IPTV Provider Akimbo Joins with AT&T

crashFaster writes to tell us TechWeb is reporting that in a recent deal AT&T has teamed up with Akimbo Systems to bring internet-based video-on-demand services to customers as early as this summer. From the article: "The AT&T Homezone service, being trialed within several states, integrates AT&T Yahoo! high-speed Internet and AT&T DISH Network programming. The service provides video on demand, digital video, and Internet content, such as photos and music through a set-top box." AT&T and Akimbo have also both issued press releases with a few more specifics.

Comments

This could be cool

[BadAnalogyGuy]

This is really one of those ideas that was batted about some 10 years ago when people were just starting to get internet to their homes. Until fairly recently, the bandwidth simply wasn't there to stream such media to internet users, but with the further penetration of broadband service and the ramp up of transfer speeds for users, the service is finally going to be available.

A similar type of service has been available on some airline flights for a while. Instead of being fed the movies in the order decided by the flight crew, the movies can be individually selected and played by passengers at their whim. Not having flown in anything but economy class for a few years now, I wouldn't know the specifics of how that works...

Re:This could be cool

[mdfst13]

"the bandwidth simply wasn't there to stream such media to internet users"

I still think that streaming is the wrong solution here. I'd much rather they send stuff to my DVR in off peak times and I'll play it when I want.

Re:This could be cool

[CRCulver]

This is really one of those ideas that was batted about some 10 years ago when people were just starting to get internet to their homes. Until fairly recently, the bandwidth simply wasn't there to stream such media to internet users, but with the further penetration of broadband service and the ramp up of transfer speeds for users, the service is finally going to be available.

I was already getting video-on-demand with BitTorrent three years ago. And now with sites like The Pirate Bay, all the movies or television I want are right there for the choosing, even obscure foreign films.

In the city in Romania where I spend about half of the year, the local ISP offers a city-wide DC++ network where one can download whole movies from one's fellow citizens for free in a matter of minutes. The world outside the U.S. is little-by-little realizing that media should be free, it's risible that in the U.S. you have companies like this that can launch a video-on-demand service knowing that people are actually going to pay for stuff.

Re:This could be cool

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

"I still think that streaming is the wrong solution here. I'd much rather they send stuff to my DVR in off peak times and I'll play it when I want."

Can't say I 100% agree with that. The big difference with streaming is that you can start watching right away. Now you're talking about waiting until off-peek hours to finally get your show to watch. In some cases, that would be absolutely fine, in others well that's a bit of a wait.

Honestly, I would like a solution that implemented both.

Sky's Version,

[imdx80]

Tried to join the UK's version Sky by Broadband, films + sport on demand. After about 2 hours fiddling and upgrading drm components for windows media player it worked for about five minutes then crashed never to start again. Spent another three hours just trying to get any video to play because of the drm being screwed. So a good service ruined because of drm.

Another dead end IPTV project ?

[ozzee]

The number of failed attempts at IPTV projects boggles my mind.

Movilink (Sony+other studios) - couldn't be given away.

Starz/Real partnership - dead.

Kontiki/AOL - Kontiki dead.

Netmovies - (napster + others) dead.

Tivo + Netflix - dead dead dead

+ many many more

What makes this so special ?

Re:Another dead end IPTV project ?

[LetterRip]

[QUOTE]Movilink (Sony+other studios) - couldn't be given away.[/QUOTE]

Well I personally love it, but admittedly am only using it because it is being given away on General Mills cereal boxes :)

It is fast, works great, superb customer support (only tried via chat, but response was quick and resolution satisfactory). I just wish they had more movies at the reasonable price (.99 or 2.00 for specials) instead of trying to get 5.99 for everything. Also it would be cool if they had an all you can watch model like netflix.

LetterRip

IPTV will be as bad as normal TV ...

[b0r1s]

... because the programming will still suck.

Until the viewers are put in charge of their own destiny, the number of watchable shows is going to stay < 10 hours per month.

Wait for a video blogging/podcasting service (maybe something like youtube, or more traditional like maniatv, or more bloggy like vobbo) to push IPTV in a truly addicting format.

On-demand and interesting content - you need both to replace the current setup.

Your post is the crock

[Breakfast Pants]

You used up 60GB by streaming radio? Bullshit. If you were streaming at 192kbps (most stuff is streamed out lower than this) 24 hours a day you would get 30.34 days out of 60gigs. Why the hell would you need it streaming literally 24 hours a day?