A Strategy Shift at Hulu? TWC and Bright House Expand ESPN Everywhere. Synacor Emphasizes TV Everywhere

More significant headlines from this week:

Hulu considers a strategy shift - becomes an online cable company? The Wall Street Journal had a very good article yesterday on the internal workings at Hulu. Among some of the inside conversations taking place: News Corp. (Fox) and Disney (ABC) are considering pulling free content from the site and offering more fee-based on-demand programming to other sites. Also, some at Hulu are considering turning the site into a "virtual cable network."

Time Warner and Bright House Cable Customers Get More ESPN Choices for TV Everywhere: Cable customers who subscribe to ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN Goal Line, or ESPN Buzzer Beater video subscription from these providers can now to watch a live stream of the same network online.

Synacor Establishes TV Everywhere Division: From CED Magazine, Synacor has created a division with a specific focus on TV Everywhere, particularly helping operators get their premium video offerings to mobile and portable devices. The company is expected to have solutions by Q2.

Busy news week - Netflix, TiVo, ivi TV, Amazon and LOVEFiLM, Opera Software, Woomi, DivX TV

After a slighly lull following CES, earnings announcements and a full bevy of newsworthy announcements in the digital media and consumer electronics spaces have my e-mail inbox bursting. Here are a few items worthy of noting:

Netflix Subscribers Surge Past 20 Million
The guidance provided by Netflix's executives in Q3 2010 was subscriber gains of 2.7 million, and total subscribers between 19 and 19.7 million subscribers. In actuality, the company gained 3.08 million subscribers to end 2010 with 20.01 million (that's an increase of 63% from year-end 2009). Netflix's Watch Instantly service is now supported on more than 200 devices. Here's an interesting tidbit of trivia: Netflix says that the Apple TV is now generating more hours of viewing than the iPad.

ivi TV on the Ropes?
I've written about ivi.tv previously (here and here). The company's model is to take broadcast content from the Seattle, New York , Chicago, and Los Angeles and rebroadcast it online to subscribers who pay $4.99 a month. ivi TV officials believe that U.S. copyright law provides them with the right to rebroadcast the content as a de facto cable operator, but major broadcasters disagree. As they did with a service called FilmOn, the broadcasters are seeking an "enjoin" order, which would is basically a cease-and-desist order. In a court ruling last week, the broadcasters gained a victory.

Jim O'Neill at FierceIPTV summed up the court ruling from last week the best with this article:

A federal judge in Seattle late last week rejected a request from ivi TV for a declaratory ruling legitimizing its claims that it wasn't infringing on broadcasters' copyrights. District Court Judge James Robart wrote: "The totality of the circumstances here leads the court to conclude that ivi filed the action here because of imminent threat of suit by the Defendants, and to secure its own forum."

A bevy of broadcasters have sued ivi in New York seeking to stop it from broadcasting their signals. The Seattle ruling means that case can now move forward.

FilmOn does live on, at least in a role as distributor for independent or niche content. In fact, the company issued a press release today where it announced that it signed content agreements with Retro Television Network (RTV), The Ski Channel, The Documentary Channel, and Tuff TV.

Amazon Buys Full Control of LOVEFiLM
Unlike in the U.S., where Netflix dominates streaming video for TV shows and movies (our recently-completed study Digital Video: Three Screens and Beyond reveals that 22% of U.S. broadband households using Netflix's Watch Instantly feature), there is no pan-European equivalent. There are certainly some services to watch closely as their catalogues increase and their availability grows - among them are Acetrax, Qriocity (Sony), and Video Futur. LOVEFiLM is among the larger video distributors in Europe today, as it replicates the online DVD/Blu-ray Disc rental business of Netflix in the U.K., Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It also has about 4,500 films and TV shows available online. This compares to 20,000 titles available for Netflix subscribers.

Amazon looks like it will take its vast distribution network - and digital video services - to Europe with its full acquisition of LOVEFiLM, announced last week. LOVEFiLM currently has 1.6 million subscribers.

