Jack Penate - 'Have I Been a Fool'
The music video 'Have i been a fool' by Jack Penate, has a narrative structure as Jack Penate is seen performing the song in the video to the different women. There are also two performance scenes which blend in with Jack Penate telling the story as he uses the performances to say sorry to the women. The video has an element of narrative fuzz as the video shows a different meaning to the song, although it may be associated with love in the first place the use of multiple women seen throughout the video creates a different meaning to the song, as if he has done it before and is going through the same scenario with another women. So the video in this sense can be seen to illustrate the meaning of the song, as he says "I led you on the leadings wrong" as the women follows him into the taxi and shakes her head. Also when he says, "A kiss is just a kiss", as he attempts to kiss the woman. The music video therefore appeals to some of the key features in Andrew Goodwin's 'Key features of music video'. The video does present genre characteristics through the use of the performance shots showing Jack Penate playing the guitar. As mentioned before there is a link between the lyrics and visuals through illustration as Jack Penate is illustrating the story being told, developing the idea of him being a fool in relationships with women. There are a lot of close ups in the video of Jack Penate which enable the motif of him being in an band and bringing his own unique style which is seen in all of his music video (wearing the flat cap, skinny jeans that show his trainers and his messy hair). The video does not add to Jack Penate's 'meta-narrative' as it is a performance of him telling a story, however it may give his fans an idea of what he is like in relationships and not being good with women hence saying 'Have i been a fool'. This video will require an ambient viewing as the video just illustrates the song, so the viewers would not have to watch the video to know the meaning of the song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUs9UdSKr5U
Sunday 2 November 2008
Friday 25 April 2008
Online television: Channel surfing
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/online-television-channel-surfing-813985.html
People can watch television from around the world, this global culture is brought together through Internet television. A website that brings television programmes from around the world together is www.wwitv.com, this is just a small slice of things to come. However over every website that broadcasts television programmes the BBC iPlayer is at the top, since its launch it has had 3 to 5% of all internet usage across the UK, with more than 42 million programmes being watched on the service.
"The iPlayer appeals to a mass of people previously unimpressed by the web."
BBC are in talks with Virgin Media to make the phenomenon available over its broadcast service, and as well as the iPlayer being available over the Nintendo Wii, it is now available on the PlayStation 3 showing the convergence of television, the Internet and gaming.
The iPlayer website is so popular that providers are now demanding that the corporation help fund upgrades to the service which Ofcom have estimated to be £830 million.
A new service is also being unvailed this year, Project Kangeroo. Project Kangeroo converges BBC Worldwide, Channel 4 and ITV, allowing viewers to catch up on their favourite programmes from each of the channels during and after the 7 day period each of the station on demand services offer.
"Kangaroo will be a commercial concern, complementing iPlayer and 4 On Demand by offering a mix of ad-funded and pay-per-view content. It aims to do for online TV what Freeview did for digital. "
The On Demand services available on the internet:
BBC iPlayer (www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer )
Weekly viewer numbers recently hit 1.1 million, up from 750,000 in January. Since the service's Christmas launch, more than 42 million programmes have been viewed. All the corporation's flagship shows, including The Apprentice, are available for up to a week, and there's no pesky software downloads – the shows can be streamed straight from the site, and they buffer remarkably fast.
4OD (www.channel4.com/4od )
Channel 4 beat the Beeb to the punch by launching 4 On Demand in November 2006. The service is available online and through cable television networks, and has free archive episodes of programmes, such as Desperate Housewives, for up to 30 days. Unlike iPlayer, however, the online version requires you to download a Mac-unfriendly piece of software.
ITV Catch Up (www.itv.com/catchup)
ITV is joining forces with the BBC and Channel 4 for Project Kangaroo. Until then, you can watch shows from all four ITV channels from the past 30 days via their Catch Up site.
