With Microsoft’s introduction of the new entertainment watching experience through its new Xbox One console, one of the biggest winners will obviously be for those that love live sports.

The company announced a new partnership with the NFL that will see America’s most popular pro sports league bring original content to the Xbox. There was plenty of talk about being able to integrate sports scores, play-by-play views, socialization, and more into the TV screen as well as making fantasy football leagues more centralized to your experience. Specifically, we don’t know which games or sports shows will get the new Xbox One treatment, but I assume Microsoft and the NFL will reveal more in the weeks to come.

I got the sense that the NFL programming will seek to use all the available devices in interesting ways that either don’t overlap or take away from the central experience of the content.

The NFL programming isn’t the only nongame content that Microsoft revealed during today’s Xbox One event. The first was a new interactive Halo TV show produced by the legendary Steven Spielberg, who created roughly half the childhood favorite films for anyone born during the ’80s.

For more on the Xbox One reveal, check out our complete coverage.

Microsoft just blew the doors off of every integrated television experience with the reveal of its next generation Xbox One video game console.

The new Xbox will bring improved voice and gesture controls to watching TV. It also brings in live TV from the Xbox One (something you could do a bit clunkily on the Xbox 360 with Verizon FiOS and Xfinity TV from Comcast), Skype Internet calling, a new Trending feature that shows what’s popular among all Xbox Live community members and multitasking while watching programs.

Seriously, if the demonstration is any indication for how it’ll actually work, you’ll never watch TV the same way again.

Microsoft entertainment VP Yusuf Mehdi showed off how you’ll be able to turn on all the devices in your living room by speaking “Xbox On,” which pulls up your Xbox Live profile without the need to click through several sign-in screens or software updates. Apparently, the console will recognize your voice to do this, and it could possibly even distinguish between others that might use the console.

From there, Mehdi proceeded to change the channel by speaking. For example, you change from watching ESPN to Syfy by simply saying “Watch Syfy.” That’s right — no more “flipping” through the channels when you know exactly where you want to go. Mehdi didn’t make this clear, but I think this means those with a cable subscription (to Comcast at least, which was what they used in the demo) will no longer need to rent one of those crappy cable boxes that was probably made a decade ago.

As for the gesture controls, they seem to be utilized when switching between functions, like Live TV or another app. And speaking of other apps, the new controls make me think that multitasking on a television screen isn’t just an unnecessary pain in the ass. The demo showed off the ability to pull up sports stats during live games, chat rooms with friends, and pulling in a Skype voice call while you’re watching something.

For more coverage, check out our complete coverage and our liveblog and livestream.

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Just a day shy of it’s superimportant and highly publicized event to showcase the next-generation home video game console, Microsoft’s Xbox team has announced a new interactive TV show that’s definitely worth paying attention to.

The show itself, called The Music Room, is a two-part program hosted by Laura Jackson and Carl Barât, and will feature music from Everything Everything, Don Broco, and Swim Deep. Much like accessing other entertainment services on the console, you’ll need to be an Xbox Gold subscriber to watch the show, which premieres May 29 at 8:30 p.m. Eastern.

What’s interesting is that Xbox users will be able to vote on the outcome of the program as it airs, which could signal Microsoft’s future approach to original content through the Xbox Live platform. Of course right now its only a two-part music show you can interact with, and we really won’t know more about the company’s entertainment plans until after tomorrow’s big event.

For a closer look at the new show, check out a video preview embedded below.

Via Engadget

Streaming video and TV programming guide startup Dijit just released a new web app version of its NextGuide app that’s every bit as useful as the mobile versions.

The NextGuide web app brings a universal search feature to the web, which allows you to find what’s available across tons of streaming video services such as Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime, and Netflix. And if what you want to watch isn’t available on those services, you’ll be able to see options to buy or rent it on iTunes or Amazon. And that’s on top of its ability to pull up channel listings and DVR controls for your local TV service provider (Comcast, Time Warner Cable, DirecTV, etc.).

Another refreshing thing the NextGuide web app carries over is the universal watchlist (aka queue). This is something that pretty much always bugs me whenever I’m watching stuff across lots of services, because I can’t remember what I added and if I watched it or when. (More often than not, this pushes me to use a single service like Netflix on a single device like my Xbox.) But the NextGuide app pulls all those shows into a single list for you to check out quickly.

But probably the biggest thing you’ll notice is the new social interaction tools that mimic functionality from social TV check-in service Miso, which Dijit acquired back in February. The service now allows you to follow your friends or others with similar interests in TV shows and movies. These tools help power a new social recommendation engine as well.

The NextGuide Web app is currently operating in closed beta right now, but does allow you to invite three friends. Dijit said it plans to make the new app available to Miso users within the next month. We’ve embedded some screenshots of the new service below for a closer look at NextGuide’s web app.

Media company and cable TV provider Time Warner Cable is rumored to be reviewing a deal to buy an equity stake in streaming video service Hulu, according to a Wall Street Journal report that cites unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

Hulu’s current owners — News Corp., Disney, and silent owner Comcast  — have disagreed on the best way to grow the service, which initially led to them trying to sell Hulu last year for around $2 billion. When no one came close to that asking price, the Hulu sale was officially terminated. However, renewed interest from several potential buyers made the owners flip-flop once again on the idea of selling.

