Online Video: Should Content Creators Get a Cut?

At the Streaming Media East show on Wednesday May 21st, Eric Rosser Eldon from VentureBeat.com will be leading a session entitled "Online Video: Should Content Creators Get a Cut?". Last year, writers in Hollywood went on strike against movie studios and television broadcasters, in part because they demanded a share of revenue generated by the digital media they helped to create.

Meanwhile, the largest video site in the country, YouTube, barely pays its content producers anything. Some venture capitalists sense an opportunity, and are moving south from Silicon Valley to create new entertainment companies that in many instances put the writers—and directors and actors—in control. Learn what the role of content producers is in digital media, and how working with them can help your business.

Confirmed speakers include:

• Moderator: Eric Rosser Eldon, Writer, VentureBeat.com
• Gordon Castle, Sr. Technology Fellow, Turner Broadcasting Systems
• Justin Day, Co-Founder, CTO, blip.tv
• Bobby Tulsiani, Analyst, Media and Internet Video, Jupiter Research
• Kelly Rodriques, CEO, Blowtorch Entertainment

Have a topic or question for any of the speakers you want to see addressed? Submit it in the comments section and we'll add it to the Q&A portion of the session.

Registration is still open and you can see all the various pricing packages, including a one-day ticket on our website. Six years since we took over the StreamingMedia.com business and we've still managed to keep the conference very affordable for everyone to attend. A full two-day conference ticket is only $895.

Lifecasting: The New Broadcasting Platform

At the Streaming Media East show on Wednesday May 21st, community social media guru Chris Brogan will be leading a session entitled "Lifecasting: The New Broadcasting Platform". In the early days of television, live was the second choice, because of potential pitfalls, cost of production, and a host of other problems. And yet, in the world of Internet video, lifecasting—using Internet video to share moments of our lives or to broadcast personal events and happenings—is the new hot thing.

With platforms like Kyte.tv, Zannel, Mogulus, Stickcam, and many others now available, lots of new options and opportunities exist. Come see some of the hot and upcoming mobile lifecasting options in action and learn if lifecasting will become just a fad or the next big thing.

Confirmed speakers include:

• Moderator: Chris Brogan, VP, Strategy and Technology, CrossTechMedia, co-founder, PodCamp
• Scott Monty, Consigliere, crayon
• Sarah Austin, Founder, Pop17.com
• Brad Hunstable, Founder, Business Development, Ustream.tv

Have a topic or question for any of the speakers you want to see addressed? Submit it in the comments section and we'll add it to the Q&A portion of the session.

Registration is still open and you can see all the various pricing packages, including a one-day ticket on our website. Six years since we took over the StreamingMedia.com business and we've still managed to keep the conference very affordable for everyone to attend. A full two-day conference ticket is only $895.

Majority Of Independent Content Producers Will Never Make Money

With all the talk of online video advertising and the projections people are making, one of the biggest downsides to it is that just about every independent content producer thinks they should be making money. But the reality it, most of them are not making any money today and never will, even year's from now when there are more eyeballs online.

Monetization is now the word that seems to be used in every discussion and in every article, yet rarely do we hear or read about any content producers who are making money from their content. We know of the success that some major broadcasters and those with very unique brands and content like MLB are having, but aside from those, there are very few content creators making any money.

One of the biggest reasons for this is that much of the content on the web today stinks. Not all content, but much of it is really bad, poorly produced and quite frankly, will never make any money no matter how much this industry grows. Content creators think that just because they can create content it must be worth something. When I speak to content creators I use the analogy of TV content. Lots and lots of shows are produced for TV yet many never make it. Only a small fraction of content on TV lasts and makes the networks any money. Now I know many will say that does not apply since the costs for TV style production is so much different than content produced for online, but the principle is still the same. Not all content is something people want to watch, let alone pay for.

Having a discussion with a content producer earlier in the week they said, "Media reviews of our site and customer feedback is very positive. Everyone thinks the idea is wonderful and they love the quality of the videos. We give website visitors two free views of the videos of their choice and then prompt them to sign up for a subscription. However, when it comes time to haul out the credit card to purchase a subscription the enthusiasm wanes."

