Several players in the emerging Internet TV sector took significant steps forward in the past week. Given the embryonic stage of this potentially huge and important market space, its worth keeping track of all these pioneers, each of which is likely to provide valuable lessons for anyone seeking an economically viable place in tomorrow’s television ecosystem.
Yesterday, DAVE.TV (Distributed Audio Video Entertainment Television) launched a public beta of its new “Internet broadcasting service,” which is now available for download at www.dave.tv. This comes shortly after Veoh Networks’ beta release of its Internet TV software (for more on Veoh, see this article I wrote a few weeks ago after speaking with Dmitry Shapiro, the company’s founder, and getting a demo of the Veoh user interface [free registration required]).
Then there’s Akimbo’s announcement early this week that it will begin supporting “download to own” capabilities, including the ability to burn content to DVDs. Another profit-seeking player worth watching in this space is Brightcove, which remains largely in stealth mode, but has more than a dozen job listings posted on its web site. Anchored more in the non-profit sector are Open Media Network, Ourmedia.org and Torrentocracy. And there’s TotalVid, which is mainly targeting young males with an initial content selection heavily weighted toward extreme sports.
Our hats are off to these and other pioneers, both large and small, who are working to create the technical and business infrastructure to support more accessible and decentralized (and economically viable) video production and distribution.
Posted by Mitch Shapiro at 3:43 PM | Print | Comments (1)
Goldman Sachs’ Communacopia conference today is a lot of fun, if for no other reason than to hear the titans of the media world disagree on fundamental trends. News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch predicted earlier today that VoIP would be free within three years. But, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, whose company views VoIP as the next big revenue driver, takes a different view.
Speaking at the conference, Roberts said “I don’t really believe in the extremism view, so I have to respectfully disagree with Rupert” on VoIP becoming a free commodity. He then polled the audience to find out how many folks still rely on Verizon for local voice service, despite the multiplicity of voice options, particularly in Manhattan. Most people raised their hands.
He then polled the audience on how many had purchased over $200 worth of items on eBay in the last several months, and few raised their hands. Ipso facto: “Different services for different audiences,” Roberts said, trying to underscore the point that free VoIP services, such as Skype, soon to be owned by eBay, don’t compete with primary line local voice options.
“We’re going after the market of people who want to pay, but want to know that the product will always work.”
Secondly, Comcast doesn’t view voice as a stand-alone product as much as it does a component of the overall product mix. When Comcast first started to plan its new services, the company decided to “build a network that will allow us to deliver video content, unified messaging, email, voice mail that works with your email…a unified [network] that works with multiple platforms,” Roberts said.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 2:46 PM | Print | Comments (1)Speaking at Goldman Sachs’ Communacopia Conference today, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch predicted that VoIP services will be offered for free within three years. “I believe that free voice will be ubiquitous, not within ten years but within three years,” he said.
Even so, News Corp. would like to enter the VoIP space, presumably as an enhancement to its recent spate of Internet-related properties, Intermix, MySpace.com, Scout Media and, most recently, IGN Entertainment. “It [VoIP} would be nice to have, particularly now,” Murdoch said.
It’s clear that News Corp. will continue its expansion into the Internet. “The world is changing very fast. I think the timing is absolutely right [to pursue the Internet business.] The tremendous use of the Internet and growth in it has really come in the last year or so with the growth of broadband,” he said. “Entry is not expensive or difficult and this is the time to go for it.”
News Corp. will soon close a carriage deal with Verizon for Verizon’s FiosTV initiative, Murdoch said. The negotiations are “99% close” to being completed.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 2:00 PM | Print | Comments (0)
Peter Grant at the Wall Street Journal has a piece today saying that Verizon could go live with FiosTV video service on its fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) system in Keller, TX as early as this week. With most cable channels in the mix, Verizon plans to charge $36.90 for about 140 channels, and $43.90 for 185 channels, slightly lower than the rates charged by cable or satellite (although local cable operator Charter has implemented rate reductions as a defensive measure).
Plans call for roll-out of FiosTV in other communities in the coming months, and Verizon claims it will have fiber deployed to about three mil. homes by year-end. But, the need for local franchises will certainly slow down the company’s offering of competitive video services. No wonder Dick Parsons is getting spooked about cable’s prospects.
Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg is clearly pushing hard on the franchising issue. During a speech in Long Island today, Seidenberg called for franchise reform. “We’re making progress in getting the franchises we need. But we think this could go faster - and the benefits of video competition could come quicker - if we could reform the whole franchise process.”
Verizon has brought FTTP to 80 communities in Long Island (Cablevision territory) and is building out 50 more communities, but must land 40 franchises before it can offer video services. Seidenberg said the goal is to bring FiosTV to the area early next year.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 9:42 AM | Print | Comments (0)
The Authors Guild filed a class-action lawsuit against Google on Tuesday, alleging that the search giant’s digitizing of library books represents “massive” copyright infringement. Google is working to scan the book collections of a group of universities as part of its Google Library Project to make those books searchable on Google.
Google says that it allows authors to remove their copyrighted works from the project and that users don’t actually view the full text of the works, but merely snippets, bibliographic information and links to booksellers. Xeni Jardin at BoingBoing has an excellent round-up of this dispute, with links to all relevant parties.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 9:23 AM | Print | Comments (0)With the swirling influx of competitors - telco, satellite and Internet-based - the cable industry is becoming more vulnerable to market share loss. Dick Parsons, the CEO of the industry’s number two cable company, Time Warner, apparently agrees. Speaking at Goldman Sachs’ Communacopia conference this morning, Parsons hinted that Time Warner is starting to think about “dialing down” on its cable ownership interests.
“We have a cable company that will sail into a sea of new and large and well-financed competitors. It will eventually in time have to evolve into a robust telecommunications company,” he said. “Right now I believe that cable is still a strategically important asset choice. Now would not be the time necessarily to sort of cast it off. But will that change over time? We’ll see.”
AOL, the former ugly step-child of Time Warner, is quickly becoming the parent’s favorite. “The big growth opportunity for us is in AOL, and that’s why it’s sort of the number one focus for us right now,” he said. “I really do believe that not only does AOL represent an under-valued asset in our portfolio..if we can get it to work, if the way I think we can get it to work, it will not only increase the value of AOL but all the other properties in our portfolio.”
Parsons wouldn’t discuss the rumored talks between Time Warner and Microsoft that center on merging AOL with MSN, but he did say that the only component missing from AOL’s platform for revenue growth is paid search. Microsoft is supposedly looking at an AOL deal to swipe some search market share from its arch-rival, Google.
As the video world moves to an all-digital platform, whether on TV, the web or in physical form, the biggest threat Time Warner sees is piracy, Parsons said. “The privacy threat - that to me is the single biggest challenge that digital technology presents.” He is particularly concerned about China, where an estimated 950 million DVD units, out of a total billion units sold in that country last year, were pirated.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 9:09 AM | Print | Comments (0)
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