But not much has changed between now to drastically increase Hulu’s value in the eyes of buyers, which means either the asking price is lower or the owners are exploring alternatives. One of them is apparently adding Time Warner Cable as a minority shareholder. I’m not entirely sure how bringing in another decision-maker to Hulu would be the best idea, especially since News Corp. and Disney already can’t agree on the site’s future business strategy. At the same time, it would give them less liability should Hulu fail.

If true, TWC would definitely get the better end of the deal. Hulu is a great brand when it comes to streaming current prime time TV shows legally. Hulu is seeing record growth in paid subscribers, advertising revenue, and users — not to mention its original content strategy. Time Warner could also forge a deal to offer its cable TV subscribers free access to Hulu, just as other cable providers have done by having them authenticate that they subscribe to a cable TV service package.

But Time Warner Cable isn’t the only company expressing interest in purchasing Hulu. Other potential buyers of the site include Yahoo, Amazon,  Guggenheim Digital Media , and former News Corp. president Peter Chernin with a rumored $500 million offer. WSJ‘s report also indicates that another large TV media company could be interested in buying a partial stake in the company along with Time Warner.

h/t a Bloomberg

Over the last few years, media companies and brands have turned to Mass Relevance’s social curating platform for plenty of projects, and now the startup said it’s hit a big milestone.

Today, Mass Relevance announced that it’s pushed 25 billion pieces of “social content” (tweets, Vines, status updates, Instagram photos, and such) through its platform from the more than 250 big media companies that are its clients. That’s a lot of social content when you consider that Mass Relevance’s tech is focused on reviewing everything  before it goes out and doing it in a way that’s, well … pretty. And if you haven’t heard of Mass Relevance, that’s because the company stays largely behind the scenes.

Mass Relevance is worth keeping an eye on because it’s helping Twitter and Facebook use their social interaction data in unique ways that are appealing to media companies and big brands during live or notable events. For example, it’s in the CBS’s best interest to curate and increase social interactions during the Super Bowl because it can then justify the higher advertising rate prices to advertisers that want to run a commercial during the big game.

The platform itself allows highly visible media companies to manage the flow of social information they’re consistently getting hit with. It takes social data streams from various social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Vine, Instagram, YouTube, and others) and weaves them into a single console for clients. From there you can set word/hashtag filters, audience demographic filters (age range, gender, geography), media or social network filters, and so on — basically fine-tuning all that social data for a specific purpose. The platform can also help its clients display that “social content” intelligently through mobile apps, live TV broadcasts, websites, projector screens at conferences, stadium displays, and other visualizations that run alongside media events.

Source: Mass Relevance

Mass Relevance CTO Eric Falcao presenting to President Obama during his recent trip to Austin, Texas.

You’ve probably experienced Mass Relevance’s tech in action without realizing it, too. It’s already working with all four major broadcast TV stations (Fox, CBS, ABC, NBC) as well as the most socially engaged prime time television shows (X Factor, Glee, American Idol, and The Voice). Previously, the company curating tweeted questions from audience members watching panels at SXSWi back in March, helped launch the first Twitter Town Hall for President Barack Obama, managed Twitter data during the 2012 Olympic Games, integrated Facebook data for CNN’s coverage of the 2012 election, and also worked with some of last year’s biggest media events (2012 Grammys, MTV music video awards, Super Bowl XLVI, the BET awards, NBA Finals).

Mass Relevance isn’t the only startup offering media companies (and brands) a way to streamline interactions from across multiple social networks. One example is indirect competitor Echo, which has seen success of its own platform of social curation tools with clients like pro wrestling company WWE. Yet, Mass Relevance does seem to be emerging as a leader when it comes to building tools for large events. While it didn’t disclose financial figures, the company said its revenue quadrupled in 2012 (compared to the previous year), and estimates doubling revenue again by the end of 2013.

Founded in 2010, the Austin-based startup has previously raised $5.5 million in total funding to date. Mass Relevance has 90 employees, but plans to double its R&D team in the next year as well as open an international office in London, U.K. this month.

Photos via Mass Relevance

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

After months of speculation, it’s official: YouTube is rolling out a new program that allows some of its premium channel partners to charge a monthly subscription fee for access to its content.

The new paid channel subscriptions are rolling out as a pilot program that includes a handful of partners. Each channel in the pilot will charge a monthly fee starting at $0.99, but every channel has a 14-day free trial period before the payments kick in. YouTube said some of its channel partners will even offer viewers the option of signing up for a 1-year subscription at a discounted rate. Videos from the subscription-based channels will be available across the web, set-top boxes, smart TVs, smartphones, and tablets.

So, why is YouTube rolling this out? Well, it really comes down to being able to offer its channel partners another way to generate revenue and really make YouTube a platform where they can build a sustainable business. In fact, the site  said “one of the most frequent requests we hear from [creators] is for more flexibility in monetizing and distributing content.”

Initially,  53 channel partners are participating in the pilot program, including Jim Henson Family TV, UFC Direct, TNA Impact Wrestling, National Geographic Kids, Rap Battle Network, SmartTV.com, TYT Plus, Recipe.tv, and Acorn TV. Subscribing to all the initial channels would cost about as much as what you’d expect to pay for extended basic cable TV service. But, most people probably won’t want to sign up for more than a few channels in this current line up anyways.

