Netflix is entering a more crowded market that includes not only the likes of Apple and Amazon, but also MovieLink, CinemaNow and video-on-demand services offered by cable companies. And while Netflix’s DVD rental business has thrived in part because of the company’s superior logistics, that competitive edge will not mean much
in the world of digital distribution.

Like most other electronic distribution services, Netflix’s system will work initially only with a limited catalog — about 1,000 movies and television shows, only a tiny fraction of the more than 70,000 titles that Netflix offers for rent. It offers titles from NBC Universal, Sony Pictures, MGM, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Warner Brothers and others.

Source: New York Times

Milan-based e.Biscom is already funneling feature films and television shows — in addition to conventional Web and phone services to PCs and TVs in Milan, Rome, Florence, Naples, Bologna and Turin.

Babelgum, the latest attempt to profit from the boom in online video, promises to combine “the lean-back experience of traditional TV with the interactive and social power of the internet”.

The advertising-supported service will offer a free, personalised, full-screen video service to PC users.

The test launch, expected in March, will see Mr Scaglia in direct competition against the founders of Skype, who are developing an internet protocol television service which recently launched as “Joost” after being codenamed the “Venice Project”.

“When I started work on this a year and a half ago I was afraid we’d end up with five [competing IPTV services],” Mr Scaglia says. “The fact it’s still two probably gives us a good lead.”

NewTeeVee argues in its preliminary review of the service that while the Babelgum feels a lot like watching TV, and has a slick and straightfoward interface:

“What Babelgum lacks right now is a compelling differentiator — it needs to offer better content, better features or better technology than Joost and any other upstarts if it wants to win.”

The winners in this space may be those services best able to sign a significant amount of content partners, perhaps by affording them some sort of copyright protection, in order to offer a compelling service to a captive community.

In Babelgum’s case, content protection is accomplished through unspecified DRM and due to the fact that the content is free. Babelgum makes its pitch to content providers based upon security, distribution, and the ability to monetize content on behalf of the producer.

Babelgum seeks to provide a new venue for producers of high-quality professional content to reach the truly global audience of potential viewers.

With more than 300 million broadband users worldwide, even niche content – especially if it’s good – can find an audience that rivals or exceeds the mainstream TV audience in any local market.

“Babelgum’s breakthrough technology means the content is easy for users to see in high-quality video streaming and there is usually no distribution cost to the content owner. So it is really an ideal platform for content owners to serve directly the Long Tail of viewers’ interests not addressed by today’s broadcasting television networks.”

Source: FT

Called Clip+Sling, the application gives Slingbox customers the power to grab short segments of programming and share them with their “digital community” directly from live or recorded television.

Source:  CBS Teams With Sling

The agreement builds on two previous projects: “Lil’ Bush: Resident of the United States,” an animated series originally produced for Amp’d Mobile and now being adapted for Comedy Central later this year; and mtvU’s “Sucks Less, With Kevin Smith,” which appears on Amp’d and features filmmaker Kevin Smith teaching the first-ever mobile media production class at UCLA.

Other details of the deal, including how many mobile series the companies will create or what their subject matter will be, remain unclear.

Programming being developed through the new partnership may appear on any of MTV’s channels on Amp’d including MTV, mtvU, VH1, Comedy Central, Spike and Logo. The original mobile shows are not expected to carry any advertising, according to an MTV spokesman.

Source:  MediaPost

Source: NewTeeVee

Working with its key partner, MediaFLO USA, a wholly owned subsidiary
of QUALCOMM Incorporated, Verizon Wireless expects to turn on the
service in major U.S. markets in the first quarter of 2007.

The company will launch the service with two new handsets, the Samsung SCH-u620 and the LG VX9400.

Source: Verizon

BitTorrent considers itself to be a major player in the emerging video download market, right alongside Apple. Though its software is known more for Napster-style illegal-file swapping, the company has scored major deals with movie studios like Paramount and Warner Bros. and plans to launch a legal movie download store on its Web site in February.

The new Netgear product, developed with BitTorrent, will find any media that is sitting on your PC (high-def movies, music, photos, etc) and send it over to your TV, over a speedy wireless standard that the techies call 802.11G.

Debuting this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the Digital Entertainer HD is a sleek set-top media receiver that connects to a home-theater system to stream digital media from computers, network storage and USB media players. The receiver automatically discovers, organizes and plays high-definition movies, TV shows, music files and personal photos — as well as Internet-based video, news feeds, weather reports and radio programs. The receiver’s high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) port displays video resolution up to 1080p on big-screen TVs and optical digital audio output (TOSLINK) transmits full digital surround sound to a digital audio receiver.

Source: New York Times

Wallstrip takes an irreverent approach to the market, focusing each day on a single stock trading at an all-time high or a hot trend. With the funding, Wallstrip plans to create five more original shows on the topics of finance and venture capital.

Source: NewTeeVee

The new device, the SlingCatcher, allows viewers send TV streams to different rooms in the home, clip and send video from broadcast TV shows to friends and view media stored on PCs or on web sites like YouTube on living room TVs. The device is expected to be available by the middle of the year at an approximate retail price of $200 USD.

Source: Reuters

The service, which should be in operation by the end of March, will consist of eight channels and will include popular shows from NBC, CBS, Fox and MTV, they said. ESPN is reportedly also in negotiations to offer programs, which will be offered for the cellphone screen soon after they appear on television.

What is significant is that the programs will be among the first full-length television shows to be offered to cellular subscribers in the United States. In Europe, where mobile phone technology is more advanced, such programming is more widely available.

Source: New York Times