Demanding IPVOD - Getting frustrated with Netflix [Text View]

HDTiVo

01-27-2006, 11:47 AM

After getting a taste of TiVo downloaded video, Netflix is much less appealing than it used to be.

I've become accustomed to waiting 6 months to see movies and do not care about seeing them in new release in the theater. I've been a Netflix subscriber for over 4 years, and I use the service heavily. Disks usually arrive overnight and can return overnight as well. Can't ask for better postal service.

More and more disks in my queue are wait listed - Cinderella Man is "Very Long Wait" despite already being out several weeks. Disks returned to Netflix don't seem to process all that quickly - they sometimes are recorded in the next day (I know because disks sent in the same envelop and disks sent together in seperate envelops have been received on different days.) Often Netflix takes its sweet time sending the next disk, even when available - disks logged returned later in the day often result in the next disk being sent the next day instead of same day.

These are not big complaints; I am only painting a picture of the reality. The fact is I have to decide what movie I am going to be in the mood to see several days in advance. This is in part because of the time it takes to get a disk and in part because with several disks out at a time a movie will arrive but there are 2 or 3 others ahead of it that I want to watch.

My cable internet service provides greater than 4.5mb/sec download speed. This means I can choose a movie when we start cooking dinner at 6, and it can be mostly downloaded when we sit down to watch at 8. The whole movie is downloaded long before we get to the end at 10; there's plenty of time to download some "extras" to complete the DVD experience.

Even people with 2mb/sec connections can pick a flick from work at 4pm and see it that evening. There already is an installed base in the millions of such connections, enabling a significant market.

Beyond the same evening downloads, having several downloads out on a monthly subscription like Netflix does with disks is even more convenient.

How do we download these movies securely and what do we play them with? DVD-TiVoes. Those TiVoes have 480p component video out and digital audio out. Play the movies with the same quality video and audio you get from a DVD player. Plug the TiVo into your new HDTV and see great detail from the anamorphic 16:9 mpeg. Oh, and you've got some of those disks? Well the TiVo plays those for you also.

The time has come. I know there have been proposals, near and failed deals. Everything is in place on the consumer side now - enough high speed connections, secure hardware to play the content - we don't even have to wait for the S3.

At the very least, the Vista/ViiV initiatives ought to lead content providers to open up. Integration of TiVo with this platform can lead to making IPVOD a reality.

davezatz

01-27-2006, 01:50 PM

I hear ya... I've been using Netflix since the late 90s and in the last few weeks I've had more movies unavailable than I can ever recall. Even when they're in stock, I'm also ready for broadband videos on demand.

When the new Akimbo box comes out this spring, I'll be interested in checking it out. They are partnering with Movielink (and conceivably MS DRM) to offer VOD of recent movie releases. Not sure if they will charge a monthly subscription fee (as they do now) plus a per movie "rental" - that would make it less appealing. Also, I'm wondering what sort of VOD is going to ultimately end up on the Xbox 360...

TiVo's obviously been exploring this angle, but they have an aging hardware platform and need to establish some partnerships to pull it off. But it surely seems possible, especially after checking out some of the test downloads. TiVo is well known with decent penetration, so hopefully that would help with partnering.

When I travel for work, I've used Movielink which is decent. I suppose I could connect my laptop to a TV as an interim solution (or rebuild one of my mothballed HTPCs).

PS While we're putting our suggestions out there, I'd prefer being able to watch as it downloads. :)

HDTiVo

01-27-2006, 04:12 PM

TiVo, individually, has a problem in that it doesn't have enough of an installed base to attract any attention from media providers.

Now think of content providers as OPEC, ViiV/Vista is the electric company, and TiVo makes toasters.

The electric company has the size to get OPEC to start shipping oil to it so it can produce electricity. Once TiVo knows that the mpegs are all 120V/60Hz, all it has to do is make its plug fit the outlet and make toast.

The impact of a flat monthly fee like Netflix's is enormous for adoption.

Being able to watch during download is important to retain - and expected since TiVoToCome&Go does that already. It would be great to add the ability to jump ahead of the download - and start downloading from the new point - while later filling in the "gaps" created by the jumping.

HOT OFF THE WIRE PORTFOLIO NEWS - from Lycos Finance

(NYSE:NWSA) News Corp Ltd, (NYSE:DIS) The Walt Disney Company

Movie Hits Theaters, TV, DVD on Same Day
- Jan 17, 2006 04:20 PM (AP Online)
- http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=54797888

=========================================================

By GARY GENTILE AP Business Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- If you live in New Jersey, Virginia or Nevada and want to see the new Steven Soderbergh film "Bubble" in a theater, pack your bags. It won't be showing in those or more than a dozen other states.

The country's largest theater chains are snubbing the film because they object to it being sold on DVD and shown on cable TV the same day it debuts in a handful of theaters owned by the same company that produced the movie.

"Bubble" isn't the first film to be released this way. But the combination of a high-profile director and the backing of maverick billionaires Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban have studios and theater owners paying close attention this time.

"It's the biggest threat to the viability of the cinema industry today," John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theater Owners, said of the so-called "day and date" release strategy.

The move comes as new technology is giving consumers faster access to music, movies, TV shows and other content via multiple devices, including laptop computers, portable video screens, even cell phones. Theater owners have faced challenges from technology before, most notably television and the VCR. But this is the first time major studios have contemplated releasing films in competing formats at the same time.

The low-budget "Bubble," a murder mystery set in a doll factory, opens Jan. 27 and is the first of six films to be produced under a partnership between Soderbergh and 2929 Entertainment. Founded by Wagner and Cuban, the company owns Magnolia Pictures, which will distribute "Bubble" in partnership with Landmark Theaters and HDNet Movies, the cable TV channel that will air it.

All six films produced by the partnership will be released simultaneously on DVD, television and in theaters. "Bubble" will appear on DVD a few days after its theater and cable release.

Currently, studios carefully control the release of major motion pictures to maximize profits. Films are first released in theaters, then on pay per view, home video, pay cable networks such as HBO, and finally on broadcast TV.

But the time between those windows has been shrinking. In 1994, the average time between a movie's opening in theaters and its debut on home video was about six months. In 2004, that span fell to four months, with some studios releasing films on DVD even sooner.

A typical film now earns about half of its revenue from home video and only about 25 percent from theaters. The remainder comes from selling the film to cable and broadcast TV and other sources.

Releasing DVDs sooner would also let studios get more mileage from the millions of dollars spent marketing new movies.

Theater owners argue that people are already staying away from theaters because they don't have to wait long for the DVD. Releasing disks the same day a movie debuts in megaplexes will shave theaters' already thin profit margins, even if consumers have to pay a premium for the simultaneously-released DVD.

Profit margins for theater chains generally run in the mid to low teens, according to Matthew Harrigan, an analyst with Janco Partners Inc. If studios began releasing films on DVD the same day as the theatrical release _ an unlikely scenario, in his opinion _ it would "completely collapse the domestic theatrical industry and you would have a spate of bankruptcies," Harrigan said.

Media companies say they have to adapt to the changing demands of consumers, who have shown a desire to download entertainment from iTunes and other online services.

Some TV shows, for instance, are now being sold online the day after they air. Some shows on the FX channel are available even before broadcast.

Two weeks ago, News Corp. President and Chief Operating Officer Peter Chernin said his company would soon start releasing films in high-definition formats 60 days after theatrical release.

Speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Chernin said News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox had not yet determined whether the high-def releases will be via cable, satellite or on a disk.

Last week, Tom Staggs, chief financial officer of The Walt Disney Co., reiterated that company's position that all options are on the table when it comes to the traditional window release strategy. But Staggs did say Disney still respects the role of theaters.

"We're not predicting 'day and date' is going to happen tomorrow for a majority of films or even pushing for that to happen," Staggs said during an appearance at an investment conference. "But what we will do is experiment with what works for consumers."

While large, event movies such as "King Kong" may work best on the big screen, simultaneous release could be beneficial for small, independent films that often struggle for an audience while blockbusters hog theater screens.

Rainbow Media, a division of Cablevision, plans to release 18 to 24 films a year via video on demand on cable TV systems at the same time they debut in theaters.

The idea, executives say, is to create a "virtual art house" at a time when the theatrical market for smaller films is shrinking.

"For us, it's not meant to make trouble," said Joshua Sapan, president and CEO of Rainbow Media. "We think (the films) will do better in the theaters if there is more buzz around it, even if it's available on television."

samo

01-27-2006, 04:32 PM

More and more disks in my queue are wait listed - Cinderella Man is "Very Long Wait" despite already being out several weeks. Disks returned to Netflix don't seem to process all that quickly - they sometimes are recorded in the next day (I know because disks sent in the same envelop and disks sent together in seperate envelops have been received on different days.) Often Netflix takes its sweet time sending the next disk, even when available - disks logged returned later in the day often result in the next disk being sent the next day instead of same day.
I don't know about rest of the movies, but Cinderella Man has been available on PPV for quite some time. Time lag between DVD releases and PPV gets shorter and shorter, so I don't understand the burning desire to be able to download movies from Internet. Of course there are special cases like old movies that are not available anywhere else, but for new movies PPV works just fine.

cynthetiq

01-27-2006, 05:04 PM

smark

01-27-2006, 07:31 PM

I certainly hope Netflix has the bandwidth to give you 4.5 sustained.

d_anders

01-27-2006, 07:47 PM

I certainly hope Netflix has the bandwidth to give you 4.5 sustained.

With just a few people together in the neighborhood doing the same thing....I even wonder if the cable company can handle a 1 - 2 Mbps sustained.

Even with the notable recent "upgrades" in cable bandwidth to homes, cable is still a shared pipe (I for one for one enjoying it myself).

I wonder how many people in a given neighborhood subnet, downloading video, it will take before all the available bandwidth for that neighborhood subnet is eaten.

Anyway, IPTV is a great idea, but I don't think it's a possiblility unless you've got MPEG4 as an absolute standard, and even more bandwidth is available.

ZeoTiVo

01-27-2006, 08:22 PM

Anyway, IPTV is a great idea, but I don't think it's a possiblility unless you've got MPEG4 as an absolute standard, and even more bandwidth is available. did someone say series 3 ;)

HDTiVo

01-27-2006, 11:43 PM

working for a media company and being involved with the VOD group for the past 6 months, there's little desire for them to do "give up the goods" directly to someone's PC without some major digital asset management tool. In doing so, then people are pissed off because they don't want it to "evaporate"

I've got access to the raw media, but I don't care for the content we create.
This is exactly the kind of revolution that has already gotten underway. The big break in the dam was iTunes' deal for video last fall. Its gaining momentum. The opportunity for security exists with a standard platform like MSFT/INTC are putting together. Any device working with that platform, be it PC, TiVo, networked digital media player, portable media player, whatever, can securely handle the content in accordance with the rules of the retailer (Netflix, DL_Flix, iTunes, Blockbuster_Online, TiVoDL, ViginMegaDL) whether that be purchase, rental (limited time out or limited number out,) or other model.

HDTiVo

01-27-2006, 11:51 PM

With just a few people together in the neighborhood doing the same thing....I even wonder if the cable company can handle a 1 - 2 Mbps sustained.

Even with the notable recent "upgrades" in cable bandwidth to homes, cable is still a shared pipe (I for one for one enjoying it myself).

I wonder how many people in a given neighborhood subnet, downloading video, it will take before all the available bandwidth for that neighborhood subnet is eaten.

Anyway, IPTV is a great idea, but I don't think it's a possiblility unless you've got MPEG4 as an absolute standard, and even more bandwidth is available.
This is a very important technical/architectual issue. In the near future, very few will be subscribers to these services and congestion in the network will be correspondingly rare. Will cable expand its ability to give multiple users per "node" a consistent 4.5+mbit/sec download speed? What about FIOS which is emerging? What about DSL which can also be pushed to the needed speeds and is a switched architecture? Those are two alternatives to cable, so cable will have competitive pressure. Reliable service and available video downloads will create greater market penetration for high speed services; with that higher penetration comes money to spend on equipment to provide more bandwidth.

I don't see mpeg4 as a major factor. Available bandwidth can expand to make the old mpeg2 do just fine. Two years ago I could only get DSL at 768kb; now that DSL is 1.5mb. The cable was probably 3mb when I got it; now it is over 4.5mb. I am already past the point where mpeg2's size over mpeg4 is a serious issue.

Now mpeg4 is great for small portable devices with 320x240 resolutions; the material is already being re-encoded to the lower resolution, so why not use mpeg4. However, why re-encode or transcode the entire library of DVD compliant mpeg2 material if not absolutely necessary? Why create the need with each new release to supply two formats to the living room: DVDs and mpeg4?

But here is another problem from TiVo's perspective. TiVo=installed base of mpeg2 players. Rest of world maybe does want to go mpeg4; PCs, XBOX360, d-Link 320's...all play mpeg4. That could leave TiVo in the dust with its legacy boxes; it will have to start from scratch in this segment with the S3. The alternative is to put a PC between the S2 and the download to transcode back to mpeg2. Doable, but not elegant.

HDTiVo

01-28-2006, 12:13 AM

I don't know about rest of the movies, but Cinderella Man has been available on PPV for quite some time. Time lag between DVD releases and PPV gets shorter and shorter, so I don't understand the burning desire to be able to download movies from Internet. Of course there are special cases like old movies that are not available anywhere else, but for new movies PPV works just fine.
Because not everyone has cable. Because in the future not everyone will have to pay for cable to get content. Because cable is a middle man with a single business model in PPV with little competition, and the content providers could go through more retailers to distribute their products through IPVOD, with the different business models creating a greater overall PPV/IPVOD market.

Just a few ideas.

smark

01-28-2006, 03:18 AM

Of course with channel bonding you can get much more than 4.5Mbps download, however you would still hope that the bandwidth on the other end is big enough for you to use that speed.

samo

01-28-2006, 04:23 AM

Because not everyone has cable. Because in the future not everyone will have to pay for cable to get content. Because cable is a middle man with a single business model in PPV with little competition, and the content providers could go through more retailers to distribute their products through IPVOD, with the different business models creating a greater overall PPV/IPVOD market.

Just a few ideas.
Of course without cable Series 3 would be mostly useless, but I would presume that 99% of TiVo users have either cable or satellite as a provider. Even if you are poor or cheap and don't want to subscribe to any package - for $5/month you can have access to Dish PPV and for $10/month you can have access to all DirecTV PPV +locals. At least at present prices for internet downloaded movies are the same as PPV (unless you are pirating, but it is completely different issue). As of today, I don't see any benefit of downloading from internet compare to cable or satellite PPV. And I don't anticipate any benefit in a near future. At least for movies.

dylanemcgregor

01-28-2006, 07:37 AM

Of course without cable Series 3 would be mostly useless, but I would presume that 99% of TiVo users have either cable or satellite as a provider. Even if you are poor or cheap and don't want to subscribe to any package - for $5/month you can have access to Dish PPV and for $10/month you can have access to all DirecTV PPV +locals. At least at present prices for internet downloaded movies are the same as PPV (unless you are pirating, but it is completely different issue). As of today, I don't see any benefit of downloading from internet compare to cable or satellite PPV. And I don't anticipate any benefit in a near future. At least for movies.

A fair number of TiVo SA subs are on analog cable, and this number should be getting bigger as a proportion of TiVo subs throughout the yeat as this is the area that TiVo has the least competition. No PPV for analog subs (at least in all the areas I've been in), and it can be a steep increase to digital. In my area it would cost me $50 a month to upgrade to digital, plus an extra $10 or so in taxes. I don't see a bunch of people clamoring to hang up a dish and pay $5-$10 a month just for the option to pay $5 a PPV movie. Again that's not even an option in the NY apartment I live in.

-Dylan

samo

01-28-2006, 06:46 PM

A fair number of TiVo SA subs are on analog cable, and this number should be getting bigger as a proportion of TiVo subs throughout the yeat as this is the area that TiVo has the least competition.
True. With all this talk about Cable Card TiVo and HDTV I completely spaced out analog cable customers that make up more than half of cable subscribers. Actually in my area digital wasn't even available till about 6 months ago. And you are right - if digital cable is available, they always move PPV and premiums to digital.

HDTiVo

01-30-2006, 01:12 PM

The momentum is building for content availability.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=industryNews&storyID=2006-01-30T133822Z_01_L30286912_RTRIDST_0_INDUSTRY-MEDIA-WARNERBROS-P2P-DC.XML

Warner Bros. to start German file-sharing service
Mon Jan 30, 2006 8:39 AM ET

By Jeffrey Goldfarb, European Media Correspondent

LONDON (Reuters) - Warner Bros. said on Monday it would soon begin selling movies and television shows in Germany, Austria and Switzerland using a peer-to-peer network, embracing the very technology that has rattled the entertainment industry.

Starting in March, the new service called In2Movies will allow paying consumers to download a limited selection of Warner Bros. films and TV programs, including "Batman Begins" and "The O.C.," from central servers and from other users who have the desired files.

Such networks, widely known as P2P, are blamed for rocking the music industry, as teenagers around the world easily swapped songs with each other using services like Napster and Kazaa.

As connection speeds have improved, other services such as BitTorrent and eDonkey have increasingly been used to illegally download copyrighted movies and TV shows, with P2P traffic using as much as 60 percent of the Internet's total bandwidth, according to some estimates.

"One of the most effective weapons for defeating online piracy is providing legal, easy-to-use alternatives," said Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.

In the first half of 2005, 1.7 million Internet users illegally downloaded 11.9 million movies in Germany, Warner Bros. said.

WIDER USE

Warner Bros., owned by New York-based media conglomerate Time Warner, said the German-language markets were only a first step and it soon plans to widen the use of P2P networks.

"Our initial efforts will focus on the German market, but in the months ahead we will leverage this technology to better serve markets around the world," Tsujihara said.

Films will be made available to registered users of the In2Movies service on the same day they are released on DVD in the German language. In addition to the studio's blockbusters, In2Movies plans to sell local programming and material supplied by third parties.

The first version of the technology will allow content to be downloaded onto computers. A later version will enable users to store movies and TV shows on portable devices

A centralized component of the technology ensures the protection of copyrights, Warner Bros. said, while file-sharing aspects help distribute the large files more efficiently.

The service is being developed with arvato mobile, a subsidiary of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann, using its GNAB download platform.

Britain's publicly funded broadcaster, the BBC, is also testing a service called iMP, which functions as a P2P network and lets viewers watch shows such as soap opera "EastEnders" on their computers.

Most of the Hollywood studios have held talks with BitTorrent, which uses a similar technology, but is also widely used for piracy.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

dt_dc

01-30-2006, 01:32 PM

Another p2p content distribution network:
http://www.dave.tv
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=107278

There are several.

It'll be interesting to see how far these go without IPv6. IPv6 would make the ipVOD model significantly cheaper / easier (no wonder Microsoft plans full IPv6 support in Vista).

cheezus

01-31-2006, 04:32 PM

I just dropped blockbuster online in favor of getting TiVo :) The turnaround time was a full week from the day I dropped it in the mail to the day I got the next disc in my queue. They sent things out of order. Often I would get the "received your disc" email from them on a Friday, and the next disc would not ship out until Tuesday.

If I lived in a city with a distribution center, I'd get blockbuster or netflix again, but where I am I was being limited to about 10-12 discs a month. Lame.

HDTiVo

02-15-2006, 01:49 AM

Here is a not yet well received device with a certain wackiness that got a boost today.

They say 100 movies available at a time; and up to 10 new movies per week. I gather the movies are all stored on the hard drive and replaced as new ones are received. What is even more bizarre is that apparently the content is received by an attached antennae which picks up a data feed from the local PBS TV station; considering that Disney - which incubated this thing - owns ABC, that's also quite ironic.

The wild card here is the ethernet/usb to broadband/PC connectivity, the Cisco/Linksys involvement and Intel (ViiV); it is stated there will be extended functionality/content later in the year using these features. That's where it could get exciting - folks with multi-megabit broadband connections downloading shows and movies in real time (even HD) from an almost infinite selection.