The questions we need to be addressing are is the subscription-based approach working for anyone, or is sponsorship/ad-supported the only potential option for generating a reasonable ROI? Is the ad-supported model generating revenue for small producers who don't have tens of thousands of viewers per month? Does this revenue amount to anything more than pocket change? Must the small producer partner with a platform provider, e.g., Brightcove, in order to have a chance of success, or is it feasible to "roll your own" website realizing that most small players don't have ad sales staffs and experience in selling ads?

In the long run, the small content producer is still going to struggle to make any money from their content. Viral marketing, syndication and other forms of promotion can help, but not for the majority of those making video. Putting all of the business models aside I still think the biggest problem facing the industry is that there is not enough quality content on the web today.

The comments section is open and I'm sure many have their own take on the subject, so feel free to get the conversation going.

How To Monetize And Aggregate Niche Video Content

Over the next six weeks leading up to the Streaming Media East show in May I will be highlighting some of the speakers and sessions we have confirmed for the show. This year we have a lot of content producers, aggregators, new independent content studios and lots and lots of content demos.

One of the sessions I am personally interested in seeing is entitled "Monetizing And Aggregating Niche Video Content". The bottom line is that content creation is important but if the content is not promoted and does not generate revenue of some kind then this whole business model is broken. This session will show examples of ways to develop niche vertical sites without having to hire tons of new personnel and will discuss how to reach audiences on social networking sites like Facebook and others. Confirmed presenters are:

• Moderator: Steve Safran, Senior VP, Media 2.0, Audience Research & Development, AR&D
• Jim Louderback, CEO, Revision3
• Alex Blum, CEO, KickApps
• Herb Scannell, CEO, Co-Founder, Next New Networks

Six years since we took over the StreamingMedia.com business and we've still managed to keep the conference very affordable for everyone to attend. Registering before April 25th gets you a full two-day conference ticket for only $795.

Broadcast TVs Demise More Fiction Than Fact

Considering I am in the online video industry, some may say I am crazy for not wanting to follow the bandwagon that wants to shout from the top of their lungs that TV is all but dead. Yes, I get the impact online video is having on traditional broadcasters on many fronts, but when folks like the NY Times publish articles proclaiming that "TV is becoming obsolete", then the industry is setting everyone's expectations incorrectly. TV is anything but obsolete.

Online video is having a huge impact on the way content is created, marketed and consumed, but distributing video online is not replacing traditional broadcast programming. I know some are under the impression that one day your computer will become your TV, but that's not going to happen and we all know the Internet can't even support those kind of numbers when it comes to viewers all watching a show at the same time. For all the talk of the writers strike and some of the data that has been put out saying that more people have gone online for videos, that does not change the fact that most of the content on TV is not available on the Internet.

I have over 60 season passes in TiVo. Going through all of them yesterday, more than 90% of the shows I watch are not available online anywhere. And the ones that are, like content from CBS and NBC, do not show up right after they are broadcast and typically take days if not longer to appear on the web. And in the case of something like 60 Minutes, one story alone is chopped up into 10 different video segments on their website and encoded at a pretty low bitrate. And sports, well forget that. No NFL games are available on-demand the next day online and while the MLB games are, it requires a subscription.

The demise of the TV is overrated and many in the industry keep saying the same thing as if they have to say it just to be cool. I keep hearing people in our space says things like "I don't even need a TV anymore, I'll just watch all my video online". Or, "there was nothing on TV last night so I went online to watch video". Nothing on TV? I don't know about you but I have hundreds of channels and can always find something to watch. I don't have hundreds of channels on the web of professionally produced content. It reminds me of the time when people in the industry had to use the word "convergence" or "broadband" in every single sentence they used as they were convinced that others would think that since they used those words they must "get it".

No one is throwing out their TV. And those who don't watch TV, probably never really did to begin with, as opposed to people who want to use them as an example and say that online video is the reason. The TV is not going anywhere and way too often in our society people want to talk about one thing replacing another, instead of being a compliment to it. The TV did not replace the radio. Internet video is not going to replace the TV. P2P delivery is not going to replace all CDN delivery. These things are all complements to one another. We should see the TV for what it is, just another way to get different kinds of content for various viewing experiences.

