9.30 a.m. – 6.00 p.m., followed by a get-together at the Palais Niederoesterreich, Herrengasse 13, A-1010 Vienna. Further information regarding “EuroReg 2013”: www.euroreg.eu  There is no charge to attend but registration must be done by 6th May.

Smart TV in Italy is the first of a series of strategy reports from Deadline Media TV on OTT and connected television. The analysis details the current market for Smart TVs in Italy within the framework of broadcasting, broadband and mobile communications. It provides five year forecasts and analysis of risks, uncertainties and competing and complimentary platforms.

Using MHP, Italy is the first country to widely deploy a broadcaster centric horizontal platform in competition with proprietary platforms of major television manufacturers. It therefore provides major lessons for connected and OTT television in other European countries deploying HbbTV or MHEG IC. However MHP has, so far, progressed little further than from proof of concept.

The key finding of this report is that connected television is taking off in Italy at a time when the existing broadcasting sector is faced with intense pressure to change. Advertising revenues have been brutally hit by austerity and the conventional pay-TV sector has probably peaked. A substantial amount of spectrum is now available for new linear-scheduled DTT services. Italy has been underserved by television even though Italians love it.

Deadline Media concludes that for the time being OTT will be driven by catchup TV and VoD films; the two major terrestrial incumbents, RAI and Mediaset, are positioned to dominate catchup TV because they have the content and the brand names.

Italy is a demanding and major G8 market for the new generation of services. The “Old Regime” is not serving the Italian consumer well, opening new opportunities for content providers, television vendors, STB and complimentary box distributors, CDN and service companies, the mobile sector, advertisers and carriers. Italy is a natural home for hybrid broadcast-broadband services.

The new report, Smart TV in Italy, comprehensively addresses the key strategic issues covering Smart TV and OTT TV/connected TV offerings. It is targeted at general management, business development, strategy, marketing and sales executives, content providers, researchers and analysts, investors, policy makers and standardisation organisations.

Published in February 2013, this 87-page electronically-delivered report comes as a PDF file. More information can be found on the Broadband TV News web shop, where it can also be ordered online, but as a single-user version or as a single site lience. For further details contact Deadline Media TV.

The latest issue of Iris, published by the European Audiovisual Observatory, contains news of two recent AVMS-related decisions: one on scope and the other related to fees.

The first, in Austria, concerns the topic of scope related to a newspaper´s website, eg, which on-demand services are in scope of the AVMS regulations as incorporated into national legislation. The newspaper is question is Tiroler Tageszeitung whose online news portal, www.tt.com, has a sub-domain video section (video.tt.com) in which the videos are presented under separate categories, are searchable and follow the general design and navigation as the main site. The decision of the Austrian Federal Communications Senate (BKS) ruled however, that the site is to be considered an on-demand service. Newspaper websites have been a contentious subject for national regulators in other territories, with differing conclusions. In the UK the Sun Video case, Ofcom ruled that the newspaper´s video section of a website was out of scope, while a recent decision in Sweden rules that four newspapers were in scope. Full details of the Austrian case can be accessed on the European Audiovisual Observatory´s website here.

In other news from the Netherlands the ¨supervisory¨ fees due by on-demand service providers, who must by law contribute to the costs of the Commissariaat voor de Media (Dutch Media Authority), have now been set at a 200 E flat fee, according to a new regulation that went into effect on 17 December 2012. The low fee is justified by the authorities because existing rules, which apply to linear broadcasters and take into account their potential reach, do not apply to on-demand services. Since the AVMS rules are less strict, the supervisory role is accordingly less. However the Dutch authorities will impose different fees for different media services, the result of which is likely to be that major national stations and foreign-oriented services will contribute more to the supervision costs. Access the full story in Iris here.

Playboy TV and Demand Adult were both fined for ´recklessly´ failing to restrict under 18s from accessing their on-demand adult content, and Ofcom overturned three earlier determinations by ATVOD. These specifically related to the long awaited decisions on two BBC YouTube channels for BBC Food and Top Gear, and Channel Flip.

Although these additional decisions add further shape to the definition of what constitutes an on-demand service as defined by the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, (AVMS was implemented into UK law in 2009 and 2010), the definition of what is and is not in scope is still shifting. Hence the determinations still do not give wholly definitive clues as to what´s in and what is out, meaning which services have to notify and will be treated as regulated services under AVMS.

