A Look Back: Lessons learned from TV Everywhere a year after deployment

By Marty Roberts For nearly a year now, thePlatform has been supporting some of the largest TV Everywhere initiatives to date. In that time, we’ve encountered some surprising–as well as anticipated–challenges while helping our customers architect TV Everywhere. The following is a glimpse at some of the most interesting lessons learned so far in working with programmers and service providers to bring their TV Everywhere initiatives to market. Authentication and authorization really do provide a seamless user experience One of the biggest misconceptions about TV Everywhere is that the log-in process is prohibitively complicated for subscribers to cable, telco, or other TV service providers.

Apple, Amazon and Sony join race for VOD prize

Repeat after me: Change is good, change is good… You might as well get comfortable with it, because after today there’s very little about the over-the-top delivery space that isn’t going to get some major tweaking.

Report: Apple’s streaming video from press event a test of $1B data center

Apple is providing live streaming of today’s press event regarding its (rumored) revamping of Apple TV into iTV, a new twist to the iTunes store and updated iPods. It’s the first time is quite awhile that Apple has live streamed any of its events, and it’s set to start at 1 p.m. ET at www.apple.com. Not too surprisingly, the event will only be available on Apple devices, Macs running Safari on Mac OS X version 10.6, an iPhone or iPod touch running iOS 3.0 or higher, or an iPad. A Cult of Mac report said the streaming will be the first major test of Apple’s new data center in North Carolina, a $1 billion facility that’s among the largest ever built.

Rumor: Sony planning new movie and music rival to iTunes

Sony showed off Qriocity, a service that would allow users to download movies at CES early this year, but made no promises about when it might launch, although there were rumors it would hit the market in February. Well, now Sony is rumored to be announcing a new music and video download service that would be available across all of the company’s connected devices, starting with the PlayStation game console. Launch date? Sometime next year, reports the Financial Times . The announcement is expected at the IFA tech show in Berlin sometime today (likely before Apple splashes its latest news this afternoon).

Amazon.com joins race for VOD market dominance

Add Amazon.com to the growing list of digital retailers looking to increase their share of the video-on-demand market. The company has been shopping a subscription version of its existing Web-based on-demand rental service–which already is built into a plethora of connected TVs, Blu-ray players and other devices–to studio executives with the goal of having it in place before the holiday season. Sources tell the Wall Street Journal that the e-retailer has had talks with General Electric, which owns NBC Universal, Time Warner Inc, and media conglomerate Viacom. The plan Amazon is offering would include TV episodes and movies, and apparently is centered on older content, which is seen as less erosive to studios’ revenue. Amazon is far from alone in hoping to expand more deeply into the living room

Amazon working on Netflix-killing streaming video service?

According to the Wall Street Journal , Amazon.com has been pitching media companies on a streaming video subscription service that would compete with Netflix. Amazon has talked to NBC, Time Warner and Viacom about a service that would work on the Web, on mobile devices, and on Xbox 360 consoles. The service could launch in time for the holidays, and there’s talk of bundling subscriptions with Amazon Prime accounts. No content providers have been confirmed for the subscription service yet, though, so that timeline is far from a sure thing. The WSJ couldn’t get an official comment from Amazon, so we’ll just have to watch and wait.

EPIX Launches "Live Interactive Forum", Giving Away Free Trial To EpixHD.com

EPIX just announced the launch of EPIX Live, a new online forum powered by Clipsync that allows fans to interact with their favorite artists via thirty-minute Q&A sessions. EPIX’s press release says that, “viewers can submit and have questions answered in real time, interact, share and comment with one another and broadcast their participation to their friends via integrations with Twitter and Facebook”. If you want to check out EPIX’s streaming service, the company is giving away free trial codes good for one week of streaming via EpixHD.com at epixhd.com/invite I first reviewed EPIX’s streaming service when they launched last year and since then, the video quality and user experience on EpixHD.com is still excellent

Boxee releases new beta with streaming movie library

Boxee , one of the best all-in-one media center apps, has just released a new beta that introduces a l ibrary of full-length streaming movies . Boxee was already famous for letting you watch and listen to streaming content on your computer, and hook the whole thing up to your TV, too, but its new partnerships with indie movie sites make it even better. With Boxee, you already have Netflix, YouTube and other sources at your fingertips, but in terms of free full-length movies, it’s been tricky for Boxee to find partnerships (there’s been a long history of drama with Hulu , for example)

Google, Arcade Fire deliver amazing, HTML5-powered music video from the future

It takes a lot for a music video to grab my attention anymore. Arcade Fire’s HTML5 collaboration with Google , however, does a pretty damn good job. Head over to The Wilderness Downtown, punch in the address of the home where you grew up, and watch the magic unfold. The “experience” is definitely one of the most interesting demos to come out of Google’s Chrome Experiments thus far. It’s a fantastic showcase of what HTML5 and modern browsers bring to the table

Report: Justice Dept. dialing in on Comcast-NBCU deal

The other shoe finally has dropped in Comcast’s bid to acquire NBC Universal. While the FCC has been taking a hard–and public–look at the deals impact on the burgeoning online video industry, The Wall Street Journal reports that the Department of Justice also has been combing through the details of the $13.7 billion deal for the past eight months. Its focus: Whether Comcast is part of a cable and satellite effort to box out Internet video players from getting access to television programming rights. The agency’s focus reportedly is on whether Comcast–once it acquires NBCU–will make it more difficult for Internet companies to compete.

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