Conference Session Preview: Streaming Media East Show Agenda

I've been a little slow in blogging as of late as I'm hard at work on finalizing the advance program for the Streaming Media East show taking place in May. We will have 36 sessions at the show and the first third are now confirmed with moderators.

This year I have decided to use the blog to post the conference agenda before the advance program is even printed so everyone can see the kinds of topics and subjects that are going to be discussed and the kind of demos that will be shown. Please keep in mind, this is just the first 1/3 of the program, there is a lot more to come.

If you see a session in particular you are interested in possibly speaking on you can send in a speaking request, but since the deadline passed more than two weeks ago, those who sent in speaking requests on time get first priority.

Effective Business Models For Short-form Video Marketing
Some advertisers see user-generated video sites as a free way to distribute their message, however this has rapidly evolved into a significant paid business, where sites charge based on video placement and search keywords. Learn the relative ROI of going to a major site (i.e. YouTube) vs. a smaller site (i.e. Metacafe) vs. a plethora of tiny sites. Learn what methods are successful for getting viewers and the importance of content vs. placement. This panel will discuss and show video examples of effective business models for both advertisers and publishers.

LifeCasting: How Fast and How Real Can We Get?
How did lifecasting videos get so hot? In the early days of television, live was the second choice, because of potential pitfalls, cost of production and a host of other problems. And yet, in the world of Internet video, lifecasting - using Internet video to share moments of our lives or to broadcast events and happenings - is the new hot thing. With platforms like Kyte.tv, Zannel, Mogulus, Stickcam and many others now available on the market, lots of new options and opportunities exist. Come see some of the hot and upcoming mobile lifecasting options in action and discuss is lifecasting will be become just a fad or the next big thing.

Best Practices in Enterprise Streaming for Communications and Learning
Use of online video in the enterprise has evolved well beyond the special occasion of rudimentary talking head videos that characterized early adoption. Today, innovative organizations take a holistic view of all their online communications, seeking to extract as much value as possible from any infrastructure that involves video. Whether webcasting executive briefings across the globe, or capturing and archiving rich media presentations for training, marketing, sales, and compliance, a growing number of organizations are capitalizing on the ability of Web 2.0 technologies. This session will show firsthand examples from Fortune 500 organizations of best practices in integrated online video for communications and learning.

CDN Pricing: The Going Rate For Video Delivery
With more CDN players in the market than ever before, trying to figure out what you should pay for delivering video can still be quite complex. This presentation will offer real pricing numbers from large, globally focused content delivery networks and show you the average going rate when you outsource delivery to a third party. The session will also cover some of the variables that determine the final price, how you should accurately compare the delivery services of one CDN to another and gives you a list of providers in the market today.

Monetizing And Aggregating Niche Video Content
This panel will discuss the new ways content owners and site developers are aggregating content and distributing it on the 2.0 web. We will give examples of ways to develop niche vertical sites without having to hire tons of new personnel and discuss how to reach audiences on social networking sites like Facebook. Learn about some of the new emerging platforms for niche video distribution and learn best practices of ways to increase your changes of making money with your content.

Focus Group: Young People's Attitudes Towards Online Video
This special session, a panel of high school and college students will discuss their online video consumption habits. Learn what types of online video content they like, what sites they get their content from, the devices they are playing it back on and how they interact with video advertising. Find out what their perspective is on pay media, portable content and what they think the future holds for the next generation of viewers on the web. Bring your own questions for a lively Q&A session with the students at the end of the session.

Live Broadcasting Over Mobile And WiFi Networks
While big media tests the waters of mobile broadcasting, many web video producers are already out there doing it live from the street, with a cell phone. Others are joining in and experimenting with two-way broadcasts via streaming video over cellphone networks and via WiFi, wherever they are. Viewers can chat while the broadcast is going on and affect and sometimes even direct the coverage of the content being produced. Come to this session to hear Steve Garfield talk with other pioneers in the live broadcasting space about their experiences on the forefront of this new technology for sharing their stories over the web.

The H.264 Convergence
Over the past year, more and more streaming media players are utilizing H.264 and providing support for the technology. Adobe's recent support for H.264 in their Flash player has sparked industry discussions amongst major broadcasters and online video producers about the role H.264 will play. This session will explain why H.264 is getting so much exposure, what recent announcements have put it into the spotlight and whether it can really be the one codec that the industry can all converge on. Attendees will also see real-world examples of sites and services that are utilizing H.264 today.

