Silverlight Versus Flash: Rich Media Platform Comparison Chart

Microsoft will be making a bunch of announcements this week from their MIX event surrounding Silverlight and StreamingMedia.com's Editor Eric is at the event and will be covering the announcements shortly.

From the week of NAB, Microsoft was distributing with its press kit the below chart comparing Silverlight's features and benefits with that of Flash. I have not had a chance to really review them side by side but this is how Microsoft sees their platform stacking up to Flash.

MTV Networks, BitTorrent, Turner Broadcasting and The DCIA To Speak On P2P At The Streaming Media East Show

We have some great sessions at the Streaming Media East show, May 14-16 in NYC talking about P2P and other forms of content distribution. One of the sessions on May 15th is entitled "Is P2P The Answer To Large Scale Video Delivery?"

Moderated by Rich Mavrogeanes the Founder and CTO of VBrick, this session discusses whether P2P will finally revolutionize online video distribution. They will discuss whether the cost savings advantage with P2P is real, how P2P will translate into a competitive advantage, how P2P distribution may affect the networks and CDNs and what some of the potential problems are that P2P technology may face from the telco's. The panelists include:

• Nick Rockwell, CTO, MTV Networks
• Christopher Levy, Chairman, Digital Media Management Working Group, DCIA
• Monty Mullig, SVP, Internet Technologies, Turner Broadcasting System
• Brian Taptich, VP, Business Development, BitTorrent

Register for the show and come hear the debate on whether P2P is the answer to the fundamental capacity limitations for large-scale video audiences for today's Internet. Are there any topics or points would you like to see discussed at this session? If so, please include them in the comments section.

Job Opening: Online Media Director, CMP

CMP currently has two Online Media Director positions available to lead, manage and oversee the digital media strategy for their Channel (targeting the sellers of technology) and Technology Innovators Group (targeting the builders of technology). Locations: San Francisco and Waltham, MA.

For more details, contact Beth Rivera at CMP.

If you are looking for a new position, have taken a new job or are a company that has a job opening, let me know. In many cases I will highlight it here on the blog - free of charge.

Do P2P Networks Really Support Streaming?

I know it may seem strange to ask that question, but part of the problem with P2P technology is that most content owners don't know what P2P does and does not support. I'm with them. Even I don't know what P2P distribution can and can't do. For instance, many P2P providers call their service "P2P streaming" but is it really streaming? If you are not using a Flash Media Server for example, then how are the P2P networks delivering "streaming" Flash video?

There seems to be no standard amongst the P2P providers as to what they all provide, the range of services vary greatly and many speak to P2P as being a live solution, others say only on-demand. Yet what is interesting to note about nearly all of the P2P delivery providers websites is that they all have the exact same sales propositions. All of the sites talk to the same value proposition being quality, cost and security.

And none of them that I can find talk to reporting, which seems odd. How are the P2P delivery networks going to distinguish themselves from one another? They have to do something, because as of right now, visiting each of their sites, they all sound and look exactly the same.

Motionbox, VideoEgg, Veotag & Magnify.net To Speak On UGC At The Streaming Media East Show

We have some great sessions at the Streaming Media East show, May 14-16 in NYC talking about user generated content. One of the sessions on May 15th is entitled "User-Generated Content Tools".

Moderated by Steve Bryant, Associate Editor of eWEEK and Hollywood Reporter blogger, this session covers how with more than 50 user generated content sites available on the Web today, what tools are currently being offered and used by consumers for content generation? Learn what tools consumers want, how they manage content today and what the future holds for making consumer-generated content even easier to create, upload, and deliver. The panelists include:

• Chris O'Brien, CEO and Co-Founder, Motionbox
• Matt Sanchez, CEO and Co-Founder, VideoEgg
• Steve Rosenbaum, CEO and Founder, Magnify.net
• Scott Rhodes, CEO, Veotag

Register for the show and see firsthand presentations from some of the leading companies offering tools in this niche vertical. Are there any topics or points would you like to see discussed at this session? If so, please include them in the comments section.

Streaming Magazine: Cookin' With P2P - Recipe for Success or Flash in the Pan?

That's the title and focus of the June/July issue of Streaming Media magazine. In addition to discussing P2P we'll also have a SPECIAL REPORT: How Will Silverlight and Adobe Media Player Change the Online Video Landscape?

