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Moves towards charging online gaining momentum

Valerie | 02 Sep 2009, 17:27

Fresh from the recent Edinburgh International Television festival, where one of the key topics discussed was business models for online charging, a micropayment network is being developed in the UK, and could be active by next summer.

Due to be implemented as part of the Digital Britain commitment from the Technology Strategy Board, it also unveiled a £2 million fund for those with interesting ideas for applications and platforms.

Head of the TSB team Nick Appleyard told the Guardian:

“Once the beautiful future of micropayments is proved in this environment, you can then extend that launch to the external internet.”

Appleyard also commented that revenue models should be worked out together by content publishers, broadcasters, ISPs and banking providers: cooperation is necessary, he stressed.

The announcement comes as a number of companies have indicated in recent months that they are considering payment models, including RTL, ITV and FT.com.

Start-up Journalism Online also recently announced it would help publishers charge for online content, including all-you-can-read or pay-per-article schemes.  With affiliate agreements signed with publishers representing 506 newspapers and magazines and a Web audience of more than 90 million monthly visitors, the company has suggested that they could generate an annual $50 to $100 per subscriber from the websites’ most active 10 per cent of viewers with minimal loss of visitors.

It follows similar plans from News Corp that it was in talks with rival publishers about forming a consortium to charge for online news.

As this blog asks, could micropayments prove the ‘saviour’ of the British newspaper industry as publishers seek to increase online revenue amidst slowing advertising income?

This Marketing Week article draws an interesting parallel between the fundamentally different models for providing on and off line content:

“... in the real world, you need to make the content experience rich enough to charge for it; in the online world, you need to make the distribution experience broad enough for consumers to value it.”

As news providers increasingly reconsider and re-evaluate the sustainability and probability of their business models in the digital age, no doubt they will be closely watching for the possible start of a trend towards the adoption of micropayments.

The British Library: Building the digital future

Valerie | 03 Aug 2009, 08:00

C&binet comment: Dame Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive of the British Library

Dame Lynne Brindley has led the way in the British Library’s engagement with the digital environment. Here, she outlines its response to the recent Digital Britain report and explains the key areas that are vital to ensuring the continuing relevance of the British Library in the UK’s transition to a digital society.

Every year nearly half a million people use the Reading Rooms of the British Library at St Pancras. As they cross the Library’s piazza our Readers walk over, literally, the intellectual and cultural memory of this nation – held securely in 200 miles of shelves beneath the ground and accessible for all today and into the future.

They also pass Paolozzi’s wonderful statue of Sir Isaac Newton, who famously wrote: “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants”.

Certainly creativity – along with research and innovation – does not simply emerge from nowhere: it thrives on learning and being inspired by ‘giants’; it is often achieved in a dense dialogue with the past; and it frequently depends on what Will Hutton has called a ‘propitious public infrastructure’, an investment made over the centuries which provides the UK with a rich basis for its successful creative and cultural industries, and for its scientific endeavours.

The physical British Library is full to overflowing today with individuals creating new knowledge, being inspired, setting up new businesses, discovering more about themselves. Journalists, film and television producers, scholars, musicians, students, budding entrepreneurs, authors – fill our spaces with purposeful activity, generating societal and economic value.

However, in a rich, complex, multi-media world of the Internet, with unbounded opportunities for new kinds of creativity, how do we continue to ensure our relevance as we make the transition to a firmly Digital Britain? How do we ensure we remain globally competitive, innovative, prosperous and engaged?

I believe that the British Library’s contribution to Digital Britain will focus on three key areas. Firstly, we need to develop our role as public custodian and guarantor of sustainable access to quality content. At the British Library we can help deliver a truly digital future for Britain by growing faster our role as custodian of Digital Britain’s collective memory - a critical public service that acts as a springboard for research and education, for new forms of creativity, and for knowledge creation.

Without investment in such services, future researchers and citizens will find a black hole in the knowledge base of the 21st century. Without a guaranteed long-term commitment to analogue and digital preservation, there will be no giants’ shoulders to stand on, and our content and creative industries will be inhibited in their global market success.

Secondly, we need to digitise legacy content on a mass scale as a key infrastructural benefit for education, creativity and competitiveness. Innovative business models are the key to success and I want to see more experimentation with new models for funding content creation and digitisation.

A superb recent example was the public launch of our 19th Century British Newspapers website (http://newspapers.bl.uk/blcs), developed in partnership with JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) and Gale. The service has made two million historic newspaper pages available online to researchers and the hybrid business model demonstrates the benefits of adopting a public-private approach for large-scale digitisation.

