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Tag: tv

  • shomi is Coming to All Canadians this Summer

    shomi is Coming to All Canadians this Summer

    shomi-canada

    Canada, make room on your couch and time in your schedule – shomi is moving in! Following a successful beta launch in November 2014 to Rogers and Shaw Internet or cable customers, shomi is now coming to all Canadians across the country this summer.

    The comapny is moving in and unpacking “great stuff” to watch – including exclusive series not available on other streaming services, celebrated Canadian content, human-curated collections, plus fun kids and family programming.

    shomi has exclusive content deals for some of the most buzz-worthy TV series being produced today. Canadian exclusives such as Golden Globe-winner Transparent, Mozart in the Jungle, and Catastrophe; exclusive day-and-date releases of hot new series including iZombie and multiple award-winning Jane The Virgin; top-notch Canadian content including Vikings, Rookie Blue, and Mr. D; and past-seasons of some of the most popular shows on television, featuring Modern Family and Sons of Anarchy – these are just a few of the series that are coming this summer with shomi.

    Beyond TV binges, shomi offers hand-picked movie favourites plus great kids-and-family content, including Thomas and Friends, Blue’s Clues, Johnny Test, Scooby Doo, and Boy Meets World.

    shomi is accessible across the variety of platforms – tablet, mobile, online, Xbox 360, Apple TV, Chromecast, as well as set-top boxes for Rogers and Shaw TV subscribers; the service is also on offer to other distributors.

  • 4SeTV Streaming Device Brings Four-in-One Viewing Experience to Big Screen TVs, Tablets and Smartphones

    4SeTV Streaming Device Brings Four-in-One Viewing Experience to Big Screen TVs, Tablets and Smartphones

    4SeTV

    A new TV streaming device from 4SeTV lets you watch any four live television shows at once on a tablet, smartphone or TV. Alternatively, up to four people can view an individual live show of their choice on four different devices, at the same time.

    Built on patent pending technology, 4SeTV uses over-the-air broadcasting and streams the HD content you want to see to your connected devices in your home network. It is said to be the first-ever device that lets you select and watch four channels on the same screen.

    4SeTV hooks up to your HDTV antenna and connects to your router with an Ethernet cable. From there, simply switch the box on and go, at the push of a button.

    How it works:

    • Content is broadcast (i.e. free HDTV content over-the-air, clear QAM)
    • It is captured by an antenna and relayed to the 4SeTV device
    • Broadcast content is captured by the 4SeTV device
    • 4SeTV streams the content to connected devices in your home network (smartphones, tablets and TVs)

    4SeTV is now at the production unit stage and conducted live demonstrations of its device at the Showstoppers media event held yesterday at the NAB show in Las Vegas.

    4SeTV is available for pre-order on Kickstarter and is priced at $99 for early adopters. The first units are slated to ship in August.

  • Tech and TV: Two Good Friends


    The tech world, at one time truly believed the Web posed a serious threat to the TV industry. But all that has changed now. Instead, it appears that tech, and TV are joining forces. We see these new associations in many ways. The following three associations shed insight as to how these interactions are working.

    Twitter and TV

    We see this new joining of forces through projects like that of  Twitter’s new advertising strategy, which is aimed at TV viewers. Its purpose is in not stealing huge TV ad budgets, but instead in helping TV advertising become more cost-effective.

    Twitter in association with TV advertisers, plans on plugging into the large number of tweets that go on during live TV shows. Then, the idea is to offer this information to advertisers, so they can make their advertising minutes more effective. The objective is for Twitter to define when certain advertisements run and identify consumers who tweeted about the programs and the advertisement, allowing TV advertisers to reach out to these audiences through Twitter.

    The point is to make TV more engaging and interactive. By focusing on this, Twitter aims at continuing the TV conversation and use the advertising to engage with audiences through the social platform. This is now possible because millions of people now use smartphones or tablets as they watch TV, and this combined social media-advertiser engagement may just appeal to this multi screen approach.

    The Shazam and TV Interaction

    Another demonstration of this union is the approach Shazam, a UK app company, has had substantial success in the app music streaming industry. However, the company has started a new approach working with TV commercial companies. The project involves allowing TV viewers to access added content delivered by advertisers to their smartphones. The idea may be a profitable one, but there are still a few glitches in the interaction process; by the time viewers see this symbol on their screen and reach for the phone to activate the app, it can be too late. A new updated version of the Shazam iPad app seems to be the solution. The app can be said to be automatic, listening for TV programs or ads it supports, then inviting a viewer to buy a soundtrack of the program, music or other special offer.

