Streaming video service Crunchyroll has just rolled out a new platform that allows its viewers to purchase merchandise related to the shows they’re watching, the company told VentureBeat today.

Crunchyroll is well known among anime lovers because it’s the largest source of Japanese animation programming in the U.S, with over 15,000 hours of officially licensed content localized into multiple languages. The service provides access to content the same time it airs in Japan for those that sign up for premium subscriptions that cost between $5 to $12 per month. There’s also a free, ad-supported service that offers viewers access to content weeks after its initial premiere.

“Our goal is to bring our loyal viewers a surround-sound consumer experience with the ability to purchase DVDs, video games, figures, and other highly relevant merchandise related to their favorite shows,” said Crunchyroll COO Brady McCollum in a statement.

Selling products alongside a streaming video services is hardly a new concept, as Amazon is just now getting into this with its Prime Instant Video service and online store. However, Crunchyroll is worth paying attention because of how much its matured over the years and what it could predict about the future of the online video business. It started out as a company that enabled its users to upload bootleg copies of anime for others to watch without obtaining the proper licensing deals. Today, it’s got licensing deals, a successful streaming subscription (more than 200,000 customers), and ad-supported services with over 8 million monthly viewers and 127 million monthly views across the world.

And now that Crunchyroll is starting to generate revenue by selling merchandise from the programming it offers could point to the future of the streaming video service business in general. For example, Hulu could easily adopt this model in the near future should the licensing first-run TV episodes become greater — especially if Hulu finds itself sold to a company that doesn’t own one of the major broadcast networks (ABC, NBC, Fox).

As for Crunchyroll, the move to sell merchandise isn’t actually a huge gamble, as the company points out that 70 percent of revenue for companies that produce anime comes from merchandising. The merchandise itself is being sold via deals with Asian distributors that aren’t partnering with any other U.S. companies.

Founded in 2008, the San Francisco-based startup has offices in Los Angeles and Tokyo. It’s previously raised $4.8 million in funding from Venrock and TV Tokyo.

Aereo has announced that Atlanta, Ga. will be the next market to receive its streaming TV service, with a roll out scheduled for next month.

Aereo’s service enables people to watch and record the free over-the-air local television content (from the likes of ABC, NBC, Fox, CBS, CW, and other) online via desktops, computers, set-top boxes, and mobile devices. It does this by providing tiny antennae for each subscriber (thus making the service legal in the eyes of at least East Coast federal judges so far). The company recently simplified its payment model to give subscribers the option of a $8 or $12 per month plan, depending on how many hours you need to record programming.

The service is already available in New York City and Boston, but the company is planning to launch in a total of 22 markets by next year. And even with Atlanta, Aereo should still be too small to cause any real disruption to the TV industry, but that’s exactly what’s happening. Major broadcast stations have taken Aereo to court, claiming that it’s illegal for the company to provide access to its broadcasted content without paying some kind of licensing fee to them. But since federal judges have ruled on the legality of Aereo, those broadcast companies are taking drastic measures.

Both CBS and Fox’s parent company News Corp. have threatened to take its programming off the air and convert it into cable networks, while CBS has even invested in technology that would mimic Aereo’s functionality for local viewers. Recently, ABC even announced that it would be making the local broadcast streams available via iOS devices.

It’s definitely an interesting development because Aereo is still too young to determine if its got a viable business model (with customers in only a handful of cities able to subscribe to its service), but big TV companies are responding by making their services better for consumers. Aereo might be an unlikely rival, but it’s definitely driving competition.

The latest company rumored to be interested in buying streaming video service Hulu is Yahoo, according to a Bloomberg report that cites unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

The report indicates that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer recently met with members of Hulu’s executive team to learn more about what the service had to offer as well as what an acquisition deal might entail. And Yahoo isn’t the only company Hulu executives have spoken with recently, either. According to Bloomberg’s source, Amazon is also apparently interested.

Hulu’s owners, News Corp., Disney, and Comcast, want to sell the service due to disagreements over Hulu’s business strategy and because each of them would like to pursue separate digital strategies for their broadcast and cable networks. But that much has been known for a while. The more interesting side of the story is in who would buy Hulu and why would they want it.

Yahoo’s renewed interest in buying Hulu may be a result of failed negotiations to purchase French video service Dailymotion. Yahoo was believed to have been offering upwards of $300 million for a 75 percent majority stake in Dailymotion, but last month French Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg decided he didn’t want to sell such a successful French business to an American company. With the Dailymotion deal on ice, it is possible that Mayer is looking to Hulu as a plan B for boosting Yahoo’s presence in streaming video. Yahoo also recently signed an exclusive deal for all Saturday Night Live clips.

But one thing that may prevent Yahoo from acquiring Hulu could be the asking price. Last year, Hulu owners failed in an attempt to sell the service for around $2 billion, with none of the potential buyers coming anywhere close. And even with Hulu reporting record growth, it’ll be tough to find anyone willing to entertain a $2 billion sale.

In addition to Yahoo and Amazon, Guggenheim Digital Media has previously expressed interest in buying Hulu. Former News Corp. president Peter Chernin is also said to have made an offer to by the service for $500 million.

Photo by Sean Ludwig/VentureBeat

Netflix released a new 11-page document that outlines the company’s long-term outlook on television — and more importantly, who will come out as winners.

The outlook document comes after the company’s successful 2013 first quarter earnings report, which saw Netflix bring in over $1 billion in revenue and a record 33 million subscribers. The document doesn’t really provide any new information, but it does shine some light on how Netflix is helping to revolutionize the business of streaming video.

We’ve outlined some of the more interesting bits below, but you can read the full document here.

The future of TV

Traditional TV viewing is dying and will eventually be replaced by Internet TV apps, the company outlines in the document. A variety of causes are behind this, including faster Internet speeds and a desire to stream higher-resolution video.

“Eventually, as linear TV is viewed less, the spectrum it now uses on cable and fiber will be reallocated to expanding data transmission. Satellite TV subscribers will be fewer, and mostly be in places where high-speed Internet (cable or fiber) is not available. The importance of high-speed Internet will increase.”

Spending

Netflix is spending about $350 million annually to maintain and improve its streaming service. This includes pushing the Netflix service across several platforms and devices, improving the user interface, monitoring performance, etc. That’s a pretty hefty sum, but it pales in comparison to the company’s content budget.

Netflix’s vast content library of movies and TV shows costs about $2 billion per year. The bulk of that money goes to licensing deals, such as the agreement Netflix made with Disney back in December. A very small portion of content spending goes to exclusive original content, such as House of Cards, Hemlock Grove, Arrested Development, and Orange is the New Black.

Netflix’s content

The company also plans to limit its content to shows that have long-term value (e.g. shows you can re-watch often) and shows that are in high demand. Netflix won’t always have the most complete library of content, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

“As we’ve gained experience, we’ve realized that the 20th documentary about the financial crisis will mostly just take away viewing from the other 19 such docs, and instead of trying to have everything, we should strive to have the best in each category. As such, we are actively curating our service rather than carrying as many titles as we can.”

