The third day of business at the MipTV programme market has begun here in Cannes to very cold and overcast weather.
Even though the market is teeming with as many people as ever, the atmosphere is distinctly more quiet, with few big parties or events. A lot of sellers and buyers say they don't plan to do much actual business here, seeing it as more of a meet and greet, but even that feels more muted this year.
11am Cannes time - Welsh public broadcaster S4C has commissioned an interesting new show, Around the World in 80 Toilets. The four-part series aims to uncover the quirkiest loos around the world, and is being filmed in the UK, US, Japan, Australia and India among others with a broadcast date set for 2009/10. The show, produced by Welsh company Cwmni Da, is being made in conjunction with S4C, TG4, France 5 and S4C International. A few quick facts for toilet fans: the earliest toilets date from 2500BC in Lothal, India while the first separate ladies and gents loos were introduced in a Parisien restaurant in 1739. S4C is looking for buyers out at MipTV and is hoping to be flushed with success (sorry) by the end of the market. Taxi!
5.30pm - I have had a day of new media stuff here at MipTV (inbetween dodging torrential rain storms), meeting up with the BBC and MySpace, who have both got some interesting announcements. You can read more about what the beeb had to say about the iPlayer here, but i caught up with the corporation's group controller of future media and technology Erik Huggers after his conference session this afternoon and asked him about Tiscali's pronouncement that the BBC should pay some of the costs ISPs have incurred since the iPlayer launch. He wasn't having any of it. ""We are in constant discussions with all the ISPs," he said. "There is a very open and proactive dialogue. We don't believe that the iPlayer is putting a massive strain on the internet. We hope that with good proactive dialogue we will find a solution. The likes of Tiscali forget that You Tube is a much bigger distributor of video in the UK. We can list five or six others who all contribute to video consumption. If there is such a demand for this [the iPlayer], shouldn't they [the ISPs] embrace that there is an organisation like the BBC who can innovate, and use it to their advantage?" When I asked if he rejected the ISP's call to part fund the extra costs, he said: "You bet."
Huggers also outlined some forthcoming changes for the iPlayer, which he said would relaunch in May to allow for a "much richer experience". Radio is to be fully integrated into the iPlayer while it will also allow recommendations and personalisation. Huggers said the beeb was also looking at launching a children's iPlayer for young kids to make it easier for them to find their favourite CBeebies and CBBC shows. The iPlayer passed something of a milestone with the launch of the new series of The Apprentice, when it became the first show to get over 100,000 hits in a single day.
MySpace will be unveiling their interesting news here tomorrow.
