When I asked Akimbo to get rid of the box, I was being half-flippant and half serious…and they took it (the half-serious part) seriously. The IP-VOD service launched about a year ago is now being integrated into AT&T’s upcoming HomeZone box…HomeZone is an interesting play by AT&T: to squeeze all of its home entertainment services — satellite TV programming (from Dish), DSL service (AT&T Yahoo, earlier called Yahoo!SBC), DVR, VOD, and online content including Yahoo Photos and music — into one set-top. It will be launched later this summer.
Customers will also be able to log onto their AT&T Homezone receiver remotely, through a Web browser or wireless phone, to schedule DVR recordings, start movie downloads, and enjoy music and photo collections, or at least that the company pitch. (A short video of HomeZone service is here)
It is an sub-IPTV service of sorts, until the regulatory issues get sorted out there. It is being developed with 2Wire.
For Akimbo, all it content will now be in the HomeZone service. This follows its already-announced distribution deals with Microsoft (for all Media Center Edition users) as well as Thomson (for a new standalone retail-delivered set-top-box), and a step in the direction of becoming a CE-embedded content provider. Akimbo has also crossed 10,000 programs threshold, from its 180+ signed partners.
As for the viability of HomeZone, as with any other set-top box based service, it will be a tough play, but at least an integrated service has a better chance at it than say the standalone foolishness of Moviebeam.
Related:
— Party In A Box, Dude
— AT&T to Launch HomeZone Service in Q2 05
— Akimbo’s Relevancy Factor Increases With MLB.com, HDNet Deals
— CES: Akimbo, Movielink To Tie Up For Content; RCA For Hardware
— Can Akimbo Beat Bad Reviews?
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