This week I’ve got to get the final cut of the pilot episode over to the contest people. But, as always, I’ve been keeping an eye on the industry to see how things are going and this week there’s some interesting stuff from the likes of Comcast and Verizon of all places. Check it out and enjoy your morning coffee.

Comcast Adds Offline iOS/Android Viewing To Xfinity TV Player

Comcast has brought video on-demand streaming to subscriber’s mobile devices since early last year, but now an update has added the option to download (some) content for offline viewing. Arriving simultaneously on iOS and Android, the Xfinity TV Player apps support downloads from premium channels Showtime (which was also one of the first up for streaming when that launched), Starz, Encore, and MoviePlex.
Source: Engadget

Verizon Makes 75 Channels Available Via Its iPad App

Verizon Communications is making 75 live networks available through its updated app for iPad tablets for FiOS TV and Internet customers — but unlike services from competitors like Cablevision Systems and Time Warner Cable, the telco’s tablet TV lineup currently lacks broadcast networks and local channels. The updated FiOS Mobile app for iPad was published in the Apple iTunes App Store on Wednesday (last week).
To use the feature, customers must subscribe to both FiOS Internet and TV service, and must use a Verizon-provided router. Live TV on the iPad is accessible only within a customer’s home over Wi-Fi.

Rovi TV Guide Listings to End

Rovi has started shutting off the TV listings data it has provided in over-the-air broadcasts to dozens of consumer-electronics device models in North America — and will completely end the service by April 2013 — a move that has infuriated consumers who claim it will render their DVRs useless.

The company said its agreements with data broadcasting partners CBS and National Datacast Inc. (NDI), a for-profit subsidiary of PBS, are coming to an end.

Source: Multichannel News

RedBox Instant Set for Holidays

The online video joint venture Redbox Instant by Verizon is set to launch sometime before the end of the year. The service is currently being tested in private beta, and Verizon and Redbox have kept mum on some key details. Subscriptions start at $6 a month. An $8 a month membership adds four Redbox credits to the streaming package that can be redeemed for Redbox DVD rentals. Redbox Instant is using Silverlight for streaming on the web.

Source: GigaOm

Chill Direct’s New Platform Empowers Artists to Distribute Content Directly to Fans

Chill (www.chill.com), the Web’s premier video discovery portal today launched the entertainment industry’s first turnkey platform for artists to produce, own and distribute content directly to their fans, dubbed “Chill Direct.” The self-service platform is the first of its kind and makes it dead simple for artists to globally distribute premium video to all desktop, mobile and Internet connected televisions.

Chill Direct is a fully socially integrated platform that allows any filmmaker, comedian, musician, or artist to directly release premium video to the fans who love them. Building on the success of content creators who have made specials and albums directly available to audiences for personal download, Chill Direct expands on this emergent model, empowering artists to engage their fan bases and build full-scale customizable community hubs where fans and artists can interact.

Unlike releasing content through app stores, music stores, a broadcast network or film studio, Chill Direct imbues artists with creative control and flexibility over their material and allows them full ownership of Intellectual Property. Chill Direct also helps artists build powerful social communities around their work through integration with Facebook and Twitter and world-class page creation tools.

Source: Press Release

Test the Encoding.com Private Cloud and enter to win $1000 of free encoding credit

At Encoding.com, we all agree that building the world’s most powerful private cloud transcoding platform is a good time. Even more fun is watching our resident stunt goat Clive take it for a test drive. Unfortunately, even the great Clive went from goat to chicken when he overheard the roar of 32 core multi-threading servers and 1Gbps ingest/egress usingAspera fasp 3™ technology.

Therefore, we are offering a reward of $1,000 in free encoding credit to the Encoding.com community member willing to brave unprecedented speed, put the pedal to the metal, and encode the largest volume of video in December using Encoding.com private cloud!

Using the Encoding.com Private Cloud is easy, you can keep all of your encoding settings the same and simply specify a new region in your API request.  Click here for complete instructions.

The rules are simple:

– Only one winner will be selected
– Encoding credit will be awarded to the primary account holder
– Encoding credit may only be redeemed by the primary account holder
– Encoding credit must be used by 1/1/2014
– Encoding credit is not applicable for discounts on existing contracts

Source: Blog Post