Posts for 'Devices'

Fanhattan, the slick iOS video discovery app, has broken into the TV Everywhere world, adding content from HBO and Cinemax. Fanhattan users can now discover HBO programs and movies within Fanhattan and click through to view them if they are authenticated as HBO subscribers. Fanhattan is announcing the addition of HBO and Cinemax, plus NBC and CW programs this morning. Fanhattan now has 175K TV programs and movies from 14 premium entertainment apps discoverable, up from 4 apps at launch last year.

Fanhattan is also unveiling a new "WatchList" feature, which allows users to add a movie or TV show and be alerted when it becomes available on any of the 14 sources. For users, WatchList eliminates the confusion around where, how and when premium content is available, as it passes through multiple distribution windows and models.

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Back at the Cable Show, I got a demo of what has to be the coolest product (err, prototype) I've seen in a long while: "Surfaces," a wall-sized interactive TV created by pay-TV technology provider NDS. Consisting of six huge LCD screens, running entirely in a HTML5 on a Chrome browser with 4K resolution video and controlled via an iPad, Surfaces is unlike any TV experience you've ever seen.

In addition to recording the demo, I interviewed NDS' CTO Nick Thexton about the Surfaces prototype, when consumers might actually be able to buy one, and what NDS' goals were in creating it. It's a pretty remarkable glimpse into what TVs in the future could ultimately look like. Enjoy.

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Comcast has been letting me test-drive its new "X1" platform on a second TV in my house for the last couple of weeks. X1, which was recently announced at the Cable Show, is the company's new state-of-the-art set-top box, built by Pace, that delivers video via traditional "QAM" technology along with apps and other content via web-standard IP technology. The latter allows X1 to create a richer, more web-like user experience.

X1's biggest leap forward vs. the traditional Comcast digital set-top (which I still have on my main TV) is its speed and responsiveness. X1 is amazingly fast, unlike any other pay-TV set-top I've ever used, and easily on a par - or better - than any web site or iPad/mobile app I've recently used (it actually feels faster than many web sites I visit given their increasingly bloated pages). X1 also blows away my Samsung connected Blu-ray player's abysmally slow performance.

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At the recent VideoNuze 2012 Online Video Advertising Summit, TDG senior analyst Colin Dixon sat down with Ed Haslam, SVP of Marketing at YuMe to discuss the market for video advertising on connected TVs (sometimes also called "Smart TVs"). Ed and Colin agreed that while there are already 20 million or more U.S. homes with these TVs, the ad opportunity is still relatively small, though it has enormous potential as these devices are adopted in hundreds of millions of homes globally over the next 5 years.

Ed has a strong perspective on this space as YuMe has a deal with Samsung and with LG to power advertising on their connected TVs. In the session, Ed discussed the experiences of 2 early advertisers, Toyota and State Farm. He also explained exactly where video ads are inserted today, how these units differ from typical pre-roll units seen online, and how the market is broadening to also include in-app advertising. Ed also describes 2 key challenges for the connected TV advertising space; consumer fragmentation and gaining developers' attention.

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I'm pleased to be joined once again by Colin Dixon, senior partner at The Diffusion Group, for the 138th edition of the VideoNuze-TDG Report podcast.

Today we discuss two new products that Google introduced this week, the Nexus 7 tablet and the Nexus Q media streamer. Viewing both through the lens of online/mobile video, I think both products are duds, and are generally inferior to other competitive products already available, especially those from Apple. A particular source of concern for Colin and me is the lack of differentiated content. For instance, the Nexus 7 offers no unlimited viewing plan like Amazon Prime for the Kindle Fire, the device it is most similar to.

Colin is less skeptical, and has even ordered a Nexus 7, though more for professional reasons than anything else. However, he's completely underwhelmed by the Nexus Q, thinking the entire whole home audio product category isn't really addressing a strong consumer need. Further, maybe Google has a master plan it's not sharing, but to both of us, the company's silence on how Google TV fits with the two Nexus devices suggests a real lack of coherency in Google's approach to digital media. Listen in to hear all of the details.

