Blockbuster (Etilities Forum), the well-known movie rental company, announced on Tuesday that its customers will now be able to stream movies from the Blockbuster online library to their TV set.  The service will require a new device, the MediaPoint Digital Media Player, developped by new partner 2Wire.  The box will cost $99, which includes 25 free movie rentals.  Each additional rental will cost $1.99, for what is being called “DVD-quality” video.

Blockbuster, which has built a large consumer base during their 20+ years renting videos, has been struggling lately due to the fierce Internet-based competition in entertainment delivery services, especially that of Netflix (Etilities Forum).  Blockbuster’s move is clearly an attempt to catch up to the competition, but we cannot help but see the latest move as “too little too late.”

First, the fact that the player will deliver DVD-quality content is not a selling point, it’s a turn-off: iTunes (Etilities Forum) and Netflix both offer HD quality streaming content.  Second, they do not specify the size of their online library, only mentioning that includes “thousands of titles.”  Given the lack of specific numbers,  we can only assume that they are nowhere close to Netflix’s library of 12,000 online titles.  Lastly, their competitors have quite a head start.  The list of online entertainment providers is growing larger by the month, and a lot of them have been in the streaming business for some time: Netflix, iTunes, Blinkx (Etilities Forum), Hulu (Etilities Forum), Joost (Etilities Forum), Sling, YouTube…  Unless Blockbuster can come up with a true game-changer, all they will have going for them is their existing customer base, which has eroded significantly as consumers flocked to the early streaming services.

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The number of services offering Internet-delivered TV content continues to grow.  We’ve previously discussed some of the “new standbys” such as Hulu and Joost, as well as slightly more traditional mechanisms like Netflix.  Now, Sling Media has added browser-based television content to its offerings.

Sling has primarily been behind a series of hardware devices that allow you to extend the viewing of your home audio/video equipment anywhere there is an Internet connection.  This technology is quite impressive, and we’re planning to cover it more extensively in a future article.

The new sling.com portal serves video content through either a standard web browser or any of the company’s hardware devices.  The content is extensive, with current TV content (“24,” “CSI”) as well as classic shows (“Alf,” “Miami Vice”).  Additionally, the portal offers some non-traditional content, including web shorts from the Funny or Die site and meta content such as interviews with the stars of shows.  There are even some movies making their way to the site through various partnerships.

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©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

When president-elect Barack Obama announced that he was going to appoint the nation’s first CTO, technology enthusiasts as well as pundits began speculating on who might receive the position as well as what exactly it might entail.  Although no new details have been officially released, there is no shortage of ideas coming from all sides as to what the CTO should focus his time and energy on.

In an effort to give the online community a voice, the organization Front Seat has launched obamacto.org, a site where people can rank their priorities for the CTO that Obama will appoint.  The mechanism is very similar to digg’s: you can assign one, two or three votes to any of the issues that you find meaningful, and the site keeps a tally.  You can also submit new ideas and leave comments on the issues.  The current top 3 technological issues listed are:

• Ensure the Internet is widely accessible & network neutral
• Ensure our privacy and repeal the patriot act
• Repeal the Digital Milennium [sic] Copyright Act

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©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

The digital music industry is nothing short of saturated with contenders. We’ve previously blogged about a few of them: lala.com, MySpace and Pandora.

In 2006, Microsoft entered the portable MP3 player market with the introduction of the Zune. It has since gone through several iterations both in terms of the product itself and the music service sounding it, and as it stands, it is based on a subscription model just like RealNetworks Inc.’s Rhapsody. For a fixed monthly fee, you can listen to any of the songs available in the library. The catch, of course, is that you do not really own any of them. As soon as you cancel your subscription, you lose all access to the music. While the concept is interesting, many consumers want to feel like they own their music, instead of only be leasing it.

Microsoft is aware of this problem and is trying to spice up its offering. It announced on Wednesday that monthly subscribers will now also be entitled to 10 DRM-free tracks per month that they can permanently add to their library. Microsoft is hoping, with this advertised $10 value offer, to give users extra incentive to subscribe to the ‘Zune Pass’. It is also hoping to eventually increase its marketshare of the MP3 player market, which right now stands at a meager 3%.

In the mist of all of these companies coming up with new and innovative ways to sell music, the interesting thing is that the market is completely dominated by the one player using the most basic strategy, iTunes (Etilities Forum). It sells individual tracks for a fixed price, and its MP3 player owns a staggering 72% of the market. The other players may get an A for effort, but Apple gets an A for profitability.

©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

Back in July, we blogged about the industry trend towards more versatile entertainment hardware, but never in our wildest dreams did we expect it to apply to pizza deliveries.  Yet now it does. Tivo (Etilities Forum), which has already formed partnerships with Amazon (Etilities Forum) to sell products and movie tickets and Netflix (Etilities Forum) to stream movies, just added Domino’s pizza to its menu!  Users will now be able to order pizza online both directly through the TiVo interface and during Domino’s commercials, giving a brand new meaning to the phrase ”TV Dinner.”  This service will be accessible to TiVo users through their broadband connection.  You can set up and save your Domino’s profile online and place orders for pick up and/or delivery.  Of course, the estimated 30 minute delivery time still applies.

This type of alliance is representative of a more general industry trend. In many areas of the industry, advertising has been suffering, in part because of the flailing economy.  The positive effect has been that media and technology providers have been driven to develop new ways of piquing clients’ interest.  We at Gallop are excited by this partnership, especially since it’s a good example of the kind of solution that we can expect to see in the future, as well known companies work together to provide innovative technology and entertainment offerings to consumers.

Now… if only Domino’s delivered beer!

©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

The XBox 360 “New Xbox Experience” launched today, providing a slew of new features and improvements to the console’s user interface. As a Netflix (Etilities Forum) subscriber, I was particularly interested in the newly added ability to stream any of Netflix’s 12,000 online titles to my HD-TV. I gave it a shot, and here is what transpired.

First, the update is wonderfully quick and painless; the XBox automatically prompts me for an update when I turn it on and it takes less than 5 minutes to download and install. Good start. That done, I get to sit through a short but well done CGI sequence and then select a 3D avatar. I didn’t spend too much time there but you can customize the avatar quite a bit. Once at the welcome screen, I intuitively go to Video Marketplace, and there is the Netflix tab. Great. I select it and it tells me that I need to upgrade to a Gold membership (more on this later). No surprise there; I am ready to upgrade. This is where I ran into some small hurdles.

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©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

Sometimes we in the United States overlook the “big picture” in terms of technology.  To us, it’s frustrating when the Internet service is out and we can’t catch up on email, Facebook, or our favorite iTunes music and TV shows.  To many in the world, having the extensive connectivity we often take for granted is a distant goal – one they may not ever live to see.

What many of us also overlook is that the Internet provides an educational conduit, enabling access to countless volumes of information.  This access is be available to all users, regardless of social status or geographic location.  One of the reasons we founded Gallop is contained in our mission statement: “We believe that the world should be interconnected to facilitate communication and exchange.”  Clearly, the pervasiveness of the Internet and the services it provides have revolutionized our way of life, business, and education.  Ensuring access to that information is a tremendous challenge.

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©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.