Category Archives: streaming services

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Roku’s Anthony Wood: Internet Streaming Will Save Network Television

Roku

Roku (Photo credit: Steve A Johnson)

With 38% of U.S. households having their TV connected to the internet (based upon a report by the Leichtman Research Group released earlier this month), up 8% from 2011, internet streaming is becoming “the next big thing” in entertainment distribution.

Bruce Leichtman says “Video is increasingly being watched on different platforms and in different places, yet these emerging video services will generally act as complements to traditional television viewing and services rather than substitutes.  Among all adults, reported time spent watching TV is similar to last year, and there remains little evidence of a significant trend in consumers “cutting the cord” to their multichannel video services to watch video solely via these emerging services.”

Anthony Wood, CEO of Roku, might beg to differ with Leichtman’s conclusions.  According to the San Franscisco Chronicle, Wood noted that the future of television is in internet streaming, with availability being predominantly on demand.  In fact, streaming media players will likely make he DVR head into the chronicles of history.

Says Wood in a recent interview “Would you rather try to remember to record a show, or would you rather just have everything ever made instantly available on demand?”

Roku expanded their markets to Canada and the UK this year.  While most people currently stream through a game console, there is a large percentage of households in the United States that wouldn’t opt for a gaming console because all the wish to do is stream and nothing more.  Currently, only 1 percent of U.S. homes use a device like Roku, but that is likely to change as older demographics start to feel comfortable with the new technology.  “Our customers are not early adopters.  They’re people who watch TV.  We put a lot of effort into making it really simple” says Wood.

What will truly make a streaming services comparison much more interesting is when online pay TV services like start-ups Skitter TV or Aereo become available across the United States.  Once people can actually stream network television without having to pay exorbitant cable TV subscription costs, we will likely see a widespread streaming adoption.

Roku has 400 entertainment channels available, and Skitter TV, one of the companies seeking to deliver live television online, is Roku compatible as well (however, you will not find Skitter on the Roku Channel Store yet – if you reside in one of Skitter’s markets, they will add the app to your Roku account).

While up until recently streaming has been predominantly used to watch movies on the internet, recent months have seen a huge shift toward more streaming of television shows.  Hulu Plus has made people excited about sitting down at the very beginning of season 1 of a show and mow through the episodes in marathon streaming bouts.

Sources:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/16/BUQ81O21JA.DTL&ao=all

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/digital-evolution/report-38-us-households-have-connected-tvs-26927

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3 Strikes Law in France Cuts Piracy, But No Boost in Sales

NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 18: Protesters demonst...

NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 18: Protesters demonstrate against the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) outside the offices of U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) on January 18, 2012 in New York City. The controversial legislation is aimed at preventing piracy of media but those opposed believe it will support censorship. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

The entertainment industry has been very vocal for a long time about how piracy cuts into their revenues.  They even convinced lawmakers of the need for legal protection, which resulted in the SOPA and PIPA fiasco.  While most people would agree with the statement that piracy needs to be dealt with, the debate continues, with bi-partisan support among Congress and the heavy-hitters of the internet discussing new possible legislation on KeepTheWebOpen.com.

In the meantime, a new report has just been released by the French government about the effectiveness of their “Three Strikes” law.  The report claims that internet piracy has been cut in half in France based upon the consequences of the law.  However, TorrentFreak notes that what the report fails to mention is that the decrease in piracy did not translate into increased revenues for the copyright holders.

Meanwhile, a number of prominent music artists have been quietly pulling their content out of music streaming services because, it appears, piracy is actually good for them.  It seems that people who engage in peer-to-peer file sharing are also the biggest purchasers of their content.

So what’s the answer – let people keep stealing because copyright holders make more money in the long run?  Or deal with the piracy issue and still nobody (monetarily) wins.  There is an alternative, but the entertainment industry is still very distrustful that they will be able to continue to enjoy the huge profits of yesteryear.

Problem is, yesteryear is a blip, an anomaly.  It is highly unlikely that we will continue to enjoy the fat economic times indefinitely.  Economies ebb and flow, expand and contract.  The entertainment industry simply needs to recognize that while they got to enjoy some really profitable times post World War II through the 1990s, that’s not today.

I asked the question above – so what’s the answer?  Video streaming.  It’s convenient, cost-effective, and deals with the piracy issue.  It also has some added benefits.  Television shows have gotten a huge boost in Nielsen ratings after making past seasons available on streaming services.  It is likely to increase the number of seasons that the show is in demand as well, because new fans can “catch up” on shows made available from stream services like Hulu or Netflix.

An unskippable anti-piracy film included on mo...

