Michael's Insight

Sensing techology can reduce TV energy usage

Smart TVs Know When You Look Away [TechDirt]

Smart mobile phones have sensors to detect when a user is making or receiving a call, dimming the screen to save battery life during the call. Now, television manufacturers may begin integrating a similar feature into high-energy television screens to reduce their electricity usage.

I've written here about television manufacturers that are experimenting with remote control systems that recognize hand gestures. Using similar sensing technology, TV makers at the Japanese technology expo CEATEC have exhibited a futuristic television screen that can tell when a viewer has turned their head away from the screen. That motion is detected by the television via facial recognition cameras, which dims the television screen. The television automatically reduces its energy usage based on the fact that the viewer is no longer actively watching. When the cameras "see" the viewer turn back toward the screen, the brightness is automatically turned back up.

Size is the largest factor in a television's energy usage, and this technology could significantly reduce the energy usage of large screen televisions. It's a neat idea, if viewers can get over the idea that while they're watching their television, it is watching them back.

First step taken toward online cable programming for all cable customers

Cable-Tec Expo 2009: CableLabs Seeks Common Approach For 'TV Everywhere' [Multichannel News]

 
At this moment, the nation's two largest cable operators - Comcast and Time Warner Cable - are testing web video streaming sites with cable programming content for their customers. Comcast expects to turn on its web video portal, called Comcast OnDemand Online, by the end of this year for all Comcast customers with their cable and broadband products. Yesterday at the Cable-Tec Expo in Denver, the cable industry's research and development consortium, CableLabs, announced a request for information to define a common technical framework for cable operators to provide online access to cable programming content.

Completing such a common framework world give all cable operators the ability to implement their own versions of online programming access with authentication for current customers. This CableLabs RFI is the first step in a process that promises to develop standards for the entire cable industry to roll out this innovative product to our customers.

Vendors have until December 11th to respond to the CableLabs RFI. Key components of the RFI include service architecture, technical interface specifications, resource attributes specifications, infrastructure components and security for customers' private information. From the responses, CableLabs will begin putting the pieces together toward the release of a standard for online cable programming.

J.D. Power ranks Insight highest among our competitors for Internet service in the South

JD Power's Latest ISP Ratings [Broadband Reports]

J.D. Power and Associates has released their annual ratings of customer satisfaction among Internet service providers, ranking all major ISPs on performance and reliability, cost of service, customer service, billing and offerings and promotions. J.D. Power ranks customer satisfaction for ISPs based on which of four region(s) where each provides broadband service.

In the South Region of J.D. Power's ratings, I'm thrilled that Insight's broadband service is rated second of the 14 providers surveyed, with a higher customer satisfaction than any of Insight's competitors in the markets we serve. Bright House Networks, another cable broadband provider was the highest rated in the South Region.

Overall, the average score for broadband providers in the J.D. Power study was 639, while Insight scored a 668 in the South Region. Customer satisfaction with providers appears to be going up across the board, with an average 43 point increase in the performance and reliability category from the 2008 study and 66 percent of users indicating to J.D. Power that they would recommend their Internet provider to others, increasing four points from 2008.

Wireless industry looking to FCC to reallocate broadcast television spectrum

Decision Time: Does the Nation Need TV or Mobile Broadband? [GigaOM]

According to GigaOM, there may be a fight brewing over the future of a significant portion of the current broadcast television spectrum between broadcasters and wireless phone carriers, pitting the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as the referee. The wireless industry's trade association CTIA filed a report with the FCC last week requesting that the Commission release 800 MHz of spectrum to satisfy future needs for mobile data - which are expected to grow by a factor of 66 between 2008 and 2013, based on an estimate from Cisco. Driving this spectrum need are the growing number of mobile phones that feature full web browsers and the ability to record and upload video.

As it turns out, there isn't 800 MHz of spectrum sitting on the shelf that the FCC can simply auction to the highest bidders among the wireless carriers. Spectrum is a finite resource, and in this case it's occupied by broadcast television channels.

While this is a similar issue to the current white-space debate, it's different from the standpoint that satisfying the demands of the wireless industry will necessitate a wholesale reallocation of spectrum. With proposed white-space devices, spectrum hopping is employed - the devices look for unoccupied spots in the space between channels in the broadcast spectrum. While it has yet to be perfected in practice, in theory white space mobile broadband might coexist with television broadcasts in the same spectrum range.

