Toronto company launches news channel on web using wireless technology

Even as hundreds of applications flood the CRTC's Hull QC headquarters for licences to broadcast new digital specialty stations, Internet upstart Workday-TV.com Corp is bypassing regulatory channels by going direct-to-web. From a mobile broadcasting van/station roaming Toronto's financial district, the company has commercialized a news service station during market hours delivered solely via its website. It began its broadcasts April 12. The service offers live news reporting, stock quotes, analysis and live interviews as the financial markets develop. With an impressively-seasoned crew of on-air personalities, and even more importantly, a bottom line in the black from the word go, the small company is making a serious challenge for credibility against its heavily capitalized and well branded broadcast competition. Revenues have been immediate, and company executives say they have had little trouble signing some heavy-hitting sponsors to run commercials. WorkdayTV is a small organization consisting of seven people including founding partners Paul Bliss, president, William Stratas, CTO, and two others. The company is privately funded without any venture capital involvement, though Bliss says several larger broadcast concerns have been in discussions with WorkdayTV about potential strategic partnerships. The company has grown rapidly from concept to commercialization. Bliss says implementation was four weeks in the making, dating from BCE Inc's acquisition of CTV Inc. A television executive at the time, the deal inspired Bliss, who approached his current partners about forming an Internet television company. "You don't need to buy a TV network to put content on the Internet," Bliss insists. "You don't need to spend $10 billion. We could take Internet technology, blend it with television technology, and create our own TV station. I suggested that we replicate this over and over again, and we could become a monster Internet provider for a lot less than CTV cost." The system takes advantage of off-the-shelf technology including encoders and wireless equipment to make the daily broadcast possible. Studio images are encoded inside the company's roaming van, then sent via Wi-LAN Inc's 2.4 GHz licence-exempt wireless Ethernet equipment to a downtown Toronto receiver. There, signals make a few short hops to the company's servers, and are broadcast to viewers. And unlike conventional broadcasters, Bliss faces no Canadian content requirements, contributions to programming, spectrum licences or other regulatory hurdles. "From top to bottom there's nothing governing what we're doing, other than sticking to the professional standards that any business would stick to. There's no regulation on the broadband spectrum, the technology, or the content. -We're mobile but we don't need a satellite. We don't need a microwave tower." Bliss says he's not out to compete head-to-head with larger and more visible news outlets such as RoBTV, CTV Newsnet, MSNBC or CNNfn, though the target audience is composed of the same people. Within the first day, the site had attracted over 1,000 viewers. Advertising has been word-of-mouth and funneled through partners such as the Bank of Montreal and TD Waterhouse. He acknowledges that production quality is significantly less than conventional television broadcasts. The "station" also has a different feel from traditional newscasts, and the on-air talent adopts a casual, conversational approach to reporting. "They're on a very long leash," says Bliss. The system works using RealNetworks Inc's streaming player, but Bliss says the station is far more interactive than television. He says investors and viewers often email the crew with questions and are responded to, often within minutes. With the exception of some limited interactivity, however, Bliss says there is little about the medium that changes the basic broadcast model. Success, he points out, will always depend on an ability to attract viewers and advertisers.

Toronto company launches news channel on web using wireless technology

News | 04/20/2000 4:00 am EDT

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