Charter and TiVo Link Up
TiVo's future success is dependent upon lowering its dependency on the retail-based set-top box market and strengthening its relationship with operators and consumer electronics manufacturers that can license TiVo's software and user interface technology or use its hybrid set-top boxes (such as the TiVo Premeire). On January 18, TiVo reinforced its operator strategy by discussing its recent operator wins, including hybrid set-top box deployments with RCN and Suddenlink in the U.S. It notes that it expects similar agreements with Cox Communications and DirecTV in the future. TiVo's TiVo's software is currently ported to the set-top boxes of such European operators as ONO (Spain), Virgin Media (U.K.), and Canal Digital (Norway and Sweden).

On January 25, TiVo announced its latest operator partnership with Charter Communications. The cable operator will utilize TiVo's latest generation high definition user interface and TiVo Premiere set top box, as well as upcoming multi-room and non-DVR platforms. Beyond the initial phase, the strategy will encompass next generation platforms that will expand the service with new devices, features, and third-party applications. TiVo's discovery, search, navigation and recommendation features will bring Charter customers multiple forms of entertainment content, including linear TV, video on demand, online video, and IP applications.

Opera Software Gets Connected with Samsung and Broadcom
As I left CES, one takeaway is that - in the fourth generation of connected TV products - the market is still wide open for a host of technology developers to play a significant role. Whether it's system-on-chip companies, apps developers, user interface designers, content delivery and management specialists, aggregators, Web-on-TV technology providers, and advertising specialists, there is certainly no shortage of opportunity for this market.

Opera Software made two significant announcements in the past week - one with Sony and today with Broadcom. For Sony, the Opera Devices SDK provides the company's browser and other tools to bring Internet applications to Sony BRAVIA connected TVs and Blu-ray Disc players. In the Broadcom announcement, the Opera Devices DSK 2.9 will have out-of-the-box support on Broadcom's BCM7420 set-top-box SoC platform.

Woomi from Miniweb Interactive
Miniweb Interactive's history is in developing interactive features and user interfaces for television services. At CES, it unveiled Woomi, a connected TV services platform. It announced an early partnership with Turkish manufacturer Vestel.

Miniweb predicts that Woomi be available on over half of the world’s connected TVs by mid 2011. Going live across all Samsung smart TVs and Blu-ray players in the UK this month, woomi will then roll out to multiple European territories and the U.S. within the next three months. Woomi will also be distributed by Echostar Europe where it will be the main user interface for video discovery on a new, soon to be launched, set-top box. Also recentlynnounced are global distribution deals with Vestel, a Turkish white-label TV manufacturer, and with Chinese STB manufacturer, DTM.

DivX TV
At CES, DivX (Sonic Solutions, and now Rovi) announced new content and hardware support for DivX TV, its connected TV content platform, including Broadcom, Marvell, and Renesas.

What "Cloud Computing" Could Mean to Consumers

In November, we shared some thoughts about what the "cloud" could mean for consumer products and services. For a review, you can click on this link. Microsoft's recent Windows 7 commercials have helped to bring broader market awareness about what practical end-user applications can come as a result of cloud-based services.

To review, the consumer cloud products and services as we categorize them are:

E-mail/Calendaring/Family Sync: These are features such as Apple’s mobileme, Microsoft’s Live Mesh, and service provider-offered (Deutsche Telekom is a great example, with a service called Connected Live Experiences at Home) calendaring, messaging, and media (photo) synching across devices such as computers and smartphones. Technology providers in this space include NewBay Software and a past sponsor of CONNECTIONS™ - viacube.

Online Backup Migrating to Cloud Services: The first iteration of online backup was merely as a away to automate back-up of home computers (Carbonite, Mozy, etc.). Services such as SugarSync, SpiderOak, and ZumoDrive are taking online backup and making it a cloud service by making the content accessible (and sharable) from multiple types of IP-connected devices. Motorola just purchased Zecter, the company that developed ZumoDrive. This would indicate that online backup of the smartphone will be more of a focus for handset developers and wireless/mobile carriers.

