Business News Holding

Tag: video-on-demand

  • VOD Viewing Jumps 15% in June


    The number of people watching video-on-demand (VOD) programming in the US surged in June – fuelled by rises in the popularity of pay-per-view content and more children taking advantage of free programming, according to Rentrak.

    The increases made June the most-viewed month for video-on-demand this year, delivering more than 589 million transactions.

    According to Rentrak’s OnDemand Essentials service, year-to-year comparison for the month of June delivered a 15 per cent increase in overall VOD transactions and a 16 per cent increase in the number of unique set top boxes (STBs) accessing OnDemand.

    Additionally, free-on-demand (FOD) Kids content was up 7 per cent from May figures and delivered its strongest month of the year with more than 106 million transactions.

    June is historically a strong month for transactional-on-demand (TOD) viewing, and TOD continued this trend by delivering the highest number of transactions in a single month so far this year for the category.

  • Consumer Storage Demand Continues To Soar


    Digital content in the average US household could reach 12 terabytes by 2014, according to researchers.

    A joint report by Coughlin Associates and Objective Analysis includes DVD libraries, which accounts for a large chunk of the 12TB total.

    Tom Coughlin, president of Coughlin Associates, estimates that half of the data is commercial content, like DVDs.

    Making up the remaining content is user generated data, such as photos, music, and videos, and downloaded material such as video on demand.

    It’s not surprising that since increasing numbers of people are downloading HD content from the likes of Netflix and iTunes this requires even greater storage capacity.

    Coughlin said that the trend was also for more physical media, like DVDs and music CDs, to end up being stored on disk.

    The reports suggest that key differentiators for storage vendors looking to service the home include:

    • remote storage access
    • privacy protection
    • disaster recovery
    • automatic backup
    • metadata
    • automated metadata generation of content

  • Vudu Halves Cost Of Basic Player


    The cost of VUDU’s basic 250GB VUDU HD player has been halved to USD $150.

    According to the on-demand internet provider the move is not a sign of looming financial problems.

    It stresses that the dramatic price cut is due to positive factors.

    These are cited as a combination of lower component prices, higher movie revenues and increased content demand following strong holiday sales.

    In October, VUDU launched a new video format to rival Blu-ray called HDX.

    It delivers full 1080p at 24 fps to screens 40 inches and up via web distribution using VUDU’s TruFilm compression technology.

    As well as the VUDU HD, the company is reducing the price of its home theater, VUDU XL, to USD $499 and adding in a connectivity pack that previously cost more than $100.

    VUDU’s content library now runs to more than 13,000 movies and TV shows – including what it claims is the world’s largest HD library of more than 1,300 titles.

  • 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.

  • Broadcast and online TV can co-exist

    Reports suggests that VOD does not detract from broadcast TV

    Video on demand shouldn’t be viewed as a threat to broadcast TV but helps promote it, according to a report.

    Thinkbox, the marketing body for the UK’s commercial broadcasters, says that online VOD services do not detract from linear television viewing.

    It has released figures showing that the popularity of web services such as iPlayer, 4OD and Sky Player appear to be incremental to the broadcast television that people have always watched.

    The report says that both broadcast and online TV platforms are growing simultaneously, which it suggests underlines how the two fulfil different needs for viewers.

    It adds that this underlines “that they can co-exist and indeed promote each other”.

    Online TV services, according to Thinkbox, are primarily used as a means of catching up with the broadcast stream.

    Thinkbox recently announced that it has commissioned further research to examine how and why people use online TV, its relationship to broadcast TV and the advertising opportunities it affords, with preliminary results expected before the end of the year.

  • DISH first to broadcast live Blu-ray quality video

    Satellite broadcaster becomes first the TV broadcaster to offer video in a full 1080p resolution

    Subscribers to America’s DISH Network who have its MPEG-4 HD DVR boxes are to be offered full 1080p (1920×1080 progressive) resolution wherever content is available.

    Starting on August 1 with a Video On Demand option for the movie I Am Legend, the new high resolution programming will supercede the 1080i (interlaced) or 720p which until now was usual HD fare for DISH and other services.

    The satellite company claims it is giving subscribers Blu-ray quality images for a lower price than renting a disc.
    It is also launching a new set of channel bundles known as TurboHD that are claimed to be the first in the market to offer customers a package that only contains HD stations.

    Charlie Ergen, CEO of DISH Network, said the upgraded resolution was possible as a result of its new satellite, Echo XI.
    This will also allow the broadcaster to extend its current 114 HD channels to 150 by the autumn.

    He said that by early August, all DISH Network customers with MPEG-4 HD DVR receivers will be able to view 1080p content.

    “This marks the first time in history a pay-TV provider offers movies in 1080p, the highest resolution format available for HD video enthusiasts,” he said.