VBS.TV (www.vbs.tv )
Vice Magazine, the Canadian countercultural freebie turned global behemoth, launched its online channel in October, with Spike Jonze as creative director. Streaming pop culture, travel and reportage in a tone familiar to readers, it has already screened a documentary about an Iraqi heavy metal band as well as a programme on North Korea.
Joost (www.joost.com)
A sleek site full of free programming, which took 150 software developers two years to perfect (it's still at the "open beta" stage – effectively, being road-tested by the public), Joost has a vast range of shows for anyone with an operating system recent enough to download the peer-to-peer software. The site has licensing deals with programme-makers including Endemol, RDF and Aardman Animation.
Current TV (current.com)
Launched by Al Gore and Joel Hyatt in 2005, Current TV streams short, independent-minded "pods" or short programmes, such as a Zimbabwe documentary. The content is created by users, then filtered and approved by the in-house programming department. Last year, the network won an Emmy award for best interactive television service.
Wwi TV (www.wwitv.com)
Worldwide Internet TV streams live programming from across the globe, a lot of which is either unintelligible or plain rubbish, but it's a useful resource nonetheless. There's even a Kazakh channel available for those who will inevitably wish to seek out the real Borat. Strangely rewarding.
Mania TV (www.maniatv.com)
A US-based online channel that claims to have 10 million viewers per week, Mania TV cancelled its user-generated content last year due to lack of demand. The professional stuff that's on there is of some quality. Mania also has a live stream to generate the illusion of a regular television channel.
Bebo (www.bebo.com/Video.jsp)
The social networking site recently generated the UK's first web-to-television crossover show, with online teen drama Sofia's Diary being bought by Five for its new teen channel, Fiver. It's also the home of web-soap KateModern. This week, KateModern's plot will crossover with that of LonelyGirl15, the American web-soap.
People can watch television from around the world, this global culture is brought together through Internet television. A website that brings television programmes from around the world together is www.wwitv.com, this is just a small slice of things to come. However over every website that broadcasts television programmes the BBC iPlayer is at the top, since its launch it has had 3 to 5% of all internet usage across the UK, with more than 42 million programmes being watched on the service.
"The iPlayer appeals to a mass of people previously unimpressed by the web."
BBC are in talks with Virgin Media to make the phenomenon available over its broadcast service, and as well as the iPlayer being available over the Nintendo Wii, it is now available on the PlayStation 3 showing the convergence of television, the Internet and gaming.
The iPlayer website is so popular that providers are now demanding that the corporation help fund upgrades to the service which Ofcom have estimated to be £830 million.
A new service is also being unvailed this year, Project Kangeroo. Project Kangeroo converges BBC Worldwide, Channel 4 and ITV, allowing viewers to catch up on their favourite programmes from each of the channels during and after the 7 day period each of the station on demand services offer.
"Kangaroo will be a commercial concern, complementing iPlayer and 4 On Demand by offering a mix of ad-funded and pay-per-view content. It aims to do for online TV what Freeview did for digital. "
The On Demand services available on the internet:
BBC iPlayer (www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer )
Weekly viewer numbers recently hit 1.1 million, up from 750,000 in January. Since the service's Christmas launch, more than 42 million programmes have been viewed. All the corporation's flagship shows, including The Apprentice, are available for up to a week, and there's no pesky software downloads – the shows can be streamed straight from the site, and they buffer remarkably fast.
4OD (www.channel4.com/4od )
Channel 4 beat the Beeb to the punch by launching 4 On Demand in November 2006. The service is available online and through cable television networks, and has free archive episodes of programmes, such as Desperate Housewives, for up to 30 days. Unlike iPlayer, however, the online version requires you to download a Mac-unfriendly piece of software.
ITV Catch Up (www.itv.com/catchup)
ITV is joining forces with the BBC and Channel 4 for Project Kangaroo. Until then, you can watch shows from all four ITV channels from the past 30 days via their Catch Up site.
