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RSS has been embraced by major publishers such as the BBC and if you visit the BBC
web site, you can see its potential. It enables you to subscribe to very specific content that
interests you and then provides you with an alert when a new story is published. For
example, I subscribe to the e-commerce news channel and that for Arsenal, my football
team. In this arrangement subscription does not require opt-in, it just requires a request of
the feed. So RSS is potentially a threat to the permission marketing model since there is no
data exchange and it is easy for subscribers to switch them on and off.
More technical information on RSS is available at: www.rss-specifications.com/
rss-submission.htm.
RSS feeds are now more widely adopted since it is available beyond specialist readers in the
still ubiquitous Microsoft Internet Explorer and Outlook products. According to Avenue A –
Razorfish (2008) 55% of web users in the US consume feeds, although this figure will be signifi-
cantly lower in other geographical areas. However, the benefits of feeds for consumers are clear:
1 More granular control of communications (e.g. choose content updates from any channel
on the BBC site such as the e-commerce section – see BBC site for explanation of RSS
consumer proposition).
2 Can switch on and off without registration (reduces control of marketers). Someone could
subscribe to holiday offers within a 2-week period from a travel web site for instance.
3 Little or no spam since messages are pulled to the reader from the server (currently –
although ads may be placed within a feed).
There are certainly disadvantages to RSS from the consumer viewpoint. That it requires a
separate inbox or reader to set up and monitor has deterred many. It also only suits certain
types of information – published as single alerts – it is mainly used for short stories and
press releases. It has not traditionally been used in a newsletter type format with an edited
collection of stories, but this is possible within the specification.
RSS is a threat to e-mail marketers since typically users profile and qualify themselves
before opt-in to e-mail. With RSS this permission marketing isn’t necessary since it is a pull
service where the user retrieves information from the web site hosting the RSS feed.
IPTV (Internet TV)
IPTV (Internet The growth in popularity of IPTV or ‘Internet TV’, where TV and video are streamed via
Protocol television) broadband across the Internet, is one of the most exciting developments in recent years. In
Digital television service
is delivered using Internet 2007 services offering streamed viewing of hundreds of channels from providers such as the
Protocol, typically by a Europe-based Joost (Figure 3.12, www.joost.com) and the US service Hulu (www.hulu.com)
broadband connection. launched, and there are many competitors such as Babelgum, Vuze and Veoh. IPTV is some-
IPTV can be streamed for
real-time viewing or times referred to as non-linear TV or on-demand broadcasting to contrast it with the
downloaded before traditional broadcasting to schedule.
playback.
IPTV will also be used to deliver standard channels available on satellite, in the UK for
example BT Vision and Tiscali TV offer Freeview channels. Then there is also the IPTV
option of digital TV downloaded before playback as is possible with many traditional broad-
casters such as the BBC, Sky or ITV using peer-to-peer distribution from technology
providers such as Kontiki (a commercial version of BitTorrent, where many users download
and share small chunks of the programme). Who pays for the large bandwidth required by
IPTV is an ongoing debate covered in the next section on net neutrality. Ultimately it will be
the consumer, but many ISPs have accused broadcasters of increasing bandwidth usage!
It will be essential for marketers and ad agencies to learn how to exploit the new IPTV in
order to reach these audiences online who may be forsaking traditional media for ever –
already some digital technophiles do not and will never own a conventional TV – all TV is
delivered via Internet Protocol!
Providers of IPTV services such as Joost are experimenting with new ad formats since the
days of the 30-second TV spot are gone for ever. Research by Moorey-Denholm and Green
(2007) has shown that effective video ads are substantially shorter with brief pre-rolls and