Who Needs 500 Channels?

There is a new TV service being offered in New York City that has the potential to change the way we receive and, more important, pay for the TV we watch.  Today most of us use either cable or a satellite service to receive our programming.   For sure this has vastly expanded the options we have for viewing but in reality most of us watch a relatively few different channels even if we have access to many more.  Even the most basic cable service provides 50 channels or more.   One of the ways that the cable and satellite providers have been able to offer channels that appeal to a small audience is to bundle them into a package containing very popular services.  So if you want ESPN and CNN, you also have to take and pay for the Wall Paper Channel and the Canadian Curling Network.   The Time Warners of the world have been slow to drop this pricing structure but this new Internet based service might force a change.

Called AereoTV, the new service offered now only in New York City provides access to most of the local over the air broadcast channels like NBC, CBS and PBS as well as some services now only found on cable and satellite.  The difference is that you pay for only the channels that you want.    The price for the service can be as low as $80 per year, well under what many of us pay each month for cable or satellite.

Since the service is distributed via the internet, you can use most any device that can connect to the internet to watch your programs.  So the TV in the family room, the iPad or laptop in the kitchen and even your smartphone can now receive your favorite TV shows.   You can easily watch the Today Show while on the bus riding to work.  A single subscription allows you to authorize up to five devices which should be plenty for even the most digitally adroit among us.

AereoTV enables you to record programs using a “DVR in the cloud” technology.  You can record two programs simultaneously and play them back on any device you have authorized.   You can watch one channel and record another.  No need for any new equipment - the recorder is located at the AereoTV offices.

AereoTV plans to roll out this service in 22 cities nationwide by the end of 2013.  Right now the Cincinnati market is not on the list.  Cleveland, Ohio is.   As you might guess, the cable companies and other providers have filed several legal challenges to AereoTV.   Also the networks are very protective of the local affiliates so if you are a current subscriber living in New York and travel on business to Chicago, presently you can’t watch the local New York City stations while there. 

As has happened often in the past with new technologies, the rules, laws and regulations are not keeping pace.  Back in the 1960s broadcasters did everything in their power through the courts to keep VCRs off the market.  We know how that story ended.  It may take a while but look for services like AereoTV that provide viewer options to gain wide acceptance and become commonplace in the media landscape.  Look for it sooner than many might wish to believe.

Dumping Duke?

It has been a long day but now you’re home and ready to relax and perhaps have a nice dinner and watch some TV.  Your respite from the hectic day is short lived and interrupted by a phone call from Debbie insisting that she needs to speak to the person who pays the Duke bill.  This scenario plays out daily across the tri state as alternative electricity suppliers vie for your business.  With energy prices going up you may be wondering if these options might indeed be worth looking at.  The short answer is yes, but as with any major purchasing decision, buyer beware.  For sure, electricity costs spread over a year do amount to a major purchase for many.

First let’s take a look at what these companies are selling.  Of course they are not going to be running new power lines to your house.  They are selling the actual electrical power.  If you look at your most recent bill from Duke Energy or other electric provider you will see that your total monthly electricity charges are made up of two items; generation and distribution.   Even if you decide to switch providers, Duke will still handle getting the power to your home or business.  That is the distribution part and you will still get a bill, albeit less than what you get now, for that service.

So should you switch?  There is no one right answer.  By switching, you are locking into a price per kilowatt hour for a long term.  That term is usually three or more years.  In most cases the alternate energy supplier will have a price less than what you are now paying to Duke.  You can check that by looking on your bill and seeing what you pay for generation and compare it with the quote from the new provider. 

The issue is that distribution costs are not covered and these can rise.  For example Duke petitioned the PUCO recently to recoup the expenses from the windstorm of a few years back resulting in increased charges for all of us.

If you use a lot of electricity, in most cases going to an alternate provider will save you money.  But do your homework and do not agree to a new contract on the phone.  Do not give your Duke account number to someone on the phone or on your front porch as unethical commission-based sales people can switch your account without your OK.  Instead ask for materials to be sent to you so you can do the calculations and make a studied decision.  If the company is on the up and up, they should have no issue with you taking some time to review the decision.  After all, if it is a good deal today, it should be a good deal next week.

Will Netflix Change TV...Again?

From the very beginning of broadcasting, radio and TV audiences consumed programming based on what the broadcaster decided.  This model has been in place for almost 100 years but a recent announcement by Netflix may usher in a new model.  For most people, even if they have a DVR (digital video recorder) or subscribe to an online video service, if they are watching a series like Downton Abbeyor the Sopranos, they must wait for the individual episodes to be released before they can watch.  Netflix is betting that this model needs to change.

