They don’t need to stinking network of broadcast stations! Now open for business, the defunct WB network lives again online in an on demand format. Content is limited, but they promise more is to come. WB’s got a good shot at monetizing an existing library of programs as well as the opportunity to find audiences for new without a single transmitter tower.

From the WB press release:

TheWB.com will debut original series from such creative talent as director/producer McG (the upcoming “Terminator Salvation,” “Supernatural,” the “Charlie’s Angels” films) and writer/producer Josh Schwartz (“Gossip Girl,” “Chuck,” “The O.C.”), among many others. A selection of both fan-favorite and original series will be available at launch today, and others will roll out in coming weeks and months.

 

Two previously announced original series – “Downers Grove” and “High Drama: Against All Oz” – now have premiere dates. “Downers Grove” will debut on September 29, and “High Drama” will bow on October 6.

 

TheWB.com will also feature full episodes of fan-favorite series that have shaped popular culture and inspired devoted followings over the past decade, including “Angel,” “Babylon 5,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Everwood,” “Firefly,” “Friends,” “Gilmore Girls,” “In Living Color,” “The Loop” “MADtv,” “The O.C.,” “One Tree Hill,” “Roswell,” “Smallville” and “Veronica Mars.”

 

“TheWB.com is a new digital destination built from the ground up for the same 16–34 year-old audience that embraced The WB when it was a television phenomenon,” said Brent Poer, GM, TheWB.com. “We have loaded the site with their favorite classic series like ‘Friends’ and ‘The O.C.,’ high-quality original programming and a wide array of sharing features, mash-up tools, and interactivity options to fit their lifestyle.”

With the Sprint / Clearwire WiMax merger still pending approval, Clearwire has announced they have 12 months operating cash on hand. Public companies’ full disclosure requirements gives the anti competitive, predatory telcos a time line to delay approval of the merger and potentially kill Clearwire. Such ambulance chasing gamesmanship is not new for the telcos. They’ve used this tactic to crush competition repeatedly, using the very deep pockets only a monopoly can provide.

Clearwire has already said it will require an additional $2 billion to $2.3 billion to roll out a nationwide mobile WiMax network through 2010 and beyond, although some analysts have questioned that total. (See Can Clearwire Do It? and CLWR: Where It’s at With WiMax.)

Clearwire’s SEC filing notes that it expects “to require substantial additional capital in the long-term to fund our business, including further operating losses, network expansion plans and spectrum acquisitions.”

Of course, there’s the question of how the company will raise that extra money in trying economic times.

“We may not be able to secure adequate additional financing when needed on acceptable terms or at all,” the operator writes. Clearwire is considering the possibility of additional public or private offerings and “will likely seek significant additional debt financing, in the short-term and the long-term.” The company already has $1.25 billion under a senior term loan facility in 2007. (Unstrung)

A national open wireless network will break a big hole in the telcos walled garden. I strongly encourage our readers  contact their elected representatives to ask that BellZilla not be allowed to crush a worthy competitor by lawyering regulators.

A consistent reader of ThirdPipe is aware of the animosity that exists between bloggers and the J-school grads. There is of course a history to this that goes beyond just the last few years. ValleyWag has the history of various consortium of news groups attempting to go electronic. All of which went to naught. Attitudes trickle down you know.

Read it all here.

Bill Stone is CEO and president of Handango has a reality check article on RCR . He has an article that in the main I totally agree with, as far as OS’s go on the handset. But that is as far as I agree with him. –

It feels like every day we are seeing articles about the “operating system wars” and who the winners and losers will be. The questions and analysis seem endless. What about Nokia’s purchase of Symbian? Will Google’s Android gain traction? What is the impact of Apple’s proprietary OS on the marketplace? Is Palm going to survive? Is Windows Mobile 7 going to allow Microsoft to finally break out in mobile? What about LiMo? Will Adobe be able to do for mobile what Flash did for the Web? RIM: mainstream or destined to be only 10% of the market? Then there are the “Mobile 2.0” widget/browser technologies. How many widget containers (AXcess, Plusmo, Widsets, Opera, Plaza, etc.) will make it? There’s lots of confusion out there when it comes to finding answers to these questions.

And this of a 5 point observation –

1) Fragmentation is here and we better get use to it.

The “winners” will have to support multiple OSs. We all know applications run best in a native environment. Developers are going to have to build their applications across multiple environments in the future (vs. primarily Java or BREW today for feature phones). Prioritization of which environments to support and near ubiquitous coverage of the OS will be key to success.

I agree with the what of his observations. We diverge however when it comes to why which is the crux of the issue. The failing in my view is in his first point. Fragmentation maybe here but the carriers aren’t going to like that for the simple reason of — portals. For three iterations now Apple has convenietly (iTune, iPhone, iPhone2.0) utilized a portal with considerable success. The Verizon’s, AT&T’s and other carriers will do the same. But wait! Can one really expect the carriers to write portal code for a dozen OS systems? Perish the thought.