Consumer Electronics-based Cloud Services: Right now, we see three ways that this is being implemented:

• Attached Storage/NAS Clouds: We’re seeing the major consumer storage companies (Buffalo, Data Robotics, Iomega, Seagate, Western Digital, etc.) implement remote access and interaction with files, media, and content that is stored on attached drives and network-attached storage devices. Again, the interaction can be done with any IP-connected device, including smartphones. At CES, Iomega was heavily promoting this at CES, with something they call the Iomega Personal Cloud).
• Appliance-based Clouds: If a consumer doesn’t have attached storage or network-attached storage, there are appliances from companies such as Cloud Engines (Pogoplug™), CTERA, and iTwin that turn any device with local storage capabilities into a cloud server. Again, the key is the ability to interact with and access your content from any IP-connected device.
• Smartphone Clouds: Trend Micro showed SafeSync, which is online backup and remote access to your iPhone or Android smartphone content. Carbonite and SugarSync also offer this.

When it comes to digital media, the current iterations of “cloud media” services are what we would term “one-way solutions.” The model today is to host and push content toward the consumer and not necessarily provide for the upload and storage of existing copies of all of your movies and music. Digital music services will probably be the first to move to true two-way clouds, likely starting with Apple, Amazon.com, and perhaps Google.

Music Services: There are few digital music services that are cloud-based today (meaning the consumer can move an iTunes library to a hosted storage service and access it anywhere). The rumor is that Apple will be unveiling something like this.

Video Services: UltraViolet (DECE) and Disney’s KeyChest get the major headlines in this space. They are proposing services where a consumer still buys the physical copy of a movie (Blu-ray), but with that will come a digital copy that is hosted and available on different types of consumer electronics devices. In the meantime, Verizon is already offering Flex View, which allows FiOS subscribers to order a movie (rental or purchase) from multiple types of devices and then access it from different platforms – smartphone, computer, television.

Gaming Services: Again, a very one-way cloud model, where companies such as OnLive have console-style games that can be played on multiple types of connected consumer electronics. At CES, they announced a partnership with VIZIO, where OnLive gaming services will be available on VIZIO’s connected TVs.

Last week, we were quoted in a SmartMoney magazine article about consumer-oriented cloud products and services. The article also made its way to The Wall Street Journal. We certainly see an early market for cloud media in online backup services (Carbonite, Mozy, SugarSync, etc.) extend their functionality to include access to stored content and media on multiple types of IP-connected devices. We also anticipate that appliance-based consumer storage products (attached drives, network-attached storage, etc.) will take on "cloud" attributes, allowing consumers to access and update files and content from any connected device. At the just-completed 2011 CES, news from the Digital Living Content Ecoystem (DECE) - the UltraViolet consumer brand - indicates that we're a step closer to seeing a VoD-based cloud service become consumer-ready.

One quote in the article that I'd like to clarify is one in which I am quoted as saying that "People storing data in the cloud might also save money on their actual gadgets, because they may be able to get by with a smaller hard drive and a less powerful processor."

Actually, what I told the reporter is the opposite of that. We anticipate that - for the foreseeable future - online data/backup services complement local storage such as computers and attached hard drives, because they provide redundancy and the flexibility of multi-platform access. We don’t see this diminishing the need for robust storage in the home over the next five years, but it could eventually bring forth the long-anticipated arrival of “thin client” computing, where devices don’t have to rely on large amounts of storage and processing. But it’s a long-term evolution.

Sony Qriocity Online VoD Service Officially Launches in Europe

From Broadband TV News, Sony Europe has announced the European launch of Video On Demand powered by Qriocity in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.
The pay-per-view movie streaming service works with Sony 2010 network-enabled Bravia TVs, Blu-ray disc players, or Blu-ray disc home theater systems

Contracts are in place with major studios including Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Lionsgate, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM), Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Starz Digital Media, The Walt Disney Company, NBC Universal International Television Distribution, and Warner Bros. Digital Distribution, as well as films from local studios.

The play list includes new releases as well as a wide variety of favourites, classic movies and local language movies, many of which are available in both SD and HD. New content will be added regularly and consumers can register for the service and check news of the latest additions to the movie library on the Qriocity Website.

After renting a film, consumers have up to 14 days to start watching their movie, and once playback is started, they have 48 hours to watch the film as many times as they like. Rental prices for SD content start from £2.49 (€2.99) for library content and £3.49 for new releases, while HD content start respectively from £3.49 and £4.49.

