Sales of Internet-connectable TV devices soaring to 350 million by 2015

Consumer desire for on-demand and online video content will motivate sales of Internet-connectable TV devices to nearly 350 million units worldwide by 2015, setting the stage for intense competition in app development.

Parks Associates' Connected Living Room: Web-enabled TVs and Blu-ray Players forecasts worldwide sales of Internet-connectable HDTVs, Blu-ray players, game consoles, and digital video players such as Roku and Apple TV will grow approximately fourfold from 2010.

The market has reached the fourth generation of connected TVs, and all major manufacturers are debuting new models at CES with innovations in content aggregation, apps development, and user interfaces. Content options are finally catching up to the hardware innovations, and growing libraries of on-demand movies and TV available are starting to unlock the potential of connected TV devices as multifunction online entertainment and communications platforms.

The expanded presence of these devices will increase opportunities for apps developers – including third-party developers and giants such as Google, Samsung, and Yahoo! Consumers will also be key in deciding whether a controlled apps environment or the open-browser approach advocated by Google will be the dominant model for the connected TV market in the next five years.

Companies across the value chain – including content aggregation, broadcast television, delivery and management, CE, pay-TV providers, and retail – have significant opportunities to deliver content to a large number of new devices.

Access to premium and user-generated video is a main driver for adoption and use of Internet-connectable devices. Access to streaming music, online photos, social network updates, personalized news and information, and simple games are also popular features for current users and likely buyers.

The market for Internet-connectable device sales over the next five years has a strong international focus. With pay-TV penetration lower in certain European and Asia-Pacific markets and with the broadcast television community showing strong interest in supporting technologies for interactive television, connected TV devices will become de facto set-top boxes in many of these countries. At the same time, today’s pay-TV providers will embrace the delivery of managed video services to connected TV devices to differentiate, increase customer satisfaction, lower capital expenditures by deploying fewer set-top boxes, and reach new bases of customers.

Look Back joins Time Warner Cable's Start Over and DVR options for time-shifting primetime programming

From C.E.D, Time Warner Cable's Look Back service is getting out of the starting blocks with multiple deployments scheduled across the nation for the service that allows subscribers to watch shows that they missed.

Look Back has been in the works for years and follows in the wake of Time Warner Cable's Start Over service. While Start Over, which was first launched in Columbia, S.C., in 2005, allows viewers to restart a show in progress the same day it airs, Look Back provides a three-day viewing window of opportunity once a program has aired. Time Warner also offers some of the same shows in its on-demand service, which are generally available one to eight days after the original air time.

Time Warner Cable said Look Back, which is free to the cable operator's digital subscribers, would launch with 24 channels in both HD and SD formats.

Time Warner Cable's Premium VoD Service to Launch in Q2 2011

Bloomberg reports that Time Warner Inc. is near agreements with television distributors to make movies available on-demand for viewing at home soon after they run in theaters.

Time Warner expects to start the so-called premium service in the second quarter, Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bewkes said today on an earnings conference call. The company is close to agreements on the pricing and timing after theatrical release.

Studios including Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co. are in talks for the VOD service with In Demand, a partnership of Cox Communications Inc., Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc., Bob Benya, head of In Demand, said in a September interview. The service would cost as much as $30 per showing. Movies will be available in high definition and eventually in 3-D, Bewkes said today.

Time Warner Cable expands availability of Whole House On Demand

From CED, Time Warner Cable's Whole House On Demand service recently became available in Lincoln, Nebraska and surrounding areas.

Whole House On Demand allows subscribers to watch purchased on demand programming on digital boxes throughout the home . If a customer purchases an on demand program on a TV in the family room, they can now also watch it on a TV in another room.

Time Warner Cable may a Compressed Window $20-$30 VoD in 2011

From AP and The Boston Globe,Time Warner Inc.'s chief financial officer John Martin said Thursday that early next year the company will likely test letting people pay $20 or $30 to watch new-release movies at home within a month or two of their debut in theaters.

No question the demand is there, even at these price points, as we tested in previous surveys. Demand will be particularly significant in households with children, where the cost of going out to the movies, plus the babysitter, are going to be high. One significant problem the cable operators face is serious pushback from the movie theater operators, who have been asked to make significant investments in both digital cinema and now 3D projection, and who probably feel like the rug is being yanked out from under their feet.