Now, I know Amazon is in the business of making money and would of course want you to buy the episodes from them, but Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos got famous for putting a customer's needs first (The Bezos Doctrine) before profits. Of course, Apple doesn't offer this kind of search on AppleTV either, but if anyone would have been crazy enough to give free streaming options before paid downloads, I would have hoped that Amazon Fire TV could be the first, but sadly it's not. Don't miss his Venn diagram of "stuff that is good to watch" v various streaming options either.]]>
Shipments worldwide of televisions in 2013 amounted to 225.1m units, down sharply from 238.3m in 2012. It was the second straight year of contraction after a 7% loss in 2012, contrasting with the market’s big 11% surge in 2010 and a more modest 1% uptick in 2011… Market for set-top boxes and attachments: healthy. Market for TV sets: not so healthy. Contracting markets squeeze out smaller players and drive commoditisation.]]>
The thing about it, that so many people out there seem to not grasp (which frustrates me to no end, I must say), is it takes about that much money to maintain the rough production costs (and profits) for all the shows we love to watch. See, we all know that there’s some perfect blend between Live TV broadcasting and an all-streaming/on-demand library (neither end of the spectrum are “correct”), but we don’t know how to get there. Meanwhile, everyone wants to talk about killing/disruption the TV ecosystem. So let’s talk about the cold hard facts of this world. A lot of people think it's just a question of hooking a TV up to the net. It isn't.]]>
BitTorrent is perfect for distributing all kinds of content, from movies to music and from software to backups. However, there is one particular type of content that users rarely seem to tire of.
TV show downloading is a very popular pastime among file-sharers. The ability to grab almost any show from the present or even distant past and watch it at a time and place of a user’s choosing is a powerful lure. They missed off "for free" as part of the attraction and "in breach of copyright" as part of the proviso. ]]>
A growing number of them have stopped paying for cable and satellite TV service, and don't even use an antenna to get free signals over the air. These people are watching shows and movies on the Internet, sometimes via cellphone connections. Last month, the Nielsen Co. started labeling people in this group "Zero TV" households, because they fall outside the traditional definition of a TV home. There are 5m of these residences in the US, up from 2m in 2007. And 100.4m homes in the US which do have service. But new ones aren't adding TV. Would this happen in the UK, where a TV licence is very, very much cheaper than those US cable bills? (Thanks @EMComments for the link.)]]>
MSN TV, of course, was born of WebTV, which was thought up by well-known entrepreneur Steve Perlman. The software giant bought it at the height of the Web 1.0 boom in mid-1997, paying $503m.
The service, which included a dedicated hardware device attached to a television, went through a number of iterations over the years, including being rebranded as MSN TV in 2001. Some of its technology went into the Xbox, but — in general — its recent history was one of dwindling users.]]>
Samsung declined to provide financial terms of the deal, but published reports Wednesday put it at “tens of millions of dollars,” but less than the $28.5m Boxee has raised since it was founded in 2007. Boxee is reckoned to have 2m devices in the field (including PC-connected ones). But this could be a way for Samsung to get into the US set-top box market.]]>
Ubuntu TV is one element of Canonical's 'four screen' strategy, under which the company wants to see its open source operating system also appearing on smartphones, tablets and PCs.
First announced at CES 2012 in Las Vegas, Canonical hoped that Ubuntu TVs would appear by the end of the year.
However, a Canonical spokeswoman confirmed to ZDNet that no hardware partners have been confirmed so far for the Ubuntu TV project. Uh-huh.]]>
Even so, some 17,000 cinemas around the world now have digital projectors capable of showing 4K films. So, if and when Hollywood upgrades wholesale to the new video standard, cinema-goers will be able to decide whether 4K is worth the premium they are bound to be charged.
The recent flood of 3D films largely failed that test. The lacklustre sales of 3D television sets suggest they are now doing the same. Will 4K suffer the same fate? It is far too early to say. But, for sure, 4K television—far more than 4K cinema—faces some formidable challenges. Apart from anything, we all tend to sit too far from the screen to discern the difference. An excellent primer on why not to hold your breath for 4K - even if it is going to happen.]]>
60% of Twitter users access the social network while watching TV.
40% of all UK Twitter traffic around peak time is about TV.
More than 90% of online public conversations about TV are on Twitter. Includes graphs showing relevant tweets about Homeland, and X Factor, and other shows. The tweets around Homeland follow a bathtub shape - start and end, almost silent in between. X-Factor, everyone's shouting all the time.]]>
That’s the only direct comment mentioned to be made by Cue. There is absolutely no passage here that says Cue said ‘no TV solution’ and certainly none that says ‘not to expect and Apple television any time soon. Noticed how all the talk about an Apple TV, so noisy earlier this year, has gone away?]]>
Motorola Mobility’s Home Business unit might fetch about $2bn and the sale is in the very early stages, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. Selling the profitable bit. Does this have implications for Google TV? (Thanks @modelportfolio2003 for the link.)]]>
But that remaining 10% — which could swing the election — is pivotal. And they need something dramatic to move them. Facebook’s shrimpy real estate isn’t conducive to operatic marketing in the way that traditional television is. An emotional TV commercial — like Reagan’s classic “Morning in America,” which was brilliantly dissected in Drew Westen’s book “The Political Brain” for its ability to tap into deep neural associations and metaphors — packs a permanent punch and creates an affinity that a superficial “like” can’t equal.]]>
The LCD flavor of flat-screen TVs are by far the most popular, making up 84% of the market, yet demand for them is waning. Shipments of LCD units declined for the first time ever, dropping 3% to 43m units in the first quarter, according to an NPD DisplaySearch report released [last] Wednesday. Plasma screen sales fell 8%, though, the biggest fall since 2Q 09.]]>
Apple needs “a radical change of the user interface, integration of the TV programming and data content, and use of gesture or voice control,” Moskowitz noted. Besides a plethora of reasons, the J.P. Morgan analyst doesn’t think Apple would generate a decent profit from the product. “We are not sure that the Apple premium could prevail in the TV market.” Isn't that some people have been saying all along? TV isn't mobile and it's mature.]]>
The site reports comments by Sony France marketing director Stephane Labrousse that the CE maker will sell two devices: A set-top box which will go on sale for €200 ($266) and a box with an integrated Blu-ray player that will sell for €300 ($399). UK launch also at the same time, it suggests.]]>