As GigaOM suggests, I agree that this debate will reach the halls of Congress before it is resolved. Broadcasters don't want to give up spectrum, but growing wireless data demand isn't likely to be resolved using existing spectrum.

Paramount producing web exclusive long-form video series

Paramount bets big on Web serials [CNET News]

Hulu has capitalized on providing ad-supported online video of television shows and movies to its users, but Paramount Digital Entertainment is betting that web re-runs isn't the only way to make online video profitable. The studio has created a professionally produced show, named "Circle of Eight," exclusively for web viewers. The show kicked off yesterday on social networking site MySpace.

President of Paramount Digital, Thomas Lesinski had this to say about the studio's plan for the show:

"I think the people who tell you that it can't be done have a different strategy than us. Our goal is to create professional content that is supported by digital distribution...I can't give you the budget (for Circle of Eight) but I can tell you that it was not inexpensive. (Others have tried this) but they weren't high-production value, scripted shows. We think it will be interesting to prove the platform can support high-quality."

Circle of Eight features clues for viewers to "unlock the mystery" that is the running plot of the show.  It leverages its position on a social networking site, encouraging viewers to share their favorite episodes with their MySpace friends. Paramount has worked out product placement deals with several advertisers, including Mountain Dew, Adobe and Blockbuster.

The first three episodes of the web series are available at the series web site, and two more are set to be posted on November 3rd.

Thinking about the future of cable broadband

The Ultimate Cable Modem [Light Reading - The Bauminator]

Many cable operators are in the process of upgrading broadband systems and customers' modems to the DOCSIS 3.0 standard, offering speeds between 50 Mbps and 100 Mbps downstream. But even as the cable industry is rolling out these blazing fast broadband speeds, there are those in the industry's R&D field that are working on the next step up in broadband speeds. At the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing Summit (CTAM) in Denver yesterday, Jeff Baumgartner reports on vendor plans for DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem configurations that could provide broadband speeds downstream in excess of one gigabit per second.

It works like this - the basic DOCSIS 3.0 standard requires that a cable modem be able to bond 4 channels. At those specs, a cable modem can provide speeds greater than 100 Mbps in both directions. At CTAM, Baumgartner ran into a vendor that is working on bonding 8 and 16 channels downstream. According to Baumgartner, 16 bonded channels would provide for 640 Mbps downstream. And in extreme case, the vendor indicated he had seen a request that would 32 bonded downstream channels that would allow 1.2 Gbps of data to flow downstream. Speeds that fast might mean its time for a new ethernet card capable of bringing those speeds into a computer.

Here at Insight, we're planning for DOCSIS 3.0 speeds, but this article reminds me that we're still not close to maxing out the potential of today's cable technology to deliver the super-fast broadband speeds of the future.

Now all we have to figure out is what to do with all that speed.

ICANN to consider allowing non-English characters in web URLs

Web addresses may adopt non-English characters [CNET News]

The fact that all web addresses today are in characters that speakers of English are familiar with is something that many of us take for granted. But in countries with predominant languages that don't use Latin characters - like Chinese and Arabic - keying in a web site's URL involves the use of a foreign language. That may change if a proposal that currently sits before the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is approved. ICANN is the international organization that sets the rules for Internet domain names.

Called Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), the proposal would allow domain names to be constructed with non-Latin characters - like Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and Korean. IDNs would have the ability to be translated into Latin characters in a process that is invisible to the user, allowing Internet infrastructure to properly route the user's web request. Proponents of IDNs have been testing these translations, and have confidence that if ICANN approves the proposal, IDNs can be deployed as early as next year.

IDNs have the potential of growing Internet usage in many countries where non-Latin languages are predominant by making the web syntax familiar to users.

University of Kentucky football, basketball on Fox Sports South will be on Insight in high definition

As Matt Jones over at Kentucky Sports Radio would say, UK fans are the greatest force on the Internet and yesterday was certainly an example of that if you’re a reader of the UK message boards. I’ve received a number of emails from folks asking me about Insight’s plans for the Fox Sports South HD channel with a number of UK football and basketball games scheduled to be carried on the network.

