Movie-rental choices keep streaming in

The Chicago Tribune looks at the many new ways consumers are watching movies.

Today, movie watchers are using video-subscription services, such as Netflix; vending-machine movies, such as Redbox; and on-demand movies from their TV subscriptions. And, increasingly, consumers are watching Hollywood productions on their computers or streaming online movies to their TVs with help from a variety of set-top boxes. Some are even watching movies on the go with hand-held devices and laptops as they commute to work or travel for business and pleasure.

Behind the scenes in the movie industry, a number of players, including movie studios, premium cable channels and movie-delivery companies, are scrambling to create partnerships, carve niches and preserve profits.

Read full article.

Networks Block Web Programs From Being Viewed on Google TV

ABC, CBS and NBC are blocking TV programming on their websites from being viewable on Google Inc.'s new Web-TV service, exposing the rift that remains between the technology giant and some of the media companies it wants to supply content for its new products. The Wall Street Journal reports.

The move marks an escalation in ongoing disputes between Google and some media companies, which are skeptical that Google can provide a business model that would compensate them for potentially cannibalizing existing broadcast businesses.

But the three networks are also not alone in blocking their content. Video site Hulu, whose owners include Disney, NBC Universal and News Corp., also blocks its video from being played through the Google TV interface.

Read full article.

Google TV Signs Up Media, Web Firms

Google Inc. on Monday unveiled several new partnerships with media and Web companies, including NBC Universal Inc. and Amazon Inc., to provide content for Google TV, a service designed to expand the Internet giant's franchise into the living room. The Wall Street Journal reports.

Google also said Amazon Video on Demand will give Google TV viewers instant access to more than 75,000 movies and TV shows for a fee. The video-streaming service Netflix Inc. will also be available.

Read full article.

Google TV to offer “tens of thousands” of apps

Google TV is to support the company’s Android Market application store early next year, the company announced this week, reports Wireless Duniya.

Google TV will be switched on in the US in the next few weeks, followed by a worldwide rollout from 2011, and the company wants to integrate its application store into the offering.

Soon we will be bringing tens of thousands of the same applications you can get on your mobile phone to your TV,” revealed Google TV product marketing manager Brittany Bohnet. “We are going to be launching support for Android Market in early 2011. TV, the full Web, tens of thousands of applications. Google TV gives you access to more entertainment than any other living room device you have ever experienced.”

Read full article.

The New Apple TV

Apple has revealed its new, streaming-only Apple TV. And it's just 1/4 the size of the old one.

The new Apple TV will stream rental movies directly from iTunes, or beam videos from your own computer, bypassing local storage—and the possibility of buying anything.

[via Gizmodo]

Google TV plan is causing jitters in Hollywood

Many worry that Silicon Valley will upend the entertainment industry just like the Internet ravaged the music and newspaper industries. The Los Angeles Times reports.

Google revolutionized the way people access information. Now it wants to transform how people get entertainment.

The search giant is touting an ambitious new technology, called Google TV, that would marry the Internet with traditional television, enabling viewers to watch TV shows and movies unshackled from the broadcast networks or cable channels on which they air.

Users would need to buy a TV or set-top box with Google software that could connect to the Internet, along with a keyboard to type commands. Users could also use their iPhone or Android phone to operate Google TV.

The prospect of Google getting into television frightens many in Hollywood, who worry that Silicon Valley will upend the entertainment industry just like the Internet ravaged the music and newspaper industries.

Read full article.

BBC Trust approves Project Canvas

The BBC has been given the go-ahead for a project which could kick-start demand for internet TV.

Project Canvas is a partnership between the BBC, ITV, BT, Five, Channel 4 and TalkTalk to develop a so-called Internet Protocol Television standard. The service will see a range of set-top boxes available to access on-demand TV services such as iPlayer and ITVplayer.

Read full article.

Google working on Google TV devices

Google, Intel, and Sony are reportedly working on Web-connected set-top boxes and TVs that use Intel's chips, Google's Android software, and Sony's hardware.

[via News.com]

BBC teams up with ITV and BT for "Project Canvas"

According to TechDigest, the companies plan a set-top box that can access YouTube, iPlayer, and other video sites.

Following the utter failure of Kangaroo, BBC and ITV bosses have put their heads together and come up with a different strategy. They're launching a public consultation on a proposal for a IPTV service that they're calling Project Canvas.

There's not a whole lot of detail available yet, but it appears that the companies want to put together a set-top box service that'll deliver television (in HD), a PVR service, internet access (to YouTube and other sites), and some sort of electronic program guide to it all.

The partners hope that it would cost in the region of £100-200 for the consumer, and a 2010 launch is aimed at. The BBC says it'll contribute £6 million to the project over the next five years, out of a total of £16.6 million that it'll need.

Blockbuster Offers Download Device

On Tuesday, Blockbuster launched it's own set-top-box, reports Bits.

Blockbuster’s device cost 99, but that includes 25 movie downloads. Additional movies will cost as much as $3.99 apiece.

Steve Jobs: We Still Haven't Figured Out The Living Room (AAPL)

Steve Jobs admits no one has succeeded yet at bridging your living room TV with the Internet -- including Apple, whose Apple TV set-top box isn't flying off store shelves. Silicon Alley Insider reports.

Jobs:"I think the whole category is still a hobby right now. I don’t think anybody has succeeded at it and actually the experimentation has slowed down. A lot of the early companies that were trying things have faded away, so I’d have to say that given the economic conditions, given the venture capital outlooks and stuff, I continue to believe it will be a hobby in 2009."

