Xbox 360

Wii gets video on-demand, but only in Japan

Pete Wylie — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 12:40:06 -0500

Nintendo announced yesterday that its extremely popular next-gen gaming device Wii will get a video on-demand channel in 2009. U.S. Wii-lovers shouldn't hold their breath, as the service will initially only launch in Japan.

Following the general marketing of the Wii, the video channel will focus on family-friendly content, rather than mirroring Sony's Playstation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360's more broad offerings. The Wii video content will be developed exclusively for the console, a marked departure from its competitor's offerings. This would seem to allow Nintendo to avoid contract and licensing disputes that have complicated other over-the-top video solutions.

Another unique element of the planned Wii offering is Nintendo's partnership with Japanese advertising agency Dentu, which will handle ad placement and content negotiations. The partnership will allow Nintendo to focus on its core competencies, while drawing advertisers to support the service.

For more:
- see the Techspot.com post here

Motley Fool predicts strong 2009 for Netflix

Pete Wylie — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 15:13:33 -0500

The Motley Fool has picked Netflix as one of its best stocks for 2009, and part of the Fool's bullish prediction stems from Netflix's leadership position in streaming online video directly to devices. The Motley Fool said that regardless whether you are optimistic or pessimistic about 2009 outlook, Netflix should be a good buy.

If the economy continues to tank, Netflix will cater to people with reduced entertainment budgets, since the average customer only spends around $13, according to the Fool. But it also said Netflix should do well if the economy rebounds, since that will mean more discretionary income in budgets for more lucrative packages.

As consumers begin to see the benefits of direct to PC, Blu-Ray, TiVo, and Xbox 360 streaming, expect Netflix's adoption to increase, given its competitive advantage here over other players in the space like Blockbuster and Amazon.

Also, Netflix continues to gain subscribers at a clip above 20 percent per year, and it also has increased its earnings per share substantially in the past two years.

All in all, it looks like good times ahead for Netflix, as they forge more partnerships and win customers because of their competitive price and unmatched total offering.

For more:
- The Motley Fool has a report on Netflix

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