EPIX, a new premium pay-TV entertainment channel from Viacom, Paramount Pictures, Lionsgate and MGM, launches today for Verizon FiOS subscribers. The service, which costs $9.99 a month comes with a unique online video component. In addition to watching movies via the linear TV channel, or via the VOD model tied to a set-top-box, subscribers also have the ability to stream all of EPIX's content in HD quality at EPIXHD.com

Last night, I got hands on with the service, spent some time watching a bunch of movies and was very impressed. (If you want to see it for yourself, I'm giving away 200, 30-day invite codes.) The user experience, functionality, navigation, player controls and video quality were all excellent. For HD quality, videos are rendered out in 1280×720 and encoded in H.264 at two bitrates, 3Mbps and 2.2 Mbps to take advantage of Adobe's multi-bitrate technology. EPIX encodes for a total of six bitrates, including 500Kbps, 900Kbps, 1200Kbps, 1700Kbps and the two HD bitrates. The custom built Flash player has all of the usual bells and whistles but one of the nicest features is the detailed metrics it gives you on the quality of your stream.

When you click on the "stream info" button, a window appears in the video screen that tells you the speed of your connection, how many seconds before the video buffer is full, gives you the bitrate you're streaming at and gives you the option to maintain the maximum bitrate by turning off the variable bitrate functionality. Today, all of the videos are being streaming via Akamai, but as EPIX mentioned in a call last night, over time, they expect many of the MSOs who license the EPIX channel to bring the streaming inside their closed network. Verizon is not doing that as of yet, but I would not be surprised to see them do that over time as keeping the streaming inside their network would provide a better quality user experience.

EPIX said that by the second quarter of next year, their goal is to have 3,500 feature films available for streaming in HD. The one catch, due to licensing terms, movies can only be streamed in the U.S., so if you travel overseas, don't expect to be able to stream to your computer. While some have been quick to write EPIX off since they are launching on just one cable company, Verizon, deals with other providers are on the way. I've heard rumors that one of the impending deals is with DirecTV, but I have not verified that and EPIX had no comment when asked.

Some have suggested that right now, the last thing we need in the industry is another pay-TV service. That may be true, but in speaking with Emil Rensing, the Chief Digital Officer at EPIX, I've learned that the MSO has full-control on how they offer the service. Cable companies do not have to charge consumers to get access to EPIX and I would not be surprised to see some providers offer the channel for free, bundled in with their current TV packages, as a way to differinate themselves from others. It could be very similar to deals we have seen like ESPN360.com where Verizon has licensed the content and providers it to their FiOS users at no additional charge.

The other unique thing about EPIX is that right now, they are really the only ones that have the license to put all of their programming on TV, VOD and the web all at the same time. As a result of this, EPIX says they have more programming available on-demand than both Starz and HBO combined. They also make that content available to all three platforms at the same time without any window restrictions. In addition, while EPIX does not technically have a video offering yet for devices, nothing stops you from being able to watch movies on any device that has a web browser, a fast enough connection and a recent enough version of the Flash player. I'm going to have to give this a try on my PS3 over the weekend.

So far, I like everything I've seen with regards to the online portion of EPIX's offering and look forward to seeing the service evolve in the coming year. If you'd like to see the online portion of the service for yourself, I'm currently giving away 200, free 30-day trail codes.

In about two weeks, Emil Rensing, Chief Digital Officer at EPIX will be one of our keynote presenters at the Streaming Media West show. You can register for a FREE exhibits only pass and attend keynotes by EPIX, Xbox and FLO TV all for free.

Last week I received some images that showed Netflix streaming on a Wii console. I didn't run with the story at the time as I didn't know if the images were legit and it's taken me until today to confirm they are in fact real. I'm not disclosing who confirmed it for me but someone involved in the project has confirmed that Nintendo is currently in testing stages with Netflix to bring their streaming service to the Wii very soon.

What I'm hearing is that Nintendo originally planned to bring the Netflix service to the Wii before the end of this year, which still might take place, but that Nintendo is also considering holding off on the Netflix service until they release their next generation Wii HD unit in early 2010.

Note: I am not sharing any of the images I received as I don't want to burn the person who sent them to me.

As many readers already know, I'm not a big supporter of the notion that TV Everywhere is going to do much to change our industry. Some vendors in the online video industry disagree with me and want to tell me how TV Everywhere is going to change their business, providing the catalyst for them to really grow their revenue.

While that sounds nice, for the vast majority of vendors, it's a pipe dream. None of these vendors I speak to seem to be able to tell me what the size of the market could be, how many MSOs would want to offer a TV Everywhere type service or how they actually make any money. I get the sense that many in the industry now think they have to use the phrase TV Everywhere to sound cool or to make it sound like they "get it", even though no one seems to be talking about the business side of the offering. (Definition of MSO: Multiple System Operator. It's the industry term for cable company.)

But the biggest problem with some vendors theory, with regards to the impact it could have on their business, is the fact that there aren't enough large MSOs to make an entire business out of TV Everywhere services. As of June 2009, numbers put out by SNL Kagan show that the top 25 MSOs in the U.S. have a combined total of 59,947,100 subscribers. Of that number, the top three MSOs combined, Comcast, Time Warner and Cox, make up 70% of all cable subscribers. Seventeen of the top 25 MSOs have less than 1M subscribers each.

Looking at those numbers, it's clear that very few MSOs are going to be in a position to offer TV Everywhere services. There is no incentive for a MSO with 300,000 subscribers to bring to the market any type of TV Everywhere offering. That being the case, it means the total number of MSOs that any one vendor could even try and sell their service to is probably five or six. That's not a large enough market for any vendor to bet their business on or expect to see big revenue growth from. Some vendors will do just fine selling into those five or six companies with the correct expectations that it's just another one of many verticals they focus on.

