Online Reporter Digital Media News, Research and Insight

Headlines – Issue No. 743 (August 5-11, 2011)

Global BBC iPlayer App Launches
A Case for Sony to Sell Off Its TV Operations
Time Warner Cable Adds in Broadband, Loses in Pay TV
Charter Adds Broadband Subs; Loses Pay TV Subs
Comcast Reports Pay TV Subs Down, Broadband Up
Samsung Sets Ambitious Goals in Smartphones, Tablets

BROADBAND BEAT
US Telcos Submit Plan for Rural Broadband

ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES
Multi-Screen, Dual-Screen Viewing Get Boosts
Intel Capital Invests in Chinese STB Maker JoySee
Intel Says Full Ultrabook Won’t Arrive Until 2013
Asus Launches Web-Focused Laptop That Uses MeeGo
IEEE Signs Off on ‘White Spaces’ Wireless Broadband
　
IPAD & THE MANY OTHER TABLETS
HP Cuts TouchPad Price by $50
Fujitsu CTO Says Tablet Sales Will Pass PCs
Samsung to Launch Galaxy Tablet in Australia Despite Apple-Inspired Court Order
Samsung Upgrades Galaxy Tab Tablet Software

LEGAL MATTERS
Rovi Lawsuit Presents Hurdle to Hulu Owners’ Desire to Sell
　
LIES, DAMN LIES AND STATISTICS
Buyers Still Not Asking for Smart TVs with Apps
IHS Says Linear TV to Remain 85% Dominant Through 2015
Android Takes Half the Smartphone Market
MTV Survey: Apps Are Life-Changing & Addictive
Ofcom’s View of Digital Media in the UK

MOBILE BROADBAND
Auctioning Off Local US TV Stations’ Spectrum Could Create Economic Growth

MOBILE MEDIA
Mobile TV in US Keeps on Chugging Along

ONLINE MUSIC SERVICES
Music Dealers to Help Coke Find Emerging Bands

SHOW TIME
Sony Ericsson Finally Adds Qriocity to Xperia Handsets
Dish to Use Blockbuster to Challenge Netflix
Hulu Gets Its Own Series "A Day in the Life"
5 Lessons from the New Owner of SeeSaw
Hulu Plus App Gets on Western Digital’s Smart TV Adapters
Google Gets Serious about YouTube OTT
US’ PBS Ramps Up Its Mobile, OTT Offerings

SMART TVS AND OTHER OTT DEVICES
Logitech Takes Back More Google TV Adapters Than It Sold
TiVo to Power Best Buy’s Insignia Smart TVs
Samsung Lands Spain’s Digital+ Content for Its CE Devices
Sony’s Vita Gaming Console Delayed to 2012 in US, Europe

DIGIGRAMS
AT&T Backs off on ‘Unlimited’ Mobile Broadband Plan
Motorola to Sell 1.3m to 1.5m Xoom Tablets in 2011
Amazon Gobbles Up Smart TV Apps Developer Pushbutton
Austria’s ORF to Show Catch-Up TV on TV Sets
AT&T Deletes ESPN 3D Channel
Adobe Launches HTML5 Design Platform
Apple Announces Details of iCloud
Microsoft’s Revenue from Mobile Devices Is Negligible
Apple May Land Second Major Chinese Cellco
DirecTV Adds 26,000 US Subs, 472,000 in Latin America
US Providers Deliver 80%-90% of Promised Broadband Speeds
British Library Offers 40,000 Books in Digitized Format

Headlines – Issue No. 742 (July 29 – August 4, 2011)

Celeno Forges Ahead with Flicker-Free Wi-Fi Video for Pay-TV Services
Virgin Media Shows World’s Fastest Broadband
Verizon Adds 189k Broadband Subscribers, 184k TV Subs
Royalties Save Nokia for Now
Price Increase Slows Netflix Growth
Amazon Increases Sales 51% to $9.9b
Sony Slumps Badly in Sales of TVs, Its Iconic Product
Virgin Limps in with 2.2% Growth, Losing TV Subscribers Again

BROADBAND BEAT
Free & Orange Join to Spread FTTH
　
ENABLING TECHNOLOGY
Alibaba Launches Aliyun OS for Mobile Devices
iOS HTML5 Support May End Flash, But See Bigger Threats

HOME NETWORKING
Taiwan, China Chip Makers Join HomeGrid

LEGAL MATTERS
Grooveshark Hits a Sour Note with Publishers
Ziggo Bests Rovi in Its Patent Suit
HTC Wants to Negotiate Patents with Apple
InterDigital Aims at Nokia, Huawei, ZTE
BT Must Block Newzbin2
Spotify Gets Its First US Lawsuit

