M-Net On Demand

Very little bugs me more than the ignorant misapplication of technology, especially when a large content provider with a recently-acquired global audience is concerned. Don't think I wouldn't have picked up on the fact that M-Net's new M-Net On Demand offering, an Internet Broadband service, has several flaws that render it completely unacceptable to someone such as myself.

A brief introduction: Currently live and available commercially in the US, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, South Africans living abroad (me, for example) are now able to choose from 80 hours of viewing material, at a cost of R112 for 10 hours each month. One catch: provided they have...*sirens and flashing lights*... the required web browser - the de facto browser - the discontinued browser - Internet Explorer. And Windows. And Media Player. And Macromedia Flash Player.

It would be naive to claim that a service such as this wouldn't really be possible without the latest technology - but streaming content is a well established broadcasting medium, so there's no excuse for lack of similar services from which to gain some technical insight.

But let's take a step back for a second. It's been recently widely speculated that the removal of IE as a free, downloadable software application could have a profound effect on the Web and the development of Web standards. Read that as a good thing.

So what does all of this mean? I've always liked comparing the cross-browser compatibility of websites and web-based applications to something we all do daily; watching television. All television sets, however physically different they appear, still receive exactly the same picture. Why should the web be different? Well, it shouldn't - but it is. Different browsers interpret the presentation layer of the same content differently. As web developers we've learnt over the years to accept this fatal drawback as just another limitation to work around. Removing IE along with it's list of proprietary standards is in my mind a big step forward in providing a much richer web experience.

Not wanting to sound like a stuck record, but if M-Net had considered employing even the slightest hint of forward thinking, they would have realised the multiple benefits of developing their new subscription-based service to support existing AND future browser applications 5 years from now. There's no debate - other browsers do everything Internet Explorer does, and much more - much better. This would open their service up to a wider audience for years to come.

But M-Net's problems don't start and end with browser software. Microsoft's Windows OS is another requirement. Linux and Macintosh users, whatever small percentage of web users they make up - this is insignificant - don't even receive the choice to use Internet Explorer if they wanted to: it was discontinued for UNIX almost a year ago and was dropped for Mac over a year ago. These users will have to spend in excess of R3000 to switch to the required Windows platform, and then they'd still need to download the other requirements. Taking into account that M-Net On Demand's target market have established satellite networks to choose from, why would they subscribe to a computer monitor-based service such as this one?

M-Net might not even be the ones to carry the blame - they appear to have partnered with Entriq Inc., who enable "content and broadband service providers to protect, track, sell and syndicate online media in an efficient and secure manner". Entriq are an independent subsidiary of Naspers (a multi-national media company located in South Africa) who I've picked apart here before. (A quick visit to their site redirects to an IP address - 196.2.157.131 - how professional of them.) A demo at Entriq's own website also spews out the same 'Browser Not Supported' page. The noticeable different between their and M-Net's site however is that M-Net have chosen to restrict the entire site to meet their requirements, locking out anyone who doesn't have the correct software installations from even finding out whey they're denied access in the first place.

All that said, experience has shown that contacting M-Net directly about these issues will prove pointless - I e-mailed them about their online newsletter unsubscribe "option" months ago, and am still awaiting a reply. That, and you're required to use Internet Explorer just to send a basic contact e-mail.

And I'm sure I'll live quite comfortably without Die Kasper Rasper Show. Maybe I'm just being cynical, but in all honesty their target market is only expats - students and young professionals living with a visa won't bother - and if you're missing South African broadcasting that much then you shouldn't have emigrated in the first place.