Super stuff
The so-called “long tail” shows the popularity relationship between top “hits” and less viewed niche and specialty content. It’s the second part of that equation that the likes of Akimbo and DaveTV are counting on to establish a following.

But, thanks to the coupling of high-speed data services and the flexibility of the Web, roducers of content, particularly content they are extremely passionate about, don’t necessarily need a formal relationship with a cable operator or even an “over-the-top” IP bypass service to reach their viewers.

Last month, among the hordes of press releases that cross my screen daily, I was struck by one promoting a documentary about Superman. So? Documentaries are released almost daily, right? But what I found interesting about this one was that the director, Ross Marroso, decided to premiere and distribute his labors entirely over the Internet. Users can stream the half-hour doc via his Web site for $1.50, or purchase the DVD directly for $9.95.

Marroso, a graduate of the NYU Film School who also has a family connection to The Man of Steel (his uncle, Greg Hildebrandt, has drawn up some Superman tales for DC Comics), decided he would rather offer his labor of love over the Internet rather than spending several weeks or months pounding on the doors of traditional distributors…and then hoping for the best.

“I felt mainly that the time was finally right and the technology was in place,” he told me last week. “The Internet is finally old enough to handle something like this.”

Other elements that helped his Internet project fall into place: PayPal, which doesn’t require purchasers to fork over sensitive credit card information; and digital rights management, which allows Marroso to serve up his documentary without fear of people “harvesting and molesting” his work.

Marroso admits that he doesn’t expect to make much money off his 30-minute “In A Single Bound” documentary. The $1.50 fee for the streamed version “just barely” covers his costs.

 “Ultimately, I did this for the fans,” he explains, noting that there’s little video-based content about the history of Superman, and the books about the character have largely fallen into obscurity.

“Many of the actors and people in my documentary have never talked about this [subject], so I have something unique here on my hands.”

I had a chance to watch Marroso’s documentary recently. I’m not a TV critic, but I’ve watched a lot of TV in my day, and found much to like in the obvious hard work he has put into weaving the tale of Superman. Though not as polished as some of the documentaries one might find on some major cable networks, Marroso’s passion about this subject shines through, with well-researched documentation, the use of reels of rare archival footage and interviews telling the story. Superman fans (and a few who aren’t, perhaps) will enjoy this chronological ode to the Man of Steel.

But the jury is still out about how the Internet is transforming the way consumers want to consume content like this. According to Marroso, for every one person who streams the documentary, three are buying the DVD sight unseen, so there’s still much to be said for physical media that can be “owned.”

Although the doc is available on the Web, marketing it is a major challenge in itself. “It’s been a battle for people to learn about it,” Marroso says. A few Web advertisements on Superman-related sites have drummed up some business. But he hopes more mainstream exposure with Access Hollywood, Entertainment Weekly and G4 (Jay Leno has even called, he says) will turn his little project into a big success story.

But before the Internet and high-speed connectivity, Marroso and his passionate story about the history of Superman might never have made it past page 1.

—Jeff Baumgartner

OpenTV expands advertising acumen
OpenTV Corp. has acquired cable advertising sales management firm CAM Systems in a cash and stock deal valued at $19.5 million.

OpenTV said the deal will advance its ability to provide interactive, addressable and on-demand advertising services to broadband operators. With the addition of CAM's assets and customers, OpenTV said it now provides ad inventory management systems in 13 top TV markets, and, through the agreement, has added MSO customers such as Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, Bright House Networks and Charter Communications. The purchase also enables OpenTV to extend its existing relationship with Comcast Spotlight. The Lenfest Group founded CAM Systems in 1996.

“We consider CAM Systems’ customers as the most valuable asset acquired by OpenTV,” writes B. Riley & Co. Analyst Ali Mogharabi. Further, “we believe the deal creates an opportunity for OpenTV to also cross sell its interactive, addressable and on-demand front-end advertising solutions.”

He estimates that the purchase, which puts OpenTV in the enviable position of providing both front-end and backend interactive advertising technology, moves the company from No. 3 to No. 2 in the sector, behind market leader Harris Corp., which purchased Encoding Systems Holdings last year.

"Adding CAM Systems and its customer base to our existing AdVision inventory management portfolio puts us at the heart of the estimated $5 billion local cable advertising market," said OpenTV Chairman & CEO Jim Chiddix, in a statement. "This transaction is also an important stepping stone toward the provisioning of a complete interactive advertising solution."

Are you ready for some interactive football?
Moving ahead on an application that has been a big hit in the U.K., EchoStar Communications has launched a “mosaic” video platform that allows customers to choose from six different camera angles during select sporting events.

Supported angles include high end zone, low end zone, goal post, reverse slash, reverse low end zone, and the regular network feed from TBS. Once selected by the customer, the mosaic thumbnail is transitioned into a full-screen feed.

The multi-angle fun begins with EchoStar’s coverage of TBS College Football Extra, which is running every Saturday through Nov. 5 on Channel 100, DISH’s interactive television channel. The first game to include the feature was the Sept. 3 clash between Colorado State University and the University of Colorado.

