There's a new buzzword in town and surprise surprise, it's one of those techie ones that only a handful of people will understand. It's drop-dialling and if you've never heard of it, don't worry, for until now the term was only really commonplace in porn circles.
Given its background, it was only a matter of time before the less churlish broadcasters cottoned on to it, especially now that they're all falling over each other to make the web financially robust - and that's the impetus behind drop-dialling. Broadcasters need the web to start to work for them, but there are problems in making web programming pay. Basically, consumers are loath to tediously input credit card details in return for nothing more than a five-minute clip.
But, as the porn industry has found, consumers are quite happy to cover the "broadcast charges" with a premium rate dial-up call if it means they get the clip without having to do anything. The theory is simple: the user clicks on the drop-dialler, it automatically disconnects the user's internet connection and then dials up to the new number, the clip is streamed, ends and the users are connected back to their own internet service. The user is happy; the broadcaster is happy; everyone is happy, especially the telephone company which takes a healthy chunk of the call cost. The benefits are there for all to see. All that broadcasters have to do is get together with one of the growing number of phone operators offering drop-dialling.
Granada Broadband, the digital development division of Granada Media, has declared its interest in drop-dialling, along with the BBC and Channel 5, which have both conducted drop-dialling voting experiments.
The BBC introduced drop-dialling to its Comic Relief Big Brother website (.Comicrelief.com/bigbrother) last week, although the BBC would be the first to admit that, in its current form, drop-dialling leaves something to be desired. The drop-dialler used by Comic Relief to collect revenues from internet voters could not be used by Apple Mac users, nor could it be used by anyone not dialling up to the internet using a modem, given that it has to disconnect the line. Therein lies the flaw in the model. It cannot work with office-leased line connections and it cannot work with broadband. Instead it is limited to the estimated 7.8m home internet users who have narrowband connections.
Even then, it remains debatable whether users will click on the button that says: "When you vote online, your computer will simply stop the modem connection to your usual internet service provider and then reconnect you to the internet via a premium-rate line to register your vote." While it is a relatively painless process, and consumers have gradually accepted the concept of premium-rate phone lines (Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and Big Brother to take two phenomenally profitable examples), it is still easier to pick up a phone than log on to a website and sit and wait for the system to clock your vote. And that's even if you are already online and you are aware of the fixed price of the call - 25p in the case of Celebrity Big Brother.
Audiocall, the BBC Worldwide-owned telephone operator behind the Celebrity Big Brother internet vote, counts Channel 4, Channel 5, BBC Broadcast, BBC Worldwide, ITV, digital and satellite channels and advertising agencies among its clients, but has so far only used drop-dialler voting for Comic Relief and Channel 5's 70s Weekend.
For the 70s Weekend, viewers were given the option to vote for their favourite song from that decade via the broadcaster's website. Because it was the first time a British broadcaster had ever used Audiocall's drop-dialler, the response rates were understandably low and Audiocall is guarded about specific numbers. Likewise, the response rates to the Comic Relief drop-dialler have not yet been revealed.
Justin Judd, controller of content and production for Granada Broadband, is optimistic about the potential of drop-dialling, though: "It may not be the quickest and easiest way to vote in response to a TV programme prompt, but as an internet revenue model that doesn't involve security complications, it has possibilities."
Judd is looking at different opportunities for using drop-diallers to serve broadcast content as a route into internet pay-per-view. "What content we might end up using is still being tested, but it will have to have some scarcity value, not be any old stuff," he says.
Just as broadcasters are assessing the potential of drop-dialling, so is the music industry. With MSN putting time and money into developing a website to stream concerts, it would not be surprising if MSNMusic.com introduced drop-diallers as an alternative to credit card subscriptions.
One possibility for Granada, says Judd, is to stream exclusive clips from its shows such as Cold Feet and Coronation Street, with the cost perhaps set at 25p a minute for a 10-minute clip. At £2.50 a pop per user, split between the operator and the broadcaster, it starts to look like an alternative way of making money from the internet if a few thousand people can be persuaded to download it. This is made even more attractive when the context of the crestfallen internet advertising market is taken into account. No website, it seems, is pulling in satisfactory ad revenues.
"We're all worried about making money from the internet, and making our core business - content - pay online," adds Judd. "The adult industry has demonstrated it does work but it all depends on whether the user wants the content."
Riccardo Donato, general manager of Audiocall, agrees: "The original model was for content and was used for law reports and adult stuff, but now everyone is looking at broadcast quality pay-per-view on the internet, it becomes an easy way for broadcasters to get viewers to pay for quality content." But Donato thinks the most popular application for drop-dialling will be voting, as consumers are increasingly inclined to accept the cost of a phone call if they feel they can have their say. For an indicator of this, one only has to look at the number of people who called in to vote for the Big Brother evictions last year. Some 20m phone calls were made in all, bringing in revenues of around £2m.
No doubt Big Brother 2 will be looking at incorporating a drop-dialler into its website for voting and maybe even for eagerly sought-after clips if the contestants can be coaxed into more outrageous behaviour. In the meantime, expect to see many more websites using drop-diallers over the next 12 months.
Perhaps they could go some way to solving the unsettling revenue crisis the web is currently in, or perhaps they will just be an interim measure until the sensational world of broadband comes along. Whatever it may be, at least it's an alternative revenue model, and that has to be a good thing in the current climate.