In fact, the timing of these questions couldn’t be better since this issue has been one that we’ve been working on since FSN South launched their high definition service six weeks ago.

I want readers of my blog to be among the first to know that Insight will now be providing our customers in Louisville, Lexington and Northern Kentucky, the high-definition broadcasts of UK football and basketball games scheduled to air on Fox Sports South, including this weekend’s game with Mississippi State. The games will air on Insight Digital HD channel 929 (channel 930 in Bowling Green) and I’ve provided a full schedule of games, as they are currently scheduled, below.

Providing the UK games as a special event is a temporary measure until we are able to launch Fox Sports South HD in the not-too-distant future. We entered into talks with Fox Sports to carry their new high definition service as soon as we learned about the launch of their new HD feed. Although we were able to finalize an agreement very quickly for Bowling Green, certain technical issues had to be worked out in our other districts. But because we understand how important the Cats are to our customers, we reached out to Fox Sports to make special arrangements to carry the UK games while we resolved the technical issues in those districts. It took both technical and deal-making creativity by big Cats fans who work at Insight and I’m thrilled to tell you that we were successful.

As you may know, we already delivered the past two UK football games on FSN South – against South Carolina and Louisiana-Monroe – in HD on channel 929 in Lexington where we were able to reach an earlier special arrangement in UK’s home market. Just this week we successfully reached a full agreement with Fox to provide future games in Louisville and Northern Kentucky, too. And, as I said, we’re currently working diligently to make Fox Sports South HD a permanent fixture on our channel lineup in Louisville, Lexington and Northern Kentucky, so you won’t miss any of their SEC games after we launch it.

We know better than any of our national competitors what’s important to our customers because so many of us live and work in the communities we serve. There should be no question that Insight is your best choice for home-team sports. Here’s a list of the UK football and basketball games scheduled to air in HD on Fox Sports South as of now:

Football

10/31/09 - vs. Mississippi State – Lexington, Ky. - 7:00 p.m. ET

Basketball

10/28/09 - Blue/White Game (FS South/BBSN) - Lexington, Ky. - 7:00 p.m. ET

11/02/09 - vs. Campbellsville (FS South) - Lexington, Ky. - 7:00 p.m. ET

11/06/09 - vs. Clarion (FS South) - Lexington, Ky. - 7:00 p.m. ET

11/16/09 - vs. Miami University (FS South/BBSN) - Lexington, Ky. - 7:00 p.m. ET

11/19/09 - vs. Sam Houston State (FS South) - Lexington, Ky. - 7:00 p.m. ET

11/21/09 - vs. Rider (FS South) - Lexington, Ky. - 1:00 p.m. ET

11/30/09 - vs. UNC Asheville (FS South) - Louisville, Ky. 7:00 p.m. ET

12/23/09 - vs. Long Beach State (FS South) - Lexington, Ky. 1:00 p.m. ET

Sony to offer Netflix movies on PlayStation3

Netflix stream TV episodes via Sony's PS3 [Total Telecom]

Netflix and Sony have a planned announcement today that will bring the Netflix streaming video library to the Sony PlayStation 3 gaming console. The companies plan to bring the functionality to the PS3 next month, with each Netflix subscriber receiving a special Blu-ray disc that will activate the feature on the console. While the activation disc will be free, PS3 users will need a broadband connection and a Netflix subscription.

This feature is the same as Netflix streaming feature already available to users of Microsoft's XBox 360 with XBox Live Gold service and users of the Roku streaming box. The Netflix library features around 10,000 feature length titles for streaming, which is substantially smaller than its library of DVD titles that the company ships to subscribers through the mail.

Sandvine traffic study confirms the decline of P2P

Video-On-Demand Now 27% Of Internet Traffic: Study [Multichannel News]

Last week, I passed along data from two Internet traffic studies from Cisco and Arbor Networks that indicated the growth of streaming video as a percentage of total network traffic. Network management systems vendor Sandvine has released another traffic study that tends to confirm the same findings that Cisco and Arbor Networks reported. Sandvine's 2009 Internet traffic trends report found a substantial bandwidth growth shift toward streaming video sites like YouTube and Hulu - accounting for 27 percent of all Internet traffic.

That's up from 13 percent in Sandvine's study from last year, more than doubling streaming video's portion of the bandwidth pie in a year in which all segments increased. Peer-to-peer traffic's percentage appears to be taking the brunt of the growth of streaming video, which fell from 32 percent of all traffic to just 20 percent this year.

