3Screens

AT&T Launches Total Home DVR in San Antonio

While Total Home DVR has been released in other markets, it's being officially announced today in San Antonio, where I live.

I've had Total Home DVR for 4 days and works as advertised.

Today's edition of our local newspaper, the San Antonio Express News the story here.

Here's a demo shot last week at an AT&T store in San Antonio.  I have a broader opinion piece in the San Antonio Express-News which I will post tomorrow.  (Be sure to click the option to watch in higher quality video on the lower right hand side of the video).

AT&T Receives Technology & Engineering Emmy Award

While I am really trying to shift towards being a consumer-facing blog, I still think it's important to point to certain corporate news items AT&T promotes.

In this case, I point to the announcement from the CES Show in which the company was awarded a Technology & Engineering Emmy Award by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

AT&T won the award for its invention of coaxial cable technology, which delivered the first broadband transmission medium nearly 75 years ago.

This award is not only notable, but also serves as a reminder to myself that the phone company as we no longer know it, is really no stranger to broadcast media and the disruption of an industry it has helped to create.

Couchville Now Lists AT&T U-verse Programming...

Good to see Couchville listing AT&T U-verse programming.

Just type in your zip code and your channel listing will appear.

My only critique to the folks at Couchville is that they are classifying U-verse at being a cable service, which it is not.  They need to create a new category: IPTV.

Cringley Talks About the Importance of Safari For Windows for Apple / AT&T. I Think Safari For Windows Could be More Important to AT&T Than iPhone. Here's Why.

Robert X Cringley has a very good post theorizing the rationale for Apple developing a Windows-based version of Safari.

Hightlights of the post are:

"Here is the complex package of goods Apple is trying to sell to AT&T: There's the iPhone, of course, but there is also the Apple TV as a potential set-top box. Three hundred dollars for a set-top box? You have to be crazy! Not so crazy. Compared to not spending the kind of money Verizon is spending on fiber, Apple TVs are cheap even if AT&T gives them away. Remember that $400 rebate you used to be able to get on a new PC by signing up for two years of MSN? That didn't appear to make sense, either, yet it ran for years.

For Apple TV to be successful as an IPTV set-top box, Apple has to convince us that we really want to download our video, NOT stream it. Not incidentally, this is also the key to iTunes' long-term success. Downloading makes much more efficient use of network resources, works fine on a copper wiring plant, and fits our emerging TiVoesque world view. Steve will tell us that we are busy dynamic people who really ought to plan our viewing. And enough of us will believe him to make AT&T's copper video service a credible success"

Cingley points out that this move isn't about taking down Microsoft, it isn't about making Macintosh computers the dominant computing platform, it IS about performing a massive cashectomy on AT&T  After all, AT&T works closely with Microsoft's IPTV group and uses Microsoft technology for their middleware.

But Wait - There's More to the Story

I think Cringley is right- but did not tell the other half of the story. 

AT&T working with Apple can now leverage Apple's initial run at the disruption of how music is sold - via iTunes and now repeat history with the video content providers and producers in Hollywood.

To me, Safari for Windows could be even more strategic  than having the exclusive on iPhone for five years.

Microsoft's Rebranded Mediaroom To Extend Capabilities of IPTV. Alan Poses 10 Questions To Microsoft In Regards to This Announcement (And One Bonus Question)

Having been a U-verse customer for over one year, I have to plead "guilty" that I don't write enough about Microsoft and its role as being the middleware and a key element in the technology that makes U-verse.....uh....U-verse.

Microsoft TV unveiled today the latest update of its IPTV software platform and introduced a new brand for the platform to better reflect the broader set of capabilities it now delivers. 

Known as Microsoft® Mediaroom™, the company claims that it will enable the best, most personalized TV and entertainment experience, so that we as consumers can easily find and watch what we want, when and where we want it.

Some of the new features include:

• Personal media sharing. This enables consumers to easily listen to digital music and view digital photographs stored on PCs elsewhere in the home on the best screen in the house: the television.
• Multimedia Application Environment. The environment offers richer support for Web services and applications, enabling service providers to deploy advanced features such as dynamic video-on-demand   portals, casual games and interactive TV services.
• Enhanced MultiView capabilities. These allow consumers to see multiple channels, programs and camera angles on one screen.

The launch of Microsoft Mediaroom also marks the general availability of DTT capabilities on the platform, allowing service providers in regions with DTT programming to offer fully integrated, seamless IPTV services.

Microsoft TV has 18 major service provider customers (including AT&T) on four continents that are delivering TV experience to their subscribers.

Here's 10 Things Alan Wants To Know...

