IpTV EVANGELIST: Blog

Pew Internet Study: Broadband Adoption Trends

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:02:48 -0500

In a just released study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, Author John B. Horrigan, Associate Director, Research found a flattening of broadband adoption among the poor, those with annual incomes of less then $20,000 in addition to African Americans who saw a rise of only 3% over the past year. Interestingly, households with lower-middle incomes between $20,000 and $40,000 saw an increase in the adoption rate of 24%. Some other findings of note:

Home broadband adoption grew by 17% from May 2007 to May 2008, slightly faster than the growth rate of the year before.
Only 10% of Americans adults use dial up Internet connections at home to go online.
Broadband growth was strong among older and lower-middle income Americans, as well as rural Americans. However, One-quarter (27%) of adult Americans are not Internet users, and they tend to be older (the median age is 61) and have lower-incomes.
Monthly broadband bills are 4% lower in May 2008 than at the end of 2005, but monthly dial-up bills have risen.
Non-Internet users represent a large pool of potential broadband users, but many are just not interested in getting online.
One-third (34%) of all Internet users have connected to the Internet using a WiFi connection at someplace other than home or work.

"The flat growth in home high-speed adoption for low-income Americans suggests that tightening household budgets may be affecting people's choice of connection speed at home," said John B. Horrigan, Associate Director of Research at the Pew Internet & American Life project and author of the report. "Broadband is more costly on a monthly basis than dial-up, and some lower income Americans may be unwilling to take on another expense."

Strike TV, a Loss Leader Strategy?

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 06:00:38 -0500

With the announcement today in Variety that Strike TV will soft launch over the weekend with a sizzle reel with 40 original made for net webisodes and other "content bits" coming later in July, some WGA members have decided to strike out on their own. In the traditional Loss Leader approach, a product is sold at a price at or below cost to generate other more profitable sales, for example giving away razors so that people become hooked on purchasing replacement blades, where all the money is. While ITV programs are not razor blades the goal appears much the same, generate revenue by pulling people in for a larger pay day. As the article mentioned, among the sites goals are to showcase the work of WGA members."the hope is that the site will become a buzz-generator for ideas and concepts that creators can adapt into movies, TV shows or other media." Some of the programming Strike TV has in its cue includes:

"Global Warming," starring "Saturday Night Live's" Kirsten Wiig and "Daily Show's" Aasif Mandvi;
"Unknown Sender," penned by Steven de Souza and starring Timothy Dalton and Joanne Whalley;
"House Poor," created by "Office" writer-producer Lester Lewis;
"The Challenge," starring Bob Newhart and penned by sitcom vet Lloyd Garver;
"Five or Die," written and directed by horror movie vet Tom Holland;
"John's Hand," starring Garret Dillahunt and Kali Rocha.

WGA members hope to generate movies or TV shows because of eyeballs and advertising which has been the goal of Indie producers since ITV became a practical avenue for content distribution. It is fair to say that WGA members are putting some stock in their status in the industry along with connections to make the difference.

Interview with John Edwards, President & CEO Move Networks

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:56:34 -0500

Recently I spoke to John Edwards, President and CEO of Move Networks. We spoke about a variety of topics including the companies business focus, why he considers their delivery network superior to tradition open networks, why the company is not a tradition CDN or P2P company, but a vertical in the end too end content delivery space, plus other topics. Some of the areas that might be of concern for the future in their space, include: Since they use adaptive rate technology - Microsoft may want to bake it into their own platform at some point, which could offset the deal with Silverlight. As I understand, analytics is a big draw for media brands who want easy to use, shrink-wrapped platforms, these technologies may not be IP protected and could be replicated by other players. Of course first mover advantage usually is a plus so these may offset. Audio Interview with John Edwards

Review: The Netflix Player by ROKU

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 06:11:48 -0500

I recently tested the Netflix Player by ROKU. Since I've used a PC for this purpose for the past year, I was interested to see if the ROKU player had improved ease of use and functionality, this against my current pc configuration. [NULL] [/NULL]

