Technology360

Internet and Multimedia 2005: The On-Demand Media Consumer

Arbitron has a new report of this title:  "One in 10 Americans show a heavy preference to control their media and entertainment, according to the latest study from Arbitron Inc. and Edison Media Research—Internet and Multimedia 2005: The On-Demand Media Consumer. The study focuses on new devices and services that allow Americans to exercise more control over the media they consume. Topics include DVRs, portable MP3 players and other on-demand technologies. ..."  A 38-pp summary (pdf) and 49-pp PowerPoint (also pdf) are available on the Arbitron web site.   It's also available at Edison Media Research. Thanks to  Roger Johnson for the tip. --Dennis

David Jennings has a methodology critique of this on his DJ Alchemi weblog entitled, What Does On-Demand Media Really Mean?  Thanks for the tip to Stephen Hill. --Dennis

Peerflix

Peerflix is a new startup with a model like Netflix except with peer-to-peer instead of physical media distribution. --Dennis

Video on the Internet, Part III - Akimbo

Roger McNamee has posted the third in his "Video on the Internet" series:  "... So what will living room video over the internet look like?  The first interesting product I have used comes from a venture-backed company called Akimbo. Founded two years ago, Akimbo has introduced trial numbers of a TiVO-like box and a web-based service to match.  I have the box hooked to a flat panel TV and it works very well.  There isn’t enough content yet - only 80 sources - but the library gets bigger almost every week.  ... "  Link:  TheNewNormal.  Part I.  Part II.  Thanks to Tim Olson for the link. --Dennis

CinemaNow Signs Video Deal with NBC Universal

Online movie provider CinemaNow on Tuesday said NBC Universal has agreed to offer its films to CinemaNow subscribers giving the Internet service content from one more major studio as it continues to expand. ¶ CinemaNow allows clients to legally download films and television shows for a fee, and it now has six of Hollywood's seven major film and TV studios as content providers. It lacks only Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc. ...|... CinemaNow's key legal rival is Movielink, which is co-owned by five major Hollywood studios. Online DVD renter Netflix Inc is among the companies planning to enter the arena. ... Link: Reuters.com.

Comcast to Offer VOD Fare to Other MSOs

The Comcast Media Center is nailing down plans to commercially distribute on-demand content, such as exclusive packages of Hispanic and kids’ programming, to cable operators apart from its parent, Comcast Corp., officials said Monday.  ¶ CMC director of national sales Dean Nelson described his unit’s bullishness about marketing video-on-demand offerings created for Comcast to the entire cable industry. ...  Link:  Multichannel News.

Advertainment on video on demand

Cory Bergman writes: "Content providers like The History Channel are experimenting with new approaches to advertising on VOD. This afternoon I punched up an episode of Modern Marvels on my Comcast box, and it began with the line, 'Welcome to the History Channel on Demand, brought to you by Chevrolet.' ..." Link: Lost Remote.

BitTorrent, Videora, Myth TV Equal Video2GO

Om Malik: "The instant and on-demand desires of a bunch of geeks is going to change the television game, and the revolution has already started, says The New York Times. They point to MythTV, an open source PVR technology, Bit Torrent and Videora, a software I pointed to a month ago. ¶ 'We have to try as an industry to get ahead of this and give the audience an attractive model before the illegal file-sharer providers meet their needs,' said David F. Poltrack, CBS Television’s executive vice president for research and planning. 'The clock is ticking on this.' ¶ What is the most interesting part of this whole article is television industry’s response. They seem to be a lot more proactive in trying to get ahead of the technology instead of fighting it like the music business. It is interesting, in a way that they know how these technologies can kill the DVD sales, a highly lucrative line of business. ..." Link: Om Malik on Broadband. The link he points to at the beginning is quoted below. --Dennis

Steal This Show. ... The members of the MythTV community, who now do not have to pay monthly fees to rent set-top boxes or digital video recorders, have plenty of more mischievous company in trying to outwit the television industry. Millions of viewers are now watching illegal copies of television programs - even full seasons copied from popular DVD's - that are flitting about the Internet, thanks to other new programs that allow users to upload and download the large files quickly. And entrepreneurial souls are busily concocting even newer applications, including one that searches the Internet for illegal copies of any television shows you may desire and automatically downloads them to your computer. ... Link: New York Times.

Public Service Publisher initiative

The "public service publisher" (PSP) initiative that has been underway during the fall of 2004 and winter of 2004-05 was featured in two sessions at the Public Broadcasting New Media Summit 2005 in San Francisco this week. [Disclosure: The Summit was the annual conference of the Integrated Media Association of which I'm a board member and I'm one of the principals developing the PSP.  The PSP is not a project of the IMA.] The initiative has been in a selected comment period over the past few weeks and is now moving into a general comment period. ¶ Full information about the initiative is available at the companion website to this weblog, technology360.org/psp. Anyone wishing to provide comments can email me at the wsu.edu address listed at haarsager.org. I've pasted the executive summary below. --Dennis

The Public Service Publisher (PSP) initiative is a process through which public broadcasters can identify a workable, system-wide strategy to meet three emerging needs:

·         The need to provide, in a simple and usable way, content to a growing audience of listeners and viewers who are adopting on-demand technologies, including streaming, TiVo, RSS, iPods, et al.

·         The need to distribute public service content through a system that optimizes online search results, thus reaching new users and expanding the impact of existing programs.

·         The need to develop revenue streams based on new media applications that can expand and sustain new service without undermining current system revenues.

This concept was developed by a group of public broadcasting executives, independent producers and “outside” colleagues.  Much of the inspiration came from two sources:  first, a groundbreaking paper, Public Radio Online (PRO) by Stephen Hill, and second, an innovative RFP process initiated in the UK, where a government agency solicited proposals to develop a new digital delivery service for public service programming.  The PRO paper proposed creation of a web-interface and related infrastructure to provide access to all public radio content online (national and local streams, archives, and web-only features).  It proposed that all traffic to the service would come through station sites, and suggested a tiered service in which some content would be free, while other service levels would be offered for a fee (either a monthly subscription or one-time charges).  Producers, stations and networks would share this revenue through formulas that reflected actual use of content and traffic delivered to the service.

