NBC’s recent decision to end selling television shows through the iTunes store, is a reminder that, unlike digital music, Apple isn’t the undisputed king of online video. In fact, far from it. Aside from the numerous ad-supported video sites, of which YouTube is the industry leader, there exists a plethora of paid-for video download stores — both rental and purchase-to-own — each of which is hoping to take a large slice of this emerging and potentially lucrative market.

In this post, we take a look at eleven paid-for video download stores, noting that while there appears to be much competition, many of the resulting services lack innovation, in terms of their technology choices and how they approach copy-protection.

Movielink

Originally a joint venture created by five of the major studios: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Studios and Warner Bros. Studios, the service was recently acquired by Blockbuster. The content on offer includes television shows and movies from those studios, along with Walt Disney Pictures, Miramax, Lionsgate and others.

Although you can browse and pay for content from the Movielink website (which requires Internet Explorer), to download and manage videos, users need to install the Movielink Manager software. From then on it’s a standard Windows Media DRM affair, whereby rentals can be stored for up to 30 days and expire 24 hours after the first viewing, and in some cases, downloads can be played back on up to three PCs (depending on the original content-owners’ wishes), while others are limited to one PC.

Update: Apple has issued a statement saying that its partnership with NBC has ended with immediate effect. “The move follows NBC’s decision to not renew its agreement with iTunes after Apple declined to pay more than double the wholesale price for each NBC TV episode, which would have resulted in the retail price to consumers increasing to $4.99 per episode from the current $1.99.”

Our original coverage below

The New York Times is reporting that NBC Universal has decided not to renew its contract to sell television show downloads on iTunes. Although the current contract doesn’t expire till December, NBC — whose content accounts for 40% of TV downloads on iTunes — has opted to give Apple the required ninety days notice to end the partnership.

It’s a familiar story to anybody whose been following UMG’s recent standoff with Apple, whereby the major content owners want greater control and flexibility over iTunes pricing, as well as stricter copy protection controls, in contrast to Apple’s insistence on keeping the iTunes experience simple and competitive.

Television show downloads have finally made their way to the UK-version of the iTunes Music Store, two years after the service debuted in the U.S. (press release). A cause for celebration you might think? Especially for Mac users who are unable to use competing services from UK broadcasters, all of which employ Windows-only solutions.

Wrong.

As paidContent notes, Apple’s offering is devoid of home-produced content and shows are nearly double the price of their U.S. equivalents.

News Corp. and NBC Universal have revealed the name of their new online video venture — the so-called YouTube killer, which Google had already dubbed Clown Co., will officially be called “Hulu“.

A statement on the site’s holding page reads:

Why Hulu? Objectively, Hulu is short, easy to spell, easy to pronounce, and rhymes with itself. Subjectively, Hulu strikes us as an inherently fun name, one that captures the spirit of the service we’re building. Our hope is that Hulu will embody our (admittedly ambitious) never-ending mission, which is to help you find and enjoy the world’s premier content when, where and how you want it.

The announcement ends a five-month search for a name for the joint venture which is aimed squarely at competing with Google-owned YouTube — through licensing agreements with News Corp. and NBC Universal properties.

“Hulu” will launch as a private beta in October 2007, however, interested users are able to sign-up for invitation from today.

Want to watch NFL games (that’s American Football to most folks) over the web? Well, now you can, sort of (Ars Technica).

First, you’ll have to be based in the U.S. Second, you’ll need to be a current subscriber to DirectTV’s $269 satellite package. Lastly, you’ll need to pony up an additional $99 per year. Once you’ve met all of these criteria, you can then watch NFL games streamed to a Windows PC (Internet Explorer only).

As Josh Catone writes, over at Read/WriteWeb:

If that sounds like a bum deal to you, that’s because it really is. Compared to Major League Baseball, a pioneer in online sports streaming, the NFL package sounds just awful. As a New York Yankees fan living outside of their local market, I rely on baseball’s MLB.TV service to keep tabs on my favorite team. With MLB.TV for under $100 per season I can watch any out of market game streamed live, or watch full archives of completed games for the entire season, including edited/condensed games which show only the outcome of every at bat.

Josh then goes onto make the point: why would anybody want to pay to watch games online, if they’ve already got access via satellite?

It’s clear that the NFL’s crippled online offering is all about respecting its exclusive DirectTV partnership and controlling access to “out of market” games i.e. matches that aren’t shown on local TV.

Consumers know that this isn’t in their interests and are increasingly aware that the Internet provides the perfect platform for getting around any regional restrictions, with or without the support of the leagues themselves. A number of P2P services illegally re-stream sports coverage from television networks outside of the originating country, while Sling Media’s SlingBox enables users to stream their TV signal over the Internet for personal use (which could include live sports coverage).

Read Josh Catone’s full report “NFL to Stream Games Live Online — Poorly” over at Read/WriteWeb »

It was as if Vint Cerf, the so-called grandfather of the Internet, was talking to a group of dinosaurs.

Cerf, who helped build the Internet while working as a researcher at Stanford University in the 1970s, spoke to television executives at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival this past weekend and told them how the Internet’s influence was radically altering their businesses and how it was imperative for them to view this golden opportunity to be exploited instead of a threat to their survival (The Guardian report).

Wallstrip, one of my favorite online video shows, has bagged an interview with recently appointed Joost CEO, Mike Volpi. In this week’s episode, host Lindsay Campbell and Volpi discuss the company’s pitch to content owners, how the service differs from competing Internet TV offerings, and the value proposition Joost is offering to advertisers.

A few key quotes from Volpi during the interview:

• On Joost’s appeal to content owners: “We are very focussed on copy-protected content… everything on Joost is legitimate… all of our content providers are professional.”
• The competition: “…right now you have CBS news and you have YouTube… and there’s a gaping hole in the middle.” [Joost’s niche, says Volpi, is that it’s professional, on-demand, and targeted content.]
• On the viewing experience: “A high quality experience that’s full screen… the viewing experience is more television-like.” [Translucent menus blah, blah, blah]
  “More of a TV-viewing experience rather than a classical web with a small screenshot.”
• Advertising: “We know a little about you [demographics] and all of your viewing history”. As a result, advertising on Joost, says Volpi, will be less intrusive and highly targeted. [This isn’t new information or unique to Joost, but it sounds a lot more scary hearing Volpi describe Joost’s big brother tendencies out loud. Would you want your cable company to keep a record of everything you’ve watched?]

Watch the full Wallstrip episode after the jump.