Finally, we need to support the development of widespread digital literacy skills to ensure inclusiveness and optimal exploitation of new opportunities. We may get the infrastructure and the content envisaged by Lord Carter’s Digital Britain report, but if we do not have proficiency to exploit the opportunities, such investment will have been wasted. Our research is suggesting that while young people demonstrate an ease and familiarity with computers, they rely heavily on search engines, view rather than read, are promiscuous in their information seeking and do not possess the critical skills to assess the information they find on the Web.

The British Library and JISC have recently commissioned a second study, into the research behaviour of the current generation of post-graduate doctoral students – classed by their age as ‘Generation Y’ – to gain insights into their changing research behaviours during the course of three years of doctoral study.

Such insights should inform our approach to digital literacy over the next decade as we seek to consolidate and build upon our position as a key creative and increasingly digital economy – particularly in the light of our many competitors’ efforts to do the same.

See: http://www.bl.uk/digital

ITV considers charging for content

Valerie | 03 Jul 2009, 14:02

ITV viewers could soon be forced to pay to watch their favourite shows via an Oyster card system, as the broadcaster considers introducing small charges to view on-demand content in a bid to boost revenues.

Speaking at the Future of Broadcasting Conference, ITV’s director of group development and strategy, Carolyn Fairburn explained that the success of premium content fees and video downloads on Apple’s iTunes had proved viewers would pay for on-demand content.

The vast majority of ITV’s revenue came from advertising. However, Fairbairn said charging for content was an area of focus for the broadcaster:

“Micropayments are absolutely on our agenda. We are part-funding the Digital Britain research into the viability of this.

“We will continue to look for ad-supported models, absolutely. However, the idea people will pay [for content online] is something we should look at and do. We need some kind of payment system and then we will see if it flourishes.”

As the broadcasting industry continues to suffer from the double impact of the changing media landscape and the economic downturn, there is growing concern that the free ad-supported model is no longer working or delivering the returns to TV companies that will sustain them moving forwards.

ITV1 suffered the worst ratings in its 54-year history last week as it slumped to 16.1%. Exploring paid-for options would certainly help to address one of its challenges - its reliance on advertising and is the latest in a series of measures to address how it can monetize its content. Earlier this year, Sir Michael Grade, Executive, then the Chairman of ITV called for a rethink on product placement regulations.

ITV’s brand partnership director Gary Knight believes it could be hard for ITV to switch to micropayments for catch-up, also highlighting how the BBC’s presence would complicate such a move:

“When you’ve given the great British public the iPlayer for free it’s bloody difficult to come along and say the ITV Player’s going to cost you.”

ITV’s plans mark the first time a mainstream broadcaster has attempted to charge for viewing since Channel 4 dropped its 99p fee for 30-day catch-up on 4oD two years ago. As C21Media notes, the debate about free versus pay is set to intensify as the battle between old and new media continues.

British Film Industry needs to drive growth by exploiting new digital technologies

Valerie | 24 Jun 2009, 07:38

Despite riding high on the crest of the recent Oscar success of films such as Slumdog Millionaire, The Reader, Frost/Nixon, and Revolutionary Road, the British Film Industry still faces numerous challenges which means it won’t be a red carpet all the way, the Sunday Times reports.

Speaking to the Sunday Times, British Directors Tom Hooper, Justin Chadwick, Saul Dibb and Stephen Poliakoff , best known respectively for The Damned United, The Other Boleyn Girl, The Duchess and award winning TV dramas such as The Lost Prince, acknowledge the uniqueness of British films, which don’t have a “look” but argue that it is the “self-expression of directors making personal statements that makes British cinema distinctive.”

They also argue however, that despite recent success, the “British film community is still an extremely fragile thing” and that whilst films like Slumdog prove anything is possible, the same challenges remain – particularly raising money and having the means to market a film. As Dibb points out, new technology means that “everyone can make a film now, but it’s all about whether it gets seen or not.”

It is precisely technology that could be the industry’s salvation. NESTA and the UK Film Council have this week called on the film industry to expand digital distribution and work with online audiences as publishers not just viewers, as part of series of findings from their digital innovation programme. 

Releasing its interim findings from their Take 12 programme at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the ‘Take 12: Digital Innovation Guide’ includes key recommendations for how to harness digital media to build and reach new audiences and increase potential for growth and investment, from encouraging directors, writers and actors write a blog or Twitter to engage audiences in the film-making process to looking to brands and content creators as new sources of funding.