    The Xbox One

    This is another project demonstrating this joining of TV and tech. Through this gaming console, the Xbox One stresses the TV functionality of the device. In the US Microsoft promotes the idea that Xbox owners can switch seamlessly from playing games to watching TV through and alter smart voice and gesture interface. No longer do these gaming devices seem to be threatening the TV industry, but instead, are working hand-in-hand with programming and advertisers.

  • Hulu in 2012: $695M Revenue, 3M Paying Subscribers

    2012 has been a huge year for Hulu. The following article will go over the progress the company made over the past year, its current and future expansion plans and also what is in store for Hulu in the upcoming years.

    Hulu Revenue Update

    In the year 2012 Hulu earned $695 million dollars in revenue. This number represents a 65% growth in revenue over the past five years, which is high for general industry as well as tech companies.

    New Subscriber Numbers

    Hulu has expanded its subscriber base substantially in 2012, with around three million current users. These Hulu Plus subscribers represent users that pay to access Hulu and represent a revenue stream separate from the company's advertising based revenue model.

    How Has Hulu Content Changed in 2012?

    2012 has brought a plethora of new content to Hulu streaming video service. Total titles available have grown by 40% and much of the new content comes from premium, established media companies like Viacom, CBS, and World Wrestling Entertainment. The content additions have done a great deal to make Hulu more competitive with other streaming services like Netflix and Amazon.

    Hulu Advertising Changes in 2012

    This fiscal year has brought a large increase in the number of advertisers who work with Hulu. In 2012 Huku has worked with over a thousand different advertising firms which represents a 28% increase over the same advertising partnerships from one year ago. Not only are advertisers who work with Hulu becoming more diverse, they are being drawn to the company by the ability to effectively target an audience and reduce the amount of wasted commercial impressions.

    One big project that Hulu will be focusing on in 2013 will be to expand into the Japanese market with special Japan-only programming and production of domestic Japanese shows for usage on the Hulu Japan site. This expansion combined with the solid revenue and content numbers bodes well for the future of Hulu in the online content streaming industry.

  • TV Shipments Set to Decrease in 2012

    According to experts in HDTV and TV trends, worldwide shipments will drop by 1.4% during the course of 2012. NPD DisplaySearch announced the drop in their Quarterly Global TV Shipment and Forecast Report, which was released earlier this month.

    According to the details of that report, 245 million televisions will ship in 2012. Shipments of LCD TVs, one of the largest growth areas in the industry, will still increase by 5%. But that growth is down 2% from 2011.

    DisplaySearch believes the decline is due to the market for traditional televisions shrinking, and the fact that there just aren’t as many discounts this year as there were last year. They’ve also noticed more cautious spending practices by Asian and European consumers. For reference, average prices have declined 4% in 2012, down from a 10% decline back in 2010.

    According to the company’s Director of North American TV Research, the economic concerns still felt around the world are impacting both consumers and manufacturers. HDTV companies are feeling the need to hang on tighter to their profit margins, which consumers hang on to their money.

    The only area that seems to be significantly growing is in large screen televisions and backlit devices. Outside of North America, emerging markets of China, Latin America and Eastern Europe, are making up for some of that consumer reluctancy, and even Africa and the Middle East are showing growth.

    All in all, LCD technology is maintaining significant growth. It’s surpassed CRT and plasma devices, and now actually make up for almost 90% of worldwide television shipments.

  • NDS Chosen For Germany's First Cable HD DVR Service


    Germany’s two largest independent cable operators, Tele Columbus and PrimaCom, have selected NDS’ DVR solution XTV to launch the country’s first cable HD DVR service across their networks.

    The two operators serve some 3.5 million cable-connected households and operate a large number of independent networks.

    They had previously deployed UK-based NDS’ VideoGuard content protection and its MediaHighway middleware.

    Markus Schmid, CEO of Tele Columbus and PrimaCom, said they had decided to also select NDS’ XTV DVR technology as the logical complement.

    He said this maximised the capability of their infrastructure and service options for subscribers.

    The technology infrastructure will also allow Tele Columbus and PrimaCom to launch new integrated service enhancements across all existing and future devices.

    This could include Video on Demand (VOD) or push VOD.

  • ARCHOS Offers Android-powered HD Media-playing Smartphone


    ARCHOS, the company that "invented the PMP", is to bring out a touchscreen smartphone based on the Android operating system.

    The new ultra-thin Internet Media Tablet (IMT) will allow playback of HD video while offline.

    It is similar to the ARCHOS 5 media tablet – with the big differences being that it will have voice support and deliver "PC-like" performance.

