News Bytes: September 23

Engadget HD reviews ZeeVee's ZvBox
via Engadget
If you've been looking for a way to stream any HD web content -- we do mean any: Hulu, mkv, Amazon -- to any HDTV in the house, without running any new wires, dealing with the woes of WiFi, or even needing yet another box hanging off your shiny new HDTV; you should head on over to Engadget HD and read all about ZeeVee's ZvBox. We take the $500 box and put it through the paces to see if broadcasting your own QAM HD channel is worth the price.
Read

T-Mobile Unveils First Google Phone, Amazon MP3 Link
via Digital Media Wire - connecting people & knowledge
New York - Mobile network operator T-Mobile USA on Tuesday introduced the G1, the first mobile phone to feature Google's Android operating system, which will sell for $179 with a two-year voice and data agreement when it goes on sale first in the U.S. on Oct. 22. Viewed as a smartphone that will challenge Apple's iPhone, the G1 -- manufactured by Taiwan's HTC -- features both a touch-screen display and a full QWERTY hardware keyboard that slides out from underneath. read more

Hulu Adds Genres, Discussion, Search Features
via NewTeeVee
Popular video aggregator Hulu, which says it now has roughly 900 titles from more than 100 providers, has added genre-based channel browsing to its list of features, as well show recommendations, discussion forums and actor-based search.

The site debuted 17 new genre-based channels, among them action, comedy and horror. Meanwhile, Hulu launched an anime channel with shows like Naruto and Death Note, as well as a “Web Originals” channel featuring such high-profile shows as LG15: The Resistance, The Line and Gemini Division.

Hulu has also added show recommendations, though they are inconveniently buried way down at the bottom of the page beneath the new show and episode-specific discussion forums. The actor-based search works as you would expect it to; a search for “Tina Fey” brought up 30 Rock along with red carpet interviews, and results were broken down by TV network.

Rival online TV service Joost recently ditched its download client to become more web-based like Hulu, and added more socially oriented content discovery. Hulu will be making its own leap into deeper social functionality when it rolls out its Facebook Connect integration, which was supposed to launch in August.

Netflix Makes Deals With CBS, Disney on TV Shows
via paidContent.org
Netflix is on a content and services dealmaking frenzy. After embedding its service in LG, XBox, Roku and others, it has now done deals with CBS and Disney for making their TV shows available on the online version of its service. This will add about 500 older TV episodes from the Disney Channel and 350 episodes from CBS....others like NBC are already on Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX). The streaming service on Netflix is available for free for its DVD rental subscribers, and will be commercial free. Netflix has about 12K video available for streaming, compared to bout 100K DVDs in its service, but Ted Sarandos, Netflix's chief content officer, told WSJ that the company expects to have dozens of major new TV shows available over the next couple of months.

News Bytes: September 18

No Download Required: Joost to Go Flash

via NewTeeVee

As we previously reported, Internet TV startup Joost is ditching its downloadable desktop software. But now the company is taking things a step further, to give users the option to access the site without even downloading a P2P browser plug-in. All its content and new social features will be available in Flash, with higher definition, live, and some international programming only available with download of a “premium” (but still free) plug-in.

What’s more, the company says it expects the majority of its users will come to its content through the Flash player. The premium version of the site is open to the public today; the standard version will launch in mid-October.

Also — yay! — Joost is improving its terrible navigation system. The site will now organize shows, films, and music into hierarchical categories.

Joost is also adding new content throughout the course of the fall. Its library of 28,000 shows includes some that no other web video sites offer, for instance the largest collection of anime on the web, according to a spokesperson.

With general consumer knowledge and adoption of the availability of TV online just beginning, Joost may just have an outside chance at reclaiming the ground it lost with its (often faulty) desktop client.

Mobile Video Is Next for MySpace, Facebook

via NewTeeVee

At a panel at GigaOM’s Mobilize conference today, representatives from MySpace and Facebook both said they saw emerging opportunities to bring video uploads to cell phones. Here are my notes:

John Faith, General Manager and VP, MySpace Mobile, MySpace:

Opportunities in mobile: Right now it’s all about communication, getting info and reacting to it. User-generated content has not had social network applied to it for mobile… New products: Video transcends the actual interface between a user having to type something in, being able to upload that to a social network is rather powerful. We just recently announced the ability to upload video directly, so the extension of that on mobile devices is the next step.

Chamath Palihapitiya, VP of Growth, Mobile and International, Facebook: Mobile strategy:

Uploading photos from mobile is very popular. Video is the next logical place to go. Qik, Flixwagon — that’s really cool stuff. To the extent that we can enable people to upload directly and then share that with their friends, I think that’s very powerful.

Sony Launches Life with Playstation Web Service

via TechCrunch

Life with PlayStation is now available for your PS3. The service, which can be downloaded by selecting the Folding@Home icon in the PS3’s dashboard, lets gamers view real-time news, weather and relating info right from their TV. Visually it’s quite impressive, with a focus on ease of use and simple data display. This is not, however, Playstation Home, Sony’s PS3-based free virtual world that will allow players to socialize in a Second-Life-like environment.