And while Cisco reported the average broadband user downloaded 11.4 GB per month, Sandvine reports a smaller 8 GB per month average download. Sandvine's analysis of Internet prime time roughly correlates with Cisco's findings, with Sandvine calling the 7pm-10pm time period downloading "prime time," while Cisco tagged the 9pm-1am time period "prime time" for the Internet.

Overall, it appears the most important trend reported by all three traffic studies is the ongoing shift from illegal content trading on P2P networks to legal content viewing on streaming video web sites.

AT&T planning network usage overage charges

AT&T weighs higher fees for data hogs [Network World]

The head of AT&T's wireless division stated publicly yesterday that the company is working on plans to impose a surcharge on high-bandwidth users of its wireless network. AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega in remarks on AT&T's third quarter earnings conference call said that the company was assessing the impact of the FCC rule-making process with respect to network neutrality on AT&T's plans to charge high bandwidth users more than other users.

Without disclosing an exact percentage for the planned charges, de la Vega indicated that a small percentage of network users were consuming a majority of bandwidth, and the overage charge plan would be directed at curbing those "bandwidth hogs," as de la Vega referred to them. Earlier this year, de la Vega revealed that 3 percent of AT&T's wireless users consumed 40 percent of network capacity.

It remains to be seen whether the FCC will adopt Chairman Julius Genachowski's proposed network neutrality rules and whether new non-nondiscrimination rules will apply to wireless networks.

Hulu content partners continue to hint at subscription model

Hulu May Start Charging for Content in 2010 [Mashable]

The free ride for popular long-form online streaming site Hulu may be coming to an end next year. Yesterday, News Corp. Deputy Chairman Chase Carey told a meeting of broadcasters that, "It's time to start getting paid for broadcast content online." News Corp. is a content partner in Hulu, along with NBC Universal and Disney.

Carey went on to tell broadcasters that Hulu would probably develop a subscription plan for users as early as next year.

The strategy needs to be more than just fighting piracy and Google, he says. "I think a free model is a very difficult way to capture the value of our content. I think what we need to do is deliver that content to consumers in a way where they will appreciate the value," Carey said. "Hulu concurs with that, it needs to evolve to have a meaningful subscription model as part of its business."

Currently, Hulu's video content is ad-supported and free to users. Cable operators, including Comcast and Time Warner, are working on their own long-form streaming sites for their customers that would allow access to cable content from a broadband connected computer. Comcast has indicated that their streaming site will be available to Comcast video and broadband customers by the end of this year.

Microsoft releases Windows 7 today

Windows 7 born from Vista's frustrations [CNET News]

If you're a Microsoft Windows user, today's the big day for the next version of the world's most popular operating system. Today is the release date for Windows 7.

Many users expressed disappointment with the last Windows release - Windows Vista. After many users and businesses decided to stick with Windows XP rather than upgrading to Vista, Microsoft retooled the development process for Windows 7, opening the process up to users to provide input on the product's features and functionality. This article from CNET also outlines Microsoft's decision to work more closely with computer manufacturers in the development of Windows 7, yielding what many reviewers and testers believe is a much better product than the much-maligned Vista.

As with the release of Vista, Windows 7 comes in several different version ranging from a slimmed-down version for netbooks to an "Ultimate" version with all the OS's bells and whistles. CNET has published a full review of the product with plenty of videos and screenshots for those questioning whether they're ready to make the jump to Windows 7 or whether their computer can handle the new OS.

Another take on the decline of P2P traffic percentages

Is P2P Dead? Not So Fast [NewTeeVee]

I wrote yesterday about the overall decline of P2P traffic as a percentage of all Internet traffic, according to a Cisco study. While the reasons for the decline in P2P traffic are unclear, there's at least one dissenting voice that believes P2P traffic continues to increase, just not at the same pace as other traffic, like streaming media.

Janko Roettgers blogging at NewTeeVee cites another Internet traffic study by Arbor Networks that found P2P traffic had decreased from 40 percent of all Internet traffic in 2007 to 18 percent of traffic today. But, Roettgers questions - as I did in my post yesterday - whether the Cisco and Arbor Networks studies are showing an actual decrease in P2P traffic or merely that P2P traffic isn't growing as fast as the explosion of streaming media traffic.

