Call the cable TV provider in your area, because you’re going to want broadband Internet for the upcoming “Streaming Wars”.

When Dish Network satellite TV bought the failing Blockbuster video, many wondered how Dish would turn it into a money maker.   Well, the first attempt is being made as we speak.  After Netflix announced significant price hikes to come, Dish Network saw an opportunity to grab new customers.

Netflix took its single disc/streaming video product and broke it into two products.  What was once $9.99 a month for both is now $7.99 a month per product.  Obviously, Netflix users are miffed.  Dish Network offers a one disc rental package for $9.99, but the Blockbuster package does not include streaming video.  At least not yet.
However, according to a BizJournals.com article, Dish Network satellite TV / Blockbuster video feels customers would switch from Netflix for early access to new releases and video game rentals.  The Blockbuster package is $2 more a month than the single disc package from Netflix, so only time will tell.  What’s more important, saving $2 or having access to newer new releases and video games?

It looks like Dish Network satellite TV is heading in the direction of the other satellite Internet providers.

According to a story on Multichannel, “A U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge approved Dish Network’s proposal to purchase TerreStar Networks for $1.375 billion Thursday, giving the satellite giant access to wireless spectrum for a possible broadband play.”  That looks pretty cut and dry.  Dish Network satellite TV appears to be moving into satellite Internet territory and why wouldn’t they?  People need broadband all over the world, even if cable lines can’t get to their houses.

Is Allconnect a trend setter?  Perhaps. For a while now, Allconnect has offered you a way to bundle and save with the choices you want^SM .  That simply means you can choose your providers and services based on your needs, not the available bundles, and it looks like we were on to something.

A recent Nielsen study shows consumers are in favor making their own bundles.  While cable TV providers are still the majority in paid TV subscriptions, satellite TV providers are closing the gap.  One reason satellite TV subscriptions are on the rise is the recent trend in creating your own bundle.  With services like Allconnect, consumers can choose a satellite TV package and pair it with cable Internet service.  It offers choice and, in some cases, the best of both worlds.

Let’s say you prefer your local satellite TV package over your local cable TV package, but you would rather have the higher speed of a cable Internet connection.  Well, now you can.  With Allconnect, you can create your own bundle.

Enter your address in the “Find Savings” widget to see what’s available in your area.

In recent years, we have seen a slow, but steady increase in available broadband Internet speeds.  It wasn’t that long ago that dial-up Internet access was all the rage.  Now, we’re talking about Internet download speeds of 50mbps or more.

A lot has changed with the ever increasing capability of high speed Internet.  Businesses have been made and businesses have been scuttled, all on the power of the Internet.  The latest make or break market appears to be online TV, or “TV Everywhere” as it is known.  While companies like Netflix are busy streaming thousands of movies and TV shows from multiple sources, networks like HBO are using broadband Internet to deliver their own shows to their subscribers.  It seems slow at times, but all of this happening at a rather rapid pace.

The latest company to attempt the TV Everywhere model appears to be You Tube.  According to an article on CNBC, You Tube will begin renting newer, big budget movie titles.  You Tube has been renting for a while now, but the selection has been slim and dated.  While Google has not turned You Tube into the money maker we all thought it would become,  this new online renting plan aims to add money to the bank.  CNBC claims “Google sees a problem with the fact that people spend an average of just 15 minutes on YouTube each day and five hours watching TV. So, it’s populating its movie rentals with behind-the-scenes movie extras and links to reviews, so its users don’t click away to IMDB.com or Rotten Tomatoes.com.”  The plan is to keep visitors on You Tube, increasing exposure to valuable advertising dollars.

Competition seems to offer the best products for consumers, so expect online movies and TV shows to only get better as the competition increases.

Suddenlink cable TV and high speed Internet has made a couple of big announcements over recent days.  While it certainly doesn’t affect a far reaching audience, it is good news to the local communities and a glimmer of hope for other rural areas.

First, according to Victor Godinez on the Dallas News Tech Blog, Suddenlink announced plans to roll out faster broadband Internet to a few rural communities outside Dallas, Texas.  The new areas could see speeds up to 50mbps in the next month or so with cheaper Internet plans in the 20, 10 and 15mbps range.  While the new speed doesn’t cover the nation, or even all of Texas, it is good to see a cable Internet provider reaching out to the more rural areas.  Perhaps we will see braodband Internet nationwide in the near future.