VBS.TV (www.vbs.tv )
Vice Magazine, the Canadian countercultural freebie turned global behemoth, launched its online channel in October, with Spike Jonze as creative director. Streaming pop culture, travel and reportage in a tone familiar to readers, it has already screened a documentary about an Iraqi heavy metal band as well as a programme on North Korea.
Joost (www.joost.com)
A sleek site full of free programming, which took 150 software developers two years to perfect (it's still at the "open beta" stage – effectively, being road-tested by the public), Joost has a vast range of shows for anyone with an operating system recent enough to download the peer-to-peer software. The site has licensing deals with programme-makers including Endemol, RDF and Aardman Animation.
Current TV (current.com)
Launched by Al Gore and Joel Hyatt in 2005, Current TV streams short, independent-minded "pods" or short programmes, such as a Zimbabwe documentary. The content is created by users, then filtered and approved by the in-house programming department. Last year, the network won an Emmy award for best interactive television service.
Wwi TV (www.wwitv.com)
Worldwide Internet TV streams live programming from across the globe, a lot of which is either unintelligible or plain rubbish, but it's a useful resource nonetheless. There's even a Kazakh channel available for those who will inevitably wish to seek out the real Borat. Strangely rewarding.
Mania TV (www.maniatv.com)
A US-based online channel that claims to have 10 million viewers per week, Mania TV cancelled its user-generated content last year due to lack of demand. The professional stuff that's on there is of some quality. Mania also has a live stream to generate the illusion of a regular television channel.
Bebo (www.bebo.com/Video.jsp)
The social networking site recently generated the UK's first web-to-television crossover show, with online teen drama Sofia's Diary being bought by Five for its new teen channel, Fiver. It's also the home of web-soap KateModern. This week, KateModern's plot will crossover with that of LonelyGirl15, the American web-soap.
Thursday 24 April 2008
Personalisation
Personalisation - is tailoring a consumer product, electronic or written medium to a user based on personal details or characteristics they provide. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personalization
Personalisation in television can be seen through the PVR system. Sky+ in the UK and TiVO in the US are the two leading brands that offer the PVR system. PVRs use computer technology to record television programmes onto an internal hard-disk. Functions such as basic recording, recording of series, pausing and rewinding live television, recording one thing whilst watching another are all available on a PVR system. Your digtial box is then able to build up a basic idea of what kind of programmes you have watched and recorded then compares your data on a database and compare it to people with similar viewing tastes.
The role of the PVR in shaping a personalised media experience is potentially revolutionary as the traditional schedules are being seriously challenged by NMTs. However PVRs are not selling well in 2004 sky only had 150,000 users of the Sky+ service. One of the major criticisms is that PVRs aren't that new in function, as a VHS could do exactly what a PVR does however instead of saving a programme to a tape it saves it to a hard-disk. However Sky's emphasis on personalising your own television channel is a clear step towards correcting this misconception.
PVRs are a clear view of how things are heading for the future in terms of of major industry developments. Microsoft is working hard trying to encourage sales of Media Centre PC's that have similar functions to that of PVRs. Sony have introduced the PlayStation 3 that has its own media centre, as well as being a games console, Sony are also putting a PlayTV DVB-T tuner/digital video recorder accessory for the console. These are both examples of convergence.
‘Variety show’ scheduling
'Variety show' scheduling attracted large audiences to television due to the fact that there would be a mixture of different genre's of programming on one channel or another. Due to PVRs variety show scheduling may become a thing of the past, even without PVRs, the fact that digital television is not also set up into categories for different viewers shows that this approach is soon becoming a thing of the past.
The audiences for the 'old' analogue channels may be smaller however their viewing is more committed due to the fact that no other channels have this variety anymore. However due to this personalisation of channels audiences don't have to watch anything they don't want to watch anymore so everything they watch can be suited to their own personal tastes. It is a so called 'pick-and-mix' approach that you can watch one programme of a certain genre then watch one of a totally different genre also gives us this personalised experience.
