Webcasting: the new frontier?

TV programs broadcast over the Internet are poised to become a major business

Picture this scene. You're in Cannes at about 8 a.m. You're waiting for the 11 p.m. news on KING-TV, broadcast from Seattle to your [Webtv.sup.*] set (all terms followed by an asterisk appear in the glossary on page 50). To tune in, you select www.king5.com with your remote control. The news isn't on yet, so you watch the remaining few minutes of... Star Trek? You're ready to rush to the phone and call the lawyers when you remember that Star Treks Webcast rights have been sold to Microsoft.

Well, the scene might not evolve in exactly this way, because Microsoft will most likely air its syndicated programs on its own Web site, but you get the gist. Webcasting, defined as full-motion video sent over the Internet, is only two years away. Today, many broadcasters are already simulcasting their programs on the Internet, even if, for now, the programming is on a limited schedule and of limited quality. Nonetheless, more than 200,000 hours of live video content are already Webcast weekly on the Internet.

The studios are not far behind. Reportedly, Studios US[A.sup.*] is talking with Microsoft about developing Web simulcasts for Xena: Warrior Princess, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Law & Order. Fox's The X-Files was reportedly developed with the show's parallel Web presence in mind. In the U.S., MSNB[C.sup.*] is very active with streaming [video.sup.*] over the Internet. In Canada, MuchMusic is now Internet [syndicating.sup.*] its video programs to Internet companies.

While traditional networks now on [broadband.sup.*] (broadcast or cable) are preparing to go into Webcasting, new channels are planning to migrate from Webcasting to broadband as soon as the latter becomes digital. New York-based American Interactive Media recently launched ComedyNet, a 24-hour comedy channel on the Internet which will compete with the more established Comedy Central cable network. ComedyNet plans to migrate to broadband by 1999. Until then, ComedyNet viewers will be able to download software that will enable them to see the she's three-hour programming block, which is repeated eight times a day via streaming video.

It won't be long before we'll be able to tune in to any TV station anywhere in the world via the Internet. Problems with program rights, rather than with technology, stand to limit the initial growth of Webcasting. Those familiar with the rights difficulties likely to be created by Webcasting are now trying to simplify the matter by suggesting that program distributors license each show to just one player or, at most, one player per language worldwide. Program rights could be sold to "secured services" (i.e., subscription-based services, video-on-demand or pay-per-view) or be sold for free viewing.

According to Giuliano Berretta, president of Eutelsat,(*) there will be two million digital TV viewers in Europe by the year 2000, at which time Eutelsat will be offering 2,500 digital TV channels. In contrast, by the year 2002, 25 percent of online(*) households in the U.S. will have some type of high-speed modem(*). In the U.S., the digital allure seems to have shifted from cable and satellite to... the Internet. Not that satellites are out of the picture. Indeed, with DirectPC from the Hughes Network Satellite System, Internet services are now distributed via satellite.

Webcasting will also advance the United States' conversion to digital by making digital TV sets more accessible. If left solely to traditional TV manufacturers, the digital TV set would be prohibitively expensive for many Americans. However, because hundreds of U.S. TV stations and all of the U.S. TV networks work in digital, it is easy for them to open a Webcast site on the Internet. Long Island, New York-based American Movie Classics is jump-starting digital distribution by launching its digital programming service, American Pop, on the Internet. When the MSOs(*) switch to digital, American Pop will become a regular digital cable channel.

Now the challenge lies in developing the technologies that will allow full-motion video to be transmitted over the Internet. The challenge is multileveled. On the technological side, companies like Microsoft, Apple and Real Networks are rushing to develop the best possible video streaming system. Several computer manufacturers have introduced computers that double as televisions, an early step on the path to making computers resemble televisions. Silicon Valley, for its part, is able to double the processing power(*) and halve the cost of the computer chip every 18 to 24 months. The telcos(*), for their part, are pushing forward with ADSL(*), a new. highspeed telephone technology that uses ordinary phone lines. On the programming side, U.S. networks such as NBC and ABC are rushing to acquire Internet service providers(*) so that their shows will be able to reach the widest possible audience. And don't forget the cable companies, which hope to offer high-speed Internet service to 90 percent of their subscribers by the year 2006.

Webcasters use various technologies for streaming video. The one most commonly used by those who have telephone access to the Internet is RealVideo(*), while those who connect to the Internet via cable generally use either Microsoft's NetShow(*) or Apple's QuickTime(*). In any case, most Webcasters use at least two different systems for streaming video.

For all practical purposes, Webcasting is already a fully developed medium in the U.S. An estimated 62 million people in 40 percent of American households, use the Internet. Meanwhile, recent research has demonstrated that the Web audience pattern is closer to that of TV than that of radio. Initially, it was assumed that the Web, like radio, was a "frequency" medium - i.e., that the same people used it over and over again. But research proved that the Web has "reach" - i.e., large audiences - just like television. According to Web audience-rating service Media Metrix, the Internet has a reach curve that, in the U.S., is second only to that of network primetime TM. Partly for this reason, the networks are now acquiring Internet companies. NBC recently acquired Snap! and then joined with with Comcast, Intel, Sony Corp. and U.S. West to purchase Intertainer, an online video service that, among other things, programs movies and music videos on the Internet. Intertainer is run by Jonathan Taplin and Richard Baskin, both of whom have experience in Hollywood. NBC also owns Videoseeker, a Web site that offers short video clips. Similarly, ABC purchased the search engine Infoseek, one of the most heavily visited Web sites in the world.

