TiVo and Cox Make It Official - TiVo Has New Cable Partnership

August 24th, 2006 Davis

A few months ago a commenter in the TiVo community forum posted an entry where he said that he had received a survey from Cox Communications on whether or not he would return to Cox from satellite, if they offered him access to TiVo’s softward. Once he posted the link to the survey, I’m sure it pretty much made the survey useless as thousands of TiVo devotees answered the questions with great enthusiasm, but his noting the survey was was enough to spark speculation in the blogosphere that the two were in serious talks about adding TiVo’s functionality to Cox DVRs. After a few months of analysis it appears that Cox has now determined what TiVo fans have known all along, that TiVo is amazing and it adds to customer satisfaction. In an announcement made this morning, TiVo and Cox has made their partnership official and Cox will be officially supporting TiVo on all of their DVRs. The program is slated to start being rolled out to select cities in the first half of 2007.

Customers will be able to simply download TiVo’s software directly to the box that they already rent from Cox and they will immedietely begin to enjoy the benefits of being able to have an intelligent season pass that can distinguish between repeats and new shows, be able to use TiVo’s suggestion algorithms that help you find new programming and will have access to TiVo’s trademarked wishlist searches.

TiVo’s suggestions have always been my favorite feature of TiVo and while the suggestions don’t always match up exactly, I am hoping that when they release the series 3 that their will be an update to the algorithm that they use. Over the life of my series 1 TiVo, I’ve found so many great shows just because TiVo lets me share my show preferences with them and then customizes the programming to my tastes as long as I have room on my box. Without TiVo’s suggestions I would have never have seen the Jamie Kennedy Experiment, Alias or one of my personal favorites, Cheaters. The wishlists have also been a great feature as well and I’ve used them to have TiVo automatically record my favorite bands whenever they were on different late night shows as well as to tell TiVo to record every Laker game, but none of the Warriors games (Go Lakers!).

This is really great news for Cox subscribers and the deal comes at a time when Echostar may soon be losing all DVR functionality. I somehow suspect that all along Cox had intended to go in this direction, but the latest order to disable the Dish DVRs may have played a role in the timing of their agreement. Cox currently has a little over 7 million customers but due to two acquisitions will soon add another 3 million customers to this list. With 10 million potential Cox customers, 15 million potential DirecTV customers, 14 million potential customers through the National Cable Television Cooperative and with 22 million Comcast subscribers, this will soon make TiVo directly available (no IR blasters!) to over 61 million households in the US.

TiVo has had trouble gettting access to the cable companies for a long time and whether it is the approaching cable card ready series 3 or their current partnerships, it is becoming increasingly easier and easier for consumers to now get access to TiVo’s software. With Echostar now being forced to look differently at how they negotiate with TiVo and with other cable operators becoming more nervous about TiVo aggressively defending their patents, it may only be a matter of time when Time Warner and Dish also make their own agreements.

Posted in Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, TiVo | 1 Comment »

Was The PSP Ultimately A Failure?

August 23rd, 2006 Davis

I never bought a PSP, but there have definetely been times where I’ve seen someone on BART watching a movie or playing a game and I’ve secretly wanted to just grab it from them right before the doors to the train close. While I’ve never been desperate enough to try and boost a PSP (or even buy one for that matter) I’ve long admired the sleek design and the functionality of their portable gaming device. The biggest reason why I haven’t bought one is because of the size of the device. While I think that the screen size is just about the minimum ideal viewing screen, the long rectangular form of the device would be difficult to tuck away in my pocket and I worry that I’ll have to carry it around if I ever do want to use it.

Despite my own reluctance to invest in a PSP, I’ve always thought of the device as being very successful, but Live Digitally links to a great article by Matt Whitlock with TechLore, who seems to feel that Sony’s PSP is already outdated and that they made a number of mistakes along the way. One of the mistakes that he cites is Sony’s desire to be all things to all people. In some ways this is consistent with their PS3 strategy where they are forcing consumers to buy a Blu-ray player if they want to own a PS3, yet I still have to disagree with Matt that this contributed to Sony’s “failure” in respects to their PSP. I actually think that part of Sony’s success with the PSP came because people knew that they could go beyond video games on the console and it’s multi-functionality was a good selling point for the device. By enabling the device to play movies and music, Sony created a much more compelling product then limiting the PSP just to the gamer audience.

