With more and more customers moving off carriers’ old unlimited data plans to tiered data buckets, streaming any reasonable quantity of video is all but impossible without incurring major overage charges. In its latest update to its iPhone and iPad apps, though, customers can toggle on and off 3G/4G connectivity. It may mean sacrificing Netflix access everywhere, but it could help them avoid rather unpleasant phone bills at the end of the month.

There are still a few unlimited options out there for iPhone users. You can stream to your heart’s content on Sprint’s 3G network. There are still millions of customers grandfathered into Verizon and AT&Ts’ old unlimited plans, but both operators have begun throttling back speeds once customers hit unspecified – and seemingly arbitrary – thresholds, making video streaming all but useless.

What’s more, Verizon is doing everything it can to coax, cajole and boot customers off their unlimited plans this summer. Unless the carriers firm up some kind of revenue sharing pact with Netflix – which Verizon may well be in the process of cementing – it looks like streaming movies is going to be primarily a Wi-Fi affair.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• What Amazon’s new Kindle line means for Apple, Netflix and online media
• Report: Monetizing Digital Content
• U.S. Wireless Data Market: Q4 and Year-End 2008

With more and more customers moving off carriers’ old unlimited data plans to tiered data buckets, streaming any reasonable quantity of video is all but impossible without incurring major overage charges. In its latest update to its iPhone and iPad apps, though, customers can toggle on and off 3G/4G connectivity. It may mean sacrificing Netflix access everywhere, but it could help them avoid rather unpleasant phone bills at the end of the month.

There are still a few unlimited options out there for iPhone users. You can stream to your heart’s content on Sprint’s 3G network. There are still millions of customers grandfathered into Verizon and AT&Ts’ old unlimited plans, but both operators have begun throttling back speeds once customers hit unspecified – and seemingly arbitrary – thresholds, making video streaming all but useless.

What’s more, Verizon is doing everything it can to coax, cajole and boot customers off their unlimited plans this summer. Unless the carriers firm up some kind of revenue sharing pact with Netflix – which Verizon may well be in the process of cementing – it looks like streaming movies is going to be primarily a Wi-Fi affair.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• What Amazon’s new Kindle line means for Apple, Netflix and online media
• Report: Monetizing Digital Content
• U.S. Wireless Data Market: Q4 and Year-End 2008

Fox had fronted the money for a pilot episode, but then declined to pick up the show. “They were very polite as they showed me the door,” Walsh recalled about his exit at Fox during a phone conversation last week. Attempts to take it elsewhere were met with interest, but not commitment. Battleground seemed stuck. “No project in L.A. ever dies,” he told me. “It just slowly drifts into the ocean…”

Walsh didn’t want that to happen to Battleground, and jumped on the opportunity when Hulu offered to pick it up as the service’s first-ever original scripted show. Others, however, were not quite as convinced. Battleground lead actor Jay Hayden recently remarked in an interview with Lost Remote that his manager and agent were pretty nervous, and Walsh acknowledged that online-only project was a tough sell: “There was definitely a stigma attached to it,” he said.

A much different ballgame

Fast forward a year, and those attitudes have changed dramatically. Walsh said that he doesn’t have any problems anymore with people not showing up for auditions, just because it’s an online-only gig. Instead, actors are now reaching out to him. “It was a much different ball game a year ago,” he told me.

Part of this has been a general trend towards original programming for online platforms like Netflix and Hulu. Netflix launched its first original show, Lilyhammer, a few days before Battleground started on Hulu, and has been investing heavily in other originals, including the Kevin Spacey-produced show House of Cards and a new season of Arrested Development, both of which will air next year. Hulu hasn’t been shy about its original content ambitions either, and is premiering a number of additional originals this summer.

A place for inbetweens

J.D. Walsh wrote, directed and produced Hulu’s first scripted show Battleground.

