Apple patents touchscreen TV remote control… is a smart TV up next?

Apple’s inexorable march toward delivering an HD television to the market took another step forward with the report that the company has filed a new patent for a touchscreen remote control designed to reduce the confusion and clutter of traditional remotes. Apple Insider said the patent also shows the remote working with other devices like a television, video players, a stereo, a “smart home” control system and even a Mac. Apple has been rumored to be in the process of developing a smart TV, a play that many analysts believe would turn into a massive business for the company. Article

BSkyB launching streaming service to rival Netflix in UK

When Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) rolled out its streaming service in the United Kingdom and Ireland earlier this year, it already was facing some competition. Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN), in the form of LoveFilm, already had a toehold in the U.K., and broadcaster BBC had an established digital platform already in place. Now, satellite-TV operator BSkyB has thrown its hat into the ring and is gearing up to go toe-to-toe with Netflix with its own streaming movie service that also will include its existing Sky Movies, Sky Sports and entertainment portfolio. Unlike Dish Network (Nasdaq: DISH)’s Blockbuster streaming service, BSkyB says it plans to offer the service outside its 10-million subscriber base with no contract and “a wide variety of pricing options.” The move is aimed at reducing the impact over-the-top services like Netflix and Lovefilm are having on BSkyB, which added just 40,000 new subs in the most recent quarter, 19,000 less than analysts had anticipated, and nowhere near the 140,000 new subs it had in the same period a year ago.

Brightcove scores pair of customer wins in Europe

Telecom Italia’s digital division, Matrix, has selected Brightcove’s Video Cloud to power its online video initiatives for its Virgilio consumer news and entertainment website. The site attracts more than 15 million Web users per month and is one of the largest consumer sites in Italy. It offers email, media sharing, news and location-based services to Italian-speaking users around the world. Telecom Italia said the Video Cloud will allow it to expand the new advertising-supported news and entertainment site, Vitv, which aggregates video content from multiple Italian news, television and cinema sites. Video Cloud will enable Virgilio to publish, distribute and monetize video content on Vitv across multiple devices, from PCs and smartphones to tablets and connected TVs.

Report: Facebook IPO filing could come this week

The long-anticipated wait for Facebook to take come action on its IPO-which is expected to raise $10 billion on the companies $75 billion to $100 billion valuation-could come this week. The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources said the social networking company may file paperwork to get the ball rolling with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the next few days. The Journal said Facebook likely would select Morgan Stanley rather than Goldman Sachs to lead the transaction

Netflix Q4 results prompts surge in stock price

Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX)’s stock price surged nearly 18 percent in after-hours trading following fourth quarter results and a first quarter outlook Wednesday that beat the low expectations analysts had set for the company. The streaming company reported earnings of $41 million, or 73 cents a share, down 14 percent from a year ago, when it earned $47.1 million, or 87 cents a share. The company reported revenue of $876 million, am increase of 47 percent over a year ago. Analysts had expected earnings of 54 cents a share and revenue of $857.3 million

Connected devices will fuel the next rising tide for online video industry

Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) CEO Tim Cook may have reiterated the company’s stance that its Apple TV franchise is still just a hobby to the company, and with the numbers Apple put up in the first quarter for iPads and iPhones, what else could it be? But there are increasing indications that that “little business” of Apple’s is about to boom, and that it’s likely to be part of a rising tide that will give the online video industry yet another boost, perhaps becoming the flood tide that puts it over the top and firmly into mainstream America. NPD In-Stat today rolled out some research that said 2011 was a banner year for connected devices, and it’s likely to just be lighting the candle on a boom that the research company expects to see deliver a compound annual growth rate of 52.6 percent through 2016.

Streaming Super Bowl ads top cost of broadcast ads

Advertisers who might have been looking for bargain rates to advertise on NBC’s streaming videocast of the Super Bowl a week from Sunday instead will pay more than advertisers who opt for broadcast ad buys. The National Football League is asking for, and getting, $55 cpm, roughly $20 more than NBC is charging advertisers who go the more traditional path. General Motors already has purchased an exclusive on car advertising to stream during the game. Execs expect the game to draw about 100 million TV views and expects an additional 5 million Internet viewers to watch on tablets. Article

The Top Articles I Found Interesting That You Might Have Missed

Here are the stories I found interesting over the past week or so on the Web. I've tried to highlight ones that didn't get picked up as much and might have been missed since they weren't caught by mainstream outlets. “The World of Pain that is HTML5 Video” – bit.ly/zNZNX4 – @flashfreaker “Lies, Damn Lies, Ad Industry Growth Forecasts” -…

Azuki rolls out managed, optimized OTT delivery

Azuki Systems, which earlier this month announced deals with Showtime and HBO to deliver programming to Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPads and iPhones, today unveiled a solution for service providers looking to deliver managed and optimized OTT live and on-demand video. Azuki said the service can extend service providers’ managed set-top-box services to multiple screens, at home and on-the-go, with no impact to existing DOCSIS and IPTV infrastructure. “Service providers now will be able to tap into the rich potential of OTT delivery,” Azuki chief executive John Clancy told FierceOnlineVideo . “Managed over the top delivery makes an unmanaged network–the Internet–behave like the closed, managed networks service providers have been comfortable with.” Azuki manages OTT video delivery by simplifying and automating the process of normalizing and unifying media preparation, adaptive streaming, digital rights management, entitlement enforcement, analytics and monetization–including ad-insertion, across all consumer-owned devices. The Acton, Mass.-based company said it can help service providers fully deploy the Azuki managed and optimized OTT video delivery solution for both live and VOD in less than 100 days.

Sony Kills Off Internet TV with Google TV Platform

While not officially announced from Sony corporate, I have been able to confirm via a Sony Store and multiple calls to Sony's sales number that Sony has stopped producing their Sony Internet TV with the built-in Google TV platform. Over the past few weeks I've been noticing that Sony's Google TV model has disappeared from nearly all supply channels and…

Next Page »