As part of its “TV Everywhere” strategy, Time Warner is streaming live simulcasts beginning this week of cable news channels CNN and HLN to people who subscribe via distributors such as Comcast, Dish Network and Verizon.
“TV Everywhere” is designed to discourage service cancellations by subscribers (also known as “cord cutting”).
Media companies are hoping to gain additional revenue from streaming either directly from distributors or through higher TV ratings.
“We’re trying to lead by example. We’re trying to show that it works,” said Andy Heller, vice chairman of Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting. “If we don’t give consumers those options, you run the risk of seeing the potential for cord cutting.”
Due to the growing popularity of tablets, smartphones, laptops and other devices, TV audiences are becoming increasingly busy interacting with other screens while watching their shows.
According to a Harris Interactive survey, more than half of Americans surf the Internet while watching TV, forty percent visit social networking sites and 37 percent are busy texting.
Marketers can take the distraction and convert it to an opportunity by embracing “distraction media” as a tool for supplemental or enhanced consumer engagement.
Examples of current transmedia successes include the TV series “Eat St.” that has its own iPhone app featuring location-based vendors on the show — and Old Navy, that has commercial spots allowing smartphone users to buy the clothes being featured or download the song being played.
As an increasing number of portable devices such as smartphones and tablets continue to add TV controller functionality, dedicated TV remotes may soon be “as quaint as rotary-dial telephones.”
TiVo, for example, just released a new iPhone app that allows viewers to use their phone to control their DVR (with gesture controls), and share comments on Facebook and Twitter.
TiVo already has a similar app available for the iPad, while other related apps are also offered by a number of pay TV providers.
It’s a logical jump since studies indicate that many viewers have their portable devices with them while viewing TV.
This week Sony launched “3D Experience” for its Bravia line of 3D-capable LCD TVs. The free service offers 3D trailers, promotional video clips and trial content.
The company hopes that 3D Experience will serve as a step forward in providing consumers with interesting 3D content, the lack of which has been a common complaint.
Initial content includes “The Green Hornet” trailer, highlights from the FIFA Women’s World Cup and clips from 3net, Sony, Discovery and IMAX.
Sony pledges to “further expand the content line-up and promote ‘3D Experience’ among content holders as a forum through which to showcase their 3D offerings.”
3D Experience is currently available in the United States, Canada, Germany, the UK and France.
UltraViolet, the cloud-based service that enables consumers to view content across multiple devices, has opened its licensing platform to content, technology and distribution partners.
It also welcomed eight new members to its governing consortium, the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE), including Blockbuster and Walmart’s VUDU. DECE now includes more than 70 members in ten countries.
DECE explained that consumers can expect to start seeing UltraViolet physical media and sell-through content by fall.
UltraViolet is intended to make the digitization process more efficient for content creators and to simplify consumer ownership by eliminating the current roadblocks to moving content between systems.
For example, a single digital movie purchase could be viewed on a TV, on a desktop PC, and on a portable device (up to six family members can use the same UltraViolet account).
According to a related article from paidContent: “Interoperability is the most critical challenge for the digital ecosystem to overcome, and there’s a lot riding on UltraViolet. If the big studios and their partners can’t provide a system for viewing content across platforms that’s simple and relatively inexpensive, digital piracy may continue to ‘solve’ the interoperability problem for them.”
Nickelodeon is testing an interesting means of leveraging social networking this week by delivering SpongeBob SquarePants’ next adventure solely on Twitter.
SpongeBob will star in “The Ice Race Cometh: A Twitter-Tale,” a storyline that will unfold Tuesday through Friday in bites of 140 characters or less.
The tweeted project includes images to accompany the messages and will serve as a prequel to a new SpongeBob TV episode that premieres on Friday, July 15.
Twitter’s service terms do not allow children to have their own accounts, but Nickelodeon believes there is a significant overlap between tweeters and those who watch the series.
“SpongeBob’s fan base is so broad that about a third of its audience is adults, so we wanted to extend the show’s magic to new places like Twitter so those fans can experience it,” said Roland Poindexter, senior VP of animation and current series, Nickelodeon. “SpongeBob is already a big deal in the social media space, with 25 million Facebook fans, and we hope his Twitter debut will drum up some extra excitement for all the people who love him and the show.”
