Many online video viewers are following the ongoing battle among players in the development of the next standard in online video - whether to continue down the current path of Flash ubiquity or switch to an HTML 5 open-source standard. Adobe and many content distributors are standing behind Flash, while Google and Apple (for different reasons and with different open source standards) are pushing for HTML 5 video to replace Flash. But, at least for now, Google's YouTube - the number one distributor of online video - will stick with Adobe Flash.
For us techno-nuts, GigaOM outlines the issues in dispute for the pro-HTML 5 crowd, which does not currently have a video standard. Microsoft and Apple have endorsed the use of H.264, but that idea is a non starter for the Mozilla and Opera browser communities, who won't incorporate H.264 into their browsers. Google has introduced a new video format called WebM in an attempt to bridge the divide, but Apple and Microsoft won't incorporate WebM into their Internet Explorer and Safari browsers. Because there's a divide, Google has opted to stick with the near-universal acceptance of Adobe's Flash. But that excludes iPhone and iPad users, who don't have support for Flash in the version of Safari on those devices which, if I may say, is a royal pain in the neck and my biggest (and only material) complaint about my iPad.
Other online video sites, like Hulu and Netflix, aren't wading into the dispute, opting to stick with Flash for its ubiquity and support for video security and advertising features.
I think everyone should read up the history of Beta vs. VHS, and it's detrimental impact on everyone involved. Maybe then they will figure this out sooner rather than later.
Hulu announced this week the long rumored creation of a monthly subscription service it is calling Hulu Plus. Hulu Plus is targeted toward users that want additional content on devices other than a computer, and will cost subscribers $10 each month for access. It won't replace the current free access to prime time broadcast content on Hulu however.
The subscription service promises to offer full seasons of several television shows in high definition. Currently Hulu's free service allows viewers to watch the last 5 episodes of shows. For mobile viewers, Hulu Plus will give iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch viewers access to content, and Hulu Plus will be accessible from several broadband-connected televisions, Blu-ray players and gaming consoles. Viewers that want ad-free content will be disappointed with Hulu Plus - there are still ads during the traditional commercial breaks. So, advertising will remain a backbone of the Hulu revenue model.
Access to Hulu Plus is limited to users that have received invitations currently, but will be open to all starting next month.
In the market for a new high def television? Gizmodo has some HDTV evaluation tips from Dr. Raymod Soneira, president of a company that manufactures video calibration and diagnostic products. Next time you're off to the store to compare a wall full of flat screen LCDs and plasmas, you might take a copy of Dr. Soneira's checklist with you to help you distinguish subtle differences in picture quality.
Many of these tips revolve around the idea of taking your own evaluation material to watch on a retailer's HDTV display models. Frequently retailers have a loop of the same video playing on all their display models. Dr. Soneira recommends creating a DVD or USB drive of still images that test color accuracy - especially dark colors and black. If that's not an option, there are movies with interior and darkened scenes that can test color reproduction.
On LCD sets, Dr. Soneira recommends testing the viewing angles by shifting viewing positions around a set displaying a still photo. And if a salesperson will let you, test changes in the the color settings. It will help you determine whether a better picture is possible.
Neither Apple's Safari nor Google's Chrome are revenue generating products for either company, but they are one front in the ongoing competitive battle between the two companies. Web analytics firm StatCounter is now reporting that Chrome, which was only introduced in 2008, has now bested Safari for market share in the U.S. During the week of June 21-27, StatCounter tracked 874 million web pages, with 8.97 percent of visitors using Chrome and 8.88 percent using the Safari browser. That's the first time Chrome has surpassed Safari on a weekly basis.
Both browsers still sit far behind market leaders Internet Explorer (52 percent) and Mozilla Firefox (28.5 percent).
Chrome's ability to overtake Safari in less than two years since its release is a remarkable feat. Apple released a public beta of Safari over seven years ago. While PC users can use Safari, it is much more common on the Mac because it is the default browser on that platform. Chrome is available for both platforms as well.
Digital research firm, comScore, Inc., has released recent data indicating that people are watching Hulu more than ever, with 1.2 billion videos viewed in May alone. Hulu came in second only to YouTube, which had a staggering 14.6 videos viewed in the month. This is an all-time high for Hulu, whose video viewing numbers have been increasing fairly steadily over the past year.
The problem for Hulu – it seems that all of these videos are being viewed by roughly the same audience Hulu’s had for years. While Hulu’s videos-viewed number has shown impressive growth, the number of unique visitors coming to their site and viewing video content has shown minimal growth since November 2008.
