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Buffering: Video Engagement's #1 Enemy
If you're like me, then you've no doubt experienced the frustration of trying to watch an online video only to have it periodically pause and then re-start, sometimes repeatedly. The pausing triggers a decision of whether to hang in there and hope things improve, or just bail out and move on to the next activity. These "buffering" moments are the bane of the content provider's existence - suppressing viewership, reducing monetization and frustrating users. And the causes can vary, including possible issues with the CDN, broadband ISP, computer, player software, etc.
Though the buffering problem is omnipresent, I haven't seen its consequences quantified as well as on a free new infographic from video optimization technology provider Conviva. By embedding its software in client-side video players, Conviva has a unique view into users' video experiences across numerous content customers including HBO GO, ESPN, Netflix, Fox, NBCU and others.
When Conviva detects an issue with the user's video streaming experience, it intervenes appropriately, for example, switching CDNs, reducing the stream's bit-rate, diagnosing network-related problems and so forth. Conviva now optimizes more than 1 billion streams per month, which speaks to how widespread delivery issues are. The result is improved engagement - a higher-quality stream, better user experience and stronger monetization.
Among the key data points in the infographic:
Categories: Technology
Topics: Conviva
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Taboola's Video Recommendation Widget Reaching Over 64 Million U.S. Unique Users Per Month
Taboola's video recommendation widget is now placed on pages of content publisher web sites reaching over 64 million U.S. unique users per month, according to Quantcast data. Adam Singolda, Taboola's CEO explained that the 64 million amount means Taboola's exposure is ahead of the uniques at popular sites like Bing, Pandora and CNET, and just behind Twitter, Wikipedia and Amazon, again, according to Quantcast data (see chart below).
Categories: Technology
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AdoTube Unveils VidLogic Campaign Management Platform
Video ad technology provider AdoTube is introducing VidLogic this morning, a new video campaign management platform for in-stream video advertising.
VidLogic is a single campaign management platform with tools to plan, develop creative, manage, target, optimize and report on ads placed on virtually any ad exchange, network or publisher site. VidLogic is seeking to differentiate from other demand side platforms (DSPs) by leveraging AdoTube's core technologies and being an open platform that will work with any inventory source.
Categories: Advertising, Technology
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Irdeto Acquires Piracy Detection Firm BayTSP
Software security provider Irdeto is acquiring media anti-piracy firm BayTSP, the companies are announcing this morning. BayTSP's monitoring and business intelligence technology will broaden Irdeto's range of security solutions for studios, pay-TV providers and media companies, including its ActiveCloak renewal security system. BayTSP counts Comcast, Sony and Toshiba among its clients. Martin Sendyk, Irdeto's SVP, Product and Stuart Rosove, BayTSP's CEO briefed me on the details late last week.
Categories: Deals & Financings, DRM, P2P, Technology
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SundaySky - AOL StudioNow Partnership is a Great Example of Video Innovation
A partnership announced yesterday between SundaySky and StudioNow is another great example of how video is being used to innovate traditional ways of doing business. For those not familiar with either company, SundaySky's technology platform, which I last wrote about here, creates real-time, personalized videos at scale using templates and data feeds, and StudioNow (which is part of AOL's Advertising.com division) offers distributed video production and syndication services.
The partnership creates a new sales channel for SundaySky, while enhancing the range of services StudioNow can offer its clients. As SundaySky's president and CRO Jim Disco explained to me yesterday, the exciting part is how SundaySky's technology is being innovatively applied and the new value it creates for customers like real estate service provider ListingBook, which was also announced yesterday.
Categories: Partnerships, Technology
Topics: AOL, ListingBook, StudioNow, SundaySky
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Exclusive: Tremor Video's "Video Hub" Analytics Platform Now Available for 3rd Party Use
Tremor Video is announcing later this morning that its Video Hub in-stream video ad analytics platform is now available for brands and agencies to license for use with any 3rd party ad server, ad network or publisher. Tremor unveiled Video Hub in May and since then over 200 brands and agencies have used it with Tremor's own ad server on its ad network as the company finished up development. Anthony Risicato, Tremor's GM for Video Hub told me last week that reactions from these early users have been positive and they've been eager to expand their use of Video Hub to also track and measure the effectiveness of non-Tremor elements of their video ad campaigns.
