As Netflix looks to compete with HBO by teaming up with a cable provider, it has already hit its first snag.
Comcast, the largest U.S. cable provider, said it has “no interest” in partnering with Netflix, reports The Verge. The company already has its own VOD service, Xfinity and recently launched Streampix, which enables access on the Web and mobile devices.
Netflix reportedly plans to seek competitive alternatives with Comcast’s rivals Time Warner, Cox or Bright House.
“Reuters first reported on Wednesday that Netflix had reached out to major cable companies to discuss joining forces. But without Comcast, the reach of those partnerships would be limited,” suggests The New York Times.
Additionally, streaming services are emerging from a number of companies. Comcast’s Streampix offers 75,000 television shows and movies to its its 22.3 million Xfinity subscribers. And according to The New York Times: “Dish Network and Blockbuster have a Web streaming service in the works. Verizon, the parent company of the Verizon FiOS fiberoptic network, has teamed up with Redbox on a Web streaming joint venture.”
The new software update for Apple TV enables users to subscribe to Netflix and MLB.tv directly from the device, using their iTunes account for payments.
This upgrade resembles Apple’s in-app subscription model on iOS that earns Apple a 30 percent revenue cut on magazine and digital service subscriptions.
For Netflix, this model could be used for their potential cable partnerships. “Most modern cable boxes would be capable of working with Netflix with an appropriate firmware and software update (or, cable companies could rent new Netflix-enabled boxes to those users who don’t already have Netflix built into all of their home theater devices), with the added advantage of offering TV content from one box,” Mashable suggests.
For Apple, this could be the first step toward its own subscription television service. “If Netflix sees success with the offering, perhaps other subscription services — either over-the-air (OTA) or cable-back — could come to Apple TV as well,” the post predicts. “An a la carte offering of premium content that is billed through one party and viewable on an array of connected devices could be a good start at disrupting the current cable business model.”
At a media event in New York City this week, Samsung announced its new Smart Touch remote control, a universal Bluetooth keyboard for interaction with Smart TVs, and a new LED TV.
“Joe Stinziano, Senior VP of Samsung Electronics took the stage, to announce the ES8000 with Smart Interaction (a combination of voice control, facial recognition, and gesture controls). It has that thin bezel and a U-shaped stand, just as we heard it would back at CES,” reports TechCrunch.
“The camera on the ES8000 LED lets you swipe through apps with your hand, and all you have to do is close your hand to click,” adds the post.
“The camera also has a built-in microphone, so you can change the channel and perform other commands without even lifting a hand. That means you could be Skyping from the couch on a big screen. It’ll also come equipped with a Bluetooth IR Blaster.”
Mashable notes that “only about one-third of the world’s population is connected” to the Internet, but that “the amount of data we generate and consume is likely to blow your hair back.”
The post features a compelling infographic courtesy of MBAonline.com, which details one day of Internet use, to startling results.
“Would you believe that 294 billion emails are sent? That 2 million blog posts are written? That 864,000 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube alone? How am I supposed to watch all of that when I’m only on season one of Downton Abbey?” Mashable asks.
Additional stats of interest: 172 million people visit Facebook (while 4.7 billion minutes are spent on the social network), 22 million hours of video are viewed on Netflix, 18.7 million hours of music are streamed on Pandora — and iPhone sales exceed the number of babies born.
“Where once was a television landscape dominated by two clear competitors with leaders in broadcast and cable, there is now is a crowded field populated by numerous other players such as Netflix, YouTube and Hulu which have begun creating their own original content,” reports Broadcasting & Cable. “Added to that space — and complicating matters — is the increasing importance of a strong, branded digital presence.”
These topics and more were discussed by cable executives at the Hollywood Radio & Television Society’s Cable Programming Summit in Beverly Hills.
Multiscreen viewing has become an objective for cable programmers. “While the cable executives agree that great content is the catalyst for a great social presence, expanding the brand to multiple platforms has become a necessary step for all players,” notes the article.
Original content drives online social interaction both before the show launches and during the run of the show.
AMC’s “The Talking Dead,” for example, was the after-show online access to “The Walking Dead” cast and crew on Twitter. TNT is running a Facebook Timeline of “Dallas.”