While Hulu is posting overall profits, these new viewer numbers cannot be good news for the streaming video site. Hulu is poised to announce Hulu Plus, a subscription service which will be required for users to see the newest episodes of certain programs. They will undoubtedly be looking to grow Hulu Plus as a major segment of their business, and in order for that to happen they are going to need to see some growth in new viewers. It remains to be seen whether a subscription model will work.
Media conglomerate Viacom, owner of MTV, Nickelodeon, and Comedy Central among others, brought suit against YouTube regarding copyright protected programming that had made its way onto the streaming video site back in 2007. Last week, summary judgment was issued in favor of YouTube by Judge Louis Stanton in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York.
The case came down to the application of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), which includes a notification requirement that the court found protected YouTube in the case. Viacom had found roughly 100,000 protected videos on YouTube and sent a single notification asking YouTube to take down the videos. YouTube had removed almost all of the videos by the next business day. In the court’s opinion, this action by YouTube was in perfect compliance with the DMCA, and the DMCA process of notifying YouTube to remove the videos was a reasonable system for protecting against copyright infringement.
The court's ruling victory for YouTube, and ultimately Google (which owns YouTube) and other online content providers. For its part, Viacom has announced plans to appeal the ruling and policymakers in Washington are already looking at major updates to the DMCA, which is over a decade old and is considered by many to already be out-of-date with respect to changes in technology.
In a panel on Tuesday night, Mark Marvel, the video sales chief for MSNBC, provided an interesting note about his company’s upcoming iPad app: it will feature video, but from only one network show.
Marvel said that instead of posting episodes of more shows on MSNBC's regular lineup, it will focus on this one show and provide new features that encourage user interaction with the show’s host.
Marvel was silent about which MSNBC show would be featured on the iPad app, and he also did not share when the app would be available.
Hardball? Rachel Maddow? Morning Joe? Your guess is as good as mine as to which show will get the nod.
Leichtman Research Group recently conducted a telephone survey in which they asked 1,600 randomly selected U.S. households about their home Internet service. They found that 71 percent of subscribers in the U.S. were “very satisfied” with the broadband service, receiving (8 to 10 on a 10 point scale). Only three percent of subscribers stated they were not satisfied (1 to 3).
Interestingly, 77 percent admitted to not knowing their home Internet speeds, yet still 66 percent stated they were satisfied with the speeds (only six percent were not satisfied). In fact, 44 percent of consumers were not interested in getting higher speeds for their home broadband, and only 26 percent said they were very interested.
According to Leichtman’s research, half of all U.S. households became subscribers to broadband Internet over the past 6 years, and during this rapid growth period, most people have remained happy with their service.
Only three percent said that broadband is not available in their area, and only 1.4 percent said they’d like to have broadband, but it is not available to them. Only one percent of households are interested in broadband, but claim that cost is the reason they do not subscribe.
For those of you who follow this blog, you probably know that I’ve spent my entire career working in television.
As my bio says on the Insight website, it all started when I was a young kid and would ride my bike down to the local NBC station in Miami. It was an era when the staff could allow me to help out in the studio while they produced and aired an after school children's show and the local news.
Since then, I’ve always paid close attention to what’s going on in the television world – especially when it comes to news.
Some of us remember when we could turn on the local news and find all of the information that really mattered in our lives. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, what we saw on those local news shows changed. It became less in-depth and less relevant than it once was.
That doesn’t mean the real news wasn’t still out there waiting to be covered. to the contrary, it just seemed like the news that mattered got pushed aside in favor of more trivial topics that were simply easier to cover. The news has definitely changed and so has the way we get our information too.
That’s why I’m proud that, after a “soft launch” period over the past few weeks, Insight’s very own channel is now up and fully operational – cn|2 – a brand new kind of news and information network.
These days, our customers simply don’t get their news and opinions in the same old way they used to. They are looking for more local, more timely, and more thorough coverage of issues that impact their lives. There is a new day dawning in the type of information our customers are looking for and the various ways they receive it.
That is where cn|2 comes in.
cn|2 is now on channel 2 in our Louisville, Northern Kentucky, Lexington, Evansville and Bowling Green markets. It is starting out as a 24 hour all-weather channel that provides up-to-the-minute, in-depth coverage of the most reliable local forecasts. Customers will get their local weather forecasts round the clock, every 10 minutes, starting at the top of the hour. And if a severe storm is nearby, cn|2 will stay with the coverage. This format will continue on until the Fall when we plan to roll out new programming focusing on local news, the Fall political campaign season, and sports.
In fact, our cn|2 Politics efforts have already begun with the addition of Kentucky’s top political writer to the cn|2 team, former Lexington Herald-Leader reporter Ryan Alessi. Ryan will be featured on political shows this Fall, but he’s already started up a new website focusing on Kentucky politics. You can check it out here, or, if you’re a fan of Facebook, visit the new cn|2 Politics page.
