Video on Demand

TiVo, Amazon tackle TV/Web integration

Dan O'Shea — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:18:24 -0400

IPTV service providers, cable TV companies and many different kinds of set-top device and online companies are trying to figure out how to merge online video and TV content and viewing practices, and TiVo and Amazon separately announced offerings this week that take the evolution a little further. TiVo is now offering YouTube through newer TiVO hardware, and Amazon announced plans for a new online video-on-demand store.

The future evolution of set-top boxes like TiVo DVRs has been in question, but TiVo is looking to cement its place on the TV stand by tackling the online video/TV integration with a large, known player while some IPTV service providers are still approaching the integration tentatively. Meanwhile, Amazon possibly learned a few things from its unloved Unbox venture about how to more efficiently make movies and TV content available online. These moves bear watching for any TV service provider feeling pressure to incorporate online content, while wondering how such ventures from giant online retailers and well-known device companies could affect their bottom lines.

For more:
- see this post about TiVo at Wired News Blogs
- read this story about Amazon at The New York Times

Related article:
Online TV growth could affect the success of IPTV. Online TV report

Amino acquires BT baby Assethouse

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 08:43:02 -0400

U.K. vendor Amino Technologies is acquiring fellow Brit firm Assethouse Technologies, the on-demand content management and delivery company that sprang forth from BT's Colchester video-on-demand trial during the late 1990s. The company had been owned by BT and LMS Capital, and Amino will pay just over $2.7 million in cash for it.

But, here's the kicker: Amino also is hiring Andrew Burke, the former BT executive behind the telco's BT Vision IPTV service, as its new CEO. Burke was CEO of BT Entertainment from 2004 to 2006, and actually left the company before BT launched the IPTV service whose development he led. At the time, it was believed Burke and others at BT were in a spat over the future role BT would play in the TV business.

The acquisition by set-top box company Amino of an on-demand content engine could help Amino help service providers make sense of the dizzying array of video content now available.

For more:
- see this report at IPTV News

Related articles:
Amino Technologies joined the Open IPTV Forum earlier this year Amino Technologies report
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IOL Netcom pick Verimatrix for PC TV play

Tue, 06 May 2008 06:59:10 -0400

IOL Netcom, a telco in India with more than 250,000 IPTV subscribers, is offering the ViewRight PC Player from Verimatrix to support a second-screen video service for personal computers. the telco is looking to give users access to 150 broadcast channels plus on-demand video.

IOL Netcom also will secure the service with the vendor's Video Content Authority System and VideoMark watermarking technology.

For more:
- check out this coverage at IPTV News

Cisco to unveil SDV tuning adapter

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:59:30 -0400

Light Reading's Cable Digital News reports that Cisco Systems has developed a switched digital video tuning adapter for one-way digital TVs and TiVo systems with CableCard slots to receive SDV programming. The vendor reportedly will show off the SDV tuning adapter at the upcoming National Cable TV Show in New Orleans.

For more:
- check out this coverage at Light Reading's Cable Digital News

Related article:
Cisco recently added video on demand with nPVR and ad insertion Cisco report

Starz adapts Vongo for carrier networks

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:59:30 -0400

Cable TV programmer Starz Entertainment has launched a video-on-demand service that also includes a live stream of the original Starz channel, packaged for telco and cable TV company broadband services, according to Light Reading's Cable Digital News. The Starz Play service was adapted from Starz' Vongo online VoD service, which it launched two years ago. Starz has said nothing to indicate that Vongo is not panning out, but could direct-to-consumer VoD services like Vongo prove to be a fad? Maybe programmers will fall back to distributors like cable firms and now telcos as they prove their ability to support programmers' ambitions.

For more:
- read this article at Light Reading's Cable Digital News

Orange Tastes HBO, Warner

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 06:59:40 -0400

Warner Bros. Intl. TV and HBO have cut an exclusive multi-year deal to supply content to France Telecom Orange's new premium pay TV service, Orange Cinema Service. The deal is expected to be one of many for Orange, a cable, IPTV and mobile TV operator in France as it builds exclusive content to lure subscribers in and fill its six movie/TV series channels.

Orange has acquired rights to all of WB's current and upcoming films, including hits such as "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" and "I Am Legend." The HBO deal is the company's first in France and is different from HBO's original model of trying to sell programming on an a la carte basis. Orange boasts one of Europe's biggest roll-outs in mobile TV and IPTV. It has 1.2 million IPTV clients, and some 500,000 mobile TV consumers. Orange Cinema Services will be offered on these platforms, on a subscription and video-on-demand basis.

