Versatile Amphibian

I’m of the belief that participants in the TMT industry need to read widely in order to understand the present and future dynamics of the market. To that end, this post is a collection of the articles that have caught my eye. This week: football on Youtube, Amazon gets romantic, Ryan & Ferguson have their facts check, cyber-attacks up 1000% and Harvard makes bionic skin Digital media Prismatic is worth downloading – it’s a learning news aggregator app that uses your social network behaviour to recommend stories. It’s quite good too. http://gigaom.com/2012/08/23/prismatic-wants-to-conquer-the-new-frontier-mobile-news/ There’ll now be a “best of world football” channel on Youtube, the latest in a long line of premium content to come to the service, which is fast becoming a cornerstone of online monetisation strategies for premium content. http://advanced-television.com/index.php/2012/08/28/love-football-channel-on-youtube/ 10% of magazine adverts now contain an action code...

September is a busy month in UK TV, with the Media Guardian Edinburgh International TV Festival in late August, followed in close order by IBC in Amsterdam and the RTS annual conference   at the end of the month . TV remains the most influential media in the UK and in large parts of the rest of the world, so it deserves special attention. With apologies for the small advertising pitch, since I've had a (small) hand in the reports that Deloitte prepares for these important events, I thought I'd provide links to them as they're released. First up, our annual Edinburgh Festival report, which answers questions such as "why we whinge about what's on TV and keep on watching" and "why a trillion TV ads matter". It's based on ongoing primary research into audience preferences and is definitely worth a read if you make TV, advertise on it or just want to know why you watch and whether you're typical. Download it here .

I’m of the belief that participants in the TMT industry need to read widely in order to understand the present and future dynamics of the market. To that end, this post is a collection of the articles that have caught my eye. This week: I’m sad for Facebook and Onlive, Sony move mobile, Samsung launch dozens of products but lose out to Apple and retro nukes over Vegas Digital media I feel sorry for Onlive – the cloud-based console – in that they have great technology but have hit the market too soon to make much of an impact. Now Sony and Gaikai are together the writing is rather on the wall. To the detriment of early investors, such as HTC. http://www.zdnet.com/htc-loses-40m-in-onlive-restructuring-7000002856/ I also feel sorry for Facebook. Their earlier swagger is really being knocked out of them post-IPO. Here’s an article slating their Android app. http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-android-app-employees-2012-8 2/3 of the top grossing mobile applications are free to...

Plenty has been written about Everything Everywhere selling 30MHz of 1,800Mhz spectrum to the UK's smallest operator 3 (including this , which is really good). Much of the aforementioned text is a bit sensationalist or misinformed, so I thought I'd summarise what's gone on and also attempt to answer the one thing that hasn't been covered: the price. In summary: Everything Everywhere (the result of the merger between Orange and T-Mobile in the UK, for those of you who haven't been keeping up :) ) were forced by the EU to sell a proportion of their collected spectrum in order that the market remained "fair" The spectrum is at 1,800MHz ("1800") and was originally used for carrying 2G mobile signals Although that frequency can be used for LTE, it isn't often. The more common bands are 800 and 2600, although others - including 2100 and 1800 - are sometimes used In any case, the spectrum won't be fully released to 3 until September 2015,...

It seems that the new iPhone is getting a larger screen - a bump in size from 3.7" to 4" to bring it a little closer to the mammoth devices being launched by Samsung, HTC et al. 4.8" is the norm for these manufacturers at the pinnacles of their phone ranges. If the rumour mill is to be believed, then Apple will also launch a 7" version of the iPad to address an untapped market in (a) poorer people (!), (b) commuters & other mobile users. So what I wonder is whether we've reached an apogee in phone screen size. As one of my colleagues likes to point out, you'd need giant hands to find a 4.8" screen device comfortable to use . And the benefits for media consumption are marginal when judged relative to even a 7" tablet. Part of the reason why I'm more convinced than ever about 7" tablets is that people are becoming more comfortable with the benefits of the tablet for consumption (as opposed to creation). But the 10" tablet ...