The effort stems from a larger strategy from EchoStar involving mosaics. Earlier this year, the company launched the application in partnership with OpenTV, allowing viewers to watch six thumbnailed video channels and access interactive components concurrently. The launch followed some of EchoStar’s earlier work with the technology. Last year, the company offered mosaic support for the Summer Olympics and for coverage of the Presidential elections.

Cable, of course, has some grand plans for mosaic video applications, as well. The Comcast Media Center and GuideWorks LLC, the Comcast Corp./Gemstar-TV Guide joint venture, are developing “video-rich navigation” enhancements for interactive program guides.

Vidiom opens iTV training hub
Vidiom Systems Corp. has opened a new training center dedicated to OCAP (OpenCable Application Platform) and other interactive television technologies at the company's Broomfield, Colo. headquarters.

The center will host instructor-led courses designed for cable operators, CE manufacturers and iTV players. The center also sports a range of interactive workstations equipped with application development tools, set-top boxes and connections to multiple types of headends--enabling operators and content developers to train in this environment without having to shell out $300,000 or $400,000 per headend.

Among the offerings, Vidiom will offer a slate of OCAP courses, including its OCAP API Essentials class and its OCAP Application Developer's Workshop, a five-day course scheduled to kick off at the center on Sept. 13. Later this year, the company will add Java courses tailored to the cable industry and embedded systems, as well as other OCAP-centric courses.

The second course, coming in October, will enable students to build a basic OCAP application using the lab’s set-top testing platform and a PC outfitted with Vision Workbench, Vidiom’s OCAP application development tool, explained Vidiom exec Michael Malcy.

The OCAP API Essentials class runs $3,000 per person. The five-day Application Developers course runs about $5,000.

The classes are also designed to help programmers grow more comfortable with Java, a key component of OCAP.

“There are lots of C++ [programmers] who don’t know Java,” Malcy said. It’s not hard to teach a programmer a new language, but someone has to teach them.”

TiVo lowers the DVR bar
In TiVo Inc.’s quarter earnings call last month, company CEO Tom Rogers said subscription growth is the “biggest critical challenge we face,” noting that the DVR pioneer plans to launch several promotions in the fall.

TiVo sprung ahead with that strategy last week by slashing prices on the stand-alone box and launching a national contest that seeks a “TiVo Ambassador.”

In a major effort to drive DVR subscriptions and essentially buy market share, TiVo is selling its 40-hour Series2 box for just $49.99--after a $150 mail-in rebate.

The big rebate comes in the wake of a recent decision by DirecTV to stop marketing the TiVo service later this year as it shifts its focus to NDS Group’s DVR platform. Of the 3.6 million subs reported by TiVo in Q2, 2.3 million came by way of DirecTV.

TiVo is coupling the rebate effort with a national contest to find a “TiVo Ambassador” who will be tasked with spreading the word about how time-shifting changes the way people watch television. To qualify for the title, customers must have referred at least five people to the service by Nov. 27.

TVN offers karaoke on-demand
Cable customers across the country will be able to belt out a tune on-demand following a deal consummated last week between TVN Entertainment and Sound Choice.

The agreement, which makes TVN the exclusive distributor and sales agent for The Karaoke Channel, will initially serve up 300 to 500 songs from the Sound Choice library, which includes categories such as pop, modern rock, classic rock, country, R&B/hip hop, oldies, standards, and show tunes.

TVN will handle the encoding and transport of the songs to cable affiliates in the U.S. and Canada, which, in turn, will offer the songs for free or via a subscription model. Operators that choose the latter will get access to a free preview package to drive customer awareness.

Service operators already signed up for the service include Advanced Cable Communications, Armstrong Cable, Bend Broadband, Blue Ridge Communications, Buckeye CableSystem, Champion Broadband, Click, Muscatine Power & Water, Shrewsbury Electric & Cable, Sunflower Broadband, Verizon and Wave Broadband.

Other TVN affiliates, which include the likes of Adelphia Communications, Cablevision Systems Corp., Charter Communications, Comcast Cable, and Cox Communications, plan to roll out the service over the next three months or sometime later in the calendar year, said TVN Vice President of Business Development Matt Cohen.

For singers who like to belt it out with a bit more boom, they can purchase a karaoke microphone and mixer directly from TVN and Sound Choice via the Web or through a toll-free number.

The merchandise mechanism “is not [offered via] interactive television yet, but we’re getting closer to that,” Cohen said.

EchoStar Communications also has a deal with Sound Choice, offering the karaoke service on a subscription basis.

Service Operator	Market	Video server vendor	VOD backoffice supplier	Movie-on- demand aggregator	Asset delivery/ management providers
B2-- Bredbandsbolaget	Sweden	BitBand	--	--	BitBand
Lyse Tele AS	Norway	Entone/IBM	Tandberg Television	--	Entone
Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. (MTS)	Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada	SeaChange	SeaChange	--	--

We are making changes and additions (including several international deployments) to our Web- based "living" deployment chart. If you have a new deployment to report for the VOD Scorecard and the Web-based deployment chart, please contact CED editor Jeff Baumgartner.