VideoNuze Posts

Video stream optimization and analytics provider Conviva has raised a $15 million Series D round, led by Time Warner Investments. With the financing, Conviva has raised $59 million to date. The new funding is earmarked for international expansion and headcount growth.

Conviva's client-side software takes the "pulse" of video streams, and depending on problems detected, will preemptively modify the stream's bit rate and its source, switching CDNs on the fly. The result is a much-improved user experience.  Content providers are able to use the Conviva dashboard to analyze delivery, playback and of their video, along with viewer engagement.  Conviva optimizes streams for Time Warner divisions HBO and Turner Broadcasting, among other customers including ESPN, Netflix, Fox, NBCU and others. In total, Conviva is optimizing over 1 billion streams per month.

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I'm pleased to be joined once again by Colin Dixon, senior partner at The Diffusion Group, for the 119th edition of the VideoNuze Report podcast, for Feb. 3, 2012. In this week's podcast we discuss YouTube's original channels strategy.

As I wrote earlier this week, I think YouTube's approach is quite compelling, and although it's still very early, the disruptive potential is high. In a sense I see YouTube as trying to "out-cable cable," by introducing niche and micro-niche programming that leverage its low-cost, interactive distribution platform reaching a global audience of 800 million viewers each month. It's awfully tempting for incumbent broadcasters and cable networks to dismiss the efforts as lower quality and therefore not competitive, but history shows things that start modestly often have a way of improving dramatically (take ESPN's evolution as one great example).

Colin zeroes in on YouTube's interactive attributes and the favorable economics of online video delivery as being a key differentiators from today's TV landscape. As one who worked on so called interactive TV (or "ITV") efforts in its early days, Colin has a great perspective on this. He thinks YouTube's programming can be distinctive because, by definition, it can capitalize on its inherent connected Internet platform. That, combined with YouTube's native engaged user base, gives YouTube a whole new opportunity to change viewing experiences. Colin highlights a recent TDG survey of iPad users that revealed YouTube as the most used app (by 64% of users), which surpassed even iTunes (53% of users).

Listen in to learn more!

Note, this week YouTube head Salar Kamangar did a great on-stage interview with Peter Kafka at the D: Dive Into Media conference where he articulated YouTube's strategy. And for another perspective on YouTube's strength, see this fascinating article about RayWJ, a YouTube-only comedian who's reportedly pulling in $1 million a year from his channel.

Click here to listen to the podcast (21 minutes, 14 seconds)
 

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The power of the video syndication model is on full display in the online sports category, where 2 of the top 3 properties in December, 2011 were little known, early stage video syndicators, rather than well-known media brands and sports leagues. As the chart below shows, the #2 slot belonged to CineSport, a company I wrote about 6 months ago, with 15.7 million unique viewers while the #3 position went to Perform Sports, a year-old entrant, with 14.6 million unique viewers. Both trailed ESPN with 24.7 million unique viewers, but were still well ahead of stalwarts like CBS, Turner and Fox. Earlier this week I spoke to Juan Delgado, Managing Director of Perform Americas to learn more about its syndication formula.

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The Wall Street Journal has launched its WSJ Live YouTube channel this morning, debuting "Off Duty" a companion video series to the popular lifestyle section in the newspaper's Weekend Journal. The WSJ Live channel is the latest addition to YouTube's 100 original channels strategy. In addition to Off Duty, the WSJ Live channel features NewsHub, Digits and Mean Street, three other on-demand/live video series that are found on the main WSJ.com site and more recently the WSJ Live iPad app.

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Some start-ups go to great lengths for visibility before ever launching a product or landing a customer, whereas others stay completely below the radar until they have big concrete news to share. Squarely in the latter category is eyeIO (never mind the awkward name) an "ultra-low-bandwidth" encoding technology provider that has a bare bones web site, but does have a very high-profile first customer in Netflix. Yesterday, Rodolfo Vargas, eyeIO's CEO and co-founder and Charles Steinberg, another co-founder updated me, though they are still playing things pretty close to the vest.

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There are many exciting things happening in the online video industry, but to my mind, none is more noteworthy than the radical transformation of YouTube. YouTube is shedding its scruffy adolescence and seeking to redefine what entertainment means in the online video era. In fact, with each passing day, it becomes more evident that YouTube is building a parallel universe to the traditional world of cable TV, targeting niches that have long been mined by a multitude of specialty channels. This theme will crystallize as 2012 unfolds.

YouTube's 100 new channels of original online-only content have begun rolling out and will continue to do so throughout the year. For a relatively modest $100 million (by Google's standards!) YouTube is getting first dibs on programming that is laser-targeted at valuable niches. Importantly, it is helping galvanize a community of content creators who have either not been a part of the traditional pay and broadcast TV ecosystem, or are seeking a new, less constrained environment to play in, or both.

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I'm pleased to be joined once again by Colin Dixon, senior partner at The Diffusion Group, for the 118th edition of the VideoNuze Report podcast, for Jan. 27, 2012. In this week's podcast we discuss Netflix's Q4 '11 results, which were released this past Wed. afternoon.

The good news is that the results showed some glimmers of improvement in Netflix's business, but as I explained yesterday's post, net subscribers continued to be adversely affected by last summer's Qwikster and price increase decisions. The group showing the most attrition is the "hybrid" DVD/streaming U.S. subscribers who saw their rates increase by up to 60%. Colin and I dig into why this group is in fact still so vital to Netflix's success, and the risks posed by the company's strategy of pursuing streaming all out.

Colin also shares recent research TDG has done indicating that for those Netflix streaming subscribers retaining the service, satisfaction is running very high. That, combined with Netflix's own announcement that 2 billion hours of streaming content were consumed in Q4 '11, are encouraging indicators that the streaming service is resonating. Still, the big looming question for 2012 is how robust net U.S. subscriber growth will be. Listen in to learn more!

Click here to listen to the podcast (22 minutes, 31 seconds)



Click here for previous podcasts

The VideoNuze Report is available in iTunes...subscribe today!