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Archive for the 'TV-over-Internet' Category

BSkyB’s Sky Player: subs forced to opt out of targeted advertising and accept cookies

November 12, 2009 by Barry Flynn

Only a few weeks after I blogged about the content restrictions Sky Player imposes in an online environment (relative to the satellite one), Sky has now emailed every Sky Player user a new set of terms and conditions.

The most significant change relates to targeted advertising. The Sky email states: “In future, the advertising you see on Sky Player may be better tailored to your interests. The new system, which is called Sky AdSmart, uses customer information to replace some general adverts with ones which we believe to be more relevant to viewers’ potential preferences and interests.”

(Sky AdSmart can be thought of as an Internet-based precursor to targeted ad-substitution on Sky’s satellite PVR platform, due to begin in the first half of 2011.)

Accordingly, the new Ts & Cs s state that Sky will use ‘cookies’ for the purpose of “serving behavioural and tailored advertising on Sky online services and websites and selected third party websites, […] which means you may receive advertisements which are more relevant to you.”

There is an opt-out, of course: users can go to their personal profile and tick a box to say they do not wish to receive this kind of targeted advertising - but the default position is that unless they do so, they will get it: this is not an opt-in system. Ticking the box effectively disables the ‘session cookie’ as well as what Sky calls the ‘Audience Science cookie’.

However, for those who wish to disable all of their cookies (Sky lists six different types including the two above), this will completely disable the Sky Player service. The new Ts &Cs state that “The Service cannot operate if you set your browser to reject all cookies.”

It is not immediately obvious why this should be so, because Sky Player doesn’t rely on these cookies to identify the subscriber or the device as legitimate: in the Ts & Cs, Sky says that users must consent to information being collected about them through the service, which includes the Microsoft Windows Product Key of the registered device, its IP address, and “information derived from the hardware configuration of [the device].” This is of course in addition to the requirement to login and enter a password to use Sky Player. Other authentication information is also presumably being passed back and forth by the Windows DRM system Sky Player uses.

I have to say I find both the ‘opt-out’ and ‘cookie acceptance’ policies surprisingly heavy-handed. But perhaps that is the intention - to test consumer reaction to such policies in the online environment before they finally determine how to soften them for the satellite domain.

The new Ts & Cs also tighten another screw, incidentally: it was definitely my impression that previously, you were allowed to watch Sky Player content on different registered devices at the same time - as long as it wasn’t the same content. The updated version now says you can’t watch any content on two registered devices at the same time. If you boot up a second registered device, you’ll simply stop receiving the content you were watching on the first one.

I can think of good practical reasons for doing that: quality is likely to be reduced on both streams unless the household has at least 4-5Megs available downstream. But isn’t that a matter for the user?

Posted in Broadband, Digital Satellite and TV-over-Internet. 1 Comment

Sky Player extends to Fetch TV and Windows 7, but restricts premium content rights

October 23, 2009 by Barry Flynn

With Sky Player in the news over its deal with FetchTV, as well as with the Windows 7 Media Center, I thought I’d take another look at the platform. I had installed it on my PC when the product was originally launched, but was rather worried at the instability it seemed to introduce, and subsequently removed it.

I was particularly interested in how my rights to view Sky content via DTH would be replicated online. For background, I am a Sky HD subscriber, with my old Sky+ PVR consigned to the bedroom as part of Sky’s Multiroom deal. In other words, the entirety of my Sky package can be viewed and recorded on either my living-room or my bedroom TV (barring HD programmes, of course), with the same content potentially viewable simultaneously on both.

Just as with the BBC’s iPlayer, you don’t need to download software to watch programming - you can watch it through your browser. However, the download experience, which uses secure peer-to-peer software from Kontiki, should offer better quality playback, depending on the quality of your broadband connection.

Anyway, this is how it works. When you first install the software, Sky registers that PC by default as your main one. You are in fact allowed to install the software on up to four different devices (although Sky is somewhat ambiguous on this point: both in the licence and at one place in the Sky Player website, it says you can only install the software on one device, which is clearly wrong).

‘Device’ includes ‘X Box Player’, but let’s assume here we are talking about PCs. Defining one PC as your main one means that PC has more rights than the others: for instance, you can only watch Sky Movies and Sky One programmes on that computer. Moreover, you can only change the range of registered devices (and that includes changing which one is designated as the main one) once every 30 days.

This is the first major way in which rights are more restricted in an online environment than the satellite TV one, since Sky Multiroom in principle allows you to watch exactly the same content on one STB as another - viz. that content you’ve paid your subscription you to watch.

The second way in which rights are more restricted is that Sky Player does not allow you to view the same content simultaneously on two devices - even if we’re talking about non-Sky Movies and non-Sky One programming. Multiroom doesn’t stop this happening.