    ARCHOS is to use Texas Instrument’s OMAP 3 platform, which will allow the processor to use less power without affecting performance.

    The IMT will be ready in Q3 of this year.

    ARCHOS is expected to give more details about the device at next week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

    But a statement from the company did say that it was "looking to expand beyond portable media players to provide solutions for the converged space, where a foundation in high-quality video content delivery is a benefit".

    "ARCHOS is marrying its rich digital media history with voice functionality to tackle new markets," said the company.

    Some core features of this smartphone include:

    • 5-inch touchscreen
    • Adobe Flash and Flash Video support
    • unrestricted access to TV, movies, music
    • games
    • photos
    • TV recording and HD playback
    • 500GB storage
    • 7 hour video playback battery life
    • runs on a 3.5G 7.2Mb/s HSUPA.

    ARCHOS released the first pocket-sized HD-based MP3 player with the Jukebox 6000 in 2000.

    The company claims to have invented the portable media player in 2003 and was the first to bring television recording, wireless and touch screens to PMPs.

  • SlingPlayer Coming To The iPhone


    The Macworld trade show in San Francisco is to get a glimpse of SlingPlayer Mobile for the iPhone.

    SlingPlayer Mobile enables users to watch any program normally viewed on a home TV set on the iPhone using a standard broadband network connection.

    It will also allow iPhone users to control their home digital video recorder (DVR) to watch recorded shows, pause, rewind, and fast forward live TV, or even queue new recordings while away from home.

    Blake Krikorian, co-founder and CEO of Sling Media, said SlingPlayer Mobile was ideally suited for the iPhone’s large touch screen display.

    "I know iPhone users are eagerly anticipating the application’s availability," he said.

    SlingPlayer Mobile will be submitted to Apple for testing and approval in Q1.

    It will be compatible with the iPhone and iPod Touch.

    No pricing details have been released as yet.

    Sling Media is also unveiling a prototype of the new SlingPlayer for Mac HD which allows Slingbox PRO-HD users to stream HD content to their Mac desktop or laptop computer.

    The new SlingPlayer for Mac HD is a web-based version of the SlingPlayer software that will be available for free from Sling’s video entertainment web site later in Q1.

    Mac customers will be able to use either Safari or Firefox web browsers to get both HD streaming and Live TV within Sling.com.

  • Amazon Video On Demand Brings New-Release Movies To Roku


    Roku has agreed a deal that will give its set-top box users access to Amazon’s video on demand (VOD) content.

    The agreement means owners of Roku digital video players will be able to instantly purchase, rent and watch digital movies and TV episodes from the Amazon service.

    Currently the Roku player only supports Netflix.

    Amazon’s VOD service has more than 40,000 commercial-free movies and television shows, including instant access to new release movie titles.

    Rental prices range from USD $0.99 to $3.99 per view.

    The deal with Amazon, which will kick in during Q1 2009, is part of an effort by Roku to widen its content offering.

    Tim Twerdahl, Roku’s vice president of consumer products, said Roku owners should expect more content to become available in the first half of 2009.

    “We’re looking to create an open platform for a number of different business models and content types,” he said.

    With Netflix providing a subscription-based model and Amazon a transactional one, Twerdahl said the company was now working hard to get ad-supported video on the Roku player.

  • VUDU Brings The Web To TV


    VUDU has launched a new platform that brings Web-hosted applications and services to consumer appliances, including its own Internet movie player.

    The VUDU RIA (Rich Internet Application) platform will deliver TV shows as well as Web apps which enable users to share their photos and watch the tens of millions of YouTube videos on their HDTVs.

    The company plans to open VUDU RIA up to third party developers in the first half of 2009.

    Prasanna Ganesan, VUDU’s Chief Technical Officer, said the goal in creating the new platform was to allow anyone with Web development skills to easily author Internet-driven applications for the TV.

    "We are very pleased with the results and look forward to opening up VUDU RIA to the developer community," he said.

    VUDU says it plans to add more applications and services throughout 2009.

    Edward Lichty, executive Vice President of Strategy and Content, said VUDU RIA enabled customers to quickly open up huge libraries of web based content to TVs in living rooms around America.

    The company has created an initial set of applications and services in a new area of the VUDU home page, called VUDU Labs. It is available to all VUDU owners in the US amd has applications that include casual games, implementations of Flickr, Picasa and the entire YouTube library, as well as a new "On Demand TV" area with more than 120 channels.

    These include free on-demand shows provided by major network television and on-line specialty sites spanning news, food, music and sports.