The WSJ says that Apple's plan for iTunes TV show subscriptions would have you pay a monthly fee for "access to some TV shows from a selection" of major networks, and that CBS and Disney are the two most seriously thinking about it. CBS would apparently offer up shows from both CBS and the CW, like Gossip Girl, while Disney would be offering up shows from ABC, ABC Family and the Disney Channel. What's interesting is that the networks could actually make more money per subscriber than they do from cable companies, with broadcast networks picking up $2-$4 per subscriber, and cable networks grabbing $1-$2. (Which has to piss cable companies off, no doubt why networks are treading carefully around this proposal.) Originally, Apple had floated something more like a traditional cable payment, like paying $30 a month for a big bundle of TV stuff.

All of this, of course, would fit into Apple's larger plan to remake the iTunes model with Lala, and Apple hopes to launch the service sometime next year. While the way Apple says songs and TV shows now would stick around according to the Journal, the combination of web-and-streaming-oriented music and TV subscriptions fundamentally changes the way iTunes would work.

Oh, and of course, this is all happening as Apple "finalizes its plans for a tablet device," Apple's trying to launch "by the end of March." Interesting, that's what an analyst heard not too long ago. Killing cable and up-ending the publishing industry in one fell swoop? That's a pretty busy 2010. [WSJ]

So far, they've got this going for a few hundred titles it looks like, and it's restricted to the US, but hopefully it grows. (And hopefully, they'll stop being stingy with the high def streams.) Just look for the Disc+ on Demand logo on movie pages to see if it's eligible. [Amazon via NewTeeVee]

The UI's been redesigned with a new home page (up top), that's divided into three sections: The feed, which pulls in video and photo recommendations from your friends via Twitter and Facebook; Featured content, which is stuff Boxee highlights; and the queue, where you dump everything you want or plan to watch (for instance, you can add the video from any web page to your queue with a Boxee bookmarklet).

The other major UI change is the new global menu, which'll instantly drop you into any of Boxee's major sections, like movies, photos, TV or your favorites.

What looked impressive during the demo was how cleanly it aggregated both local and online sources of video content—that is, it collect and treats all video the same, whether it's from Netflix or on your hard drive. It's just all one big, searchable library. TV shows are organized more cleanly, too, by seasons and episodes.

Boxee's pushing its "apps" hard, and there's a few new ones, like the Suicide Girls one here—essentially, they're customized browsers that drop you into videos or pics or whatever. Clicker is probably the most interesting, in that it's a video show search engine of sorts, scouring the web for shows from multiple content sources, making it easy to drop into your Boxee queue.

On the technical side, Windows users will be a lot happier, since the backend has been rewritten to use DirectX instead of OpenGL, and it supports full graphics acceleration from Nvidia's Ion chips, meaning cheap PCs will be able to play 1080p video through Boxee. (Which makes us think even more strongly that the Boxee box is gonna be an Ion-based machine.

We'll see more of the Boxee box tonight, hopefully, and definitely more at CES next month, where it's gonna make its full debut. Which is where we'll hear more about Boxee's other "device partners," who'll be sticking Boxee on their own boxes in 2010. In other words, Boxee may very well be the next Netflix streaming app—embedded on anything that'll handle it, from TVs to Blu-ray players.

[Boxee]

Hulu's corporate masters have reared their dragon heads from time to time in the past, like when it nuked Boxee and PS3 access, so you couldn't watch Hulu on your actual TV, and made it even harder to watch Hulu outside of the US.

Now, Hulu's blocking startup video discovery sites like Rippol, Yidio and Clicker from embedding its videos. Likely, again, because Hulu's content providers aren't too happy about somebody throwing all of that content into a single place that's not Hulu, even though theoretically, embedding is harmless—the video goods aren't being stolen, and Hulu still makes money off of the ads in the stream. I mean, we're talking about embedding here. This is about control.

And, given that Rupert Murdoch is publicly entertaining the idea of de-listing all of News Corp.'s content from Google (with Microsoft offering its own cash incentive to do so), a Hulu you have to pay for, or at least, is even more tightly controlled is more feasible than we'd like to think. (Hulu is a joint venture between Murdoch's News Corp. (which owns Fox), NBC Universal, and Disney (which owns ABC).

Ads, those I can deal with. Alec Baldwin's genius isn't free. Arbitrary restrictions that make it harder to watch what I want to—that, not so much. I'd rather watch nothing at all. I'm pretty lazy, after all. I can't even muster the energy to figure out when a TV show actually airs. (When does 30 Rock or Dexter run? I don't know.)