Additional editorial topics for this issue include:

- Online Video and Web 2.0
- This is Not Your Father’s TV, Part 2
- Streaming vs. Progressive Download: The Business Case for Each
- Putting VideoLAN to the Test
- First Look: Microsoft Windows Media’s New Video Encoding Profiles
- Reviewed: VX30 Video Encoder
- Case Study: MTV’s The Hills Are Alive on the Web

Streaming Media magazine is published bi-monthly and is free to U.S. residents that qualify. International readers can also purchase a subscription to the magazine.

List Of P2P Delivery Networks

The list of providers who are selling P2P based content delivery services to distribute video continues to grow rapidly. I am trying to create a comprehensive list of all the P2P distribution networks in the market today so I can better compare the solutions they have to offer. Below is the list of P2P video delivery networks that I currently track. I know there are others out there I forgot or that I don't know about and I would be interested to hear from others who they would add to this list. I am primarily interested in those providers delivering video as opposed to P2P technologies that specialize in audio. I've also separated those providers who have just a P2P offering and those who offer both a P2P and regular CDN offering.

 P2P Offering Only

• www.1-click.com
• www.bitgravity.com
• www.gridnetworks.com
• www.itiva.com
• www.movenetworks.com
• www.octoshape.com
• www.rawflow.com
• www.rinera.com
• www.swarmcast.com
• www.voddler.com      
  

P2P & CDN Offering

• www.cachelogic.com
• www.verisign.com

Who's missing from this list?

Job Opening: Sr. Product Manager, Business Development Manager, Microsoft Silverlight Team

Microsoft is looking to hire two full-time Sr. Product Managers and a Business Development & Deployment Manager working on the new Silverlight platform. All jobs are based in Redmond and you must have at least five years experience in the enterprise streaming and/or content delivery space.

Contact Sean Alexander at Microsoft if you are interested.

If you are looking for a new position, have taken a new job or are a company that has a job opening, let me know. In many cases I will highlight it here on the blog - free of charge.

P2P Delivery Networks Can't Survive On Their Own

Since the acquisition of RedSwoosh by Akamai, a lot of P2P delivery providers have been contacting me saying that the acquisition now validates their service offering. One has nothing to do with the other. Over the years, we have seen many acquisitions in the market where the company that was acquired then got close down or went under. The fact that one company in the P2P distribution market got acquired does not mean that all of a sudden P2P is going to get adopted.

Yes, it has a chance to become another means of distributing content, but it's not about comparing P2P distribution to other forms of content distribution. So many people want to talk about P2P as if you have to use that, or something else and no one talks about it as a hybrid. It's like the people who say they will either do streaming or progressive downloads. It's not one or the other. It's always about using the best combination of delivery platforms depending on the type of content being delivered along with who it's being delivered to and how they want to consume it.

In order for P2P to make it, it has to be combined into a service based business. It can't stand alone and be supported by itself. P2P can't try to fight against the traditional means of CDN distribution or else it will lose. It has to be combined with all other forms of delivery and be thought of as just another means of video distribution.

P2P vendors also need to stop referring to Joost and BitTorrent as successful P2P companies and trying to use those as examples when talking to people about P2P. Joost and BitTorrent are NOT P2P companies. They are content companies who happen to use P2P for delivery. But if consumers do not adopt Joost or BitTorrent's content business models, then the form of distribution they are using does not matter. They are content companies trying to sell content, that's the bottom line. The consumer does not care how the content is being delivered or what the protocol is as long as it meets their own personal expectations of how they judge quality.

It's a natural fit for a traditional based CDN like Akamai to want to add P2P delivery to the many other forms of content delivery offered and I expect we will see more CDN do this over time. That is the best way to get P2P adopted, offering and using it as another means of delivery be it streaming, progressive download or P2P.

What Ever Happened To TiVo Being A Hub For Content?

In December of 2005, TiVo announced it had partnered with Rocketboom so that TiVo users could watch Rocketboom on their DVRs and TiVo emphasized how this would be the first of many content deals to come. The industry praised this as a big deal for content owners who's content would now be able to cross over to set-top-boxes and the integration of online content to TV's.

But since this announcement, TiVo has made very few content deals of any significance. As of now, from what I can tell, they have fourteen content partners via TiVoCast. Aside from the New York Times, all of the other content deals are from small web only properties. Yes, they have the whole Amazon Unbox deal, but when was the last time you even heard anything about that?

