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Adobe Pass Boosts Cable Networks' TV Everywhere Role
Adobe is announcing a new service this morning called Adobe Pass, which is intended to streamline how pay-TV subscribers gain access to authenticated premium content online. While Adobe Pass offers a key benefit to users in the ability to have "single sign-on" across multiple devices and web sites, a more critical upside is that with Adobe Pass, cable networks gain far greater control over their relationships with viewers as TV Everywhere efforts ramp up. In this respect Adobe Pass is a potentially significant building block in helping make TV Everywhere a reality. Todd Greenbaum, senior product manager at Adobe, briefed me earlier this week.
First, from a technical perspective, Adobe Pass looks like a pretty elegant solution that positions it well to be the glue that hold TV Everywhere authentication together. The idea is that when a user visits a content provider's web site they'll still see freely available content, but they'll now also see some that is for paying subscribers only (see TNT example below). If the site has added the Adobe Pass software, then when the user clicks on the authenticated content, a selection of pay-TV operators who have integrated the Adobe Pass API will appear (currently Comcast, Cox, DISH and Verizon are all on board). The user selects their pay-TV provider and is then asked for the user name and password they use with their pay-TV operator.
Categories: Cable Networks, Cable TV Operators, Technology
Topics: Adobe, Time Warner Cable
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NCAA's MMOD Offering In-Game Highlights, Powered by Digitalsmiths
An exciting feature of this year's NCAA March Madness on Demand (MMOD) is the availability of highlight clips during the games themselves. This near-real time metadata tagging and indexing capability is being powered by Digitalsmiths, and it represents a key milestone in the online sports experience.
As I described last month in my review of MLB.com's "Fantasy Baseball Commissioner" product which this season will include in-game highlights as well, these initiatives move metadata tagging and indexing from the realm of on-demand libraries to live streams. Digitalsmiths' GM Patrick Donovan wrote a post about this last Thursday, and I got a chance to catch up with him about it further.
Categories: Sports
Topics: CBS, Digitalsmiths, MMOD, NCAA, Turner Sports
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Upcoming NAB Show Offers Lots of Great Online Video Learning
If you haven't signed up to attend this year's NAB Show in Las Vegas, April 11-13, I encourage you to do so. There will be a lot of high-value learning and networking around online and mobile video. And NAB Show has graciously offered a FREE exhibits pass (a $150 savings). I'll be involved in activities on both Monday and Tuesday.
On Monday morning I'll be moderating a Super Session at 10:30am, "Connected TV: Smart Devices, New Strategies," which will feature Richard Buchanan (VP/GM, Content Operations, Comcast Media Center), Wilfred Martis (GM, Retail CE Products, Digital Home, Intel Corp), Susan Panico (Senior Director, PlayStation Network, Sony Computer Entertainment America), Jack Perry (Founder and CEO, Syncbak) and Paul Wehrley (co-founder and COO, Clicker). Connected TVs and devices are red-hot, and we will discuss their implications on the traditional TV ecosystem, how consumers are using them and what's ahead.
Categories: Events
Topics: NAB Show
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Could HBO be the Next BLOCKBUSTER?
Last week, amid rumors that Netflix was planning to bid for the new "House of Cards" TV series, directed by David Fincher (a deal finally confirmed late Friday afternoon), there was no shortage of media coverage asking, "Could
Netflix be the next HBO?" As interesting a question as that one is, here's one that's even more intriguing, and provocative: "Could HBO be the next BLOCKBUSTER?" At first blush, the comparison might seem ridiculous, and admittedly there are numerous differences between the two. But there are some troubling similarities which should be causing the HBO executive team to now be on high alert.
Categories: Aggregators, Cable Networks, Technology
Topics: HBO, Netflix, Time Warner
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Netflix Lays Down Its Bets on "House of Cards"
Netflix served notice of its official arrival on the Hollywood scene this afternoon, announcing a bold deal for first-run rights to the new David Fincher directed TV series, "House of Cards," starring Kevin Spacey. Whereas the company has built a base of 20 million plus subscribers and a streaming franchise largely on catalog movies and TV series, the first-run deal signals that the company will not rest on its successful content acquisition strategy.
In my analysis of the rumored deal (as it stood just a couple days ago), I pointed to three ways that a first-run deal for "House of Cards" contrasted with Netflix's traditional approach. Having discussed the deal with a Netflix spokesman this afternoon, and having read other interviews and analysis, this afternoon, following are updates on those three items:
Categories: Aggregators
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5 Items of Interest for the Week of March 14th
Happy Friday! Below is VideoNuze's end-of-week feature, recapping 5-6 interesting online/mobile video industry news items that we weren't able to cover this week. Enjoy! -
Still No Consensus On Broadband ISP Usage Cap Policies
AT&T made big headlines this week for unveiling a plan to cap monthly usage by its DSL subscribers at 150GB and its U-Verse subscribers at 250GB. Whereas other broadband ISPs like Comcast have long had a 250GB cap in place, what's different about AT&T's plan is that it is proactively saying it will charge $10 for every 50GB users exceed the limit. Other ISPs have tended to use the cap solely as a mechanism for throttling the tiny portion of users who exceed the cap, rather than as a way of generating extra revenue.
Categories: Broadband ISPs
Topics: AT&T, Comcast, FCC, Netflix, Verizon
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Hulu Also Making Move Into Original Video Production
While Netflix got a lot of attention this week for possibly moving to distribute an original TV series, "House of Cards," an interesting scoop in Adweek notes
that Hulu may also be looking to ramp up its original production efforts. According to the article, Hulu has been building two content groups, one focused on branded entertainment and the other on niche comedy and documentaries.
Categories: Aggregators, Branded Entertainment, Indie Video
Topics: ABC, FOX, Hulu, NBC, Netflix
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