Obviously the YouTube paid channel lineup is no where near as good as cable’s, but imagine what it could be if some of the major TV networks jumped on board, not to mention over a million other channels that are currently generating revenue through the site’s partner program. (For example, $5 per month for a Daily Show/Colbert Report channel, $4 for a Nerdist channel, $3 for BBC America channel, etc.)

The YouTube subscription pilot program definitely has the potential to offer consumers a variety of channels while giving them the option of only paying for what they actually watch. That’s something U.S. consumers can’t do with the current crop of TV service packages. I’m sure major cable execs are shrugging off this announcement, but honestly it could become a real threat five years from now.

YouTube said it plans to roll out more channels in the coming weeks via a self-service platform for qualifying partners. That means channel partners will have the option of flipping on the subscription without having to clear it through YouTube or Google.

Do you think YouTube’s paid channel subscription pilot program will take off? Let us know in the comment section below.

Photo via Korosirego /Flickr

“TV anywhere” startup Aereo is doing its best to stave off attacks that its business is operating illegally, and it has now asked a federal court in New York to block broadcast network CBS from filing additional lawsuits.

Aereo provides a service that enables people to watch and record the free over-the-air local television content 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. But major broadcast stations like Fox, ABC, and yes, CBS are arguing that Aereo should have to pay a licensing fee for repurposing that content. And those broadcasters have filed several lawsuits to stop the startup from operating.

Right now Aereo is only in a handful of markets, but broadcasters like CBS have vowed to continue suing in each of the new cities Aereo plans to launch in. That’s what’s behind Aereo’s move to ask the New York federal court to stop CBS and others from filing more lawsuits.

The broadcasters are so spooked with the thought of Aereo’s continued existence that both Fox and CBS have threatened to take their programing off the air and transform themselves into cable networks. CBS has even made investments in startups that can mimic Aereo’s functionality.

Via Reuters

Photo by Devindra Hardawar/VentureBeat

Hungry for more original programming from streaming video service Netflix? Well, the company has you covered this summer.

Today Netflix announced that the entire 13-episode first season of Orange is the New Black will debut on the streaming service July 11 in all regions (U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland, Latin America, Brazil, and the Nordics).

Per Netflix’s description, the show itself “follows engaged Brooklynite Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling), whose decade-old relationship with drug-runner Alex (Laura Prepon) results in her arrest and year-long detention in a federal penitentiary. To pay her debt to society, Piper must trade her comfortable New York life with fiance Larry (Jason Biggs) for an orange prison jumpsuit and a baffling prison culture where she is forced to question everything she believes and form unexpected new alliances with a group of eccentric and outspoken inmates.”

Orange is the New Black will feature a star-studded cast, including Kate Mulgrew (aka CAPTAIN JANEWAY, son!), Natasha Lyonne, Pablo Schreiber, Danielle Brooks, Laverne Cox, and Taryn Manning. It’s produced by Weeds creator Jenji Kohan, who also wrote the first and last episode of the season. Netflix has already pulled off the apparently successful debuts of House of Cards and Hemlock Grove (and the much-anticipated new season of Arrested Development is on the way in late May).

“With ‘Orange is the New Black,’ Jenji Kohan has created a dramatic yet deeply funny world populated with unforgettable characters and no-holds-barred humor set against the backdrop of a women’s prison,” Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said in a statement. “Jenji is one of the most fearless voices in television and we are proud to share her uncompromising vision with Netflix members.”

Netflix recently reaffirmed its commitment to producing original content for the service last week, having outlined its view of TV’s future as well as the costs involved with producing quality content that people want to watch. The company also recently announced that it will bring a new original sci-fi show Sense8 to the service produced by the Matrix trilogy directors the Wachowskis and geek-favorite creator J. Michael Straczynski.

While Hulu’s owners are still being wishy-washy on whether they want to sell the company or keep it, the service itself is doing quite well.

The company announced today that it has surpassed 4 million paid subscribers of its Hulu Plus service, which lets you watch content on mobile devices and set-top boxes and gives you access to plenty of content that’s not available to those with a free account. This quarter also saw the fastest rate of subscriber growth, with nearly a million people signing up between January and March. The company’s acting CEO, Andy Forssell, also said the overall paid subscribers doubled in 2012 from its roughly 2 million subscribers the same time last year.

And people are apparently watching more videos, too. Hulu revealed that in the last quarter over 1 billion hours of content were viewed. (For comparison, Netflix is seeing over a billion hours of videos streamed per month.)

The company also saw record growth in people watching from mobile devices, which Hulu estimates will account for 15 percent of all viewing over the next year, while viewing from set-top boxes and smart TVs will be 29 percent.

As for advertising, Hulu said its viewers tend to stick around for 45 minutes per session without skipping advertisements. And for the record, I do believe Hulu on this front because it’s currently a huge pain in the ass to employ an ad blocking tool while viewing Hulu on the Web. You can do it, but you still have to sit through the endless pause of nothingness where a commercial would be, which is oftentimes longer than the actual commercial would have been. (And in some cases the video won’t even load.) Citing comScore data, Hulu also said it delivers 1 out of every 3 premium video ads in the U.S. I’m guessing “premium ads” means anything  you’d reasonably be able to watch during regular television viewing on broadcast or cable networks.

Hulu also highlighted its commitment to producing more original content, which is extremely crucial for the company looking ahead. If Hulu were to be bought by a new company that wasn’t in the business of producing content, that could put a serious strain on Hulu’s future ability to remain profitable while providing programming people want to see. (Music services are currently struggling with this.)