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Interviewed by the NY Times' Amy Chozick at last week's VideoNuze Online Video Advertising Summit, News Corp.'s Chief Digital Officer Jon Miller summed up his view of the future of TV by saying that "TV is an app." Jon believes that watching programs will become "screen agnostic" with consumers expecting consistency in experience and choices.

That said, Jon doesn't anticipate a proliferation of successful TV apps at the scale of what we've seen in the tablet/smartphone world; rather he envisions a hierarchy of just a few aggregators (e.g. Hulu, Netflix, HBO, etc.) leading the way. He also doesn't envision an a la carte future any time soon. Although consumers say they value lots of choices, Jon points to examples where this actually leads to consumer fatigue.

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While the quantity and quality of mobile apps keeps expanding, there's one corner of the ecosystem that has lagged: high-quality video apps. Once you get beyond apps like HBO Go, Netflix, WatchESPN, Hulu Plus, Xfinity and a handful of others, the choice and quality drops off pretty quickly. That's because great video apps are expensive to build and to maintain, especially since the number of mobile device platforms keeps multiplying.

This is the problem that Beachfront Media, which has built the video aggregator MeFeedia, is trying to solve with a new mobile video app development platform it announced called Beachfront Builder, which launches in private beta next Thursday. With Beachfront Builder, content providers are able to quickly build video apps for iOS, Android and Kindle Fire, with others coming soon.

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At the recent Cable Show I caught up with Michael Quigley, VP Business Development and Multi-Platform Distribution for Turner Networks. Turner has arguably been the most aggressive of all the cable TV networks in pursuing TV Everywhere distribution, and Michael explain why. Turner has now integrated with 13 different pay-TV operators for TV Everywhere distribution covering 77 million U.S. homes. It also makes authenticated content available on 6 of its networks' sites, with over 500 hours of VOD.

One of the key decisions Turner made was to invest in TV Everywhere before the measurement systems from Nielsen and others were fully in place. That's a risk Michael says Turner was willing to take in order to push the TV Everywhere experience forward and draw other networks in. In the interview Michael also discusses ongoing challenges for TV Everywhere's rollout. Watch the interview below (9 minutes, 46 seconds).

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If you've ever used video-on-demand from your pay-TV operator, you no doubt agree that trying to find and then navigate to what you'd like to watch feels like a Soviet-era experience. The problem is the set-top box's processing limitations have hamstrung pay-TV operators from delivering a more web-like VOD experience.

The company looking to change all that is ActiveVideo Networks, and yesterday it got a big boost as Comcast, the largest pay-TV operator in the U.S., licensed ActiveVideo's CloudTV H5 platform for a trial in its Chattanooga, TN market. If the trial goes well and Comcast rolls CloudTV H5 out nationally, the VOD experience is going to dramatically improve for millions of viewers, in turn making it more competitive with web-based OTT VOD providers.

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I'm pleased to be joined once again by Colin Dixon, senior partner at The Diffusion Group, for the 136th edition of the VideoNuze-TDG Report podcast (our podcast's new co-branded name, going forward).

This week we first discuss a fascinating new web site, TakeMyMoneyHBO.com that invites visitors to submit how much they'd pay for a standalone HBO GO service. It's the latest in the larger dynamics around HBO going direct-to-consumer, rather than solely via pay-TV operators. In my video interview with HBO's co-president Eric Kessler 6 months ago, he explained the rationale for HBO sticking to its roots with HBO GO, which Ryan Lawler at TechCrunch enumerated this week. While Colin and I understand the reasoning, we contend that changing consumer expectations and a strong desire for viewing flexibility will inevitably pressure HBO - and others - to re-think traditional approaches. This is a topic I explored at length over a year ago.

Then Colin offers his reactions to E3 and what the major gaming console providers announced with streaming video apps this week. Last I discuss my video interview with top Wall Street analyst Craig Moffett that I posted yesterday, in which Craig states that the TV industry is so "ossified" that re-invention can only come from outsiders.

