Today's Top Stories Oklahoma State University yesterday launched an online video system, OStateTV, as a way to connect students, employees and alumni across multiple campuses and sites via personal computers, tablets and smartphones. The service will use a single platform based on technology from Comcast's (Nasdaq: CMCSA) independent subsidiary thePlatform and Hemisphere Interactive. OStateTV opens with more than 30 online channels of content for topics from Arts and Humanities to Wellness Research to Sports and Leisure. Most channels "feature an elegant preview video," a news release said. The online video service will allow the university to "showcase our great work… and to fulfill our land-grant mission of instruction, research and outreach," OSU President Burns Hargis said in the news release. "Video is a very effective way of us telling our… special story of transforming lives all over this planet. Video enables us to connect with the OSU family; whether they're students, or alumni, or donors or just friends of the university." And thePlatform and Hemisphere Interactive enable that video. "OSU is leveraging the same high-quality video publishing system used by many of the most prominent media and entertainment companies in the world, in order to create a compelling custom video experience for their students, alumni, and fans," said Marty Roberts, senior vice president of sales and marketing for thePlatform. Actually, universities are leading the way when it comes to clever uses of online video, added Ken Ruck, president of Hemisphere Interactive. "Universities are creating more valuable content across more areas of study and interest than most major media companies," Ruck said. "This partnership with Oklahoma State is creating the most powerful video distribution system for the university space." In addition to providing information across the various media and to the various audiences, OStateTV will also be a laboratory, of sorts, for OSU's School of Media and Strategic Communications, whose students will provide content, including regular video projects for classroom work and a regular student-produced sports show. It's part of the educational process, said Derina Holtzhausen, the school's department head, noting access to OStateTV gives students "hands-on, day-to-day experience in the latest form of video production and distribution." For more:
- see this news release from Oklahoma State University, thePlatform and Hemisphere Interactive Related articles:
Comcast expands online video plays via thePlatform and Disney
thePlatform to power TV Everywhere distribution for USA, Syfy, Oxygen Read more about: Theplatform, Oklahoma State University
back to top
| This week's sponsors are Tellabs, Kontron, and SAS Canada. |  | eBook: The New Data Center In this FierceTelecom eBook we'll discuss the strategies service providers are taking to build a sustainable and profitable data center business. To read more Download for free today. |
Online viewership just continues to keep growing, hitting an all-time high of 188 million U.S. Internet watchers looking at 27.7 billion online videos in August 2012, according to the latest statistics compiled by comScore. In keeping with the trend, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Sites, home of YouTube, was the top online video content property with 150.2 million unique views, far outpacing Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) Sites, which came in with 55 million. Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Sites, which followed with 53.7 million, VEVO (49.3 million views) and Facebook (47.7 million views) rounded out the top five. Google also dominated the video content views with 13.8 billion, followed by AOL (NYSE: AOL), which didn't even crack the billion mark, coming in at 725 million. Finally, comScore said, Google also swept the highest average engagement among the top 10 properties. Making those who pay for the content happy, Americans looked at (or at least browsed past) 9.5 billion video ads in the month. Google led the way again with 1.7 billion ads, followed by BrightRoll Video Network (1.4 billion), Adap.tv (1.2 billion), Hulu (1.1 billion) and SpotXchange Video Ad Marketplace (911 million). Whether they watched or not, Americans spent 2.5 billion minutes online while ads were rolling past, with BrightRoll garnering about 717 million of those minutes. Hulu delivered the highest frequency of video ads to its viewers--an average of 51--while Google Sites delivered 19 ads per viewer. For more:
- comScore released this news release detailing its online video rankings report Related articles:
Netflix streams record 1 billion hours of video in June
Google dominates online-video rankings
ComScore: 11% of viewers only use Web and mobile devices to watch TV programming Read more about: Comscore, Google
back to top
Cloud-based streaming technology provider Octoshape has partnered with smart TV solutions provider NetRange to facilitate what the two call Triple OTT, "the next generation in broadband television." The partners plan to integrate Atlanta-based Octoshape's Infinite HD-M multicast technology into NetRange Smart TV portals to give consumers an "unlimited amount of linear channels in broadcast quality via the public Internet," the two companies said in a news release. "With Triple OTT, we deliver exactly what the consumer wants," said Jan Wendt, founder-CEO of Germany-based NetRange. "Besides linear TV based on DVB [digital video broadcast] and our portfolio of Smart TV applications, Octoshape will enable our devices and our content partners to make more content available at the highest quality with flat fee per channel pricing." The result should appeal to broadcasters and media companies who gain greater reach on smart TVs as well as network operators and ISPs whose networks will be made more efficient to deliver larger volumes of content, the two companies said. "The partnership with NetRange is an explosive catalyst in the ecosystem," Octoshape CEO Michael Milland said. "The combination of the consumer-friendly NetRange Smart TV portal with the quality, scale, and economic aspects of the Infinite HD-M platform will create an unbeatable consumer video experience on the broadband connected television." NetRange said it counts more than 400 customers and has developed applications and services for other current leading Smart TV portals from Samsung, LG and Philips. The integration of Octoshape's platform into that portal "enables large volumes of broadband TV consumption to be delivered efficiently over last mile networks without requiring the vast infrastructure upgrades necessary with traditional video delivery platforms," the companies said. "Octoshape's Infinite HD-M technology will become a major component in our OTT strategy," Wendt said. "Their focus and reputation for providing for large scale broadband TV audiences coupled with its unique technology enabling global video quality will provide a new platform for content owners and device manufacturers with unparalleled consumer video experiences." For more:
