2008's been a funny old year.
As we turn the corner into 2009, Virgin's talking about 50mbps broadband, Kangaroo is on the ropes and the dark cloud of credit crunch looms large over us all.
But if you look at the numbers, the rise and rise of downloading - both legal and illegal - is unstoppable.
iPlayer, SkyPlayer, ITVPlayer and Fiver have all made it easier to find and watch the TV shows we love while the ISPs are sending out warning letters to anyone who might be filesharing. No-one wants to be the first to start cutting people off though.
So the future looks bright, assuming that we've all still got jobs in six months.
DownloadMonkey hasn't been immune from the pressures facing all of us at this time. So we're going to kick off the new year by looking for a new site editor. They need to be able to write in something more than LOLspeak, passionate about all the things we care about here at DLM, able to handle a cool but simple CMS and be really keen to get involved in making this site hot hot hot. You'll be UK based and have ideas about extending the site and it's coverage. There's no money in it (at least for now) it's a labour of love, but DLM does have excellent contacts in the TV and online business - so they'll have plenty of support. If you think this sounds like you and you want to get involved, write something smart and post it here.
Hoping you all have a safe and wonderful Christmas and New Year.
The DLM team
Ashley Highfield has announced he's standing down as CEO of Kangaroo.
The proposed catch up service from BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4 has sailed choppy waters since the former head of BBC Technology joined six months ago.
The move comes as yet another blow for project. It's currently under investigation from the Competition Commission and Highfield's departure follows that of Patrick Ugeux, ITV's director of Project Kangaroo in August.
Highfield is jumping ship to be MD and VP of consumer and online at Microsoft UK.
Highfield said: "It has been a great pleasure and challenge to take Project Kangaroo to the next stage of its journey. It is something I believe passionately in and I will remain a great ambassador for the project from afar as it continues on the road to becoming a brilliant proposition for consumers in this exciting market".
Here at Download Monkey we spend a lot of time thinking, talking and arguing about quality and ease of use.
When your beat is Video On Demand and technology is throwing up a new twist each and every week, there's plenty to talk about.
Timely then that Gizmodo should put out a piece reminding us all that Samsung's death knell for Blu-ray is a little premature considering that it is still the number one spot on quality - the only thing that comes close is Sky+HD - that disc and player prices are tumbling fast and of course that EVERYONE knows how to use a DVD.
This is one of those sanity check pieces that is well worth a read.
To read the full Gizmodo piece click here
Come on. We've all seen it. You know it's true
With more HD around - from Blu ray, Sky, Virgin, Apple - we're all starting to watch more and more HD shows and movies 0 on DVD, cable or dish TV and downloaded.
But that fact is that all HD is not created equal.
To these eyes, the quality of HD sources we've used runs to a list that looks something like this:
1. Blu ray DVD
2. Sky+HD
3. Virgin
4. Apple
5. Xbox Live
Bitrate seems to be the key here and the team over at Gizmodo have had a good look around and written a solid piece all about it.
It's well worth a read if you are in the least bit interested in why your HD mileage seems to vary...
Gizmodo's HD round-up
Complex navigation, incomplete libraries and an utterly confusing array of competiting services are pushing law abiding TV downloaders into the arms of online pirates.
A survey by Essential Reasearch has confirmed what we here at Download Monkey have always said. In fact, it's the reason we started this site.
It seems that when it comes to VoD,consumers are being driven to illegal file-sharing services such as The Pirate Bay when they can't find the content they want on big-brand sites such on the iPlayer, SkyPlayer or 4OD.
This confusion is seen as the single biggest hurdle for VoD and is holding back the take up of all services.
The report says consumers "expect an integrated approach of delivery" and care far more about being able to find the content than the platform they watch it on. There is also an "an overwhelming demand" for a consolidated VoD service and most consumers expected VoD services to be free.
It seems that consumers explore less VoD content without good, solid recommendation systems, and the brand of individual shows is vastly more important than any channel brand.
On the plus side, Essential says broadcasters can use VoD to reach out to new audiences, get viewers more engaged with shows and distribute more specialised content to a wider audience rather than burying it in TV graveyard slots.
And while highlighting some teething problems, the report paints a positive picture for the future of VoD services.
Though they will not watch more TV, VoD viewers will become more appealing to advertisers, who will be able to reach targeted groups of users who are more engaged with the material they choose to watch than "passive" linear television viewers.