An unskippable anti-piracy film included on movie DVDs equates copyright infringement with theft. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

While streaming service subscriptions tend to put less money in the entertainment industry’s pocket, there are still other options that will maximize royalties.  Let’s go back to piracy and the musician example.  People who engage in piracy also tend to spend the most amount of money on content!  So, if you give them what they want legally, they will gladly still put money in your pocket.  But the entertainment industry is biting off it’s hand to save it’s foot, so to speak.

 

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Are You Still Trying to Wrap Your Mind Around Video Streaming?

While lots of people have already got on the streaming wagon, there are still many people wondering what is video streaming and how will it benefit me?  Streaming itself has been around for a long time.  When you turn on your TV set, content is streamed there via a cable or satellite TV subscription through a set top media player connected to your TV set.

The term video streaming thrown around today refers to online subscription services like Netflix, Hulu, etc. where content is delivered via your internet connection instead of cable or satellite subscription.  The reason why it’s such a growing trend is that consumers have more choice as to what they view.  Other than pay per view on cable or satellite TV, choice is limited to what individual channels are serving up, with added flexibility of being able to record content on a DVR for later viewing.

Video streaming enables people to access an entire library of content.  Say, for example, you wish to sit down over a rainy weekend and watch TV.  You can opt to watch an entire season’s worth of one TV show back to back.

To compare streaming services, it’s helpful to find a good resource that bottom-lines it for you.  If you live in the United Kingdom, you will want to read about LoveFilm vs. Netflix to make a good decision for a streaming resource.

However, if you live in the United States, you will need help analyzing the top 5 streaming services.

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If Aereo Beats Legal Battles, It Will Rock for Consumers!

Ben Popper over at Venturebeat.com lives in New York City, so he was able to test drive the newly-launched Aereo web TV service that simultaneously rebroadcasts live network programming over a streaming service for $12 a month.

Popper noted that the process of setting up your Aereo account and getting to the actual streaming was “fast and painless.”  There are no apps to download, and no hardware to purchase.  You can watch on up to five authorized devices.  It’s as easy as selecting whatever channel you wish to watch.  Load time was quick, and the content ran without buffering, even when he adjusted video quality to high.

He then connected Aereo to his Facebook account and found 4 friends, but at that point he couldn’t figure out how to implement social features from there.  But no worries – I’m sure as it catches on lots of content will be generated in turning Aereo into a social experience.

Aereo also offers as part of your subscription 40 hours of DVR cloud service, where you can set it to record all episodes, or just new episodes while skipping the reruns.  Ben also noted 27 channels available  – but that’s in New York.  If Aereo wins its current legal battles, eventually this service will roll out to other major cities in the United States.

The legal battle it’s facing doesn’t come as a surprise.  Broadcasters are saying that Aereo is illegally cutting into retransmission fees.  The networks currently have licensing agreements with cable and satellite TV services, where the Pay TV giants pay to rebroadcast network shows.  But it’s inevitable that new technologies develop, new services will also continue to challenge these traditional distribution channel models.

In it’s counter-filing, Aereo stated “When a consumer is accessing broadcast television using the Aereo technology, he or she is using a specific individua antenna that is tuned and used only by that consumer for the duration of that access, which simply provides to its members the convenience of locating at a remote facility the type of equipment they could otherwise have in use at home.”

Aereo is referring to antennas that can be purchased and mounted on top of houses or within attics, where networks can be accessed for free, apart from the cost of the antenna itself.  What they are doing is “renting” a remote antenna, and then providing the content via a streaming server.

The service is only available in New York City, where it launched last week.  The industry is watching with baited breath to see how  all of this plays out.

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Huge Week for Streaming TV & Music News

This week has been extraordinarily eventful in the streaming tv, movie and music, arenas.  With this kind of activity, lots of questions are raised in terms of how will this benefit consumers, and how will the entertainment elite respond?  For starters, NFL.com and NBCSports.com both provided free live streams on Sunday’s Superbowl for the very first time ever.  As such, this was also proven to be the most social Superbowl ever, with a record number of people tuning in and firing off game-related tweets.

Additionally, two deals have been struck this week that will certainly change the streaming services landscape dramatically in the coming year or so.  For starters, Verizon and Redbox will be teaming up in a joint venture to introduce a service similar to Netflix’s, with a combo DVD rental service and streaming service.  Redbox is of course famous for the flashy red rental kiosks that have invated grocery stores, gas stations and convenience stores.  It is unclear if they will add a mailing service as well, however, Verizon CEO Paul Davis indicated that the streaming deal would be a top priority, hopefully available by November of this year.

