movies

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 broadband video and over-the-top (OTT) 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.

In a posting on its corporate blog, Wednesday afternoon, YouTube announced that it is introducing an "experimental version" of an HTML5-based video player. YouTube recently used its blog to canvas users on what kinds of new features they would like to see on its video sharing service, and, according to the company, the "number one request was that YouTube do more with HTML5." HTML5 is "a new Web standard that is gaining popularity rapidly and adds many new features to your Web experience," YouTube's blog posting explains. "Most notably for YouTube users, HTML5 includes support for video and audio playback.

AT&T has launched an interactive application, called Film Awards Interactive, for the iPhone/iPod touch and for its Microsoft Mediaroom-powered IPTV platform, U-verse TV. According to AT&T, among other things, the free app lets consumers use their remote control or their iPhone/iPod touch screen to:

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) last week announced the launch of a new mobile phone application that will initially be available for iPhone/iPod touch, BlackBerry and Android handheld devices, and that the company says will subsequently support "dozens" of additional handhelds. "The TCM mobile device application is the ultimate mobile experience for classic film fans and is an important part of our strategy to solidify TCM's position as a lifestyle brand," Dennis Adamovich, TCM's SVP of brand and digital activation, said in a prepared statement.

MSO Comcast and premium programmer HBO last week announced a partnership that will see the companies promoting HBO's new World War II-themed miniseries, "The Pacific," to Comcast digital subscribers via a range of supplemental VOD content. (Note: the 10-hour miniseries, which will premiere March 14th and which was executive produced by Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Gary Goetzman, the team behind the 2001 HBO miniseries, "Band of Brothers," follows the intertwined war experiences of three real-life US Marine veterans of the Pacific Theater, Robert Leckie, Eugene Sledge and John Basilone.)

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

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.

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:

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--announced Monday that it has secured a multiplatform (linear, on-demand and online) distribution agreement with cable MSO, Cox Communications, that will see it being made available to Cox's movie tier customers starting in April. The deal is Epix's second with an MSO: until now, it has been available only through Verizon FiOS TV.

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.

An adult entertainment company called EroticVision.TV (EVTV) has announced the launch of an over-the-top-TV service for the Roku platform, and says that it is currently developing similar services for other connected TV devices and platforms. At launch, the service features SD and HD content from fetish/BDSM Web site, Wasteland.com, though it is expected to offer access to other broadband video pornography sites over time.

Cable MSO, Charter Communications, has launched an "on-demand reminder service" that sends customers text or email reminders, alerting them to new movie releases, events and premieres available on its VOD platform. Customers can register to receive the reminders, which are based on both title and category searches, at http://www.charter.net/reminders.

Canadian cable operator, Rogers Communications, on Monday announced the widespread availability of the beta version of Rogers On Demand Online, its initial implementation of the so-called "TV Everywhere" distribution model (note: the "TV Everywhere" distribution model seeks, via authentication technology, to make programming that pay-TV customers have already paid for through their cable, satellite or IPTV subscriptions available to those customers on multiple Web sites and platforms, and thus aims to head off the threat posed to pay-TV services by the increasing availability of over-the-top programming--for some background on TV Everywhere, see the articles published on itvt.co