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Roku Brings Flixster Trailers to the Big Screen
I've become a bigger fan of Flixster since downloading its Android app a couple of weeks ago to my new Droid X. It offers basically everything you
need to know about movies already released and those upcoming. So I welcomed the news late yesterday that Flixster had launched a free channel to watch movie trailers on Roku.
I've played around with the Flixster channel and though there are still some quality and formatting issues (especially for older movies), for the most part, it's a welcome addition to the Roku channel store. You can browse trailers in categories including, "Now in Theaters," "Coming Soon," "New on DVD" and "Certified Fresh" (which offers ratings by Rotten Tomatoes). You can also use your remote control to search the full database of trailers.
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CBS-Comcast Deal Underscores Importance of Subscriptions
Yesterday's 10-year retransmission consent deal between Comcast and CBS further underscores the importance of subscription revenue streams in addition to advertising. Under the deal, CBS is rumored to receive between $.50-$1.00 per subscriber per month from the biggest cable operator in the U.S., putting it in the top tier of cable network compensation. When combined with other deals CBS has previously struck, plus additional ones it will likely conclude in the future, CBS has laid firm claim to the same "dual revenue" (monthly payments + advertising) business model as cable TV networks have long enjoyed.
The CBS-Comcast deal is more evidence of how dynamic the relationships have become between broadcast TV networks, cable TV networks, pay-TV operators and new distributors like Hulu and Netflix. The online/mobile/on-demand era has set off a scramble by premium content providers to lock in payments for their programming, while also remaining nimble enough to gain new distribution opportunities. Likewise, distributors are hungry for exclusive well-branded content.
Consider what's happened in just the last 8 months:
Categories: Aggregators, Broadcasters, Cable Networks, Cable TV Operators
Topics: Cablevision, CBS, Comcast, Hulu, Netflix, Time Warner Cable
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thePlatform Adds More Publishing and Advertising Controls
thePlatform is announcing this morning release 1.3 of its mpx video management system, which gives its customers enhanced publishing and
advertising controls. Marty Roberts, thePlatform's VP of sales and marketing walked me through the updates yesterday, which fall into 3 buckets:
1. Customized playlists - mix's "Feeds" now allows customers to combine both editorially and dynamically-driven playlists. For example, if a couple of videos are really hot, they can be selected to remain persistently at the top of the list rather than being bumped off by recent additions. In addition rules can be created so only users of authorized 3rd party distributors can play the video.
2. Granular geographic restrictions - Content access can now be set by country, region, metro code and area code. Additional settings include expiration date, referring domain and IP address.
3. New ad policies - mpx customers can select primary and secondary ad sources, along with the type of unit to be displayed (pre-roll, mid-roll, etc.). Some of this functionality lightly overlaps with what video ad managers like FreeWheel and Auditude offer, but thePlatform isn't trying to replace anyone in the ad management ecosystem; rather its features are meant for less complex customer situations.
Categories: Technology
Topics: thePlatform
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Howcast is Innovating in Crowded How-to Video Market
Last week I got a heads-up on milestones that Howcast, a player in the how-to video market, has recently achieved, from Sanjay Raman, Chief Product Officer and co-founder. Howcast is now doing about 25 million
playbacks per month, with about 20% of those happening on Howcast.com and 80% through its partners such as Yahoo, YouTube, MSN, Hulu, TiVo, FiOS, boxee and others. Howcast is now producing around 400 videos/month and has over 5,000 videos in its library.
Beyond the web, Howcast is innovating in a number of areas. Mobile has been a big focus, with apps for iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry and Android all released this year. Howcast says that to date its iPad app has been downloaded 150,000 times, second-most of all free apps. Howcast videos are also featured on Virgin Air's "Red" on-demand network. In addition, Howcast is also producing custom videos for corporate clients such as GE, Kodak and others where Howcast retains rights to include the video in its library.
Categories: Indie Video
Topics: HowCast
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VideoNuze Report Podcast #70 - July 30, 2010
Daisy Whitney and I are pleased to present the 70th edition of the VideoNuze Report podcast, for July 30, 2010.
This week Daisy first updates our podcast discussion from last week concerning the social media success of the Old Spice man campaign. Daisy cites Nielsen data that Old Spice Body Wash sales increased by 11% over the last 12 months (remember the campaign started in February around the Super Bowl). In last 3 months sales are up 55% and in the last month alone, when the campaign really caught fire, they're up 107%. Pretty dramatic results.
Daisy adds that no doubt Old Spice's success will spawn many copycats. In fact, Cisco just tried a tongue in check knockoff this week, though it didn't get much traction. Daisy makes a great point that success always starts with great creative.
We then segue to discuss my post from earlier this week, "Apple's New 27-Inch Display: Is a TV Next?" The new display showed once again how tantalizingly close Apple is to having its own high-end connected TV. In the post I suggested that Apple could offer any number of enhancements like integration with its "i" devices, access to apps and iTunes and other multi-platform features that at a minimum would make an "iTV" irresistible to Apple fans. The key issue is how to obtain the kinds of margins Apple's targets in the super-competitive TV industry. Daisy and I discuss the pros and cons. Listen in to learn more.
Click here to listen to the podcast (13 minutes, 28 seconds)
Click here for previous podcasts
The VideoNuze Report is available in iTunes...subscribe today!Categories: Devices, Social Media
Topics: Apple, Cisco, Old Spice
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Bloomberg is Now Using Taboola's Video Recommendations
Browsing the web last week, I noticed that Bloomberg.com is now incorporating videos throughout its site from Taboola, the video recommendations engine. If you click on any article on the site, in the lower part of the right column you'll see several thumbnails of recommended videos (here's an example from an article today about Motorola's earnings). When you click any video you're then brought to a playback page, which has additional recommended videos (see below).
Categories: Syndicated Video Economy, Technology
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Apple's New 27-Inch Display: Is a TV Next?
With Apple's unveiling yesterday of its super high-resolution 27-inch LED Cinema Display, the company is once again tantalizing the market with just how close it could be to introducing a high-end connected TV. The new 27-inch display is officially positioned to connect to Mac laptops and takes the place of existing 24-inch and 30-inch models. It comes with 2560x1440 resolution with a 16:9 glass display.
I haven't seen the product yet, but no doubt it's gorgeous. And that of course leads to the TV speculation. A few relatively simple enhancements and
repositioning spin and voila, Apple is in the TV business, with another multi-billion dollar market opportunity. The connected TV market is poised for growth, with many new TV sporting Ethernet or WiFi connections. And the market for connected devices to bring existing TVs online is exploding with choices such as Blu-ray players, gaming consoles, standalone devices, etc. priming consumers' appetites for a product from Apple.
Categories: Devices
Topics: Apple
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PHILO Raises First Institutional Round of Financing
PHILO, a startup social television platform, is announcing this morning that it has closed its first round of institutional financing from North Bridge Venture Partners and DFJ Gotham Ventures. The size of the round wasn't disclosed.
PHILO has also updated its iPhone and iPod Touch app and launched its web app. I talked to David Levy, CEO and co-founder yesterday to learn more.
Whereas the first wave of social media was about connecting friends, David sees PHILO fitting into the second wave, which is focused on connecting people to places, things, and in PHILO's case, TV programs. Foursquare, Gowalla and others have popularized the idea of using a mobile device or web application to "check-in" to places and events, so that friends and others can see what you're doing. Higher degrees of engagement such as commenting then lead to various types of rewards, which confer status among the community of users.
Categories: Deals & Financings, Startups, Video Sharing
Topics: DFJ Gotham, North Bridge, PHILO
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