Launching later this year, stimTV is a broadband channel that offers a unique personalized viewing experience -- Viewers will see a random flow of brief clips, initially from music videos, and can select when they want to see more, steering the service to adapt to their choices. NPOWR Digital Media in California is setting up deals with music labels for music clips, performance videos and interviews. Cinema, shopping and lifestyle channels are planned in the future. There will also be opportunities to buy associated items. The company, founded in 2001, says it is �poised to become a leader in the next-generation technology that fulfils the long-awaited promise of a convergence between the television and the internet�. They seem serious. They have patented technology of �A system for the automated generation of media� that enables the customization of programming from a database of stored media. The system includes the ability to verify that viewers have �mindfully watched their offerings.� Additional patent applications have been filed on targeted and personalized advertising methods.
Every executive who has approved a connected product roadmap has made a quiet assumption: the network underneath it will still be there. That assumption is about to be tested at a scale the automotive industry has never faced. The global connected vehicle installed base is heading toward a billion units, and the cellular technology most of those vehicles depend on is scheduled to begin its retirement before the end of the decade. For automakers, fleet operators, insurers, and the telecom carriers that serve them, the question is whether the recurring revenue those services promise can survive a connectivity layer with a shorter life than the vehicle carrying it. How Scale Meets an Expiry Date Omdia research forecasts that the global connected vehicle installed base will surpass 1.05 billion units by 2035, up from 473.7 million in 2025. Few installed bases of any kind more than double in a decade, and this one signals that connectivity is moving from premium differentiator to baseline e...