Comcast’s TV Everywhere online video service is gaining momentum among content providers and will take another big step forward when more cablecos begin to offer the service. One major advance came as CBS, the only major US network that’s not a partner in Hulu.com, said this week it would offer its wares on TV Everywhere, which is free to Comcast’s pay-TV subscribers.
Additionally, another 18 pay-TV channels joined including Liberty Media’s Starz, A&E, the BBC, Cablevision-owned AMC, Scripps’ Food Network, DIY Network, Fine Living Network, Hallmark Channel, HGTV, History, IFC, MGM Impact, Sundance Channel, WE tv, E! Entertainment, The Style Network, G4 and Fearnet.
Comcast is testing the service, which already had content from Time Warner’s HBO and Cinemax, with about 5,000 subscribers. It’s a major deal for Comcast because it’ll pick up a number of top-rated TV shows. CBS said it will test various types of current and library content.
Hulu.com owners News Corp (Fox), Disney (ABC and ESPN) and NBC Universal have not signed up, although A&E Television Networks, which is jointly owned by Disney and NBC Universal, has. Comcast is still talking to other TV companies.
It’s also in talks with other cablecos, which almost certainly will offer TV Everywhere as soon as the bugs have been found and fixed. Comcast and the TV Everywhere content providers expect to pay for the service from the increased ad rates they’ll get by increasing the size of their audiences.
The Web versions of some of the shows will carry the same number of ads they carry when aired on TV, up to four times as many as most shows on the Net, including those on Hulu.com and the major networks’ sites.
And there’s no relief in sight. Andy Heller, vice chairman of Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting, is quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying, ‘We spend billions of dollars buying and making these programs. And if we give this stuff to consumers for free with limited ads, it’ll go away.’ “It” being money, of course.
The networks are in a quandary – fewer ads in a clutter-free environment with higher prices per viewer, or more ads in more clusters but with a lower price per viewer. The Journal said eMarketer projects Web-video ads will generate $1.5 billion in revenue in 2010, a 42% increase over 2009.
CBS and Comcast want to give consumers more content in more places, said Matt Bond, Comcast’s executive VP of content acquisition. He said TV Everywhere is a major step in using the Net to offer TV shows to consumers and in giving TV networks a way to make their content available on the Net.
Quincy Smith, CEO of CBS Interactive, said CBS expects to gain new audiences and additional value for its advertisers. He said CBS’s strategy “has always been about open, non-exclusive distribution of our content in a consumer-friendly way.”
Comcast will offer two services. TV Everywhere lets subscribers view shows they get at home on TVs and PCs and on mobile devices away from home. Demand Online allows viewers to download and watch shows that have been aired previously. The main purpose of the test is to prove Comcast’s new “authentication” technology which allows customers to receive the same content online for free that they subscribe to on pay-TV. It uses a log-on system for streaming content and, in the future, will allow for downloaded content to be played offline.
Comcast’s long-term strategy is called Project Infinity. It’s intended to give its subscribers more videos on multiple platforms, whenever and wherever they want.
The Starz movie channel will initially make 300 movies and other original programming available to Comcast’s Starz subscribers, both in standard and high definition. It’ll add more in the coming months, it said.
Starz movies that’ll be available include Hancock, Vantage Point, Wall-E, Pineapple Express and High School Musical 3: Senior Year. Starz original series that will be offered include Crash, Head Case and Party Down.
Comcast and Time Warner have announced some of the movies and TV shows that’ll be offered. All will be available at no charge and anywhere in the US at Comcast.net and Fancast.com sites but only to Comcast subscribers. Time Warner owns both HBO and Cinemax. Both offer ad-free shows to premium pay-TV subscribers. Initially all shows will be streamed but the companies promised that some would be available for download in the future.
About 750 hours of programming a month will be available initially with more to come. Some will be the HD version and some will be available as soon as they’re shown on pay-TV. Comcast and Time Warner are not skimping on the quality of shows they’ll offer.
Series include highly rated shows such as True Blood, the vampire soap opera filmed in Louisiana, Hung, Entourage, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Wire, Sex and the City, The Sopranos and Real Time with Bill Maher. Movies include oldies but goldies such as Transformers, The Dark Knight, Tropic Thunder, Atonement, Brokeback Mountain, Michael Clayton, Shrek the Third, Kung Fu Panda, Get Smart, The Bourne Ultimatum and The X-Files: I Want to Believe.
Comcast’s Bond said the Time Warner agreement is an important milestone in the company’s long-term strategy of enabling customers to watch TV and movie content when and where they want it. In short, “Better to give than be pirated” or “I’d rather have your eyeballs than for OpenBitTorrent.com to have them” seem to be the mottos for the video entertainment industry, which is trying to avoid being Napsterized as the record labels were.