--Launches DirecTV on Demand across the US
--Teams with NBC Universal for Olympics VOD Package
--Begins Offering Eurocinema VOD Service
Satellite TV provider, DirecTV, recently teamed with ESPN2 to offer a
multiscreen interactive TV service in association with the annual
Wimbledon tennis championship (note: rival satellite TV provider,
DISH Network, offered a similar service--see article in this issue). The
companies, which in May also collaborated on an ITV app for the
French Open tennis championship (see [itvt] Issue 7.87 Part 3), used
the Wimbledon app to offer nearly 200 hours of coverage of the first
five days of the championship. "With DirecTV's coverage of the French
Open last month, Wimbledon next week and the US Open later this
summer, we are securing our role as the preeminent provider of
interactive TV services for Grand Slam events and the destination for
tennis fans who want to get the most out of their viewing experience,"
Eric Shanks, EVP of DirecTV Entertainment, said in a prepared
statement. "We are pleased to work with ESPN2 because with matches
being played simultaneously on as many as nine televised courts,
DirecTV Interactive viewers can stay on top of all the action while
tracking their favorite players as they make their way through the early
rounds and watch the top seeds battle upset-minded opponents."
At the core of the Wimbledon Interactive application was a "Mix"
channel that displayed six channels on one screen, including ESPN2's
main live feed, a Wimbledon Extra channel that offered "look-ins" on
key matches, as well as highlights and interviews, and supplemental
ESPN2 feeds from four additional courts. Each of the Mix channel's
thumbnail screens could be expanded to full-screen mode by pressing a
button on the remote. Other features of the application included
"Matches on Now," a service that displayed on the lower third of the
screen scores from all the matches that were being broadcast on the
Mix channel, and allowed viewers to tune directly to each of those
matches; and "Results," a service that provided real-time scores of
in-progress and completed matches, as well as schedule info.
According to DirecTV, data from its French Open Interactive
application show that interactive viewers watch longer than
non-interactive viewers and with greater frequency during the course of
the event. More than a third of all ITV-enabled viewers used the
application, DirecTV says, and those who did watched the French Open
44% longer than those who didn't; in addition, the company says, time
spent using the application grew 69% from the first day to the last day
the service was available. DirecTV says it broadcast over 5,000 hours
of live, ITV sports programming last year, with nearly 2 million homes
using one or more of its ITV sports applications. The company says it
expects to offer over 6,000 hours of ITV programming this year.
DirecTV also recently launched its VOD service, DirecTV on Demand,
across the US. The service, which is available to customers equipped
with broadband-equipped DirecTV Plus HD DVR or R22 DVR
receivers (it is located at Channel 1000 of the DirecTV EPG), has been
in beta testing since last October. It offers around 4,000 titles, of which
around 150 are presented in HD. DirecTV is touting the new service's
interface as making the process of navigating through content simple
and fast. Its features include: 1) customized programmer homepages
(each programmer has its own "channel" which highlights its latest
shows and movies available through the service; each channel features
rich graphics and posters that highlight the most popular content, and is
designated with a number consisting of the programmer's regular EPG
slot with a "1" before it--so that the Discovery Channel, for example,
whose EPG slot is 276, has its VOD homepage at 1276); 2) remote
scheduling, allowing subscribers to schedule downloads from the Web
or a mobile phone; and 3) thousands of free titles, including movies,
TV series, children's programs, educational programs, music and more.
The new service is powered by a combination of push-VOD and
broadband: a selection of popular titles is pushed to customers' DVR's
via satellite, while the rest of the service's content is accessed via their
set-top box's broadband connection (note: DirecTV is expected to
eventually offer a range of interactive services via broadband).
According to DirecTV, much of the broadband-delivered content can
be viewed in close to real time (around 30 seconds), depending on the
size of its file and the speed of the customer's connection. In order to
start receiving DirecTV on Demand, customers can choose between
professional installation or a self-installation kit.
DirecTV has teamed with NBC Universal to launch a package of
Olympics-related programming on the new DirecTV on Demand
service. The package, which is designed to promote NBCU's upcoming
coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics (August 8th through 24th), and
which can be accessed directly through channel 1008, consists of at
least 10 titles per week, including previews of the Olympics' various
competitions and features on Olympic athletes (note: NBCU plans to
produce a total of around 500 Olympics-related VOD titles by the end
of the year). It will be available through the end of the Olympics in
standard- and high-definition.
DirecTV has also just announced that it will launch Eurocinema, a VOD service devoted to European and other international films, on DirecTV on Demand August 1st. The service features both recent releases and classic titles, and includes works by such directors as Pedro Almodovar, Jean Luc Godard and Roman Polanski. Its films are presented in two-hour themed packages that include director interviews, commentary, "making-of" documentaries, and other supplemental content. "We're delighted to launch on the DirecTV on Demand platform, which offers its millions of customers access to more than 4,000 on-demand titles," Sebastian Perioche, chairman and CEO of Eurocinema's parent company, EuroMedia Holdings, said in a prepared statement. "Thanks to the mainstream industry and consumer recognition of their quality, as well as the tremendous surge in immigrant communities across the country, foreign films are enjoying a renaissance in the United States. This launch provides an ideal platform to reach these communities by greatly expanding our brand beyond the realm of cable television."
In other DirecTV news: The company says that its remote DVR
scheduling service, DirecTV DVR Scheduler, which takes advantage of
the broadband connectivity offered by a number of its set-top boxes, is
proving popular with customers, having now passed the
one-million-recordings milestone. The service, which is available on
DirecTV's Web site free of charge, can now also be used by DirecTV
customers with TiVo Series2 DVR's.
Comments
The DVR Scheduler service does not use the broadband connectivity to send remote DVR scheduling. It appears that the requests are sent over satellite and work with all DIRECTV DVRs including my standard definition DVR which has no broadband connection.