Roettgers questioned Arbor Networks Chief Scientist Craig Labovitz about the numbers, with Labovitz confirming the possibility that P2P traffic was still increasing marginally, just not holding its own against the growing popularity of streaming video. With Internet traffic growing 35 to 45 percent each year, and more users gravitating to sites like Hulu, where they can easily stream their favorite TV shows and movies, the laborious process of downloading the same shows and movies on a P2P connection just isn't as appealing. And the millions of Internet users that are voting with their web browser, choosing streaming over P2P, are starting to show up in these traffic studies.

Cisco releases broadband usage study

Cisco: Average Connection Consumes 11.4 GB Per Month [Broadband Reports]

If you're downloading more than 11.4 gigabytes each month on your broadband connection, you're consuming more than the average broadband user, according to a recent study released by Cisco. Aggregating anonymous customer data from a range of ISPs worldwide, Cisco tracked and compiled several interesting statistics that are fairly revealing when it comes to broadband usage.

P2P usage is actually down as a percentage of all broadband traffic from 50 percent in an earlier study, to 38 percent today. The reduced P2P usage may be a function of the increased stigma among broadband users of using the protocol to download illegally copied materials, a result of the recent Swedish court battle against top P2P tracking site The Pirate Bay or simply a larger proportional increase in other network traffic.

There are large disparities in the amount broadband users download. The top 10 percent of broadband downloaders account for 60 percent of all broadband usage, and the top 1 percent consume 20 percent of network resources. On average, an individual broadband user downloads around 11.4 GB each month. That's somewhere in the neighborhood of the size of  5-7 digitized feature length movies or well over 3,000 music files.

Cisco's study also revealed that there is an Internet "prime time." Twenty five percent of all Internet traffic occurs in the four-hour period between 9pm and 1am in the prevailing local time zone. During peak Internet usage, traffic exceeds non-peak usage times by 20 percent.

Google may be planning online music service

New Google Music Service Launch Imminent [TechCrunch]

A couple of months ago, I wrote about how digital music sales now account for 35 percent of all music sales in this country. Apple's iTunes Music Store accounts for the majority of all digital music sales and 25 percent of total music sales. Those numbers have apparently caught the attention of search giant Google, as TechCruch and other tech blogs are reporting today that Google may be poised to jump into the digital music market.

In 2008, Google launched a music service in China, only available to Internet users in that country. TechCrunch reports that Google's new music service will be different for U.S. users, as the Chinese service allows users to download music for free. It's reportedly going to be named Google Audio.

No word yet on whether the service will allow users to download or stream music content. As the numbers reflect, Apple currently dominates online music sales. As it has with other introductions, Google will likely look to leverage its position in search to direct music queries toward it's new offering.

Studios limiting stars' social media exposure

Movie studios curbing actors' use of social media [CNET News]

It may make the world a bit less interesting, but Hollywood studios apparently are starting to crack down on movie stars' Twitter habits and other social media usage. I wrote about one Hollywood waiter that lost his job in a social media snafu with an HBO actress a couple of weeks ago. Now, actors like Cameron Diaz and Mike Myers are reportedly signing contracts with clauses that limit their social media usage, perhaps even prohibiting it entirely.

According to CNET, a Hollywood Reporter blogger has uncovered that Dreamworks and Disney have begun to include clauses in their contracts that put curbs on the online profiles of their acting talent. CNET speculates that the contract clauses are aimed at preventing stars leaking confidential information about upcoming shows and movies to the general public.

So, keep an eye on your favorite actor or actress' Twitter feed. Chances are it may not be as active in the future if studios keep their targets trained on preventing social media leaks.

Legal challenge aimed at a la carte dismissed by federal judge

Comcast, DirecTV Win Dismissal of Consumers’ ‘Bundling’ Lawsuit [Bloomberg]

A group of cable operators and programmers have won dismissal of a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles that alleged antitrust violations in the method that multichannel video distributors packaged video content. U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder ruled last week that a group of plaintiffs had not proved that cable and satellite operators had prevented competition by not offering programming on an a la carte basis.

