Four members of our management team will be visiting IBC in Amsterdam from the 9-11th September.
If you would learn about our content management and digital media logistics solutions, or would just like meet and catch-up then drop us an email – symon (dot) roue@refine-group.com to book an appointment.
We look forward to seeing you there!
I have seen the future of TV and it is called “Zeebox”. The next project from Anthony Rose, the technologist who built KaZaA and BBC iPlayer in to some of the most disruptive digital media players, is due to go live in October.
Topped by Peoplesound founder and ex EMI SVP Ernesto Schmitt as CEO, the pair’s startup raised $5 million in seed funds from unidentified investors in June and has been operating in stealth as “tBone”. But it has been renamed and has just located at offices at London’s Covent Garden, where it has a staff of almost 30 (including former iPlayer engineers) and where the pair showed me an exclusive demo…
What is Zeebox?
Attempting to ride both the multi-screen TV engagement trend and the increasing adoption of internet TVs, Zeebox is a real-time system for social TV viewing and for engaging deeply around those shows that depends on recognising sofa-based second screens as the place for innovation.
The free Zeebox app for iPad (and, later, iPhone and Android) is a TV guide that displays what shows Facebook and Twitter friends are watching. Owners of compatible connected TVs can flip channel straight from the app, as though it were a remote control. Although the command takes place over the internet, the change happens as quick as or quicker than some standard infrared remotes.
Viewing together
Notifications appear on-screen to indicate friends’ presence in channels. Users can chat in the iPad app and send invites to join one another for simultaneous viewing – accepting an invite results in the channel changing. “Jack, come and watch The Apprentice with me,” Schmitt tells me, by means of example.
As well as these personal connections, Zeebox users’ collective actions can shape the experience. The app displays real-time data for which shows are “trending” up or down. In a scenario Rose presents, a notification appears to say Top Gear is currently “hot” (perhaps Jeremy Clarkson has said something particularly egregious). The opportunity to surface breaking news in this serendipitous way is clear, along with the prospect of improving TV ratings measurement with actual real-time data.
BBC Worldwide is launching its global iPlayer service, via an iPad app that will be made available in 11 countries in Western Europe. The US, Canada and Australia will follow later this year, as part of what is intended to be a one-year pilot.
The service will offer a limited amount of content for free, supported by pre-roll ads and sponsorship, but its core business model is subscription, with users paying €6.99 (£6.14) a month or €49.99 a year. The 11 launch countries are Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, The Republic of Ireland, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland.
The global iPlayer app includes some features that are not in the UK version, including the ability to stream shows over 3G as well as Wi-Fi, and a downloading feature to store programmes on the iPad for offline viewing.
“We think we have a load of unmet demand for BBC and British content internationally,” said BBC.com managing director Luke Bradley-Jones.
“This is not a catch-up service: this is a video-on-demand service. We will have content from the last month, but also the best from the catalogue stretching back 50 to 60 years.”
Users will be able to search for specific shows or browse genres including comedy and drama, but BBC Worldwide has also hired a team of editors to curate the international iPlayer.
Their focus will be on pulling together themed collections around specific shows or special events. An example of the former is Doctor Who, which is getting separate collections of episodes based on individual Doctors – The Tennant Years, The Ecclestone Years and so on – as well as one focused purely on episodes featuring the Daleks.
“There is at least 1,500 hours of content there from day one, and it will be growing by at least 100 hours a month,” said Mark Smith, the global iPlayer launch director at BBC Worldwide.
read more at www.guardian.co.uk
In the first three months of its connected-TV ad trial in the U.S., Rovi found that viewers clicked on ads that appeared in the guide 13% of the time on average — more than 10 times that of typical Web banner ads.
Initial advertisers in the trial, which kicked off in April, included cruise-line operator Carnival and Unilever’s Hellmann’s mayonnaise. The ads were displayed on Internet-connected televisions and Blu-ray Disc players from Samsung Electronics and Sony.
“We really feel we’re starting a new advertising vehicle,” Rovi senior vice president of worldwide advertising Jeff Siegel said.
By the end of 2011, Rovi expects about 4.5 million to 5 million connected units to be part of its ad network, and more if the company signs up additional consumer-electronics partners for the advertising network, Siegel said.
The click-through rates are based on tracking reports from 24/7 Real Media. Siegel said those ranged from 10% to 17% depending on the ad.
Rovi has enlisted Nielsen to conduct two research studies. The first will measure user perceptions of the connected-TV ads, and the second will focus on ad metrics such as aided and unaided recall. The Nielsen sample will represent 2.5% of connected homes in the U.S.
“We’re going to do a deeper dive to find out why some ads get better engagement,” Siegel said.
Rovi also is kicking off a connected-TV advertising trial in Canada. The company has signed BMO Bank of Montreal as its initial advertiser and will deploy, manage and evaluate BMO campaigns across the Samsung and Sony CE devices. The initial BMO Bank of Montreal Smart TV Field Trial campaign focuses on BMO SmartSteps for Parents, an online program to help parents educate children on money management.