Interview With Diane Galligan, Executive Producer Yahoo! tech ticker

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 23:36:09 -0500

I spoke with Diane Galligan, Executive Producer Yahoo! tech ticker about their video platform for delivering financial news along with user comments. Tech ticker has its roots in efforts like their FinanceVision platform from 2000 however, they point out their scrolling text field is an innovative design which keeps the video in front of the viewer. Referring to FinanceVision, Stephanie Arnoldy of tech ticker said "Even now, with broadband far more common, we don't feel users need or want this kind of full live coverage online. We have taken a far more targeted approach, offering discreet single-topic clips that are timely but not live, paired with real-time blogging." In addition, user comments are seen by Diane as a plus since they are starting a conversation with the audience which increases site stickiness. They do not use pre or post rolls for ad placement. Perhaps financial news viewers and those that watch tech ticker compared say to sports do not want as much interactivity however, UI's such as MLB's Mosaic is an example of multi-pane layout with extensive user interaction and customization. Interview with Diane Also See Past Articles FinanceVision: Do You Remember FinanceVIsion Return of the Y! Vision Platform?

Netflix Player, by Roku

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 08:59:34 -0500

Looking at the illustrations on the Roku site, you'd be hard pressed not to be up and running in ten minutes or less, certainly much less time then it took me to configure and older pc that's connect to our home set. In addition, they got the connections right with HDMI, component video and optical audio, this in addition to S-video. The one upgrade I would like to see is usability with universal remotes to reduce remote clutter.

Sony and NCTA announce plans to retire the set-top box

Wed, 28 May 2008 23:56:26 -0500

Sony and the six largest cable operators announced an agreement Tuesday to move in the direction of eliminating the set-top box from the consumers already cluttered landscape. The agreement is between Sony and Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable Inc., Cox Communications Inc., Charter Communications, Cablevision Systems Corp. and Bright House Networks which comprises over 80 percent of U.S. cable subs. The Java-based platform will utilize the tru2way specification. According to CableLabs, existing applications include interactive guides, "start over" applications, and games; future applications might include, for example, interactive ads, chat, web browsing, and t-commerce Specific to IPTV and interactive applications that reside on the multitude of set-top boxes from companies like Ensequence, which basically alluded to an integration of components within the TV form factor. According to Aslam Khader, chief product officer at Ensequence, "the merging of technology will basically move the set-top box componentry into the TV and the applications that Ensequence customers produce will run on the TV set, which may lead to more consistent interactive television implementations." One might think this a boon for such companies as they will no longer have write compliant applications across hundreds of different boxes. How this may improve the work flow from a consistency, human resource perspective, cycle time or cost perspective may not yet be known. NueLion which uses a proprietary set-top box for distributing IPTV content did not reply to our request prior to going to press.

Interview with Rob E. Angelino, Founder & CEO Beauty TV

Tue, 27 May 2008 20:45:57 -0500

Interview with Rob Angelino about Beauty TV. Beauty TV is a 24/7 beauty network and is in pre-production on a daily hybrid syndicated show for traditional broadcast television.. Content is focused on beauty tips, hair, skin, nails, cosmetic surgery, spas, health, fitness, insider interviews, beauty news, product reviews and trends. Current advisory board members include John Paul DeJoria, founder of Paul Mitchell Systems and Patron Tequila and former executives from EXTRA TV, 'E!" Entertainment, Sony Television and AOL. Audio Interview with Rob E. Angelino, Founder & CEO Beauty TV

Digital Hollywood 2008

Wed, 21 May 2008 13:51:19 -0500

Levi Shapiro spoke with noted Advertising, Film and Internet personalities at this year's Digital Hollywood. Tim Chang, Principal, Norwest Venture Partners Convergence of Silicon Valley and Hollywood, packaging your story when pitching to a VC or Content House, M&A topics

Richard Kerris, CTO, LucasFilm How to achieve a mult-discipline output with your content if structured properly. Working with Artists and giving them more options by way of technology tools. Think about the pipeline and not the product.

Matti Leshem, CEO, Protagonist Thinking about big ideas for brands, the brand experience and how best to give the brand energy on the right platform.

