The New York Times isn’t exactly renowned for its technology coverage, so you can safely assume that by the time they cover anything that it is a pretty safe bet:

In the battle for the living room, cable, satellite, and increasingly, phone companies are trying to defend their turf by offering more choice through an array of content in video-on-demand programs.

But fending off the Internet’s openness will be a struggle, one that the online companies themselves lost years ago.

At the onset of the dot-com era, large online service companies like AOL, Compuserve and MSN tried to lock customers into electronic walled gardens of digital information. But it quickly became apparent that no single company could compete with the vast variety of information and entertainment sources provided on the Web.

The same phenomenon may well overtake traditional TV providers. Potentially, IPTV could replace the 100- or 500-channel world of the cable and satellite companies with millions of hybrid combinations that increasingly blend video, text from the Web, and even video-game-style interactivity.

We’re not usually Markoff fans over here but we found this analogy to be uncharacteristically apt. [via BoingBoing]

Google isn’t happy with letting Apple be the only player in TV downloads:

Google will announce its plans to allow consumers to buy television shows or other videos that can be downloaded onto their computers at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Friday.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal said Google is likely to unveil partnerships related to the new service with CBS Corp. and the National Basketball Association.

CES is starting up this weekend and this is just the first of what we expect to be many interesting announcements.

And then the empire struck back:

AT&T;Inc. and BellSouth Corp. are lobbying Capitol Hill for the right to create a two-tiered Internet, where the telecom carriers’ own Internet services would be transmitted faster and more efficiently than those of their competitors.

There is a saying about a genie being out of the bottle. Perhaps you know that one? [via BoingBoing]

Read this review:

You may have streamed the NBC Nightly News to your Web browser. You may have watched the Video Music Awards at MTV.com. But you’ve never seen Internet television quite like this. Yesterday marked the official debut of CNN Pipeline, a 24-hour, commercial-free online television station broadcasting from its own Atlanta control room with its own news anchors.

And that only begins to describe this breathtaking new service. It streams not one, but four live video feeds straight to your desktop. If you get bored watching the latest White House press conference, you can switch to a live report from Iraq or footage of hurricane recovery efforts in New Orleans. And if the live news isn’t what you want, you can choose from dozens of on-demand news reports, spanning everything from politics and business to sports and entertainment.

From the why are we always behind department:

About 8.7 million Europeans will be watching television over the Internet by 2009, or 9.4 percent of a market currently dominated by cable and satellite operators, according to a forecast issued on Monday.

...

“It will emerge faster in Europe and Asia than in the United States,” Schmitt added, saying similar initiatives by U.S. telecommunications companies are only just getting underway.

Tell us something we don’t know. On the other hand, being slow and retarded has its benefits: it makes our job of prognosticating pretty simple. All we need to see the future is to catch a flight to London or Tokyo. No more need to spend money on expensive crystal balls (we take no credit for the assumed drop in crystal ball manufacturer’s stock prices).

Where do we even begin?

The television chief focused his lecture on new methods of distributing programming, such as downloading shows onto an iPod or buying individual episodes through DIRECTV.

Technological advances are already paying off for NBC, Zucker said.

Ratings for “NBC Nightly News” improved over the last two weeks after the television company started offering daily newscasts on its Web site.

But Zucker said he is wary of some of these advances, especially the blog craze and its effect on TV.

“We pay too much attention to blogs,” he said. “It is absurd how much attention they receive.”

Zucker said NBC’s primetime lineup is spiralling down, and it will take two to three years to rebound from the current slump.

Zucker is in for a rude awakening when this “three year slump” turns into a permanent downward spiral. This must be how he has managed to keep his job: by convincing others that this is just a temporary blip. Of course, the timing is perfect because when these three years are over, it will be time for the massive overhaul that is the transition to digital broadcasting. Then he can buy himself another 3-5 years simply by blaming everything on the digital transition. Frankly, if we were investors we’d be telling Jeff that there is no time like the present to put down the crack pipe. Why wait three years?

Zucker misunderstands why blogs get so much attention: it’s not the content. The revolution that it provides is that anyone, anywhere can instantly publish. It may not be nice and shiny like TV yet, but it can get there. TV on the other hand is still out of everyone’s reach.

Although the online version of nightline is cute, we wonder just how many people are actually watching it. Perhaps the day that more people watch nightline on the net that tune in via broadcast TV will send Jeff the memo he needs to read.

From Associated Press:

Movielink, a joint venture of five Hollywood studios to offer movies over the Internet, has signed a deal with Twentieth Century Fox, allowing it to offer movies from all major studios for the first time.

It is very interesting to us how CinemaNow and Movielink, the red-headed and forgotten tech children of Hollywood have suddenly become hot commodities since the Disney-iTunes deal. It seems that all the studios have decided to open the floodgates and get their content online, profit models be damned!

Look forward to lots of deals and announcements in the next weeks as the latest round of lets-copy-everyone-else-in-town makes the rounds.

