Enron, Telus, and Blockbuster to offer VOD to your TV over ADSL.
Telus signs agreement with Blockbuster and
Enron
Telus Corp
T
Shares issued 177,634,059
2000-07-18 close $44
Wednesday Jul 19 2000
Mr. Nick Culo reports
Telus has signed an agreement with Blockbuster Inc. and
Enron Broadband Services to conduct a trial service of
streamed real-time video in early 2001 in British Columbia.
The service will deliver feature-length movies from
Blockbuster to the televisions of 5,000 Telus high-speed
Internet customers, taking advantage of Telus's ADSL network
and a DSL-enabled set top box.
"This agreement is an important step for Telus in advancing
our Internet and portal strategies," said Roy Osing, executive
vice-president and president, Telus Advanced
Communications. "Our plan is to continue to partner with
leading content providers as well as to leverage our ADSL
network infrastructure and portal strength to deliver both free
and transaction-based content such as video, audio, animation,
concerts, sports and other live events to Internet and ADSL
customers."
Following a successful trial, Telus will launch a broadband
commercial video-on-demand service on its Internet portals
that will be adapted for broadband customers. The Telus
portal network currently consists of MyBC.com, Alberta.com
and the soon-to-be launched Toronto portal. The commercial
service will enable customers to choose from an extensive
library of videos through their televisions and enjoy a better
than VHS-quality viewing experience.
"Streamed real-time video is an exciting example of the allure
of broadband services," said Mark Schnarr, Telus
vice-president of Internet services. "The convenience is what
makes it so attractive -- customers can watch what they want,
when they want."
Blockbuster Inc. (NYSE: BBI) is a publicly traded subsidiary
of Viacom Inc. and is the world's leading renter of videos and
video games with approximately 7,200 stores in the United
States, its territories and 26 other countries. The company can
be found on the Web at www.blockbuster.com. Viacom Inc. is
one of the world's largest entertainment companies and a
leading force in nearly every segment of the international
media marketplace.
Enron Broadband Services is a leading provider of
high-quality, high-bandwidth delivery and application
services. The company's business model combines the power
of the Enron Intelligent Network, Enron's Broadband
Operating System, bandwidth trading and intermediation
services, and high-bandwidth applications to fundamentally
improve the experience and functionality of the Internet.
Enron's Broadband Operating System allows application
developers to dynamically provision bandwidth on demand
for the end-to-end quality of service necessary to deliver
broadband content. Enron has also created a market for
bandwidth that will allow network providers to scale to meet
the demands required by increasingly complex applications.
Enron Broadband Services can be found on the Web at
www.enron.net.
Interesting on a few fronts. Would blockbuster only be able to stream Viacom titles (thier parent) or does purchasing the right to rent a movie give you the right to broadcast it. Secondly, I can't imagine the network holding up well in a larger center where you could have 10000 people downloading movies on a Saturday night. Thirdly, its a streaming video service, how many people will stand for a pause in the stream during "net congestion" right when Clint Eastwood is asking the Punk if he feels lucky?
Regards
Jay |
