Toys R Us has entered the video-streaming business with its toysrusmovies.com, “a new digital service for users to stream and download movies and television shows geared toward children,” writes CNN Money.
The prices are on par with Apple’s iTunes, with movies priced at $2.99 for a 24-hour rental and TV shows are $1.99 per episode.
“With this move, Toys R Us is wading into a crowded arena of competitors that include Netflix, Walmart Stores, Amazon and Apple — all of which are growing their online video presence,” explains the article.
According to Toys R Us spokeswoman Katie Reczek, the site’s family-friendly content will set it apart from these other services. Additionally, it won’t require a subscription, so the a la carte approach could be attractive to consumers.
Toys R Us Movies will offer more than 4,000 titles to start. It will also feature new movie releases on the same day the DVDs hit retail stores and TV shows will be available the day after they air, according to the article.
In addition, Toys R Us also announced that its tablet for children, the Tabeo, will launch October 21. A Toys R Us Movies app is in development for the device.
NetZero, a 4G mobile broadband provider, is hoping to attract users to its hotspots by giving away free wireless data on its new Facebook app. Users with any NetZero subscription — even the free 200MB/month plan — can sign up to give Facebook friends free data.
“Its new Data Share program lets those who own the company’s WiMAX devices give away up to 1GB of data every month through Facebook, spread across five friends at 200MB each,” reports Engadget. “Apart from needing NetZero hardware in a coverage area, there’s no financial strings attached — neither the sender nor the recipient needs to adopt more than the free, 200MB per month they already have just for showing up.”
“Subscribers are not required to sign a contract, can join on a month-to-month basis, can cancel at any time, and can upgrade their data plan at will without facing overage charges,” the press release states.
New subscribers who purchase one of NetZero 4G Mobile Broadband devices — the NetZero 4G Stick or the NetZero 4G Hotspot — have the option of testing the service for free up to a year. The company is offering a promotional half-off sale for devices this month.
“The real dilemma is managing just who gets the data in the 4G provider’s first come, first served approach to the sharing link that hits friends’ social news feeds,” Engadget suggests.
Consumers in the United Kingdom will have the opportunity to enjoy 5G speeds of up to 200Mbps by 2013, reports TechWeekEurope.
The 5G trial will occur in the area from the University of Surrey to Guildford. The total area is about five square kilometers.
“We have developed many technologies that are suitable for 5G using computer simulation and mathematical analysis and what this test bed allows us is to integrate all these technologies together and optimize them end-to-end and take them to standards afterwards,” explains Professor Rahim Tafazolli.
Tafazolli’s team at Surrey believes it can achieve speeds four times as fast as 4G speeds. But such high speeds require a lot of energy, so Tafazoli also stresses energy efficiency as paramount to the project.
“Every 10 to 20 years a new generation of mobile cellular standards will come up,” suggests Tafazolli. “Our proposal is about preparing the research development and standardization for the fifth generation, which is supposed to be deployed by 2030… Research and standardization needs to happen now.”
In a related CNN Moneyarticle last month, head of wireless research at Bell Labs Tod Sizer suggested the still-budding new 4G wireless standard will be inadequate in just five years.
“By 2020, industry analysts say the amount of cellular traffic created by smartphones and tablets will be dwarfed by the data generated from the world of connected ‘things.’ Shoes, watches, appliances, cars, thermostats and door locks will all be on the network,” CNN reports.
The improvements are expected to be incremental. “5G won’t be about more speed, necessarily,” says Sizer. “It may be faster, but it will be more about meeting the expectation of service quality.” The 5G network technology will help prioritize all the things we’re attempting to communicate.
More than a third of Verizon’s data traffic travels on its fastest LTE network. The company says that within the next few months, more than half of its user data will travel on this network.
It took 3G eight years to account for half of Verizon data, but 4G will supplant Verizon’s slower networks in just about two years.
Eleven of Verizon’s 89 million customers had access to 4G LTE coverage as of last quarter. “In a move to get more devices onto the network, Verizon announced in June a shift to new shared data plans,” reports AllThingsD. “Such plans, also offered by AT&T, allow customers to share a pool of gigabytes across multiple devices.”
