VideoNuze Posts

thePlatform Powering Telstra's BigPond TV Multi-Screen Rollout

In another sign of how online video platforms (OVPs) are expanding the scope of their management and publishing services, this morning thePlatform is announcing a multi-year deal to power the big Australian telco Telstra's multi-screen BigPond TV service for TVs, set-top boxes and the web. The announcement follows news earlier this week that Ooyala will be supporting Yahoo! Japan's multi-screen video efforts and that Brightcove has integrated with LG connected Smart TVs for direct publishing. Marty Roberts, thePlatform's VP of Sales and Marketing caught me up on the BigPond details yesterday.

The central component of BigPond TV, which Telstra announced last June, is what the company calls the "T-Box," a hybrid IP set-top box from Netgem that handles both linear channels and on-demand video. Telstra is promoting the T-Box in its bundles and it is meant to replace traditional set-tops over time. Importantly, Telstra doesn't impose any consumption caps for online video viewing via the Telstra broadband ISP. In addition to the T-Box, Telstra is also delivering the full BigPond TV service to connected TV and Blu-ray players from LG and Samsung. Telstra's goal is to have content selection on the T-Box, connected devices and online be completely synched up. For now mobile options, like an iPad or Android app aren't available, but they'll be coming soon.

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Categories: Devices, International, Technology, Telcos

Topics: Alcatel-Lucent, BigPond TV, Cisco, Netgem, SeaChange, Telstra, thePlatform

Break Media Introduces 5 New Originals

Categories: Indie Video

Topics: Break Media, YouTube

Brightcove Integrates With LG Electronics Smart TVs

Brightcove is announcing a partnership this morning with LG Electronics that will allow its publishing customers to deliver content directly to LG NetCast Smart TVs. The deal continues the trend around delivering high-quality video content to connected devices, which is becoming a significant differentiator for consumer electronics companies.

As part of the partnership, Brightcove said it will release a set of tools and support services later this year, including a reference app that will serve as a starting point for customers to deliver content to LG Smart TVs. Initiatives like these, which continue to legitimize connected TVs as a bona fide online video viewing platform, are a boon to consumers who are able to access a broader range of content directly on their TVs than what has traditionally been offered by their pay-TV provider.

What do you think? Post a comment now (no sign-in required).

Categories: Devices, Technology

Topics: Brightcove, LG

With New CBS Deal, Netflix Reminds Amazon (and Hulu) Who's King of the Streaming Jungle

As if on cue, Netflix announced a new streaming deal with CBS this morning, just hours after Amazon took the wraps off its own new streaming feature for Prime users. Under the 2-year deal, Netflix will get episodes from classic series like "Star Trek," "Frasier," "Cheers," "Twin Peaks," "Hawaii Five-O," "The Twilight Zone," and others. It will also include certain episodes from current shows like "Medium" and "Flashpoint." The companies had a previous streaming deal signed in late 2008 that covered series like "NCIS," "CSI" and "Numbers" which appears to have expired.

The new CBS agreement sends a strong message to Amazon that when it comes to premium content, Netflix is still king of the streaming jungle. If Amazon wants to compete title-for-title, it is going to have to spend aggressively for content. As I pointed out earlier today, Amazon is only likely to do this if it sees meaningful increases in Prime membership due to the new streaming feature, which I believe is unlikely.

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Categories: Aggregators, Broadcasters

Topics: ABC, Amazon, CBS, Hulu, NBCU, Netflix

Amazon Prime Instant Streaming Launches; Not a Netflix-Killer (Yet Anyway)

Amazon is announcing this morning that it has added streaming access to 5,000 movies and TV shows to the package of benefits its "Prime" members get, for no extra charge as part of their $79/year subscription. Amazon is offering a one month free trial to Prime to let new users test it out. The move had been widely rumored and of course the first company that comes to mind as being in the cross-hairs of Prime's streaming is Netflix. Those competitive concerns are legitimate, but for now, Prime isn't close to being a Netflix-killer.

The big Achilles heel of Prime is content selection. Though 5,000 titles sounds like a lot, it won't take long for experienced Netflix users tempted by a switch to Prime to recognize that most of these titles are already available on Netflix streaming as well. I did a quick comparison of 20 randomly-selected titles on Prime and found that with the exception of a few BBC Shakespeare titles and certain episodes of the PBS series "American Experience," everything on Prime is already available on Netflix streaming. In fact, for now Prime relies heavily on British programming and PBS. Though both provide quality productions, they are far from mainstream popularity in the U.S.

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Categories: Aggregators

Topics: ABC, Amazon, Apple, EPIX, NBC, Netflix, Starz

Ooyala Lands Yahoo! Japan In Big Customer Win

Categories: International, Technology

Topics: Ooyala, Yahoo! Japan

Join Me At The NAB Show For Great Online Video Sessions

Please mark your calendars to join me at this year's NAB Show in Las Vegas, April 11-13, where there will be tons of great education and networking around online and mobile video.

On Monday morning I'll be moderating a Super Session at 10:30am, "Connected TV: Smart Devices, New Strategies," which will feature Richard Buchanan (VP/GM, Content Operations, Comcast Media Center), Peter Dille (SVP, Marketing, Sony Computer Entertainment America), Jim Lanzone (CEO, Clicker), Wilfred Martis (GM, Retail CE Products, Digital Home, Intel Corp) and Jack Perry (Founder and CEO, Syncbak). We will explore all angles of the connected TV wave: what content/apps are popular, how they're impacting the market, what's ahead for adoption, and more.

Then on Tuesday, I'm hosting a full day of back-to-back sessions in the "Broadband Pit," a special area of the show floor devoted to broadband and mobile education and networking. Executives from the following companies will present on these topics, followed by audience Q&A:

FreeWheel - "Best Practices in Profiting from Professional Content"

Digitalsmiths - "Connecting Consumers to Content Through Video Metadata"

Microsoft - "An Overview of Microsoft's Media Technologies"

Signiant - "Protecting Media Assets in the Digital Age"

Akamai - "Content, Consumers, Complexity and the Cloud"

ActiveVideo Networks - "iVOD: Using Intelligence in the Cloud to Drive Next-Generation, On-Demand Navigation"

Taboola - "Too Much Information = No Information At All. Video Discovery."

Encoding.com - "Vid.ly - The Universal Video URL Platform. One Video, All Formats."

Combined, the companies will offer a 360-degree perspective on many of the key issues in the online video ecosystem today. It promises to be an exciting day of learning. Of course, beyond the activities I'm involved in, there are many other sessions, exhibits, panels and networking.

Click here for a FREE exhibit pass ($150 savings) which will allow access to the Broadband Pit session. To attend the Super Session (and other sessions), check out other NAB Show package prices.

Feel free to email me if you have any questions (wrichmondATvideonuze.com)

Categories: Events

Topics: NAB Show

5 Items of Interest for the Week of Feb. 14th

Categories: Miscellaneous