Sony’s touting it as something you turn on in the morning before heading to school or work. “Do I need an umbrella today, or a jacket? How did the Yankees do? (Just assume they lost.)” That type of thing.

Read more…

News Bytes: September 17

Verizon Wireless Quietly Launches Flash-Based Storefront

via mocoNews.net

Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) has quietly released Dashboard, a new storefront found on its phones using Adobe's (NSDQ: ADBE) Flash technology, mocoNews has learned. So far, Dashboard has launched on the LG Chocolate 3, and more phones are expected by the end of the year, making it one of the largest mobile implementations of Flash in the U.S., both Verizon Wireless and Adobe confirmed. Todd Murphy, Verizon Wireless's director of digital media programming, explained to us the platform stands alongside the carrier's Get It Now platform, and is designed to be an easy place for consumers to find both content from Verizon's deck, but also links that take you to the mobile Web, "It's a dynamic real-time store. It's one click up on the Chocolate 3. We have a system on the back end that allows you to merchandise and change things every couple of hours."

The launch of Dashboard comes just before Adobe's CEO Shantanu Narayen keynoted at CTIA, where he pleaded for more standards in the industry, so that content can be developed once and published across many mobile devices and also the Internet and TV. However, operators in the U.S. have been slow to adopt Flash, even though it's embedded in a lot of handsets. Lack of Flash is a constant complaint about the iPhone. Verizon has been one of the more aggressive companies on that front, providing a Flash Lite extension to its Brew platform, which features content from game companies, such as Smashing Ideas and Mobitween, but also videos from MTV's Atom Entertainment. Anup Murarka, Adobe's director for technical marketing, who also appeared at CTIA, told us: "In terms of Flash Lite, Japan has been the first and foremost, and then Europe and now it is gaining in the U.S." For instance, little do people know that Flash is used on some of the popular phones, including the LG (SEO: 066570) Shine, Venus and Voyager. "We can enable these experiences to be richer, or more engaging, and the end-user doesn't even know it...You'll see additional examples over the next six to nine months." Read more

Mobile Content Bits: Games Go Mainstream At Handango

via mocoNews.net

-- Games and entertainment are hottest categories at Handango: Handango released its Yardstick for the first half of the year and reported that games jumped from fourth place to first place in just six months, followed close behind by the entertainment category—a first since the mobile content storefront began releasing the report. Entertainment and games comprised 42 percent of all sales in the top ten categories while business applications stood at 15 percent and productivity apps came in fourth place at 9 percent. Strong sales from EA Mobile and Capcom Interactive helped drive the surge in game-related sales. Handango also added more than 370 developers to its roster of more than 23,000 in the first half of the year. (Release).

NBC.COM New Digital Line-up

Planning to expand upon past successes NBC.com announced a new digital line-up of programming built around the fall television season. Here's a sampling of what's to come:

• Heroes will feature more micro-sites delving into secrets revealed on air, more graphic novels, more cast commentaries and more webisodes beginning in December. A special heroes vs. villains social network launches in October
• Knight Rider fans will be able to investigate the back stories of some of their favorite characters, play an all-new KITT game and interact in Attack KITT and the KITT cave
• The Dunder Mifflin Infinity social network built around The Office will feature new branches, new tasks and new prizes. New features include Meredith's blog, Angela and Andy's wedding planning microsite, a Serenity by Jan microsite and a second installment of webisodes slated for November

Executive Moves

Marketing firm BrightLine iTV named Audrey Marco to the role of VP/Business Development in BrightLine's L.A. office. Audrey spent 11 years at Sony Pictures Entertainment where she helped found its Digital Division.

News Bytes: September 16

Chad Hurley On The Future Of YouTube: We Will Conquer Every Screen

via TechCrunch

YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley wrote a post this morning about the future of online video and YouTube specifically. Hurley notes that 13 hours worth of videos are uploaded every minute to YouTube (a figure we’ve reported before). And he predicts more of the same: more videos will be uploaded to the Web, more video creators will be uploading those videos, and more viewers will be watching them on all sorts of screens from the living room to their mobile devices. In other words, more of the same means more exponential growth of videos on the Web.

Hurley’s vision of the future, though, pretty much describes the world as it is today. You can watch YouTube on your TiVo, iPhone, or PC. But if you read between the lines, he does hint that mobile might be the next really big step for YouTube:

Our goal is to allow every person on the planet to participate by making the upload process as simple as placing a phone call. This new video content will be available on any screen - in your your living room, or on your device in your pocket. YouTube and other sites will bring together all the diverse media which matters to you, from videos of family and friends to news, music, sports, cooking and much, much more.

The mobile opportunity for YouTube is bigger than just making all the video in the world available in your pocket. Mobile phones are also the new video cameras. Once it becomes truly easy to upload video from your phone to YouTube, it could truly become the repository of every captured moment in people’s lives.

For all his visions of the future, however, Hurley still has to figure out how make money from all of those videos.

Samsung makes a hostile bid for SanDisk

via Engadget

We'd heard rumors Samsung was wooing SanDisk, but it looks like the four-month courtship is over -- Samsung just announced that in reponse to SanDisk's "unrealistic expectations" during negotiations, it's going hostile and will offer $26/share for the company. That's bound to cause some waves in the storage industry, especially since Toshiba and Seagate were also rumored to be interested in SanDisk. We'll see what happens -- things always get a little crazy when there's nearly six billion dollars in cash on the table.

