Skitter has announced an affordable alternative for cord-cutters with its video streaming service that provides local stations via the Internet.
“Launched recently in Portland during March 2012, an Atlanta-based video platform company named Skitter has started streaming ten broadcast channels that includes CBS, the CW, TBN and two PBS affiliates at a price of $6 a month for the basic package,” reports Digital Trends.
“Accessible through the Roku platform as well as the Western Digital Live set-top box and the Western Digital TV Live Hub, Portland consumers can view upcoming programming through a channel-grid guide and watch live television without the need for an external antenna.”
Skitter has plans to launch in five additional markets in the upcoming months that will reportedly include NBC, FOX and ABC. The cost is expected to run $12-15 per month. The company hopes to go nationwide in the future.
“A similar service called Aereo launched in New York City earlier this year for a cost of $12 per month, but has come under legal pressure from local broadcasters due to claims of copyright infringement. While the concept of the service is the same, Skitter is avoiding the legal kerfuffle by obtaining retransmission licenses from broadcasters in order to bring the service direct to consumers. Skitter was already acquiring these licenses to sell their technology to telco operators in areas around the country,” explains the article.
The NAB has announced it will set aside $3 million a year for a new lab designed to help broadcasters keep pace with digital media.
Kevin Gage, formerly of Warner Bros. and NBCUniversal, has been hired as the organization’s first chief technology officer. Gage will be responsible for running the new lab, among other duties.
According to TVNewsCheck: “…for now the lab will not be a place you can visit. It will be more of an investment fund, he says, seeking out the best ideas for improving the broadcast media and nurturing them with infusions of cash.”
“[W]e’re now in a situation where we can start innovating and using new technologies that are out there to be able to connect with the consumer in ways that we have never connected before. That’s really what the lab is there to do,” says Gage.
In an interview with TVNewsCheck, Gage discussed some of the projects he plans for the new lab: “In radio, we’re working on an AM engineering study that we kicked off in the last fiscal year, as well as HD radio in FM. And then on the TV side, we’re fostering innovation with mobile DTV, and we are moving forward to potentially a new broadcast standard. What would be the ramifications and the benefits of being able to go to something different in the future?”
Cloud computing has a strong presence at this year’s NAB Show, with big companies such as Amazon and Microsoft touting its possibilities.
The cloud is being promoted to meet the capacity needs created by the ever-increasing demand for higher image resolutions. Amazon Web Services and Microsoft’s Windows Azure Media Services are two solutions designed for broadcasters.
“With media production being a prime candidate for cloud services given its project-specific nature (think rent versus buy) and typically collaborative-approach, it comes as no surprise that the cloud industry is descending on Vegas and the broadcaster association put together a cloud-specific channel for the show this year,” reports Wired Cloudline.
“We’ve reached an inflection point in the industry where the studios — which have made do with just enough compute capacity that they could keep up but now that more of their work is going digital, scaling that infrastructure is difficult and expensive,” said Grant Kirkwood, CEO of Unitas Global, which is demonstrating its cloud-based rendering solution at NAB.
“With the increase of resolution from 2K to 4K being the standard, the amount of data to be rendered is through the roof. If I’m a visual effects studio, I’m going to have to render a film at 24, 25 and 30 frames per second [for TV, Blu-ray and movie formats.] At the resulting 79 frames per second, using 4K resolution, each frame is 24 gigabytes of data. Imagine what that means for a two-hour movie,” Kirkwood said.
An increasing number of consumers watch their television while using an iPad to surf the Web at the same time, according to a new study.
Forrester Research suggests that 85 percent of tablet owners in the U.S. use their devices while they watch TV, and 12 percent claim they watch less TV since they got their tablets.
Additionally, about 35 percent of tablet owners say they now use their laptops less, and 45 percent say they have no plans to purchase an e-reader.
“Smaller TVs in other rooms, like the bedroom and kitchen, are also being displaced by tablets,” reports MediaPost. “About a third of tablet users say they will not buy another small TV, while only 7 percent say the same about large-screen TVs.”
A number of companies are launching new services and apps designed to maintain viewer interest across the two screens.
The Forrester report rates Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft in this space. “It identifies Apple as the early tablet-TV leader, courtesy of the iPad. With 55 million of the devices sold worldwide since December, no other tablet has attracted nearly as many developers,” explains the article.
The global media technology industry is expected to grow to nearly $30 billion over the next three years, according to new research from the International Association of Broadcasting Manufacturers (IABM) released at NAB.
“Europe is expected to take 40 percent of the global market pie, according to the fourth edition of IABM’s Global Market Valuation Report, followed by North America at 29 percent,” reports TVNewsCheck.
Services will remain the primary business driver, explained IABM’s Peter White during an NAB presentation Saturday.
“Research showed year-over-year sales growth of 3 percent, and the number of companies in profit growing to 71 percent, although year-over-year profit was down 7 percent,” according to the article.
