March is at an end

It is now late in the evening of the last day of March and the promised visit from TV Licensing has failed to materialise. Disappointing really!


Fortunately Nomad is out at work during the day and has also been away for a large part of March. If you have a life (rich coming from the author of this blog?), then there is much less chance of getting a visit. We rather like the idea that detector van man has made countless fruitless visits over the past month in an effort to 'enforce' the licence. Hopefully this would have saved various OAPs and poor single mothers from such visits.

Probably the truth is that there was never much chance of being visited during March. TV Licensing rely on a high level of bluff to scare people into buying a licence.

Can mobile television be licensed?

The BBC Trust is now getting nervous about the BBCs plans to develop an app for the iPhone. See this article. Ostensibly the issue is lack of competition.

However we think that the real issue with streaming BBC programmes to mobile devices is that it will end up undermining the licence system. Lets run through some scenarios:

1. An American tourist visits London and discovers that he can download a BBC app for his iPhone. He takes an open top bus tour while absorbing some additional British culture by watching Eastenders on his iPhone. Coming from a country where there is no TV Licence it never occurs to him that his actions are illegal.

2. The receptionist at a small company catches up on "Strictly Come Dancing" using her iPhone app. Noticing that the batteries are running a bit low she plugs in the charger. Technically the device is now 'installed' and this means that her employer can be prosecuted if there is no TV Licence for the office.

Is this for real? Are the BBC (TV Licensing) really going to put inspectors on buses and trains? Are they going to visit offices and check whether you have an iPhone and if so do you charge it in the office while using the BBC app? Is enforcement of the law going to be in any way effective?

Lets say you are sitting on the 6:08 from Waterloo watching BBC News 24 on your iPhone. You are accosted by a stranger who asks if you have a TV Licence. He then asks your name and address. Lets say you then tell him to get lost, what can he do. TV Licensing have no powers of arrest. There is nothing they can do.

The BBC is terribly keen to adopt new technology. However the business model that it uses (the TV Licence) is entirely outmoded. It may have been appropriate in the 1940s but is increasingly pointless today. The BBC has to decide whether it is stuck in the past or adopting the present. Trying to have it both ways will end in disaster for them.

For more detail on the license issues for mobile devices see this article. Warning: some comments in this article are not for the easily offended.

BT Vision

BT Vision is a combination of Freeview, a hard disk recorder and download on demand. BT Vision has been around since December 2006 but it appears that it is now being marketed in a more determined way.

There are a couple of problems with BT Vision as far as we are concerned. The first is that you need to have a broadband package from BT and you need to have a BT Home Hub installed. The second problem is that the Vision+ set top box comes with Freeview built in; this means that you need a TV Licence.

Why is download on demand not available without Freeview? Probably for two reasons. Firstly BT are trying to grow thier subscriber base without overloading the network. It makes sense for them to reduce the load on the backhaul network where possible. Secondly, and this is possibly more important, they want to source content from the BBC and need to keep them sweet. The library of existing content which the BBC already own is a very powerful weapon for them in controlling what people can do. The other channels are also scared of upsetting the status quo.

As we know Hulu tried and so far have been unable to make the right agreements. Eventually someone will break the mould. The UK broadcasters will eventually have to face reality even if they are currently being successful in avoiding it.

Future Editorial Direction

There are other blogs looking at the BBC, the political bias, the greed of the management, the downright incompetence and wastefulness that you might expect from a monopoly supplier. Look under "This blog likes" if you don't know where to find them. To be fair, the mainstream media also do a good job on this front. Try reading the Daily Telegraph for example.

On the other hand there are, to my knowledge, no blogs looking at how to avoid paying for a TV Licence while still legally watching video content. That is our unique selling point.

Obviously it is worth explaining why we are motivated not to pay the licence fee. However our intention will be to concentrate on what we do best, rather than be an also ran to the likes of 'Biased BBC'. This means we will concentrate on technical issues, new products and content providers. These articles need more research and there will likely be fewer posts. From time to time it will of course be neccessary to blast the Beebs failings.

Happy Reading!

Video Download Mode

Sorry, this might get a bit technical. On-demand stream or podcast is the question.

On-demand streaming means that when you want to watch something, you request a stream from the provider and (after a few seconds delay) it starts arriving. Youtube and SeeSaw among others are users of this approach. The problem with streaming is that if the link is not fast enough then the stream will not keep up with the display and the picture will freeze for a few seconds. This was apparent during our recent attempt to watch the Dubai Grand Prix on iPlayer. The limiting factor here is often not the local loop but the network and server constraints. Watching the Grand Prix on iPlayer is very popular and currently causes the biggest peaks in network traffic seen by BT.

Podcasting means that you subscribe to a channel and the latest issue is downloaded to your machine when available. The existing protocol relies on the subscriber checking periodically for updates. Miro is an example of a podcast reciever. Once completely downloaded the video becomes available for you to watch. As the complete file is available locally the picture will not freeze while replay is running. It is also possible to use this technique to provide very high quality video over slow connections; the download time may be longer than the running time length of the video. A disadvantage of podcasting is that users tend to download more than they watch. Sky News provide an update of the headlines 4 times every day, however it is unlikely that the typical subscriber will watch more than one a day. Clearly this increases the overall load on the network.