But part of the change in perception of web-only TV also has to do with Battleground itself. The show had a modest budget and was largely shot on location in Madison, Wisconsin, where it chronicles a Senate campaign with the kind of mockumentary style we’ve learned to love from watching The Office. But unlike The Office, Battleground isn’t afraid to leave the safe haven of comedy and venture into the nitty-gritty of politics. When, for example, was the last time The Office tackled voter suppression?

Battleground doesn’t just take clues from The Office, but also from The West Wing, and to some degree any other good workplace drama. This mixture of comedic and dramatic elements is what makes it unique, but it’s also what made Fox pass, Walsh believes. Networks either want comedies, or dramas — not anything in between.

“There is no third box to sit in,” he told me.

Hulu, on the other hand, gave him a lot of freedom, which resulted in more daring experiments. One episode of Battleground explores the background of the characters through the lens of a nineties reality TV documentary that reminds you of MTV shows like True Life. Wash believes traditional network execs wouldn’t have let him go through with these kinds of experiments. “I don’t think the show would have the same tone if it was on a network,” he told me.

New options for new shows — and old ones, too!

Walsh thinks that services like Hulu and their investments in online content could help others reach audiences that aren’t available through traditional networks. “With the Internet, there is no shelf space,” he said, explaining that this would make it easier to reach a passionate niche. That could help networks as well, he argued: “Wouldn’t it be interesting if networks canceled shows and immediately kept them going on the Internet?”

Speaking of keeping shows going: There’s no official word from Hulu on a second season of Battleground yet, but Walsh seemed optimistic. “It all looks very positive,” he told me, adding that its audience was comparable with that of other shows airing on prime-time cable — which is an important achievement in itself.

Hulu has also submitted the show for consideration to the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, so we might see an Emmy nomination for Battleground later this summer. “It all looks very positive,” he concluded, only to caution that in Hollywood, anything could happen. Said Walsh: “I live in a city that crushes dreams for breakfast.”

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• Controversy, courtrooms and the cloud in Q1
• Q4 Wrap-up: SOPA and the future of digital content
• Connected Consumer Q3: Netflix fumbles; Kindle Fire shines

Fox had fronted the money for a pilot episode, but then declined to pick up the show. “They were very polite as they showed me the door,” Walsh recalled about his exit at Fox during a phone conversation last week. Attempts to take it elsewhere were met with interest, but not commitment. Battleground seemed stuck. “No project in L.A. ever dies,” he told me. “It just slowly drifts into the ocean…”

Walsh didn’t want that to happen to Battleground, and jumped on the opportunity when Hulu offered to pick it up as the service’s first-ever original scripted show. Others, however, were not quite as convinced. Battleground lead actor Jay Hayden recently remarked in an interview with Lost Remote that his manager and agent were pretty nervous, and Walsh acknowledged that online-only project was a tough sell: “There was definitely a stigma attached to it,” he said.

A much different ballgame

Fast forward a year, and those attitudes have changed dramatically. Walsh said that he doesn’t have any problems anymore with people not showing up for auditions, just because it’s an online-only gig. Instead, actors are now reaching out to him. “It was a much different ball game a year ago,” he told me.

Part of this has been a general trend towards original programming for online platforms like Netflix and Hulu. Netflix launched its first original show, Lilyhammer, a few days before Battleground started on Hulu, and has been investing heavily in other originals, including the Kevin Spacey-produced show House of Cards and a new season of Arrested Development, both of which will air next year. Hulu hasn’t been shy about its original content ambitions either, and is premiering a number of additional originals this summer.

A place for inbetweens

J.D. Walsh wrote, directed and produced Hulu’s first scripted show Battleground.

But part of the change in perception of web-only TV also has to do with Battleground itself. The show had a modest budget and was largely shot on location in Madison, Wisconsin, where it chronicles a Senate campaign with the kind of mockumentary style we’ve learned to love from watching The Office. But unlike The Office, Battleground isn’t afraid to leave the safe haven of comedy and venture into the nitty-gritty of politics. When, for example, was the last time The Office tackled voter suppression?