The way Hulu's going, it looks like I'm going to have a lot more time to play Modern Warfare 2. You know, TV dudes, the biggest entertainment event in history. The kind of thing that's pulling people away from their TVs, ripping their eyeballs away from the ads you sell to survive.

The sooner we quit Hulu, the less painful it'll be in the long run. [GigaOm]

The news comes from the COO of Syabas, the company that makes the Popcorn Hour set-top box. Up until now they'd had a "loose agreement" with the 'Tube: They could stream video from YouTube for free, but YouTube could change the terms of the deal whenever they want. Which they did!:

YouTube has always retained the right to change its terms of service in the future should it ever wish to do so. As a result of Google's decision, Syabas is no longer allowed to access YouTube through its APIs. To be clear, Syabas is not being singled out. With the exception of a few strategic partners Google has chosen to work with, the company has informed Syabas they are asking all over-the-top device makers that are currently connecting to YouTube content through its APIs to take down the service.

To quote every set-top box manufacturer in the world, probably: "shit." YouTube access had become the kind of thing you take for granted in a connected box or Blu-ray player, and it was nice to have. Now, it'll be limited to sanctioned devices like the PS3, Wii, TiVo, officially supported Blu-ray players, etc—backed by the kinds of companies who have the clout to pressure Google, or the money to pay them—leaving everyone else to search for some kind of hacky workaround, the last of which got them in this bind in the first place.

I understand that Google wants to squeeze some ad revenue out of YouTube, and that letting anyone and everyone access raw, ad-free through the backend probably isn't the best business plan, but this isn't Hulu—it's not like they have many powerful content providers to appease, just a bunch of teenagers with webcams. Unauthorized set-top box folks, whoever you are: watch your free video cornucopia dissolve on December 2nd.

UPDATE: YouTube's statement:

Since July of 2008, YouTube's Terms of Service has restricted implementations for televisions based on our APIs. YouTube has been in active discussions with various developers on how best to implement YouTube on set top boxes and TVs. There are several companies, however, that have deployed solutions, like video scraping technology, to circumvent the rules and violate YouTube's Terms of Service. Companies that have negotiated agreements to use our APIs, like TiVo, Sony, Panasonic and Sony's PS3 are not impacted.

So, companies like Syabas have been in violation of YouTube's terms of service for some time now, and knew this was going to happen. The question remains, though: Why haven't they just "complied", and gotten a deal like TiVo or Sony? Does it cost anything? Is YouTube selective? Does it just take a while? [Syabas via Engadget via Lifehacker]

Currently in beta with 5,000 subscribers, here's what we know:

• It's free with a subscription
• You authenticate up to 3 devices through Comcast.net or Fancast.com
• Video playback on Move Networks player
• Video on Demand content, though no word on HD content
• Streaming will count against Comcast's 250GB monthly bandwidth caps

But don't take our word for it. Watch the whole interview with Comcast's Amy Banse here:

What do you think? Does this sound better than Hulu to you? [NewTeeVee via mediaexperiences2go via Engadget]

Boxee's post on the box has nothing in the way of details yet, so I'm just going to have to take a WILD guess at what this thing will look like: It'll be a box, with an Ion chipset, a medium-sized HDD, HDMI-out and a Boxee sticker and a $200 price tag. Why? Because nothing else would really make any sense.

We'll get to see the box—assuming it's not just this Boxee-compatible Myka number we saw a few days ago—come December 7th, when it gets the full unveiling treatment. Also interesting, though probably a little aspirational:

* make it easy for users to consume and find content – no matter what the source
* give content owners, aggregators, and developers the tools to create unique experiences with a variety of business models
* enable CE companies to enhance their Connected devices

This will be the first connected device running Boxee, but the idea is to provide consumers with a way to get Boxee in their living rooms, no matter whether it's on a Connected TV, game console, set-top box, BluRay player, computer, etc.

Multiple Boxee Boxes! Boxee Boxen! [Boxee]

The interface is technically new in that it's visually catered to the PS3, but it should look familiar to anyone who's used Netflix on a Blu-ray player or connected TV in the past. This means it's pretty basic: so far as I can tell there are just "Instant Queue" and "Recently Watched" tabs, with none of the additional—though admittedly kind of useless—category views Xbox users are used to, and video navigation is unchanged, with the same visual timeline taking care of FF and RW funtions. One thing Xbox users aren't used to, though, is not having to pay for the privilege: Netflix-subscribed PS3 owners can just order a free disc and be done with it; Xbox owner need to have a paid Live subscription as well. (Ballmer's gotta eat!)

