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Over the air streaming video provider Aereo won their second major legal victory against the broadcast industry yesterday when an injunction was denied and a court again declared the company's $12 a month broadband streaming service does not violate copyright. Obviously the fight is long from over, and according to the Wall Street Journal, the company has been holding talks with pay TV operators including AT&T and Dish Network. Publicly, Aereo will only say the company is looking at developing partnerships related to content, devices or distribution that will "help increase the choice and flexibility for the consumer." 18 comments
AT&T's video streaming services have been decidedly "me too" affairs, ranging from a video portal that was effectively a Hulu clone to the U-Verse Screen Pack, which was touted as a "Netflix killer" but suffers from a limited catalog and is only available to U-Verse users for an additional $5 a month. However, a new survey being sent to U-Verse customers indicates AT&T is pondering expanding these options. Variety notes that the survey hints that the service might not be directly run by AT&T: A customer survey sent out March 14 to AT&T’s U-verse subscribers asked whether they would be interested in signing up for, or even inquiring about, a “new video and Internet service” that would: Stream to customers’ own devices without a receiver box; include local broadcast channels and “popular sports and entertainment” cable channels; the option to bundle one streaming service such as Netflix or Amazon Prime; and better picture quality and shorter wait times for streaming, All this would be offered “at a significantly lower price than traditional pay TV services” and without usage charges for streaming. As we noted recently, U-Verse users currently aren't being charged for overages but AT&T DSL users are. AT&T's curiosity in such a project comes after Verizon recently launched a streaming video service in conjunction with RedBox. 10 comments
Streaming OTA video provider Aereo this week saw another major win in their fight against broadcasters looking to shut the service down. Fox network founder Barry Diller started Aereo trials last year in New York City, the service offering users a $12 a month option for local broadcast television services -- adding an interesting and inexpensive option for those eager to cut the cord.  story continues..56 comments
Antennas manufacturer Antennas Direct is angry at Charter Communications because it claims Charter has banned the company from advertising to Charter's customers. According to the company, Charter refused to run a sixty second ad in the St. story continues..78 comments
Intel is currently conducting trials of its new Internet TV platform with employees in three West Coast markets ahead of a launch later this year. The chipmaker has repeatedly stated that they believe they will succeed in Internet video where numerous other companies have failed. Those ever-busy "people with knowledge of the situation" also claim that Intel is making headway hashing out licensing agreements with content companies. That's obviously the major hurdle to Intel's success, and the primary reason why significantly better and more innovative companies than Intel have watched their Internet TV ambitions repeatedly do mudpuddle face plants. 10 comments
Like the company did with "House and Cards" and "Arrested Development," Netflix continues to push into original programming with the announcement that they'll be producing a new series by Matrix creators the Wachowskis and Babylon 5 creator Joe Straczynski. According to a company statement, "Sense8" is a new sci-fi program and "a gripping global tale of minds linked and souls hunted" scheduled to premiere in late 2014. Amazon has also been making a push into more original series, also announcing this week that they've signed off on "Zombieland," a TV adaptation of the 2009 film. Both companies are looking to draw in more subscribers while performing an end-around of skyrocketing content licensing costs. 31 comments
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Two anonymous sources tell Business Insider that Spotify plans to take on Netflix (and Hulu, and Amazon, and Redbox Verizon, and HBO, and every other "me too" video service under the sun) with a new streaming video service. Details about the new service are virtually nonexistent, outside of the fact that Spotify is currently looking for partners to help it fund and create original content. Netflix has also been focusing on exclusive content like their series "House of Cards" (or resurrected series like "Arrested Development") to offset soaring content licensing costs. Spotify of refuses to comment on the rumor. 4 comments
Verizon of course sees the writing on the wall that their SMS cash cow will soon be led to the slaughterhouse by push messaging services like iMessage or Google chat. As such, the company this week announced that their Verizon Messages service, which will allow users to receive messages on tablet, smartphone or PC. Traditionally these attempts to try and jump into content competitions don't fare well because phone companies aren't good at either software or innovation. As this video points out the service is tied to one phone number, though it's still also tied to your SMS plan. 20 comments