Where I do agree with Matt’s analysis is that the PSP failed in regards to UMD. When Sony released the PSP, they wanted to make sure that they could exploit consumer’s desire to use the video feature by over charging for UMD movies. In the same way that the video download sites today want to charge $20 for a download that you can buy for $9.99 at Walmart, Sony wanted to reap profits by locking their customers into a proprietary system and then bilking them out of their hard earned cash. When this didn’t fly, they ultimately abandoned the UMD in lieu of memory sticks.

Now I’ll never understand exactly why they abandoned the UMD because I fail to see how it costs them anything to offer the format even if only one customer is willing to pay $19.99 to own a digital copy of a film, but I’m sure that there are deeper issues at stake. In retrospect, I’m not sure that it’s fair to call the PSP a failure, but if it did ‘fail’ I think a big reason why, is that they didn’t provide an easy way for me to transfer TV directly to the device. Having recently dissected the costs of owning cable I can tell you that consumers already pay too much for TV, but when you try to make them pay another $20 for a 2 hour film, it’s ridiculous to expect them to pay it. Had Sony made it more convienent for me to view the television that I’ve already paid for on the go or had they come up with a way for me to stream my content directly from a set top box, I think that the PSP would have been a bigger hit with the less mainstream gamers. While the last portable console that I owned was a Game Boy, I think that had I been able to watch time shifted TV on a PSP that it could have been a crucial factor in getting me to purchase a device. I hate to knock the PSP because it really is a very cool portable device, but at the same time I hope that Sony learns something from this experience and that the next time around we will see a portable device that doesn’t force a consumer to purchase the same content more then once.

Posted in Video Games, TV | No Comments »

Last Train To Clarksville

August 23rd, 2006 Davis

Last Train To Clarksville Hosted on Zooomr

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Grouper Outsmarts Sony In $65 Million Buyout Negotiation.

August 23rd, 2006 Davis

Techcrunch is reporting that tonight at midnight Sony intends to announce that they are paying an oustounding $65 million for the bay area based video sharing site Grouper. This figure completely blows my mind. I’ve used Grouper before, but my big complaint is that the selection of videos is pretty lame compared to Google Video and You Tube. I liked their social features and the ease of sharing videos, but now that Sony will own the company, there is a good chance that I won’t ever be using Grouper again. According to Techcrunch, Sony plans on leveraging Grouper’s platform by offering subpar Sony videos for download, par DVDs for P2P distribution and they will offer “select” films as mash up content for people to use.

First off, I say screw this select mash up concept. In my view mash ups are fair use and regardless of the content, people should be allowed to create art by combining and mixing material to create a new product. When looking at the movie industry, I fail to see how any of the studios are hurt by having consumers remix their material and post it online. I’d understand if people were just posting the raw films, but a mashup isn’t nearly the same thing and it will only drive demand for the original product. While legally, I understand that copyright holders have rights, I also understand that if the studios want love from the social networks, then they need to learn how to give up control.

Secondily, if $65 million is the right number, then this is totally out of whack with the rest of the market. While I congratulate Grouper on successfully screwing Sony out of their ill gotten gains, I have to question who made this negotiation to begin with.

“However, the Grouper acquisition price is out of whack when compared to other recent video acquisitions. US Comscore data says Grouper had about 542,000 unique visitors in July 2006, compared to YouTube’s 16 million. Viacom’s recent acquisitions of iFilm (December 2005, 3.3 million U.S. uniques) and Atom/Shockwave (August 2005, 1.3 million U.S. uniques) for $50 million and $200 million, respectively suggest a per-unique-visitor valuation of $15-$20. Grouper’s per-unique-visitor valuation, by comparision, is roughly $70 - $120, depending on whether you look at June or July 2006 data.”

Techcrunch brings up a great point in their analysis on the video sharing market. While this may be one of the hottest areas out there, with You Tube yet to present a compelling business model, $65 million seems like an amazing amount of money for Sony to pay when they could have created the same service themselves. Maybe they know that consumers hate them and they want to hide behind someone elses name, but if this turns out to be true, you can bet that I won’t be fooled into thinking that Grouper is an independent site when I know that the studio mob bosses are really running the show.

Posted in VOD, Web 2.0 | 4 Comments »

Tower Records To File Chapter 12

August 23rd, 2006 Davis

The last several years have not been good for the standalone music store. Just a few years back, Tower Records filed for bankruptcy, we’ve seen Wherehouse Music also file for relief from their creditors and Sam Goody also had to file for Chapter 11 protection. Most of the record stores have blamed piracy and music downloading as the reason behind their failure, but that argument can only go so far.