One of the key points turning points for ATVOD in making their original determinations was to look for the presence of any professional or semi-professional graphics and or production qualities within the video such as music, cast, title and closing credits. Given today´s wide range of software available to the general public for accomplishing precisely such tasks this seems implausible as criteria for what should reasonably considered to be TV like.

In both the BBC and Channel Flip cases, Ofcom decided the that content was not comparable to ´TV like´ services, using as the basis for its conclusion research it published in October 2012. This research gave Ofcom a better understanding of what types of programming consumers considered to be ¨TV like¨ and thereby warranting giving the public regulatory protection.  This legal interpretation by SNR Denton does a good job explaining the decisions made by Ofcom in the recent appeals. The SNR Denton piece explains how Ofcom went back to consider the wording of the original  AVMS Directive in making their decision, whereas ATVOD only looked at how the UK Regulations were worded.  It will be interesting to watch how and if a more narrow definition of scope emerges.

The number of services in scope currently stands at 211, though projections as recent as last year considered it would never go beyond 160 or so. It also remains a mystery as to why porn websites are caught by the AVMS rules in the UK, which, as described above, is meant to deal with ´TV-Like´ on-demand programme services. Clearly the services in this list are not all of the same ilk, even though one completely understands that this is a problem of enormous proportion in terms of protecting children. True, something must be done, but AVMS was simply not intended to be that blunt instrument.  ATVOD recently testified to the House of Lords on this very matter, and made recent noises over their intention to place heavier reliance on the Obscene Publications Act and put greater pressure on payment processors for those porn websites originating abroad, and therefore out of the jurisdiction of ATVOD.

It should be interesting to see how scope plays out in the scheme of things.

These latest developments represent the fourth instance of Ofcom overturning an ATVOD decision, counting also The Sun video decision of December 2011. While in Sweden, in contrast, four newspapers were determined by the Swedish regulator to be in scope of AVMS, last October. Report here.

Sign up for AVMS Watch here and leave a comment below if you have a view on how AVMS is being implemented in your country.

For further insight on AVMS implementation across Europe, subscribe to AVMS Insights and get access to our October 2012 article on the subject.

Contact us for further information.

Plus a round-up of the latest 2nd screen round-ups in one easy post.

In the never-ending quest to catch-up on reading, I came across several ´round-ups´ of the Second Screen Space pre- and post- CES which got me thinking. So instead of re-inventing the wheel, here in one handy post you can access what the top 20 thinkers in social TV and second screen have to say, thoughts on what will happen in the coming year in the second screen space as well as the main apps to keep an eye on.

While culling through all this material, and there certainly is a lot of informed writing on the topic, one can only dream about how big a business this might become. Indeed, at CES the Second Screen Society dedicated a day to discussing the topic, which they seem to do at least every quarter, and no doubt CES was a further accelerator for this very active group lead by Chuck Parker. Indeed they have just announced new ´definitive´ research including an infographic that documents the state of the business and projections over a five year period which, they say, sees this space growing from $490 million today to a $5.9 billion business by 2017.

Sounds sexy indeed, but I have been following the topic for over one year now, and the sheer explosion of apps draws out the skeptic in me. In one interesting post by one of the ´top thinkers´, Alan Wolk of Kit Digital puts forward five common sense observations, among them being the simple fact that people are, erm, watching TV while they watch TV.  To my mind, if they are playing with their second screen, they are more likely to be  on Facebook or futilely attempting to keep up with their data overload. Alan says things which I had dared not say out loud, but I for one am grateful to see some common sense.

The future of the second screen space boils down to a few simple points. First, it is obviously an enormous opportunity. Second, countless start-ups will crash and burn, and amongst them it´s a lottery as to who will end up succeeding.  Third, at the end of the day, just a few major platforms will emerge as the dominant players, and they will have sucked up the diamond bright start-ups into their own machine. Of course that is what the start-up game is about. It´s not rocket science that we need billion-dollar research to figure out. And fourth, some patience is needed, during with time copious amounts of cash will speed down the drain until this space settles down.

Certainly I admit to good old curiosity and looking up something about an actor or topic I see while watching TV. But to go so far as to download a dedicated second screen app, from an app company, a content provider, a broadcaster, an Apple or other huge player, at least to my mind it´s a stretch too far right now. I can however wax lyrical on the secret sauce that drives those apps – the metadata engines behind them, and the cool mash-ups derived from multiple sources of data and clever innovations in technology. It´s these things – and great UX design – that will ultimately sort the winners from the losers.