Netflix also reiterated why it’s not interested in content that deals with current affairs, reality television, or sports. It has a strong commitment to scripted stories and documentaries. This could be part of why the company is choosing not to renew its licensing deal with Viacom but does want to strike separate deals to bring select shows to the Netflix library.

Thoughts on competition

“We don’t and can’t compete on breadth with Comcast, Sky, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Sony, or Google. For us to be hugely successful we have to be a focused passion brand. Starbucks, not 7-Eleven. Southwest, not United. HBO, not Dish.”

More specifically, competing with HBO, Hulu, and Amazon

Netflix estimates that it will eventually grow its subscriber base to be about two to three times the size of HBO. That means the Netflix of the future will have 60 million to 90 million subscribers. That doesn’t mean this will happen overnight. It also views services like Amazon Prime and Hulu as secondary competitors that won’t be able to offer the scope of content that Netflix can at a comparable experience.

“Behind HBO would come Amazon/Lovefilm/Prime, Hulu, Now TV, and many cable and broadcast networks in various territories. Amazon in particular is spending heavily and commissioning its own original programming, presumably because they see the same exciting big picture for Internet TV that we do. Many consumers will subscribe to multiple services if they each have unique compelling content. Success relative to these competitors-for-content would be us having substantially larger revenue and therefore sustainable increasing content, tech and marketing spending, leading to further growth, and a virtuous cycle.”

Update: We’ve updated this post with clarification from Yahoo about the exclusive deal for Saturday Night Live content.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer just made her first big play into video.

In a post on the company’s blog, Mayer announced that Yahoo has reached a deal with production company Broadway Video to bring long-running sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live to Yahoo exclusively. Presumably, that means the only place you’ll be able to watch this content is via Yahoo websites — meaning you won’t be able to watch clips of the show via Hulu or possibly even NBC’s website (at least for old content). And while Yahoo will have episodes of the show available, sites like Hulu will still have access to full episodes of the most current season, the company told VentureBeat.

The deal brings SNL’s entire 38-year history of episodes and clips. We don’t exactly know where or when that content will debut, but Mayer said those details will be shared in the near future.

In the last year, Yahoo has made a dramatic shift from being a wishy-washy, quasi technology company that did mostly media stuff (content + advertising) to a company that is firmly focused on refining its web products. However, Yahoo’s realigned focus doesn’t mean it isn’t interested in growing the media side of its business. This deal to bring in SNL content exclusively to Yahoo demonstrates that.

If Yahoo does end up buying streaming video site DailyMotion, the SNL content would make even more sense — as would Yahoo’s commitment to breaking into the video advertising world.

Image via Yahoo

Updated: Updated with a response from Amazon.

After successfully storming the industry with successful e-readers and a line of tablets, Amazon is rumored to be launching its first set-top box for streaming media.

The information comes from a Bloomberg Businessweek report that cites three different anonymous sources familiar with the matter. Amazon declined comment to VentureBeat about the company’s set-top box plans.

While we obviously don’t have confirmation, the notion that Amazon would make its own streaming media set-top box isn’t entirely surprising. Amazon already had a successful Android app store that it could easily parlay into a set-top box. It’s also got a streaming video service (Prime Instant Video) that’s trying to compete with Netflix in terms of a collection of unlimited movie and TV shows and iTunes when it comes to rentals and video sales. It’s also brought its Prime Instant Video service to a slew of other set-top boxes like the Roku and Xbox 360.

The report indicates that Amazon, which has toyed with the idea of producing a set-top box for years, is producing the project via its Lab126 under former Cisco head of video products Malachy Moynihan and former TiVo and Vudu engineer Andy Goodman.

Bloomberg’s sources make no mention of a price for the rumored set-top box, or even a name — although the most likely choice would be Kindle TV. The set-top box is scheduled to debut in the fall, which would be just in time for the holiday sale season.

As for what an Amazon TV set-top box might look like, I’d imagine there’s be a heavy emphasis on video. The company is currently promoting its original content and recently released 14 pilot episodes that are available to everyone. Amazon is letting people vote on the shows before deciding which will gain a full season of episodes. And while there’s never been mention of advertising during these programs (or any others that it’s currently licensing from other media companies), it wouldn’t surprise me if the company ended up adding commercials and using data from their customer’s purchasing history to determine advertising that was appropriate for each individual.

Illustration by Tom Cheredar

The New York Times will now offer unlimited free access to video content on its site and mobile apps thanks to sponsorship deals with Acura and Microsoft, the company announced today.

Back in March 2011, the Times put up a paywall for its digital content. It later raised the wall so people could view just 10 free articles or videos a month because the paywall tactic worked so well. But now video views will no longer count against the 10-article-per-month limit.

“As we continue to tell stories through video and increase our offerings, we want to ensure NYTimes.com users can watch and explore our video content with ease,” Denise Warren, NYT executive VP of digital products and services, said in a statement. “We are grateful to Acura and Microsoft for providing the support we need to continue to expand our best-in-class video content and deliver it to our vast NYTimes.com audience.”

Paywall strategies have evolved over the years. Different from the Times‘ model, blogger Andrew Sullivan has been a major proponent of offering an ad-free experience that is funded by readers. His blog The Dish charges readers $2 a month (or $20 a year) to access it. The Dish’s paywall lets nonsubscribers read just five free stories every 60 days.

The Times‘ video page offers much original content and in-depth takes on news events. Categories covered include world news, U.S., business, science, opinion, arts, style, sports, and more.

Take a look at a recent video by the Times below.

Once again, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has struck down questions that suggested the company would raise the price of its standard streaming subscription plans beyond the introductory $7.99 per month fee that’s been successful for a few years.

But if the company doesn’t raise its fees, how does it plan to make money when its content costs and customer acquisition costs continue to rise as it grows?

Well, during today’s Q1 2013 earnings call, Hastings outlined some things that the company will and won’t be doing to start making more money in the months and years ahead.

Family plans are coming

As stated in the letter to shareholders, Netflix is planning to offer a new streaming-only plan that would allow subscribers to play up to four concurrent streams of content from Netflix’s library for $12 per month. Currently, the company allows subscribers to play two concurrent streams, but for families that have four or five people sharing a single account, this definitely isn’t feasible.

While this new 4-stream plan will go into effect soon, it doesn’t look like you’ll be gaining the benefit of hosting more than a single account per subscription. That means the recommendation engine will still suck pretty badly if you’ve got four people watching wildly different things. For example, your younger kiddos are addicted to Dora The Explorer, the slightly older kid watches Adventure Time, and you’re content to only watch educational pieces and documentaries and chances are the recommendations — as well as the account’s queue — will still be pretty chaotic.

What we do know is that the ability to have separate accounts is coming at some point. The company has even beta tested the family account plans for a select number of people. We don’t really know if the pricing will be similar to the $12 plans that were just introduced or be a little more expensive, which might be worth it considering your situation.

