Distribution
Blockbuster VOD Going to Blu-ray Players
Hot on the heels of releasing its own set-top box, Blockbuster said it will expanding its on-demand video rental service into Blu-ray players in the first quarter of next year, as the company goes toe-to-toe with Netflix over direct delivery of video content to your TV.
In an interview with E-Commerce Times posted over the weekend, Blockbuster CEO and Chairman Jim Keyes spilled the Blu-ray beans and other plans for the on-demand service:
We’ll be able to put the same capability into a Blu-ray player. We’ll go into DVRs (digital video recorders), game consoles, etc., just as others are doing to make the same capability available through other devices.
Not only is Blockbuster playing catch up with Netflix, it’s matching its video rival move for move. Netflix has the Roku set-top box; Blockbuster has the MediaPoint. Netflix is on LG and Samsung Blu-ray players; Blockbuster will deliver to Blu-ray devices. And will Xbox and TiVo, which have Netflix capabilities also have Blockbuster? Seems like a definite possibility, given Keyes’ statement.
The one area where Blockbuster won’t be copying Netflix is through its rental model. Blockbuster is sticking with the a la carte service in order to keep the new releases available, while Netflix has the subscription model, which inhibits its ability to get new releases, because of licensing issues with the studios.
Joost Launches iPhone App
Joost launched an iPhone app over the holiday break, making its P2P web TV service mobile. With the app, users can watch Joost’s content library of more than 46,000 videos on the go for free. The service streams video over Wi-Fi connections and not over the phone’s EDGE or 3G network. The content available is a mix of full-length movies like Men in Black, music videos and TV shows.
VentureBeat had some troubles with the app’s video playback being choppy. CNET praised the app as falling “just short of greatness,” lamenting the lack of decent content.
These outlets have frothed over the prospect of a Hulu app running on the iPhone with all its premium content. But the bigger wildcard may be YouTube, which is already on the iPhone and is making aggressive moves to acquire premium content with the likes of CBS and MGM.
Mobile video has bigger problems than what content is available. Finding a solid signal to stream a full-length movie while on the go is a dicey proposition (hello, train tunnel!). Even Joost’s Wi-Fi solution requires you to stay near your connection, limiting your “mobility.” In a conversation this morning, Liz called the Joost iPhone app “cute,” but thinks they should focus their efforts on the living room. While I agree with her, I like the notion that we are inching (no matter how slowly) to a world where we can pull down a video wherever we may be. Baby steps.
Netflix HD Streams Head to Blu-ray Players
Netflix is broadening the availability of its HD streams to Samsung and LG Blu-ray DVD players early next month. The addition of LG BD300 and the Samsung BD-P2500 bolsters the ranks of Netflix HD-enabled devices like TiVo, Xbox and by the end of this year, the Roku. There are currently only about 300 titles available in HD through Netflix streaming.
Adding sweet features like an HD stream helps distract from the fact that the Netflix streaming service is still severely lacking in content — especially new releases. Earlier this week, Blockbuster announced its own set-top box, which is a la carte vs. subscription and will offer new content.
Blockbuster Set-Top Box Takes on Netflix
Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI, BBI.B) is taking Netflix head-on and announced today the availability of its new set-top box that will deliver video content directly to TVs.
The BLOCKBUSTER ONDEMAND service will use 2Wire’s MediaPoint set top box, and will offer rentals a la carte — including new releases like Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Smart — as opposed to a subscription model like Netflix.
Available now at Blockbuster.com (and at select real world locations), the box will cost $99. Well, in Blockbuster marketing-speak, the box is free, but you have to pay for 25 rentals in advance to get it. After the initial 25, rentals start at $1.99 each. The service supports HD (full technical details after the jump), and movies will cost $3.99 to rent regardless of whether they are in standard or high definition.
Vid-Biz: Disney, YouTube HD, Diggnation
Disney Fights Piracy on Site it Funded; 56.com, funded by Steamboat Ventures had bootlegged Disney content like full-length copies of WALL-E up on the site. (The Wall Street Journal)
YouTube Testing HD Videos; video giant stealthily trying out the higher quality 720p format. (Epicenter Blog) CNET teaches how to tweak your YouTube embeds for HD playback.
BitGravity Launches Multi-View, Will Be Used on Diggnation; viewers can choose from five different simultaneous video streams of the show. (emailed release)
BBC’s Local Video Plan Blocked; regulators say the the $100 million project to add video bulletins to 65 local UK web sites would hurt video efforts of struggling local newspapers. (paidContent)
DVD Sales Are Down; sales of the shiny discs off 9 percent during the third quarter, Blu-Ray’s prospects even bleaker. (The New York Times)
Justin Timberlake’s SNL Skit Pulled Because of Music Clearances; embeds of the Single Ladies sketch did disappear, but not because Timberlake wanted more money. (LA Times)
Mr. Internet Wants to Be the “Talk Soup” of Web Culture; created by agency Crispin, Porter + Bogusky show will collect all manner of web-based stories and air on Plum TV. (MediaWeek)
Layoff Count Rises: Akamai, Qik, Strands
The economy is affecting players all over the web video ecosystem, and companies both large and small. Here’s the latest carnage. Content delivery giant Akamai laid off 110 employees today, or 7 percent of its staff. The Cambridge, Mass.-based company described the layoffs as “cost-cutting measures.”
