VideoNuze Posts

Akamai has released its Q3 2014 State of the Internet Report, its compendium of global connection speeds and broadband adoption for fixed and mobile networks, along with 4K readiness, attack traffic and IPv4/IPv6 updates. Among the highlights are that broadband adoption rate reached 60% globally, a 1% increase vs. Q2 '14. (Broadband is defined as an average connection speed of greater than 4 mbps.)

South Korea once again led all countries with 96% adoption above 4 mbps, followed by Bulgaria (95%), Switzerland (93%) and Israel (92%). South Korea also had the highest percentage (81%) of adoption of "high broadband" (defined as average connection speed above 10 mbps), followed by Hong Kong and Japan (both at 55%) and Switzerland (54%).

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Digital purchases of movies in the U.S. boomed in 2014, to $1.55 billion, up 30% from $1.19 billion in 2013, according to new data from the Digital Entertainment Group. However, the $360 million increase was more than offset by a decline in purchases of physical movies (DVD and Blu-ray) of $844 million in 2014, to $6.93 billion, an 11% drop. In fact, as the chart below shows, physical sales have declined by over $2 billion since 2011 when they were nearly $9 billion. 

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Dish Network has finally announced its OTT virtual pay-TV operator ("vPop") service, dubbed "Sling TV," priced at $20/month and available in Q1 '15 on multiple connected and mobile devices.

Sling TV includes 12 linear cable TV networks from Disney (ESPN, ESPN2, Disney Channel and ABC Family, plus a feed of Maker Studios' videos), Turner (Cartoon Network, CNN, TBS, TNT and Adult Swim) and Scripps (Food Network, HGTV and Travel Channel). Beyond the obvious missing cable TV networks, none of the big 4 broadcast TV networks are included.

In addition to the $20/month tier, Sling TV is also offering two $5/month packages - one for kids (with Disney Junior, Disney XD, Boomerang, Baby TV and Duck TV) and one with news and information (with HLN, Cooking Channel, DIY and Bloomberg TV).

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Roku has added two more TV manufacturers to its Roku TV lineup - Best Buy's in-house Insignia brand along with Chinese brand Haier. The Insignia Roku TVs will be available in the spring, with the Haier models available in the third quarter. Roku TVs from initial partners TCL and Hisense became available in 2014. TCL is also expanding its lineup to 12 different Roku TVs in 2015.

In addition to the new manufacturers, Roku has also announced a Roku TV 4K reference design, with TCL as the initial partner. Roku has also teamed with Netflix to bring 4K content to Roku TVs. Netflix began offering "House of Cards" and "Breaking Bad" in 4K in 2014, despite the fact that very few subscribers actually have 4K TVs.

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Happy Holidays! This will be my last post of 2014, as I prepare to take some time off through New Year's. I hope all of you will get time to rejuvenate over the next week and half as well.

As I mentioned in last week's podcast, 2014 was a key turning point year for online video, when it truly went mainstream and became a top priority for everyone in the media and technology ecosystem. 2015 will build on 2014's momentum as we see still further viewer shifts to online and mobile video.

For VideoNuze, 2014 was another year of growth and evolution with the industry, with over 300 original posts and over 2,200 curated links to the most relevant news around the industry. Each weekday morning I strive to have VideoNuze be an essential tool for industry decision-makers to better understand the disruptive changes sweeping through the video industry. Hopefully VideoNuze is hitting the mark more often than it's missing!

Once again, I'm deeply grateful for all of the industry companies that have sponsored VideoNuze and our events in 2014, without whom none of this would be possible. Thank you!

I wish you and your families a happy, healthy holiday season and all the best in 2015!

With time ticking away to December 31st, it's looking increasingly questionable whether Dish Network is going to meet its self-imposed year-end deadline to launch its $30/month virtual pay-TV service ("vPop"). Dish's chairman Charlie Ergen, reiterated the company's commitment to the year-end deadline in his Q3 '14 earnings call comments.

But he also lowered expectations for the new service, citing numerous technical and operational challenges. I think it's fair to add to that list significant programming challenges, which always existed and have no doubt only increased given Dish's recent and current skirmishes with big TV networks.

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Multi-screen video processing provider Elemental Technologies has raised a Series D round of $14.5 million, led by Telstra, with participation by Sky and existing investors. With the round, Elemental has raised $44 million to date. Funds will be used for product development and to support global growth.

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This has been a significant year for TV Everywhere growth and no question, live sports has been the biggest driver. At the recent VideoSchmooze, one of our sessions explored how sports is playing a pivotal role in introducing TV Everywhere to millions of viewers and in turn, is creating a path to using TVE for entertainment programming as well.

The session featured Brian Dutt (FreeWheel), Vito Forlenza (Comcast), Dina Juliano (NBCU) and Clark Pierce (FOX Sports), with Colin Dixon (nScreenMedia) moderating.

The full session video is included below.

Watch the video