The study, from research firm GfK Media, is the latest bad news for big media companies’ TV Everywhere initiative, which is aimed at reinforcing the value of traditional cable subscriptions. But since its launch four years ago, the effort has been plagued by delays in launch as a result of difficult rights negotiations between various entertainment companies and pay TV operators — cable, satellite and phone companies.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

After a set of divestitures Verizon Wireless has promised, the Federal Communications Commission essentially is prepared to sign off on an agreement by cable companies to transfer airwaves to Verizon that it can use in its new LTE wireless network, the people said. The move would help the nation’s largest cellular carrier meet soaring demand for data use on smartphones.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Justice Department officials have spoken to several online video providers, including Netflix Inc. and Hulu LLC, those people said. Investigators have also questioned Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable Inc. and other cable companies about issues such as setting data caps, limits to the amount of data a subscriber can download each month, these people said.

Representatives of all those companies and the Justice Department declined to comment on the investigation.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

“It’s critical that this previously unused spectrum be put to good use,” Randall Milch, executive vice president of Verizon Communications, said during a hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights. Consumers in some markets could begin experiencing capacity problems by 2013 if Verizon doesn’t acquire more airwaves soon, he said.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

What does that money get you?

As I’ve discussed before–most recently, last week–it gets you more shows than the free version offers, and more devices, most notably Apple’s (AAPL) iPad. It won’t get you ad-free shows, though. Hulu officials say the company will use the platform as a chance to extend the reach of its advertisers and that they’ve already got Nissan and Bud Light signed on.

Hulu and its joint venture owners–News Corp.’s (NWS) Fox, GE’s (GE) NBC, and Disney’s (DIS) ABC–have been working for most of the spring to get this worked out, but for now, it’s still an invite-only trial. Last week, I heard the trial might be limited to just 10,000 people, but I’ve yet to hear an official number from Hulu.

But! Hulu is allowing users with subscriptions to download a Hulu app for the iPhone, iPad, etc., to give the thing a test drive with a limited selection of shows.

Is it worth it? It should be interesting to see what consumers say. The pitch to gadget-centric folks: Check out all the hardware you can use! In addition to the iPad, Hulu Plus will work on the iPhone and iPod touch. Also included: Internet-connected TVs, Blu-ray players and game machines from Samsung, Sony (SNE) and Microsoft (MSFT).

The pitch to TV nuts: Look at all the shows you can see! But here the pitch is a bit more nuanced, because Hulu and its owners have had to hammer out, show by show, what they’re going to offer you. So it’s not an all-you-can-eat proposition, it’s an eat-a-lot proposition. Most notably, the service is light on content from cable networks, even those owned by the Hulu’s partners. Thus, no “Justified” from FX or “Top Chef” from Bravo.

That shouldn’t be a surprise, by the way: One of the main problems the original Hulu created was an increased tension between its owners and cable companies like Comcast (CMCSA), which fretted that Hulu was providing consumers with a reason to cut their cable subscriptions. Since FX, Bravo et al are getting paid by Comcast and the like for access to their shows, it will be tricky for Hulu to bundle those into its own service as well.

Is that a deal killer? I’ve found that with music subscription services, the absence of a single song I want rankles me in a slightly irrational way: Who cares if I can listen to millions of songs on demand for $9.99 a month? I want to listen to “99 Problems” right now, and I can’t! It’s easy to see Hulu Plus subscribers taking a similar view if they can’t find a favorite show when they want it.

But let’s wait and see what’s there first. Hulu says it has 120 seasons and 2,000 episodes available. Dig through and let me know if any absences are particularly problematic for you.

Press release, for those of you who like that kind of thing:

Hulu Launches Preview of Subscription Service Hulu Plus™

First subscription service to bring current TV programming from top broadcast networks ABC, FOX and NBC to 4 screens–computers, TVs, mobile phones and tablets–in HD Quality

Hulu Plus will complement the free, ad-supported Hulu service allowing consumers to enjoy more wherever, more whenever, than ever

LOS ANGELES—June 29, 2010–Hulu™ today launched a preview of Hulu Plus™, the first ad-supported subscription service to offer full current season runs of hit TV programs from ABC, FOX and NBC across multiple Web-connected devices, in HD, for only $9.99 a month. Now, TV lovers can watch full current seasons of shows such as Glee, Family Guy, Grey’s Anatomy, Modern Family, 30 Rock and The Office and full series runs or multiple back seasons of shows like The X-Files, Arrested Development, Desperate Housewives and Law and Order: SVU on PCs and Macs as well as on Apple’s iPad and iPhone, and select 2010 Samsung Blu-ray players, Blu-ray Home Theater systems, and TVs through Samsung Apps, in up to 720p high-definition resolution. Hulu Plus will also be coming soon to the PlayStation®3 (PS3™) computer entertainment system.

