Industry

Service Providers Dangle HDTV Carrots

Following up on Mari’s HDTV holiday buying research, I’ve noticed an interesting strategy that television service providers are employing this fall to lure folks away from the CableCo: Verizon FiOS TV is offering new subscribers a free Sharp 19″ LCD HDTV and Dish Network is offering new or existing customers $800 off a variety of … Read more

Digital Media Bytes

A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our other blogs: The Motorola CableCARD Q&A: Connected Home 2 Go DivX Thrives, DVD Continues To Die: Davis Freeberg’s Digital Connection Netflix Watch Now Download Hack Surveillance: Brent Evans Geek Tonic FiOS TV Gets HD: Connected Home 2 Go Sage 6.3.1 Beta Released, HD Extender Support: Brent Evanas … Read more

Windows Home Server Arrives

After months of semi-public beta testing, Microsoft’s Windows Home Server is finally arriving in retail. HP’s MediaSmart Server is up first and the companies are offering live informational webcasts – including one today at 4PM EST: In addition to a live demonstration, consumer technology industry experts such as Rob Enderle/The Enderle Group, Rick Doherty/Envisioneering, Paul … Read more

TiVo Markets Customer Demographic Data

DVR powerhouse TiVo, Inc. announced that they will be offering a new service that gives advertisers detailed information customer information. “Power Watch Consumer Panel,” a partnership between TiVo Inc. and Starcom USA, fires another salvo at long-established Nielsen as TiVo attempts to further monetize the data and statistics data that their DVR service gathers. TiVo … Read more

ESPN Content Lands on Xbox

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ESPN and Microsoft have announced Xbox LIVE downloads:

Effective immediately, fans of all ages can access a growing catalog of marquee sporting events and timely programming, including full-length NCAA college football and basketball games, Summer X Games 13, “World Series of Poker,” “The Contender,” “Madden Nation” and much more on Xbox LIVE Marketplace, the leading high-definition video download service.

I obviously support additional partners and digital downloads, but I wonder how many will pay for a game 48 hours after broadcast? As a college football fan, I know the outcomes of all the meaningful games and have no interest in watching old sports programming… for a fee. Especially, since the first batch of games (above) are SD only. However, what I might pay for is something like DirecTV’s Superfan “Short Cuts” — an entire game condensed into 30 minutes or less. Get creative, people!

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Pricing CDNs

Since we’ve been talking about content delivery networks (CDNs), I did a little research to determine typical CDN services fees. We’re starting to see hybrid models, such as the GridNetworks solution (CDN and P2P), but for strict CDN services – where content is hosted on regional servers for faster delivery – here’s what I discovered … Read more

How Will The Writers Strike Impact Your TV Viewing?

Last-ditch efforts to avert the WGA (Writers Guild of America) strike took place Sunday according to TV with MeeVee. However, those talks didn’t pan out and the picketing began today as predicted. If the strike lingers, there will be very real consequences to the television shows you and I watch… The effects of which could … Read more

Blockbuster Inches Closer To Irrelevance

Just three months ago, I discussed why Netflix had already won the DVD Rental War against Blockbuster. It now seems that the company’s struggles have really taken hold and mainstream media agrees that it’s time to say goodbye to Blockbuster. In their third-quarter results, Blockbuster reported a decline in revenue of over 5% and a … Read more