"Giving audiences exactly what they want, even if they don’t know what it is yet, seems to be the latest marketing drive for many technology products" - Gavin Luhrs
Convergence
Convergence - is the term to describe the process of multiple technologies being brought together to form a new product.
The 'one box solution' has been the main focus of convergence, due to the other new media forms television faces a fresh challenge from other media forms as they start to look like television.
The 'MySpace generation' (18 to 24 year olds) is said to not be watching much television however this does not mean that moving image content is decreasing in population. Instead of television programming, video's are becoming more and more popular over the Internet.
Another implication of television being distributed over different platforms is in the rise of the Internet based 'channels'. An example of this could be Google Video where home users and existing television channels are offering content using the service.
Positives for audiences
There is far greater access to content which can be delievered on demand rather than on schedule. Content is also now portable through devices such as the iPod.
The virtually limiletness capacity for content allowed on the internet has allowed people to cater to very specific tastes, something which even the broad offering of the multi-channel digital television would find hard to compete against.
The 'one box solution' has been the main focus of convergence, due to the other new media forms television faces a fresh challenge from other media forms as they start to look like television.
The 'MySpace generation' (18 to 24 year olds) is said to not be watching much television however this does not mean that moving image content is decreasing in population. Instead of television programming, video's are becoming more and more popular over the Internet.
Another implication of television being distributed over different platforms is in the rise of the Internet based 'channels'. An example of this could be Google Video where home users and existing television channels are offering content using the service.
Positives for audiences
There is far greater access to content which can be delievered on demand rather than on schedule. Content is also now portable through devices such as the iPod.
The virtually limiletness capacity for content allowed on the internet has allowed people to cater to very specific tastes, something which even the broad offering of the multi-channel digital television would find hard to compete against.
Wednesday 23 April 2008
Audience
Proliferation
With the introduction of digital television, audiences are no longer limited to the analogue 4 channels to a multi channel specialist which now aims at broader audiences.
Censorship
Sky digital does not allow you to view programmes that have certain age limitations, such as films etc. require an authocation code for viewing if it is before the watershed. This is only sometimes the case, other channels allow viewers of any age.
Control
With the introduction of digital television, audiences are no longer limited to the analogue 4 channels to a multi channel specialist which now aims at broader audiences.
Censorship
Sky digital does not allow you to view programmes that have certain age limitations, such as films etc. require an authocation code for viewing if it is before the watershed. This is only sometimes the case, other channels allow viewers of any age.
Control
With the introduction of PVR audiences can control their own timetable, along with this the recorder enables people to watch programmes that they may miss. As well as the PVR catch up programmes available on the internet such as BBC iPlayer and Channel 4 on Demand allow people to catch up on any television they have missed on the last seven days. This also adds to the convergence between the internet and television.
Tuesday 22 April 2008
New Media Technologies: BBC
BBC iPlayer
The BBC has launched a new easy-to-use service that lets you access television programmes via your PC. BBC iPlayer is offering "seven-day catch-up television" – meaning that BBC TV programmes can be downloaded for free up to a week after transmission.
The programmes are free for UK licence fee payers, at high quality and with no advertising. Once you have downloaded a programme to your computer you have 30 days within which to start watching and seven days to finish watching it. After this time, the programme will automatically be deleted.
BBC iPlayer plans to incorporate radio and live streaming of TV at a later date as well as looking at offering BBC iPlayer on a range of platforms including cable and mobile.
The iPlayer experience has not been taken in by everyone as Mark Lawson says, "The likes of iPlayer let us watch programmes any time, but we risk losing the shared TV experience"
The BBC has now signed a deal with Nintendo to make its iPlayer available via Wii games consoles. The deal is the latest part of the BBC's strategy to make web-based content available on TV screens, as well as increase the iPlayer's audience by making its content more widely available
The BBC has also signed a deal with Apple which will allow iPod users to legally download BBC programmes onto their iPods at a cost of £1.89.
