Watch Out, Big Cable: Xbox Live Now Bigger Than Comcast

Microsoft is making a play to get its users watching more video through its Xbox 360 game console, and could soon pose a clear threat to cable operators. Unlike big cable, it’s actually gaining subscribers who are eager to watch video services available through the service.

Microsoft has sold more than 42 million game consoles worldwide, but the more impressive stat is that its Xbox Live subscription service now has more than 25 million users. That’s more subscribers than Comcast, which earlier this week, reported its subscriber count had actually decreased by 275,000 over the most recent quarter, ending at less than 23 million for the first time in years. While many Xbox Live subscribers are clearly international, with the service available in 26 countries, Microsoft clearly has some scale and a huge audience it could leverage.

After all, it’s one thing to have a lot of subscribers to your gaming network — and many Xbox owners only sign up for the service for multi-user gaming — but Xbox Live users are increasingly turning to the service to watch live and on-demand video. According to Microsoft, users spends an average of 40 hours a week on the service, and over the past year, the amount of time those users have spent watching TV and movie content has grown 157 percent. Not just that, but Xbox already makes more money from media sales than through its Xbox Live subscription revenues.

The console currently has video content from its Zune marketplace, Netflix and ESPN3, and early next year, will also have video content from the Hulu Plus subscription service. That range of content has 42 percent of Xbox Live subscribers watching an hour of TV and movie content on average per day, or 30 hours of video per month.

So far, Xbox has played nice with pay TV providers, and some of its features are only available if you’re a subscriber to cable or IPTV services. The ESPN3 service, for instance, only works if your ISP has struck an affiliate deal with ESPN; that means Comcast and Time Warner Cable subscribers will have access to ESPN video on the Xbox, but customers of some smaller ISPs may not. Microsoft has also been working with AT&T to allow U-verse subscribers to use their Xbox 360 consoles as digital set-top boxes, instead of leasing one from the pay TV provider.

The day could come when Xbox might think about using its massive audience to roll out its own pay TV service, and that day may come sooner than you think. Earlier this year, Microsoft was reportedly in talks with former News Corp. President Peter Chernin to create an Xbox-only TV network. At the same time, based on its audience numbers alone, it wouldn’t be unheard of for Microsoft to approach existing cable networks about cutting out the cable providers and offering up distribution directly through Xbox Live.

Want to know if the Xbox 360 can help you cancel your cable now? Check out the second episode of our new show, Cord Cutters, in which Janko reviews the game console’s possibilities as a cord cutting device.

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YouTube Won’t Fix Google TV’s Content Problems

Updated. There’s been an interesting development in the recent Google TV saga, in which the search giant has shifted responsibility for the new TV operating system into its YouTube division, according to a report the SF Chronicle. By doing so, Google hopes its online video site can help Google TV with a lesson in striking content deals. But if that’s the case, it will probably be disappointed.

The whole issue revolves around the lack of premium content available through Google TV and a number of high-profile content companies that have blocked their content from being available on TVs, Blu-ray players and set-top boxes powered by the Google OS. Broadcasters such as ABC, CBS and NBC have all declined to let their web content be played back through the integrated web browser built into Google TV devices built by Sony and Logitech.

The broadcasters were unhappy with the prospect that viewers would be able to watch their web offerings in lieu of live broadcast content on the biggest screen in the home. Since those companies rely on high-value broadcast advertising, as well as increasingly high retransmission fees from cable operators, the idea of giving viewers access to web programming that they can’t monetize as well was a bit of a turn-off. The whole affair has caused a bit of a stir, especially since it takes away from Google’s initial pitch for the TV OS, which was to enable viewers to mix and match web and TV content on the big screen.

But Google TV is primarily a technology platform, and the folks there don’t necessarily have a ton of experience in media matters. As a result, Google is reportedly shifting responsibility for the fledgling TV division into YouTube, which actually has some experience striking content deals with broadcasters like CBS.

The problem is that YouTube itself has had a hard time bringing real high-value, prime-time content onto the site. Most partnerships thus far have included short-form clips of new shows or full-length episodes of older programming. It hasn’t really proven that it can negotiate to add new hit shows or the kind of stuff you’d find on Hulu or broadcast sites.