Intel likes what it sees in Verismo's hybrid TV capabilities; invests $17 million

Intel Capital is putting its money on the growth of hybrid TV. It is the lead investor in a $17 million round of funding raised by Verismo Networks, a company I discussed just a few weeks ago.

Widevine selected by DIVA TV to protect premium online video in Europe

Widevine has had a very good 2010 in terms of announcements with both online video providers and connected TV device manufacturers. Last week, the company added a European online VoD provider to its list of customers.

DIVA AG, a cross-platform supplier of digital media movie and TV content, will utilize Widevine’s video optimization and digital rights management (DRM) platform to enable the delivery of DIVA AG’s content to mobile devices including Android phones, iPhones, iPads, and specific connected TV sets.

DIVA AG upplies content to global entertainment platforms. DIVA has recently introduced its newest offering, Viewster, which provides content directly to consumers on a variety of devices including smartphones, TV sets, Blu-ray players and home cinema systems from 18 different manufacturers. Widevine’s DRM ensures DIVA’s content remains secure on any device. Widevine’s adaptive streaming monitors the available bandwidth at the device and adaptively chooses the appropriate bitrate for playback, eliminating constant buffering interruptions. The video optimization platform also enables fast-forward, rewind, bookmarking and chaptering functions for the ultimate viewing experience.

VUDU now available through the PlayStation 3

VUDU's online VoD service is now available on the PlayStation 3. Video-on-demand through the connected game console is currently the largest revenue generator for online video today. We estimate that 10% of all U.S. broadband households are using - at least occasionally - a connected game console to watch premium VoD such as movies. This is generating - today - up to $300 million in premium movie VoD revenues at the game console.

Hulu Plus out of Beta; On Roku for $7.99 a month

The Hulu Plus subscription service out of preview, and announced two items of note last week:

• First, the monthly price for Hulu Plus moving forward is just $7.99. Any current subscribers who joined during our preview period will receive a credit for the difference from the $9.99 preview price. This credit will automatically be applied to their next billing cycle.
• Hulu Plus launches on Roku. All PlayStation 3 owners with a PlayStation Network account, which is free, can download the Hulu Plus application. In the months to come, Hulu Plus will be coming to Internet-connected Vizio, LG Electronics, and Panasonic Blu-ray players and HDTVs; TiVo Premiere DVRs; the Xbox 360; and Western Digital’s WD TV Live Hub Media Center and WD TV Live Plus Network Media Player, with many more mobile phones, tablets, set-top boxes, and Internet-connected devices to be announced.
  

Hulu is offering several special offers:

• One free week trials for all new subscribers. In addition, current subscribers who joined during the preview period will receive a credit for one week of Hulu Plus toward their next month’s subscription.
• Two free weeks of Hulu Plus for both current subscribers and friends they invite through our referral program. Subscribers can learn more by clicking on the “Referrals” tab on their Hulu profile page.
• 11 weeks ($20 worth) of free Hulu Plus with the purchase of a Sony BRAVIA connected TV or Blu-ray player through January 31, 2011. (See sony.com/huluplus.)
• One free month of Hulu Plus with the purchase of a Roku device through December 15, 2010.

Netflix Launches U.S. Subscription Plan for Streaming Movies & TV Shows Over the Internet for $7.99 a Month

Netflix today introduced a $7.99 streaming-only subscription plan in the United States, the first time it is promoting a 100% streaming option in the U.S. The plan, which allows members to instantly watch unlimited movies and TV episodes streamed from Netflix to TVs and computers, is available now to both new and existing members.

Netflix is is also icreasing - by $1 per month to $9.99 - the price of the regular subscription plan that combines unlimited streaming with unlimited DVDs.,

More consumer electronics/digital rights management/adaptive streaming announcements

This past week exemplified the move that companies traditionally in the digital rights management space are making in connected consumer electronics. I have talked about this trend in several posts this year. Here are the announcements:

Widevine and Panasonic

Panasonic Corporation selected Widevine as its preferred provider of video optimization and digital rights management (DRM) solutions. Widevine’s video optimization will provide adaptive streaming and virtual DVD experiences, while its DRM will keep content protected on Panasonic consumer electronics such as Viera® connected TVs, Blu-ray disc players and more.

