Open TV Network and KlickTab

For independent producers looking to distribute their films via Apple's iTunes, there has always been a barrier. Apple's attitude has been something along the lines of "We'll sell the products of the major distributors but independent producers will have to give their's away free."

However it is possible to get podcasts into iTunes, and this company Open TV Network has developed a technology called Klick Tab which allows you to sell video through the iTunes interface. You're NOT selling video through the the iTunes store, so customers need to sign up with Open TV network first, and hand credit card info over to them. Open TV Network then takes a 15% commission from all sales.

Basically it's a way of monetising RSS podcast subscriptions.

BBC iPlayer getting 1.3 million unique viewers a week...

According to BBC figures quoted in this Guardian Unlimited article. In addition it reports that "iPhone and iPod Touch owners will be able to access iPlayer content within the next few weeks. This will be the first time the broadband TV service has been available beyond PC and Mac computers." This means a move away from WMV for the high quality Windows only download to the H.264 codec (WMV is available on Mac and linux, but not the DRM). This would also make the downloaded videos compatible with AppleTV, even though AppleTV is not mentioned in any of the many articles carrying this story, Ashley Highfield, the BBC's Director of Future Media & Technology, discussed the possibility previously:

"Apple's (long anticipated) move to a rental model, means that we can look to getting BBC iPlayer onto this platform too, as we should be able to use the rental functionality to allow our programmes to be downloaded, free, but retained for a time window, and then erased, as our rightsholders currently insist."

This would make three services that are AppleTV compatible, after iTunes (which is already selling BBC shows) and arthouse movie download service Jaman. The Jaman plug-in is an unsupported hack not an official update (and I've no idea if it's been kiboshed by the recent AppleTV makeover). It's odd that Apple haven't been more welcoming to services like Jaman, since iTunes basically sells iPods as much as it sells music, the more third party services that are supported on AppleTV the more attractive it is as a commodity.

This article from The Register included an addendum which says "the BBC got in touch to say it will always offer a Flash version", presumably in the browser embedded player, but since flash is moving away from the old Sorenson Spark codec to H.264 too, the statement may mean the embedded player will remain SWF based, even if the codec is updated.

This hopefully will mean a significant step forward for H.264 becoming a de facto web standard for online video, since it will be seamlessly supported by Quicktime (installed on all Macs and 60% of PCs) and Flash (installed on 90% of internet connected computers).

Format war, round 2!

...Against downloads and standard DVDs.

This New York Times article (registration required) points out that movie rental downloads are a LONG way from challenging physical discs (at least in terms of movie sales), due to a number of factors, mainly access to fast enough internet connections, the lack of bonus features, and the limited range of films available and annoying restrictions, such as forcing you to finish watching the movie within 24 hours.

This article (also from the NYT) points out that while Blu Ray may have beaten its young rival, it still haS to see off the big daddy, the end-of-level-boss that is The Standard Definition DVD. Remember VHS took 30 years to kill and saw off three rival formats (Betamax, Laser Disc and VideoCD in case you're wondering).

DVD's dominance may yet be sustained by the new generation of up-ressing DVD players that allegedly do a great job of improving the look of SD material on an HD screen. The article quotes Mike Abt, the president of a US electronics retailer, “We have a lot of people who bought HD DVD players. [We tell them] you have an upconverting DVD player, enjoy it. You paid $150 for it, so you didn’t lose too much.” So, if you're in the market for a (newish) DVD player, you could do worse than hit Ebay and pick up a second hand HD-DVD player for a pittance. (they're already going for under £100, soon it'll be a LOT less.)

BBC to sell programmes through iTunes.

The BBC selling TV episodes via the Apple iTunes store right now. Hit series such as Torchwood, Little Britain and the first episode of current series Ashes to Ashes are already up.

Episodes are a rather steep  £1.89 each, or you can buy a whole season at some kind of discount (following the US model). Series 1 of Life on Mars would set you back £13.99. Mind you that's at a low  640*360 resolution with normal stereo sound, and no extras. You can get the DVD box set (i.e much higher quality image , 5.1 sound with the usual specious features) from Amazon for only another £2.

 It's a good idea, one that the BBC should have got into a long time ago, though now the BBC's own iPlayer seems to render the idea obsolete (the strategy of releasing shows on iTunes eight days is even specifically designed not to clash with iPlayer's seven day's for free policy) . The US iTunes store has thrived on selling episodes of the longer running TV series in the states where people have missed episodes and wanted to catch up. (which is why Lost was such a big iTunes hit). 

One wonders why the BBC would go down this route after launching the iPlayer.  One thing it does do is offer non license fee payers a way to see (some) BBC shows legally far sooner than waiting to rent or buy on DVD.  It should be noted that International co-productions (Such as big budget shows like the new Dr Who, produced with Canada's CBC, or the natural history documentaries produced with the Discovery Channel and Japan's NHK) are not being offered.

RE: YouTube on AppleTV, follow up..

Well, here's the answer.... Apple isn't installing flash on AppleTV; Youtube will re-encode all its content to the h.264 codec.

Now if only there were some specs on what quality that would be to. Is it larger than the 320x240 currently employed by YouTube? Allegedly 16:9 clips now play in full screen, but is it a proper 16:9 raster (eg 480x272 pixels) or anamorphically distorted from a 4:3 resolution? Is there a way (or a hack) to embed these h.264 clips in websites? For example Revver currently offers both Quicktime and flash as embeds, will YouTube offer that too? Would Apple let them? Quicktime may want to offer YouTube clips at a higher quality (gosh, what an incentive!) for AppleTV customers only, but alternatively could see a way of using Youtube to get Quicktime into even more computers.

Souces:
www.ilounge.com
www.AppleTVhacker.com