For Time Warner Cable and other operators, TV apps are one way to provide more value to subscribers and to make more streaming content available than what they have in their traditional VOD libraries. And for consumer electronics manufacturers, these type of apps provide more content that their consumers can access on the devices.

Last year at CES, Time Warner Cable announced plans to build apps for Sony and Samsung broadband-connected TV sets. However, those apps have yet to materialize, it’s not clear when the Panasonic app — or Time Warner Cable apps for any other CE device — would make it into the market. TWC Director of Digital Communications Jeff Simmermon told me by email that the company would like to launch apps sometime this year across multiple platforms, but didn’t have any launch timing to share.

Time Warner Cable is just one of many cable operators looking to build connected TV apps. Samsung, for instance, was showing apps from Comcast, Verizon and DirecTV in its booth at CES. A representative said those apps would show up on its platform later this year.

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00:03:09 – Xbox 360 Dashboard update review (fall 2011)
00:03:50 – Xbox 360′s new video services won’t all launch right away; Comcast, Verizon, and HBO Go delayed
00:12:15 – Xbox Companion app for WP7 will launch alongside the new dashboard December 6th
00:39:00 – DirecTV’s new five tuner HR34 Home Media Center DVR ready to launch December 8th?
00:45:29 – Hands-on with Dijit’s universal remote app for iPad
00:51:07 – Cox TV Connect app brings more live cable TV streaming to iPads
00:55:00 – Time Warner Cable’s tablet app available for Android, live TV streaming still iPad only
00:53:56 – BBC brings global iPlayer iPad app to Canada, one step closer to the US
00:55:09 – Lovefilm’s movie streaming will switch from Flash to Silverlight on PCs in 2012
00:57:53 – Verizon scores new spectrum from Comcast, Time Warner and Bright House for .6 billion (update)
01:00:29 – Kogan advertises Samsung LCDs in its HDTVs, Samsung would rather not take credit
01:02:09 – Lenovo trudging into the smart TV arena, plans LeTV launch in Q1 2012 (update: aka IdeaTV)
01:04:39 – Must See HDTV (December 5th – 11th)

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Engadget HD Podcast 277 – 12.06.2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Dec 2011 10:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After waiting years for someone to deliver the first RVU-capable multiroom DVR setup, info leaked to SatelliteGuys indicates we only have to hold out one more week for DirecTV’s HR34 DVR. While DirecTV has yet to make an official announcement, retailer info states that it will be available starting Thursday for just after rebate (9 rack rate), bringing five tuners, 1TB of storage, whole home DVR service in up to four active rooms, and more. Of course, we’ll need to see some of the RVU-compatible HDTVs mentioned (Samsung 6000, 6400, and 6420 series) released before we can ditch the extra satellite TV boxes for good, but this is the first step. Hit the source link for more details including a full spec sheet PDF.

DirecTV’s new five tuner HR34 Home Media Center DVR ready to launch December 8th? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Miso has spent the last year experimenting with different social elements, trying to figure out which work and which don’t. It’s also struck some partnerships with operators like DirecTV and AT&T’s U-verse that let its apps know what viewers are watching without having to “check in” to shows. Now it’s looking to leverage those partnerships and its platform to allow content partners to create engaging experiences through its mobile apps.

While investors are betting on Miso, some of its competition has fallen on hard times: Miso’s funding comes three days after competitor BeeTV announced it was shutting down services and attempting to sell off all assets and IP. And competitor Philo was acquired by LocalResponse in what seemed like a fire sale earlier this year.

We’ve seen some consolidation in the social TV app segment already, but Miso CEO Somrat Niyogi expects more of the same in 2012, as competitors either shut down or get acquired. The good news for Miso, at least, is that with the most recent funding it’s gotten some runway and validation from a pretty well-regarded investor. Now it just needs to take that money and execute on its plans.

Miso has 12 employees currently, but Niyogi said the company is likely to double headcount in 2012. Since being founded in 2010, the company has raised a total of million, including a .5 million round in January.

