Archive for January, 2008

Are you watching more online video during writer's strike? Or not?

strike graphicSo what are you doing during the Hollywood writer’s strike?

Are you watching more online video? Are you spending more time at video-sharing sites such as YouTube or Veoh?

Are you watching past seasons of TV shows on DVD, shows you’ve seen before like “House” or “Lost” or are you watching something new like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” or “The Wire?”

Have you given up on TV for now and are watching movies on DVD? Maybe you’re going to the movies again?

Are you reading more books?

Recent reports suggest that, yes, you are watching more online video because of the writer’s strike (a claim disputed by some) and that you are watching more online video in general (no one doubts this).

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Rumor: SlingPlayer coming to iPhone

Rumor: SlingPlayer coming to iPhoneAccording to ElectricPig.tv (a website that I’d never heard of until today), Sling Media is already planning a version of its SlingPlayer software for the iPhone/iPod Touch. The SlingPlayer, in conjunction with the company’s SlingBox set-top box, enables a home’s TV signal (cable box, digital tuner or PVR) to be streamed over a broadband connection to either a PC or mobile phone. Currently, SlingPlayer is available for Mac and Windows, along with mobile versions for Blackberry, Palm OS, Windows Mobile, and Symbian devices.

Rumor: SlingPlayer coming to iPhoneElectricPig.tv quotes an “extremely senior source” at Sling Media: “iPhone and iPod Touch are OS X devices, and we can write OS X apps with our eyes closed. It’s coming.” However, while the iPhone’s spacious screen and multi-touch UI would be a natural fit for a version of SlingPlayer, the device’s reliance on the slower EDGE network could be an issue. With that being the case, WiFi will be the preferred connectivity option until a 3G version of the iPhone surfaces, meaning that, for the time being at least, “the iPod Touch could end up being the best way to use SlingPlayer”, according to the source.

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AmazonMP3 now will sell DRM-free music from all major record labels

amazon sony bmgiTunes may be cool. It has the brand name. It leads the market for online digital music sales by a large margin. But AmazonMP3 has something iTunes does not: all four major record labels selling music free of copy protection, or digital rights management.

Sony BMG, the world’s second-largest record label, will start selling DRM-free music on AmazonMP3 at the end of the month, confirming reports that surfaced last week. And, best of all, fans of Sony BMG artists like Britney Spears and Bruce Springsteen will not have to drive to brick-and-mortar stores like Best Buy and Target to purchase Platinum MusicPass cards just to download music free of copy protection.

With Sony BMG now joining the other big labels, EMI, Universal Music Group, and Warner, AmazonMP3 has a clear advantage over iTunes for consumers who want the songs they purchase to be playable on virtually any computer and portable music device.

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BBC iPlayer puts rocky start behind, begins building solid user base

bbc iplayer logoThe BBC heavily promoted its iPlayer, an online TV catchup service, on TV, in the press, and online during the holiday season. The effort seems to have paid off. Sort of.

UK Internet traffic to the iPlayer Website increased “14-fold between the week ending 8 December 2007 and the week ending 5 January,” according to Hitwise, and the service ranked as the 80th most visited Website in the U.K., having peaked at No. 62 on New Year’s Day.

It appears that the BBC has recovered from its rocky online TV start. When the initial iPlayer was launched, it was not without controversy. The BBC was accused of being corrupt due to the player’s reliance on Microsoft technology and lack of Mac/Linux support. UK ISPs were also critical of the iPlayer’s use of peer-to-peer technology and potentially high bandwidth costs.

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FyreTV: adult industry gets its own dedicated set-top movie box

fyretvWe at last100 love our set-top boxes. Or at least we love the idea of getting digital video content off the Web and onto our televisions in the living room. But here’s a device we didn’t anticipate.

FyreTV has developed a nondescript set-top box dedicated solely to porn. Nothing else. For $10 a month, you can stream as much adult content as you can possibly watch. Eliot Van Buskirk of Wired’s gadget lab did some snooping this week and found FyreTV, not at the Consumer Electronics Show but at the Adult Entertainment Expo, which runs parallel to CES.

Buskirk notes that the design of the FyreTV is innocuous looking, simply a little black box — like a plain brown wrapper — that can stream more than 20,000 titles from leading adult studios right into your living room or, dare we say, the boudoir.

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iTunes' movie-rental dance card begins to fill out; Warner Bros. reportedly in

warner brosAt the end of last month, when the Financial Times wrote that Apple was going to offer Fox new releases for rental via iTunes, I asked the all important question: Who is brave enough to follow Fox’s lead?

Today it appears that Warner Bros. is joining the party (Bloomberg report), suddenly making iTunes movie rentals much more viable than renting only Disney and Fox films. To date, just Disney sells newly-released movies on iTunes, with Paramount, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Lionsgate offering older titles. None of the studios rent movies via iTunes.

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Sign of what's to come: ESPN mobile gets more hits than its Web site for NFL news

espn mobile webEvery now and then, on rare occasions, it’s always good to check in and see what Mom is doing on her cell phone. Mom, being in her 70s, isn’t the usual mobile user, so when she does something different it catches my eye.

This summer, Mom complained vehemently about the iPhone, saying that it was too expensive, and who wanted to check their email and surf the Web on a small phone. (It was easier not to argue.) Anyway, Mom did say in passing that the only thing she used the mobile Web for was to check sports scores.

Say what?

Since then, I’ve noticed more and more people using their cell phones to check schedules and sports scores, review standings, and look up statistics, even when a Internet-connected computer is at arm’s length. AdvertisingAge noticed this, too, as it just reported that this season three times more football fans hit ESPN’s mobile site than it did its PC pages.

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MTV Networks expands its online video reach, following its fans around the Web

mtv logoViacom’s MTV Networks Group is expanding its online video reach and asserting better control over its content — and the advertising that goes with it — by signing deals to make its video available on five well-known social media sites and video portals, as well as Comcast’s broadband site.

Through the agreement with Dailymotion, GoFish, iMeem, MeeVee, and Veoh Networks, video fans will be able to view both short- and long-form content provided by MTV Network and embed the clips on blogs and social networking sites.

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CES: PC-to-TV devices, Internet-connected TVs

CES: PC to TV devices, Internet-connected TVsAlthough this year’s Consumer Electronics Show only officially kicked off yesterday, we’ve already seen a flurry of announcements relating to products that bridge the gap between the PC and TV or bring Internet content directly to a television. Here’s a roundup of some of the more interesting devices and services announced.

SlingCatcher (Sling Media)

SlingCatcherThe long-delayed SlingCatcher from Sling Media is being given its first public demo at CES. The device serves three purposes: getting content from a SlingBox (the company’s place-shifting device) onto a TV, playing back media stored on an attached USB hard drive on a TV, and viewing Internet content via a PC on a television. To achieve all of this, the SlingCatcher comes bundled with three applications. SlingPlayer for TV, SlingSync and SlingProjector.

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Sony announces novel online-offline music strategy; Napster to sell DRM-free music, too

musicpassI have to ask: Isn’t the point of buying music online not having to go to the store?

As expected, Sony BMG will begin selling DRM-free music, but in an odd, online-offline, hybrid manner. On Jan. 15, Sony BMG will begin selling MP3s without copy protection, but here’s the rub.

Consumers must go to a bricks-and-mortar retail store like Best Buy or Target to buy a Platinum MusicPass card. The card contains a scratch-off unique PIN — not unlike ones used by iTunes and other online services — that will unlock the chosen album for download at musicpass.com.

The MusicPass cards will retail for $12.99, while an “expanded” card will sell for $19.99 and include an additional album from the artist’s back catalog.

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