The Take 12 programme is working with 12 independent film companies with specialist ‘innovation partners’ over a period of 18 months to try and improve their potential for growth using digital technology and new methods of distribution.  Companies taking part include Warp Films, Revolver Entertainment, Metrodome and B3 Media.

Jon Kingsbury, Director of Creative Economy at NESTA said:

“The Take 12 programme allows us to test how traditional business models can be adapted for emerging digital technologies. Feeding back these learnings to the rest of the industry will help ensure independent film companies are well equipped to take advantage of the exciting new opportunities that a Digital Britain presents.”

Digital Britain for the Video Games Industry: new Ratings System unveiled

Valerie | 17 Jun 2009, 10:17

Photo: Getty

Whilst focusing on the implications for the less-interactive media, the Digital Britain report also offered some positive news for the UK games industry.

Unveiled by new Creative Industries Minister Siôn Simon yesterday as part of the Digital Britain report, the Government announced its overhaul of the video games classification rules which will see the adoption of the PEGI (Pan European Game Information) system, a self-regulatory system currently used in most European countries in which publishers themselves recommend an age rating for games. This will replace the BBFC games ratings as the sole method of classifying video games in the UK and will make selling a video game rated 12 or over to an underage person illegal for the first time.

The decision was welcomed by video games trade body ELSPA and games publishers including Nintendo, Ubisoft UK and Sega Europe as “absolutely the right decision for child safety”.

The Digital Britain report also acknowledged the upward trajectory predicted for the UK video games industry and featured a pledge by the Government to work with the video games industry to collect and review the “evidence” for tax breaks that would help support and sustain the creation of “culturally British” video games in the UK.

An article in the Independent earlier this week indicated that many MPs were ‘receptive’ to tax breaks for video games developers, with John Whittingdale, chairman of the House of Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport urging fellow MPs from all parties to act fast in offering greater incentives to British developers.

Launching the Play Together initiative with Tiga earlier this week, which will focus on “fostering innovation, collaboration and communication between UK video game companies and with other creative industries such as music and film, Jon Kingsbury, creative programme director at NESTA said:

“We believe the UK video game industry is one of the shining lights of digital Britain. We want to foster this creativity and help the industry become even more successful in the future. What is clear is that innovation in all aspects of the business process is essential if Britain’s creative industries are going to remain competitive in the global market.”

Enabling collaboration between the Creative Industries is a key priority for c&binet and the forum in October will be dedicated to bringing together creative business leaders to share best practice and address shared challenges collectively.

Digital Britain Report: Building Britain’s Digital Future

Valerie | 16 Jun 2009, 17:03

The UK Government has today published its action plan for ensuring that the UK is at the leading edge of the global digital economy.  The Digital Britain Whitepaper sets out the importance of the Digital Economy to the nation’s economic future, and how it will drive future industrial capability and competitiveness.

Although many of the headlines focused on universal broadband access, the creative industries made up a considerable proportion of the Digital Britain report, published earlier today. There were four key issues addressed in chapter 4 – Creative Industries in the Digital World - namely:

Recognition of the economic importance of the UK’s creative industries

–  “We need… a commitment to the creative industries grounded in the belief that they can be scaled and industrialised in the same way as other successful hi-technology,  knowledge industries such as bio-sciences have been”

The importance of protecting and rewarding creativity in the digital world, meeting the mutual interests of creators, aggregators, distributors and consumers

–  The Government’s objective is to see the creation of an effective online download and streaming market of scale, providing content that is highly affordable, easily and conveniently accessible to consumers

–  Digital Britain proposes an equitable framework to bring content-creators, rights-holders, aggregators, distributors and consumers together to create workable and effective online download markets of scale

Extending public policy framework to embrace interactive content

–  Government consultation to give Ofcom a duty to police unlawful file sharing through notification of unlawful activity and for repeat infringers, a court based process of identify release and civil action

–  Bolstering action against illegal file sharers through technical measures, specified in legislation, and could include Blocking (Site, IP, URL); Protocol blocking,  Port blocking and Bandwidth capping

–  If voluntary action does not reduce illegal file sharing after 12 months, Ofcom should use its backstop powers to introduce these additional measures

Ensuring that existing interventions are digital ready

–  Government acknowledgement that the scope for modernisation of the current UK copyright framework is “heavily constrained within the EU copyright framework”, with “further work that remains to be done”

The full Digital Britain report is available online and further details can be found on the latest news and publication page of the DCMS website.

You can also follow additional commentary on the Digital Britain Forum, Twitter feed and here on the c&binet blog where, over the coming days, we will be looking in more detail at what the measures outlined in the report mean for the Creative Industries.