Video on Demand (VoD)

Video on Demand

Sky Sniffs Around Homechoice
The wires are hot with rumours that BSkyB is contemplating a bout of wad waving in the direction of the video-on-demand, broadband and telephone company Homechoice, which is reportedly finding things tres tricky in the increasingly competitive TV broadband market.
Homechoice’s parent company, Video Networks, managed to notch up hefty losses of £46.5m in 2004 – £1.5m worse than the year before – and faces an uncertain future of fearsome competition from the likes of Sky, the recently merged NTL/Telewest and BT.
Compared with Sky and NTL/Telewest’s subscription figures (7.8 m and 5.5m respectively), Homechoice’s last reported numbers of just 15,000 subscribers suggest that they could provide a tasty minnow for a major operator like Sky.
Homechoice currently provides a broadband Internet and telephone service, with on-demand programmes covering comedy, drama, music soaps, pay-per-view movies and home shopping.
Although Homechoice recently doubled the amount of homes that could receive their service to a more respectable 2.5m, there’s no guarantee that subscriber numbers will reach anywhere near that amount.
We got on the blower to Homechoice and were, not surprisingly, given the official line that, “There are no current plans to sell the business.”
City analysts, however, suspect that Sky could snap up the company as part of its plans for video-on-demand and broadband.
Homechoice
1 November, 2005
Blinkx Builds Free Online Video Library
Search company Blinkx have launched a free service that lets amateurs and pro filmmakers upload and store their video files to a searchable online library.
The service, called My Blinkx.tv, will make filmmakers’ work available for viewing to Web searchers via a clever conversion process.
Videos submitted to the library are automatically converted into Flash format, with speech soundtracks transcribed and indexed.
Metadata, such as creation date, length, title, owner’s name along with any other relevant information, will also embedded into the content.
Once indexed, uploaded videos can be retrieved and viewed by visitors to My Blinkx.tv via keyword searches.
Users of the Blinkx.tv service will also be able to create custom channels, based on a specific search term.
Blinkx founder Suranga Chandratillake explained that users could, for example, create a channel for all video results from a My Blinkx.tv search for the term, “Hurricane Katrina.”
My Blinkx.tv service would then continue to add new videos matching the search terms in the background, so that returning users would be presented with up-to-date listings.
The system relies on cookies but Chandratillake said that the company would consider using a more reliable logging in system if there’s enough demand for it.
Users will also be able to access their channels without visiting My Blinkx.tv by setting up a “smart folder” on their PCs.
This will be automatically populated in the background with videos that match a chosen search term, encouraging users to have the occasional rummage around in their smart folder to see what new videos have been added.
Chandratillake said that Blinkx will initially only feature non-commercial videos – mainly from grassroots groups, individuals and amateur video bloggers – but the company plans to cut deals with commercial video producers keen to include their videos in the service.
The service is free for visitors viewing videos, but Blinkx may introduce the option of charging for video views, with revenue split between Blinkx and the content owners.
The company may also consider raising revenue though video advertising.
According to Chandratillake, My Blinkx.tv already features user-generated video from 3,500 to 4,000 sources, with the service competing with video search services from Google, Yahoo, AOL and MSN. Notably, none of these services currently offer My Blinkx.tv’s automatic, continuous streaming video.
Blinkx
4 October, 2005
Mobile TV Looks To Rake In The Revenue Stream
A report by Unstrung Insider claims that Mobile TV is set to become a breakthrough mass-market mobile data service, boosted by pioneering services offered by major global operators such as Orange, Vodafone, and SK Telecom.
The report, entitled Mobile TV: Switching on the Revenue Stream, highlights the growing success of mobile TV over 3G and satellite broadcast networks, with some operators already soaring past the million sessions per month mark.
With commercial services streamed over 3G networks showing signs of success in their own right, the report suggests that the real power of mobile TV will be to act as an “extension” to regular TV services, persuading even the most techno-phobic mobile phone users of the benefits of 3G subscriptions.
Report author and Unstrung Insider Chief Analyst Gabriel Brown was enthusiastic: “There’s a lot of mileage in unicast mobile TV as a lure to attract high- value 3G subscriptions”.
“The power is its simplicity: Everyone already knows how to watch TV,” he added.
Steven Day, corporate affairs director at Virgin Mobile in the U.K agrees, saying that people who wouldn’t consider using, a streaming media application, for example, will warm to the new technology.
Basing his opinion on feedback from the company’s current 1,000-user mobile TV broadcast trial in London, Day praised the ease of use of Mobile TV services, “It’s dead easy. Everyone knows what it is, and what it does”.