Update: SanDisk's board rejected the bid unanimously, saying the bid undervalues the company and is, like, totally uncool, man.

Read - WSJ article
Read - Samsung letter to SanDisk

Amazon's IMDb.com Begins Streaming Free Movies, TV Shows

via Digital Media Wire - connecting people & knowledge

Seattle - Amazon.com (NASD: AMZN) announced on Tuesday that its Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com) subsidiary has launched free streaming of full-length movies and TV shows. The new feature launches with some 6,000 titles provided by CBS, Hulu, Sony Pictures Television and over 500 independent filmmakers, including movies like "Fever Pitch," "Hoop Dreams" and "Raising Arizona," and TV shows such as "24," "CSI," "The Simpsons" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

read more

News Bytes: September 15

YouTube Bans Violent Videos

via Digital Trends

In recent months YouTube has come under increasing criticism from both the US and UK for the fact that it has violent videos that have been uploaded available. But that has now changed as the Google-owned site has updated its community guidelines to prohibit videos that “directly incite violence,” the Guardian reports. There are two big changes in the community guidelines. One states: "Graphic or gratuitous violence is not allowed. If your video shows someone getting hurt, attacked or humiliated, don't post it." The other says: "We encourage Read

Hollywood Wants to Remake Content Ecosystem

via Digital Trends

A large collection of Hollywood players, retailers, online powerhouses, and consumer electronics firms have announced they've formed a new consortium called the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE), with the goal of making the purchase of digital media like music and movies a "buy once, play anywhere" experience. The idea is that when a consumer buys digital media, he or she will be able to play it on any DECE compatible device anywhere they like—and if they don't have a copy with them, they'll be able to access their content from a cloud-based media locker. The consortium plans to work on their technology and standards, an Read

News Bytes: September 11

CTIA Wire: Comcast-Thumbplay; mywaves-Sony Ericsson; PointRoll-USA Today; Truveo
via mocoNews.net

-- Comcast adds entertainment library to Thumbplay site: With Thumbplay Open, a digital content management system, now in beta, Thumbplay will offer extensive content to Comcast High Speed Internet customers and Comcast.net users can download music, ringtones, videos and games directly to their phones on m.comcast.net.. Thumbplay Open enables indie music artists to package and sell their own data to customers and allows site publishers and app developers to sell downloads from any site, app or widget. These users will also get a cut of the subscriber fee, $5-8 per subscriber.

-- mywaves launching new content, partners with Sony Ericsson: mywaves has launched "Captivate," its new service integrating ringtones, wallpaper and games with free mobile video and has expanded its distribution with Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) by incorporating its mobile app on its multimedia handsets. mywaves has also teamed up with Audible (NSDQ: ADBL) Magic to develop a content filtering technology to protect ownership rights. Heavy users will be charged a $9.99 per month subscription fee, though not clear what exactly constitutes a "heavy" user.

-- PointRoll and USA Today premiering expandable ad unit: The companies have launched an expandable rich media unit created specifically for the iPhone. Initially launching on the USA Today mobile site, it will feature campaigns for the Ford Flex and the new George Clooney-Brad Pitt flick from NBCU's Focus Features, Burn After Reading. The mobile ads are expandable upon user initiation and include video click-to-play, coupon downloads, mapping technology directly linked to Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Maps and user-initiated click-to-call.

-- Truveo launches public beta of video search site: Users can now access the Truveo Mobile Video Search beta site from realtime streaming protocol-supported phones by going to its WAP site. The site organizes millions of videos on over 300 sites whose content has been optimized for mobile devices and search results can be sorted by popularity, ranking or date.

Verizon Wireless Releases Dozens Of Games From 10 Publishers
via mocoNews.net

It's all about games today for Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ). The carrier released dozens of mobile games from 10 publishers. Gameloft (EPA: GFT), Glu Mobile (NSDQ: GLUU), Konami Digital Entertainment, Mobitween, Namco Networks, RealNetworks (NSDQ: RNWK), SkyZone Entertainment, Smashing Ideas, Capcom Interactive and Sony (NYSE: SNE) Pictures Television all teamed up with the carrier to launch games such as The Dark Knight and Sally's Salon. The carrier said it is over performing in the mobile games space and increasing its market share. (Release).

TiVo Coming to BlackBerries, Eventually [TiVo]
via Gizmodo

BlackBerry manufacturer RIM and TiVo manufacturer TiVo have teamed up to offer what sounds like SlingBoxesque mobile entertainment on RIM phones. There aren't many details now, but the press release explains:

Initially, BlackBerry smartphone users will gain the convenience of being able to discover what shows are on and schedule television recordings while away from the living room and on the go. Future collaboration between the companies will focus on software applications that further simplify mobile access to video content.

Hopefully that "future collaboration" part isn't too far off.

RIM & TiVo Partner to Provide TiVo Mobile Entertainment Services on BlackBerry Smartphones

ALVISO, CALIFORNIA and WATERLOO, ONTARIO—(Marketwire - Sept. 11, 2008) - TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ:TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), and Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ:RIMM)(TSX:RIM), a global leader in wireless innovation, today announced a partnership to bring customized TiVo services to the BlackBerry® wireless platform.

