GigaOM » HBO

HBO Go adds AirPlay support, but still no Apple TV app – and definitely no online-only offering

Janko Roettgers — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 20:49:25 +0000

Eric Kessler, the COO of HBO, announced at All Things Digital’s Dive into Media conference in Dana Point, California on Tuesday that the company’s HBO Go service is now available via AirPlay, making it possible for users to stream the service’s videos straight from an iPad to an Apple TV. However, the service still won’t have a dedicated Apple TV app. Kessler insisted that this isn’t due to any challenges from Apple, but simply a development capacity question.

Kessler also reiterated the notion that HBO won’t offer a standalone HBO Go online subscription any time soon. “The economics today are not particularly compelling. Now that doesn’t mean that may not change,” he said.

He went on to explain that the cable provider’s key asset isn’t carriage, but promotion and packaging. Pay TV operators clock ten million transactions for HBO each year, Kessler said, but HBO isn’t paying any of their customer representatives.

Still, there may be a silver lining for cord cutters who want to watch HBO without paying for cable some time – except, it may take a long time for HBO to get there. “We can certainly do it when we want to,” Kessler said. “Today, that’s not the case.”

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Netflix gets eight shows from Warner Bros, including ‘Fringe’ and ‘Revolution’

Jeff John Roberts — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 17:56:08 +0000

Netflix users will soon be able to binge on a new basket of shows thanks to a partnership deal in which Time Warner will give the streaming service a new infusion of badly needed content.

The deal, announced Monday, will give Netflix the right to distribute the West Wing but also the post-apocalyptic drama “Revolution” which has been the most popular new series for the 2012-2013 TV season. Netflix also gets previous seasons of: Chuck; Political Animals; Fringe; Longmire; 666 Park Avenue.

The deal is good news — sort of — for Netflix at a time when it is struggling to replenish its video offerings after many of its initial content deals have expired. The Warner Bros deal makes Netflix “the exclusive online home” for those shows from the 2012-2013 season but this language appears to allow the studio to distribute the shows on other platforms like cable or broadcast.

Meanwhile, Time Warner (Warner Bros parent company) continues to pursue strategies that keep other goodies from Netflix. This week, for instance, it locked up a deal for HBO to have exclusive distribution rights to content from Universal Studios such as “Ted” or “Bourne Legacy.” The deal gives HBO, which Time Warner owns, more popular third party content in addition to its original series like”Game of Thrones.”

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What the shift to the cloud means for the future EPG

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 19:17:53 +0000

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Connected consumer third-quarter 2012

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 06:55:33 +0000

The third quarter saw many parts of the traditional media business in flux. New digital platforms that once had confined themselves to user-generated content began to invest in creating professional-quality content. At the same time, TV programmers began to wrestle with both the threat and the opportunity presented by second-screen and social-TV platforms. The period also saw the rollout of new device-based content ecosystems, red flags and red ink for traditional consumer electronics makers, and a resurgence of consumer purchases of movies. This quarterly wrap-up discusses these developments as well as offers trends and topics to watch for the remainder of 2012 and beyond.

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Barnes & Noble launches Nook Video, including UltraViolet support

Laura Hazard Owen — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 13:17:54 +0000

In an effort to compete with Amazon and iTunes, Barnes & Noble is launching Nook Video, which will offer “an expansive digital collection of popular films and television shows to be enjoyed anywhere on Nooks, TVs, tablets and smartphones.” The service launches in the US “this fall” and in the UK “this holiday season.”

Partners so far include HBO, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, STARZ, Viacom and Warner Bros. Entertainment, plus “favorite movies” from Walt Disney. “Other leading studios” will be announced soon, according to the release. For now, Paramount and NBC/Universal are missing.

Barnes & Noble is partnering with UltraViolet, the initiative from Hollywood studios that lets viewers watch content across devices and aims to break Apple’s stranglehold on the digital movie market. (Amazon is also an UltraViolet retail partner.)

Many details are missing from the press release, including prices, availability and free streaming options (if any). It’s also unclear which devices — Nooks and otherwise — will support Nook Video. Barnes & Noble is expected to release a new tablet soon, and the company also promises “soon-to-launch free Nook Video apps.”

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Warner Bros targets hundreds of Amazon sellers over DVD piracy

Jeff John Roberts — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 21:01:44 +0000

Warner Bros studio is filing a wave of copyright lawsuits across the country against individuals who are using Amazon to sell pirated versions of shows like True Blood and The Wire.

While the lawsuit campaign has been underway for several years, the studio has lately become much more aggressive. A review of court records shows that Warner Bros has filed nearly 50 cases against Amazon sellers in the last three months alone, compared to only a handful of such suits in 2010.

The studio, which is the parent of popular network HBO, appears to be targeting organized rings of bootleg sellers. A complaint filed this week in Ohio, for instance, names Ben James, who does business under the Amazon name Wolverines23. But it also lists “John Does 1-10″ who are unidentified individuals helping James manufacture and sell DVDs.

Amazon customer reviews for Wolverines23 are generally favorable and include comments like “Brand new DVD!” and “Packaged well and in perfect condition.”

None of the recent Time Warner complaints name Amazon directly.

