Starz Encore and RealNetworks launched a subscription movie service for broadband users. The service, which costs $12.95 per month, is at http://movies.real.com or www.starz.com. Starz! Ticket on Real Movies gives subscribers unlimited access to a rotating library of major motion pictures. Offered through RealPlayer, the companies said movies will take as little as 20 min. to download, depending on the speed of the subscriber’s broadband service. Additionally subscribers will have access to a streamed version of the Starz! linear service, which marks the first time a premium movie channel has been delivered simultaneously over broadband. The service uses Real’s Helix digital rights management (DRM) to ensure secure delivery. The service is available to U.S. consumers with a broadband connection speed of at least 600 kbps, the firms said, and consumers can watch movies on a PC or on a TV linked to a PC with an S-video cable. Other features of the service include the ability to fast-forward, rewind and pause. Subscribers can download movies to as many as 3 PCs, and the service allows parental controls.
Starz Encore and RealNetworks launched a subscription movie service for broadband users. The service, which costs $12.95 per month, is at http://movies.real.com or www.starz.com. STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies gives subscribers unlimited access to a rotating library of major motion pictures. Offered through RealPlayer, the companies said movies will take as little as 20 min. to download, depending on the speed of the subscriber’s broadband service. Additionally subscribers will have access to a streamed version of the STARZ! linear service, which marks the first time a premium movie channel has been delivered simultaneously over broadband. The service uses Real’s Helix DRM (digital rights management) to ensure secure delivery. The service is available to U.S. consumers with a broadband connection speed of at least 600 kbps, the firms said, and consumers can watch movies on their PC or on a TV linked to a PC with an S-video cable. Other features of the service include the ability to fast-forward, rewind and pause. Subscribers can download movies to as many as 3 personal computers, and the service allows parental controls.
Nextel, still fighting to make certain FCC’s 800 MHz rebanding plan includes giving it spectrum at 1.9 GHz, has offered a new concession, giving up additional spectrum at 800 MHz to be used by public safety. The proposal appears designed in part to give FCC Chmn. Powell additional cover if he sides with Nextel against other wireless carriers, which have made the case Nextel instead should get 2.1 GHz spectrum. Nextel had proposed giving public safety 2.5 MHz and the new plan would essentially double that to 4.5 MHz. Based on Nextel’s numbers, the offer is worth $863 million more than the previous proposal, or $5.155 billion, a spokesman said.
Gemstar-TV Guide and Comcast will launch their first jointly developed electronic program guide (EPG) by late summer, CEO Jeffrey Shell told us after the company’s annual shareholders meeting in N.Y.C. The companies, which formed the Guide Works joint venture this year, are essentially reworking the I-Guide that Gemstar previously had under development, and will introduce it first on Comcast’s cable systems, he said. The EPG will be a key ingredient in the Guide Works’ efforts to establish a cable standard for program guides, said Shell, whose company received a $250 million up-front licensing fee from Comcast and will market the jointly developed product to other MSOs. Gemstar has a 49% of Guide Works and has contributed 100 employees, while Comcast holds the remaining 51%, Shell said. Meanwhile, Gemstar’s EPG agreement with Time Warner Cable, will likely result in parts of the guide rather than the whole package going on the MSO’s system, Shell said. Gemstar also is planning to further expand its TV Guide Channel, which is expected to reach 80 million homes when it launches on EchoStar’s DISH service later this month. In conjunction with a revamped version of the TV Guide Channel, Gemstar is developing TV Guide Land, an on-demand guide that will provide highlights of TV shows mixed with editorial. TV Guide Land -- which will likely be available on Comcast systems as well as DirecTV and EchoStar satellite services -- also will allow the viewer to pause, fast forward, rewind and scroll through programming, Shell said.
Gemstar-TV Guide and Comcast will launch their first jointly developed electronic program guide (EPG) by late summer, CEO Jeffrey Shell told us after the company’s annual shareholders meeting in N.Y.C. The companies, which formed the Guide Works joint venture earlier this year, are essentially reworking the I- Guide that Gemstar previously had under development, and will introduce it first on Comcast’s cable systems, he said.
With the transition to larger glass substrates and better yields, LCD and plasma TV companies are pumping out a greater variety of sizes as they fill in gaps in product lines and in some cases enter the market for the first time.
A combo VCR and DVD recorder for dubbing VHS home movies to DTV will join 2 new DVD-RW decks in Pioneer’s recorder line, the company said Wed. in a product rollout that also included 2 digital cable-ready plasma TVs and 2 DVD-based automobile entertainment systems.
As Apex geared up to start shipping its $499 ApeXtreme PC game console hybrid with DVD player and PVR by the end of summer, technology supplier Digital Interactive Systems Corp. is getting results from talks with other CE and PC makers about using its “drop & play” engine for PC gaming functionality, DISC Pres. Avraham DorEl told Consumer Electronics Daily at the E3 Expo in L.A.
FCC action on several petitions for reconsideration of the FCC’s Triennial Review Order could occur soon, FCC Chief of Staff Bryan Tramont said late Fri. at the FCBA’s annual seminar in Cambridge, Md. Tramont said proposed FCC action on the petitions will begin circulating among commissioners on the 8th floor “in the next few days.” Among those teed up: Petitions seeking clarification of the TRO’s effect on multiple dwelling units (MDU), he said. NTIA recently urged the FCC to clarify definitions in its fiber-to-the-home rules for residential multi-unit premises (CD May 3 p6). Tramont answered a wide range of questions submitted ahead of time by FCBA members: (1) Asked if he thought “it’s time to rewrite the Telecom Act,” Tramont said it’s time to at least think about it and “we're thinking about it internally.” There’s “a lot of pressure” on the current regulatory scheme from new technology, he said. (2) The broadband over powerline proceeding will likely be done in early fall, he said. “NTIA filed data last week and we'll look at that. Our hope is to bring the rulemaking to a close in the Sept. timeframe.” (3) On industry efforts to negotiate commercial interconnection agreements, it’s “troubling” that state regulators might “reopen” those negotiated agreements: “In a world in which you're trying to drive commercial negotiations, the idea that somehow [an agreement] would only be the opening bid that states might reopen is a troubling one. So that gives cause for pause.” (4) Indecency complaints have risen from 240,000 in 2003 to 550,000 so far this year. The concern about indecency is “grass roots driven, so we have an obligation to respond [but] the line drawing is a challenge to us It’s a difficult exercise.” (5) The FCC’s Spectrum Policy Task Force is “entering a 2nd stage in which it’s starting to look at what else needs to be done,” he said. “In about a month they will have some recommendations that go to the commercial space as well as the govt. side.” (6) The FCC is still planning to wait for an industry consensus plan to emerge before acting on intercarrier compensation, he said. If it appears consensus will take “dramatically more time than anticipated we're prepared to move forward,” he said. However, the agency’s preference is to get an industry proposal, Tramont said.
LAS VEGAS -- The PVR is rapidly evolving beyond just a recording device, but broadcasters remain concerned about content protection and advertisers still view the technology as a serious threat, speakers said at the NAB convention here. A major milestone, due to ship in the next several days to dealers, is the first HD-PVRs for DirectTV, which will retail for about $1,000, said Skip Pizzi, Microsoft mgr.-technology policy. But, with such evolving technologies, “there are lingering concerns on content protection and ad-skipping,” he said.