Mark Thompson gets savaged by a former governor of the BBC (and fittingly it happened on the 'Today' programme).
How long can this go on without the BBC making some radical changes?
Thursday, 31 December 2009
Wednesday, 23 December 2009
Merry Christmas
Nomad rather doubts that things are quite this good, but the nightmares of a dyed in the wool state broadcaster make a nice Christmas present anyway.
Tories will exterminate BBC
Tories will exterminate BBC
Monday, 21 December 2009
Lost in Space
The spaceship BBC is moving away from the earth at a speed that makes communication difficult. This week they are graciously offering to connect your television to the internet.
Hullo! Anyone home! There are already a significant number of ways of connecting your TV to the internet. See the previous post about the Boxee Box; a device which will be on the market a year ahead of the BBCs offering. Not to mention the increasingly numerous DLNA compliant devices that are available today. So the BBC is proposing to spend your licence fee to compete in the download on demand marketplace.
Why would anyone want to buy a box that tied them into a particular content provider? Well from the point of view of the content provider that could only be a good thing. In this respect Apple and the BBC have rather similar business models. The question is how gullible the public are.
The good news here is that the the BBC are so far behind the technology curve. The bad news is that ITV, Channel 4 and Five are supporting the venture. Hopefully Hulu will get up and running in the UK before Canvas becomes operational.
Hullo! Anyone home! There are already a significant number of ways of connecting your TV to the internet. See the previous post about the Boxee Box; a device which will be on the market a year ahead of the BBCs offering. Not to mention the increasingly numerous DLNA compliant devices that are available today. So the BBC is proposing to spend your licence fee to compete in the download on demand marketplace.
Why would anyone want to buy a box that tied them into a particular content provider? Well from the point of view of the content provider that could only be a good thing. In this respect Apple and the BBC have rather similar business models. The question is how gullible the public are.
The good news here is that the the BBC are so far behind the technology curve. The bad news is that ITV, Channel 4 and Five are supporting the venture. Hopefully Hulu will get up and running in the UK before Canvas becomes operational.
Saturday, 19 December 2009
The Boxee Box
Boxee have teamed with D-Link to produce a media player called the "Boxee Box". Never mind the name though, check out the form factor at www.boxee.tv/box
I have tagged this story as "Media Player" which may be misleading. The traditional Media Players let you access content on your PC and rely on the PC to download the content. This class of device interfaces directly to your internet connection. As far as I know the Boxee Box has no storage capability and can only provide a streaming interface.
Unfortunately it is not yet available in the US never mind the UK. It would be worth doing an post on the Boxee software and Nomad means to look into this.
I have tagged this story as "Media Player" which may be misleading. The traditional Media Players let you access content on your PC and rely on the PC to download the content. This class of device interfaces directly to your internet connection. As far as I know the Boxee Box has no storage capability and can only provide a streaming interface.
Unfortunately it is not yet available in the US never mind the UK. It would be worth doing an post on the Boxee software and Nomad means to look into this.
The Legal Position
This quote is from the Communications (Television Licensing) Regulations 2004
Meaning of "television receiver"
9. - (1) In Part 4 of the Act (licensing of TV reception), "television receiver" means any apparatus installed or used for the purpose of receiving (whether by means of wireless telegraphy or otherwise) any television programme service, whether or not it is installed or used for any other purpose.
(2) In this regulation, any reference to receiving a television programme service includes a reference to receiving by any means any programme included in that service, where that programme is received at the same time (or virtually the same time) as it is received by members of the public by virtue of its being broadcast or distributed as part of that service.
For our purposes the important point here is that if you are watching something that is not live (ie not currently on television) then you do not need a TV Licence. This applies whether you are watching an internet download, Blueray DVD, Betamax video or even iPlayer. As long as what you are watching is not currently being broadcast then you are in the clear.
You dont need to rely on Nomad getting his facts straight here. No less a person than the Director of Future Media and Technology at the BBC itself admits that this is the case. "At the moment, the legal position is that you don't need a licence to watch TV [over the internet] purely on-demand, but you do if you are watching TV live (through any receiving device in the home)."
It is worth noting that not only is this in the regulations, it is also in the primary legislation which means that the government will not be able to change things on a whim.
See also the Wikipedia entry on this topic.
Meaning of "television receiver"
9. - (1) In Part 4 of the Act (licensing of TV reception), "television receiver" means any apparatus installed or used for the purpose of receiving (whether by means of wireless telegraphy or otherwise) any television programme service, whether or not it is installed or used for any other purpose.
(2) In this regulation, any reference to receiving a television programme service includes a reference to receiving by any means any programme included in that service, where that programme is received at the same time (or virtually the same time) as it is received by members of the public by virtue of its being broadcast or distributed as part of that service.
For our purposes the important point here is that if you are watching something that is not live (ie not currently on television) then you do not need a TV Licence. This applies whether you are watching an internet download, Blueray DVD, Betamax video or even iPlayer. As long as what you are watching is not currently being broadcast then you are in the clear.
You dont need to rely on Nomad getting his facts straight here. No less a person than the Director of Future Media and Technology at the BBC itself admits that this is the case. "At the moment, the legal position is that you don't need a licence to watch TV [over the internet] purely on-demand, but you do if you are watching TV live (through any receiving device in the home)."
It is worth noting that not only is this in the regulations, it is also in the primary legislation which means that the government will not be able to change things on a whim.
See also the Wikipedia entry on this topic.
Friday, 18 December 2009
Digital Revolution?
See Douglas Carswell's blog for some thoughts on why the BBC are an outdated institution.
Tuesday, 15 December 2009
More on Climategate
Gerald Warners blog has a good post on Climategate and the increasing irrelevance of the mainstream media. The point which really interests Nomad is the statistic that 58% of TV Licence holders would not choose to subscribe to the BBC if they were given a choice (and this the BBCs own figure). It is more or less inconceivable that an organisation so thoroughly disliked by its customers can survive in its present form.
See the quick start guide to see how you can avoid paying for a TV Licence.
See the quick start guide to see how you can avoid paying for a TV Licence.
Monday, 14 December 2009
Hulu delayed - again
Nomad thinks that the arrival of Hulu on these shores will definately be a factor in the disintegration of the BBC. Unfortunately this says that it is now not likely to happen before mid 2010.
Incidentally there are ways to set up VPN links to get at Hulu content from the US. Unfortunately this is rather involved technically and is also a criminal waste of transatlantic bandwidth; but if you are really keen and like a technical challenge you might give it a try.
Incidentally there are ways to set up VPN links to get at Hulu content from the US. Unfortunately this is rather involved technically and is also a criminal waste of transatlantic bandwidth; but if you are really keen and like a technical challenge you might give it a try.
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