Downloads – The Future of TV?

Downloads – The Future of TV?

by Ken Pyle (ken.pyle@viodi.com), Viodi, LLC

October 6, 2004 Issue

The idea of downloading content to a set-top box via the Internet seemed to be in vogue at Digital Hollywood. There were at least four suppliers of this sort of technology displaying their wares at Digital Hollywood. Even though the technology challenges seem to be close to being solved, none have yet directly received the blessing of the major studios. As such, many of the providers of the hardware also have a service component to their business, which means they are aggregating content in one form or another from various independent producers.

With $12 million in oversubscribed funding and William Hearst III as Chairman of the Board, Akimbo seems to be the best positioned for the long-term. With their just announced deal for content from Turner and content from the likes of CinemaNow [which does have content from major studios], they have a full range of titles for their planned launch in a few weeks. Akimbo seems to be very open to working with independent telcos and others as a way of marketing their service.

Dave Networks was another company at Digital Hollywood for the first time. Founded by set-top box veteran Ken Liscombe [founder of Zap2it], DAVE Networks is taking a bit of a different approach than Akimbo. First, their initial launch will be a version whereby viewers can download content to their PCs, much like MovieLink or CinemaNow currently does. Their set-top box is planned for a January 2005 release. What makes their approach unique is that it uses a secure peer to peer technology for content distribution.

Video Without Boundaries and CAC Media [Video Without Boundaries is an investor in CAC Media] announced a content delivery network, as well as set-top box that will allow downloads. In addition to a hard-drive, the set-top box also includes a CD/DVD player. They also have a “professional” version of this set-top box intended for IPTV application. Like Dave Networks, CAC Media is working with individual producers to bring their content into defined channels on their network.

Prismiq is one company that seems to be sticking to its hardware and software roots and is not explicitly providing a content component as part of their product. Their MediaPlayer is integrated with Real Networks’ Rhapsody service, as well as CinemaNow’s movie service. Their newest product, the MediaPlayer/Recorder is a diskless Digital Video Recorder that stores content on external storage (e.g. a PC or stand-alone drives) for playback by any MediaPlayer.

A couple of companies that were absent from the Digital Hollywood show floor, but that are also playing into this market include MatrixStream and Aeon Digital. MatrixStream is unique in that they have developed a set-top box that supports HDTV. Aeon Digital has produced a box with hard-drive, as well as DVD play and record capabilities. Both companies are also working with content producers to create content networks for their set-tops.

And looming over all of these smaller players is Microsoft with their just announced new version of MSN TV. At $199 and a $9.95 per month subscription fee ($99 per year), MSN TV will feature video clips from NBC, Discovery, Fox Sports Network and others. This will be streaming only to begin with, but it has a technology called Windows Media Connect, which allows sharing over a home network…implication is that an MSN TV download service is probably on the horizon.

Back to Main Page