More original content is very likely, and you won’t have to wait

With House of Cards, Hemlock Grove, and the soon to launch Arrested Development season, Netflix is importing exclusive batches of content that Amazon and Hulu won’t get for years, if at all. The purpose is to bring in new customers and retain old ones that can’t live without those favorite shows — sort of like HBO has managed to do with Game of Thrones, Newsroom, and others. The company is also saying that its spending far less on the original content (less than 10 percent of its total content costs), which means Netflix is able to power the ship without spending a ton of cash. That means its much less  likely to have to raise prices on current subscription plans.

“We’re very excited with what’s happened with House of Cards, and with what’s coming with Arrested Development,” Hastings said during the call. “Over this year with a continuing roll out of original shows, you’re going to see a very nice redefinition and a broadening of what Netflix is to our members.”

We also know that Netflix isn’t big on the idea of making subscribers wait once a week (for 13-15 weeks) to watch an entire season of those shows. This seems to be true even though there’s obviously a benefit in some part to making people wait to get a whole season, which (in theory) would cause them to prolong canceling a subscription for 2 to 3 months rather than a single month.

Don’t count on subsidized Netflix from third-parties

Anyone hoping that Netflix will adopt a payment model used by cable companies to get free Cinemax or HBO for a short period of time might be waiting a while. During the call Hastings said the company doesn’t have any plans to partner with hardware manufacturers, television or Internet service providers on a subsidized Netflix offer — meaning someone like Roku or Comcast ends up fronting the $7.99 per month for six months when you do business with them.

“We’ve seen some companies (that advertise Netflix as a benefit) see success by offering customers a Netflix gift card,” Hastings said. However, he added that the current business model is proving quite successful, so subsidized Netflix accounts aren’t very likely.

That’s probably a pretty smart move, especially because its what’s preventing premium channel HBO from striking out on its own. HBO and other premium channels are deeply dependent on revenue that comes from cable and satellite TV providers, and as such, won’t be able to offer a stand-alone streaming service without ruining its overall business.

Latin America is still a-go

Netflix is still waiting to become profitable in its international markets, such as he U.K., Spain, and Latin America, but the company said it’s seeing consistent growth regardless. This is true of Latin America, which is posting some of the slowest growth because the company wasn’t prepared for how different the market was from other territories.

But that isn’t discouraging the company from sticking around until it starts making money. Hastings reiterated the company’s commitment during the call, saying that although growth is slow, Latin America doesn’t face heavy competition from others. That means the company feels like it’s still a worthy market to stay in.

Photo via blucier/Flickr

Netflix’s newest original series, Hemlock Grove, debuted this past weekend, and it looks like members are biting, with more people watching the new supernatural show on opening weekend than its recent hit, the political drama House of Cards.

Hemlock Grove is the latest original series from Netflix; horror director Eli Roth developed it. This show, along with House of Cards, clearly shows the company’s desire to be a media player similar to HBO and Showtime.

It appears that Netflix’s original content strategy is paying off, with more than 3 million new subscribers signing up last quarter. That brings Netflix’s total membership to more than 36 million members.

The company writes in its quarterly earnings statement today:

On April 19, we launched all 13 episodes of Hemlock Grove, a horror thriller from Eli Roth, and we’re very pleased with its early performance. Hemlock Grove was viewed by more members globally in its first weekend than was House of Cards and has been a particular hit among young adults.

Now, to be fair to House of Cards, that series debuted on Super Bowl weekend. That means Sunday viewership likely dropped off substantially. Hemlock Grove had no such event drawing attention away from viewers.

Netflix’s next original content offering is a new season of the cult comedy TV show Arrested Development. All 15 episodes of that series will be available on May 26. Sadly, that will be the only season of the show produced by Netflix.

Netflix has unveiled the first details of a long-term strategy to shift towards using HTML5 for its web-based video playback.

Netflix, which owns about one third of the market for prime-time Web streaming video, far ahead of competitors like Amazon Prime and Hulu, currently uses Microsoft’s Silverlight plugin for video playback. That’s in contrast to many other video services, which use Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime, or other services to play video within their web pages. However, Microsoft has announced plans to wind down Silverlight by 2021. That means Netflix — and anyone else relying on Silverlight — has eight years to find an alternative.

HTML5 is a promising, if somewhat half-cooked, alternative. The open web standard, while widely hyped, proved disappointing to many developers in 2012, failing to live up to expectations for cross-platform support, performance, and other issues. But while mobile consumers spend far more time in apps than in their mobile browsers, HTML5 still has potential as the underlying rendering framework used within apps. Also, developers like HTML5, as does the guy who invented the Web.

And fortunately for Netflix, HTML5-based solutions that meet Netflix’s requirements are in the pipeline. Chief among those requirements are the need for content encryption and copy restriction (aka digital rights management, or DRM), “a requirement for any premium subscription video service,” the Netflix blog post drily notes. The W3C’s Encrypted Media Extensions specification provides just that support, Netflix says. In addition, the Web Cryptography API (also from the W3C) gives Netflix programming tools for encrypting and decrypting data, and for digitally signing content and verifying customers’ identities, which are also needed for the delivery of DRM-restricted video.

Finally, the W3C’s Media Source Extensions specification gives Netflix the ability to embed a video player in a web page, via the <video> tag, and also to control how to deliver audio and video to that player via its HTTP servers and content delivery network. It also gives Netflix the ability to switch to different servers in case one goes down, and to control the playback in various ways using JavaScript, which gives it flexibility to experiment.

“In addition, this allows us to implement our industry-leading adaptive streaming algorithms (real-time selection of audio/video bitrates based on available bandwidth and other factors) in our JavaScript code,” the blog post states.

These three key specifications aren’t completely baked yet, nor are they usable in most browsers, which is why Netflix isn’t quite ready to jump fully into the HTML5 pool. (Nor does it have to, given the long, eight-year sunset period for Silverlight.) Instead, it’s dipping its toes in the water, working with Google to implement support for its HTML5 player starting with the Chrome browser on Samsung’s ARM-based Chromebook.

Hat tip: Ars Technica

Photo: Netflix CEO Reed Hastings plans world domination, back in 2010. Credit: Ben Lucier/Flickr

Video site Dailymotion has added support for Pinterest, thus making its members’ videos available for play on various pin boards, the company told VentureBeat today.

Anyone that’s used to adding videos on Pinterest is probably familiar with the functionality whenever a YouTube or Vimeo video has been added to a board. However, I found that adding a Dailymotion video to be slightly better, in part because you can choose the thumbnail that appears on your pinboard using a handful of random screenshots from the video itself. [See screenshot above for an example.]

“We’re reaching out to partners such as the Wall Street Journal, Howdini, and Sports Illustrated to collaborate on promotion of their content on Pinterest,”  said Dailymotion VP of content Neil Gladstone in an interview with VentureBeat. He added that the Pinterest support, which launched late last week, is already bringing in traffic to the site and increasing video views.

“We’ve noticed a large concentration of usage for Pinterest among our global audience in the U.K., Germany, France, India, and Australia, and spikes around content such as DIY, how-to, recipes and entertainment,” Gladstone said.

