last100 » Vudu

VOD service Vudu to become Wal-Mart’s child

Steve O'Hear — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:38:46 +0000

After rumors circulated in January that US retail giant Wal-Mart was eying the video-on-demand service Vudu, the New York Times is reporting that it’s a done deal. Still no official word from either company but Dan Rayburn via one of his sources says the ink has dried and that’s good enough for me. It’s also an interesting end to a pretty long story:

Vudu started as a feisty silicon valley startup, unfashionably entering the consumer hardware space with its own set-top and accompanying HD video download store. Whilst its offering received good reviews based on the UI, movies were relatively expensive, as was the box itself, and I was always skeptical that consumers in great numbers would pay for hardware just to enter the store. The Vudu box was a one trick pony, providing a store front to the company’s content, or that’s how it felt to me. Competing consumer set-top boxes seemed to offer a lot more.

Eventually, Vudu opened up a little, supporting services other than its own, and lowered the price of its entry level hardware, but that still didn’t seem to be cutting it.

Then, perhaps unsurprisingly, the company announced a change of track. It was no longer about the hardware but Vudu was going to license its platform to CE manufacturers and telcos to utilize in their set-top boxes, Internet-connected TVs and Blu-ray players etc. Putting it head-to-head with Netflix, for example, and Internet-TV widget offerings, such as Yahoo’s. And of course, another startup, Boxee.

The Wal-Mart acquisition, while the best (and only?) available outcome for Vudu, seems like an odd one. Wal-Mart sells TVs in droves but now has an interesting conflict of interest. It will be selling Internet-connected TVs that support Vudu – a platform it now owns – alongside sets that run the platforms of others.

There’s also the question of what exactly Wal-Mart have purchased: Vudu didn’t have a huge customer base and has limited distribution, so it’s more about the tech.

And the retail store’s track record with its digital offerings isn’t too good either.

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Roku launches app store for its set-top box – adds Flickr, Facebook, Pandora and others

Steve O'Hear — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:53:48 +0000

Roku’s $100 set-top box (U.S.-only) just got even more compelling. The company has launched its own app store of sorts – called the ‘Channel Store’ – that brings a growing number of third-party content sources to the device including Pandora (music streaming) Facebook photos, Flickr (photo sharing), along with FrameChannel, Mediafly’s podcast directory, Revision3 and more. Dave Zatz over at Zatz Not Funny has a few screen grabs and a nifty walk-through video (embedded above). The new content ‘widgets’ join existing partnerships with Netflix, Amazon VOD, and MLB.TV.

Of course, everybody is jumping on the app store or “I want to be a platform game” and it’s a smart move for Roku to do so too. But they are far from the first set-top box to ‘open up’ and go down the app store route. Vudu already has its Rich Internet Application (RIA) Platform, which enables third-parties to extend the device’s content offerings, and Boxee, while not officially on a set-top box yet (coming soon), also has its own Internet TV-oriented app store.

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Vudu now offering Disney HD movies for purchase on same ‘day and date’ as Blu-ray

Steve O'Hear — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:19:37 +0000

Disney HD content for purchase on Vudu

Vudu (U.S.-only) is to offer new Disney HD releases for purchase through its set-top box movie service on the same “day and date” as their competing DVD/Blu-ray release. It’s the first time that Disney has broadly licensed its content in HD for sale through an online video service, beyond one-off offerings or ‘rental-only’, says Vudu. Alongside new releases, 60 library films are also being added to Vudu’s ‘for purchase’ HD catalog. Disney chose to work with Vudu, says the company, “in large part because of the [picture] quality” offered by the service.

Interestingly, Steve Jobs, the guy who runs Apple, is also Disney’s majority shareholder after the motion picture company bought animation studio Pixar a few years back. Therefore, I wonder how long it will be before iTunes secures the same access to Disney’s HD library as Vudu, if it hasn’t already.