You'd think at a time when TiVo's CEO is saying that "hopefully" they will pull in more subscribers and grow their business based on TiVo's unique kinds of features that help differentiate its DVR from the others on the market that they would had a lot more content deals in place.

So why hasn't TiVo done more content deals? Has anyone approached TiVo about a content deal and can comment on what it takes to become a content partner? Is it too expensive to get your content on TiVo's platform? I'm interested to hear from others who may know as to why TiVo seems to have so few content deals in place.

100 Posts And Two Months Later

Thanks to everyone's support, the blog did over 92,000 page views in the second month, up from 50,000 page views in the first month.

As I said from day one, I believe that the contents and success of any real blog comes from the community rather than just one individual, which is why I feel it is important to share the traffic numbers in an open forum. I welcome your continued feedback and ideas on what you want to discuss and I encourage more of you to use the comments section.

In the past month I've added FeedBurner as the new source for RSS and made all of the posts searchable via Technorati. I've also edited the categories section a bit and made them more focused. The new latest post section and previous post links should also make it easier to navigate. If there is something I can do better to make reading the blog easier, please let me know.

I'd also like to thank last months blog sponsors of Limelight Networks, PEER 1, NaviSite and Akamai. If you are interested in reaching a very targeted group of readers, please contact Joel Unickow for blog sponsorship details. We've kept it very affordable, under $1,000 a month, so that many can take advantage of the readership and reach of the blog.

Next week, I will be posting some thoughts on the business of P2P networks, additional thoughts on Silverlight and my take on the lack of demographics and data for our industry.

I welcome your comments and thoughts at any time. Thanks for your continued support.

Comprehensive List Of Stream Hosting Providers

One of the most common questions I get asked is for a list of streaming media hosting providers. Aside from the large companies everyone knows, typically referred to as CDNs, there are also a bunch of smaller regional service providers who also specialize in delivering audio and video content via progressive download and/or streaming. Choosing the right provider is all based on what your needs are and there is not one provider on this list who is better than another unless you are talking your specific needs.

This list is by no means 100% complete and there may be other companies that I don't know about, or forgot. I did not list those providers who simply re-sell or private label one of the providers on the list below or who specialize in hosting just radio stations etc... I also am not listing any providers who only have a P2P offering as I will be doing a post about P2P providers next week.

Below is the list in alphabetical order. Please note that not all of these providers support both streaming and progressive downloads and not all of them support the same video formats. (Flash, Windows Media, QuickTime and Real)

www.Abacast.com

www.ArcoStream.com

www.AudioVideoWeb.com

www.PowerStream.net

www.SevernStream.com

www.StreamGuys.com

www.StreamTheWorld.com

www.StreamingMediaHosting.com

www.UpStreamNetworks.com

If you feel I have missed someone on the list, please let me know in the comments section.

Microsoft's Silverlight Platform Focused On Lowering Cost Of Content Creation & Delivery

There's been a lot of coverage so far about Microsoft's announcement this week of Silverlight and we'll be hearing even more from Microsoft in the coming weeks from their MIX event. Of all the coverage I have read about Silverlight, few have really mentioned how Microsoft is marketing Silverlight as a cheaper platform to create and delver content with. While cost is not always the most important factor when it comes to content creation and delivery, cost does always play into the overall decision of what platform(s) content creators will support.

From Microsoft employee Sean Alexander's blog, "Silverlight will address the rising costs of creation and rich media delivery in two key ways- providing a consistent set of tools for development and design teams building applications for the Web and Windows, and support for lower cost of delivery of audio and video experiences when used with Windows Media streaming".

The cost of content creation and delivery is a big factor and potentially a big advantage for Silverlight for a few reasons. The major reason Windows Media grabbed so much market share over the RealNetworks platform years back was that Windows Media was cheaper to deliver than Real. Content delivery networks had to charge customers more to deliver content in the Real format to cover their licensing costs of the Real server, just like they have to do today when delivering Flash streaming. Windows Media server was free, the Real server software was not. With Microsoft announcing that the new Windows Server, codename "Longhorn" will delivery twice the scalability than Windows Server 2003, it means delivery networks will be able to deliver even more content than Flash at an even cheaper costs.