Video streaming
You can now watch live BBC TV coverage of major sports events such as Wimbledon and the Open Championship on your computer. You can also catch up with a variety of BBC Two programmes such as The Catherine Tate Show or Top Gear, and watch video of the latest news and sport stories.
BBC channels on YouTube
Two BBC channels offer clips and short features on current programmes such as EastEnders and Doctor Who, and clips from the archives including Spooks and Top Gear.
Digital TV on the move
It's now possible to receive digital TV on a computer – even a laptop – with a special digital terrestrial television adapter and aerial that plugs into a USB slot. Contact a retailer or look online for more information.
BBC's Wider Audience/BBC Switch
The BBC is also trying to lure in a new, younger audience of 12 to 16 years old by having a much anticipated teen strategy. BBC Switch is a cross-platform, which will use games design, online syndication, social networking and user-generated content. It will span teen-focused content on television, radio and the internet, including a new weekly music show on BBC2. Signs of Life is a broadband drama aimed at teens produced by Big Brother producer Endemol. Signs of Life was inspired by Twin Peaks and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "The aim is to allow viewers to use interactivity to find out more about the drama and themselves," explains Peter Cowley, director of interactive media at Endemol.
From October 20, 12 to 16 year-olds will be able to have their very own teen focused hour on BBC2 on sunday afternoons. This will have a new music show called 'Sound' hosted by Radio 1 DJ Annie Mac and Nick Grimshaw, featuring the best in new UK music filmed at outside locations accross the country. The show runs for 30 mins, the other half of hour will be filled with the show 'Falcon Beach' a coming of age drama. The BBC is clearly under pressure to boost its teen appeal in the face of growing competition from iPods, mobile phones and online entertainment services such as MySpace and Bebo.
New Media Technologies: Digital Switchover & Sky Digital
Digital Switchover
Between 2008 and 2012, the analogue TV signal will be switched off in the UK, meaning the country will have to be 100% digital. Digital TV can be sent through an aerial, satellite, cable or phone line, and to watch it you need a set-top box or a built-in decoder in your TV set. As well as extra channels, digital also provides improved quality, electronic programme guides and interactive features via the red button, like voting or extra coverage. While analogue signals work by transmitting sounds and pictures as continuously varying waves, digital information is sent as compressed computerised pulses of information, coded as 1s and 0s, because these signals take up much less space than analogue, more channels can be squeezed into the same airwaves.
Digital television has helped move television from a push technology to a pull technology. This is due to companies such as Sky have enabled television to go from an analogue setting where only four channels are available, to a digital setting where on such devices as Sky around 900 channels can be viewed. As well as viewing a number of different channels you can also record programmes and pause and rewind live television. There are also a number of catch up programmes available from different companies including BBC iPlayer so people in essence can watch what they want.
High Definition
Institutions
Sky Digital
Sky Digital is subscription television service in the UK and Ireland owned by BSkyB. There are over 900 channels available over Sky which by June 2006 already had over 8,000,000 customers. Sky Television began in 1989 as a four-channel satellite television service launched by Rupert Murdoch's company News International. Sky Television merged with collapsed rival British Satellite Broadcasting in 1990.
Sky Digital starts from £16 and goes up to £45 a month. The Sky packages include the following mixes; Entertainment Mix, Sports Mix, and Movies Mix. These mixes include Variety channels, Style channels, News Channels, Music channels, Kids channels, Knowledge channels, Sports channels and Movie channels. A standard Sky box comes free with the TV package you buy.
Sky+ is a personal video recorder (PVR) service for Sky Digital. Launched in September 2001, Sky+ allows the user to record, pause and instantly rewind live TV. There are 3 versions of Sky+; Sky+ 40GB which was the first version of SKy+ and offers an average of twenty hours of recording time. Sky+ 80GB which is now the Sky+ is now the standard Sky+ box from September 2005, the box has an average of foutry hours of recording time. The drive has a 160 GB hard drive installed, however half of this is reserved for use by the Sky Anytime TV service. Sky+ 160 GB had over eighty hours of recording time. A Sky+ box costs from £149.