Meantime, digital social developments unfold at an unfathomable pace. I spent an entire dreary London weekend trying to tame  my bookmarks and social media log-ins. It does looks like I´m on the way to joining the Legion of Shameless Self Promotion. It´s so de rigeur these days but really who has the energy or nerve to try and stand out amongst all this noise? Who has the time to be all the time online, managing all these identities let alone creating great ´unique´ content that the search engines will love?

It´s tricky. Having spent hours in an attempt to earnestly absorb information about how to manage my multiple Sybil-like identities via a ´social media dashboard´, I emerged 100% baffled. That´s not because I didn´t understand or spend enough time with it, it´s just that there really is no one tool out there that will indeed let you post across multiple platforms without multiple ´catches´ and exceptions to the rule.

To add insult to injury on top of the second screen lists of ´things to watch´ a whole new breed of social networks are emerging, so a few more things to keep track of. One begins to wonder about future calls for social media interoperability and identity portability, if they are not happening already. Honestly I cannot be bothered to look one more thing up. I´m too busy trying to remember my Twitter password half the time. Though I did find a new solution for password management, something of a breakthrough at least was accomplished this weekend, but the effort was not without some cost! (I have not left the house for three days and counting). Good thing it´s miserable outside.

Maybe I´m alone in this. But I suspect not.  What are your experiences? How much time to you spend online? Tell me, really, do you ever stand up? And by the time you get in front of the TV set, are you really still itching to be connected?

Janet Greco

The Ethiopian Education Foundation is recruiting a new manager to oversee its school in Addis Abbaba. This is a position that offers huge influence on the lives of the the Foundation´s extremely bright students, all of whom have come from severely underprivileged backgrounds. Each year the foundation awards scholarships for those in grades 9-12. These kids are carefully selected and once accepted university entrance is almost guaranteed after four years in the EEF programme.

To learn more about the position, click here. At this link you´ll find more info about the EEF programme, including how to sponsor one of their students. EEF was founded by Achim Kram and colleagues after an expedition to Ethiopia in 2003.

The cheat sheet provides all media sizes and specs for optimising an online brand with Facebook, Twitter, Google+, You Tube (branded channels), LinkedIn and Pinterest. Heresy, but this is one for actually printing out and keeping nearby.

“At IBC two years agowe started a discussion about the security issues surrounding connected TV. Since then AAPA members have been active in developing security for smart TVs, etc and making OTT content available. We need to ensure that all stakeholders recognise the importance of implementing and maintaining content security robustly and this symposium provides an opportunity to continue to reinforce this message.” said AAPA Executive Director Sheila Cassells. “AAPA offers a reinvigorated approach to fighting piracy in the audiovisual sector. While many policy discussions have focussed on ISP liability it is important that we do not lose sight of the need to tackle circumvention of content protection technology. AAPA’s members work collaboratively in this area and we will continue to support this, as well as endeavour to ensure that legal  powers are fit for purpose.”

“Piracy never goes away,¨ according to AAPA Vice-President Christine Maury-Panis, General Counsel at Viaccess.  ¨As new technologies emerge and new ways of distributing audiovisual content become more popular, it is crucial that we have all the possible tools to work with collaboratively against the persistent threat of piracy, which causes enormous damage to jobs in the creative and other sectors. AAPA provides an efficient industry alliance which is able to support the fight against piracy of paid content delivered via the set top box, mobile phone, tablet, etcetera.¨

The AAPA works to support pay TV and large technology security firms by engaging in dialogue with EU institutions and taking action to ensure appropriate and effective legislation is implemented consistently across the EU. Through the activities of its members and the work of the Intelligence Committee, AAPA identifies areas where legislation can be improved. The AAPA meets three to four times a year, in addition to exchanging information by e-mail and conference call. AAPA´s current membership includes BSkyB, Conax, Eutelsat, INSIDE Secure, Irdeto, Liberty Global, Melita, Nagra, NDS, Nova, Open Tech, Pace, Sky Deutschland, Sky Italia, Verimatrix, Viaccess, Ziggo and Zon. All members of the Alliance are members of the AAPA Council, which determines the strategy of the Alliance.