In December 2004, an ad hoc group of 14 executives – organized by Mark Fuerst, Dennis Haarsager, Hill and Steve Rathe – met in Chicago to discuss these concepts.  The organizers

felt it was important to create an inclusive process in which the interests of stations and producers could be identified and reconciled with the other public broadcasting interests.

The meeting succeeded.  Over ten hours, the participants enlarged and refined the PRO concept to include public TV and 3^rd party partner content.  Guided by new CPB research, they placed a high priority on reaching fringe and non-public broadcasting users.  They embraced the RFP approach and tailored it to the requirements of U.S. public broadcasting.   They reached consensus on the following points:

• There is an urgent need to provide on-demand service to a growing audience of new media users.
• Reaching this audience will require a system-wide strategy.  Efforts by individual stations, producers or networks will not provide a critical mass of content, be less competitive, and less likely to be sustainable.
• Various forms of paid content should be explored as sources of new revenue, supplementing existing sources such as underwriting.
• The PSP should be configured to respect and preserve existing brands; nonetheless, the group found compelling reasons why a PSP service should be offered both through existing participant web sites and through a freestanding web portal – a public service media mall.
• The PSP would offer producers a powerful way to attract and serve new users—without closing off other distribution options that those producers may also wish to exploit.
• By aggregating public radio stations’ online program schedules, the PSP could enable “TiVo-like” functionality for public radio, allowing listeners on-demand replay capacity for all broadcast programming while maintaining branding.
• The PSP would allow uniform and user-friendly new media acces to U.S. public broadcasters’ content on a worldwide scale, under terms determined and controlled by those broadcasters.
• The technical and marketing requirements of a PSP extend beyond the scope of any existing organization; so in creating a PSP service, system leaders should consider a range of organizational forms, such as combining existing services, forming a new operating organization, or outsourcing some operating requirements to existing non-profit or commercial entities.

The group agreed to launch a planning process over two-months, beginning with the distribution of a Request for Preliminary Proposals.  Comments and responses are being collected through mid-February.  Additionally, they presented their ideas at the IMA Conference in San Francisco on January 27 and 28 and then with the public broadcasting community at large.  They will also meet with potential respondents to the RFPP.   And finally, they will contact potential funders to solicit advice and support.

My Time!

The US public broadcasting newspaper, Current, has posted my article, My Time!, to its web site -- for now, from the front page.  It was originally published in Current on 11/15/04 and is also available on this weblog by clicking It's About Time under Writings on the left (the version here also has some hyperlinks for things discussed in the article).  Thanks to Current editor Steve Behrens for many helpful suggestions with the article, including coining the term "my time" to describe non-real time listening and viewing of electronic media content.  --Dennis

Long Tail TV: Conclusion

Chris Anderson has posted the fifth installment of his "Long Tail TV" series.  "...let's crisp up what I mean by Long Tail TV. The definition of the Long Tail in this context is: "content that is not available through traditional distribution channels but could nevertheless find an audience." For the most part, that's niche content. It may not have been niche when it was made or niche everywhere but it counts as niche now where you live. ...¶... How will we find it? Well, Yahoo's very impressive video search, including Media RSS,  is a start. ... Combined with a good recommendation engine such as ChoiceStream, things could get interesting. ..."  Link: The Long Tail: Long Tail TV weblog.

Another good video (and audio) search engine is blinkx.tv.  Here are part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4.  --Dennis

Broadband television brings true interactivity

William Cooper: "... With the delivery of video services over broadband data networks there is the capability to create sophisticated services that seamlessly blend multicast television channels with on-demand elements. The ability to provde true video on demand is of course the inherent advantage of a bi-directional broadband connection, as is an always available return path to support feedback and transactions. Together with the opportunity to create localised and personalised services to meet the needs of individual viewers, this potentially provides the perfect platform for genuinely interactive television. ..." Link: informitv.

Long Tail TV: Part III

Third part of Chris Anderson's look at the implications of the Long Tail concept on television: "I promised to offer some thoughts on what the shift from Broadcast to Narrowcast to Nanocast will mean for the future of prime time. And there is a simple answer: it's sure not good for the upfront. But the more detailed answer is just as interesting. I'll start with a little history. ¶ There are quite a few precedents for Long Tail effects, ranging from the introduction of the printing press to the arrival of the Sears Roebuck catalog on the prairie. Practically every time there's been an expansion of access to a wide variety of goods, we've seen shifts in the demand curve toward niches. The fact that everyone buys/watches/listens to or otherwise consumes the same few things doesn't necessarily mean that that's what they all want. It may be just that that's what's available. Plenty of "hits" are artifacts of scarcity, not the triumph of common taste. ..." Link: The Long Tail weblog.

Lengthy article with good visuals which includes two charts of TiVo LT use. He continues:

"... What these charts show is that the top 24 season passes make up 25% of total season passes, and the top 80 season passes make up 50% of the total season passes. But what that means is that the bottom 6820 season passes make up the other 50%. In other words, the Tail is about the same size as the Head. Which is exactly the same ratio that emerged after the introduction of cable, but now on a massive scale. ..."

Also see Part I and Part II. --Dennis

Long Tail TV: Part II

Chris Anderson:  "Yesterday I wrote about a flood of  new Internet-based technologies and products that aim to break the broadcast monopoly on TV, potentially creating an open distribution platform for any video content. This, like the smashing of distribution bottlenecks everywhere, could shift consumer taste from hits to niches, creating a Long Tail of demand ...  ¶  Before I turn to how that may change the way we watch, I should correct one point. I loosely described this streamed and downloaded TV as "IP TV" because it uses the Internet as its distribution network.  I am now reminded (embarrassingly enough, by an article in my own magazine) that the term usually refers  specifically to video served by existing cable and telephone companies using Internet protocols, rather than content streamed across the wide-open Internet by third-party services.  ¶  I'm more interested in the latter case--video over the Web--because it's more likely to lead to an open marketplace in which anyone can play. ..."  Link: The Long Tail weblog.