The second one comes right out of the Desktop environment — thin clients. The desktop world has realized for at least a decade that one of the largest cost centers is the ongoing support required to keep a discrete compute system running. The usual approach to deflect this support has been thin client developments — Citrix, RDP, etc. Those same costs are evident in the handsets to a greater or lesser degree. It would be beyond comprehension for a Verizon who has visions of portals in their heads to face the daunting task of managing this for four handset suppliers.

The final realization is that if one has a reliable high speed connection why not use it? Not only that but a great deal of the carriers game plan is to assure lock in. Hence the reason the ETF has long outlived its financial need. So how would this play out? –

• A very small layer to provide boot code and lock on to the network.
• A minimalist IO layer is downloaded to handle the various ports.
• Finally a X-like layer is downloaded followed by the desktop presentation. But the desktop is not downloaded it is handled as session layer traffic and the actual compute is done on back end servers.

The benefits? You code to a single IO/UDP layer on the handset. You don’t care about the OS! A whole cost layer is removed so the handset could be considerably cheaper. The support goes to the datacenter where it is the cheapest it can be. Bottom line, the handset is nothing but a fancy terminal.

Dog what about my data when not on the network? I still want my data! That’s actually already resolved as well. The carriers use a AJAX based, ala Google Gears layer to provide persistence at the handset. When you get back to the network a sync occurs. The IO sublayer handles making sure that the data in RAM stays that way even when the handset is turned off.

Benefits to the customer? Well there is a big one. You can sit at your desktop or laptop thru a remote access connection work on that data that is on the server just like it is on the desktop. Syncing becomes somewhat easier as well. If done right one could have this as a data store like gSpace.

The bottom line is, done correctly the OS is toast. The irony is Google with or without Android is better positioned to pull this off than anyone. Though to be honest the technologies to be used are company agnostic.

Bill, the fact is in a high density wireless world the need for a permanent discrete OS on the handset is superfluous. Its better for the carriers. The carriers can deliver a cheaper handset. It has features the users would like. Its where we are headed.

Linky

Well it looks like the merger of VZW and AllTel is nearing its conclusion. Yep with full scale body losses. RIFF. You’re Fired!, Asta la Vista baby. –

According to an Associated Press report, when Verizon Wireless’ purchase of Alltel finalizes, the carrier plans to keep a regional headquarters in Alltel’s base city of Little Rock. However, the existing Alltel headquarters in Little Rock has 3,000 employees. Verizon Wireless will cut that number down to 100, likely getting rid of top executive positions and midlevel positions.

Unemployment scares aren’t in the too-near future though. According to the report, Verizon Wireless President and CEO Lowell McAdam said he hopes for the merger to close by the year’s end, and that staffing decisions wouldn’t be finalized until after that date.

Down to a 100! Lets see what they will keep is the regional regulatory manager, the building maintenance crew, the landscape contractor and the security guards. The last three they keep because they are required to by either union, contract or insurance requirements. Oh the regulatory guy? Well somebody has to smooze with the pols. The rest?– gone. Which is a crying shame. AllTel was a well run company.

Linky.

There is an old saying — “If what you needed is massive amounts of destruction and mayhem then Uncle Sam’s your man. Anything else call the private sector.” Well it looks like there is an exception to this one and the National Association of Broadcasters is it. –

The military’s spectrum is allocated to different purposes in advance, such as satellite signals or video feedback from unmanned aerial vehicles. If particular spectrum is not in use at a particular point, it is wasted. “What our next-generation communications program is looking at is developing the technologies that could dynamically redistribute the allocated spectrum, where the radios and equipment would listen to see if the spectrum is being used and if not, use it,” said Jan Walker, a DARPA spokeswoman.

McHenry said he is happy that Shared Spectrum stuck with government contracting. He is not part of the debate over taking advantage of white spaces for other commercial uses, a dispute that flared last week when Google launched a campaign to urge the public to support an FCC proposal that would authorize the use of unlicensed airwaves between television signals to create a nationwide wireless network.

I will grant that the DoD can apply military discipline to spectrum allocation in its various theaters of operation. Sure they have to since they are using a broad series of bands for different purposes. But in the case of the ‘white spaces’ battle that is going on the bits of spectrum are fixed so allocation can be predetermined. If eveybody plays by the rules there is no conflict.

NAB its time to get off the dime. You’re looking like fools.

Linky.
HT: saschameinrath.com

Still in it’s embryonic stage, cloud computing continues to advance. In enabling persistent storage to work in conjunction with it’s elastic cloud computing, Amazon is moving in on data center turf.

A few months ago I talked about our plans to offer a persistent storage feature for Amazon EC2. At that time I indicated that the service was in a limited alpha release with a small number of customers. Since then the alpha testers have been putting the service to good use and have provided us with a lot of very helpful feedback.

As of today, the Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) is now open and available to all EC2 users.

EBS gives you persistent, high-performance, high-availability block-level storage which you can attach to a running instance of EC2. You can format it and mount it as a file system, or you can access the raw storage directly. You can, of course, host a database on an EBS volume. In fact, Eric Hammond has already written an article, Running MySQL on Amazon EC2 with Elastic Block Store.