Battleground doesn’t just take clues from The Office, but also from The West Wing, and to some degree any other good workplace drama. This mixture of comedic and dramatic elements is what makes it unique, but it’s also what made Fox pass, Walsh believes. Networks either want comedies, or dramas — not anything in between.

“There is no third box to sit in,” he told me.

Hulu, on the other hand, gave him a lot of freedom, which resulted in more daring experiments. One episode of Battleground explores the background of the characters through the lens of a nineties reality TV documentary that reminds you of MTV shows like True Life. Wash believes traditional network execs wouldn’t have let him go through with these kinds of experiments. “I don’t think the show would have the same tone if it was on a network,” he told me.

New options for new shows — and old ones, too!

Walsh thinks that services like Hulu and their investments in online content could help others reach audiences that aren’t available through traditional networks. “With the Internet, there is no shelf space,” he said, explaining that this would make it easier to reach a passionate niche. That could help networks as well, he argued: “Wouldn’t it be interesting if networks canceled shows and immediately kept them going on the Internet?”

Speaking of keeping shows going: There’s no official word from Hulu on a second season of Battleground yet, but Walsh seemed optimistic. “It all looks very positive,” he told me, adding that its audience was comparable with that of other shows airing on prime-time cable — which is an important achievement in itself.

Hulu has also submitted the show for consideration to the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, so we might see an Emmy nomination for Battleground later this summer. “It all looks very positive,” he concluded, only to caution that in Hollywood, anything could happen. Said Walsh: “I live in a city that crushes dreams for breakfast.”

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• Controversy, courtrooms and the cloud in Q1
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• Connected Consumer Q3: Netflix fumbles; Kindle Fire shines

The clip concentrates mostly on the TV’s integration into Ikea’s furniture and the company’s design choices, but also offers a few more technical details. The biggest revelation for anyone wondering how Ikea is going to merge its simple design with the device’s Blu-ray player and Smart TV functionality: The remote control will feature a slide-out keyboard, hiding some of the advanced features in a second layer. Check out the entire video below:

The video also features extensive comments from Uppleva designer Francis Cayouette, who said that he has been very involved in making the Smart TV UI as well. As a side note, Ikea is probably the only company in the world that would include a guy admitting that a product just doesn’t work for him in official promotional footage. Odd, but charming.

Ikea’s Uppleva TV sets are slated to go on sale in select stores in Italy, France, Germany, Poland and Sweden in a few days, and then become more widely available throughout Europe this fall. Uppleva won’t be available in the United States until 2013. We reported earlier this month that the Ikea TV will feature apps for YouTube, Dailymotion and TuneIn Radio, amongst others.

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• Controversy, courtrooms and the cloud in Q1
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• Q4 Wrap-up: SOPA and the future of digital content

The clip concentrates mostly on the TV’s integration into Ikea’s furniture and the company’s design choices, but also offers a few more technical details. The biggest revelation for anyone wondering how Ikea is going to merge its simple design with the device’s Blu-ray player and Smart TV functionality: The remote control will feature a slide-out keyboard, hiding some of the advanced features in a second layer. Check out the entire video below:

The video also features extensive comments from Uppleva designer Francis Cayouette, who said that he has been very involved in making the Smart TV UI as well. As a side note, Ikea is probably the only company in the world that would include a guy admitting that a product just doesn’t work for him in official promotional footage. Odd, but charming.

Ikea’s Uppleva TV sets are slated to go on sale in select stores in Italy, France, Germany, Poland and Sweden in a few days, and then become more widely available throughout Europe this fall. Uppleva won’t be available in the United States until 2013. We reported earlier this month that the Ikea TV will feature apps for YouTube, Dailymotion and TuneIn Radio, amongst others.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Controversy, courtrooms and the cloud in Q1
• CES 2012: a recap and analysis
• Q4 Wrap-up: SOPA and the future of digital content

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Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Controversy, courtrooms and the cloud in Q1
• Q4 Wrap-up: SOPA and the future of digital content
• Connected Consumer 2012: A year of consolidation and integration

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Controversy, courtrooms and the cloud in Q1
• Q4 Wrap-up: SOPA and the future of digital content
• Connected Consumer 2012: A year of consolidation and integration

In fact, speaking at the Nomura 2nd Annual U.S. Media & Telecom Summit in New York, Sarandos stopped just short of saying that Netflix’s four-year, $1 billion deal with the CW’s parents, Time Warner and CBS Corp, has saved the broadcast network from extinction.

