Boxee Adds a Second Target Buyer
Posted by Steve Fravel on Sunday, January 29, 2012 · 
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Though Boxee has been targeting residential customers who are “cutting the cord” to conventional cable services and satellite subscriptions, it announced last week that it would add cable operators who may be considering eliminating program costs and shifting their focus to selling just high-speed Internet access. Read more
Google TV Slowly Adding More Partners
Posted by Steve Fravel on Friday, January 6, 2012 · ·
LG Electronics joins Samsung, Sony and Vizio as a partner in the development of Google TV. This past October Google released the long awaited 2.0 version of the middleware to less than stellar reviews.
While the Google TV idea holds promise for combining content from the Web and from conventional television distribution, it remains to be seen if the addition of another electronics manufacturer and new chip sets can help propel Google to a wider and deeper market penetration. Logitech announced this past year that it was dropping out of Google TV development after developing the “Revue” box which reportedly created a $100 million loss for Logitech.
Google notes in blog postings that there are more than 150 individual apps built specifically for the Google TV platform with additional Android apps available to enhance the television experience.
It will be interesting to see what the Google TV partner companies demonstrate at CES 2012.
Frontier Evolves its OTT Video Aggregation Play
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, November 7, 2011 · ·
Frontier Communications announced today that it is expanding its OTT video play with the launch of TumTiki, an online video website that the telco is calling “the largest video library of any web destination site.” TumTiki offers access to more than 700,000 video titles from a combination of traditional broadcast TV and online sources. Of particular note, the service is available to all Internet users, regardless if they are Frontier broadband subscribers. Read more
TelcoTV Wrap-Up
Posted by Steve Fravel on Friday, October 28, 2011 · ·
NTCA Director of Policy Josh Seidemann delivered a keynote address illustrating the impact of rural broadband investment on the national economy.
More than 1,800 people attended the 10th annual TelcoTV Conference & Expo this week in New Orleans, La. Attendance at the general sessions and track sessions appeared to be a major draw for most of those attending. Many were intently looking at ways that they might enhance or alter their video service to reduce or eliminate some of the cost.
The potential for cloud-based middleware and other cloud content management systems was a popular topic. How to add over-the-top (OTT) content via the set-top-box (STB) or other smart consumer equipment was also covered. Discussions concerning adaptive bit rate and multi-mode compression gave direction to new solutions.
Video is a major driver for broadband service adoption across the industry. Having a single bill for voice, data and entertainment remains a convenience that most consumers highly value. The multi-screen experience and consumption of content when, where and how the customer wants is clearly the direction most service providers will adopt to stay competitive in a fast changing environment. Read more
Not For Sale: Hulu
Posted by Steve Fravel on Monday, October 17, 2011 · ·
The Walt Disney Co., News Corp. and Providence Equity Partners said in a prepared statement, “Since Hulu holds a unique and compelling strategic value to each of its owners, we have terminated the sale process and look forward to working together to continue mapping out its path to even greater success. Our focus now rests on ensuring that our efforts as owners contribute in a meaningful way to the exciting future that lies ahead for Hulu.”
Recent stories and analysis of the “auction” for Hulu pointed out that given the low bids received, combined with the likelihood of Hulu growing into a more robust subscription service, it could suggest that keeping Hulu and Hulu Plus may be the better solution. Certainly once the million subscriber benchmark was crossed, it seemed that the better strategy would be for the current owners to maintain control of Hulu.
Dish Network, Google and Amazon provided bids for the service, with Google submitting the greatest dollar amount but tying its offer to several conditions. Dish Network appeared to have the inside track to gaining Hulu with the next highest bid. The owners and experts both seemed surprised at the low dollar amounts bid. Indications were that the winner might be getting the Hulu service and content for approximately $2 billion.
The owners are going to keep it and maintain control of the “next day” distribution of ABC, NBC and Fox programming. Had the sale gone forward, relinquishing control of the content might have been a crippling error.
OTT Prediction
Posted by Steve Fravel on Friday, October 7, 2011 · ·
According to a survey sponsored by MagnaGlobal, a U.S. media agency, up to 10% of U.S. homes could be using over-the-top (OTT) services as their primary video delivery in the not too distant future. In MagnGlobal’s estimate, by 2016 as many as 9 million homes could be using services available for free or at low cost rather than the traditional cable or direct-broadcast satellite (DBS) services.
In analyzing current and predicted broadband usage, MagnaGlobal points out that as of the second quarter 2011, more than 74% of all U.S. home had some form of Internet access available. Looking five years ahead, MagnaGlobal says that number will grow from current 85.7 million homes to 97.1 million. Of that number, 95.7 million will access broadband at higher bandwidth.
Netflix Splits into Two Companies
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, September 19, 2011 · (2) ·
Via a blog post issued Sunday evening, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings announced that the company has decided to split into two separate entities: Netflix for its subscription-based online streaming service and Qwikster for DVD rentals by mail.
This decision comes on the heels of a recent price hike that had Netflix subscribers taking to industry blogs to voice their frustrations with the changes. Some subscribers also canceled their subscriptions, which led to a decline in stock price.
In the same blog post, Hastings issued an apology for the company’s strategic communications errors. “I messed up. I owe everyone an explanation,” he wrote. “In hindsight, I slid into arrogance based upon past success. We have done very well for a long time by steadily improving our service, without doing much CEO communication….But now I see that given the huge changes we have been recently making, I should have personally given a full justification to our members of why we are separating DVD and streaming, and charging for both. It wouldn’t have changed the price increase, but it would have been the right thing to do.” Read more