YouTube is trying to change that, having recently added a pair of execs — Robert Kyncl, former vice president for content acquisition at Netflix, and Dean Gilbert, former vice president of product management for Google TV — to bolster the amount of premium content on the site. But in the short term, it’s difficult to see broadcasters getting on board, unless Google can somehow write a check that makes up for the billions of dollars in broadcast advertising and retrans fees that are at stake if web video competes directly with broadcast programming on Google TV.

We’ve reached out for comment from Google, but haven’t gotten confirmation or more information from YouTube or Google TV representatives about the reported move just yet — but it’s early here on the West Coast. We will update if we hear back.

Update: Google has issued the following statement, denying the key assertion of the SF Chronicle story, that Google has reorged the division to move Google TV within YouTube:

Google TV has been closely aligned with YouTube for years. Although we did reorganize a division within YouTube a month ago, that was based on streamlining our operations so we could make faster decisions and align team goals with the company’s overall business objectives. Just like any rapidly growing organization, it is important for YouTube to evolve and grow to ensure further success in the future. The recently created YouTube Content Organization is run by VP of Content Partnerships Dean Gilbert.

While YouTube says there’s no actual story there, we stand by our initial take on the idea of YouTube leading Google TV content negotiations, which is: Google TV and YouTube will have a hard time convincing broadcasters to unblock their content without writing some very large checks.

To hear what Google TV product lead Rishi Chandra has to say about bringing broadcast content to Google TV, come see him speak at NewTeeVee Live on November 10 in San Francisco.

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Vid-Biz: Fox-Cablevision, Netflix, Ustream

Fox, Cablevision and FCC’s Learned Helplessness; all about how the FCC wanted the job of “Palace Eunuch” for the Media Barons. So the FCC busily went to work lopping off everything that stood between it and its desired job. Seriously. (Public Knowledge)

Netflix Could Be Racking Up a $2 Billion Content Tab; Netflix has committed $1.2 billion to pay Hollywood studios for the rights to stream their movies and TV shows, up from $229 million three months ago. (MediaMemo)

Ustream Cuts 4.5% Of Its Staff; the online streaming video service Ustream laid off 9 people from its 200 person staff. (TechCrunch)

Cisco’s Online Video Gamble; networking-gear maker Cisco is betting big on Internet video, investing in consumer telepresence and video cameras. (Forbes)

Kantar Video: ‘Gross Ratings Points’ Are For TV, Not Online Video; after years of planning, WPP Group’s Kantar Video is releasing a video platform for marketers that will let them syndicate video and track it across all broadband sites. (paidContent)

Kyte Brings Live Streaming and HTML5 Ads to iOS Devices; the online video platform announced support for live streaming to iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) along with HTML5 ads. (VideoNuze)

Cable, Technology, Media Firms Form Digital Registry; Major studios, cable and technology companies announced the new Entertainment Identifier Registry (EIDR) to track movies, TV shows and other assets the same way books are coded. (Reuters)

It’s ‘Showtime Anytime’ With Comcast; premium cable network Showtime will jump into the TV Everywhere area with the launch of an authenticated streaming service, and it has signed Comcast as its first affiliate for the service. (Multichannel News)

NETGEAR Roku Player Hits Retail Shelves in Time for Holiday Season; the NETGEAR Roku Player is immediately available at major consumer electronics stores including Best Buy, Radio Shack, Fry’s and online at Amazon.com and Buy.com. (press release)

Is Comcast’s Xfinity TV a Trojan Horse?

Comcast took the beta tag off its Xfinity TV service yesterday, making the online video service available to all of its pay TV subscribers, regardless of their ISP. Take that one step further, with Comcast offering Xfinity TV as a paid service to consumers that don’t already live in its service area, and you mark the beginning of the end for pay TV being tied to the physical cable plant.

So far, Xfinity has been offered to Comcast’s existing subscribers in what looks like a defensive maneuver to keep them from cutting the cord. With average cable subscriptions edging above $70 (and anecdotal evidence suggesting that many subscribers pay well north of $100), companies like Comcast have rolled out TV Everywhere services as a way to give more value to customers, by allowing them to watch cable content online.

