On Demand

Because the [itvt] editorial team is busy working on The TV of Tomorrow Show (March 3rd-4th in San Francisco) and on our new EBIF Intensive event (March 5th in San Francisco), we will be covering most stories in summary/round-up form over the next few weeks. Here is a round-up of recent news in various categories:

Because the [itvt] editorial team is busy working on The TV of Tomorrow Show (March 3rd-4th in San Francisco) and on our new EBIF Intensive event (March 5th in San Francisco), we will be covering most stories in summary/round-up form over the next few weeks. Here is a round-up of the latest VOD news:

In an interview with Bloomberg News that was published Wednesday, Anthony Wood, CEO of over-the-top company, Roku, revealed that the company hopes to raise $30 million in private funding this quarter from Menlo Ventures and other sources, and that it may go public next year--though he added that it is not currently working with an investment bank and has yet to set a date for an IPO.

Cable industry-owned VOD content aggregator, iN Demand, announced Wednesday that on February 1st it will launch a new movies-on-demand category, designed to celebrate Black History Month. Dubbed Black Cinema On Demand, the category will offer films featuring African-American directors, actors and themes.

Multiplatform music video programmer, Music Choice, said Wednesday that its VOD service, Music Choice On Demand, generated over a billion orders in 2009, making it the number-one VOD network for the year. The company cited data from media measurement and analytics company, Rentrak, which it says confirmed that its service secured the most orders of any free or premium VOD service and surpassed all free VOD services for total unique set-top boxes accessing its content. The company also said that the data showed that the service accumulated more than double the orders of most other VOD music services combined, with nearly three out of every four music-related orders in 2009 being for Music Choice content.

In a posting on its official blog, Tuesday evening, the White House announced the availability of a new, free White House App for the Apple iPhone/iPod touch. "One feature that stands out is live video streaming," the blog post stated. "Now anyone with this app can watch the president's public events at the White House, frequent Web chats with administration officials, and other events like key speeches and press briefings, in real time. In fact," the blog post continued, "the president's State of the Union speech next week is a great example.

Just a few days after announcing a similar deal with the US's third-largest cable operator, Cox Communications (see the article published on itvt.com, January 11th), Epix--a multiplatform premium programming service which is a joint venture between Viacom, its Paramount Pictures arm, MGM and Lionsgate and which has exclusive access to Paramount, Paramount Vantage MTV and Nickelodeon movies released theatrically on or after January 1st, 2008, and to MGM, United Artists and Lionsgate titles released theatrically on or after January 1st, 2009--has a

Because the [itvt] editorial team is busy working on The TV of Tomorrow Show (March 3rd-4th in San Francisco), we are covering a number of stories in this issue in summary form:

On Demand Group (ODG), the London-based content-aggregation-and-management subsidiary of SeaChange International, contacted [itvt] Wednesday to let us know that it is providing a fully managed VOD offering for United Arab Emirates-based telco, du, as part of the latter's du TV and du TV+ IPTV services.

Netflix is set to announce today that its streaming video service will launch on the Nintendo Wii games console this spring, providing it with distribution in a potential 26 million additional US homes (note: the Wii is currently the most popular games console in the US). The company has previously secured distribution deals for the service through the Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 games consoles, as well as through Roku OTT set-tops, TiVo DVR's and a number of other devices and platforms. "The launch of the Wii is a huge step forward for Netflix," Netflix founder and CEO, Reed Hastings, said in a prepared statement. "With the installed base of over 26 million, all WiFi equipped, that's almost one in four American homes.

Avail-TVN--the company formed last July from the merger of VOD distribution services provider, TVN Entertainment, and Avail Media, a provider of managed content-aggregation services for smaller IPTV operators (see the article published on itvt.com, July 15th)--said Tuesday that it has signed long-term, industry-wide deals to deliver free VOD content from Oasis TV and Knightscove Media. The company says that it will enable Oasis TV's and Knightscove Media's content to reach over 48 million VOD households across North America.

Cable industry-owned VOD content aggregator, iN Demand, contacted [itvt] Monday to share with us the list of first-run movies it is premiering on VOD platforms this month. According to the company, 11 of the 17 first-run titles it is making available will be offered day-and-date with their DVD release. The 17 titles are:

As was widely anticipated, 3D TV has emerged as one of the major themes of this year's Consumer Electronics Show--and a number of pieces of 3D TV news came across [itvt]'s desk, Tuesday. Here is a brief round-up:

Sonic Solutions, the digital media company that in 2008 acquired the pioneering broadband VOD service/platform, CinemaNow (it subsequently added "Roxio" to the service's name in order to make its branding consistent with its other products), announced Monday that it is launching version 2.0 of Roxio CinemaNow at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. According to the company, the new version, which it will be demo'ing by invitation in the Renaissance Hotel's Chairman Room, offers new HD and 3D capabilities and various interactive capabilities.

Syabas, a Fremont, Calif.-based company that specializes in over-the-top set-top hardware and software (note: for more on the company's Popcorn Hour A-110 and C-200 OTT set-top boxes, see the article published on itvt.com, December 16th), today announced the launch of an open-platform OTT set-top box, dubbed the Popbox, which it says will stream music, movies, photos, games, social media updates and other content to HDTV's and will retail for $129.