Broadband Archives - Page 14 of 23

The State of Boxee, Roku and Tivo

Light Reading TV interviews Roku Anthony Wood Boxee Avner Ronen

One of the best things about this week’s Light Reading Cable event was Avner Ronen’s unfailingly humorous commentary. That guy could be a stand-up comedian. And in an industry where much is taken far too seriously, a little levity is appreciated.

That said, just because Avner was funny doesn’t mean he didn’t also have some status updates and pearls of wisdom to dispense. Here’s what I got from the Boxee CEO, along with Roku CEO Anthony Wood, and TiVo exec Tara Maitra. For more, check out Light Reading’s own coverage including interviews on Light Reading TV.

Boxee – wants to own the user experience
Avner Ronen still insists Boxee doesn’t want to be a cable killer. Instead, the company wants to own the user experience – not the delivery, the content, or the box. To date, the company has 1.7 million users worldwide, and it plans to use its recent funding round of 16.5 million dollars to license more content, get distribution on more TVs, and most importantly, continue focusing on product development. Avner says that Boxee still doesn’t meet the babysitter test – i.e. the babysitter wouldn’t necessarily be able to watch TV upon encountering the Boxee Box for the first time. However, the company is aggressively working on moving from being a geek-only product to one that’s appealing to mainstream early-adopters.

Roku – wants to be a next-generation video network
I don’t know that I could have articulated Roku’s goal of becoming a next-gen video network before CEO Anthony Wood did yesterday. (Ah, so that’s what the little box that could wants to be when it grows up!) But it’s a noble aim, and certainly one that Roku’s made a good start on achieving. According to Wood, Roku has already shipped more than a million boxes through direct Internet sales, and that number could explode when the company hits the retail big box stores this year. Meanwhile, Wood also noted that customer surveys suggest that new Roku owners are cutting back on cable services at a more rapid rate. Last year 30% of new owners said they downgraded cable service or cut it altogether. This year that number’s already at 40%.

Other Roku notes: Wood says the company will probably have more than 1,000 channels by the end of the year, and it will launch its first international product in 2011.

How Verizon Really Can Take TV Everywhere

FiOS streaming live TV tablet

Slowly but surely we’re getting more access to TV on our PCs, iPads, and smartphones. But a comment on Dave’s post about the IMG 1.9 release reminded me that for some folks, the fact that FiOS TV service doesn’t let you move content around easily today is still a deal-breaker.

Until Verizon has a way for me to get TV off their box and onto my PC/ pad/ phone- the same way that Tivo does, I will continue to be a Tivo customer.

What most folks don’t know is that Verizon has done an astounding amount of work on its infrastructure in order to enable services that make content more flexible and accessible on different devices. We learned in January that the telecom had overhauled its hybrid QAM/IP system, making it possible to switch over to all-IP broadcasting for live television in addition to VOD and widget services. More recently, however, the company announced its new Verizon Digital Media Services platform, which both transcodes and formats TV for different devices, and handles session management so you can start watching a show in one place, and finish up somewhere else. (See Light Reading’s stellar coverage here and here)

Verizon claims that VDMS is a one-of-a-kind digital delivery utility, and it’s aiming to sell the technology as a service to cable companies for their TV Everywhere services. I have serious doubts about the potential success of that plan, but for Verizon’s own purposes, VDMS appears to give the company everything it needs to take FiOS TV to the next level. You know how the new WatchESPN service lets you watch live ESPN broadcasts on the go? I’m betting Verizon will offer more linear content the same way in the near future to FiOS TV users, along with the option to transition viewing sessions of VOD and recorded content to various gadgets for mobile viewing. This could be a good year to be a FiOS subscriber.

Cablevision Opens The (iPad) Firehose

Leave it to Cablevision… True to form, they’ve thrown caution to the wind and have launched the full fledged STB replacement iPad app we’ve been waiting for: Approximately 300 channels of live television More than 2,000 titles of Video on demand (VOD) available today, with Cablevision’s full VOD library expected to be encoded and available by early summer … Read more

Yahoo Connected TV Widget Store Delayed

Back in November, Yahoo announced their intention to expand their Connected TV platform beyond television manufacturer curated widgets into a full fledged app store. The plan was set to go live in March. Well, here we are. And the schedule’s been blown:

It’s not clear at this point when the store will be open for consumers.