Anyway, Hulu’s upcoming slate of original shows includes half-hour western comedy Quick Draw, East Los High, The Awesomes, Behind the Mask, The Wrong Mans, and Mother Up!, as well as new seasons of  Pramface, Prisoners of War, The Only Way is Essex, Braquo, and Moone Boy.

The first fruits of television guide startup Dijit’s partnership with Watchwith have fallen from the tree today.

The company announced that it’s NextGuide app, which provides a comprehensive overview of everything that’s available to watch through your TV service provider as well as streaming video services (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime), will now provide tons of second-screen content for programs on the USA Network. That includes shows like Psych, Suits, Burn Notice, Covert Affairs, and others.

It works by firing up the NextGuide iPad app while you watch USA. The app should automatically sync up with whatever episode you’re watching to provide interesting factoids, actor biographies, polls, and other interactive content. The new feature will likely be used by people who tend to watch episodes of their favorite shows more than once and will cut down on the hassle of juggling between IMDb and various Wikia pages dedicated to a particular show. (This is the part where I’d also make a reference to VH1′s Pop-up video show, and subsequently make myself feel old when others ask me what the hell that is.)

Pushing USA content as the first to get the new NextGuide syncing was probably a smart decision. The cable network’s hit show Psych recently saw over 150,000 fans vote on an alternate ending to one of the episodes — meaning fans of the show are familiar with participating in the viewing experience.

Dijit previously said more second-screen syncing functionality for Fox shows and a handful of other cable networks is on the way.

Image via xSilverwingx/DeviantART

The online video network for AOL-owned news publication Huffington Post, HuffPost Live, has signed a new deal that will bring its content to cable television.

That’s right — the Huffington Post is now on cable TV.

The deal is with Mark Cuban’s AXS TV (formerly HDNet), which is available in 41,000 homes across the country. The channel specializes in airing mainly live content, such as concerts, MMA fighting matches, commentary, and more, which makes HuffPost Live programming a perfect fit. If you’ve never heard of AXS TV, then don’t worry — you’re not alone (I didn’t know what it was either). The channel is carried by a variety of TV providers (Dish, DirecTV, AT&T Uverse, Cablevision), but unless you have an extended programming package, you’ve probably never watched it. And that’s reflected in AXS TV’s decision not to be rated by Nielsen, which would likely show that the audience is very small.

Under terms of the agreement, HuffPost Live will provide six hours of programming to the cable channel from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern time. HuffPost Live will also attempt to drive engagement by adding comments on the programming alongside the videos as they air on TV. That might drive people to the online version of the stories, too, but I’m not sure how effective it’ll be.

The move is a bit odd considering HuffPost Live’s emphasis when it launched eight months ago on being a real-time online TV network, minus the need for a TV. At the same time, declining lucrative distribution channels like cable TV would be like leaving money on the table. HuffPost Live content is already getting made, and it’s obviously capped out (for the moment) on the number of eyeballs it can bring in on its own. The New York Times notes that the deal isn’t costing either partner, which means it’s merely sharing content at this point.

“It’s an opportunity for both of us to grow our audiences during the day,” Cuban told the NYT.

Image screenshot via HuffPost Live

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.”

If the promise of pizza without setting down your game controller isn’t enough, broadcast network the CW has now added an app for Xbox Live.

For the many cord cutters that rely on a high-speed Internet connection for their video entertainment needs rather than a cable or satellite TV subscription (or old-fashioned rabbit ears), this is possibly very good news. The CW app will offer viewers the option of watching new episodes of its programs the day after they air on television. And unlike on other services such as Hulu, you don’t have to authenticate with a cable or satellite TV subscription before gaining access to all those new shows, either. But you do need an annual Xbox Gold membership (a paid subscription).

The CW’s programming includes guilty pleasures like Supernatural, Vampire Diaries, Arrow, and Beauty and the Beast.

The move is also interesting given the recent fight many of the broadcast stations are currently in with TV anywhere startup Aereo, which wants to provide people with access to all freely broadcasted content within their local area across their mobile devices and PCs. The CW would be smart to continue making it easy for people to watch its programs for free before Aereo offers them a more attractive option.

Residents of Kansas City who prefer to use their iPad over a Nexus 7 are in luck, as Apple has just approved an official Google Fiber TV app for the device.

The app, which has been available on Android devices for almost a month, acts as a remote for those already subscribed to a Google Fiber TV plan. Subscribers will be able to search for programming and manage which shows they save to their DVR. The iPad app also allows subscribers to browse, buy, and watch on-demand movies and TV shows. (Of course, the only people who will really get any use out of this update are those in the greater Kansas City area. However, Google is planning to bring the Google Fiber service to Provo, Utah in 2013 and Austin, Texas in 2014.)

Google Fiber TV customers already get a Nexus 7 when they sign up for the service, but if you don’t like Android devices, then this is definitely a big benefit. I’d imagine it’ll also be useful for homes that have multiple people watching TV at different times. Since not everyone can have access to that “free” Nexus 7 at the same time, the added benefit of being able to use your iPad or iPad Mini will be nice.

Currently, there isn’t an iPhone/iPod Touch version of the Google Fiber TV app available, but the company did say its working on one that will be available in the near future.