“What’s important to note is that you look at programming at CW, Netflix license fees makes that content profitable,” he said. “Without it, it was struggling along.”

Did Netflix really save an entire broadcast network? Well, based on the just-released dire ratings data for CW from last season, the jury is still out on that. But as the network seeks to stabilize its linear TV ratings situation as it transitions itself into broadcast TV’s first true multi-platform programming institution, those Netflix dollars — as well as revenue culled from a separate streaming deal with Hulu Plus  — are proving pivotal.

Broadcast TV’s most innovative model

The CW targets a much narrower audience than the Big Four networks (ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC), primarily going after young women 18-34 with shows like Vampire Diaries and Heart of Dixie. But while its scale is much smaller, the network presents a very forward looking model for the television industry.

Simply put, CW’s audience is migrating to digital platforms at a faster rate than viewership for the Big Four networks. And CW is innovating its monetization strategy at a quicker pace as a result.

“Their demographic is much more cutting-edge, demanding and fickle,” noted Bill Carroll, a senior analyst for Katz Media, a firm which advises TV stations on programming decisions.

In fact, CW digital chief Rick Haskins told paidContent Tuesday that the network received 18 percent of its viewership during the just-completed 2011-12 TV season from digital platforms.

“When you’re bumping up on 20 percent of your viewing being someplace else, you’re model has to be different,” Haskins said.

For CW, that “different model” means limiting the differentiation between broadcast and streaming for both viewers and advertisers.

While Fox delays free streaming availability of its shows for eight days after initial linear airing, CW has cut that wait time down to just eight hours on its CWTV.com channel.

The CW has been putting full TV-like commercial loads into its streams for several years and pushes harder than any other network to integrate the sale of impressions on its digital platforms with those on its linear channel to advertisers.

While ratings have trended down for the network recently, ad sales have not. During last year’s upfront market, for example, the CW generated nearly $420 million in ad revenue, which was 10 percent year-over-year growth.

Having worked to create its own systems of measuring viewership across platforms for several years, network president Mark Pedowitz told advertisers during the CW upfront presentation two weeks ago that the company will soon introduce its own fully-baked cross-platform ratings system to the TV industry.

Almost in the same breath, Pedowitz touted a new digital studio that will specialize in low-cost, short-form digital content, extending the CW brand mobile platforms in a way no other network has attempted.

About those ratings…

But as the CW transitions into a next-generation, multi-platform video programmer, it can’t surrender the underpinnings of its traditional business model — drawing viewers to its affiliate broadcast stations, which still accounts for more than 80 percent of its viewership.

And right now, that part of the business isn’t going well.

On Friday, ratings tracker Nielsen revealed that for the just-completed 2011-12 TV season, CW’s primetime usage dipped 15 percent to an average of only around 1.5 million watchers. Viewership for the network’s target demographic, adults 18-34, dropped 20 percent to 800,000.

With ratings like these, how can the network’s affiliate partners survive, much less negotiate hefty retransmission fees with cable and satellite operators?

It is here where the Netflix licensing deal has helped tremendously, delivering the network — which had previously struggled to sell its shows to cable and syndication — back-end resources for the first time.

Rather than having to further cut back on the number of fresh, original programming it will supply to its affiliates next season — thus further dropping ratings — CW announced that it will have 50 additional hours of original series on the air next year and will be able to supply original programming during the summer for the first time.

“We’ve taken the money and put it back into supporting the model,” Haskins noted.