For more on this, see Exploding TV fraternity grows by ex-TV Guide critic Jeff Jarvis.  He says:

"... In the old days of TV, a few months ago, if you wanted to make a show you had to have expensive equipment and expertise and if you wanted the show to be found, you had to know a guy named Rupert and have a fortune for marketing.  ¶  In the future of exploding TV, a few months away, anybody can create video programming and do it inexpensively with new equipment and tools; they can distribute it online and they can "market" it (that is, it can be found) thanks to metadata and search and links. All this levels the playing field. ..."

  Also see part I and part III. --Dennis

Long Tail TV

Chris Anderson: "I spent a few days at CES in Las Vegas last week, mostly to get an impressionistic sense of the hot categories in consumer electronics. ...[W]hat struck me most was the explosion in innovation around freeing TV from its distribution shackles. ¶ As your thumb crawls through your several hundred digital cable channels, TV may appear anything but shackled. Yet it is. What seems like everything imaginable is instead a very thin slice on the video world. The existing channel structure mostly rewards focused programming with enough depth to fill a 24/7 window every day of the year. So the DIY channel and History en Espanol now pass muster, but the Halo 2 Physics Hacks channel does not. An acceptable loss, you say? How about last year's great season on Bravo, long ago overwritten by your DVR to save space? ..." "Link: The Long Tail weblog.

Also see part II and part III. --Dennis

Internet Video Adds Cable Programming

Internet video is sneaking up on us. That became clear last week in Las Vegas, where all sorts of firms announced new Internet video services at the 2005 Consumer Electronics Show. ¶ Among the notable deals was a biggie for Akimbo Systems Inc., a video-on-demand company whose service piggybacks on people's Internet connections. When Akimbo launched last year, it offered mostly niche video programming from little-known Internet companies. ...¶... But last week, Akimbo announced agreements that will deliver content to its subscribers from four cable channels -- A&E, National Geographic, the History Channel and the Biography Channel. ... Link: washingtonpost.com.

SBC ... Announces Joint Venture to Launch Home Entertainment Service for SBC | DISH Network, SBC Yahoo! DSL Customers

SBC Communications Inc. ... today announced it has formed a joint venture with 2Wire Inc. to deliver a home entertainment service that integrates satellite TV programming, digital video recording, video on demand, and Internet content including photos and music via an award-winning new set-top box — and ties it all together with the familiar and intuitive SBC Yahoo! user interface. The joint venture is part of a two-pronged SBC video strategy to extend home entertainment video services to customers through either high-speed fiber or DSL. ¶ The service will combine content delivered by broadband and satellite into one easy-to-use package, giving consumers a powerful new way to extend the SBC Yahoo! DSL experience beyond the desktop to bring entertainment content to their TV screens and stereos. Today's announcement builds on the recently announced expanded alliance with Yahoo! Inc. which calls for the companies to extend the SBC Yahoo! customer experience beyond the desktop. The offering will be available to customers who have both SBC | DISH Network and SBC Yahoo! DSL services. It is expected to roll out in mid-2005. ... Link: SBC - Press Room.

DVD-quality video over the Net?

EdgeStream unveiled on Wednesday a new television set-top box that uses its proprietary IPTV software platform and can, according to the company, deliver DVD-quality, on-demand broadcasts over the Net. ¶ The Internet streaming-media developer said the broadband IPV500 set-top box was built by Wyse Technology on a reference design from Intel. The box runs Microsoft's Windows Media Series 9 technology over EdgeStream's IPTV software. EdgeStream also announced that Media Portal Technology will use the box to deliver IPTV to subscribers in the United Kingdom and Europe. ... Link: CNET News.com.

Convergence of Content, Communication, and Computing

Ramesh Jain has an interesting post on this topic, covering vidoe search and VOD. --Dennis. Link: The Broadband Daily.

Broadband shakes up consumer electronics industry

The consumer electronics industry is experiencing a "profound change" as fast internet connectivity increasingly allows previously packaged content to be delivered on a subscription or service basis. ¶ According to ABI Research, the consumer market is entering a period of rapid transformation as it moves away from the models which have historically dominated the personal enjoyment of audiovisual media. ... Link: vnunet.com.

The Rise of Broadband Video: IP Set-Tops, Entertainment and Media Centers and Alternative Distribution Networks (DSL/Cable/FTTH). In the near future, monumental changes to the relationships of content owners and distributors could affect cable and DBS providers. This study examines how a new format - video delivered in IP packet form to a set top box and broadband-ready devices over any kind of broadband connection - creates the possibility for a new entertainment distribution model. Part of ABI Research’s comprehensive analysis of residential entertainment trends and technologies, “The Rise of Broadband Video” dissects the changing dynamics of a volatile market where cable and DBS providers face the possibility of being cut out of the content provider/consumer loop. The implications for equipment makers, telcos, content aggregators and service providers are discussed, as are the roles Intel and Microsoft have carved out in the future of IP video delivery. This report examines the technologies involved and presents market forecasts for revenues, subscribers, shipments and market share, broken down by technology and by region for the period through 2009. Link: ABI Research.