Comcast now boasts more than 150,000 videos from 90 different content partners, but the real key to Xfinity TV is the content available only to Comcast customers. The whole idea behind TV Everywhere is that subscribers will also get access to online content in addition to what they pay for through linear cable programming.

While that service was once offered only to customers that paid for cable and high-speed Internet, Comcast is now making Xfinity TV online available to pay TV subscribers even if they use another ISP for broadband. That still limits the potential number of TV subscribers to those that live in residential areas that Comcast has infrastructure and provides service to. So what if Xfinity TV weren’t tied to Comcast’s physical cable plant at all?

With access to a wealth of streaming content already, Comcast could offer up an over-the-top video service in markets that it doesn’t already serve, and it could do so without building out the costly network infrastructure or getting the franchise agreements usually required. Comcast could finally become bigger than its actual network footprint, and it could add users as opposed to watching them defect to competitive IPTV, satellite (and increasingly) online offerings.

Since it wouldn’t be paying for network infrastructure, it could (again, theoretically) undercut those local competitors with a cheaper online offering and still provide much of the content that is important to its viewers on-demand. Like Netflix,, it would essentially compete against other cable providers, using their own data networks to do so. Not just that, but if and when its merger with NBC Universal goes through, it would be able to include that content as well.

Comcast has downplayed this point in its communications to the FCC seeking approval of the merger, saying that online video today isn’t truly competitive to cable TV, nor will it be anytime soon. In defending the deal, Comcast says that its properties, combined with NBCU and its stake in Hulu, make up only a small portion of online video viewing and ad revenue.

But at the same time, Comcast is building an online video powerhouse that could totally change the paradigm of how content is consumed and delivered. With 150,000 titles and access to content from various premium cable networks, Comcast could beat out Netflix, Hulu or any other online video service, if only it weren’t tied to the physical cable plant.

Granted, not everyone would be on board with such a plan. A Comcast spokesperson confirms that the rights negotiated with content partners for Xfinity TV tie the availability of online access to a physical pay TV subscription. And some cable networks — like HBO, for example — have been extremely hesitant to make content available online except as part of a TV Everywhere offering.

But in tomorrow’s all-IP, all on-demand world, should it really matter if a pay TV subscriber is connected to the local Comcast headend or if he gets his content delivered over-the-top through another ISP? In that brave new world, it shouldn’t matter to the content owner how his content is delivered, merely that it’s bought and paid for.

Photo by Hynek Moravec [GFDL or CC-BY-2.5], via Wikimedia Commons.

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YouTube Hits 1 Billion Subscriptions: Here Are 7 Geeky Good Ones

YouTube crossed the 1 billion subscriptions mark today and if some of those aren’t yours – you’re missing out. Subscription to YouTube channels is a great way to make use of the service, especially on mobile devices.

Have you got some favorite YouTube subscriptions? I do, and I thought I’d share them here. If you’ve got some good ones to recommend to ReadWriteWeb readers let us know in comments so we can subscribe and watch them while exercising and folding laundry.

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Below you’ll find links to and descriptions of my favorite 7 channels on YouTube, along with the company’s new widget that makes it easy to subscribe with a click.

Talks @ Google

Famous authors and others come and speak to Google staff and the videos are run in this channel. Sometimes famous Googlers speak to each other. Good stuff, long videos. For example: Clay Shirky.

Gartner Videos

Garnter is the world’s biggest analyst firm and the company frequently posts interviews with big company execs at conferences. Depending on your perspective, these videos can be very valuable, or very boring with hints of interesting tidbits. Example: Yvonne Genovese Discusses Pattern Based Strategy

The Liam Show

Liam Kyle Sullivan loves shoes and I love him for it.

Lockergnome

Chris Pirillo’s Lockergnome is crazy prolific and not going to change your life – but it’s fun. It’s pretty remarkable how this tech geek has built a publishing empire that may have reached its pinnacle with nearly continuous live streaming video of hiself answering questions and talking about nerdly pursuits.

O’Reilly Media

Everyone’s favorite tech book publisher and event company publishes good videos from events and occasional webcasts. Great for a deep-dive into the most cutting edge web technology.

Porter Novelli

This big firm runs PR for SXSW and hosts all kinds of really interesting smaller technology events. Mobile social media and augmented reality have been recent topics.