While the higher cost of creating and delivering in Flash over Windows Media has not stopped too many in the past, it has stopped some content creators from wanting to spend two to three times more just to use the Flash streaming format. And the ones who do pay the extra cost to use Flash streaming, have been happy to do so as Flash gives their users an experience Windows Media couldn't. But if that quickly changes with Silverlight and both platforms begin to offer the same type of user experience, I expect cost will play an ever bigger factor than it has in the past as to what platform(s) content owners will choose.

In my eyes, cheaper cost to create and deliver content means more adoption and consumption of content which equals a faster growing industry with more successful content business models. If Silverlight truly does allow content owners to create, encode and deliver content faster and cheaper while providing the same if not better user experience than Flash streaming, then Microsoft is going to have the advantage in the long run.

UBS: 10 Conditions Of Success For Any Online Video Venture

Matt Coppet and the UBS Global Media Investment Research team puts out a great newsletter each day about the online media and telcom industry, typicaly focusing each newsletter on a particular topic. This week, one of the topics was focused on the numerous online video ventures recently announced by many of the major broadcasters.

From their newsletter, here are their "10 conditions of success for any online video ventures": Traffic optimization, advertising integration, brand focused, syndicated model, social media friendly, independent decision making, bandwidth costs control, leveraging data mining, bit sized content
available and predictive marketing

• (1) High web traffic from start is necessary to sustain advertisers' interest and to soften the impact of higher ad inventories on CPMs. Current CPMs up to $50 would be tough to retain in a basic streaming environment (no targeted ad).

• (2) Integrated ad servicing process is key (no ability for each partner to sell its own ad inventory, which would defeat the purpose). It also eliminates channel conflicts.

• (3) Brands/advertisers friendly (brands should be able to go behind pre roll/post-roll ads. We believe opening the full interface to branding/ sponsorship - including the player skin - is key. Ability for users to bookmark content and distribute segment is important.

• (4) Syndication model can work with compelling content. It is not a surprise to see NBC Universal in the venture. It recently pre-launches the National Broadband Co. (nbbc), a content syndication marketplace. We do not know yet if nbbc would be integrated into the venture or become an infrastructure partner.

• (5) Minimal social-media (web 2.0) function (such as users' commentaries/ ratings/chat). Over promising in term of user customization could conflict with future branding/sponsorship. For instance, mySpace users would be able to embed those videos from the NBCU-NWS venture on their webpage. Any venture would have to make sure of the integrity of the player branding (against program scripts that could remove them).

• (6) Independence is important Operating power should not be shared among partners, which could slow down the decision making process. It also eliminates conflict of interest.

• (7) Contextual advertising (or predictive marketing) should enable advertisers to focus on branding as well (and not only on shorter term promotion). As relevance improves, brands would likely spend more driving monetization up.

• (8) Managing bandwidth costs is central to any ventures success.

• (9) Moving from simple data gathering to leveraging data. Understanding the customer (analyzing databases) offers a potential viewer "lifespan value".  Package goods companies for instance could be inclined to spend more for addressable advertising.

• (10) Offering content in the format customers want (such the 5 minute signature moment in a sitcom or a specific candidate performance on American Idol). Smaller length would respond their younger demo aspiration and could increase the ratio ad over content.

Microsoft Announces Silverlight: A New Cross-Browser, Cross-Platform Plug-In For Video & Rich Applications

It's been a long time in the making and I am happy to announce that today, Microsoft officially announced Silverlight. Silverlight is a a new cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. Why am I happy about this? Well for starters, for the past two years I have been complaining to Microsoft that their Windows Media customers feel abandoned. There has been a lack of support for the Windows Media platform for quite some time and Microsoft had ignored the video market for the past few years. Finally, that is now going to change. Customers who use Windows Media and partners who have been building on top of Windows Media are once again going to get the support they need to make the end-user experience better - which is what video on the web is all about - the users experience.

We have a feature story about Silverlight on StreamingMedia.com which gives more details and also covers Adobe's announcement today of their new media player. (more on that in a later post) Microsoft has kept the development of Silverlight under wraps for quite some time but we've been getting the low-down on the platform over the past few weeks so I'll have a bunch to talk about over the next few days as more details about Silverlight are made public.

This is a big day for the industry. Anytime you have two companies like Microsoft and Adobe both vying for control of the format content creators use for video is a good thing. Competition means we'll have more products come to the market faster as each company tries to out do one another.   