Streaming Leaders: ESPN Motion

Nate Elliott: "... ESPN Motion uses pre-caching, rather than streaming, to deliver video to users. The difference is one of both technology and picture quality. Streaming video typically requires that a user have a standard video player, such as Windows Media Player or RealPlayer, installed on his machine. ¶ Because the vast majority of Internet users have this software already installed, almost anyone can watch streaming video. But since streaming video downloads to a computer at the same time it's playing, the video size and picture quality are limited by the speed of the user's Internet connection. ¶ Pre-caching solves this problem by not displaying the video until it's been fully downloaded. Using this technique, sites can offer users video at any size and picture quality. One of the earliest examples of pre-cached video was BMW Films, which allowed users to view full-screen, DVD-quality videos all the way back in 2001. By comparison, most streaming video at that time covered less than 10 percent of a computer screen and offered video quality that was inferior to even broadcast television. ..." Link: Media Post RichMedia Insider. Thanks to Mark Fuerst for the tip. --Dennis

Peer-to-peer goes legitimate

In most countries, the music industry is taking song-swappers to court. But the sheer demand for downloading is forcing record labels, and now movie companies, to work with online retailers to offer legitimate alternatives. ¶ While illegally sharing copyrighted music on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks is still popular, these new sites are attracting buyers who want a safer, legal way to download songs for less than a pound or a dollar. ¶ With the advent of faster broadband speeds, the illegal swappers are not just after music. ... Link: BBC News.

The End of TV as We Know It

Sit back on the sofa and get ready for packetized, on-demand, digital broadcasts. ...¶... IPTV is not to be confused with television over the Internet. On the public Net, packets get delayed or lost entirely - that's why Web video is so jerky and lo-res. But private networks like Comcast's are engineered, obviously, for reliable video delivery - which means IPTV will look at least as good as TV coming from digital cable or satellite. ¶ It will be accompanied by another, equally critical change. Instead of broadcasting every channel continuously, service providers plan to transmit them only to subscribers who request them. In effect, every channel will be streamed on demand. This will free up huge amounts of bandwidth for hi-def TV and high-speed broadband. Add IP and you get interactive services like caller ID on your TV. And the system will be able to track viewing habits as effectively as Amazon tracks its customers, so ads will be targeted with scary precision. Put it all together and you've got television that's as intensely personalized as 20th-century broadcasting was generic. ... Link: Wired.

Next: TV Meets IP

Internet technologies promise to soon take couch potatoes to worlds far beyond TiVo. Even phone companies could benefit big time. ...¶... Turns out, TiVo was just the start. A new wave of TV-related innovation called IP-TV is just starting to reach consumers. Just as the service known as voice over Internet protocol is poised to revolutionize the phone business by offering a low-cost Internet alternative to traditional phone service, IP-TV could bring Internet-style interactivity and flexibility to your TV set. ¶ It won't happen overnight, of course. But over the next decade, the long-hyped notion of "video-on-demand" could become commonplace, allowing consumers to watch what they want, when they want to. They'll be able to control their IP-TV service remotely through a PC or a cell phone. And they'll be able to personalize their content, whether they want to watch the local high school football game or home movies. ... Link: BusinessWeek.

Comcast to begin offering music videos on demand

Comcast plans to begin offering music videos on demand to its broadband Internet subscribers early next year, part of a multiyear deal with the television network Music Choice. ¶ Some 6.7 million Comcast broadband customers will have access to the cable company's new service at launch, Music Choice officials said Wednesday. ... Link: USATODAY.com.

New DVR may have video on demand

DirecTV is preparing to offer a digital video recorder (DVR) service in mid-2005 that could duplicate virtually every feature now available from current partner TiVo, plus provide video on demand similar to what's offered on cable, say executives of the company preparing the software. ...¶... [Abe] Peled [, CEO of NDS Group] says that a big selling point for his DVR is in the way it handles pay-per-view (PPV). With TiVo, users must agree to pay for a PPV movie before recording it for subsequent viewing. But the NDS system will enable DirecTV to signal a user's DVR to record several movies, making each available for viewing at any time. ... Link: USATODAY.com.

Home Video On Demand

Digital Silo has introduced an interesting new subsription service that permits you to share your home video via the Internet.  From the company's press release:  "Broadband Internet users can now enjoy the benefits of Home Video On Demand (HVOD) with the introduction of the world¹s first-ever streaming media service that delivers home videos directly to family and friends anytime and anywhere in the world.  ¶  Incorporating all the functionalities and technology of VOD systems now being used by broadcasters and cable operators, Digital Silo's HVOD process allows camcorder owners to convert their home videos into broadcast quality streaming media without having to purchase any hardware or software.  Digital Silo provides an end-to-end solution for families looking to share and preserve their home videos."  Click here for pdf brochure.  --Dennis

Current VOD services are rudimentary says report

Video-on-demand services are currently being held up by thin content, concludes ABI Research in a new report. ...¶... Cable operators, he suggests, should take the video-on-demand model to the next level of customisation in order to reap its full benefits and should aggressively start looking to content aggregators to provide a wider array of choices to their customers. ... Link: informitv.

Advertising: Advertisements You Didn’t Demand

Video-on-demaned has reached a critical mass, and advertisers have taken notice. ¶ ...[V]ideo-on-demand has grown to provide both paid and free content of all sorts, so far without advertisements. But Fox Cable Networks and Visa plan to test the ad waters in January. ¶ The trial will be "Behind the Mysteries," a show ... on the National Geographic Channel before becoming a free on-demand offering. The channel has been offering free video-on-demand content since October 2002, but has never included commercials. Viewers who choose "Behind the Mysteries," however, will see either 60-second Visa spots before and after the program or Visa commercials throughout. ¶ "Video-on-demand is starting to get to a tipping point, in that the total universe of video-on-demand homes in the United States is about 17 million," ... Link: The New York Times.

Getting What’s Expected From VOD

From speech by Joshua Sapan, CEO, Rainbow Media Holdings: I think we all understand the opportunity and the promise that video on demand provides to our industry. At a time when consumers’ desire for convenience and control seems to be bordering almost on the obsessive, VOD is uniquely poised for success. ¶ Consumers are very clear about their expectations — they want what they want, when they want it and they want it right now. ...¶... Today, there are an estimated 19 million VOD-enabled homes. By next year, that number could be as high as 23 million, since VOD is backwards-compatible with digital. With each day, the on-demand footprint is increasing. ¶ I think we can easily imagine a future with 50 million digital subscribers, as well as 50 million VOD homes. ¶ And with increases in server capacity, the potential growth of VOD content is extraordinary — from 1,000 hours available today, to 4,000 hours next year and an estimated 10,000 hours available by the year 2006. ... Link: Multichannel News.