After Verizon reaches its yearly goal of 400 4G LTE markets on October 18, the company will focus on using LTE Advanced to bolster its capacity to match its growth in coverage area. The company’s LTE network covers 75 percent of the American population, according to Verizon.
Verizon projects that its LTE network will cover voice as well as data by the end of 2013, according to CTO Nicola Palmer, who notes that the company’s network is currently the largest LTE network in the world.
“Sprint thinks that hotels, rental car agencies, airlines, supermarkets and big box retail stores — pretty much any business with a loyalty card — would make excellent resellers of its 3G and WiMAX data service,” reports GigaOM.
For example, hotels could rent or lend 4G data modems to guests, while grocery stores could sell prepaid 3G cards. And “those data services could be linked directly to any loyalty program — for instance, for every megabyte you consume earn a frequent flyer mile or get 10 cents off your next purchase of frogurt,” notes the post.
“Sprint is inviting these companies to become mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) on its data networks, offering a compelling proposition to companies that normally wouldn’t have a clue how to run a wireless business: Sprint will deploy all of the infrastructure and manage the service, while its partners focus on their customers,” explains GigaOM.
This is all part of the new “MVNO in a box” platform that Sprint launched in July, but now Sprint is aiming at any company with a consumer base and a website.
Sprint is working with Telespree to support activation and management of subscriptions through its cloud-based wireless data platform.
“So far Sprint is making its WiMAX and CDMA networks available through the program, so its biggest impact may be regional,” suggests the post. “Once Sprint completes the rollout of its LTE network, though, it will probably start offering it up to its MVNO partners.”
Japanese cellphone and Internet company Softbank Corp. has been in talks regarding a substantial ownership stake in struggling U.S. wireless carrier Sprint Nextel Corp., the third largest cellphone company in the U.S.
“A deal would offer a multibillion-dollar lifeline that could help Sprint finance future mergers of its own and better compete with its much bigger and richer rivals,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
People familiar with the negotiations suggests Softbank is looking to purchase 70 percent of Sprint. The news sent Sprint shares on Thursday to their highest level since 2008.
Sprint has struggled since its merger with Nextel in 2005 and large investments including a costly network upgrade and its $15.5 billion commitment to carry the iPhone. (However, the iPhone deal has recently helped the company compete with contract customers.)
“There are a number of potential hurdles to a deal, including winning over Sprint’s shareholders and resolving a complex relationship between Sprint and partner Clearwire Corp.,” notes WSJ. “If the deal happens, however, it could transform a market where just two companies, Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc., have the bulk of the customers and profits.”
The deal is expected to exceed $12.8 billion, although Softbank isn’t looking to buy Sprint outright. “Instead, the U.S. company is likely to get a multibillion-dollar cash infusion by selling new shares to Softbank, which would then seek to buy more stock in the market at a premium to the current price,” explains the article.
This would provide Sprint with financial relief immediately, potentially lead to network improvements or acquisitions, while allowing Softbank to “gain control of Sprint for a lower price than if it bought the company outright.”
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings will vacate his seat on Microsoft’s board of directors next month. Microsoft announced yesterday that Hastings has decided to not seek re-election at the company’s 2012 annual meeting of shareholders.
Hastings is currently the lead independent director on Microsoft’s Board. After he steps down, Microsoft will appoint his replacement.
“I’ve decided to reduce the number of boards I serve on, so that I can focus on Netflix and on my education work,” explained Hastings in a statement.
He also serves on the board of directors at Facebook, Netflix and some educational nonprofits.
“It makes sense for Hastings to focus on Netflix: The company has lost 80 percent of its value since last summer, when it unveiled a price hike and a plan, since abandoned to separate its online video-streaming and DVD rental businesses,” reports Business Insider.
Norton by Symantec has announced a new service designed to protect consumers when they connect to the Web using a public Wi-Fi network.
The new Norton Hotspot Privacy essentially creates a virtual private network for the user while on a Wi-Fi network, providing more control over what is shared online.
“The service provides a secure and private connection that shouldn’t be able to be seen by ‘eavesdropping software.’ The user’s Wi-Fi session should therefore be invisible, encrypting the user’s connection and everything related (i.e. usernames, passwords, etc.),” reports ZDNet.
