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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
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