As a preferred provider, Widevine’s client will be included on millions of Panasonic connected media devices, enabling content providers to securely deliver content utilizing Internet protocols to the Panasonic device of the consumer’s choice. Widevine’s client will be initially installed on Panasonic Viera connected TVs, followed by other Panasonic devices in the near future.

Irdeto and Logitech

Irdeto announced announced on Wednesday that its technology has been selected to enable access to premium online content from the Logitech Revue™ with Google TV™. Based on the Google TV platform, Logitech Revue offers – in an integrated user interface – TV programming, the Web and Android-based apps that can deliver premium content services and enable entirely new experiences. Logitech is drawing on Irdeto’s technology to deliver premium content services through apps such as Netflix Watch Instantly.

ivi TV and now FilmOn - more incentive for consumers to abandon traditional TV?

With several bruising retransmission "negotiations" behind us - Fox with both DISH Network and Cablevision, is it back to the business as usual for pay-TV operators? Possibly, but they're licking their wounds. Reports indicate that Cablevision lost 8,000 subscribers, and the intrepid ivi TV says that they saw a 320% growth in their subscribers during the Cablevision and Fox dispute. There is sure to be more contention with ivi TV, with it facing a lawsuit from the broadcasters.

Along with ivi TV, we can't ignore FilmOn, which yesterday launched FilmOn Mobile, a live television platform for mobile devices including the iPad™, Android™ and BlackBerry™ models. This follows the September launch of a $10-per-month online video service that faces the same legal barriers as ivi TV.

FilmOn Mobile includes programming from all major network TV stations and select cable channels as well as FIlmOn's own branded channels. The major broadcast networks are covered with this service, and there is a premium service FilmOn also provides a premium package of stations that includes adult content, specialty content genre channels such as Horror, Thriller, Documentaries and Sports and international channels that include a mixture of music, movies, sports, and news.

Defining Consumer Cloud Products and Services

"Cloud" is such a buzz phrase today that it's easy to be overwhelmed by what's really happening on the consumer side. There are some very real developments today, and we are organizing our thoughts in a report titled Cloud Media and the Digital Locker. A press release today from Western Digital and a New York Times article describing offerings such as SugarSync got me thinking about how I'd organize the consumer-oriented cloud solutions. As to the requirements for a product or solution to fit in the "personal cloud" category, I'd say that there are several:

• For hardware, appliance, and online, and solutions, the ability to upload all desired content to remote storage (not just a single-purpose photo-sharing site, for example);
• Again for the hardware, appliance, and online applications, the ability to "push" - or share - only specific folders or files with friends or family);
• Remote and ubiquitous access to content from multiple IP-connected devices; and
• For premium content service cloud offerings, the ability to either offer multiple formats or work with hardware with the necessary transcoding capabilities to play in particular video on a wide number of devices.

Here's my best shot at categorizing the consumer cloud solutions:

• Hardware, Software, and Appliances: Products in this category are it network-attached storage appliances/media servers and applications developers that provide for remote access via smartphones and other IP-connected devices (companies such as Buffalo, Data Robotics, Iomega, QNAP, Seagate, and Western Digital. Also, appliances such as Pogoplug don't necessarily require a NAS drive, but allow all local drives and files to be accessed.
• Online Storage and Backup: The aforementioned SugarSync is a good example, and others include Box.net, DropBox, Egnyte, Humyo, Microsoft Live Mesh, SpiderOak, and ZumoDrive. Also, service providers are in the mix - Deutsche Telekom offers a service called Connected Life Experiences at Home. Companies such as NewBay Software and viacube are two to watch as white-label providers of synching and backup services.
• Cloud Music Services: There are many streaming music services from which to choose, but Cloud Music services will store your personally-owned content and have it ubiquitously accessible. Speculation was that Apple would launch this as a feature of iTunes following its purchase of Lala. Others in the mix are MOG All Access, Sony Qriocity, and Thumbplay.
• Online Video Transitions to the Cloud: Sony's Qriocity is a good example of this kind of service. RoxioNow is a technology to watch in this space.
• Video-on-Demand as a Cloud Service: Verizon FiOS Flex View is the first known intiative of which I'm aware, but we'll see other. Whether or not they adhere to the UltraViolet brand from the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) or Disney KeyChest is another matter.