User-Generated Video in Education
The online video revolution has been embraced by students, teachers, instructors and researchers, many of whom are producing video for class assignments, teaching purposes and other uses. Learn what kind of content is being produced, where is it being posted and how user-generated content fits into the overall strategy of educational institutions. This panel of experienced educational media professionals will discuss the many ways your school, college or university can maximize the value of your user-generated video, and how you can assist faculty and students in making it better.

How Old Media Is Embracing Online Video and New Media
Led by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, this session will discuss how converging media technologies are redefining traditional distribution methods; how interactive and on-demand services are changing and how entertainment and news video is being consumed. Come hear from some of the leading publishers, broadcasters and advertisers about the impact that video and new media is having upon their business models.

Codec Comparison: VP6, H.264 and Windows Media
Choosing the right codec involves lots of factors, including quality, player install base, costs, and server related features. This session will compare the video quality of the big three codecs; VP6, H.264 and Windows Media. It will also include a comparison of the primary H.264 codecs including Apple, Sorenson, Main Concept and Dicas. The session will present attendees with the latest published penetration figures for the H.264 compatible Flash 9 player and Microsoft's Silverlight player and provide usage statistics among major broadcasters and corporations. Attendees will also learn how to compare relevant server and player related features, and costs associated with adapting and using each platform.

Delivering Media For Microsoft Silverlight With Windows Server 2008
This session will cover how to take advantage of the new Silverlight media serving features in Windows Server 2008. Attendees will learn about the new capabilities of IIS7 Media Pack including bit-rate throttling and playlist options for progressive download content. The session will also demonstrate the enhanced capabilities in Windows Media Services 2008, including scalability doubling and appliance-like cache/proxy deployment for edge networks specific to streaming.

Free Product Giveaway: MediaGate Wireless HD Media Player

UPDATE: Guillaume Courouge was selected as the winner using a random number picker website.

The nice folks over at MediaGate sent one of their MG-350HD Wireless HD Media Players for me to review, but with the holidays and other deadlines I am under, I won't have a chance to do a product review anytime soon. I did however find a really positive product review on the unit over at HomeTheaterBlog.com

Since I won't be able to review the unit, they have nicely said I can give it away to a reader of my blog. All you have to do is leave one comment on this post with a working e-mail address. I will pick one user at random a week from today and ship it out to the winner at no cost.  

If any company is interested in getting exposure for their video related product on my blog and is willing to give away the product, contact me. I will post pictures of the product, link to the company website and either write a product review or link to other reviews on the web. It's great exposure on a blog that does over 300,000 page views a month.

Consumer Generated Video Sites: Can They Be Monetized?

That's the question we're looking to answer at the Streaming Media West show next week with a panel entitled "Consumer Generated Video Sites: Can They Be Monetized?"

We've got a great lineup of speakers including:

• Dan Rayburn, Executive Vice President, StreamingMedia.com (moderator)
• Chris Carvalho, Director of Business Development, Lucasfilm
• Joel Sanders, Sr. Director of Site and Operations, AtomFilms, MTV Networks
• David Eckoff, VP, New Product Development and Innovation, Turner Broadcasting
• Steve Rosenbaum, CEO and Founder, Magnify.net

With nearly a hundred video portals or service offerings all based on user-generated video, and more launching each day, can any of them survive? What business models need to be put in place for these companies to make it in the long run? Will advertising ever provide the revenue they need or even help them cover their bandwidth bills? With so many sites that seemingly do all the same thing, how will these sites distinguish themselves from one another? Come hear directly from some of these UGC sites and learn what they are doing to try and lead the charge to profitability.

It's not too late to register. While the early registration discount period has now passed, if you have not yet registered and want a discount code, let me know.

Google-YouTube: Twelve Months Later, Advertising Just Getting Started

It's been a year since Google acquired YouTube and in that time, the promise of YouTube developing and rolling out a successful video advertising product is only just starting to get off the ground. It's going to be a long time until there is enough data in the market to suggest if the model will be successful, and YouTube has a long way to go before we find out of it can really generate any serious ad revenue from their content.

