Archives For Media

CBS is Getting Around, Boxee and Samsung

Mari Silbey —  January 6, 2011 — Leave a comment

If you’ve been missing CBS shows on your various connected devices, cheer up. “America’s Most Watched Network” is now coming to more gadgets courtesy of new licensing deals with Boxee and Samsung. The Samsung deal was announced yesterday at the company’s packed press conference and will bring CBS shows like CSI, NCIS, The Good Wife, and Survivor to Galaxy S smartphones and Galaxy Tab devices. (A new Wi-Fi-only Galaxy Tab was also announced yesterday, but that’s a different story.) Samsung announced the Media Hub service late last year for its Galaxy devices. It’s currently available with T-Mobile and Sprint, and “coming soon” to AT&T and Verizon.

Meanwhile, Boxee’s news came out this morning, with GigaOM reporting that Boxee users will soon be able to purchase both current and older CBS TV episodes on demand. GigaOM points out that this makes Boxee soon to be the only startup able to nail down agreements with all four major broadcasters. Interestingly, the shows cited by Boxee as CBS examples were Hawaii Five-O and MacGyver. Does this mean Boxee will have different content from Samsung? Probably not, but it’s interesting to speculate how the broadcasters could be doling out their content rights.

In Gadgets, Industry, Media, Mobile, TV Shows
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AT&T Gets the Tablet/TV Connection

Mari Silbey —  January 5, 2011 — 1 Comment

While Comcast and Verizon have been the most vocal about connecting the TV experience with tablet devices, AT&T announced a new technology today that shows the U-verse operator isn’t letting the TV/Tablet trend pass it by. According to reporting from Engadget, the new tech uses Wi-Fi to connect mobile devices to AT&T set-tops. It supports DLNA and adds in authentication, a TV interface, and application context. And in a twist, the operator is opening up the technology to let developers create their own U-verse applications. AT&T’s sample application, ComplemenTV, gives you remote DVR scheduling on the iPad, and program guide info with connections to Amazon and Home Shopping Network for product purchases. Now this is interactive TV.

In Broadband, Gadgets, Industry, Media, Mobile
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Comcast Live Streaming & VOD Coming to Tablets

Mari Silbey —  January 5, 2011 — 1 Comment

We learned last fall that Comcast had some new tricks planned for the Xfinity TV app, and an announcement this morning provides a bit more detail. (Business Insider SAI posted the news first.) Comcast will launch a new “play now” feature later this year for the iPad that gives access to “nearly 3,000 hours” of on-demand content. In addition, Comcast will add live streaming to the Xfinity TV app for in-home live TV watching on an iPad. Yes, we’re talking in-home only on the live streaming, but it still makes a nice place-shifting feature when you want to watch TV while cleaning the dishes or organizing your closets. Both the play now and live streaming functions will also reportedly be ported to Android tablets this year.

It’s interesting that Comcast has decided to make some noise during CES despite not having an official presence here. (No doubt there are plenty of back-room meetings taking place.) Part of the reason has to be the fact that Verizon is making a big splash at the show this year, though most of that will be on the wireless side rather than from the FiOS division. Another part of the reason is likely Comcast’s upcoming merger with NBCU. As The New York Times reported this morning, CES is turning into a can’t-miss event for media companies. All these new gadgets are great. But many of them are only as good as the content they provide.

In Broadband, Industry, Media, Mobile, Placeshifting, Software, TV Shows
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Skifta Soft Launch: Stream Your Media to DLNA Devices

Mari Silbey —  December 31, 2010 — 2 Comments

Now that we own digital content in a lot of different places, several companies are working on the problem of making it accessible everywhere. Skifta, owned by Qualcomm, is one such player with a new Android app, and an affinity for DLNA. The Skifta set-up is reasonably simple. Download the app on your phone and install the software on your computer or NAS drive. Skifta will also work with the content already on your phone or stored in certain web-based media services. Choose your content source, your DLNA playback device (including many of Dave’s Boxes of the Year), and you can start streaming from your phone.

I spoke with Skifta exec Gary Brotman recently about what’s in store for the product, and why he thinks the application has potential. He said Skifta is signing up as many services as possible to enable media playback from more web-based apps, and that the company has a developer program in the works as well. DVRs would be a natural fit for Skifta, but (with the TiVo and Moxi exceptions) would require support from cable/telco providers. Brotman agreed and acknowledged that the company is continually looking for new and useful integration points. Brotman also noted that the Skifta model is an attractive one for content studios because it provides access to media without leaving any cached copies lying around. When you leave a location, your media leaves with you.

Unfortunately, Skifta currently only works with Android 2.2 and above, so my Eris leaves me out of luck for an app trial, but I hope to get an on-site demo at CES next week. Although I love the concept of Skifta, I have certain reservations about how well it can succeed. First, it’s competing against other better-known services like Orb, which also automatically transcodes media for customized playback. Second, the company has to have incredible luck to get the timing right for its product. Video is the killer app for Skifta since you can already plug in a music player virtually anywhere, and photos on a large-screen TV aren’t terrifically compelling. That said, getting good video quality from Skifta would require a great wireless connection, a compatible phone, and a DLNA playback device. And once enough people meet all of those requirements, there may be an easier way to access media either directly from the web or by side-loading content. Can Skifta get critical mass early enough? It’s hard to know. But I’m certainly in favor of this trend toward making my media accessible anywhere.

In Media, Mobile
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Netflix and Others Should Brace for Changes in 2011

Mari Silbey —  December 2, 2010 — 19 Comments

A major shift is taking place. The interwebs are now important enough for major content providers to start throwing their weight around online. Sure, they’ve been doing it to some extent over the last several years – networks keeping content off Hulu, broadcasters blocking video scrapers like RedLasso – but the studios are upping their game. The latest evidence is a report from Reuters that “senior executives at three of the big six television and movie studios” are looking to renegotiate their deals with Netflix. You know those 28-day DVD release windows before Netflix gets access to certain movies? The studios are looking at extending them further. And the money Netflix pays for digital rights to studio content? Increases are likely on the way. (Of course Netflix may be very willing to pay. There’s one report out that the streaming company would pay up to $100K per episode if it could get its hands on current TV line-ups.)

None of this is surprising. Just look at the retransmission wars taking place between TV networks and cable providers. As Netflix moves closer to that latter category, the company is going to start getting similar treatment. It’s just a distribution channel after all. And now that it’s a highly profitable one, the content companies are going to shorten their leashes.

There are other recent examples of networks putting pressure on digital distribution too. The limitations placed on the likes of Google TV and Boxee Box count as one example, but I also listened in at an industry event yesterday where it became clear that networks want to increase the ad loads for content online. Will Richmond of VideoNuze hosted the event with execs from MTV Networks, Comcast, and elsewhere, and one of the discussions centered on how much advertising consumers will tolerate online. The prevailing view seems to be that there’s still a lot of room for ad growth.

Don’t get me wrong – I do believe content producers and providers have a right to get paid for their work, and high-value content isn’t cheap to make. As a consumer, though, I can only sigh with resignation as I watch the online distribution channel evolve along the lines of traditional television, and hope that greed doesn’t push the pendulum too far.

In Media, Movies, Netflix, Web
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