In any case, the experience is smooth from start to finish, with a fast-loading interface and the same near-instant streaming you get on any other platform. It's just a shame you need a disc—until this is part of the PS3 firmware, it'll feel more like a hack than a new feature. [Engadget]

But don't hold your breath on it happening yet: Peter Kafka has "yet to hear of a single programmer that has made a firm commitment." As he points out, while networks are constantly looking for new revenue, like those asshole aliens in Independence Day moving from world to world consuming every natural resource, they're nervous about the idea for a lot of reasons.

A lot of it has to do with the icky, sticky relationships between networks and cable operators, where everybody's worried about losing out as people start to watch more and more TV content online, not in their living room—where streaming video eats up bandwidth, and advertising revenues aren't nearly as rich (which is why Hulu wants to figure out new ways to get you to pay).

While these little complications might slow the process down, the exodus is inevitable. There's no stopping this. The internet is the new cable: Netflix, Hulu, BitTorrent. Apple might not get to launch it in a few months, but it will happen. Just give it time. The actually crazy part, if you ask me, is that the Apple TV might even live up to its name. [Hulu]

Of course, those pictures can't shared in order to protect they're source, and what's more, they're hearing that "Nintendo originally planned to bring the Netflix service to the Wii before the end of this year" but they're "also considering holding off on the Netflix service until they release their next generation Wii HD unit in early 2010." So, uh, just keeping your breath on that one. [Streaming Media via Engadget]

Apparently, the free disc activates the Netflix mojo via BD-Live, in what must be the best use of BD-Live ever. At least until the next major system update, you'll have to load up the disc every time you want to use Netflix. But you'll be able to pick out movies or throw stuff into your queue using an onscreen interface, so there's no going back to the old-school days where you had to add stuff to your queue on your computer before strolling over to your Xbox and TV.

Pop on over to Netflix to reserve the disc now—I have a feeling there's gonna be a huge demand crush for them. [Netflix, Sony, Thanks Kyle B!]

Hulu, the joint venture between News Corp.'s Fox, GE's NBC Universal and Disney's ABC, doesn't plan on charging people to watch the stuff it's currently airing on the site–a mix of first-run shows from broadcast TV, a limited number of cable TV shows and a smattering of movies. But Hulu is trying to figure out how to create some kind of premium offering where you'll pay for stuff that isn't on the site right now.

This jibes with Carey's adjacent reassurance that "not all content on Hulu would be behind a pay wall," which hints at the addition of some kind of subscription or pay-per-view system, that could conceivably leave current offerings untouched. This is a plausible possibility, but far from sure: Kafka's sources says Hulu doesn't actually have a plan yet, so anything is possible.

Plan or no plan, telling everyone what they aren't going to do would do Hulu good—vague threats of fees for "broadcast content" are just terrifying everyone. [AllThingsD]

Here's the money quote from NewsCorpian Chase Carey, so there's no confusion:

It's time to start getting paid for broadcast content online. I think a free model is a very difficult way to capture the value of our content. I think what we need to do is deliver that content to consumers in a way where they will appreciate the value. Hulu concurs with that, it needs to evolve to have a meaningful subscription model as part of its business

An optimist might interpret this as a move toward tiered access, or even the decidedly good addition of paid premium content, like HBO and Showtime. But read carefully:

It's time to start getting paid for broadcast content online

It doesn't get any less premium than broadcast content, which is exactly what Carey says we'll soon be paying for—sometime in 2010, he supposes. (Though to be fair, there's a scrap of reassurance later in the same article: "not all content on Hulu would be behind a pay wall." Cool?) This is extra-extra-foreboding next to last week's statements about a paid Hulu from Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes, highlighted by TVBizwire: "That's not an if," he said "that's a when." It was fun while it lasted, I guess.

On a totally unrelated note, here are some neat articles, for pleasure reading!

Update: Reader Frank pinged Hulu about the issue, and got this not-quite-specific-enough-to-contradict-Carey's-statements response:

Don't worry, Hulu's mission has always been to help people find and enjoy the world's premium, professionally produced content. We continue to believe that the ad-supported, free service is the one that resonates most with the largest group of users and any possible new business models would serve to complement our
existing offering.