Paul Levine, SVP Corporate Strategy, Development & Extended Platforms, National Geographic Global Media Producing content that inspires people to care about the planet and how to make it work across all platforms.

Ziv Navoth, VP Marketing, Bebo The next step for Social Networks amidst their current fragmentation, Hollywood move beyond the idea that the Internet is solely a distribution channel and to create content for online and social networks. Digital Hollywood Interviews

Floor Talk: Streaming Media East, Charles Finkelstein of Microsoft

Wed, 21 May 2008 12:54:35 -0500

Charles spoke about the new Expression Encoder 2, the workflow process using hooks, making a case for creating a native Mac version of the application and the community for content creators. If you are on the Mac, send us an email and we will forward to Charles along with the beta testing of the encoder we have underway.

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Floor Talk: Streaming Media East, Dan Rayburn

Wed, 21 May 2008 11:52:01 -0500

Dan spoke about this years SME conference, some of the challenges facing CDN's, how to monetize content issues facing Creatives

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Floor Talk: Streaming Media East

Tue, 20 May 2008 10:28:29 -0500

Streaming Media East has just started, here are some photos as companies start setting up. My question is what is the theme for the show, will it be mainly how P2P is ramping and will it be more focused solely on the hardware and software, or will the business of ITV/IPTV be given serious consideration? Click on slide for show

KyLinTV Launches Matching Relief Fund for China Earthquake Victims

Mon, 19 May 2008 23:09:36 -0500

The following is a press release. KyLinTV announces its relief campaign to help China earthquake victims. In response to the disaster that rocked Wenchuan County on May 12th, KyLinTV has established the KyLinTV China Earthquake Relief Fund. Each donation to this fund will be matched by the same amount from KyLinTV and dispersed to those victims in China. In an effort to make an impact and generate the most aid, 100% of all donations will go directly to these victims, with no overhead costs or handling fees. KyLinTV is matching dollar for dollar every single donation to help in this time of crisis. There are three ways to make a donation: via KyLinTV's website www.kylintv.com; calling the KyLinTV China Earthquake Relief Fund Hotline at 1-877-888-8598 extension 6; or KyLinTV subscribers can donate from their set-top-boxes. "My deepest thoughts are with the victims and their families. I encourage everyone to reach out and support those who need our help. As a company that strives to connect Chinese worldwide, we urge everyone to aid in this relief effort and save lives," said Nancy Li, CEO of KyLinTV. About KyLinTV KyLinTV is the first IPTV service dedicated to the Chinese community living in North America, offering both live broadcast and 30,000+ hours of video on demand programming. For more information on KyLinTV programming please visit www.kylintv.com ### Editors Note: While much has been made lately in the U.S. presidential campaign about the word "Appeasement", the act of engagement for a potentially constructive outcome can hardly be called the same. In order to appease, you first have to give away something... While some want to twist the meaning of the word for political motivations, if not for former President Nixon (irony) and his overtures to China, the world might not have seen these images let alone the dialog, trade and cultural exchanges that continues between our two countries. Having said that, it does not negate the repressive policies the countries leaders have in place. There is a line from the movie Jurassic Park, "life will find a way" In this case, I content that ITV/ IpTV as a component of the Internet will prove overtime as a great tool to reach, inform, engage, entertain and in this case help people, even people who's leaders we disagree with.

Interview with Ken Lowe, VP of Strategic Marketing for Sigma Designs

Wed, 07 May 2008 01:06:56 -0500

A recent interview with Ken Lowe, VP of Strategic Marketing for Sigma Designs. Ken addressed a variety of topics concerning Blu-ray, the IPTV marketplace over the next couple of years as well as competition from Broadcom, IP and the companies recent financial performance. Audio Interview with Ken Lowe

Interview with Gary Croke, Director of Marketing for Symmetricom's QoE Assurance Division

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 01:00:35 -0500

Interview with Gary Croke, Director of marketing, for Symmetricom's QoE Assurance Division. Gary spoke to the test measurement market specific to IPTV content delivery and quality issues facing Telco's and Cable operator's. Interview with Gary IPTV Video Quality Study (click on image below for slideshow)