Warner and AOL are starting a new interactive TV channel called In2TV:

In2TV plans to offer more than 100 TV series and at least 300 episodes per month in the first year, the companies said.

The shows will be delivered through AOL Video on Demand, AOL Video Search and AOL Television. At the time of launch, the programs will be available exclusively on AOL and will not be in syndication on TV, AOL official said.

Warner has been doing very well lately and it looks like it is parlaying this confidence into bold post-broadcast moves.

Don’t put down that TiVo remote:

TiVo Inc. and Yahoo Inc. on Monday launched a service that allows TiVo users to program their digital video recorders remotely using Yahoo’s television information Web sites.

While terms of the deal were not disclosed, the companies said that in the coming months TiVo and Yahoo would also offer Yahoo services like photos, traffic, and weather as part of their collaboration.

Attaching a computer to your TV is a great idea because it allows you to do all sorts of things you could never do before. The only problem is that building a computer is a relatively mundane task easily assembled from off-the-shelf components. Now nearly every cable and satellite system offer their own “TiVo-like” boxes that have most of the same capabilities. TiVo has been trying to bypass the cable and satellite distribution networks for a while now. For example they announced their plan to allow TiVo boxes to download certain TV shows from an internet connection without any need to “record” a show from cable/satellite.

Perhaps this is the first step in TiVo bypassing the traditional networks of distribution. However, replacing cable and satellite with Yahoo! is just exchanging one content provider for another. We here at BBB would like to see a TiVo that can go anywhere on the internet, wouldn’t you?

Those of you who remember last Tuesday’s posting, we ended it by telling Hollywood that the ball was now in their court. We didn’t expect the reaction to come so swiftly:

If Apple’s new video iPod is as successful as expected in delivering paid programing over the Internet, Hollywood’s unions want their share and are worried about being shortchanged on residuals.

Writers Guild of America West president Patric Verrone was the latest to voice these fears, issuing a letter to members Friday that said WGAW and its sister guilds are unwilling to accept the DVD residuals formula, which takes most of the money off the table before sharing a set percentage of gross revenue.

Essentially ABC is applying the less lucrative DVD formula to the downloads but the union is arguing that this is more like TV (which is a more lucrative set of residuals). This is hilarious only because this is neither TV or DVD…

Good ol’ Mark Cuban is often a subtle fellow:

Bob Iger has gone contrary to what every current and previous TV network head has and would have done had Bob not turned the industry on its head with his announcement with Apple yesterday. Bob Iger has saved Network TV.

How ?

By completely changing the economic model.

But how do you really feel about this Mark? Stop hiding behind all those fancy words.

Seriously, we agree with you on Bob Iger but this won’t save network television. This is just the biggest nail in the coffin so far. At only $2 a pop, how can Bob compete with smaller production companies with lower overhead?

Search Engine Watch has a great article on the burgeoning field of Video/Audio search:

“Video search is still difficult to use right now,” said Peter Chane, Senior Business Product Manager at Google. “You often can’ t find the video you want. Playing back videos can be a little weird—you can have problems hearing audio with video. And many files might not be Mac-compatible.”

Still, many search engines offer video searching capabilities, including Google Video, Yahoo Video, Singingfish and Blinkx.

The number of places allowing you to upload audio/video has exploded and now the problem is finding the content that you want. [via Smart Mobs]

You should really download this when you get a chance, its absolutely hilarious:

A Finnish spoof of the sci-fi classic “Star Trek” has boldly gone where no feature film has gone before, relying on free distribution over the Internet to reach more than 450,000 viewers in less than a week.

“Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning” is a full-length feature in Finnish with English subtitles. It was made over seven years by a group of students and other amateur film makers with a bare-bones budget and a few home computers to create elaborate special effects.

The funny thing about internet distribution is that it really blows away the old distribution stranglehold. Prior to this film, the most watched Finnish film was:

Finland’s most-viewed film ever is “The Unknown Soldier” (1955) with 2.8 million viewers. To reach the top three, “Star Wreck” would have to surpass 1 million.

As of right now the filmmakers estimate that they have already hit the magical one million mark and they very well may become the most widely seen Finnish movie in history (not that its a high bar to pass but a notable one nonetheless).

They must read BBB because the New York Times has a piece on how internet distribution cuts down on costs for smaller video producers:

While there have been a few successful subscription services for Internet video, most notably those offered by Major League Baseball, the driving force of the online video market is advertising.

“The advertising model is extremely simple and very attractive: you simply put your 30-second commercial in front of the video,” said Josh Bernoff, an analyst with Forrester.

Advertisers are paying $25 per thousand users who see their online commercials, more than they pay for network television, Mr. Bernoff said.

The world of wildly inaccurate Nielsens is over. Advertisers are willing to pay a premium for smaller online audiences because they know exactly what they are getting. 

In an article woefully short on specifics, NBC Universal Chairman and Chief Executive Bob Wright says:

“The problems are spreading and no one is immune,” Wright said. “In my business we’re just looking over the shoulder of the music industry, which has gone through a very difficult time.”