“The inspiration behind Hotspot Privacy comes from the sheer amount of unprotected Wi-Fi hotspots available and just how vulnerable those networks are to cyber threats,” notes the post.
Available for Mac and PCs, Norton Hotspot Privacy supports unlimited bandwidth on up to five devices for $49.99/year, $19.99/month and $2.99/day.
Dual-screen apps are changing how people interact with and consume content. “For developers this creates many new opportunities to provide better experiences for their users, but it requires thinking about dual-screen setups from the start as well as new tools,” writes Mashable.
Dual-screen apps have the potential to shake up the industry, as designers now need to think of Web tasks from a different perspective.
“Importantly, designers and developers need to shed the concept that TVs are for rendering video, and instead think about TVs as large monitors on which they can render applications, content and interactivity that’s supported by a touch-based tablet application,” suggests the article.
Apple’s AirPlay is taking the concept a step further by allowing iOS devices and PCs with OS X Mountain Lion to display mobile device screens onto a television — essentially creating “a wireless HDMI output to a TV.”
“With the existing Apple TV unit sales already outselling the Xbox in the most recent quarter, we can see a world that goes from approximately 5 million dual-screen-capable Apple TVs to potentially 15-20 million in the next couple of years, and eventually to 30-50 million as new and improved versions of the Apple TV companion device come to market,” notes the article.
Mashable explores how dual-screen apps could impact our lives in regards to house-hunting, car purchases, kids edutainment, classroom interaction, medical visuals, video consumption and more. “Virtually every application that exists on the Web and phones and tablets likely has a dual-screen use case.”
Twitter is reportedly considering building its own video-hosting technology. This would allow Twitter users to upload video directly rather than using hosting services such as yFrog, TwitVid and Vodpod.
The company recently made a similar switch involving images. “Until recently, Twitter also delegated photo hosting to third-party services; Twitter moved that hosting in-house with the most recent app updates,” writes AllThingsD.
“This doesn’t mean Twitter expects users to start using its homegrown solution for the bulk of the videos people share of the service,” notes the article. “It still expects most people to post clips using links from sites like YouTube, Hulu and Vimeo.”
The switch could help Twitter refine its consistency and user experience in addition to offering more control while making tweets richer and more media-friendly.
The potential video initiative is not a done deal; however, a follow-up post from AllThingsD reports that Twitter has acquired New York-based, video-sharing startup Vine — in a deal that may or may not keep the three-man company as a standalone service.
The company, which has yet to launch publicly, specializes in very short video clips. According to its landing page, Vine is “the best way to capture and share video on your iPhone.”
“Vine allows for punctuated recording,” explains AllThingsD. “Grab a few quick snips of video, and Vine auto-generates a longer cut stitched from those shots. It’s a novel idea, and hones in on the sweet spot of our ever-dwindling attention spans.”
A new report from TVB, the non-profit trade association of the U.S. commercial broadcast television industry, shows that cable’s original series summer releases were not watched as much as reruns on broadcast television networks.
“In a comparison of the Top 50 summer cable originals versus summer repeats on broadcast TV, repeat programming on broadcast television occupied the majority of the Top 100-ranked programs,” reports TV Technology. “Cable originals landed one position in the Top 100 and 32 in the Top 500.”
“Among its findings, the report indicates that the time-shifted portion of broadcast television’s same-day Top 20 fall premieres outpaced the total audience, both live and same day, of the majority of cable’s highest-rated original summer programming,” the article continues. “This indicates a reversal of the last several years’ trend in 2012.”
Advertising-supported cable saw year-over-year decreases in primetime daypart from both the summer and regular season of 2011/12. Also, cable’s major programmers with returning series had declines in performance.
“Understanding where viewership happens is a critical consideration toward determining the success or failure of an overall marketing plan, and that viewership is definitively and materially biased toward broadcast television,” says TVB president and CEO Steve Lanzano.
The same week hackers attacked six major U.S. banks, “CSI” creator Anthony E. Zuiker debuted his nine-part cybercrime Web series “Cybergeddon” with the hope of scoring 20 million hits — an ambitious goal for a Web series.
“Cybergeddon” is the most expensive Web series ever, costing $6 million. To cover costs, many Web series have partnered with corporations, as was popular in the early days of television.
