This week there's been a fair bit of action in the Internet TV sector, with announcements from Hulu, Joost and TiVo. Our network blog last100 has been covering the action.
This week Hulu - the online video project from Newscorp and NBC/Universal, with participation by Sony, MGM and others (our previous coverage) - launched to the general public in the United States. It's been in private beta nearly five months, wrote Dan Langendorf at last100.
The good news is that Hulu is free and offers legal content to viewers, albeit ad-supported. But it has its bad points, for example Hulu’s network lineup is missing a few big players - CBS and Walt Disney’s ABC, although both are rumored to be in negotiations with Hulu. Check out Dan's review for the full skinny.
Joost, the Internet TV service, is making live-streaming video available through an update to its desktop client. Joost has landed a deal with one of its investors, CBS, to stream live and relatively ad-free NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship games. The new Joost client — for the PC and Intel Macs only — was made available for download this week and is needed to access live streaming. Joost began looking into adding “live television” back in October.
It seems a bit late, but the important thing is that TiVo keeps improving its “television services” offering. This time, TiVo is adding YouTube to its ever-expanding lineup.
TiVo’s partnership with YouTube will deliver Web video directly to user’s televisions. The catch is to get YouTube content you must own the latest TiVo HD and TiVo Series3 models.
Check out more Internet TV news from last100, our digital lifestyle blog covering Internet TV, digital music, Mobile Web and more. You can subscribe to last100 here.
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Still waiting for the 800 lbs. gorilla... YouTube LIVE
Posted by: Todd | March 14, 2008 1:20 PMThere was a great article in Fortune Magazine this month about Hulu and the networks that are backing the project. They also took a few veiled jabs at TechCrunch's M. Arrington predictions about the app. which left me chuckling.
The next few years should bring some interesting changes with Internet TV. I would be hesitant to think the You Tube will present a significant threat.
Looking forward (as always) :-)
Posted by: Jcyreus | March 14, 2008 2:59 PMIt seems that if Hulu is doing this well in its infancy, CBS and ABC should be around the corner. After all, the Writers Guild fought hard to tap into this digital delivery model. So, now it's out there, and I'll bet it won't take long to become ubiquitous. Already I'm watching shows via Hulu that I own on DVD. That's right - instead of pulling out a box from the shelf, I'm clicking. And I didn't have to download a client like I did to access content with iTunes.
Now, I tried Joost, too, as shown above, but it just looks like Hulu repackaged. I much prefer sites that target their content, like www.airwolf.tv. In the episode guide http://series.airwolf.tv/episodes I can watch that particular show, but there's a whole bunch of value-added content that complements the video. I'd venture to say that a new breed of websites will crop up like that to leverage such premium content. I'm still looking for one that packages the new Knight Rider.
Could this be the beginning of the future? It looks that way to me.
Posted by: SludgeHeap | March 15, 2008 6:40 PM