You heard it here first folks, piracy has hurt the music industry! So Mr. Wright, what are you going to do about it?

“It’s something we have to do, but it has to be done well,” Wright said “These movies are so expensive we have to be careful ... We’re pretty close. Hopefully by the end of this year we’ll be able to do that.”

Huh? Do what? Launch online services for downloading movies? You already have two of those (the oft neglected CinemaNow and Movielink). Clearly that is not going to change anything.

Oh and just for added humor he even drops mention of the DVD format war:

“You’d always rather have one standard—that’s going to happen eventually,” he said. “Hopefully this won’t go as far as (the) Betamax-VHS (video tape format battle).”

This guy is on a roll. Next he will tackle world peace and conflict in the Middle East. Don’t you wish that vaguely restating obvious problems at a press conference was all that was necessary to convince the vulgar masses that you aren’t completely disconnected from reality? Bob Wright does. This makes Eisner’s closing speech look like a work of Shakespeare.

Now that Eisner is stepping down he thinks he is sitting pretty:

In his parting words to a gathering of Hollywood executives on Tuesday, Walt Disney Co Chief Executive Michael Eisner told an industry facing major technological change: don’t panic.

“Don’t panic over the latest techno jargon like ... peer-to-peer, wi-max, 80211, bittorrent ... the only thing that gives purpose to all these remarkable delivery systems is the kind of creative content we all produce,” Eisner said

On the one hand, Eisner is correct that at the end of the day everyone wants Hollywood’s content. We here at BBB would recommend that anyone thinking of listening to his Douglas Adams-esque “don’t panic” to reconsider.

The music industry didn’t panic when napster came along. Look what happened to them. Hollywood hasn’t faced this yet simply because the bandwidth isn’t there. But one day it will be. What will you be doing then? Eisner doesn’t care because its not his problem anymore.

Have you checked out video.google.com lately?

Taking a page out of the Terry Semel Yahoo! playbook they are webcasting the “Everybody hates Chris” premiere in its entirety for free. This is the first use of google’s video tools for entertainment that we know of.

In a shocking turn of events, BitTorrent is now taking on competitors in a mad race to make love to Hollywood before someone else does:

BitTorrent, developer of one of the most popular software programs for acquiring free video and other large files on the Internet, has raised $8.75 million from a venture-capital firm.

BitTorrent says it will use the funds from DCM-Doll Capital Management to improve its infrastructure and make it more appealing to Hollywood.

Perhaps they should join the MPAA’s new technology lab (although we suspect they might not get along so well).

If you read the title of this article and think we’re going to talk about architecture, we’re sorry to disappoint:

Before Iger’s remarks, studio executives spoke of releasing DVDs simultaneous with a theatrical run only in the context of fighting piracy. Many studios are already premiering films around the world on the same date to undercut pirates who distribute illegal copies of films in China, Eastern Europe and elsewhere.

In the United States, studios are pressured by a box office slump and a DVD glut that has led to a sharp decline in sales for new releases that compete for shelf space with old TV show box sets and older hits.

New technology is adding to the competition as cable operators promote video-on-demand services and phone companies, such as SBC and Verizon, are creating high-speed Internet networks that will make on-demand viewing even easier.

NATO (National Association of Theater Owners) is freaking out because the window between when a film is released theatrically and its accompanying DVD release is now only 4 months. But in reality, 4 months is a long time to consumers. Obviously the trend will be to continue the shrinking of time, but the studios will have to make concessions. One day, DVD releases will have to be simultaneous in order to beat piracy, so we predict that theater owners will demand that they receive the lion’s share of the profits from the opening weeks.

But the Studios’ faith in DVD sales is folly. People made fun of Bill Gates for announcing that “shiny plastic discs” will be but a distant memory in the future and as loathe as we are to admit it, he’s right. In the future anyone can download a near-DVD quality film to their high-end flat-panel home theater before a film is even released theatrically. What do you think will happen to DVD sales then. In fact, DVD sales are already in a slump and there isn’t even any serious piracy challenge today.

Just remember, no more SHINY DISCS.

<small>Just because Bill is right doesn’t mean we like him.</small>

In what is sure to be shocking news to everyone, certain companies are unhappy when someone else offers the same service for 98% less:

Skype service, which allows people to make calls from their PCs to regular phones, enables subscribers in China to dial to major Western markets in the United States and Europe for as little as 2 eurocents per minute (2.5 U.S. cents), compared with rates closer to $1 per minute from China Telecom.

China routinely blocks access to Web sites on politically sensitive subjects such as the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement and the 1989 crackdown at Tiananmen Square that left hundreds dead. But blockage of sites for purely economic reasons is much less common.

We here at BBB often poke fun at our own domestic telecom competitors but in most of the world there is only one telecom firm per country (most often a quasi-governmental entity). We can understand how China Telecom would be a bit unhappy with Skype but unfortunately, like the internet, the genie is out of the bottle. You can try to block a site here or there but technologically it is impossible to completely stop something. Skype isn’t the only VOIP company around…