Ratings by Rentrak?

Well, Nielsen's under fire...but the brand name is solid (in that it's the only one?). From the VOD world comes a new "ratings" game. ¶ A little more than a year ago, executives at interactive digital music network Music Choice were looking at ways to measure their growing audience of music lovers. The company was trying to track and report usage effectively, and it contemplated developing its own reporting system. ...¶... The music programmer, which at that time was planning an on-demand music video service (which will launch this month to Comcast digital subscribers in Richmond, Va.), was intrigued. Music Choice executives wanted to be able to track on-demand ads and wanted to know whether ads that play with songs are being viewed; how many times a particular song is chosen; and what Music Choice channel people come from when they select an on-demand video or song. ¶ In August, Music Choice became the first network to sign a deal with Rentrak. Starting this month, the OnDemand Essentials service will begin collecting real-time audience data for My Music Choice, its customizable music service. Audience tracking for Music Choice's on-demand service comes next. ... Link: CableFAX's CableWORLD. Thanks to David Liroff for this tip. --Dennis

Fast forward to new-style TV

Television has come a long way from the simple broadcasting of a handful of channels. Now the telly can offer hundreds of choices as well as interactive quizzes, games and voting. But TV continues to evolve and the next big thing set to hit European screens could be video on demand (VOD). ¶ VOD allows viewers to call up TV shows, films and sport just by pushing a few buttons on their remote control. The difference from current on-demand offers, such as the pay-per-view movie service on Sky Digital, is that VOD programmes can be ordered and viewed immediately and they have full VCR functionality. It is like having a DVD but without having to go to the video shop. ... Link: Guardian Unlimited.

VoD, NVoD & DVR All to Grow In Europe - Yankee

Combined Annual VoD and NVoD revenue will increase fivefold to Euro 2.2 Billion by 2008, while DVR service penetration will also increase to 20% of Western European Digital TV Homes by 2008, says Yankee Group. ¶ Video on demand (VoD) and digital video recording (DVR) are phrases that service providers are getting very used to – because that is where their business is heading, and both will “coexist as complementary options for digital TV customers,” says Jonathan Doran, Yankee Group Broadband & Media Europe senior analyst, in yesterday’s news release. ... Digital-Lifestyles.info link

Broadband television market set for growth

The market for internet protocol set-top boxes will grow at least four times faster than that for cable or satellite-based boxes in the near future, according to ABI Research. ¶ With opportunities existing everywhere in the world that a telephone operator offers broadband services, the compound annual growth rate for internet protocol set-top boxes is forecast at around 60% over the next five years, compared to a more modest 13-14% for cable and satellite devices over the same period. ... informitv link

Web TV Start-Ups Show Programs Outside the Box

Internet TV is a mirage, seeming so close yet turning out to be far away or downright unreal when you try to watch it. At least that's my take on the many past plans for zapping motion pictures over the Internet. ¶ Now comes a fresh group of contenders for the Internet TV throne, all trying new twists on sending video over the global computer network. They carry funky names, too, like Akimbo, DaveTV, RipeTV and TimeshifTV. All are trying to exploit the increasing number of high-speed Internet links in homes and the declining costs for transmitting and storing digital video. ... washingtonpost.com link

UK viewers taking control of TV

People in Britain are going to take more control of what they watch on TV and when they watch it, say experts. ¶ By 2008, more than 15 million UK homes will have access to some form of on-demand programming, media analyst Screen Digest has predicted. ... BBC link

Digital Media Shakes Up Traditional Cable Programmer Market Dynamics

There are advantages for cable programmers exploring new platforms for their content but they need to be aware of potential hurdles. ¶ The emergence of broadband, wireless, on-demand and other digital technologies require programmers to determine the best mix of resources to allocate across traditional and emerging distribution platforms (see Exhibit 1). Select cable programmers are exploring a number of effective approaches. ... Yankee Group link

The Limits of SpongeBob SquarePants: One Canadian's Wireless Neighborhood Network Could Someday Serve Us All

Robert X. Cringely: Like many of us, Andrew Greig put a WiFi access point in his house so he could share his broadband Internet connection. But like hardly any of us, Andrew uses his WiFi netowrk for Internet, television, and telephone. He cancelled his telephone line and cable TV service. Then his neighbors dropped-by, saw what Andrew had done, and they cancelled their telephone and cable TV services, too, many of them without having a wired broadband connection of their own. They get their service from Andrew... PBS link

Netflix, TiVo to Develop Internet Movie Product

Online DVD rental service Netflix Inc. ... and digital video recorder maker TiVo Inc. ... on Thursday said they would jointly develop a product to download movies over the Internet that could mark a revolution in home entertainment. ... Reuters.com link

Comcast arms for TV revolution

... Comcast Chief Executive Brian Roberts and Chief Operating Officer Stephen Burke are here this week... ¶ Roberts and Burke sat down with The Seattle Times yesterday to talk about Microsoft, video-on-demand and the future of cable television. Here are some excerpts from the conversation: Q. Explain your video-on-demand strategy. You've said that 90 percent of that content should be at no additional cost to the consumer. ¶
Roberts: Customers want to drive the car; they want to be in control of the remote and not have to live with the linear schedule. We call that the personalization of television — that what has happened on the Internet is now going to happen on television — and on-demand is a big part of that strategy. ¶ Today, we have about 2,000 hours of programming, and most of that is no additional cost. ¶ Q. How many hours of programming do you want to have? ¶ Roberts: The goal is that five years from now it's virtually unlimited, using the great progress of Moore's law, where the servers get cheaper and capacity gets greater. You'll have 30,000 to 40,000 hours someday. We're really building a whole new cable system inside the cable system in the on-demand world. ... Seattle Times link

