movies

Due to the large volume of news generated by the IFA, IBC and CEDIA trade shows--and because the [itvt] editorial team has been working on TVOT NYC Intensive 2011--we are covering stories in this issue in round-up/summary format. We anticipate that it will take us several days to catch up with all the recent news: so if your company has sent us a press release or briefed us on an announcement, and you don't yet see your news covered in this issue, please bear with us.

Due to the large volume of news generated by the IFA, IBC and CEDIA trade shows--and because the [itvt] editorial team has been working on TVOT NYC Intensive 2011--we are covering stories in this issue in round-up/summary format. We anticipate that it will take us several days to catch up with all the recent news: so if your company has sent us a press release or briefed us on an announcement, and you don't yet see your news covered in this issue, please bear with us.

Due to the large volume of news generated by the IFA and IBC trade shows--and because the [itvt] editorial team has been working on TVOT NYC Intensive 2011--we are covering stories in this issue in round-up/summary format. We anticipate that it will take us several days to catch up with all the recent news: so if your company has sent us a press release or briefed us on an announcement, and you don't yet see your news covered in this issue, please bear with us.

Because the [itvt] editorial team is on the road this week, we are covering stories in this edition of the newsletter in round-up format:

Online and mobile movie ticketing company, Fandango, will today announce the availability of a "Fandango Movies" interactive TV application in the Samsung Apps store. The app--available free of charge for 2010 and 2011 Samsung Smart TV's and Blu-ray players--was developed in partnership with TV software company, Related Content Database (RCDb), and uses the latter's RCDb Server and RCDb Connected TV software to accelerate development and integration.

It looks like Dish Network will remain the exclusive U.S. satellite distributor for Epix, as rival DirecTV says it won’t launch the premium channel and Website owned by Viacom. 

Online video platform provider, Brightcove, will today (Wednesday) announce that the Sundance Institute is using its platform to support new live and on-demand video initiatives for the 2011 Sundance Film Festival (takes place January 20th-30th in Park City, Utah). According to Brightcove, which has been the Festival's official online video provider since 2008, the Sundance Institute has expanded its online video offerings this year to include live video coverage of major screenings and other events at the Festival, as well as an extensive line-up of new on-demand content, such as interviews with artists and filmmakers, daily video highlights and roundtable discussions.

Here is a round-up of some other recent interactive TV-related stories that we didn't have room for in this issue:

In a posting on the company's blog, Wednesday, OTT specialist Boxee's VP of marketing, Andrew Kippen, revealed that Boxee has begun "adding the foundations of a new Movie Library" that will complement a TV Show Library that it rolled out in January as part of its Boxee Beta launch (note: the TV Show Library is designed to allow Boxee users to browse and search for full-length TV shows from major networks across the Web).

Here are some other interactive TV-related stories we didn't have room for in this issue:

Samsung Electronics America on Wednesday launched the "Free the TV Challenge," a competition which it says will award $500,000 in prizes and is designed to encourage development of innovative interactive TV applications for connected TV's, Blu-ray players and Blu-ray home theater systems. The company also announced Wednesday that the number of applications available through its Samsung Apps store has more than doubled since the latter's launch five months ago, and that the store now offers apps in five categories: video, gaming, social media, sports and kids.

As expected (see the article published on itvt.com, August 9th), video rental company, Netflix, and Epix, a subscription-based multiplatform (linear, VOD, online) premium programming service which is a joint venture between Viacom's Paramount Pictures arm, MGM and Lionsgate, on Tuesday announced an exclusive, multi-year agreement that will allow Netflix to offer streaming new-release and library titles from Epix's parent companies on its Watch Instantly service. According to the companies, movies covered by the deal--which is expected to add up to 3,000 titles to Netflix's Watch Instantly offering--will begin streaming on Netflix on September 1st.

[itvt] has just published the first in a new series of columns, collectively entitled PERSPECTIVE, from the iTV Doctor, Rick Howe. The series will discuss Full Service Network (FSN), QUBE, Video Jukebox, Sega Channel and other ground-breaking interactive TV efforts, and the impact those deployments still have on interactive television today.

Here is a round-up of some other interactive TV-related stories we are following:

Epix, a subscription-based multiplatform (linear, VOD, online) premium programming service which is a joint venture between Viacom, its Paramount Pictures arm, MGM and Lionsgate, said last week that it has tapped ChoiceStream to provide movie recommendations to users of its EpixHD.com service (note: the latter is available to authenticated customers of Cox, Mediacom, Charter and Verizon FiOS TV).