While Judge Snyder's ruling focused on the legal issue of whether bundling programming as cable operators currently offer video packages was actually anti-competitive - which it isn't - and will likely be appealed by the plaintiffs, this lawsuit raises the question about whether it's actually more desirable from a consumer standpoint to have the ability to purchase channels on an a la carte basis.

As I've written here before, the diversity and breadth of cable programming that exists today is a result of the video packages that cable operators have made available to customers. An important percentage of revenue for programming networks like CNN, ESPN, A&E and Discovery comes from advertisers and advertisers rely on ratings which are enhanced significantly by "incidental" viewing or the by-chance landing on a network by channel surfers.  Take those viewers out of the mix, and, poof, viewership decreases and advertising revenue that supports program creation and development evaporates.  And the cost viewers have to pay for those networks would skyrocket. 

So, while a la carte video may sound good at first, many cable channels that exist today and are relatively popular among viewers couldn't survive in an a la carte world. Ultimately, consumers would pay more for less content if a la carte were mandated by law, regulation or a legal ruling.  Indeed studies have indicated that consumers would "break even" or pay about as much as they pay now for classic cable but would only receive around 17 channels for their money in an a la carte world. 

No doubt, this legal challenge will continue to proceed through the system on appeal.

Wi-Fi Alliance plans new Wi-Fi Direct standard

Wi-Fi Alliance Announces Wi-Fi Direct Spec [PC World]

Is the Bluetooth standard days numbered? Last week, the Wi-Fi Alliance, the group that is responsible for setting and approving the 802.11 wireless fidelity standards and certifies devices are compatible with those standards announced plans for a new device-to-device wi-fi standard. Dubbed Wi-Fi Direct, the new standard would make it much easier to connect two wi-fi devices to each other without the need for a wi-fi router.

Right now, to connect a wi-fi enabled printer to a mobile computer with wi-fi, it's very difficult without a wi-fi hot spot created by a wireless router. I'm very excited to learn of this development as I connect my printer to our home computers through my wireless router and, I have to admit, the connection can be so finicky that it drives my wife crazy.  A few devices can be connected with the Bluetooth standard, but wi-fi is much more common in many computer peripherals than Bluetooth. With Wi-Fi Direct, connecting two devices in an "ad-hoc" network - without a router - will become much easier. Best of all, there's no need to upgrade existing wi-fi devices. The Wi-Fi Alliance plans for the new standard to be available for existing wi-fi enabled devices via a firmware update.

New mobile television standard announced

TV Stations Start Broadcasting to Mobile Gadgets [NYT Bits Blog]

Last week the Open Mobile Video Coalition announced the creation of a new standard for HDTV broadcasts to mobile devices that will allow users to watch high definition video on a cell phone or mobile computer. The standard uses a portion of the new digital broadcast TV spectrum to transmit signals specific for mobile devices. And while devices that receive these signals aren't yet available to consumers, the Open Mobile Video Coalition also announced last week that 70 broadcast stations have signed on to retransmit their signal on the new mobile standard. There are around 30 stations already broadcasting the mobile signal.

Consumer electronics manufacturers are prototyping mobile phones with chipsets that provide reception of these new signals, mobile television sets, netbooks, and USB dongles that will allow any existing laptop to receive the mobile TV signals. These devices are likely to become available to consumers in the coming months.

Some cable operators, including Comcast and Time Warner, are already testing delivery of cable programming to mobile devices via a mobile data connection. Between this new mobile broadcast standard and the development of mobile cable programming, mobile television appears to be in store for some exciting developments in the next year.

Following up on this week's annoucements

It's been a busy week around here.  Monday, I wrote about the launch of Digital 5.0 and followed that on Tuesday with the advance news about Broadband 30.0.  Customers posted comments and wrote emails sharing their reactions, which I genuinely appreciate.  I thought I would take a moment to discuss some of the more prevalent comments.

All Digital Service

A few questions came in about our all-digital roll-out.  Some customers, who prefer to continue to watch their analog TV's without a set top box, voiced concern that they would now need one.  That is not the case. Customers who do not have a digital set top box will continue to receive our classic cable lineup in analog, allowing their TV's to continue to function.  

A lot of our planning today is about freeing up more bandwidth for more advanced services for all of our products.  Whether it's more HD, faster broadband speeds or new advanced phone features, bandwidth is needed and analog TV channels take up a huge amount of valuable spectrum. 