In some of our markets, you may have noticed some outdoor billboard ads announcing cn|2. We’re also now running TV spots on our cable networks to promote the channel.
Insight has always been committed to the communities we serve, but cn|2 represents one of the most significant investments we’ve ever made in serving our customers.
The potential for cn|2 is limitless and I look forward to keeping you posted as more announcements are made in the weeks to come.
Google has long been a proponent of using portions of the broadcast television spectrum for wireless broadband, lobbying the FCC to free up so-called "white space" broadband now that broadcasters have converted to digital. It's called white space because the technology uses the portions of the broadcast spectrum that were freed up after the conversion from analog to digital. Frequency sensing and geolocation technology are used to attempt to avoid interfering with television and cable, and the technology isn't quite perfected yet.
Regardless, Google appears to be testing one of the first applications of white space in the field in Plumas-Sierra County in California. The company has partnered with the local rural electric cooperative and a company called Spectrum Bridge that has a database of television broadcaster data used to avoid white space interference. The three partners are testing white space devices on a smart grid network, allowing customers to connect their electric meter to broadband which provides real-time monitoring of power usage.
While it will be marginally instructive to see how Google's white space trials work in these rural areas (much of the test area is national forest land), there are questions about whether these locations have a typical number of broadcast and cable television applications that could be interfered with by white space devices.
Users of the Mozilla Firefox browser will be relieved to know that a recent update will remedy browser crashes when third-party plugins crash. Prior to the update, when a plugin like Adobe's Flash unexpectedly crashed, it would manage to take Firefox down with it. Wit the release of Firefox 3.6.4, the issue is isolated to the plugin and the user is notified that the plugin crashed. A refresh of the affected page will restart the plugin.
The new crash protection is due to out-of-process technology, which runs each plugin as a separate process. Other plugins that will be affected by the fix include Microsoft's Silverlight and Apple's Quicktime. Before this change, only Google's Chrome browser utilized this crash prevention technology.
Firefox users on Windows and Linux will notice the changes with the upgrade, but Mac Firefox users, like me, aren't as lucky because the change requires a major rebuild of the browser which hasn't occurred yet.
Popular social networking web site Facebook may be slowing in growth, but it's poised to hit a substantial milestone in the next month as it passes 500 million active users. From December of last year when it had 350 million, the site has gained 150 million users. Previous to that time, the site was increasing by a rate of around 3 percent each week or doubling every six months. With the huge base they now have, it's predictable that, while the site continues to grow, it is slowing from the previous exponential rate.
According to All Facebook, the site is planning the release of a project to coincide with the announcement of the 500 millionth user.
But, don't expect to find out who lucky number 500 million is. It's unlikely that even Facebook will know due to the distributed system that they employ for the site. But, as soon as user 500,000,000 joins an announcement will be made. Expect that to happen by mid-July.
Google's wi-fi data gathering problems appear to have worsened this week. As readers will recall, Google announced that its Street View fleet gathered over 600 GB of data from unsecured wi-fi networks. Governmental privacy authorities around the globe have announced investigations of the data collection practices. This week, 30 U.S. state attorney generals announced a collaborative investigation of the company's practices in the incident.
Now, the French National Commission on Computing and Liberty is reporting that Google actually used to collect data to record email access passwords and certain email message content. This report is based on Google's decision to release the data it collected to investigators. Obviously if users were transmitting login credentials across their unsecured wireless network at the time a Google Street View vehicle passed by, those pieces of data would have been collected.
If there was any doubt that Apple's iPad is making a big splash among consumers, one only needs to look to today's announcement from the company that it has sold the 3 millionth iPad since the device's launch. According to the company, it took around one month to sell one million units. The second million took another month. Now, in just over three weeks, Apple has sold the third million.
Apple plans to launch the device in several countries outside the U.S. next month, and many observers expect the pace to pick up. There's been no word yet about whether the wi-fi version or wi-fi and 3G version has proved to be more popular among consumers.
According to Mashable, Amazon and Barnes and Noble have cut the price of their competing devices, revealing the pressure Apple's iBook store is putting on the Kindle and Nook.
The 2010 World Cup is one of the first major sporting events available for viewing on three platforms simultaneously - television, streaming online and mobile phone. ESPN has reported online viewing counts for the first four days of the tournament via ESPN3 which total 1.7 million viewers. On the mobile platform, viewers have streamed over 1 million videos of the soccer games in the same time period.