The new relationship brings TiVo and RIM together to develop a variety of mobile entertainment services that marry RIM's leading BlackBerry® smartphones with the content delivered to consumers through the Emmy-winning TiVo® service. Initially, BlackBerry smartphone users will gain the convenience of being able to discover what shows are on and schedule television recordings while away from the living room and on the go. Future collaboration between the companies will focus on software applications that further simplify mobile access to video content.

"TiVo subscribers will soon be able to wirelessly control their TiVo DVRs using a BlackBerry smartphone - anytime, anywhere - and that is a powerful example of how our respective technologies can complement each other to serve our mutual customers," said Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO of Research In Motion. "As the BlackBerry smartphone continues its evolution as a modern lifestyle device, the importance of home entertainment integration will continue to grow and TiVo will be the key in providing consumers with greater flexibility in accessing television content."

"TiVo continues to transform and revolutionize the way people control and watch television and broadband video," said Tom Rogers, CEO and President of TiVo Inc. "RIM and TiVo share a commitment to great user experiences, which cause our products to become seamlessly integrated into the consumer's lifestyle. We also share a vision for the future of mobile entertainment services and we look forward to a variety of future innovations as a result of this relationship."

The first software application from RIM and TiVo is expected to be available later this year.

News Bytes: September 10

YouTube: 5 Billion Served
via Portfolio.com: Tech Observer

Sam Gustin writes: Google's YouTube is absolutely crushing the competition in Web video, according to new data from market research firm comScore.In July, Web users watched a staggering 5 billion videos on Google sites, (YouTube accounts for 98 percent of Google's video traffic), earning it 44 percent market share.The next closest competitor was Fox Interactive Media, which came in at a paltry 3.9 percent market share. Microsoft and Yahoo's video offerings earned 2.5 and 2.4 percent market share, respectively. Hulu, the ad-supported Web video partnership between Fox and NBC earned an anemic 1 percent market share.In terms of unique viewers, YouTube was dominant as well, drawing over 90 million unique visitors for the month. The next closest was Fox Interactive Media, with 54 million visitors, most of whom were watching videos on MySpace, the social network.Perhaps the most telling stat involves YouTube's stickiness, which is driven by the social nature of the site that no competitor has been able to replicate.YouTube users watched an average of 55 videos in July -- no other Web video service had users who watched more than 12 videos on average.

@ CTIA: Sony Pictures Integrates Dynamic Ad Service On Minisode Network
via mocoNews.net

Sony (NYSE: SNE) Pictures Television is revamping its mobile advertising capabilities with a new service that will enable the entertainment giant to automatically insert ads, a first of its kind for WAP sites in the United States, according to the company. The company's Minisode Network, which is on the carrier decks at Sprint (NYSE: S) and Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ), also operates off deck through the support of ads. "None of these video-on-demand services have the ability to dynamically serve ads," said Eric Berger, SVP of mobile entertainment. "If you want to have video-on-demand with advertising you have to do what we call stitch the advertising onto the video."

After a sponsorship campaign ends, Sony and its competitors have had to pull down the content, edit new ads into video clips, re-encode the video and post it all over again. The new system, which is powered by Mobixell Networks, will stick the video advertisement into existing clips as a pre-roll, post-roll or interstitial ad with no downtime. Berger: "It enables us to move in and out of campaigns more quickly and put more advertising partners through this service so they can deliver more impressions." Sony's Minisode Network uses pre-roll ads before each clip and uses just one sponsorship at a time. The company hopes its ad-supported network will flourish outside the carriers' walled gardens, but Berger admits there are shortcomings: "The challenge for us is the business doesn't really scale today." Mobile ads aren't simply given away, but get bundled into packages at the company's ad unit.

@ CTIA: Verizon Wireless Roundup: V CAST Video Service Expands With 13 New Content Providers
via mocoNews.net

Verizon (NYSE: VZ) added a whole mess of new video content to its V CAST Video service today from at least 13 content providers. The carrier added the following channels to its programming line-up: Tuned In from 60Frames; Comedy Time Latino from Comedy Time; TLC, Animal Planet, Planet Green and Discovery Kids from Discovery Communications; ES Musica and Rock On: Altitude from GoTV Networks; the G4 Channel from Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA)

Entertainment Group's G4; The WB Channel from Warner Bros. Television Group; SayHeyHey from SayHeyHey.com; the Relix Channel from Zenbu Media; HGTV and Food Network from Scripps (NYSE: SSP) Networks; and DC Comics and Scooby-Doo & Friends from Warner Bros. Digital Distribution. (Release).

Samsung Considering Acquisition of SanDisk
via MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer » MediaBytes

SAMSUNG announced that it is considering an acquisition of SANDISK (NASD: SNDK), which could adversely affect TOSHIBA, whose chip plants are co-financied by SanDisk. WIth competition looking to take over, the ties between SanDisk and Toshiba would inevitably erode and leave Toshiba without one of its biggest clients in its core business, memory chips. Things could be bleak for Toshiba if the alliance goes through, however, anti-trust violations could keep the deal from going through.