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Engadget HD Podcast 262 – 08.23.2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Aug 2011 22:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last year DirecTV started offering NFL Sunday Ticket To-Go access even to those who couldn’t / wouldn’t get their satellite packages, and it’s upping the ante this year by bringing its slate of football games to the PlayStation 3. NFL Sunday Ticket To-Go is still a add-on that adds HD streaming access on PCs and mobile devices, however this year there’s also an app for the Motorola Xoom and Samsung Galaxy Android tablets. PS3 owners can get in on the action either by adding the To-Go option or paying a flat 9.95 without DirecTV service. Of course, it’s still interested in enticing people to switch to the dish by offering Sunday Ticket at no additional charge for new subscribers — just ask fairy Deion Sanders after the break. No word on any apps for Boxee, Roku and the rest, but other new additions for the 2011 season (now that the lockout is resolved and it’s actually happening) include a new four channel mix with larger cells for those late afternoon games, and integration with NFL.com Fantasy Football that lets viewers keep up with their scores and players right on the TV.

Continue reading DirecTV brings NFL Sunday Ticket to Android tablets and the PS3 this fall

DirecTV brings NFL Sunday Ticket to Android tablets and the PS3 this fall originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Aug 2011 16:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With Cablevision reporting a loss of 23,000 subscribers and Dish Network shedding 135,000 in the second quarter, the U.S. pay TV industry has lost nearly 200,000 subscribers in the second-quarter — and those are just the ones we know about. But if there was a lack of concern about cord cutters on second-quarter earnings calls, it’s not because operators were unaware of the losses; it’s because in most cases, they didn’t want those subscribers anyway.

As seen in the chart below, public pay-TV providers collectively shed 193,000 subscribers in the most recent quarter. While losses by cable providers are nothing new, they are usually offset by stronger growth in satellite and IPTV providers picking up the slack. That didn’t happen this quarter, as somewhat weak growth by IPTV providers and a big loss at Dish highlighted what seems to be an exodus of pay TV subscribers amidst a weak economy.

When the numbers actually shake out, things are likely to be even worse than this. Keep in mind that these are just the top eight public pay TV providers, and most of those above operate in metropolitan markets. There’s a number of Tier 2 and Tier 3 providers not in this list, and many of those are in rural or underserved areas where the down economy has hit even harder.

Is competition really the cause?

On most of the earnings calls we sat in on over the past several weeks, there seemed to be a common refrain: Cable and satellite providers were losing subscribers in part due to increased competition and deals from the telco providers — Verizon and AT&T — who are aggressively buying share with steep upfront discounts.

But a look at the actual numbers doesn’t seem to bear that out. AT&T added 202,000 video subscribers in the second quarter, while Verizon added 184,000 in the same period. The addition of about 386,000 video subscribers combined is not out of line with previous quarters, and in fact is actually a little low compared to the 410,000 the telcos signed up in the first quarter or the 440,000 they added in the fourth quarter.

Will the real cord cutters please stand up?

If those pay TV subscribers aren’t actually going to competitors, where are they going? Most likely they’ve actually become cord cutters — two words that we didn’t hear much of on those earnings calls. In part, that’s because the rhetoric around cord cutters as anti-establishment, online video-watching rebels has largely been dispelled.

Studies have found those going without cable aren’t doing so because of over-the-top streaming offerings. Instead, those who are choosing to go without cable are doing so because they either don’t see much value in pay TV packages, can’t afford to keep paying for TV, or some combination of the two.

Operators acknowledge that the few video subscribers who have left the pay TV ecosystem so far have most commonly been on the bottom end of the cable value chain — that is, generally low-income users that just paid for TV and didn’t subscribe to broadband, HD or other higher-value services. And for most operators, that’s ok because they weren’t very high-margin customers anyway.

The myth of the higher-value customer

Cable providers are increasingly seeking ways to get more money out of their existing subscriber base. As a result, we’ve seen steady increases in average revenue per user (ARPU) as users sign up for more HD, more premium channels, more DVR set-top boxes throughout the home. That’s the reason Comcast’s ARPU stands at about 0, when basic cable service starts at about based on some introductory offers.

On the other side, operators are increasingly shying away from customers who might not want to pay for the premium cable package, multiple DVRs and other bells and whistles. DirecTV and Dish Network both run credit scores of potential subscribers to weed out those who might turn out to be flakes and cancel after an introductory deal is over. The goal — to get customers signed up for as many value-added services as possible — is not just about driving up revenues, but about making those services sticky and increasing customer lock-in.