Categories: Advertising, Technology
Topics: Tremor Video, Video Hub
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Amazon Gets Its Right With Video Explaining Its New Silk Browser
While the drama surrounding industry events like Netflix's price increase or Hulu's potential acquisition grab the big headlines related to online video's disruptive impact, a less visible, but still very meaningful benefit of online video is the ability for any organization to explain complex ideas by producing their own videos for target audiences. One great example of this approach hit my radar this week: a 6-minute video that Amazon released discussing the new Amazon Silk browser that runs on the new Kindle Fire tablet.
Categories: Technology
Topics: Amazon, Kindle Fire
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Vizu Extends Measurement of Video Ads' Brand Lift to VAST/VPAID
Vizu, an online ad technology provider which measures brand lift, announced an upgrade of its platform yesterday which will give brands and agencies greater insight into the effectiveness of in-stream video ad campaigns, an important step to increasing their spending. With the upgrade, Vizu now
supports the VAST/VPAID spec which means Vizu can measure the effectiveness of video ads placed through ad exchanges and real-time bidding platforms as well those bought through direct publisher sales. As Vizu's CEO Dan Beltramo explained to me last week, this is a key step because a significant portion of video ads are already being placed through exchanges and RTB platforms which he expects to grow further.
Categories: Advertising, Technology
Topics: Vizu
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Ooyala Gets Social With Facebook Integration
Online video platform Ooyala is announcing Ooyala Social this morning, including a deep integration with Facebook that enhances the popular social network's opportunity to become a meaningful video distribution platform by leveraging "social graph" information. The first content provider to use some components of Ooyala Social is film studio Miramax, which several weeks ago began offering 20 movies for rental on Facebook through its Miramax eXperience app. Ooyala CEO Jay Fulcher gave me a rundown of Ooyala Social last week and group marketing manager Nick Edwards walked me through the how Miramax is using Ooyala Social so far.
Categories: Social Media, Technology
Topics: Facebook, Ooyala Social
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KIT Digital Releases New Platform With Features for Social and Connected Devices
Technology provider KIT Digital released the newest generation of its KIT Video Platform today. There are two editions, KIT Cloud, positioned as an
online video platform for content providers seeking a turnkey solution, and KIT Cosmos, which is targeted for pay-TV and over-the-top video providers who want to deliver a full multi-screen experience to subscribers. KIT is also announcing new social TV features and a "Connected Device Framework." Alex Blum, KIT's COO and Gannon Hall, its EVP, Global Marketing, recently brought me up to speed on the news.
Categories: Technology
Topics: KIT Digital
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Liberty Global to Use thePlatform for Video Delivery and TV Everywhere
Liberty Global, the largest international cable operator, with over 17 million subscribers in 14 countries, has chosen thePlatform's mpx system to power its online video delivery and TV Everywhere initiatives. Liberty plans to phase in services in select regions before expanding globally. The move underscores how video delivery to multiple devices is becoming an imperative for pay-TV operators around the world as consumers continue to adopt new viewing behaviors.
Categories: Cable TV Operators, International, Technology
Topics: Liberty Global, thePlatform
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Microsoft Licenses "Taste and Mood" Video Discovery Technology From Jinni
Jinni, whose "taste and mood" video discovery technology allows viewers to get personalized TV and movie recommendations, has announced a license
deal with Microsoft. Though Microsoft didn't disclose how specifically it would use Jinni, the company has been broadening its Xbox gaming platform for video entertainment, so it would fit well there. Jinni could also be integrated across Microsoft's online and mobile properties and in different devices like the Zune.