CBS has had plenty to say about its future if TV startup Aereo is permitted to exist (like becoming a cable network for starters), and now the company is investing some of its resources into a streaming video startup that could help it stay competitive.

Yesterday CBS announced that its taking a minority stake in Syncbak, a streaming video company that specializes in location-based authentication tech that allows local broadcast stations to stream their signals across the web. Basically, it’s a service for local broadcasters that doesn’t require the ridiculous (or genius depending on your stance) set up of tiny antennas like Aereo does. Viewers who live within a set geographical area will be able to watch content from those stations, while others outside of the coverage zone presumably won’t.

CBS states that Syncbak will continue to offer its services across the board, meaning not to just the local stations that have syndication deals with CBS.

The investment is an interesting move for CBS considering company CEO Les Moonves previously said his company could take its broadcast station off the air and transform it into a cable network given the recent legal developments with Aereo. Syncbak could conceivably make CBS’ affiliate stations more competitive with Aereo’s service, which offers local residents access to all freely broadcast content as well as on-demand and DVR features.

Not including the undisclosed amount of investment from CBS, Iowa-based Syncbak has previously raised a total of $6.85 million in funding.

TV image via Shutterstock; h/t: TheVerge

If you’re a fan of original TV shows that are exclusively available online, you had quite a bit to watch over the weekend, and according to Amazon you really liked what you saw, too.

Amazon released all 14 of the pilots for its new lineup of original programing this past Friday, including Betas, Alpha House, Onion News Empire, and the new made-for-TV Zombieland. Without indicating which were the clear hits, the company said the pilot episodes accounted for 8 of the top 10 most watched videos on its Prime Instant Video streaming service, with 80 percent of reviews on the pilots gaining a 4 to 5 (of 5) star ratings among customers.

You don’t have to be a Amazon Prime member (which costs $79 annually) to watch the programs, which may have contributed to the high viewing numbers. Anyone who watches the pilots can also provide a rating to help the company decide whether to order an entire season of the show. Its a good move because this may entice people to start subscribing to Amazon Prime, which in turn offers Amazon customers “free shipping” on tons of items. That’s in addition to the perk of watching a library of free TV series and movies. Ultimately, if this can increase Prime memberships and make Amazon more money, we could start seeing more original programming from the company.

Indirectly, Amazon’s new pilots are also an indirect challenge to other streaming video sites Netflix, which also debuted its second big original series Hemlock Grove this past weekend. Many are speculating that Hemlock Grove isn’t nearly as strong as the company’s First series House of Cards, and we’ve yet to hear anything from Netflix about viewing stats on it. But, one thing is certain though: we’re entering a new age of TV programming that’s being funding through the subscription based model of online video companies. And for the most part, people are responding to it.

NEW YORK — Executives from News Corp. and CBS raised eyebrows when they threatened to turn their broadcast networks into cable channels if the NYC startup Aereo wasn’t shut down — but Aereo’s CEO isn’t sweating that outcome.

“They’re independent businesses, they can choose to do what they wish to,” said Aereo CEO Chet Kanojia (above) at the Ad Age Digital conference today.

He went on to point out that broadcast networks built their businesses on a “public right,” referring to broadcast spectrum that anyone in the U.S. can freely access. That broad exposure led broadcast networks to gain a significant amount of  mindshare among TV viewers, which inevitably brought on a wealth of ad revenue.

Ultimately, Kanojia doesn’t believe that broadcast networks will make the move to cable because he doesn’t think they’ll give up the reach they have right now, which includes 54 million people who access their networks over TV antennas. “It’s such a large audience, I don’t see how those customers aren’t going to get served,” he said.

“Can you disenfranchise over 54 million people over what they can rightfully do today?,” Kanojia asked. It’s a question that consumers and policy makers will have to consider if the broadcast network threats become more legitimate.

“There’s not a single cable channel that holds a candle [to broadcast networks],” he noted. Indeed, that’s something CBS and News Corp. executives are likely thinking about as they consider moving to paid models.

When I asked Kanojia about how exactly Aereo plans to scale, he pointed out that the company’s current tactic is actually pretty efficient. The company has to roll out small antenna farms in local markets to deliver its service to local customers, but he pointed out that a a standard server box could server around 10,000 users.

“The approach has been very much a cellular-like building — metro to metro,” he said. “The advantage we have is that this is a single cell site.”

Photo: Devindra Hardawar/VentureBeat

Google has forged an agreement to bring premium TV channels HBO and Cinemax to its Google Fiber TV customers, the company announced today.

The availability of HBO on Google Fiber TV is a big win for those that may have been skeptical of the service because it lacked the robust lineup of channels available from other cable and satellite TV providers. When it first rolled out to Kansas City, Google Fiber lacked a bulk of sports programming as well as staple cable networks owned by Time Warner, such as Cartoon Network, TBS, and TNT. It also didn’t even give you the option of adding on HBO until now.

Like other cable providers, if you want HBO you’ll have to tack on an extra fee every month. The rate is $20 per month for all the HBO bundle of channels (HBO, HBO 2, HBO Signature, HBO Family, HBO Latino, HBO Comedy, and HBO Zone). For another $10 you can get the Cinemax bundle (Max, MoreMax, ActionMax, ThrillerMax, WMax, @Max, 5-StarMax, and OuterMax), too. You’ll also gain access to the HBO Go and Max Go streaming services, which are currently only available to those that subscribe through a cable service. Additionally, Google Fiber TV is offering a premium package for $40 per month that adds Starz and Showtime to the mix.