Family Guy Creator Launches Cavalcade of Comedy
via NewTeeVee

Seth MacFarlane kicked off his long-anticipated, multimillion-dollar, Google AdSense-distributed Cavalcade of Comedy animated series today. Two new shorts are live on both MacFarlane’s sethcomedy.com and on the show sponsor Burger King’s YouTube channel.

Fans of Family Guy will be pleased to know that MacFarlane’s new apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, featuring much of the same kind of pop-culture-filled humor that made MacFarlane a frat house name.

As we’ve written before, Cavalcade is unique in the web video world in that it will be distributed via Google AdSense to sites that are demographically aligned. There will be 50 episodes with “new Cavalcade shorts every week.”

Vid-Biz: DTV, Motherhood, Verizon
via NewTeeVee
DTV Switch Tested in Wilmington, N.C.; town shuts off analog system in a test for the larger, national switch in February. (The Wall Street Journal)

ABC Orders 13 Episodes of In the Motherhood; the former web series has been in development at ABC since the spring; casting is still not in place for the series. (TVWeek)

Verizon Offering More TV Shows; wireless network to get full-length episodes of programs from NBC, MTV, HGTV and more. (Multichannel News)

Global Media Exchange Acquires inDplay; division of Ascent Marketing buys online content licensing marketplace inDplay, which was backed by Google CEO Eric Schmidt. (release)

Disney Serves Up 186.7 Million Streams in July; record month tied to web originals featuring High School Musical, Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Bros. (Variety)

U.S. Open Online Attracts 300,000 Users
via NewTeeVee

Roughly 300,000 users watched the U.S. Open’s final men’s tennis match online this past Monday, according to numbers from CBS Sports. The rain-delayed match was live-streamed on both CBSSports.com and the USOpen.org, where each of those 300,000 users watched approximately 49 minutes of video for a total of 243,000 hours of video.

While those aren’t Tiger Woods numbers, they aren’t too shabby given that they didn’t have a similar brand-name star (easy, Federer fans, it’s just the truth). And since the game was on a Monday at 5 p.m. ET, it’s probably 300,000 more than they would have gotten had the network only showed it on TV. And it looks like CBS is just getting warmed up when it comes to sports online.

CBS Sports announced yesterday that it will live stream all of the 17 scheduled home college football games of the Southeastern Conference on CBSSports.com. This is the first time college football fans can watch games online for free. Coverage “kicks off” on Sept. 13 as Georgia takes on USC.

Sports is only beginning to spread its wings online, and it will be big business as more online options open up. The NFL started streaming games last week, ESPN will start live streaming Major League Baseball games, and the NBA is in negotiations to stream local games.

News Bytes: September 9

Apple Brings Back NBC; HD TV Shows for $2.99

via NewTeeVee

iTunes will offer HD versions of TV episodes for $2.99, and start selling NBC shows again, is the word from the special Apple event today in San Francisco.

Updated: Industry Moves: Disney-ABC TV; Spot Runner; Operative

via paidContent.org

-- Disney/ABC-TV: The broadcast and cable unit has added three execs to its digital team… Karin Timpone and Lauren DeVillier are joining from Yahoo. Timpone will serve as SVP, marketing and product strategy for the Digital Media team, while DeVillier will serve as VP, digital media at the Disney Channel. At Yahoo, Timpone was chief marketer for the Yahoo Media Group, overseeing marketing for the portal's content operations, including entertainment, news, finance, sports, lifestyles and health verticals. During her time at Yahoo, DeVillier managed Yahoo Kids and the eco-focused channel Yahoo Green. Rounding out the trio of new faces at Disney/ABC's digital team is Beth Johnson, who arrives from NBC Universal's Bravo, where she was editorial director for digital media. Before that, Johnson part of the launch team for InStyle magazine's InStyle.com. In her new role at Disney, Johnson will be VP, digital media for ABC Daytime & SOAPnet.

-- Spot Runner: Separate from the loss of national ad sales exec Joanne Bradford to Yahoo earlier, the online TV ad agency has tapped two new execs to its Local Marketing Services group. Former Autobytel and AOL exec Jon Rosen is in as VP of sales and business development; and Elizabeth Carrasco, formerly of web traffic analyst Authenticlick, as VP of online engineering. Release (PDF)

-- Operative: Microsoft has another space to fill following the exit of Kevin Johnson in June and Bradford leaving, however briefly, for Spot Runner this past spring. Now, Microsoft vet Mike Hard is gone. He ran U.S. digital advertising sales at MSFT, and will now oversee global sales and marketing for Operative, a provider of ad management tools to web publishers. Hard spent 17 years in a variety of executive roles at the Redmond software giant. Release

AT&T Overhauls U-Verse DVR; Still Playing Catch-Up To Verizon FiOS, Cable

via paidContent.org

With recent expansion of the deal between DirecTV (NYSE: DTV) and TiVo (NSDQ: TIVO), the DVR wars are ramping up. Now, after past struggles, AT&T (NYSE: T) is rolling out what it says is an "enhancement" to its IPTV product U-Verse. The new service, dubbed Total Home DVR, is being made available in the Bay Area first. AT&T plans to hook up the rest of its national subs later this year. Noting that most DVR recordings are limited to a single TV set-top box, AT&T says this service allows recorded shows to be played on any set in a subscriber's home. It also boasts up to 37 hours of high-def content storage space or up to 133 hours of standard content. And users will be able to set the DVR from their PC or cell phone as part of its AT&T Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Web and Mobile Remote Access DVR feature. Release

-- WSJ: At least for the moment, AT&T has a lot of catching up to do against Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and the cable providers. Verizon's FiOS TV service claims 1.4 million subs compared to U-verse's 549,000—though AT&T says it expects to top one million subs by the end of the year. The Total Home DVR service will be free as part of a U-verse subscription, which runs from $44 to $99 monthly.

