Apple introduces revamped Apple TV device

Jim O'Neill — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:36:28 -0400

Apple unveiled its newest iteration of Apple TV yesterday, introducing a $99 device that's roughly the size of a wallet and bears little internal resemblance to its predecessor.

The set-top box-not, by the way, called iTV as rumored-is designed to stream video content from Apple's iTunes store, eliminating the need for storage or syncing and is capable of 720p output. Jobs said the new Apple TV would be available in about four weeks.

The device is powered by the A4 processor, the same Apple-produced chip that is in the iPad, and a big upgrade from previous model that relied on the Intel Pentium M processor. Although Apple didn't say if Apple TV is running on iOS or OS X, it did say the Apple TV initially won't have apps to run, so it's essentially a moot point.

The scaled-down box is cool running, and quiet.

The box will come with Netflix onboard, allowing Netflix subscribers access to the service's library of streaming video, as well as YouTube and Flickr content. The box also gives users access to any video stored on iTunes, pictures on Apple's MobileMe service and access to podcasts and Internet radio.

New to Apple TV is AirPlay, which allows users to switch from device to device without losing their place in a video, and to stream music wirelessly to multiple outputs simultaneously. It will require iOS 4.1, which is scheduled to arrive next week.

For more:
- see this article

A Look Back: Lessons learned from TV Everywhere a year after deployment

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:31:00 -0400

By Marty Roberts

For nearly a year now, thePlatform has been supporting some of the largest TV Everywhere initiatives to date. In that time, we've encountered some surprising--as well as anticipated--challenges while helping our customers architect TV Everywhere. The following is a glimpse at some of the most interesting lessons learned so far in working with programmers and service providers to bring their TV Everywhere initiatives to market.

Authentication and authorization really do provide a seamless user experience

One of the biggest misconceptions about TV Everywhere is that the log-in process is prohibitively complicated for subscribers to cable, telco, or other TV service providers. The successful viewing metrics from ESPN3's broadcast of the 2010 FIFA World Cup have shown that consumers are willing to add an additional step and enter their credentials to access quality content.

We've learned that in practice users have to be authenticated by the service provider's system, so the programmer isn't gathering any personally identifiable information about an individual subscriber--including user name and password. There are two ways this is being approached today: 1) A viewer can be sent to the service provider's website to log-in and then redirected back to the programmer's website; 2) Alternatively, a log-in can be embedded into a programmer's own website, but hosted on the back-end by the service provider. After a user is authenticated as a current subscriber, the system performs a two-step authorization check before the selected video can begin playback. This first consists of validating all the business policies surrounding that content--such as geographic restriction, air dates, etc.--and then verifying that the viewer has access to the particular TV channel based on their subscription package.

Content libraries demand more rigorous ingest and metadata

The sheer size of the new TV Everywhere content libraries coming on to the Web for the first time present a challenge in terms of how best to bring all of this content online. We're finding that the ingest process has to be very rigorous and coordinated. Each key piece of metadata has to be gathered as it comes online--for example, parental control ratings have to be included on each individual piece of video. Additionally, each piece of content must be marked with its associated channel IDs, and since each service provider has its own ID for each TV channel, this becomes a critical piece of data.

End user registration requirements should account for parental controls

One of the new challenges in architecting TV Everywhere is how to differentiate individual users' ages to help determine which content is appropriate for each viewer who can access it. Parental guidelines are a given on TV. After all, the V-Chip--which allows parents to block programs based on the industry's ratings system--has become standard on television sets manufactured since 2000 and many service providers offer parental controls as part of their programming guides. A thoughtful registration process for online viewing must be employed to account for each member of the household and their acceptable parental control settings.

Personalized discovery is still often overlooked

When a user visits a programmer or service provider website, logs-in and searches for an episode of the TV show their friend just recommended, there are still some fundamental choices to be made. Should the results display simply the channels to which the user subscribes or should they list content that a viewer could access if they were to upgrade to a different pay-TV package? Content discovery also has to align with the parental controls and age restrictions set for the individual user. Even titles or thumbnail images could be considered inappropriate for some viewers.

Content security should be tied to the number of active sessions

Credential sharing, where users give their username and password to friends and family is a serious concern. Some methods for gating this are to cap the number of active viewing sessions or to limit the number of active devices that a user can register to access TV Everywhere content. Reports detailing excessive usage can also be provided to quickly identify users who exceed the site's usage policy. Ultimately the goal is to avoid capping usage based on the number of streams per user, which are delivered by the content delivery network (CDN) and often streamed from dozens of different servers.

TV Everywhere offers significant benefits for consumers, service providers and programmers. In the course of this first year of deployments, our work has focused on ensuring a seamless experience for consumers while preserving business models and protecting content rights.

