Dear Reader, Welcome to Switched On, your whistle-stop tour around the big news stories breaking in digital communications this month. Skim, scan or skip them, this is your one stop shop to catch up on what's been going on in the sector with links to Intellect's relevant work streams. We are always striving to provide our readers with first class relevant information and hope we've got it right. However, if you would like to see more information in a particular area please let us know. T: 020 7331 2161 E: sam.ingleby@intellectuk.org W: www.intellectuk.org Convergence Culture The blurring of the divisions between broadcast platforms continues apace with the announcement that digital channel e4 plans to premiere the second series of cult teen drama Skins online. The first episode will be posted on MySpace in four parts before the complete show is made available on the E4 website a day before digital transmission. This comes in the same week as the BBC announced that one of its blue chip sporting events - the Six nations - will become the first major sporting event to be available to broadband viewers via the iplayer. Matches are also being simulcast live on BBC Sport's website. Sticking with matters convergent, Intellect has been invited to contribute to the work that a joint Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) and Department of Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) run think tank will be undertaking on how convergence is affecting citizens, industry and government. The report will be written in nine chapters focusing on the nine topics the DCMS and BERR Convergence Think Tank will be looking at over the coming year. Intellect's first submission, 'Capitalising on Convergence 2: What does it mean for citizens, industry and government?', is now available to download as a pdf. More... DAB boom at Christmas During a challenging time for Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) manufacturers as speculation about the long-term prospects of the market continue, DAB radio sets enjoyed extremely strong Christmas sales, with over one million products bought in Q4 of 2007 in the UK. More than 550,000 DAB radios were sold in December alone, up 22 per cent on December 2006. GfK figures put cumulative sales of DAB sets at 6.45 million at the end of 2007, up from 4.4 million in 2006. The good news for manufacturers comes at an important time as the government appointed Digital Radio Working Group - that Intellect sits on as the manufacturers representatives - has just started its programme of work which will culminate in a recommendation to the Secretary of State on how to make 'digital listening the norm'. Get involved in Intellect's DAB Digitial Radio Group and find out how Intellect can represent your views to key stakeholders such as broadcasters, Government and Ofcom. More... VoD comes bouncing along Video On Demand will go mainstream early in 2008 as BBC Worldwide, Channel 4 and ITV confirmed plans to launch a joint venture. The project, currently named Kangaroo, will initially be available via the web. Programmes will be available free, to rent or download-to-own. The backers ultimately hope to deliver content direct to TVs. The service is expected to initially offer more than 10,000 hours of archived programming. Intellect's Digital Communications Market Group is a speaker-led forum that mixes market trends and analysis with presentations from technology customers, industry commentators and innovators. Get involved and have your say. More... Only connect In a thought-provoking article in the FT by Mike Zafirovski, the CEO of Nortel Networks argues that the proliferation of communication devices and applications is having a huge negative productivity impact on industry. He cites data from Sage Research, which suggests that more than half of us try multiple ways of reaching increasingly mobile individuals on a daily basis with 36 per cent of those efforts failing to connect on the first attempt. "With all this technology you might think people are connecting as never before," he wrote. "The reverse is true." More... Unmissable diary dates DAB Digital Radio Group - 05 February 2008 Intellect Energy and Environment Conference 2008 - 12 February 2008 Intellect Information Morning - 22 February 2008 Digital Communications Market Group - 27 February 2008 Electronics Manufacturing Reception - 12 March 2008 Intellect Annual Dinner 2008 - 14 May 2008 Consumer Electronics Conference 2008: Tomorrow's Technology - 03 July 2008

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