Dailymotion has over 112 million monthly visitors and 2.5 billion monthly views. The company, which is based in France, has recently been in the news regarding a rumored sale to Yahoo.

Popular streaming music service Spotify has launched its first real advertising campaign, with a one-minute ad that will run across TV and social media and several web-only ads.

Spotify recently announced that it has 6 million paid users, but the company needs to continue to get more members so it can eventually make a profit. Launching a large ad campaign could help with awareness among average consumers.

The ads were developed by Droga5 New York, and the one-minute slot will debut tonight on the premiere of the NBC show The Voice. Droga5 also worked on two stand-alone digital ads Spotify will be running across the web and social media.

The three ads all show people enjoying music and contain voice-over narration describing music and the emotions of people listening to it. I personally don’t find the video ads that compelling. First, it would be nice if the videos actually contained some fun music. Second, it’s unclear how Spotify actually works and how it enables these experiences. Third, the one-minute ad indirectly references “I am the Walrus” by The Beatles, but that song isn’t even on Spotify. The stand-alone digital ads aren’t much better.

On top of the new ad campaign, a new report from Business Insider says Spotify is looking to add a streaming video component to its music service. Anonymous sources “briefed on the company’s plans” told Business Insider that streaming video content was in the works and it could compete with the likes of Netflix and HBO.

The report seems a little fishy to us because Spotify is already spending so much of its cash on music licensing that the pursuit of high-end video content seems out of reach. We could see Spotify expanding into the realm of streaming live concerts and maybe even music videos, but that would be on a much smaller scale and not aim to compete with big-name streaming video providers.

In response to the report, Spotify said that it does not comment on rumors.

Check out Spotify’s video and stand-alone ads below.

Today Vevo, the “web’s No. 1 platform for music,” took a giant step away from YouTube, where its viewers consume most of its content. It took a giant step away from the web, too, and a big step back toward broadcast TV, announcing that Vevo TV will be an always-on broadcast-style music and video channel available exclusively on its own website and apps, plus Roku.

The new channel will feature music videos, of course, as well as live concerts and artist interviews, and Vevo promises exclusives and new, original music alongside old classics. No algorithms here determining what “the audience” wants: This will all be hand-programmed by real humans, Vevo says.

Source: Vevo

Vevo TV on an Android phone

Curiouser and curiouser, as Alice in Wonderland said. Old-fashioned, even.

But Vevo has a method in the madness and magic in the formula. When everyone’s watching everything and nothing is particularly “on,” there’s a definite lack of shared experience, shared reality, and shared community that those of us over the age of 30 once knew. It’s the special something that happens when the Super Bowl is on and you know everyone’s watching and engaged in the same event.

“Just like TV!” as VEVO says.

Except, of course, it’s better, because it’s on your phone, your tablet, or your computer. And anything you want to watch but can’t quite fit in just now can be saved, PVR-style, to a “watch it later” playlist. But the TV-like part is that it’s a curated experience that you are, presumably, watching at the same time as thousands or millions of other people.

And that it’s a lean-back experience, as Vevo is at pains to make clear. Where the contemporary web and app focused media scene is lean-forward, “channel” surfing, switching from clip to clip to clip, Vevo TV is intended to be more relaxing, more enjoyable, and more able to consumed in the living room as well as the bus or train. In other words, from millions of frenetic monkeys clicking frantically on billions of 30-second or two-minute videos, to chilling out and relaxing to music and video.

The new Vevo TV is available today for the U.S. and Canada, with additional countries coming, as always, “soon.”

Amazon announced announced a new licensing deal today with Scripps Network that will bring a slew of cable TV show episodes to its library of content for its Prime streaming service.

Scripps owns several cable TV networks that many people may view as staples of their channel lineup, such as Food Network, HGTV, Travel Channel, and the DYI Network. And as part of its deal with Amazon, old seasons of popular shows will now be available for free to Prime members. Some of the new content includes Rachael Ray’s Week in a Day; Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations; Cupcake Wars; Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives; House Hunters, Man v. Food, and Ghost Adventures. Presumably, current episodes of Scripps-owned shows will also be available for purchase via Amazon’s website.

The new Prime content is just the latest in a long string of licensing deals Amazon has recently forged to make its video service more competitive with Netflix and Hulu, as well as make its $79 per year Prime memberships more appealing to customers. This year alone, Amazon has signed deals to bring in TV content from A&E Networks (A&E, History Channel, Bio, Lifetime), an exclusive agreement to stream CBS TV miniseries Under The Dome, an exclusive to stream Downton Abbey, and approved production on a handful of original comedy and children’s series. And Tuesday, the company also announced an exclusive deal to stream FX series Justified on Prime.

Are you excited about any of the new content heading to Prime? Let us know in the comment section below.

At first glance, it may seem odd that Netflix chose to premiere its first huge original show House of Cards today, leading into Super Bowl weekend.

Not only is the Super Bowl championship game one of the most watched live events in the entire world, but it also gobbles up attention for most of the day with pre- and post-game analysis programming. Most of the major networks treat Super Bowl Sunday as if it were a holiday, delaying new episodes of their scripted and broadcast shows to avoid an audience ratings decline.

But clearly Netflix isn’t scared the big game will prevent people from watching House of Cards. And that’s despite reports from Sandvine showing a 40 percent drop in Netflix streaming usage compared to an average Sunday evening/night during last year’s Super Bowl. Part of its lack of fear might have to do with all the other TV networks playing reruns or deferring regular content until next week — meaning House of Cards might be the only great piece of TV worth watching on Sunday for those not watching the game.

Related stories:
Punt your TV: The Super Bowl is better online (guide)
Ahead of House of Cards premiere, Netflix asks investors to fund new original content

House of Cards has been getting glowing reviews from critics as well as tons of positive comments from Netflix subscribers via social media today. The show, which comes from the minds of director David Fincher and actor/producer Kevin Spacey, is a Washington D.C. political drama about corrupt congressman Francis Underwood (Spacey), who will stop at nothing to become President of the United States.

Netflix, which has promoted the show’s trailer on its streaming service for weeks, is releasing the full 13-episode season today. That’s a sharp difference in strategy from the cable networks, which make their audience wait 13 weeks to finish a story, one hour at a time.

And if the allure of a hot new show isn’t enough to bait people into checking out the new show between now and Sunday, the company is streaming the first episode for free on its website. Also, Netflix has partnered up with Microsoft to provide free access to its app on Xbox Live all weekend long (meaning access to all the episodes, son!). This is interesting because the “free weekend” is a promotional tactic commonly used by premium cable channels like HBO and Showtime to gain new customers.

It’s likely that Netflix subscribers (and those participating in the Xbox Live free weekend) won’t have time to finish the entire 13-episode run between now and Super Bowl kickoff. But, if House of Cards lives up to the buzz from critics (and it should), Netflix may end up seeing a nice usage boost beginning Monday — and a crop of new subscribers.

Theoretically, any boost in subscribers that can be attributed to House of Cards should play well with investors — especially since the company isn’t expecting the show’s debut to have an immediate impact on growth, Netflix chief exec Reed Hastings told analysts during last week’s Q4 earnings call.