Therefore, everyone should understand that, although we intend to continue to deliver analog channels for some time to come, the entire television delivery standard in the United States is in a state of transition.   Over the long term, we will phase out most analog transmission and will ultimately require digital-to-analog converters for analog TV's to continue to function -- much like the over-the-air broadcast TV transition last June.

For those of you who have a digital set top box, when you tune to any of our classic channels which were previously available only in analog, you will automatically receive the crisp, clear digital signal we are now transmitting.  

Functionality Improvements

Aside from making every channel 100% digital for great picture and sound quality, we’ve added new DVR features with overlap protection and live recording extension, so you don’t have to worry about recording conflicts if one recording runs long when another is starting.  We also made our on-screen guide easier than ever to use. 

We've also added a great feature to our On Demand service, allowing you to begin watching a program in one room of your home, move to another room and pick up right where you left off to finish it.  It's a great feature that works with all Insight Digital receivers.  And if you don’t have time to finish your On Demand selection, you’ve got more time with extended movie rentals —a number of movies are now available for 48 hours instead of the usual 24.

High Definition Channels

Some of you asked why we didn't launch more HD channels.  I mentioned on Monday that Digital 5.0 wasn't primarily focused on HD, although we did add a few new channels in every district.  Instead, 5.0 was more focused on an upgrade in functionality and video on demand.

That said, we believe HD is in the center of the future of television and we will continue to add more and more HD channels in future digital releases.  As for this release, I'm sure that once you have experienced some of the new features included in Digital 5.0, you will agree that the newest release has some great new stuff.

Broadband 30.0

Advanced broadband users have told us they would like more speed, especially upstream.  On Tuesday, we gave readers a preview that we intend to launch a new 30/3 service in the near future.  Broadband 30.0 will increase download speeds by 50% over our current premium speed and will double our premium upload speeds to 3 meg. 

Some have asked if it will be free.  The answer is no --  there will be a premium charged for the new service.  The new Broadband 30.0 service will be priced at a $15 monthly premium over the cost of our 20.0 service.  For those who really require these cutting edge speeds, I believe we have priced 30.0 to be affordable for most residential users.

Future speed enhancements will come after we launch the next-generation cable modem platform, DOCSIS 3.0.  We are working on the final touches of those plans and will tell you more about it first, right here. 

Meanwhile watch for the availability of Broadband 30.0 in your neighborhood.

In Closing

 As most know, I like to be candid with you so I would also like to answer a couple of specific emails, posts and requests.

"MRN" posted the following comment:

You wouldn't hear anything from Insight on the MLB Network because they are not part owners in it. It is primarily owned by Major League Baseball. Comcast, DirecTV, Time Warner and Cox Communications have minority ownership of the new network, with MLB retaining a controlling two-thirds share. Insight only carries the NFL Network because of how big a fan Mr. Willner is of the New York Gaints.

Here's the scoop.  We'd love to carry the MLB Network but have not been able to come to acceptable terms with them as yet.  All I can promise at this point is that we will continue to try to reach an agreement during the off season.  As for the NFL -- it's true -- I'm a fervent Giants fan.  But I can assure you that my personal preference has absolutely nothing to do with any of the programming decisions we make.  We have a highly competent and professional team of product specialists who research consumer trends, specifically in our markets, and then attempt to arrive at an agreeable deal for carriage. 

By the way, most of our programming specialists are Cats or Cardinals basketball fans so the theory doesn't hold up.

Others readers were very clear about some of the additional HD signals they would like to see.  While we are getting our network ready for more advanced services and HD channels, we also are working very hard with all of the major programming suppliers to come to acceptable terms to enable us to consistently roll out new HD channels in the coming releases of Digital service. 

So, that's a recap of the week's announcements with some answers to the most-asked questions.  Thanks for your feedback and be assured that we will take your individual suggestions very seriously as we make decisions for future releases.

Site allows P2Pers to reimburse content creators

Feeling guilt over P2P use? Piracy Payback wants to help [ArsTechnica]

If given the opportunity, would P2Pers voluntarily pay back the rights holders of illegally copied content downloaded on the Internet? That's the question an Australian man named Drew K asked himself earlier this year. The question was the genesis of a web site called Piracy Payback. Piracy Payback allows P2Pers who feel guilty about pirating copyrighted works to make a PayPal donation which the web site redirects to rights holding organizations to compensate them for the stolen content.