Here’s former CW president Dawn Ostroff discussing the Netflix deal with paidContent editor Staci Kramer last year:
http://blip.tv/play/gZ5Ggt3jEAI.html?p=1http://a.blip.tv/api.swf#gZ5Ggt3jEAI

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Controversy, courtrooms and the cloud in Q1
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• Connected Consumer 2012: A year of consolidation and integration

In fact, speaking at the Nomura 2nd Annual U.S. Media & Telecom Summit in New York, Sarandos stopped just short of saying that Netflix’s four-year, $1 billion deal with the CW’s parents, Time Warner and CBS Corp, has saved the broadcast network from extinction.

“What’s important to note is that you look at programming at CW, Netflix license fees makes that content profitable,” he said. “Without it, it was struggling along.”

Did Netflix really save an entire broadcast network? Well, based on the just-released dire ratings data for CW from last season, the jury is still out on that. But as the network seeks to stabilize its linear TV ratings situation as it transitions itself into broadcast TV’s first true multi-platform programming institution, those Netflix dollars — as well as revenue culled from a separate streaming deal with Hulu Plus  — are proving pivotal.

Broadcast TV’s most innovative model

The CW targets a much narrower audience than the Big Four networks (ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC), primarily going after young women 18-34 with shows like Vampire Diaries and Heart of Dixie. But while its scale is much smaller, the network presents a very forward looking model for the television industry.

Simply put, CW’s audience is migrating to digital platforms at a faster rate than viewership for the Big Four networks. And CW is innovating its monetization strategy at a quicker pace as a result.

“Their demographic is much more cutting-edge, demanding and fickle,” noted Bill Carroll, a senior analyst for Katz Media, a firm which advises TV stations on programming decisions.

In fact, CW digital chief Rick Haskins told paidContent Tuesday that the network received 18 percent of its viewership during the just-completed 2011-12 TV season from digital platforms.

“When you’re bumping up on 20 percent of your viewing being someplace else, you’re model has to be different,” Haskins said.

For CW, that “different model” means limiting the differentiation between broadcast and streaming for both viewers and advertisers.

While Fox delays free streaming availability of its shows for eight days after initial linear airing, CW has cut that wait time down to just eight hours on its CWTV.com channel.

The CW has been putting full TV-like commercial loads into its streams for several years and pushes harder than any other network to integrate the sale of impressions on its digital platforms with those on its linear channel to advertisers.

While ratings have trended down for the network recently, ad sales have not. During last year’s upfront market, for example, the CW generated nearly $420 million in ad revenue, which was 10 percent year-over-year growth.

Having worked to create its own systems of measuring viewership across platforms for several years, network president Mark Pedowitz told advertisers during the CW upfront presentation two weeks ago that the company will soon introduce its own fully-baked cross-platform ratings system to the TV industry.

Almost in the same breath, Pedowitz touted a new digital studio that will specialize in low-cost, short-form digital content, extending the CW brand mobile platforms in a way no other network has attempted.

About those ratings…

But as the CW transitions into a next-generation, multi-platform video programmer, it can’t surrender the underpinnings of its traditional business model — drawing viewers to its affiliate broadcast stations, which still accounts for more than 80 percent of its viewership.

And right now, that part of the business isn’t going well.

On Friday, ratings tracker Nielsen revealed that for the just-completed 2011-12 TV season, CW’s primetime usage dipped 15 percent to an average of only around 1.5 million watchers. Viewership for the network’s target demographic, adults 18-34, dropped 20 percent to 800,000.

With ratings like these, how can the network’s affiliate partners survive, much less negotiate hefty retransmission fees with cable and satellite operators?

It is here where the Netflix licensing deal has helped tremendously, delivering the network — which had previously struggled to sell its shows to cable and syndication — back-end resources for the first time.

Rather than having to further cut back on the number of fresh, original programming it will supply to its affiliates next season — thus further dropping ratings — CW announced that it will have 50 additional hours of original series on the air next year and will be able to supply original programming during the summer for the first time.