We’ve reached out to Netflix for comment about the Super Bowl’s impact on streaming usage. And as always, we’ll updated this post with any new information when and if we hear back.

Will you be watching House of Cards this weekend? Let us know in the comments.

The Super Bowl is the most watched event in the nation. And thanks to the almighty power of the blessed Internet, this year’s gameday is easier to follow and participate in than ever before.

We’ve devised a comprehensive gameday strategy for football fans and all their friends and family members.

1) Watching the big game online

Desktop: If you can’t get to a television screen, CBS Sports is doing you a solid by streaming the entire broadcast on its website for free. Pregame programming begins at 8 a.m. PT (11 a.m. ET), with the game itself kicking off at 3:30 p.m. PT (6:30 p.m. ET). The CBS Sports website may actually provide a better experience than the traditional TV screen, as you can view the game from many different angles, check out a livestream of social activity, and play with several interactive features. But if, for whatever reason, you’re not a fan of CBS, then head over to the official NFL Network website to catch a free livestream of the game. If you live outside the country, though, you’ll be forced to purchase an NFL Game Pass to watch the Super Bowl.

Mobile: Can’t get to a television or desktop computer? If you’re Verizon customer, don’t worry. The wireless carrier/FiOS broadband Internet company is providing a Super Bowl livestream via its free NFL apps for iOS and Android to anyone with an NFL Mobile subscription ($5/mo.).

2) Watching the commercials online

You have a few options for keeping track of all the seemingly memorable Super Bowl commercials online, with many shortened or rejected versions of them already available for viewing online. I prefer to use the Hulu AdZone to watch the commercials, but YouTube’s AdBlitz is also a good option. Either way, watching the commercials online means you can skip the annual offering from GoDaddy, which is usually tasteless and degrading to women.

3) Second screen apps & services

Team Apps: Because most of you will be constantly glancing at your smartphone or tablet throughout the game anyway, this year’s Super Bowl comes with a handful of official mobile apps intended to enhance the viewing experience. Both the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers have applications available on iOS, Android, and BlackBerry that will give you game news, short replay videos, photo galleries, player interviews, statistics, and other goodies.

Super Bowl event app: This year the NFL is providing those attending the game with a mobile app to make the most of their undoubtedly expensive experience. It has a map feature showing nearby restaurants, music, ticketing information, etc. And if it’s anything like the 2012 version, it will include some useful features for people who aren’t at the game too.

4) What to watch at halftime: Beyoncé or puppies?

Musical Performance: This year, CBS Sports will be providing a livestream of the Super Bowl’s halftime show, something that wasn’t available to online viewers in the past. That means you now have the option of watching Beyoncé try to entertain rambunctious football fans. If that doesn’t appeal to you, here’s another option:

Puppy Bowl: I’m not sure who at cable network Animal Planet was responsible for making an entire halftime show devoted to puppies playing with balls in an adorable dog-sized football field. But it’s back again this year, and with a new partnership that will vastly improve your viewing experience. Animal Planet has teamed up with Yahoo’s IntoNow application to give you an easy way to share and caption a large volume of adorable puppy screenshots via its CapIt feature (a meme generator). You may remember that I thoroughly praised IntoNow for its ability to make the 2012 presidential debates far more enjoyable. This will be more of the same, except this time you’ll actually stand a chance of getting everyone in the room to agree that your tweets are indeed awesome. For now, check out some game predictions using puppies, courtesy of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon:

5) Gameday Grub ideas

Foodily: Sure, you can definitely get away with ordering a few extra-large pizzas and opening a bag of chips, but why not go all out? I did a quick scan of some of the food startup blogs and was shocked to find that many of them had a pretty meager selection of Super Bowl food posts. Foodily, however, comes through, offering up not one, but three different posts that cover snacks, cocktails, and overall food. If you don’t like any of those selections, you can always search the site for more.

Yummly and Allrecipe: If you want a good recipe for regular game snack food, Allrecipe has collected a handy list of the most searched-for Super Bowl food. And if you have no idea what constitutes Super Bowl food or what the average football fan wants to eat, check out Yummly’s very extensive post on the subject using data from its own site.

Foodie iPad app: If you’re looking for a more directed crop of recipes, Glam Media’s cooking/food site Foodie has released a Foodie Recipes iPad app that highlights 40 game-day suggestions.

Seamless & GrubHub: If you hate cooking, or even leaving the confines of your house to pick up food for your guests, you can always use delivery services like Seamless or GrubHub to order from a ton of local restaurants.

6) Other miscellaneous Super Bowl-related apps, services, and content

Madden NFL 13: The EA Football game franchise is featuring a Ray Lewis pre-Super Bowl speech video on YouTube that’s available to watch now.

Xbox Live’s Sports Hub: A collection of Super Bowl-related content from a variety of Xbox media partners, including Hulu, Maxim, iHeartRadio, CrunchyRoll, and DailyMotion.

StatMilk: StatMilk has put together an interactive web infographic that compares statistical data of the Ravens and the 49ers. It’s actually pretty cool if you’re super into sports stats.

Swipper Bowl: Social startup Swipp has created a Swipper Bowl app that helps frame the discussion sports fans will likely be having via social media during the big game. To use it, you’ll need to connect with Facebook.

Football Party Game App: This is an iPad app/web app that lets you and a group of friends (wherever you are) to play a game of trivia during the Super Bowl. I’m not a fan of “pub quizzes” or trivia nights, but I have an exhausting list of friends who love it. It will, however, set you back $5.

TOK.tv iOS app: This app lets you chat with four other friends not in your general vicinity during the big game. It’s basically a Google Hangout that’s devoted to live sporting events. The TOK.tv iPad  app is free and available in the iTunes store.

7) Avoiding the heck out of the actual Super Bowl

Hey sports haters and hermits, did you think we’d forget about you? Nope. Here are a few cool things you may want to know going into Super Bowl Sunday weekend (the thing that will render your Twitter feeds useless for much of Sunday evening).

Netflix Free weekend: Did you know that Netflix is letting anyone with an Xbox 360 + Xbox Live membership access its vast library of streaming videos for the whole weekend? If you didn’t, and you don’t already subscribe to Netflix, you now can catch up on old episodes of Star Trek, classic Disney cartoons, and marathon through the first few seasons of Vampire Diaries. Hulu Plus is also enabling free access to its Xbox Live app for the weekend.

House of Cards: In addition to the Xbox Live weekend promo, Netflix is also debuting its first super huge original TV show, House of Cards, which is said to be on par with the quality of HBO’s original programming. The good thing about Netflix, as opposed to the cable networks, is that you won’t have to wait 13 weeks to finish the first season. Netflix is releasing the whole thing today.

HBO Go: Again, the Super Bowl is so powerful that HBO made the decision to release the latest episode of its hit series Girls one day early (Saturday, Feb. 2). I can’t imagine that anyone who’s a die-hard Lena Dunham fan would be upset about missing the Super Bowl, but regardless, we all benefit.

Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comment section, and we’ll be sure to add it.

Those fearful of ever watching a story that contains excessive violence, cursing, nudity and other unsavory elements probably have bland taste in movies/TV shows — but they’re also in luck.

Streaming video service Vimeo has decided to roll out content ratings on all of the uploaded content on its site, the company announced today.

The company is asking creators to identify any video that contains things like naked people or bloodshed when uploading to the site. As a result, each video will gain a pretty broad label of either “All Audiences” or “Mature Content,” or an unrated rating label (“Not Yet Rated”) for videos that haven’t been assessed.

“As the home for exceptional original videos and the people who make them, we have an unflinching belief in the integrity of visual storytelling, including — in some cases — material that may make some viewers uncomfortable,” said Vimeo’s Paul Simoneschi in a company blog post about the new ratings. “But the truth is that one cannot ignore the naked, the violent, and the swearing when striving to capture the breadth of the human condition. Uncomfortable subjects, even discomfort itself, are essential components of our shared experience, and artists need the freedom to express them.”

The new ratings will allow Vimeo to begin sorting videos accordingly for each individual users. So, if you never want to see videos with unsavory themes, Vimeo will eventually be able to grant that request. The same is likely true for those that want to view videos with particularly mature themes, but avoid certain elements (illegal substances, sexual situations, etc.).

The move to add content ratings is much easier for Vimeo to accomplish when compared to YouTube, which has a much wider library of content and a diverse set of users that don’t follow any particular trend when uploading to the site. That said,  Vimeo is once again able to distinguish itself from its rivals.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has a track record for making bold decisions about his company based on the prediction of a successful outcome.

So, Netflix’s decision to ask investors to pony up more money for (among other things) new original content –  days before the release of its first big series premiere, House of Cards — definitely qualifies as one of those decisions. (I say this because there’s a possibility that people won’t like the show. Sure, early reviewers had glowing things to say about it, but they don’t always speak for the general viewing audience.)

In a letter to investors today, Hastings asked investors to finance $400 million (PDF), which the company intends to use for refinance existing notes ($225 million) and other “general corporate purposes.” But, AllThingsD‘s Peter Kafka points out that the vague-ish “purposes” for the remaining amount will go toward producing new original content, according to statements Hastings made in the Q4 2012 letter to shareholders last week.

Hastings also told shareholders during the Q4 earnings call that the company doesn’t expect to see a huge boost in subscribers attributed to House of Cards or any of its other premieres. Basically, even if the show isn’t a big hit, it shouldn’t affect its strategy for future growth. That’s also true for Netflix’s other original shows, including Arrested Development, Eli Roth’s Hemlock Grove, Jenji Kohan’s Orange is the New Black, and Ricky Gervais’ Derek.

And unlike other television shows, Netflix content isn’t beholden to audience ratings, which TV networks use to determine the programming that gets more seasons or canceled. I suspect the only way we’ll really know if one of Netflix’s original shows isn’t a hit is if the company doesn’t ask for a new season.

Netflix’s confidence comes a week after the company’s Q4 earnings exceeded expectations and pushed its stock price up significantly. Even after asking for the new investment, Netflix’s stock closed at 169.12 for the day.

Time Warner Cable isn’t happy about Netflix’s new “Open Connect” initiative, a separate network ISPs can use to pull data from the streaming video service.

Why? Well, it has something to do with Netflix implying that TWC’s network isn’t good enough to provide 1080p video streams and 3D content. Allow me to explain.

Currently, the Netflix pulls a majority of its data through commercial content delivery networks, which are optimized for a variety of data from multiple sources. The new Open Connect network, which Netflix debuted in June, would optimize the flow of Netflix-only video data through a new network that ISPs can build into their own services. And considering that Netflix accounts for nearly a third of all video streaming in the country, the video service said it makes financial sense to provide its own Open Connect network, just as YouTube has done in the past. Also, Open Connect means lots of customers will stay happy because their Netflix service will be more reliable.

And to get ISPs on board with this change, Netflix said it will only provide 3D content and 1080p high-definition videos (dubbed Super HD) to customers who subscribe to an ISP that uses Netflix’s Open Connect standard. So basically, that means major ISPs not using Open Connect (TWC, Comcast, or FiOS) look like the bad guys, or at the very least, become the reason why you can’t get the highest resolution and 3D movies.

“While they call it ‘Open Connect,’ Netflix is actually closing off access to some of its content while seeking unprecedented preferential treatment from ISPs,” TWC said in a statement to Multichannel News. “We believe it is wrong for Netflix to withhold any content formats from our subscribers and the subscribers of many other ISPs. Time Warner Cable’s network is more than capable of delivering this content to Netflix subscribers today.”

TWC’s standards might be good enough to carry the higher-quality video streams, which require transferring more data than regular video streams, but it isn’t good enough for Netflix. The streaming video company also denies TWC’s claims that it wants special treatment.

“OpenConnect provides Netflix data at no cost to the location the ISP desires and doesn’t seek preferential treatment,” Netflix said in a statement to VentureBeat. “We hope TimeWarner will join the many major ISPs around the world who are participating in Open Connect to reduce costs, better minimize congestion and improve data delivery to enhance the consumer experience.”

Plenty of ISPs have already jumped on the Open Connect bandwagon, including Cablevision, Virgin Media, British Telecom, and Google Fiber. My guess is that TWC and the others will soon jump on board as well, but obviously some of them aren’t happy about it.

Hostage image via val lawless/Shutterstock

Netflix has reached yet another big programing deal with Warner Bros. today, which should improve the number of children’s programming options as well as options for late night hooligans, who enjoy adult cartoons.

The deal will give Netflix’s streaming network shows from Cartoon Network, including Johnny Bravo, Regular Show, (the greatest show of all time) Adventure Time, and several others. Shows from the channel’s late night Adult Swim block of programming — Robot Chicken, The Boondocks, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and others — will also appear on Netflix.

The additional cartoon programing should give Netflix a nice edge over Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime — both of which are also working hard to increase activity among its younger users.

The new content will begin appearing on Netflix in March 2013, alongside Texan drama Dallas, which Netflix has a streaming exclusive for, oddly enough.

This is the second big licensing deal Netflix has made with Warner Bros. in 2013. Last week the company announced its deal to bring eight big prime time WB shows to its streaming network, including Fringe, The West Wing, and others.

Images via Cartoon Network; Meatwad/VentureMeat illustration by Tom Cheredar

Via Deadline

Satellite television provider Dish Network unveiled its plans today to let subscribers start using the Dish TV service beyond the boundaries of their home.

Dish’s plan addresses one of the biggest complains people have about the often expensive traditional TV subscriptions: you can’t use it if you leave home. This is contrary to many of the much less costly services like Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Amazon Prime, which allow its respective subscribers to access the entire streaming video services from a variety of mobile devices, smart TVs, and set-top boxes.

At last year’s CES event, the company tackled a different major complain about traditional pay TV subscription by allowing customers to skip over long-winded commercial breaks on all recorded programs via the Hopper feature on its DVR TV boxes. This year, the company is improving the Hopper box by partnering with Sling Media, a company that produces its own line of devices enabling consumers to live stream their cable TV service when away from home.