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I'm pleased to be joined once again by Colin Dixon, senior partner at The Diffusion Group, for the 135th edition of the VideoNuze Report podcast, for June 1, 2012. This week we cover 3 different topics: Verizon's announcement of ultra-fast new broadband service tiers (up to 300 mbps); TiVo's new "Stream" companion device which will allow 1-click video downloading to iOS devices and the fresh rumors around Apple introducing a television following CEO Tim Cook's interview at the D10 conference this week. We wrap up on a light-hearted note - the hilarious video from Funny or Die for Under Armour, "Tom Brady's Wicked Accent."

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Streaming video is awesome, but of course it requires you to have a robust broadband connection. Once you're outside your home or business, that's an iffy proposition. WiFi hotspots aren't always available, and even when they are, they're often over-shared so connection quality is too low for video. Wireless 3G or 4G cards are better, but their relatively low data caps seriously crimps viewing. And if you're on a plane, forget streaming entirely, Gogo doesn't cut it at all.

These real-world mobile limitations mean downloading video in advance, rather than streaming it, is the key to on the go viewing. This has been one of the value props of iTunes, Amazon and other services. But the reality is that lots of great content is already sitting on your DVR (and if you're like me, 30K feet is when I most often actually have time to watch any of it). Further, you've already paid a lot of great content with your pay-TV subscription. The problem is that DVR video has been pretty much locked in your home, without an easy way to take it with you. All of above problems are solved with TiVo's new "Stream" companion device, which TiVo announced last week.

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Comcast made a very big splash at the Cable Show this week, officially announcing "X1" a new web-like TV platform and user experience it has been developing for the past 2 years, along with "Dayview" a console for customers to manage all of their Comcast services.

In this video interview, Matt Strauss, Comcast's SVP, Digital and Emerging Platforms, explains the company's strategy behind these initiatives and why it believes in unification of experiences across devices (TV, online, mobile) is so important. X1 is a major step forward for Comcast as it provides a platform where product/feature cycles are dramatically accelerated from the traditionally cumbersome process of dealing with set-top boxes. X1 is scheduled for release in the Boston area shortly, with a nationwide rollout to follow. As you'll see in the demos, the experience is quite slick and sets a new standard for pay-TV operators.

In the wide-ranging interview, we also discuss how TV Everywhere rollouts are progressing (and the key challenges that persist), Comcast's new C3 measurement project for tablets with Nielsen, how Comcast views the role of programmers' own apps (e.g. HBO GO, WatchESPN) vs. its own XfinityTV app and how it decides which connected devices to support, among other topics. Watch the interview and demo (17 minutes, 22 seconds).

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The nascent market for second screen TV apps on mobile devices - whether from pay-TV operators, content providers, CE/SmartTV manufacturers or social media/discovery startups - is poised to accelerate due to a deal announced yesterday between Tribune Media Services (TMS) and Digitalsmiths. That's because TMS, which is the largest provider of metadata about TV shows and movies will now use Digitalsmiths' Seamless Discovery platform to offer 20 different APIs allowing app developers far easier access to the data than ever before.

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There's lots of online buzz right now about an apparently massive amount of online piracy for HBO's hit show "Game of Thrones." To better understand HBO's online strategy with its HBO GO app, I recommend watching the interview I did with co-president Eric Kessler at last November's VideoSchmooze event, which I've re-posted below. This interview is the primary source for a lot of the back-and-forth going on about the GOT piracy issue and what's behind it.

In the interview Eric is very clear in explaining why HBO is focused on maintaining exclusive distribution through pay-TV providers, which means the HBO GO app is only available to HBO/pay-TV subscribers. Coincidentally, this week's podcast touches on how restrictive access to popular programming helps breed piracy.  In this case HBO has rabid GOT fans, but many aren't cable subscribers as Forbes points out, and therefore can't subscribe to HBO. I explained this conundrum back in March, 2011 in "Could HBO be the Next BLOCKBUSTER."

