Icebox.com

Conceived by its founders as a writers' haven, where the storyteller uniformly prevails, Icebox allows original works to be produced in quick fashion and in an atmosphere of unprecedented creative liberty. Along with the work of established talent, Icebox presents the best work from emerging writers.

Icebox.com

!!!SMS DEBAT!!!

Here is a personal project I have worked on the last months and that is now semi-live !!! Meaning you can see what it is all about on the website (sorry only in Dutch). SMS Debat is a daily actual debate between members of the house of representatives in the Netherlands and Dutch scholars. Currently I am busy getting the representatives to join in. As far as I know it is a first off in the world where representatives are actually using SMS to generate debate with people. eDemocracy in practice.

http://smsdebat.kennisnet.nl/

the making of Eccky Weblog

This is the making of blog of eccky, a virtual character under development by media republic. Eccky works like a tamagotchi, a virtual Character on MSN that you have to take care off. Eccky Weblog

From one of the makers of The Blair Witch, The Strand::Venice CA

From the maker of the Blair Witch, mixing real people with actors.
Take a look:

The Strand::Venice CA

share ideas..before they are claimed!!

I would like to share a couple of my crossmedia ideas, before somebody else is going to claim they where theirs. A skimming around the market is likely to be made at the moment. Trust is not my middle name, okay ;-) Been too long in this business, to know better. And if I tell, which I did, then to everyone. So here they are.
- Spindoctors; an intriguing show with reality, misbelief and cheating
- Find music talent show; low budget, high impact
- crossmedia detective, one step further then 24.
- the spiritual challenge, can you face it?

I know I cannot claim, with these short quotations. But I really hate this poor action of skimming the market, if that is the case, but like I told, trust is not my middle name. These first impressions do not tell half of the marvellous groundbreaking format that is behind at least two of these ideas mentioned. If you would like to know the whole story, contact me: info@dondersteen.nl (under NDA)

IPTV to reach 25m by 2008

IPTV to reach 25m by 2008

The world of internet television (IPTV) is set to grow from 1.9m users last year to 25.3m in 2008, according to new research, by then enjoying more than 10 times today's revenues.

A study from California's Multimedia Research forecasts IPTV subscriber revenue growth from $635m in 2004 to $7.2bn in 2008. These conclusions are reached due to several emerging factors in the US, Europe and Asia.


The report points to plans by US cablers SBC and BellSouth to deploy large IPTV networks in the US, as well as plans by Verizon to use IPTV technology for video-on-demand services to supplement its RF-based broadband video service over its fibre-to-the premise (FTTP) access network.

The study also talks up the planned introduction of video-on-demand IPTV services by China Telecom, and in many countries in Europe, where IPTV subs grew by 450k last year. Continued growth of subscribers by the major established IPTV service providers, Free in France, PCCW in Hong Kong and FastWeb in Italy, is also expected.

The forecast also identifies the top 10 regional service providers in each of four regions of Asia, Europe, North America and RoW, broken down by seven product segments for 2004-2008. "This granular approach enables system and content suppliers a quick understanding of the service providers that dominate 60% or more of the regional sectors," states Bob Larribeau, MRG's senior analyst.

The bullish growth predictions chime in with recent research from Strategy Analysts and Jupiter Research that said by 2008, 41% of European homes will subscribe to broadband, with Sweden, Switzerland and Belgium leading the way with penetration rates of between 55% and 60%.

Furthermore, the expansion of IPTV in Europe is expected to drive the growth of digital TV across Europe, lifting it to 25.7% by the end of 2004 and 111.6m by 2009. By 2010, said Jupiter, there will be 11.3m IPTV subscribers in Europe, plus 42.2m digicable homes.


C21Media:

Monique van Dusseldorp; Participation TV News | Home

Monique van Dusseldorp has been active in new media for a long time. Organizing many events on convergence like TV meets the web and TV - SMS aligning international parties. She publices this blog on participation TV.
Participation TV News | Home

SBS anounces digital strategy: 50% of all income subscriptions and non-traditional

"Announcing a 16.6% rise in SBS revenues for 2004, ceo Markus Tellenbach indicated that as much as 50% of the group's business will come from "subscriptions and non-traditional areas" within five years, outlining a significant shift in strategy, away from airtime sales, to facilitate growth in the digital environment.