On the heals of that exciting news, Amazon just announced a content agreement with Viacom, picking up quite a bit of popular content from various TV stations including MTV, VHI, Nickelodeon & TV Land, that sends a message to the rest of the streaming stratosphere that Amazon intends to be a contender in it’s Prime Streaming business.

Finally, to round things out nicely, Netflix launched its first original TV series, Lilyhammer, which it is banking on to help build consumer loyalty.  Hulu fans who watch online television are anxiously awaiting Monday’s release of Paul, the Male Matchmaker.  And just yesterday, Sir Paul McCartney and Apple announced a nice, free little concert promoting his new album, to be streamed through the iTunes Store via the iTunes player (a free download), or through your 2nd generation Apple TV.  He also, apparently, has decided not to play nice with streaming services anymore, despite the evidence that streaming and piracy are conversely related.

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Zune Marketplace and Other Legal Download & Stream Sites Help Stem Illegal File Sharing

One of the most important messages that bloggers are attempting to get out to the public is that SOPA is simply the product of Hollywood’s refusal to change it’s business model.  In essence, it’s created a monster that it refuses to kill, and instead it has attempted to rally the U.S. Government to be it’s enforcer.  In turn, the SOPA bill, if it had passed as it was written, would have forced search engines and other heavy hitters in the online community to cut off traffic to illegal file sharing and related sites. To be brutally honest, Hollywood wishes to continue to milk the population for every dollar available, instead of making it’s copyrighted content available through legal online distribution channels.

Sure, their profits will drop a bit, but shouldn’t someone point out the elephant in the room?  Hollywood!  The pirates are already taking your money.  With the advent of the worldwide web and the technological advances moving at the speed of sound, it’s only going to get worse as we get more technologically savvy.  Why not give it to streaming services and boutique rental and purchase providers, who are willing to pay you for your efforts.  One such legal distribution channel is the Zune Marketplace.  Utilizing Zune download software, consumers have access  to a wide-reaching marketplace where they can rent or purchase digital files.

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Understanding Video Streaming and the Differences Between Streaming and Downloading

Embracing a new technology usually depends on consumers having a certain understanding of how the technology works, and developing a comfort level in terms of feeling confident they can interact with the technology without a lot of difficult, frustrating and complicated troubleshooting.  This is certainly true of anyone who is wondering what is video streaming?  In simplified terms, it is very much like a filmstrip that captures sound and a series of moving images, except rather than being a physical entity that you can hold in your hand, it is rather a digital file saved in a compressed format.

These digital compressed files can either be streamed or downloaded, which of course begs the question “what is the difference between streaming and downloading?”  Both are considered delivery methods – in other words, your film can be delivered by two different servers – a streaming server where the content is played and watched at the same time online; or a web server, where the entire file is downloaded onto your computer.  For both technologies you must utilize a media player that is compatible with the file you wish to watch.  Many free media players interact with streaming and on demand services, or these services offer their own free downloaded software that not only acts as a media player, but also organizes your content and enables you to access their online store.

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All Is Not Lost For Hollywood – But Snuffing Out Pirates Isn’t the Answer

The recent bills that have darkened the steps of Capitol Hill are Hollywood’s attempt at protecting their antiquated business model, which in a nutshell is to control it’s distribution venues in order to maximize their profits.  The journey of a film goes something like this:  it is first hyped up and released in theaters (or, in some cases it goes straight to DVD, or is released in the independent film arena).  Once it has run it’s course in the theaters, it’s released to DVD (after another round of hype).  About 30 days after that, it’s available as a pay-per-view on television subscriptions (or in some cases, it’s made available to streaming providers, depending on the film and the clout that the streaming service has).  Finally, it gets distributed to streaming services, and then network TV.  Each source represents a money-making opportunity for the Hollywood set.

It’s not a bad model, but it certainly has lost it’s usefulness in light of bootleg websites on foreign soil.  So Hollywood’s answer is to force advertising networks, internet providers and search engines to cut off traffic to the sites of the bootlegged content, in the form of bills like SOPA and the Protect Intellectual Property Act.  Internet providers are already cooperating with Hollywood by throttling the speeds of consumers who download copyrighted materials from bootleg sites, but the onus is on Hollywood to identify the perpetrators; the internet providers are not monitoring who downloads what.  So the question remains how will these people be identified and prosecuted, when there are simply not the resources to handle the numbers of offenders.

