Here’s the thing about Blockbuster: like other cultural icons, its synonymous with its service — renting movies from a local store.

Sure it does other things, rents video games, sells gadgets and point-of-sale popcorn, but most of us hear the name Blockbuster and do a quick mental check — “did I return that rental copy of “To Sleep With Anger”? (Ok, maybe that’s just me.)

But even with the spectre of looming debt, and market talk that bankruptcy might be an option it’s exploring (an idea the company flatly denied), Blockbuster is mapping out a future where Blockbuster = Movies (not so much on the “local store” part).

Its latest step on that path is a partnership that lets TiVo’s subscribers access (later this year) movies and video from Blockbuster on Demand. It joins TiVo’s roster of other video suppliers — Amazon, Jaman, YouTube, CinemaNow and Blockbuster’s archrival Netflix.

Although mentioned quietly as an aside in an Interview, Blockbuster executive Kevin Lewis also reiterated that Blockbuster is “enabling the Apple ecosystems” in its own services, which could someday mean a marriage of sorts between the video provider and the iPhone.

It’s too soon to tell if that is enough to help. But is that enough to withstand the onslaught of video available to a changing demographic that thrives on free video from myriad sources (some illegal). At least shareholders are pleased. The battered stock is up more than 17 percent today.

Then again, blogger Dan Frommer calls the TiVo-Blockbuster deal “insignificant.”

What do you think?

Keep an eye on:

• Houston Chronicle lays off 12 pct of staff. (Houston Chronicle)
• Facebook may tweak its layout… again. (WSJ)
• Google top execs keep $1 paychecks (AP)

(Photo: Reuters)

TiVo, the small company with the big brand name and tiny marketing budget, has long used CES as a primary showcase for its new products and initiatives.

This year we caught up with CEO Tom Rogers, where he talked about the pace of business discussions at CES, and how the video industry needs to learn from the mistakes of the music industry regarding “responding to strategic challenges.”

Blockbuster got into the set-top box game right in time for the holiday season with a new digital media player that brings fewer but newer titles from the Web to TV six months after arch rival Netflix launched its $99 Roku set-top box. Netflix followed that launch with similar partnerships with Tivo, Samsung, LG Electronics and Microsoft.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. While the number of people who watch movies or TV via the Web is still small, media and technology executives believe a host of new technologies will make Web to TV a mainstream staple. Vudu already sells a $299 set-top box that lets users download TV shows, while Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PS3 game consoles can also be used to download programming from the Web for TV viewing.

Apple of course is trying to take a bite of the market with its Apple TV device that lets viewers download shows from their computers onto their TVs.

This could save consumers a lot of money– bypassing the need to pay hefty cable fees — and a lot of time when you factor in all the hours spent watching commercials. These devices do require fast Web connections, but market researcher Gartner forecasts there will be 499 milion residential broadband subscribers globally by 2012, up from 323 million at the end of 2007.

Blockbuster said its MediaPoint set-top box, made by broadband device maker 2Wire, allows customers to download high-definition quality movies to their TVs via broadband lines for $1.99 apiece, after an initial $99 for the box and 25 films.

Consumers have 30 days to watch a film once it is downloaded to the set-top box, and must finish watching it within 24 hours of pushing the “play” button. The service, called Blockbuster OnDemand, can be ordered at http://www.blockbuster.com beginning on Tuesday.

Unlike Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” feature, which streams movies to subscribers’ TVs or personal computers, the Blockbuster on-demand service will be open to customers who do not subscribe to its DVD-by-mail service, Blockbuster Online. Blockbuster Chairman and Chief Executive Jim Keyes said the company’s longtime emphasis on new releases draws different consumers than Netflix subscribers, who are directed by its Web site to older catalog titles.

The service is essentially a rebranding and expansion of Blockbuster’s Movielink.com Web site, which offers about 10,000 on-demand movies for download to personal computers. About 2,000 of those titles, such as recent DVD releases “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”, “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2″ and “Get Smart”, can be downloaded to TVs via Blockbuster OnDemand, the company said.

Blockbuster’s also looking into packaging the new service with Blu-Ray DVD players and is considering alliances with video game console makers, but is not ready to disclose the details.

Jerry Seinfeld, a huge marketing budget, and well-respected agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky would seem a recipe for success. Unfortunately for Microsoft, which kicked off a $300 million advertising campaign last night, the first commercial debuted to lukewarm reviews.

Microsoft is hoping to improve the image of its Windows Vista operating system and take some of the sting out of those popular “Mac vs. PC” advertisements run by Apple. It hired Seinfeld to help, and the first commercial featured the comedian and Bill Gates at a shoe store.

The problem, it seems, is that many people just didn’t get the commercial.  Here’s a sampling.