- Octoshape and NetRange issued this news release Related article:
PurpleStream and Octoshape team to create PurpleCloud global IPTV service Read more about: Smart TVs
back to top
Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) and A&E and the History Channel have parted ways (at least for now) after content carriage negotiations fell through. The result is that Netflix will no longer carry A&E and History Channel programming like "Storage Wars," "Pawn Stars," "Ice Road Truckers," "American Pickers," "Dog the Bounty Hunter," "Hoarders" and other reality shows carried on the two cable channels--at least until a new deal is cut. Earlier this week, inside sources had already hinted that the two sides were coming apart, even as Netflix evinced confidence that things would be fine. Netflix was planning to drop some programming (roughly 40 miniseries) because of low ratings, but industry sources indicated the programmers didn't quite agree with that. Right now, the content loss is being compared to a February licensing disagreement between Netflix and Starz, when Netflix lost the rights to air movies from Sony (NYSE: SNE) Pictures and Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS). Consumers have yet to weigh in on the losses, but the financial community made its voice heard again as the company's stock took a hit. A pair of Macquarie Securities analysts, Tim Nollen and James Kopelman, even produced a 35-page financial report that predicts, among other things, that Netflix's profit margins "will always be less than optimal, primarily because movie studios are demanding increasingly bigger prices to license their content," according to a story in DTV USA Forum. At the same time Netflix is being asked to pay more--and new subscriber numbers are waning--competitors like Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN), Hulu Plus and YouTube are close in the rear mirror of the streaming media provider and getting ready to pass, according to some analysts. "The market dynamics [have] led analysts to question whether or not Netflix's streaming media empire is soon coming to an end," the DTV USA Forum story speculated. Netflix, for its part, continues to maintain that the ship is sailing in the right direction. CFO David Wells this week told the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference in New York City that international business, alone, represents a "massive market opportunity," according to a story in Variety. For more:
- see this story in DTV USA Forum
- check out this story in DTV USA Forum
- read this story in Variety (sub. req.) Related articles:
Netflix, A&E Networks apparently at loggerheads over content licensing
Bell Canada announces online video service to challenge Netflix
20th Century Fox cuts movie, TV deal with YouTube Read more about: Netflix
back to top
Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) is so popular with Canadians that it's being cited as a reason why other Canadian companies need to up the ante for their own online video products. Bell Canada (NYSE: BCE) says it should be permitted to purchase Astral Media to improve its content portfolio, and Shaw Communications (NYSE: SJR) wants to launch its own digital on-demand service, Shaw Go. According to Shaw, Shaw Go will be the place where subscribers can access newly released movies and premium television programs from pay TV channels like Movie Central and HBO Canada. Not coincidentally, the premium networks are owned by Corus Entertainment, a company in which the Shaw family holds a controlling interest. To start, Shaw Go will be available on the Movie Central app for mobile devices. After its initial start-up phase, Shaw hopes to expand Shaw Go to include live streaming TV, children's programming from Corus' back catalog and content from Shaw Media's own channels like HGTV and the Global network. This isn't the first time that Canada's MVPDs have pushed online video services. Bell, Rogers Communications (NYSE: RCI) and Shaw have all tried before, but none had the success of Netflix, which has proven particularly popular in the Great White North. Part of the problem was that the Canadian broadcasters provided limited access to older TV series and films through their online services; Netflix does, and that feature helped push the service in Canada. There is a big difference between what Shaw proposes and the way Netflix operates. Consumers will need a TV subscription to get Shaw's content online or via a mobile device, following the U.S. TV Everywhere model where "[t]he idea, at the end of the day, is to keep people in the linear TV mold," Brahm Eiley, principal at Toronto's Convergence Consulting Group, told The Financial Post. Netflix opponents in Canada claim the service is successful because it is not required to follow rules that apply to them, including licensing fees and financial commitments for domestic production. That's one of the arguments BCE is pitching in its quest to spend $3.38 billion to acquire Astral. While opposition to Netflix is on the rise, it's still very much disorganized, and there is no immediate clarity about whether the disparate parties will compete directly with each other. What is clear, the newspaper story concluded, is that "access to either [BCE or Shaw] won't come as cheaply as Netflix." For more:
- see this story in The Financial Post Related articles:
Bell Canada continues to push for Astral acquisition; Rogers says it feels threatened
Bell Canada announces online video service to challenge Netflix
Bell Canada wants to fight U.S. OTT invasion with 'made in Canada' service Read more about: Netflix, TV everywhere
back to top
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment
Keep a civil tongue.