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Vudu to power telcos’ pay-per-view IPTV offerings

Steve O'Hear — Tue, 05 May 2009 14:27:13 +0000

Vudu on Entone

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em

We already knew that Vudu’s future lies outside of its own set-top box. The Internet TV startup said as much in what looked like a change of strategy following a recent round of layoffs. Rather than punting the online video store via its own hardware alone, Vudu announced plans to “piggyback” third-party devices, including Internet-connected TVs, DVD players and other kinds of set-top boxes. And today, the first of those partnerships was unveiled.

It’s not, however, a rival consumer electronics company. Instead, its a company called Entone that markets and sells its own IPTV hardware – set-top boxes and DVRs – to telcos rather than directly to consumers. The partnership should see Vudu’s software and store make its way onto Entone’s hardware via a software update this summer. From the joint press release:

“This arrangement brings together the best of live television, as supported by Entone’s market leading IPTV home connectivity products, with the best of Internet on-demand movies, as supported by VUDU’s vast movie library from every major Hollywood studio and over 40 independents,” expressed Steve McKay, CEO of Entone. “Previously, consumers had to choose between pay TV services and over-the-top Internet video services where the latter was something you did when you were not watching TV. This is the first time two competing visions are coming together in one unified service. By marrying the two concepts, your online movie library is now available as part of your core TV viewing experience from the same user interface and remote control.”

Interestingly, CNet reports that the new offering will also include Vudu Labs, which offers access to web services such as YouTube and Flickr, along with an API so that third-party developers can build additonal plug-ins for the Vudu platform.

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Voodoo Chile: Pandora lands on Vudu set-top box

Steve O'Hear — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:55:16 +0000

No longer a ‘one trick pony’, Vudu’s ambition to become a fully-fledged platform, capable of pulling in content from a range of third-party services, appears to be bearing fruit.

Today the company announced that owners of its set-top box now have access to Internet radio service Pandora. Features include support for multiple Pandora accounts, “enabling every member of the family to play his or her own personalized Pandora stations”, along with the ability to create custom stations and tweak them dynamically by thumbing tracks up or down.

Pandora, along with existing support for YouTube, Flickr, Picasa and others, comes courtesy of Vudu’s Rich Internet Application (RIA) Platform, which aims to make it easy for third-party developers to add new functionality to the company’s range of set-top boxes. While not yet available to the wider developer community, Vudu has pledged to fully open up its RIA Platform later this year, a move that should spur access to all manner of free content.

Dave Zatz, over at Zatz Not Funny, also reports on Vudu’s upcoming media extender functionality. Dubbed ‘Home Movies’, it looks like Vudu owners will soon be able to stream video content stored locally on their PCs, making the Vudu set-top box increasingly resemble the ‘open’ AppleTV I called for as long back as mid 2007!

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

Steve O'Hear — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:16:13 +0000

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.

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.

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

Steve O'Hear — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 12:42:58 +0000

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…

Get the price down to the $99 sweet spot. This would then make Vudu an impulse buy and, for many consumers, would rule out a rival purchase, such as the AppleTV, Blockbuster set-top box or a host of Internet-connected media extenders. Vudu would, of course, have to make a loss on the hardware at this price point, so I think it’s very unlikely to happen.

Add WiFi connectivity. It’s 2009 not 1999.

Emphasize support for YouTube and other Internet video. The recent addition of support for Internet services, aside from Vudu’s own 13,000 movie and TV show library, goes along way to stopping the Vudu set-top box from being a one trick pony. I’d never buy a set-top box that only gives me access to paid-for Video-On-Demand. That’s what my cable TV subscription is for. Add in a bunch of other Internet content — YouTube, Flickr etc — and you’ve got me through the door and into the store. Currently, this aspect of the Vudu set-top box is a little buried in the marketing under ‘Vudu Labs’. Instead, name names a bit more e.g. YouTube!

Offer a subscription model. Again, this one is unlikely but why not give Netflix a better run for its money? Instead of paying per rental, let customers pay a fixed monthly subscription that makes it cheaper to ‘rent’ a bundle of movies or TV shows.

Keep shouting about HD. Millions of people will have upgraded their TVs to a HD model only to discover that there is hardly any HD content out there. Vudu boasts “the world’s largest HD movie collection”. Say it loud, say it proud.

