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The iPad Will Be Great for Free and Cheap TV Shows. But Not This Weekend.

Peter Kafka — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 11:00:28 +0000

So now we know what to expect when the iPad appears Saturday: A really cool device that will be great for watching TV shows. Here’s one thing you shouldn’t look for: Lots of cheap or free TV shows–at least not ones that aired recently.

Apple (AAPL) has been pushing the TV networks to get on board for the iPad launch, but the industry is in no rush. Like everyone else in media, TV execs are trying to figure out what the iPad means for their pricing power. Which means people who are used to watching lots of free top-tier TV on the Web won’t get the same experience on the iPad this weekend.

Meanwhile, the networks have resisted Apple’s lobbying to drop prices on the stuff they sell at the iTunes store. So if you want to watch the latest episode of “The Simpsons” on your iPad this weekend, it’s still going to cost you $1.99 (and $2.99 for high-def).

And while Hulu is building an app for the iPad, the plan, as I reported in February, is to make it part of a subscription offering. That’s scheduled to roll out sometime this year, but it won’t be ready in two days.

Where things stand now:

Hulu has the basics of a subscription plan, which includes access to an iPad app, worked out, sources tell me. But it will take a while for the company to negotiate rights clearances. A key part of the plan is to offer users the ability to watch Hulu on mobile devices, and the joint venture needs to wrangle permission from its programming partners to do that. So no Hulu app Saturday. When might we see one? Within “single digit months,” says an insider with a wry sense of humor.
Apple, which pushed a TV subscription service last fall, switched gears in recent months and tried persuading TV executives to cut their iTunes prices to 99 cents. But executives at two of the big four broadcast networks–CBS and Fox–have told me they’re not dropping prices on their big shows right now. No word from Disney’s (DIS) ABC or GE’s (GE) NBC yet. It’s possible that ABC, which has tight ties to Apple CEO Steve Jobs and is already promoting the iPad on its shows, may drop prices unilaterally. But my understanding is that Apple was aiming for across-the-board cuts.
As The Wall Street Journal notes, both CBS (CBS) and ABC are planning to deliver free TV to the iPad on Saturday. ABC will do so via an app, and the Journal says it could have a “a large number” of shows at launch. But CBS, which will use a Web site customized for the device, will have only one full-length program–“Survivor”–and some short clips. You can blame encoding issues for the limited offering, but if CBS really wanted to get a lot of stuff on the iPad at launch, it would.
One intriguing possibility for Saturday: There are reports of a Netflix (NFLX) app that would let subscribers to the company’s “Watch Instantly” service use it on the iPad. That’s not free. But it would be cool.

Netflix No iPad Early Adopter

John Paczkowski — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:00:14 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

Netflix CEO: iPad, iPhone Streaming Not a Priority

John Paczkowski — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:53:02 +0000

While unveiling the iPad this past Wednesday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs touted it as “the best device” for watching mobile video. And that may well prove to be the case–but not for mobile video from Netflix, because at this point, the DVD-by-mail pioneer has no plans to bring its subscription-based streaming service to the iPad, or to the iPhone, for that matter.

Interesting, considering that the percentage of Netflix (NFLX) subscribers who streamed more than 15 minutes of video in Q4 2009 was 48 percent, compared with 28 percent for the same period in 2008.

Asked about the possibility of making Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” content available on Apple’s (AAPL) mobile devices during the company’s earnings call Wednesday, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings seemed surprisingly indifferent to the idea.

“We haven’t yet done or submitted an iPhone application,” Hastings said. “We are optimistic that post the Google Voice brouhaha it would be approved. There is really no way of knowing in advance what Apple’s stance would be on that. Of course, that application if it works on the iPhone it would work on the iPad.”

Hastings added, “It is not a huge priority for us because we are so focused on the larger screen. Until we get our TV ubiquity and our Blu-ray ubiquity and we are getting close on video game ubiquity we would next turn to the small screen. It is just not a primary movie watching [device]. It is something we will get around to but it is not in the near-term.”

Here are video highlights of Hastings’s conversation with MediaMemo’s Peter Kafka at our interview event in Las Vegas earlier this month:

[ See post to watch video ]

Netflix: There's a Movie Waiting on Your iPhone

John Paczkowski — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:26:14 +0000

Among the 1,000-plus new features included in Apple’s iPhone 3.0 is a new open standard for live video streaming over HTTP, and soon, Netflix will make use of it. Well, that’s the rumor anyway.

An industry executive said to be familiar with the company’s plans tells Multichannel News that Netflix plans to extend its Watch Instantly video-streaming service to the Nintendo Wii and to the iPhone and iPod touch as well.

It’s not entirely clear how the company plans to bring Watch Instantly to the iPhone. Presumably, it will use a native iPhone app, since the device doesn’t support Silverlight, Microsoft’s (MSFT) Flash-esque also-ran.

That said, there are some hurdles to negotiate there since native video streaming on iPhone 3.0 doesn’t yet support digital rights management.

Another issue likely to prove problematic: Bandwidth. Watch Instantly streaming typically requires a fair bit of bandwidth and might prove problematic over 3G connections. AT&T (T), which hobbled SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone over bandwidth concerns, will probably see things that way. Which means Netflix’s app, if it is indeed in development, will be limited to Wi-Fi like the SlingPlayer.