I understand why this would come from Disney; they do not own any cable assets and this is a way to distribute content without the cable middleman. An entity that provides boxes like this and can get content licenses can become a virtual cable company. To succeed, the device will have to handle content from many publishers and not just be a Disney box. With Cisco and Intel involved, this is a chance to create the standard by which all studios will encode and distribute their content. That's a long stretch, and nothing indicates that 100 other companies could not make boxes that do the same thing - indeed, that is the more likely scenario. The bigger prize, though, is laying down the standard by which studio content will be distributed over the internet; this may evolve into the forerunner of such devices

HOT OFF THE WIRE PORTFOLIO NEWS - from Lycos Finance

(NYSE:DIS) The Walt Disney Company

MovieBeam, Inc. Launches Across the Country, Movies-On-Demand
Service Dramatically Improves the Movie-Rental Experience
- Feb 14, 2006 08:02 AM (BusinessWire)
- http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=55721756

============================================================ ===============

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 14, 2006--

Newly Formed Venture Backed by Disney, Cisco, and Intel Delivers
Instant Access to Movies From the Comfort of Home, With
High-Definition Capability

MovieBeam, Inc. today introduced the new MovieBeam System and
launched its movies-on-demand service in 29 major metropolitan areas
across the U.S., including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, reaching
nearly half of all U.S. households. The MovieBeam movies-on-demand
service provides instant access to an ever-changing lineup of new
releases and other popular favorites from virtually every major
Hollywood studio. There are always 100 movies immediately available,
with up to 10 new titles automatically delivered digitally each week
-- including select movies in high definition (HD) -- via MovieBeam's
exclusive, low-cost over-the-air datacasting technology. The MovieBeam
System is composed of: 1) a set-top box that stores, protects and
plays movies; 2) a small indoor antenna that receives new movies to
automatically refresh the selection; and 3) a simple remote control
that facilitates navigation of the intuitive user interface.

MovieBeam, Inc. is a newly formed venture backed by The Walt
Disney Company, Cisco Sytems, Intel Corporation (through its leading
venture capital arm, Intel Capital), Mayfield Fund, Norwest Venture
Partners and VantagePoint Venture Partners (see today's related
announcement).

"We have built MovieBeam to directly address what's most important
to our target customers: convenience, quality and choice," said Tres
Izzard, president and CEO of MovieBeam, Inc. "Our target customers are
movie lovers who want a more convenient way to rent the movies they
want to watch when they want to watch them and value the overall
quality of the experience. MovieBeam provides an attractive
alternative to other options -- bringing the sizable selection of the
back wall of the video store directly into customers' living rooms.
Movies are always available for instant viewing, with no trips to
video store, no out-of-stock titles, no damaged discs, no late return
fees and no waiting by the mailbox for DVDs."

"MovieBeam, with its easy-to-use service, breakthrough content
rights, and low-cost delivery platform, is serving a previously unmet
need in the marketplace -- providing consumers with a more convenient,
higher-quality movie-rental experience through an unmatched
combination of content, technology and relationships," said Gerry
Kaufhold, principal analyst, In-Stat. "As a stand-alone company, with
a strong investor syndicate, MovieBeam is well-positioned to become an
important player in the digital entertainment business by delivering
on the promise of on-demand movies."

Key features of the new MovieBeam offering include:

-- Every new release and select popular favorites from virtually
every major Hollywood studio, with 100 movies always instantly
available and up to 10 new titles automatically delivered each
week

-- Unprecedented access to high-definition movies -- with
specially selected titles in native HD format and an HDMI
connection that up-converts standard-definition content when
connected to an HD TV

-- Breakthrough content rights, including select titles from a
major studio day-and-date with DVD release

-- Full playback functionality, with familiar controls such as
Pause, Stop, Fast-forward and Rewind

-- Intuitive user interface that sorts movies by title, genre,
actor/director and rating

-- Free full-length theatrical trailers for every movie available
for rental

-- Pay-as-you-go model, with no subscription fees and no annual
contracts

-- Simple set-up, requiring no professional installation or
special equipment

-- Personalized spending limits and parental controls

Availability and Pricing

The MovieBeam service is now available in 29 metropolitan areas
across the U.S., reaching more than 40 million households. Included in
the initial markets are: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago,
Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Jacksonville, Las Vegas,
Los Angeles, Memphis, Minneapolis, Nashville, New York City, Orlando,
Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland (Oregon), Salt Lake City, San Antonio,
San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa and Washington,
D.C.

The MovieBeam System is sold by major national consumer
electronics retailers including Best Buy, CompUSA and Sears, as well
as regional and independent retailers in the markets in which the
service is available. It will also be available through several
national Internet retailers. Additionally, the MovieBeam System can
also be ordered at

www.moviebeam.com

or 1-800-MOVIEBEAM.

"Consumers are outfitting their homes today with high-end audio
and video equipment to create a theater-like experience within the
comfort of home," said Mike Mohan, vice president for home
entertainment at Best Buy. "High definition content really makes home
theater come to life with enhanced picture and sound. By offering
unprecedented access to high-definition movies and appealing to the
entire family with a broad array of entertainment options, MovieBeam
is potentially accelerating consumer interest in the high-definition
experience."

The advertised price of the MovieBeam System is $199.99 after an
introductory rebate of $50. There is a one-time service activation fee
of $29.99. Movie-rental prices are $3.99 for new release titles and
$1.99 for library titles -- with a $1 premium for HD movies. Each
rental covers a 24-hour viewing period during which customers can
watch a movie as many times as they like, with full video playback
functionality. There are no annual contracts or monthly subscription
fees.

Technology

The MovieBeam player features a 160 GB hard drive and a 200 MHz
central processing unit (CPU). The player easily connects to virtually
any television set, with video connection ports including HDMI,
component, S-video, composite and audio connection ports including
digital coaxial, SP/DIF, HDMI and left/right stereo audio. MovieBeam
supports advanced audio and video formats, including Windows Media(TM)
9/VC-1 and Dolby Digital 5.1(TM).

With this flexible platform and PC-compatible digital movie files,
the MovieBeam service can in the future be extended to other devices.
As part of Intel's investment, the two companies are collaborating to
develop a USB peripheral that will, in the future, bring the MovieBeam
service to other devices.

The player also features Ethernet and USB 2.0 ports, which will
enable broadband connectivity later this year, giving MovieBeam the
ability to add even more features and content to the service. The
player is co-branded with Linksys, a division of Cisco Systems and a
leader in home networking devices, as part of Cisco's investment in
MovieBeam. The two companies intend to explore future joint
development opportunities.

Through a long-term agreement with National Datacast (and its
nationwide network of PBS stations), MovieBeam's exclusive
over-the-air datacasting technology provides a low-cost content
distribution solution and enables the efficient, secure and
simultaneous delivery of hundreds of digital movie files to millions
of customers' homes across the country. The MovieBeam datacasting
signal rides on top of the existing PBS broadcasting infrastructure
and National Datacast's 15 years of experience provides MovieBeam with
a distribution solution including network coordination, management and
monitoring.

About MovieBeam

MovieBeam, Inc. is a leader in digital entertainment that is
changing the way people rent movies. The MovieBeam movies-on-demand
service provides instant access to an ever-changing lineup of new
releases and popular favorites from every major Hollywood studio,
including select movies in HD -- always 100 to choose from, with up to
10 new movies automatically delivered digitally each week using
over-the-air datacasting technology. The MovieBeam service is
available in 29 major metropolitan areas across the U.S., and the
MovieBeam System is sold by leading consumer electronics retailers and
e-tailers. MovieBeam, Inc. is a privately held company headquartered
in Burbank, Calif. Investors include The Walt Disney Company
(NYSE:DIS), Cisco Systems, Intel Corporation, Mayfield Fund, Norwest
Venture Partners and VantagePoint Venture Partners. More information
is available at

www.moviebeam.com

.

CONTACT: MovieBeam, Inc.
Michelle Cox, 818-840-1950

michelle.cox@moviebeam.com

or
Blanc & Otus for MovieBeam, Inc.
Erin Olsson, 415-856-5115

eolsson@blancandotus.com

SOURCE: MovieBeam, Inc.

peteypete

02-15-2006, 11:57 AM

What about this?

http://www.gigaom.com/?s=netflix

and this? (Stephen's comments on Netflix)

http://www.thomashawk.com/

I think it's definately still alive.

HDTiVo

02-21-2006, 12:52 PM

The offerings continue to come...

HOT OFF THE WIRE PORTFOLIO NEWS - from Lycos Finance

(NASDAQ:TIVO) TiVo Inc., (NYSE:TWX) Time Warner Inc,
(NYSE:VIA) Viacom Inc Cl A, (NYSE:VIA.B) Viacom Inc Cl B
New, (NYSE:DIS) The Walt Disney Company

EWAN Embeds Set-Top Boxes with Proprietary 300 Hour Digital
Recorder to Coincide with Launch of Global IPtv Service
- Feb 21, 2006 08:38 AM (BusinessWire)
- http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=55971072

=========================================================

SANTA ANA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 21, 2006--eWAN1, Inc.
(Pink Sheets:EWAN) announced today that the Company has embedded its
proprietary 'EVO' 300 hour digital video recorder into their "Triple
Play" set-top boxes, the DMC 200 and DMC 300, to coincide with the
launch of eWAN's global Internet television (IPtv) service on April
19, 2006 and the roll-out of its "Triple Play" set-top boxes in March
2006. Recording content without videotape and bundled with features
including 'pause', 'rewind', 'slow-motion' and 'instant replay' of
live TV, eWAN's global IPtv service will initially offer consumers 75
channels of High Definition (HD) clarity "On Demand" content delivered
to their television screens via any broadband connection.

Similar to offerings by TiVo (NASDAQ:TIVO), eWAN's 'EVO' allowing
users to record two shows at the same time and/or record one show as
another is being watched. It also enables users the ability to store
and play digital music and the ability to store and manage family
photos as well as other media. Because eWAN's set-top is measurably
smaller than current product offerings being supplied by cable and
satellite companies, the product can be transported from place to
place and can be used through television set as long as broadband
connection is available.

Through its recently acquired cable company, ClearWave
Broadcasting, eWAN will be the first to launch true IPtv service on a
global basis. Direct Connect, a wholly owned eWAN subsidiary, will
provide traditional broadcast television to subscribers who will be
able to select channels and networks of their choice, including such
popular networks as CNN & HBO, subsidiaries of Time Warner (NYSE:TWX),
Showtime, a subsidiary of Viacom International (NYSE:VIA)
(NYSE:VIA.B), ABC, a Walt Disney subsidiary (NYSE:DIS)) and ESPN, an
80/20 Joint venture between ABC and The Hearst Corporation, amongst a
host of others. The set-top box is pre-bundled with a monthly
subscription for the channels of content that consumers will be able
to order online and from local retail channels. The offering also
includes Internet, telephone service (VOIP), data and video
capability, and a host of other highly coveted features, at a price
point approximately one-third of that now charged by existing cable or
satellite companies. Based on initial indications of interest, eWAN
has recently revised its worldwide unit sales projections for the
first year of production upward to 250,000 set-top box units.

About eWAN1, Inc.

eWAN1 specializes in broadband network solutions including
high-speed Internet access, data, gaming, voice and video services,
utilizing the most advanced network design and architecture in the
industry, based on building its telecommunications network "on top" of
major metropolitan fiber optic interconnection points within class 'A'
carrier facilities, and by incorporating the fastest, most reliable,
redundant and scalable hardware available. At present, EWAN is the
only midsize ISP offering "wire-speed" networking in every device, at
every access point.

EWAN's wireless "Triple Play" Digital Media Center connects
directly to a television to enable viewing of broadcast and cable
television (IPtv), enables video-on-demand of movies and
documentaries, features traditional Internet access, telephone service
(VOIP) and data and video capability including video conferencing for
collaboration, corporate training and professional development. The
boxes' new IPtv cache will also feature music channels that will play
music and the corresponding video if it is available, as well as
provide "time shifted" services such as the ability to record one
program while watching another through its proprietary EVO 300 hour
digital video recorder.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains statements, which may constitute
"forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Securities Act
of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended by the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Those statements
include statements regarding the intent, belief or current
expectations of eWAN1, and members of its management as well as the
assumptions on which such statements are based. Prospective investors
are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not
guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties,
and that actual results may differ materially from those contemplated
by such forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no
obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect
changed assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated events or changes
to future operating results.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, go to the Company's website at:

http://www.ewan1.com

, or contact: Brass Bulls Corp. - Marc Lovito
(954) 340.2464.

CONTACT: For eWAN1, Inc., Santa Ana
Brass Bulls Corp.
Marc Lovito, 954- 340-2464

SOURCE: eWAN1, Inc.

lajohn27

02-21-2006, 02:35 PM

Surprised nobody in this thread mentioned the NetFlix Throttling "Issue"

What this amounts to is compromised service for longstanding customers in favor of new customers... almost 'pyramid scheme' like. They promised unlimited rentals... but now.. they've changed that policy.

If I was STILL a Netflix customer, I would cancel for SURE now...

Netflix typically sends about 13 movies per month to Villanueva's home in Warren, Mich. — down from the 18 to 22 DVDs he once received before the company's automated system identified him as a heavy renter and began delaying his shipments to protect its profits.

The same Netflix formula also shoves Villanueva to the back of the line for the most-wanted DVDs, so the service can send those popular flicks to new subscribers and infrequent renters.

Full story posted here...

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2006/02/10/financial/f112412S32.DTL&type=business

ZeoTiVo

02-21-2006, 02:42 PM

Surprised nobody in this thread mentioned the NetFlix Throttling "Issue"

What this amounts to is compromised service for longstanding customers in favor of new customers... almost 'pyramid scheme' like. They promised unlimited rentals... but now.. they've changed that policy.

If I was STILL a Netflix customer, I would cancel for SURE now...

Full story posted here...

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2006/02/10/financial/f112412S32.DTL&type=business

this is old news- and I have seen it go away for me. It is not so much older customers as it is heavy users - IE deep queues and doing maybe 20 to 30 movies a month. I have gotten most releases in my mailbox the same day it was released to blockbuster. so yes they have a priority formula for x number of copies to y number of people but I have not seen ill effects from it

davezatz

02-21-2006, 02:49 PM

Surprised nobody in this thread mentioned the NetFlix Throttling "Issue"

If I was STILL a Netflix customer, I would cancel for SURE now...

I read an article somewhere that Blockbuster's mail order was using the same methods. I'm not sure how I feel about this... fortunately I haven't been much impacted since most of my rentals are either obscure or older movies... or TV series which generally are in stock.

40 Year Old Virgin has been in my queue since it was released and just this week dropped down to 'Short Wait' (from very long to long and now this) which amazes me. I would have been better off ordering it from Amazon with my free two-day shipping and then ebaying it. (I will not step foot into Blockbuster.)

samo

02-21-2006, 04:25 PM

40 Year Old Virgin has been in my queue since it was released and just this week dropped down to 'Short Wait' (from very long to long and now this) which amazes me. I would have been better off ordering it from Amazon with my free two-day shipping and then ebaying it. (I will not step foot into Blockbuster.)
I think you can still get it on PPV, but your better hurry, because it will move to Starz or HBO next month. :)

HDTiVo

02-21-2006, 04:40 PM

I think you can still get it on PPV, but your better hurry, because it will move to Starz or HBO next month. :)
But what if he wants to see it at full resolution in beautiful anamorphic widescreen?

davezatz

02-21-2006, 04:57 PM

I think you can still get it on PPV, but your better hurry, because it will move to Starz or HBO next month. :)

I live in a cablebox-free zone. I hate clutter, I need less boxes in my life. That's why my bedroom TiVo is also my DVD player. :) So no PPV for me... unless I buy it through MovieLink and connect the laptop to the TV. Hmmmm.

But what if he wants to see it at full resolution in beautiful anamorphic widescreen?

Would there be any other way to watch my biography? ;)

samo

02-21-2006, 05:21 PM

But what if he wants to see it at full resolution in beautiful anamorphic widescreen?
For that he would have to order HD version for a $1 more (if he had cable or satellite HD service). But jokes aside, I think Netflix and similar services are not providing you much of the value. If you order very few movies, you would be better off just renting them at the store or ordering them on PPV. If you are heavy user, you are better off to sign up for HBO or Starz - you not getting your movies much sooner than that anyhow.

davezatz

02-21-2006, 05:30 PM

If you order very few movies, you would be better off just renting them at the store or ordering them on PPV. If you are heavy user, you are better off to sign up for HBO or Starz - you not getting your movies much sooner than that anyhow. HBO or Starz doesn't get me many older flicks or obscure flicks when I want them... it also wouldn't have gotten me the first two seasons of Battlestar Gallactica which we've been watching the last 6 weeks. (2/3 of our Netflixing is television series - don't even have to ffwd commercials.) Also, like I said I don't have a cable box (meaning no PPV) and I won't stand in line at Blockbuster.

EDIT: I've been mulling this over some more... amongst the folks I know who use Netlix, the main selling points seem to be the great convenience of having movies on hand with no trips to the store and (for some of us) stocking a large library of content to choose from. If PPV/VOD had as vast a library and an all-you-can-eat plan (mythical Netflix via TiVo?), obviously that would be preferable for being more instantaneous. Until then, Netflix is the best solution for many of us.

ZeoTiVo

02-21-2006, 06:36 PM

EDIT: I've been mulling this over some more... amongst the folks I know who use Netlix, the main selling points seem to be the great convenience of having movies on hand with no trips to the store and (for some of us) stocking a large library of content to choose from. If PPV/VOD had as vast a library and an all-you-can-eat plan (mythical Netflix via TiVo?), obviously that would be preferable for being more instantaneous. Until then, Netflix is the best solution for many of us.

that is where I stand on it. I always have some movie on hand to watch - like the deep catalog of movies and shows that would not usually be available on download or even in a blockbuster. I have turned my kids on to all the old Disney movies like "The computer who wore tennis shoes" and "the Herbie/Love Bug" ones etc.. Also I put the Original "Pink Panther" in my queue for the older ones to watch adn found out they had 3 more Pink Panther sereis movies made without Peter Sellers in them. Dropped those in my queue to check out some day.

And really any IPTV might have appeall to me - but one I would be willing to drop some serious money on is a download service that had the same depth as Netflix DVD rental does. It is the depth that has the real appeal to me - other things like convenience and instaneous download are gravy on top.

HDTiVo

02-21-2006, 10:25 PM

If PPV/VOD had as vast a library and an all-you-can-eat plan (mythical Netflix via TiVo?), obviously that would be preferable for being more instantaneous. Until then, Netflix is the best solution for many of us.
I agree with what both you and Zeo are saying - the holy grail is the extensive library to choose from. The download technology just advances the ball over what Netflix does by mail...an advance that folks will welcome IF the library is big.

Otherwise the PPV/VOD from cable is about the same choicewise. I mean there are maybe 100 movies to choose from at any given time if you are lucky. I think there are like 12 HD movies on my cable system. The pricing model is also different - if you are quick, VOD is more expensive per "disk" than Netflix and forces you to watch in one night or pay twice, which is even more expensive.

Cable VOD is also not SD anamorphic (I am not sure samo understood my meaning) but many actual DVDs are. IP VOD could also be SD anamorphic. SD anamorphic is a big jump in quality on a HD and 16:9 enhanced sets. Even our S2s play SD anamorphic mpegs.

MovieBeam (hereinafter refered to as the DISCOINTC- pronounced DISCO-in-TECH - MoonUnit or just MoonUnit) was on CNBC this afternoon and I have to admit giggling as they are exlpaining how great it is that there are always 100 movies on the box to choose from and they swap out 10 each week. But behind the giggle my brain is saying the other technology they are using (IP connection) will enable them - perhaps later this year even - to do IP VOD on an infinite library, provided they get content licenses. But then they claim "nearly every major studio" is on board now!

davezatz

02-22-2006, 06:11 AM

But behind the giggle my brain is saying the other technology they are using (IP connection) will enable them - perhaps later this year even - to do IP VOD on an infinite library, provided they get content licenses. But then they claim "nearly every major studio" is on board now!

The initial MovieBeam service uses an antenna to download those several shows a week, all push - I have no say in what shows up. The computer service model I've read about doesn't seem any different than CinemaNow or MovieLink. Am I missing something? I need the set top box to download the show, not my computer. The newer Akimbo set-top box that's coming out that utilizes MovieLink is interesting, other than the pricing model.

HDTiVo

02-22-2006, 09:04 AM

The initial MovieBeam service uses an antenna to download those several shows a week, all push - I have no say in what shows up. The computer service model I've read about doesn't seem any different than CinemaNow or MovieLink. Am I missing something? I need the set top box to download the show, not my computer. The newer Akimbo set-top box that's coming out that utilizes MovieLink is interesting, other than the pricing model.
Yes, you are not missing anything.

All the pieces are out there but no one has put the entire puzzle together yet. Everything we read about has something(s) missing.

There is Starz with the flat monthly fee. MovieBeam (and TiVo) has the set top box. MovieLink has the big library (it is big, right?)

Later in the year MovieBeam might have the big library, but is their pay per 24 hour rental model going to change?

