Netflix leads use cases for connected TVs, said research from Leichtman Research Group released Friday that showed that 49 percent of Netflix subscribers surveyed said they streamed video weekly from the Internet via a video game or Blu-ray player, smart TV or streaming media box, compared with 8 percent of non-Netflix subscribers. For Netflix subscribers, that’s up from 38 percent in 2012 and 24 percent in 2010, Leichtman said. Some 49 percent of U.S. households have at least one TV connected to the Internet, with 24 percent of adults watching video from the Internet using a connected TV at least once a week, compared to 13 percent two years ago, and 5 percent in 2010, it said. Netflix streaming video users have remained consistent on TV usage, with roughly three-fourth of respondents saying they watch Netflix on a TV. The number of Netflix members that subscribe to another pay TV service has slipped to 80 percent from 85 percent in 2012 and from 88 percent in 2010, Leichtman said. The number of households that don’t have a pay TV service but get Netflix is now 48 percent, up from 29 percent in 2012 and 16 percent in 2010, it said. Fifteen percent of Netflix subscribers share their subscriptions with others outside of the household, Leichtman said. Thirty-one percent of adults watch video daily on non-TV devices including home computers, mobile phones, iPads and tablets, Leichtman said, while 58 percent do so on a weekly basis, up from 18 percent daily and 46 percent weekly two years ago, it said. Some 34 percent of households watch any form of over-the-top video -- including connected TVs and other devices -- daily and 61 percent weekly, it said. The data is based on a telephone survey in April with 1,211 adults age 18 and older from throughout the continental U.S. The random sample of respondents was distributed and weighted to best reflect the demographic and geographic make-up of the U.S., Leichtman said, and has a statistical margin of error of +/- 2.8 percent.
The BBC will run a series of Ultra HD trials during three World Cup matches, including the finals July 13 at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio, it said Thursday. “These will be closed trials exploring the latest distribution technologies over traditional broadcast and consumer broadband networks, allowing us to better understand how any Ultra HD TV service could be delivered to the home,” said a BBC spokesman. “This will be the first time live Ultra HD content will be broadcast simultaneously” over broadband and traditional broadcast networks, he said. The live streams will be transported from Brazil by satellite to the U.K., “where they will be decoded and distributed, via existing broadcast and super-fast broadband infrastructure, to a number of compatible consumer UHD TV sets in selected R&D facilities,” the BBC said. “The aim is to better understand the latest UHD distribution technologies and standards in a live outside broadcast, helping to inform future development, best practices and, ultimately, to ensure any future UHD TV services can make a real impact when they launch.” The trial also will “examine the use” of High Efficiency Video Coding compression for distribution over traditional broadcast and over the top IP networks, it said.
Pandora remains focused on the U.S., where it continues to see a “huge opportunity for growth,” CEO Brian McAndrews told a stockholders meeting webcast from Oakland Wednesday. The company is “considering other countries over time,” said McAndrews. But “there are challenges to be worked out in terms of figuring out what are the best countries, the best opportunities and making sure that we figure out what the royalty structures are” there, he said. Europe and other markets are “not an immediate opportunity” for Pandora, just a “long-term” one, he said. Pandora’s service is in Australia and New Zealand. It has more than 1.6 million registered listeners there and also has started selling advertising in those countries, said McAndrews. Pandora has invested some money on marketing, mostly on the Internet, including on search engines, he said. Pandora has about 3.4 million paying subscribers out of about 76 million monthly users that listen, said McAndrews. Pandora users listened to the service for a combined 1.7 billion hours in May, up 28 percent from May 2013, it said in a news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1nPGdSx). Pandora had a 9.1 percent share of all U.S. radio listening last month, up from 7.3 percent a year ago, it said. Active listeners grew 9 percent to 77 million as of May 31, it said.
While 68 percent of service providers think customers use social media for customer service because they're unable to reach a service representative by phone, 50 percent of consumers use social media because they prefer that outlet, said research released Wednesday by Amdocs, which provides consumer care services for telecom carriers and ISPs (http://yhoo.it/S9gTIt). Companies aren’t responding to customers who reach out on social media, the survey found. Three quarters of those who reach out on social media never get a response. Amdocs commissioned Ovum to survey 100 global service provider executives and commissioned Coleman Parkes Research to survey 4,068 global customers in January.
Thursday has been designated by activists joined in Reset the Net as a day of advocacy against government surveillance. Activities (https://www.resetthenet.org/) organized by Fight the Future, a partnership of tech companies like Google, Mozilla and Reddit, and advocacy groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation are set for Thursday, the one-year anniversary of the first revelations related to documents leaked by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden. Since then, the government has “rebellion on their hands as tech companies and Internet users work together to directly intervene in mass surveillance and block the NSA and its kind from the web,” said Tiffiniy Cheng, spokeswoman for Fight for the Future, in a statement. Snowden also issued a statement through his lawyer (http://bit.ly/1mSEhDC). “We have the technology, and adopting encryption is the first effective step that everyone can take to end mass surveillance,” he said. “Don’t ask for your privacy. Take it back."