1.  Is AT&T going to follow the upgrade path to Mediaroom and if so, when?

2.  How and where does Xbox (and more specifically Xbox 360) tie into Mediaroom? 

3.   Will Xbox turn into an optional set-top box in its own right? 

4.  Will AT&T sell Xbox in its retail stores?

5.  The personal media sharing idea is  very cool.  How does it tie into AT&T's whole home DVR strategy?

6.  Does Apple have a competing software platform in the works?

7.  Mutliple views sounds cool.  But aren't we, as consumers, dependent on the content providers to provide multi-view content?  If so, I'd love to see some samples of how I could have mutiple views of say, the recent NBA Championships.

8.  Any chance Microsoft and AT&T could work together to extend the capabilities of BlueRoom with Mediaroom?

9.  Along the lines of AT&T's three-screen strategy, will Microsoft work further with AT&T to extend Mediaroom technologies into mobile phones (other than iPhone)?

10.  Seems like Mediaroom would really shine on Vista with some of the new tablet-based PCs coming out soon.  Again, in the vein of the three-screen strategy from AT&T, why not look at tablet applications for mobile TV - i.e. MobiTV, which AT&T already offers.

Big Bonus Question: Any possible ties with Mediaroom and Surface?  This seems like an entirely new way to present IP based video content, gaming, e-commerce, photosharing and much more on this very unique media platform. 

It would also help service providers like AT&T further distinguish itself further and offer the TV manufacturers like Sony, Toshiba, JVC, Panasonic develop new types of surface-based TVs.

AT&T Offers Free Dish Network Service for One Year if You Sign Up For U-verse. Tom Keating Asks: Is This Offer Still Good If U-verse Not Deployed in His 'Hood One Year Later?

Blogger, Tom Keating, has very good post based on his own personal experience in being offered a free year's worth of Dish Network Satellite TV,  if he went ahead and signed up for U-verse, even before it's available in his area.  (Read AT&T's April 3 announcement.)

Tom asked the sales rep at Best Buy if the offer was till good one year after the offer, even if U-verse is not available in his area of Connecticut where he lives.  According to Tom, the rep had no answer.

Tom also brings up a point point about the recent talks about Microsoft and Yahoo joining forces.
Writes Tom, "AT&T and DISH Network have a deal. AT&T and Yahoo already have a close partnership deal with AT&T Yahoo DSL. AT&T is using Microsoft's software for their U-Verse set-top box.

Let me summarize:
AT&T - DISH Network
AT&T - Yahoo
AT&T - Microsoft
and now potentially
Microsoft - Yahoo

Which makes it a AT&T,  DISH Network, Microsoft, Yahoo conglomerate! That just might be big enough to take on Google. Might need to add in Walmart. Maybe Home Depot as well (just to make it a fair fight)."

Check out Tom's post.

Worth Reading

U-verse Customer in Kansas City Wins Free Pizza

Here at 3Screens, we may not be able to buy the stadium rights, have a string of retail stores, or even - heaven forbid, afford our own high priced legal counsel.

But we sure can offer a free pizza to new AT&T U-verse customers and join Ed and Randall as we celebrate the disruption of television.

And The Winner Is...

I am pleased to announce that the winner of our first pizza went to Bruce Waldmer of Kansas City.   (There were no contest rules, and I think this is legal in Texas and Kansas). 

All you had to do was read this blog and send me an email telling me you did so when Kansas City opened, you could have had the free pizza

Says Bruce:

    "The pizza was great, thanks!  I can't wait until Friday when my         
U-verse gets  installed. I've been looking over the channel lineup and it's a lot more than Comcast offers. 

    Comcast has so many VOD shows and movies available.  I hope U-verse can get as many soon.  From what I've read they don't have as many to offer yet.  Again, thanks for the pizza."

                            -- Bruce

How Did I Deliver a Pizza From San Antonio to Kansas City?

Easy.  Pizza Hut. 

Like AT&T, they are everywhere.  They were kind enough to believe what I was up to, took my Platinum Card and sure enough, they delivered!

Watch 3Screens for future pizza offerings as the phone company as we no longer know it rolls U-verse  across these United States. 

FCC Commissoners To Be Awarded With Free Pizza

Also, I plan to offer free pizza to FCC Commissioners Martin, Copps, Adelstein, Tate and  McDowell in the near future.  Watch this blog for more details.

This Week at 3Screens.net

This week at 3Screens.net, I am going to broadcast a series of interviews from last week's  VON  Spring 2007 (Voice on the Net and Video on the Net) conference in San Jose.

I decided that rather than writing a long winded pontification of what I learned, I thought it would be more effective to simply document a series of 16 interviews I captured on video.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

What you will see this week on this blog are interviews with some very amazing, very talented, very creative, and very purposeful artists / businesspeople who are creating their own channels on the Web with on-going, serialized content. 

This week you will see a recent college graduate who brought his 80 year old grandmother to VON where he films her in her kitchen keeping the traditions of Judaism with ---- cooking (of course).  You'll also see a Hippie Gourmet, another who helps make time for sex and gets sex done, and a young couple from Montreal who's created an on-going sci-fi show, Galacticast.