Three new digital pay channels are set to launch in Holland by the end of the year, under plans unveiled today by SBS Broadcasting's chairman of the management board Patrick Tillieux.Each with programme budgets of between €3m and €6m, looping programming 24/7, the three channels are called Do It Yourself, I Love and Veronica Vibes. The first will be all about home improvement, the second a retro net airing hits from the 1970s and 1980s, and the third is a youth-skewed information service about nightlife and leisure in Holland.

With a September debut penciled in, Tillieux said he's currently in talks with platforms like cable operator UPC and others. "These channels will be platform neutral," he said, "and all of Holland's platforms are gearing up for digital services in the second half of the year." "

Today it is already clear that September will be one of the hottest months of the year in the Netherlands. Tellenbach foresees revolutionary changes in media consumption in the next five years, announcing these figures. However these are also realistic expectations considering the regions where SBS is active. It is clear SBS is positioning for digital leadership in the Nordic/Benelux and Eastern European (probably later) regions.

C21Media:
http://www.c21media.net/news/detail.asp?area=5&article=23844
http://www.c21media.net/news/detail.asp?area=5&article=23848
http://www.c21media.net/news/detail.asp?area=1&article=23854

MediaStorm: A Multimedia Production Studio

Coming from photography and the web background this group is setting up a free to entry production of "multimedia storytelling" project, called Voices. You can submit your story until March 31.
MediaStorm: A Multimedia Production Studio

4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 - LOST - The secret shall be revealed

LOST. In the Netherlands this series is about to be aired. It has a crossmedia component that I was not aware of. It has not been "marketed" that way, at least not so in the Netherlands. It almost looks like co-creation of fans. A smart way of letting people find this themselves. It seems to have something to do with the use of the number 4 in the series. This crossmedia set-up uses television as the lead and the internet used to keep attachment to the story. (a bit like the internet led people to see the movie in the blair witch approach).

In the Netherlands the format "Who is the mole" is becoming increasingly popular. With a slow start a few years ago, the broadcaster kept his belief in the format and now it has developed to become a high score program. You have to find out who is the saboteur in an ongoing team gameplay. You can join other viewers on the internet to discuss who is the mole. And the mole him/herself has a diary on the website where he/she reports on the mole's work. The public seems to become more ready for crossmedia gameplaying stories (oh joy!)

4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 - LOST - The secret shall be revealed

Performance Paradigm Journal

High brow approach to changing media technology and the influence of on performance arts. If you like a filosofical approach to connotation and denotation and everything that lies in in between these fields, this may be nice;

" For the last decade or more media technologies and live performance have become increasingly interrelated and interdependent. Debates about this critical nexus have resulted in a diversity of views. While there is broad acknowledgement that this interpenetration has resulted in widespread innovation, there is also evidence of a certain anxiety about the status of live performance. Questions have often focused on the resultant status of the live body, the changing nature of the performance experience and of technology itself. The experience of the ‘live’ based on notions of presence is often promised and reinforced by the effect of a mass audience, but it is increasingly susceptible to digital subversion by the temporal disintegration and restructuring of audio and visual data"

Performance Paradigm Journal

The Dutch international position in television business

In Broadcast Magazine (a Dutch professional magazine on the television industry) Medy van der Laan, state secretary responsible for media policy in Holland, has commented on the WRR report (see my earlier report on WRR in this log). She finds it refreshing and in sink with future media developments. That is hopefull news, because the WRR report clearly sees things changing and does not want to obstruct developments in the Dutch market by the political play of public broadcast officials. Traditionally these officials of Dutch Public Broadcasting Channels have had a large say in developments and traditionally this had only been used to support their own expensively paid positions. Coming from a small country the Dutch have had a disproportional large influence on the international television market. Mainly due to innovative producers operating in the free market. In order to keep this position the market conditions must not be obstructive. Van der Laan does not want to comment elaborately on her plans, she wants to work on them in relative "silence". But it is clear from this interview that the effects of crossmedia communication and new possibilities emerging does have her attention and she seems much more aware of the fast changing media landscape, then Public Broadcast Officials.