Local Internet TV Takes Off In Austria

Cyrus writes "The BBC reports on an Austrian village that is testing technology which could represent the future of television. The pilot has been so successful that Telekom Austria is now considering setting up other projects elsewhere." From the article: "The hardware and software to turn video footage into edited programmes has been provided by Telekom Austria but this equipment, following training, has been turned over to the villagers. Any video programme created by the villagers is uploaded to a Buntes Fernsehen portal that lets people browse and download what they want to watch. "

Comments

I can see the benefit... no wait....

[sveiki_neliels]

I can see the benefits possible with on-demand television. Downloading what you want to watch and watching it. The idea has been proposed before and is not really new.

What seems to be new here is the local production and upload of television programmes. I don't mean to be pessimistic, but I don't see this being adopted worldwide. Consider something like this being implemented in a large city. Not only would you possibly now have thousands of options to download in varying degrees of insanely crappy quality, but I'm sure you'd also fill up these "portals" with tons of crap uploaded by people thinking they are doing a public service.

Unfortunately, if this kind of idea takes off, we wouldn't be able to just limit it to places that need it, like rural areas that otherwise don't have their own coverage. I'm no fan of the news media industry, but there is a reason people go to school for journalism and don't become newscasters simply by living in an area where news is made.

Re:I can see the benefit... no wait....

[Anonymous Coward]

"There is a reason people go to school for journalism and don't become newscasters simply by living in an area where news is made."

As a former journalist, editor I can tell you this: going to school of journalism does not make you a journalist. I helped several talented people to become journalists, although they did not take any formal education in that field. It's more like writers, actors, painters, singers: you are either gifted or not. Obviously, being gifted is just the beginning, you need to learn a lot on your way to become a recognized journalist, but none of my "personal picks" failed. Mind you, they came from all walk of life, most of them highly educated in other fields. Journalism is actually a teamwork: journalists are only one part, equally are important editors, who most of the times serve as mentors. They together can become each others inspiration, healthy critics and able to create great journalism.
I do believe that there are plenty of undiscovered, true journalists, editors around the world - many more than the big, visible media outlets can absorb.

Obviously, a project like this would create tons of fairly useless reports, it would attract tons of wanna-be journalists. Talented editors would still be needed to separate the gifted ones from the rest.
It would be extremely interesting, though... it would allow local colours to go global... It would allow a much broader point of view what you can see currently in the media industry.
It could provide a much better public participation than the current, sickeningly manipulative radio "talk shows" deliver.
It could help to "compete" with media oultlets, which beat their competitons only by being better funded and able to afford to send journalists to more hot spots than others.
Now we see wars and "international events" as a CNN (and a few other media giant) reporter reports it to us. It would be extremely interesting though to see the same event from a truly local prospective at the same time. At least it would help us to understand the world better.

Re:I can see the benefit... no wait....

[interiot]

Are you trolling, or not?

It seems obvious that there are very direct analogies to the current text/audio portions of the internet. Yes, anybody can put up a crappy site or post inane babble on their blog. However, if you post good stuff all the time, a lot of people will watch you often. If you post good stuff once in a while, then the top-dog people will link to your best stuff, and people will still be interested in what you do.

Also, while there are professional journalists, who write stuff on websites that have millions invested in them, there are still a decent percentage of urban people who realize that this means there's a much smaller pool of talent to draw from, and it's beholden to advertising interests, and so sometimes people even actually PREFER the grass-roots stuff over professional/mainstream journalism.

It'll never work in the U.S.

[Anonymous Coward]

This will be outlawed in the US faster than you can imagine. The Republicans and the Democrats have already been bought out by the various conglomerates (**COUGH** Disney **COUGH**) for copyright extention, I can't imaging them allowing something like this to flourish. They'll say it smacks of Communism or something.

Re:Been there done that

[LokieLizzy]

" It's called public access television in the US, only we don't put it on the internet."

Err...if we haven't put it on the internet, then I'm not sure how you can declare we've "been there, done that." That would be like making fun of someone who managed to build a car powered by cold-fusion, and stating, "we (America)'ve been there, done that, only our cars run on gas."

the catch.

[virtualone]

there is a big problem with this whole issue: under their current pricing scheme, it it impossible to watch more than 1 hour of tv per month.
they charge about 5 cent per MB for downloads above their limit of 1 GB/month.
if they would introduce a fair pricing scheme, some people would be able to use broadband technology is a meaningful way.
in austria, alternative providers are only slowly gaining ground.

Re:Select titles:

[Capt'n Hector]

Oh god damn it. I even read the entire article too. *Covers eyes* Ok, do it. Mod me down to oblivion. Just get it over with!

Re:Been there done that

[sahonen]

How many places can you think of where you can check out a broadcast video camera, use a fully equipped and lit television studio, or edit on an Avid, along with being trained in the operation of each for free? Television is much more than how you receive it, there's an entire process behind it. This operation in Austria is not just about doing television over the internet, it's about empowering the community to create mass media, which public access is already doing in the United States.

Re:Been there done that

[Frankie70]

Err...if we haven't put it on the internet, then I'm not sure how you can declare we've "been there, done that.


Well, if you can have a world series without inviting any other country to play in it, rest assured that you can declare anything you want.