Sky HD is the brand name of the HDTV service launched by BSkyB on 22 May 2006 in the UK and the Republic of Ireland to enable high definition channels on Sky Digital to be viewed. The service requires the user to have a Sky HD Digibox (costing upwards of £249), and a HD ready TV
Competitors
Virgin Media Television is a British television company which is owned entirely by the United Kingdom based cable company Virgin Media, previously known as NTL:Telewest. Like Sky, Virgin Media offers High-definition television services. However, the number of channels available is limited by BSkyB's refusal to allow the HDTV channels it owns to be broadcast by other companies. This situation is somewhat addressed, however, by the fact that Virgin can provide HDTV content using its Video on demand services and the fact that the V+ HDTV-supplying box can upscale all of its received transmissions to near-HDTV quality.
Sky is facing increased competition from telecommunications providers delivering pay television services over existing telephone lines using ADSL. Such providers are potentially able to offer "triple-play" or "quad-play" packages combining land-line telephone, broadband Internet, mobile telephone and pay television services. To compete with these providers, in October 2005, BSkyB bought the broadband Internet Service Provider Easynet for £211 million. This acquisition has allowed BSkyB to recently start offering its "Sky Anytime on PC" service as well as a "triple play" package combining satellite television, land-line telephone and Broadband service.
Future
The Economist has suggested that News Corporation would eventually like to merge BSkyB with its US satellite operation, DirecTV and possibly its STAR TV network to form a global satellite TV company.
EPG
Sky has developed a new version of its Sky Guide electronic programme guide (EPG) service, which includes new genres, easier access to channels, and a complete renumbering system. It also includes new hotkeys to get into new menus quicker. This is the biggest change to the Sky EPG since its launch in 1998.
On Demand services
Sky Anytime is the current brand for Sky's on-demand services currently available on TV (Sky+ and Sky HD), PC and 3G mobile phones. It is designed to compete with other video on demand services such as BBC iPlayer and Virgin Media.
Between 2008 and 2012, the analogue TV signal will be switched off in the UK, meaning the country will have to be 100% digital. Digital TV can be sent through an aerial, satellite, cable or phone line, and to watch it you need a set-top box or a built-in decoder in your TV set. As well as extra channels, digital also provides improved quality, electronic programme guides and interactive features via the red button, like voting or extra coverage. While analogue signals work by transmitting sounds and pictures as continuously varying waves, digital information is sent as compressed computerised pulses of information, coded as 1s and 0s, because these signals take up much less space than analogue, more channels can be squeezed into the same airwaves.
Digital television has helped move television from a push technology to a pull technology. This is due to companies such as Sky have enabled television to go from an analogue setting where only four channels are available, to a digital setting where on such devices as Sky around 900 channels can be viewed. As well as viewing a number of different channels you can also record programmes and pause and rewind live television. There are also a number of catch up programmes available from different companies including BBC iPlayer so people in essence can watch what they want.
High Definition
High definition television, or HDTV, is a new format for watching programmes, offering sharper, clearer and brighter pictures and better sound. You need an HD-ready TV and an HD set-top box or decoder to receive the programmes, which are sent through digital signals. Televisions are considered HD-ready if the screen has enough pixels to display a high definition picture and must be capable of displaying pictures with either 720 or 1080 vertical lines. The programmes themselves must be made and transmitted in HD. The BBC is running free trial HD broadcasts, and Sky and Telewest are offering a commercial HD service. HD films are also available, but in two different formats - Blu-ray and HD-DVD.