Phone Lines Deliver Next-Gen TV

... Consultancy Multimedia Research Group estimates there will be 15.6 million TVIP viewers by 2007, up from a few hundred thousand today. ¶ TVIP takes advantage of the increasing popularity and prevalence of broadband internet, plus improved technology for delivering customized video and compressing it to a manageable size without hurting quality. ... Wired News: Phone Lines Deliver Next-Gen TV

Broadband dreams and multicast 'beams'

Vint Cerf commentary: "Imagine you come home on a Friday evening after a hard week at work and simply want to spend time watching a movie you choose with your family. ¶ If technology pundits are to be believed, the most cutting-edge way to do this would be to fire up your home PC, download a movie (from a vast, legal online library of movies) and watch it via your wireless home network on your big-screen TV. The reality, however, is vastly different. ¶ Watching movies over the Internet requires time, planning, and a connection between your PC and TV (wireless or otherwise). It can take too long to download a complete movie from a legitimate Internet service like Movielink or CinemaNow. And when the movie arrives, it often does not look as good as the DVD version. ¶ What's the problem? Unfortunately, the Internet is not ready to be a true entertainment medium. It cannot provide the instant gratification and quality consumers have come to expect from DVDs--once you have the DVD, that is. As a result of its architecture, the Internet cannot cater to a vast number of people simultaneously asking for large files such as movies. ..." CNET News.com link

Comcast's Big Bet on Content

Reports on a Wall Street Journal interview with Comcast's CEO --Dennis ...On search and TV: "We think eventually 10,000 hours will be available on demand. There is constantly going to be a need to make it easy for consumers to access what they want when they want it. Call it a search engine. Call it a portal. Call it an on-screen guide or navigation device." ... PaidContent.org link

Broadband firms urged to tune out of TV

European broadband providers hoping to increase their profitability with internet TV services will be sorely disappointed, according to a report from Analysys. ¶ The business case for broadband entertainment is based on slim margins, the analyst found. Studios expect at least 50 per cent of the revenue from pay-per-view movies, while Sky demands about 80 per cent of the revenue for its premium sports and movie channels. ... vnunet.com link

Plan for digital TV on the internet

TELECOMS giant BT is set to offer a new pay-per-view digital TV service through the internet. ¶ It wants to beam top film and programmes down broadband lines straight into TV sets at millions of homes. ¶ The telecom operator has been in talks with a number of makers of Freeview receivers to develop set-top boxes hat will connect broadband and internet services to TV sets. ... Evening Times link (Edinburgh)

Why a Netflix-TiVo deal is irrelevant

Even if the two strike some kind of deal allowing Netflix (NFLX: news, chart, profile) subscribers to access movies by downloading them onto a TiVo for a monthly subscription price or on a pay-per-view basis, it's unlikely the library of titles will be anywhere near the 25,000 Netflix now claims -- at least not any time soon. Ditto Netflix's plans to offer download services, which the company has suggested will happen next year. ¶ Blame that on a complex web of film rights and so-called use windows granted by movie studios, which are different for "hard goods," such as retail or DVD-by-mail, and "electronic," which can include the Internet or TV. "The big ah-ha for a lot of companies is that the availability [of] these movies is gone because of the rights that have already been sold," says Bob Greene, senior vice president of advance services for the StarzEncore Group. ... CBS Marketwatch.com via AlwaysOn link

Disney delays MovieBeam expansion

Walt Disney's MovieBeam will delay expansion into new markets until 2005 and is exploring new strategic partnerships, in a left turn nearly a year after launching the on-demand film service, ... ZDNet link

Atzio announces peer-to-peer internet television

A Californian start-up company [Atzio Technology Corp.] has announced what it calls the first peer-to-peer television network platform, using broadband connections to deliver audio video content to mass audiences. ¶ The concept appears to be superficially similar to that currently being pioneered by the BBC with its interactive Media Player that has just concluded internal trials. ... informitv link

The techdirt weblog calls it "a BitTorrent with copy protection." --Dennis

Recasting Content to Meet Demand

The cutting-room floor is going away. ¶ As content proliferates on multiple platforms-from the mother ship of linear television to the emerging media offspring of broadband, video-on-demand and wireless-content providers are mining their cutting-room-floor footage and recycling, repurposing and reusing material across the new screens. ¶ As a result, many networks are in the embryonic stages of determining how to rejigger their production and shooting schedules, and more important, whether such changes can yet be monetized. ¶ The key is to shoot smarter, said Channing Dawson, ... "We are starting down the road of how to model financially, how to handle the shooting and the logistics. How do you piggyback production so you can produce five three-minute pieces for broadband or VOD in an additional three hours? Do you set up as a separate shoot or a piggyback shoot?" he asked. ... TV Week link (free sub. req.)

The Solution to Video On Demand's "Easy Come, Easy Go" Problem

Lyra Research presents an interesting brief contrasting VOD with a trip to the video store. --Dennis Lyra Research link

Startup Launching Web-To-TV Video Service

The promise of Internet-based video has long been hamstrung by copyright and piracy worries, slow dial-up connections, technical challenges and consumer disdain for watching blotchy videos on their home computers. But a Silicon Valley startup is tackling those obstacles, hoping to become the first major provider of cinema straight from the Internet to the living room boob tube. ...¶... With new video and copy-protection technologies, and the rapid expansion of high-speed broadband connections, the time may be ripe. Akimbo hopes to tap the vast vault of programming floating on the Internet, repackage it in DVD-quality, and bring it to a set-top box so viewers can easily choose what they want to watch from their sofa - not from their desktop. ... My Way News link

Microsoft Tests Broadband TV

Microsoft has turned to a Swiss telecommunication operator for the first commercial trial of its system that delivers television signals to consumers over a broadband telecommunications network, it announced this week. ¶ Beginning in September, Swisscom's Internet service provider subsidiary Bluewin will deliver 25 TV channels to set top boxes in 600 homes. During the four-month trial, testers will have access to five pay-TV channels and a video-on-demand service through the set top boxes, which also function as a digital video recorder with a live pause function, Microsoft says. ... PCWorld.com link

