Monthly Archives: September 2011
The Obligatory Post-F8 Post: They’re Doing It For The Kids
WHAT’S IMPORTANT: The new features are too advanced to be readily adopted by the Boomer demographic that dominates Facebook. But they’re innovative enough to make Facebook relevant again for their kids. FEATURE-BY-FEATURE: Music Sharing: Not as seamless as you might think: Facebook’s pitch to Spotify, Rdio et al is that they’ll get them more paid subscribers (for which they will likely get some sort of commission.) That means that users actually have to download the app their friend is listening to and have it open. While Facebook prompts for this, it’s a hassle, and the whole notion of synchronized listening that Zuck was going on about in his keynote is bunk: songs start playing at the beginning, not at the point where your friend is. Or was, as the case may be, since if you can find it on someone’s news feed, you can listen to it. Nonetheless, this is going to be a very appealing feature for high school … Continue reading
Is FIOS Making A Netflix Play?
More than a year after announcing that an iOS app was “coming soon,” Verizon FIOS finally rolled one out last week. Four things about the product immediately struck me as rather curious: There was no PR around the launch. Or else I’m using Google incorrectly. But the sort of sites that are normally all over stories like this (Engadget, Fierce IPTV) only picked up the story yesterday or today, about a week after iTunes indicates the app was first available. And they seem to have figured it out via someone accidentally stumbling on it at the iTunes store – there are no references to any sort of press release or official statement. The app is incomplete: while there are two tabs, one for Movies and one for TV Shows, the TV part is not live yet: all you get is a pop-up message stating that “TV Episodes are coming soon for iPad.” It’s unclear whether this is a rights … Continue reading
The Value Of A Check-In
The other day I went into Modell’s, a local sporting goods chain, and saved myself $10 because I’d checked-in on FourSquare. It’s a great deal (you save $10 on any purchase over $40) that I’ve already taken advantage of several times. And while I don’t mind letting people know I’m at Modell’s, I would never have bothered to check-in without the discount. Because even if I was hyper-competitive about the gaming aspects of FourSquare, I’m never going to be mayor of a store I visit about four or five times a year. So what’s in it for me? Ten bucks. I got to wondering at what price point I would have decided that checking-in wasn’t worth the hassle. (And it’s still a hassle: GPS isn’t all that fine-tuned in places like New York, where any given block may have 30 different places to check-in, and it’s a crap shoot whether the place you’re at shows up at the top … Continue reading
KIT digital Signs Global Strategic Partnership With LG Electronics to Power OTT Video for Smart TVs
Today we announced a broad ranging partnership with LG Electronics to provide IP video platform technology, content and professional services to the company’s Home Entertainment Division for its Smart TV platform. Under the agreement, KIT digital and LG will work together to develop and deploy a joint multiscreen over-the-top video (OTT) solution to provide viewers with anytime access to live and on-demand premium 2D and 3D content on LG Smart TVs globally. The partnership will encompass the following: LG will leverage the KIT Video Platform, KIT digital’s cloud-based video asset management solution, to power LG’s 3D Zone service, which provides applications on LG Smart TVs for viewing premium 3D video content KIT digital and LG will approach leading global multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) with this joint solution to offer them the ability to operate their premium content services seamlessly on LG Smart TVs LG will leverage KIT digital’s global content services capabilities for 2D and 3D content licensing to … Continue reading
KIT digital Provides Liberty Global With Technology and Services Platform for New Multiscreen IP-Based Video-on-Demand and Live Streaming Service
Liberty Global, a leading international cable operator, has selected KIT digital to design, build and host the platform driving its new IP-based video-on-demand and live streaming service announced at IBC. The Horizon online service will see the creation of an ecosystem that provides a single and flexible, multi-lingual, multi-tenant, and multi-currency platform that can be rolled out across all of Liberty Global’s worldwide subsidiaries. Scheduled to go live later this year, the service will initially be available to subscribers in the Netherlands and then rolled out to other countries in Liberty Global’s footprint. The service provides subscribers with the flexibility to access video content on multiple devices anywhere there is a broadband connection. The solution provides an open platform that allows for integration to the multiple operating countries’ existing operations support system (OSS)/business support system (BSS) platforms, as well as the flexibility to create a customized user experience based on local country requirements and devices. Read the press release.
KIT digital Unveils Next Generation Video Platform
We are excited to announce that today we unveiled our highly anticipated next generation cloud-based video asset management system, the KIT Video Platform, at the IBC 2011 conference. The KIT Video Platform — available in two editions, KIT Cloud and KIT Cosmos, to address the diverse needs of the market— gives media & entertainment companies, network operators, and non-media enterprises a comprehensive and highly flexible platform solution to produce, manage and deliver live and on-demand, socially-enabled broadband TV deployments. Today’s platform release is the most significant in the company’s history and marks the culmination of over a year of internal development and innovation, as well as the integration of ‘best-of-breed’ elements from recently acquired industry-leading platform technologies. The KIT Video Platform further positions our company as a driving force in the global transformation to multiscreen broadband TV for tier-one customers. The KIT Video Platform’s two editions, KIT Cloud and KIT Cosmos, each caters to different ends of the video market—from … Continue reading
KIT digital CEO to represent private sector job creators in the Speaker’s Gallery for Obama’s speech to Congress
KIT digital’s CEO Kaleil Isaza Tuzman is traveling to Washington DC this afternoon to attend tonight’s Presidential Address to Congress, as a guest of Speaker of the House John Boehner. In the speech, President Barack Obama will present his plan for creating American jobs, and growing the economy more broadly. Speaker of the House John Boehner has invited a number of notable business men and women to the Speaker’s Box to represent their views on private sector job creation. Kaleil has long held a stake in US job creation both as the CEO of a number of growth companies and as an active participant in the policy-making process over many years and multiple Presidential administrations. You can read Speaker Boehner’s press release here: http://tinyurl.com/3quw5oj
KIT digital Powers Sky’s Online and Mobile Service Sky Go
British Sky Broadcasting (Sky), the most comprehensive multichannel, multi-platform television service in the UK and Ireland, selected ioko, now rebranded and part of KIT digital to support and manage its new multiplatform TV service, Sky Go. Sky’s new offering combines two existing products – Sky Player, Sky’s online TV service, and Sky Mobile TV, the UK’s largest mobile TV service – into one new service, Sky Go, available free of charge to existing Sky TV customers, and for a fee to non-Sky TV customers. Subscribers are provided with flexible access to Sky channels and programmes on up to two registered devices including the iPhone, iPad, PC, Mac and Xbox 360. In 2005, ioko first helped develop, build and manage the Sky Player Platform, Sky’s over-the-top (OTT) TV platform, the first of its kind in Europe, and has worked with Sky since then to continuously enhance its online TV offering. With this most recent service launch, Sky’s existing back-end infrastructure has … Continue reading