Personal video recorders (PVRs) record digital television straight onto computer-like hard drives. They let you pause, rewind and replay action on screen while you are recording a programme - allowing for time-shift viewing of live TV. PVRs have built-in programme guides, making it easier to choose what to record. Some models let you tell them to always record your favourite soap, or tape all programmes on a specific subject. Most PVRs are combined with a digital TV service - such as Sky or Freeview.
On Demand
On demand means being able to throw away the TV schedule and watch what you want, when you want. Dedicated services - such as HomeChoice and BT Vision in the UK - send shows and films over a broadband connection to your TV via a set-top box. Or viewers can watch at leisure on a computer, with many US networks already offering hit shows online and UK broadcasters fast catching up. The missing link with this option is the device that connects or combines the computer and the TV.
Institutions
Sky Digital
Sky Digital is subscription television service in the UK and Ireland owned by BSkyB. There are over 900 channels available over Sky which by June 2006 already had over 8,000,000 customers. Sky Television began in 1989 as a four-channel satellite television service launched by Rupert Murdoch's company News International. Sky Television merged with collapsed rival British Satellite Broadcasting in 1990.
Sky Digital starts from £16 and goes up to £45 a month. The Sky packages include the following mixes; Entertainment Mix, Sports Mix, and Movies Mix. These mixes include Variety channels, Style channels, News Channels, Music channels, Kids channels, Knowledge channels, Sports channels and Movie channels. A standard Sky box comes free with the TV package you buy.
Sky+ is a personal video recorder (PVR) service for Sky Digital. Launched in September 2001, Sky+ allows the user to record, pause and instantly rewind live TV. There are 3 versions of Sky+; Sky+ 40GB which was the first version of SKy+ and offers an average of twenty hours of recording time. Sky+ 80GB which is now the Sky+ is now the standard Sky+ box from September 2005, the box has an average of foutry hours of recording time. The drive has a 160 GB hard drive installed, however half of this is reserved for use by the Sky Anytime TV service. Sky+ 160 GB had over eighty hours of recording time. A Sky+ box costs from £149.
Sky HD is the brand name of the HDTV service launched by BSkyB on 22 May 2006 in the UK and the Republic of Ireland to enable high definition channels on Sky Digital to be viewed. The service requires the user to have a Sky HD Digibox (costing upwards of £249), and a HD ready TV
Competitors
Virgin Media Television is a British television company which is owned entirely by the United Kingdom based cable company Virgin Media, previously known as NTL:Telewest. Like Sky, Virgin Media offers High-definition television services. However, the number of channels available is limited by BSkyB's refusal to allow the HDTV channels it owns to be broadcast by other companies. This situation is somewhat addressed, however, by the fact that Virgin can provide HDTV content using its Video on demand services and the fact that the V+ HDTV-supplying box can upscale all of its received transmissions to near-HDTV quality.
Sky is facing increased competition from telecommunications providers delivering pay television services over existing telephone lines using ADSL. Such providers are potentially able to offer "triple-play" or "quad-play" packages combining land-line telephone, broadband Internet, mobile telephone and pay television services. To compete with these providers, in October 2005, BSkyB bought the broadband Internet Service Provider Easynet for £211 million. This acquisition has allowed BSkyB to recently start offering its "Sky Anytime on PC" service as well as a "triple play" package combining satellite television, land-line telephone and Broadband service.
Future
The Economist has suggested that News Corporation would eventually like to merge BSkyB with its US satellite operation, DirecTV and possibly its STAR TV network to form a global satellite TV company.
EPG
Sky has developed a new version of its Sky Guide electronic programme guide (EPG) service, which includes new genres, easier access to channels, and a complete renumbering system. It also includes new hotkeys to get into new menus quicker. This is the biggest change to the Sky EPG since its launch in 1998.
On Demand services
Sky Anytime is the current brand for Sky's on-demand services currently available on TV (Sky+ and Sky HD), PC and 3G mobile phones. It is designed to compete with other video on demand services such as BBC iPlayer and Virgin Media.
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