Mari’s prescient Yahoo TV post headline out of CES sums it up: “Falling for Yahoo Again, Knowing Heartbreak Ahead”. Good ideas are not enough. Timely execution and partner support are also requisite.

As the owner of a Yahoo Connected TV, my initial excitement (Netflix, Vudu, weather!) has been replaced by fear and loathing. I don’t know if I should be directing my ire towards Vizio or Yahoo, but any potential gain I might have received from integrated Internet widgets has been offset by platform unreliability. As in: my television has a predisposition to reboot while accessing apps. Adding insult to injury, when the TV manages to stay up, half my widgets say the network is unavailable… contradicted by the other half that report no issues. Unfortunately, I’m not alone. From GigaOm:

Here’s something I didn’t imagine when I hooked up my brand-new Vizio XVT553SV TV last week: It crashed. Again. And again. And again. The culprit? Turns out the “smart” Internet apps made my television really dumb.

iPad March Madness Starts Tonight!

If you’re not going to be in front of a TV tonight for the start of the NCAA college basketball tournament, never fear, the (free) iPad app is here. The iPad launch last year just missed the March Madness season, which means this is the first time you can stream live games to the tablet screen. And given how many games take place during the tournament, having a portable television by your side is a major plus. I’ll be home tonight when the tourney kicks off, but given all the work that needs to be done around my house, I probably won’t be tied to the living-room TV. The iPad, however, will travel around with me.

Of course, if you don’t have an iPad, there are plenty of places to catch the college games, but the iPad implementation is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, given the screen size and portability of the iPad, the tablet truly starts to feel like a portable TV – much more so than the old black-and-white carry-around I had as a kid that could barely pull down an OTA signal.

Second, from an industry perspective, the start of March Madness makes an interesting new test of how well the web can deliver on live video events. If I recall right, there hasn’t been a major live TV event since the iPad launched. The presidential inauguration and the Olympic games were all pre-iPad. What will demand be like on the beautiful, traveling iPad screen? And what kind of reviews will we give to the new UI, the Apple HTTP Live Streaming protocol, and our network connections?

AllVid Alliance Formed; TiVo & Google On Board

The AllVid battle lines between the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) are being drawn. AllVid is a possible replacement for and enhancement of CableCARD technology being discussed by the FCC and now a group of companies from the electronics industry that have formed the “AllVid Tech Company Alliance.” … Read more

Debating the Future of Broadband

Everybody agrees. Let’s have bigger broadband and more of it. But who pays for greater access, how networks will get updated, and what aspects of the industry should be regulated are much gnarlier questions. These were some of the central points of debate in a New America Foundation event yesterday featuring Blair Levin, former FCC commissioner and project lead on the national broadband plan, and industry analyst Craig Settles.

The panel discussion was a lively one, moderated by GigaOM‘s Stacey Higginbotham and The Wall Street Journal‘s Amy Schatz, and it led me to several new thoughts on government broadband strategy. First, I gained new appreciation for the care and consideration that went into crafting the broadband plan. There are a lot of trade-offs that have to be made, and – whether or not you agree with the results – the options appear to have been examined carefully as the plan was drafted. As one example, the plan aims for speeds of 4 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream everywhere. Beyond financial and application considerations (which are significant), part of the rationale for this is because it makes mobile broadband a viable service competitor in rural areas. The more providers you have, the more downward pressure there is on prices.

Does The Netflix ISP Report Tell Us Anything?

Click to enlarge. Netflix will be publishing ISP performance stats, in regards to HD streaming rates, and their first batch is up. While the chart is colorful and somewhat interesting to ponder, I’m not quite sure anything of significance can be divined from these numbers (nor am I clear on Netflix’s objective here). The typical … Read more