“We’re thrilled to begin sharing this revolutionary new service with subscribers” said Jason Kilar, Hulu CEO. “Hulu Plus is the first subscription service that offers consumers a wide array of today’s top current TV series on all four screens, in HD. With Hulu Plus, now your favorite TV shows love you back.”

View the Hulu Plus demo video for an overview of the full service.

More Content–Over 100 Content Providers, Hundreds of Shows, Thousands of Episodes
Hulu Plus builds on the extensive content offering of the ad-supported, free Hulu service and brings together one of the deepest offerings of TV shows, both current and classic, to subscribers in the U.S. Every episode of more than 45 current hit programs from ABC, FOX and NBC will be available all season long, from Modern Family and Grey’s Anatomy to Glee and Family Guy to The Office and 30 Rock. In addition, TV lovers will be able to enjoy full series runs and numerous back seasons of dozens of classic shows like The X-Files, Law and Order: SVU, Arrested Development, Saturday Night Live, Miami Vice, Ugly Betty, Quantum Leap, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Roswell and Ally McBeal.

The Hulu Plus library aggregates content from more than 100 providers across broadcast networks, major studios and independent content creators. For content owners, Hulu Plus offers a compelling new way to distribute and monetize their programs across multiple screens.

For a full list of content providers and shows available, view the Hulu Plus Content page.

Access Anywhere–Across Four Screens on Multiple Devices
Subscribers to Hulu Plus will be able to watch their favorite shows not only on their PCs and Macs but also on select mobile phones, televisions (through gaming consoles and other boxes connected to the TV, or directly through Internet-connected TVs), Blu-ray players, and tablets, including Apple’s iPad and iPhone. Hulu’s preview launch device partners include the Apple iPad, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and third-generation iPod Touch; select Samsung connected TVs, Blu-ray players, and Blu-ray home theater systems; and PS3 coming soon.

In the coming months, Hulu Plus will also be available on additional Sony Electronics Internet-connected entertainment devices including select BRAVIA® TVs and Blu-ray Disc™ players, as well as select TVs and Blu-ray players from VIZIO. In early 2011, Hulu Plus will launch on the Xbox 360. Hulu will continue to evaluate opportunities to extend Hulu Plus to other hardware devices and platforms as well.

For more information on supported devices and system requirements for Hulu Plus, please refer to the
Hulu Plus Device Partner page.

High Quality Viewing Experience–Streaming in HD
Hulu continues to push the quality of the online video viewing experience forward. Hulu Plus will bring many programs to users in 720p high definition to take advantage of the high-resolution screens on HD-capable devices. On select devices, adaptive bitrate streaming will ensure the highest quality video streams for the viewer’s bandwidth.

Advertising
Hulu Plus enables Hulu, for the first time, to extend its innovative and targeted ad platform across four screens, reaching Internet-connected users wherever they are. For the preview launch of Hulu Plus, Hulu is partnering with leading marketers Nissan and Bud Light who are expanding their reach with Hulu’s engaged and connected audience. Hulu expects to include additional advertisers for the broad consumer launch of Hulu Plus.

Pricing & Availability
Hulu Plus is available to U.S. consumers for $9.99 per month. Hulu Plus is currently available as a preview during which subscriptions are offered by invitation only to enable Hulu to ensure the highest quality experience for each user and to responsibly scale the service over time. To request an invite, visit www.hulu.com/plus.

Even without an invite, during this preview period consumers are welcome to download a free Hulu Plus application to the iPad, iPhone 3GS and 4, and third-generation iPod Touch, and other supported devices to test the experience with a limited selection of free episodes and clips. Hulu Plus is expected to be made widely available to the public in the coming months.

Best to be wary of anyone who tells you why a stock moves on a given day, but a good bet here would be: Shares in Netflix have more than doubled in the last year.

That go-go growth prompted Citigroup (C) analyst Mark Mahaney to downgrade the stock from “Buy” to “Hold” late yesterday. It’s the kind of perverse punishment that Wall Street occasionally doles out to companies it loves, sort of akin to Yogi Berra’s “It’s too crowded, nobody goes there anymore” malapropism.