Gossip Girl Returns to Streaming

via NewTeeVee

You’ll be happy to know that the CW, either egged on by our post asking for online episodes (probably not) or sticking with a stupidly long planned delay, has, in fact, posted the season two premiere of Gossip Girl online. TVbytheNumbers‘ Robert Seidman kept his eyes on CWTV and let us know he caught sight of last week’s episode posted yesterday afternoon, a few hours before the new one aired on the East Coast.

So it appears, for now, that the CW’s new strategy is to post streaming versions of its primetime shows a week after they air (Gossip Girl is on Mondays). In keeping with that schedule, the series premiere of the new 90210 (which aired last Tuesday) is live today. I believe that, in the past, CW posted new episodes after a couple days’ delay, but not a week. All along it has been posted to iTunes with much more alacrity.

This new posting schedule follows the network’s attempt to drive up oldteevee viewership of Gossip Girl last year by discontinuing ad-supported streaming of new episodes. Over the summer the network announced it had changed its policy and would be bring the show back to the web, but when no new episodes had appeared six days after the season premiere we had started to wonder if it was having second thoughts.

News Bytes: September 8

HBO Launches A Web Video Show

via TechCrunch

HBO on Monday announced that it will try to use the Web in a slightly different way than its colleagues at NBC and Fox have used it with Hulu: it will launch its own Web video series called “Hooking Up.”

Jessica Rose of “lonelygirl15″ fame will star in the new show and will be accompanied by video bloggers, sxePhil and KevJumba. The 10-part show will start airing on October 1 and will be offered on its own site, Hookingupshow.com, as well as MySpaceTV, and YouTube.

Ironically, HBO said it will not monetize the show during the first year. Instead, it will let users watch the show during the first year and try selling advertising if the show continues for another season.

More importantly, “Hooking Up” is just the first major announcement HBO has made with its HBOlab brand, which aims at expanding online programming and establishing the company a foothold online. But the question remains: can TV networks establish the same basic business model online? Hulu’s success suggests it’s easier to place TV content online instead of creating original content.

Real Networks’ Legal DVD Ripping Will Cost You

via NewTeeVee

Today at DEMO, Real Networks launched its own DVD “storage” service that allows a user to rip a DVD he owns onto his computer, an external hard drive or a flash drive. For $29.99 Windows users (Mac software will launch next year) can copy DVDs and watch them on their PCs. There is a free 30-day trial period as well. Unlike competing services such as HandBrake or Mac the Ripper, Real’s product is legal. But being above board is going to cost users in both dollars and storage.

There are three reasons the service is legal, according to Real Networks VP Jeff Chasen, who showed the product. It doesn’t change the change the content of the DVD at all. No compression, no DRM cracking or sharing, but it does add an extra layer of 128-bit encryption to the stored file. In all, it means you need to have a heckuva lot of storage to store your DVD library (and even more for Blu-Ray), but with fancy terabyte drives in the sub-$500 range, that’s not a huge kicker. Second, you have to pay for the Real software for every computer you’re going to watch the movies on (the added Real encryption tracks this.) Chasen says a user can put the software on up to five computers to manage a single library of movies, and there will be discounts for buying multiple copies.

Finally, the courtroom defeat of industry players suing Kaliedescape, a startup that stored DVDs onto a hard drive, four years ago paved the way for a legit DVD storage service, Chasen says. That doesn’t address the issue of copying a Netflix DVD onto my computer, but so far RealDVD software has protected itself with a handy little statement that appears when trying to watch or rip a device. It reads, “RealDVD is for saving a DVD you own. If you do not own this DVD select play.”

With cheaper storage and a way to make sure every DVD-watcher has a license to the software, the technology may be ready, but I doubt people’s scruples are.

Shouldn’t Gossip Girl (and the CW’s Other Shows) Be Online by Now?

via NewTeeVee

For the last five weeks of its freshman season, the CW discontinued posting its buzzy but largely unwatched series Gossip Girl online, as part of an effort to drum up its oldteevee viewer numbers. We newteevee watchers booed and hissed, hoping the ploy wouldn’t work and set an example for other networks. Ratings stayed low, but the series got renewed, and then over the summer, the CW said it would reverse its policy and post Gossip Girl online when it returned to the air in September.

But…It’s been nearly a week since the series’ sophomore debut, and episode 1 still isn’t online. Standard practice among the TV networks is to post shows online after they air in Hawaii; if not then, sometime soon the next day. A week is pushing it. We have to wonder if the CW is reneging on its reversal.

