Video On Demand

MGM on YouTube – who's next?

Doug Mohney — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:39:06 -0500

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) is putting full length action films on YouTube, plus episodes of its decade-old leftover "American Gladiators" program. Clips from popular films will also be available and viewing will be free to watch, with ads running beside the video.

The deal is being viewed as a catch-up move by YouTube and a "gee, we need the money" deal for MGM. Hollywood executives have been pained over the way unauthorized clips from TV shows and movies have appeared on YouTube without permission while advertisers have been happy with unfiltered user-generated content.

YouTube is working hard to work with Hollywood, having recently booked deals with Lionsgate and CBS. Viewers can now tap into full-length episodes of "Star Trek" and "Beverly Hills 90210" at YouTube. More details are expected to follow as YouTube offers the carrot of new revenue streams.

Technology is also playing a role in the new pitch to Hollywood. YouTube has a new way for media companies to spot unauthorized clips on its site. VideoID allows companies to decide to either remove clips or leave them up and sell ads on them. Given the hundreds of millions of monthly viewers coming to YouTube, there's a lot of potential money on the table.

MGM says it is starting slowly with YouTube, using action films to promote the studio's video-on-demand channel on Comcast (Hmm, but will viewing count against Comcast's bandwidth cap?). The company doesn't expect to put its full catalog online, but some non-18-54 male content is likely to appear relatively soon.

Other companies, including Time Warner, are currently experimenting with YouTube technology, so speculation is hot as to which studios will slip their toes into the YouTube pond.

For more:
- New York Times reports on MGM putting movies on YouTube. Article.

Amazon streams direct to TV

Pete Wylie — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 11:35:16 -0400

Amazon announced Wednesday that users can now stream full-length, ad-free films and TV episodes directly to their web browser. Viewers can also rent or buy Amazon Video On Demand products and view them with the beta version of Sony's BRAVIA Internet Video Link feature, which streams the videos directly to compatible Sony HDTVs.

After linking customers link their BRAVIAs to their Amazon accounts, purchases can be viewed immediately, and a back-up file to the stream is saved for future use.

In an effort to encourage purchases, Amazon also will allow the first two minutes of all content to play for free once the detail page of a video is selected. Purchased content will be stored in "Your Video Library" for access at any time.

If the service is a success, expect content owners to start complaining about compensation, a la the writer's strike. Without ad revenue, TV series streamed through the service will have to rely on the pay-per-view model to generate profits, and those might get cannibalized rather quickly.

For more:
- see the Amazon press release here

SPOTLIGHT: Vudu spells savings

Pete Wylie — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:02:11 -0400

Internet video-on-demand service Vudu has announced a tempting new price structure for some of its video downloads. The company now will offer a "99 for 99 cents" section of films.

Unlike other similar bargain offers made previously by brick-and-mortar video rental stores, Vudu offers reputable movies that actually were shown in theaters before their DVD/video release. So instead of getting garbage like "Hostel 2" or "Epic Movie" for a buck, you can pick from a mix of classics and new releases like "The Big Lebowski," "Chinatown," and "I Am Legend" without shelling out the usual cash.

For more:
- Here is the Vudu website

Net Neutrality, Big Glass Rooms and DVRing

Doug Mohney — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:47:17 -0400

A lot of companies are betting on 1) a significant number of consumers with a lot of bandwidth and 2) the ability to either have or negotiate some sort of quality of service for said service. Crazy? Or not?

Netflix believes it will have around 20 million worldwide streaming customers down the road. It is cutting deals left and right with Sony and Microsoft and Roku to put affordable devices in the home to tap into online content. If the latest skirmish between the FCC and Comcast doesn't get thrown out by the courts, broadband providers will either have to let all traffic go through unhindered or result in inflicting "consumption based billing"--bandwidth caps.

Bandwidth caps wouldn't seem to go too well with a video on demand service, be it from Amazon.com or Netflix or anyone else. Reading between the lines, Time Warner has proposed charging $1 per GB for traffic exceeding the cap, so that would price a typical DVD-quality movie download at around $4, in addition to whatever monthly subscription fee is charged by Netflix (or per movie fee by Amazon/iTunes).

Now, $4 for a DVD download sounds suspiciously like the $5 you pay for a typical movie rental, less the gas and time it takes to go get it. Make it an HD download and life gets ugly at $20-40 per movie, so maybe Time Warner wants to breath life back into snail mail and Blockbuster?