Will anyone put it all together this year?

davezatz

02-22-2006, 11:21 AM

MovieLink has the big library (it is big, right?)

Of the services I've played with or read about, it seems to have the most variety and a decent sized selection. I haven't mucked around with Vongo yet, so I can't compare it... though the fact that they rotate movies in and (more importantly) out, they've already lost points with me. Oh yeah, Movielink has movie purchases now in beta... you can keep the movie file for indefinite playback and can burn backups. I assume Apple/iTunes will be adding feature legnth movies shortly as another outlet, but who knows what their selection will be and it's not connected directly to my TV anyway.

I hope to get a MovieBeam box in my house mid-March when they come out - I don't think the service will succeed as it stands now (200 bucks up front, PLUS the cost of each movie rental, and yet another box) but I'm very interested in getting first hand experience with it. I think the new Akimbo box is slated for April-ish which I also want to check out... but they haven't announced pricing info. I wonder if Akimbo will offer the entire Movielink library? I also wonder if you have to buy a box, subscribe to the monthly fee, AND then pay to rent a flick? Akimbo currently downloads and plays, whereas Movielink videos you can watch as they come in... I wonder how the new box will operate?

Will anyone put it all together this year?
We're getting closer, but unless a cable or satellite operator or a TiVo adds a huge library of both past and current releases I don't think we'll get there this year. All these other solutions require an additional box or are computer only. If the library is big enough and the pricing fair, I can live with another box... somehow I don't think I'm going to like Akimbo/Movielink's pricing though.

HDTiVo

02-22-2006, 04:17 PM

While this announcement is 9 months old, a WSJ article dated 2/18/06 reports that a number of libraries in Denver, Seattle and New York will be rolling this out next month.

The article reports people will be able to log on to their library's web site and download these videos to personal computers and some portable devices. Downloads can usually be accessed for from 14 to 21 days. Content available is described as older movies and classic TV shows. Oh, and Macs need not apply.

I can't find anything recent on overdrive.com about the video product.

OverDrive Announces Video on Demand for Public Libraries

Award-Winning Films and Educational Videos to Be Available 24/7 From Library Websites

CLEVELAND, OH -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 06/15/2005 -- OverDrive, the leader in download audiobooks and eBooks for libraries, announced today the addition of Video on Demand (VoD) services and materials to its Digital Library Reserve network. The new Video on Demand service will be demonstrated to the over 20,000 librarians attending the 2005 American Library Association Annual Conference at Booth #1244 McCormick Place, Chicago, June 24-28. The service is scheduled to go live for patron use later this year.

With the new VoD service, library patrons will be able to access high-quality digital video anytime of day from anywhere in the world via an Internet-connected PC. OverDrive-Digital Library Reserve currently provides the nation's leading libraries with Web access to tens of thousands of best-selling eBooks and download audio book titles. Libraries offering the OverDrive service include the New York Public Library, Greater Seattle's King County Library System, Denver Public Library, Phoenix Public Library, Cleveland Public Library, San Jose Public Library, and hundreds of others.

According to Michelle Jeske, Manager of Web Information Services for Denver Public Library, "OverDrive's Video on Demand service will allow us to build virtual video archives, saving space and resources, while providing patrons direct 24/7 access to exceptional videos." As part of its opening collection of films, TV shows, and video titles, OverDrive has entered into a distribution agreement with multimedia leader CLEARVUE & SVE of Chicago. CLEARVUE & SVE has won countless awards for its educational and self-improvement videos spanning a wide range of subjects including language, children's literature, social studies, math, science, guidance, health, art, and music.

"CLEARVUE & SVE has one of the largest collections of award-winning curriculum and educational videos in the nation," stated Steve Potash, OverDrive & Digital Library Reserve CEO. "At launch of the service, our public libraries and their communities will greatly benefit from direct access to over 1,000 CLEARVUE & SVE video titles, which include productions from the Center for Educational Resources, Churchill Media, Rabbit Ears Entertainment, and many others," he added.

OverDrive's Digital Library Reserve has been rapidly expanding its collection of both popular fiction and non-fiction materials in several digital formats. These include the addition of over 600 children's eBooks from childrenselibrary.com, thousands of hours of old time radio programs from Radio Spirits, over 800 hundred leading IT and technology titles from Pearson Education, and new unabridged audiobooks from leading publishers both in the US and abroad.

Download video programs from the library can be watched on Windows-based PCs and portable devices supporting Microsoft Windows Media Player. The software is simple and easy to use with intuitive DVD-like controls that support fast-forward, video speed, bookmarks, and other navigational features.

More information about the OverDrive VoD service is available at http://www.overdrive.com.

About OverDrive & Digital Library Reserve

OverDrive & Digital Library Reserve are leading solution providers for digital audiobooks, eBooks, and other digital content to retailers, wholesalers, and libraries in the US and abroad. Digital Library Reserve is a customized, Web-based service that enables libraries to loan best-selling digital books and other media to their patrons. Strategic technology partners include Microsoft Corporation, Adobe Systems, Inc., Sirsi, Dynix, and Mobipocket. The companies are headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio and have been producing digital document solutions since 1986. For more information on OverDrive, Inc., please visit http://www.overdrive.com.

About CLEARVUE & SVE

The 2004 merger of sister companies CLEARVUE/eav and SVE & Churchill Media created one of the largest collections of curriculum-oriented multimedia available. A leader in K-12 educational media publishing for more than 85 years, CLEARVUE & SVE has won countless awards for its programs, which include DVDs, VHS, digital videos, CD-ROMs, and the media-on-demand system PowerMediaPlus.com. With standards-based programs in all core disciplines -- language arts, social studies, math, science, guidance, health, art, and music -- CLEARVUE & SVE provides content and media delivery tailored for use in today's classroom.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MEDIA CONTACT:

Brian Wright
Public Relations Manager
OverDrive, Inc.
(216) 573-6886, ext. 207
Email Contact

SOURCE: OverDrive, Inc.

davezatz

02-22-2006, 04:27 PM

Hmm... interesting. I wonder how the licensing would work. Maybe they make deals with distributors upfront to list the shows or movies. Then the library pays out per download? I took a quick peak at the web site and didn't see any prominent mentions of video either. I imagine they had or are having a hard time partnering with the content providers. I guess they could roll out the technology for video in the public domain, but the cost versus demand might not make it worth it.

Speaking of libraries, a local jurisdiction got some sort of audio book download service and everyone was complaining it was useless since they implemented Windows DRM and didn't support iPods. My boss' boss was particularly unhappy and wondered how I could help him bypass those restrictions. ;) I told him it wasn't worth the time or trouble and to go buy an audiobook for his iPod from audible.com/iTunes.

HDTiVo

02-22-2006, 05:05 PM

Speaking of libraries, a local jurisdiction got some sort of audio book download service and everyone was complaining it was useless since they implemented Windows DRM and didn't support iPods.
They didn't think their iPods were useless?

gonzotek

02-22-2006, 05:17 PM

They didn't think their iPods were useless?You mean the iPods that they already owned and that already can play their personal music collections? Those useless iPods? ;)

The bigger view that I think you and I'll agree on is that DRM in general often either locks out or causes major headaches for many regular , non-criminal-type people seeking nothing more than fair use of the products and content they pay for, while providing just about zero actual protection for the "rights holders".

davezatz

02-22-2006, 06:18 PM

They didn't think their iPods were useless?

Yeah... interesting how that plays out, eh? Most of the world doesn't seem to realize Apple isn't playing fairly (by not licensing their DRM). An Apple monopoly is sexy and seductive unlike the much-maligned greedy juggernaut Microsoft who can do no good.

I mostly agree with gonzo... it's a problem as long as everyone has their own DRM scheme. If everyone could agree we'd have interoperability and the consumer would be better off. Not to mention they'd probably all make more money since the industry wouldn't be fragmented and the consumers wouldn't be confused. Microsoft's DRM has a lot of support and does license it (audio AND video)... however Apple is doing their own thing while controlling a huge segment of the market. I think MS is going to make a play by putting their hooks into HD-DVD based on what I saw from the Gates CES keynote webcast.

gonzotek

02-22-2006, 07:06 PM

davezatz

02-24-2006, 12:06 PM

A new service called MovieKlub is slated to launch this summer. They promise no throttling like Netflix or Blockbuster... sounds like they'll burn the movies as reuqested an send them out on media that expires after 3 plays. Other companies have tried this in the past and thrown in the towel. I guess it's good that new (or recycled) ideas are getting looked at, but this will fail and doesn't get me improved PPV/VOD. Anyhow, I wrote it up a little on my site...

HDTiVo

02-24-2006, 01:04 PM

Another significant voice is on the train.

INTERNET DAILY
'Survivor' producer offers tips to TV

By Frank Barnako, MarketWatch
Last Update: 11:56 AM ET Feb 23, 2006

The hottest programmer in television says network TV must embrace the Internet to survive.

Speaking at an industry forum in Beverly Hills, Calif., Mark Burnett said networks won't be able to exist as they are when 75 million TIVO digital video recorders are operating in homes and broadband access is available everywhere.

Traditional television is facing huge challenges finding audiences. Broadband in the office has made the workday the new prime time for television, he told the Museum of Television & Radio event. "The Internet is clearly surpassing any network and the future has to be the combination of the two," Burnett said, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

"The beautiful thing about the Internet is, it's on-demand and naturally archived, and has people forging communities."

Burnett, who is hugely successful producing network TV shows including "Survivor" and "The Apprentice," said his next stage will be the Web. He's already developing a treasure hunt for America Online. Next could be news.

"I do believe there's a big opportunity there," Burnett said. "As Jon Stewart proved, if presented in the right way ... young people are interested in news. All it takes is a unique idea."

HDTiVo

02-24-2006, 01:14 PM

Yeah... interesting how that plays out, eh? Most of the world doesn't seem to realize Apple isn't playing fairly (by not licensing their DRM). An Apple monopoly is sexy and seductive unlike the much-maligned greedy juggernaut Microsoft who can do no good.

I mostly agree with gonzo... it's a problem as long as everyone has their own DRM scheme. If everyone could agree we'd have interoperability and the consumer would be better off. Not to mention they'd probably all make more money since the industry wouldn't be fragmented and the consumers wouldn't be confused. Microsoft's DRM has a lot of support and does license it (audio AND video)... however Apple is doing their own thing while controlling a huge segment of the market. I think MS is going to make a play by putting their hooks into HD-DVD based on what I saw from the Gates CES keynote webcast.
We have not really gotten into this much yet in this thread, but the emergence of a standard is critical to mass success.

Once people can purchase an IPVOD player just like they can purchase a DVD player, and expect all content from all studios and all major retail content distributors (ie. an IPNetFlix) to play on their device, the market will take off.

The Apple iPod was not that big until it adopted the ability to [edit: work with Windows PCs.] Its supremacy will again be threatend when an open standard of DRM that Apple doesn't support takes over the content world. Apple will then be forced to add support for the other standard.

Edited to fix mistake about original iPods not playing MP3.

gonzotek

02-24-2006, 02:01 PM

The Apple iPod was not that big until it adopted the ability to play MP3s. Its supremacy will again be threatend when an open standard of DRM that Apple doesn't support takes over the content world. Apple will then be forced to add support for the other standard.The iPod has always had the ability to play mp3 files, from the very first generation through the newest models. As far as an 'open' standard of DRM overtaking Apple's FairPlay in popularity, I've got to believe that Apple will be heavily involved in any industry-standardization process. But I also have to believe that's a long way off. Look at the landscape today: Microsoft has their DRM solution(s), Apple has the proprietary FairPlay(which also happens to be today's dominant DRM for digital music sales), TiVo has their own proprietary DRM system, DVDs have CSS, Sony had DRM on their discs that installed a rootkit and got them in serious trouble, and there are literally dozens of other 'solutions' that tech companies are trying to sell to content companies. Based on that degree of fragmentation, and the fact that Apple is currently the dominant player, it's hard to imagine them being 'forced' into doing anything like adopting someone else's system. More than likely, it will be the other way around, with Apple forcing the rest of the industry into whatever uncomfortable positions Steve Jobs dreams up.

davezatz

02-24-2006, 04:57 PM

We have not really gotten into this much yet in this thread, but the emergence of a standard is critical to mass success.

Once people can purchase an IPVOD player just like they can purchase a DVD player, and expect all content from all studios and all major retail content distributors (ie. an IPNetFlix) to play on their device, the market will take off.

I agree that standardization is what will lead to mass adoption. Your DVD player is a good example... both the video format and the encryption scheme are consistent amongst all - everyone is speaking the same language. The problem is, everyone wants to do their own thing - if you lock people into your model (or exclude others) the thought is you might generate more money for yourself. The bigger picture is the market as a whole will be slower to adopt so maybe you won't come out ahead in the long run moving fewer potential items. Taking the DVD example into the next generation, we see that with the two hi-def disc factions of Blu-ray versus HD-DVD.

Some sort of consortium needs to be created and Microsoft or Apple should step up and give away their DRM scheme, model, code, support, etc to the community. (I vote MS for a proven track record on multiple platforms via multiple vendors and being involved in HD-DVD.) As far as standardization of audio or video, MP3 and MPEG4 are my obvious choices.

(Nice avatar gonzo!)

davezatz

02-26-2006, 10:24 AM

It'll be a few more days before I finish messing around and formally write up my thoughts, but based on an hour or so of playing in my Vongo review account I am impressed. It still doesn't easily get movies to my television, but this is an awesome service for road warriors or maybe college kids. All-you-can-eat movies AND a live stream of Starz (who own the service) for just 9.99/mo. The movies rotate in and out and there aren't as many new releases as I'd like, but the selection is large enough I'm sure most people could find something interesting to watch. They also offer PPV at $3.99 a pop, but frankly I think that confuses the issue... (though it does offer more new releases).

Having watched 6 episodes of Battlestar Galactica on my laptop this week, I'm pretty familiar with what iTunes 320x240 encoding looks like at full screen (yuck)... The live STREAM of Starz has noticeably better quality and I believe slightly higher resolution- fewer artifacts, less pixelization, better blacks. I'm downloading Sin City at the moment and I expect the quality to be high, similar to Movielink (not iTunes). Pretty sad streaming video looks better than iTunes downloads... maybe next Tuesday Apple will announce higher resolutions. If they ever offers movies, they'll have to. If they ever make a large video iPod screen they'll also have to.

Vongo uses Microsoft DRM and framework so you can transfer to those PMC's, but I don't have one at the moment to mess around with. Also because it uses MS, obviously this won't work on anything other than a Windows PC.

HDTiVo

02-27-2006, 05:00 PM

It certainly looks like Microsoft's DRM has got a significant head start in the race to a standard. I feel - but to not yet want to say publicly - that MS victory is inevitable.

My impression is that Tom Rogers' strategy is for TiVo to work with the MS/Intel regime of home network content download/transfer/storage/purchase/rental/etc...

Under the current circumstances, this is the best strategy for TiVo and will advance its prospects greatly.

HDTiVo

02-27-2006, 05:06 PM

davezatz

02-27-2006, 06:06 PM

I have never experienced good scaling on a PC, whether its iTunes or DVD. Maybe I don't have the right hardware or codec.

Before we moved our living room TV was actually a projector and a 10' wide "screen" - so I'm here to tell you good image quality can be had. Though it can also be a pain to setup and maintain. ;) After a few HTPCs I ended up with a combo LG set-top box that acted as HD tuner and upscaling DVD player. The image quality was better with less work.

PS Vongo DOES use MS DRM (as does Movielink) so transferring to MS PMCs is already a reality (though I don't have one to test with). Integration into a Xbox 360 would open a few more doors... nd maybe motivate me to track one down. I'm still not convinced Viiv means anything. ;)

HDTiVo

03-01-2006, 09:34 AM

Yesterday IFC, which is owned by Cablevision, announced a deal with Comcast for same day release in theaters and on VOD of four or five films a month. The new releases will be $5.99 on VOD.

davezatz

03-01-2006, 09:39 AM

Yah... I caught that last night. I saved a link to write it up later today:
http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/entry/2185/comcast_and_ifc

It's a start in breaking down those rigid distribution barriers. It seems inevitable really... the market and the way we watch films has been evolving for a generation now. They thought VHS would kill the movie industry, but home movie sales (regardless of distribution method) might just end up saving it.

HDTiVo

03-01-2006, 04:09 PM

http://www.tivo.com/5.3.6.asp

Upcomming Executive Speaking Engagements

Digital Living Room
"DVRs, VOD and the Rise of Just-in-Time Video"
5:30-6:20 PM
San Francisco, CA
Thursday March 23, 2006
Speaker: Evan Young, Director of Broadband Services, TiVo Inc.

Breakthrough 2006: Connect to the Digital Consumer
"Living Room" Case Studies.
The Integration of DVR & Broadband
10:30 AM
Las Vegas, NV
Tuesday March 28, 2006
Speaker: Edward Lichty, Vice President, Business Development, TiVo Inc.

Digital Hollywood Spring
"Television 2.0: OnDemand, PRV, DRV, Cable, Telco, Satellite & Broadband Redefine the Future of Entertainment and Communications"
9:00-10:15 AM
Santa Monica, CA
Tuesday March 28, 2006
Speaker: Vice President and General Manager of Content Services, TiVo Inc

Digital Hollywood Spring
"The DVR and VOD as a Disruptive Market Force: How Consumer Adaptation of Technology Determines the Future of Advertising and Programming"
9:00-10:15 AM
Santa Monica, CA
Wednesday March 29, 2006
Speaker: Davina Kent, Vice President National Sales, TiVo Inc.

davezatz

03-01-2006, 04:10 PM

Seeing those VOD topics in light of tomorrow's announcement makes ya wonder, don't it? ;)

Mamoth

03-02-2006, 09:07 AM

IE deep queues and doing maybe 20 to 30 movies a month.
I have been throttled badly. I do about 15 or so movies a month. So no where near the 20 - 30. I have 150 movies in my queue. New releases just do not come to me.. I have about 15+ sitting at "Very Long Wait". I don't get movies 2+ days after they are received when they used to come the same day. I'm not a huge user of the service (i.e. only 15 movies a month with the 3 out at a time plan) but I am getting throttled.

I would switch to blockbuster but I hear they do the same thing.

HDTiVo

03-03-2006, 12:32 PM

The Broadband buzz the last couple of days has been about telephone companies hijacking the internet and charging tiered prices for services.

The hysteria is that you'll be charged extra for higher bandwidth or charged per bit. But I already pay more for higher bandwidth; DSL costs $29.99 and faster cable costs $39.99. AOL just started offering service via broadband for the same price as dial-up - albeit they raised the dialup price. :down:

Who is going to pay, if anyone? Are the MovieBeam type companies going to have to pay $.03 to the phone company for each video a subscriber downloads? What might be the price?

Further lost with this development is the concept that a fixed, flat, monthly fee leads to mass adoption and usage. The pay per download IPVOD services do not understand this yet; the phone companies could be about to make it worse.

There are alot of generalities being thrown about. We'll have to see what develops.

HDTiVo

03-06-2006, 08:00 AM

Dave Zatz points out on his Blog (http://www.zatznotfunny.com/) March 5 that CBS will be offering March Madness online.

NCAA® March Madness™ on Demand (http://www.ncaasports.com/mmod) looks like a greatly expanded offering from what has been done in the past. I am not clear on if it is just live streaming, or if there is post game (or even intra-game for us TiVo-start-a-show-while-it-is-still-recording folks) streaming or download available. But it is definitely VOD, and definitely FREE.

However, it is LIMITED. I surmise CBS has a bandwidth monitor and they only let a certain number watch a game: the concept is like a virtual arena with only so many seats, although each seat is not necessarily equal, so perhaps the number of "seats" varies with the total bandwidth of all seat holders. Maybe its just simpler to say it like this: the bandwidth is probably the primary limit. No info on the technology behind it all - like multicasting, codec used, resolution(s)...

If you are nuts about Madness, sign up early, because the early birds get VIP treatment for "seats" in the arenas.

One more thing, the "local" game is blacked out. I suspect this is because of either or both restrictions in the NCAA contract and the desire not to steal viewers from the broadcast affiliate. The latter will become more and more an anachronism in the years ahead.

Let's hope next year we're seeing this on our TiVoes instead of our PCs. :up:

davezatz

03-06-2006, 08:31 AM

From what I've read it seems like just streaming, no VCR controls. But it also sounds like they'll have video highlights and features available to watch in addition to the games. I'm very excited about this and happily surprised to see it being offered free. Another reason to ebay my Minneapolis (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=290042) Sweet 16/Great 8 tickets. ;)

Based on their screenshot, it's being played back in WMP (WMP is required on both Mac and PC platforms) - so there's a technological clue. Speaking of live streaming, Vongo's Starz channel (the whole app actually) uses Microsoft's DRM and playback stuff.