Social Data Revolution

Andreas Weigend is a deep thinker about social data online and he scores great interviews on the topic. He’s got a PhD in Physics and was the Chief Scientist at Amazon.com through 2004. His videos are highly recommended.

Steve Gillmor

Steve Gillmor combines years of experience as a tech reporter with great access to leading engineers, executives and thinkers and a willingness to push the envelope far into what the future may (or may not) look like online. His YouTube channel is mostly filled with video of his hour-long weekly show the Gillmor Gang. There are plenty of perspectives not included, but if you’re interested in some of the most innovative perspectives in Silicon Valley, this is a great show to watch.

Those are 7 of my favorite YouTube channels to subscribe to. If This Week in VC and Mixergy had channels on YouTube, I’d subscribe to those there too (there’s still iTunes!).

Update: Leo Laport posts explains in comments below that only a fool’s list of geeky YouTube channels would neglect his Twit channel, so check that out. I would be willing to revise the list above and put Twit in place of the Liam Show, but only if Leo is willing to perform the Shoes song himself.

Andrew Warner also pointed out that Mixergy does have some short videos on YouTube as well.

What are your favorites? I think we all could use some more geeky suggestions.

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Boxee Offers HD Streaming Movies with VUDU

When it comes to streaming media, it looks like Boxee has the best of both worlds. That is, its hardware solution – the Boxee Box – makes it easy to bring streams like YouTube, Netflix or Pandora to your disconnected television. Now, its software solution will perform a similar feat with the addition of VUDU, a previously hardware-only provider of HD movie rentals.

In reality, both the hardware and software version will be bringing VUDU to your screen, whether TV or computer monitor. This morning, the two companies announced that VUDU would be coming to the Boxee platform in November.

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VUDU was previously available on a number of devices, including Blu-ray players, HDTVs and home theater systems. Its inclusion in Boxee will be a win both for VUDU and for Boxee users, as VUDU finds a new distribution channel and Boxee users get a way to quickly stream HD, surround sound versions of newly-released movies. VUDU claims to have the largest HD library available, with more than 3000 HD titles available for $2 for two nights. In addition to coming to the Boxee software, VUDU will be integrated onto the soon-to-be released Boxee Box.

Avner Ronen, CEO and co-founder of Boxee, noted that “The fact that Boxee Box users will have access to the largest selection of HD content through Vudu in the highest quality available today really sets us apart from our set top box competitors.”

The movement to bring streaming, Internet video to the television is heating up with a number of providers, from Google TV to Roku to Apple TV and more, and any point of distinction could be a big one in this field. Newly-released movies (that you would only find on DVD and not on Netflix) could be a big attraction for some.

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Top 10 YouTube Videos of All Time

YouTube has come to define the era of online video, so let’s take a look at their most popular videos of all time. We first did this list in August 2007, at which point Evolution of Dance by comedian Judson Laipply was number 1 with nearly 56 million views. The next update was September 2008, when Avril Lavigne’s Girlfriend pop music video was number 1 with 103 million page views (although commenters argued that it may have gamed the system). In January 2010, Charlie bit my finger – again ! was number 1, with 148 million views.

Our latest update shows that Justin Bieber is still the only video over the 300 million views mark, after knocking Lady Gaga off the top spot in August. Bieber is adding over 1 million views every day! New to the top 10 this month is the video for Eminem’s ‘Love The Way You Lie,’ featuring Rihanna. Here is the top 10, as of October 2010:

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1. Justin Bieber – Baby ft. Ludacris; 344,194,152 views

2. Lady Gaga – Bad Romance; 287,254,587 views

3. Charlie bit my finger – again !; 234,951,237 views

4. Shakira – Waka Waka(This Time for Africa); 202,317,896 views

5. Miley Cyrus – Party In The U.S.A. – Official Music Video; 161,423,252 views

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6. Evolution of Dance; 153,302,372 views

7. Pitbull – I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho); 145,563,357 views

8. Hahaha – Small daring boy; 139,726,890 views

9. Eminem – Love The Way You Lie ft. Rihanna; 137,820,758 views

10. Miley Cyrus – 7 Things – Official Music Video (HQ); # 133,377,331 views

Editor’s note: Thanks to Deane Rimerman for the monthly updates.

