Boston Judge Rules Aereo can continue streaming TV over the Internet while awaiting Copyright trial

Scale_of_justice_goldScore one for the little guy.

Currently available in only seven states, Aereo streams TV over the internet for $8 a month. Unlike Hulu or Netflix which have to enter into costly negotiations and pay huge licensing fees for content, Aereo streams basic HD TV, much like you can get on an Over the Air Antenna. The company is able to skirt that expense by pulling a little old school trickery. For every customer who signs up, Aereo operates a separate HD antenna just for them. You’re essentially paying for mobility and cloud storage, the ability to watch TV on any gadget you want, anywhere you have data.

Unsurprisingly, TV networks aren’t thrilled with this business model, and you can imagine the courtroom battles taking place over who owns what, and how content can be distributed. The most recent salvo is a copyright dispute, and leading up to the trial broadcasters filed an injunction to pull the plug on Aereo.

aereo_logoThis morning Boston Judge Nathaniel Gorton refused to grant the injunction, saying in his ruling that Aereo better resembled a DVR, and that Aereo did not resemble other services which illegally rebroadcast content. When elaborating on claims that this service was financially harming broadcasters, Judge Gorton acknowledged that Aereo could pose a long term threat to traditional distribution, but that it didn’t appear to be causing any such harm currently.

Aereo is free to continue operating leading up to the trial, and then there will be another fight to help define the boundaries of digital media and distribution. It’s clear that consumers are increasingly looking for alternatives to their current relationships with carriers and broadcasters.

Read the full court transcript after the jump.

Continue reading “Boston Judge Rules Aereo can continue streaming TV over the Internet while awaiting Copyright trial”

UPDATED! Nine previously lost episodes of Doctor Who will be available to purchase Oct 11

patrick troughton second doctor who

And there you have it, after yesterday’s speculation (below after the “read more” link), we now have the full scoop on what was found.

Nine episodes from the Second Doctor’s run were found in a relay station in Nigeria. The Patrick Troughton story line The Enemy of The World is now complete with all six episodes accounted for, and The Web of Fear is missing one episode which has been recreated using stills and storyboards, enough to release the series to the public.

Starting October 11th at midnight, the episodes will be available on iTunes for download. For those who want something more tactile, BBC Worldwide will also start pre-orders for both series on DVD (though the BBC store was down at the time this article was being written), to be shipped later this year.

This is very exciting for us Who fans, though we always wish we could have more. This drops the number of Doctor Who episodes MIA to 97, and now I have to wrestle with the geek fanboi in my head who is desperately trying to convince me to update my long since lapsed credit card information on iTunes…

Read our original rumor post for this story after the jump.

Continue reading “UPDATED! Nine previously lost episodes of Doctor Who will be available to purchase Oct 11”

HBO shows now available for purchase on Google Play, HBO GO no longer needed

Well lookee here.

hbo go google play renting buying tv

If you’re one of those folks who isn’t ponying up the cash for HBO to enjoy their shows on mobile and streaming services like HBO GO, you now have a new option. Announced on the Google Play Twitter account, you can now purchase HBO content on Google Play for your Android and Chromecast streaming enjoyment.

 

The pricing seems to be competitive with what you would spend on shiny plastic discs, though it does look like there will still be a time delay between when a show is released on disc and on Play. For example, Game of Thrones only goes up to Season 2.

Still, if streaming is your bag, and you want to catch up on what all the buzz is about, you can now get your Android devices into the mix. Now if only we could talk about a standalone subscription option for HBO GO which doesn’t require me to change my cable plan…

HBO shows on Google Play

Nielsen, Twitter, and making sense of changing metrics

nielsenThis is where established companies stumble. Adaptation.

We can all agree that Nielsen’s model of ranking television is woefully dated. This antiquated notion of sampling individual families and asking them to log what they watch and when they watch it. All of this fantastic technology, you’d think by now there would be a way for users to opt-in to a piece of software which can be run as an app on a DVR or TIVO. Alas, we still don’t have that, but Nielsen is trying to take some steps to track the popularity of content moving forward.

Their preferred platform to watch? Twitter.

Now I’m not saying this is a bad idea. Twitter has shown a terrific aptitude for being culturally relevant down to the instant news might hit the internet. Those momentary and temporary interactions are great for surveying a general sense of a trend, but the biggest issuetwitter logo in social media metrics is tracking actual engagement. Often when using Twitter as benchmark we can only confidently talk about “potential impressions”. I have a couple thousand followers on Twitter, so when I tweet, there’s the POTENTIAL for a couple thousand people to encounter my message. There is, however, no concrete way to determine how many of my followers stopped to actually read my tweet.

Which is why Nielsen’s announcement is so perplexing to me. My DVR knows what I watch and when I watch it, even when I’m watching live TV. It knows how long I watched a show, exactly when I turned it off, if I returned to finish a show, and whether I wanted to keep it stored on my drive. It also is able to serve me recommendations based on what I’ve watched in the past. If we’re looking for relevance, for actual metrics on TV viewing, this to me would be a more appropriate first line to partner up with.