Onkyo has announced a $599 Blu-ray player with THX certification and 3D capability (available in August).
The DLNA 1.5 certified player also handles WMA, MP3 and DivX HD files.
The BD-SP809 offers streaming service access through Netflix, VUDU, Blockbuster On Demand and Film Fresh.
Network connection is via the Ethernet port since there is no indication of Wi-Fi connectivity.
The player offers 1080p upscaling and features two outputs for simultaneously connecting a 3D TV and a 1080p projector.
Onkyo may face stiff competition from other 3D Blu-ray players that have Wi-Fi connectivity and expanded access to streaming services such as Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant, Crackle and Pandora.
Electronista reports that Microsoft is considering a subscription video service to be branded under the Zune name.
The rumored service is expected to be separate from the live Xbox TV service recently announced at June’s E3 Expo.
The Zune service may be modeled much like the current pay-per-title store and compete with the likes of Netflix.
It would “most likely” offer videos to stream on Windows Phone 7 smartphones and Windows PCs.
“Whether or not it would follow the traditional month-to-month plan, integrate with the Zune Pass, or bolt on to an Xbox Live Gold subscription wasn’t as evident.”
Nearly a quarter of Generation Y viewers are now opting for Internet-connected TVs over broadcast.
A new survey from Knowledge Networks indicates viewers 13 to 31 are more likely to cut the cord than other generations.
Of this demographic, 44 percent still watch regular prime-time broadcasts, compared with 66 percent of baby boomers.
It is interesting to note that Generation Y also uses DVRs significantly less than Gen Xers.
Multichannel News asks: “Will the younger generation at some point subscribe to ‘real’ TV? Or do their current media-consumption habits point toward an eventual decline of traditional television viewing?”
UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg publicly urged News Corp. to drop its bid to acquire BSkyB, Britain’s largest satellite TV provider.
The announcement was delivered in the wake of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal, which continues this week with allegations involving additional News Corp. publications, possible classified information regarding the royal family, bribery of police and other illegal methods to obtain information.
Murdoch’s decision to shut down News of the World apparently has not muted the public outcry.
A group of disgruntled News Corp. shareholders has reportedly filed a lawsuit alleging nepotism and accusing the company of governance failures.
BSkyB’s stock posted a 5.5 percent drop on the news.
Eric Schmidt, executive chairman and former CEO of Google, says his company is continuing to experience strong demand for invitations to the new social network, Google+.
As previously reported on ETCentric, the network allows people to share links and media with others they have divided into “circles” of relationships.
If demand continues, Google will be looking at applying the social “circles” relationships to its search functionality and YouTube.
On Hulu, which Google is rumored to be bidding for, Schmidt explained that if there were any sort of deal, Hulu’s current TV shows would complement, not replace, YouTube’s online-only content.
Georgia Tech researchers have developed an energy-harvesting device that can collect power from various sources including radio and television transmitters, cell phone networks and satellite communications systems.
“We are using an ultra-wideband antenna that lets us exploit a variety of signals in different frequency ranges, giving us greatly increased power-gathering capability,” explains Manos Tentzeris of Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
The device has the ability to capture energy from a range of banks, convert the energy from AC to DC power, and then subsequently store it in capacitors and batteries.
The team hopes that the device could provide a new means of powering networks of wireless sensors, microprocessors and communications chips.
Virtual advertising is making its way into re-runs.
An episode of “How I Met Your Mother” (that originally ran on CBS in March 2007) recently aired in syndication featuring a magazine cover that mentions a new movie, “Zookeeper.”
The Kevin James comedy that appears in the four-year-old episode premieres today.
The digital ad is an example of “virtual advertising” that inserts messages into video that wasn’t originally there — not a new technology, but perhaps an interesting approach for repurposed content.
The article includes links to images before and after the digital insertion.
New allegations have emerged that News of the World, a British paper owned by News Corp., illegally hacked into and tampered with the voicemails of crime victims, including a kidnapped 13-year-old girl.
The allegations arrive just as News Corp. was poised to acquire BSkyB, the largest pay TV service in Britain.
British regulators have yet to give final approval to the deal, which has already taken 13 months due to complicated regulatory hurdles.
It is unclear whether the growing scandal will affect its fate. However, Prime Minister David Cameron said the allegations are a “separate issue” from the regulatory process.
