Apple Category

Apple’s innovations and steps towards becoming dominant in the broadband video sector.

iTunes LogoApple’s name has been thrown into the ring as one of the many contenders looking to take Hulu and do something amazing with it. But with a list of suitors growing daily I wouldn’t bet on Apple being the winner at this stage.

Hulu Suitors

Hulu is up for sale, that is now definitive. But we still don’t know who’ll be buying the U.S.-based online video service, or even which companies are in the running. We have a got fair idea, however, and it’s pretty much all the usual suspects.

Those usual suspects being Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Google. Of those, the latter seems unlikely, even though Google would love to take Hulu under its wing, and Microsoft has all but pulled out of the bidding process. Which leaves Yahoo!.

Yahoo! is thought to be keen on a deal and willing to pay $2 billion for the company if content was exclusive for five years. Terms which News Corp., Walt Disney, Comcast, and Providence Equity are unlikely to agree to.

But wait, what about Apple?

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Posted in: Apple, Broadband Video Companies, Legal, DRM, Piracy & IP, News, Video on Demand by Dave Parrack on January 31, 2011

iTunes LogoThere are some copyrighted films available on iTunes. OK, so unless you’re Russian you are unlikely to have ever heard of them, but that isn’t the point. It shows there are ways and means around Apple’s tough approvals process.

Illegal iTunes Movie Apps

According to BBC News, many old Soviet-era Russian films are available to download and watch via Apple’s iTunes App Store. The only problem is that the original filmmakers and copyright owners haven’t given permission for the films to be distributed in this way, and aren’t seeing any money from them.

The affected titles include Gentlemen of Fortune, Assa, The Diamond Arm, Kin-dza-dza, and Cheburashka. All of which are considered favorites amongst Russians who lived through the Soviet era.

The copyright owners of the titles are film studio Mosfilm and the Joint State Film Collection. Neither of which is involved in the smartphone apps. Apple is investigating.

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Posted in: Apple, Broadband Video Companies, Hulu, News, Video Distribution, Video on Demand by Dave Parrack on January 6, 2011

Smashed TVWe may have entered a new year, but that hasn’t changed the trend for people cutting the cord. And despite the cable companies still denying the whole notion is a myth, a new survey suggests more people are gearing up to make the move.

Cord-Cutters Unite

According to a new survey from J.P. Morgan’s Imran Khan (via MediaMemo), 2011 is set to be a bumper year in terms of the number of people cutting the cord.

28 percent of those with a cable or satellite TV package stated they would consider switching to online video. If you replace “would consider” with “are considering” then this is a startling result. 63 percent of these people wouldn’t even be put off by the lack of live sports available on the Web.

Netflix appears to be the main source of this confidence in cutting the cord, with 47 percent of all active Netflix streamers stating they are considering making the move.

Khan consequently calls this move “a consumer-driven Tsunami.”

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New-Apple-TVIt looks as though Apple could have a minor, at least by its standards, hit on its hands with the new Apple TV. Whether the admittedly-impressive early sales figures will continue in the longterm remains to be seen, especially with Google TV on the horizon.

Apple TV Rebooted

Apple was one of the first major tech companies to realize the potential of bringing online video into the living room. Unfortunately, its first attempt at providing the hardware to make this possible didn’t really take off in a big way, eventually leading to Apple CEO Steve Jobs reclassifying Apple TV as “a hobby.”

However, after going back to the drawing board Apple saw fit to try again, and Apple TV 2.0 was born.

The new Apple TV is smaller, cheaper, and built along different lines. Gone is the hard drive, replaced by a flash memory drive designed to deliver streaming content from the cloud. So, very different, but better? And more importantly, more appealing to mainstream consumers?

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99 Cent Only Stores LogoAnother day, another big media boss comes out against Apple’s plans to revolutionize online video. And this one really doesn’t look like he’ll be backing down anytime soon. Or ever, for that matter.

Apple Revolution

Apple is ultra-keen to bring online video into the living room in a mainstream way. With Apple TV providing the hardware to make this happen, all that’s now needed is content; lots of it, and at the right price.

Apple has already done this for music in a big way, with iTunes bringing the reality of albums and tracks available to purchase in a simple way to bear. And Apple has managed to persuade the music industry and major record labels that pricing is the key.

Unfortunately, the company appears to be having a tougher time persuading the television industry and major networks and channels that this is also the case for video.

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New-Apple-TVThe new Apple TV is here, and early reviews indicate Apple has done a better job with the device this time around. But can it succeed in a way the original Apple TV failed to?

Apple TV

As with every new Apple product, the Apple TV received a lot of buzz in its early days. But the world both consumers and content owners) just didn’t seem ready for an online video set-top box to become mainstream.

Steve Jobs and co. soon wrote the whole thing off as nothing more than a hobby, while at the same time heading back to the drawing board and creating Apple TV 2.0. Which has now arrived.

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Warner Bros Home Video LogoApple has big plans to open up a TV content rental market to the mainstream. However, to make it work it needs to complete backing of most of the big networks and content creators. And if Warner Bros. example is duplicated that just isn’t going to happen.

99-Cents Shows

Just before Apple unveiled the iPad for the first time, a rumor popped up that the company was seeking to offer TV content for as cheap as humanly possible.

In August this plan came to fruition, with Apple beginning negotiations with a number of companies to get episodes of television shows available to rent for just 99-cents.

An episode would be made available for 48-hours within 24-hours of it being aired on broadcast television. And there would be no commercials. All of which is designed to make the content as desirable to mainstream consumers as possible.

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