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published:
07-Feb-07
territories:
USA
categories:
New product/service
Amazon partners TiVo
Broadband-enabled Personal Video Recorder (PVR) manufacturer TiVo has partnered with Amazon.com to launch "Amazon Unbox on TiVo" which is currently beta testing amongst a select group of TiVo subscribers. The service, which is hoped to rollout completely by H1 2007, allows TiVo users to buy and rent digital film content from major studios including Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount, Universal and Warner Bros, and excluding Disney (which has yet to license to Amazon) and Sony (which has decided against offering content through TiVo boxes). It will also allow TiVo users to download TV content from content providers including CBS, Fox, A&E, Discovery and MTV Networks on a purchase only basis. Typical prices are $1.99 to purchase a television episode, $9.99 to $14.99 to purchase a movie, and $1.99 to rent a digital movie.
Video files from Amazon Unbox are limited to two static devices, either two PCs, two TiVos or one of each; content downloaded to PCs through Unbox can be transferred to two portable devices. To activate the service, subscribers need to log into Amazon.com and follow steps to establish a link between their broadband-ready TiVo box and their Amazon account. Once the initial set up is complete, eligible movies or television shows chosen through Amazon.com on the computer can be requested to be downloaded directly to the TiVo box. Content then appears in TiVo customers' 'Now Playing' list. Purchased videos are also stored in each customer's "Your Media Library" at Amazon.com for future access. Users unable to download content from Unbox to their PCs, such as Apple Mac users, will however be able to download files to their TiVo box by creating an account at Amazon.
The service will be available to all broadband-ready TiVo Series 2 and 3 boxes, which will include all units sold to new TiVo subscribers. As of March 2007, there were an estimated 600,000 homes with broadband-connected TiVo boxes in USA. All TiVo series 3 boxes are HD-ready, cost $800 from TiVo.com and contain a 250GB hard drive capable of holding 300 hours of programming according to the company. The Series 3 boxes were first offered in September 2006. The Series 2 boxes come in two versions, one with 180 hours capacity for $170 and the other with 80 hours capacity for $80 from the company website; neither is HD-compatible. DirecTV TiVo boxes and those supplied by cableco Comcast are not capable of receiving the servce. Monthly subscription fees for TiVo range from $13 to $20.
TiVo launched its TiVoCast open Internet broadband video service in June 2006, and except Amazon Unbox content, downloadable television from providers including CBS, the National Basketball Association (NBA), Heavy.com, iVillage, and CNET is available for download at no extra charge to the monthly subscription fee.
Our take...
This partnership is of note in various aspects:
• For TiVo, the addition of paid-for downloadable video files is a value added proposition to complement the main selling point of its boxes, its PVR functionality, as well as other downloadable content that is included in the monthly subscription. The deal follows other STB-based services delivering video over the open Internet that have partnered online movie services to offer paid-for Hollywood content. Other than TiVo, Akimbo offers a movie download feature through its partner Movielink which hosts over 3,000 films on a rental and retail basis. In total, Akimbo provides 14,000 video files from 200 content partners, the majority of which are at no extra cost to the monthly fee. In contrast to TiVo, however, Akimbo's STBs lack PVRs and have seen a comparitively slow take up. Given its added PVR functions and large installed base, consumers are likely to be more attracted to the TiVo proposition if they are looking for downloadable video content to the TV, despite the smaller catalogue of both free and premium paid-for on-demand content at this stage.
• Both these services provide the simplest method of getting premium movie content to the preferred viewing platform - the TV via the STB. This mode is more user-friendly than streaming films between PC and extender devices. It also allows for viewing of premium content directly on the TV that is currently not available for burning to DVD-Video using the industry standard CSS encryption when downloaded to the PC.
• The speed at which files are delivered over the open Internet is dependent on factors such as user broadband speed, line contention and load on central video servers. IPTV and cable-based services which offer true VoD are at an advantage in this respect, given that access to content is instant.
• The series 3 STB, which is the most suitable box on which to store purchased movies in standard definition and which has the potential to hold HD content, is very expensive - twice as expensive as Microsoft Xbox 360 with 20GB hard drive from Amazon.com.
• Users are still becoming accustomed to the concept of purchasing movies to the STB to keep in digital format. As yet, TiVo has not mentioned any possibility of burning content from the TiVo box onto DVD through integrated burners as backup (in case of hard drive failure) or transferring files to portable devices from the STB.
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Analyst, market intelligence & notices
AOL to acquire Bebo
published:
13-Mar-08
territories:
USA
categories:
Merger/takeover/investment deal
Reports
(1) 1-1 showing
Online Sports Videos: Rights, Revenues and Forecasts
This comprehensive report includes a full analysis of the consumer market for online sports video (OSV) in the USA, UK, France and Germany. It also includes all of Screen Digest's proprietary market data and forecasts for the take up of different types of online sports video offerings, the growth of consumer broadband and the online video boom, an introduction to sports media right and an overview of technology as well as the infrastructure in the OSV market.
published:
04-Feb-08
territories:
UK, USA, France, Germany
Arash Amel
Articles
Portable player markets mature
European, American and Japanese sales slow down as some markets show signs of reaching effective saturation
published:
17-Jun-08
territories:
France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, UK, USA - Nordic Region, North America, Western Europe
Sarah Johnson
FCC bonanza in spectrum auction
Contenders have bid $20bn for frequencies released bythe forthcoming analogue switch-off. Verizon bid the most money, AT&T secured the most licences
published:
23-Apr-08
territories:
USA - North America
Ronan de Renesse
Free online music as mainstream?
The record industry is exploring business models beyond retail, notably finding ways to make free downloads pay
published:
22-Feb-08
territories:
France, Germany, UK, USA - North America, Western Europe
Broadcasting on the Internet
A listing of the online video sites operated by broadcasters or which are displaying broadcast content.
published:
15-May-07
territories:
Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, UK, USA - Europe, Nordic Region, North America
Tim Westcott
Fibre optic roll-out in Europe
Various technology and business models are used in the European countries that have started to install fibre optic cable, but all are lagging behind the US
published:
19-Feb-07
territories:
Denmark, Italy, Norway, Sweden, UK, USA - Western Europe
categories:
Market data analysis
James Garlick
Rentmailer VoD offerings
Online DVD rental firms are building their portfolios with digital distribution in a strategy pioneered in the UK by DVD-by-post specialist LoveFilm and now spreading to Europe, the US and Australia
published:
25-Jan-07
territories:
Australia, France, Germany, UK, USA - Western Europe
Marie Bloomfield
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Western Europe
Basic data