    “Our latest system upgrade, coupled with the introduction of TurboHD, further strengthens our position as the leader in digital television and high definition television, platforms we look forward to enhancing even more with mobile and portable options.”

  • HD Video on Demand key to subscriber growth

    Move towards ever better quality of VOD content will be central to operators acquiring new subscribers

    As competition for video services continues to grow in Europe operators will offer high definition VOD as a means of standing out from the crowd.

    That’s acccording to a report from analysts ABI Research, which says the move from near-VOD to true VOD dramatically increases buy rates.

    It believes the next step will be to differentiate even further with HD VOD and greater content choice.
    The report says VOD is rapidly becoming a “must-have” feature, leading it to categorise the growth of subscriber levels in the contexts of programming and functionality.

    After remaining fairly dormant since its inception in the early 2000s, ABI Research believes this will change largely because the evolution of video consumption has prepped consumer interest for VOD services.

    This, combined with the arrival of IPTV operators that offered true VOD from the start, has raised the bar of VOD services.
    Paul Lee, ABI Research analyst, said the number of concurrent VOD streams will increase markedly over the next five years.

    “The Asia-Pacific region is poised to experience high levels of growth: from 1.66 million VOD streams in 2007 to almost 21 million in 2013,” he said.
    “And in total, the global trend toward increased usage of VOD streams will multiply tenfold throughout the years 2007 to 2013, with a compound annual growth rate of nearly 45 per cent.”

    Several companies set up their VOD offerings over the past few years with the intention of boosting future subscriber numbers.

    Cisco acquired Arroyo for its VOD solutions in August 2006, obtaining customers such as Comcast, Time Warner, and Charter.

    While Concurrent has offered one of the most successful VOD platforms for the cable industry – illustrated in 1Q 2008 when the company shipped 50,000 VOD streams, with customers including BrightHouse and Time Warner.

    “Western Europe will see the strongest surge in VOD users with the largest subscriber base and a slightly higher ARPU than North America, thereby making it the eventual leader in the market,” said Lee.

    The ABI Research report, Video on Demand and Ad Insertion Markets, provides an overview of the growth in VOD subscribers, VOD program downloads, VOD servers, and VOD-enabled CPE for CATV, DBS, DTT, and telco TV services.

  • NBC uses Olympics to promote HDTV and study viewer habits

    NBC has made no secret of the fact it plans to use the Beijing Olympics as a campaign platform for HDTV.
    Now the US network has announced that the summer games will also act as a research lab to guage how viewers use different media platforms.

    The network hopes its research will reveal how people combine, for example, high def TV coverage of an event with tools such as video streaming, video on demand and mobile phones.
    Alan Wurtzel, NBC’s research chief, said the company would publicly issue a TAMi (Total Audience Measurement Index) for the first time.
    This is designed to measure the full range of cross-platform media consumption of the Olympics throughout the 17 days of coverage.

    NBCU will also conduct the largest research project in its history, taking advantage of the unique scope and duration of the Olympics to further the industry’s understanding of cross-platform media usage.
    “An event of this magnitude requires the biggest and most sophisticated research effort to measure it,” said Wurtzel.
    “The size and duration of the Olympics presents us with extraordinary opportunities to gather data on viewer behaviour.”

    NBC has scheduled 3,600 hours of Olympics programming on its main network, along with Telemundo, USA, Oxygen, MSNBC, CNBC and Bravo.
    In addition, the company is planning to make 2,200 hours of streaming video available on NBCOlympics.com.
    Consumers may also get video on demand via their computer and Olympics content through their mobile phones.
    “Not only will we measure these Games in a way we’ve never done before, but we’ll also be able to gather data that helps us better understand the new media consumer,” said Wurtzel.
    “At the end of the Olympics, no other research entity in the world will have as much knowledge on cross-platform usage as NBC Universal.”

  • Survey shows viewers shifting towards web but preference is still for television screen


    Over a third of all US broadband users have watched at least one TV show on the Internet, according to a study conducted on behalf of the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM).
    But the research found that while broadband users are increasingly turning to the web for their video content fix, 94 per cent still prefer to do their viewing on a television screen.
    For cable and satellite networks concerned about the growing threat of online TV shows and movies, the survey provided some comfort.
    Of those who watched online shows, 82 per cent did so because they had missed a specific programme on TV.
    Based on this, the report points out the “critical importance of strong marketing for the initial TV showing”.
    That said, technical limitations that make viewing web video onto TV difficult are not likely to remain so for long.
    The research comes as ByD:sign announce they are launching the first LCD HDTV with DivX Certification for the Japan market. (See Separate article hdtv.biz-news.com/news/2008/06/30/0017)
    With guaranteed DivX video playback, users will be able watch content from the PC on the television while maintaining superior video quality.
    Video On Demand also continues to have a growing presence, with availability in approximately 28 million US homes and over half (54%) of these households ordering On Demand movies or programs.