Between the popularity of iTunes and the availability of alternatives like Pandora and Last FM, the music industry has gotten simply too competitve for the stand alone music store to survive. Many of the stores who fueled their growth in the 80’s and 90’s with debt underwritings are now finding that paying off their debt, paying employees and paying store leases is too much to bare. Now, after having just filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection two years ago, Tower Records may finally be on the brink of complete failure.

In someways this is really too bad. I’ve spent a good chunk of my life purusing through record stores looking for bargains and discovering new music. When I enter a music store I instantly become lost in the vast selection. One thing that I really liked about Tower records is that they would let you listen to any CD in the store before you bought. This saved me from buying a real bomb more then once, but with the ability to purchase a single song online and the ability to sample tracks there, I’m not surprised to see their business continue to struggle. The mp3 took a big bite out of the retail music industry and while CDs still make up the vast bulk of studio’s revenue, the end of the CD era may be drawing to a close even sooner then I expected. Between the commoditization of CD sales online, the endless music membership clubs like BMG and Columbia and a shift in consumer habits, the music store has had a difficult time innovating. I’m not sure what the solution to their problem may be, but this trend in the music industry may be an early indication of what the stand alone video store will ultimately face if the video stores can’t figure out a more efficient business model.

The video store has had a few extra years to adjust their business models, but the age of downloadable films is quickly approaching and companies with high debt, a lot of stores and an antiquated business model will soon face the same difficulties that Tower Records is facing today. While it’s possible that Tower could emerge from bankruptcy a stronger company, with this being their second time through the process, it’s hard for me to see much of a future. I’ll always remember the times that I spent wasting afternoons in their seemingly endless bins of CDs, but with the future of music being downloading, it’s hard to see how Tower Records will ever be able to overcome this latest obstacle.

Posted in Music | 2 Comments »

When Ajax Goes Bad

August 22nd, 2006 Davis

I love Ajax, but there are times that sites can over do it a bit. BLaugh has yet another classic blogosphere comic making fun of the latest web 2.0 trend.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Run Rabbit Run

August 22nd, 2006 Davis

Run Rabbit Run Hosted on Zooomr

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Kiosk Help Keep Track Of Prisoners On Probation

August 22nd, 2006 Davis

I’ve been a huge fan of the kiosk industry over the last several years. While the technology has been around for a long time, I believe that consumers are beginning to embrace self transactions on an unprecedented scale. Whether it’s the Southwest kiosks that save you time when flying or Redbox’s famous DVD machines, kiosks are the way of the future because they allow for low costs and high margin business opportunites.

In a unique development in the kiosk industry, Automon corporation has been offering a probation department kiosk for low risk offenders. It’s no secret that the prison system is broken. Considering that we’ve gone from about 275,000 inmate in the 1970’s to over 2 million prisoners today, it’s getting increasingly difficult to provide the rehabilitation and supervision that is necessary for the prison population. With many counties facing budget cutbacks and a booming prison population, the trend has been to grant probabtion earlier and earlier to inmates who prove themselves to be cooperative.

The problem is that once these prisoners go on probation there really isn’t adequate staff to keep a close eye on the entire probation population. This is where Automon steps in. They’ve developed a kiosk that is now deployed in 150 locations that allows a prisoner on probation to automatically check in, answer questions about their behavior and verify that they’ve been behaving with a virtual parole officer. The system itself uses fingerprints and palm prints to verify that the parollee is actually who they claim to be and then asks them a series of questions about what life has been like since they’ve been out. If a parole officer wants to schedule a meeting with the parolee they can notify them via the kiosk that they need to speak with them. The police officer is given detailed reports including who may have skipped their virtual appointment as well as who may have left the kiosk without answering some of the more difficult questions posed.

This is a great advancement in crime fighting in that it allows computers to deal with the low risk offenders and frees up time for parole officers to focus on their more serious cases. While some may criticize any form of automation with the parole system, the truth is that we are dealing with an over burdened system and I would rather have the low risk offenders checking in with a kiosk, then wasting valuable time that could be spent tracking the more serious criminals. Not only does this provide a new way of keeping track of the bad reformed guys, it also provides a lucrative revenue source in that agencies are allowed to charge $5 - $10 per visit from each parolee. While not everyone may agree, this is one of the more innovative uses of a kiosk that I’ve seen in a long time.