Given a fast enough link, on demand streaming has the advantage of (almost) immediate provision regardless of whether the video has already been downloaded. The further advantage is that the overall network load is reduced because users only download what they actually watch. With increasing link speed as FTTC is rolled out across the country these look to be winning attributes. The caveat about FTTC has to be whether the capacity of the backhaul network is increased fast enough to keep pace.

In conclusion it seems that on-demand stream is likely to emerge as the winner as link speeds increase. In the meantime podcasting has a role to play in providing good quality video over slower connections. This is good news if you already have a fast broadband connection or are about to get one. It is not so good if you face a long wait for FTTC to be wired on your exchange.

Why have the network providers not considered a point to multipoint 'push' version of podcasting. This would be extremely efficient at offloading the backhaul network and would provide better quality than on demand streaming. It seems obvious to us, but who knows?

SeeSaw

SeeSaw provides on demand content from BBC, 4oD and Five. There already appears to be a good selection to choose from and presumably more content will appear over time.

We liked SeeSaw, it has a very simple interface and the picture quality is good. The major drawback is that it only runs on the PC. An application like TVersity would be needed to stream it to a media player; unfortunately none exist at present. However SeeSaw has only been available since last month and is still in beta release. It is likely that it will become better supported.

SeeSaw is now run by Arqiva. Originally it was called Project Kangaroo and was jointly owned by the BBC, 4 and Five. The Competition Commision did not like that setup and forced a sale (rightly so in our view).

Overall this looks to be a promising service. SeeSaw can be found here.

Joy

...is knowing that your exchange is on the Phase 5 list of BTs FTTC rollout. This means 40 Meg download speeds will be available here in less than a year.

Subject to BT not changing their mind of course!

Coming Soon: Google TV

...to a set top near you, is this box made by Google.

Hit or miss? Its too early to say obviously. What is clear is that whoever does this well stands to really clean up. The problem is that however good the design of the hardware, the real issue will be getting content on line. If Google can leverage what is already on the net, then they may have a winner.

Scotland the brave?

Here is a fascinating development which we missed earlier due to being on holiday. Is the BBC vulnerable on its northern flank? The SNP have a record of stirring up trouble on any possible issue and the licence fee might well be a profitable area for them. Anything that can be portrayed as an 'english tax' will probably be looked on as fair game.

Biased Beeb Belittles Byers Blatant Blunder

In our last post we said the BBC would do what it could to keep labour in power. Their downgrading of the Byers story is a case in point.

This story is a very good illustration of the subtle way in which bias is applied. The unfavorable story was run, it was just run in a way which suggested that it was not very inportant.

Incidentally, you may think we should be doing our own research for these stories. Fair point, its just that we dont watch 'television' any more.

Beeb Broadcasts Blatantly Biased Basil Brush

Look we know you might think we are inventing some of this stuff. Now it is in 'The Sun' though. That means it has got to be true, right?

Who would have thought that Basil Brush, that paragon of political correctness(?), would succumb to having a go at the Tories. Still if Doctor Who had it in for Maggie why should we be surprised that the fox has a go at 'Nasty Dave'.

One thing we can be sure of is that the BBC will do everything in thier power to try and swing the election. Only Labour will protect the empire they have built. A Conservative government would be a catastrophe for them.

PS: With an election coming up it is probably appropriate to declare an interest. Nomad intends to vote UKIP. This is not primarily due to thier policy on the BBC but here it is anyway: "UKIP will consult on a proposal to cut the BBC back to a core public service output, with a focus on quality and seeks to raise standards for TV and film production."

Facebook?

The BBC is spending your licence fee (not ours obviously) to send people on a course that teaches them how to use Facebook.

You could not make it up. Really!.

TV Licence price goes up

The price of a TV Licence will increase by 2% at the start of next month.

Not really surprising I hear you say. Well no. But tucked away at the end of the article is a fantastic number, apparently the BBC has saved Two Billion pounds from its budget.

Look, enlighten us, are we being stupid. If this is true. why would the licence fee be going up? According to Wikipedia "Total levies from the licence fee were £3.49 Billion in 2008-09". The BBC has saved the licence fee payer over 50% and now the licence has to go up two percent?

Catching up on last weeks stories

Some stories that happened while Nomad was on holiday.

iPlayer deal blocked

Strangling the Kangaroo

BBC Shake Up

Tories to axe BBC Three and Four

The news on Project Kangaroo being killed is really good. What is not clear is how this affects the BBC's new baby: Project Canvas. Surely Canvas will be subject to the same considerations as Kangaroo. Lets hope the Competition Commision maintains a tough stance.

The BBC appears to be getting the message that it needs to trim its budget. The proposed changes appear rather trivial though. The current strategy at the BBC appears to be to carry out some window dressing and hope that the Conservatives do not win the election.