Posts with tag VideoOnDemand
Posted Apr 19th 2008 12:02PM by Brett Love
Filed under: Programming, The Office, Heroes, Reality-Free
There's an interesting little blurb over at Digital Spy about NBC's TV Box. The network is currently working out distribution deals in up to ten European and Asian countries, building their global video-on-demand service. They don't detail exactly which shows will be a part of the package, other than a mention of both current and past series being involved.
That's all fine and dandy, but the interesting bit comes from something NBC's Belinda Menendez says. Apparently, the big shows, like Heroes, may be available before they are broadcast for an extra price. And that leads us to the question in the post title.
For the sake of argument, let's assume this all works out for the peacock bunch in Europe and Asia and they make it a global policy. Would the prospect of getting Thursday's episode of The Office on Monday be enough to let those sticky Donaghy fingers into your wallet?
Continue reading Would you pay a premium to watch shows early?
Posted Aug 29th 2007 9:30AM by Richard Keller
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Cable/Satellite
School is back in session, the U.S. Open has begun, and another Bush appointee has resigned. You know what that means, don't you? It means that the new fall TV season is fast approaching. With it comes the push by the networks to promote the crap out of their new shows. Okay, so they've been promoting the crap out of them since the end of the last television season, but now it's going to start to get annoying. I'm talking about last-week-advertising-before-elections annoying.
NBC will lead this charge by making the pilots for their upcoming fall shows available on cable and satellite Video On Demand systems (known as VOD henceforth). Partnering with NBC in this venture are cable companies Comcast, Cox, Charter and Time Warner and the satellite services DirectTV and DISH Network. The pilot episodes of Chuck, Bionic Woman, Life and Journeyman, as well as a 30-minute fall preview special, will be available on September 10th.
Continue reading NBC fall TV pilots coming to Video On Demand systems
Posted Aug 20th 2007 11:57AM by Brad Linder
Filed under: PVR Wire, Cable/Satellite, Hardware
If I told you there's a set top box that lets you watch television, video on demand, and web video content, you'd probably just shrug and wonder why we're talking about Comcast's Motorola box with TiVo software yet again. But no, this is a new box from a new company called
Building B.
The company has
raised $17.5 million to develop its new set top box. The idea is that consumers shouldn't need 12 different devices in their living room to access all the media that's available to them. And they shouldnt' need a full fledged computer either.
There aren't a lot of details yest on exactly how the Building B platform will work. It's possible that the box could be sold as a standalone product to supplement your cable or satellite TV service. But it seems more likely that Building B will try to sell their boxes to television service providers as a way to provide VOD/online video.
While some content will be delivered through a traditional broadband connection, it looks like Building B also plans to use a
wireless, over the air delivery method for other content.
Posted Jul 26th 2007 11:00AM by Brad Linder
Filed under: PVR Wire
Time Warner president Jeff Bewkes says cable providers should be working toward
providing on-demand versions of every television program from every television network.
If consumers can watch any show they want any time they want, he argues, cable providers can save the time and money it takes to install personal video recorders in their houses. Of course, by eliminating the need for PVRs, cable companies could also be removing the consumer's ability to skip advertisements. "Free" video-on-demand would have to be advertising supported, and that means cable providers would disable the fast-forward function.
And that's why I don't really see Bewkes' plan working. Certainly one of the most appealing aspects of a PVR is that you can watch shows whenever you feel like it. But being able to pause, rewind, fast-forward, and yes, skip commercials is another part of it. Would you be willing to pay as much for DVD purchases and rentals if there were ads that you couldn't skip?
Posted Jun 16th 2007 9:41AM by Brad Linder
Filed under: PVR Wire, Web
Internet video is all fine and good, but let's face it. Right now, most people want to watch TV on the TV.
And as we've described before, getting
Joost to
work with your TV set isn't exactly easy. First youneed tomake sure you've got a video card with TV-out, a computer that you're willing to plug into your TV (not a problem for many PC-based PVR users), and the time and energy to figure out how to program your remote control to flip through Joost channels without a keyboard and mouse.
So it's good to hear that
Joost is in talks with hardware makers to embed Joost in devices like cable boxes and HD-DVD and Blu-ray players. No more fighting to connect your PC to your TV. Turn on your cable box, and Joost is right there. But at that point, isn't Joost just a new interface for video on demand, with less programming than you'd get from Comcast?
Continue reading Would you watch Joost if it came with your cable box?
Posted May 8th 2007 6:30PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: PVR Wire, Cable/Satellite
The good news for Cox Cable customers: ABC and ESPN have agreed to offer top shows and football games on demand.
The bad news: Cox will disable fast-forwarding on those programs.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Disney-owned networks
insisted that ad-skipping be turned off for those programs as part of the deal.
What's most surprising about this arrangement is that it hasn't been tried before. While viewers with personal video recorders in their homes get to decide whether to watch the commercials, previews for upcoming shows, or slow bits of
Lost is entirely up to the viewer. But cable companies have a lot more control over how customers watch video on demand programs.
I'm not sure there'd be a revolution in the streets if Cox disabled fast forwarding on every program, but it certainly wouldn't be popular. But for premium content, it makes a lot of sense as a way for Cox and Disney to make money.
[via
Zatz Not Funny]
Posted Apr 30th 2007 8:15PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: PVR Wire, Web
The BBC Trust
has approved rollout of a BBC video-on-demand service following a
public test of the new iPlayer service.
So what the heck is an iPlayer? Basically it's a service that offers BBC viewers online access to every television episode that has run on the state-regulated network over the past week, commercial-free.
10,500 viewers and organizations offered comments during the test period. I'm guessing most of the comments were positive.
No word yet on when the service will roll out. The BBC press release says it "will be announced in due course," which sounds so much nicer than "it'll be ready when it's ready."
[via
NewTeeVee]
Posted Feb 4th 2007 10:05AM by Matt Crape
Filed under: PVR Wire
With beer commercials being known for their originality and popularity, Budweiser is hoping that they will be able to get more bang for their buck by drawing people to their
bud.tv webpage.
The idea behind bud.tv seems to be a somewhat similar one to those used by networks that stream shows: give the viewers what they want, when they want. Basically it is more or less an internet video-on-demand service, except for product advertisements.
Continue reading A preview of Budweiser's bud.tv
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