Major Announcements Coming From NAB Next Week: Will Truly Impact The Industry

I know the title of this post is something you hear of every year before NAB kicks off, but this year, there are going to be some announcements that will really change the way consumers interact with video content. We've been pre-briefed at StreamingMedia.com on many of these announcements and the editorial staff is currently writing up featured stories on some of these news items. Personally, I am really excited by may of them as it is only going to further highlight in the media and with content owners what is going on with online video and where it will evolve.

We'll be posting some of the feature stories on the StreamingMedia.com website at 12:01am Sunday night and I will be commenting on the impact of many of these announcements here on the blog next week.

Post Updated: Akamai Buys Red Swoosh - Making P2P Play?

Akamai announced today that they had purchased Red Swoosh in an all stock deal valued at about $15 million. Red Swoosh is a company that has been around for many years and has a client-side application that enables faster downloads and streams. The company never had much traction in the market and only a few customers probably due to the fact that they are a very small organization and I know had limited resources.

I have never personally used their application and had never heard from any companies who have, but my guess here is that Akamai is using this acquisition to get more insight into the P2P market and potentially use the Red Swoosh client for a new Akamai content distribution service at a reduced price. I like the idea if this enables them to reduce their distribution costs since they are priced much higher in the market that their competitors.

While it is too early to know the role that P2P may play in the content distribution landscape, it's a smart move by Akamai to get a leg up on the other networks by really immersing themselves with P2P distribution now. With what the multiple that their stock price is trading at, the deal is a no-brainer and there is no downside or risk to it for Akamai.

There is very little mentioned in the press release about the deal and what Akamai's plan are with it, but I will post more details when I get them.

Update: I sent Akamai a list of questions and just got answers back from them. One interesting thing to note in all of this is that last week, Akamai CEO Paul Sagan discussed P2P technology in a lengthy Forbes article about Sagan and the company.

My main question to Akamai was whether they acquired Red Swoosh purely for the technology or to get a better insight into P2P? As expected, Akamai said they made the acquisition mainly to acquire what they feel is a "unique" client-side technology and they also "benefit from from acquiring Red Swoosh's skilled software developers that have years of advanced expertise in P2P technologies".

As for what Akamai will do with the technology in terms of offering it as a product and how it will fit into their product portfolio, they said they "are not introducing any product offering at this time, nor discussing any particular time frames."

Clearly, like many delivery networks, Akamai wants to keep a close eye on where a P2P offering may fit into their product portfolio and what type of content is best suited for this kind of distribution. The Red Swoosh acquisition simply allows them to do this overnight by getting the developers and technology in-house from a company that while not successful in selling the service, has been in the P2P market for years and instantly gives Akamai a leg up on the competition when it comes to the networks hands-on knowledge of P2P.

 

Publish Your Thoughts About NAB On My Blog

If you are attending NAB this year and want to use my blog to publish your thoughts about the happenings at NAB, feel free to contact me. I'm not interested in a re-hash of press releases, but rather your take or thoughts on anything you may find interesting at NAB or have an opinion on. It could be about a particular speaker, conference session, new product or service offering or anything else. The blog has a lot of traffic so if you'd like to do some quick posts, under your own name and get exposure, I am open to the idea.

FCC Probe: Net Neutrality Goose Chase?

When it comes to the issue of Net neutrality, we've got a long way to go before we really know how it is all going to play out. There's a good article by Catherine Holahan on BusinessWeek.com that gives some details on the inquiry the FCC launched on March 22nd into the practices of broadband providers. It's a short piece that gives an overview of the topic from a high-level. It's a good read for someone who needs to understand what is at stake and how to explain to others what is being debated with Net neutrality.

Unique Challenges To Enterprise Video Communications

For the dinner event that I am moderating tonight, talking to video in the enterprise and hosted by Ignite Technologies, what questions or topics do you think we should discuss? While I am not creating a huge list of points as I want to keep the topic open and free-flowing, here are the few I am interested in discussing:

• how is the enterprise market learning from what is taking place with video outside of the enterprise industry?
• what are the biggest headaches you face when it comes to implementing the entire ecosystem that makes up enterprise video?
• how much convincing of management is still needed when it comes to getting budget to buy and deploy enterprise video products and services and what are some of the best ways you prove internally the value that video provides?
• how do you evaluate products and services in the market and what factors do you use to decide what solutions you purchase?

Are there any questions that you would add to the list or any topics you'd like me to bring up so that you can hear the attendees take on the subject?

