Wednesday, February 08, 2006

NBC in Internet TV deal for TV and movies

Aeon Digital has announced a licensing agreement with NBC Universal that will make movies and television events available on-demand over the Internet.

Titles will be available for a 24-hour period after they are selected. Among the covered television events are "Jerry Springer: Uncensored," the "Blind Date" franchise and "The Land Before Time." Pricing has yet to be announced.

Consumers will need an Aeon Digital set-top box connected to broadband to access the services' music, television and movies. The first of these, the DV-200, will become available at retail stores this spring for $299.

And there lies in my opinion the catch. Why will people want to shell out a few hundred dollars for yet another piece of hardware. That is why the PC has to be the device of choice for serving up IPTV. And the portals plus iTunes have to be the online archives for all this content.

Where that leaves the Aeon Digitals of this world I'm not quite sure. Maybe they'll get bought up by set top box companies or cable guys.

No comments: