RUPERT MURDOCH announced the first steps towards creating his own, closed
version of the Internet last week. The tycoon鈥檚 British satellite broadcasting
company, BSkyB, confirmed that it is working with British Telecom, the Midland
Bank and Matsushita to offer a home shopping and banking communications system,
ironically dubbed 鈥淥pen鈥�, which uses proprietary technology to close access to
the World Wide Web.
The joint venture, called British Interactive Broadcasting (BIB), is heavily
subsidising the cost of BSkyB鈥檚 digital satellite receivers, which have been
designed to nudge satellite TV viewers into Murdoch鈥檚 wired high street, where
they can buy goods and services from a limited number of companies. Firms
wanting electronic shop fronts, such as Woolworths, will pay BIB a commission on
sales.
While Open will allow users to send e-mail to and from the public
Internet, they cannot access the World Wide Web and display HTML pages. Instead,
BSkyB鈥檚 satellite will continuously deliver updated shopping and banking
information at a rate of 68 megabits per second. Links between BSkyB and BIB are
so tight that the moment a BSkyB digital receiver is connected, its internal
28.8K modem automatically dials BIB鈥檚 central computer to register the box鈥檚
serial number. The modem then dials out to report when the box owner watches
pay-per-view movies or sports events鈥攁 cheap way of measuring ratings.
Advertisement
Even if no viewing charges are incurred, the modem dials out intermittently
to confirm that it is still connected. The viewer gets a cheap receiver as long
as they leave their phone plugged into the receiver: if not, Sky can send
signals over the air which stop the receiver working until the viewer pays back
the subsidy.