Jobs is right -- there's probably still no pressing, mainstream demand for an Internet TV set-top box, especially if they're going to have to cost $200-300. Most people already get all the TV they want from their cable boxes, cable video-on-demand, and DVRs.

ZeeVee Launches ZvBox, New

ZeeVee's new ZvBox is a device that allows consumers to watch anything they can get online or on their computers on all the HDTVs in their homes.

ZvBox achieves this by simply connecting to the monitor output of the computer and turning it into a new high-definition (HD) TV channel called Zv, which is then broadcast across the existing cable wiring to all HDTVs in the home.

As a result, ZvBox frees TV watchers from restrictive set-top boxes, rigid network schedules, and the strain of hunching over laptops to view online video.

Press release

Blockbuster eyes streaming to TVs

According to Reuters, home video giant Blockbuster is developing a set-top device for streaming films directly to TV sets and is expected to announce the offering sometime this month.

"The device would join a growing roster of devices that aim to bring broadband video to the living room, including Apple TV, which hasn't quite seen sales match the hype surrounding the product. Blockbuster rival Netflix also has indicated that it will compete in this market with a similar device being created with LG Electronics.

The product would be an offshoot of Movielink, the online film service Blockbuster acquired last year that allows consumers to watch films licensed from the major studios on their PCs."

Will The Future of Search Be Televised?

From Search Insider: Would you believe the next Google-killer is coming from Samsung?

"Samsung doesn't refer to its See'N'Search set-top boxas a Google killer; that's generally a phrase used by the media to describe some technology you'll never hear from again. What Samsung is doing actually doesn't interfere with Google's current business model in the slightest, though it could spell competition going forward.

Mashable describes the new See'N'Search "as a set-top box that reads the closed captions on a television show, as well as listens for keywords, to search for related Internet articles to the content you are currently watching.

Engadget has posted a six-minute video demo from a Samsung exec. It's a good preview of where interactive TV is heading. "

BBC’s iPlayer scores big

More than one million visitors went to the BBC iPlayer site during the two-week period ending January 7, with an average of 250,000 programs being downloaded or streamed a day, according to BBC research.

Each program streamed is watched for less than 25 minutes. Streaming is more popular than downloading by a factor of eight to one.

[via Cyberjournalist]

FyreTV: A set top box for porn only

Something new for set top boxes: FyreTV.com - designed purely to download porn.

Juicy news gathered from The Inquirer who writes: "The service - which is currently in beta, and due to launch at CES / AVN in a few weeks - allows users to stream DVD-resolution pornography to a broadband-connected set top box. The box is designed to do nothing beyond connect to the FyreTV service".

When up and running, the service will allow you to select from a wide variety of movies by search term, category, performer or even uh, particular performer characteristics."

Netflix says exploring partnerships for TV video

Neflix is exploring sending movies and videos to television sets through Web-connected high-definition DVD players and Internet-connected game consoles, said Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings on Monday, reports
Reuters.

"We are trying to understand the best ways to provide inexpensive viewing of online content on the television," he said.

Netflix, the leader in online DVD rentals, in January unveiled its long-awaited Internet movie delivery feature, which allows subscribers to play back about 1,000 mostly older movies in real time via streaming video.

The company for quite some time has said it was looking to extend that service from PCs to the television."

5 Alternatives To Apple TV

Anyone thinking of getting a set top box, should check out NewTeeVee's review of 5 different models on the market (D-Link Media Lounge, Netgear EVA8000 Digital Entertainer HD, Zensonic Z500, Xbox 360 and the Mac Mini)

Is the Apple TV officially a flop?

Scott Woolley on Forbes calls the Apple TV "a flat-out" failure, claiming that it's sold less than 250,000 units in six months. [via Crave]

"His timing was impeccable. When the product debuted in late March, the cost of delivering TV shows over the Internet had plunged, and the Web was brimming with video of ever greater variety and quality. The major TV networks were adding online downloads of such hits as NBC's Heroes, and Hollywood's titanic studios had begun talks to rent movies online through Apple's iTunes service.

Six months later iTV is a flat-out iFlop. Renamed Apple TV upon launch, the ballyhooed box has sold perhaps 250,000 units--far behind the 1 million sold for the iPhone, which was priced twice as high and has been on the market less than half as long."

... So while Woolley's "iFlop" description is something of a hyperbole, the essence does ring true: the Apple TV doesn't have the "gotta have it" appeal of the iPod. In its current configuration, I certainly wouldn't spend my own money to buy one.

What would it take to change that? John P. Falcone for Crave offers some suggestions. Read on.

Microsoft and partners to sell TV set-top boxes

Microsoft and its hardware partners are trying to bridge the divide between home computers and television sets this holiday season with the release of several "media extenders." The IHT reports.

"These television set top boxes will connect wirelessly to computers running the Home Premium or Ultimate flavors of Windows Vista and enable users to use their televisions to watch movies, shows and Internet video that is stored on their computers.

Microsoft was expected to announce the prices and more details about the systems, known as extenders, Thursday at the DigitalLife trade show in New York."

Cable Without a Cable Box, and TV Shows Without a TV

Following a new Federal Communications Commission rule that went into effect July 1, cable companies in the United States now have to separate the security functions that prevent you from watching channels you haven’t paid for from the TV tuner box most of us rent, reports The New York Times.

"The practical result of the rule is that cable companies now have to supply set-top boxes that come with a removable CableCARD. The cards, which look like the PC Cards used in notebook computers, contain the information necessary to unscramble digital cable channels like HBO.

But they could allow other equipment to become much more versatile. The cards are designed to be inserted into a host of other devices, including TVs, digital video recorders (DVRs) and computers."