All rates are (I believe) slightly lower than what you’d be charged from other TV service providers, and at the end of the day it’s still probably cheaper to go with Google Fiber (with its blazing fast gigabit Internet package.) The greater Kansas City area customers will spend about $150 per month (not including taxes) to get HBO/Cinemax along with the standard bundle of over 150 cable channels and local broadcast affiliate stations. Pricing for Google Fiber in Austin, Tex. has yet to be determined, but Fiber employees at the city’s Google Fiber Austin event last week seemed to indicate that it wouldn’t be too far from what people are paying in KC. I’d imagine that would be true for these HBO and Cinemax packages, too.

Image via HBO

If a rumored music service wasn’t enough to push Twitter into the territory media, now the company might be trying to get TV content playing through its service.

The social network is close to making partnerships with cable network company Viacom (MTV, Comedy Central, Spike) and major media company Comcast (NBCUniversal) to bring more high-quality videos to the service, along with commercials, according to a Bloomberg report that cites anonymous people familiar with the matter.

Bloomberg’s sources indicate that the partnership would allow TV video content to play on Twitter, and Twitter would then split the revenue on any ads. I’m guessing this means Twitter would give you the option of playing a clip from, say, The Daily Show within your Twitter stream, and then play an ad either before or after the video starts. Perhaps those clips could even be featured within sponsored tweets that appear before search results and such.

If true, this would be an interesting move for Twitter, and one that shows how much it wants a piece of the lucrative television advertising market. But this isn’t the first time the company has shown an interest in getting closer to the TV industry. Twitter purchased social TV analytics platform Bluefin Labs back in February, and prior to that it signed an agreement to work with Nielsen on a standardized form of social TV ratings. Twitter has also stacked its board of directors and employee roster with plenty of influential media executives.

We’re reaching out to Twitter for more information about its possible dealings with Viacom and Comcast and will update this post with any new information.

Years ago you could just connect a coaxial cable to your television for access to a ton of cable channels. But that possibility was eventually disabled after cable providers decided to start encrypting the bulk of those channels.

As of today, cable TV provider Comcast has decided to encrypt all the channels – even those that are freely broadcast to locals via an HD antenna (ABC, NBC, CBS, CW, Fox, PBS, and a few others depending on the area). Previously, you didn’t need an adapter box to get basic cable channels as long as you paid Comcast every month, but that’s all changing.

Now, anyone who has a subscription will need a box from the cable provider. Comcast’s announcement indicates that it’ll rent out the adapter boxes to customers for free on up to three devices ($0.50 per device after that) for two years — meaning it isn’t a huge increase to monthly bills as long as you pick up the devices in the next four months. That’s somewhat of a pain that I can’t imagine the “limited-basic cable” crowd will enjoy. This could also mean all venues with basic cable will have to “upgrade,” which could lead to them yanking service entirely.

The perks of the change is that all customers will now have access to Comcast’s channel guide as well as a nominal amount of on-demand programming, which I’m guessing is mostly movie and TV rentals that get tacked onto your monthly bill.

Comcast was granted access to encrypt those basic channels last year after the company successfully convinced the FCC that it would cut down on theft of the service from people who weren’t actually paying anything. I can’t help but wonder if this is also in part due to the growing threat of Aereo, which threatens to replace the cable providers altogether for those who’ve already cut the cord in favor of Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming video services.

I can see how Comcast could easily entice limited-basic cable subscribers to stick with Comcast over Aereo by providing some of Aereo’s services, such as on-demand programming, DVR functionality, and the ability to watch broadcast content from anywhere via Internet-connected mobile devices.

Photo via cmorran123/Flickr

Major broadcast station CBS could disconnect its freely available broadcast signal in favor of becoming a cable channel, according to recent comments made by CBS chief exec Leslie Moonves.

Right now all the major broadcast stations are currently up in arms about new TV startup Aereo’s recent court win allowing them to continue operating as a lawful company. Aereo’s service allows people to pay a fee to watch all the freely broadcasted television content from a website or mobile device, which they’ve been able to do using tiny antennas for each individual subscriber. Obviously, broadcasters hate this idea because it makes it much easier for consumers to cut out expensive cable or satellite TV subscriptions without missing out on that broadcasted content.

At the National Association of Broadcasters trade show yesterday, Moonves sympathized with News Corp exec Chase Carey, who previously said Fox could become a cable channel as a way to prevent Aereo from “stealing” broadcasted content. However, federal judges in New York have already decided that Aereo wasn’t actually stealing anything, but rather providing a service to people.

“For now, we’re talking about the New York-Connecticut area,” Moonves told the New York Times in reference to making CBS a cable channel. Aereo currently operates exclusively on the east coast, with plans to expand beyond New York City.

But as I previously discussed, transforming a broadcast station into a cable network wouldn’t exactly be an easy task. Broadcast stations receive millions of dollars from local affiliates that provide local news and community programming to their audiences. If CBS did decide to yank itself off the air, it would also face lower viewership on its own programming, which means its advertising would likely take a hit.

For now, both CBS and News Corp. are only threatening to make this happen. We’ll have to wait and see how Aereo does in the future before finding out how serious those broadcast stations are about going off the air.