Paul LaMonica over at CNNMoney.com has a good in-depth article about the hurdles that YouTube faces one year later with more niche competitors, the Viacom lawsuit, the big media companies entering the space (Hulu) and the problem with getting advertisers to spend money around UGC content.

Adobe Releases New Software For Mobile Flash Video and AMP Beta

This morning Adobe announced that they launched its Flash Lite 3 software, used for playing back Flash video on cell phones and Flash enabled web sites. Adobe says that Nokia and NTT DoCoMo are planning to support Flash Lite 3 with their upcoming handsets, but didn't say for how many models. Nokia, said it would launch a new development community today to help Flash developers and designers with mobile software development.

Adobe also announced today that major television broadcasters and leading content publishers would collaborate with Adobe to distribute video content via the new Adobe Media Player. Today also marks the first time that the Adobe Media Player is available to the public as a beta download, with the final version being ready in the first half of 2008.

OMMA NYC Show: Speakers Wanted: Clip/Mash-Up Revolution Panel

I'll be moderating a session at Mediapost's OMMA show in NYC on Sept. 25th entitled "Access and Activism: Harnessing Video Distribution and the Clip/Mash-Up Revolution". It's being put together last minute so I've got the potential to add one or two last minute speakers to the round table panel. In particular I'm looking for content owners and/or agencies who can talk to the implications for content owners and producers to adapt to the Web 2.0 world of viewer control. If you're interested in speaking, contact me now! Spots will be gone in a day or two.

In addition, if you know of someone who you think would make a good speaker for this panel and can introduce me to them, I'll be happy to get you a free pass to the event.

Session Details:
Tuesday, Sept. 25th. 12pm-12:45pm

Access and Activism: Harnessing Video Distribution and the Clip/Mash-Up Revolution
How should content owners - used to placing tight controls on their content - adapt to the Web2.0 world of viewer control?  With digital distribution of top-tier video content expanding and new services and tools evolving to let viewers capture, clip and mash content - what are the implications for content owners and producers?  How "fluid" should the content economy become and what challenges (if any) does that pose for ad-based monetization?  Join a panel of programmers, distribution enablers, and agency executives to initiate a discussion of the coming age of "content malleability."

News Corp. & NBC Announce New Company Name: Will Keynote Streaming Media West Show

This morning, News Corp. and NBC Universal announced that their new online video portal, most recently referred to as NewCo, will now be officially named Hulu. The release says that starting today, users can sign up at the Hulu website to be included in an invite list for the private beta which will start in October.

Kevin McGurn, VP, National Sales Leader for Hulu will be one of our keynote presenters at the Streaming Media West show in November in San Jose. Keynote presentations are available for free to all registered attendees and online registration is now open.

Bloggers Need To Cover More Than Just YouTube And UGC Companies

With all that is going on in the online video world today, why is it that most of the blogs and news sites only seem to focus on YouTube or user generated content topics? This week is typical of most. Over the past four days, I have read about 450 posts from 54 sites that I have in my RSS reader. Of those 450, nearly 60% of them are about YouTube, user generated content, video and social networking sites and topics all pertaining to user generated content in some form.

What about all of the other exciting subjects pertaining to the online video world? Why aren't more bloggers talking about video in other markets like the enterprise, broadcast, mobile and education markets? Or what about the infrastructure side of the business. Servers, encoders, formats and tools. Yes, some cover these subjects but literally just a handful. If user generated content sites did not exist, I really wonder if a lot of these bloggers and news sites would have anything to talk about?

Am I the only one who is tired of reading a few dozen stories a day about YouTube and other UGC sites that to date, have shown no successful business models? Yes, I understand the role UGC will play in our industry and I understand the excitement around these tools that enable anyone to get video online. But our industry has been around for the past 14 years now and user generated sites have been around for only a few. There was an entire industry and business before the UGC sites were even around, but you wouldn't know of it the way many of these sites only talk about YouTube.

eBay To Use More User Generated Video, Amazon.com and Others Need To Follow Suit

Thanks to Rod Bacon over at Media Publisher for giving me the heads up about eBay making an announcement last week about their planned use for expanding user-generated video functionality on their website. In conjunction with an announcement by Onstream Media, eBay sellers now have the ability to easily place their own embedded videos in any listing on every category of eBay. Options include a "Show and Tell" feature which is a talking image gallery for use on all eBay listings and an "About Me" video feature which enables sellers to create a short, :30 to :60 second spot about themselves which eBay hopes will further establish trust and credibility. In addition, eBay is also running some user-generated video submission contests tying into the Transformers movie premiere in July.