“I don’t get it. And seeing how the punchline was, ummm, Bill Gates adjusting his shorts, I don’t think I want to get it.” — ZDNet

“Seinfeld and Gates are like The Odd Couple, but awkwardly odd. I have a feeling we’re going to be seeing a lot more of these Jerry and Bill segments. Let’s hope their chemistry improves.” — VentureBeat

“When we first heard that Microsoft was prepping an ad campaign starring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld I was cautiously optimistic. Gates has a good sense of humor about himself, and Jerry might not be your cup of tea but he can be pretty funny now and again. The first ad has hit TV screens across the nation and… I don’t think I even have words for it.” — MacUser

“Anyone know what this is supposed to do except raise awareness of, well, Jerry?” — Geardiary

Keep an eye on:

• Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, unknown to most Americans a week ago, nearly matched Barack Obama’s record TV audience with her feisty speech accepting the Republican nomination for vice president, topping 37 million U.S. viewers (Reuters)
• Nearly one in five US households watches TV programming online, double the number in 2006, a new survey from research organizations TNS and the Conference Board shows (NY Post)
• A federal judge in Texas delayed ruling until as late as November on whether EchoStar Corp owes TiVo Inc  more damages for infringing on its “Time Warp” digital video recorder technology (Reuters)
• ESPN is merging video game graphics with real-life sports anchors (NY Times)

(Photo: Reuters)

A couple of years ago, if you had suggested TiVo and DirecTV would ever kiss and make up — after DirecTV dumped TiVo in favor of DVRs by NDS (then a cousin in the News Corp Family) — you might have said it was as likely as “90210″ coming back to TV.

Well one day after the new “90210” premiered on the WB network, TiVo and DirecTV said they are working on a new HD TV set-top box. The agreement puts TiVo in a position to turn a bigger portion of DirecTV’s 16+ million customers into TiVo subscribers, in a deal that TiVo says will reap more in fees than previous agreements.

Reuters spoke to TiVo CEO Tom Rogers about the deal.

Reuters: This is kind of like getting back together with your first love.
Rogers: I’ve been saying for a long time that with DirecTV’s ownership by Liberty Media, it created a new atmosphere and a new environment. I think the management of DirecTV has always been supportive of TiVo and believes that we can put together a very exciting offering.

Reuters: DirecTV is still going to offer generic DVRs to its subs?
Rogers: We are comfortable with that. We recognize that generic DVRs will continue to exist. The biggest contributors to confusion between what is Tivo and what is “DVR” has been mass distributors themselves and obviously the more deals we do the more people have interest to make sure that there is a DVR offering and then something very different that is TiVo.

Reuters: DirecTV TiVo users don’t pay fees to TiVo directly. Is this deal lucrative for you?
Rogers: It was very a successful arrangement for us. There is a lot of financial upside.

Reuters: You are still in court with EchoStar, the other satellite provider. Do you see a time when you will make a similar deal with them?
Rogers: We kind of have a three-pronged strategy: Our go it alone route, our join ‘em route, which is what you could say this is, and our fight ‘em route, which is what EchoStar is. We are getting to the end of the enforcement stage in our fight with EchoStar. Tomorrow we are back in front of the judge for a hearing (related to an injunction and damages).

Reuters: Is TiVo close to the point when that kind of fighting is over?
Rogers: Three years ago I think the view of TiVo is that it had been totally commoditized, that other DVRs were out there and that TiVo, other than a brand name, didn’t have a meaningful distinction. Over the past year we have regained that mantle of innovation, of pioneer. We continue to lead the way on features and giving people a sense of controlling their own destiny on television consumption. We have a lot of work to do but I think we have made enormous progress.

Reuters: But your subscriber gains have still been flat lately. When is there an upturn?
Rogers: When Comcast begins to kick into full gear, and as the DirecTV product becomes available — we have been dialing back our marketing expense on the standalone front…we think all that will kick in to meaningful subscriber growth.

(Photo: Reuters)

Once again, record companies are questioning the wisdom of selling music on iTunes. This time, the griping shows up the Wall Street Journal.

Basically, the argument is that music companies are starting to believe that selling single songs through Apple’s iTunes is bad for the industry (an industry, by the way, that is badly depressed and counts heavily on iTunes for sales and promotion).

The case for steering clear of iTunes is made through the example of Kid Rock’s “Rock ‘n Roll Jesus” album, which wasn’t sold through Apple’s site. Yet the album still sold an impressive 1.7 million copies, the article points out…

“In so many ways it’s turned our business back into a singles business,” says Ken Levitan, Kid Rock’s manager. Mr. Levitan says the rise of iTunes is far from being a boon to the industry; instead, he calls it “part of the death knell of the music business.”

Complaints from the music industry about iTunes are nothing new. Are executives are just looking a gift horse in the mouth? Or perhaps they have a point. Either way, as paidContent points out, there aren’t really any viable options out there right now.

In any case, trying to develop alternatives to monopoly distribution is always admirable, and indeed, desirable in the long run, but the more pertinent question is: if not iTunes, then what? 

Meanwhile, there is still the larger problem of piracy. In Los Angeles yesterday, federal officials arrested a man on suspicion of violating copyright laws for placing songs on the Internet from an unreleased album by rock band Guns N’ Roses.