TV image via Shutterstock

Habib Kairouz is a managing partner of Rho Capital Partners and Rho Ventures.

The days of passively watching TV with just a remote control may be numbered.

Interactive programming is shaping the new face of TV. Thanks to “American Idol,” we’re all now familiar with the concept. The show marked an important gateway by raking in an average of 23 million viewers, most of whom grab their second screen at the end of every show to vote for their favorite contestant. This year’s Super Bowl triggered yet another milestone in social TV, hitting an all-time record with more than 30 million social comments (tweets, Facebook updates and GetGlue check-ins), according to data from Bluefin Labs (Discloser: GetGlue is a Rho Ventures portfolio company).

Innovative devices have always fueled new application ecosystmes. The software industry was enabled by the WinTel PC platform; and hundreds of thousands of websites were built once the PCs became “connected.” In the last few years, we have witnessed the same trend in mobile; more than 700,000 apps have been created for Web-enabled phones. We’ll soon see connected TVs fueling a similar ecosystem of interactive programming and native apps. With nearly a quarter of all U.S. households currently using connected TVs (according to eMarketer), we have reached the tipping point of mass adoption.

As opposed to the disastrous impact the Internet had on the print industry, I see the innovation of the connected TV market as a tremendous, yet accretive, evolution as opposed to a threat. Here’s why:

Interactivity will be format specific

Traditional TV will not go away and viewers will continue to passively watch drama and comedy, but new interactivity features will be embedded into formats such as gaming contests, reality TV, awards, sports, political debates, news and others. When reports swirled that Zynga’s popular mobile game “Draw Something” might be adapted into a TV show, interest spiked around the cross platform opportunity of Web, mobile and TV content. Industry incumbents and lean startups alike are racing to define this burgeoning new arena of content, and create the winning combination that attracts viewers.

Native apps will emerge

Similar to what we’ve seen in the mobile sector, new applications will emerge that will be native to the form factor of the TV screen. We have yet to scratch the surface on this front as most of what one finds on the connected TV today is VOD, gaming and personal media. In the mobile world, native apps such as Instagram, Shazam and Foursquare created tremendous adoption off the unique form factor of the connected mobile phone. TV will be no different as we are now starting to see unique apps such as GetGlue emerge to complement the traditional TV viewing.

Any way you look at it, the TV viewing experience is changing. Audiences may currently view interaction with TV shows as a novelty, but once it becomes mainstream, programmers will have to adapt. Programmers and advertisers have only now begun to test the potential of this vast opportunity that is entering an exciting period of disruption, innovation and creativity.

Connected TV image via Shutterstock

Habib Kairouz is a managing partner of Rho Capital Partners and Rho Ventures as well as a member of the Investment Committees of Rho Canada Ventures and Rho Fund Investors. He has more than 20 years of experience in venture capital, and focuses on new media, information technology and communications companies at various stages of development, from seed stage to growth equity. You can follow him on Twitter here and GetGlue here.

News Corp. may take its major broadcast station Fox off the air and convert it to a cable network, the company said today.

The reason News Corp. is even talking about this has to do with antenna-based TV startup Aereo’s recent win in federal court. Aereo accesses locally broadcast TV content (that is otherwise free to anyone in the area with an antenna) and puts them on the web and mobile devices for a small fee. Aereo is able to get around the legality of charging for access to broadcast programming because it uses a tiny antenna for each person that signs up for the service — essentially allowing them to get paid off of that free broadcast content.

Major broadcast stations (Fox, ABC, NBC, CW, and CBS) really don’t like that, having gotten used to the idea that people should pay for their broadcast content as if it were a cable network. And now, the company is threatening to do just that for Fox — transforming it into a cable network. But that may be easier said than done.

“We need to be able to be fairly compensated for our content,” News Corp. chief operating officer Chase Carey told Bloomberg. “This is not an ideal path we look to pursue, but we can’t sit idly by and let an entity steal our signal. We will move to a subscription model if that’s our only recourse.”

Here’s the thing that Chase doesn’t really mention that makes this scenario far more unlikely. Fox has oodles of multiyear contracts with local affiliate stations, who broadcast news shows and community programming to their local audience. If Fox were to suddenly get taken off the air, this would breach contracts, and Fox would be out around $472 million in payments from those affiliate stations, according to Bloomberg’s report. A more likely scenario would be that this doesn’t happen for several years — with Fox slowly not renewing those affiliate station contracts. This could coincide with Aereo’s long-term rollout into 22 new markets across the country.

The other thing that makes me believe Carey’s comments are little more than idle threats? Well, being a broadcast station means all the content gets viewed by a heck of a lot more eyeballs. If you change that and put your content up behind a mandatory pay way, you not only lower the views on that programming, but you also lower the value of the advertising that plays between those programs.

So, pretty much anyway you look at it, Fox would really have to take a financial hit just to prevent Aereo from existing.

Family Guy image via Fox

Microsoft confirmed today that it has agreed to sell its MediaRoom IPTV unit to Ericsson, following rumors about the deal a few weeks ago.

MediaRoom will help Ericsson expand its IPTV efforts — Microsoft noted that the software already powers 22 million set-top boxes in 11 million subscriber homes. At the same time, the deal will allow Microsoft to focus its TV strategy entirely on the Xbox. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, and it’s expected to close in the second quarter.