That said, my unsolicited advice maybe in vain, since Vudu has indicated that the company’s future lies not in selling its own hardware but getting its service onto third-party devices.

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Amid layoffs, Vudu concedes its future lies outside of its own set-top box

Steve O'Hear — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:08:05 +0000

Despite making its own range of set-top boxes, including two high end devices aimed at home theatre enthusiasts, Vudu’s future ultimately lies outside of building its own hardware, says the company.

“We’re a software company first and foremost,” Vudu co-founder Tony Miranz tells CEPro.com. The set-top movie box service had to design and manufacture its own hardware in order to sell the concept to third-party consumer electronics companies, says Miranz. The plan now is to “try to piggyback on TVs, DVD players and other classes of devices.”

Furthermore, consumer electronics companies like what they see: “Right now, we’re getting bombarded with inquiries. … Our job right now really is to pick and choose partners that we want to work with.”

Of course, with or without hardware partners, Vudu exists in a nascent but increasingly crowded market that includes Apple, Microsoft, Netflix, Blockbuster and others. On that note, the company has tried to position itself as a premium service, offering more High Definition content than its competitors and a superior user experience. A strategy that Miranz suggests is paying off. “We have the highest RPU [revenue per user] of any video-on-demand in the industry … by orders of magnitude. The better the user interface, the higher the revenue per box.”

Getting Vudu’s content and software onto a broader range of devices would also help to further address my accusation that the service is a bit of a one trick pony. Essentially charging an up front cost for the hardware simply to enter the store.

However, despite Miranz’s spin of the company’s future prospects, CEPro.com also reports a further round of layoffs at Vudu. At its peek the company had “as many as 110 or so employees and is now down to about 50.” Another round of funding is also needed “sooner” rather than later, something that could be problematic during the current economic climate.

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Vudu set-top box no longer a one trick pony, adds support for YouTube, Flickr and more

Steve O'Hear — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:46:54 +0000

My biggest beef with the Vudu set-top movie box is that it’s always been a one trick pony, and an expensive one at that. Focusing on paid-for movies (rentals and to-own), Vudu’s sole proposition was that you purchased one of its set-top boxes, starting at $299, so that you could begin purchasing content. Essentially paying to enter the store.

That changed today, with the company announcing support for a range of free online video from YouTube, MSNBC, CNN, MTV, PBS, and National Geographic, as well as images from photo sharing sites Flickr and Picasso. “The new content will be available via a free firmware update that should hit all Vudu boxes over the next 24 hours”, reports Cnet. And best of all there’s plenty more to come.

That’s because Vudu isn’t providing access to said content through formal licensing agreements but is instead pulling in content through those sites’ own APIs or freely available web feeds. Better still, Vudu is going to open up this feature to third-party developers in the first half of 2009 who’ll be able to add support for more online content.

In other words, Vudu looks like it might be slowly morphing, to some extent at least, into the open Apple TV I’ve been long calling for.

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Mass market who? Vudu targets high end home theater crowd

Steve O'Hear — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:12:00 +0000

Set-top box movie service Vudu already targets the home theater crowd with its higher end XL offering, but now the company is taking up a notch with the release of the Vudu XL2.

Described as being “designed specifically for professional home theater installations”, the XL2 sports an aluminum case that houses a 1U rack mountable unit, uses the “highest quality components”, and like its XL sibling, features a terabyte of storage — enough to store more than 500 standard definition movies. Other high end features include IP and IR control to allow the XL2 to be integrated into “most high-end home control systems”, along with 1080i HD output over component, and the ability to route and switch HD signals through the home with the use of off-the-shelf video switchers. The result, says Vudu’s Tony Miranz, makes the XL2 a home theater installer’s “weapon of choice”. At a premium price, of course.

The Vudu XL2 will be listed at $1,299 and is available today exclusively through more than 1,000 Vudu-certified custom installers, says the company.

It’s interesting to see Vudu continue to pursue the high end home theater market, a natural fit, in terms of the company’s recent focus on HD content. It also helps to differentiate Vudu’s offering, on a hardware level at least, from competitors such as TiVo, Apple and Microsoft. But does that make it the right strategy?

