Author: Antony Mayfield

I was in Wales yesterday to speak to Cardiff University’s post-grad PR diploma class about tech/TMT public relations. A very bright bunch they were too, being nurtured by the charismatic Mike Smith, who will be retiring next year.

I spoke a lot about convergence – which conveniently Dan Sabbagh has written an analysis of in The Times today – see it here.

Also spoke about the technology adoption curve from Jeff Moore’s Crossing the Chasm in order to give some context to the job we do at Harvard. For people wanting to read more about this check out the Wikipedia summary or buy the book at Amazon – still a must-read for tech sector communicators (despite the  dated cover design).

BT positioned its TV service trailer announcement (which hit the press yesterday) as setting out its vision (see press release).

From a comms perspective it looked a bit rushed, no quite clear, no quite confident enough. The result was that it was clear to some (e.g. Enders Analysis, quoted in The Times) that it was a defensive move in response to BSkyB’s split with them and acquisition of Easynet.

We knew BT would be rolling out a service, and we knew roughly what it would look like. What we didn’t and still don’t know is what their winning strategy and pricing structure will be.

The real news was the choice of Philips for a set-top box and the emphasis on PVR (personal video recorder) technology.

NB: I didn’t mention it at the time, but BT have also poached BSkyB marketer James Soames. See Brand Republic for the full story. It’s war, alright!

My heart says "Woo-hoo! IPTV – bring it on!" while my head stands by my previous post about BSkyB being better positioned to win this battle from a customer service / management point of view.

There’s some really good analysis out there of the implications of BT and BSkyB squaring up (as predicted by your prescient Open blog) – I’ll picking over some of this at the weekend and posting some thoughts and a round-up.

One last question – where’s Microsoft in all of this? Give it a couple of weeks?

Charles Arthur’s scooped the media trade titles and – as far as I can tell – even his new employer, by announcing on his blog that he will take over editing the Guardian’s Technology section from November.

Mr Arthur’s recent work as a freelance has included a column in The Independent and fairly regular articles for The Register.

Note my lack of superlatives in the above post – consciously not going for an OBN (Order of the Brown Nose, Private Eye-style). It is, however, excellent news for Guardian Technology readers, of which I am one.

He’s inviting comments about what he should do when he’s running the show on his blog…

Thanks to Random Culture for the story of one of those simple-but-brilliant applications of podcast technology from top US university Stanford: it’s started podcasting its lectures with Apple’s iTunes service. Have a  look here.

Now, the more cynical and limited of imagination among us may just see this as one more way for students to avoid lectures.

But once the giggling has died down at the back, can we seriously consider the brilliance of this: think of all the insightful, inspiring and just downright informative content that is created everyday in lecture halls up and down the land?

Let’s hope that other educational institutions follow Stanford’s lead soon.

I should add that as well as lectures you can access music (from The Stanford Study Break compilation) and sports podcasts. This medium will appeal to students, alumni and the general public – a great example of this new medium being used by an organisation to communicate with multiple audiences.

One of my first "find" posts was about Wiki text books, an idea with obviously great potential. It would be great to see the National Grid for Learning (NGfL) in the UK and similar organisations worldwide thinking about using Wikis and podcasting.

Other coverage and blog-posts about Stanford and iTunes:

• Here’s PR blogger and podcaster Shel Holtz‘s take on the story at Webpronews.com…
• The Guardian covered the story well in its education section – it emphasises the university’s long-standing relationship with Apple and the importance Stanford puts on keeping in touch with its alumni.
• Walking Paper is written by a librarian, Aaron Schmidt – although he admits that he’s had a hard time with the hype around podcasting that there’s a need for librariess and education institutions to provide services for "digital natives" (he also, rightly, says that Stanford’s move is great PR).
• David Panarelli on his blog Open The Window raises some valid questions: "the real merits of this system will come from Apple’s willingness to
  provide the same service for other colleges and universities. Will it
  be limited to US institutions? Will it all be free? Besides, if I can
  get the lectures on iTunes, then why would I shell out the $45K a year?"