Thanks,

Betina Chan-Martin
Hulu

It's a purposely vague reassurance, but a definitive, public "we're not going to charge you for what is currently free" statement would be awfully easy to make, and would quell the concerns of people like Frank. Hint: They haven't made it. [Broadcasting Cable via TVBizwire]

In case you've never heard of RT, it's kind of the be-all, end-all of movie review sites, compiling dozens of reviews per movie to come up with a sort of meta-score, which, more times than not, gives you a decent sense of what to expect from a film. Vudu's movie selection interface is now littered with tomatoes: tomatoes with the combined "Tomatometer" score at each film's selection screen, tomatoes with individual review excerpts in each film's selection screen, tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes tomatoes.

Both upgrades will be free, and both will just sorta happen: LG BD390 users should expect an upgrade prompt any time now, and all Vudu users should keep an eye out for the new ratings system. [Vudu]

[Image via Digital Home Thoughts]

Neil Hunt, Chief Product Officer at Netflix, dropped this on the Netflix forum:

The advances spurred by the Netflix Prize have so impressed us that we're planning Netflix Prize 2, a new big money contest with some new twists.

Here's one: three years was a long time to compete in Prize 1, so the next contest will be a shorter time limited race, with grand prizes for the best results at 6 and 18 months. While the first contest has been remarkable, we think Netflix Prize 2 will be more challenging, more fun, and even more useful to the field.

He doesn't give any meaningful clues as to what the second challenge will be about, but CNET, having either talked to Hunt or simply just made a bunch of stuff up, seems to think it could be all manner of objectives, from "creating an algorithm to suggest other users to befriend" to "helping the company better determine which movies to purchase to meet demand." But hey, why not just do this for everything? It'd be like having an endless army of unusually eager, underpaid employees, except without all those pesky "labor laws" and "benefits."

Details of the second contest should come on September 1st, when the company will also announce who's getting the cash from the first contest, after that more-fun-than-it-had-any-right-to-be nailbiter of a finish. [AP via CNET]

PANASONIC ANNOUNCES AVAILABILITY OF AMAZON VIDEO ON DEMAND ON ITS FULL LINE OF 2009 VIERA CASTTM-ENABLED BLU-RAY DISC PLAYERS

Owners of 2009 Panasonic Blu-ray Disc Players Now Have Access To Amazon Video On Demand's Extensive Selection of Movies & TV Shows, Including Over 1000 High Definition Titles

SECAUCUS, NJ (August 4, 2009) – Panasonic, a leader in High Definition technology and built-in TV web entertainment, announced today that Amazon Video On Demand is now available on its full line of 2009 VIERA CASTTM-enabled Blu-ray Disc players. Current owners of Panasonic's 2009 Blu-ray Disc players automatically received a free software update today and can begin enjoying the service immediately when they register their VIERA CAST Blu-ray Disc Player with Amazon Video On Demand.

Panasonic introduced Amazon Video On Demand on VIERA CAST-enabled Plasma HDTVs in April 2009.

Bringing unique internet-enabled services to Panasonic VIERA Blu-ray owners, Amazon Video On Demand on VIERA CAST, enables customers to:

· Browse and shop for their favorite movies and TV shows from Amazon Video On Demand's selection of more than 45,000 commercial-free titles, including the latest new releases and over 1000 titles in HD.

· Enjoy instant playback streamed to your player, no downloading, no waiting and no subscription fees.

· Access and add to their virtual library of purchases, via Amazon Video On Demand's Your Video Library, and re-watch them on any of Panasonic's critically acclaimed line of VIERA CAST-enabled Blu-ray Disc players or online with a PC, MAC or other compatible device.

For 2009, Panasonic's VIERA CAST feature has been extended to all of its Blu-ray Disc player models, including the DMP-BD60, BD70V, BD80 and the B15* – the world's first and only portable Blu-ray Disc player. An internet connection is required to access VIERA CAST.

"Having our VIERA CAST feature on our line of 2009 Panasonic Blu-ray players means you can now access the best of the web, directly from your living room," said Richard Simone, Panasonic's Entertainment Group Director. "The introduction of Amazon Video On Demand to our VIERA CAST offerings gives every owner of a 2009 Panasonic Blu-ray player access to a vast collection of movies and TV shows, including HD quality new releases, on virtually any digital television. And you can take it on the road with you too with Panasonic's VIERA CAST-enabled, B15 portable Blu-ray Disc player."

In addition to Amazon Video On Demand, VIERA CAST will continue to provide access to YouTube™, Picasa Web Albums™, Bloomberg News and weather information. With VIERA CAST, consumers will have automatic access to additional sites as they are added to the service.