After spending the last two years shooting down the idea of a standalone HBO streaming service (not bundled to a traditional cable subscription), HBO now says they're considering a standalone HBO streaming service. HBO CEO Richard Plepler says the company has been investigating the idea of bundling HBO Go with broadband service for an additional $10 to $15, though it still sounds like the company has plenty of reservations about "making the math work." The company benefits greatly from its cozy promotional relationship with cable providers, and has been terrified to disrupt that status quo. "Maybe HBO GO, with our broadband partners, could evolve," says Plepler. Yeah, maybe it could. 13 comments
Rumors surrounding the next Xbox suggest that the game console may require a constantly running broadband connection to function -- in addition to banning used games. Leaked screenshots of an Xbox Development Kit (XDK) for Microsoft's next-generation console (currently code-named "Durago") strongly suggest that game installations to the hard drive will be mandatory, after which "play from the optical drive will not be supported." The last few round of rumors have collectively suggested that Microsoft could be cooking up some incredibly dumb new ideas for their new console: An installable game requirement backs up claims that Microsoft is developing an anti-used games system that requires activation codes for 50GB-capacity Blu-ray discs. 125 comments
According to the latest data from Leichtman Research, the top nine largest cable companies lost 1,415,000 video subscribers in 2012 -- compared to a net loss of about 1,600,000 subscribers in 2011. Time Warner Cable fared the worst of all cable operators, losing 525,000 video subscribers on the year. 58 comments
A report in the Wall Street Journal states that Verizon is proposing a new pay system to several "midtier and smaller" media companies where Verizon would only pay for channels if customers are actually watching them. The proposal would involve Verizon paying broadcasters based on how many customers register a "unique view" with a channel -- defined as a customer watching the channel for a minimum of five minutes. Verizon states they could track the viewing metrics with set top data instead of using Nielsen (who is only just figuring out this whole iPad thing). That rumbling you hear as you read this is the larger broadcasters giggling. 71 comments
Small cable operators this week met up at the American Cable Association Summit to complain that the TV market is rigged and broken thanks to media consolidation. Speaking at the event, executives like Wide Open West CEO Colleen Abdoulah complained that content prices were skyrocketing due to collusion. story continues..12 comments
When pitching last year's co-marketing arrangement between Verizon and the cable industry, the companies promised that they would offer interesting new cross wireless and cable video services. A new job listing for the Comcast and Verizon's innovation lab promises that they're working on "magical experiences," like letting you resume Xfinity TV shows you were watching on your smartphone. Right now, the partnership simply involves cable companies bundling Verizon Wireless services with a prepaid gift card (the total varies depending on the cable company), while with a wink in return, Verizon quietly jacks up DSL prices and shoves DSL users they don't want to upgrade in the general direction of cable. 23 comments
Netflix this week stated that the company's goal is to stream content in the 4K format by 2014 or so. Netflix recently started offering Super HD and 3D streams, if your ISP has signed up for the company's new content delivery network. 122 comments
Red Box and Verizon today announced that their creatively-titled streaming service Redbox Instant by Verizon has exited beta and is now available to all users. The aspiring Netflix rival currently offers users four Redbox DVD rentals and unlimited streaming for $8 a month (it's $9 a month if you want to rent Blu-Ray DVDs). While the price is right, the company's current streaming library of 4,600 titles is considerably smaller than Netflix's, though the companies promise the catalog will ramp up in scope quickly. 52 comments
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Just a few years ago, Nielsen proclaimed that the idea of TV cord cutting in favor of Internet video alternatives was "purely fiction." Subsequent Nielsen reports have often quite adorably gone out of their way to downplay cord cutters to protect their cozy relationship with cable ad executives. Fast forward a few years and the latest Nielsen data shows that there are now five million users who consume video -- but don't use a traditional cable connection to do it. 60 comments
by Revcb Thursday 14-Mar-2013 8 comments
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