Video on demand
These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typical static broadcasting schedule, which was popular under traditional broadcast programming, instead involving newer modes of content consumption that have risen as Internet and IPTV technologies have become prominent, and culminated in the arrival of VOD and over-the-top (OTT) media services on televisions and personal computers.
[1] Television VOD systems can stream content, either through a traditional set-top box or through remote devices such as computers, tablets, and smartphones.
VOD users may also permanently download content to a device such as a computer, digital video recorder (DVR) or, a portable media player for continued viewing.
Other Internet-based VOD systems provide users with access to bundles of video entertainment content rather than individual movies and shows.
The most common of these systems, Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Peacock, Max and Paramount+, use a subscription model that requires users to pay a monthly fee for access to a selection of movies, television shows, and original series.
Some airlines offer VOD services as in-flight entertainment to passengers through video screens embedded in seats or externally provided portable media players.
Some VOD systems store and stream programs from hard disk drives and use a memory buffer to allow the user to fast-forward and rewind videos.
Cable companies have rolled out their own versions of VOD services through apps, allowing television access wherever there is a device that is Internet capable.
The early-2020s launches of apps from cable companies (e.g., NBC's Peacock, CBS's Paramount+) are attempts to compete with Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) services because they lack live news and sports content.
[5] VOD services were only made possible as a result of two major technological developments: MPEG (motion-compensated DCT) video compression and asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) data transmission.
[9] These companies and others began holding trials to set up systems for supplying video on demand over telephone and cable lines.
Bell Atlantic selected IBM and in April 1993 the system became the first VOD over ADSL to be deployed outside the lab, serving 50 video streams.
Of these the primary players in the US were the telephone companies using DEC, Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, USA Video, nCube, SGI, and other servers.
[citation needed] In the UK, from September 1994, a VOD service formed a major part of the Cambridge Digital Interactive Television Trial.
[17] This provided video and data to 250 homes and several schools connected to the Cambridge Cable network, later part of NTL, now Virgin Media.
[citation needed] In 1997, Enron Corporation had entered the broadband market, constructing and purchasing thousands of miles of fiber-optic cables throughout the United States.
[21] In 1998, Kingston Communications became the first UK company to launch a fully commercial VOD service and the first to integrate broadcast television and Internet access through a single set-top box using IP delivery over ADSL.
Sky Anytime on PC uses a legal peer-to-peer approach based on Kontiki technology to provide very-high-capacity multi-point downloads of the video content.
This technology has since expanded its services from feature-film productions to include broadcast television programmes and has led to lower bandwidth requirements for VOD applications.
These viewers can typically pause, fast-forward, and rewind VOD movies due to the low latency and random-access nature of cable technology.
Premium video on demand (PVOD) is a version of TVOD which allows customers to access video-on-demand content several weeks or months earlier then their customary TVOD or home video availability – often feature films made available alongside, or in place of, a traditional release in movie theaters – but at a much higher price point.
A version of the model was tested in 2011 by American satellite TV provider DirecTV under the brand name "Home Premiere", which allowed viewers to rent select films from major studios for US$30 per rental as soon as 60 days after they debuted in cinemas, compared to 120 days for the regular TVOD window; this version only lasted a few months.
Disney used the September 2020 release of the live-action remake of Mulan to launch a related model called Premier Access; this requires customers to pay a premium fee (approximately US$26–30 depending on country) on top of a subscription to the Disney+ streaming service, but they then retain access as long as they maintain their subscription (for Mulan, this was effectively a 90-day rental, as the film became available to all Disney+ subscribers at no extra charge in December).
[46][47][48] Examples of these services include Netflix, Hulu, Fandango at Home, Amazon Prime Video, Max, Disney+, Peacock, Paramount+, Apple TV+,[49] Disney+ Hotstar, iQIYI, Star+, Hayu, BET+, Discovery+, Canal+, Crunchyroll, Hidive, SonyLIV, ZEE5, and GulliMax.
[52] As of 2018, most cable pay-per-view channels now number mainly 3–5, and are used mainly for live ring sports events (boxing and professional wrestling), comedy specials, and concerts, though the latter two sources are declining due to streaming services offering much more lucrative performance contracts to performers, and several ring sports organisations (mainly UFC and WWE) now prefer direct marketing of their product via streaming services such as ESPN+, the WWE Network, and the apps of Fox Sports over pay-TV providers which require a portion of the profits they otherwise retain directly.
[53] Edge Spectrum, an American holder of low-power broadcasting licenses, has an eventual business plan to use its network and a system of digital video recorders to simulate the video-on-demand experience.
Push VOD is also used by broadcasters that want to optimize their video streaming infrastructures by pre-loading the most popular contents to the consumers' set-top device.
[50] A push VOD system uses a personal video recorder (PVR) to store a selection of content, often transmitted in spare capacity overnight or all day long at low bandwidth.
[needs update][11] Data analysis When technology companies, include SVOD apps on their devices, like phones, tablets, televisions, game systems, computers, this can remove an attitude obstruction for a user to view content.
[63] Due recovery efforts to increase those attendance numbers, along with the growing amount of marketing that is need to gain the attention of an audience, pinning down an exact budget for a film production can be difficult.
