Why Hiro is not my hero

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 27 May 2008 12:06

Opinion and Analysis

On the face of it, Hiro-Media's approach to distributing ad-supported video content without the usual DRM issues seems promising, but there are some major flaws.


The basic idea is that rightsholders can release files without conventional digital rights management that viewers can download free of charge and copy for their friends, or even distribute via peer-to-peer networks. Yet the rightsholder still gets the revenue. That sounds like the best of both worlds, so what's the catch?

The business model is that ads are dynamically inserted as the content is played, providing a revenue stream for the rightsholder. That still sounds fine to me, as long as the ads aren't too intrusive.

The problem broadcast TV has is that ad breaks are so long and so frequent that they've become a major barrier to enjoying the show. Consequently, people channel surf, use technology to fast-forward or completely skip over ads, or simply leave the room. Consequently, they never see many of the ads.

(It's interesting to hear that the Fox network in the US is going to experiment with shorter and less frequent breaks in some shows, charging more for the spots that are available to make up the difference as well as the cost of the higher proportion of program material.)

Hiro's approach is to prevent fast forwarding or rewinding during ads. Furthermore, the ads are dynamically inserted along with pieces of the show that were omitted from the original file. Once the Hiro software has collected these items, the file will play locally for a few days, after which a new set of ads fetched from the server before it can be played again.

So what are the snags?