Record 589 Million Views Served, Up 15% Year Over Year

VOD views on a month over month basis are soaring! On demand views for June 2008 grew by 15% for June 2009. "For 2008, operators served 3.8 billion VOD orders (excluding adult programming), a year-over-year increase of 28%, according to Rentrak's annual report." This data from Rentrak represents data from the top cable operators covering over 70 million digital cable set-top boxes. Viewers love VOD!!!

It would also be valuable to get the research on unique user growth. Are more viewers using VOD or are the current users simply watching more VOD. And what the average number of titles viewed per set top box is and how much that is rising too. "This June, subscribers viewed an average of 16.5 minutes of VOD per day per active unique set-top box, up 10% from the previous month. Free VOD children's content had its best month of the year, with 106 million views, a 7% increase over May." I would expect to see a noticeable bump in new usage although there still remains a significant portion of the population hesitant to use VOD, especially on a transactional basis, as opposed to free on demand.

Comcast Teams With RealNetworks For Web Games

Can't get enough games, well more is on the way. Comcast is adding games through its internet portal as well. "Through the partnership with RealNetworks' RealGames division, Comcast.net users can download trial versions or buy full-version games. In addition, the site offers a subscription service, GamePass, that allows customers to purchase games for $6.99 per month." As a fan of casual gaming, it could be fun; but with so many other web sites and social networks offering gaming as well, I wonder how differentiated these games are from those. And would exclusivity on a game through a particular IP provider be another differentiation tool in the fight for customers. "Comcast also said it is using a tool from marketing-technology company Bunchball to provide broadband customers with "reward-based activities" that include earning points through game play and redeeming them for virtual goods." Are real rewards and prizes, like free movie rentals and premium discounts, the way to go. It might just further incent me to remain loyal.

Kindle and Amazon Have Got Some Competition

Barnes and Noble don't want to go down without a fight. As digital content becomes more accepted, book stores, like record stores before them will go away. To stay in business, Barnes and Noble needs to adapt to a changing business model. And you can't let Amazon and Kindle get all the book business. "The book retail giant just announced its new e-book strategy. It includes:
An e-book store with 700,000 titles and pricing competitive to Amazon's, including $9.99 bestsellers. An exclusive deal to provide e-books for the forthcoming Plastic Logic e-book reader, which will debut early next year. More than 500,000 public domain books from Google, which are free."

Will they beat out Kindle; hard to say. The Kindle name has gotten more awareness and buzz, both good and bad. Having not played with either device, it is hard to say which will come out stronger. My neighbor has a Kindle and raves about it. In fact, he was thrilled to show it off except he forgot to turn off the wireless and he drained the battery. No reading material for him at the pool! Still, it holds a lot of books and newspapers in a small package. I still believe that Apple should enter the fray. Their experience with the iPod and iTunes and their App store give them a competitive advantage to build and distribute a device that offers reading content. I hope they announce one soon!

The Price Of Connectivity - Big Brother Retains Control

Don't be mistake, this move by Amazon is only the tip of the iceberg. And how ironic that it affected a George Orwell novel, 1984, that literally talks about Big Brother. While Amazon may be all apologetic and thinking that they were protecting the rights of the copyright holder, their ability to remotely delete content from their device, without notice, and without customer knowledge, spells bad news. It demonstrates first hand the ability of a big company to take information away from the masses, to control what we can and can't own, and to take a piece of our privacy away, one deletion at a time.

"Amazon appears to have deleted other purchased e-books from Kindles recently. Customers commenting on Web forums reported the disappearance of digital editions of the Harry Potter books and the novels of Ayn Rand over similar issues." Without our knowledge and without our consent, it demonstrate oh too well that Big Brother is not only watching what we do, but controlling what we can or can't have. How will this affect Kindle sales and what will the on-going buzz be in the digital community. I'm eager to know how outraged the public will become. Or apathetic. And that is problematic, too!

Widgets And Web Video Added To Verizon’s FiOS TV

I am not a FIOS customer, but I do get the appeal of connecting the web to the TV. In my search for a big screen HDTV, one option that intrigues me is internet access. Some sets offer similar connectivity, others do not. And as a feature on a TV set, I wonder if I don't, will my HDTV purchase be outdated the moment I bring it home. As a cable customer, I have yet to hear what they are planning to do to improve the set top box and the user experience. Verizon/FIOS may have figured it out quicker. "Verizon’s FiOS TV is about to start overflowing with widgets. According to a recent press release, the company will be launching their Widget Bazaar later this month with a few free applications including Facebook, Twitter, and ESPN’s Fantasy Football widget." While they do not yet talk about downloading and viewing web video on the TV, it seems like a natural next step. Do consumers want to converge the web/TV experience or will it inevitable stay two screen but with interactivity associated with each device to the other. or a combination of both. That is certainly the direction it is taking.

1.5 Million Still Don't Have Digital TV

A month later and there are still over 1 and a half million people without TV, and the question is, do they miss it. Is this number entirely accurate? Do they even care? "According to Nielsen, 1.5 million TV households, or 1.3% of the country, remain unready for DTV as of July 12, a month after the June 12 transition date." It certainly is far less than the 5 million number that some thought would be without TV. Still, I wonder why those people have chosen not to get a DTV converter or access via cable, telco, or satellite. Perhaps they know more than we think.

VOD Growing, But Lags Behind DVR Use

VOD has incredible potential to outshine the DVR because it is a reactive device, not a proactive one. There is no advance decision to record a program so as to not miss it. The show or movie is simply available. The challenge, and the reason that VOD has not grown faster, is that the functionality and user friendly buttons are arcane. The tree and branch approach to access programming, the latency for buttons to activate, the occasional drop off, forcing the viewer to restart the search, all hurt its acceptance and appeal. "There are far too many buttons to push, and if you’re chugging through season 4 of Entourage, you have to navigate back and forth between menus in an irritating fashion." Until controls, speed, and userability improves, VOD will continue to lag behind Tivo and the DVR.

UPDATE - iPhone App Store Downloads Cross 1.5 Billion In First Year

Per Silicon Alley..."More than 1.5 billion applications were downloaded from Apple's (AAPL) iPhone App Store in one year, the company said today.

Calling it "the largest applications store in the world," Apple said its app store currently has more than 65,000 apps and 100,000 developers in its iPhone Developer Program.

Apple also said it has shipped more than 40 million devices -- iPod Touches and iPhones -- that use the app store."

Amazing!

MySpace To Become An Entertainment Portal

As Facebook has been clobbering My Space, the suits have come up with a way to differentiate My Space as an entertainment portal. They have hired the head of Sling Media, Jason Hirschhorn, and hope that he can bring back the magic. "That experience should help him figure out how to shoehorn Fox's entertainment assets, MySpace Music, and Hulu content into an entertainment portal people will actually want to use." But can it be done?

My Space seems to still have a core audience in the music space, including singers and bands promoting their own songs and albums. Does that home grown content fly in the world of more professionally produced material or does it augment the value of the community it serves?

I think the one thing these video portal sites lack is that ability to easily search by any number of key words and to recommend based on personal preferences. Viewers, when faced with too many choices, some times choose none of the above. A site that is perceived as delivering an expertise and simplified approach across an aggregate of content may just win over a number of viewers. Otherwise, these individual sites will simply be bookmarked and viewed without a My Space portal approach.