“We’ve taken the money and put it back into supporting the model,” Haskins noted.

Here’s former CW president Dawn Ostroff discussing the Netflix deal with paidContent editor Staci Kramer last year:
http://blip.tv/play/gZ5Ggt3jEAI.html?p=1http://a.blip.tv/api.swf#gZ5Ggt3jEAI

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Controversy, courtrooms and the cloud in Q1
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• Connected Consumer 2012: A year of consolidation and integration

The number of people using online video services will also grow dramatically. Worldwide, 792 million people used online video last year. By 2016, that number will roughly double, to 1.5 billion users.

Cisco released these projections Wednesday as part of its annual Visual Networking Index forecast, which also concluded that the world’s data consumption will reach 1.3 zettabytes by 2016 (for more details on that staggering number, check out Stacey Higginbotham’s write-up). But most intriguing about all that data, and the role video is playing, are the devices that are causing it.

TVs and game consoles make us watch longer

There are two major factors for online video’s huge growth potential: Online video is finding its way to the living room TV set, and people are watching more videos on tablets. Cisco’s forecast shows that especially those HD streams to the TV will have a huge impact going forward. The amount of Internet video delivered to TVs already doubled in 2011, and its expected to grow sixfold by 2016. By 2016, online video delivered to TVs will make up for six percent of all worldwide consumer Internet traffic.

Some additional data released by Ooyala today explains quite nicely why TV traffic is growing that much: Once online video reaches the TV, viewers start to stick around much longer. Completion rates for videos longer than 6 minutes are over 50 percent on connected TVs, but only around 25 percent on PCs.

Even more astonishing: 88 percent of all content consumed on connected TVs is longer than 10 minutes.

More devices will cause more traffic

At the same time, we are going to watch a lot more video on mobile phones and tablets. Mobile video traffic will grow 18-fold from 2011 to 2016, and the number of worldwide mobile users will reach 1.6 billion, a six-fold increase over 2011 levels. Altogether, nearly a third of all Internet traffic will come from devices other than the PC in 2016.

Of course, all of that wouldn’t be possible if we all didn’t have more and more devices to watch all those videos. Cisco estimates that the number of connected devices per U.S. household is going to grow from 5.5 connected devices (excluding cell phones and anything accessing mobile phone networks) to 8.5 devices by 2016.

Disclosure: GigaOM has a commercial relationship with Ooyala for the delivery of its video content.

Image courtesy of Flickr user Phillie Casablanca.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• What Amazon’s new Kindle line means for Apple, Netflix and online media
• Connected Consumer Q3: Netflix fumbles; Kindle Fire shines
• Controversy, courtrooms and the cloud in Q1

The number of people using online video services will also grow dramatically. Worldwide, 792 million people used online video last year. By 2016, that number will roughly double, to 1.5 billion users.

Cisco released these projections Wednesday as part of its annual Visual Networking Index forecast, which also concluded that the world’s data consumption will reach 1.3 zettabytes by 2016 (for more details on that staggering number, check out Stacey Higginbotham’s write-up). But most intriguing about all that data, and the role video is playing, are the devices that are causing it.

TVs and game consoles make us watch longer

There are two major factors for online video’s huge growth potential: Online video is finding its way to the living room TV set, and people are watching more videos on tablets. Cisco’s forecast shows that especially those HD streams to the TV will have a huge impact going forward. The amount of Internet video delivered to TVs already doubled in 2011, and its expected to grow sixfold by 2016. By 2016, online video delivered to TVs will make up for six percent of all worldwide consumer Internet traffic.

Some additional data released by Ooyala today explains quite nicely why TV traffic is growing that much: Once online video reaches the TV, viewers start to stick around much longer. Completion rates for videos longer than 6 minutes are over 50 percent on connected TVs, but only around 25 percent on PCs.

Even more astonishing: 88 percent of all content consumed on connected TVs is longer than 10 minutes.