(Fortunately, I already have a CBSSportsline ID since my fantasty football leauge has used them for 4 or 5 years now.)

HDTiVo

03-06-2006, 08:40 AM

We sure are seeing alot of MS based codec and DRM usage. Do I smell a standard coming?

A strict standards comparison is not fair as with DVD. DVD is a physical media, and therefore subject to more limits. IPVOD is virtual and several flavors can therefore be accomodated. However, too much range impacts hardware requirements - which are tight in the CE world - and how many flavors are studios going to want to be bothered with encoding into?

---------
Let us know how you enjoy the Thrilling Thirty Two, Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight. :D

HDTiVo

03-07-2006, 11:17 AM

Just when you think its all MS...

I am not that impressed with the content list here and wonder if using Real will limit their offering.

HOT OFF THE WIRE PORTFOLIO NEWS - from Lycos Finance

RealNetworks Helps Cingular Deliver Next Generation Video Service
- Mar 7, 2006 08:30 AM (PR Newswire)
- http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=56435416

===================================================

Real's Helix Platform Provides Cingular Video Subscribers a Personalized,
Simple to Use Mobile Video Experience

SEATTLE, March 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- RealNetworks(R), Inc.
(Nasdaq: RNWK), the leading creator of digital media services and software,
said Cingular will be the first wireless carrier to commercially deploy Real's
Helix(TM) OnlineTV(TM) platform. Cingular today launched its Cingular Video
on-demand streaming video service in 16 cities across the country.

Cingular Video gives its customers fast and easy access to video from
major content providers, including exclusive video clips from HBO Mobile and
HBO Family, including the Sopranos and Sex and the City. Customers can also
receive up-to-the-minute weather updates from The Weather Channel and easy-to-use access to video content such as Fox Sports and the Disney Channel, to name a few. [SNIP]

davezatz

03-07-2006, 11:27 AM

Is it worth mentioning that before Vongo existed (and used MS), they offered a Starz subscription service through Real...?

HDTiVo

03-13-2006, 12:45 PM

Now talk about Amazon Resumes...

Amazon movie downloads are coming
Retailer's entry might speed up competition in new era
By Bambi Francisco, MarketWatch
Last Update: 11:22 AM ET Mar 10, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- It's been highly anticipated that Amazon would enter the movie-download business. But the long wait may be over as such an offering might finally be coming to a personal computer near you.

Amazon is speaking with TV movie studios, including General Electric Co.'s Universal Pictures, Time Warner's Warner Bros. and Viacom's Paramount, and is set to launch a service this summer, according to published reports.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has been predicting Amazon's entry into this nascent, but promising, business since 2004. Earlier this year, Variety reported that Amazon was set to launch a service this spring.

It's also not surprising that the retailer would enter the movie download business, given Amazon's significant online customer base, its increased spending on engineers to create new technologies, and the promising business opportunity that movie downloads presents.

Apple Computer sold 1 million video clips in the first 20 days of making movie and video downloads available on its iTunes Music Store. The early success of Apple's movies on iTunes underscores consumers' willingness to buy movies downloads as opposed to stealing them. Movie studios are also eager to work with partners to fend off online piracy.

But even though the technology to deliver such big files, it's unclear whether consumer demand is truly here.

Netflix has enjoyed being the leader of movie rentals through its monthly DVD subscription business. But the company shelved its plans to enter the DVD-download business itself in 2005, but it held off, due to market immaturity.

See Net Sense: E-movies coming soon to a PC near you. See Net Stocks: Amazon's innovation potential gets noticed. See Net Sense: No bundles on the Web, please. Amazon.com has already shown some modest interest in movies through its ownership of IMDB.com, whose tagline is: "Earth's Biggest Movie Database." You can click on a "buy" button and be directed to Amazon to buy DVDs of the films.

At least one analyst, Scott Devitt of Stifel Nicolaus has said it seems inevitable that Amazon would get into the business of digital downloads given that it's hiring a number of engineers to digitize its products, such as books.

Amazon's discussions with studios are still in the early stages, and could result in the retailer receiving DVDs at the same time of the movie release, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Amazon was not immediately available to comment.

If Amazon enters the market, it could compete with a host of companies that are positioned to offer movie downloads. They include Google and Yahoo which are beginning to aggregate videos online. Verizon Wireless, a joint venture between Verizon and Vodafone Group, has a library of 1 million songs available for sale to subscribers who want to pay $1.99 to download a song to their phone, or $0.99 to download a song onto a computer.

HDTiVo

03-15-2006, 09:57 AM

Today AOL launches a 'Broadband Network'

Full screen video; look out iTunes ;)
When can I see this with my TiVo?

Partial Press Release:

AOL and Warner Bros. Launch In2TV - The First Broadband
Television Network
- Mar 15, 2006 09:15 AM (BusinessWire)
- http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=56692337

=========================================================

DULLES, Va. & BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 15,
2006--America Online, Inc.:

Thousands of Classic TV Shows To Be Available Free and On Demand on
AOL.com, Including Welcome Back, Kotter, Chico & The Man, Alice,
Growing Pains, Sisters, Kung Fu, Lois & Clark and More

Gabe Kaplan of Welcome Back, Kotter to Host Launch Celebration at
Museum of Television & Radio in Los Angeles

Late Actor/Comedian Freddie Prinze to Be Honored with First 'In2TV
Influencer Award'

AOL and Warner Bros. are saying "Welcome Back" to thousands of
classic TV shows with the launch of In2TV, the first broadband
television network, on AOL.com. The network offers the largest
collection of free on-demand TV shows on the Web, including full
episodes of favorite Warner Bros. programs from the past 40 years such
as Welcome Back, Kotter, Chico & The Man, Alice, Growing Pains,
Sisters, Kung Fu, Lois & Clark and many others, along with interactive
features and viral videos that enable audiences to experience and
interact with television programming in an entirely new way. To
celebrate the launch, AOL and Warner Bros. will host an event tonight
at the Museum of Television and Radio in Beverly Hills, with stars
from the In2TV programming lineup scheduled to make appearances.

"In2TV breaks new ground as the first true broadband television
network. With the largest collection of full length television
programming anywhere on the Web, plus interactive features and viral
videos all free and on-demand, In2TV will appeal to existing fans as
well as introduce these shows to a whole new generation," said Kevin
Conroy, Executive Vice President, AOL Media Networks. "In2TV is
another important milestone in the evolution of video on the Web, and
is one more way that we are making AOL.com the best destination for
video online."

A list of shows available at launch is included below.

All of the episodes can also be found through the new AOL(R) Video
Search, and can be viewed full-screen with Windows Media streaming
technology as well as in the new AOL(R) Hi-Q(TM) video format, which
can deliver DVD-quality videos directly to consumers quickly and
efficiently.

Launch Celebration

To celebrate In2TV's launch, AOL and Warner Bros. will host a
star-studded party tonight at the Museum of Television and Radio in
Beverly Hills at 7 p.m. PT. With Welcome Back Kotter star Gabe Kaplan
as the evening's emcee, the event will feature appearances by stars
from In2TV shows such as Growing Pains, Perfect Strangers, Kung Fu,
Babylon 5, V, The New Adventures of Batman and others.

List of In2TV Series at Launch*

Adventures of Brisco County Junior
Alice
Babylon 5
Beetlejuice
Chico and the Man
Dark Justice
Eight is Enough
F Troop
The F.B.I.
Falcon Crest
Freakazoid
Freddy's Nightmares
The Fugitive
Growing Pains
Hangin' with Mr. Cooper
Head of the Class
Histeria!
Kung Fu
La Femme Nikita
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
Maverick
The New Adventures of Batman
Perfect Strangers
Pinky and the Brain
Scarecrow and Mrs. King
Sisters
Spenser: For Hire
V
Welcome Back, Kotter
Wonder Woman

davezatz

03-15-2006, 10:25 AM

You notice what platform they're using... ;)

HDTiVo

03-15-2006, 10:41 AM

You notice what platform they're using... ;)
Our old friend, of course.

They're also using their own Hi-Q format for "DVD Quality." Bet that's like calling 128kbps MP3 'CD Quality.' :p

davezatz

03-15-2006, 10:47 AM

By the way, I reported the announcement back in November that this was coming. :)
http://www.zatznotfunny.com/2005-11/warner-to-offer-free-streaming-tv/

If the details are still accurate, there is no time shifting and a few minutes of commercials are inserted in exchange for being free. ;)

Still tethered to the computer though... my Slingbox gives me control of TiVo so I can watch current programming and skip those commercials. Fidelity probably isn't as good and it's not free (200-250 upront, no monthly fees), but the menu is larger and the control is finer.

By the way, iTunes offered it first full-legnth movie yesterday for ten bucks I think (I just skimmed the news). I may have been a Disney made-for-TV thing.

HDTiVo

03-15-2006, 12:36 PM

Update on March Madness:

iTunes will be selling Tournament games the day after broadcast for $1.99.

Sounds like a day late and a dollar long to me. ;)

davezatz

03-15-2006, 12:56 PM

Hmmm... maybe I misread, I thought they were selling a compilation of game highlights for $1.99? Either way, you're right... I can't imagine sports after the fact are interesting to many. The only time shifting I've ever done with sporting events is trick play to review something.

I'm ready with my Slingbox for tomorrow's broadcast... there's probably less of a bandwidth issue accessing my home than there will be with CBS Sportsline - we shall see.

rainwater

03-15-2006, 01:10 PM

I'm ready with my Slingbox for tomorrow's broadcast... there's probably less of a bandwidth issue accessing my home than there will be with CBS Sportsline - we shall see.

Since CBS Sportsline makes a big deal out of their queue system before you even signup, you can bet its going to be a nightmare the first few days.

tai-pan

03-15-2006, 01:28 PM

PPV is not always the best quality.

HDTiVo

03-16-2006, 09:02 AM

Yesterday, Zatz commented about MovieBeam being disappointing in its present form and linked to NetFlix's HD DVD page.

http://www.zatznotfunny.com/

davezatz

03-16-2006, 09:45 AM

PS I've been playing with that AOL TV stuff... no registration of any kind is required. Quality is good so far in a window, though full-screen HiQ doesn't work now - it's giving me errors. I haven't seen a commercial yet, but supposedly they will be coming. I hope to write something up in the next few days.

HDTiVo

03-16-2006, 10:20 AM

HOT OFF THE WIRE PORTFOLIO NEWS - from Lycos Finance

(NASDAQ:AAPL) Apple Computer, Inc., (NASDAQ:GOOG) Google Inc.

Group: Online Content Spending Hits $2B
- Mar 15, 2006 06:45 PM (AP Online)
- http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=56715562

=====================================================

By ANICK JESDANUN AP Internet Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- Music sales helped propel U.S. spending on online content to a record $2 billion last year, a 15 percent increase from 2004, the Online Publishers Association reports.

The entertainment/lifestyle category, which in 2005 surpassed personals/dating to become the leading category of paid content, will likely get an even bigger boost this year with the availability of more video online. Apple Computer Inc. opened its iTunes Music Store to video late in the year, while Google Inc. did not begin offering paid video until January 2006.

"Consumers are viewing the Web platform and going online as a major destination for entertainment," said Pam Horan, vice president of marketing and membership for the New York-based trade group of media companies.

A few categories saw declines: sports, by 3 percent; user-generated content sites, such as classmates.com and IMDB.com, by 7 percent; and general news, by 11 percent.

Horan notes that consumers have plenty of sources for free news, so publishers may ultimately find that an advertisement-based business model works best.

The study, released Tuesday, was based on tracking by comScore Networks and excludes some types of content including pornography, gambling and software.

davezatz

03-16-2006, 01:32 PM

Since CBS Sportsline makes a big deal out of their queue system before you even signup, you can bet its going to be a nightmare the first few days.

It's a nightmare alright... I'm a 'VIP' (yeah right) and I'm currently 8,198 in line for a feed. I accidentally closed my browser window before and they're obviously not using cookies since I was bumped to the back. I figure 10-15 minutes to get in if I'm lucky. What BS (you get what you pay for obviously). Good thing I have a Slingbox.

davezatz

03-16-2006, 01:44 PM

Seems like it took about 10 minutes or so to get in... I had to watch a 20 second Courtyard commercial and then I could choose from three games (audio+video or just audio). Video is takes about a minute to buffer and is delayed about a minute behind the television broadcast. Quality is not very good, looks like web streaming but it's watchable - audio is fine. In the window-ed size the Slingbox feed looks much better. Both look poor full screen, though the Sling feed is better and watchable.

EDIT: Make that two games I could choose from. One was blocked due to geographical restrictions since they think the game is being broadcast locally. (It was... but it was also half time so they had flipped to another game allowing me to compare Sling to Sportsline to television directly.)

davezatz

03-16-2006, 02:01 PM

I forgot to mention there are also commercials in conjunction with the time outs. I saw a PSP one and a movie one. The quality looks better than the action for whatever it's worth. My experitment is done. It's better than nothing, but not better than a Slingbox and probably not even better than Sirius who is broadcasting audio of all games. I'll have to ask my buddy Pete how that worked out for him today.

davezatz

03-16-2006, 02:36 PM

OK I spoke too soon. I just jumped on again and I was 55 in line and got in 1 minute later. Quality is better, perhaps fewer people are viewing it? I also switched over to EVDO and the quality comparison between the Slingplayer and Sportsline (using WMP) is very close. Of course running these simultaniously could impact performance. ;) Also fast action will always look worse, so this may not be the best venue for watching. CBS must have run out of sponsors/commercials because now they have a 'stay tuned' graphic up during a time out.

In conclusion a sports bar is probably the place to be!

HDTiVo

03-16-2006, 08:57 PM

Well Dave, at least you'll always know there's no waiting here at the Forum. :D

HDTiVo

03-18-2006, 08:40 AM

So Dave, reading your Blog, the Madness experience is a bit mixed. Certainly a nice addition to the range of possible ways to get Madness, but not going to sweep the world of Tournament viewing.

CBS has not solved some drawbacks to live action situations: capacity, fast motion, etc.

Its also hard to be your own director...especially when you could wait 10 min. to get into the hot finish with 13 seconds left to go! Do the VOD feeds not also cut away to such other action like the TV broadcast?

HDTiVo

03-18-2006, 08:48 AM

Looks like MS is offering some HD IPVOD. Any guess what DRM scheme?

It sounds like you use the Xbox to navigate to the content and download it directly into the Xbox. I'd expect you can also download to PC and use the Xbox as a Media Extender.

Microsoft and Epic Records to Offer Ongoing Exclusive
Entertainment Content on Xbox Live
- Mar 16, 2006 07:00 PM (PR Newswire)
- http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=56758884

===============================================

The online entertainment network features Natasha Bedingfield as first Artist
of the Month, and offers music videos and Game with Fame sessions.

REDMOND, Wash. and NEW YORK, March 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Microsoft
Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) and music giant Epic Records today announced an agreement to make available a full year of exclusive artist content and high-definition music video downloads free for all Xbox 360(TM) gamers. Over the next year,
Xbox 360 and Epic Records will showcase 12 up-and-coming artists through the
Artist of the Month (AOM) program via the Xbox Live(R) service, the first and
only unified global online entertainment network. Through the alliance,
millions of Xbox Live members can enter a monthly sweepstakes with a prize of
gaming against some of the hottest musicians through the Xbox Live Game with
Fame(TM) program.

davezatz

03-18-2006, 08:52 AM

Yah, it is mixed... limiting capacity is inconvenient but better than crashing servers and losing feeds I guess. Maybe next year they'll be able to handle more. The ads and commercials cover costs, so that's the trade off in keeping free. The feeds stay on the specific game, so if you're a fan of a certain team you won't be cut off. My team (Maryland) is out this year, so the cutting away on TV is fine with me but it could be a problem for others. The video quality isn't perfect, but it's tolerable in the smalll window if you're a fan and this is the only option. Also the quality seemed to vary - maybe when they had fewer viewers? It's worth repeating that the audio was flawless, so even if video isn't perfect you could listen for free. I'll try to check it out again tomorrow when it should have less traffic and if there were any server-side kinks they may have been addressed.

davezatz

03-18-2006, 08:56 AM

Looks like MS is offering some HD IPVOD. Any guess what DRM scheme?

It sounds like you use the Xbox to navigate to the content and download it directly into the Xbox. I'd expect you can also download to PC and use the Xbox as a Media Extender.

They've been experimenting with movie trailers and whatnot, so this is no surprise. It'll be like the Best Buy and Nikon stuff on TiVo but obviously much higher quality, organized, and on-demand. I doubt you can get it on PC and extend it... probably 360 dashboard and hard drive access only.

By the way, how long before MovieLink and Akimbo flicks show up on 360? Probably before TiVo gets their VOD up.

gonzotek

03-18-2006, 09:03 AM

Looks like MS is offering some HD IPVOD. Any guess what DRM scheme?

It sounds like you use the Xbox to navigate to the content and download it directly into the Xbox. I'd expect you can also download to PC and use the Xbox as a Media Extender.I think Dave's on to something. I think MS is looking to get into the iTunes-sales model with anything that'll be usable on a Xbox360. Instead of IPVOD, maybe we should call it IPMOD (Media). TiVo's next box is a DMR, not DVR so I think it lends some credence to the idea.

HDTiVo

03-18-2006, 09:04 AM

I'm still most concerned about Broadband Services charging extra for video download (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=3827470&&#post3827470).

Content creators see IPVOD as a way to cut out the Video Service Provider as a middleman. Now the Broadband Service Providers want to cut themselves back in as middlemen.

Gates Backs Net Neutrality (http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleid=CA6316461)

davezatz

03-18-2006, 09:12 AM

TiVo's next box is a DMR, not DVR so I think it lends some credence to the idea.

I wouldn't read too much in to that, they've been trying to make that branding transition for awhile... my Toshiba SD-H400 TiVo calls itself a DMS - digital media server. :)

HDTiVo

03-18-2006, 09:14 AM

I think Dave's on to something. I think MS is looking to get into the iTunes-sales model with anything that'll be usable on a Xbox360. Instead of IPVOD, maybe we should call it IPMOD (Media). TiVo's next box is a DMR, not DVR so I think it lends some credence to the idea.
I've been 'evangelizing' the premise of the S3 being a DMR working in the Vista/ViiV defined world for a long time now. This is the strategic position that is left to TiVo. They can make the S3 the premium DMR/DVR on the market.

This reminds me of an idea for one of my other threads...

HDTiVo

03-18-2006, 11:01 AM

Review of NCAA On Line (http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/services/2006-03-16-ncaa-webcast_x.htm)

Wow! Watch 3 NCAA games at once!
By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY
SAN MATEO, Calif. — Sitting in front of the dull glow of my home PC and watching three NCAA tournament games simultaneously, the thought hits me like a slam dunk: This truly is March Madness.

A screen shot shows action from the UCLA-Belmont game.
www.CBSSportsline.com

For more than six hours, I viewed CBS SportsLine.com's free video broadcast of the men's basketball bacchanalia. CBS said Internet capacity allowed about 268,000 people to view games at the same time. Most were consumers like me with the digital pipes at home to indulge, as well as workers with high-speed Internet access. (Related item: Advertisers place $500M bet on NCAA)

Aside from being a godsend for basketball junkies, CBS' marathon coverage might be a watershed of sorts for the Internet. The success of the bold experiment (it's streaming 56 games free through March 24) could usher in more free sports events live, says Tom Adams, president of Adams Media Research.

"It's like the natural extension of the digital living room or workplace," Adams says. With so much going on in the tournament — 64 teams playing over 18 days — it is a "perfect vehicle for niche broadcasts supported by advertising," he says.

Subscribers to the CBS package can view up to 37 games, because locally televised games are blacked out. On Thursday, 12 games were available online. In all, millions might watch.

CBS' NCAA March Madness on Demand tipped off at 9:20 a.m. with Wichita State and Seton Hall. The first ad, from Marriott International, ran at 9:18.

Logging in

More than a week ago, a friend told me CBS was webcasting the tourney. I signed up online and received an e-mail on Wednesday telling me that as an early registrant, I had qualified as a VIP, giving me better access to the big show.

At 8:40 a.m., about 40 minutes before the first game, I logged into a cyberwaiting-room — the 6,489th person in line. Each minute, a countdown screen informed how far I moved up in line. I entered the webcast within five minutes.