Neilsen’s notion that they can derive viewership based on authored tweets, and extrapolate that out to people who aren’t tweeting but still watching TV seems even less accurate than their current method of tracking viewership.

I get it. Twitter is hip right now. But the other issue is one of institution. Neilsen still looks like it’s operating with the notion that once a system is constructed that operating within that structure will provide meaningful results. The way communication is generated online evolves on a daily basis, and each individual network has it’s own etiquette which also adapts to changing trends. Whats vogue today might not be tomorrow, and viewership probably changes by platform. Meaning, you’ll be likely to see some subtle yet unique trends in viewership moving from Twitter to Facebook to  Google Plus to Reddit, etc.

Combining that data with location becomes vital, not only the physical presence of where a person was when watching, but whether it came from terrestrial “air”, cable, or some web portal like Hulu or Netflix. Decisions are made every day on renewing or cancelling shows based on data generated by services like Nielsen, but I’m not sure their new strategy here is really going to make them more relevant…

In light of their upcoming IPO though, this is fantastic news for Twitter.

(via Deadline)

Read Nielsen’s full statement after the jump. Continue reading “Nielsen, Twitter, and making sense of changing metrics”

Amazon to finally receive second batch of Google Chromecast HDMI streamers?

google chromecast in stock amazon somegadgetguyChromecast is an incredible little gadget. For $35 dollars you get a fantastic stream-to-TV experience in a gadget little bigger than a USB flash memory drive, and controlling your TV with your phone or tablet feels like the future.

I got mine at launch, but since then they’ve been a little tricky to get a hold of. When a store stocks them, the $35 price tag all but guarantees they’ll sell out quickly. If you’ve been wanting to schnag one on Amazon to take advantage of Prime free shipping, you’ve largely been out of luck. The best we’ve seen for the last several weeks has been “Out of Stock” with no time estimate on when they’ll have more.

Well, looking up the little wunder-gadget this morning, the time estimate is now “Usually ships in 7-10 days”! Hopefully this means Amazon is due to receive another proper shipment soon, and those of you who were hoping to shop one there can now finally push the button.

Happy hunting!

Google Chromecast (Amazon)

Friday Fun – Star Trek: Into Darkness Transporter Stunt Stuns Mall Shoppers

Screenshot (82)I like ad campaigns that mess with people, especially is they can introduce a little magic to an otherwise normal day. I’m totally with that girl on the left, by the way. Sign me up! —>

To celebrate the release of Star Trek Into Darkness, movie and TV streaming service blinkbox worked with top illusionist Scott Penrose to perform some cunning teleportation trickery. Shoppers looked on in awe at what appeared to be the world’s first successful attempt at teleportation.

The illusion was achieved using a combination of science and trickery. It caused a stir among thousands of shoppers who witnessed’volunteers from the crowd step into a high-tech unit and appear to have been ‘beamed’ to nearby locations in seconds.

‘The IT Crowd’ will return with a one-off show wrap up episode this month!

the it crowd series ending special

A little geek entertainment news. The IT Crowd is one of my all time favorite TV shows. I recorded the theme song off of Netflix to use as my ringtone. I’m in that deep.

Well all good things must officially come to an end, and The IT Crowd will air a special 40 minute wrap up episode later this month on Channel 4. Show runner Graham Linehan dropped the bomb on Twitter yesterday:

It was announced back in May that they would be producing the special, and now we’re finally going to be able to see it.

Damn. First Nokia, and now IT Crowd. I shall name this week “End of an Era” week.

BBC Channel 4 should have more news soon.

CBS & TWC mend fences in time for NFL season. CBS shows to air again tonight.

CBS Time Warner Cable agreement blackout somegadgetguy television distribution tvIn a move which I’m sure was shocking to no one, CBS and Time Warner found a way to set aside their insurmountable differences to work out an agreement JUST in time for the start of the NFL season. How fortuitous. I mean that’s just really good timing on their part.

CBS content should begin airing again for TWC subscribers starting tonight, around 6pm in fact. My DVR is very much looking forward to this reunification, and now I might finally find out how that Ted guy met the mother of his children.

In all seriousness however, details on the agreement are scarce, most likely to avoid any company overly losing face in the marketplace. This way both can turn to their customers and claim a victory.

This fight really has underscored a broader topic in telecommunications and media distribution. As networks pay more for content like airing NFL games, what rights and responsibilities do they have in broadcasting that content? To recoup their costs, where should they be allowed to display that content, and what influence should Cable and Satellite companies have over their ability to negotiate these deals? It’s a complicated dance.

We’ve seen a lot of consumer desire, especially among “cable cutters” to see offerings like HBO Go sold as a standalone web property like Netflix. Cable packages never brought us that dream of à la carte channel pricing, but a company like CBS might be able to make an end run around traditional distribution to serve customers directly. Though I’m sure Comcast, TWC, Verizon, etc loathe the idea of becoming “dumb pipes” to funnel competing content.

While I’m happy to have CBS back on my cable, this is just the beginning of a much larger conflict for viewers.

Is it weird to anyone else that both companies use an eye in their logo? Just me? Full CBS press release after the jump.

Continue reading “CBS & TWC mend fences in time for NFL season. CBS shows to air again tonight.”