More devices will cause more traffic

At the same time, we are going to watch a lot more video on mobile phones and tablets. Mobile video traffic will grow 18-fold from 2011 to 2016, and the number of worldwide mobile users will reach 1.6 billion, a six-fold increase over 2011 levels. Altogether, nearly a third of all Internet traffic will come from devices other than the PC in 2016.

Of course, all of that wouldn’t be possible if we all didn’t have more and more devices to watch all those videos. Cisco estimates that the number of connected devices per U.S. household is going to grow from 5.5 connected devices (excluding cell phones and anything accessing mobile phone networks) to 8.5 devices by 2016.

Disclosure: GigaOM has a commercial relationship with Ooyala for the delivery of its video content.

Image courtesy of Flickr user Phillie Casablanca.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• What Amazon’s new Kindle line means for Apple, Netflix and online media
• Connected Consumer Q3: Netflix fumbles; Kindle Fire shines
• Controversy, courtrooms and the cloud in Q1

The agreement with NBCUniversal International TV Distribution will stream films including Battleship, The Lorax, The Bourne Legacy and Safe House to Lovefilm’s two million European subscribers in the second pay TV window. The pact also ends a dispute between the two companies over DVD rental that dates back to 2009.

The second subscription pay-TV window resides fairly late in a film’s distribution cycle, coming several years after a movie leaves theaters. In the western European region where Lovefilm operates, BSkyB’s pay TV service Sky Movies has exclusive first-window rights to the films of all six Hollywood majors — Lovefilm ends up getting Universal movies about six months after Sky Movies gets done with them.

Still, second window or first, access to top-tier motion-picture content remains essential for over-the-top services like Lovefilm to grow their subscriber bases. And the Universal deal has significance in regard to Lovefilm’s competitive positioning to rival Netflix, which has signaled its intention to expand into western Europe beyond the UK and Ireland later in Q4 after expecting to return to profitability in Q2.

The question: With Lovefilm already having signed a number of key exclusive licensing deals to premiere content, what will be left for Netflix by the time it fully infiltrates the western European region?

Last year, for example, Lovefilm signed similar exclusive second-window licensing deals with Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures, now giving it access to content from half the of the major studios.

Also among major American content suppliers, Lovefilm signed an exclusive deal for Disney/ABC TV shows in Janaury.

Read a Morgan Stanley Research note to investors Wednesday:

“We continue to believe that Netflix will face a highly competitive environment overseas. The fact that consolidated profitability is weighing on international expansion only buys time for incumbent competitors to become more entrenched prior to Netflix’s arrival.”

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

The agreement with NBCUniversal International TV Distribution will stream films including Battleship, The Lorax, The Bourne Legacy and Safe House to Lovefilm’s two million European subscribers in the second pay TV window. The pact also ends a dispute between the two companies over DVD rental that dates back to 2009.

The second subscription pay-TV window resides fairly late in a film’s distribution cycle, coming several years after a movie leaves theaters. In the western European region where Lovefilm operates, BSkyB’s pay TV service Sky Movies has exclusive first-window rights to the films of all six Hollywood majors — Lovefilm ends up getting Universal movies about six months after Sky Movies gets done with them.

Still, second window or first, access to top-tier motion-picture content remains essential for over-the-top services like Lovefilm to grow their subscriber bases. And the Universal deal has significance in regard to Lovefilm’s competitive positioning to rival Netflix, which has signaled its intention to expand into western Europe beyond the UK and Ireland later in Q4 after expecting to return to profitability in Q2.

The question: With Lovefilm already having signed a number of key exclusive licensing deals to premiere content, what will be left for Netflix by the time it fully infiltrates the western European region?

Last year, for example, Lovefilm signed similar exclusive second-window licensing deals with Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures, now giving it access to content from half the of the major studios.

Also among major American content suppliers, Lovefilm signed an exclusive deal for Disney/ABC TV shows in Janaury.