For those who signed up for the service later and did not qualify as a VIP, the wait was longer. They were consigned to a general admission area, where 54,000 people queued up at 9 a.m., and 100,000 an hour later. Several of those people said they waited in line online for anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour.

By most accounts, the process went smoothly. As of 5 p.m. ET, the webcast had been downloaded 1.2 million times, according to CBS. As more people congregated at the site, CBS says, it opened the spigot on more bandwidth.

"It's a big step that a major event can be pulled off on the Web," says Larry Kramer, president of digital media at CBS. "It's a perfect complement to our TV coverage."

My viewing experience went well. The picture and sound were clear, and switching between games was easy. I surfed the Web, and exchanged e-mail and instant messages while the game ran in the background.

A viewer could watch as long as the computer was active. If it wasn't for 30 minutes, a pop-up message appeared. If the viewer didn't respond within five minutes, the connection was terminated and someone in the waiting-room was allowed in.

Computer inactivity was no problem for most users. During games, most tourney followers were likely to jump to ESPN.com and other sports websites to check their entries in contests to pick winners in the tourney.

Perhaps the most crucial feature for office employees viewing games was the "Boss Button." When clicked on, a spreadsheet appeared over the webcast.

Typically, the first two days of the NCAA men's basketball tournament are among the busiest for most sports websites. Last year, an estimated 4.1 million workers visited ESPN.com the first week, compared with 3.4 million the week before, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. Despite the online onslaught, overall performance of Internet traffic was not affected, says Rich Miller, an analyst at NetCraft.com, which tracks Net traffic. "For most large companies, it should be a non-issue," Miller says.

For small companies, it's a different story. In Raleigh, N.C., so many MMI Associates workers were checking websites for the latest scores, President Patty Briguglio complained her e-mail was moving too slowly.

One employee at the marketing firm was one of the lucky few to watch. Most of the other nine workers — pulling for Duke, North Carolina and North Carolina State — were constantly refreshing computer screens for the latest scores.

"My office is soooooooo busted," Briguglio said in a e-mail.

Contributing: Jim Hopkins

davezatz

03-18-2006, 11:08 AM

Perhaps the most crucial feature for office employees viewing games was the "Boss Button." When clicked on, a spreadsheet appeared over the webcast.

It was most definitely a gimmick and audio continued to play and it also had the large XP window style which most work computers probably don't use. Besides you shouldn't be worried about your boss walking in, it's the IT department that's monitoring your bandwidth usage and sites you visit. ;) Did I mention I was watching via EVDO? :D

HDTiVo

03-20-2006, 03:56 PM

Another breakthrough, which I first heard about in a thread started today by DT_DC.

This is very significant in that the model of pay per item is broken for one of the first times - with significant content. Flat monthly fee gets you all you can eat VOD.

Sounds like some pretty decent prime time material is available.

CBS and Verizon Reach Comprehensive Retransmission Consent Agreement

March 20, 2006 13:11:37 (ET)

NEW YORK, March 20, 2006 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Verizon and CBS today announced a comprehensive retransmission consent and video-on-demand (VOD) agreement, which includes analog, digital, multicast and high-definition rights to programming on CBS owned-and-operated television stations; local VOD content from those stations; and CBS Television Network VOD content, including such current popular network series as "CSI," "NCIS" and "Survivor."

Verizon will offer the programming on Verizon FiOS TV, its new fiber-optic TV service, which is now available in parts of seven states. All FiOS TV subscribers with a set-top box will receive the CBS Television Network VOD content at no incremental cost, which will also be true for FiOS TV subscribers in CBS O&O markets with regard to the local VOD content.

"We are extremely pleased to have reached this agreement with Verizon, a company clearly on the leading edge of new media," said Leslie Moonves, president and CEO, CBS Corporation. "With each subscriber that Verizon's FiOS TV adds, CBS will directly benefit, and therefore, we look forward to our partnership as Verizon showcases our programming both in our O&O markets and across the country."

Verizon Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg said, "This deal expands the market for both Verizon and CBS. For us, it means we can offer our customers the tremendously valuable content provided by the CBS Television Network and local broadcast stations. For CBS, it means they can use the bandwidth and flexibility of our fiber network to reach their customers in innovative ways."

The retransmission consent agreement with CBS is Verizon's largest such agreement. CBS locally owned-and-operated stations are in all Verizon TV markets except Washington, D.C. Prior to the signing of the comprehensive agreement, Verizon provided programming from the CBS owned-and-operated stations under a special agreement with CBS.

Other terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

HDTiVo

03-20-2006, 05:49 PM

Could CBS's decision to give Verizon free VOD have been based on Madness? :D

Best new idea in coverage of March Madness (http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_3547.asp)

We asked, “Which one of the new March Madness options will be the biggest hit?”

More than half, 51.4 percent, chose the free downloads available at CBSportsline.com. Another 14.3 percent chose coverage on CSTV, CBS’s newly acquired sports cable network, 8.3 predicted iTunes downloads and 25.7 said none of the new options would be a hit.

CBS has offered downloads in the past for a fee but this year switched them to free. The sense among media people is that this was a smart move, as it gives viewers control over which opening-round games they want to watch for the first time.

HDTiVo

03-25-2006, 06:20 AM

Memo to phone companies: DVR users don't need QoS...

Broadband giants say Net neutrality fears are misguided

By Marguerite Reardon
http://news.com.com/Broadband+giants+say+Net+neutrality+fears+are+misguided/2100-1034_3-6052986.html

Story last modified Fri Mar 24 11:20:51 PST 2006

LAS VEGAS--Executives from the two largest phone companies in the U.S. have tried to set the record straight on Net neutrality by explaining the kinds of service their companies would like to offer content providers.

Tom Tauke, executive vice president for public affairs for Verizon Communications, and Jim Cicconi, senior executive vice president for AT&T, said at the TelecomNext trade show here on Wednesday that their companies have no intention of degrading or blocking other companies' traffic that rides over the public Internet.

Instead AT&T and Verizon would simply like to offer content companies, such as Google and Movielink, virtual pipes directly to consumers over their broadband connections that would allow these content companies to make sure users at home have a good experience accessing their content.
:eek: :eek:

HDTiVo

03-27-2006, 02:12 PM

INTERNET DAILY

MLB.com behind NCAA Webcasts

By Frank Barnako, MarketWatch

Last Update: 1:10 PM ET Mar 27, 2006

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Major League Baseball's new media division has stepped up to the plate to deliver millions of Internet streams of NCAA March Madness games for CBS.

MLB.com began Net broadcasts of baseball four years ago. It now takes program feeds from 25 clients, including CBS, Major League Soccer, and Jimmy Buffett, and distributes them on the Web.

MLB.com's own baseball audio and video streaming business has 800,000 subscribers paying $79.95 a year, the Wall Street Journal reported. The technology investment for the venture has topped $7 million. Bob Bowman, who founded the MLB.com unit, has said the business is profitable. He told the Journal it's possible Major League Baseball will pursue a public stock offering.

HDTiVo

03-27-2006, 02:53 PM

Thought Equity, Sony Partner To Sell Stock Footage
By Glen Dickson -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/27/2006 12:49:00 AM
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6318904.html?display=Breaking+News

Stock footage firm Thought Equity has signed a deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment to manage and license the Sony Pictures Collection, a library of film footage from Sony's theatrical brands Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures and Screen Gems.

Thought Equity, which serves as a middleman between content owners and film, TV and commercial producers looking to buy unique clips to incorporate into their own productions, says the Sony deal represents the single largest investment by a motion picture film entity in the stock footage business.

The Denver-based company, which already has deals with HBO, the NCAA and action-film giant Warren Miller Entertainment, digitizes archived footage and stores it in uncompressed form in a digital library in Laramie, Wyoming; CEO Kevin Schaff says the archive is located in Wyoming to take advantage of the state's free fiber connectivity.

Potential customers can search Sony clips through the Internet, and Thought Equity will deliver high-definition (or lower resolution) masters either on tape or through high-speed data connections. Schaff says a broadband connection of 6 Mbps is adequate for receiving a high-def download.

Sony Pictures Stock Footage will continue to service customers and sell its content directly, says Brian Merriman, Executive Director of Business Development, Worldwide Product Fulfillment, for Sony. "However, taking on Thought Equity as an exclusive partner will extend our reach and bring our library of more than 70,000 clips to the attention of a much wider audience around the world."

HDTiVo

03-27-2006, 02:56 PM

Akimbo Adds HD Content
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/26/2006 11:10:00 PM
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6318735

Internet-delivered VOD company Akimbo has struck a deal for high-definition content from Mark Cuban's HDNet.

It will be the first high-def programing deal for Akimbo, which delivers more than 9,000 shows over the internet to subscribers (it won't say how many).

Akimbo negotiates directly with programmers for content, then delivers it to a set-top player or Microsoft Media Center that downloads, stores and plays video content over a TV.

Content partners include Discovery, Turner--CNN, Cartoon, TCM--National Geographic, the BBC, and now HDNet, Cuban's all-HD all-the-time programming network.

According to Akimbo CEO Josh Goldman, the company is also making its premium Major League Baseball content available free to current subs and the first 5,000 new sign-ups as part of a limited promotion. That content includes game summaries, "condensed" contests, and classic matchups.

Akimbo charges a monthly fee, then a per-program fee for some of the content. Say, two free episodes of Fawlty Towers, then 49 cents-per for the remainder.

Goldman says Akimbo will unveil a deal with a "major telco" in the next few weeks.

HDTiVo

03-27-2006, 03:09 PM

Time Warner, networks in early VOD talks

By David B. Wilkerson, MarketWatch

Last Update: 12:13 PM ET Mar 27, 2006

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Time Warner Inc.'s cable-television unit is in preliminary discussions with each of the major broadcast networks on making reruns of certain shows available on Time Warner Cable systems soon after they first air.

Time Warner Cable spokesman Mark Harrad called the talks "high-level," but he said that they are merely conceptual at this stage and that there was no specific business plan or deal in place.

Harrad said the idea was to make the "top hit shows" from CBS, ABC, Fox and NBC available on demand for a subscription fee that Time Warner Cable subscribers would pay on top of their current bill.

Time Warner Cable, the second-largest U.S. cable operator, has had success in offering on-demand programming from such channels as HBO on a subscription basis, rather than on a pay-as-you-go model. It now wants to see if the concept would work for network television programs, Harrad said.

One possibility is that viewers would get video-on-demand access to shows rated among the top 20, as ranked by Nielsen Media Research, for $10 per month, the New York Times reported in its Monday editions, citing an unnamed person familiar with the talks.

As U.S. consumers demand greater control over their entertainment, TV programmers, producers and distributors are trying to make sure their content doesn't get marginalized.

The broadcast networks have already seen their audiences eroded by cable programming and time spent on the Internet. An uneven advertising environment, exacerbated by advertisers' increasing willingness to spend ad dollars online, is putting further pressure on these networks to find new revenue streams.

For cable distributors like Time Warner Cable, video-on-demand is one of the keys to the "triple-play bundle" of digital video, broadband and telephone service that it uses to attract and keep customers. The triple play is particularly important in the battle with satellite and telephone companies.

Comcast Corp. , the largest U.S. cable operator, has a video-on-demand agreement with CBS to offer such shows as "C.S.I." and "Survivor" for 99 cents an episode, available a few hours after they are seen on the network.

DirecTV, the satellite broadcaster controlled by News Corp , already offers on-demand episodes of such Fox and FX network shows as "The Shield" and "24" as early as 48 hours before their airdates, for $2.99 an episode. Later this year, they will make reruns of those programs available six to seven days after they air. NBC also has a video-on-demand pact with DirecTV.

NBC Universal , Walt Disney Co.'s ABC television network and CBS Corp all make certain content available on Apple Computer's iTunes Internet download service

HDTiVo

03-28-2006, 06:45 AM

50 cents/GB, give me a break...

http://www.digitaltvdesignline.com/howto/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=183701374

The tale of the Tube

By Christopher T. Heun

Page 1 of 3

Courtesy of InternetWeek
(03/17/2006 7:03 PM EST)

As high-speed Internet connections reach into more and more American homes, so too does the promise that telephone companies could use them to deliver television content. The problem is, if they did so today your bill could be more than your car payment. A lot more.

That's the way Hank Kafka, BellSouth Corp.'s chief architect, figures it, because of the huge amount of bandwidth required if Americans were to watch video-on-demand and other high-definition TV programming over the Internet the same way we watch the tube now, which is an average of eight hours a day, often from more than one set in the house.

Kafka took some generally accepted cost estimates for today's Internet -- that the average user downloads about 2 GBs of data every month, which costs service providers about $1 -- and made some extrapolations. If a subscriber were to watch five standard definition movies per month, about 9 GBs of data, that would cost about $4.50. But if all TV viewing were in standard definition, the price tag jumps to $112 for 224 GBs. And if all viewing were high definition -- carried at 24 megabits per second -- the quantity reaches 1,120 GBs per month and the bill totals a whopping $560.

But Kafka, who first announced his estimates at a recent telecom industry trade conference, doesn't expect anyone to pay those kinds of prices. He just wants to make a point.

HDTiVo

03-30-2006, 10:05 AM

Jay Leno for FREE On Demand?
$.99 for prime time is now half way to reasonable. :)

Comcast Secures NBC U Demand Deal (http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6320373.html?display=Breaking+News)

By John M.Higgins -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/30/2006 8:38:00 AM

Cable operator Comcast has cut another major deal to supply its video on demand service, including two versions of Law & Order, The Office, and series from USA Network and Sci Fi Channel.

To avoid a wrestling match with broadcast affiliates, NBC's prime time and late-night series will be available only in Comcast markets where NBC owns and operates TV stations, including New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Washington, and Miami. Cable series will be avalable in all markets where Comcast offers VOD series.

Comcast will charge 99 cents to view an NBC prime time episode, but nothing for the late-night or cable network series.

The complete list of NBC series covered by the deal is Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, The Office, Las Vegas, Conviction, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and Passions.

Comcast will also get USA Network's Monk, SCI FI's Battlestar Galactica :up: and Ghost Hunters, and Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown.

dt_dc

03-30-2006, 10:10 AM

Jay Leno for FREE On Demand?
$.99 for prime time is now half way to reasonable. :)No one is worried about cutting into the DVD sales and syndication rights of Leno.

HDTiVo

03-30-2006, 10:13 AM

A big break in the dam...

Prices are getting lower and studios/networks are getting more liberal.

Significant increases in Cable VOD availability as well as IP delivered offerings.

NBC/Disney Put Scrubs on iTunes (http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6320246.html?display=Breaking+News)

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/29/2006 11:37:00 AM

NBC is putting this season's episodes of Scrubs on Apple's itunes.

It is the first time a network has made a non-aligned show--Scrubs is produced by Disney's Touchstone--available on iTunes.

The announcement was made by both NBC Universal TV Group CEO Jeff Zucker and Disney Media Nets President Anne Sweeney, with the two treating the deal as a partnership.

"The Disney-ABC TV Group is dedicated to being at the forefront of providing our incredible content, whether it is programming we create and air on ABC or that that we've created and licensed to other broadcasters, to consumers no matter when, where or how they want to view it," said Sweeney in announcing the deal.

It may the first cross-pollination of network/studio iPod offering, but it likely won't be the last. "Now we have the chance to offer even more attractive series that are not necessarily owned by NBCU but are now accessible in a increasingly popular format," said Zucker.

"Partnering with NBC and Apple to make the current season of Scrubs available for purchase on the iTunes Music Store is a great example of our commitment," Sweeney said.

HDTiVo

03-30-2006, 10:15 AM

No one is worried about cutting into the DVD sales and syndication rights of Leno.
That logic should lead to many talk shows and news shows available.

dt_dc

03-30-2006, 10:20 AM

50 cents/GB, give me a break...Data costs $$$. $1 per GB ... $0.50 for the sender and $0.50 for the reciever ... is the pretty standard quoted rate ...
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=2970863&&#post2970863

ashu

03-30-2006, 12:29 PM

But what if he wants to see it at full resolution in beautiful anamorphic widescreen?

Then he SHOULD wait for HBO/STARZ to carry it in HD, right ... instead of watching the icky, down-converted measly 720x480 DVD version?

What say ye, Mr. 'HD'TiVo? :D

HDTiVo

03-31-2006, 06:33 AM

Some wonderful nuggets here about additive effect of Netflix type marketing model, "Long Tail," studio contract obligations, and failure of PPV vs. Subscription model (SONY)...

March 31, 2006

Netflix widens niche by broadening tastes (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/columns/risky_business_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002275149)

By Anne Thompson

Years after the invention of digital timepieces, people still look at their analog watches. That's because they don't just want to know the time, they want to know how much time they have left. People still make room on their shelves for hardcover books and alphabetized CDs. Right now, the entertainment business is undergoing its own technological transformation, but the movie theater and the DVD aren't going to be replaced by video downloads overnight.

Which is fine with online DVD rental company Netflix because it offers what the studios don't: a wide selection. Going forward, Netflix's growing 4.2 million subscribers will continue to use www.netflix.com to choose and organize the DVDs they want to rent, and they will pay from $9.99-$17.99 a month to get hard discs in the mail. "Ninety-six% of people who rent DVDs watch them on a TV screen with a DVD player," Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos says.

Founded in 1998 by dot-com entrepreneur Reed Hastings, Netflix has amassed a catalog of about 55,000 titles, many of which are art and foreign flicks, and even about 900 Bollywood titles, a great favorite of Netflix's early subscribers in Northern California's Silicon Valley.

From the start, indie distributors like Bob Berney, now president of Picturehouse, saw films like "Memento" score big on Netflix -- along with Christopher Nolan's first movie, "Following," which was recommended to "Memento" renters by Netflix's supersmart Cinematch software.

Over time, Netflix's subscriber demographics have moved from the typical male Internet user toward a female-to-male 53%-47% split.

"It's amazing how mainstream we've become," Sarandos says. "The demo isn't as high end as it once was. Women look for convenience, selection and value. It's not unusual for women to make the entertainment selection in the household."

To date, Netflix's top three rentals are "Mystic River," "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" and, just this week, "Crash." During the three-hour March 5 Oscar telecast, 1 million movie requests were added to Netflix queues. "These movies had awareness bigger than their performance," Sarandos says. "Until Oscar night, filmgoers had heard of it but didn't get to see it."

A film buff and former home video executive, Sarandos orders titles for the Netflix catalog, predicting audience demand for a movie months in advance of its DVD street date. Rather than a studio dispassionately selling one picture at a time -- hit or miss -- to a mass market, Netflix builds enthusiasm for movies by catering to each consumer's personal passion. Markets with high Netflix penetration tend to have healthier boxoffice, Sarandos says.

If the trend is consumers rejecting mass-marketed media, Sarandos says, then Netflix tries to reach individuals with an ever-widening array of choices.

"It's clear the consumer likes the idea of a subscription service with all you can rent," one senior Sony executive says. "It's also clear that the a la carte buying, pay-per-view model has not worked. Surely, selection is more important than promotion as a way to sell movies. The original concept of the multiplex was to show a different movie on every screen, but everyone books the hits and takes the short-term money. The film fans at Netflix show that there's a huge audience hungry for selection. We've denied them that."

Sarandos cites Wired magazine's "Long Tail" concept, which posits that the market beyond the scope of a retailer like Blockbuster is huge. While most video store rentals are 20% catalog and 80% new release, less than 30% of Netflix's daily shipments are new releases.

"If you have the tools to unlock the viewer's taste, you have to have something for them," Sarandos says. To broaden their spectrum of movie rentals, Sarandos and his team look for the opposite of homogenized studio product, trawling film festivals for gems that could turn into word-of-mouth hits or Oscar contenders.

Ordering copies of a popular documentary like "March of the Penguins" isn't rocket science. Placing bets on more esoteric fare like ThinkFilm's "Born Into Brothels," which won the 2005 feature documentary Oscar and scored half a million Netflix transactions, is "30% art, 70% science," Sarandos says. At Netflix, hunches, intuition and context mix with sophisticated number-crunching and smart software.

Netflix is seeking to fill the gap between a good movie that should have an audience but has trouble reaching it. Thus, Sarandos favors movies that were "good enough to get into Sundance and get good reviews," he says, "but aren't four-quadrant movies with an easy TV sell." Netflix helped Warner Independent Pictures sell "A Very Long Engagement" by e-mailing fans of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's "Amelie" -- about 40% of who had never heard of the director's "Engagement."