Although the simplicity and familiarity of the service will please punters, the report says that mobile TV will need a “sophisticated sales approach” from operators who face a market driven by very low-cost or “free” services, adding that the mass market will only likely pay up to US$10 (~£5,€8~)a month for mobile TV.
The technology
The report comments on the industry expectation that “one-to-many” mass-market mobile TV services may be more efficiently delivered over dedicated mobile broadcast networks using technologies such as DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld), DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcast), and MediaFLO.
Despite DVB-H growing into the leading contender for dedicated mobile broadcast networks (especially in Europe) pesky issues surrounding spectrum allocation in urban areas looks set to slow down the commercialisation of services.
A potential joker in the pack could be Qualcomm’s MediaFLO technology, which has the potential to challenge DVB-H as the automatic mobile broadcast technology choice. Although the technology isn’t as mature as DVB-H, delays to mobile broadcast spectrum allocation can only work to Qualcomm’s advantage.
Unstrung
12 September, 2005
Superfast Broadband Access Via TV Cables
TV cables could provide broadband Internet access speeds up to a trouser-flapping 100 megabits per second as early as next year according to Finnish broadband equipment maker Teleste.
The technology is claimed to provide punters with access 50 times faster than the average broadband speeds now offered to cable TV homes.
Although similarly nippy data transmission speeds are possible over fibre networks, these would cost a lot more for operators to build.
“This is a cost-efficient technology, as we use the cable TV networks which are already in place,” Teleste’s CEO Jukka Rinnevaara told Reuters.
Teleste has said that it will bring its Ethernet-to-the-home product to the market early next year, giving consumers access to speeds of up to 100mbps.
The company manages to achieve the Billy Whizz speeds by fitting Ethernet – your everyday, cheapo technology for shifting Internet data over broadband networks – into cable television networks.
Teleste reckons it’s way ahead of the market, predicting that rival technologies won’t emerge until the second quarter of 2007 at the earliest.
The foxy Finns are currently running field trials with cable TV service provider Essent in the Netherlands, but are yet to reach the top speeds they predicts will be available to most homes in a few years time.
“Based on our research, 30 megabits per second is the absolute minimum in future homes,” Pekka Rissanen, a Teleste exec informed a news conference. “Just one TV programme would take 10 to 20 megabits per second of this alone. So, very fast we would reach a need for 30 megabits, and also for 50 megabits per second.”
Rissanen calculated the cost of connecting a home to the high speed ethernet-to-the-home technology could range from US$60.30 (~£35, ~€50) and US$241 (~£140, ~€200).
For some inexplicable reason, the company has splashed out a fortune for a bizarre, near feature-length futuristic 3D-tastic cartoon fronted by a talking monkey to explain their new service.
We’re not quite sure what the connection with the service is, but it sure beats listening to some swivel action suit blathering on via Power Point.
Teleste
21 July, 2005
BBC To Premiere Programmes Over Broadband
The BBC has announced a pilot scheme to premiere some new TV programmes before they are broadcast on over traditional channels.
The trial starts with the new BBC3 comedy series ‘The Mighty Boosh’, which will be made available for web streaming from July 19th, one week before its scheduled TV transmission.
Jana Bennett, The BBC’s Director of Television, said: “The broadband premiere of The Mighty Boosh is a significant step forward in offering our audiences even greater value in a changing television world.
“It is one of a number of pilots that BBC Television will be undertaking over the next few months, exploiting the opportunities that new technologies offer to look at how programmes might be delivered beyond the traditional linear broadcast.”
There’s something of a stampede starting up of companies ready and willing to experiment with video over broadband, with BT announcing that it planned to begin trials of video-on-demand (VoD) via broadband early next year, ready for a full commercial roll out scheduled for summer 2006.
Telewest also recently launched its own web-based TV service, initially offering four channels as part of a trial of 26,000 consumrs in the Cheltenham and Gloucester area.
BBC Broadband
8 July, 2005
DVB-H Digital Mobile TV Pilot For Spain
Abertis Telecom, Nokia and Telefonica Moviles Espana have emerged smiling from a big converging huddle with news of a mobile TV pilot using Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld (DVB-H) technology.
The project, backed by major regional and local Spanish channels, is said to be the first of its kind to take place in the country and will serve up a feast of converged mobile communications and TV broadcasting technologies.
Scheduled to take place in Madrid and Barcelona from September 2005 to February 2006, the pilot will also coincide with the closing ceremony of the GSM World Congress 2006 in Barcelona.
The trial will let 500 lucky users from Madrid and Barcelona gorge themselves on high quality broadcast TV content from Antena 3, Sogecable, Telecinco, Telemadrid, TVE and TV3 on Nokia 7710 smartphones.
These will be equipped with a “special accessory” to receive the mobile TV broadcasts.