There is consumer demand for cloud media. From our Digital Media Evolution II survey, remote and mobile access to photos and music are among the top cloud features desired.

New Entrant into the U.K. Online VoD Market - Film4oD

From DigitalTVEurope.net, UK broadcaster Channel 4 and video-on-demand provider FilmFlex have launched an online VOD service.

Channel 4 operates the Film4 digital channel and the VOD service will be branded Film4oD. It will offer movies on-demand for between £0.50 (€0.58) and £3.99 and allow consumers to stream titles from a home computer. FilmFlex is a joint venture between Hollywood studios Sony and Disney.

The service will make about 500 films available at launch, and will reflect the tone and content of the Film4 channel. The service will only be available online initially, but Channel 4 may look to expand it to other platforms once it has a better understanding of the level of demand for the service.

DIVA TV launches its Viewster consumer service

From Digital TV Europe, Diva TV's Viewster service has been launched in beta. I had blogged about DIVA TV in September.

The company has struck partnerships with TV manufacturers including LG, Loewe, Philips, Samsung and Sharp to promote the service. The Viewster service will initially be available in over 30 countries, according to the company. In addition to offering content via connected TVs, the service will be available to mobile users with Android phones, with Apple's iPhone and iPad to follow. Content can be purchased as single shows or as packages, with payment made via credit or debit card, mobile debit of PayPal. A subscription model is set to follow when Viewster is fully launched in the first quarter of next year.

PlayOn banned from Roku

PlayOn is client software that turns a game console into a digital video player, allowing consumers to access certain online video sites such as YouTube, Amazon VOD, and others. One site that you won't get access to, however, is Netflix. Here's the article from electronista:

Fearing legal repercussions, Roku Developer Program Manager Patrick announced on the company's official forums that PlayOn-compatible channels have been removed and can no longer be added. Those who already subscribed to the channel may be able to keep it, though for how long isn't known. Roku says this is because neither Roku nor the developer of the channel are affiliated with PlayOn.

For now, Roku remains as a streaming option on PlayOn's website. PlayOn offers streaming content from Hulu, Comedy Central, Spike, PBS, ESPN, CBS, ESPN3, Nickelodeon, TBS and BET. The first year costs $40, with every year after that priced at $20.

Read more.

Netflix could be the Netflix of Europe

There's LOVEFiLM attempting a Netflix-like rise in Europe, but there's also the original looking beyond North America.

According to this article, Netflix may invest US$50 million (€36 million) in the second half of next year to launch services beyond North America.

In the near term, Netflix plans to extend a subscription-based streaming service already tested in Canada to the US if tests currently under way are successful, according to CEO Reed Hastings, who said that plans for expansion outside North America could follow soon after.

“Our success with our pure streaming offering in Canada at $7.99 has encouraged us to test this model in the USA. If our results are as strong as we think they will be, then we will look to start this offering later in this Q4,” said Hastings on the company’s website as the company posted strong quarterly results last week. “Pure streaming could become our core offering in the USA, and DVD would be offered as a supplement for an additional charge, like we offer Blu-ray today. We'll know by the holiday season if consumers would prefer this more streaming-centric approach.”

Hastings said Netflix would look to launch internationally if conditions continued to look positive. “If we continue to gain confidence in a large return on our Canadian investment, and we have confidence in the financial return on further geographic expansion, then we'll look to grow beyond North America starting in the second half of 2011,” he said. “In that case, we would invest approximately $50 million for beyond-North-America expansion in the second half of 2011, and our addressable market would increase significantly.”

Can I rely solely on Internet streams to replace traditional TV? Netflix says yes, while the studios say no

Here are a couple of news items that show both sides of the potential "cord-cutting" story.

First, Netflix is reported to be trialing a streaming-only plan, costing $7.99 a month. Or, is it $8.99 a month?