Clyde Smith, SVP of new technologies for Fox Network’s engineering and operations, shared IABM’s optimistic outlook and enthusiasm regarding multi-platform content delivery.
“I see a change less driven by annual budget cycles and more driven by business opportunities and the opportunity to provide efficiency in operations,” Smith said at the presentation. “If you can improve the efficiency of the organization… you’ll get the funding for moving forward.”
Mobile DTV has a significant presence at this week’s NAB show in Las Vegas (April 14-19).
In addition to vendor booths touting mobile DTV solutions, demos are taking place at the Mobile DTV Pavilion (sponsored by the Open Mobile Video Coalition) and the ATSC Tech Zone, run by the Advanced Television Systems Committee.
“With more than 120 stations now on the air with mobile DTV signals and two new business groups ramping up for launch, now is the time to see the new products and services that will make mobile DTV an indispensable service,” said Vince Sadusky, president of the OMVC and CEO of LIN Media.
The Mobile Content Venture and the Mobile500 Alliance are the two groups referenced by Sadusky.
The first is “a joint-venture of 12 major broadcast groups” that has “announced alliances with consumer electronics manufacturers to bring new mobile DTV-capable devices to market and to develop external devices that will allow existing iPads and smartphones to receive live broadcast signals,” reports Broadcasting & Cable. The Mobile500 is comprised of “50 member companies that hold licenses to 437 TV stations.” At NAB, the alliance is showcasing “its solution that offers live TV, DVR type functionality for recording live TV, on demand programming, social media integration, closed captioning and interactive advertising.”
“A new range of Mobile DTV receivers will be bringing mobile viewing innovations to viewers across the country, making local news, weather, sports, entertainment and emergency alerts immediately available to people no matter where they are located,” added Sadusky.
Oracle and Google are meeting in a San Francisco federal court this week to begin an intellectual property case that could have wide-ranging implications for software development.
“At issue is Java, the software platform Oracle became owner of when it acquired Sun Microsystems in 2010,” reports AllThingsD. “And the witness list will be interesting: Both Google CEO Larry Page and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison are expected to take the witness stand during the trial; as will former Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz and Andy Rubin, the Google senior vice president who runs its Android and mobile operations.”
Oracle claims that Google illegally used elements of the Java programming code to build the Android OS.
Google claims the lines of code cannot be copyrighted because it would be the same as copyrighting a technique used to perform a task.
“This is a new and controversial legal argument that has software developers watching the trial closely,” suggests AllThingsD. “Google has argued that APIs shouldn’t be subject to copyright protection, because they’re more akin to tools and techniques that programmers use to build software.”
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings lashed out against cable provider Comcast via his Facebook page on Sunday. The subject: Net neutrality and data caps.
Hastings accused Comcast of offering preferential treatment to its own content with its Xbox 360 Xfinity app.
“As he explained on his Facebook page, his complaint is that when Comcast subscribers watch Netflix, Hulu, or HBO Go on their Xbox consoles, it counts against their monthly data limits,” reports CNET. “However, subscribers who use Xfinity don’t have their limits dinged, suggesting that Comcast is giving its service preferential treatment to keep subscribers on the service rather than straying over to Netflix.”
Hastings claims that Comcast’s policy of exempting the app from data caps while enforcing the policy for rival providers violates the spirit of Net neutrality.
“Comcast no longer following Net neutrality principles. Comcast should apply caps equally, or not at all,” he wrote via Facebook. “The same device, the same IP address, the same Wi-Fi, the same Internet connection, but totally different cap treatment. In what way is this neutral?”
D-Link has launched its new $48 MovieNite video streaming player. The streaming-only player is designed for aspiring cord-cutters, as an affordable alternative to Roku set-top boxes.
MovieNite is being offered exclusively through Walmart with a $5.99 free movie credit from VUDU.
The player features 1080p video and access to services including VUDU, Netflix, Pandora and YouTube. D-Link has also released iPhone and Android apps for controlling the player.
“The closest match to video playback specs in Roku’s lineup of products is the $79.99 Roku 2 XD, but Roku players offer access to wider variety of services such as Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, HBO GO and several sports subscriptions packages,” reports Digital Trends.
Since Walmart owns VUDU, it seems unlikely that the player will expand its offerings to include competitors such as Amazon Instant Video.
“If the user also owns mydlink-enabled network cameras, the feeds from those cameras can be viewed through the MovieNite player as well,” adds the post. “For instance, a user could pause a movie playing on Netflix to launch the mydlink application and view an outdoor camera feed when someone knocks on the front door.”
Dolby and Philips are proposing a new 3D HD format dubbed “Dolby 3D,” which will be demoed this week at NAB in Las Vegas.
The format is “aimed at delivering full HD 3D content to enabled devices, including glasses-free displays,” writes Carolyn Giardina for The Hollywood Reporter.