Posted in Kiosks | No Comments »

Microsoft Leads Advertising Revolution With Employee Training Video

August 22nd, 2006 Davis

Microsoft’s UK division, recently hired the hilarious David Brent (who played the lead in the original Office series) to conduct an employee training video where he reprised his role as an incompetent management consultant. In the video Brent, not only offers his own unique take on some of Microsoft’s retention policies, but also starts begging for a job once he learns that Microsoft employees have the potential to make over 40,000 pounds per year (about $75,000 US). Brent made two videos for Microsoft and in total there is almost 40 minutes of unique content created. After watching both training films, I feel like I got to see an undiscovered epidsode of the Office.

I originally saw the videos on Adfreak and while the video was supposedly leaked to the internet, I can’t help but wonder if it was intended for the blogosphere to see the entire time. Microsoft has always been very progressive in the way that they approach bloggers and of all the companies out there, I think that they know how to utilize the blogosphere better then anyone. Whether it was the three weeks of pre-hype on their UPMC product or their latest Zune rumors, Microsoft seems to understand that bloggers would rather speculate then report on real news and have done a great job of using this fact against us. This doesn’t mean that they’ve gotten a free pass from criticism, but it does mean that they’ve been at the forefront of marketing for a long time.

The release of Microsoft’s training video is what I believe the future of television will look like. For a number of years, there has been a lot of chatter about the DVR destroying ad based television. In the Washington Post this weekend, there was a great article that suggested that this really isn’t the case. Part of the reason why is that DVRs allow people to watch more TV, but also that marketers are finding new ways to reach consumers.

In looking at the future of ad supported television, I believe that we are going to see two trends. The first is the emergence of couch commerce. TiVo Chairman Mike Ramsey first made mention of couch commerce in 2000. The idea behind it is that you enable consumers to purchase something with the click of a remote and earn commission on what they buy. As targeted advertising becomes more effective, I believe that we’ll see a day where you can buy a birthday present during commercial breaks on your favorite shows and order pizza’s during halftime of your favorite football game. By enabling consumers to search, explore and purchase real goods with the click of a remote, I believe that it will revolutionize the television advertising business by making the studios middlemen instead of just an advertiser.

I also believe that we’ll see product placement advertising on a new scale. By product placement I don’t mean that we’ll see things show up for a minute or two, but rather that the marketing agencies will represent the new studios. Using Microsoft’s training video as a good example, they were able to create a very entertaining branded experience with limited expenses. While the production quality might not be good enough for TV, with people being used to that amateur quality on YouTube, I believe that the quality of this video is fantastic for the internet. Because Microsoft didn’t have to worry about making distribution agreements with the cable companies, the studios, the satellite providers, etc., they were able to focus on making a quick funny video and could then release it inexpensively on the net for anyone to see. As online video continues to gain in popularilty, I believe that more companies will begin making their own original content above and beyond the long form commercials that we’ve seen to date. It may take time for the marketing agencies to catch onto this trend and it may take time to convince more companies to engage in marketing this way, but it’s not far fetched to think that Microsoft could create their own version of The Office and have it be a hit online. If your production cost are controlled by cheap cameras and cheap editing software, a single company could produce an entire sitcom with a tenth of the expense of what it costs to make television today. While YouTube currently is the leader in online video sharing, the first one to enable companies to broadcast directly to the TV will be a huge winner in the future of ad supported television.

Posted in Marketing, VOD | No Comments »

Goggles Provides New Way To Explore Google’s Maps

August 21st, 2006 Davis

One of the things that I really enjoy about Google’s mapping software is that they’ve made the API available for people to create really cool mashups with their software. Whether this is Zooomr using it in their geotag functionality or Paul Rademacher’s mashing up Craiglist to create a rental housing map, the ability to combine one technology with another is part of why Google has been so successful with things like their mapping software.

I like mashups as much as the next blogger, so I was excited to see Real Tech News point me to a really cool Google Map flight simulator program. The program comes with about a half a dozen preset cities loaded into the software, but you can actually put in the coordinates of your own hometown and will be doing flybys through your own neighborhood in record time. To call Goggles simplistic would probably be an understatment and the application isn’t the best flight simulator out there, but it’s a fun addictive way to explore Google’s maps and at free, it’s hard to argue with the price. I’ve played around with this for about a day now and have already wasted too much time firebombing the San Francisco bay, yet I still find the game entertaining. While it won’t replace my Xbox 360 anytime soon, it is a good way to kill time and explore your favorite cities at the same time.

Posted in Video Games | No Comments »