The problem is that in a world where all the cable operators are trying to sell ever-more expensive packages of services, there’s a sad truth of business they’re running up against, and it’s that not everyone is a luxury car buyer. That is, not everyone is in the market for the biggest and best. But in the cable world, there’s very little choice if all you want is a Kia.

Will cable reach a tipping point?

It’s not enough to blame the weak economy when things get rough and folks stop paying for cable; there’s also a structural problem with the way the industry views its subscribers. In the quest for higher margins and customer retention, those companies are generally willing to sacrifice subscribers at the low end if it means they can get more out of their so-called higher-value customers.

The question is how long the industry can keep pushing ARPU up before it starts to shed some of its better customers — those that aren’t necessarily poor, but don’t have 0 or more a month to spend on entertainment. There’s the old belief that TV is recession-proof, as consumers hunker down and spend more time at home rather than going out when their disposable income gets low. But at some point, the value proposition has to break down — especially when there are other ways to get low-cost video entertainment from services like Netflix or Hulu.

No TV image courtesy of Flickr user Mykl Roventine.

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Much of the rhetoric being bandied about so far seems to imply that Fox is acting in the interests of its cable and satellite distribution partners: By implementing TV Everywhere–type authentication for broadcast content online, it’s merely eliminating some of the friction that’s cropped up in its negotiation over retransmission fees. No one was happy that Fox was demanding more compensation for content that appeared on cable and satellite when, let’s face it, the network was essentially giving the same shows away for free on Fox.com and Hulu.

But adding authentication could also be a clever negotiating tactic as Fox seeks even higher fees from those distribution partners. Let’s say you’re Comcast, Time Warner Cable, DirecTV or any number of other major distributors that haven’t yet signed up for Fox’s mid-August launch of online authentication: Fox comes to you and says that it’s finally implemented a sign-in system that will ensure that only pay-TV or Hulu Plus subscribers will have access to its content the day after it airs online. But now that it has, it would like to get paid a little more in retrans fees, because, after all, it will be providing more value to your subscribers.

Do you pay up? Or do you risk disenfranchising your subscribers, who were once able to watch shows on Hulu the day after they’ve aired but can no longer do so because their cable provider isn’t a part of Fox’s exclusive next-day club?

This is all theoretical, of course, but Fox’s use of Hulu as a negotiating tool is not without precedent. It was Fox, after all, that blocked access to Hulu streams from Cablevision subscribers as part of its bitter dispute over retransmission fees last year. So using next-day access to online content as a way to extort even more retrans dollars wouldn’t be totally out of the question.

And Fox is unlikely to be the only broadcast network to do so. Once it has proven the model that authentication equals more retrans money, you can expect CBS, ABC and NBC to jump on board as well, using next-day access to Hulu and network sites as an incentive to rework their deals with pay-TV providers.

The big loser in all of this will be consumers. They will not only be used as pawns in the next round of retrans fights but as a result will also lose access to a service they’ve been accustomed to getting for free. And as broadcasters use access to online video as a way to squeeze ever-higher retrans fees from distributors, those costs will eventually get passed on to subscribers in the form of higher cable bills.

Fox and other broadcasters might justify the introduction of TV Everywhere–type logins as just extending the existing cable model online. But at the end of the day, it seems “authentication” is just a fancy word for charging users more.

Photo courtesy of (CC BY 2.0) Flickr user pasukaru76

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Just like the web versions of HBO Go and Max Go are accessible both through their own sites and various provider portals, DirecTV has announced it will include access to them in its own apps on iPad, iPhone and “select Android devices” at the same time native Go apps launch. There’s no word on what restrictions may be placed on Android, if it’s just Froyo or higher hardware with Flash accessibility, then that’s one thing, but Netflix-style DRM tie ups could prove to be much more frustrating to our Game of Thrones streaming plans. The announcement came from DirecTV’s official Twitter account which indicated the apps would progress beyond mere remote control and DVR scheduling on the same May 2nd date previously teased in HBO’s YouTube trailer — we’ll wait and see how long it takes to be integrated into similar apps from competitors like Comcast and Verizon FiOS.

DirecTV’s iPad, iPhone, Android apps will also have HBO Go streaming May 2nd originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Apr 2011 18:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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