...as Sky has obviously seen the effects of the Sky+ PVR on its demographics and revenue stream, as it wants to activate the second slot on all Sky boxes in order to implement a "loyalty card" scheme...
There's a company, miCard.tv, which is working on developing these cards, and the software to go with it. You'll "earn" points for watching channels - or for not fast forwarding through the ad breaks.
Me, I'll stick with my new viewing habits, thanks. What I want, when I want it, and without those tedious mind-numbing commercials.
However it does imply an API which can be used to get additional information out of a TV programmes interactive channels. I wonder if there's something in that which could be used to develop a new generation of interactive TV applications that link digital satellite to media PCs...
There's a company, miCard.tv, which is working on developing these cards, and the software to go with it. You'll "earn" points for watching channels - or for not fast forwarding through the ad breaks.
Me, I'll stick with my new viewing habits, thanks. What I want, when I want it, and without those tedious mind-numbing commercials.
However it does imply an API which can be used to get additional information out of a TV programmes interactive channels. I wonder if there's something in that which could be used to develop a new generation of interactive TV applications that link digital satellite to media PCs...
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Comments
That works for me!
If everyone has PVRs it leads to fewer advertisers and sky cutting the price of their ad slots, and this way they can keep the advertisers happy. Of course, I would far prefer "watch X number of ads in a week and get a fiver off your subscription" than some sort of ghastly loyalty thing, which is probably "get 10% off the next 5 PPV premiership matches", which would interest me not. But I'm with NTL, so this is all rather academic.
One way around this would be to record the ads on your PVR, and then download them onto VHS so the machoine thinks you're wathcing them, then ffwd. But I suppose that does somewhat remove the point of having a PVR...
Note: BSkyB is only 35% owned by News Corp. James M is not an employee of News Corp. Conspiracies are all very well, but if he couldn't hack it he'd be out in seconds no matter who his father is - remember when Elizabeth Murdoch was running Sky One? She didn't last long.
Although I do find sky to be a rather predatory company, it is important to note that although they skate close to the edge, the OFT has never managed to level any formal charges at all against them. I don't really like News Corp, but RM laid everthing he had on the line to get Sky up and running and keep it going in the early days, when no-one else was really that interested in multi-channel. The reason why Sky is the dominant DTV platform is because the kit and software are tested to destruction before anything's implemented so it's dead reliable, and the customer service is first rate.