Keep an eye on: 

• Vimpelcom signed a distribution deal with Apple Inc. to sell iPhone 3G in Russia (Reuters)
• TiVo posted a profit in the second quarter, but warned of a wider-than-expected loss next quarter (Reuters) 
• Rolling Stone owner Jann Wenner picked William Schenck as the magazine’s latest publisher (NY Post)

(Reuters photo of Kid Rock)

Good news for fans of guilty pleasure shows like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, “Felicity” or “Dawson’s Creek” - TheWB.com is about to be up and running. With those shows and others, the website hopes to bring in those 18-34 year-olds so loved by advertisers.

Thing is, the website exists even though the television network doesn’t. Recall the WB was folded into UPN a couple of years ago to create the CW.  (Warner Brothers, however, is still one of the major TV studios).

Given that, it’s sort of strange that Craig Erwich, EVP of Warner Horizon Television which oversees TheWB.com, tells Silicon Alley Insider in  an interview that the thing separating TheWB.com, from other websites it – well, the name.

“The WB is a brand that resonates with fans and we are capitalizing on the history of the brand have created a destination site that targets a niche audience and that gives fans an active experience,” he says.

(Otherwise, Erwich gives very little away in the interview, declining to discuss specific details and numbers)

The site is supposed to launch later today, and it will be interesting to see how it stacks up against Hulu.com, which most people considered a big leap forward for professionally produced online video sites. Already, TheWB.com has some good reviews from those who got an early look.

TechCrunch:

While TheWB fares well in terms of features when compared to its competitors, its content still falls well behind the multi-network selection offered by Hulu. That said, it’s always nice to see more (legal) free television on the web, and the advanced search alone could help set TheWB apart from the sites offered by each individual network.

Keep an eye on: 

• Taylor Nelson Sofres continues to recommend rejecting a hostile takeover bid from WPP despite preferred suitor GfK giving up its takeover attempt (Reuters)
• Rising development costs may drive Microsoft Corp, Sony Corp and others to publish more video games themselves (Reuters)
• TiVo reached a deal with Entertainment Weekly that will allow its users automatically record TV shows suggested by the magazine (WSJ.com)

(Reuters photo of “Buffy” co-stars Sarah Michelle Gellar Michelle Trachtenberg at the 2001 Teen Choice Awards)

Clicks-and-mortar, PC-to-TV, T-Commerce. These are technology industry ideas that are resuscitated every couple of years only to fade into obsolescence.

In the case of the latter, T-Commerce, or Television Commerce,  the ability to click a remote and buy something that has appeared on television has seen its fair share of restarts over the last two to three decades. Big players from Time Warner to Barry Diller have tried it and failed. Forrester’s Josh Bernoff once called the concept buying “Jennifer Aniston’s sweater.”

Now digital video recorder technology maker TiVo and online retailer Amazon.com are the latest to give it a go. The idea is the same — Watch, Click, Buy. The experience might even be easier this time around. For starters, consumers are starting to get comfortable with the idea of interacting with on-screen cues, like clicking on ads on TiVo to watch, say, a longer BMW commercial. Consumers are also pretty comfortable with shopping on Amazon these days.

Making all this work this time around could be the conversations advertisers have with program producers. Branded entertainment or product placement — Ford sponsoring NBC’s “Knight Rider”, for example – is commonplace these days. It’s not hard to see how collaboration among TiVo, advertisers and programmers could make this work.

Enabling screen overlays during a program to hawk what’s on the show would require nothing more than a deeper conversation between advertisers, programmers and networks, TiVo’s director of broadband services Evan Young tells us. These conversations are going on, he says. 

The only catch? TiVo’s only got about 4 million subscribers and the company tell the New York Times its growth is no longer really in that business anymore. Problem is that’s where most of their revenue is generated.

(New York Times)

Keep an eye on:

• Apple summer outlook light, plugs upcoming new product launches. (Reuters)
• New York AG may sue Comcast over Net child porn. (Reuters)
• YouTube divorcee crushed in court. (Gawker)
• XM narrows losses, still awaiting FCC decision on merger. (Reuters)
• Time Warner Cable, Verizon duel to the death in New York. (WSJ)

(Photo: Reuters)

A growing list of non-starters to connect PCs-to-TVs in recent years hasn’t stopped more from trying. Amazon and TiVo are making another run at the idea.

Amazon hopes rejiggering its digital movies download service to add a streaming feature for some 40,000 movies will be the trick to lure viewers, the New York Times reports. Lucky owners of Sony’s Bravia line of TVs will also now be able to access the Amazon’s Video On Demand service directly from their TV without linking up to computers.

Separately, TiVo — which has a separate deal with Amazon to let customers view films and shows downloaded from Amazon’s Unbox store directly on TVs — landed a deal to get YouTube videos on the boobtube.

Add to that list recent developments including Netflix’s launch of a small set-top box that lets its subscribers stream a limited selection of films over the Internet directly to TVs and a deal announced this week to do the same over Microsoft’s Xbox 360 game console.

Seems this is a concept that may yet have legs (or may be the equivalent of a tech/media industry zombie).

Keep an eye on:

• MySpace China aims to double headcount after 1 year and target urban professionals. (Reuters)
• There’s little interest in buying AOL, but that hasn’t stopped Time Warner from shopping it. (NYTimes)
• Former AOL’ers launch documentary film site SnagFilms. (Reuters)

(Photo: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Reuters)