Furthermore, as far as I can tell, the CW hasn’t posted any episodes from its new season; what seems to be the most recent video in its full episode queue is an episode of Everybody Hates Chris that originally aired in May. Either the guy who loads new videos into the system quit last week, or there’s been an unacknowledged policy reversal. And this at a time when networks across the board are posting more and more of their shows for free, ad-supported streaming online, in some cases before they air on TV.

As for actual broadcast television, interpretations of Gossip Girl’s season premiere’s ratings were mixed; on the one hand, the episode failed to top last season’s premiere, and it got beat by the CW’s 90210 revival the next night; on the other hand, it apparently did amazingly great with women aged 18 to 34. Meanwhile, Gossip Girl was promptly posted on iTunes after it aired. And nearly a week later, it still occupies the No. 1 slot. (The show has done well all along on iTunes, and probably since people actually pay $1.99 for it there the CW hasn’t messed with that success.) One Tree Hill is at No. 2, while 90210 doesn’t seem to have been posted at all.

We’ve tried to contact the CW’s press department through official means, but that hasn’t worked so far, so maybe blogging will do the trick. Hey CW, whatever happened to posting your shows online?

News Bytes: September 4

19% of U.S. Households Watch Online TV

via NewTeeVee

Probably one of the most important benchmarks for online video, in my opinion, was the study conducted by TNS and the Conference Board last year that found 16 percent of American Internet households watch TV broadcasts online. That seemed pretty impressive at the time, especially given that it pre-dated the existence of Hulu along with widespread promotion of other network’s streaming offerings. It signaled that there was a real audience for premium entertainment on the PC screen.

Well, perhaps as expected, but certainly as an important milestone, that number is now larger: “Nearly one-fifth” of American Internet households watch TV broadcasts online, according to a release put out by the two firms today. So assuming the number is something on the order of 19 percent, it’s actually not that dramatic of an increase year-on-year. (We’ve asked if they can send over a more precise percentage. The firms do say this year’s figure is double what they measured two years ago.)

In its study of 10,000 households, TNS and the Conference Board found that of those who watch TV online, 43 percent tune into the news, the most popular category. Thirty-nine percent watch drama shows, 34 percent sitcom/comedy shows, 23 percent reality shows, 16 percent sports, and 15 percent user-generated content.

Almost nine out of ten online TV viewers watch online broadcasts at home, while 15 percent watch from their office. Some 68 percent of online TV watchers stream video, while 38 percent utilize free downloads (Meaning illegitimate downloads, I assume. Most places offering authorized downloads, like iTunes, do it for a fee.) The top streaming destinations are official TV sites, with 65 percent of viewers, and YouTube, with 41 percent.

Analysis: Set-Top, Shmet-Top: TV Makers Take It Inside

via Digital Media Wire - connecting people & knowledge

The annual CEDIA Expo has been underway in Denver this week, where consumer electronics manufacturers were unveiling their newest top-of-line hardware for an audience of custom home theater installers. This year's show was heavy on (very) high-end Blu-ray Disc players from Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer, JVC and others (not much for the Wal-Mart crowd there). But it also featured hardware makers' first substantial forays into Internet-enabled TV sets, which are designed to serve as their own bridge between the Web-delivered video and the big-screen TV in the living room without the need of a separate set-top box or PC.

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What You Need to Know about the LG-Netflix Box

via NewTeeVee

LG and Netflix have been doling out more details on their joint hardware project day by day. Here’s what we know about the BD300, with thanks to Wired Gadget Lab, The New York Times Bits Blog, and of course, the official press release.

• It’ll be available the first week of October at Best Buy, Circuit City and specialty retailers.
• It will cost $399.95 (the Roku Netflix player is $99.99).
• It will be a Blu-ray disc player with BD Live (though accessing the Internet will require an additional memory dongle).
• You’ll have to have a Netflix subscription, but LG will offer two weeks free Netflix service for new members with the player.
• It will play 12,000 Netflix movies and TV episodes, but you’ll have to queue them up in advance from your PC.
• Netflix content will not stream in HD, but rather “near DVD-quality,” depending on the speed of your Internet connection. Netflix hopes to stream movies in HD by next year.

The appeal of this particular device is in getting Blu-ray and streaming movies in the same place, even if the difference in quality is that much more apparent. But the Xbox 360 is also getting Netflix streaming, as well as a hefty price drop. Meanwhile, Amazon doesn’t have its own box, but it does have 40,000 titles and multiple hardware partnerships.

News Bytes: September 3

Amazon Adds Streaming for Both PCs and Macs

via NewTeeVee

Amazon has extended its paid video service to streaming, Macs, and compatible Sony BRAVIA devices and televisions. It previously only made movies and TV shows available for download to PCs or on TiVos. The moves were all expected and forecast, but they are no less important for Amazon to have a viable online entertainment portal.

Amazon bridges current offerings from iTunes, Hulu, and Netflix, though it’s important to note that, like iTunes, none of its content is ad-supported. It beats iTunes on TV because it has NBC, and it beats Hulu on movies because it has far more of them. Netflix’s movie service, meanwhile, only provides streaming for PCs.

