Never enough time…

• New Sony LocationFree LF-B20 with WiFi reviewed. (CNET)
• Is that a laser in your TV, or are you just happy to see me? (Australian AP)
• Nielsen’s commercial/advertising tracking effort stumbles. (NY Times)
• Another day, another web site streaming pirated TV. (WebTVHub)

Mari Silbey joins ZNF…

TV technology keeps getting better, and yet so far it hasn’t solved the problem of good shows that get cancelled long before they should. Rumor has it that Studio 60 may not be getting the viewers it needs to stick around. Will shows like this – with a bad time slot and a decent chance for a cult following – eventually get made solely for a DVD or an on-demand audience?

At the Fourth Annual TV DVD Conference earlier this month, analysts touted statistics on the success of TV series on DVD. Sales are paced at 20% over last year’s numbers and the TV DVD segment is expected to reach $3 billion in sales in 2006. Of course the DVD audience is currently buying up shows that have already been tested, but how long will it be before a DVD or on-demand audience proves profitable enough for big-money original productions?

From a business perspective, there are huge ramifications for the current television business model. Dick Wolf of Law and Order fame has an interview in today’s Wall Street Journal (free content) where he points to the viability of syndicated television when digital TV downloads become more popular. I see a likely inverse correlation between the continued success of syndication and the growth of original on-demand content.

Dave and I were also talking about the television industry in general. It seems the industry complains that no one’s watching TV, and then they go right ahead and yank shows before knowing if we’ll stick around to watch them. I, for one, don’t want to start a show if it’s only been signed for half a season. There’s nothing quite like getting invested in a series and then having it disappear. (Kidnapped, Firefly, Sports Night…) Good shows need another avenue for distribution.

The story so far…

September, 2006
Digeo, maker of the Moxi DVR, files an antitrust lawsuit against Gemstar, the TV Guide electronic/interactive programming guide folks, as described in the Seattle Times:

The rivalry between Digeo and Gemstar surfaced Thursday in federal court in Seattle, where Digeo filed a lawsuit claiming that Gemstar violated federal and state antitrust laws. Digeo said that it asked to license a subset of the 249 patents in Gemstar’s IPG portfolio, but that Gemstar insisted Digeo license the entire portfolio. If Digeo didn’t sign that licensing agreement, the suit said, it would be sued by Gemstar for patent infringement. Digeo is seeking damages in court and an order that stops Gemstar’s licensing practices.

October, 2006
Gemstar responds (retaliates?) with with a patent infringement lawsuit against Digeo, as described in the Broadcast Newsroom:

“We have attempted over an extended period of time to engage in patent licensing discussions with Digeo regarding the Moxi guide Digeo’s refusal to negotiate a patent license with us, and its decision to file suit against us, left us no option except to pursue legal remedies to protect the value of our intellectual property,” Gemstar executive VP and general counsel Stephen Kay said in a prepared statement Friday.

No surprises here… Gemstar has been quite aggressive in going after competing EPGs and Digeo refused to be strong-armed. TiVo faced a similar Gemstar suit several years ago, which resulted in a partnership (notice the TV Guide logos and related TiVo Showcase). It’s also worth noting that Comcast has been an equity investor/partner with both Gemstar and TiVo. Corporate nepotism, anticompetitive practices?

Sony’s announcement to offer a Symbian LocationFree player (for the P990 initially) comes as no surprise, given their OS of choice on Sony-Ericsson phones. What is surprising is that the software should be available very soon… and in countries other than the US.

Sony writes: Owners of the Sony Ericsson P990 smartphone can now enjoy their favourite local TV shows on their phones wherever they are in the world. LocationFree™ from Sony redirects TV shows from your home television to target devices such as your P990, so you can keep up with your favourite programmes whether you’re on the beach, in an airport or just in your local park. You can watch live TV, playback recorded programmes and even set up future recordings, all on your P990. LocationFree Player is available on the Memory Stick with the P990 or can be downloaded at www.sony.net/Products/LocationFree/support/.

For more Mac Sling coverage, check out a video interview and demo from DigitalLife and mysteriously obtained (large) screenshots.

In two separate incidents, digital music players have recently shipped with Windows malware payloads. I don’t even know where to begin. Mistakes happen, but this boggles the mind.

My first question is: Was this malicious or accidental? An accident is more likely preventable, while a malicious act is probably harder to block. Dabbling in computer security, I’ve always emphasized the biggest risk is internal (disgruntled employees or those on a competitor’s payroll) and have lobbied for ‘red teams’ to hash out potential vectors and strategies to minimize exposure.

It’s nice to see Apple owning up, but publicly calling out MS is somewhat unprofessional. As a Mac user (in addition to PC and Linux), I dread the day when OS X comes under attack… Apple is basically asking for it. (See Mac videos for more examples: one, two)

Apple writes: We recently discovered that a small number of the Video iPods available for purchase after September 12, 2006, left our contract manufacturer carrying the Windows RavMonE.exe virus. As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it.

Engadget writes: McDonald’s and Coca-Cola recently teamed up in Japan to give away 10,000 self-branded MP3 players pre-loaded with 10 spankin’ new tunes and… some delicious malware. It seems that a “portion” of the players sport a variant of the QQPass family of trojan horses which capture passwords and other personal information when the MP3 player is plugged into the users’ PC. The code then proceeds to email the details to the author.