EBS volumes can range in size from 1 GB to 1 TB. You can mount many of them on the same instance, and even stripe (aka RAID 0) your data across them to increase performance.

The volumes can be attached to any single instance within a single EC2 availability zone. They are also automatically replicated within the zone.

During the beta you can create up to 20 EBS volumes consuming a maximum of 20 TB of space. Before too long we’ll have a form to allow you to request more. (GigaOM)

Much of the future will be in the cloud, and it’s not all about hosted apps. Imagine an open source stack that will enable the cloud to be a data center, a web host, a server, a backup device, or ??? - all instantly scalable on demand and dirt cheap. The basic pieces are falling into place. Competition in the space is coming, along with more robust capabilities.

Being a reasonably intelligent fella I recognize there are few absolutes other than certain death. That is especially true with rolling the dice in the American Judical system. That is something that Universal should have kept in mind –

In what Fogel said was a “case of first impression,” Universal attorney Kelly Klaus said Universal or other copyright holders are not liable for damages when somebody asserts fair use to reverse a takedown notice.

Klaus and the judge agreed that damages have been awarded when a sender of a takedown notice falsely represents copyright ownership. But in this case, Universal owns the rights to Prince’s song.

“Are you saying there cannot be a misuse of a takedown notice if the material is copyrighted?” Fogel asked Klaus.

“I don’t think ‘fair use’ qualifies,” Klaus answered.

In the preliminary the judge rules –

“Even if Universal is correct that fair use only excuses infringement, the fact remains that fair use is a lawful use of a copyright,” U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel ruled. “Accordingly, in order for a copyright owner to proceed under the DMCA with ‘a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law,’ the owner must evaluate whether the material makes fair use of the copyright.”

Another words the judge handed the Universal lawyers their heads in their hands. The trial still has to be wound out to conclusion but the judge has suppressed the basis of Universal’s primary defense against civil penalities.

But the impact of the preliminary ready by the judge will have impacts. If upheld on appeal the landscape will change radically. No longer can a copyright holder issue roboC&D’s. They will have to consider if the use falls under the umbrella of Fiar Use. Endgame? If Universal loses, then unless it can be proven that money changed hands copyright holders will have to give any use that is Fair Use a wide berth. They will also have to spend $$ to determine if it is Fair Use not the user. [Though users would be dumb not to so structure their use to meet Fair Use provisions.]

Linky

The NBA is joining the growing list of content providers going direct to the consumer. This is no different that any other content owner who has found a new audience via IP instead of broadcast or cable. NBC’s experience with the Olympics has shown that offering content on the net is an audience builder. That goes against the grain of the broadcasters (and most of the old media’s) official line on net content.

Local Sports bars may soon be operating media PC’s on broadband connections to stay competitive. Conventional Third Pipe wisdom states that the zero sum game does not apply to audience building. Ears and eyeballs found on the net are also broadcast viewers, often never found in the ever accelerating ratings driven turnover of broadcast programming.

The National Basketball Association plans to break a new barrier for U.S. sports leagues by streaming live games to local markets on the Web.

According to a story published Monday by the Sports Business Journal, the NBA plans to negotiate contracts for its member teams so they can stream live games to targeted local online audiences this fall. Bill Koenig, executive vice president of business affairs, told the industry publication: “We hope to have a model in place this season. Our opening up of the rights will certainly be done.”

The rights Koenig referred to have been a sticky issue since the advent of streaming video and the rush of sports fans to the Internet. Cable operators and regional sports networks hold various exclusive rights to broadcast live games via network TV, cable, radio, and satellite; and they haven’t wanted to see the Internet cannibalize their prime-time business by allowing anyone to access games on demand. (Cnet)

I’m eager to see the usually outspoken Mark Cuban chime in on this. He owns both one of the teams and a cable channel and has not been a big fan of net content “sucking up” his precious bandwidth. Time for some Third Pipe thinking Mr. Mark!

The road ahead is getting dicier for the big telcos in the business access arena. Fixed wireless carrier Airband has opened their network to resellers, creating a new pipe for competitive services. Many who rent facilities and loop access from the bells now have an alternative. Sure, Wimax can’t compete with fiber, but in most cases the last mile loops are copper. In fact, the hesitance to invest in that last mile of fiber is now exposing the telcos and MSO’s to a price war that would have never been if they had just kept their fiber to premises promises made so long ago.

Airband’s wholesale program targets carriers, resellers and enhanced service providers with the following products and services:

* Wireless Point-to-Point Service leverages WiMAX fixed-wireless technology to deliver private line services quickly, even in densely populated metropolitan areas. This service supports opportunities from 45 Mbps up to GigE speeds, and provides network connections up to 20 miles with clear line of sight;
* Fixed-Wireless Last-Mile Access bypasses the legacy wired network for faster installation and service delivery. Unlike traditional wireline providers, this service is not bound by T1 or DS3 increments, so end-user customers can have just the bandwidth they need and without waiting weeks;
* Fixed-Wireless Internet Access provides an Internet access service that is uniquely suited to a wide range of customers and their ever-changing needs, whether they are a small business or a Fortune 1000 company.(Telephony World)

Airband Communincations