The American Intellectual Property Law Association and CEA hailed the Supreme Court ruling against Akamai in its patent suit against Limelight Networks, in which the court declared a company can claim patent infringement against another entity only when that entity was involved in every step of the claimed infringement (CD June 3 p4). “The court avoided muddling the current standard for patent law and creating a zone of uncertainty for innovators and entrepreneurs who would no longer be sure what was or was not infringing conduct,” said President Gary Shapiro of CEA, which had joined with CTIA and MetroPCS in filing an amicus brief in the case. “To fulfill its constitutional function of promoting innovation, patent law must be clear, consistent and understandable,” Shapiro said in a CEA news release Monday (http://bit.ly/1n9uTNR). “We commend the Supreme Court for setting aside the lower court decision and restoring common sense to patent infringement law.” The Supreme Court’s ruling in Akamai v. Limelight and an unrelated patent case, Nautilus v. Biosig Instruments, “directed a course correction in the Federal Circuit’s jurisprudence for definite patent claiming and for finding induced infringement,” AIPLA said. “We are pleased that the Supreme Court recognized the need for greater clarity in these areas and moved quickly to provide guidance,” AIPLA President Wayne Sobon said in a statement. Akamai believes “the case is not over” given that the Supreme Court’s ruling remanded the case to the Federal Circuit, a spokesman said. “We look forward to the opportunity to go back to the Court of Appeals and re-present our arguments about why there was direct infringement in this case and why the jury verdict in Akamai’s favor should be reinstated."
Google launched a page for users to sign an online petition to “Demand real surveillance reform” (http://bit.ly/U7Cyma). The page, launched over the weekend, argues the “bulk collection” of Internet data such as names of email correspondents “runs counter to our democratic principles.” It points to the USA Freedom Act (HR-3361), which passed the House (CD May 23 p9), but with language “watered down so badly that it will not prevent bulk Internet data collection.” As the bill moves to the Senate “it is critical that this loophole be closed,” the page says.
Government agencies need to respond better to cyber incidents, the GAO said in a report released Friday (http://1.usa.gov/1kqruFm). “Based on a statistical sample of cyber incidents reported in fiscal year 2012, GAO projects that these agencies did not completely document actions taken in response to detected incidents in about 65 percent of cases (with 95 percent confidence that the estimate falls between 58 and 72 percent),” the report said of its review of 24 major federal agencies. It said even with plans and policies in place, agencies weren’t always comprehensive or consistent with federal obligations. The CyberStat reviews from the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Homeland Security “have not addressed agencies’ cyber incident response practices,” GAO said. “Without complete policies, plans, and procedures, along with appropriate oversight of response activities, agencies face reduced assurance that they can effectively respond to cyber incidents.”
While it looks to boost advertising revenue, Pandora “won’t ever need to get to the level of terrestrial radio,” said Vice President Dominic Paschel on a webcast from the Cowen and Company Technology, Media & Telecom Conference in New York Wednesday. In the car in particular, terrestrial radio has “abused the consumer … because there was nothing else for them to really listen to, and they chased every last dollar down,” Paschel said. Pandora began in-car advertising in January and is sold out for the rest of the year, he said, but the company can draw on ad revenue from other segments of the business. Paschel said the maximum number of ads Pandora serves per hour is six -- and fewer in the car -- compared to roughly 15 minutes of ads per hour for terrestrial radio. “You don’t race from zero to six … all of a sudden,” he said. The ad load is being gradually increased on Sonos and other embedded platforms, he said. On the desktop PC, Pandora can monetize visually as well when consumers look at the screen to press thumbs-up and -down features, skip tracks and change stations -- and they do so about seven times an hour, which translates into seven digital advertising opportunities, he said. In the car, without the visual benefit, Pandora has an average load of two-and-a-half to three ads per hour, up from two to two-and-a-half in 2012, and it expects the number of spots to increase during the year to three to three-and-a-half on average this year. About 20 percent of Pandora’s ad load is local, Paschel said. Pandora can compete with terrestrial radio with fewer ads per hour because it can leverage RPMs (revenue per 1,000 listener hours) that “easily rival” those of terrestrial radio “because we have other methodologies to monetize,” he said. Pandora is targeting what Paschel called the “hyper-local” market, where a few local ads could add up to an RPM that could rival broadcast rates, “if not higher,” he said. On future expansion, Paschel said, the company is looking at international opportunities and other forms of content to be viewed as “radio,” not just music radio. Pandora will look to enter the sports market if it can be accretive to shareholders “soon” and not “10 years down the line,” he said. Pandora was international before it invested in IP-blocking technology in 2007, he said. Company research indicates Pandora would be approaching a 1 billion user database, he said, if it hadn’t started blocking IP addresses from outside of the U.S. Progress in its only international markets -- Australia and New Zealand -- has been strong, he said, but rights costs are an issue with additional international expansion. He cited recently published reports on Canadian sound recording royalty rates that are a tenth of the U.S. rates for that portion of the rights picture, but remaining Canadian royalty fees will determine whether Pandora will ultimately enter that market, he said.
The Internet of Things technology and application market value is expected to be $1.42 trillion by 2020, said a report by business research firm MarketsandMarkets, said a company news release (http://bit.ly/1tKXY4J) Monday. The market value for the IoT tech and applications was $1 trillion in 2013, it said. Applications such as smart meters, smart plugs, connected cars and “wearable technology” will encourage IoT growth, it said.