Much like the Slingbox 500, the Hopper with Sling will let Dish subscribers stream both live television channels and watch saved shows on their DVR. (Right now you can access the “TV Anywhere” feature via iOS devices and through the web, but I’m assuming support for Android devices will come in the near future.) The box has built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth support, a remote control finder, and the fastest processor available from any satellite TV provider box, according to the company. As for storage, the Hopper with Sling contains a two-terabyte hard drive, which equals about 500 hours of HD video or 2,000 hours of standard definition video.

Another cool thing the box does is allow you to send shows recorded on your DVR to your iPad, which can be downloaded for offline viewing. The feature should come in handy for anyone who travels often, and doesn’t want the added expense of renting or buying a movie to download beforehand. And while not exactly new among TV service providers, Dish is also launching second-screen apps to help people discover new content on their smartphones and tablets.

Creating a consumer-friendly pay TV service

The push to make Dish a “TV anywhere” experience is part of the company’s strategy to be the only pay TV service that actually gives customers what they’re asking for, said Dish CEO and President Joseph Clayton at a press event today. I managed to catch the live stream of Dish’s presentation, which included several references by Clayton about this being “the year of the Kangaroo.”

Other cable providers are starting to come around to the idea that their subscribers want more for their money, but thus far, have been slow to offer anything remotely close to what Dish is doing with the Hopper Sling box. For instance, Time Warner Cable recently announced a new TWC TV app on Roku set-top boxes that essentially brings live TV channels to the streaming web, but doesn’t offer DVR playback or the ability to watch content anywhere. Even more backwards are cable providers like Comcast, who refuses to allow its customers to use services like HBO Go (except for on Xbox Live), even after authenticating that they pay for a HBO package as a Comcast subscriber.

Photo credit: Dish Network, CNET

Netflix has signed a new deal with Warner Bros. that will bring a slew relatively current television shows exclusively to the streaming video service, the streaming video and rental service announced today.

Netflix’s deal with the WB will bring five shows to the service that are currently playing on cable or broadcast channels, including J.J. Abram’s Bad Robot-produced postapocalyptic series Revolution, Western series Longmire, supernatural drama 666 Park Avenue, Sigourney Weaver political drama Political Animals, and crime drama (starring Kevin Bacon) The Following. The shows will become available to Netflix subscribers after the season ends.

The deal will also immediately add three hit TV shows that are off the air: Chuck, The West Wing, and yet another J.J. Abrams produced drama, Fringe. Netflix said more shows could be added to the list of web/streaming exclusives in the future.

The deal is significant because it emables Netflix to continue pumping the service with fresh content, which it’ll need to compete against pay TV competitors like HBO (which itself recently secured an exclusive movie deal with Universal) and other streaming competitors like Amazon Prime Instant Video.

That said, I’d argue that exclusive streaming rights to TV shows is a more lucrative proposition than movies for Netflix. HBO likely uses a combination of name recognition and viewing statistics to determine the best deal for how to spend its money on content. Netflix, on the other hand, reviews how many hours its subscribers log watching particular titles when spending money on content. (And I’m guessing that TV shows get more attention from Netflix subscribers than a crop of newly released movies that rarely get rewatched on a regular basis.)

Sony reached a new deal with streaming video service Epix that will bring the network’s library of movies to both PlayStation 3 and PS Vita, the company announced today via the PlayStation blog.

Epix provides tons of relatively new movies (about 90 days after they release on DVD) like The Avengers, Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol, The Hunger Games, and more. You may remember hearing about Epix when the service signed licensing deals with major streaming video services Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video — meaning if you subscribe to either of those services, you already have access to the Epix movie library. And now, anyone who already subscribes to a movie package through their cable or satellite TV service can access it on the PlayStation Network.

This is a good move for Sony’s PlayStation 3 and one that will allow it to remain competitive with Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which currently doesn’t support Epix.

The PS3 Epix app will be available for free via PSN soon with a PS Vita app to follow later in the spring, according to the blog post.

Premium streaming video service Hulu is allegedly asking for a new $2oo million investment from its media company owners, according to a Wall Street Journal report that cites unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

The rumor comes just days after Hulu chief exec Jason Kilar announced some impressive data about the service’s growth in 2012. Hulu now has three million paying subscribers of its Hulu Plus service, and it brought in a total of $695 million in revenue — a 65 percent increase compared to last year. But the company also spent about $500 million on content and didn’t disclose its other expenses, which could include promoting its original content and expanding into new international markets.

The $200 million investment, according to WSJ’s sources, would help create more original programming and expand into other countries. Both of these areas are a core part of the business strategy for Hulu competitors Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video, meaning Hulu may just be making sure it keeps up. Netflix has committed up to $5 billion for content over the next few years, which includes original shows, such as House of Cards, Lillyhammer, Arrested Development, and more. And today, Amazon released details for six new pilot episodes of original programming to air on Prime Instant Video.

The real question is whether Hulu owners News Corp. and Disney will be willing to take a chance by investing more money into a streaming service that hasn’t entirely proven itself as a profitable business despite its record year-over-year growth. The two companies differ greatly in their opinions of Hulu’s business strategy, with Disney/ABC preferring the freemium model and News Corp./Fox pushing for an all subscription-based model.

The WSJ report also indicated that Hulu could be taking a loss of up to $30 million for the year, which is based on earnings data from Disney’s most recent quarterly report. If this is true, it could be much harder for Hulu to get additional money.

For one, the Associated Press reached one billion views this year. That sounds impressive — and it is — but in a very web 2.0, social, and modern media way one single individual, Philip DeFranco, also reached a billion views. The AP getting huge exposure, that’s kind of normal, almost. One person with a YouTube audience as big as that 150-year-old organization with 243 news bureaus in 120 countries?

That’s impressive.

Another story that impacted a lot of us here at VentureBeat who live and work in New York was Hurricane Sandy, during which The Weather Channel live-streamed 70 hours of coverage. That led to the Weather Channel having just as many online viewers as traditional cable viewers — a historic event — and a 1000 percent traffic spike during the storm.

But it wasn’t just video from earth that captured our attention on YouTube — it was also video from space, as the Mars Descent Imager captured and transmitted Curiosity’s landing on Mars. 3.8 million people watched that. And videos by, about, and for either Barack Obama or Mitt Romney were viewed more than 2.7 billion times.

YouTube recapped the year in visual form. Here it is:

photo credit: Yutaka Tsutano via photopin cc

With the newly signed exclusive streaming deal with Disney, people are once again singing the praises of Netflix. But it might be too early to determine whether or not the video service will come out ahead as a result of the deal.

The reaction by shareholders has been mostly positive, with Netflix’s stock seeing a healthy increase of 15 percent yesterday. The stock price is only slightly down today, and Sterne Agee analysts Arvind Bhatia and Brett Strauser believe the market is showing too much enthusiasm for the move.

