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Mike Berkley  //  Product Strategy @ Comcast's Social Technology Group. Formerly CEO of SplashCast Media. This is my personal blog. My writing and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of Comcast.

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Jan 20 / 9:47pm

Boxee Will Begin Charging Users for Content... And This is GREAT News!

Boxee announced today that will be implementing a purchase system for a la cart video streaming by the end of Q2.

Story: http://bit.ly/72Keel

This is a great development!

First, it demonstrates that Boxee is serious about protecting the business models of the content providers. This is necessary, of course, for Boxee's survival as well. My guess is Fred Wilson doesn't plan to fund this project forever.

Second, it again demonstrates that content providers HAVE OPTIONS for streaming their content in a revenue-generating way outside of TV Everywhere, despite what the anti-TV Everywhere fear mongers want you to believe.

Third, it will hopefully clean up Boxee's "rogue" image within the industry.

Fourth, it acknowledges that streaming content must be paid, at least in part, by those who receive the most value from it: the consumer.

Fifth, it will (hopefully) provide a great example of how to make a la cart paid streaming painless for consumers through (again, hopefully) awesome UX design.

And Sixth, it *might* attract more content to Boxee. But I still think it's going to be really hard for "bad boy" Boxee to attract the likes of CBS, ABC, HBO, etc (and certainly not NBC) for political reasons.

Filed under  //  Boxee   TV Everywhere  
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Jan 12 / 9:15pm

So Many Software Platforms for Connected TVs and Set Top Boxes

Dan Rayburn at StreamingMedia.com has put together an impressive list of all the software platforms for TVs and Connected devices. Like with all new digital frontiers, there is a lot of fragmentation and noise right now. While it will only get worse in 2010, it will hopefully consolidate in 2011.

Here's Dan's list:
  • VUDU: While VUDU started off as a hardware device, the company has since changed to a platform licensing model for third party devices and now has deals with LG, Mitsubishi, Samsung, SANYO, Sharp, Toshiba and VIZIO.
  • Yahoo!: While Yahoo! originally started off with some widget functionality that didn't seem like a big deal, at CES, they announced a whole bunch of new partnerships with chip makes, TV manufactures and media player companies for their Connected TV effort. To date, they have deals with VIZIO, ViewSonic, Hisense International, Intel, Samsung, LG Electronics, Sony MIPS Technologies and Sigma Designs.
  • TiVo: While TiVo has always been a hardware and platform company, they have been working for years to try and diversify their revenue by licensing their platform to the MSOs. Recently, they have been very vocal that MSOs should use the TiVo platform as a gateway, or portal for OTT type content to enable MSOs to offer something similar to a VOD service. So far, they have signed up Virgin Media in the UK.
  • Netflix: While most think of Netflix as simply a content partner inside a platform like the Roku or Xbox 360, Netflix is also a stand alone platform for the numerous deals they have cut with device manufactures. Netflix said they expect to be on more than 100 broadband enabled devices by the end of this year which easily makes Netflix not only a content option, but also their own stand alone platform.
  • Best Buy: While we don't know exactly when or what devices the Best Buy platform is coming to, Best Buy plans to enter the market some time this year with a digital download offering that's powered by CinemaNow. Users will be able to download content via BestBuy.com and via select devices sold in Best Buy stores.
  • Blockbuster: While the company has been slow to get their platform, powered by CinemaNow, onto many hardware devices, expect to see a slew of consumer electronic deals announced this year. Blockbuster is available via TiVo's platform and to date has one direct manufacturer deal with Samsung.
  • PlayStation Network (PSN): While the PSN always went along with Sony's gaming devices, the company announced at CES that they would soon bring the PlayStation network to other Sony hardware products including TVs and Blu-ray players.
  • DivX: At CES, DivX announced the launch of of their embedded Internet TV platform called DivX TV along with a list of partners from integrated circuit manufacturers and consumer electronic companies including LG, ADB, Broadcom Corporation, Iomega and Viewsonic amongst others.
  • Rovi: While the company does not have any deals with hardware manufactures yet, it's only a matter of time before Rovi branches out to devices with their recently announced TotalGuide EPG platform. The company's goal is that their platform will become an interactive program guide integrated into TVs and set-top-boxes.
  • iTunes: While Apple's iTunes platform is not yet connected to any TV device other than Apple's own Apple TV, I would expect the company to start cutting licensing deals this year with major CE manufactures.
  • Boxee: For a company who's platform has gotten more press and hype before even having a product out on the market, Boxee announced last week that it would also be entering the hardware market later in the year. While still a platform company at heart who's main goal is to get integrated via set-top-boxes, Boxee now straddles both sides of the fence with a hardware and platform business.
  • CinemaNow: While the company has focused on white labeling their technology platform for Blockbuster and Best Buy, the company is planning to work directly with CE manufactures in the New Year.
via blog.streamingmedia.com

 

Filed under  //  Best Buy   Blockbuster   Boxee   iTunes   Netflix   TiVo   VUDU   Yahoo  
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Jan 9 / 8:06pm

Boxee Box Wins at CES

via cnn.com

Beautiful design and thoughtful user experience execution earned Boxee's initial hardware device (built by D-Link) the coveted "Last Gadget Standing" award at CES.

2010 is going to be a fun, very fast year of Web-to-TV-to-Web innovation!

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Nov 24 / 9:37am

I Love Boxee's Product, But Not Its Business Prospects

I am still trying to understand the business strategy behind Boxee's announced move into the set-top box (CE / hardware) space. It's an already ultra-competitive field, in which the software company has no experience nor retail distribution relationships (that I am aware of).

Most likely, Boxee is simply slapping it's name on someone else's box, like Roku. For instance: a Boxee-branded Roku box with Boxee software as pre-installed OS. Roku manufactures, distributes, and helps market the product, and shares revenue with Boxee.

That might work, since Boxee arguably has a stronger consumer brand than Roku.

But still, Boxee will be competing with much more established brands in the set-top CE space, such as Xbox, Sony, Apple, TiVO, and (eventually) Comcast, Time Warner, DirecTV, etc.... And soon there will be a new generation of Internet-TV's from Samsung, etc...


More fundamentally, however, I believe Boxee has a huge "core" challenge: disrupting the TV ecosystem from the "outside" is A LOT harder than disrupting the music ecosystem from the outside. Mega-funded Joost and Veoh failed trying, and even Apple has made very little traction so far. Why will Boxee succeed?

I love Boxee's product, but not its business prospects.

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Oct 28 / 8:04am

Why TV is slower to fall victim to Web than music & newspapers (Boxee CEO and me)

Avner Ronen, Boxee's chief executive, shares his thoughts with the Washington Post about the Internet's slower impact on TV compared to its media cousins, music and newspapers:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2009/10/the_web_has_overhauled_newspap.html

My theory is more basic: the larger the file size (in megabytes), the slower the erosive impact of the Web on traditional business model related to that media.

Music was hit first and hit hard because the MP3 file format squashed songs down to just a few MB's each, making it super easy and fast to spread peer-to-peer on the Web. Similarly, text and image-based news content is easily emailed among friends, posted on blogs, etc. Classified ads, once the cash cow of newspapers, have naturally migrated to free online listing services like Craig's List because they're free and because they've attracted a massive demand market (same with eBay).

TV content is very different, of course. Much, much larger file sizes for a half hour or full hour episode, coupled with a much shorter shelf-life for a TV episode (compared to a song).

TV executives are taking advantage of this naturally slower business erosion to be more thoughtful on how to best embrace and capitalize on the inevitable transformative power of the Web.


Sent via BlackBerry

Filed under  //  Boxee  
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