Beyond that and the DRM issue, there’s not much more I can think of to prevent such an app from being brought to the iPhone. There’s not much overlapping content between Watch Instantly and Apple’s iTunes service. And even if there was, there’s no real rivalry here that might inspire Apple to block Netflix’s (NFLX) service. iTunes is run pretty much at break-even to support sales of Apple (AAPL) devices. And a Netflix app for iPhone would arguably help Apple do that as well.

Netflix: There's a Movie Waiting on Your iPhone

John Paczkowski — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:26:14 +0000

Among the 1,000-plus new features included in Apple’s iPhone 3.0 is a new open standard for live video streaming over HTTP, and soon, Netflix will make use of it. Well, that’s the rumor anyway.

That said, there are some hurdles to negotiate there since native video streaming on iPhone 3.0 doesn’t yet support digital rights management.

New Amazon Service Streams TV Shows And Films to PCs

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 01:08:05 +0000

Consumer options for viewing popular TV shows and movies directly from the Internet, as opposed to watching them from traditional cable and satellite systems, keep growing. Last week, yet another approach to Internet distribution of commercial video content emerged.

Amazon (AMZN) launched a new service called Amazon Video on Demand, which allows users, for a fee, to watch any of 40,000 TV episodes or movies, in real time, on their Windows and Macintosh computers, and on specially equipped Sony Bravia TV sets. This service replaces an earlier Amazon video offering called Unbox.

[ See post to watch video ]

I have been testing Amazon Video on Demand and I found it worked well, although it has some limitations. The user interface is clean and smart, the quality is good if you have a fast Internet connection, and there are some clever features. On the downside, it works poorly with the slow connections typical in places like hotels. And there are some studio-imposed limits on what content is offered and how you can view it.

To date, there have been three major models for legally getting TV shows and movies from the Web.

In one, best represented by Apple’s (AAPL) widely used iTunes store, the TV shows and movies are ad-free, but you pay for each. All of this content is downloaded to your Windows or Macintosh computer or your Apple TV set-top box for later viewing, even when you’re not connected to the Internet — though on Apple TV you can start watching while the material is being downloaded.

A second model, best represented by the studio-owned Hulu.com, presents movies and TV shows on a Windows or Macintosh personal computer free of charge, but requires you to watch commercials that can’t be skipped. The TV shows and movies you view on Hulu are “streamed” rather than downloaded, meaning they are meant to be viewed immediately, in real time, rather than stored for viewing when you’re not connected to the Internet.

The third online model is best represented by Netflix (NFLX), the popular DVD distributor. It offers a “Watch Instantly” streaming option on Windows PCs or on TVs equipped with a special set-top box, for a small portion of its large catalog of TV shows and movies. These videos are ad-free and don’t carry an individual charge, but require a monthly subscription fee.

The new Amazon Video on Demand service is a hybrid of these others. As on iTunes, the TV shows and movies it offers are ad-free and purchased individually, don’t require a subscription, and work on both Windows and the Mac, plus on one type of set-top box. In Amazon’s case, that’s Sony’s Bravia Internet Link, a $299 device that works only with Sony (SNE) TVs.

But, like Hulu and Netflix and unlike Amazon’s older Unbox service, the new Amazon Video on Demand service offers videos via real-time streaming. In many cases, it also allows downloading, iTunes-style, to Windows PCs (but not Macs) and to TiVo devices attached to a TV. The videos can’t be streamed in real time using a TiVo (TIVO).

Amazon’s streaming videos are viewed in any of the major Web browsers and don’t require any special software. I tested the new service on both Windows PCs and Macs, and on a Sony Bravia TV equipped with the $299 adapter box. In my tests, Amazon’s videos looked quite good over a fast Internet connection. However, on a typically lousy hotel Internet connection, the movies were often grainy and kept stuttering.

The new service doesn’t yet offer videos in high definition, something Apple just announced this week it is adding for some TV shows. Amazon says it is working on HD.

Amazon’s user interface for the new service is very nice. All of your purchased videos are available in a library stored on the company’s servers, so you can easily watch them again and again if they are purchased, or resume a partly watched rental. And the service remembers where you stopped watching a video and resumes it at that point, even if you started it on, say, a Dell (DELL), and resumed it on a Mac.

On the downside, the new Amazon service isn’t always simple or consistent. For instance, you can watch only two videos at a time, and not all titles can be either streamed and downloaded, or be either purchased or rented. Most rentals last 24 hours, but some differ.

Selection was OK, but not great. Because of studio policies, many current and recent movie hits aren’t available. There are gaps as well in the TV selection. For example, while iTunes offers the current second season of the excellent “Mad Men” series, Amazon has only the first season.

Prices also can be confusing. Amazon rents most movies for $3.99 and sells them for between $9.99 and $14.99. TV shows generally cost $1.99. But some titles carry different prices, albeit these are often lower.

All in all, Amazon Video on Demand is a good service for people who prefer paying for ad-free TV shows and movies, and is another strong step in the Internet’s rising competition with traditional TV.

Find all of Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos online, free, at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com.