Read a Morgan Stanley Research note to investors Wednesday:

“We continue to believe that Netflix will face a highly competitive environment overseas. The fact that consolidated profitability is weighing on international expansion only buys time for incumbent competitors to become more entrenched prior to Netflix’s arrival.”

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Simple.tv is a bare-bones DVR that can be hooked into one’s home network and connected to a regular over-the-air antenna. Users have to attach their own external hard drive and can then stream recorded programming to up to five devices. Simple.tv will have apps for the Roku, the iPad and a web app to watch TV via web browsers available at launch, and is working on extending the service to connected devices like the Boxee Box and Google TV.

Check out Simple.tv’s Kickstarter promo video, or continue reading below:

The company will sell their DVR device for around $150 when it goes on sale in August, which is slightly more than the current pricing on Kickstarter. Sales will initially be facilitated through Simple.tv’s website as well as Amazon.com. Simple.tv CEO Mark Ely told me during a phone conversation Thursday that he hopes to be in retail stores in time for the holiday season. People who buy the device will have the option to subscribe to a programming guide that brings TiVo-like recording functionality to Simple.tv for $5 a month, or schedule their programming manually for free.

Kickstarter: Great for CE startups

A number of consumer electronics startups have taken their wares to Kickstarter recently; one breakout example has been the Pebble smart watch, which booked more than 85,000 preorders and $10 million in revenue by the end of its Kickstarter campaign (for more on this, also read Om’s interview with Kickstarter co-founder Perry Chen).

Ely said that his company didn’t initially plan to take its product to Kickstarter, but was swayed by some of these success stories. “There is a marketing aspect to Kickstarter,” he admitted. But he also argued that Kickstarter is about more than generating buzz and securing preorders. “For us, a way to quickly gather the level of sales we are going to get,” he told me.

That kind of data can be instrumental in ordering the right amount of devices, which can both bring down the production costs and help to avoid large quantities of unsold inventory. And a company can get feedback from its consumers before it has even shipped a product. “It gives us some additional insight into the audience,” said Ely.

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Simple.tv is a bare-bones DVR that can be hooked into one’s home network and connected to a regular over-the-air antenna. Users have to attach their own external hard drive and can then stream recorded programming to up to five devices. Simple.tv will have apps for the Roku, the iPad and a web app to watch TV via web browsers available at launch, and is working on extending the service to connected devices like the Boxee Box and Google TV.

Check out Simple.tv’s Kickstarter promo video, or continue reading below:

The company will sell their DVR device for around $150 when it goes on sale in August, which is slightly more than the current pricing on Kickstarter. Sales will initially be facilitated through Simple.tv’s website as well as Amazon.com. Simple.tv CEO Mark Ely told me during a phone conversation Thursday that he hopes to be in retail stores in time for the holiday season. People who buy the device will have the option to subscribe to a programming guide that brings TiVo-like recording functionality to Simple.tv for $5 a month, or schedule their programming manually for free.

Kickstarter: Great for CE startups

A number of consumer electronics startups have taken their wares to Kickstarter recently; one breakout example has been the Pebble smart watch, which booked more than 85,000 preorders and $10 million in revenue by the end of its Kickstarter campaign (for more on this, also read Om’s interview with Kickstarter co-founder Perry Chen).

Ely said that his company didn’t initially plan to take its product to Kickstarter, but was swayed by some of these success stories. “There is a marketing aspect to Kickstarter,” he admitted. But he also argued that Kickstarter is about more than generating buzz and securing preorders. “For us, a way to quickly gather the level of sales we are going to get,” he told me.

That kind of data can be instrumental in ordering the right amount of devices, which can both bring down the production costs and help to avoid large quantities of unsold inventory. And a company can get feedback from its consumers before it has even shipped a product. “It gives us some additional insight into the audience,” said Ely.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Controversy, courtrooms and the cloud in Q1
• Q4 Wrap-up: SOPA and the future of digital content
• Connected Consumer 2012: A year of consolidation and integration