So it's no surprise that Netflix is moving into distributing more indie titles. On a mission to bring viewers movies they might never come across, Sarandos has acquired various rights to 175 titles, including the Hal Hartley art flick "The Girl From Monday" and several documentaries from distributor DocuRama, the Sundance Channel and PBS' "POV" indie film showcase.

"We're supporting the ecosystem for filmmaking," Sarandos says. "Our distribution threshold is lower than everyone else's, which allows us to bring in smaller films. We don't have to push a film into the broad culture with Coca-Cola branding. There's no inefficiency in marketing, no billboard spending. We're working on creating the economies of a sequel, without making it first. Every movie has an audience. It's reaching them that's the science."

More distribution experiments are in the offing. Sarandos plans to buy about 100 movies a year, including some for theatrical release. With "Cowboy del Amor," the company successfully booked the docu into several cities, grabbing newspaper reviews -- which direct-to-DVD movies can't get. With its first foray into production financing, Netflix fully financed the docu "The Comedians of Comedy," licensed it to Showtime and released it to retail DVD stores.

Most recently, Netflix is partnering 50-50 with Roadside Attractions to acquire and release "Puffy Chair," a low-concept Sundance romance with marketing challenges that is expected to earn positive reviews when it opens on five digital screens June 2. "We can reach people through targeted e-mails who are otherwise not reading traditional media," Roadside Attractions co-president Howard Cohen says. "It's one of the best uses of the Internet: utilizing individual, direct, quick feedback. They collect information on a large number of people, process it and act on it."

As far as Sarandos is concerned, recent Wall Street projections that Netflix will face fierce competition from studios offering video downloads is premature. While the company said that it was going to test its own download service later this year, for now those plans have been postponed.

"The movies have to be downloadable to TV," Sarandos says. "Today, we are 100% focused on what the living room will look like" in 10 years, he says.

Thus, Netflix is working with hardware partner TiVo and its set-top box. "It's one of many ways to get the Internet to the TV," Sarandos says. "That has to be in place for the Internet to be a mainstream consumer proposition."

Meanwhile, the cable companies and satellite delivery systems are gearing up to offer high-definition video-on-demand. And the studios are still stuck for now with old-paradigm exclusive movie output deals with pay TV channels and pay-per-view. VOD offers more immediate access -- but so late that it doesn't seem to do anyone any good. When it comes to VOD, "There are film clearance issues," Sarandos says. "A lot of content is not available."

Although some of Hollywood's major studios and such retail giants as Amazon and Google Video reportedly are trying to experiment in the download-to-own arena, it will be tough to find anything cheaper, of higher quality, or more convenient than Netflix's returnable red DVD envelopes.

Anne Thompson can be reached at athompson@hollywoodreporter.com and www.reporter.blogs.com/risky.

HDTiVo

03-31-2006, 06:46 AM

Net Neutrality hearings in Congress...

March 31, 2006

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002275249

By Brooks Boliek

WASHINGTON -- One of the major sticking points over legislation easing phone companies' entry into the video market involves a policy that is little understood by some lawmakers. It's a policy that means different things to different people but has a passionate appeal.

It's called "net neutrality," and the debate over it went into high gear Thursday during a House Commerce Committee legislative hearing. Arguing the issues were executives from network companies like Verizon, Internet goods movers like Amazon and lawmakers from both parties. The legislation is being pushed by committee chairman Joe Barton, R-Texas.

Barton's bill aims to increase competition for the cable industry by doing away with a requirement that phone companies get video delivery franchises from local governments. The phone companies contend that the 18-24 months it takes to get many franchises is a competitive barrier to what could be a lucrative market.

While the cable companies don't want to make it any easier for the phone companies to get into their business, they wouldn't mind getting the same deal the phone companies get with the so-called "national franchise." There is language in the bill that eases their regulatory burden when the phone companies come in. Even as the phone and cable companies continue to quibble, they are united in their desire to make any network neutrality regulations a paper tiger.

There might be no clear definition for the term, but loosely translated it seems to mean that there should be clear rules that prohibit the phone and cable companies from using their control of the network of wires and fiber-optic cables over which information travels from disadvantaging the people and companies who use them.

Fear about abuse of this power is driving some lawmakers to fight Barton's bill. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., all but called the language a back-door tax on Internet users.

"We know from public statements from several industry executives that the owners of the broadband wires into our homes would like to start charging fees to Internet content providers," Markey said. "In other words, they want to artificially constrain the supply of Internet-based content and services to high-bandwidth consumers. This represents nothing more than the imposition of a broadband bottleneck tax on electronic commerce."

While language in the bill tells the FCC it needs to figure out what net neutrality is, it specifically prevents the agency from writing net neutrality rules. Rather, it would have the FCC enforce its net neutrality principles as people bring individual cases to the commission, accusing the networks of violating those principles.

"That's neither futuristic nor efficient, that's chaos," Markey said. "In short, the bill imperils the future of electronic commerce and innovation to the 'worldwide whims' of broadband barons and ties the hands of the agency in a way that will legally prevent it from saving something very special."

Barton defended his bill. He said it strikes the proper balance by giving the FCC the power to figure out what net neutrality is, then attack the problem -- if it becomes one -- on a case-by-case basis.

"The bill before us definitely gives the FCC the authority to enforce net neutrality, whatever it is," he said. "If anybody violated the principles, whoever that villain is, the bill explicitly gives the FCC the authority to punish that villain."

He made his point by having the witnesses on one of the panels give him a definition. While there was some common ground, there were considerable differences.

"We just had eight gentlemen that represent the largest trade groups and the brightest minds in the country, and not one of them gave a concise definition," Barton said. "We're tied up in knots in this bill, potentially over something that we do not yet even have a universally recognized definition of what it is."

Phone and cable company executives contend that they need to be able to charge some companies premium prices if they demand secure networks, virtual private networks or higher speeds for the transfer of movies or other large files. They contend that their pledge not to harm consumer access is enough.

"Our industry has stated that it will not block, impair or degrade consumer access to the Internet, and the FCC has made it clear that it has the authority to enforce its broadband principles," U.S. Telecom Assn. chief Walter McCormick Jr. told the lawmakers. "Therefore, we believe that legislation in the area is premature. Any grants of new regulatory authority or statutory ambiguities could chill innovation and investment."

Despite McCormick's assurances, there are indications that the phone companies are worried about the backlash. Sources said Comcast and AT&T have asked Cisco, Motorola, TiVo and other network-box makers to oppose network neutrality changes at the FCC.

It would be easy to pass off arguments like Markey's, and those of other Democrats, as so much liberal gasbagging. But Markey is one of Congress' most knowledgeable experts on telecommunications. He's been a member since 1976 and serves in a leading capacity on the House Commerce Committee's telecommunications subcommittee. And he has the support of other knowledgeable Democrats like Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., and powerful ones like the committee's senior Democrat, Rep. John Dingell of Michigan.

They also have the backing of many of the high-technology industry's darlings, such as Microsoft, eBay, Google and Amazon, as well as consumer groups ranging from the AARP to Consumers Union.

Despite the problems, Barton told reporters this week that he expects the House to vote on the bill in June, with the Senate to follow and the president to sign it into law before the year is out. While there were no takers on his offer to bet against him on passage of the bill, most recognize that there's a long way to go.

Still, the panel's hearing Thursday was a significant step, and even the Bells conceded that they might have to give some ground on the net neutrality issue to get most of what they want in the bill.

"We'll probably have to give up some skin on the net neutrality issue," said one Bell lobbyist. "But I wouldn't count the bill out this year."

HDTiVo

04-03-2006, 09:40 AM

Short and cute...

Apple: Multiplatform? Wrong Word

By Staff -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/2/2006 11:17:00 PM

TV content, as you know, is “migrating” to “multiple platforms.” The networks are “giving viewers content where they want it, how they want it and when they want it.”

(And that content, by the way, is “organic” and “seamlessly integrated.”)

We’ve heard our share of media companies tout their new ventures using the latest industry jargon and buzzwords (See “TV Online” p. 14). These days, executives can’t stop saying the word “platform” when they talk about those shiny new digital outlets like broadband and mobile phones. (Yes, we know you don’t need to be told what it means.)

But networks hoping to migrate their content to that most coveted of platforms, iTunes, need to watch their language around the kids at Apple.

An informed source tells Flash! that Apple has put the kibosh on the term in press releases unless it appears in a quote from an executive.

“They feel the word 'platform’ in any release was something consumers wouldn’t relate to,” says our source.

An iTunes spokesperson declined to comment, saying, “We don’t usually discuss negotiations with partners on our press releases.”

You Apple kids, so contrary. Can’t say we disagree, though. Flash! put their (alleged) assumption about consumers to the test: We asked our mother-in-law.

“Are you talking about buildings or politics?”

Exactly.

cynthetiq

04-03-2006, 09:54 AM

from wired.com (http://wired.com/news/columns/1,70547-0.html)

A Burning Need for More Porn
By Regina Lynn| Also by this reporter
02:00 AM Mar, 31, 2006

Editor's Note: Some websites linked to in this story contain adult material and are not suitable for viewing at work. All links of this nature will be noted with "NSFW" after them.

Sex DriveIf you could buy a porn video, download it in about an hour and burn it to a DVD that will play in any standard drive, would you do it? What if it had built-in digital rights management (DRM) code that only let you burn the file to disk one time, and one time only?

Vivid, arguably the most tech-savvy of the big adult entertainment studios, is launching a new Burn to DVD service on April 3 with the expectation that you, and millions like you, will.

"We expect the service to be extremely popular," says Hirsch. "Just hit the button, download and burn."

The prices for a DVD by download are the same as a traditional DVD, about $25 per feature, and your homemade DVD sports the same menu system, chapter navigation and any interactive features included with the original. Print the jacket art, add a jewel case and it's just like the real thing, without a plain brown wrapper or a trip to the store.

The catch is that you'll only be able to burn the file to a DVD once, thanks to the proprietary burn software included with your purchase.

Burn to DVD will be offered through All Adult Channel (NSFW), which developed the application that enforces the one-burn limit. Vivid already offers content through All Adult Channel's pay-per-minute streaming.

"Obviously we wanted to protect the copyright," says Vivid CEO Steven Hirsch. "As soon as (All Adult Channel) was able to get the DRM in place, they had something that really interested us."

Yes, I know, DRM sucks, media companies suck, copyright should be copyleft, and anything that can be locked can be unlocked anyway so what's the point of pretending this copy protection -- or, as one techie described it, "copy discouragement" -- will work.

Leo Laporte and Steve Gibson even discussed it on a recent episode of Security Now. "Why is DRM so easy to crack when 128-bit public key crypto is so tough? Because the key to unlocking the DRM is right there in front of you," they say, although in much more detail.

Regardless, no old-timey studio is going to release its content without some sort of confidence in a DRM system -- even if that confidence is misplaced.

Even if you only watch independent media, you've probably noticed that a whole lot of other people are perfectly happy with what Chatsworth and Hollywood produce. Digital delivery for mainstream movies is a given, but it has to start somewhere.

I'm not surprised that -- yet again -- an adult studio is the one willing to take the first steps.

"We're the first studio offering a complete DVD that you can download and own," says Hirsch. "And then you can do whatever you like with it. It's a way of making it portable."

Porn studios have been ahead of mainstream studios at every stage of exploiting internet distribution, and All Adult Channel's method is sure to get attention now that it's being endorsed by one of the heaviest hitters in the industry. (In its press materials, Vivid proudly points to a Business 2.0 article that credits Hirsch with "transforming a disreputable underground industry into a mainstream, multibillion-dollar business.")

Vivid's adoption of All Adult Channel's system will carry weight with both adult and mainstream execs. Whether consumers will accept this as a viable alternative to storing porn on their hard drives or buying DVDs the old-fashioned way remains to be seen. Hirsch, of course, is optimistic.

"We expect that ultimately, just like downloading music and burning (it) to CD, people will be downloading movies and burning them to DVD," he says. "The entire industry is changing. We're content producers and we want many different avenues to get our movies out there."

For now, Vivid is selling 30 titles through Burn to DVD, all in standard-definition DVD quality. Hirsch says high-definition videos will become available in the future, as the company shoots about 80 percent of its new content in HD.

If the service develops as Hirsch describes, it could deliver another blow to the struggle between Blu-ray and HD DVD standards. It's easy enough for studios to sell the same movie in multiple formats, and you could buy whatever format your hardware handles.

But I can't tell you much about the tech itself because All Adult Channel declined my request for an interview. "Unfortunately, none of our spokespeople will be able to talk with you in advance of your deadline," wrote the nice lady. "Best of luck with your piece!"

No one has ever refused a Sex Drive interview. The most reticent source I've had was Dorkbot, and their only fear was that appearing in Wired News would inspire hordes of horny geeks to crash Violet Blue's teledildonics demo. (They relocated to a larger venue to accommodate the hordes and I got the interview.)

I asked again, explaining that I just needed 10 minutes on the phone with the technical lead, or, if that person wasn't available, any one of the developers would be fine.

But again, polite rejection. And for some reason, that makes me suspicious.

I'm not investigating a political scandal that involves millions of dollars, thousands of lives or the secret identities of superheroes. It's just porn, for cryin' out loud.

It could well be that the developers are at a conference or home with family emergencies. But it baffles me that a porn company, one that delivers content from big names like Vivid, Hustler (NSFW) and Red Light District (NSFW), would avoid media coverage outside the trade. Especially when the spotlight would shine on the technological innovation rather than on the boobies.

Isn't that the kind of legitimacy an adult company strives for? Would its parent company CinemaNow decline an interview if its developers had come up with this code?

(If you're the developer who invented this DRM implementation and you're shocked that you weren't given a chance to talk to me, by all means shoot me an email at ginalynn@gmail.com.)

In the meantime, we'll see how attached consumers are to DVDs. In these modern times with video on our mobile devices and broadband speeds that support even high-definition streaming, it's possible that the audience has already moved beyond the need to burn.

See you next Friday,

Regina Lynn

HDTiVo

04-03-2006, 03:33 PM

Another idea, but filled with so many restrictions that its doomed to mediocrity.

(NYSE:DIS) The Walt Disney Company, (NASDAQ:AAPL) Apple
Computer, Inc.
Hollywood Studios to Sell Movies Online
- Apr 3, 2006 03:46 AM (AP Online)
- http://www.quote.com/home/news/story.asp?story=57247836

============================================================ =
By GARY GENTILE AP Business Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Hollywood studios will start selling digital versions of films such as "Brokeback Mountain" and "King Kong" on the Internet this week, the first time major movies have been available online to own.

The films can't be burned onto a disc for viewing on a DVD player. Still, the move is seen as a step toward full digital distribution of movies over the Internet.

Six studios said they would announce Monday that sales will begin through the download Web site Movielink. The site is jointly owned by five of the seven major studios.

Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox and MGM will offer some first-run and older titles on Movielink. New films will be priced similar to DVDs _ between $20 and $30 _ while older titles will sell for $10 to $20.

In a separate announcement, Sony and Lionsgate said they will sell films through the CinemaNow site.

Only films from The Walt Disney Co. will not be available, although both services say talks are ongoing.

"Digital delivery hasn't arrived until the major studios allow home ownership, and now they have and now digital delivery is very real," said Jim Ramo, Movielink's chief executive.

Studios will sell some new films online the same day they become available on DVD. Most films will be made available within 45 days.

Studios began renting films online several years ago as a way to combat illegal downloading. Movies have been available through the Internet 30 to 45 days after hitting video stores, with rentals lasting just 24 hours for viewing primarily on computer screens.

Digital delivery of video grew rapidly after Apple Computer Inc. began selling episodes of TV shows through its iTunes online store last October.

This year, devices powered by new Intel computer chips and TV service delivered over the Internet will allow more consumers to watch Web video on their TVs instead of their computer screens, a key factor in downloading to own, analysts said.

Studios are being cautious about selling films online in part because DVD sales produce more profit than box office receipts.

But studios are also preparing for the day when major retailers such as Wal-Mart and Amazon.com begin offering their own movie download services.

"The important thing is to embrace the future, respect the economics of DVD but move forward into digital delivery," said Ben Feingold, president of Worldwide Home Entertainment at Sony Pictures.

The films available on Movielink can be stored indefinitely on a computer hard drive or transferred to as many as two other computers. The movies can be played on a TV if the computer is part of a home network.

A copy can be burned to a DVD as a backup. Discs can be played on up three PCs authorized by Movielink but cannot be viewed on a standard DVD player because of special security coding.

Consumers will not be able to transfer the films from a PC or laptop to a handheld portable viewing device. But that capability should be available sometime within the next year, Ramo said.

Films on CinemaNow will be playable on just one computer. The company said it eventually expects studios to allow consumers to burn movies on DVD and transfer them to portable devices.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

VOD: Another kind of KidZone?

Comcast VOD gets customers' votes

By Patrick Burns - Intelligencer Journal Staff
Intelligencer Journal
Published Apr 03, 2006 824 AM EST

LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - The backlash following Janet Jackson's Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction" exemplified a growing intolerance for unseemly TV programming.
Since then, parents have come to embrace digital video recorders and video on demand television services that allow them to effectively manage their children's viewing habits.

A Comcast Corp. survey released this month shows a dramatic increase in those services which provide "time-shifted television viewing," in which viewers have instant access to a library of shows.

Both Comcast and Blue Ridge offer the VOD services free of charge to digital cable subscribers, which includes pay-per-view movies as well.

A DVR is a computer hard drive that records large amounts of programming and is commonly referred to as Tivo, a brand-name device.

The survey showed 85 percent of families that use the VOD or DVR service say they "always have appropriate shows available for their children to watch."

In the central Pennsylvania market, Comcast reported that 2.6 million children's shows were ordered last year through VOD.

The Lancaster-York-Harrisburg-York-Lebanon area ranks No. 1 for VOD use, according to Jeff Alexander, Comcast spokesman.

"More than 85 percent of our digital customers have used video on demand within the past 90 days in central PA," Alexander said. "We get 2 million (VOD) orders per month in that market, and it's been a consistent leading market in the company."

Alexander said the expanded family video-on-demand library has spurred the boom.

According to the Comcast's survey, frequent users of on-demand services indicate they watch more television as a family and have fewer conflicts about what to watch.

Family content available on-demand include PBS Sprout, which features Public Broadcasting System programming; Turner Broadcasting's Cartoon Network; and Nickelodeon's Noggin shows.

Launched a year ago, PBS Sprout offers 50 hours of on-demand programming, ranging from "Barney" to "Bob the Builder."

Other programs include "Sesame Street," "Jay Jay the Jet Plane" and "Teletubbies," as well as children's series not broadcast on PBS stations, such as "Pingu," "Big Sister-Little Brother" and "Kipper the Dog."

Evelyn London uses video on demand several times a day in her Leola home. With four children ranging from 4 to 14 years old, the flexibility is "precious."

"My daughters' tastes are totally different; one likes 'Dora the Explorer,' and my 14-year-old likes music videos," London said. "They have to be patient, but everyone gets to watch their shows, and I don't have to worry that they're seeing unsuitable shows."

Sprout, which counts Comcast as an investor, has generated 60 million hits, including 7.5 million views in January alone, according to Comcast.

Page Thompson, general manager of Comcast's video services, said the success of child on-demand programming was not surprising.

"At a time when most parents face hectic daily schedules, convenience is a priority, and time-shifted television brings that convenience home," said Thompson. "Even beyond the survey results, the use of kids' VOD is off the charts. Last month alone, there were 19 million kids' programs viewed."

Nickelodeon, which frequently changes its on-demand content, has offered preschool favorites "Dora the Explorer," "Go Diego" and "Wonder Pets." Nickelodeon shows on Comcast generate around 6 million views per month.

On-demand programming from Cartoon Network generated 7.2 million views in the fourth quarter of 2005, up from the 3 million hits it mustered in same period in 2004.

To complement the children's on-demand shows, Comcast has added a new tier of programming that adds an extra layer of insulation from inappropriate content for children.

Comcast recently unveiled a "Family Tier," which, it says, features controls that give "parents additional ability to manage viewing options within the home."

Comcast's survey, "The Role of On-Demand Services in Household Dynamics," was conducted in December 2005, using a random sample of Comcast cable customers with children ages 12 and under from across the country.

Conducted by Horowitz Associates the survey found

Among frequent on-demand users (those who use VOD and/or DVR services almost daily or every day), the survey found that

·85 percent indicate they "always have appropriate shows available for their children to watch."

·65 percent indicate they "have fewer conflicts about what to watch on TV."

·63 percent say they "watch more television as a family."

·56 percent believe the service "helps them reduce the stress they feel from having to juggle their kids, family and personal schedules."

