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Fox's New 8-Day Window Obsoletes Hulu's Simple User Experience
If one of the things you liked most about Hulu has been its simple, straightforward user experience - where TV programs could be quickly found and viewed - then Fox's new 8-day authenticated pay-TV window is going to feel like a big hassle. And if ABC and NBC, Hulu's other broadcast content partners and owners, adopt a similar approach to Fox, then it's really going to feel like going back to the dark ages of user experience.
Fox's authentication window means that during the first 8 days after an episode's air date only current subscribers of certain pay-TV services (DISH Network for now) or Hulu Plus can watch that episode. That in turn means that when searching for a new episode on Hulu, the resulting experience will be quite different than it has been.
Categories: Aggregators, Broadcasters, Cable TV Operators, Satellite, Telcos
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Thought Equity Motion Raises $25 Million For Cloud-Based Video Asset Management
Thought Equity Motion has raised $25 million from Shamrock Capital Advisors to further develop its cloud-based video asset management platform and
expand globally. As Kevin Schaff, CEO and founder of Thought Equity Motion explained to me last week, the company is capitalizing on the media industry's shift from analog to digital work flows which is improving operational reliability, saving capex and opening new revenue opportunities.
Thought Equity Motion has optimized its cloud service for media companies that want to move from storing high-value libraries on tape or on local hard drives to doing so in the cloud. First and foremost, Kevin said the company's focus is on secure, redundant master file storage. Thought Equity Motion's cloud is particularly suited to large video file sizes with high throughput ingest and encoding. The company is now ingesting 1 petabyte of video per month, a dramatic increase from just 6 months ago. Files are kept at a secure, enterprise-class physical storage facility with on-demand encoding and access.
Categories: Deals & Financings, Technology
Topics: ACC, NCAA, Shamrock Capital Advisors, Thought Equity Motion
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Scarcity Breeds Aggregation Opportunities
Following is a guest post from Sam Vasisht, president of 21TechMedia which specializes in advisory services, business and marketing consulting for digital media companies. Sam was previously VP of Marketing at On2 Technologies, now part of Google's WebM initiative. He blogs at www.techmediatalk.com and can be followed on Twitter @21TechMedia.
Scarcity Breeds Aggregation Opportunities
by Sam Vasisht
Based on news from the world of online video over the past few weeks, the dust is starting to settle on a number of topics that had been contentious, if not controversial for some time. Among them is the affirmation of online services as a bona fide monetization model for major media. This was stated by Viacom on its earnings call two weeks ago. Similar signals from other corners of the industry range across Netflix's price increases in its continuing quest for premium content licensing; Amazon stepping up its game in video streaming with a licensing deal with NBC and a few weeks earlier with CBS; and Hulu attaching attractive 5 year content licenses with its rumored sale offer while signing up additional content deals as well.
The race for content aggregation is on.
Categories: Aggregators, Devices
Topics: Apple, Best Buy, Hulu, NBC, Netflix, Viacom
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Google Gets Its Nose Into Pay-TV Operators' Tent With Motorola Deal
A byproduct of today's blockbuster deal by Google to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion is that Google is getting its nose into pay-TV operators' tent via Motorola's huge set-top box business. Set-tops are part of Motorola's Home segment, which in Q2 generated over $900 million in revenue, a little less than a third of Motorola's total.
Google would dearly love to have a bigger presence in the digital living room, but its initial efforts with Google TV have not borne much fruit, despite the fact that Google took an industry-friendly approach by trying to augment
pay-TV services rather than disrupt them. Now however, with Motorola's deep industry relationships, Google will gain much better insight into pay-TV operators' thinking that could help drive partnership opportunities. Importantly, this could translate into improved product integration between Google's software and Motorola's hardware platforms that could give Google its best shot yet at getting into the living room (throw Google potentially acquiring Hulu and the living room fight gets even more interesting).
Categories: Cable TV Operators, Deals & Financings, Technology
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Innovid Quietly Expands iRoll Support Among Ad Networks
Innovid has added Specific Media as the latest video ad network to support its "iRoll" interactive pre-roll ad unit. Specific joins Adap.tv, BrightRoll, Collective, SpotXChange, TidalTV, Tremor Video, Undertone, Value Click and other ecosystem players, which according to the company collectively account for approximately 60% of video ad inventory in the U.S. Large ad networks are important to Innovid because advertisers want huge scale and also the ability to target specific audiences for their campaigns.
For those not familiar with the iRoll, it transforms standard pre-roll ads by adding interactive overlays with customized calls-to-action. These can include social media sharing (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.), e-commerce prompts within the video, and mapping and localized information such as the nearest theater a movie is playing to purchase a ticket. Advertisers and agencies can use the Innovid Studio to add the interactive elements. Innovid also offers a full analytics suite.
Categories: Advertising, Technology
Topics: Innovid, Specific Media
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BBN3 Unveils Cloud-Based Scalable Video Production Process for SMBs
For small-to-medium sized businesses looking to augment their online presence with high-quality video, the process can be daunting. How to find a qualified video producer? How to avoid getting overcharged? How to carve out time to manage the process without it becoming a huge distraction? And so on. Still, many SMBs recognize that with video usage exploding, and consumer expectations rising, having a video(s) to explain their product, service or approach is fast becoming as essential as having a web site.
These are the problems that Vancouver-based BBN3 (part of SoMedia Networks) is addressing with a new template-driven, cloud-based video production process
that aims to resolve all the relevant cost, reach and project management issues, thereby unlocking video production at massive scale. BBN3 has created hundreds of videos for SMBs since March through its platform (examples here). Last week, Travis Moss, BBN3's VP of Business Development walked me through a step-by-step demo of their platform.
Categories: Technology
Topics: BBN3, SoMedia Networks, StudioNow, TurnHere
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Turner Sports Tees Up Online/Mobile Video Coverage of PGA Championship
The 93rd PGA Championship, the final major tournament of the season, gets underway tomorrow and Turner Sports, which has exclusive broadcast rights, has teed up significant multi-screen and social media initiatives. As the Olympics, NCAA March Madness and other high-profile sporting events have previously shown, online and mobile video have created an immersive, up-to-the-minute experience for fans.
Aside from its Thursday-Sunday live broadcasting schedule on TNT, Turner Sports has a full slate of online video coverage on PGA.com, which Turner powers and through mobile. Among the highlights:
Categories: Cable Networks, Devices, Mobile Video, Sports
Topics: PGA, TNT, Turner Sports
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Common Craft's New Subscription Model Offers Lessons for Video Creators
Online video has spurred countless talented video creators to pursue their dreams and connect with their audiences. But finding a sustainable business model remains a persistent challenge. Should videos be free and ad-supported? Or paid for by viewers on a one-off iTunes type basis? Or be part of a "freemium" model? Or be in a subscription service? Or maybe some of all of the above? Experimentation, intuition, knowing who the customer is and listening to feedback, and taking risks must all be taken into account when determining the right business model.
And that's why Common Craft, a husband-and-wife team that focuses exclusively on producing simple, short explanation-oriented videos often on technology topics (see below for an example) that have been viewed 35 million times in the last 4 years offers useful lessons for video creators. After pursuing a pure iTunes approach with payments on a per-video basis while doggedly staying away from an ad-supported model, the company has now completely shifted its model to subscriptions-only.
Categories: Indie Video
Topics: Common Craft
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