In Canada, Rovi’s third-party measurement partner is Vision Critical. For its trial planned in the U.K. covering Europe, the company is working with Decipher Media Research.
Down the road, Rovi has other features on its road map for connected devices, including Facebook integration and the ability for a viewer to enter an e-mail address to request more information from an advertiser.
read more here
UK, Spain eyed for 1Q
Netflix’s global growth strategy is even more ambitious than the company is letting on, with sources indicating the U.K. and Spain will follow its already announced Latin American expansion.
Sources at a few leading European film distributors say Netflix execs informed them of plans to reach those countries in the first quarter of next year. Netflix, which declined to comment, didn’t include the continent in the list of 43 countries it disclosed earlier this month would be getting the service.
The European invasion would come after the blitz scheduled to take place by the end of the year across Latin America and the Caribbean. Netflix surprised many analysts who predicted the U.K. would be one of the first targeted territories only to end up absent from the list released last week.
That could be a reflection of the tougher competition it will find in England, from Amazon-owned Lovefilm to incumbent multichannel services like BSkyB, which may seem newly vulnerable given the turmoil that has engulfed News Corp.’s aborted attempt to grab a bigger stake in the satellite service.
Netflix’s ambitious travel plans could also help explain the stunning decision announced Tuesday to raise the price on subscribers who want to both stream video and receive discs by mail. Many analysts interpreted the price hike as a move meant to help fund Netflix’s skyrocketing content costs, which international territories will undoubtedly compound given the need to secure both local and imported programming to each region.
Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter estimates Netflix’s global content bill could amount to $2 billion by 2012.
U.K. and Spain are likely the countries CEO Reed Hastings referred to back in April when he projected a third wave of international expansion in early 2012. “We’ve also decided to make some early content commitments for a third international market given our high probability of success in our second international market,” he said in a letter to investors.
Netflix’s first international foray began last year in Canada.
Lovefilm has certainly been acting like a company preparing to take on new competition. The service just announced Tuesday that it intends to expand its workforce in London by 20% and cinched a five-year deal with film supplier Entertainment One.
Spain poses a different challenge for Netflix, however. The country is a notorious hotbed of piracy, which may actually represent an opportunity to convert freeloaders who could give up their scofflaw ways if presented with a low-cost digital alternative. And while the U.K. presents Netflix with real competition, Spain provides a lower barrier to market entry given the absence of established service providers.
Why Netflix isn’t being as public about its European invasion as it is with other announced regions is open to interpretation. By working quietly to build the catalog it needs to have in place next year, Netflix may be aiming to hit the ground running on the continent and take competitors by surprise.
The Los Gatos, Calif.-based company may not be able to afford to let too much time go by in hotly contested markets lest they give competitors the chance to play defense before the company can even mount an offense.
What remains to be seen is whether Netflix has even broader goals in mind for 2012 on the continent, with Germany and France seen as markets that like the U.K., present a rich base of potential subs but plenty of competition.
read more in www.variety.com
Disney distribution president Bob Chapek calls it the “digital Trojan horse.” He’s referring to “combo packs,” which are how most big movies will be sold on home video this holiday season. Blu-ray Discs will come with a digital file that buyers can register on one of two new services: UltraViolet and Disney Studio All Access Keychest. These free accounts will exist on cloud-based computer servers available anytime, anywhere, on any enabled device.
The move, say studio insiders, is the most serious effort yet to wean consumers away from the DVD, which has dominated home entertainment for nearly 15 years. “The evolution from a physical disc-based business to a digitally based business is inevitable,” says Chapek. “I think the only debate is the period of time over which that will happen.”
The big question is: How much pain will the transition inflict on Hollywood? Studios already are enduring wrenching change as DVD sales dwindle faster than digital revenue rises. A year ago, Sony eliminated about 450 positions, mostly in home entertainment, while in recent months Disney dropped close to 200 jobs, Warner Bros. cut 50, Fox trimmed 22, and Lionsgate laid off 10.
Windfalls from DVD sales powered explosive Hollywood growth during the 2000s, but the industry has realized — as difficult as it might be — that it must turn its back on the dying format if it aims to compete in a digital world. “This is very disruptive to studios,” admits Mitch Singer, president of Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) and Sony’s chief technology officer. “But it’s better we disrupt ourselves than allow a third party to disrupt us for their financial gain.”
The studios see DVDs phasing out slowly but believe Blu-ray will remain part of the mix because it still offers the best picture on big-screen TVs and can deliver 3D images. Blu-ray sales (movies, TV shows, games) were up nearly 10 percent in 2010 over 2009, according to the industry-backed Digital Entertainment Group.
Still, the message this holiday season will be that cloud-based movies are safer and more convenient — no more damaged discs or hard-drive crashes. Most people will get the digital copy along with a Blu-ray Disc at a price suggested to be about $35, though that will be heavily discounted by retailers. (A DVD typically sells for about $5 less than a Blu-ray copy.) Digital files alone should sell for about $15 to be competitive with iTunes.
