“Watch Later”: A Hypothetical DVR for Web Video

on June 16, 2009

Venture capitalist Fred Wilson recently proposed the idea of a “Watch Later” queue for the web that connects up to the TV in your living room and to other devices. That web-to-TV linkup is high on his mind given that he’s in investor in Boxee, but is it something that people want?

What I want is a video plugin, where I have a little thing on my browser, anytime you e-mail me a link and I see it in Gmail or you pass a link to me in Friend Feed or Twitter, or I see a link in Facebook, or I come across a video, I just want to bookmark it. But what…I really want [is] to…queue it. And then, after I get home at night, after…dinner with the kids and homework, that hour-long time that I have where I sort of lean back, linear video, I just want to go to my queue which I’ve built up over the past day or two and just boom, sit back and watch linear video, watch this video, and then the next thing is some funny clip somebody sent me and then go watch Charlie Rose …

I can definitely see the behavior Wilson is talking about here, given I actively use an app called Instapaper on my iPhone, where I queue up articles to read offline on the train rather than leaving them open in endless browser tabs.

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Vid-Biz: Netflix, ESPN360, Twitmatic

on May 20, 2009

Windows Media Center Gets Netflix Streaming; agreement lets users watch Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” movies on TVs connected to a Windows Media Center PC. (VentureBeat)

Comcast Scores ESPN360; deal offers the broadband sports channel to the cable company’s internet subscribers. (MediaMemo) ESPN360 will also be offering a ton of live online and mobile Wimbledon coverage this summer. (paidContent)

ffwd Launches Second Rev of Twitter Video Service; Twitmatic lets you search, browse and watch videos from the Twittersphere. (Epicenter Blog) See our initial impressions of the first rev.

National DTV Test Running Tomorrow; every broadcast television network and many television stations across the country to conduct multiple soft tests tomorrow, transmitting a message that only TVs still in need of an upgrade will be able to read. (DTV Answers)

YouTube Launching YouTube Biz Blog; will act as a forum for more product and content announcements that are more business, advertiser and partner focused. First announcement is melding of Google Analytics and branded channel data. (YouTube Biz Blog)

Wal-Mart Bolstering Blu-ray, HD Inventory; plans to put a $198 Blu-ray Disc Player in stores this week, and will boost its selection of Blu-ray titles. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Hollywood Studios Win Injunction Against Zattoo; Universal and Warner Bros. block the Swiss video streaming service from running commercials with their films. (Variety)

ffwd Hops on Twitter Bandwagon with Twitmatic

on March 11, 2009

twitmaticVideo discovery service ffwd has created a new project called Twitmatic, which surfaces videos being shared by Twitter users. Like the OneRiot “real-time” video search engine that we covered yesterday, Twitmatic tries to extract timely and relevant stuff to watch by analyzing postings and social activity on the web.

Twitmatic was a little weird when we tried it earlier today, but it seems to be working fine now. Yes, there’s a lot of missing functionality — right now it’s pretty much just a random video plopped on your screen — but ffwd has already promised via blog post to add features such as support for Twitter trending terms, search and permalinks. What I like is that Twitmatic is already bringing in a wider variety of video hosts than most video popularity indexes, with Yahoo, MySpace, Qik, Vimeo, Viddler and of course YouTube showing up just now. But I have to give it a major ding for alerting me to the existence of this Barbie music video.

Vid-Biz: Qik, PlayStation, Hitachi

on March 11, 2009

Nokia to Feature Qik; handset maker to push live-streaming video service in its Ovi Store application depot and integrate it with its video-sharing platform. (emailed release)

PlayStation Network Gets NBC Universal Films and TV Shows; addition brings the total amount of content on the game platform to 1,400 movies and 4,500 TV episodes. (VentureBeat)

Hitachi to Plead Guilty to Price Fixing LCD Prices; firm agrees to pay $31 million fine. (USA Today)

Revision3 COO Ustreams Intruder Break-in to His Apartment; rather than call the police David Prager Twittered about the interloper’s presence and set up his web cam. (Silicon Alley Insider)

Google Rolling Out Behavioral Ads; YouTube among the sites to feature “interest-based ads” that allow you to select categories of ads you want to see. (GigaOM)

MTV Orders Private High Musical Pilot; ribald web series from 60Frames’ Red Band Industries among the latest web-to-TV acquisitions made by the network. (Tubefilter)

Revision3 Acquires CO-OP; will air video gaming culture show from creators of The 1UP Show. (emailed release)

Vid-Biz: DTV Coupons, Sling, Lionsgate

on January 6, 2009

DTV Coupon Program Out of Money; government program offering $40 toward digital converter box out of money weeks earlier than anticipated. (TVWeek)

Sling Shows Off iPhone App, Mac Capabilities; SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone will let users watch TV and control their home DVR, SlingPlayer for Mac HD will let Sling users stream content to their Macs. (emailed release)

Lionsgate Buys TV Guide Network and TVGuide.com; purchase price was $225 million, Lionsgate plans to expand the network’s original programming lineup. (The LA Times)

Gossip Girl Creator Heading Up Web Series for TheWB.com; Rockville centers around the lives of a group of twenty-somethings at a nightclub where real-world acts like the Kaiser Chiefs and Travis will perform. (Variety)

MobiTV Ramps Up for Inauguration; the presidential election was a big draw for the mobile TV service, company is gearing up to handle the expected surge of interest for Obama’s inauguration. (Bits Blog)

Blu-ray Ends 2008 on a High (Def) Note; sales of the players were so good that Adams Media Research raised its U.S. Blu-ray household estimates to to 3.1 million by year’s end up from 2.9 million. (The Hollywood Reporter)

FFWD Releases APIs to Developers; developers can integrate the video recommendation engine’s functionality into their sites; company also says Boxee will be incorporating FFWD into its future releases. (TechCrunch)

Invision.TV Launches Web Program Guide

on September 8, 2008

With nearly half-a-dozen competitors, the company has a tough climb. McLean, Va.-based Invision is led by former cable industry execs, and built its own crawler, personalization, and social tools. It has 10 employees, and is self-funded.