Mark Cuban says the way to cable company happiness is for everyone to adopt the ‘60s era data center model where video content is centrally stored and archived by the service provider and we shell out another $5 per month on top of the other monies we send to them. I'm seeing Comcast work a variant of this scheme locally with mixed results.

On the other hand, centralized storage and management flies in the face of the decentralized nature of more power at the edge going on since the PC revolution of the ‘80s. By and large, people like to have things when they want them and not be dependent upon the network/servers to provide them upon demand. And there's always the "We don't trust the big company" streak that runs in a lot of folks.

- Doug

Amazon Joins the Instant-on VOD Club

Doug Mohney — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:18:57 -0400

Amazon.com has announced a new online store for TV shows and movies, joining Netflix in the battle of instant-on video gratification.

The new store will have 40,000 movies and TV programs available for immediate streaming; no waiting for downloads. It also appears Amazon has worked out some sort of bundle or tie-in deal with Sony, allowing Sony Brava HDTV owners to access the site through a $300 wireless broadband device; future TVs are expected to have the capability embedded and Amazon says it will work with other hardware manufactures for both streaming and bundling in the future.

One feature is an online "locker" allowing users to buy a TV show or movie without actually downloading a file to a PC hard drive, allowing customers to watch shows from any PC, regardless of location.

Current content seems to be just about anything except for HBO, Disney, and ABC; since Disney is pretty tight with Apple.

This is Amazon's second shot at the video-on-demand market; Amazon's Unibox wasn't successful because it only worked with Windows PCs and TiVos and also required a download of special software. The company is not expected to make a lot of money on its new service due to infrastructure and royalty costs, but Amazon Video on Demand provides a "footprint" into consumers' living rooms that leads to more Amazon.com traffic.

For more:
- New York Times Amazon video on demand scoop
- PC World gets a look at the Amazon VOD beta

Related articles:
Netflix Streams Past the Mailbox & PC
A Little Stream From Amazon

Olympic Headcounting

Doug Mohney — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 11:42:16 -0400

For the Beijing Olympics, NBC Universal is launching a new way to measure viewership across different media, encompassing legacy traditional TV, video-on-demand, cell phones and the web.

NBC's new system, to be offered to advertisers at the start of the fall TV season, should provide a more encompassing headcount for media buyers and give the company leverage to sell ads on newer media like VOD and cell phone video. It's a big deal since both audience and dollars are moving away from the traditional 30-second ad spot on broadcast television.

Executives at NBC aren't happy with current measurements available to track viewing across different outlets and need better tools beyond what Nielsen currently offers. NBC will offer TAMI--"Total Audience Measurement Index"--to summarize viewership across broadcast, websites, cable, VOD services, and mobile. The new scheme will be used for research purposes during the Beijing Games but could become a part of ad deals for the upcoming Winter Games in Vancouver.

NBC expects to bring in more than $1 billion in ad dollars for the Beijing Games after shelling out $894 million for the broadcast rights to the 17-day event.

For more:
- Wall Street Journal's reporting on NBC Olympic headcounting

Related articles
NBC Gets Flamed for Vista-Only Olympic Distribution
The Olympics, Car Porn, and Online Syndication

Sony's Direct-to-Home "Hancock" Experiment

Doug Mohney — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:50:57 -0400

Sony is going to stream its "Hancock" movie directly to buyers of its Bravia TV sets through the Internet.

Speaking at a press dinner in San Francisco, Sony Electronics President Stan Glasgow said Hancock would be Sony's first trial with streaming a movie directly to its TVs. Customers also need a $299 wireless internet video link device to attach to the TV and they will also have to pay some to-be-determined fee to watch the stream. Since broadband speeds aren't up to snuff, the movie will come across the wires in standard definition.

While it doesn't sound like a great deal, owners will get the streamed version ahead of the DVD release and a copy of the DVD will be sent along as a part of the package price.

By and large, Movie critics didn't like "Hancock" and middlemen aren't likely to be happy with Sony trying to bypass them from potential DVD and/or online sales. Cable companies and video-on-demand shops, plus the local Big Boxes will likely have something to say about this in the future. There's also some out loud discussions that Sony still hasn't learned its lessons about open standards since not everyone is buying high-end Sony TVs and the company is pushing a proprietary standard for short range high-speed data transmission.