Organizing Private Dinner Events Around Online Video

Last month, 24/7 Real Media nicely invited me to a private dinner they held in NYC with about a dozen executives to talk about "Video: The New 3.0" The attendees were from MLB, NBC, NBA, ESPN, Verizon FiOS, WallStrip.com and others.

It was probably one of the most useful and productive gatherings I have been at in a long while. While many industry conferences do a good job of arranging networking events, this dinner allowed us to be in a small setting, with no distractions and enabled us to discuss various web video topics for a few hours.

I liked the setting so much and felt it was so productive, that I am now going to be helping to organize these dinner events on a monthly basis, focused around very specific subjects. The next dinner is being held tonight, hosted by Ignite Technologies, and is talking to video in the enterprise. It has a great group of enterprise executives attending from Bloomberg, Microsoft, Vanguard, Citigroup, Honeywell, Lehman Brothers, Canon and others.

So here is my offer. If you are a vendor that wants to organize or participate in one of these dinners and you want to get together a group of executives to get their take and feedback on the market, I will help you organize it free of charge. I will help devise a topic, moderate the discussion and open up my rolodex and allow you to pick who you want to invite, be it customers, analysts or the media. All the vendor has to do is pick up the cost of the dinner.

These dinners are a great way for vendors to hear directly from customers in the industry and make new introductions from companies they may not normally be able to easily get in front of. They are a great way to hear what is taking place in the market and hear how the market is evolving - from real customers.

So if you want more details or want to discuss further, please contact me. Also, if you want to attend one of these dinners or suggest a topic or vertical to discuss, I'd love to hear from you.

OnlineVideo.net Domain Sells For Less Than $3,000

I'm always checking on relevant domain names that may be available and was surprised to find that the domain OnlineVideo.net had been for sale for quite some time and that no one purchased it. Seems really odd to me considering how hot the market is.

Seizing the opportunity, StreamingMedia.com purchased the domain as over time, I suspect the industry will move away from the Streaming Media term to something more content focused. We have already seen rich-media go by the wayside as well as digital media which is not used as much any more since it is too generic. I think that Online Video or IP Video will be the terms that really stick over the coming years. (See my earlier post entitled: Streaming, Online Video, Internet TV, Video On The Net: How Do We Describe The Industry?)

On a side note, if you are interested in the domain name www.streamingmediavideos.com let me know as I am thinning out my domain name collection.

Where Are All Of The Thought Leaders In Our Industry?

When I look around at a lot of other industry verticals out there, be it online advertising, mobile, security etc... I see a lot of community in the industry. I see a lot of people spending time to help educate the entire community. But when it comes to the streaming or online video industry, I see very little of this.

A great example of my point is that for years now, StreamingMedia.com has publicized that we accept written articles from anyone in the industry that want to talk about what they are seeing, what they think of a trend or what the future will hold when it comes to many aspects of this business or technology. Yet, trying to get people to send us a 750 word article for the website is nearly impossible.

Every week, at least a couple people always ask me, how do I get more publicity in the industry for myself or my company? It's easy - and it's free. Write a 750 word article on a topic of interest to you and send it to us. Why is that so hard? I have great conversations with people on the phone, in person at shows, during meetings etc... and many of them talk about different points of view on a wide assortment of subjects, yet I can't get them to put those words down on paper?

From day one when I took over StreamingMedia.com I have said in open letters to the industry that we are a resource for you to use. It is our job to help the industry grow, to help educate the market and to help you grow your business. But how are we expected to do that without editorial help from the very industry we are promoting? We can only publish so many articles written by us or by our freelance writers. You are on the front lines of this market just like we are. We need your input, your knowledge and your thoughts. Yes, we get a lot of that at the shows but those only happen twice a year in the U.S.

Many times the excuse I get from people is they don't have the time. How long does it really take you to write a 750 word article? Seriously. It does not have to be perfect, we will edit it. And if you want more visibility like you keep asking for, why then aren't you utilizing the StreamingMedia.com site to get it?

A great example is that one of the few articles that was sent to us was from Rich Mavrogeanes at VBrick. He wrote an article discussing his thoughts on why he felt MPEG-4 is not dead. In less than two years, Rich's article has gotten 35,973 reads! That's not a typo. Not only did Rich get e-mails from readers of his article which allowed him to expose them to his company, he also was seen as a thought leader on the site about MPEG. And along with his article, we also published his photo, his company name and title and a link to his bio. How much more exposure can you ask for!?!