Also, TechCrunch reports that recommendation startup Strands laid off 14 people, or 10 percent of its company, and mobile live video startup Qik also laid off 10 percent, or five people.
Update: Qik co-founder Bhaskar Roy tells us via email, “Well, given the current environment we had to take a hard look at how we create better efficiencies in our organization and to remain focused on long-term growth. As a part of this, we had to take the difficult step of eliminating a limited number of positions. Having said that - we will continue to increase our investments in areas such as R&D, product development that enable us to achieve long term growth.
Sonic Solutions to Buy CinemaNow
Sonic Solutions, maker of the Roxio line of media applications and Qflix DVD-burning software, said today that it has agreed to buy privately held online movie distributor CinemaNow. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but CinemaNow is probably breathing a sigh of relief. While the company has been around for almost a decade, and even had the financial backing of big names such as Microsoft, Cisco and Lionsgate, it just couldn’t capitalize on its first-mover status in the movie download business.
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As part of the deal,CinemaNow will be combined with Sonic’s Qflix team to form a new Premium Content Group that will be focused on broadening the distribution of CinemaNow’s storefront on to PCs and other consumer electronics devices as well as expanding the adoption of the Qflix software. Sonic and CinemaNow were already partners, with a collaboration to enable downloading and burning of movies through new DVD drives from companies such as Dell (though we found the movie selection to be quite limited).
Recently, CinemaNow has been less focused on being a destination site, instead working to get its store onto devices such as HP MediaSmart Connect and TiVo as well as through some Dish Satellite boxes. Qflix software can be found on devices from Dell and Plextor, and Roxio software runs on a variety of chips in Blu-Ray DVD players from manufacturers like Samsung. Sonic will retain the CinemaNow brand and plans to have the CinemaNow store powering a whole range of devices over the next couple of quarters.
Everything You Need to Know About Netflix Streaming
Liz wrote about how impressed we were with Reed Hastings’ all-in approach when it comes to getting Netflix content directly to your TV. Now the company has provided a glimpse at what’s under the hood when it comes to making all that sweet streaming possible.
In an exhaustive post over at the Netflix blog, chief product officer Neil Hunt goes deep in explaining its choice of encoders for streaming. I plucked the bit about HD streaming from it, but you should read the whole thing to learn more about Silverlight, stereo and sources:
High Definition Encodes Today we have rights to deliver about 400 streams in HD (720p). More titles will be added over time. We experimented with first-generation WMV3 encodes at 4000kbps and 5500kbps, but settled on second-generation HD encodes with VC1AP at 2600kbps and 3800kbps, which extends their accessibility down to lower home broadband connections. As with SD, encodes of film material are at 24fps, and encodes of shot-to-video material are at 30fps (or 25fps for PAL), rather than the 60fps that would come from a Blu-ray disc - we judged the 60fps content as too expensive of bandwidth for now. In general, these encodes are definitively better than SD, but won’t challenge well-executed Blu-ray encodes - that would require a bitrate out of reach for most domestic broadband today. We believe Moore’s law will drive home broadband higher and higher enabling full 1080p60 encodes in a few years.
TelcoTV Report: IPTV Hoping for a Big 2009
Written by Nate D’Amico.
At last week’s TelcoTV event, the hot topics were convergence of media, triple-screen plays, and how consumers’ behaviors regarding digital content are evolving at a rapid pace. Strolling through the exhibit hall, I saw some great demos, such as Entone’s Janus set-top box, Nortel and RCDB’s Blu-ray setup, and Minerva’s updated middleware platform with a new widget framework for set-top boxes.
The big duo, AT&T and Verizon, were both present, each with their own keynote speaker. AT&T talked up its 780,000 subscribers to its U-verse service and said it expects to surpass the 1 million mark going into 2009. Verizon talked up FiOS and said it sees great opportunity in future services to be rolled out to its customers given the superior down/upstream capabilities fiber to the home provides.
One of the big takeaways from the event is that interactive television seems positioned for rapid growth. The majority of the crowd represented rural telcos, which across the board average only a few thousand subscribers each. These smaller players, who can’t operate at the same capacity as an AT&T or Verizon, see IPTV as the way toward bundled services to fend off the cable providers whose roll-out of voice service is encroaching on their territory.
As IPTV and cable providers roll out updated set-top boxes, content providers will be armed with the tools necessary to develop more interactive programming. Currently, interactive TV collectively is in the Web 2.0 mashup state (like the Fickr integration provided in the U-verse service). There were lots of demos in the exhibit hall showing TV widgets that get news, weather, sports, stock information from Yahoo, ESPN and other data providers. This will evolve over the next couple years as more advanced interactive experiences, including gaming and efforts like those Verizon is undertaking, become easier to deploy.
Nate D’Amico works with telecommunications providers on implementing SaaS solutions for their business and consumer customers. He has also written for our sister site OStatic.
Amazon’s Would-be CDN Rival Not Quite Ready for Video
Today Amazon Web Services launched the beta version of its pay-as-you-go content delivery network service, CloudFront. But the simple service isn’t everything a video shop could want — there’s no streaming, live broadcasting or transcoding, and a low level of customer service. See the GigaOM story and also the discussion in its comments here.
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