Akimbo Releases Akimbo Player
Reprinted from an Akimbo press release:
Akimbo Systems rolled out its Internet-to-TV video-on-demand (VOD) service to consumers nationwide today, and announced an alliance with Amazon.com (www.amazon.com) to sell its Akimbo Player. The Akimbo Service provides access to thousands of programs, allowing consumers to choose content and view it on-demand. Consumers select programs that are downloaded to the Akimbo Player through a broadband-Internet connection, and view them on their televisions using an easy “Queue and View” format. Amazon.com seeks to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices.
Akimbo has agreed to make Amazon.com its exclusive retailer for the 2004 holiday season. Beginning today, the Akimbo Player is available in the Amazon.com Electronics store at www.amazon.com/electronics for $229.99. Consumers can sign up for the Akimbo Service by visiting www.akimbo.com For a limited time, customers ordering an Akimbo Player from Amazon.com will receive three months of free Akimbo Service (normally $9.99) or $30 off a lifetime subscription.
“With millions of customers who are interested in finding the latest in new entertainment options, Amazon.com provides a unique opportunity for Akimbo to get in front of many people who might not be satisfied with what they’ve been able to find on TV to date,” said Steve Shannon, founder and executive vice president of Akimbo. “Now those people can experience the feeling of being in control of what they see with Akimbo’s ‘queue and view’ TV experience - watching only what they choose, whenever they want it.”
The service offers consumers 50 categories of content, including mainstream, classic and independent films, foreign language, news, health and fitness, sports, children’s programs, education and more. At no additional charge, anglophiles can download to the Akimbo Player award-winning series such as “The Jewel In the Crown” and “Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious Universe” from one of United Kingdom’s largest television distribution companies Granada International. Independent film buffs can check out comprehensive catalogues from Undergroundfilm, GreenCine, Amaze Films, and IFILM. Consumers interested in more mainstream entertainment can program their Akimbo Player to receive news specials and features from CNN, award-winning classic movies from the Turner Classic Movies’ (TCM) library and favorite cartoon episodes from the Cartoon Network.
Premium services are also available from Akimbo. For example, people interested in Chinese language programming can view hundreds of titles of exclusive Asian entertainment, including TV serials, movies, musicals and variety shows on the AsiaMovieChannel. Sports fans have their own channels on Akimbo, including difficult to find programs like Sail.TV’s coverage of great regattas and race series; and surf, skate and snowboarding videos from UNION* The Board Riding Channel - Quiksilver Entertainment’s new outdoor action sports programming division.
The selection of video on the Akimbo Service is constantly growing, with new categories and programs added on a regular basis. It is Akimbo’s goal to provide the most comprehensive selection of video-on-demand programming available on TV.
Akimbo Service and Akimbo Player
The Akimbo Service works with the Akimbo Player, a stylish set-top box that can store up to 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 Service subscribers turn on their TVs, they have new videos, previews and editorial information waiting for them.
The Akimbo Service works with any broadband-Internet connection, either DSL or cable modem, and a home network. Consumers simply connect their wired or wireless home networks to their Akimbo Players, which then connect to their televisions through standard A/V cables.
About Akimbo
With the Akimbo Service, your wish is on demand. Akimbo, recently named a Red Herring 100 Private Company, is the first company to deliver digital-quality video-on-demand to any television via a broadband-Internet connection. The Akimbo Service with the Akimbo Player lets consumers choose from thousands of hours of programs specifically suited to their tastes, so they can watch them whenever they choose. By collaborating with Akimbo, video providers gain a new opportunity to cost-effectively reach targeted audiences with content ranging from special interest to broad appeal, without building new infrastructure. Akimbo partners with leading providers of specialty video to deliver more than 50 categories of unique entertainment, including film, comedy, music, health and fitness, sports, education, youth, foreign language, and cooking. With offices in Los Angeles and San Mateo, Calif., Akimbo is a privately held company funded by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Sprout Group and Zone Ventures. The company is founded and managed by executives from ReplayTV, Macromedia, CNET Networks, mySimon, Microsoft and Apple. For more information, visit www.akimbo.com.