The third way is that it restricts the storage time of the programme. For instance, I can, say, keep a copy of Stargate Universe on my two Sky+ PVRs (HD and SD) for as long as I wish to. On Sky Player, it’s currently restricted to six days.

These features underline a general trend in digital media: once you move out of a traditional broadcast or physical media environment, you’re usually allowed to do less with the content you’ve paid for than you were before.

This is particularly relevant in the Sky Player example, since the platform also allows non-Sky subscribers to sign up and pay to watch Sky programming - without a satellite subscription, for roughly similar costs. Presumably, this is the model about to be extended to Windows 7 Media Center and Fetch TV boxes.

So although users have the extra benefits of being able to watch catch-up and on-demand TV, in terms of what you can do with the content, it’s an inferior experience. Such restrictions could be viewed, perhaps, as a way of encouraging consumers to trial the service online before upgrading to satellite. It’s also worth pointing out you can’t get HD quality online.

What’s really interesting about Sky Player, though, is that all these sophisticated controls are being applied to premium content using software-based security protection, without the need for a smartcard. Those with long memories will recall that Sky’s online service had to be temporarily suspended back in 2006 after the Microsoft DRM system it uses was compromised - something which has never happened to the smartcard-based NDS VideoGuard system used on Sky’s satellite platform.

But in a way, the fact that the online service bounced back so quickly proves the point: a two-way always-on environment in which content security software can be dynamically upgraded (or even completely replaced) over broadband in the event of a breach doesn’t require a hardware-based conditional access solution.

Indeed, as Farncombe - the company which hosts this blog - argued in a recent White Paper, hybridisation of broadcast platforms and the Internet suggests the traditional pay-TV industry will gradually move towards software-based solutions for this reason. These can offer a higher level of security than hardware-based ones if properly configured.

More on this topic on Monday, when Farncombe will release a second White Paper on Conditional Access.

Posted in Broadband, Digital Satellite, IPTV and TV-over-Internet. 1 Comment

IBC Report - Microsoft considers Canvas as possible Mediaroom feature

September 14, 2009 by Barry Flynn

Microsoft is considering supporting the UK Canvas specification - backed by a BBC, ITV and BT joint venture - as a possible feature of its Mediaroom IPTV suite, but only if it is genuinely open.

The suggestion came from Ted Malone, senior director of product management for TV, video, music and platform business at Microsoft, when Connected TV met up with him at IBC.

“If it proceeds as an open approach,” said Malone, “we could add support as a feature of Mediaroom.” Malone said that Microsoft would be paying close attention to the Canvas specification, when it finally emerges, to see if it included any proprietary standards. If so, Microsoft would not consider it to be “an open format.”

Malone declined to comment on what role BT Vision might play within the Canvas venture (a source of considerable speculation at IBC) , but, since this incorporates Mediaroom technology, albeit in a limited implementation, it does suggest one way in which the hybrid concept could be extended to accommodate Canvas. That, of course, will depend on what technology elements the Canvas venture eventually decides to incorporate in its specification, and whether it gets regulatory approval.

Malone pointed out that Microsoft was itself in the process of refashioning Mediaroom to make it a more open platform: for instance, he said, the current Windows Media Player DRM used in its IPTV suite was viewed as having reached the end of its working-life. It would now be replaced by PlayReady, a next-generation DRM product which is already part of the Silverlight platform.

This would make it easier for a Mediaroom set-top box to stream protected video content to other devices in the home. “We’re looking to migrate all of our proprietary DRM [to PlayReady],” Malone said.

The move reflects increasing convergence between the Mediaroom product - intended for managed IPTV platforms - and Microsoft’s ‘over-the-top’ technologies. For instance, Mediaroom will be extended to support Silverlight itself as well as the PlayReady DRM it incorporates. It will also adopt Microsoft’s Smooth Streaming technology. This adapts the quality of the video stream in real time, based upon the consumer’s changing bandwidth and the performance of his or her device, to minimise buffering time and offer faster startup times.

“Mediaroom will embrace these and extend the reach of the Mediaroom service,” said Malone.

Connected TV views this as a natural progression: as the performance and reliability of consumers’ broadband links increases and offers a video experience more akin to that of a managed IPTV network, the need for Microsoft to support two entirely distinct product lines is disappearing.

Posted in Broadband, IPTV and TV-over-Internet. 3 Comments

IBC Report - DVB-T2: a possible home for the DVB’s next-generation handheld standard?

September 13, 2009 by Barry Flynn

Connected TV met up at IBC for the first time with Peter Siebert, who recently took over from Peter MacAvock as executive director of the DVB Project office (earning himself the nickname ‘Peter 2.0′ in the process), and was treated to the latest version of the DVB standards road-map.