·47 percent feel VOD makes it "easier to negotiate with their kids about doing homework and chores without them complaining about missing their TV shows."

HDTiVo

04-04-2006, 11:56 AM

An interesting viewpoint on the subject of paying for digital content.

Why Subscription is Better (http://www.line56.com/print/default.asp?ArticleID=7483&TopicID=0)
by William Pence, Napster
Monday, April 03, 2006

How much would you pay to access every piece of recorded music from the touch of a button on your home stereo?

Imagine if, in addition, you could play all of this music from any cell phone, anywhere on the planet. And to top it off, what if you could download the world's recorded music to multiple computers and multiple portable devices, the only limit being the amount of storage each contains?

This is precisely what is offered by online music subscription services. While much has been made of the so-called "a la carte model" driven by iTunes -- that of buying individual songs and downloading them to your computer and iPod -- music subscription services over the long term offer a far more revolutionary and compelling on-line music experience.

They replace the idea of ownership with that of access, a model that has already been realized in the video world through cable television, Tivo and Netflix. The emergence and subsequent success of these services confirmed that people did not require ownership of their digital media, and that having access when and where they wanted it was more important on a day-to-day basis The primary reason that the a la carte model has dominated the first phase of the digital music revolution is because it replicates the experience of buying CDs and DVDs in the physical world, and that makes it easier for people to understand.

However, people's understanding of digital music is changing today, and changing rapidly. People are beginning to realize that subscription can be a far better proposition than "owning" a bunch of encrypted iTunes music files.

Consider what happens when you upgrade computers every few years. Do you backup and copy over your files? What happens as music formats change? In today's online age, these formats will change and advance even faster than they did in the "offline" world.

Let's not forget about ever-changing tastes in music. Everyone can relate to the experience of buying a CD, listening to it three times, and then throwing it to the bottom of a pile to begin collecting dust. Still, the claim is often made that subscription services are undesirable because you don't own the tracks when and if you quit the service. But what, in reality, do you own after you shell out $1000 to buy 1000 iTunes songs, other than a set of instantly-obsolete music files which are bound to limited pieces of hardware?

The true question is not ownership versus rental. The question is why, in the era of always-connected devices and computers, the concept of ownership should be relevant at all.

There is a reason that Apple opposes the idea of online subscriptions, and that is because a subscription opens access to music on a wide range of devices -- not only PCs and Macs, but home network devices, home stereos, music-enabled cell phones, and satellite radio receivers. The one-size-fits-all iTunes model locks users into a single device and a single model -- pay for each track and use it on a limited number of devices.

Having a single device family and proprietary format, controlled by Apple, is an approach that Apple has taken historically, but it stands in stark contrast to the environment being created by Microsoft, which is freely licensing its WMA music format to all comers, creating an array of new devices, and more importantly, bringing dozens of innovative vendors into the market for WMA-compatible gear.

Why is WMA a good format? The WMA codecs are leading-edge, the Windows Media DRM enables an endless variety of business models to be explored, and the technology is freely-licensable for porting to any device (including Linux and the Mac). No wonder every company other than Apple is embracing the Microsoft platform to offer innovative devices which expand the user's digital music experience and interoperate with devices and services from many providers.

While no one device has yet bested the iPod, the manufacturers are getting much, much closer. More importantly, these vendors are creating new classes of devices altogether. Virtually every manufacturer of digital music devices other than Apple now uses the Microsoft format.

Despite all this, many people still have trouble picturing a world where the tightly integrated iTunes solution is dethroned. We need only look to the digital photography industry as a model for how the digital music business will evolve. Try using a printer or a digital camera with a PC. There are hundreds of models, from dozens of vendors. Prices have fallen dramatically, and choices and features have exploded. Everyone knows that you don't have to buy all of the equipment from one vendor to make them work together, and this creates a very competitive environment with one clear winner the consumer. That is where the digital music market is headed choices in devices, choices in services, and choices in payment models. Apple may dominate the first moves in this game, but the endgame will look much different.

William Pence is senior vice president and chief technology officer for Napster.

HDTiVo

04-05-2006, 10:34 AM

Part rebel, part trend setter

His prime time is all the time

Nick Starr has a tech habit. If there is a TV-related gadget, he owns it. It puts the tube on his terms. Welcome to your future.

By CHASE SQUIRES, Times TV columnist
Published April 3, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG - Nick Starr watched one of his favorite sitcoms shortly after 7 a.m.

In his car. In a parking lot. Waiting for his doctor's office to open.

Lots of people use portable DVD players to watch shows from years past. But Starr was using a digital device to watch an episode of CBS' How I Met Your Mother that had aired just the night before, in a period still quaintly referred to as "prime time."

For Starr - whose way of watching TV foretells the future for all of us - it is becoming irrelevant when and where a TV show airs. The new digital buzzwords are "time-shifting" and "place-shifting."

"The network schedule means nothing to me," he said. "Why should I watch it when they say I should watch it? It's my time."

Starr used a digital file sharing network to download the episode to his computer while he slept. In the morning he loaded it into his Sony PSP handheld device, then plugged the gadget into his car stereo (for surround sound) and watched on the palm-sized screen.

Halfway through the episode, the doctor's office opened. Starr carried his PSP inside and watched the rest of the show in the waiting room. Without commercials, it ran about 22 minutes. He finished watching about the same time his name was called.

The new digital mantra Wherever. Whenever.

Prognosticators have long said that TV and computers would become one. The concept became reality when TiVo popularized digital video recording, followed by cable and satellite companies.

Then in October, TV networks began licensing popular shows such as Desperate Housewives to downloading service iTunes.

Suddenly, ordinary people could buy current shows and watch them at a kids' soccer game, in the break room at work - or in the doctor's waiting room.

Starr, 25, represents the leading edge of the trend. His apartment is his digital command center, crowded with computers and other gadgets that feed his desire for entertainment on his terms.

For a glimpse of how we will watch TV in the future, watch Nick Starr.

A TV Starr

Starr's real last name is Schuler, but he has taken to using his middle name (his mother's maiden name) for everything but government documents. On his blog, Nickstarr.com, he chronicles developments in the world of techie gear and reviews every new piece he buys.

The newest, the latest, the fastest - he has to have it, all in pursuit of better television viewing. He buys all the gadgets, uses them for a while, then sells them on eBay to fund upgrades. He calls eBay "my technology leasing program."

He supports his technology habit by working as an analyst for a Pinellas County commercial bakery, but sometimes things get tight. When his beat-up van (with the driver's side door duct-taped shut) finally died in February, Starr had to sell off some devices to raise cash for a new car.

Starr's St. Petersburg apartment is almost completely bare - no posters, no paintings. Gadgets are his decor. He has two TiVo recorders on the bedroom floor, amid foam packing bits left over from some new purchase. Another is in storage.

He bought his first TiVo after seeing an infomercial, way before it became popular.

"It was a thousand bucks," he said. "But I said, "I've got to have that.' "

Now, he doesn't even use them. Like videotape and rabbit ears, TiVo is already out of date for Starr.

A Microsoft computer loaded with Media Center software connects to a 51-inch projection television. Unlike TiVo's service, the computer finds and records programs for free, using schedules scavenged from the Internet. Plus, it can download shows in high definition. Cables connect three video monitors and the TV to two computers, a Mac and a Windows-based PC. Bright House cable delivers both television and Internet, and the two media become one, filtering through the same computer network. Live television feeds mingle with downloaded digital programming. It doesn't matter where a show comes from - a hard drive, network satellite, a local broadcaster, an Internet-only broadcaster. They all look the same when they come out on a computer screen or a TV screen.

Old Saturday Night Live skits, Internet-only cartoons, movie trailers and prime time network fare pour out of Starr's computers at his command.

Inside the smooth, white computers in Starr's bedroom, digital words and pictures can be shuffled from device to device television, monitor, PSP or iPod. The ancient Zenith TV in the downstairs living room never gets used.

Nor does the living room, Starr said.

On a recent evening, one of his two roommates came home, ducked into a bedroom down the hall and stayed there. Never said a word.

"We all have TVs in our own rooms," Starr said. "We just go in our own rooms and close the door."

At night, Starr's room glows digital blue.

Living la vida 'lectric

Tuesday nights, Starr gets away from his gadgets to have dinner with his parents. It's tradition.

In the living room of the house he grew up in between Pinellas Park and Largo - furniture arranged facing the 35-inch Sony TV - his mom revealed his namesake, a character from the 1970s family TV drama Eight Is Enough. "Nicholas" was the mop-haired youngest - Nicholas Bradford.

"I've never seen that show," Starr said.

His mother, Holly Schuler, said the family didn't watch much TV when Nick was growing up.

Still, they paid for premium channel HBO, to watch Fraggle Rock. They also found a way to rig an early video camera to a portable color TV for long car rides. Pretty state of the art for the early 1980s.

Starr's early fascination with video games gave way to an interest in computers at the Center for Advanced Technology magnet program hosted at Lakewood High School, his mother said. The array of computers and monitors filling his bedroom as a teen drove up the household electric bill, his dad Paul Schuler said.

"The temperature in that room was eight degrees higher than the rest of the house," he said. "You just watched that meter go kachuk, kachuk, kachuk."

Most Tuesday nights, the family talks about their lives over pizza while watching TV - one of the rare times Starr watches on somebody else's schedule. Lately they're into M*A*S*H reruns.

Leaving his parents' home, Starr stopped at a video store and picked up a DVD of an episode of Nip/Tuck he missed last year. He planned to load it onto his computer and return the DVD.

Industry groups such as the Motion Picture Association and the TV networks say copying DVDs is stealing. The difference in price between renting a movie and owning it should tell you that, MPAA spokeswoman Gayle Osterberg said.

But what if there's no money at stake?

"How would this be different from watching a TV show or even pay-per-view program and videotaping it for personal use later?" said New York University professor Adam Penenberg, who has written about the Internet's impact on television.

"Who owns the user's viewing experience? The user or the company distributing the content?"

Nick Starr would say Nick Starr owns it.

A friend named BitTorrent

Starr has at least one other controversial way to get his TV fix. If his computer can't pull a show from cable and he can't buy it at iTunes.com, he downloads it from a free file-sharing network called BitTorrent.

Starr says using BitTorrent is like having a friend tape The Sopranos, then hand him the tape.

But it's not exactly like that. Strangers record it, then hand it off digitally to anyone.

The entertainment industry has tried to tame BitTorrent the way the music business did Napster. But unlike Napster, which routed files through central switching centers, BitTorrent has no center to shut down. Members simply swap among themselves in an electronic web. Trying to fight BitTorrent the old way is like trying to eliminate an ant hill one ant at a time.

Starr said he's not worried about getting in trouble. He doesn't profit from using BitTorrent. He just wants to watch TV without commercials, without a cable tether, and whenever he wants. Recently he caught a few minutes of The Apprentice, the British version, uploaded by someone in England.

He prefers the jumbo screen in his bedroom, but he has myriad other ways to watch. In a satchel he calls his "gadget bag," Starr carries a Sony PSP and a video iPod.

His T-Mobile cell phone combines a keyboard and screen for text messaging, Internet access and streaming video. He's planning to buy a device called a Slingbox that will provide mobile access to anything in his home computer library, at any time. That includes live television from cable, movies, pictures, downloads, and Internet-only programs, like an online cartoon he watches called Strong Bad. It's pretty funny.

Starr watches TV at lunch, waiting for classes to start, at a coffee shop, and even when he's stuck in really slow, bumper-to-bumper traffic. He stays up on his favorite shows when others might be just sitting somewhere, unentertained.

You might think he has no life. He says the opposite is true. With friends, work, nighttime college courses and family time, he packs a lot into a day. Watching TV on his terms gives him the time he needs.

Nightcap

One of Starr's favorite shows, Boston Legal, comes on at 10 p.m.

Starr didn't give it a thought on a Tuesday night heading out to a friend's Brandon townhouse. Tuesday is podcasting day, when Starr and comedy duo "Patrick and Hollywood Adam" do the NobodyLikesOnions.com show. A podcast is like a radio show, but listeners download it at their convenience.

The show is unscripted, unstructured and uncensored. Starr's pals rib him endlessly as he talks about tech innovations and a trip to San Francisco. Callers listening to an Internet live feed join in. It's merciless, loud and silly. Just guys cutting up.

But it's social, and it's during prime time, when millions are in their homes watching television on the network schedule.

The fun ends after midnight. Starr, who started his day shortly after 6 a.m., heads back over the Howard Frankland Bridge.

Home, he checks his e-mail, watches 24 and then Monday's episode of Donald Trump's Apprentice before falling asleep around 2 a.m.

Boston Legal will have to wait. He'll be up again in less than five hours. "I try to take naps on the weekend," he said. "To catch up."

Chase Squires can be reached at squires@sptimes.com or 727 893-8739. His blog is www.sptimes.com/blogs/tv

cynthetiq

04-05-2006, 11:23 AM

Part rebel, part trend setter

the only issue I have with that is that there is quite an amount of front end setup time to get all the convergence and skill of transferring from one media location to another.

I'm of the opinion that my TV shouldn't cause me stress nor should I have to work hard to consume it.

davezatz

04-05-2006, 11:25 AM

Part rebel, part trend setter

Rebel has a friendlier connotation than thief. ;)

Personally, it's all too much work... Netflix is my #1 source for television series at this point - no commercials, low fee, no technology hurdles. Currently up are Huff S1 and Sleeper Cell. Deadwood S2 comes in May.

kb7oeb

04-06-2006, 02:34 AM

I dropped Netflix back in 2000 after a couple months, I was never able to actually rent a New Release. Old stuff came fast but new stuff was always "long wait"

dt_dc

04-07-2006, 04:49 PM

CableWorld article:VOD: Where Are the VOD Partnerships?
Despite the sweet talk at last year's National Show, MSOs and programmers can't agree on an economic model for VOD.

http://www.cableworld.com/cgi/cw/show_mag.cgi?pub=cw&mon=currentJust to bring home a point. The technology is there ... no one can agree to the economic models. This applies to Netflix/Tivo and other "ipVOD" initiatives as well.

HDTiVo

04-10-2006, 09:19 AM

Now we are really getting somewhere...

DIS/ABC planning to offer major shows for FREE download soon...all shows eventually...details to come...

I knew this would be a big year, but I am amazed how fast it is all moving. I attribute much of it to personality, ie. what someone like an Iger can make happen when they decide to.

Edit... (updated article...)

Disney-ABC To Stream Four Shows for Free (http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6323427.html?display=Breaking+News)

By Anne Becker and John Higgins -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/10/2006 1:50:00 PM

The Disney-ABC TV Group will stream Lost, Desperate Housewives, Commander in Chief and Alias for free online. Full-length recent episodes of Lost, Desperate and Commander, along with the entire current season of Alias, will be available at ABC.com as part of a two-month experiment.

In recent weeks, news has trickled out about Disney-ABC’s intention to stream free, ad-supported series episodes online. Executives have spoken of a project called My ABC, which was later confirmed by B&C to be the group’s internal name for the streaming project. The goal is to see whether viewers take to watching shows online. Disney-ABC has already been aggressive with the pay-to-download model, supplying episodes of many of its shows to iTunes, and the group wants to see whether other viewing models work as well or better.

Advertisers participating in the trial include AT&T, Cingular, Ford, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Unilever’s Suave, Universal Pictures and Walt Disney Pictures. Viewers will get to watch the episodes for free but will have to pause for a few ads per episode, likely presented in unorthodox formats, such as advertiser-sponsored online games. Albert Cheng, executive VP of digital media for the Disney-ABC Television Group, tells B&C the challenge is to put content out there while keeping it close.

“When you get to a world where digital media's gatekeepers have gone away and consumers can access content any which way they want,” he says, “branding becomes all the more important.”

In a statement, Anne Sweeney, co-Chair, Disney Media Networks said, "In the future, consumers will rely more and more on strong brands to help them navigate the digital world, and we have some of the strongest brands in entertainment. Our digital media efforts will help us strengthen our connection with our consumers. Stay tuned, because this is just the beginning."

Word from other reports is that you can pause and jump "chapters," but skipping, or FFing commercials is not possible.

Its also differentiated from the paid download offering on iTunes.

HDTiVo

04-10-2006, 02:07 PM

April 10, 2006

Nothwithstanding Net non-neutrality, should others follow where ABC-TV is going (Internet TV)? (http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/index.php?p=2859)

Posted by David Berlind @ 9:29 am

Digg This!

Via Dave Winer, Jeff Jarvis has penned a commentary on Disney's announcement that it will be making some of ABC's television programs viewable over the Internet. Wrote Jarvis:

TV has finally exploded. And if other media — newspapers, magazines, and even online companies — don’t watch out, they may lose the broadband internet to TV companies….What this really means: TV is grabbing a share of online advertising by redefining TV as both broadcast and broadband. Advertisers have always been more comfortable spending big money on TV. Now they can continue to spend their money with those familiar players and get broadband, too.

Jarvis finds the sense in the move. But is Disney still behind the times? As best I can tell from what's available (and I could be wrong), you'll need to be connected to the Internet to view any programming. In other words, the programs are not downloadable the way, say, podcasts are so you can (a) take the content on the run and (b) really view the content whenever you want to. Not only that, in whatever client environment it uses (my guess is Flash), Disney is going to offer interactivity (eg: chat) with other viewers that happen to be on line at the same time but disallow fast forwarding through commercials. Sounds like Webcasting to me. We do it here at ZDNet. All the major news networks do it.

Interesting news, but no thanks. Real timeshifting doesn't put an unreliable medium with unpredictable quality of service between me and access to the content I want. For $5 per month more over the cost of a plain cable box, my TiVo-like digital video recorder timeshift any broadcast content (not just the smattering of shows that Disney decides I can) and I can blast through commercials (by the way, with DRM technologies — aka C.R.A.P. (or, see CRAP, the movie!) – they're about to disable that). Worse for ABC and other networks that attempt to follow suit, the digerati will lead the way. Over the weekend, my son and his friend were watching a TV program on the friends video iPod. They were blasting through the commercials. "Where did you download that from?" I asked (expecting the answer to be the iTunes Music Store). Answer? Limewire. Uh oh.

I disagree with Jarvis. The goal here for new and traditional broadcasters isn't to figure out how to take advantage of old technology (Webcasting) to basically preserve the old model. They need to get ahead of the podcasting revolution by figuring out how to survive in a completely mobile and timeshifted world because that's where the gravity of time (our most valuable asset) will lead most people (many are already there).

Finally, this sort of offering isn't exactly complimentary to the services that your local cable network and DSL providers had in mind. Since they have a duopoly over Internet service provision to your home or business and since Congress said last week that they can do as they please in terms of restricting what flows over those pipes (putting the ixnay on Net neutrality), I can't help but wonder if Disney and others will have to pay a premium in order to drive their content across those off-ramps (into your computers).

HDTiVo

04-10-2006, 02:16 PM

Rebel has a friendlier connotation than thief. ;)

In an interview I saw today on the Live Tube :eek: a top ABC Exec seemed to understand that alot of stealing is done by those who can't find a legitimate way to buy on reasonable terms.
:up:

HDTiVo

04-11-2006, 07:02 AM

Operators, Programmers Tout VOD (http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6323756.html?display=Breaking+News)

By Glen Dickson -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/10/2006 2:21:00 PM

The consumer appeal of watching movies and other content through video-on-demand (VOD) services is already proven, and the cable industry is now moving quickly to use VOD technology for new applications such as time-shifting of linear channels and interactive advertising.

That was the takeaway from a panel Sunday at the NCTA show in Atlanta, where executives from major cable operators and programmers gathered to sing the praises of VOD.

Comcast delivered 1.5 billion on-demand streams in 2005 and expects that number to grow this year, says Comcast Senior VP of Marketing Marvin Davis. With VOD, Comcast is able to offer some 7,000 programming choices per month.

“Once they experience it, it’s transformational,” says Davis of the customers’ reaction.

VOD is both a way to drive digital growth and a significant product differentiator from cable’s satellite competitors, adds Peter Stern, executive VP of product management for Time Warner Cable. Stern says that 50% of Time Warner’s digital subscribers use VOD and the average customer uses it 30 times a month.

“It’s reached the inflection point,” says Stern.

Time Warner is now using VOD technology to enhance the linear programming experience with Start Over, which lets viewers record a show that is already in progress and return to the beginning to see what they’ve missed. The product has been in service on 61 channels in Time Warner’s Columbia, S.C. market since Nov. 1, and the customer response has been very positive: 70% of customers have used the product, and they use it an average of seven times a month.

