I’ve often wondered this, but my math skills suck. How big of an impact is Internet-delivered video really making in the consumer living room?

Dan Rayburn, the EVP of StreamingMedia.com and the blogger behind BusinessofVideo.com, crunched numbers in a post for GigaOm today and decided that the impact is not nearly as large as we think.

“While it is good to see more content options coming to consumers, adding up all of the install numbers for these devices gives a stark picture of just how small the install base really is,” Rayburn wrote. “The market is still too fragmented, with too many different devices, all limited by a lack of premium content.”

Rayburn bases his analysis on market penetration rates. His point is that the best technologies don’t always win — it’s what consumers adopt. The numbers for TV-connected devices are interesting.

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Now it’s official that Netflix is coming to the Xbox 360, although not until this fall, we’re as curious as the next person to see just how well it’s been implemented. Luckily, Inside XBox has published a brief - and we mean brief - video walk-through of the new feature.

Initial impressions: the UI is slick, and the integration between the XBox 360’s newly designed dashboard and Netflix.com, where you still manage your Watch Now cue, works as expected. We’re not sure what kind of Internet connection they were using, but movies start playing almost immediately. Check out the video for yourself after the jump.

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Sony’s launch of its online video store for the PlayStation Network feels like playing catch-up as it is.  But for those PS3 owners in the UK or anywhere in Europe, the wait will continue.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe head honcho, David Reeves, has confirmed that the PS3 video store won’t be available to European gamers until sometime next year, reports The Register. While Reeves wasn’t specific, he told attendees at a conference in Santa Monica earlier this week that video downloads through Sony’s online gaming service “will not come to the PAL markets this year”.

The problem is an all too familiar one: the company has to work through country-specific licensing deals with each major studio before any launch dates can be announced.

As we’ve noted in the past, there are many challenges that any company faces to deliver a European-wide online movie service. Not least are the disparate licensing agreements that exist across different countries in Europe, along with the staggered release ‘windows’ imposed by Hollywood which govern when and how new titles can be distributed in the various different formats.

Although announced back in March, it’s only today that TiVo users can finally access YouTube through their set-top boxes — and a minority of TiVo users at that. The new feature is made possible because of YouTube’s decision to re-encode its library of content to H.264 video, a format that only TiVo Series 3 and HD models can support. The result, says Streaming Media’s Dan Rayburn, is that of TiVo’s four million subscribers, only 750,000 get access to YouTube, and even then only if they have their set-top box connected to the Internet, which many don’t.

Nonetheless, for those that can get it, YouTube access will be a welcome addition to TiVo’s existing lineup. And typically, TiVo appear to have implemented it well. Don’t take our word for it though, and instead judge for yourselves by watching the video after the jump (courtesy of our friends over at Zatz Not Funny).

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With the gradual roll out of Amazon’s new video service, starting today, the company hopes to have fixed everything that was holding back adoption of its original “UnBox” video download store.

Gone are the lengthy downloads or the need to install special software, and instead, “Amazon On Demand” utilizes streaming so that content begins playing almost immediately all within a standard web browser. Additionally, the relaunched service is now Windows and Mac-friendly, and will also be available through Internet-connected televisions, starting with Sony Bravia TVs that are compatible with the company’s rather costly Bravia Internet Video Link device.

“For the first time, this is drop dead simple,” Bill Carr, Amazon’s vice president for digital media, tells the New York Times. “Our goal is to create an immersive experience where people can’t help but get caught up in how exciting it is to simply watch a movie right from Amazon.com with a click of the button.”

Continue reading “No more downloads, Amazon moves its online video store to the cloud” »

Stop what you are doing. No, wait. Finish this, then go over to “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” and watch the first and second installments of Joss Whedon’s latest project. Hurry. Time is running out.

Whedon, the man behind the TV shows “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Angel,” and “Firefly,” has produced one of the most unique Web shows to date and, in the process, is conducting his own experiment regarding online distribution.

Instead of producing another “LonelyGirl 15,” “Kate Modern,” or “Prom Queen,” Whedon and friends developed a three “act” “show” that plays this week only. It’s not a three-minute episode, available once a day, for a month or two.

ACT ONE became available for streaming on Tuesday, July 15.

ACT TWO will be available for streaming Thursday, July 17.

ACT THREE will go up Saturday, July 19.

Each act lasts about 15 minutes, with the whole “show” clocking in at just over 42 minutes. The show uses the Hulu video player and the quality is excellent.

All acts will be available until midnight, Sunday, July 20, after which they will “vanish into the night, like a phantom (but not THE phantom — that’s still playing, Like, everywhere,” Whedon said in his letter, “A Letter from Joss Whedon.”