Jim Noonan, senior vp worldwide strategic promotions and communications at Warner Bros., uses the hit drama The Blind Side to illustrate the pitch: “You bought it and you’ve been meaning to watch it, but you haven’t been able to find the two hours to set aside. Now, all of a sudden, you are at a two-hour layover in Dallas where there’s Wi-Fi in the airport. Because you have access to a digital copy on your laptop, enjoy the movie right there at the airport. That changes the whole proposition of the value of ownership.”
But some doubt whether consumers trained to value physical discs will be willing to switch to the cloud. “There’s something to be said for just taking the DVD out of the little holder and slipping it immediately into your player, as compared to waiting for the cloud to show up, logging in, watching the bar on your screen or whatever,” says Wall Street analyst Harold Vogel.
Aside from accessibility and ease of use, the burning issue for consumers is fear of a format war. That’s why more than 70 studios, manufacturers and retailers have created DECE, which is about to launch the industry-wide UltraViolet format.
But the message will be mixed because Disney has a competing system, Disney All-Access, which includes a “Keychest” digital storage locker in the cloud. Disney insists its service will complement UltraViolet. “It’s not our goal to create a format war,” Disney CEO Robert Iger has said.
Google Inc., which already rules the Web with the world’s most popular search engine and video site, appears poised to take an even deeper plunge into Hollywood with a potential bid for rival online video pioneer Hulu, people familiar with the discussions said.
The bold push into the entertainment sphere signals Google’s growing ambitions to snap up more mainstream programming that would entice online viewers — and those in the living room — to watch longer, while capturing an even bigger advertising payload from major brands.
Google’s YouTube is already planning to position itself to compete for viewing time with broadcasters and cable operators by launching television-like channels with professionally produced original content and user-created video.
Buying Hulu, which is owned by Walt Disney Co., News Corp. and Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal, would deliver top-rated TV shows such as “Glee” and “Modern Family” and the major advertisers that pay top dollar to promote them.
But such a purchase probably would also draw heightened scrutiny from federal antitrust regulators. The Federal Trade Commission recently launched an antitrust inquiry into the Internet search giant’s business practices.
Google is one of a dozen companies kicking Hulu’s tires, said people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because talks are confidential. Google’s recently hired financial advisors, Morgan Stanley and Guggenheim Partners, set up the meetings with media, technology and communications companies.
This article continues here at the LA Times.
Virgin Media is close to announcing a deal with Spotify and four record companies to launch a new digital music service – more than two years after first unveiling plans to do so.
The negotiations, with a deal now agreed in principle and “all but signed” according to sources, have taken such a protracted amount of time to complete because Virgin Media also had to separately agree terms with Universal Music, EMI, Sony) Music and Warner Music as they have the power to veto any deal Spotify does.
Assuming the final details are smoothed out it is understood that Virgin Media plans a limited trial of the service over the summer with a full consumer launch planned for the fourth quarter this year.
Virgin Media originally announced plans for an unlimited music download subscription service in partnership with Universal Music – home to artists including Amy Winehouse, U2, Kanye West and Elton John – in early 2009 but the proposals did not attract the backing of the other major labels.
This article continues at paidcontent UK
Imagine a future in which Facebook, because it’s amassed a massive network of people engaging with entertainment brands, becomes the payment platform of choice for those interactions.
That future is starting now, with Endemol announcing it will take votes for the German series of Big Brother via Facebook Credits.
One vote costs seven Facebook Credits, about €0.49. The producer is also looking at adopting the technology in all 31 countries where it operates, though will retain phone and SMS votes.
This will not be the only TV show using this tactic. In April, Mobile Interactive Group (MIG), a vendor which makes mobile apps that support engagement with talent shows like Sky 1’s Got To Dance, enabled Facebook Credits in its technology platform. In February, rumour had it American Idol and X Factor U.S. would adopt Facebook Credits. Warner Bros has already charged 40 Facebook Credits ($4) for movie streaming.
This article continues at paidcontent UK
Samsung Electronics has started making its 3D video-on-demand service available across Europe. Following announcements in the UK and France, Samsung has now also rolled out the service in The Netherlands.
Samsung’s Explore 3D service allows viewers to stream free 3D content through a specially designed app for the Samsung Smart TV platform. Samsung’s 3D video-on-demand service currently has 20 types of free 3D content including films, music videos, children’s classics, documentaries and trailers from partner DreamWorks.
Until now, 3D content has only been available through paid subscription and Blu-ray, but over the next year Samsung will provide more options for consumers to watch 3D content. By the end of 2011, 70 free 3D videos will be available through the ‘Explore 3D’ app.
To access Samsung’s video-on-demand service, consumers with 3D Smart TVs will simply download the ‘Explore 3D’ app from ‘Samsung apps’, the first and biggest app store available for TVs. It joins other content apps such as Lovefilm and BBC iPlayer in the UK, TF Vision in France and other services across Europe.
The following Samsung Smart TVs are now available and allow access the 3D content: the D8000, D7000, D65000, D6399 – 3D LED Smart TV and the D8000 en D6900 – 3D plasma Smart TVs.
Source – broadbandtvnews.com