In other news, A post from Todd Spangler at Broadcast & Cable reports Suddenlink has also announced plans to offer HBO GO, the TV everywhere service from HBO, to all of its HBO subscribing customers.   Even better, the HBO GO service is free for current HBO subscribers on any high speed Internet connection.

We’ve all seen the fall of Blockbuster video in recent months.  There have been banners reading, “Still renting!” posted on sides of stores.  Then, only weeks later, a new banner goes up reading, “Store closing”.  It’s sad.  But there may be new life for the originator of the home movie rental.  Dish Network won a bankruptcy auction for the failing entertainer. The big question on everyone’s mind seems to be, “Why?”

Why would the Dish Network satellite TV provider buy a home movie rental chain as it falls into obscurity?  There certainly seems to be no lack of speculation.  Yahoo! News even claims that Dish Network will keep the 1700 remaining Blockbuster Video stores up and running.  But how do home rental stores equate to sales for satellite TV providers?  Right now it’s anyone’s guess.  What is clear is that Dish Network’s purchase of Blockbuster Video could be a game changing play for a section of the streaming video market currently run by Netflix.

In an effort to break into one of the fastest growing entertainment sectors in recent history, Amazon has launched its own online video service.  It’s an obvious attempt to try and capture some of the revenue and traffic associated with a service that has been largely dominated by Netflix at this point, but competition seems to bring about the best in innovation.

A letter addressed to customers has been posted on Amazon.  The letter, from Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos,  says Amazon Prime members will have unlimited access to the 5,000 movies and TV shows in the Amazon library.  Amazon Prime membership currently requires a $79 annual fee and allows members to use “free” 2 day shipping on most Amazon products.  The letter also states that Amazon’s online video service will not be an additional fee, so if you’re an Amazon Prime member check it out.

Of course, there are a couple of side notes.  First, if you’re not an Amazon Prime member you can always join.  Second, you’ll need the technology.

In order to stream video through Amazon Prime, you’ll need a high speed Internet connection and a compatible viewing device.  you can see the rather exhaustive list of acceptable devices over at Amazon’s video page.

If you watch movies online using NetFlix you’ll be interested in what they have to say about speed and delivery.  The movie rental company recently released a chart showing cable Internet providers and phone companies and where they rank in terms of delivering HD titles using NetFlix online.  While it may seem like a risky move, it may be just the type of prodding our cable Internet providers and phone companies need to pick up the pace.

The chart illustrates online performance in kilobits per second over the last few months, since October 2010.  It looks like Charter, Comcast cable TV, Cox and Time Warner Cable are the consistent top performers.  So what does that tell you?  Well, it looks like cable Internet providers are consistently providing faster service to NetFlix online customers.  However, none of the US cable Internet providers can top the Canadian providers.  It looks like our neighbors to the North are delivering faster Internet speeds.

Ken Floreance, Director of Content Delivery at NetFlix, does a good job of putting the speeds into perspective.  Ken says the “top HD streams are about 4800 kilobits per second. Clients may switch through a number of bitrates as they ramp up to the highest stream, or shift down from the highest stream if they cannot sustain play at that rate due to throughput constraints. No client would sustain a 4800 [kbps] stream from start to finish (there would at least be a few smaller streams averaged in for startup) but the higher the sustained average, the greater the throughput the client can achieve, and the greater the image quality over the duration of the play.”

Sp you likely wouldn’t experience blistering speeds from start to finish, but the US could certainly stand to see a higher average throughout the industry.  Ken plans on updating monthly, so hopefully we’ll see a steady increase from sea to shining sea.

Time Warner Cable Internet packages have expereinced some upgrades in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina.  The end result is an upgraded experience with speeds up to 50 mbps downloads and up to 5 mbps for uploads.  Of course, the upgraded speeds will require a new cable modem.  However, these new modems do come with built-in wireless connectivity.

One source, DSL Reports, claims a $25 fee increase over Time Warner’s current Internet rates with a max of $99, while another, the LocalTechWire, had no pricing data as of yet.  Regardless, the increased speeds should be well received in the tech hot spots of Research Triangle Park.