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Yahoo to Offer Video Chat on Android & iPhone

Yahoo let the cat out of the bag earlier this week, when one of its executives told Reuters that it would begin offering video chat via Yahoo Messenger to both the iPhone and Android smartphones.

The move would bring Yahoo, which already has 81 million Yahoo Messenger users, again to the forefront of chat services and would pose a serious challenge to Apple’s own FaceTime.

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Apple FaceTime, a face-to-face video chat, only operates between iPhone 4 users over Wi-Fi connections. Yahoo Messenger, however, would go a significant step beyond FaceTime, offering video chat over 3G and between any capable platform.

According to Reuters, Yahoo VP of Mobile David Katz told them that the app would allow users to call not only each other, but anyone that currently uses Yahoo Messenger for video calls on their PCs. The Reuters article does not mention, however, if video calling between iPhone and Android users would also be possible. If it could happen between phone and PC, then it likely could between smartphone platforms as well.

The Yahoo Messenger iPhone app has not made it into the App Store quite yet, although two other video chat services – Fring and Tango – have already been accepted. However, as Reuters points out, “neither of these apps have the level of mass-market brand recognition of Yahoo, and their impact on a wireless network is probably not in the same league.”

Video chat on Yahoo Messenger could bring this capability to a significantly larger number of users than any of these other services could. Anyone with Yahoo Mail has immediate access to Yahoo Messenger and that’s a lot of people – people I would video chat with, from my mother to my friends. And how much easier is it to get someone to install a Yahoo-something that a “Fring” or “Tango” something?

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Netflix iPhone App Updated, Now Streams to TV

The Netflix iPhone application has just been updated to a new version which now supports “video out” on the iPhone 4 and the 4th generation iPod Touch devices. That means that Netflix subscribers can now use the app to stream the on-demand programming from their mobile handheld to their TV set using a connector cable like this one available for sale in the Apple store.

Who needs an Apple TV now?

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This small but important update to the iPhone application doesn’t deliver any other new features, only the video out functionality and miscellaneous bug fixes. But for many Netflix subscribers, this is going to be big news.

So, why would a Netflix user need to stream from a mobile device to the TV? Why wouldn’t they just watch a DVD instead? For one thing, DVDs-by-mail takes time – the mobile option provides instant gratification.

And although Netflix streaming is supported through a number of game consoles like the Xbox, the Wii and the PlayStation 3 as well as on some connected TVs, Blu-ray players and other devices, not everyone has these devices in their home or even wants them. Mobile-to-TV streaming provides another option without another expense – besides, of course, the $50 cable or iPhone/iPod dock, if you don’t already have one. That’s still a lot less expensive than a brand-new Xbox.

Kill Your Cable – And Ditch Your Media Center Boxes – with Netflix

This update now positions Netflix as somewhat of a competitor to Apple’s newly refreshed Apple TV platform, Google’s upcoming Google TV service, media center boxes like Boxee and Roku and even some cable company DVRs like those provided to Verizon FiOS customers, for example, which already offer an assortment of popular TV shows and movies for free streaming.

With Netflix, you could cancel your cable subscription and even ditch your media center boxes or DVR and just stream movies and TV shows straight from your phone to your TV instead. Of course, you won’t have access to new releases or current TV shows this way, but for many casual viewers, that’s no longer a necessity.

And perhaps more importantly, this update brings your Netflix subscription with you anywhere you go – a friend’s house, your parents, the hotel room, etc. All you need is a phone and a cable.

Since the update just launched today, we have not yet tested it nor reviewed its performance. If you do so, please share your experiences in the comments.

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TechBuzz: Join us For a Live Video Q&A Session on Vokle

The good people over at the live  town hall platform Vokle invited yours truly and regular Mashable, Gizmodo and Wired contributor Shane Snow for a little live video Q&A session on their site today. If you want to tune in and ask us questions about this week’s technology and social media news, tune in here at 11am. We have also embedded the chat and video below for your viewing pleasure.

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If you want to participate and ask a question (either on live video or regular text chat), just click the big red “join event” button. You can use your Twitter credentials to sign in.

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