tivo

Blockbuster streams video to the TV

Pete Wylie — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:33:47 -0500

Blockbuster announced its into the internet delivery of movies to living room set-top boxes Tuesday. The offering, "Blockbuster on Demand," will require users to purchase a set-top box made by 2Wire Inc., but customers can get it for free if they purchase 25 downloadable movies in advance for $99.

Movies will be available for $1.99 after the initial movie credits are used up. No other plans are available for the service, which means that not only did Netflix beat Blockbuster to market by three months, but it offers customers lower, more flexible pricing and distribution to BluRay players, TiVos, and Xbox 360s that save consumers from the purchase of a set-top box. Plus, Blockbuster's plan only offers more than 2,000 titles, while Netflix offers more than 12,000 with its IP-delivery system.

But, Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes was quick to point out the advantages of its service. He said Blockbuster on Demand will feature mostly new releases, but by "new" he really mean "30 to 60 days after the film's DVD release." Does that still count as new?

Also, Keyes asserts that Blockbuster's pay-as-you go pricing gives customers more flexibility, but Netflix offers the streaming service as a bundle with DVD home delivery, with packages starting at $8.99, so if you want to watch more than four movies a month, Blockbuster is not the best bargain. Keyes also touts the ability to deliver HD content - a most interesting concept given the taste for bandwidth caps AT&T and others have.

In addition to a staunch challenge from Netflix, Blockbuster has to compete with Amazon and Apple for the direct-to-TV movie streaming market.

Sounds like too little, too late.

For more:
- the Chicago Tribune has an article

Netflix streaming video for TiVo

Pete Wylie — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:36:44 -0400

Netflix and TiVo announced today that Netflix will begin streaming movies and TV episodes directly to TiVo boxes by the end of 2008. A beta test of the service will go in to effect for select customers immediately. A full launch of the service is slated for December.

DirecTV and Series 2 TiVo users will be left out unfortunately, but all other TiVo box owners will have access to the service, according to the release. Also, customers who already subscribe to both Netflix and TiVo will not have to pay any extra fee for the direct streaming.

"For Netflix and TiVo subscribers, this collaboration offers a fabulously easy way to enhance the enjoyment of watching movies in the comfort of their living rooms," said Reed Hastings, co-founder and CEO of Netflix, in a release. "Subscribers to Netflix and TiVo are avid movie watchers and this combination gives them immediate access to all of the great content available through TiVo and the thousands of additional choices available to be streamed instantly from Netflix."

The TiVo deal is another in a series of partnerships Netflix has announced in recent weeks, as the company diversifies from its original (U.S. Postal) mail-based movie delivery service. It announced a content partnership with Starz that upped its library of streaming movies earlier this month, and launched instant streaming capabilities for Apple computers this week.

For more:
- see the joint release here

IMDB gets online video

Pete Wylie — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 12:28:17 -0400

IMDB, the popular destination for movie trivia and Hollywood minutia owned by Amazon, announced the addition of an online video component Tuesday. The site will host 6,000 free television shows and movies, embedding some CBS and Hulu content on the site and also hosting some of its own content.

Links to the video will be part of the extensive entries the site maintains on everything from TV series to foreign films, to actors and cinematographers.

Although the addition of online video to the site is an exciting development, Techcrunch.com blogger Jason Kincaid wishes the site were more streamlined and searchable. Also, the video interface lacked necessary features, such as a browseable database of videos.

Currently, only the top videos are browseable and all other content must be found through search. Kincaid also notes that the search results are sometimes less than perfect, and TV series especially are often grouped incorrectly and labeled erroneously.

For more:
- see Kincaid's blog where he discusses the IMDB's new feature here.

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

TiVo Lines up YouTube, Amazon

Doug Mohney — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:19:11 -0400

Over a 24-hour period, DVR icon TiVO announced deals with YouTube and Amazon.com to expand its Internet programming reach and open up revenue opportunities.

TiVo will make YouTube videos accessible on the TV through the company's DVRs, creating the ability for users to access hundreds of millions of short-forum, user generated videos. TiVo users can now search, browse and watch YouTube videos through TiVo and will soon be able to directly log into YouTube accounts through their TV to access their videos, channels and playlists.

Interestingly, the YouTube software upgrade is applicable to TiVo's higher end (Series3 and HD) devices, so this is another little way to nudge owners to upgrade older hardware.

To add to the bottom line, TiVo will be promoting products such as books, CDs, and DVDs seen on TV shows and making them available for purchase through the TiVo interface at Amazon.com. Ultimately, promo sales plugs might show up alongside product placements during a TV show. Financial terms of the sale have not been disclosed, but Amazon affiliates typically get 15 percent of a sale.

Working against TiVo is a current audience size of only 4 million users. The company has been working with Comcast and Cox to put its software onto set top boxes.

For more:
- YouTube delivered by TiVO release
- TiVo, Amazon tackle TV/Web integration

Related articles:
SPOTLIGHT: Battle for the TV
Amazon Joins the Instant-on VOD Club

Warner Bros. New Age Distribution Plan

Doug Mohney — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 23:16:47 -0400

The Warner Bros. Television Group has signed up a group of new age preferred partners in the online video space, including Dailymotion, Joost, Sling Media, TiVo and Veoh Networks. Warner will work with the cadre to launch and deliver TheWB.com and KidsWB.com.

The two new advertiser-supported broadband "destinations" (i.e. portals, web sites) will launch in mid-September and gain additional reach to a much larger online audience. Advertisers will be able to target consumers through the studio's programming. The distributors will be able to offer full-length episodes of programming, plus some select exclusive original programming exclusively for the online crowd.

But wait, there's more! Two new themed channels will be launched as well: Classics WBTV and a Sci Fi channel.

The WB is going after the 16-34 sweet-spot demographic, highly coveted by advertisers for their free spending habits on consumer goods. A combination of original programming and re-release of some of The WB Networks' most popular series is expected to ring the advertising cash register, while children 6-12 will be hit with youth-oriented programming including the libraries of animated characters and shows.

For more:
- WB inks web deals reports AdWeek

Related articles:
The Olympics, Car Porn, and Online Syndication
Yahoo Syndicates CBS
Viacom Launches Spike.com