How does online and mobile viewing stack up against traditional television when it comes to the World Cup? Sixty-five percent of the ESPN/ABC audience for the games only viewed them on television, while 24 percent watched on television and another medium and 11 percent only took in the tournament on another medium. Those watching via another platform took in more content than the television only viewers, accounting for 52 percent of the usage of World Cup content.
It's been around a year since the transition to digital over-the-air television broadcast, and research firm Retrevo decided to figure out what Americans think about the transition a year out. As it turns out, there's still a question in many minds whether the digital transition was worth it.
Retrevo asked 200 television viewers whether the transition was a good thing. A bare majority of 51% indicated that is was. Twenty-three percent said that it wasn't a good thing and 26 percent still didn't know a year out from the transition.
Of the respondents, 52 percent were unaffected by the transition - they didn't have to change anything about their televisions to continue watching uninterrupted. Forty-one percent had to buy a digital converter box and another 19 percent bought a new television capable of receiving digital over-the-air broadcasts. According to Retrevo 13 percent subscribed to cable or satellite before the transition, 11 percent bought a new antenna and 12 percent ended up with at least one television that went dark as a result of the digital television transition.
With Hulu rumored to be exploring an option for Apple iPad users to stream its video content, it appears that CBS.com is experimenting with HTML5 for its videos. Because the iPad does not support Adobe Flash - the most popular standard for online video content - rich web content must be in HTML5. Apple made the decision not to support Flash for the iPad based on what they describe as performance and security concerns, opting for HTML5 instead.
Currently, the CBS.com work with HTML5 is limited to testing its use on the site. On the site, some Star Trek videos appear playable when viewed from an iPad. However, the buttons that say "play video" aren't currently active.
This article speculates that CBS may not only be interested in putting their content in front of the 2 million plus iPad owners in the U.S., but that the company is making a statement about its preference toward open standard HTML5 in future devices and computers.
Online video enthusiasts have claimed for some time that large numbers of cable video customers were dropping their video service in favor of online video streamed over broadband. The impact of the so-called cord cutting movement has been a topic of significant discussion among trend watchers, but with little data to support the notion, its been unclear how large it really is. Nielsen has released data regarding cord-cutting, revealing that it's largely non-existent over the past three years.
The percentage of U.S. households with broadband but without cable video service was 3.9 percent in January of this year. That's unchanged since last January and only marginally higher than in January of 2008. On the other hand, the percentage of households with cable video and broadband has jumped from 54.8 percent to 66.3 percent from January 2008 to this January. This indicates a strong trend toward customers subscribing to both products, but little to no evidence of widespread cord-cutting.
Given that Nielsen also has found that online video viewing only accounts for 2.5 percent of all video consumption of Americans, it's no surprise that the cord-cutting phenomenon isn't showing up in the research about customers' behavior toward cable's video product.
Microsoft announced that Xbox 360 users with an Xbox Gold membership would gain access to 3,500 live sporting events each year via ESPN 3. Several tech blogs - including TechCruch - saw the move as a way to get live sports without the need for a subscription to cable service. But, digging deeper into the Microsoft/ESPN announcement revealed that's not exactly the case.
As Todd Spangler at Multichannel points out, not every ESPN televised sporting event shows up on ESPN 3 - Monday Night Football, for instance, isn't carried on ESPN 3. Furthermore, only subscribers to broadband providers that have worked out deals with ESPN to offer ESPN 3 will be have access to the streaming sports on the Xbox 360. In other words, ESPN 3 will be offered on a new platform, but not under materially different terms than it currently is offered. By the way, Insight subscribers are offered access to ESPN 3 streaming sports.
It's still a great value-add for cable subscribers and it gives Xbox 360 users something else to do with a very capable gaming console, but it's not going to replace the thrill of watching premium live sports on a cable-connected television.
The Multimedia Over Coax Alliance (MOCA) has announced the finalization of the MOCA 2.0 standard, which looks like it has a lot of promise in moving large amounts of data, such as high definition video, around a home. MOCA aims to use existing coaxial cable in the walls to move multiple streams of HD video around the home. The MOCA 2.0 standard will push those streams from room-to-room at 400 Mbps in standard mode and 800 Mbps in an enhanced mode.
Compare that to the current MOCA standard, which maxes out at 175 Mbps. MOCA 2.0 will be backward-compatible with current MOCA certified devices, so there's no need to ditch equipment for MOCA 2.0 compatibility.
The new MOCA standard has also baked in new power saving modes to reduce energy usage and reliability improvements to reduce latency and error rates in transmissions.
The Internet has been abuzz about potential developments coming from Hulu, the popular long-form streaming video site. Among the myriad rumors were talks that the online video provider would be making its services available on several new devices and that Hulu’s service would be changing from free to subscription-based.