We have been promoting for over two years that we need editorial from the community and in that time, we have literally gotten 3-4 articles. I could understand if someone didn't want to do the work if there was no value in return, but what do you think getting in front of 35,000+ readers is worth? I'd find it hard for anyone to justify that spending an hour to write an article is not worth the exposure you get in return.

I'm happy to discuss with anyone a topic they have in mind, help direct them on the focus of the article or even give you topic ideas. So, who wants to be seen as a thought leader in our industry? We're here to help make it happen, but we can't do it alone.

Blog Readers Can Get Discount On My New Book "Streaming and Digital Media: Understanding the Business and Technology"

Yes, some may see this as shameless self promotion, but for some of you, or some of your customers, it may be useful. My publisher Focal Press has been kind enough to offer anyone who reads my blog to get a copy of my newest book at a discount.

The book, entitled "Streaming and Digital Media: Understanding the Business and Technology" is one of the books in the NAB Executive Technology Briefings series.

I always felt that authors should stand behind their books more than they do, so I will make this commitment. If anyone who buys the book with the discount link feels they did not learn anything from it or that reading it wasted their time, I will personally provide a full refund if the book is returned to me. I don't want anyone keeping anything they feel does not help them so I'll take it back and refund your money. Yes, I know that is odd for an author to do, and some will say I am crazy to do it, but I think more authors should stand behind their work.

Also, anyone who posts a review of the book on Amazon will get a free copy of the next edition of the book when it comes out. This goes for bad reviews of the book as well, as all reviews are welcomed.

BitTorrent Entertainment Network To Get Ad-Supported Downloads

ZeroPaid.com, a website that tracks news in the file sharing and P2P community did a write up yesterday on a deal that BitTorrent announced with YuMe Networks. The joint agreement calls for BitTorrent to use the new YuMe advertising network to insert advertising within videos available for download from the BitTorrent network.

Some industry observers are saying that this will have a big impact on content models as to date, all downloaded content is either free or only monetized via pay per view. This idea has me confused as does portions of this announcement and as anyone who knows me will tell you, I am always skeptical when a press release says its product or service is "game-changing", "First-Ever", "taking online video advertising to another level," and "never before been available".

For starters, how are the ads being inserted? Once I download a video, can the ad be updated or changed? And part of the big draw of the new ad network in YuMe's eyes is that they say they can track “view-throughs” rather than “click-throughs”. But if I download a video, and then take it with me on a plane on my MacBook, and have no connection to the Internet, how is YuMe tracking anything?

YuMe is quoted as saying, "What we're saying is that video streaming is a fundamentally different thing. You need to do it cross-platform and you should be able to take a video ad, associate it with a set of content and demographics and allow the advertiser to associate that regardless of where the content is being watched -- be it the Web, a mobile phone or a BitTorrent download -- and aggregate the reporting all across that."

I disagree. It's no different than the ad model that the content owners are trying to get to work when it comes to streaming videos online. The fact that YuMe will insert an ad into a downloaded video as opposed to one that streams really does not change the monetization. In order for a major media content owner to give away the content as opposed to a pay per view model, how many eyeballs and downloads are they going to need to get before the advertising model will work?

We are a long way off from the point of where major content owners are going to give away their content because they have been able to monetize it via advertising. Yes, the potential exists, but not anytime soon until some of the major business and technical hurdles get solved.

Looking For Flash Video Advertising Case Studies

A new book is slated to come out in my book series entitled "Hands-On Guide to Creating Flash Advertising", to be written by Jason Fincanon. We are currently looking for case studies to include in the book and are open to suggestions from vendors and content providers.

If you have a case study or know of a company we should talk to about doing a case study, please contact me. The book will be going to print this summer.

How The Industry's Online Video Conferences & Exhibitions Can Improve

With online video as hot as it is, I've been getting a lot of questions lately about what I think of all the online video conferences and exhibitions that have popped up within the past twelve months. I'd also like to hear your comments on this topic as well.