Marty Roberts is VP of Sales and Marketing at thePlatform. He can be reached at Marty.roberts@theplatform.com. This article originally appeared in CED Magazine

Apple, Amazon and Sony join race for VOD prize

Jim O'Neill — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 11:58:54 -0400

Repeat after me: Change is good, change is good... You might as well get comfortable with it, because after today there's very little about the over-the-top delivery space that isn't going to get some major tweaking.

Obviously, the news that's gotten the most play belongs to Apple. With rumors (at the time this column was written) of an expanded iTunes store that will include 99-cent streaming rental TV episodes from Fox and ABC, and a redesigned Apple TV that's been rechristened iTV and includes Netflix, it's apparent that Apple is looking at video and its role in the market as more than a hobby at last. Some reports say the new content--which will be available to Apple on a test basis--could be available for streaming as early as today.

But there's breaking news on other fronts as well.

Amazon is rumored to be in talks with Hollywood studios to acquire content for a subscription service that will feature TV episodes and movies. It's a twist on Apple's pitch last November for a $30-a-month subscription-based service that would have used iTunes to deliver TV content failed to gain traction with studio execs.

The Amazon story, though, is a little different. The Web retailer, which currently sells TV episodes for $1.99 each and also rents and sells movies, is looking at older content, programming the studio execs are less-reluctant to give up. An interesting aside from reports is that the folks at Amazon suffered some sticker shock when they saw how much it cost Netflix to have licensing rights to some of the content. It takes money, as they say, to make money. The retailers could launch the service in time for the holiday season.

Finally, from the CE side of the equation, reports from the Financial Times say that Sony is ready to roll out a rival to iTunes that will include music and video downloads. It's expected that the first devices to have access to the content will be Sony's PS3 and PlayStation Portables, of which millions already have access to the Internet. The report said Sony, which has said it expects 90 percent of its devices to be able to communicate with each other and the Web by 2011, will add devices over time. In January, Sony showed off Qriosity, a planned video download service that has yet to make an appearance. The Financial Times said the new service is expected to take some time to launch as well, possibly bowing sometime next year after Sony negotiates for content rights.

Three big bits of news from the OTT space, three major players really sitting up and taking notice. (And, of course, that doesn't include recent news from Google, Netflix, Best Buy, Hulu and all the rest of the very real players in VOD.)

I wrote a column yesterday for FierceIPTV that talked about who I thought would be the eventual winner in the VOD sweepstakes... I called Apple by a nose over Google and Netflix, mostly because I think they understand the user interface better than any body else in the market. I took a lot of flak--including being lambasted as an Apple Fanboi, sigh--and I don't think Amazon's or Sony's entrance into the space changes that at all, it just cuts the remaining pie into a few more pieces. What do you think? Take the poll and let us know... -Jim

Report: Apple's streaming video from press event a test of $1B data center

Jim O'Neill — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 11:03:23 -0400

Apple is providing live streaming of today's press event regarding its (rumored) revamping of Apple TV into iTV, a new twist to the iTunes store and updated iPods. It's the first time is quite awhile that Apple has live streamed any of its events, and it's set to start at 1 p.m. ET at www.apple.com.

Not too surprisingly, the event will only be available on Apple devices, Macs running Safari on Mac OS X version 10.6, an iPhone or iPod touch running iOS 3.0 or higher, or an iPad.

A Cult of Mac report said the streaming will be the first major test of Apple's new data center in North Carolina, a $1 billion facility that's among the largest ever built.

For more:
- see this release
- see this article

Rumor: Sony planning new movie and music rival to iTunes

Jim O'Neill — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 09:27:31 -0400

Sony showed off Qriocity, a service that would allow users to download movies at CES early this year, but made no promises about when it might launch, although there were rumors it would hit the market in February.

Well, now Sony is rumored to be announcing a new music and video download service that would be available across all of the company's connected devices, starting with the PlayStation game console. Launch date? Sometime next year, reports the Financial Times.

The announcement is expected at the IFA tech show in Berlin sometime today (likely before Apple splashes its latest news this afternoon).

The new service won't be Sony's first trip around the block. Its Connect music service failed to gain significant traction in the U.S. or Europe and was bagged in 2007. It has tens of millions of PlayStation consoles connected to the Internet, allowing them to access some content. A new Sony-operated service would not only challenge iTunes music download service, but also put it in a head-to-head battle with Netflix, Apple, Google, Best Buy and several other retailers looking to grab a piece of the video-on-demand marketplace.

The company said it expects 90 percent of all Sony devices to be capable of connecting to the Internet and each other by 2011.

For more:
- see this FT article