“With the sale of Mediaroom, Microsoft is dedicating all TV resources to Xbox in a continued mission to make it the premium entertainment service that delivers all the games and entertainment consumers want – whether on a console, phone, PC or tablet,” wrote Microsoft’s Yusuf Mehdi, head of marketing for interactive entertainment, in a blog post this morning. “And with 76 million Xbox 360 consoles around the world with 46 million Xbox LIVE members, it is a mission that gets us out of bed in the morning.”

MediaRoom’s technology lets companies provide television service, in addition to broadband and voice. In the U.S., MediaRoom powers AT&T’s U-Verse TV service, which has 4.5 million subscribers. Once completed, the deal will make Ericsson the leading provider of IPTV and multi-screen entertainment with more than 25 percent of the market.

The deal isn’t entirely surprising. MediaRoom was technically successful for Microsoft, but slow growth and a lack of consumer awareness made it ripe for selling. It also makes much more sense for Microsoft to focus on the Xbox 360, which has become a media powerhouse thanks to apps from Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and others.

The Xbox 360 has long been Microsoft’s Trojan Horse for dominating your living room. Now without MediaRoom distracting it, expect Microsoft’s next Xbox to make video content an even bigger priority. And maybe we’ll finally see more IPTV operators relying on the Xbox 360 as a set-top box (AT&T’s U-Verse service already lets you do this).

Official bidding for the sale of streaming video service Hulu ended last year when Hulu owners took it off the market, but that isn’t stopping others from making offers.

Former News Corp. president Peter Chernin has apparently made an offer to buy Hulu for $500 million, according to a Reuters report today that cites two unnamed sources familiar with the proposed deal. That amount is a fraction of the rumored $2 billion price tag that Hulu’s owners — Disney, News Corp., and Comcast — were originally asking for. However, it is possible that Chernin’s offer was actually higher, according to AllThingsD, although we don’t know how much.

Hulu was originally put up for sale because Disney and News Corp. (Comcast doesn’t have a say in direction of the company) couldn’t agree on a business strategy for the company. The high price tag, along with the uncertainty of future content licensing agreements on broadcast and cable network content, scared off many of the potential buyers, including  Amazon, Google, AOL, and a handful of others. More recently, there have been some rumors that a few companies (Yahoo, Amazon, Guggenheim Digital Media) are still inquiring about buying the service.

An offer from Chernin, who departed News Corp. in 2009, would make a lot of sense, as he currently runs media holding company Chernin Group, which has plenty of investments in digital media properties such as Pandora.  Chernin Group also has funding from initial Hulu investor Providence Equity, which sold its stake in the service last year for $200 million.

The one thing that we still don’t know about this deal is whether Hulu’s owners are still interested in selling the service, which they’ve expressed no official interest in doing at this point.

The creators of streaming music service Rdio have finally launched their take on digital video through a new service called Vdio.

But fans of Rdio’s model (unlimited access to all the music you can stream for $10 per month) will be disappointed: Vdio is similar to Rdio only in name. It’s really just another online video store.

The site, which officially launched today, sells customers movies and TV shows a la carte. Right now the service is in beta testing and only available to paying Rdio subscribers, who get a free $25 credit to buy videos. The service’s library appears to be pretty broad with content from all the major film studios and TV Networks, including Disney, Fox, Warner Bros., Universal, NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, and many popular cable channels. (Sorry, Game of Thrones fans, no HBO to speak of, although GigaOM is reporting that Vdio hopes to add that content in the future.)

Customers will buy access to each video through Vdio’s platform, which is available via web browsers and an iPad app. Presumably more devices will follow as the service grows and opens up to the public. It doesn’t look like there’s an offline viewing mode either, which means you’ll need to have a reliable Internet connection. You can only make purchases through the Vdio website, not the app — which makes sense considering that Apple takes a 30 percent cut on all in-app purchases.

Basically, Vdio is directly competing with Apple’s iTunes store, Walmart’s Vudu, Flixster, and Amazon’s video store (not counting the Prime service). That may be a bit of a disappointment for people who were hoping the Rdio folks would go for a subscription-based route.

While there are already a slew of dominant players in the digital video store world, there’s always room for more choices. Vdio is trying to win consumers over with the same sort of content recommendation features that it uses for Rdio, which includes your previous content consumption activity as well as the activity of your friends and family members.

Vdio will tentatively open to the public later this summer, with plans to launch in other countries like Canada as well.

The movie studios certainly get an A for thinking outside the box, or at least Warner Brothers does. the studio’s online archive site, Warner Archive, has just launched a new streaming service that gives people access to old movies and TV shows from its large library of content.

The move is interesting because it’s basically taking the opposite stance from Warner’s primary business of creating new original content, yet it isn’t taking away from the lucrative business of selling rights to that old content to third-party services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu.

The new service is offering a free two-week trial, but normally charges $10 per month for access to its content library, which includes stuff like the old ’50s Superman show, the original Jericho, Tarzan, and loads of other stuff you’re likely only to find in the $1 bin of DVDs at Walmart. Right now, the service is only supported by one TV streaming set-top box, the Roku, but it does offer 1080p quality video on some movies.

The price is definitely more than you’d pay for most of the other streaming services ($8 per month), but it does offer content that caters to a very specific audience. Also, Warner has all this content just laying around, so it makes sense to do something with it.

Image via Warner Bros.