video-on-demand

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.)

On Demand Group (ODG), the London-based content-aggregation-and-management subsidiary of SeaChange International, contacted [itvt] Wednesday to let us know that it is providing a fully managed VOD offering for United Arab Emirates-based telco, du, as part of the latter's du TV and du TV+ IPTV services.

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.

In a posting on the company's blog last week, Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu--the free, ad-supported broadband video venture co-owned by The Walt Disney Company (ABC), NBC Universal and News Corp. (Fox)--provided some data on Hulu's growth over the past year. According to Kilar:

IP Vision--a company, backed by French set-top box vendor, Netgem, which currently offers a hybrid set-top box, called the FetchTV SmartBox, that combines reception of linear channels from the UK's free-to-air digital terrestrial platform, Freeview, with OTT access to pay-per-view and subscription-based online VOD services, as well as to free, online programming catch-up services such as the BBC iPlayer (note: the company says that the box--which can be connected to any broadband access service--will support BSkyB's Sky Player service early next year)--last week announced plans to offer its FetchTV platform on third-party set-tops

VOD and advanced advertising technology provider, SeaChange International, will today announce that its AdPulse On Demand solution for on-demand ad insertion is being tested using Comcast Media Center's (CMC) VOD content distribution platform, which reaches around 35 million US households.

In a posting on a corporate blog Monday, Hulu, the free, ad-supported broadband video venture co-owned by The Walt Disney Company (ABC), NBC Universal and News Corp. (Fox), announced that it is launching a user-generated/crowd-sourced tagging system to facilitate content discovery, because its video catalog has now "grown to a size where tags will prove extremely useful": "Those of you who are heavy users of the Web are likely already familiar with the benefits of tags as both a classification system and a discovery tool," the posting--authored by Hulu product manager, Varun Narang--stated.

Cable industry-owned VOD content aggregator, iN Demand, contacted [itvt] Monday to let us know that it will be distributing first-run movies representing over a billion dollars in domestic box office to cable VOD systems in December--which it says is a record. According to the company, eight of the 14 titles it is making available on-demand that month will be day-and-date with their DVD release. The 14 titles are:

Canadian cable MSO, Shaw Communications, has announced the launch of its new VOD Web site (http://www.vod.shaw.ca), which it says offers thousands of movies and TV shows, including premium content from Movie Central, 500 HD offerings and various high-profile sporting events. According to the company, the site features a redesigned look-and-feel, improved search capabilities, filtering and sorting. The company also says that Super Channel subscribers have been able to access that channel's VOD offerings through the new site since November 3rd.

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

Cable industry-owned VOD content-aggregator, iN Demand, contacted [itvt] Tuesday to let us know that it is offering several free VOD programs on cable systems around the US, as well as two exclusive online documentaries, in order to drive interest in this Saturday's pay-per-view championship boxing match between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto.

Immersive Media, a Portland, Oregon-based company that has developed a patented technology, dubbed IM LIVE, that enables viewer-controlled, 360-degree, live, full-motion, interactive video experiences (note: the experience of watching video powered by the technology is akin to watching a video version of Google Street View), will today announce a deployment of the technology with Canada's MuchMusic, which plans to use it to stream live video from its MuchOnDemand studio to visitors to its Web site, muchmusic.com, in order to complement its on-air programming.

Flumotion, a Barcelona-based company best known for developing an open source multi-format video streaming software that it claims allows streaming of content "live and on-demand in all the leading formats from a single server," contacted [itvt] Wednesday to let us know about a new broadband video service it has developed for Spanish broadcaster, Cuatro.

Satellite TV operator, DirecTV, on Tuesday announced a deal with Mark Cuban's HDNet that the companies say will result in over 20 hours of HDTV programming from HDNet, and over 25 movies from its sister channel, HDNet Movies, being made available on DirecTV's VOD platform every month. "HDNet has been a part of the DirecTV platform since its debut in 2001 and we are excited to continue to grow our relationship with the launch of its new on-demand service," Dan Hartman, DirecTV's SVP of programming, said in a prepared statement. "HDNet's line-up of unique movies and sports programming is a perfect addition to the DirecTV On Demand platform, which offers more than 5,000 titles for customers to choose from."

Ericsson-subsidiary, Tandberg Television, said Monday that Hybrid Television Services, the exclusive licensee of TiVo products in Australia and New Zealand, is deploying a complete suite of its software solutions to power a broadband VOD service/portal for TiVo customers in Australia and in New Zealand (note: Hybrid TV last week launched the DVR platform in the latter country). Dubbed CASPA On-Demand, the portal will provide Australian and New Zealand TiVo users with over-the-top access to a range of new-release movies, popular TV shows, free music videos, artist interviews and music concerts, Hybrid TV says. "People want to watch television on the television," Hybrid TV CEO, Robbee Minicola, said in a prepared statement.