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It’s all the rage: movie and TV show on-demand download services via the Web. Now we can add Sony to the ever-expanding list.

Sony unveiled its own movie/TV show on-demand download service for its PlayStation line of products today at the E3 Media and Business Summit. Sony made a point to note that the service will feature more than Sony-produced content, including movies and TV shows from Fox, MGM, Lions Gate, Warner, Disney, Paramount, Turner, and Funimation.

The U.S-only service, found through the PlayStation Network, will be live this evening. It’s been long-rumored that Sony was going to open an online video download service.

Standard-definition and high-definition rentals and purchases are available. Standard rentals start at $2.99, with high definition rentals at $5.99. TV shows can be purchased at $1.99 an episode, while movies can be purchased from $9.99 to $14.99.

Continue reading “Sony to open its PS3 and PSP video download service tonight (updated)” »

Once again, this isn’t a last100 give-away but our good friend Dan Rayburn over at Streaming Media is up to his old tricks, this time giving away a Vudu set-top box (see our early review).

To qualify to win the unit, all you have to do is leave one comment on Dan’s original post with a working e-mail address. He’ll pick one person a week from today using a random number picker website and ship it out to the winner at no cost. (Sorry, U.S. residents only) The unit comes with all of the original materials, box, remote and cables.

Microsoft’s deal with Netflix and the Xbox 360’s impending makeover wasn’t the only news from the E3 Media & Business Summit Monday. A few other tidbits include Microsoft, Universal, and NBC; hard drives; and a new Wii controller.

New partners for Video Marketplace

Microsoft has partnered with NBC and Universal to bring new content to the Video Marketplace, Microsoft’s online service. TV shows include “Battlestar Galactica,” “The Office,” and “30 Rock,” among others. Movies include “The Mummy” and “Bourne Supremacy.”

With more than 10,000 movies and TV shows in the Xbox Live Video Marketplace, Microsoft contends it is now the world’s largest provider of on-demand high-definition content.

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Long rumored, finally here. Netflix is coming to the Xbox 360.

Netflix is coming to the Xbox 360. Xbox 360 owners and Live Gold members who are also Netflix subscribers will be able to stream online movies to their consoles at no extra cost. Netflix is the world’s largest DVD rental service.

The Xbox becomes the only game system that lets users immediately watch movies and TV shows steamed from Netflix. Along with the existing Xbox LIVE Marketplace Video Store, the Xbox 360 has more access to movies and TV shows on demand than any other device connected to the TV, according to Microsoft.

Xbox owners can also share Netflix movies with friends via Xbox LIVE party so you can watch “Super Bad” together. This will require an Xbox Gold LIVE account however.

Continue reading “Netflix is finally coming to Xbox 360, which is getting a dashboard makeover and Mii-like avatars” »

While we’re waiting for MobileMe to become available for longer than five minutes, it’s worth noting among the App Store fanfare that Apple has also updated its AppleTV.

Early Thursday Apple released iTunes 7.7, making the App Store possible. It also provides support for a new iTunes remote app — appropriately named Remote — that allows any iPhone or iPod Touch to control iTunes media playback on a computer connected to the same local network.

In addition to iTunes 7.7, Apple also made available AppleTV 2.1 software; you can find it by checking software updates under the AppleTV settings panel.

The non-sexy part of the updated AppleTV software are security improvements, which Apple discusses here. The sexy enhancements are support for Remote and MobileMe — if it ever gets here.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog folks went the extra mile, as they say, and photographed the setup, including MobileMe. Among MobileMe’s features is the ability to upload photographs from the phone’s camera or a computer and have the galleries available on the iPhone and AppleTV, a nice cross-product, platform feature.

Once we get MobileMe, we’ll see how well the iPhone, AppleTV, and MobileMe integrates.

We realize talk about measuring audiences on television or the Web can get pretty dull. But there is something that intrigues us about NBC’s “billion-dollar lab” beyond the sheer size of the effort.

That “billion-dollar lab,” as NBC calls the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, will provide unprecedented insight into how people are using traditional media — television — and new media — the Internet.

NBC, the sole broadcaster, will mine 3,600 total hours of coverage from its network, along with NBC-owned properties Telemundo, USA, Oxygen, MSNBC, CNBC, and Bravo. The company is also planning to make 2,200 hours of streaming video available on NBCOlympics.com. Consumers also will get video-on-demand to their computers and content through their mobile phones.

“The billion-dollar lab is an extraordinary research opportunity,” said Alan Wurtzel, NBC’s research chief.

“I have no idea how people are going to use the Internet on the Olympics,” Wurtzel said [via New York Times].

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