“I don’t think there’s ever a point you can sit back and say…that the platforms have established themselves and we know what we’re doing. The constant theme that we’ve all learned [is that] we all need to evolve or die,” explained Carmi Zlotnik, Starz managing director. “It’s a fascinating period, where the creativity and what we do in shows is evolving at the same time as the platforms that they’re placed on changes as well.”
Consultant and columnist Tim Bajarin addresses the evolution of on-demand television distribution and the Internet as a disruptive business model.
In a world of digital media, Bajarin suggests the networks “are now realizing that while they ruled the roost in the world of broadcast television, they are just another channel among thousands of channels that consumers can choose from for viewing video content.”
“But what they don’t seem to get is that in this world of digital, they will need new distribution partners and that they will not have as much control over them as in the past,” he adds. “And I also don’t think they really understand the idea that people want to have access to that content anytime, anywhere and on any device they own.”
Bajarin also suggests that Apple may be on the cusp of causing additional disruption.
“Apple is going to become one of the most powerful video distribution networks by nature of their existing customer base and one that is added to continually,” he writes. “I know the networks would like to keep control of their distribution, but in the world of digital, those days are gone.”
“The sooner the networks understand this and see things like Apple’s new distribution vehicle as a critical way to get their content to the masses quickly, the sooner they can adapt to and fine tune a new business models to take advantage of this new era of on demand, anytime, anywhere and on any device video content world.”
Ray Ozzie, Microsoft’s former chief software architect, says we are in a post-PC world where the PC is no longer central, but co-exists with other devices.
According to Reuters: “The PC, which was Microsoft’s foundation and still determines the company’s financial performance, has been nudged aside by powerful phones and tablets running Apple Inc and Google Inc software, the former Microsoft executive said.”
Microsoft, which dominated the PC era, has developed Windows 8 that will operate on ARM-powered tablets and hopefully put the company back on the cutting edge — or the “doom and gloom” scenario for Microsoft will be if people switch to portable, non-Windows devices.
“It’s a world of phones and pads and devices of all kinds, and our interests in general purpose computing — or desktop computing — starts to wane and people start doing the same things and more in other scenarios,” said Ozzie.
American Express is partnering with Twitter on a program that syncs with credit cards for automatic merchant discounts and coupons.
“The service is similar to one that American Express has with Facebook, letting consumers use their favorite social network to take advantage of special offers,” reports GigaOM.
Amex customers who sync their cards to their Twitter accounts can use a special hashtag to redeem coupons. “Users don’t have to actually clip a coupon or print anything out to take advantage of the service. They just have to send a tweet and the discount is stored for them,” explains the article.
Best Buy, McDonald’s, H&M, Whole Foods and TicketMaster are among the early participants.
NBC has teamed up with YouTube as its “official on-demand partner” for the 2012 Olympics.
Some 11,000 athletes from 205 countries are scheduled to compete over 17 days at the Summer Olympic Games in London.
“All events will be streamed live on Google’s backbone (likely via NBC.com) with replays of web-exclusive events, all the TV broadcasts and ‘behind the scenes’ footage all available at your whim,” reports Engadget.
According to the press release: “We plan to deliver the most extensive 2012 Olympics content to viewers, including — for the first time ever — ALL events streamed live. That’s right, you’ll be able to watch up to 3,000 hours of live streaming covering all 302 Gold Medals and every event in between.”
“Live streams will be available across our mobile platforms, providing an extraordinary 360-degree coverage of The Games,” adds the release.
Sprint had an agreement with LightSquared to build and operate its national wireless network for 11 years. In return, LightSquared agreed to pay Sprint $9 billion and another $4.5 billion in service credits.
However, according to two sources familiar with the project, Sprint could be quitting the partnership as billionaire Philip Falcone’s LightSquared gets hung up with the FCC.
Concerned over interference with global-positioning systems, the FCC said it would block LightSquared’s wireless venture. While the company looks for a resolution, Sprint’s activities have been on hold.
Sprint received an advanced payment of $310 million for start up costs and it will keep about $236 million if the partnership falls through.