Thanks to Random Culture for the story of one of those simple-but-brilliant applications of podcast technology from top US university Stanford: it’s started podcasting its lectures with Apple’s iTunes service. Have a  look here.

Now, the more cynical and limited of imagination among us may just see this as one more way for students to avoid lectures.

But once the giggling has died down at the back, can we seriously consider the brilliance of this: think of all the insightful, inspiring and just downright informative content that is created everyday in lecture halls up and down the land?

Let’s hope that other educational institutions follow Stanford’s lead soon.

I should add that as well as lectures you can access music (from The Stanford Study Break compilation) and sports podcasts. This medium will appeal to students, alumni and the general public – a great example of this new medium being used by an organisation to communicate with multiple audiences.

One of my first "find" posts was about Wiki text books, an idea with obviously great potential. It would be great to see the National Grid for Learning (NGfL) in the UK and similar organisations worldwide thinking about using Wikis and podcasting.

Other coverage and blog-posts about Stanford and iTunes:

• Here’s PR blogger and podcaster Shel Holtz‘s take on the story at Webpronews.com…
• The Guardian covered the story well in its education section – it emphasises the university’s long-standing relationship with Apple and the importance Stanford puts on keeping in touch with its alumni.
• Walking Paper is written by a librarian, Aaron Schmidt – although he admits that he’s had a hard time with the hype around podcasting that there’s a need for librariess and education institutions to provide services for "digital natives" (he also, rightly, says that Stanford’s move is great PR).
• David Panarelli on his blog Open The Window raises some valid questions: "the real merits of this system will come from Apple’s willingness to
  provide the same service for other colleges and universities. Will it
  be limited to US institutions? Will it all be free? Besides, if I can
  get the lectures on iTunes, then why would I shell out the $45K a year?"

Thanks to Random Culture for the story of one of those simple-but-brilliant applications of podcast technology from top US university Stanford: it’s started podcasting its lectures with Apple’s iTunes service. Have a  look here.

Now, the more cynical and limited of imagination among us may just see this as one more way for students to avoid lectures.

But once the giggling has died down at the back, can we seriously consider the brilliance of this: think of all the insightful, inspiring and just downright informative content that is created everyday in lecture halls up and down the land?

Let’s hope that other educational institutions follow Stanford’s lead soon.

I should add that as well as lectures you can access music (from The Stanford Study Break compilation) and sports podcasts. This medium will appeal to students, alumni and the general public – a great example of this new medium being used by an organisation to communicate with multiple audiences.

One of my first "find" posts was about Wiki text books, an idea with obviously great potential. It would be great to see the National Grid for Learning (NGfL) in the UK and similar organisations worldwide thinking about using Wikis and podcasting.

Other coverage and blog-posts about Stanford and iTunes:

• Here’s PR blogger and podcaster Shel Holtz‘s take on the story at Webpronews.com…
• The Guardian covered the story well in its education section – it emphasises the university’s long-standing relationship with Apple and the importance Stanford puts on keeping in touch with its alumni.
• Walking Paper is written by a librarian, Aaron Schmidt – although he admits that he’s had a hard time with the hype around podcasting that there’s a need for librariess and education institutions to provide services for "digital natives" (he also, rightly, says that Stanford’s move is great PR).
• David Panarelli on his blog Open The Window raises some valid questions: "the real merits of this system will come from Apple’s willingness to
  provide the same service for other colleges and universities. Will it
  be limited to US institutions? Will it all be free? Besides, if I can
  get the lectures on iTunes, then why would I shell out the $45K a year?"

Following on from the round-up of Murdoch acquisitions ("What you’re watching is Murdoch’s strategy evolving in real time") I’ll go out on a limb with a prediction, if only to provoke a little debate here.