I also have interviews with a few industry executives.  For disclosure purposes, in my day job, our firm also represents and handles PR for Network2.tv.  Jeff Pulver and Chris Brogan have very good and insightful blogs on the subject, and I also encourage you to search VON07 in Technorati to search for other VON related blog posts, photos, and of course videos.

Finally, let me leave you with one thought- especially the 20 million consumers I hope reach:  you and not AT&T, TimeWarner, Comcast, Verizon, BT and all the other cable / IPTV providers have the power to shift the balance of who really is in charge of the future of video on demand.   Jeff has a video post where he interviews Jim Southworth, which is worth watching.

Stay tuned this week.  I welcome your feedback and comments - alan at weinkrantz dot com.

Thanks for watching!

AT&T to Provide Three-Screen Content for 2007 Masters Tournament

So now you can watch the famed Masters Tournament on 3Screens via AT&T Television, Broadband and Wireless Services.

The phone company as we no longer know it, has announced that starting next week, golf fans can now enjoy more of the 2007 Masters Tournament as AT&T launches its first major content initiative across the three screens central to customers' lives: the wireless device, the TV and the PC. 

Me?

I don't watch or care for golf. 

But what I do care about is that fact that AT&T is demonstrating how you can have an event like this take place and distribute content on my three screens and making it a vaiable business proposition to strengthening programmers' and advertisers' connections with new and loyal audiences.  And what I also care about is that AT&T has already done another deal with Chase Card Services where they sponsored Tim McGraw's Swampstock 2006 concert and related elements as they appear on your cell phone, your TV and your computer.

Here's the deal: under an agreement with the Masters, AT&T will provide golf fans with access to Masters previews and daily highlights, live tournament and practice range coverage, player interviews, live updates, links to real-time scoreboards and more.

Masters coverage will be available through AT&T blue room , AT&T U-verse TV, AT&T Homezone" service, AT&T U-verse OnTheGo, AT&T Broadband TV, and Cingular, now AT&T, wireless service. Live video, including Masters Extra and Amen Corner Live, real-time scoring and additional information is also available on the Masters official Web site, masters.org.

Beginning Masters Week (April 2 – 8, 2007), AT&T customers will be able to view the following Masters content:

Masters TV. Daily tournament previews and recaps will be available on AT&T blue room; via Cingular, now AT&T, wireless service; through AT&T U-verse TV and AT&T Homezone video-on-demand (VOD) services; and as a streaming channel on AT&T U-verse OnTheGo and AT&T Broadband TV.

Player Interviews. AT&T blue room, AT&T wireless phones, U-verse OnTheGo and Broadband TV will feature multiple player interviews each day. Full-length interviews will also be available on demand through U-verse TV and Homezone.

Masters Extra. Live bonus coverage will be available on AT&T blue room during the competitive rounds, with nearly an hour of play-by-play action before cable and network broadcast coverage begins.

Amen Corner Live. Live Tournament coverage from "Amen Corner" — the 11th, 12th, and 13th holes — will be available on AT&T blue room during the competitive rounds.
Par 3 Interviews. A live feed of player interviews after their completion of the Par 3 Contest on April 4 will be available on AT&T blue room.

Masters Practice Range Live. AT&T blue room will include a live daily video feed of the practice driving range.

Outdoor Green Jacket Ceremony. (fashion emergency -- why do they wear those green jackets anyway?) The outdoor Green Jacket presentation ceremony will be available live on AT&T blue room, via U-verse TV and Homezone VOD services, and on U-verse OnTheGo and Broadband TV.

Masters Scoreboard. AT&T blue room will have exclusive direct links to the Masters live leader board.
Interactive Features. Viewers can also participate in polls, trivia and customized alerts via AT&T blue room and AT&T wireless phones.

Masters Moments. Customers can view archived footage of memorable moments from past Masters tournaments on AT&T blue room, via AT&T wireless phones, through U-verse TV and Homezone VOD services and on U-verse OnTheGo and Broadband TV.

Masters programming will be available to AT&T customers at no additional charge (service and wireless-data-plan subscriptions may apply), and select content will be available for 60 days following the conclusion of the tournament. Customers can visit www.attblueroom.com/sports to access available coverage.

John Dvorak Comments on the Comming IPTV Wars

I've been a long time fan of John Dvorak for almost 20 years.   In my day job, I've had the pleasure to work with John, pitch him on story ideas and he's been good enough to cover some of our clients.

John writes to -- and for the millions of people I hope to reach in this blog.   

He and I were just at the VON Spring 2007 conference in San Jose and has a well articulated post on what he calls "The Coming IPTV Wars."

John talks about freeing the customer, and illustrates how (like Jeff Pulver says) on the Internet, Video is just an application. 

Worth Reading.