Sparse Pickings for Networked TV Audience

Doug Mohney — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:03:06 -0400

After a flurry of announcements from Microsoft, Netflix, TiVo, and others touting how their various devices can deliver content to the living room TV, Streamingmedia.com EVP Dan Rayburn crunches the numbers for a little reality check.

Blogging over at GigaOm, Dan figures there are about 19.3 million hardware boxes of various flavors sold which can deliver online video content. It's not a bad number, until you start applying filters on how many people actually have both an Xbox Live and a Netflix account, or take into account the number of households that have later-model Series 3 TiVos capable of accepting broadband feeds.

Adding a SWAG factor, there're about 7.2 million consumer boxes able to access broadband content. Fudge some more to allow for tech-junkie consumers that likely own multiple devices--such as an Xbox 360 and a TiVo and a PS3--to slice the pie down further to around 5.7 million or so unique users.

Depressed yet? Estimate take rates for adoption and long term use to come up with a number of less than 3 million consumers using boxes to bring Internet-hosted video to their TV.

Dan thinks cable companies have a better shot of delivering Internet video to your TV set, even if the video is coming from the Internet. However, Netflix and others are likely not counting on today's numbers, but those five years down the road.

For more:
- Rayburn blogs about video content reaching few users

Related articles:
Netflix: 20 Million Future Streaming Customers, DVD Peaking
Amazon Joins the Instant-on VOD Club

SPOTLIGHT: Sony Launching PS3 Online Video Service

Doug Mohney — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:37:21 -0400

Sony Corp. is lining up movie and TV studios to supply shows for its PlayStation 3 online video service to be launched this summer. This would be the third time for Sony to try an online video venture. Strike one was Movielink, which ended up sold last year to Blockbuster. SonyConnect, strike two, was shut down in March.

There are over 4 million PlayStation 3 consoles in the U.S. and 9 million worldwide and analysts credit the PS3 as the "decisive edge" in the battle to establish Sony's Blu-ray disk format as the HD playback standard in the home. The new service would position Sony to compete with a growing number of Internet-connected devices and services that deliver video to the TV, including arch-rival Microsoft's Xbox 360 console. Sony plans to embrace open standards that would make its offering compatible with a range of computers and hand-held devices, including its PlayStation Portable.

Microsoft's Xbox Live, with over 10 million subscribers, is currently tagged as Sony's biggest competitor. Subscribers have access to more than 4,800 hours of video, including 350 movies and more than 5,000 episodes of TV shows for sale. Parks Associates projects Internet video will reap about $6.4 billion in revenues from advertising, as well as paid downloads or rentals.

For more:
- Read the LA Times Sony PS3 Online Video Story

Related articles:
Sony beats Microsoft in IPTV race
Apple seeks control of video home
Microsoft: Use Xbox 360 as IPTV STB