Satellite Video, or Satellite Radio Video, or SVOD (Subscription Video On Demand), or whatever the heck it would be called. It's something that's been talked about by both Sirius and XM for quite some time now.

Sirius has brought up a video service since early 2004. Along the way Sirius has said that their mobile in-car video services would provide children's content in a live format, and would be available by the second half of this year as part of their OEM offering. We even know that Sirius plans to use Microsoft's Windows Media Player 9.

XM demonstrated their own in-car satellite video at CES last year, and even went so far as to demonstrate a live wearable video player to analysts in the beginning of this year. XM has partnered with On2 to provide their video compression technology.

The efforts even extend into Canada where XM Canada and Sirius Canada both talked up satellite video with an expected release for late-2006.

But the question isn't "if" this will happen, or even "when" (because a delay at this point wouldn't surprise anyone - it's almost December afterall) - the question is... how?

The experience needs to be something that consumers will actually find useful. It can't just be music videos or clips of Despirate Housewives. This isn't the iPod audience per se (though it will be compared to the iPod nearly instanteously). If the target distribution market is vehicles, then the audience to appeal to should definitely be kids. Sirius has a good hunch here.

But big name content providers aren't going to sign on board immediately. They sure as hell didn't when iTunes started offering video, though maybe since the landscape has changed so has the mindset of entertainment companies. But most likely the content would need to be either created in-house or by current VOD content providers. I personally love the content provided by Comcast's Select On Demand for my kids, and similar providers would be quite open to working with both satcasters.

Then there's social video. Verizon partnered with YouTube (but as a neutered version), and a similar style of approach isn't inconceivable. But it couldn't be the only content provided, and would be best for a handheld video player rather than a rear seat video application.

For the in-house route, the obvious choice would be to make the satellite video offering an extension of the core satellite radio services. So you could see the action in-studio, or watch whatever the hosts are talking about. This works great for the talk channels.

Aside from children's content, YouTube-style videos or in-studio shenanegans - what would be on your "wishlist" for content if/when Sirius and XM unveil this technology to the masses?

According to Phonescoop Cingular CTO, Kris Rinne, yesterday revealed that the carrier is looking at other options to deliver video to its subscribers. With MediaFLO or Modeo possibily in play to deliver video over Cingular's terrestrial network, Rinne said they're looking to a new satellite video provider - who explicitely is not DISH or DirecTV. Curious. We know to expect XM Video and SIRIUS Video sometime soon, but will Cingular's cell network be the delivery method?

Now, combine that with the recent Lucent patent of delivering satellite radio over cell networks, and you've got yourself a plausible story. Remember that Lucent won a contract with Cingular back in Q405 to provide IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) services across Cingular's entire network.

The question is, which satellite radio/video provider could be in play? With SIRIUS already in bed with Sprint, it seems that makes XM winner by default, but that's just speculation folks. 

[Phonescoop]
Thanks cb!

So now this gets interesting. An anonymous reader sent in this photo of an upcoming portable video device by XM Satellite Radio. I can't attest to the validity of the photo - in a land of fancy Photochop work - who can say for sure. But I now know the device is real.

First there was this post by On2 Technologies President and CEO, Doug McIntyre, describing a truly portable video device using On2 VP7 video technology. This drew a lot of speculation, because I couldn't get a straight answer as to whether this was the Helix/Inno or something new.

But now there's a lot more information courtesy of Bear Stearns analyst Robert Peck. In last week's Bear Stearns report, Peck shed some light on this device and what it's capable of.

XM demonstated this "wearable video device" to analysts recently. It has the ablity to receive live video signal in portable mode. In live mode, each channel uses 256kb of capacity using On2's video compression. Should the XM/WCS deal go through, XM will have the bandwidth capabilities to broadcast at least 20 video channels in live mode.

Even without the extra WCS bandwidth, XM could still just send the content to be cached or XM could limit the number of video channels broadcast..

Looking at the photo, this seems to have the same style form-factor as the upcoming Helix/Inno - with similar controls and interface features as the two. The size looks somewhat more like the PSP than a 5G Video iPod. At this angle though, we can't tell the thickness of it.

What's the timeline on this? Not sure, but if a few priviledged people are getting the chance to play with this thing, one can only assume it may hit the streets this year. Before the Holiday Season maybe? Who knows.