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5 Items of Interest for the Week of Feb. 14th
Happy Friday! Below is VideoNuze's end-of-week feature, analyzing 5-6 interesting online/mobile video industry news items that we weren't able to cover this week. Enjoy!
Categories: Miscellaneous
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Disney Has Religion on Digital, ESPN Is At the Core
Disney held its annual investor day yesterday, and as usual, technology, and the opportunities it creates for the company, was at center stage. Disney
introduced a new initiative called "Disney Studio All Access" providing a central location for consumers to securely access the company's range of content. Though details were sketchy, key to the plan is more flexible consumer ownership and multi-device playback. For paid, downloadable video, that remains the holy grail.
Aside from the company's digital initiatives on the entertainment side of its house, the most important asset that Disney is trying to re-imagine digitally is ESPN. Just yesterday, the company announced a new distribution deal with Verizon, which emphasizes live online streaming of ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN Buzzer Beater. The deal is similar to one inked last September with Time Warner Cable, the country's 2nd-largest cable operator. No doubt others will follow.
Categories: Cable Networks, Cable TV Operators, Sports, Telcos
Topics: Disney, ESPN, Time Warner Cable, Verizon
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Comcast's Q4 Subscriber Gains Dampen Cord-Cutting Chatter
Comcast reported a strong Q4 '10 this week, and in particular, by cutting its basic subscriber loss to 135K, from 199K a year ago, bolstered the argument that cord-cutting has been over-hyped. Lost in some of the coverage is the
fact that Q1 is a traditionally strong quarter for the pay-TV industry and so some reversal of the last few quarters' losses was fully expected. In Comcast's and other pay-TV operators' favor was the improving economy. which Comcast and other operators have pointed to as the main driver of subscriber losses, not emerging over-the-top options.
Categories: Cable TV Operators
Topics: Comcast
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Redbox Subscription Still Coming
Redbox's president was talking up his company's upcoming subscription video service this week, though no launch dates or partner were identified. Redbox has big-time Netflix-envy and clearly believes it can compete. That will be easier said than done.
Categories: Aggregators, FIlms
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Netflix Gets Apple Subscription Exemption As CE Industry Love Continues
Speaking of Netflix (and who's not these days?), check out how Apple granted it an exemption from its 30% fee for its new App Store subscription model this
week. Publishers were rankled this week that the long-awaited subscription support fee was pegged so high, and Google seemed to seize on it, by introducing its "One Pass" service right on the heels of Apple's announcement, with a lower 10% cut and more flexible rules.
Categories: Aggregators, Devices
Topics: Apple, Google, Netflix
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Addressable TV Advertising Struggles To Keep Up With Online Video
An article in Multichannel News this week, "Online Video May Force TV To Pick Up The Pace," discussed how online video advertising is raising the bar on addressable TV advertising (i.e. ads delivered through set-top boxes against VOD streams and the like). That's an understatement to say the least. From everyone I talk to, and from following the activity in the market, online video advertising has lapped addressable TV advertising and then some. From every perspective - investment, innovation, brand adoption, distribution, interactivity, online video advertising is the place brands want to be. And I see this actually accelerating; every week I speak to an executive or two whose company is delivering another exciting online video innovation.
Categories: Advertising, Video On Demand
Topics: VOD
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VideoNuze Report Podcast #88 - Feb. 18, 2011
Daisy Whitney and I are pleased to present the 88th edition of the VideoNuze Report podcast, for February 18, 2011.
In this podcast, Daisy and I discuss a deal announced earlier this week in which MLB.com will provide near real-time video clips to CBSSports.com's Fantasy Baseball Commissioner users, among other things. The deal caught my attention because the video is driven off of metadata that's created and published almost immediately after the video is shot. That contrasts with metadata creation happening with library content. The deal also speaks to the way video can be used to enhance various online experiences. Listen in the learn more.
Click here to listen to the podcast (12 minutes, 1 second)
Click here for previous podcasts
The VideoNuze Report is available in iTunes...subscribe today!Topics: CBSSports.com, MLB.com, Podcast
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Newspapers Cranked Out More Online Videos In 2010 Than Any Other Media Vertical
U.S. newspapers uploaded approximately 2.4 million videos in 2010, more than 3x the volume of the next-closest industry verticals of broadcast and online media, according to the latest "online video & the media industry" report from Brightcove and TubeMogul for Q4 '10. Newspapers uploaded 1.2 million titles in Q4 alone, a 147% increase in volume over Q3. The accelerating trend suggests newspapers are deepening their commitment to online video as a way of boosting online engagement and increasing ad revenue. The new data also seems to offset recent news that newspapers are reducing their involvement with online video.
Categories: Branded Entertainment, Broadcasters, Newspapers, Online Publishers
Topics: Brightcove, TubeMogul