Shifting Places

Sitting in a Starbucks in San Mateo, Calif., Blake Krikorian...fires up an iPAQ handheld and, with a few clicks on a menu, pulls up live television. The screen is small, but the Fox channel's Judge Hatchett is smooth; no delays, no frozen frames. Krikorian switches to his laptop, and moments later Clifford the Big Red Dog is nosing around at a birthday party, courtesy of PBS. He then apologizes:He could download TV to his cell phone if only there were higher-speed service. "It's coming," he promises. ¶ Krikorian's little company, Sling Media, is about to launch the SlingBox Personal Broadcaster, an amazing little box that can redirect any video--such as a cable or broadcast feed--from your home to any screen you carry, as long as it has a wireless Internet connection. ... Yahoo! News - Shifting Places

Downloading Television, Legal or Otherwise

Salon’s tech reporter Farhad Marjoo recently posted a thoughtful discussion of the current state of television downloads. The center piece of the article is a discussion of a recent FCC decision which cleared the way for TiVo, the digital recorder folks, to offer a new service-TiVoToGo-which allows one to transfer digitally recorded content from your TiVo machine across the internet to your PC or to another TiVo. The service comes with plenty of hardware to make it difficult for the content to be shared with family or friends, let alone the general public, but it does represent a real convenience for folks like me who travel and want to catch up with their favorite shows. What I also want is a simple way to tell my TiVo from the road to tape shows I discover, say, reading a newspaper or magazine on the flight. ¶ From here, the story goes on to look at a variety of strategies being adopted to share television content on the Web-which is as legal or illegal as downloading any other copyrighted content. ... Technology Review link

BBC trials TV on your PC

The BBC is testing technology to allow fans of its TV shows to download and watch programmes on their home PCs. ¶ Called interactive Media Player (iMP), the technology is designed to allow viewers to download and view programmes through media player software on their home computer for up to a week after broadcast. ... vnunet.com - BBC trials TV on your PC

An Online Supplier for Your Desktop Cineplex

Going to the movies these days may simply involve a trip to your desktop, as video-on-demand Internet movie services help turn personal computers into multiscreen cineplexes. ¶ A technological step beyond video rentals and pay-per-view cable movie channels, these online movie services provide a legal and reliable way to download and stream thousands of films, from recently released Hollywood blockbusters to vintage serials. ¶ Several video-on-demand services operating with the blessings of the film industry, like Movielink, CinemaNow and Movieflix, have been online for some time. But these services, along with the newly introduced Starz Ticket service, are now gaining considerably in appeal as computer processing power and Internet access speeds reach the point where DVD-quality movies can be efficiently delivered to a mass audience. ... New York Times link

Must-download TV

The latest developments in TV-show-trading technology mean you don't need TiVo to watch what you want, when you want. ...¶... In recent months, a host of developers and TV enthusiasts have been working on ways to improve online trading -- they're building sophisticated networks to record and encode and distribute shows, and they're improving peer-to-peer transfer systems to make downloading easier. The hottest new improvement is made possible by the merging of two Internet innovations, the peer-to-peer protocol BitTorrent and RSS, the popular Web syndication standard. Together, these systems enable a computer to automatically find and download a user's favorite shows -- something like having a TV station designed just for you. ... Salon.com link NB: Full access requires watching a Salon.com commercial, but worth it. --Dennis

DiVX to move 20 million CE devices by Christmas

If anyone out there (like us) thinks that there is room and enthusiasm for film download services like Movielink and CinemaNow, but ones which are properly run and which actually want to grow, they could do worse than take a long hard look at what DiVX is up to. ¶ The 100 man start up is on its third round of funding and has already passed into profit and is getting ready for a massive Christmas that could quadruple its revenues overnight. The company has been working for three years towards a scenario when CE manufacturers bundle the DiVX MPEG 4 based-codecs into equipment that is sold in retail. So far it has sold 2 million such devices, but reckons it will sell another 18 million by Christmas. Big jump. ...¶ Today it says its file sizes are seven to ten times smaller than those on DVDs and it says that a two hour film encoded with DiVX can be downloaded on a half a megabit broadband line in under 45 minutes, and that by using progressive downloads (download enough of the film so that the rest can download while you are watching it) users can begin viewing films in full-screen, high-quality format a few minutes after the download has begun. ... The Register link

Hungry for Video

Who among us wouldn't like to remodel a living room for $1,000 or make crispy duck salad with bitter orange vinaigrette in less than 30 minutes? Any fan of Scripps Networks' collection of home and hospitality cable channels, which includes The Food Network and Home & Garden Television, and which currently has a combined 209 million subscriptions, knows such things are possible. ¶ The problem for most people is finding the time to watch the programs that offer those tips, which is why Scripps now delivers video content to consumers via both the Internet and digital cable. For individuals who subscribe to either service, segments from popular series like Before and After and 30-Minute Meals with Rachel Ray are literally at their fingertips. What makes this possible on the back end is Scripps' digital asset management (DAM) system. ... PC Magazine link

Cable Companies Profit From Demand for High-Speed Internet

Cable companies, which have been weighed down for years by heavy investments and sagging subscriber growth, are starting to turn the corner. ¶ Comcast Corporation, the nation's biggest cable operator, said today that it earned $262 million in the second quarter, after losing $22 million in the same period last year, thanks to an increase in the number of customers signing up for high-speed Internet and digital video services. ... The New York Times link

Forget à la carte cable idea; the future is in Internet TV

... Anyone searching for relief from high cable rates in Washington is stuck on the wrong coast. Silicon Valley will ultimately provide a much better solution: broadcast-quality television delivered through the Internet, completely independent of the bloated cable industry. ¶ Akimbo, a start-up company in San Mateo, says it's no more than six weeks away from launching a digital video recorder (DVR) that gets TV shows through a high-speed Internet connection rather than a cable, satellite dish or roof antenna. San Jose-based TiVo, which pioneered the DVR category, plans to add Internet delivery next year. ... MercuryNews.com link

