Viodi View Menu
Interested in Sponsoring
the Viodi View? Send an email to: [email protected]
Please forward this free publication
to anyone you know who is involved in some way with independent telephone
companies.
Mission of the Viodi View:
In this on-line publication, we share our analysis, opinions
and direction on the interactive television news and views that we believe
will be of interest and use to our friends associated directly or indirectly
with independent telephone companies. For more information as to the various
ways Viodi works with independent telephone companies, please go to http://www.viodi.com/alliance/
Disclaimer:
The Viodi View [Viodi, LLC] and its associates used their
best efforts in collecting and preparing the information published herein.
However, the Viodi View [Viodi, LLC] does not assume, and hereby disclaims,
any and all liability for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions,
whether such errors or omissions resulted from negligence, accident, or
other causes.
All displayed trademarks, logos and service marks are
the property of their respective owners. © 2005Viodi,
LLC. All Rights Reserved.
5255 Stevens Creek, #127 Santa Clara, CA 95051 |
Viodi View
Newsletter - September 28, 2005
Indie Telco Local
Content Workshop Advertisement
Some Wisdom from Digital Hollywood
By Ken Pyle, [email protected], Managing
Editor, Viodi View
Download to own is becoming
real, where consumers can purchase content via the Internet.
In this scenario, customers can burn the content to a DVD or, in the case
of Akimbo, store the content remotely on servers in what Akimbo terms,
“virtual shelves.” That aggregators are talking directly to
the groups who are responsible for Home Video (e.g. DVD
sales, not PPV or VOD), indicates that the studios are truly taking an
interest in this approach.
Allan Citron, Senior
Vice President of Marketing for Movielink suggested
that, ‘the real winner will be sell-through [download to own].”
He went on to say that studios have always been good at monetizing
content. He believes that the more interesting thing is the dramatic
change in the attitude of the TV networks as they are realizing
that they can monetize their assets. This started with the DVDs
and, since they don’t have the same window restrictions as
the studios could quickly move into the online world. Thus, the
Google/UPN streaming deal could be a foretaste
of what is to come with television.
Curt Mavis, CEO of CinemaNow
said the technology is too restrictive to provide customers with
the utility that they want with downloaded content. That is, downloaded
movies today will only play on the device that it has been downloaded
to; there is no portability. Customers want to
be able to view on screens other than the PC and to be able to take
to other devices. Mavis also suggested that the studios have a classic
channel management problem as they have to balance their online
sales efforts with their retail sales channel represented by Walmart.
Hilmi Qzguc, CEO Maven
Networks, which is a company that powers branded Internet
TV networks (streaming, back-office, etc.), suggests that the big
driver for Television over the Internet
will be advertising. He cited how Pepisco is producing
and licensing content. Qzguc warned that if the networks do not
move, then the advertisers will create their own channels. Maven
is doing some interesting things with controlled broadband Internet
networks, where they create channel line-ups that can be delivered
to the PC or to a IP enabled set-top box.
|
Rights
Management:
I did not have a chance to go to any of the
panels on Rights Management at Digital Hollywood, but I did have
a chance to interview Russell Reader, CEO of Rightsline.
Rightsline is a company that provides the back-office infrastructure
to give media companies the ability to manage rights associated
with their assets. To some extent, any company that
has any intellectual property or has rights to
another entity’s intellectual company is a media company.
Rightsline primary customers have been film,
music and content aggregators, such as EMI Music, Universal
Studios, Sprint and National Geographic Film Television Library.
Cable operators and telcos could be prime candidates for their software
solution. Rightsline believes their software is mandatory as content
aggregators increase the number of platforms
in which their content is available (e.g. wireless, retail, IPTV,
etc.), the volume of purchases increases and as the average dollar
amount of each purchase decreases (e.g ringtone
purchases).
They state their biggest competitor is the
internal I.T. departments. With Angel investment
from Hollywood executives and management from Oracle, they have
been honing the requirements for what media companies require since
late 1999. From my DemandVideo days, I remember wishing for a product
like this to manage the various rights provided by content providers.
Available as an ASP [Application Service Provider], MSP [Managed
Service Provider] or licensed basis and starting at $3,000 per month,
this could definitely have application with any
telco with numerous content contracts to manage.
|
Once the content is in the home, moving and distributing
it is a real challenge. Ron Pait, Director, Global Consumer
Storage Marketing for Seagate, stated that just over
1 bilion CES devices will be sold this year. Hard-drive
attachment will be part of 9% of those going to 14%
by 2008, so the market for storage is going to continue to explode.
He went on to say that consumers are looking for unlimited ways
to store content and don’t want to worry about having to manage
that content.
Savvis’ Darcy Lorincz suggested
that many customers will want to outsource their content
storage. Clearly, there are some compelling arguments for this
and some independent telcos have tried offering this service, but the
verdict is out on how to make consumer grade storage a profitable offering.
Jordan Greenhall, Founder and CEO of
DivX, announced that DivX is launching
an online video service that will simultaneously support
multiple devices (cell phones, PCs, DVD players with integrated Ethernet).
They are looking at launching this service in Q2 of next year. The content
will include premium content and free content (e.g. user-generated). The
DivX player is free and is already embedded on millions of devices, so
this could be an interesting play.
Back to Top
Previous
Issue
|
Viodi View Subscribe
IP
Video @ SC What You Missed
Listen
to the audio for all of the presentations from the 40+ speakers at the
IP Video @ Supercomm conference. This CD-ROM includes the indexed
presentations. Click here to see the contents. Contact Sean Sullivan
of USTA at 202 326 7260 to purchase this CD.
Independent Local
Content- Click Here to Learn More
Network PVRs
Are Desired, But Operators Have Doubts
Click Here
to Get the Report
|
|