LIES, DAMN LIES AND STATISTICS
Metacafe: Increasing Number Watch Online Videos
Report: Some Netflix Subscribers to Cancel
European TV Viewing Keeps Increasing
Nielsen Shows the What & How for Watching Hulu, Netflix
OTT Not a Threat to Pay TV
Consumers Taking to Smart-TV Apps Big Time
OTT Is Not the Problem; It’s the Cost of Pay-TV and Lack of Compelling Content
On-Demand Video Market to Be $5.7b in 2016
Telcos Driving Innovation in Pay TV
Android Eats into iPad’s Share, Powering 30% of Tablets

MOBILE BROADBAND
NAB Says Chunks of Broadcast TV Are to Go Dark If FCC Plan Goes Ahead

MOBILE MUSIC
Vevo Reaches 7.5m App Downloads

ONLINE MUSIC SERVICES
UMG Brings Curated Playlists to the US
Microsoft Apologizes for Pressing Posthumous Winehouse Sales
ZapTunes Seeks to Sell Independent Music
Spotify: Up to 70k Paying US Subscribers in Week One

SHOW TIME
Walmart to Offer Shows Online the Same Day as on DVD
Netflix Gets CBS Content for Canada, Latin America
Fox Delays Hulu Getting New Shows
OTT Heads to India Via Tata Sky

SMART BOXES
Divan.TV Brings OTT to Ukraine, Other Former Soviet Countries

SMART TVS AND OTHER OTT DEVICES
Panasonic Brings Viewster to Europe & US
AOL Develops App for Smart TVs

DIGIGRAMS
Ofcom Studying Whether News Corp Is ‘Fit and Proper’ to Own BSkyB Shares
RIM Cuts Workforce 11%, Buys JayCut
Netflix Signs 3-Year Deal with TV Azteca SAB de CV
Samsung Points to the Stars
Satcos Pass Cablecos in Brazil
Apple Passes Nokia in Global Smartphone Sales
Pace Increases Revenues 21%
Roku Aims for 3m Boxes Sold by Year-End
BYU TV Spreads to Latin America
WP7 Mango Reaches Manufacturers
Rdio Hints at New Plans
Logitech Revenue’s Price Drops 60%
Mozilla to Develop Mobile Firefox OS

Local TV Stations Failing to Maximize Fully on Their Allotted Spectrum

- Mobile TV in a Few Markets in Q4 but Where Are the Devices?
- Little Compelling Content on Multicasts
- No Electronic Program Guide
- Hiding Their OTA Light under a Basket

Widespread cord cutting, or not ever connecting it to begin with for the young, is based on two premises. The local TV stations will supply the major networks with their still-popular TV shows, news and major sports plus perhaps some additional targeted TV and mobile TV. The OTT services will supply more movies and recorded TV shows than the average consumer can watch.

The local stations are falling down on their end of the unwritten bargain.

Anytime the topic of cutting the cord in the States comes up, it’s necessary to report that local TV stations are each broadcasting two to four channels for free to TV sets with over-the-air antennas (OTA). That means consumers can get all the major networks — NBC, Fox, CBS, ABC and CW — for free. The majors don’t dominate TV viewing like they used to, but offer most major sporting events and good but limited news reporting, both national and local.

A consumer with an OTA antenna and a Blu-ray player or smart TV that gets Netflix and other online video services would find that he can get more than he can watch. It might not be everything he wants when he wants it but it would absorb all his available viewing hours.

Many local stations are reluctant to trumpet their over-the-air channels because they are now collecting cash from the pay-TV companies for transmitting their channel.

This week we reported that Channel Master is offering a DVR for OTA antennas and it does not require a monthly subscription fee. It has all the DVR functions that might be expected. Perhaps local TV stations should buy a few thousand Channel Master DVRs and OTA antennas and give them away as part of an OTT promotion. Now that might open a few eyeballs.

The FCC wants to take back some of the spectrum that local TV stations have the rights to and auction it off for mobile broadband. If that happens, the local TV stations could lose some of their local channels and, perhaps more importantly, the ability to offer mobile TV. It’s a project they’ve been working on for several years and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) says its time is drawing near. It expects that mobile TVs from the likes of Samsung and LG will be in stores by year-end. The mobile TV service, which uses mobile DTV technology, is already available in a number of cities but only on prototype receivers.

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TOR Quote of the Week

“We want to be on any device that has a plug or a battery,” said MLB’s executive VP of revenue for advanced media, Noah Garden, with the goal of expanding MLB.tv to reach all customers across all platforms.