For all the gloom on BSkyB’s numbers and its "defensive" acquisition of Easynet, I think that Sky could beat all-comers (namely BT and NTL/Telewest) in the coming battle for market leadership in triple-play, as the combined offering of TV, phone and Internet is known in the trade.

Sky takes a few knocks from commentators, especially casual ones – concerns I’ve heard include:

• Sky’s ageing installed base of set-top boxes that still need to pay for themselves – what will they do to meet HD and IPTV challenges?
• Freeview‘s growing popularity stealing potential subscribers from Sky.
• BT’s imminent entry into TV over broadband on the one side and a strong, combined NTL and Telewest on the other.

There’s simple one reason why I would listen to Merrill Lynch’s "buy" recommendation for BskyB stock, if I were investing. Unlike any of its immediate telecom sector competitors, Sky knows how to own and manage customer relationships.

Ever dealt with Sky customer service? Ever dealt with BT or NTL? Experience and feedback from others leads me to believe that Sky has customer service spot on, while BT can be patchy and NTL is sometimes wanting, to say the least.

That means that no matter how they have restructure, adapt their technology or re-launch their services, Sky will be able to retain, grow and cross-sell to its customer base more effectively than the others. And in the coming customer-centric, service-based world, that’s what will win.

Not the technology – the service.

There’ll be more analysis to come on this titanic corporate struggle in the coming weeks and months, but here’s a round-up of some of the other writing on the subject recently:

• The Register‘s take on the end of the BT / BSkyB joint marketing agreement.
• The Birmingham Post, one of the UK’s last great regional business papers, has one of the best analyses of the the coming battle I’ve seen in the pres yet.
• Digital Spy’s forum discussing Teather and Greenwood analyst Conor O’Shea’s prediction (Oct 21) of weaker subscriber numbers for its most recent quarter.
• The Daily Express (no direct link to story available) today carried a story saying that Dresdner analyst Hannes Wittig thinks that BT should bid for the rights to show Premiership football as a way of warding off the damage to its earnings that Sky’s move into broadband threatens.

Nicholas Carr started the lash a-backing with his essay-post The Amorality of Web 2.0. Last night The Register ran a "letters special" filled with responses to its article last week criticising the quality of writing on Wikipedia.

Register readers not only call into question the accuracy of entries but take the opportunity to accuse Wikipedia’s "cabal" of crowding out contributors who know what they’re talking about but may not share the cult-ish belief in the project as path-to-data-nirvana.

The Reigster’s debate’s definitely more useful than The Guardian’s slightly glib feature yesterday which asked seven experts to cross-check entries in their field of expertise. The upshot of these seemed to be that Wikipedia had basic facts right and was useful mostly as a quick reference, but that there were often inaccuracies and shortcomings.

I got the impression that the Britannica’s former editor Robert McHenry was only too delighted to put the boot in in his section, and according to Wikpedia, he’s got form for this sort of thing.

The case against Wikipedia was slightly undermined in the Guardian article by the catty 0/10 rating for the entry on haute couture from Alexandra Shulman, editor of Vogue. Despite the fact that "there are a few correct facts included" she says that "every value judgement it makes is wrong". Her critique inspired blog-post headline of the week from Matt Jones at Blackbeltjones/work: "Wikipedia: we really haute to know better" .

It all makes you wonder if the Chinese authorities are today patting themselves on the back for their cutting edge, right-on-the-Zeitgeist decision to ban Wikipedia, the free, open source encylcopedia, now that anyone who’s anyone has decided to turn on the thing and give it a good kicking.

Personally, I’ll continue to use Wikipedia for what it’s good for: quick, free, mostly useful reference, especially on technology subjects. Anyone who is in the business of serious research, as I sometimes am, shouldn’t use it as an authoritative, definitive source – but then I’m not sure that anyone ever did.

Having not been included on the BBC’s beta for its IMP (Interactive Media Player) trial (and still having a geek sulk about the fact) it was great to see that ITV had launched the trial of its new local web TV service, ITV Local, in my home city of Brighton & Hove (also simultaneously in Hastings).

