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New Media News Every Morning

Microsoft Launches the MSN Video Player in the UK, BBC iPlayer Rival

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When it comes to online video watching in the UK, the only service that I know of and keep on hearing and reading about is the BBC iPlayer.  This online video player has been dominating the UK online video scene for quite some time now without a worthy opponent. Until now, as Microsoft just launched its own MSN Video Player in the UK.

The free MSN Video Player is threatening BBC iPlayer’s dominance in the market because of several reasons. For one thing, it will also feature a thousand hours of television programming geared for the young market – youth, young families and professionals in the UK.

The free online video player will also allow viewers to watch full series of various TV shows instead of letting them watch shows a few days after they are aired on TV.

The MSN Video Player which has been in test mode for several months now will be offered for free and that includes watching the TV programs. However, users will be required to watch a single 30-second ad before, during and after a program’s run. If you’re from the UK and you don’t mind these ad setup, then say hello to countless hours of watching TV programmes on your computers.

Interestingly, the MSN Video Player was launched by Ashley Highfield, Microsoft’s consumer and online managing director who also happens to be one of those responsible for the creation of the BBC iPlayer. So Microsoft is hoping that its online video player will get the same success as the BBC iPlayer had.

Internet TV Guide Clicker Redesigns its Homepage, Goes Full Blast with New Features

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Clicker, an Internet TV guide which just launched 3 months ago is gearing up for a full blast operation as it launches a new homepage coupled with some new features.  If you’re like me who just learned about this site now, Clicker’s dictum is to help you, Internet TV consumers to find the right show, right when you need to find it – as in Now.

What Clicker does is to catalog all broadcast programming online including TV-quality web original shows. It then delivers a seamless and well organized experience for you to find what’s available to watch and watch isn’t. It also tells you where to watch the Internet TV show as well as which of these shows are well worth watching.

And to make all these happen, Clicker has redesigned its homepage and peppered it with social, personalization, recommendation and management features.

Key features of Clicker’s new homepage include the following:

  • Search on top – to make it easy for users with small screen resolution to use Clicker’s main service – Search
  • Headliners – include important shows and episodes, breaking news and other important TV content
  • Popular Shows/Episodes – a placeholder for soon to be personalized recommendations feature of Clicker
  • Clicker Right Now – lets you peek into what other Clicker users are doing/watching
  • Categories – browsing Clicker’s catalog by subject
  • Playlist – used to be buried on the second layer of Clicker’s site and is now place prominently on the homepage

So there, if you’re into Internet TV programs, check out the newly redesigned Clicker.com now.

Samsung Embeds Skype into LED HDTVs

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Samsung has just unveiled their latest HDTV line-up, the LED 7000 and LED 8000 series. Wait, before you stop and say that these are just another one-of-them Samsung HDTVs, well think again because they are actually not just your ordinary HDTVs.  These HDTVs are quite unique because of the fact that they come embedded with Skype software.

Yes, folks this simply means that you can now have the comfort of making video and voice calls through these Samsung HDTVs. Do you have any idea how crisp and clear the person you are Skype-ing with would be? Well, the idea is pretty cool for me and I would love to get one of these new Samsung HDTVs. Although we may all have to wait for quite some time since Samsung is launching the new TVs worldwide sometime before the second hald of 2010.

Going back to the two Samsung LED 7000 and 8000 series TVs. These two products will come with Samsung’s free InternetTV service as well which will let you access selected online content.  And you also need to buy the FreeTalk  TV Camera to enable the high quality video calls.  Voice calls on the other hand will be handled by Skype’s SILK audio codec which is capable of producing super-wideband audio quality.

If you don’t have a Skype account yet, you can create one using the TV’s remote control via the TV’s simple Skype interface. Of course, the bottomline is that voice calls and video calls will be free provide that you are communicating with another Skype user.

Cool? Yes, of course!. So, I’ll watch out for those Samsung LED HDTVs if I were you.

Verizon, HBO Launch HBO GO Online Video Hub, For Subscribers Only

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Verizon Wireless through its FiOS program and HBO has just announced a deal that would bring free, unlimited online access to HBO programming for FiOS and HBO subscribers. Dubbed HBO Go, this online video hub delivers over 600 hours of movies, featured programs and other HBO goodies to you if you’re a FiOS TV and FiOS Internet.

HBO GO will go live starting tomorrow. And if you already have a FiOS TV credentials, you can simply log-in to FiOS TV Online Web site or at www.hbogo.com to enjoy setup the service on your account.

Once setup, you can now enjoy HBO programming not only at your home but anywhere there’s broadband connection in the U.S. Now here’s the exciting part. HBO Go allows you to create up to 3 simultaneous subaccounts per household. These subaccounts will enjoy the same browsing and viewing options while at the same time allowing parents to enforce restriction on certain programming with user-friendly parental controls.

In addition, HBO also allows you to create a Watchlist that serves as a bookmark for contents that you want to watch later. You can also get exclusive bonus material, soundtrack and cast information by setting up a Series Pass with notifications about new and upcoming HBO series episodes.

If you’re interested with this entertainment service and you’re not yet a member of FiOS, check out this link for information on how you could join.

Comcast Rebrands its Technology Products to Xfinity, and Beyond

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Comcast is about to give its products and services a huge boosts – from visual improvement, speed enhancement and more control for consumers who partake of what they offer.  The company has just announced a new branding for their technology platforms and products called XFINITY.

According to a post on the Comcast Voices blog, XFINITY will provide their customers with more than 100+HD channels, 50 to 70 foreign-language channels, almost 20,000 Video-One-Demand choices, 50mbps to 100+mbps internet speeds and of course thousands of shows and movies online.

Once it is is officially launched, all of Comcast’s products will now be called XFINITY TV, XFINITY Voice and XFINITY Internet. Comcast’s new branding will be rolled out in 11 markets - Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington D.C., Chicago, Portland, Seattle, Hartford, Augusta, Chattanooga, parts of the Bay Area and San Francisco, plus more to come next year.

The decision to rebrand their products and services was brought about by the sudden explosion in Comcast’s service delivery since the day they have launched their VOD service sometime in 2003. Since then, the company has served 14 billion views comprising of movies, TV shows, music videos, and more. Even its Internet service has grown so fast that they can now provide up to 50mbps speed and will continue to increase some more.

And as technology continues to improve, Comcast and its XFINITY products and services will also grow and keep up with the changing demands of consumers in terms of partaking various media content. Hence, XFINITY seems to be a very appropriate branding.