With the units sporting a wide (640 x 320 pixels) colour touch-screen and a built in stereo music player, users will also be able to take part in programme-related interactive services while viewing TV.
White coated boffins have already started technical trials, with the consumer pilot designed to allow the three companies to test the feasibility of the DVB-H technology and the new mobile TV services.
The trial will also allow interested parties to assess new business opportunities, tweak the user experience (ooo-er!) and measure public interest in mobile TV services.
Outdoor and indoor signal and broadcast quality will also be tested to help fine tune the best technical parameters for the viability of DVB-H based services.
The deal gives Telefonica Moviles responsibility for customer support, invoicing and interactive services, Abertis Telecom will be charged with broadcasting the programmes in Madrid and Barcelona – and taking care of technical issues – while Nokia will provide the Mobile TV solution and smartphones for the pilot.
Telefónica Móviles España
Abertis Telecom
5 July, 2005
AOL video search; iTunes 4.9 podcasting; 24Mb Broadand in UK – News Round Up
AOL launches video search service
America Online has launched a free, enhanced video search that includes a new lightweight video viewer and speech-recognition technology claimed to give better results based on the audio of multimedia files.
The beta service, called AOL Video, offers free access to search and playback for more than 15,000 “video assets” from Time Warner, news clips from CNN, MSNBC and other sources.
The lightweight video viewer uses the playback engines of popular media players (such as RealPlayer, Windows Media Player and QuickTime) that are already installed on a user’s PC.
AOL reckons that the new speech recognition tools will bring significant improvements to its previous ability to search only closed-caption information provided by content contributors.
AOL plans to announce next week new content partners for its video-search repository with advertisers able to deliver ads relevant to the content chosen by the consumer.
With a demand for video growing as consumers switch from dial-up Internet access to broadband, AOL said that it plans to use video as the primary lure for consumers using broadband connections.
AOL launches video search service [ZDNET]
iTunes 4.9 rockets Podcasting into the mainstream
Podcast subscriptions have rocketed over the one million mark, with figures from Pew Internet and American Life suggesting that over 6 million Americans – nearly a third of the estimated 22 million owners of MP3 players – have listened to podcasts.
Tuesday’s launch of Apple’s iTunes 4.9 software – which lets listeners subscribe to and download podcasts – has left servers groaning under the strain of soaring downloads.
Will Lewis, management consultant for US radio station KCRW talked of a “stratospheric” increase in traffic since the iTunes 4.9 launch, with downloads increasing tenfold.
Podcasting goes mainstream [ENN]
Be* Unlimited to offer 24Mbit Broadband In UK
Life on the Web going to get considerably faster for some denizens of London, thanks to an ultrafast 24Mb broadband connection offered by Be* Unlimited.
The Billy Whizz connection will use a local loop unbundling (LLU) operation to launch a pilot scheme using ADSL2+technology in August.
Planning to eventually un-bundle exchanges throughout the UK, the London based company will be installing its high speed kit in 45 BT telephone exchanges throughout London.
Company founder Boris Ivanovic has already proved the viability of the service after a 26meg broadband venture in Sweden increased its revenue from US$1million (~€837k ~ £564k) to US$55million (~€46m ~ £31m) in just three years.
Be Unlimited First With 24Mbit Broadband In UK [BIOS]
Be* Unlimited
1 July, 2005
Teleport, TV-on-Demand Service Launched By Telewest Broadband
Cable company Telewest Broadband is making Teleport, its TV-on-demand service, available to over 26,000 customers in Cheltenham and Gloucester today.
As we reported last month, this forms the first stage of national roll-out which Telewest claims will “revolutionise” digital TV for more than a million customers by the beginning of next year.
The cable company’s Teleport service gives customers instant, 24 hour access to a vast library films and TV entertainment with users able to pause, fast forward and rewind the content, just like a DVD.
Sofa-loafing customers can access the service via the existing set-top box and remote control, with a simple on-screen menu serving up viewing menus.
Teleport Movies offers around 200 current and library films from FilmFlex, with rental charges costing between £2.00 (~$3.59, ~€3) and £3.50 (~$6.28, ~€5.20) for a 24-hour rental period.
Teleport Replay lets TV addicts users catch up on popular programmes from the previous week, and will include riveting programmes such as Eastenders and Casualty (be still my beating heart!), with Teleport Life offering specialist interest programmes.
Soon to be launched is Teleport TV, which will screen classic BBC series such as Morse and Waking the Dead and music videos on a subscription basis.
Freeloaders will be pleased to learn that Telewest is promising a “substantial amount” of free content, including soaps, comedy and documentaries, along with the usual pay-per-view and subscription options.
Subscribers to the company’s premier digital TV package will get most of the new content bundled in for free, including access to the entire TV package.
