HBO Leaves in the Middle Man

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HBO just can’t quit the bundle. With HBO Now, its new, over-the-top streaming service, the network for the first time is making its content available to stream without a pay-TV subscription. But HBO still hopes to sell it as part of a bundle. The only differences are the the other components of the bundle and the identity of the bundlers.

At launch, HBO Now will be sold exclusively by Apple and available on Apple devices only. According to HBO’s FAQ, “you can subscribe to HBO NOW℠ using your iTunes account. Customers can access HBO NOW℠ by going to HBONOW.com, through AppleTV® or by downloading the HBO NOW℠ app in the Apple App Store®.” Apple and HBO will then share customer support duties.

HBO_NowAfter a three-month Apple exclusive, HBO will make the service available to other digital distributors, such as Amazon and Roku, presumably on terms similar to Apple’s, with the distributor doing most of the heavy sales lifting. But the network is also very much hoping to persuade its current cable-operator affiliates to bundle HBO Now with their broadband-only offering, so far with little success. Read More »

Supply-Side Content Discovery

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Nearly a decade after Netflix went over-the-top, at least a full decade after the launch of YouTube, and more than two decades since Bruce Springsteen first sang of having “57 channels and nothin’ on,” the video industry, which we used to call the TV industry, is still wrestling with the problem of content discovery.

Roku-Recommends-episode-1-1024x576If anything, the problem is getting worse, not better, as the volume of programming and the number of program sources are both growing rapidly thanks to the new digital platforms.

Heroic efforts have been made over the years to tame the flood, using search technology, algorithmic recommendation engines and various other big-data strategies. Rovi’s Fan TV, for instance, which it acquired late last year and reintroduced at CES in January, uses voice-activated semantic search and leverages Rovi’s vast trove of video metadata to generate recommendations or locate specific titles in response to natural-language queries. Read More »

Finger-pointing over interconnection

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When a consumer’s OTT video stream starts rebuffering, or suffers packet losses resulting in degraded quality, it’s often hard to know where to direct blame. The problem is typically caused by congestion somewhere between the content’s originating server and the consumer’s receiving device. But exactly where in the chain of transit that congestion is occurring, and more importantly who is responsible and why, can be difficult even for engineers — and virtually impossible for consumers — to ascertain.

045448280-maclean-d-deshler-m-baldwinBack when it appeared the FCC was poised to classify interconnection arrangements between last-mile ISPs and third-party transit and content providers as a new, distinct type of Title II service the question of liability for congestion in the chain of transit suddenly became urgent for those involved in wholesale traffic exchanges. Read More »

Net Neutrality: Interconnection Covered, But Not By ‘Bright Line’ Rules

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After a flurry of last-minute lobbying and internal debate the FCC ultimately backed off its plan to define interconnection arrangements between ISPs and third-party content and applications providers as distinct service separate from last-mile internet access service in its Open Internet order, which it approved today by a 3-2 party line vote. But the commission asserted its authority under Title II of the Communications Act to hear complaints and take appropriate enforcement action if it determines that specific interconnection practices by ISPs are not “just and reasonable.”

ppcommissioners-nov-2013-webThe decision to drop the separate classification of the service that ISPs make available to edge providers marks an apparent shift from the proposal outlined in the Feb. 4 fact sheet released by FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, which referred to interconnection and last-mile service separately. But it eliminates the potential legal problem for the commission’s authority to review interconnection arrangements that separate classification could have created. Read More »

For OTT providers, ‘strong’ Net Neutrality may be losing its strength

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Don’t look now OTT fans but the net neutrality rules expected to be enacted Thursday by the FCC may turn out to be not as OTT-friendly as it originally appeared they would be.

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn

When FCC chairman Tom Wheeler unveiled his “fact sheet” on the upcoming rules on Feb. 4, it looked as if the commission was poised to adopt the “strong” version of net neutrality pushed by Netflix and others. According to the fact sheet, the rules would treat interconnection arrangements between ISPs and third-party edge providers as a Title II service subject to the same “just and reasonable” standard that will apply to ISPs’ management of their last-mile networks. Read More »