The complaints ask for damages and an order to seize “screens,” “molds,” “machines” and other equipment related to DVD and packaging operations.

Here’s a sample complaint:

Time Warner v Amazon Sellers

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Uber offers free 1920′s “gangster” rides in HBO tie-in

Jeff John Roberts — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 15:20:16 +0000

Private car service Uber is offering New York City users a free ride in a Bentley, Caddie or Rolls Royce today as part of a promotion for HBO gangster show “Boardwalk Empire.”

According to an email from Uber, users can simply tap on an HBO icon in its app to summon a vintage 1920′s ride and take a free trip anywhere in Manhattan.

It’s the latest interesting marketing move from Uber and a clever way for HBO to hype the season premier of its Emmy-winning Atlantic City gangster drama. But there are more than a few catches: the free offer is only available in Manhattan today and tomorrow between 11am-6pm (this would be way cooler if it was at night) and the supply of rides is very limited.

As for Uber, the free rides might soon be the only kind it can offer it doesn’t win its squabble with the powerful New York City taxi lobby which wants to shut it down. The upstart car service, which lets users quickly summon a cab with a pre-approved credit card, is in similar regulatory fights in Boston and Washington, DC.

See also: Uber to offer lower cost rides via hybrids and Uber hits speed bump in Boston

Here’s a screenshot of the gangster promotion:

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What to expect at next week’s Kindle event: A rumor roundup

Laura Hazard Owen — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 13:35:11 +0000

At next week’s press event in Los Angeles, Amazon will introduce new versions of the Kindle Fire tablet and Kindle e-reader. What can we expect from the event? Here’s a rumor roundup.

Front-lit Kindle Touch

Since Barnes & Noble introduced the front-lit Nook with GlowLight in April, we’ve been waiting for a response from Amazon. The Verge has leaked images of the “Kindle Paperwhite,” which appears to be a front-lit Kindle Touch with a whiter, brighter and higher-resolution screen. The text on the images is in French and promises eight ~~hours~~ weeks of battery life even with the light on. It also looks as if Amazon has revamped the Kindle Store on the device, adding an option to see (and possibly download) the ebooks you’ve stored in the cloud.

Kindle Fire with camera and mapping

Also at The Verge are a couple pictures of a Kindle Fire with what appears to be a front-facing camera (the old Kindle Fire has no camera) and video chat.

Reuters reports the new Kindle Fire will also have mapping capabilities, citing unidentified sources: “Amazon will also add location capabilities to the new Kindle Fire, which requires either a GPS chip or a process known as Wi-Fi triangulation.” As my colleague Ki Mae Heussner reported in July, Amazon bought 3D mapping startup UpNext; Reuters says Nokia is providing the mapping technology.

New content deals for Amazon Prime Instant Video

In an effort to compete with Netflix and HBO Go, Amazon is actively building its free streaming video offerings, which are free to Amazon Prime members (who pay $79 a year for unlimited two-day shipping and other perks). The company recently signed a deal with NBCUniversal for shows like “Parks and Recreation” and “Battlestar Galactica,” bringing the total number of movies and TV episodes it offers to over 22,000. And it launched an instant video iPad app in early August.

The press conference’s Los Angeles location could suggest new movie or TV partnerships, and the NYT‘s David Pogue said in this week’s column that “an imminent Amazon deal will bring thousands more movies to its catalog, I hear.”

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Netflix CEO Reed Hastings’ response to HBO Nordic: It’s on!

Janko Roettgers — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 21:57:06 +0000

Hot on the heels of HBO’s announcement that the network is going over the top in Northern Europe, comes Netflix CEO Reed Hastings challenge for it to do the same in the U.S. Hastings posted the following comment Thursday afternoon on his Facebook page:

“Excited to see HBO join us in offering standalone streaming service in Scandinavia…what about the USA? We thought the first match-up would be in Albania.”

HBO had announced earlier Thursday that it was going to bring its programming to Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland this fall. The network will be available via pay TV subscriptions, but viewers will also be able to subscribe to a stand-alone Internet-only plan – something that HBO has long ruled out for U.S. consumers. HBO Nordic will cost less than €10 (about $12.50).

This will mark the first time HBO and Netflix squarely compete for the same customers on the Internet: Netflix had announced earlier this month that it was going to bring its service to Scandinavia before the end of the year.

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HBO deal ends Fox blackout on iCloud

Daniel Frankel — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 21:03:02 +0000

Fox has reached terms with HBO (z TWX) to relax rules in the studio’s pay TV contract limiting its distribution to cloud-based services such as Apple’s iCloud and UltraViolet.

Also read: Is Fox facing a blackout on iCloud and UltraViolet?

A studio representative confirmed an agreement with Apple to make its films available for iTunes users to re-download previous purchases of Fox films through iCloud.

HBO’s contract rules meant that Fox movies like Prometheus were previously blacked out from clouds while they were in the HBO pay TV window, which starts around six months after DVD release and can extend for up to 18 months.

That means if you purchased the film through iTunes, and you deleted it from your notebook, tablet or smartphone, you couldn’t re-download it from iCloud while it was in HBO’s window.

Earlier in the year, Warner Bros. and Universal negotiated similar terms with HBO.

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