Video

Rovi Q4 Sales Down 10%

Renewed IPG Deals With 32 MSOs in the Period, With Service Provider Sales Up 4%
By: Todd Spangler Feb 14 2013 - 10:51am
Renewed IPG Deals With 32 MSOs in the Period, With Service Provider Sales Up 4%

Rovi boosted service provider revenue 4% in the fourth quarter of 2012 -- and renewed interactive program guide deals with 32 cable operators in North America in the period -- but overall sales fell 10% because of declines in the company’s consumer-electronics businesses.

Rovi’s total Q4 revenues were $157 million, down $17.3 million from the year-earlier period. It posted net income of $2.1 million, compared with a net loss of $49.3 million in the year-earlier period.

Cisco Is 'Walking Away' From Low-Margin Set-Top Deals: Chambers

Service Provider Video Revenue Up 20% Due to NDS Acquisition
By: Todd Spangler Feb 13 2013 - 6:20pm
Service Provider Video Revenue Up 20% Due to NDS Acquisition

Cisco Systems, which saw sales to service providers worldwide fall 1% for the quarter that ended Jan. 26, is now “walking away” from bids for low-margin set-top boxes, particularly in Europe, chairman and CEO John Chambers said on the company’s earnings call Wednesday.

“We are driving the transition to more software video solutions and have been more selective in the business we are taking in terms of set-top boxes, and the lowest margin set-top box business in particular,” Chambers said.

HBO Go Lands on Apple TV Set-Tops via AirPlay

Programmer Says TV Everywhere Apps for iOS Devices Now Works With Apple's AirPlay Feature
By: Todd Spangler Feb 12 2013 - 5:24pm
Programmer Says TV Everywhere Apps for iOS Devices Now Works With Apple's AirPlay Feature

HBO’s TV Everywhere apps for iOS devices now support Apple’s AirPlay feature, which will let users wirelessly stream on-demand content to Apple TV boxes over Wi-Fi.

Both HBO Go and Cinemax’s MAX GO App were updated with the same capabilities. The updated apps are now available in Apple’s iTunes App Store, according to HBO.

Eric Kessler, president and chief operating officer of HBO, announced the new capabilities Tuesday at AllThingsD’s “D: Dive Into Media” conference.

Intel Plans to Launch 'Smart' Internet TV Bundles This Year

Intel's Huggers: Chip-Maker to Compete with Pay TV Providers on Features, Not Price
By: Todd Spangler Feb 12 2013 - 3:03pm
Intel's Huggers: Chip-Maker to Compete with Pay TV Providers on Features, Not Price

Intel sometime in 2013 expects to debut a broadband-delivered TV service that includes “proper” live television and on-demand content, according to Erik Huggers, corporate vice president and general manager of Intel Media.

The chip giant will compete with incumbent cable, satellite and telco TV services based on features -- not price -- Huggers said, speaking Tuesday at AllThingsD’s "D: Dive Into Media" conference in Dana Point, Calif.

Cablevision Rises In Netflix Rankings After Cutting CDN Deal

MSO Second Only to Google Fiber on Netflix's ISP Speed Rankings for January
By: Todd Spangler Feb 11 2013 - 3:49pm
MSO Second Only to Google Fiber on Netflix's ISP Speed Rankings for January

After Cablevision Systems agreed to let Netflix place caching servers at the MSO’s data centers, the average speed of Netflix video streams rose 7% for customers of the New York-area cable operator, according to Netflix’s latest ISP rankings.

For the month of January, Cablevision delivered 2.24 Megabits per second on average to Netflix subscribers, up from 2.09 Mbps in December. That was second only to Google Fiber, which delivered 3.02 Mbps across its limited subscriber base in the Kansas City market for January.

Dish Spending Millions on Ads to Market Ad-Skipping DVR

Broadcasters Are Suing Satellite Operator Over Hopper's Auto Hop Feature
By: Todd Spangler Feb 11 2013 - 12:26pm
Broadcasters Are Suing Satellite Operator Over Hopper's Auto Hop Feature

Dish Network is memorializing the “death” of television commercials -- ironically, via a new multimillion-dollar marketing campaign for its Hopper DVR with Slingbox features that lets users skip TV ads.

Dish is not disclosing what it is spending on the latest round of the “Boston Guys” ad campaign (who hollered at each other about the “Hawpah” from various points in the house, calling attention to the multiroom DVR features). The operator said the Hopper with Sling is now available to order nationwide.

Time Warner Cable Adds VOD Content to TWCTV.com

Operator Offers 4,000-Plus Titles from 91 Partners
By: Todd Spangler Feb 8 2013 - 3:42pm
Operator Offers 4,000-Plus Titles from 91 Partners

Time Warner Cable video customers can now access more than 4,000 TV shows and movies on-demand from 91 programming partners at TWCTV.com via their PCs or Macs, for no additional charge.

In December, the MSO launched video-on-demand content for its TWC TV app for iPad; an Android version of the app also is in the works.

HDTVs Now In 75% of U.S. Homes

More Than Half of Households Have More Than One High-Def Television: LRG
By: Todd Spangler Feb 8 2013 - 11:25am
More Than Half of Households Have More Than One High-Def Television: LRG

HDTV adoption has more than tripled over the last five years, with three-fourths of American households now owning at least one high-definition TV set and 51% of U.S. homes owning at least two, according to a survey by Leichtman Research Group.

Over all, about 38% of all U.S. households now have multiple HDTV sets, up from 26% two years ago and 5% of all households five years ago, LRG said. About 59% of TV sets in HD households are HDTVs.

YouTube Rife With Pirated Movies: Report

Films from Major Studios Have Been Viewed Hundreds of Millions of Times in Past Year, WSJ Says
By: Todd Spangler Feb 7 2013 - 9:33pm
Films from Major Studios Have Been Viewed Hundreds of Millions of Times in Past Year, WSJ Says

Despite its system designed to catch illegally uploaded material, Google's YouTube is hosting several hundred copyrighted feature-length films that have been viewed hundreds of millions of times over the past year, The Wall Street Jou

Standalone CableCards Rose 8% in 2012

NCTA: Top Nine MSOs Have Deployed 39 Million CableCard Set-Tops to Date, Up 22% From a Year Ago
By: Todd Spangler Feb 1 2013 - 12:28pm
NCTA: Top Nine MSOs Have Deployed 39 Million CableCard Set-Tops to Date, Up 22% From a Year Ago

The nine largest cable operators in the U.S. have deployed about 600,000 standalone CableCards to date for use with TiVo DVRs and other retail devices -- an annual increase of 8% -- while those same MSOs have rolled out more than 39 million operator-supplied set-tops with CableCards, a 22% increase from 32 million a year ago.

Syndicate content