Blockbuster is continuing to look for ways to enter the digital age and now is openly courting telcos for content delivery partnerships. Speaking at a Citigroup Media Conference in Phoenix, Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes is quoted by Reuters as saying, "As we move toward video-on-demand and pay-per-view, Blockbuster is well positioned not only to compete on our own, but also to partner with others." He specifically cited Verizon and AT&T as potential partners.

The rush for finding an optimal way to deliver Internet streamed video is well underway. As of right now the dominant players appear to be Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, and of course YouTube. Blockbuster wants in. They are looking for ways to leverage their 60 million+ retail customer relationships into some form of digital nirvana. Partnering with the likes of Verizon and others makes good sense, at least in theory. Verizon has already announced their intention to launch a Verizon content delivery network. Accessing Blockbuster’s content library may make sense. "We're very focused on providing a lot of video (content) for consumers who have an insatiable appetite for it, so speaking to companies that provide video content makes a great deal of sense and we should be speaking to companies like this," said Verizon spokesman Phil Santoro to Reuters.

We’re at the beginning stages of the broadbandTV movement. Service providers of all sizes have to get serious about investigating all of their content delivery options – telcos especially. Cable companies like Comcast are moving quickly on this front as well, and already have vertically integrated content relationships to leverage. From a service provider’s point of view, the next couple years will be critical in ensuring a seat at the content delivery table.

SEATTLE—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Jan. 5, 2009—Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced that it will offer customers the ability to instantly purchase, rent and watch digital movies and TV episodes from its popular video service, Amazon Video On Demand, via the Roku Digital Video Player. Beginning in early 2009, the Roku Player, which currently supports only the Netflix service Read More...

RESTON, VA, Dec 09, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- Avail Media, the only customer service-focused aggregator and provider of both linear and on demand MPEG-4 IPTV content, today announced that the company's Avail On Demand solution has now passed 1 million subscribers. Today's announcement marks continued growth for the company, which offers the most studio on demand programming available today for both telco and cable deployments. Read More ...

DALLAS and SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Blockbuster Inc. (NYSE: BBI)(NYSE: BBI.B), a leading global provider of media entertainment, and 2Wire, a provider of integrated broadband solutions, today introduced the 2Wire MediaPoint™ digital media player, an easy-to-use, on-demand video solution that offers movie fans instant access through their television sets to BLOCKBUSTER® ONDEMAND content, including thousands of titles from the latest movie releases to classic favorites. Read More ...

ORLANDO (November 17, 2008) – Bright House Networks today announces a significant expansion of its Video On Demand (VOD) services with the launch of a new online destination where consumers can download to own or rent thousands of titles from Hollywood studios and across many cable and television networks. The online video store service, entitled Road Runner Video Store, is available at http://videostore.rr.com. Read More ...

Suddenlink, a top 10 cable company with 1.3 million customers, will launch VOD services in 23 of its markets. Suddenlink will use a new managed VOD service by SeaChange, which integrates third party VOD servers. The new VOD platform will be centrally managed from Suddenlink’s College Park, TX facility. "From the outset, our goal was to build a centralized VOD operation that spanned multiple DACs and markets, minimized equipment and network elements, and leveraged our national backbone while minimizing the need to have operational VOD personnel in every market," said Gregg Grigaitis, vice president, advanced technology, Suddenlink, in a SeaChange company statement. Suddenlink has already been offering VOD in a West Virginia market. This latest move will dramatically increase their VOD capability and help them meet the growing competitive challenge from telcoTV operators.

Cable customer’s continue to be dissatisfied and are likely to leave for telcoTV and DBS competitors unless cable companies react. This according to a new research report from Parks Associates. "Cable subscribers are generally less satisfied, which creates opportunities for satellite and telco/IPTV providers to grab customers," said Kurt Scherf, vice president, principal analyst, Parks Associates. Parks recommends that cable companies address poor satisfaction ratings by offering more and better enhanced services like VoD. "Subscribers who actively use primetime VoD services show significantly higher satisfaction levels," Scherf said.

There have been similar findings by J.D. Power that suggest lower satisfaction for video services among cable subscribers, when compared with telcoTV subscribers. AT&T and Verizon have done a decent job of differentiating their video product on features. Verizon has leveraged the FTTH “advantage” quite well, and AT&T has leveraged features like universal HD and HD DVR set top boxes. Parks’ research findings seem to support this perceived advantage. Maybe the perception of new and better features translates to more customer satisfaction, assuming those features are user friendly and cost competitive. TelcoTV services have apparently achieved that perception – more/better features at the same or better cost. Can they maintain that perception over the long term?

We reported about a soft launch of HD VOD last week and now AT&T has officially confirmed the availability of an HD VOD library. It is available to all U-verse customers. "With an extensive HD channel lineup, HD-capable equipment in every package, excellent picture quality and now HD VOD, AT&T U-verse TV is ready to provide the ultimate HD viewing experience for our customers," said Rich Wellerstein, AT&T vice president of Programming in a company statement. HD services are available to U-verse customers for an additional $10/month.

AT&T is apparently soft launching a multi-room DVR and HD VOD service. Readers are reporting to Engadget HD and BroadbandReports.com that AT&T is notifying select customers about the availability of the new services. There has been no official word from AT&T. AT&T is joining Verizon, who is also using a “whole home” DVR solution to try to get a leg up on their cable and DBS competitors. According to the initial communication from AT&T to its customers, the whole room DVR will be a “free” upgrade and will require no swap out of equipment. Verizon is featuring a free year of multi-room DVR service promotion through October 4th. Cable will soon fight back with a networked DVR solution, thanks to a recent court case won by Cablevision. Networked DVR does not require the more expensive DVR set top boxes, and perhaps will provide a cheaper and more differentiated DVR product.

Avail Media announced the launch of 20 new affiliates for their IPTV linear content solution. In a company statement, Avail said “…these affiliates add to Avail Media's 35 video on demand affiliates that are already live in market and represent just a fraction of the 94 customers with whom Avail Media has secured deals to provide linear and/or video on demand services.” The new affiliates are located across 14 states.