Archive for May 19th, 2008
Microsoft admitted that it will honor a programmer’s requests to block the recording of programs on its Media Center PCs. And this isn’t some theoretical possibility… it looks like it happened. It seems some folks weren’t able to TiVo record American Gladiators and Medium last week. So News.com started asking questions.
Microsoft included technologies in Windows based on rules set forth by the (Federal Communications Commission),” a Microsoft spokeswoman wrote in an e-mail to CNET News.com. “As part of these regulations, Windows Media Center fully adheres to the flags used by broadcasters and content owners to determine how their content is distributed and consumed.”
As News.com noted, the rules are actually just proposals - therefore… not actual rules (kinda like when you ground little Johnny… but let him play XBox 20 minutes later). It isn’t clear why NBC threw up the “don’t record” flag for the shows (or if it was even done intentionally).
Update: NBC says it was a mistake.
May 19th, 2008
April usage numbers for YouTube show another month of growth, hitting 4 billion streams. That’s up from 3.6 billion in March. YouTube’s closest competitor is Fox Interactive Media, at just 329 million streams.
(Via TV Week)
May 19th, 2008
A study conducted by Crawford, Johnson & Northcott concludes that Americans are turning to TV in greater numbers than the web for election news. The top three sources given by respondents ages 18-65 are broadcast network news, cable TV news and local TV news. “Rumors of the death of traditional television news have been greatly exaggerated. And it’s not just older people—young adults are relying on television news too,” said John Altenbern, CJ&N President.
True enough, TV news isn’t dying, and it will remain an important source for years to come (especially local). But as I’ve predicted before, more people ages 18-54 will get their news from the web and mobile than from any other platform in the next 3-5 years. That said, I think studies like these are a helpful reminder for Wall Street that TV still commands a large audience (and financial margin) and TV groups don’t deserve such a thrashing on the stock market these days. But the study shouldn’t feed the misplaced beliefs inside TV newsrooms that TV will always be the top “go to” source for news.
May 19th, 2008
Then he took his own picture. “If I didn’t, it would probably be my editor’s first question when I got back,” he said.
May 19th, 2008
Members of the press and bloggers alike were invited to today’s Google factory tour (which was live-blogged by ABC7News.com right here), and Google used the opportunity to launch a new product, Google Health. It’s a “safe, secure, and free” way to store your personal health information and keep your doctors up to date about your health.
May 19th, 2008
