Akimbo Unveils Largest Video-On-Demand Service for TV

Feb. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Akimbo, a new company launching today, will offer the nation's largest video-on-demand service for television. The Akimbo Service will feature more than 20,000 hours of video, including content not previously available on TV. Under an innovative business model, Akimbo will work directly with providers to host, promote and deliver content, providing new distribution channels for movies, films, music video, specialty programs and other video. The Akimbo Service is the first to deliver DVD-quality video over the Internet directly to TVs. Video from the Akimbo Service is downloaded and stored on the stylish Akimbo Player for on-demand viewing.

The Akimbo Service will begin with 50 categories of content, including independent films, foreign language, news, health and fitness, sports, children's programs and education. For example, Akimbo Service customers can educate and entertain their children with safe, dedicated programming. Sports enthusiasts can experience rock climbing, snowboarding, kayaking, fishing and billiards tournaments on-demand, programs that are not available on network, cable or satellite channels. The Akimbo Service also offers a wide variety of foreign language programming for those who want shows from their homeland, and in their native tongue. Nature exploration, concerts, home improvement and competitive dance are just a few of the other personal passions that consumers can explore using Akimbo. The Akimbo Service is expected to grow rapidly, with new categories and programs added on a regular basis, to provide the most comprehensive selection of video-on-demand programming available on TV. Over time, Akimbo will add content with broad appeal to the Akimbo Service, such as popular movies and TV show archives.

"We've already had an exceptional response from video providers who have long dreamed of this kind of new distribution channel, a way to cost-effectively deliver high -quality video programs directly to consumers' living rooms," said Josh Goldman, CEO of Akimbo. "Akimbo is the first to marry the popularity of television and the unlimited capacity of the Internet. We have created software and hardware that utilizes the latest advances in technology to benefit both consumers who are bored with the choices currently offered on television, and the many providers of fascinating new programs who cannot find distribution through existing methods."

The Akimbo Service has only recently become possible thanks to a confluence of technological and economic breakthroughs. The cost of transporting video over the Internet has decreased to under $1 per gigabyte, down from $20 per gigabyte just a few years ago. In addition, the recent availability of high-quality codecs (new ways to compress video for transfer on the Internet) allows Akimbo to deliver DVD-quality video at 1.5 megabits per second. At the same time, broadband has gone mainstream -- an audience of nearly 50 million people is connected via broadband today, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. Many people are also buying new, inexpensive and easy-to-install home networks. And with the industry rapidly standardizing on digital rights management systems, content providers are increasingly enthusiastic about Internet distribution.

Steve Shannon, a former ReplayTV executive who helped pioneer the digital video recorder (DVR) is Akimbo's founder and executive vice president of sales and marketing. "Millions of consumers are watching video on their PCs, even though many of them prefer to actually watch it on their TVs," said Shannon. "Until Akimbo, there hasn't been a solution for consumers to get specialty video on their TVs. Now, consumers can enjoy videos of their hobbies and interests in their living rooms -- whether award-winning documentaries or golf lessons."

Akimbo Service and Akimbo Player
The Akimbo Service will initially be available via the Akimbo Player, a stylish set-top box that can store 200 hours of video, and provides consumers with viewing controls such as pause, rewind and archive. The Akimbo Player is easy to use, with an intuitive onscreen program guide and a customized remote control. The Akimbo Player utilizes widely adopted technology for playback including Windows Media 9 technologies for audio and video compression, and digital rights management.

The Akimbo Service automatically delivers an onscreen program guide filled with channels, video previews, editorial information and viewer options like parental controls. From the guide, Akimbo subscribers choose which programming they would like to download to the Akimbo Player for later viewing. Then, each time Akimbo subscribers turn on the TV, they will have new video, previews and editorial information waiting for them.

The Akimbo Service works with any broadband connection, either DSL or cable modem, and a home network. Consumers simply connect their wired or wireless home network to their Akimbo Players, which are then connected to their televisions through standard A/V cables.

Availability and Pricing
The Akimbo Player is expected to start at $199. The monthly subscription to the Akimbo Service will be $9.99. The Akimbo Service and the Akimbo Player will soon be available for order from Akimbo's Web site at www.akimbo.com. The Akimbo Player is expected to be in retail stores nationwide in late 2004.

Source: Akimbo