Comscore just released their latest numbers for European Internet usage . Two things stood out for me. First, the UK has maintained its position as the most online and the most engaged European country. Despite the size of the base, the UK is also one of the fastest growing markets in terms of engagement. Of major developed countries only Sweden had a faster growth in engagement (14% YoY growth plays 9%); Russia and eastern European countries continue to grow strongly but from a very low base of online engagement. The average online audience member in the UK now spends one and a quarter hours a day online, which brings me to my second point. Although viewing fell very slightly this year (pre-Olympics, it must be said), live TV occupies an average of 4 hours and 1 minute a day of everyone's time. And 90% of this content was consumed live, despite more than 50% of the population now owning a DVR . So live TV, the medium that has been "dying" since the late '80...

A short update this week as the weather’s been nice and the news slow! I’m of the belief that participants in the TMT industry need to read widely in order to understand the present and future dynamics of the market. To that end, this post is a collection of the articles that have caught my eye. This week: place-based media is the new mobile/ social/ online media, Pearson University, 3D printed arms and the rise of the global Muslim consumer Digital media Wow! Three Youview boxes are on sale. Three different opportunities to have 2007’s vision for the future of TV in your living room. I’m sure people will be queuing round the block. http://decipherconsultancy.wordpress.com/2012/08/15/youview-boxes-are-like-london-buses/ Digital “place-based” media is the new mobile advertising is the new social media advertising... lots of agencies will persuade lots of clients to try it out. Then they’ll forget the whole thing and go back to broadcast. For branding, at least. http://www.dp-aa....

I’m of the belief that participants in the TMT industry need to read widely in order to understand the present and future dynamics of the market. To that end, this post is a collection of the articles that have caught my eye. This week: Russian maps Internet, games provide refuge, eBay delivers, BYOD turns nasty and Apple Fancies pinterest competitor Digital media Blippar is getting more mainstream. Following a tie up with London’s Stylist magazine, the company managed to persuade 7% of readers to augment the magazine content using the application. They do need to be more integrated to really succeed, however. http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/read/seven-per-cent-of-stylist-readers-use-blippar-to-animate-mag A new magazine for self-publishers launched last week. Ironically, it isn’t self-published, but seeing as the US s-p market was $20-$30Mn last year, it should tap into a growing based of aspiring, amateur writers. http://www.inpublishing.co.uk/news/articles/launch_ebook_world_...

Despite the fact that half of the investor community are on vacation, July was a good month for African telecoms, with $2.5Bn of new infrastructure investments announced. Two things stand out. Firstly, the reawakening of the north African telecoms sector in the wake of the Arab Spring. As stability returns to the major markets, investment is coming with it. In July, Vodafone committed $50Mn to core network upgrades in Egypt. In Algeria, Mobilis will invest $1.7Bn over five years to upgrade and extend their mobile network. North Africa led investment in the continent up to the point that the revolutions started in early 2011. If they are to maintain competitiveness and exploit their geographic location then more investment will be required to enable ICT development and economic growth. I expect further big announcements before the year is out. The second characteristic of July was the large volume of spats and court cases that broke in the month. In Swaziland, MTN demanded $...

In all the excitement about Ofcom's announcements regarding the UK's digital dividend auction, the mainstream press missed the latest country to auction off its spectral assets. Although its only the continent's 6th most populous country, Chile is interesting as it is the most stable and prosperous large country in Latin America and therefore hints at the future direction of other markets on the continent. The results of their regulator, Subtel's auction for 2,600MHz spectrum, suitable for the high bandwidth component of LTE were released on July 31st. Three operators acquired the spectrum: Claro - a subsidiary of America Movil, local telco Entel and Movistar, a subsidiary of Telefonica. What interests me most is the low price this spectrum went for. Entel paid the most for their block - $8.84Mn - but even this is a sixth of the global average price for this spectrum in terms of MHz per capita. Market leader, Claro, paid only five percent of the average for thei...

I’m of the belief that participants in the TMT industry need to read widely in order to understand the present and future dynamics of the market. To that end, this post is a collection of the articles that have caught my eye. This week: opening ceremony boosts iPlayer, Twitter tries TV, Timeout goes free, Web goes federated and Google exposes Lords of War Digital media The estimable Mister Walk makes a good point. In switching their efforts from experience design to revenue model design Facebook and potentially now Twitter stand to lose their “cool brand” status. It’s very easy for users to walk away. I do requests... http://www.hunterwalk.com/2012/07/the-8-billion-elephant-in-room-how-to.html Red Box is the US DVD loans company that was mainly responsible for the demise of Blockbuster. I take their continued growth as a sign that consumers often are more interested in convenience than format when it comes to incidental entertainment. Netflix beware. http://paidcontent.org/2012...