Of course, internet companies like Google are dead-set against these acts, because in essence it would shut down how the internet operates today, including Google’s pet project YouTube.  On the other hand, it’s not just Hollywood, but the entire U.S. economy that is being robbed by these offshore pirates.  Also, consumers are getting fed up with cable and satellite TV providers telling them what channels they must purchase (and what high price points they must pay) in order to subscribe to the handful of channels they want to watch.

Streaming TV shows or movies is one answer to giving consumers affordable media consumption. Read more here http://www.videostreamingserviceproviders.com/  A la carte options from pay television is another.  And they can coexist together and still remain a viable revenue stream, but just not at the levels that Hollywood demands.

What is the answer?  Hollywood must adopt the mindset that if they can’t beat them, they must join them . . . in playing a new game, that is.  For starters, it can take it’s cue from the Napster debacle that has transitioned nicely into a very different model for music stars.  They now make their money by touring, rather than selling discs.  Perhaps the Hollywood darlings will have to start embracing their fans more, and not counting on the control of distribution to get rich.  Hmmmm . . . have we relegated the Hollywood elite to a new working class?

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Are You Willing to Pay The High Price For Free Downloading?

The word is called piracy, but many of us as we search for free sites from which to download or stream movies, TV shows or music, don’t think we are doing anything wrong.  After all, if it’s available on the internet, it’s fair game, right?  Why not join in on the fun and not have to shell out my hard-earned cash.  After all, most individuals in the entertainment industry are already living lavish lifestyles.  While we can justify our actions all day long, it is illegal to engage in file-sharing of copyrighted materials.  Free downloads are now starting to come at a hefty price.  Internet providers have entered into a voluntary agreement with rights groups associated with the entertainment industry.  Called the Copyright Alert System, internet providers will cooperate with the media industry to alert account holders that illegal downloading and/or file-sharing is taking place on the internet connections.  Ignoring the warnings could result in penalties including slowing down your internet connection.

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Copyright Nightmare in New Digital Age

A great article published by the New York Times on November 25, 2011 by Jeffrey Rosen discussed a new book written by Robert Levin entitled “How Digital Parasites Are Destroying the Culture Business, and How the Culture Business Can Fight Back.”   Digital parasites, asserts Levin, like downloaded music, aggregated news, streamed video, and e-books are destroying traditional business models of journalism and various media avenues like music, movies & television.  Technology activists demand that “Information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower.”  There is the debate on whether these media-related industries have simply failed to adjust their expectations that their contributions should be handsomely rewarded, while a new generation of demanding, content hungry consumers want everything for free.  Ever jump onto Yahoo Answers?  The most asked question is “how to I watch “   you fill in the blank    ” for free?  On July 7, 2011 the New York Times wrote an article about how internet providers in the U.S. have signed a voluntary agreement to help these embattled industries with piracy issues.  When someone downloads a copyrighted piece of content on the internet illegally (whether they know it or not), the internet provider will contact the account owner.  If the practice continues, the provider will slow the connection speed to a snails pace.  It will be interesting to watch how things evolve in this mad dash to consume information online.

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Is Video Streaming Right For You?

Understanding the technology behind video streamingcan help you determine whether or not a subscription, or perhaps simply an on-demand, a la carte rental or purchase option is a better choice.  For starters, there are two main ways that video content is delivered to your device – through actual streaming from a streaming service or various live portals on the internet, and through the download of a compressed file that you play once enough of the file is downloaded.  Understanding the differences between streaming vs. download can be confusing.  Streaming can be on-demand or live, and is facilitated through a streaming service, which is simply specialized software that interacts with your media player to deliver the content.  For streaming to be supported, you will need adequate bandwidth (more than 3 Mbps advised) and software/media player that will be able to communicate with the streaming server.   Downloads are delivered mainly through purchase, or through free content that was meant to be kept and saved on your computer.  People often confuse the two, understandably, because the end result is watching a movie on your computer or internet-enabled device.

For more information about this technology, including providers you can subscribe to in order to watch movies or TV shows, plus how to set up your home system, check out Streaming 411.

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Vudu Launches New Option For Consumers To Store Purchased Content

According to Digital Trends’ Mike Flacy (November 17), Walmart-owned Vudu is offering Vudu-to-Go, an option where purchased content can be stored for viewing later.  This is good news for 3G users who are on the go, who experienced buffering issues with their slower internet connection.  Of course, customers with Playstation 3  can still stream rentals, along with purchased content.  Walmart is also trying to lure more potential customers in by throwing in a $5 voucher to pay the rental costs of a new release HD on Vudu.  TV shows and many Vudu movies can be rented for $2 for 2 nights.  Hewlett Packard is also partnering with Walmart to include a Vudu app on new PCs or laptops purchased at Walmart.