Reuters is reporting that two sources and another “with knowledge of the matter” have confirmed that Hulu will in fact be coming to other devices, directly naming the iPad and Xbox 360. A subscription service is in the works as well, for Hulu as a whole, not just on these particular devices. However, users will apparently still be able to view new episodes of TV shows for free. The subscription would only be necessary for older episodes and additional subscription-only content.
According to the report, the iPad and Xbox 360 development will be announced in the next month or two.
If you're one of the millions that are clamoring for the new iPhone 4, but have questions about AT&T's shaky data network, there's some relief in the wi-fi capabilities of the device. The iPhone 4 features 802.11 N wi-fi, a speed upgrade over the slower G standard that's featured in the current iPhone 3G S. The 802.11 N standard allows wireless routers to take advantage of faster broadband speeds, upwards of 100 Mbps. That means super-fast surfing on the iPhone 4.
This post indicates that the iPhone 4's wi-fi chipset supports N standard routers that operate in the 2.4 GHz spectrum - the same spectrum that B and G routers use - but not N standard routers that solely use the 5 GHz spectrum. This is a bit of a disadvantage to users in areas crowded with lots of wi-fi hotspots, as there is an increased chance of interference with lots of wi-fi routers occupying the same 2.4 GHz spectrum. Nonetheless, this post cites Seattle Times tech columnist Glenn Fleishman estimates of at least a 150 percent improvement in broadband speed throughput with the new N chipset on the iPhone 4.
But don't go running to buy one. AT&T was so overloaded with orders, they have filled their initial capacity for authorizing new devices and, according to reports, have temporarily halted sales until they catch up.
It seems everyone with either a television or an Internet connection has voiced an opinion on the TV versus Internet video issues, with opinions ranging from Internet video posing no threat to Internet video completely replacing TV as we know it.
Until recently, the reality was that regular TV viewership had actually increased since the Internet video movement began, causing many to think that Internet video would never be anything more than a complimentary service to cable and broadcast TV. However, the Wall Street Journal recently posted an article noting a significant change in the way Internet video is viewed that may shed a little more light on the topic.
Peak viewing time on video streaming site Blip.tv has moved to 8:00pm to 11:00pm eastern time, in direct competition with prime time broadcast and cable programming. Nielsen ratings also indicate primetime growth of Internet video viewership, rising 14% during those evening hours.
Previously, online-video watching thrived during the daytime, causing many to lean toward the “complimentary” view of Internet video. With the primetime numbers going up, Internet video providers could gain more access to programming options and advertisements, which could significantly strengthen the industry.
Another important note in the Wall Street Journal piece is that “Internet video” does not only consist of YouTube video and similar short clip video. The CEO of Revision3, another online video provider, said that 40% of his company’s users claim to watch their videos on a TV through various hardware or software products (up from 25% last year).
In 2008, Roku became the first manufacturer to create a set-top box allowing for Netflix streaming video services. Roku had consistently been one of the highest rated Netflix players as well. However, Netflix recently sent an email to an unknown number of its subscribers offering a 5% discount on next month’s bill due to difficulties viewing Netflix videos on Roku players. I received one.
It is unclear how many Netflix subscribers received the email. Roku has grown to over 500,000 users, and many of those users are likely also Netflix subscribers (though the Roku can also be used for other video streaming services, such as Amazon and MLB.TV).
Apparently the Netflix Roku channel pulls more data from Netflix servers than other players, and this has resulted in many users having trouble viewing videos from the channel, particularly during weekends and other peak usage times. It happened to me a couple of weekends ago when I was at the beach in New Jersey. I had trouble pulling the program in and, when it finally arrived, the picture quality was sub-par. A spokesman for Netflix referred to the problem as a “choking effect” and stated that Netflix is working with Roku to ensure greater performance and reliability.
After thousands of iPad users had their email addresses exposed by a flaw in AT&T's web site, the company has issued an apology for the data breach and has blamed the problem on hackers that reported the breach to online media outlets. The flaw was discovered by a group of hackers that called itself Goatse Security - which found that entering the unique ICC-ID for an iPad into an AT&T authentication web site revealed the email address for the user owning that iPad. The hackers used a script to automate the ICC-ID entry process, revealing thousands of otherwise private email addresses to them, later turning the email addresses over to the online media which reported on the flaw.
For its part, AT&T has emailed users to apologize for the breach and has turned off the feature on its web site that allowed Goatse to access the email addresses. AT&T's email indicates that the hackers "maliciously exploited" a function on their web site to reveal the email addresses. The FBI also announced that it is launching an investigation into the issue.
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