As far as I am concerned, the more conferences we have about the technology AND business of online video, the better. Do I see this crop of new shows as competitors to the shows we produce at StreamingMedia.com?  Not really. There are some big differences between all of the shows and many of them are focusing on just one niche or in my opinion, are not focused at all. But any one show, helps all the shows as it helps to educate the market. That being said, here are some things I think the new shows are doing wrong:

• The cost to go to the conference is too expensive. The way to grow a show is to look at it from the bigger picture and realize that the cheaper you keep it, the more people you can get. Yes, the short-sided approach would be to charge $3,000 for a conference pass and make more money today, but do you really think you can grow a show at that ticket price? You have to think about the longevity of the show.
• These shows don't give out attendee numbers or attendee profiles. If you are going to say your show is a success, judge that success based on what attendees and exhibitors tell you. Yes, the number of attendees you get is important, but I find very few shows ever give out those numbers. Why? What do you have to hide? If the numbers are not as good as you hoped for, fine, then work on growing the show. But don't hide the number as it automatically gives people an impression that your traffic expectations were not met.
• Why are there so many speakers on one panel? If you have an hour long panel, or even an hour and fifteen minutes, how can you have six or seven speakers? That's the wrong format. Putting more speakers on a panel than you really want just so you have a long list of speakers is not beneficial to the attendee. And why does each speaker get five minutes to introduce themselves? If you have six speakers, it's takes 20-25 minutes just to get through introductions. Limit the introductions to one minute, and one minute only like we do. Yes, sometimes due to logistics a panel may be a bit bigger than you want (for East we have two sessions with five speakers) but all your panels should not be this way.
• Why are there so many suppliers speaking? Where are all of the end user customers? Why do so many of these shows allow companies to buy their way into speaking spots? Yes, that may work now, and you may get more suppliers, but in the long run, the show will not grow in terms of attendees. You can call them what you want, but too many of the stand-alone sessions at these shows are product pitches.
• How are you marketing your show? You need to have more than just blogs and word of mouth to market a show. You have to reach attendees via many forms of marketing. Many of those shows don't even have an e-newsletter let alone anything they send you. I have signed up to receive marketing materials for many of these shows in a digital form and haven't even gotten those.
• Know your subject. How can you advertise your show as being the place to go for info on this subject and then spell the word QuickTime as "Quick time" on your website. It may sound silly, but how legit does that make you look, especially when you haven't even put on your first show yet.
• Where are all the how-to sessions? So many of the sessions I see are from companies showing you how to use their product but not showing you how to do things in general. Why aren't there more how-to sessions that show attendees how to actually do all of this stuff we talk about? You can only have so many sessions on theories and the future.

When it comes to show logistics, many show organizers have limited control over various aspects of the event. For instance, we don't offer WiFi at our East show which I know a lot of people complain about. The problem is not that we don't want to, but that the hotel keeps us from doing so since they sell WiFi as a paid service. That being said, what do we do wrong at our shows that we can control? I'd love to hear coments on this as well as what you see other shows doing well.

I try and improve on every show we produce but it is hard too when we don't get feedback and know what people want and what they feel we did wrong. Usually the only kind of negative feedback we get is about what kind of soda we did or did not serve at lunch. So here is your chance, I'd love to hear from you what we did wrong or what we are not doing at the show so I can improve on it.

Carriers Speak Out On Peer to Peer

Andrew Schmitt from Nyquist Capital has posted his coverage of the Optical Fiber Conference that took place last week. Andrew had the opportunity to ask speakers from AT&T, BT, Comcast and Verizon if they view P2P technology as an opportunity or threat and why.

As you can imagine, the answers were varied and for the most part, all four of the carriers see the growth of P2P but didn't seem too worried about it. For all the talk we hear of P2P, I still know of very few legal applications that's it's currently being used for and I know of very few consumers who have ever consumed content via P2P. Yes, we know services like Joost will soon launch and BitTorrent did just recently, but if those content models don't work, then P2P will be dead in the water. Keep in mind that services like Joost and BitTorrent are NOT P2P services, they are content services that happen to use P2P.

Job Opening: Engineering Manager, Streaming Technology, Akamai

Akamai is looking to hire a full-time Engineering Manager/Director to lead it's Stream OS team in San Diego. This person will build a team that will help develop and deploy distributed web applications around the Akamai Stream OS product offering. Akamai is seeking someone with streaming technology/rich media, web applications, software development, and management experience.

Contact Marcus Tgettis at Akamai who is conducting the search if you are interested.

If you are looking for a new position, have taken a new job or are a company that has a job opening, let me know. In many cases I will highlight it here on the blog - free of charge.