I always felt sites like eBay, Monster.com, Amazon.com and others are behind the curve when it comes to video. Why can't I see a video of an item on eBay instead of just a picture? Why can't I see a video resume on Monster.com instead of reading a word document? (Only Monster's India website has the option, announced two days ago) And why doesn't Amazon.com allow companies to upload videos of the product they are selling, so we can see how it actually works before we buy it.

As much as we talk about video having mass-market adoption, some of the biggest sites on the web, that generate the most revenue, hardly use video at all.

Blip.tv and EyeWonder Both Receive Funding

And the funding deals just keep on coming. Yesterday, Blip.tv and EyeWonder both announced they had received a round of financing.

Blip.tv, best known for sharing advertising revenue 50/50 with content creators, announced yesterday that they have closed a second round, amount not disclosed, led by Ambient Sound Investments (ASI), the venture capital fund established by the four founding engineers of Skype. Blip.tv plans to use the money to develop and offer new advertising options and extend their content distribution network to reach users on multiple devices.

Also yesterday, EyeWonder announced they had received a round of funding from BIA Digital Partners, a private investment firm focusing on mid-to-later stage companies. The amount was not disclosed. EyeWonder plans to use the money to expand in the U.S and abroad.

Deutsche Bank Has It Wrong: Apple TV Will Not Cannibalize a Good Chunk of the DVD Market

Why is it that every time a new means of distributing video content comes out, analysts always immediately predict that it will eat into the current way of doing things? From an article on Yahoo!, "Apple will cannibalize a good chunk of the U.S. $26-billion DVD player market in the next several years, according to Deutsche Bank. One of the primary drivers of this change will be the availability of YouTube content on Apple TV."

Seriously, this is just getting ridiculous. If you want to have the opinion that online video will eat into DVD sales, that's one thing. But to say the reason Apple TV will do so is because of the availability of user-generated content, well now you're not even comparing Apples to Apples. (no pun intended)

You can't compare content on YouTube with professionally produced content on DVDs. And you certainly can't compare downloading content to your computer and having to transfer it to a device connected to your TV with that of having a portable DVD disc with content. Even online video has not eaten into DVD sales and  online video on multiple devices has way more market share than Apple TV ever will. These analysts are just getting carried away.

 

YouTube Content Coming To Apple TV, Changes Nothing

Yesterday, Apple announced that they will be making YouTube content available on the Apple TV in mid-June. In the initial beginning, only select content will be available with the entire YouTube catalog available by year's end. While some seem to think this is a big deal, it changes nothing in the way of either companies business.

Some have predicted that this is now the first real integration of web video and the TV but I beg to differ. Is there any business model behind it? No. Will Apple they sell more Apple TV's now? No. Does this give YouTube some sort of way of monetizing their content? No. Yes, YouTube will get some more viewers to select pieces of videos but the lack of traffic to YouTube is not what's stopping them from creating a revenue stream from their traffic. The only reason Apple and YouTube did this deal is is because they could. It's does nothing to change the dynamics of the business models or the industry.

This deal also highlights the lack of standards in the market as all of the YouTube content currently in the Flash format is going to have to be transcoded to be able to play back on Apple TV since the Flash videos would look bad on a TV screen. And if YouTube is going to make available however many tens of millions of clips they have, we're talking about a lot of work to do so. No, it's not rocket science, but it's not like YouTube can easily just re-purpose what they have. There is a direct cost to having to transcode millions and millions of clips to another format, not matter how big you are.

Am I the only one that is getting tired of hearing about YouTube? Ok, I get it YouTube, you're really cool and you got bought by Google. But what about a business model? How about discussing what your video advertising strategy is going to be? You have been saying for the past two years that you are "experimenting" with advertising models. Less talk, more action.

