Recently in Comment Category

TV commerce director: "We're very aware about not letting Apple do to TV what they did to the music biz. There's nothing there for record labels now - at the bottom end bands can publish, promote and break themselves; at the top end, established acts can take themselves out of the loop and become their own brand + label + store in one."

Yes, that does indeed sound like another media industry preparing to defend their middle-man cut as their business gets rolled into the internet.

No TV doesn't quite let you make the equivalent of a hit single in your bedroom, and it takes some cash to avoid UGC hell (although cf. Doctor Who 70s-80s for an exception) but tools march ever downwards in price, up in quality. Middle men? Who needs it.

Now this is interesting. Hulu is actively detecting and informing users of ad blocking software that their actions to customise their web experience are not welcome.

Now, the web isn't much like TV and the amount of control any member of the TV audience might have over their experience was pretty limited compared to the web. That is, until Tivo came along - and they got forced into making their 30-second ad skip button a backdoor power-user feature. Might this become the start of an online TV arms race around advertising, and more generally, control of the experience?

Full Story at the Register

So, I was completely blown away when I saw Mike Butcher from TCUK had added me as the agenda item for TC's first meetup of the summer. I'm touched and would like to thank all those who have sent me good wishes and offers of help with Tioti - I'm feeling *much* better thank you and will be online and active a good deal more from now on, and (fingers crossed) out and about in a few weeks. I'd also like to thank the team who have been gone above and beyond to keep the show not only on the road but steaming ahead... more on that, soon soon soon.

Have a great Friday TCUKers - shame I can't join you myself.

-- paulpod

Techcrunch UK Meetup Friday 9th May

Clearly Stephen is a good deal more geeky than the average punter, but acknowedging that iPlayer streamed content is as good as ripped, even by his dear old mum in the near future, is a bit more enlightened than the beeb itself. We really have to get past this 'protection' mindset.

Similarly, NBC seem confident that Microsoft will restrict tv content playback to purchased video only on their Zune (and one presumes the desktops of millions too). This isn't sounding like progressive digital media to me. [Microsoft to add 'copyright cop' to their Zune DRM [ Link ]

Read the transcript of the Stephen Fry speech