It seemed as if only months ago Google Fiber was being classed as “an experiment†by many of the folks who supposedly know about this space. The rollout in Kansas City was labeled as everything from a ploy by Google to put pressure on other broadband providers to pony up and improve their speed and […]
They’re b-a-a-a-c-k. In case you were worried that broadcasters were planning to fold up their tents and let Aereo walk away with a clean court win… fear not. Claiming that an appeals court decision not to shut down the start up that uses tiny antennas to stream over-the-air content to consumers in New York City […]
UltraViolet, which struggled to get off the ground with consumers in the United States who said it was confusing to register with and use, is getting a similar reaction in Great Britain, where satellite operator BSkyB is calling for it to be simpler and more customer focused. Ian Lewis, director of Sky Movies and Sky […]
With pay-TV providers continuing to lose subscribers to over-the-top offerings like Netflix and Hulu, the question in the C-suite has to be “How do we keep/get back those former subscribers †Turns out, that’s a pretty simple proposition: Bribe them. New research posits that 44 percent of customers who re-subscribed to pay-TV services in the […]
Until recently, TV Everywhere has been one of those oxymorons that also tended more toward flash than substance. An AT&T exec once told me “TV Everywhere is nowhere until it’s anywhere,†pointing out that the “anywhere†at the time meant “in your home.†But providers have been pushing that ring of availability out a bit, […]
Netflix has gotten a big boost from Richard Greenfield, an analyst at BTIG Research, who has stamped a BUY rating on the content aggregator and reset its price target to $250… a big journey from its current range, but still shy of the $300 heights it hit before its bubble burst. Why now? Greenfield says […]
You gotta love Liberty Media chief John Malone, one of the original cable cowboys who took the then-fledgling technology to the masses in the U.S. and around the world. Malone has a bee in his bonnet (well, several, actually, but more on that later): The rising costs of sports programming, which, he told CNBC, has […]
So, today’s BIg Rumor is that CBS is threatening to take its ball and go home, pull the plug on its over the air signal and go the cable route, a la Fox. Well, there are a lot of words that could describe how likely either of those two companies are to put themselves behind […]
That thump you just heard was the other shoe dropping: Ericsson today announced it had acquired Microsoft’s MediaRoom and, in the process, become a more significant player in the ecosystem. For Microsoft, meanwhile, it means they can turn their full attention toward making the Xbox the center of their TV and IPTV strategy without any […]
Birds do it, bees do it… wait, wait, wait, wrong song. Intel wants to do it, Microsoft and Google could do it, Verizon is kinda doing it, and now, AT&T? No, not falling in love, but launching a streaming video service. Could it be the mythical Virtual MSO? AT&T, according to Variety, last month sent […]
Call it baby steps, but they’re big baby steps nonetheless. Cablevision has updated its Optimum for iPad app to allow users access to live liner content–albeit a very limited menu of content at the moment—outside their home WiFi network. The Long Island-based company said users of the app will be able to access news, weather […]
The first app, literally the first app, that I played with the morning I received my original Apple iPad (the weekend before NAB, by the way) was the ABC Player. And that was all it took, I was hooked. Simple, clean, easy to navigate. It was—and in many ways still is, the epitome of what […]
Have you got “the best idea ever†for a streaming media service? You might just be nearing the catbird seat. (Psst! Intel, Google Fiber listen up!) A poll from Harris Interactive suggests that nearly 40% of U.S. adults in that prime 18-34 age group would be willing to leave their pay-TV service provider for a […]
I’m still recovering from “House of Cards,†“Mad Men†and “Walking Dead†marathons on Netflix, but I’m pretty sure that I’ll be ready to get back in the lounge chair for one more big event: Netflix has announced “Arrested Development,†all 15 episodes at once, is rolling out at 12:01 a.m., May 26, a Sunday […]
Just one more sign that the pay-TV model—as we know it—is in for more than a little upheaval: A new report says content owners–like HBO, Disney and Fox–will play an increasingly large role in the growth of the encoding and transcoding market as they look for ways to go directly to consumers with their products. […]
Video streaming technology provider upLynk Wednesday said it has signed Disney/ABC Television as its first customer for its live linear streaming service, adding that Disney already has deployed its software to manage encoding and delivery of content for web, mobile and tablet streaming for the WATCH Disney apps: WATCH Disney Channel, WATCH Disney Junior and WATCH Disney […]
Ericsson (ERIC), which already made news last week for rumored talks about acquiring Microsoft’s MediaRoom, is back Wednesday with more: the company said it would be debuting new support services at NAB 2013 aimed at helping broadcasters and content owners manage the evolving TV market environment. In a release announcing the new service, Ericsson said […]
Canadian media technology company Digital Rapids has scored a win with Internet and digital media service provider Terra, announcing Wednesday that the company will use DR’s Transcode Manager to prepare media assets for multiscreen VOD distribution for the company’s branded online news portal. Terra—which reaches about 100 million people monthly with entertainment, sports and news […]
Yes, I admit I am a Game of Thrones fan (thank you eldest son for pointing me to yet another hour of time I’ll never get back). And, I pay HBO each month to access its service to watch Thrones, old and new episodes. I’m pretty sure said son, who has never actually had his […]
There’s a lot of nail biting going on in TV network boardroom this week after a pair of appeals court judges ruled that Aereo—the micro-antenna based startup backed by Barry Diller et al.—agreed with U.S. District Court Judge Alison Nathan’s decision earlier this year to continue allowing Aereo to stream live TV via its nascent […]