But for the vendors who talk about TV Everywhere as being the catalyst for taking their business to the next level, or enabling them to drastically grow their revenue, it's just not going to happen. When I tell this to vendors, some of them want to really argue the point, but so far, not a single one can explain to me why they think otherwise. It's easy to say something will have a major impact, but it's another thing to show, with data, or some kind of evidence how that's actually going to take place. If any vendor feels they have that, I'd love to see it. I've asked many vendors for it and so far, none of them have produced anything other than to tell me, in marketing terms, why TV Everywhere is such a big deal to their company. The comments section is open.

Related Posts:

– The Promise Of TV Everywhere Is Doomed For Failure, Here's Why

– TV Everywhere Offerings Will Struggle To Be Successful

– Cable Companies Hyping Over-The-Top Video, But Where's The Business Model?

This morning, Roku announced two new devices that they are calling the Roku player and the Roku HD-XR. At first glance, the new units look identical to the original Roku device but the new entry level Roku player has no support for HD. It is however priced at $79.99, twenty bucks cheaper than the original Roku HD unit. The new Roku HD-XR player is priced at $129.99 and now supports WiFI n and has a USB port on the back.

Roku is not saying what the new USB port on the HD-XR unit will be used for, but one could imagine all sorts of media extender functionality. Roku also said they are getting very close to launching their new Roku Channel Store, which will include pay and free ad-supported content to enable photo sharing and music streaming. We've already heard that content from TWiT.tv, Mediafly, blip.tv. Motionbox, Revision3, Pandora radio and Flickr will be coming to the Roku platform shortly.

So to recap, here is how the three Roku units stack up:

• Roku player: $79.99. No HD support, WiFi b/g

• Roku HD player: $99.99. HD support, WiFi b/g

• Roku HD-XR player: $129.99. HD support, WiFi b/g/n, USB port

In addition, Roku said that once their Channel Store launches with their first round of content partners, a second round of partners who have been working with Roku's SDK are waiting in the wings to launch their services. It sounds like the Roku box is going to be getting a lot of content updates over the next couple of months. It's also going to be interesting to see just how many boxes Roku has out in the market by the end of the year. Roku has said that to date, they have sold a combined "high six figures" of units and with a good holiday season, I think they have the potential to have close to a million units in the field.

(Updated: The archived webinar and slides can be found here) On Thursday October 29th, I’ll be hosting another Frost & Sullivan webinar on the CDN market. Starting at 3pm ET, I’ll be presenting the current state of the CDN market, as well as providing the latest pricing data from a recently conducted survey of over 700 content owners. You can sign up for free here.

Every time I do a webinar on the topic of CDNs, I get a lot of questions and have a hard time getting to all of them during the event. So this time around, I’m going to save plenty of time for Q&A and also encourage you to send in your questions now if you like. Is there a topic you want to see me address during my presentation? If so, put it in the comments section below and I’ll do my best to cover it.

So much for my bet that Netflix would come to the Wii before the PS3. Today, Netflix and Sony announced that sometime next month, Netflix streaming will come to the PS3. Initially, users will be required to insert a Blu-ray disc in the PS3 which will take advantage of Blu-ray's BD-Live technology to access the Netflix interface.

The disc, which is free for all Netflix members and can be ordered at www.netflix.com/ps3, is a temporary solution, but Netflix is not disclosing when the embedded PS3 solution will replace it. While the PS3 is clearly a great fit for Netflix streaming, I'm still surprised that Netflix would raise their fourth quarter guidance based on this news. With the streaming not due until sometime next month, and users having to first order the disc, I can't imagine that so much streaming takes place in about a six week window, that Netflix things it will impact earnings. To date, Sony has sold just under 9M PS3 units in North America and it's going to be really interesting to see the customer adoption percentage of Netflix on the PS3 in this quarter. It took about three months for 10% of Netflix's members to use the Xbox 360 which has an install base of about 6M more units than the PS3.

The PS3 joins many other Netflix streaming compatible devices including the Roku, Xbox 360, TiVo, Internet TVs from Vizio, LG Electronics, Sony and Blu-ray disc players from Samsung and Best Buy’s Insignia brand. Pretty soon it's going to be easier to make a list of the devices Netflix isn't on.

On yesterday's earnings call, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said that sometime this quarter, Netflix's streaming service will be coming to a new consumer electronics device. As a result of this forthcoming offering, Netflix said it was raising their guidance for the fourth quarter.

Clearly, whatever device it is, it must have a lot of penetration in the market if Netflix thinks it will have that much of an impact on their earnings so quickly. While it could be  the PS3 or the Wii, if it's a gaming console, my money is on the Wii. To date, Sony has sold about 9M PS3 units in the U.S., while Nintendo has sold more than 25M Wii consoles. When Netflix streaming rolled out on the Xbox 360, 10% of Netflix's members used the service within three month, pushing more than 25M GB of video. Based on those numbers, I don't think the PS3 has a big enough install base to impact Netflix quick enough.

In order for Netflix to get a lot of traction quickly in the remaining two months of this quarter, the service needs to be coming to a device that has a really large reach. What other device in the home has an install base large enough to make it relevant? The Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3, in that order, are the only devices that have a large enough install base in the living room. The only other possible device I can think of would be a set-top-box, through a cable operator, but most of them would see Netflix as competition.

It's also interesting to note that Netflix launched their streaming service on the Xbox 360 almost one year ago, on November 19th. Many have speculated that Microsoft's deal with Netflix includes Microsoft having an exclusive deal for one year, to be the only gaming console to support Netflix streaming. If that is in fact the case, that exclusivity would be ending in 27 days and it would make sense that Netflix would be talking about a new CE device just a few weeks before.