Archive for the ‘Net TV’ Category

Hulu goes social, it's all about the ads

by Steve O'Hear

March 12th, 2009 | Posted in Net TV | CommentsNo Comments

Right in time for its first anniversary, video site Hulu has announced that it is dipping its toe into social networking. Similar to competitors CBS-owned TV.com, Joost and Sling.com, the NBC Universal and News Corp. joint venture is rolling out a feature its calling ‘Hulu Friends’ whereby users can create profiles and, optionally, share their viewing activity with other members of the site. Contacts/friend-lists can be imported from both Facebook and MySpace, along with popular web-based email services, such as GMail.

The upside for Hulu, presuming they can persuade users to join yet-another-social network: As paidContent notes, “the direct sharing of video preferences and content within Hulu will make it much more easy to track what individuals are watching and hence, make them more targetable for ads.”

Money talks: Netflix beats Hulu, Joost to secure "South Park" episodes

by Steve O'Hear

March 3rd, 2009 | Posted in Net TV | CommentsNo Comments

It was only last week that I questioned whether Netflix had a large enough online video library to justify offering a streaming-only subscription plan, but with today’s news that the service has bagged itself a boat load of “South Park” content, they’re certainly putting their money where their mouth is.

The New York Times reports that Netflix beat competitors Hulu and Joost to a deal by offering a guaranteed cash payment rather than a share of future advertising revenue, the latter being a far less enticing proposition during this ad-shy economic downturn.

“There was no talk of ad splits or guarantees or advances, just a payment for a show Netflix seemed really happy to have,” Matt Stone, co-creator of South Park, tells NYT. “We’ve never given the show to anybody else to stream, but we like Netflix as a service. We use it.”

See also: Forget about getting any work done, every episode of “South Park” now available online

Revenue generated from Netflix, who have licensed the first nine seasons of South Park, will be shared 50/50 with the show’s production partner Comedy Central.

Roku rolls out Amazon Video-On-Demand support

by Steve O'Hear

March 3rd, 2009 | Posted in Net TV | CommentsNo Comments

No longer limited to Netflix support-only, today Roku announced that its $99 set-top box, following a software update, can now be used to rent and purchase movies and TV shows from Amazon’s Video-On-Demand (VOD) service.

Amazon VOD (US-only) has a library of over 40,000 movie and TV titles, with new releases offered on the same day they are released on DVD, something that Netflix is currently unable to match, instead focusing more on back catalog material offered as part of a fixed monthly subscription that also includes traditional DVD rentals by post. In this sense, the two services both compete and complement each other, depending on how much and what kind of content customers want to consume.

See also: No more downloads, Amazon moves its online video store to the cloud

The Amazon tie-in also takes advantage of the e-tailers’ expertise in ‘cloud’ computing. Since the Roku digital video player is only capable of streaming not downloads, purchases are stored on Amazon’s own servers, making it possible, for example, to begin viewing a movie on the PC and then continue on the TV via a Roku set-top box.

Video demo courtesy of NewTeeVee after the jump…

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Too early for a streaming-only Netflix plan?

by Steve O'Hear

February 26th, 2009 | Posted in Net TV | Comments2 Comments

I thought it was a bit of a non-story when Netflix CEO Reed Hastings first mentioned that the company would at some point in the future offer customers a streaming-only subscription – 2010 was mentioned as a possible time frame – as frankly it’s kind of obvious that one day this will be case. The DVD format won’t last for ever, although it’s not going away any time soon, and is gradually being replaced by on-demand Internet delivered video. This week the company’s Chief Financial Officer Barry McCarthy echoed Reed’s comments, saying that a streaming-only plan will be launched in the “foreseeable future”.

However, while Netflix certainly has the distribution for a streaming-only service – Windows, Mac, set-top boxes, Blu-ray players and Microsoft’s XBox 360 games console – I’d argue that it doesn’t yet have a large enough streaming content library alone to pull in many additional subscribers.

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Would you bet your HD movie collection on a startup staying in business?

by Steve O'Hear

February 24th, 2009 | Posted in Net TV | Comments1 Comment

Set-top box movie service Vudu claimed a first today, offering download to-own movies in HD, albeit with a very limited catalog and high prices.

Previously, the company (like its competitors, which include Apple and Microsoft) offered HD content for rental only, but now customers can choose to pay between $13.99 and $23.99 to actually own the movies they download, which can be either stored on their Vudu hard drives or on the company’s own servers through its Vudu Vault ‘backup’ service. The only studios to be on board so far, however, are independents FirstLook, Kino and Magnolia Pictures, who together will begin by offering just 50 titles (compared to the 1,400 HD movies that Vudu makes available for rental), including “War, Inc.”, “Transsiberian” and “Man on Wire”. Moving forward, each participating studio has agreed to license new releases for sale in HD through Vudu on the same day and date as their DVD release.

See also: Vudu’s latest price cut is a start, here’s what else they need to do

Limited content aside, Vudu’s pricing remains too high, a problem not specific to the service but one that the company has failed to address nonetheless. As Streaming Media’s Dan Rayburn writes, it’s probably not Vudu’s fault, as the pricing will have been dictated by the studios themselves. Either way, as far as consumers are concerned, downloads of any sort – even in HD – shouldn’t cost the same or more than the DVD equivalent. And the issue is further compounded when you factor in that Vudu’s use of a proprietary video format (however high quality) and its copy-protection scheme means that content can’t be moved to other devices and is completely reliant on the company staying in business, which in the nascent market of video downloads is far from guaranteed.

Chumby bets on Internet-connected TVs

by Steve O'Hear

February 23rd, 2009 | Posted in Net TV | CommentsNo Comments

Hoping to move beyond being a geek’s favorite boutique gadget to something more mainstream, Chumby is partnering with chip maker Broadcom to make it easy for consumer electronics companies to embed its widget platform into Internet-connected TVs, Blue-ray players and set-top boxes.

Chumby’s content, which is currently available on the company’s own Internet-connected device – a cross between an alarm clock radio and digital picture frame – consists of “over 1,000 widgets in 30 different categories” such as news, entertainment, music, and sports. Content partners include CBS, MTV Networks, The New York Times, Pandora, The Weather Channel Interactive, and AOL’s SHOUTcast and Scripps Networks. Chumby can also access “thousands of Internet radio stations and podcasts”, along with a user’s own content and that shared by friends within their Chumby social network.

See also: Chumby gets $12.5M… here’s why it’s taking off

Of course, Chumby’s platform isn’t the only TV widget offering, with Yahoo’s Widget Channel making a big splash at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Internet-connected TVs and accompanying widgets were also the talk of CES in 2008 – back then Sharp, Samsung, Panasonic and Google made related announcements, although not much seems to have materialized since then, suggesting that the market for Internet widgets on the telly is far from proven. In that sense, Chumby isn’t too late to the game.

Video demo of Chumby’s widget platform running on a TV after the jump…

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Hulu blocks Boxee, could Firefox, IE and Safari be next?

by Steve O'Hear

February 19th, 2009 | Posted in Net TV | Comments2 Comments


quick intro to boxee from boxee on Vimeo.

The news that Hulu has asked Boxee to remove access to its content is ridiculous on many levels.

Not least is the fact that, in relation to Hulu, technically speaking Boxee is just a web browser that happens to be optimized for a ‘ten foot’ or TV-like viewing experience rather than for when you’re sat directly in front of the PC. And crucially, since Boxee has yet to license its software to set-top box makers or build a box of its own, the only way to get Boxee content onto a TV is via a PC (aside from running Boxee on a hacked AppleTV). Once the PC is using the TV as its monitor, any content can be displayed on the television, including using a standard web browser such as Firefox, IE or Safari to access Hulu or any online video site. All Boxee has done is design a better browsing experience for when you’re sat further away. In other words, Boxee alone doesn’t enable Hulu to be viewed on the TV, it just makes it more convenient.

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Vudu's latest price cut is a start, here's what else they need to do

by Steve O'Hear

February 10th, 2009 | Posted in Net TV | CommentsNo Comments

It feels like deja vu. Set-top movie service Vudu has slashed its prices again. The entry level Vudu box can now be purchased for $149 (down from $295), and this time without any kind of mail in rebate. That said, the box still doesn’t feature built-in WiFi connectivity, so the company has also “slashed” the price of its optional wireless kit to $79. Add the two together and the price is a less enticing $228.

Of course, any price cut is a welcome one and, slowly but surely, Vudu is getting closer to the ‘feels like free’ price point that I’ve argued is needed if the service is ever to go mass market. For that to happen, however, here’s what else Vudu needs to do…

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HD video coming to a Netbook near you

by Steve O'Hear

February 9th, 2009 | Posted in Mobile, Net TV | Comments2 Comments

I may have jumped on the Netbook bandwagon a little early, as these low-cost mini-notebooks are about to get a whole lot better. Especially in terms of video playback.

Intel has released a new version of its Netbook-friendly Atom chip, which although only bumps the speed up slightly, is being paired with the company’s new GN40 chipset, whose graphics capabilities includes hardware-based 720p HD video decoding. The current range of Netbook have no problems playing back lower quality YouTube content and standard definition DivX movies but really struggle with higher definition content. So Intel’s new offering, first seen in the new Asus Eee PC 1000HE, makes Netbooks a much more viable media player.

Not content with 720p video playback on your Netbook, then you may want to hold out for future offerings based on Nvidia’s rival Ion platform with all its hardware-based 1080p decoding goodness. Watch this space.

The numbers say it all: why Netflix went exclusive with XBox 360

by Steve O'Hear

February 5th, 2009 | Posted in Net TV | Comments2 Comments

In a joint announcement, Microsoft and Netflix have put out some numbers on the success of Netflix’s ‘Watch Instantly’ Internet TV service on Microsoft’s XBox 360 games console. 1.5 billion minutes of Netflix content has been streamed, with a total of one million Xbox Live Gold Members activating Netflix on their accounts. Considering that Netflix on XBox only went live three months or so ago, that’s pretty impressive by anybody’s measure.

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