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Video With a widely expected announcement to let some YouTube channels charge monthly subscriptions of 99 cents and up, Google is positioning its video site as the anti-cable TV: a video service willing to offer individual channels on the cheap rather...
... The biggest tech companies are no longer content simply to enhance part of your day. They want to erase the boundaries, do what the other big tech companies are doing and own every waking moment. The new strategy is to build a device, sell it to consumers and then sell them the content to play on it. And maybe some ads too. Last week’s news that Google is preparing its first Google-branded home entertainment device — a system for streaming music in the house — might seem far afield for an Internet search and advertising company, but fits solidly into a industrywide goal in which each tech company would like to be all things to all people all day long. “It’s not about brands or devices or platforms anymore,” said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Gartner. “It’s about the ecosystem. The idea is to get consumers tied into that ecosystem as tightly as possible so they and their content are locked into one system.”
...Google TV wasn’t exactly embraced by TV networks when it launched about a year ago. Virtually all broadcasters and most cable channels blocked Google TV users from accessing catch-up episodes online for fear that Google TV owners would drop their cable subscriptions. One of the lone exceptions was Turner, whose web apps for Google TV have featured short clips from its programming on the platform. Google TV has also offered HBO content to viewers that could authenticate themselves as subscribers of the premium cable network through a dedicated HBO Go app. Google is expected to launch the next version of Google TV within the coming weeks. The second iteration of the platform will be based on Android 3.1 (a.k.a. Honeycomb) and have access to the Android Market. Dedicated apps as well as authentication features could possibly convince other TV networks to embrace the platform as well, but it’s unclear how this would be received by consumers. Google executives have been struggling with the perception that Google TV is meant to replace traditional pay TV services. Tying the platform closer to pay TV subscriptions could help to mend relations with networks, but it might also go counter to what some consumers have been expecting when buying these devices.
Google Inc. is in preliminary talks to buy online video pioneer Hulu, people familiar with the situation said. Hulu has begun meeting with potential buyers including Google, Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc... A sale would allow Hulu's media owners to make a graceful exit from a service whose success nonetheless created friction with traditional business partners. Cable and satellite distributors complained about paying for the right to carry programs that Hulu offered free online.
Google has acquired Sage TV, which offers DVR and Slingbox-like features, according to 9to5 Google. Sage TV will likely be used in Google TV software, which has struggled to gain traction. Or maybe it will be part of Google's video offering for Android. Watching video from your TV on your phone or tablet would be a nice feature.
ouTube announced today that it is adding around 3,000 movie titles available to rent on demand for users in the United States, confirming rumors from late April that said Google's video service was looking to partner with major and independent studios to rollout premium content. YouTube is also bolstering its investment in content with its 20,000-plus partners. Through YouTube Next the platform is attempting to grow original content by bolstering YouTubeNextUp and following up on past projects like Partner Grants that helped fund content creators. YouTube is available on 350 million devices with two billion views a day. The aim for Google and YouTube is to attract users into the content honey pot of Internet video. Currently, according to YouTube, users are spending 15 minutes a day on the site yet five hours a day watching television. The goal for YouTube is to wipe away the line that is the difference between TV and online video.
The first version of Google TV may be a dud, but the company is working on the next version and could show it off at its I/O conference next month. An industry source says the next version of Google TV has a lot more potential than today's version for three main reasons:
-Performance. It will use a faster chip set.
-Better user experience.
-Android apps.
Google has already said it will soon be possible to run Android apps on Google TV. This source believes that Google will build a TV-specific version of the Android Market right into the Google TV interface, giving developers a lot of incentive to build apps for it.
More generally, this person thinks that Android is slated for an explosion of new video content and apps, driven in part by the new crop of Android tablets as well as the merging of Android into Google TV.
Playing YouTube videos on your Roku player just a got a lot harder: Google made Roku take down a private channel that brought YouTube videos to the device, likely because it violated YouTube's terms of service.
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Service Providers Including Midcontinent Now Offer Synacor's First-Of-Its-Kind Social Login, Providing Access to Online pay-TV Content Through Social Accounts Like Facebook, Twitter or Google
The Wall Street Journal reports that Google is getting ready to launch as many as a dozen TV-like channels with scheduled content to lure viewers away from their TV screens. It is said to have been shopping the ideas around US media firms for several months. It is said to have cut a range of content deals and is paying “from a few hundred thousand dollars to several million to content creators to create and curate videos for a channel”.
There is no word on what these channels might be, but not hard to guess. YouTube already has a range of categories for some of the TV shows it features including entertainment, comedy, drama food, news and travel where visitors can watch clips or whole episodes. Some of this content such as Five Neighbours is brand new programming while other stuff like Big Brother series 1 is archive material. Until now this has not been scheduled, which is the big change that YouTube is looking to make.
...One big problem with the Google proposal: Hulu was created in large part as the TV networks’ response to YouTube, and their fear that Google would swallow up the Web video ecosystem. And in large part, Google has. YouTube is by far the biggest video site in the world, and the one part where it’s struggled is in landing long-form premium content that Hulu owns. So are the networks any more willing to hand over their most valuable programming today? On the other hand, you can see how an over-the-top bid would appeal to Google CEO Larry Page, who has been making some sweeping moves since he stepped into office in April. Google executives made a point of saying that their $12.5 billion deal for Motorola wouldn’t stop them from making other big acquisitions. And since any big-ticket buy Google proposes is going to get heavy government scrutiny anyway, why not make it worth Google’s while?
... Yes, it’s true that Google+ may turn out to be Just Another Social Network. However, it will have one big thing going for it – Google TV. Integration of a social network into Google TV will give the product a big boost. It’s not hard to picture Google+ deeply embedded into Google TV and other Google products
Samsung and Vizio are joining Logitech and Sony as hardware venders of Google TV. This announcement isn’t much of surprise, really. The two were rumored to have Google TV product announcements set for CES 2011 back in January, but nothing ever came of it. In fact another rumor told a tale of Google themselves delaying the product announcements. Google also announced that devs can start building apps for the platform using the normal Honeycomb SDK and that Google Market should hit the platform “soon.” Android 3.1 will hit Google TV this summer, but any changes were not announced. Still, we’re left wondering about Google TV’s future. It clearly looks more bright now than even at its much-hyped launch, but can Market access and 3.1 save one of Google’s more novel products? We’ll talk more once they hit.
ESPN may have the 'droid app you're looking for -- but only if you're a customer of Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks and Verizon FiOS TV. The sports programmer is making four live network feeds -- with most of the same programming that's available on TV -- available through a free app for Google's Android operating system to subscribers of TWC, Bright House and FiOS TV.
The major studios, who were once leery of the video giant, now see it as a potentially lucrative platform as DVD revenues continue to plummet. Executives at the hold-out studios have a common reason for doing so -- they believe that YouTube and its parent, Google, have not taken adequate steps to stop supporting piracy sites. Their senior executives have told the internet behemoth that it needs to stop supporting pirate sites by linking them in searches and advertising on them, according to an individual with knowledge of the discussion.
Google Inc. is working on a major overhaul of YouTube as it tries to position itself for the rise of televisions that let people watch online video in their living rooms, according to people familiar with the matter. YouTube is looking to compete with broadcast and cable television, some of these people said, a goal that requires it to entice users to stay on the website longer, and to convince advertisers that it will reach desirable consumers. The site is planning a series of changes to its home page to highlight sets of "channels" around topics such as arts and sports. About 20 or so of those channels will feature several hours of professionally produced original programming a week, some of these people said. Additional channels would be assembled from content already on the site.
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