Netflix announced in late January that it will make the political thriller, House of Cards starring Kevin Spacey, available to its 33 million streaming subscribers worldwide.  All 13 episodes will be available at the same time to all Netflix subscribers.  They can watch in any order, at any time.  The company used this formula once before with a series called Lilyhammer,but this new series, with a price tag reported to be about $100 million, shows that Netflix is placing big financial bets to secure its future as the dominant video player as more viewers move online.  But will the financial model hold up?

The old TV broadcast model is based on bringing eyeballs to the screen and doing so often.  These eyeballs not only watch the program but also watch the advertising.  Making the programs serial in nature, i.e. one program epidode setting up the next, hooks the audience to come back.  The soap company in downtown Cincinnati wrote the book on this business model.

Today’s digital technologies provide the platforms that allow for “appointment viewing” to join the one hour photo finishing shop and video store on the list of anachonisims. For sure, the new Netflix offering will be mimicked by Hulu and other online services.  The unknown is if the economics work.

Using the reported production costs for House of Cards, some simple math shows that with Netflix subscribers now reported at some 33 million, the company spent just over $3 for each of the subscribers to produce this single program.  This would indicate that in order for this model to work it will require either a significant increase in subscribers or in the monthly subscription fee or, more likely, both.

Netflix and others are betting that society’s “I want it now” mantra will make the traditonal broadcast model obsolete and their new service a success.

Many OIptions for Video Calling

In 1964 AT&T tested Picturephone.  The public was invited to place calls between special exhibits at Disneyland and the New York World's Fair. It is interesting to note that for the most part AT&T and the phone companies really have not exploited this technology but with the explosion of Internet connectivity many other companies have.

Most of us have heard of Skype as it has become a generic term for all video calling.  The company, now owned by Microsoft, was one of the first to offer an easy, free or inexpensive service to the masses.  With a computer, webcam and internet connection, even the most digitally challenged computer user could chat with and see friends and family across town or accoss the oceans.  Once the only game in town, there are now several options available that take video calling to new levels.

For those who want not only to communicate but to collaborate, a company called OOVOO.com provides a service that not only allows you to see and hear the person you are calling but to share documents, pictures, maps and anything you can display on your computer screen.  So a custom home builder might be able to show his client the blue prints of the new house and, using his computer cursor, highlight various features he is discussing with them.  The builder’s computer screen is displayed on the remote computer.  A lawyer could highlight parts of contracts or other legal documents for his client.

OOVOO also provides the capacity to conference with 12 locations simultaneously.  So if you have a big family, you can have an online reunion.   All OOVOO sessions can be recorded.  OOVOO has a free service that limits some of these features and has display advertisements on the screen.  It also has a mobile app.

Google provides a similar service with many of the OOVOO features.  The number of simultaneous participants is set at 10. The Google service has a “broadcast” feature that allows you to share the video session with an unlimited number of people although they can only watch and listen but not join in the conversation.

For those who use an iPhone or an iPad, the Apple “Facetime” app provides easy audio and video communication between any two Apple devices.  Once “Facetime” required a wifi connection but now works over the cell network as well.

It has never been easier to keep track of friends and relatives living far away.  The features today go well beyond the Picturephone of the 1964 World’s Fair.  How long will it be before we can transport ourselves electronically?  “Beam me up Scotty!”

eCars … a mixed bag

A recent review of some new model cars caught my attention.  The article was describing the various digital devices now found in most every new car.  One new model from Ford, gushed the writer, will have more than 70 separate computers and generate some 25 gigabytes of data per hour.  Seems that most every function of the operation of new cars requires some sort of computer.

After reading the article my mind wondered back several years to 2007 and a classic exchange between Bill Gates of Microsoft and executives from General Motors.  Mr. Gates had just made a presentation at a major computer trade show where he mocked car manufacturers for not innovating faster, noting that if the auto industry could mimic the rapid improvements being made in the computer industry, new cars would be able to go 100 miles on a gallon of gas and a new car would cost about $250 each.

This jab prompted GM to issue a rebuttal which has become a classic. In part the response noted that if new cars did indeed follow Mr. Gate’s lead they would also for no reason whatsoever crash twice a day. The press release went on to note that every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car. And of course you'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.