These holdings will put the networks into the multicasting(*) business, for, without a multiple server operator, a Web site cannot be viewed simultaneously by more than 10,000 users. This multicast protocol(*) will eventually require the deployment of new phone hardware.

As it is, the Internet today is, in the words of experts, a "pretty fragile network." Congestion problems caused by the weakest link in a phone loop reduce Webcasting quality, regardless of the speed of the transmission lines and the capabilities of the receiving unit. Telcos blame Internet congestion on the companies that carry the data stream between carriers (local telcos are not allowed to provide long distance Internet services). The U.S. government is tackling the congestion problem by spearheading the development of Internet 2, a much faster network. Thus, instead of upgrading the current complex Internet infrastructure, the networks may eventually be able to bypass the old backbone(*) altogether for their audiovisual programming. International viewing of the Webcasts would still be subject to some limitations by various telephone switching systems, although ADSL technology will eventually eliminate switching. Therefore, until the satellites allow Web companies to bypass most of the telephone lines, Webcasting will work best as a regional medium.

Glossary of Terms

ADSL: Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line. A technology that employs unused bandwidth on common copper wiring (twisted pair), enabling fast transmission speeds of 640 kilobits per second, 1.2 megabits per second and 7.1 megabits per second.

Backbone: The primary trunk that connects slower circuits.

Broadband: Broadcast and cable transmission using a six-megahertz bandwidth of electromagnetic space.

Browser: Software that allows a user to search through information on an Internet service.

CMTS: Cable Modems Termination System. A system based on the data via cable service interface specifications.

Decompression: MPEG and encoding-decoding technologies (see article on Page 58).

Downstream: From the origination point to the receiver.

DSL: Digital Subscriber Line. A regular copper phone line that can carry data at speeds of up to 1.5 megabits per second (downstream). This technology serves as an alternative to the expensive T1 lines and ISDN lines.

Eutelsat: A Paris-based satellite company owned by 46 telcos, most of them European. It has 11 satellites, including the four Hot Bird satellites, whose signals can be received with the same dish. It competes with Astra, a private company based in Luxembourg.

Internet service provider

(ISP): An organization that offers access to the Internet. Typically users dial into the ISP using their computers and regular phone lines.

Internet syndication: Programs sold to search engines and other Web sites.

ISDN: Integrated Services Digital Network. Uses twisted-pair phone lines to deliver two 64 kilobit per second channels.

Kilobits per second (Kbps): Speed of data transmission; mostly a telecommunications measurement.

Kilobytes per second (KBps): Information stored in memory. Mostly a computer measurement. Also 8 bits = 1 Byte.

Megabits per second (Mbps): 1,000 kilobits per second.

Modem: Modulator/Demodulator. Phone modems convert digital data into audio signals for transmission and convert those signals back into data for reception. Phone modems can reach speeds of up to 56 kilobits per second. Incorporated into digital set-top boxes, cable modems convert digital video and data into radio frequencies. A cable modem can carry between 50 and 120 six-megahertz channels, each of which has a speed of 38 megabits per second.

MSNBC: The business cable programming company owned by NBC and Microsoft.

MSO: Multiple System Operator. A company that owns multiple cable systems.

Multicasting: Sending video to the local server that the user has dialed.

NetShow: A server that supports both live and on-demand video. A Microsoft technology, similar to MPEG-4.

Online: When computers and central file servers are in interactive communication with one another over a network.

Processing power: The speed and ability with which a computer can perform its functions.

Protocol: A set of rules with which software and hardware systems must comply in order to be compatible.

Quicklime: An Apple software program that allows computers to play video and audio.

RADSL: Rate Adaptive Digital Subscriber Line. Similar to ADSL.

RealVideo: A software program similar to QuickTime, but offered by Real Networks. The simpler version takes up to two megabytes of memory and can be downloaded for free; the more advanced version costs $30.

Streaming video: Data transferred in real time.

Studios USA: The domestic television arm of Universal, run by Barry Diller. Studios USA owns CitySearch, a major Internet company.

T1 Line, T3 Line: A T1 telephone line is a digital connection that can carry data at a speed of 1.5 megabits per second. T3 is digital connection that can carry data at a speed of 45 megabits per second. The European equivalents are D1 (two megabits per second) and D3 (32 megabits per second).

Telcos: Telephone companies.

VDSL: Very Fast Digital Subscriber Line.

Webtv: A Microsoft service that makes any TV set capable of accessing Internet (see below). It includes a $100 device and a $20 monthly fee.