Comcast: HDTV VOD Is ‘Tremendous’ Weapon

Comcast Corp. is testing offering HDTV video-on-demand, which it sees as yet another potential “tremendous offensive” weapon against direct-broadcast satellite competition, an official from the nation’s largest MSO said Monday during a panel session here. ... Multichannel News link

Cable VOD Service Not a Killer Application, But Still a Useful Tool

While cable Video-on-Demand (VOD) service might never be a huge revenue generator, it can still serve as an important service “differentiator” in terms of comparing digital cable TV services to satellite TV services, according to In-Stat/MDR (http://www.instat.com). The high-tech market research firm reports that even as the number of VOD users is on the rise, consumer interest in VOD service remains lukewarm due to concerns about pricing and a continued lack of compelling content. ...In-Stat/MDR link

Cable VOD Service Not a Killer Application, But Still a Useful Tool

While cable Video-on-Demand (VOD) service might never be a huge revenue generator, it can still serve as an important service “differentiator” in terms of comparing digital cable TV services to satellite TV services, according to In-Stat/MDR (http://www.instat.com). [It] ... reports that even as the number of VOD users is on the rise, consumer interest in VOD service remains lukewarm due to concerns about pricing and a continued lack of compelling content.
In-Stat/MDR link

New Survey Reveals DVR Users Watch More Video-on-Demand

Fetching by Remote: A Survey of Video-on-Demand Users, a new report in Lyra Research's DTV View report series, reveals that digital video recorder (DVR) users watch more video-on-demand (VOD) programs than non-DVR users, and these findings held true for both free and paid VOD. ... Digital Media Designer link

Video on Demand tie-in with TiVo shows a glimpse of TiVo's plans?

Last week TiVo revealed its intention to get into the content distribution business, but they said little about the details of their plan. Many assumed that TiVo would be aiming for an "on demand" service that would tap into the Internet for instant content distribution, but bandwidth and performance problems on networks not owned by the company could prove insurmountable to providing a true, quality on-demand service. Pay Per View and On Demand services currently used by consumers are benefited by being run on the very same networks as the providers, and TiVo would need to compete with these offerings to succeed. Unless TiVo really does want to "reinvent itself," I think the real plans will have to leverage what TiVo is already good at: time-shifting. As it turns out, I think a glimpse into the future of TiVo's content distribution plans can already been seen by DirecTV TiVo users. ¶ DirecTV recently unveiled a new "Starz On Demand" service made specifically for TiVo. ... Ars Technica link

New Survey Reveals DVR Users Watch More Video-on-Demand

Fetching by Remote: A Survey of Video-on-Demand Users, a new report in Lyra Research's DTV View report series, reveals that digital video recorder (DVR) users watch more video-on-demand (VOD) programs than non-DVR users, and these findings held true for both free and paid VOD (see figure). This consumer behavior may be surprising to cable-service providers as it challenges a widespread industry assumption that DVR and VOD technologies are competing for viewers' usage. ¶ "We had anticipated that the DVR users would particularly watch less free VOD than the non-DVR users because DVR users can readily time shift and control their TV shows without using VOD,..." "Our findings may be because VOD offered content that was not available via broadcast or because the DVR users are more experienced than non-DVR users with time shifting and more comfortable operating menu-driven systems for selecting programs. This will be an important topic area to clarify in future DTV View research." Lyra Research link

These Ads Don't Stink

Over the last few years we have seen numerous models proposed for how television advertising will evolve in response to the anticipated impact of commercial skipping enabled by digital video recorders (DVRs) such as TiVo. Advertisers' concerns are well warranted given the tendency of many existing DVR owners to push the fast-forward button on the remote at the first hint of a commercial break. Various proposals for a new era of TV advertising fall into several major categories: (1) interactivity, (2) targeting, (3) show sponsorships, and (4) product placements. Many other variations have been proposed and some even field-tested, ... ¶ ... Yet another possible ad-watching currency gives consumers a more direct reward. In Lyra's recent DTV View report, Fetching By Remote: A Survey of Video-on-Demand Users, we asked existing VOD users to rate their level of interest in watching a one-minute ad in exchange for receiving $1 of credit toward paid VOD programs. We presented them with three different options for how the ad would be selected: (1) randomly, (2) by user-indicated preferences, and (3) by direct selection by the consumer. Results of the questions are summarized in the accompanying figure. Existing VOD users said they were reasonably interested in all three options, ... Lyra Research DTV View E-Mail Brief link

Netflix plans to offer video-on-demand in 2005

"Netflix is trying to become your source of movies," Ted Sarandos, chief content officer at Netflix (NFLX: news, chart, profile), said in an interview. "We will have a downloadable product as some consumers demand a digital lifestyle." ... ¶ Netflix doesn't plan on having all 22,000 movies available for download, but it will provide a lot of niche content, such as foreign films and extreme sports. Eventually, "we'll offer every film in either DVD or download." ... CBS MarketWatch link

Viewers flocking to pay TV films

Viewers flocking to pay TV films. More than 100 million homes world-wide now buy on-demand movies, a technology report by Informa Media has said. ¶ On-demand movies are bought via digital TV and are available in the UK on services such as Sky. ¶ The report said 109 million homes will buy movies via digital TV in 2004, compared with 90 million last year. [BBC News]

Video-on-Demand on the Rise

Video-on-Demand on the Rise. A third of U.S. homes will have video-on-demand (VOD) services available to them by the end of 2008, when VOD will be available in 36.5 million digital cable homes, according to Boston-based research firm Yankee Group. ¶ Deployments in 2003 rose 70 percent from 2002, and 11.4 million homes are now capable of using video-on-demand. [CEPro]