One of the most interesting elements to come out of our discussion concerned the fate of what used to be known as DVB-H2 - the next-generation version of the mobile/handheld broadcast standard DVB-H.

Temporarily shelved because of an intervening effort to get the satellite/terrestrial hybrid version of DVB-H (DVB-SH) underway (its first European implementation will be on the Solaris Mobile venture (see previous post), it is now back on the books again - under the working title of DVB-NGH (for ‘Next Generation Handheld).

Asked whether DVB-T2 - which has always encompassed advanced mobile broadcast capabilities as well as high-capacity fixed HDTV ones - mightn’t itself play the role of a DVB-H substitute, Siefert conceded that “maybe [DVB-NGH] is only DVB-T2. The elements of DVB-T2 are a good candidate.”

On the face of it, this might make good sense: operators in some countries are already looking upon robust profiles of DVB-T as a potential substitute for DVB-H, simply because such implementations re-use a pre-existing transmitter network.

Equally likely, perhaps, would be DVB-T2 with ‘add-ons’ - for instance, DVB-NGH could contain DVB-T2 plus LGE (4G) elements - or, indeed, it could end up as something entirely separate from DVB-T2, Siebert said.

In any event, the next DVB Technical Module meeting is expected to give the go-ahead to a new technical group which will decide what NGH will be based on.

At that same meeting, a study group will be reporting back on current industry 3D developments (very much the theme of this year’s IBC show) with a view to a decision being reached about what DVB’s role should be in the 3D standardisation process, if any. Siebert suggested DVB come contribute elements to do with service information and transport protocols.

Siebert said there was also an ongoing discussion going on between the HBBTV backers (see previous story) and DVB as to “whether DVB should play a more active role” in the hybrid DVB standardisation space, perhaps acting as an umbrella group for various industry initiatives.

Amongst other recent developments, nine European operators, including the likes of Kabel Deutschland, Kabel Baden Wittenberg, Ono and Com Hem, have now committed themselves to the next-generation version of DVB’s cable standard, DVB-C2. Siebert commented that in Germany in particular, cable operators were running out of capacity, so they required the extra capacity DVB-C2 could offer. As an example, he pointed to the fact that Kabel Deutchsland’s RFPs now contained questions about whether set-top box manufacturers were able to support DVB-C2.

The first DVB-C2 prototypes are due to be shown at the Anga Cable show in Germany next year, and IBC 2010 would certainly feature the technology, Siebert said.

Posted in Digital Cable, Digital Terrestrial, IPTV, Mobile TV and TV-over-Internet. 0 Comments

IBC Report - HBBTV set for pre-Christmas German retail launch using Humax and Kaon boxes

September 11, 2009 by Barry Flynn

Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HBBTV) - a European hybrid DVB/IP platform backed by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) - is due to be implemented in Germany in time for Christmas this year, using retail set-top boxes manufactured by Humax and Kaon. Launches will then follow in Q1 2010 in Austria and Switzerland.

Richard Baker, executive vice president of sales and marketing at ANT, a TV software solutions provider, laid out the schedule for the implementation of the new specification during a demonstration of the system to Connected TV this morning on the EBU stand. This used broadcast HD content from the German free-to-air satellite platform and a 2MBit/s ADSL link, running on a Kaon receiver.

The system was first demonstrated by public broadcaster ARD in association with the Institut für Rundfunktechnik (IRT) at the IFA show in Berlin a week ago. ANT’s role in the demonstration is the contribution of its Galio Suite, which now contains extensions which make it the first platform to implement the full HBBTV specification.

The three HBBTV use-cases shown at IBC were:

1) A combination of Teletext (written in HTML, CSS and Javascript) and HD broadcast content

2) Broadcast applications which can invoke additional material associated with a channel (i.e. calling up a new streamed OTT video)

3) Access to web services and third party content

In order to access such applications, the remote control used includes an extra Web TV button in addition to the standard coloured ones. Interestingly, the same content can be arrived at through use-cases 2) and 3). In the example Connected TV was shown, the red button could be used within a live broadcast to call up a menu from which a live video stream could be ordered (in this case a trailer for some ARD content), using HTTPS over the broadband connection.

Using the red button to access a Web-based entertainment portal, however, gave access to a separate list of streamable OTT content which included the same ARD trailer as mentioned above.

Asked if British players were interested in merging their rival proposals (namely the BBC/ITV/BT hybrid platform Canvas and the DTG’s D-Book 6/7) with HBBTV, Baker was diplomatic, saying only that ANT and its partners had entertained “an open dialogue with the BBC [about Canvas]. If we have the opportunity to support the desires of the BBC, we’d be very happy about that,” he said.

Posted in Broadband, Digital Terrestrial and TV-over-Internet. 1 Comment