Most of these definitions can be fund in "The Dictionary of Multimedia" (Franklin, Beedle & Assoc. Inc., 350 pp.) by Brad Hansen.

RELATED ARTICLE: Will Webcasting Replace Television?

A 1997 study found that 97 percent of U.S. TV stations either already had or were planning to build their own Web sites.

Most stations first got on the Web with the idea of providing promotional support for their broadcast programming. As the technology has progressed, many have begun to move into new areas, like video programming and simulcasting. At NBC's Videoseeker, for example, viewers can find dips from Jay Leno's Tonight Show as well as old Saturday Night Live sketches.

John Stewart of Reston, Viginia-based Bell Atlantic Video makes a distinction between "Webcasting" - defined as a live video feed delivered via Internet - and "streaming video," defined as any recorded video content encoded for the Internet. However, Stewart acknowledged that for all practical purposes the term Webcasting will eventually refer to any video and audio content sent over the Internet.

What drove Webcasting technology, interestingly enough, was the Internet pornography industry, a development similar to that of home video, which was also popularized by porn. Webcasting revenues are generated in one of two ways: subscriptions (mainly for porn sites) and advertising.

According to Kevin Noonan of Nielsen Interactive Services, broadcasters will have to include interactivity if they want to capture viewers. "Internet will be on your TV," he said at the Association for Interactive Media seminar "2005: A Broadcasters Vision of an Internet Future." At the same seminar, Adam Fagan of Seattle-based Real Networks asked, "Will the Internet be a replacement for television?"

Thomas Edwards, president of The Sync. Inc., an Internet broadcasting company, sees the Internet as an excellent way for traditional broadcasters to offer content without the burdens of traditional modes of television delivery (satellite, for example).

The technologies that will continue to offer improvements for Webcasting will come from the telcos' delivery systems and the software companies' streaming video programs. The Internet service providers, for their part, will have to improve multicasting. In the view of some experts, video compression technology reached its peak with the MPEG-4 standard (see article on Page 58). However, Glen Reitmeir, who heads The David Sarnoff Labs in New Jersey, thinks that compression technology will develop further, even if the changes are not as dramatic. According to Steve Rose of the Viaduct Corporation, there will be advances in compression that will reduce the bandwidth required for TV-quality Internet video by 50 percent.

Today, an estimated 75 percent of Internet audio and video users connect with 28.8 kilobyte per second modems, while the remainder use either high-speed systems or 14.4 kilobit per second modems.

One of the Real Networks technologies that displays streaming video on the Web, the Real System G2, has a feature called Smart Stream, which adapts to rate environments. In other words, Smart Stream scales the bit rate up or down according to the available bandwidth. Real Networks' technology is reportedly used by more than 85 percent of the world's Webcasters. Real Networks also reports that, in the five-month period ending in April 1998, there was a 98 percent increase in the number of Web sites offering streaming media content.

For marketing reasons, some Webcasters opt not to use streaming video, preferring instead to have the video and audio content downloaded by the users. In this case, file size is everything. The smaller the file, the less time it takes to download and the sooner the viewer can watch the movie. A movie can be a few minutes or a few hours long and still take up the same amount of space, depending on the method of compression (encoding). However, Webcasters who don't wish to have their content recorded on the hard disks of viewers' computers prefer streaming video. Meanwhile, Cisco CEO John Chambers has predicted that, during the U.S. presidential elections in 2000 or 2004, voters will go straight to the Web to watch the candidates' speeches.

RELATED ARTICLE: Microsoft's Webtv Explained

Webtv technology was developed in 1995 by Steve Perlman and was acquired by Microsoft in 1997. The hardware units are manufactured by Sony and Philips and are distributed by the two companies in the U.S. only. The costs of the units range from $100 for the simple Webtv to $300 for the Webtv Plus. The monthly subscription fee for Webtv services is $20.

With the Webtv Plus, viewers are able to load and play back full-motion, full-screen video files from Web sites. Microsoft's VideoFlash format offers a fast, smooth display that matches the quality of television. MPEG playback is also provided. The Webtv Plus system includes a 1.1 gigabyte hard drive for local storage of multimedia content with full-motion video and symphonic sound. Viewers have immediate control and access to the material without having to wait for it to download. Webtv Plus can receive high-bandwidth data of one megabit per second. Another feature, WebPIP, allows viewers to switch instantly among full-screen TV, full-screen World Wide Web and a combined picture-in-picture TV and Web display. The latter feature enables audiences to watch cable or broadcast TV shows and explore related Web content at the same time. Users can also view 3-D special effects transitions with live video.

RELATED ARTICLE: What To Look For in a Web Computer:

Speed: The top models can now process information at between 300 megahertz and 400 megahertz.

Memory: Random Access Memory, or RAM, refers to the memory that the computer uses to run the operating system and applications. It is a good idea to have a computer that can be expanded to at least 32 megabytes of RAM. The higher the RAM, the more commands the computer can carry out simultaneously.

Hard Drive: Also called storage. A fixed, magnetic disk drive that stores large amounts of data and programs. Better get a least two gigabytes.