For more:
- The Financial Times reports on Sony's Direct-to-home experiment

Related articles:
Sony Launching PS3 Online Video Service
Sony beats Microsoft in IPTV race

SPOTLIGHT: More content for Netflix box, more boxes for service.

Doug Mohney — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 10:51:52 -0400

Netflix is getting more content partners lined up, says News.com. While execs aren't saying, YouTube and Hulu could be potential partners for Netflix "Watch it Now" streaming service. Rumors also say Sony and/or Microsoft will support the "Watch it Now" service on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, respectively.

The $99 Netflix box, currently made by Roku and potentially by other manufacturers, is able to call up a live video stream through a network connection and feed it directly to a TV.

For more:
- News.com blogs about the Netflix adding content

Related articles:
Netflix and LG go for video on demand
Netflix: 20 Million Future Streaming Customers, DVD Peaking

Chad YouTube Dishes

Doug Mohney — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:59:34 -0400

YouTube CEO Chad Hurley was caught by NewTeeVee as he spoke about the history of his company.

Initially, YouTube started out as an idea for videos for online auctions and a social networking scheme, but Chad and his co-founder quickly figured out they needed to generalize and create a video upload community. It wasn't long before the company hit 1 million video views a day while operating out of the offices of its VC firm.

Today, YouTube servers hundreds of millions of videos a day and receives over 13 hours of video every minute. Chad says it was a hard decision to be acquired, but Google was the best answer available rather than raising another round of funding. He feels YouTube has the opportunity to build new solutions to monetize the "new world" and never anticipated the company would have such a profound impact on popular culture or the political races.

Hurley also thinks Hulu wouldn't have existed if it wasn't for YouTube coming along, but Hulu is more in competition with video on demand and the TiVo biz.

For more:
- NewTeeVee catches Chad Hurley talking about YouTube's start

Related articles:
Slapping Down YouTube and Hulu
Hulu CEO Calls Out YouTube at NAB

Netflix: 20 Million Future Streaming Customers, DVD Peaking

Doug Mohney — Thu, 29 May 2008 16:26:31 -0400

Netflix executives are bullish on online streaming as the future of the company, as they predict by-mail DVD rental to peak sometime in the next five to 10 years.

If successful, Netflix expects it can attract "well beyond 20 million" subscribers worldwide. Currently, the company has 8 million subscribers and expects to bring that up to 10 million subs by next year. The company's key challenge is to grow earnings per share and subscribers while increasing online video customers. It expects to have to make some upfront "fairly inefficient" investments in 2008 and 2009.

Netflix launched a direct-to-TV streaming set-top box with Roku and is expected to announce other streaming partnerships in the future; Wall Street is predicting one of the partners could be Microsoft.

Competition for Netflix ranges from improving video-on-demand services from cable and satellite companies to downloads from Apple iTunes and Amazon.com jumping into the instant-satisfaction streaming video business.

For more:
- View the Netflix Investor Day webcast
- News.com blogs about Netflix predicting the death of the DVD

Related articles:
Netflix and LG go for video on demand
Netflix Streams Past the Mailbox & PC
ALSO NOTED: Netflix drops video limits

Netflix Streams Past the Mailbox & PC

Doug Mohney — Thu, 22 May 2008 10:57:50 -0400

Netflix has teamed up with Roku to offer a solution that bypasses red mailing envelopes and PC downloads, instead providing a box to stream movies directly from the Internet onto a TV.

The Netflix Player by Roku is priced at $99.99 and gives Netflix members instant access to more than 10,000 movies and TV episodes. A member can choose movies from their queue and have them automatically displayed on the TV screen. There are no extra charges or viewing restrictions, so Netflix members can watch as much as they want--subject to whatever limitations their broadband provider may have--without paying more or having to count the number of DVDs they have viewed during the month.

About the size of a paperback book, the Roku Netflix Player supports both Ethernet and WiFi (802.11 b/g) connectivity and HDMI for the HDTV crowd. It also provides the functionality to rate movies and allows for fast-forwarding and rewinding the video stream.

Analysts are interested to see how an all-you-can eat viewing experience may impact Netflix's bottom line. Infrastructure to support real-time streaming isn't free, but Netflix is bundling in the option as a value-add to a subscriber's membership. On the other hand, not having to print and manage tens of thousands of DVDs would definitely lighten operational costs.

For more:
- Netflix announces the Roku Streaming Box

Related articles:
Netflix and LG go for video on demand
ALSO NOTED: Netflix drops video limits