Categories: Technology, Video Search
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Thought Equity Motion Acquires Panvidea To Streamline Video Delivery
Cloud-based video platform Thought Equity Motion has acquired Panvidea, bringing together two complimentary companies that are focused on streamlining digital video management, work flow and delivery. Thought Equity's CEO/founder Kevin Schaff and Panvidea's CEO/co-founder Chris Cali (who will become VP, Platform Technologies) briefed me on the deal.
The big picture here is that as digital delivery to multiple devices gains steam, the back-end processes of getting high value content quickly, securely and cost-effectively to the right places becomes critical. Distributing via tape with lots of manual steps involved isn't acceptable any longer. Kevin sees Panvidea's platform, which manages the full spectrum of video preparation (ingest, storage, customization, transcoding and delivery to multiple platforms/devices), as complimenting Thought Equity's platform which is focused on master file and archive management. Combining the capabilities is intended to give content providers a full end-to-end solution.
Categories: Deals & Financings, Technology
Topics: Panvidea, Thought Equity Motion
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Startup Veedios Bridges Video to Connected Devices
Connected devices that enable viewing of online-delivered video on TVs are proliferating. As this new addressable universe of viewers expands, content
providers naturally want to deliver to it. This is especially true for content providers who haven't gained valuable distribution agreements with pay-TV providers, and therefore have been shut out of the living room to date.
The problem is that each connected device manufacturer has its own publishing environment and approval process. That's where startup Veedios comes in. Veedios has developed a tool that allows it to publish native apps to 5 different platforms today (boxee, Roku, Popbox, Plex and Yahoo Connected TV, which includes Samsung, Sony, Vizio, Toshiba and LG), with more coming soon including iOS and Android.
Categories: Devices, Indie Video, Technology
Topics: Veedios
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Synacor and Grab Networks Partner to Increase TV Everywhere Content
Synacor, which provides technology that powers over 40 pay-TV operators' online portals and TV Everywhere initiatives, has partnered with Grab Networks, a syndicator of online video with over 200 different video publishers. With the deal, Synacor's customers will be able to augment their content lineups from Grab's verticals such as Food and Drink, Home and Family, Travel, Health and Relationships. In addition to being available online, Grab's content is also compatible with mobile devices running iOS and Android.
Categories: Cable TV Operators, Partnerships, Technology
Topics: Grab Networks, Synacor
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KODAK Gallery Launches Animoto's Video Slideshow Creator
KODAK Gallery, which has 75 million users, has begun offering Animoto's video slideshow creator via an API, enabling users to build their own slideshows within the KODAK site. For those not familiar with Animoto (which recently raised $25 million), its service allows users to upload photos, short video clips and music which are then packaged into slick video slideshows. Animoto's CEO and co-founder Brad Jefferson gave me a quick overview of the partnership and a company update yesterday.
The KODAK Gallery partnership (which was originally announced in last March and is Animoto's largest to date), addresses a key challenge for Animoto of how to attract new users to create video slideshows. As Brad explained, reducing the time required to seeing a slideshow or preview is a key objective, and since users have by definition already uploaded photos to the KODAK Gallery, they have a head-start. KODAK Gallery users just need to pick an album and a song and Animoto creates a 30-second slideshow preview which can be expanded into longer versions.
Categories: Partnerships, Technology
Topics: Animoto, KODAK Galler
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Vid.ly Pro is Unveiled, Fits Between YouTube/Vimeo and OVPs
Encoding.com has released Vid.ly Pro today, which as company president Jeff Malkin explained to me, is targeted to the tens of thousands of video producers who need a solution that's more robust than YouTube or Vimeo but doesn't have all the bells and whistles (and cost) of a full-blown online video platforms.
As I explained in my original coverage of Vid.ly's beta launch in January, Vid.ly is a clever service that allows video producers to upload or point to
their source video file and then have Vid.ly return a single URL and embed code with 20+ output formats that will work across all devices and browsers. Vid.ly's goal is enticingly simple: to eliminate the operational complexity and cost of increasingly heterogeneous playback environments for video producers while letting users just click play and begin viewing.
Categories: Devices, Technology
Topics: Encoding.com, Vid.ly
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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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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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