“From a content perspective, this appears to be a major coup for Netflix. However, without knowledge of the financial terms, we think it would be premature to assume this is a net positive for Netflix,” the analysts wrote in a note yesterday.

As VentureBeat previously reported, Netflix signed two different agreements with Disney. The first of these deals brings lots of recognizable Disney flicks (Dumbo, Alice In Wonderland, and more) to the streaming service effective immediately. We don’t know how much Netflix paid for access to these classics, but my guess is that the price was not cheap.

It’s possible that Netflix will slowly roll out access to classic Disney films over time, with only a large handful of films available on the streaming service at any one time rather than providing access to the entire streaming library. This would be one way to keep its content costs down while still providing value to its streaming subscribers. Of course, we won’t know exactly how Netflix will play it until we’re well into 2013.

We should know more about how much Netflix spent on the old Disney movies in its next quarterly earnings report, but Sterne Agee points out that the company is projected to spend $5 billion in the next five years on content costs ($4.5 billion of that occurring in the next three years.) If the new Disney content fails to have a positive impact on its domestic streaming subscriber growth, traders will likely punishe its stock.

The second deal is an exclusive streaming agreement that gives Netflix the right to play all animated and live-action films with a theatrical release of 2016 and on. That’s a pretty big win for Netflix in the short-term; it has something its competitors won’t have, and it probably doesn’t have to start paying content licensing fees immediately.

At the same time, if those licensing fees are extremely high, it could cause concern among shareholders. Netflix is currently spending its money to aggressively expand into international markets and create its own exclusive content. And until we find out if either of those two strategies ultimately prove successful, it’s hard to determine if the exclusive deal with Disney was an extremely good move for the company.

The handful of people using Verizon’s video service Vcast will need to find another way to get their content.

Today the company announced it was shutting down Vcast, effective Dec. 15. Initially launched in 2005, Vcast streams current video content (sports, news, entertainment, children’s shows, and such) from your mobile device. The service was part of some Verizon data plans, which means some subscribers will now be getting less for their money.

Verizon is continuing mobile access to NFL games through the NFL mobile app, which will set you back $5 per month. Everything else, however, isn’t going to be available.

The move was likely done for a number of reasons. Streaming video data over a wireless network creates a heavy burden on network capacity and speeds. So if the service isn’t making tons of money, it doesn’t really make sense to keep it going, especially with all the competitors out there.

Another reason Verizon is getting rid of Vcast probably has something to do with its new joint venture with Redbox, the appropriately named Redbox Instant by Verizon. Redbox Instant has the potential to become a big money-maker, even if it’s not necessarily being handled through the wireless division.

Verizon will continue to move forward with its Viewdini universal search service, which allows customers to search and watch all the available videos through one application.

The streaming/DVD rental subscription service from Verizon and Redbox, officially called Redbox Instant by Verizon, is tentatively scheduled to launch before the end of the year, and now we’re finally hearing details about what it’s going to cost.

The service, which may debut Dec. 17, will start at $6 per month for access to a “free” catalog of streaming movies, according to a help/FAQ website uncovered by GigaOM’s Janko Roettgers. For another $2 per month, subscribers will get four Redbox credits to rent movies from the physical DVD kiosks. Those credits expire at the end of every month, so the most you’ll ever be able to watch under the plan is four physical movies.

The streaming catalog is said to be much smaller than what’s offered by Netflix but will contain a selection of newer and/or popular titles, like Rango, Iron Man 2 and Thor, according to GigaOM. That makes sense because Redbox Instant is trying to focus on only videos that are most in demand, rather than a backlog of stuff you can save up in a queue for months and months.

Redbox Instant is also offering a selection of newly released movies as streaming rentals, which start at $0.99 cents. Subscribers will also be able to reserve or rent DVDs online, which they can then pick up at a Redbox kiosk.

The streaming service will initially launch on web browsers and use Microsoft’s Sliverlight, like Netflix. Eventually, according to the help page, Redbox Instant will also be available on iOS devices, Android, Xbox Live, and some Samsung smart TVs and Bluray players.

Depending on how long it takes Redbox and Verizon to roll out support for the service across all of those aforementioned platforms, I can seriously see it surviving alongside Netflix, Amazon Prime Instant Video, and Hulu. You’re essentially getting a more reasonable version of Vudu that’s entirely focused on rentals rather than purchasing digital media. And at $8 per month, you’re likely spending as much as you would with a streaming/DVD combo plan from Netflix, and far less than the Video OnDemand rentals that cable and satellite TV providers offer.

Officially, Redbox isn’t confirming any off this information, but it has removed the help section webpage from public view. We’re reaching out to the company for further comment. I don’t expect to get any new information; however, we’ll update this post with anything we do find out.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Popular video-sharing site Vimeo has rebuilt its iPhone app with the addition of faster uploading and improved social sharing to Twitter and Facebook, a sign it wants to attract more fun content shot on the fly.

“We re-visioned it, refocused it, and simplified it a lot,” Vimeo President Dae Mellencamp told VentureBeat. “People do want to share quick clips from their lives on Facebook and Twitter. You don’t see these brief clips on the Vimeo homepage, but they are very popular.”

Vimeo has had quite the year. Over the past few months, it’s added a new CEO, redesigned the main site with an emphasis on larger videos, launched an array of apps, and given its community ways to make money with a “tip jar” and paywall options. Now it’s gone back to mobile to keep momentum in that extremely important area.

The new iPhone app adds a few key features. First, it makes uploading faster and more convenient than before and it begins uploading the second you put in a video title. Second, users can now pause and resume uploads, which can come in handy if they move between different wireless networks. Third, users can search for and watch other videos while uploading in the background. (A careful warning to iPhone users: If you don’t have unlimited data, be careful about uploading HD video. You could burn through your data cap pretty quick.)

Notably, the iPhone app removes the in-app video editor that Vimeo for iPhone had before. Mellencamp said Vimeo removed this because the experience needed to be streamlined. Additionally, she noted that video editing was difficult on such a small screen.

Next up, the iOS-focused Vimeo team will work on revamping its iPad app, Mellencamp said. In 2013, Vimeo also plans to look at its options at revamping the Android app.

Check out the video below for more.

YouTube announced this morning that its app is now available on the Nintendo Wii U. This is obviously a big deal for Nintendo, which is trying to own the living room entertainment experience, as the app is not just available for free download — it’s featured right on the Wii U’s main menu.

Users can use the soft keyboard on the Wii U’s GamePad, which also doubles as a remote control for your standard TV content, to search for videos:

Videos will play on your big-screen TV in full high-definition at up to 1080P resolution, and while the video plays on your TV, the video details, description, and author data display on the GamePad. Naturally, since you’re signed in to your Google account, you’ll also have access to your channels, favorites, and history.

Whether this will help Nintendo in its attempt to make the Wii U the center of the living room entertainment experience is hard to say, but it is at least a statement that the company is here to play. With standard TV, online video, video conferencing, gaming, and more, the statement is getting bigger and bigger.

But the competition is fierce and has been there for a while.

Good luck!

photo credit: wiiu-spiele.com via photopin cc

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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