At the same time, the studios are taking a harder stance to the availability of ad-supported streams of television shows, reports the Associated Press. Broadcasters took a big step toward eliminating free TV shows on the Web after they blocked access to their programming online this month to enforce their demands to be paid.

Recent actions by Fox, ABC, NBC and CBS in two separate fee disputes suggest that after a few years of experimenting with free, ad-supported viewing, broadcasters believe they can make more money from cable-TV providers if they hold back some programming online.

And, the rumor du joir regarding Hulu is that its Hulu Plus service fee may be cut in half, to $4.95 per month.

Alcatel-Lucent's Velocix and Its Strategic Alliance Program

Here's more evidence that the incumbent video infrastructure companies are quickly rolling the devleopment of solutions for multi-content and multi-platform delivery.

On Wednesday, Alcatel-Lucent announced a strategic alliance program for the Velocix Digital Media Delivery Platform to ensure that service providers can benefit from a range of pre-integrated technology components to accelerate the deployment of multiscreen consumer solutions.

Initial members of this alliance program include: 3Crowd, Adobe, Aspera, Blue Coat Systems, Clearleap, Elemental Technologies, Harmonic, Inlet Technologies, Microsoft, RGB Networks, Rights Tracker, thePlatform™, and VidZapper.

Focused on digital media delivery solutions, this program creates an ecosystem of some of the major players in the application and content provider space similar to Alcatel-Lucent’s leading role in the award winning, multi-industry ng Connect Program, which focuses on the development of next generation of broadband services based on Long Term Evolution (LTE). This open collaboration will result in innovative and creative bundled multimedia offers that service provides can quickly deploy and take to market.

This new strategic alliance program brings together key players throughout the industry to foster collaboration in four main focus areas: • Manage – For Content Management, Ingestion and Encoding • Publish – Players, EPG/UI and Feed Aggregation • Monetise – Ad management, Revenue enablers, Transaction processing • Deliver – Velocix Digital Media Delivery Platform provides the delivery capabilities Alliance members will benefit from direct interaction with engineering and development teams to accelerate solution design and enable knowledge and skill sharing to accelerate deal cycles.

The "Netflix of Europe"? LOVEFiLM streaming content available on PS3

LOVEFiLM's streamed content (about 5,000 titles) has been available on Sony BRAVIA® and Samsung Internet @ TV HDTVs and Blu-ray players in the U.K.. Now, this content is available on PlayStation 3 game consoles, expanding LOVEFiLM's potential footprint to about three million homes.

LOVEFiLM offers a subscription service starting from £5.99 (€6.80) a month. PlayStation users will be able to access the service via the console’s XMB menu system. Lovefilm is set to launch on the console in November.

Wyplay extends connectivity software beyond NAS - Supports advanced TV services from Vodafone and SFR

It's good to see companies like Wyplay getting design wins in the digital television space. Broadband TV News reports that the company's software has been chosen to power Vodafone's new hybrid television service in Spain and Italy, and SFR in France has also chosen it for its new offering. Time was when networked "middleware" players such as Wyplay were relegated to a specific market, such as home NAS/media servers. Companies such as Rovi and PacketVideo (Twonky) have taken these solutions to the next level, integrating their capabilities with user interfaces and mobile devices, which allow users to more easily aggregate content in one guide and also extend media experiences beyond the home computer.

Now, pay-TV operators are seeing merit in deploying feature-rich video services that play on multiple screens and bring to the viewer a full range of content - terrestrial, on-demand, online video, etc. This is where Wyplay's software comes into play - as a way to present all of content choices in an integrated fashion.

"We want to bring a new user experience to our customers by facilitating access, exchange, and consumption of all media; TV, internet, mobile, PC, NAS,” said Pierre-Alain Allemand, general manager Networks SFR, in a statement. “We found Wyplay to be the ideal partner to collaborate with in this adventure.” More details on the set-top box are expected before the end of the year.

Vodafone Italy has deployed the Wyplay solution for its Vodafone TV Connect service, involving a hybrid set-top box bringing together a DVB-T tuner, internet access via dedicated widgets and access to locally stored content. The TV Connect widgets include Vodafone Calcio (football), the weather, horoscopes, information and more. The STB is available in retail under €200, with discounts available for Vodafone DSL customers.