Not if the company still has ambitions of reaching a mass market, something I think it will have a hard time doing until it switches to a more compelling business model whereby, instead of increasing the cost of the set-top box, the hardware should feel like it’s “free”.

As I’ve previously suggested, this could either be achieved by switching to a Netflix-like subscription service or offering cash back in the form of a voucher that can be redeemed for Vudu content, an idea the company has already been experimenting with in conjunction with Best Buy.

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Vudu’s boast: more HD content than the rest (but is the biz model the right one?)

Steve O'Hear — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:18:29 +0000

Set-top box movie service Vudu is claiming to offer more High Definition content than any of its competitors — Apple TV, Netflix, XBox 360, and even Blu-Ray itself — reports CNet. And while content is mostly King, I’m still unsure about the company’s business model.

From CNet:

Indeed, a quick examination of competing services seems to bear out Vudu’s claim. We counted more than 1,100 HD movies available through Vudu’s box (including about 200 that are also offered in Vudu’s Blu-rayesque HDX format), compared to 391 on Xbox Live Marketplace, and something south of 700 on Apple iTunes. (Netflix will be kicking off its own HD streaming service later this month with a mere 300 titles.) By comparison, Amazon’s Blu-ray inventory–i.e. the total number of Blu-rays available–shows a total of close to 2,000 titles, though that includes TV shows and pre-release discs.

However, while Vudu’s catalog clearly beats its Internet set-top box rivals, along with holding its own against the fledgling Bu-ray format, there’s little to distinguish the service in terms of pricing – rentals range from $0.99 to $5.99, and purchased movies range from $4.99 to $19.99.

In fact, when you consider that the Vudu set-top box is a one trick pony compared to most of its direct competitors who also offer various additional functionality, such as gaming or the ability to bridge the gap between the PC and TV, the Vudu proposition appears to deliver a lot less value for money: buy our hardware ($299) so that you can start purchasing our wares. It’s like charging people to enter the store. Instead, Vudu should find a way of giving its set-top box away for free or at least making consumers feel like they’re not paying for the box.

How so?

Two models spring to mind, one of which the company has already began experimenting with. Firstly, give those that purchase a Vudu set-top box a kickback in the form of a content voucher that offsets the initial outlay (or most of it). Through a promotion with Best Buy, the company is doing just that, effectively reducing the cost of the Vudu set-top box to $99 (the same price as a Roku Netflix Player).

Better still, however, why not move to a subscription model, whereby the box is free or heavily subsidized if you sign on to a monthly tariff with a minimum commitment. This of course would compete much more directly with Netflix (minus the DVD postal service) and cable TV services. Which is exactly who I think Vudu should be competing with.

How many last100 readers would dump their movie channel packages offered by their satellite or cable TV provider or cancel their Netfix subscription, if for a reasonable monthly fee they could access Vudu’s growing library of standard and high def movies directly on their TV, all without shelling out for the box in the first place?

I know I would. That’s if Vudu wasn’t US-only, of course.

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Vudu now offering 99c rentals

Steve O'Hear — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:16:33 +0000

As if porn wasn’t enough to differentiate itself from competitors, this time Vudu (see our early review) has cheapened its set-top box movie service in the right way by offering heavily discounted rentals through its newly launched “99 for 99″ movie channel.

As the name suggests, 99 movies will be on offer priced at just 99 cents per rental. Titles will be “personally” chosen by Vudu’s “in-house movie expert” Steven Horn, and will include both recent releases and “classics”, with selections rotated each week.

Vudu has also significantly reduced the cost of extending a movie rental, a new feature it introduced in May whereby, for an additional fee, customers can extend the 24-hour viewing window after they first hit play. Users can now renew any standard definition video rental for 99 cents within seven days of first viewing a film. High definition movie rentals can be extended for $1.99. Vudu claims that its new offering is “the most generous rental renewal policy in the industry”, something that we’d have a hard time disagreeing with, although we still wish that viewing windows for digital rentals were much more generous in the first place. Ever heard of no late fees?

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