In recent years I’ve been a little bit jealous of our American neighbors when it comes to the range of options they have to access high quality video content. But with the recent announcement that Netflix will be expanding into the Great White North, I can feel a little better.

The idea of getting unlimited streaming movies for something that might be around $10/month is pretty appealing. And with more and more TV & compatible devices (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, etc) with Netflix support, I think this kind of service will have genuine mainstream appeal. No longer will folks have to mess with wires to connect their PC to their TV!

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Hulu recently announced that they will be introducing a premium service that is a departure from the free model that has made it so popular.  For $10 per month, subscribers to this new service will gain features like access to a larger content library and the availability of 720p video; however, premium subscribers hoping to bypass the embedded advertisements will be disappointed, as they will get the same number of ads as in the free service.  Response to the announcement has been mixed, with many people disappointed in particular that the advertisements will persist.

It should be noted that most people have been expecting this announcement ever since Hulu launched.  Despite its popularity, Hulu continues to lose money, and it faces stiff competition from the likes of Netflix and iTunes.  To help muscle into living rooms around the United States, Hulu and Microsoft will join forces to bring Hulu to the Xbox Video Marketplace dashboard, and Hulu will also be available on Sony’s PS3, Apple’s iPad and iPhone, and a slew of other devices like Bluray players and TVs.

Whether or not they’re interested in Hulu’s pay service, subscribers are likely to gain from increased entertainment options.  With a wide variety of hardware (set top devices, game consoles, placeshifting devices) and services (Hulu, iPlayer, etc) and ongoing investments by service providers in advanced network policy control to deliver optimum quality of experience, the marketplace will decide the winners; ultimately, the choice is up to the subscribers.

As the world watches the last games in the group stage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, we’ve had a long enough period to make some observations about the popularity of the event.  Of course, news sites have seen record-setting numbers of hits, and Twitter is buzzing with World Cup topics.  This information is interesting, but incomplete; what about the impact in terms of Internet bandwidth?

Here in Canada, the games are broadcast live on CBC and are simultaneously available for streaming from the CBC’s website.  Rogers is also making the games available with their Rogers On Demand TV and website services, which also provide live streaming to mobile devices.

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