Eric Tveter, president and CEO of Telewest, mused: “Teleport has arrived and it’s genuinely going to change the way people watch TV. The schedule normally dictates viewing, but our customers will have the choice and convenience of a service they can tailor – it’s TV on their terms.”
Telewest Broadband has already been scooping up secured content from a wide range of providers including Filmflex, the BBC, Flextech, Discovery Networks Europe, National Geographic Channel Europe, Nickelodeon, Jetix (ex-Fox Kids) and Playboy TV.
Such is Telewest’s determination to snaffle a chunk of the burgeoning Video On Demand market, the company is whipping out its wallet like Ron Atkinson on pay day, investing around £20 million in the development of advanced TV services in 2005.
Telewest
30 June, 2005
BBC iMP: Public Trial For 5,000 In September
BBC New Media is to extend trials of its interactive Media Player (iMP), allowing viewers to download material from 500 hours of its television and radio programming.
The latest phase of trials for BBC New Media’s interactive Media Player is scheduled to begin in September 2005 and will run for three months.
The interactive Media Player lets viewers catch up with TV and radio programmes up to seven days after they have been broadcast, with the BBC offering legal Internet download programmes to their PCs.
The latest road test follows smaller trials last summer where the BBC used a limited number of people and a small amount of rights-cleared programmes to test the concept of using peer-to-peer technology and digital rights management (DRM) to protect rights holders.
This time around, the BBC is offering around 190 hours of TV programmes and 310 radio programmes, in addition to local programming and rights-cleared feature films.
The 5,000 trialists will be able to search for programmes they want to watch, filter programmes by channel, select subtitles and, in the case of some series, to collect and watch episodes that they may otherwise have missed.
Ashley Highfield, BBC director of new media and technology, effloresced with a curious mix of similes: “iMP could just be the iTunes for the broadcast industry, enabling our audience to access our TV and radio programmes on their terms — anytime, any place, any how – Martini Media.”
“We’ll see what programmes appeal in this new world and how people search, sort, snack and savour our content in the broadband world,” he added.
Currently, issues with rights, distribution and navigation are limiting the menu, leading to fears that without the necessary killer content to attract audiences, take-up of the service may stall.
Highfield has stated that the BBC was looking to tackle these issues through services like Creative Archive and iMP, and called on the industry to do the same.
The pilot will use DRM software to delete programmes seven days after the programme has aired on TV, ensuring that users can no longer watch the content after that time. The digital rights system will also prevent users emailing the files to their chums or sharing it via disc.
The BBC iMP pilot will use peer-to-peer distribution technology to distribute the content and Geo-IP technology to restrict the service to UK Internet users only, with Siemens Business Services, BBC Broadcast and Kontiki, assisting with the technical and play-out elements of the trial.
The Kontiki system is already being beta-tested by the Open Media Foundation in trials of a public service allowing controlled peer-to-peer distribution of rights cleared audio and video.
BBC iMP
Kontiki
16 May, 2005
TVOD: Telewest’s VOD Plans Revealed
Telewest Broadband today announced plans to transform its TV service, giving consumers greater access and control over additional digital programmes.
The UK giant intends to roll out TV on demand – where sofa-lolling users pick programmes from a menu and watch it whenever they want – to all its one million digital TV customers by early 2006.
Telewest are also widening the range of on-demand programming available and boosting the existing movie service, currently offering over 200 current and library titles.
The extended service will include the best of the previous week’s programmes, including 60 hours of BBC content, at a cost of jack-diddly-squat to customers.
There will also be a mix of free and subscription services including popular TV series, music videos and niche content.
Customers can view programmes just like watching a DVD or video, with options to watch it when they want, and then pause, fast forward and rewind to their heart’s content.
Following the initial launch of TVOD in Bristol, Telewest will introduce the service in stages throughout the second half of this year, starting with 26,000 customers in Cheltenham who are set to receive the service in early July.
Telewest Broadband has the highest percentage of TV customers taking digital, currently 87%, of any cable company in Europe and North America.
Eric Tveter, president and chief operating officer at Telewest sunk deeper into his deluxe executive chair and glossed: “We are transforming TV as we know it by giving consumers both a superb choice of programmes and the flexibility to watch them whenever they want. We don’t ever want to hear our customers say there’s nothing on the box or that they have missed their favourite programme.”
“And while digital TV goes from strength to strength,” he cackled triumphantly, “analogue has finally had its day.”
Digital TV, comms and broadband behemoths Telewest are clearly keen to stamp their feet all over digital TV market, investing around £20 million (~US$13.6m ~€29.3m) in the development of TV-on-demand and personal video recorder (PVR) services in 2005.
Telewest
12 May, 2005