CES 2007: Video A Go-Go
The 2007 Consumer Electronics Show got rolling Sunday with a flurry of announcements impacting the cable industry. This CES — which set the stage by announcing that consumer electronics revenue will surpass $155 billion this year — marks the year of mobile video. See the spate of announcements below regarding an increasing variety of means coming to consumers so they can port Web (or their own) video onto TV, wireless and beyond. And be sure to check out CableFAX Daily Executive Editor Michael Grebb’s pre-CES briefing with Consumer Electronics Association president and CEO Gary Shapiro for more on that theme by clicking here.
• Comcast and Panasonic announced plans to test interactive digital cable-ready television based on OpenCable Application Platform (OCAP) standards and integrating HD, VOD and other advanced services; while Comcast and TiVo are demonstrating their integrated DVR
• Cox Communications and Samsung are partnering on OCAP-based interactive digital cable-ready television with HDTV following a test of the product in Cox’s Gainesville, FL, system last month
• DirecTV is launching Sat-Go, a portable satellite receiver and LCD player with a monthly subscription fee of $4.99. Sunday’s New York Times (reg. req.) profiled its creator, TV producer Rick "CHiPS" Rosner, while Engadget offered a sneak peek at the chocolate brown unit in November
• Verizon announced a souped up FiOS service, featuring new applications and search functions to integrate Internet and customer-generated content (videos, photos, games) with FiOS TV programming. Launching in New Jersey, FiOS subscribers will be able to program their digital video recorder online (and later this year, via cell phone.) Verizon pres/COO Dennis Strigl announced the improvements to FiOS on Sunday, along with V CAST Mobile TV, a live TV service from Verizon Wireless (enabled by MediaFLO’s multicast network) featuring CBS, Comedy Central, FOX, NBC, MTV and Nickelodeon.
• AT&T is adding Akimbo’s VOD content to Homezone, its service featuring EchoStar‘s Dish Network satellite TV programming and Yahoo!‘s high-speed Internet
• Microsoft unveiled an IPTV set-top version of Xbox 360; and will start enabling Web video onto TV and other platforms such as Xbox and its Media Center with Windows Vista (available Jan. 30) by announcing content deals including Starz‘s Vongo download service, Nickelodeon‘s Turbonick broadband channel and Showtime (for its online content). Sling Media is also supporting Windows Vista
• Sony announced online video content deals for its BRAVIA Web product, including AOL Video and Grouper, a user-generated video site
• Sprint, which now boasts more than one million mobile TV customers, is demonstrating its wireless joint venture technology with Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox and Advance/Newhouse and its Sprint TV for 4G product at the MobiTV, Intel, Motorola and Samsung booths
• Sling Media is taking the wraps off SlingCatcher, its highly anticipated (from blogs to Forbes and beyond) Web video to TV (or TV to TV) service; it can also transmit digital photos, slideshows and music via the Internet
• MobiTV is demonstrating its enhanced product (launching next month) and the first mobile WiMAX broadcast TV service
• Digeo, which is spending about $1 million to be at CES this year (as the company tells Saturday’s New York Times) announced its move into standalone HD DVRs to be sold at retail and not exclusively to cable (USA Today)
• TiVo is adding music to its video offering, announcing deals with Music Choice and RealNetworks
• Crown Castle’s Modeo mobile video service announced a beta test in New York