The service is now called Amazon Video on Demand, with the previous brand name, Unbox, now just referring to the download helper application. Amazon has a large, but not exhaustive, library of 40,000 movies and TV shows. It also works on Windows Media Center extender devices such as the Xbox 360. It’s worth making special note that downloads still only work on Windows.

Movies cost on the order of $9.99 to $14.99 to own, and $2.99 to $3.99 to rent. Most TV episodes are $1.99; some older TV episodes are free, and there are some Internet TV originals in there too, like A Comicbook Orange.

In my early tests, streaming on a Mac works great, even over the EVDO connection I’m using right now. The video picks up nicely wherever you scan through the status bar. Amazon is also offering free 2-minute previews of each movie and episode.

Zuckerberg, Huffington and Mossberg on Vanity Fair 100 List

via paidContent.org

The Vanity Fair 100 list is out, and the usual litany of powerhouses and powerbrokers..the magazine calls is "The Vanity Fair Top 100 Leaders of Information Age", so in that spirit, some new names, including Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook; Arianna Huffington, founder of HuffPo; Matt Drudge, founder of DrudgeReport; and everyone's favorite reviewer Walt Mossberg. Then the familiar big media names such as Rupert Murdoch, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Jeff Bewkes, Barry Diller, Peter Chernin, Howard Stringer, Philippe Daumann, and others.

Then on the rising stars, the "New Establishment" as it calls them, includes some names which we write about regularly here: Mika Salmi, Quincy Smith, MySpace founders, Max Levchin, the iLike founders, Dmitry Shapiro, founder of Veoh, Evan Williams, founder of Twitter and others…

Comcast’s Fancast Offers Downloads… For a Price

via TechCrunch

Comcast has now jumped into the downloadable video content game with the Fancast Store. It’s a lot like many other video download stores in that you can either rent or buy movies and TV shows, it requires you to install proprietary media management software in order to download and view your content, and it’s not Mac compatible (you can, however, order content from a Mac and download it on a PC later).

Purchasing content allows you to download it on up to three computers, while renting content ties you to whichever computer you use to download the content. Rented video files must be consumed within 30 days and, once initially played, must be watched within 24 hours or they’ll expire.

Read more…

Industry Moves: Virgin Mobile USA; Thumbplay; Motorola

via mocoNews.net

-- Virgin Mobile (NYSE: VM) USA: Naval officer Daniel Acton is joining as Virgin Mobile's new chief information and technology officer. He will be responsible for the Virgin Mobile USA's current IT infrastructure and product development, but in addition, with the recent close of the Helio acquisition, he will lead the new postpaid engineering and financial systems. Throughout his career he has held a variety of executive roles in engineering and M&A at GE, Lockheed Martin and IBM, among others, while serving concurrently as an information operations officer in the Navy Reserve. Release.

-- Thumbplay: The mobile entertainment provider has tapped Bradley Blanken to lead wireless carrier relationships as VP-carrier business development. Effective today, he will report to Ken Hayes, EVP-carrier relations. Blanken joins from iSkoot, where he served as VP-carrier sales, and had earlier led carrier relations at AOL-owned Third Screen Media.

-- Motorola: Beefing up its marketing team with up to 15 new roles, Motorola (NYSE: MOT) has hired former BT (NYSE: BT) Vision sales director Simon Collinson as director of marketing strategy for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Marketing News reports. Collinson will report to Andrew Morley, VP of marketing for Europe, Middle East and Africa. Last week, the company hired back James King from Samsung as its European marketing director. King had defected to Samsung about a month ago.

Vid-Biz

via NewTeeVee

YouTube Charging for “Promoted” Video Placements? Advertising sources say “promoted” video slots are regularly negotiated into ad deals on the site. (Silicon Alley Insider)

DirecTV Getting a New HD TiVo; satellite company and DVR maker are hooking up for a new HD DVR in 2009. (Zatz Not Funny)

News Bytes: September 2

Hulu to Get Some Premieres Early

via NewTeeVee

It pays to have big media backers. Case in point: Hulu, which will not only be offering season premieres of hit TV shows from FOX and NBC, but will be debuting a number of shows online before they appear on television.

Over the next seven weeks Hulu will kick off the fall TV season with shows like Prison Break, Bones, House, Heroes, The Office and 30 Rock.

Additionally, in a bid to generate some online buzz, the site is getting Knight Rider, Lipstick Jungle, Chuck and Life a week before launching on television.

Putting select shows online before they air on oldteevee is becoming par for the course for networks. Last year, HBO released the Flight of the Conchords pilot on MySpace, iFilm and iTunes before it went up on the pay cable channel, and earlier this year NBCU launched season four of Battlestar Galactica on SciFi.com 10 hours before it was on television, and Showtime premiered the season two opener of The Tudors on YouTube.

Vid-Biz

via NewTeeVee

The CW Adds Mobile Video; wap.cwtv.com to offer clips and full episodes of shows like America’s Next Top Model and Gossip Girl (which are broken up into clips). (AdWeek)

Web Video: Easy to Produce, Hard to Find Success; The New York Times looks at the hits, misses and challenges of creating content for the web. (The New York Times)

Philips Demos Net TV; television set has an IPTV chip to deliver web video from select partners into living rooms. (paidContent)