“We believe that Dolby 3D can help drive the adoption of 3D — creating a comfortable, customizable, truly enjoyable glasses-free 3D viewing experience while enhancing 3D display performance,” said Dolby’s Ramzi Haidamus, executive vice president, sales and marketing.
“The Dolby 3D format would effectively be used for encoding/decoding, transmission and rendering to 3D-ready displays and mobile devices. Dolby and Philips have started to engage standards bodies and have an eye toward licensing the technology,” writes Giardina.
Last week, ETCentric reported that the U.S. Department of Justice was pursuing Apple and five publishers on charges of e-book price fixing.
Apple is denying any wrong-doing, as are three of the publishers.
“Apple says that it did not collude to fix the price of e-books — it simply helped break Amazon’s ‘monopolistic’ stranglehold on the publishing industry, while also offering a superior product to consumers,” reports Digital Trends.
Publishers Macmillan and Penguin are opting to fight the suit in court, while the remaining three (Hachette, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster) have agreed to settle out of court.
“The DOJ’s accusation of collusion against Apple is simply not true,” said Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr. “The launch of the iBookstore in 2010 fostered innovation and competition, breaking Amazon’s monopolistic grip on the publishing industry. Since then customers have benefited from e-books that are more interactive and engaging. Just as we’ve allowed developers to set prices on the App Store, publishers set prices on the iBookstore.”
“It’s worth noting that Apple’s pricing policy with books and apps differs from the setup it has with the music industry,” adds AllThingsD in a related report. “In that relationship, Apple pays the music labels a wholesale price for their digital assets, and then sets the retail price itself.”
According to Leichtman Research Group, 38 percent of U.S. households have at least one television set connected to the Internet via a game console, Blu-ray player, set-top box or other device.
Last year, 30 percent of households had Internet-connected TVs, while the figure was 24 percent two years ago.
Netflix subscribers represent more than one-third of that base, streaming videos through a connected device at least once a week, suggests the survey.
“Leichtman Research drilled down further into Netflix’s role in the media landscape. The firm found that half of Netflix subscribers are ‘satisfied’ with the online streaming service,” reports MediaPost. “There is some countervailing evidence that Netflix contributes to cord-cutting, as just 7 percent are ‘likely’ to switch from their multichannel provider in the next six months versus 12 percent of non-Netflix homes.”
The RIAA, National Music Publishers Association and Digital Media Association have reached an agreement regarding royalty rates for digital music services and emerging media.
“Some of the new rates address music bundled with other goods, such as Internet-service plans, cellphones and vinyl records, which are sometimes sold with codes that allow downloading of MP3 versions of the music,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
The proposal would call for the creation of new guidelines for five new types of services, including online locker offerings such as Amazon’s Cloud Drive and Apple’s iTune Match.
Rates were previously established for three types of delivery: physical sales, digital downloads, and on-demand music services.
Expanding the number of categories “reflects our mission to make it easier for digital music services to launch cutting-edge business models and streamline the licensing process,” said Cary Sherman, who heads the RIAA.
Internet pioneer and current Google Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf is asking people how we should define the Internet and its future.
He distributed an email on April 9 as a call to initiate a new dialogue on the subject. An accompanying Google page suggests: “Let’s start something” and features links to participate via Google+, Facebook, or Twitter.
“It’s time to start a new chapter in our Internet conversation — one in which we come up with positive and proactive plans to drive constructive Internet legislation in countries around the globe,” Cerf wrote in the email.
“Instead of reacting only to legislation that is harmful to the Internet’s utility, we should be promoting policies that improve the Internet’s usefulness while making it a safer and more secure environment for everyone,” he suggests.
“At first glance, this whole campaign seems quite odd, and we’ve asked Google to clarify a few things about it,” reports Digital Trends. “But from what we can gather, this is an attempt to launch a proactive campaign to influence federal legislation on the Internet. (At least, that’s our interpretation of it.) It’s an interesting idea, considering nearly all of the online activism we’ve seen so far (think SOPA/PIPA blackout) has been reactive, meaning Washington drafts some dangerous bill, and then the Internet community pushes back against it.”
The TriggerHappy camera remote is yet another Kickstarter success story.
TriggerHappy, from engineer Kevin Harrington and his development team, provides digital SLR control via its iPhone or Android app.
As of April 6, the Kickstarter campaign had 27 days remaining, yet the TriggerHappy team had already raised $125,000 (their initial funding goal was $25,000).
Digital Trends interviewed the young software engineer about his concept and his team’s experience with Kickstarter.
According to Harrington: “Kickstarter is a great place to bootstrap a business. That’s what we wanted. We don’t see TriggerHappy as a project, but instead we see it as a business with an ever-improving product. Starting a business requires capital. Kickstarter is a great place to raise that capital without giving away company equity to investors. Crowdfunding is how we wanted to raise capital, and Kickstarter is the premium crowdfunding service.”
The post features a 4-minute video describing the TriggerHappy project.
