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?