For more:
- Read the Variety story

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Oki, Intel & Huashu debut STB for Chinese market

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 07:59:20 -0400

With nearly 24 million digital TV subscribers in China's nascent market, it doesn't take too much of an imagination to see that the potential for IPTV growth there is enormous. OKI and Intel have developed a new HD hybrid STB for Huashu Digital TV that can be used for HD broadcasts, VOD and future value-added option like 3D graphics, OKI says.

"The convergence of broadcasting and communication will create a new digital home market," said Keizo Ikeda, President of Media-network Appliance Company at OKI. "OKI believes the Next Generation Hybrid STB will enable subscribers to leverage value-added services and help telecom carriers improve their profitability."

Based on OKI video technologies and Intel's CE2110 media processor the Next Generation Hybrid STB can be used for both digital video broadcasting (DVB) and IPTV. It supports HDTV decoders including MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and H.264. The platform includes a 2D/3D graphic accelerator and supports applications including a Flash player, Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and a browser.

OKI said the coming Summer Olympics in Beijing are expected to open China's market even further as the digitalization of cable TVs and the spread of IPTV drive the convergence of broadcast and telecommunications-based video services.

For more:
- Read the release

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Nortel lends help to telecoms looking at IPTV

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 07:59:10 -0400

Nortel earlier this month showcased a handful of video solutions at the IPTV World Forum in London that give telecoms an opportunity to get back in the IPTV game with services like click-to-call that links IPTV with a mobile phone, personal computer or home phone, and also tunes in TV shows and movies on any device.

"Today, enhanced programming, HD and video-on-demand are competitive advantages that can drive revenue, but tomorrow, they're going to need more to impress their subscribers and maintain their loyalty," said Sameer Sheth, Nortel's general manager for Video Solutions. "Our open solutions environment is not proprietary so our customers can quickly and cost-effectively adapt for the new services of tomorrow."

For more:
- Read Nortel's release
- And this TCMnet article

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Snack TV rules online video market

Tom Burton — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 06:59:30 -0500

A new survey has confirmed short-form video continues to dominate online video usage. According to Online Video Content: The New TV Audience, the bulk of video consumed online is snack-able, video-bite-sized entertainment, rather than a complete meal of full TV episodes or full-length movies.

"The most popular online video content, watched by 40 percent or more of the U.S. online video audience, consists of short pieces of five minutes or less: news clips, jokes, movie trailers, music videos, clips from TV shows and entertainment news," says David Hallerman, eMarketer Senior Analyst and author of the report.

News is the most popular form of video with 61 percent of users watching news in any month according to the report's estimates. Jokes and comedy attract 57 percent, movie trailers 51 percent and music videos 49 percent of online video watchers.

Hallerman says as technology problems are solved, the computer-television connection will be more viable and pleasurable for the average consumer; online video content will expand in both length and breadth, and professionally-produced material will account for a large part of the menu."

For more:
- Online video usage Report

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Akimbo goes white label VOD

Tom Burton — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 06:59:10 -0500

Akimbo is making its third play into the video space launching a white label solution for business wanting to establish their own Web TV channels. While their track record might be less than impressive, Akimbo is perhaps becoming best known for its ability to keep getting VC funding. This time it has picked up $8 million in new VC, making it $56 million over nine years. According to PE Hub, return investors include AT&T, Blueprint Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Self described as "revolutionary," the new video distribution service offers a variety of business models including advertising, transactional, subscription, download-to-own, download-to-burn, pay-per-minute, gift cards and account credits.

"One of the most important pieces missing in the stampede to the Internet video market has been an easy solution for content owners to control the marketing and sale of their own video assets," claims Akimbo CEO Thomas Frank . "Until now, content owners have been forced to use incomplete solutions or rely entirely on distribution deals to publish professional content. We have engineered a solution that allows content owners to take control of their own destiny without incurring costly infrastructure expenses or unreasonable revenue splits with third parties."

Akimbo initially produced a set-top box to download premium VOD content for TV. Like many others have discovered consumers were not ready and the business closed a year ago. Akimbo then joined the stampede of companies trying to aggregate video content.

For more:
Akimbo Unveils Complete Internet VOD Solution Release
Akimbo tries a new strategy Article

Related article:
Cisco and AT&T invest in Akimbo Article