Sorta NewTeeVee: VOD and HD-DVD Roundup

Although I’d like all my video to be online and accessible at any time, the studios and the cable companies would prefer that I purchased physical media or downloaded titles through my locked set-top box. Personally, I don’t subscribe to cable or own more than a handful of DVDs, but a recent study from ABIresearch suggests that my generation is happy to swing both ways, buying DVDs and subscribing to cable or satellite television as well as downloading movies from iTunes and watching clips on YouTube. So what are the cable companies and studios up to with more traditional distribution these days?

Paramount is going HD-DVD, and won’t be releasing any of its titles on the competing Blu-Ray format. Paramount is a subsidiary of Viacom (VIA), and also a partner with DreamWorks (DWA), meaning that everything from the latest installment of Shrek to the first season of MTV’s Laguna Beach will only be available on HD-DVD. I’m beginning to wonder if the whole HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray battle isn’t actually a conspiracy to get you to buy two high-definition optical media players.

NBC offering new shows via VOD, with more and more people skipping the promotions during commercial breaks, networks are trying almost anything to get people to tune into new shows. NBC has managed to sign up almost every cable and satellite provider to offer previews of its new fall shows, including the Bionic Woman and Chuck, before they air. Which means that they’ll also be available on file-sharing networks that much sooner.

Studios worried about VOD cannibalizing DVD market, which is one reason that you’ll have to leave the house or wait for the mail carrier to get the latest releases. Even though the margins are considerably higher with VOD rentals than they are with traditional DVD rentals, the $16 billion DVD market is treated like a sacred cow. Comcast (CMCSA) is testing new releases over VOD in Denver and Pittsburgh and Time Warner’s (TWX) research suggests same-day VOD releases may actually help sales.

Current TV trendspotting in new marketing push, and it’s using everything from offline adverts at concerts, blog- and social-network marketing and an online companion site for viewers watching television with a laptop handy in order to capture the attention of savvy youth. Many users click over to Current during commercial breaks on other stations, and then stick around to watch the bite-sized “pods” of short segments. Expect to start seeing the first signs of the marketing push in public starting in October.

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