Netflix is reportedly in discussions with cable companies to consider adding the service as a cable TV on-demand option, reports Reuters.
Partnering with cable TV providers rather than competing with them via cord cutting would represent a key move for Netflix.
CEO Reed Hastings has pointed out that cable TV providers are looking for a competitor to HBO.
“At least one cable company could end up experimenting with offering Netflix by the end of the year, even though the company would have to modify its content licensing deals, which currently typically don’t allow Netflix to bring programming to cable set-top boxes,” adds The Hollywood Reporter.
A deal like this, with pay TV distributors, could help Netflix with survival as it struggles somewhat, “but would force the company to reduce its terminal revenue opportunity by sharing average revenue per user with [distributors],” explains analyst Tony Wible of Janney Montgomery Scott.
Online retailer CultureLabel offers a compelling infographic that illustrates the mobile commerce industry outlook, noting in particular the massive growth of smartphone adoption.
According to the statistics, 87 percent of the world’s population currently has mobile phones, while smartphone sales have risen 63.1 percent from 2010.
About a third of cell phone users spend 27 minutes on communication (Skype, telephone, SMS) and over half of consumers spend 40 minutes per day on the Web.
Social networking accounted for an impressive 50 percent of all page views last year.
CultureLabel notes that 71 percent of mobile searches occur as follow-up to advertisements from TV, online or print ads — and 90 percent of searches result in action such as a purchase or store visit.
Mobile commerce is estimated to see a 99 fold increase in six years (from 2009 to 2015). By 2015, mobile Web surfing is expected to overtake desktop Web use.
Listed at $140, the new Galaxy Pocket from Samsung could be sold for as little as $20 or $30 with a two year contract.
It runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread, has an 832 MHz processor, 2-megapixel rear camera and 320 x 240 resolution for its 2.8-inch display.
The Pocket is likely a response to Nokia’s less expensive Lumia brand that runs Windows Phone OS.
“For the Galaxy Pocket to truly compete with that, it would need a bit more power under the hood,” TG Daily writes, “although if it does manage to strike a free-phone deal with a major carrier in the U.S., it could be a significant growth opportunity not only for Samsung but for the entire Android platform as a whole.”
“It’s sort of funny that the only major thing those in the rumor business got wrong was the name of the new iPad,” reports TechCrunch. “It’s not the previously presumed ‘iPad 3,’ nor is it the ‘iPad HD.’ It’s just the iPad. And that’s what it will be from now on.”
During yesterday’s Apple event, CEO Tim Cook emphasized the “Post-PC Revolution,” noting that Apple has sold 315 iOS devices.
Last quarter, Apple sold 15.4 million iPads. This was more than any PC manufacturer sold of their entire PC line worldwide: HP — 15.1 million PCs, Lenovo — 13 million, Dell — 11.9 million, Acer — 9.8 million.
TechCrunch offers a positive review of the company’s new tablet. The new iPad’s display “makes everything look like a printed photograph.” It seems fast. The 4G LTE will be faster than many broadband connections. The camera is “much, much, much, much, much better.” And iPhoto will be fun to use.
“You’re going to see a lot more of this type of innovation,” Tim Cook said. “We’re just getting started.”
In a related first impressions post: “When I pulled up a nice, high resolution photograph on the iPad 3rd-gen, I genuinely could not tell the difference between what I was seeing onscreen, and a nice, beautifully shot, well-printed, glossy photograph. It was seriously to that level,” comments Ryan Block, co-founder of gdgt.
Apple introduced the third generation of its iPad yesterday.
The new 9.7-inch Retina display boasts 3.1 million pixels and improved color saturation. The tablet is outfitted with an A5X processor and quad-core graphics chip.
Similar to the new camera in the iPhone 4S, the new iPad has a 5-megapixel iSight camera capable of shooting 1080p video.
Available for LTE, the new software also enables the iPad to be used as a portable Wi-Fi hotspot.
Although Siri isn’t fully integrated, a new voice-dictation feature is included, allowing consumers to speak instead of type.
“The new iPad will be available March 16th, starting at $499 for the 16GB WiFi model and scaling up to $829 for the 64GB version with 4G,” reports Engadget.