Zuiker’s cybercrime series is available in 10 different languages across 25 countries. But there remains questions over whether “Cybergeddon” will be a hit. The most viral videos online are more often funny or strange (think “Charlie bit my finger”), not corporate-backed Web series.
Zuiker says Web series change the traditional content production process by cutting budgets and time frames.
“He sees Cybergeddon as a challenge to film studios to venture outside the theater, saying that storytelling in the digital age should be ‘built to the device,'” writes Slate. “In five years, he predicts, movie theaters will be like cigar bars, ‘a luxury most people won’t be able to afford,’ and he might be right.”
The new Boxee TV set-top box — successor to the Boxee Box, originally released in 2010 — reportedly features DVR support, live TV broadcasting capability and Web apps.
The Verge has obtained photos of the new Boxee TV: “The new hardware (also manufactured by D-Link) sheds Boxee Box’s angled black cube in favor of a form factor that resembles competing products from Apple, Roku, and others.”
“Whereas the current Boxee Box requires a separately-sold dongle to watch live television, the new box carries a TV tuner (complete with coax input) right inside its matte black casing — an external antenna is also said to be included,” notes the post.
“It’s here that Boxee seems to be launching a full-scale assault against the traditional cable model, imploring users to ‘watch more free TV’ and ‘stop spending money on stuff you don’t watch’ on the device’s packaging.”
According to The Verge‘s anonymous source, Boxee has included DVR functionality that will allow users to watch content across multiple devices, possible via its own companion app.
The new hardware also takes into consideration personal media libraries by including network streaming abilities.
However, Boxee TV may not be quite ready for prime time. “Our source says the software routinely crashes several times a day and that Boxee plans numerous updates down the line to refine the user experience before any public unveiling,” concludes the post.
Netflix has essentially been the only online streaming video service and has therefore been able to make favorable content licensing deals. Now Amazon has come into the fray — making generous deals with content creators, which could put pressure on Netflix to ante up.
Amazon struck a deal with Epix that adds 3,000 movies to its Prime Instant Video service. Recently, it was learned that Amazon agreed to a pay-for-performance provision, demonstrating the online retailer’s willingness to spend big in this area.
“According to an executive directly involved in the deal, Amazon agreed to an earn-out provision payable to Epix over time if the number of subscribers to Amazon’s Prime Instant Video service rises above a certain threshold,” reports Reuters. “That comes in addition to a fixed upfront fee, the basis for most subscription video-on-demand deals up to this point.”
“This could be considered online video deals 2.0,” says Goldman Sachs media analyst Drew Borst. “After doing 1.0 deals mostly with Netflix and a few with Amazon, it dawned on the media companies that they may want to get a piece of any future growth too.”
DVD sales were previously a significant market for Amazon but demand has since dropped off, giving the company more reason to build out its streaming service to compensate. Pairing its video service with its Prime shipping program allows Amazon to subsidize the content deals with physical sales.
Netflix has a much larger user base than Amazon and pays around twice as much on content licensing — about two billion a year. However, Amazon pays more than Netflix on a per-subscriber basis.
Nearly one year after its U.S. launch, the UltraViolet digital locker system is getting a boost in the UK from BBC Worldwide.
“The BBC’s commercial wing is releasing four Blu-ray/DVD titles that are UltraViolet-enabled and is partnering with Warner-owned Flixster to allow users to redeem their copies,” reports Engadget.
The first four titles will be: “Doctor Who Series 7 Part One,” “Rollercoaster,” a new “Top Gear” special and “Attenborough: 60 Years in the Wild.”
“We’re thrilled to be announcing our first UV-enabled DVDs and embrace this new era for home video — the UltraViolet era,” comments Claude London of BBC Worldwide Consumer Products. “We hope UV will empower consumers to build digital entertainment libraries and continue to enjoy BBC Worldwide releases either at home or on the move.”
UltraViolet was already live in the UK and will soon be introduced to Canada, Ireland and Australia.
“We’ll see how users like the signup process with its multiple logins, but a quick check of previous Blu-ray releases didn’t show any iTunes or Windows Media digital copies at all so at least they’ll appreciate the option,” suggests Engadget.