In any case, Mahaney makes it clear that while he’s dinging Netflix (NFLX) the stock, he loves Netflix the company. Still, if you wanted to find reasons to worry about the company, you don’t have to look very hard: For many years, it owned the market for a la carte entertainment delivered straight to your home. But that’s finally changing.

Cable companies like Comcast (CMCSA) have finally started to figure out how to promote video on demand, and a bevy of digital types, from Apple (AAPL) to Amazon (AMZN) to Google (GOOG) will be beefing up their home entertainment offerings in the next year.

Then again, prognosticators have been predicting that Netflix would get overtaken by heavyweights since it launched. No one has caught it yet.

You’d never know it from the flurry of lobbying across the country last week.

On Friday, it was House Democrats’ turn, when 72 members sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski, asking him to soften a net-neutrality proposal the agency is expected to approve next week.

The lawmakers urged the FCC to “carefully consider the full range of potential consequences that government action may have on network investment,” while crafting the proposed rules. Phone and cable companies have been making similar points to the FCC, arguing the agency should avoid rules that will hobble their ability to manage their networks and stifle investment.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

The service is laying off the majority of its employees, and CEO Mike Volpi (pictured right) is out, replaced by Matt Zelesko, who had been SVP of engineering. The Joost.com portal site will stay open, but best to think of it as an ad for the company’s hosting and distribution services, which it will try to sell to cable companies and the like.

A Joost spokesperson declined to say how deep the layoffs will be; but I’m told that the company, which had more than 100 employees last fall, will be down to a couple dozen after the cuts are done. In a post on Joost’s Web site, Volpi said the company “will say goodbye to many of our colleagues and friends.”

This isn’t a shock: Joost’s fate has been the subject of whisper and rumors for the last year or more. The service made an initial splash in 2007 by raising $45 million from the founders of Skype and an array of high-profile investors and media companies, including Sequoia Capital and Viacom (VIA), and was initially supposed to deliver copyrighted content via a peer-to-peer distribution system and a player that users downloaded to their desktops.

But YouTube, and later Hulu, conditioned users to watch video via their browsers, and Joost’s software never caught on. By last fall, the company had retooled and began offering video via the browser like everyone else, but it has never been able to generate a significant audience. In November, a month after the company launched its Web browser, it said it was attracting 2.1 million unique users world-wide, a fraction of YouTube’s audience, and well behind rivals like Hulu, MetaCafe, Veoh and DailyMotion.

Here’s the service’s unique visitor count, per Comscore (SCOR); Joost’s unique viewer count, which is the more relevant metric for video sites, is considerably smaller (click to enlarge):

Joost has been a frequent candidate for buyout rumors, and the company hasn’t gone out of its way to deny them. The supposed buyers would be cable companies like Comcast (CMCSA) Time Warner Cable (TWC) or telcos like AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ), which would presumably use Joost’s technical team to help build out their own Web video plays.

But some of the cable guys and telcos insist that they’re fine with the people they have. And if they do want to buy a video player, they have plenty of options: Just about all of Joost’s peers have been on the block, formally or informally, for the past few months.

JOOST TO PROVIDE WHITE LABEL ONLINE VIDEO PLATFORM

NEW YORK AND LONDON – June 30, 2009 – Joost, the online video startup, announced today that, along with Joost.com, it will focus on providing white label online video platforms for media companies, including cable and satellite providers, broadcasters and video aggregators. This technology and service offering will support content owners’ efforts to build comprehensive branded environments online.

Media companies around the world are embracing internet-based video portals as a key path to distribute their premium video, but building a world-class video portal is increasingly difficult and expensive. Joost will focus on this issue and provide the market with a cost-effective, end-to-end solution for media companies to publish video under their own brands.

As a part of this new direction, Joost will reorganize and restructure its business. A core team in New York and London will work on providing these solutions, as well as operating and supporting Joost.com and its associated video applications. Joost also will wind down operations in its Leiden development center.

Matt Zelesko, currently SVP of Engineering at Joost, will take over as CEO while continuing to lead the engineering organization. Stacey Seltzer, currently SVP of international business development and content acquisition at Joost, will run the business operations. Mike Volpi has stepped down as CEO of Joost but will remain actively involved as Chairman of the Board.

Joost plans to make its white label video platform commercially available to media companies around the world. This offering will provide a solution for companies looking to build a branded experience for their content on their own site as well as other sites and platforms in their distribution networks.