A unique treatment of digital video distribution technology in a business context, Digital Video Distribution in Broadband, Television, Mobile and Converged Networks explores a range of diverse topics within the field through a combination of theory and practice to provide the best possible insight and exposure. The theoretical foundations inside assist a fuller understanding of the technologies used in practice, while real-world examples are correspondingly used to emphasize the applicability of theory in the commercial world. Fully illustrated throughout to help explain the fundamental concepts of digital media distribution, Digital Video Distribution in Broadband, Television, Mobile and Converged Networks is divided into three major parts starting initially with the basic industry trends that have been driving the adoption of video and making its distribution over the Internet an economically viable solution. This is followed with detail descriptions of challenges and solutions in distributing video in ‘open’ networks such as the Internet. The final part focuses on the challenges and solutions for distributing video in ‘closed’ networks such as the managed network of Telcos. Provides an A to Z of digital video distribution featuring technology, business, research, products and case studies. Features research topics exploring P2P Streaming, Digital Video Distribution over Disruption-Tolerant Networks and Scalable Video on Demand. Includes real world product descriptions on Transcoders, such as Rhozet, and IPTV Quality of Service Monitoring product, such as Ineoquest.

As patterns of media use become more integrated with mobile technologies and multiple screens, a new mode of viewer engagement has emerged in the form of connected viewing, which allows for an array of new relationships between audiences and media texts in the digital space. This exciting new collection brings together twelve original essays that critically engage with the socially-networked, multi-platform, and cloud-based world of today, examining the connected viewing phenomenon across television, film, video games, and social media. The result is a wide-ranging analysis of shifting business models, policy matters, technological infrastructure, new forms of user engagement, and other key trends affecting screen media in the digital era. Connected Viewing contextualizes the dramatic transformations taking place across both media industries and national contexts, and offers students and scholars alike a diverse set of methods and perspectives for studying this critical moment in media culture.

Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks – decentralized group structures allowing anyone to easily download and share resources online – already play a critical role in the distribution of digital content. Most of the debate on P2P heretofore has focused on copyright issues. However, as the basis for legitimate business models a number of companies have already quietly embraced, P2P has a largely unknown and underestimated impact on taxation, with vast repercussions on the development of mature, profitable markets. This book analyses the current framing for digital and media supplies provided via P2P technologies through the lens of an interdisciplinary approach drawing on tax law, computer science, economics, copyright law, and business studies. VAT concepts such as those of economic activity and taxable person, taxable transactions, consideration, barter and taxable amount, and territoriality rules are discussed in connection with P2P, as is the evaluation of VAT liability for P2P operations in the presence of copyright infringement. Topics and issues considered include: - centralized and decentralized P2P networks; - free-riding problems; - identifying actors in P2P networks for VAT purposes; - P2P and place of supply; and - pros and cons of integrating P2P with taxation regimes and especially VAT systems. The analysis draws on a vast range of sources, including EU legislation and case law, tax law literature and doctrine, international conventions and treaties, Council of Europe and OECD documents, ECHR case law, and official documents and cases from key jurisdictions worldwide, offering the first thoroughly grounded approach to overcoming the lack of understanding and awareness of ongoing changes currently separating the digital economy and traditional taxation systems, and a solid platform for discussion to the diverse communities of researchers and professionals interested in P2P.

The contributors to Signal Traffic investigate how the material artifacts of media infrastructure--transoceanic cables, mobile telephone towers, Internet data centers, and the like--intersect with everyday life. Essayists confront the multiple and hybrid forms networks take, the different ways networks are imagined and engaged with by publics around the world, their local effects, and what human beings experience when a network fails. Some contributors explore the physical objects and industrial relations that make up an infrastructure. Others venture into the marginalized communities orphaned from the knowledge economies, technological literacies, and epistemological questions linked to infrastructural formation and use. The wide-ranging insights delineate the oft-ignored contrasts between industrialized and developing regions, rich and poor areas, and urban and rural settings, bringing technological differences into focus. Contributors include Charles R. Acland, Paul Dourish, Sarah Harris, Jennifer Holt and Patrick Vonderau, Shannon Mattern, Toby Miller, Lisa Parks, Christian Sandvig, Nicole Starosielski, Jonathan Sterne, and Helga Tawil-Souri.

The reference will discuss mass media around the world in their varied forms—newspapers, magazines, radio, television, film, books, music, websites, and social media—and will describe the role of each in both mirroring and shaping society.

The Media Convergence Handbook sheds new light on the complexity of media convergence and the related business challenges. Approaching the topic from a managerial, technological as well as end-consumer perspective, it acts as a reference book and educational resource in the field. Media convergence at business level may imply transforming business models and using multiplatform content production and distribution tools. However, it is shown that the implementation of convergence strategies can only succeed when expectations and aspirations of every actor involved are taken into account. Media consumers, content producers and managers face different challenges in the process of media convergence. Volume I of the Media Convergence Handbook encourages an active discourse on media convergence by introducing the concept through general perspective articles and addressing the real-world challenges of conversion in the publishing, broadcasting and social media sectors.

This book analyzes the challenges facing public service media management in the face of ongoing technological developments and changing audience behaviors. It connects models, strategies, concepts, and managerial theories with emerging approaches to public media practices through an examination of media services (e.g. blogs, social networks, search engines, content aggregators) and the online performance of traditional public media organizations. Contributors identify the most relevant and useful approaches, those likely to encourage creativity, interaction, and the development of innovative content and services, and discuss how such innovation can underpin the continuation or expansion of public service media in the changing mediascape.