Well, of course, most of these predictions have not happened. Nevertheless, with the proliferation of so much digital technology in today’s cars, it does radically change the driving experience.  In some cases it has vastly improved safety.  Rather than fiddling with a paper map and looking for illegible street signs our attention can stay on the road and our GPS can get us to our destination, albeit often with some “recalculations.”

I continue to have some reservations about some computer assisted improvements.  Some functions, such as the heater / air conditioner and the sound system (we used to call it a radio), are getting so complex that the driver’s attention can easily be diverted.   Some new cars rely on a single touch screen on the dashboard to handle some very mundane functions that, in my opinion, are better done with the old technology of a simple on and off switch rather than a touch screen menu item. The good news is that with the improvements in voice recognition most all of these functions will be accomplished by just talking to your car. “Open the pod bay doors, Hal.”

A New Look at Mobile TV

Back at the turn of the century (I really, really like using that phrase) when we were all converting our TVs from analog to digital, there was  group of engineers working on a parallel system that would allow regular TV broadcasts to be picked up by portable devices, especially devices in cars, trains and busses.  It should come as no surprise for anyone who receives their TV programs over-the-air using an antenna, that the new digital channels are much more difficult to receive than the analog signals of a decade ago.  Receiving these regular digital signals in any moving vehicle is next to impossible.

To address this problem, engineers developed a special technology called the ATSC-Mobile DTV standard.  About eight years ago I had the opportunity to serve on the initial engineering committee that developed this system so I have more than a passing interest in how it has developed. 

The short answer is that the development of Mobile DTV has been at best glacially slow.  More than 130 TV stations throughout the US broadcast these special signals.  In our area Channels 5, 9 and 19 are currently among this group.  The issue has not been the availability of channels; it has been the availability of receivers.   Mobile DTV uses a much different technology than the technology that allows watching video on smart phones or tablet computers.  That may soon change.

At the Consumer Electronics Show held last week RCA announced a new tablet computer that has Mobile DTV receive capacity built in.  This device will include a standard over-the-air DTV tuner, along with a mobile TV tuner enabling consumers to watch live, local TV while they are on the go. According to RCA the device is the first tablet to feature an integrated mobile TV tuner.  The tablet has an 8-inch screen and is both a portable TV set and a fully functional high-definition Android touch screen tablet with Wi-Fi, dual cameras, and GPS functionality.

It remains to be seen if this product will jump-start the Mobile DTV market.  I have my doubts that it will take off in cities like Cincinnati where most commuters do not use public transit.  In New York watching the Today Show while riding on a bus on your way to work would be great.  Watching while driving on I-74, not so great.

How We Watch TV Continues to Change

January is always a bellwether month for the electronics industry.  Later this month in Las Vegas, thousands of digerati will convene to review the newest offerings from the world’s technology giants.  This year promises to introduce several technologies aimed at simplifying the single most popular electronic experience: watching TV.

 

In years past the emphasis was on selling the quality and size of the picture and jaw breaking sound for our movies, sports and games.  With 60 inch flat panel TVs selling for less than 1000 bucks, the profit margin for equipment is waning so manufacturers and program distributors are looking to change the way you receive TV rather than sell you a larger, brighter TV set.

 

With more and more of us opting for watching TV on our personal schedules rather than abiding by some arbitrary decision by a New York network executive, there must be a change in the devices we use to view.

 

For years, Netflix, Hulu and others have offered on-demand viewing of programming using a computer or, more recently, a tablet.  The issue has always been connecting the computer to the large TV.  It could be done, but many found it to be perplexing and not always reliable.

 

I have a relative who recently asked for some help as he or someone in his family had inadvertently pressed one or a combination of buttons on one of his several remote controls rendering his TV inoperative.  While he has several devices connected, i.e. DIRECTV, Apple TV, a DVD player and a game or two, none were viewable.  There has to be a simpler way.

 

The new TVs coming to market will continue to have great picture and sound quality with the added benefit of ease of operation.  Rather than several devices connected with cables to the TV, the TVs have high speed wifi connections and integrated software allowing for access to video and TV programs from most any source.  The on-screen program guide will display your options.  Once you choose, the TV will handle making all the connections.  So if you want to watch Downton Abbey the TV will find it for you.  It may come from PBS Online, Hulu, Netflix or even over the air.  It matters not.  You choose the program to watch and the TV will find it and display it.

 

While not widely available yet, look for some models operating in a “Siri-like” mode allowing you to just verbally tell your TV to find your program.  If you activate the parental controls and your teenager should ask for some less than appropriate program, the TV might just respond with, “I’m sorry Dave, I am afraid I can’t do that.”