You can take a look at the service here.

The service includes seven "channels" including news, weather, what’s on listings, classified ads, short films and local music talent. The content available at first isn’t exactly inspiring, but the concept is exciting. Especially the opportunity for anyone to submit content to the service.

ITV taking a radical step here – surprising, given how much flak the brand has taken for not keeping up with new digital technologies. The platform has been provided by US firm Narrowstep.

The consensus among media and blog commentators seems to be that the move is brave, the quality good, and the future uncertain.

I think that the success or otherwise of the service will rest on how well ITV can get local people to contribute content. Brighton & Hove certainly has more than its fair share of creatives and digital media folk who could help this process along.

I’ll keep an eye on this service and report back with a Brightonian’s perspective on developments in future posts.

Meanwhile, have a look at a selection of blog and media comments below:

• Informitv carries the story and notes that the BBC is also planning an ultra-local service soon (was ITV’s launch a spoiler when the corporation’s been new media’s hero so much of late?)…
• Personalize Media has an interesting take on the story, as Gary Hayes was involved in a not dissimilar pioneering project at Kingston Communications.
• My Way of Thinking is sceptical: "IPTV
  is the future so ITV may just be developing their skill base and generating
  some PR by beating the BBC; but I doubt this launch represents a workable
  business model."
• But ITV earns some brownie points from TechDigest: "It’s
  nice to see then that ITV have begun trialling a new TV service, designed to
  reach out to individual communities, using broadband…. It is, however, easy to see the potential of the service,
  which is set to accept content from would-be film makers and other keen
  enthusiasts. It also loads up pretty quickly and seems to stream flawlessly."
• Media Guardian (requires log in) carried the story without much analysis, but notes that Brighton & Hove, as well as Hastings, were selected because "Around
  28% of people in Brighton and Hastings have access to broadband internet at
  home – more than the national average of 22% – with many others having access
  at work."
• C21 gives some more details on the workings of the pilot: "The
  service is a joint venture between ITV’s recently established Consumer
  Division, headed by former Hallmark UK chief executive Jeff Henry, and ITV
  News, which is supplying its current affairs programming. Technology comes from
  US stock market-listed internet TV specialist Narrowstep, which counts
  Telewest-owned Flextech Television and ‘psychic’ station Your Destiny TV among
  its clients."
• Meanwhile Mike Butcher reporting from MIPCOM on paidcontent.org notes that "the
  site crashed our Safari browser, but hey…"

With the acquisition of Easynet, all eyes are on News International‘s web strategy at the moment.

As Adam Lashinsky put it in an incisive analysis piece in yesterday’s The Business "What you’re watching is Murdoch’s strategy evolving in real time". Some, like Techdirt, take the dim view that "evolving in real time" means he doesn’t know what he’s doing.

Following Johnnie Moore‘s Murdoch story and track-back to Open’s Reuters post yesterday, here’s the scores so far and a round up of media coverage and blog conversations:

Acquisitions:

• MySpace (social networking site) – part of the £329  million ($580m) purchase of Intermix
• IGN (Internet Gaming Network) – £368 million ($650m)
• Scout Media (sports site) – £57 million ($100m)
• Easynet – £211 million ($370m)

Coverage / conversations:

Fortune (1):  the Fortune magazine analysis piece Mr Moore posted about.
Fortune (2): a further Fortune piece, interviewing News International’s "Web Czar",  Ross Levinsohn.
Paidcontent.org: speculating that News International will go after SIPphone next, a Skype-alike VoIP service and yesterday said that an Australian property portfolio had rejected a Murdoch bid.
Forbes – Murdoch’s BSkyB Buys Easynet To Confront NTL/Telewest
The Business – Murdoch and his lean mean internet machine.
FT (subscription only) – Lex column reports that Easynet acquisition  is a cheap way for Sky to offer triple play in the UK.