Fox, Scripps Networks, Wall Street Journal, nbbc and MediaZone to Discuss What Consumers Want With Rich Media

We have some great sessions at the Streaming Media East show next week talking about what consumers want when it comes to rich media. One of the sessions on May 16th is entitled "The Streaming Disconnect Between Consumers and the Major Media"

Moderated by Tejpaul Bhatia, formerly of ESPN, this session discusses current consumer demands for video and new content platforms, as well as the new media efforts being taken by the major media companies.

The panelists include:

• Ron Berryman, Senior V.P., GM Television Stations, Fox Interactive Media
• Jeff Kaufman, VP, Content and Programming, >nbbc
• John Jurgensen, Digital Entertainment Reporter, WALL STREET JOURNAL
• Jim Sexton, SVP, Interactive Brands, Scripps Networks
• Mariana Danilovic, VP, Business Development, MediaZone

Register for the show and come hear the steps that content creators and major media companies need to take to adapt to consumer behavior and the benefits they can get from diversifying their content offering across multiple platforms. Are there any topics or points would you like to see discussed at this session? If so, please include them in the comments section.

Online Video Is Not Web 2.0 Or In A "Bubble"

I am getting really tired of people writing about the online video industry in the media and referencing the technology as Web 2.0 or worse yet, describing our industry as being in a "bubble". Online video is not in a bubble and the technology has been around 13 years. I don't think you can call any technology part of Web 2.0 when it's been around as long as streaming media has and personally, I think the whole Web 2.0 term is nonsense anyway.

Many of these writers who are writing about online video have got it all wrong. User generated content is in a bit of a bubble right now, not video. Just because video is part of the whole UGC space, which includes blogs, podcasts, vblogging etc... does not make the technology of video as something that should not be taken seriously.

Many of you, especially the vendors, who have spent a lot of time, effort and money to brand and market your products and services have done so to present a real product or service. You've done all this work so that your offering will be seen as anything but something in a "bubble". I think it's bad for the entire industry when vendors products and services are treated as if they just part of some online video bubble. So the next time you are at a conference, read an article or hear someone reference the online video industry and your products and services as being part of a "bubble", set them straight.

Why Is Most Broadband Content Still Encoded At 300Kbps?

My earlier post got me thinking about why, in 2007, the average bitrate for a video file delivered via streaming media is still encoded in 300Kbps? Is it purely because content owners don't want to pay more money to delivery their videos at higher bitrates? Or is the trade off between quality and price acceptable for the current content business models we have today?

Over the past 10 years, we saw the bitrates increase from 20Kbps to 37Kbps, to 80Kbps, to 100Kbps and then to 300Kbps. Yes, there is some content available in 500Kbps and 750Kbps but still very, very little. We've been at 300Kbps for years now and I don't yet see a shift in that bitrate being bumped up to say 500Kbps. Why is that? Are you content owners satisfied with the quality you get now and the cost to deliver that content? Are you happy with the trade off of lower quality content delivered for a cheaper price? If that's the case, I think that's ok. Some trade-offs are acceptable. But it has me thinking about what is stopping the increase of what we classify today as broadband video content?

I don't think it is a lack of capacity on the networks of the CDNs who are delivering most of this content and I don't see the viewers having any computer or end-mile limitations stopping them from getting a 500Kbps stream today. So what is stopping the adoption of high bitrate content?

I'd love to get some thoughts and feedback to this question.

Big Surprise: Disney's MovieBeam Service Finally Sold

MovieBeam, the one time high-profile Disney spin off was bought by Movie Gallery for $10 million dollars. MovieBeam re-launched last year with nearly $50 million in funding and the rumor was that they spent many millions more on the now defunct project. You have to ask yourself why any company would want to spend $10 million dollars to acquire the assets of a company that has no revenue and no customers. Apparently, Movie Gallery bought the technology so they can develop a movie delivery service of their own.

Say what now? Your going to replicate a service that has already been proven to be one that consumers don't want? Am I the only one who thinks many of the companies out there today are not looking at mistakes made in the past? The history of the Internet can and does teach us many valuable lessons, if we are willing to learn from them. All that matters is what customers adopt and are willing to buy. The technology behind the service means nothing if it's not adopted, as was evident from the MovieBeam service.