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New online content library features pubcaster programs

Originally published in Current, May 2, 2005

Advocates for creating a comprehensive pubcasting on-demand audio/video service are trying their idea with a beta test launched last week. The Public Service Publisher concept dovetailed with the nonprofit Open Media Network, founded by Netscape vet Mike Homer.

The free online service aggregates pubTV and radio programs, movies and podcasts at www.omn.org and makes all content searchable via a TV-style program guide.
Users can download content to PCs and iPods and they’ll be able to use TVs and cell phones by summer. Additional plans call for pay-content capability and an audience ranking and rating system.

Producers can contribute rights-cleared content for free for unlimited downloads, though publishers can dictate the terms of use via the delivery technology’s built-in digital rights management system.

Stations such as Boston’s WGBH, San Francisco’s KQED and KWSU in Pullman, Wash., are among the first pubcasters to contribute content.

Proponents of Public Service Publisher include Dennis Haarsager, g.m. of KWSU and Northwest Public Radio, and Hearts of Space producer Stephen Hill.

Web page posted Dec. 19, 2005
Copyright 2005 by Current Publishing Committee

EARLIER ARTICLES

In a 2004 Current commentary, Dennis Haarsager urges public broadcasting colleagues to get to know an impatient, underserved audience: users of on-demand media.

In public radio, stations and networks team up for a coordinated advance in podcasting, August 2005.

LATER ARTICLES

A Public Service Web Engine is a key proposal of the PBS-appointed Digital Futures Initiative, December 2005.

LINKS

Public Service Publisher Initiative, discussed at Integrated Media Association conference in January 2005 explained in one-sheet PDF and a longer PowerPoint slide show.

The separately conceived but parallel Open Media Network became the platform for public broadcasters to test on-demand media on the Web in 2005.

Dennis Haarsager's blogs on the Public Service Publisher Initiative and media technology in general (Technology 360).

 

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