With all the great content on Netflix and iTunes, I still haven’t paid for a Hulu subscription yet.
Disney has always been ahead of the curve on this stuff – with its Watch ABC and Watch ESPN apps – but streaming network broadcasts live would be something. The problem, of course, is that there are so many complexities and hands in the pot – show producers, cable providers, affiliates – that the transition to cord cutting will not be easy:
Disney already distributes similar live streaming and on-demand apps, known as “Watch” apps, for ESPN and the Disney Channel. Special hurdles exist, however, for the ABC app, in part because of contracts between the network and the companies that produce some of its shows that were written before mobile phone video streaming was even possible. Other complexities involve ABC’s local stations, which might — if not courted properly — feel threatened by an app.
But ABC, seeing shifts in consumer behavior, is pressing forward. It has started to talk with stations about how to include them in the live streaming app. Illustrating the difficult contractual issues, ABC offhandedly first mentioned a forthcoming Watch ABC app in a news release nine months ago, when it signed a deal with Comcast to make several Watch Disney apps available to Comcast subscribers.
via ABC Works on an App for Live Streaming Shows to Mobile Devices – NYTimes.com.
I had a Casio in, like, 1992. Besides email and a color display, I’m trying to figure out what these will do differently…
Samsung is indeed working on a smart watch, the company’s Executive Vice President of Mobile told Bloomberg in an interview today. “We are preparing products for the future, and the watch is definitely one of them,,” Hee told the publication in no uncertain terms, adding that between itself and Apple, the “issue here is who will first commercialize it so consumers can use it meaningfully.”
I imagine people said the same thing about photos being used as evidence 200 years ago. Hackers, however, are a major concern.
Every time we connect another one of our household appliances to the Internet, we’re going to be generating another set of data about our lives and storing it some company’s servers. That data can be incredibly useful to us, but it creates yet another digital trail of personal details that could become vulnerable to court subpoenas, law enforcement requests (with or without a warrant) or hackers.
Okay, so maybe you don’t care if somebody else knows what’s in your WiFi-connected refrigerator. But what about your bedroom?
via Smart Homes: Our Next Digital Privacy Nightmare – ReadWrite.
But will Verizon only charge its customers for the channels they watch? ESPN would be the hardest hit if Verizon (or any cable provider) pulled this off.
Verizon only wants to pay for the TV channels its viewers are watching.
The star of one of the biggest TV shows ever… producing a YouTube series, in partnership with Reddit. Big names, all-around.
YouTube Steams Ahead with New Series from Simon Cowell and Reddit.
No surprise here. NBC announced their intent to stream all of the 2014 Winter Olympics live, something they did for the first time in London last summer. We can assume that the live stream will be free, but, as was the case with the London games, you’ll likely need to flash your cable provider credentials to get access (which caused problems for some).
NBC claimed that their live streaming of the summer games actually helped prime time viewership, which leads me to believe that they considered (are considering?) the stream to be complement to the over-produced TV broadcasts, rather than an alternative.
2014 should be the year NBC treats its online stream as an equal. In August, Michael Humphrey, writing for Forbes, made that case:
But NBC should change, faster. Because maybe in two years, maybe in four, but definitely sometime, there is going to be an American TV Spring — when a great majority of viewers realize they could have more — that will make #NBCfail look like a cocktail party. It’s not just about perception and reputation. It’s about building experiences that get around NBC’s coverage or just simply giving up on the concept. Because, yes, the Olympics are very compelling. But not if we have to watch them through a keyhole. Some will try to blast the door open (Twitter protests), some will break in through a window (pirate streams) but some will just walk away from most of it.
Some other notes, via Eric Fisher: NBC’s broadcast will begin on Thursday, February 6, 2014, a night before the opening ceremonies. All US hockey games – men’s and women’s – will air on TV live.