VIERA CAST was widely acknowledged last year for its distinctive internet application, allowing the consumer to view targeted sites on a large HDTV, rather than a small computer screen. VIERA CAST has a built-in Ethernet interface – no external box or PC is required. VIERA CAST is accessed via a single button on the Blu-ray Disc player remote control and there is no fee to use the VIERA CAST functionality.

"The addition in April 2009 of Amazon Video On Demand's premium service to Panasonic VIERA CAST-enabled HDTVs really took the entertainment experience to a whole new level for consumers," said Merwan Mereby, Panasonic's Vice President of New Business Development. "As promised in April, Panasonic is now pleased to deliver Amazon Video On Demand service to owners of our award-winning 2009 line of VIERA CAST-enabled Blu-ray Disc players as well. Combined with the extensive, consumer-generated content VIERA CAST already offers via YouTube and Google Picasa, this is yet another step in the ever-growing value of VIERA CAST for owners of Panasonic HDTVs and Blu-ray players."

"Panasonic and Amazon Video On Demand have built a great customer experience that easily allows customers to shop, purchase or rent from our library of over 45,000 movies & TV shows with no subscription fees," said Bill Carr, Amazon Vice President Music and Video. "Using Panasonic's line of VIERA CAST-enabled Blu-ray players, even more customers can now instantly experience Amazon's compelling HD-quality, new release movies and TV shows from their living room."

The semi-apology came in the form of an email, in which a Hulu rep told users that the move was a compromise:

Everything we do is with an eye toward achieving our long-term goal of maximizing the content you can access as conveniently as possible in a way that 'works' for the content owner. In the short-term that may require us to make some tough decisions...

Hulu won't go so far as to directly blame specific companies, but it sounds like one—or a few—of their many partners signaled that PS3 streaming was a threat to their relationship, somehow. But yeah, how?

Distribution availability across platforms — theaters vs. TV vs. recorded media like DVDs vs. online streaming vs. mobile phones — was always implicitly or explicitly controlled in that world... the windowing strategy is still dominant in the business. Billions of dollars flow in across these different windows, and entire companies are organized around them.

This is actually pretty clear cut. Content providers are uncomfortable with the concept of video streaming on the PS3, because the console is typically connected to a television. This content delivery gray area is enough to somehow screw with, or simply muddy, their licensing arrangements or somesuch, so they're exercising caution.

As frustrating as that is, it's also a bit reassuring; far from a sign of a concert rollback of digital streaming rights, this is just a minor hiccup during a long, still-advancing transition. As Señor Hulu said, upstarts like Hulu need to be sensitive to media companies' old-fashioned sensibilities in order to change them. Full letter is reprinted below. —Thanks, Kip!

Thanks for writing. In order to answer your question, some context might be
helpful.

For decades, the TV/movie industry has built its business model on a windowing
strategy. Content rights are granted for limited time periods across specific
distribution channels. For example, a movie starts in theaters, then moves to
pay-per-view and DVD, then to pay-cable channels, later to broadcast, and so on
down the line. Similarly, TV shows are available on TV first, then in repeats,
then to DVD and possibly syndication, etc.

Distribution availability across platforms — theaters vs. TV vs. recorded media
like DVDs vs. online streaming vs. mobile phones — was always implicitly or
explicitly controlled in that world. But a few factors have made the barriers
between those platforms more permeable: the rise of the web, increased broadband
availability, the ease of digitizing video, and the increase in the computing
power of devices like gaming consoles, set-top boxes, and mobile phones.

However, in the near-term, the windowing strategy is still dominant in the
business. Billions of dollars flow in across these different windows, and entire
companies are organized around them. Nothing productive comes from flouting that
reality (except to law firms who work on the occasional lawsuit).

We do, however, expect these windows to converge over time. There's no
way around
that, and we're working hard with all of our partners to guide and
participate in
this important transition in the business. Everything we do is with an
eye toward
achieving our long-term goal of maximizing the content you can access as
conveniently as possible in a way that "works" for the content owner. In the
short-term that may require us to make some tough decisions, but we only do so
when we believe it improves our long-term prospects to build a more enduring,
legal solution to that same problem.

We hear your frustration, and solving it remains our full-time job.

That would be a pretty expensive Christmas in July for Amazon—Netflix ain't exactly a startup. But they have a lot in common: They're both playing hard in digital streaming, and see themselves evolving as content providers (see: Kindle, Xbox 360), branching out from their core business of shipping stuff to people.

But the rumor has a fairly odd genesis, so don't hold your breath too long—unless you're about to jump in a pool. Still, it would make a beautiful kind of sense, right? [Bloomberg via TechCrunch]