It's an innovative idea, but as Drew admits to ArsTechnica, it isn't inspiring many P2Pers to reimburse content creators. Piracy Payback holds back 12 percent of donations to pay for site overhead, and Drew tells Ars that the site isn't yet covering its own costs.

I'm not surprised.  If most P2P supporters think like "Big Nose" thinks, I wouldn't hold out much hope.  He posted a comment on my blog on September 23rd that contained this fundamental belief...

Regardless of what the laws say, P2P file sharing is NOT theft. It is entirely different than Somalian pirates boarding ships because: File sharing is about *sharing*, hence the name. It is not theft, as the owner of the material has not had anything taken from them. The copyright owners loose (sp.) only the royalties that they would have been paid if the product was purchased legally. However, in the vast majority of cases, people would not be purchasing any of this copyright protected data if it wasn't free..

So let me get this straight.  I sneak into a movie theater to watch a movie or a basketball arena to see the Cats play the Cards.  Or I jump the turnstile and ride the subway for free or I slip onto an airplane to ride from Cincinnati to London for free.  It's not stealing because there is no physical property taken so the police won't arrest and charge me. 

I don't think so.

YouTube claims 1 billion video views each day

YouTube: We’re Bigger Than You Thought [NYT Bits Blog]

ComScore, which tracks web statistics, indicated in August that Google's YouTube served up 10 billion videos during the month of August. But, according to YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley, the actual video views are somewhere around three times as large. In a blog post, Hurley claims that YouTube is serving up 1 billion video views each day, totaling approximately 30 billion every month.

That total likely includes a substantial number of views coming from international users - comScore's totals only include the U.S. views - but if its true, it represents a much larger online video audience for YouTube than was previously thought.

Bits points to Google's drive to turn YouTube into a profitable enterprise as the likely reason why Hurley put the site's daily views into the public domain. From Google CEO Eric Schmidt on down, Google has been working the talking points that YouTube is moving toward profitability for the past few months. And while 1 billion daily views alone doesn't point to how much revenue the site is generating, it points to continued rapid growth in the numbers of eyeballs that are making YouTube their first stop for online video.

Critical Windows patches released

Microsoft to patch zero-day SMB, IIS holes [CNET News]

If you're a Windows user and you don't have automatic updates enabled, it's time to download Microsoft's latest security updates. On Tuesday, Microsoft released a patch for two flaws that could allow a hacker to take control of a user's computer. The update fixes zero-day flaws in Microsoft Server Message Block (SMB) and Internet Information Services (IIS).

The patch also addresses 32 other problems, including issues that affect Windows, Internet Explorer, Office, Silverlight, Forefront, Developer Tools, and SQL Server.

In addition to Microsoft's patch, Adobe Systems released a software patch to fix a critical vulnerability in Adobe Reader that affects Windows, Unix and Apple Macintosh users. The Adobe patch was also released on Tuesday, and is highly recommended for any user with Adobe Reader installed on their computer.

Facebook has a 'happiness' tracking index

Facebook index shows when you're happy [CNET News]

Facebook is crowd-sourcing a happiness index using the aggregated content of the status messages of its 300 million plus users. It's called the Gross National Happiness Index. If the Facebook world is having a collectively good day, the Happiness Index is up. But if everyone on Facebook is bummed out, the Happiness Index goes down.

Here's how it works.

Individual users are constantly updating their Facebook status. The Facebook Lexicon tool analyzes the anonymous status update content for specific keywords. Keywords like "happy," "yea," and "awesome" are recognized by Facebook Lexicon indicating positive emotions. Collectively they move the Happiness Index in the positive direction. Numbers of negative keywords produce a similar effect in the opposite direction.

Facebook's Happiness Index correlates to events happening in the real world, with holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas and Valentine's Day spiking the Index in the positive direction. When the stock market has taken a dive, the Index has headed south. There also appears to be a correlation between the closeness of the weekend and the positive direction of the Index.

These days, the Gross National Happiness looks to be in the positive range. Maybe that's just because we're halfway through the work week. I wonder how Fridays compare to Mondays.

To take a look for yourself, click here to see the Facebook Gross National Happiness Index.