By limiting its distribution, HBO is adhering to a traditional model that still works reasonably well and is very rationale, yet also leaves lots of opportunity on the table and encourages illegal behavior. It's yet another one of the many dilemmas arising as analog era business models collide with digital era distribution realities.

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mPortal is an 11 year-old mobile content discovery company, which has recently announced its Springboard Media product for TV everywhere applications on multiple devices. In this NABShow interview, Fady talks about how the product fits into content providers' and pay-TV operators' work flow enabling them to deploy and dynamically change content in apps distributed to multiple devices. I described the product more in a recent post. See the video below (6 minutes, 32 seconds).

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Revision3's CEO Jim Louderback gave an impromptu interview at VideoNuze's NABShow booth last week, providing insights from the company's experience of delivering 30 shows online. One of Jim's key points is that while mobile as a category is red hot, it's important to understand that tablets and smartphones are very different. He likens tablets to "mini-TVs" and is seeing longer much longer viewing times vs. smartphones.

Jim also talks about how his company is providing a place for shows that wouldn't ordinarily be found on cable or broadcast TV. And he talks about the innovative way that his shows' hosts integrate brand messages during the programs. All great insights for other content producers looking to distribute online. See video below (7 minutes, 32 seconds)

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Last week at the NABShow, Bill Wheaton, Akamai's SVP and GM of its Media Division stopped by the VideoNuze booth for an interview. Bill sees some of the biggest trends happening in mobile, and cites his experience in India recently as an example of the huge growth in mobile. He also points to growth in video consumed over iOS devices of 200%-300% year-over-year. All of that is leading to massive complexity in supporting multiple devices while emphasizing quality. Bill discusses these challenges and how Akamai is addressing them. See video below (8 minutes, 21 seconds).

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Comcast announced on its blog on Friday that it will indeed authenticate HBO GO for use by subscribers with both Xbox and the Xbox Live service. When Xbox initially announced two weeks ago that it was enabling Comcast's Xfinity TV, MLB.TV and HBO GO apps, Comcast (along with Time Warner Cable and Bright House) subscribers were unable to access HBO GO, because the cable operators weren't authenticating it. For Comcast subscribers, that meant the only HBO programs they could view on their Xbox was via the Xfinity app, which offers far less content. The move set off a vocal protest by Comcast/HBO/Xbox subscribers, including a much-noticed Facebook post by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings.

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I'm pleased to be joined once again by Colin Dixon, senior partner at The Diffusion Group, for the 128th edition of the VideoNuze Report podcast, for April 6, 2012. First up this week we discuss another angle of last week's Xbox video launch - whether Comcast will reverse itself and authenticate HBO GO for its subscribers (as Netflix CEO Reed Hastings wrote openly on Facebook asking Comcast to do). Then we discuss the downturn in March Madness online traffic and the effect of Turner's new paywall.

Last week when Xbox launched a number of new video apps including Comcast's Xfinity, HBO GO and MLB.tv, Comcast made a decision not to authenticate HBO GO for its own subscribers with Xboxes, thereby forcing them to settle for HBO content that's available within its own Xfinity app. As Colin points out, that was a continuation of Comcast's (and other pay-TV operators') policy of not authenticating the HBO GO app for its subscribers using Roku.

A vocal group of Comcast/HBO subscribers with Xbox complained, with Hastings's post getting the most attention. This week, the NY Times reported that Comcast might reverse itself and authenticate HBO GO after all. It's confusing stuff, and Colin and I do our best to explain what might be going on behind the scenes with the balance of power between cable operators and cable networks.

We then discuss news that daily March Madness traffic was down 10% year-over-year, likely attributable to Turner introducing a $3.99 app to view the games for which it had broadcast rights (CBS games were still available online for free). There was a paywall up until a few years ago, when the full tournament went free online, causing an explosion of traffic and ad revenue. Colin and I interpret the new data and its broader implications for TV Everywhere.

(For everyone celebrating holidays, enjoy your weekend!)

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