Time Warner is also moving to launch a service called Quick Clips that will take content originally created for the Web and repurpose it as a VOD stream. For example, says Stern, a viewer could tune to The Weather Channel and immediately call up a local online forecast, which would be transcoded to video and sent to the digital set-top as a VOD session. Stern says that Time Warner already has a deal for Quick Clips content with CNBC and is negotiating with CNN and The Weather Channel, which he thinks is an ideal application.

“That’s what people want, to be able to turn to The Weather Channel and get their local weather,” says Stern.

Gregg Hill, president of Rainbow Network Sales, notes that IFC is now offering the independent films it distributes on VOD the same day they are offered in theaters. He says such “day-and-date” releases are a great way for cable to serve movie buffs living in areas that only get mainstream movies in theaters. Hill says the idea reminds him of his early days at Bravo, which launched with the notion of delivering niche content to underserved yet desirable viewers.

“It’s now how many, it’s who,” he says.

Operators and programmers agree that advertising has huge potential with VOD, though Davis cautions that the “technology is a little ahead of the business model, and the business model is still a bit ahead of the customer.”[HDTiVo: The business model has not met the customer eye to eye.]

Stern says that Time Warner is already testing the concept of “telescoping,” using a link in a linear program to trigger long-form advertising delivered through VOD. Early telescoping trials in upstate New York have already yielded 100 million impressions, he says.

But advertisers still need to see better reporting and measurement of viewership before they will commit big dollars to VOD advertising, says Ryan O’Hara, president of TV Guide Channel and TV Guide SPOT for Gemstar-TV Guide. O’Hara says that advertisers are comfortable with making decisions based on the overnight Nielsen ratings for linear programming, and they also like the infinite accountability of Internet ads; he adds that VOD measurement still falls short by comparison.

“The history of television-ad sales and the Internet have really raised the bar on VOD,” he says.

But he thinks advertisers will gradually embrace on-demand, as some 5% of cumulative viewing is already on VOD: “Advertisers are smart; they’ll go where they eyeballs are.” Mike Pohl, president of VOD vendor C-COR Global Strategies, notes that the same C-COR product already used to insert advertising in linear television could be used for VOD: “We could deliver thousands of ads.”

dt_dc

04-11-2006, 02:29 PM

Another interesting broadband MVPD ... or Television On the Desktop (TOD) as they are calling themselves ... VDC
http://www.vdc.com/

Streaming live linear channels over broadband connections ... exploring VOD. Currently a (very) limited channel offering ... but they are actually willing to pay carraige fees to networks so ... might be interesting eventually.

http://www.cedmagazine.com/toc-xod/2006/20060411.html
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20060410005277&newsLang=en

dt_dc

04-11-2006, 03:58 PM

Multichannel News article:
Download Discussion Caps National Show

By Steve Donohue 4/11/2006 11:59:00 AM

Atlanta -- Debate over the merits of distributing TV shows via the Internet dominated the closing general session here at the National Show Wednesday, following ABC’s announcement Monday that it will stream Lost, Desperate Housewives and other hits for free on the Net.
(...)

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6324095.html?display=Breaking+NewsThat'd be an interesting session to get a webcast from.
http://www.thenationalshow.com/Attendees/Sessions.aspx?ID=28

HDTiVo

04-12-2006, 07:02 PM

“You’re never going to see us stream HDNet,” CEO Mark Cuban said, emphasizing that having distribution through “last-mile” distributors such as cable operators is key to ensuring the delivery of quality programming.

That sounds nothing like the old Mark Cuban.

dt_dc

04-13-2006, 12:58 PM

That sounds nothing like the old Mark Cuban.Mark Cuban ... the founder of Broadcast.com. :eek:

Anyway, puts some perspective on last-mile, QoS, and other issues with delivering content via the Internet.

Another article from the same session:
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=92460

dt_dc

04-13-2006, 01:07 PM

Surprised no one brought up Bewkes' (Time Warner) call for all network content (broadcast, cable, whatever) to be available free on VOD.Bewkes Offers Up a Free-VOD Challenge

Atlanta -- Time Warner Inc. chief operating officer Jeff Bewkes offered a challenge to cable operators at the closing session of the National Show Tuesday: Offer all networks, cable and broadcast, on free video-on-demand and do it by the end of next year.
(...)
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6324236.htmlTime Warner urges all TV networks to go on demand

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Time Warner Inc. Chief Operating Officer Jeffrey Bewkes said on Tuesday he thought all television networks should be put on its cable video-on-demand service to give viewers easier access.

The move, which would be free for viewers and supported by advertising, would be one way for the cable industry to compete against the Internet and new technologies, which have been siphoning TV viewers by offering instant gratification.
(...)
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=televisionNews&storyid=2006-04-12T001201Z_01_N11254649_RTRIDST_0_TELEVISION-MEDIA-TIMEWARNER-DC.XMLNot much of a surprise as it's what cable has been wanting / asking for for quite some time. The issue always comes down to $$$.

HDTiVo

04-13-2006, 03:32 PM

Its pretty funny seeing folks like Cuban and Bewkes explaining how the world would be perfect if it just changed itself to suit whatever they (C & B) are selling. :)

I like Bewkes explaining how he should get all the content the way he wants, but his customers don't get to view it the way they want (ie. FF commercials).

Big players angling for advantage in the future, but no unifying force yet to bring it all together in a system that will appeal to the mass market and benefit the companies that provide the product.

“I think that the cable industry should put VOD on all networks into place in the next year,” Bewkes said at the show. “I think that the record is clear for 20 years on pay-per-view that that is not the way to maximize usage. It’s not really what consumers want.

Bewkes offers this correct piece of the puzzle in his talk.

dt_dc

04-14-2006, 11:54 AM

Getting back to $$$ ...

Fox made a revenue-sharing deal with its affiliates that allows for making 60% of their prime-time schedule available online (or via VOD) the morning after the shows air . In exchange, affiliates get a cut of and revenue (subsciptions, advertising, whatever model floats).

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=businessNews&storyid=2006-04-14T015013Z_01_N13186680_RTRUKOC_0_US-MEDIA-NEWSCORP.xml
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6324965.html?display=Breaking+News
Etc.

Now they need to start working on the model with the content owners ...

SurfPine

04-14-2006, 11:58 AM

I like Bewkes explaining how he should get all the content the way he wants, but his customers don't get to view it the way they want (ie. FF commercials).

One thing to keep in mind is that allowed trick play over adverts will allow the trick play data to be gathered, crunched and then used by the advertisers. That is the model we are trying to push.

HDTiVo

06-11-2006, 02:29 AM

No one is worried about cutting into the DVD sales and syndication rights of Leno.
This is true, but reading it again just now made me laugh only because Product Watch is hawking Carson DVDs.

HDTiVo

07-19-2006, 05:15 PM

I recently signed up with Vongo, deciding to use the free trial to see what I might do with it.

The first day, I realized this is a partial answer to my intollerably long NetFlix queue. Many (all?) of the movies in that queue I really have no idea whether they are any good, or where a surprise great sleeper might be hidden.

Vongo lets me download all I want - with a broad enough selection to hit lots of stuff in the queue. First step is I am interested to see if the movie is any good, which looking at the first few minutes can help with. Then its decide whether its something I really want to see on DVD, will just watch at the PC, or trash and delete from the queue as well.

Vongo has greatly enhanced the efficiency of my NetFlix usage, enabling excellent prioritization and culling of the queue. Its likely I will even drop Netflix down to 1 or 2 less "out," paying for some or all of the Vongo cost.

So, DRM limits, little troubles with the software and lack of connection to the TV aside, I have found a good use for this IPVOD product.

davezatz

07-19-2006, 05:32 PM

Did I not say somewhere around here that Vongo is pretty good? ;) It's definitely the best of the movie download services - at least at $10/mo. I wonder if they can keep the all-you-can-eat model or if they can keep it this low? Almost reason enough to pick up a Gigabeat, download a movie, and attach it to my TV. Though my work laptop has SVideo out which allowed me to catchup on Battlestar Galactica via iTunes on my TV. Hmmm....

HDTiVo

07-19-2006, 06:01 PM

Do your computer video outs display just the video or the entire desktop?

Did I not say somewhere around here that Vongo is pretty good?
Sure, we both thought it was the best idea of the bunch. It just takes me a few months to actually do something new. Look for a post next January about how I bought a Gigabeat and...

davezatz

07-19-2006, 06:52 PM

Do your computer video outs display just the video or the entire desktop?

It's a basic Dell Latitude D510 - standard work issue. It outputs the entire desktop via SVideo, so I run the video full screen. I also have a mini-plug to stereo RCA connector cable for audio. Works fine in a pinch. The only real hassle is no remote for pause or instant replay.

I haven't done much research on the Gigabeat yet - I wonder if there is a dock-with-remote or cable (as with the video iPod) for easy TV viewing.

petew

07-19-2006, 07:48 PM

It outputs the entire desktop via SVideo, so I run the video full screen.

If you're running Windows XP it should be possible in desktop settings to enable mutiple monitors. Haven't tried vongo, but with WMP you can drag WMP to the SVideo output and then select full screen to have Video playing on the TV and retain use of the laptop.

HDTiVo

08-21-2006, 07:06 PM

Little Guys Could Take Hollywood Out of the Picture (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-mccourt/little-guys-could-take-ho_b_27570.html)For Hollywood, the solution is not in expanding distribution into new digital channels but in rethinking its entire business model for content creation. While most US companies are undergoing a revolution in innovation, Hollywood still largely operates on the guild system and centralised decision-making established by the big studios in the 1930s. Technology and a global market for entertainment have made that model obsolete. Companies as diverse as Procter & Gamble, Cisco and Nike operate loose networks of innovation across China and India, using what looks like an open-source model for new products. They post problems to company websites, letting any garage-based innovator offer a solution.

Can Hollywood studios ever embrace such a fragmented, unbundled business model? It may already be happening without the moguls' permission. Robert Rodriguez, who wrote and directed hit films such as Spy Kids and Sin City, recently resigned from the Writers and Directors Guilds of America. He intends making films without the industry middle man. Who can blame him? The cost of professional quality television production equipment has dropped 400 per cent in recent years. Global distribution is the cost of a T-1 connection. Companies will encode video for multiple screens at amateur prices.

HDTiVo

09-29-2006, 10:38 AM

The damn explodes and where is TiVo's ViiV strategy?

NBC Universal and Intel to Deliver Series Premieres on Intel(R)
VIIV(TM) and Centrino(R) Platforms
- Sep 28, 2006 02:36 PM (BusinessWire)
- http://www.quote.com/home/news/story.asp?story=61380819

============================================================ ===============

NEW YORK & SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sep 28, 2006 (BUSINESS WIRE) --

NBC Universal and Intel Corporation today announced the launch of
the NBC VIP Access online service that will provide on-demand
broadband-delivered entertainment content for free to consumers with
Intel(R) Viiv(TM)technology-based PCs and Centrino(R) mobile
technology-based laptops. Starting this week, NBC.com will provide
Intel customers the opportunity to download to view many of their
favorite NBC Universal programs in high-resolution video, including
access to the entire fall season of two new shows, "Heroes" and
"Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip".

"Great content coupled with a great experience is a key
differentiator on the Web," said Beth Comstock, President, NBC
Universal Digital Media and Market Development. "NBC's VIP Access
showcases some of the best content that we have and we are proud to be
working with Intel to deliver the best high-resolution online video
experience available to consumers."

"The combination of NBC content with Intel Viiv and Centrino
technology will give users a chance to enjoy great television in a
high quality format in the living room and on the go." said Kevin
Corbett, vice president of Intel's Digital Home Group and general
manager of the company's Content Services Group. "This showcases the
value the PC can deliver in providing high-quality entertainment
content--previews, full episodes, webisodes, etc-- on-demand."

NBC VIP Access will feature over 20 different NBC Universal
broadcast and online programs, including online access to
full-episodes of the fall season of "Heroes" and "Studio 60 on the
Sunset Strip". NBC VIP Access will also showcase the season premieres
of "Friday Night Lights", "30 Rock" and "Ghost Hunters"
and first
scenes from "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" and "Battlestar Galactica".
Special extras include "The NBC News Special: Bono in Africa", a
"Battlestar Galactica" special and "Ghost Hunters: Best of Season
One". Consumers can also enjoy "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D List"
and "Work Out" webisodes courtesy of BravoTV.com as well as additional
programming from NBCSports.com.

The NBCU-Intel collaboration began last winter with a jointly
developed site on NBCOlympics.com entitled "Your NBCOlympics.com
Moments." Consumers using PCs powered by Intel Viiv technology and
Intel Centrino mobile technology enjoyed NBC Universal's Olympic
highlights and content in high-resolution format through an easy to
use interface.

Intel Viiv technology connects the PC to the TV, and enables
consumers to simplify, share and control their sports, games, music
and movies with the energy-efficient performance delivered by the
Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo processor. The technology is widely supported
by a number of PC and consumer electronics manufacturers, as well as
content and service providers such as NBC Universal. Intel Centrino
mobile technology is a set of integrated computing technologies, now
with the Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo processor, designed to power wireless
laptops and make it simple for people to enjoy mobile computing and
entertainment.

ashu

09-29-2006, 11:12 AM

The damn explodes and where is TiVo's ViiV strategy?

Dam the Damn.

I really hope TiVo makes a really awesome VOD related announcement soon!

megazone

10-02-2006, 10:25 PM

HDTiVo

10-03-2006, 11:04 AM

Viiv is a lot of hot air currently. A very, very small part of the PC market.

And TiVo was/is working with Intel on Viiv - they had a little area for it at CES2006. It looked like integrating TTG/TTCB into Viiv.
TiVo made a few chirps end of 2005 about this also. Have you seen anything lately?

I'm worried it has gone down the same rat hole with Netflix and the 3 CES's before 2006 when an SA HD TiVo were shown, etc..

d_anders

10-03-2006, 11:25 AM

This is a potential catch 22.

We all want TiVo to go into this space, but I think we can all understand that if TiVo makes the wrong deal with the wrong partner, they could really hurt themselves further...on the other hand, a really good deal could provide a watershed moment for them...yes, I believe this could be that big....if they wait too long to do anything they might hurt themselves even further...

The biggest deal that they could get right now is one with Apple or Microsoft.

There are also a big group of PlayForSure music providers (Real/Rhapsody, Napster, Yahoo Music, etc.) with unknown futures that could also try to create something new for themselves, but since they don't really have a good "integrated " story to sell, this is a riskier proposition. My hope is really for this space...but it seems to be unrealistic.

Despite what people say about installed bases, TiVo at least has one and already has the retail channels filled with hardware that is ready to go (assuming MPEG2/SD for S2, and MPEG4/HD for S3).

MichaelK

10-03-2006, 11:41 AM

can someone in english explain ViiV in a little more detail?

If I recall TiVO announced at end of 2005 that they were updating their software and would roll a viiv compliant version in first half of 2006. Did that every happen?

What is it? Is it a way for the tivo to connect to a viiv computer to play content on the tivo? Or is it a way to move content from a tivo box to a viiv computer? or both?

I can't find any explanation of what TiVo's viiv announcement means.

If it was implemented (I'm guessing it wasn't becasue we never heard anything?) then would the tivo's be able to play this NBC Viiv content?

MichaelK

10-03-2006, 11:43 AM

davezatz

10-03-2006, 11:49 AM

can someone in english explain ViiV in a little more detail?

It's a marketing term for Intel's idea of media/home/computing convergence or something. No specific technology.

MichaelK

10-03-2006, 12:17 PM

It's a marketing term for Intel's idea of media/home/computing convergence or something. No specific technology.

so there's no underlying DRM or access control or anything?

Why did tivo need to change their software to work with ViiV?

Is it like Centrino just means laptop with built in 802.11b and low power chips? But any laptop with 802.11b will do wifi?

davezatz

10-03-2006, 12:20 PM

I have no idea how accurate it is, but here's a Wiki article to explore:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viiv

HDTiVo

10-03-2006, 12:35 PM

If it was implemented (I'm guessing it wasn't becasue we never heard anything?) then would the tivo's be able to play this NBC Viiv content?

and along the viiv line of things-

wouldn't the Viiv thing be the open standard solution to this? Be viiv compliant and anyone with viiv content you can watch?

Directv suposedly will play Viiv content on their new DVR's.....
TiVo hasn't implemented. It has fallen off the radar screen in terms of any further comments from TiVo.

Yes, in concept its an open standard making it possible to play content already made available through various sources via ViiV. That's what DTV seems to be implementing.

What TiVo has done so far with TiVoCast, HME, etal. looks like a closed, proprietary approach, in which they want a piece of every action. That typically leads to pieces of very little action instead of lots of revenue from subs in your primary business.

MichaelK

10-03-2006, 12:53 PM

thanks for the exaplanations.

So we are certain the updated software they announced in 2005 for first half of 2006 was never deployed?

MichaelK

10-03-2006, 01:07 PM

read the wiki and some pcmag articles, seems Viiv is nothing more then a PC spec? Basically the PC needs a high end intel processor, a high end intel chipset, and a high end intel labn connection. It also needs Windows MCE. Basically it's just saying the harware will have enough power to handle multimedia apps. DRM is not required- whatever DRM the content providers want to use they can.

I dont understand how that effects anything else. Why do the content people who have signed on (ESPN, MTV, NBC, etc) care if your pc is a high end intel model or someone elses? WOuldn't they rather sell content to anyone?

What do playback devices (like the directv plus dvr's) care what the pc is like that is serving them- as long as it streams or transfers the content fast enough than who cares?

What do companies like TiVo care that will transfer content to viiv pcs? You can transfer content via TTG from any series2 to basically any modern PC- the vast vast majority are not viiv? (Seems tivo doesn't even need to tweak their software since any DRM is allowed...)

So I dont understand why anyone besides intel cares. Maybe Tivo wants to get some free advertising from intel, but does ESPN really give a darn?

HDTiVo

10-03-2006, 06:10 PM

thanks for the exaplanations.

So we are certain the updated software they announced in 2005 for first half of 2006 was never deployed?
What are you referring to?

What do companies like TiVo care that will transfer content to viiv pcs?

For TiVo its more about getting content to the TiVo; but from the TiVo also, perhaps esp. in the CableCard TTG arena.

ViiV per se may be limited to some PC specs, but the greater concept involves DRM and secure network transfers (in home and internet) which is very important to content providers.

It may be possible to use any (or no) DRM to access content in general (ie. home movies,) but content producers are going to select specific DRM scheme(s) that devices must use. TiVoes will need to be able to use one of those.

MichaelK

10-03-2006, 07:32 PM

What are you referring to?

...

this press release from tivo:
http://www.tivo.com/cms_static/press_70.html

11/30/2005

TiVo And Intel Working Together On Digital Home Initiatives

New Application Will Give Television Viewers More Control and Choice
When it Comes to Their Favorite Entertainment

ALVISO, CA — NOV 30, 2005 — TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO ), creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders, announced today that it is working with Intel to develop functionality in a TiVo application that will enable it to work with Intel Viiv technology to pave the way for a dramatic change in the way entertainment is consumed at home or on the go .

This new application will further extend TiVo's groundbreaking TiVoToGo™ features. It will allow existing TiVo subscribers to securely transfer their favorite television programs from their TiVo® Series2™ DVR to an Intel Viiv technology based PC using only the remote control. The application will also allow any content downloaded from a TiVo DVR to an Intel Viiv technology enabled device to be securely played back on certain compliant media adapters, which will be supported in a future planned release of the application. This application will be available in the first half of next year. ...

actually sounds like an updated tivo desktop?

What are you referring to?

For TiVo its more about getting content to the TiVo; but from the TiVo also, perhaps esp. in the CableCard TTG arena.

ViiV per se may be limited to some PC specs, but the greater concept involves DRM and secure network transfers (in home and internet) which is very important to content providers.

It may be possible to use any (or no) DRM to access content in general (ie. home movies,) but content producers are going to select specific DRM scheme(s) that devices must use. TiVoes will need to be able to use one of those.

I thought it had to do with DRM and being a secure system, but from the wiki and the pcmag articles it has nothign to do with security. DRM is totally optional and unrelated to anythign else Viiv curently specifies. It is basically all about having enough horsepower to handle multiple media streams at the same time and nothing more.

I think windows Vista will have alot to do with DRM and that is something tivo will need to get hooked into to move cablecard content via TTG.

So gain if Viiv has nothign to do with DRM and only about particulr high horse power intel components then why would anyone care? Anything that can run or work on Viiv can likely work on any current highend PC or any AMD PC- so why limit yourself to viiv? It's like making an internet site that only works with centrino pc's- that would be just silly.