Anuj Agrawal

HD Movies At Home Shortly After Theatre Release?: Make It Happen FCC!

An interesting battle is going on in the movie industry.  The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has recently filed a petition to have the FCC waive its restriction on using selectable output control (SOC).  SOC is used to restrict which output is used to transmit content out of a device. 

The MPAA is advocating for the FCC to remove its waiver of these restrictions in order for theatrical movie releases to be distributed in high-definition to homes prior to their availability on DVD, which is generally 120 days after theatrical release. By removing the waiver, the MPAA can be assured that digital outputs utilizing copy protection would be used to transfer this content to displays, ensuring that illegal copies are not created and distributed before official DVDs hit the market. The MPAA is saying that removing this waiver would only affect content that is distributed prior to DVD release.  After that, there would be no restrictions, similar to what happens now.  Thus, there is little change in what the customer experiences, except that now consumers get to watch new releases at home much earlier than before.

Is Internet TV On TVs Starting to See the Light?

These days, you can't open a digital media newsletter without reading about a newly launched Internet site trying to figure out how to finally take serious timeshare away from the TV. Usually these are me-too type sites but having finally spent some time on Hulu (the JV between News Corp and NBC Universal), I can finally see the "convergence" (sorry, I am tired of the word too, but it fits so well) of Internet and TV. Anyone who has gone to Hulu will be pulled in by the vast amount of TV and movie content in a very user friendly design that makes it very difficult to pull yourself away from the site. This is what a true On-Demand service needs to look like on the TV set.

The Comcast On-Demand service I have is adequate, but with so many categories and different types of content, a user can tend to get lost looking for content. Also, the depth of the content offering is pretty thin, at least when it comes to network TV programming. Now there is no doubt that this is not purely Comcast's fault since it takes two to tango and it's up to the networks to distribute their programming. But if broadcast networks are driving the Hulu model, we should be able to get the same level of content on our cable systems. Surely cable companies must be recognizing that a good chunk of their ad and subscription businesses are in jeopardy as more people view Internet content vs. the broadcast programming they are distributing.