streaming deal

New video delivery partnership

Tom Burton — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 07:59:10 -0400

Fresh from a $55 million VC injection, Highwinds is teaming up with Digital Rapids and Knack Networks to promote a turnkey video delivery system for media companies looking for a complete solution. The turnkey offering follows an announcement last week from Akimbo it would be offering a white label solution also to media companies looking to outsource their webcasting technology. Both deals are assuming media companies are now ready to put their video content online.

The partnership will use Highwinds' content delivery network infrastructure; Digital Rapids' media capture, encoding, transcoding, protection, streaming and delivery hardware and software; and Knack Networks' universal interface platform which enables companies to source, store, protect, monetize, manage and distribute IPTV programming across an array of channels.

Highwind recently closed a $55 million round of equity financing led by General Catalyst Partners and Alta Communications. The financing will fund the infrastructure build-out of Highwinds' RollingThunder network, including a content delivery network offering which the company said it would unveiling at this weeks IPTV World Forum.

For more:
- Highwind partners with Digital Rapids and Knack Release

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Akimbo offers white label solution Article
Cisco and AT&T invest in Akimbo Article

Akimbo goes white label VOD

Tom Burton — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 06:59:10 -0500

Akimbo is making its third play into the video space launching a white label solution for business wanting to establish their own Web TV channels. While their track record might be less than impressive, Akimbo is perhaps becoming best known for its ability to keep getting VC funding. This time it has picked up $8 million in new VC, making it $56 million over nine years. According to PE Hub, return investors include AT&T, Blueprint Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Self described as "revolutionary," the new video distribution service offers a variety of business models including advertising, transactional, subscription, download-to-own, download-to-burn, pay-per-minute, gift cards and account credits.

"One of the most important pieces missing in the stampede to the Internet video market has been an easy solution for content owners to control the marketing and sale of their own video assets," claims Akimbo CEO Thomas Frank . "Until now, content owners have been forced to use incomplete solutions or rely entirely on distribution deals to publish professional content. We have engineered a solution that allows content owners to take control of their own destiny without incurring costly infrastructure expenses or unreasonable revenue splits with third parties."

Akimbo initially produced a set-top box to download premium VOD content for TV. Like many others have discovered consumers were not ready and the business closed a year ago. Akimbo then joined the stampede of companies trying to aggregate video content.

For more:
Akimbo Unveils Complete Internet VOD Solution Release
Akimbo tries a new strategy Article

Related article:
Cisco and AT&T invest in Akimbo Article

Stage6 video portal shuts down

Tom Burton — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 06:59:30 -0500

DivX is shuttering its Stage6 video sharing portal, admitting it was chewing resources it does not have. DivX launched the service to showcase its media player technology. It attracted nearly a million users but without revenue to pay for the high cost of quality video delivery it was doomed.

In the end, DivX could not even find a buyer for the portal. According to DivX: "So why are we shutting the service down? Well, the short answer is that the continued operation of Stage6 is a very expensive enterprise that requires an enormous amount of attention and resources that we are not in a position to continue to provide."

It is another case where the superior technology does not necessarily win. Market titan YouTube may have inferior quality to almost all the would-be portals, but is the accepted go-to site for user-generated content. And the imminent arrival of Adobe's next-generation-player software is likely to narrow the quality gap significantly. This will further challenge the various proprietary providers, all of whom are paying a high price to serve bandwidth chewing video with little to show for it other than invoices from their CDN provider.

For more;
- DivX closes its Stage6 portal Feb. 28 Statement and Blog
- DivX finally shuts Stage6 video portal Article

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Limelight wins early patent battle

Tom Burton — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 06:59:50 -0500

Akamai's long-awaited patent case against Limelight Networks got underway yesterday in what could be a make or break litigation for Limelight. Limelight last week had a first-round win when the Massachusetts district court hearing the matter rejected two out of three of the patent claims. This saw Limelight's stock price jump, only to be buffeted by a downgrade from Jefferies analyst Katherine Egbert. Egbert noted the court agreed to hear submissions on a final patent--the same patent Akamai had successfully stopped Cable and Wireless from using. This is Akamai's first and most successful patent and was obtained from MIT under an exclusive license.

The battle between the CDN market leader Akamai and the aggressive new player on the block, Limelight, is being keenly watched by the online video industry with many wanting Limelight to succeed so as to ensure competitive pricing. The case finally began yesterday after nearly two years of legal preparations. Limelight is also facing a patent action from Level 3.

Predictions of a price war this year have not yet materialized as demand for video content delivery continues to surge. Much of this demand is coming from traditional media companies finally making content available online. Limelight over the weekend announced Doug Lindroth had joined the board. Lindroth is a former CFO of software company, BakBone Software.

In recent weeks, there have been market rumors of a Microsoft purchase of Limelight, but analysts believe a buyout is unlikely until the patent action is resolved. Limelight floated mid-last year and reached a high of $24.33 before collapsing to around $7.

For More:
- Limelight appoints Doug Lindroth to Board Release
- Limelight wins early patent skirmish Release

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Netflix and LG go for video on demand

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 06:59:30 -0500

The fight for the TV consumer is being played out at several levels with video in the post provider Netflix abandoning its own set-top box ambitions and announcing it would go with a box to be built by Korean CE giant, LG Electronics.

The box will enable Netflix to migrate its 7 million DVD subscribers to a networked HD streaming service beginning mid this year. No pricing was released ad the move follows Netflix tentative step into the internet download game with its Watch now service that streams a limited number of movies to customer PCs.

The move suggests the DVD business has definitely seen its best days as video on demand services inevitably take over from physical media, although the history of pure play video on demand businesses has not been brilliant to date. Retail giant Wal-mart lasted less than a year with its download service, closing it in the run up to the holiday season. Another start up, Akimbo also decided the market was not ready when it abandoned its proprietary box last year and the Cisco/Intel backed MovieBeam also quietly withdrew from the market last month with less than 1,800 subscribers.

For More:
- LG Electronics and Netflix to stream movies to the TV Release
- Netflix and LG partner for streaming HDTV content Article

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NBC does downloads

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 06:59:40 -0400

NBC will launch a web site next month for downloads of its lineup. NBC Direct, which currently offers full-episode streams of "30 Rock" and "Heroes" among others, will feature downloads of those shows plus a heretofore glaring omission, "The Office."

The downloads will have a DRM (digital rights management) license that expires in a week. A subscription service will eventually allow for automated downloads of favorite shows.

The beta launch will be for Windows PCs only, in what appears to be a continued snit with Apple over the network's exit from iTunes. NBC's dissatisfaction with the iTune pricing model coincided with the launch of its own online distribution initiatives. Given the buffering freeze-ups inherent in streaming high-bandwidth video, downloads are the obvious alternative.

For More:
- TelecomTV offers a summary of NBCdirect here

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NBC exits iTunes, enters Hulu Report
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ABC streams Warner Bros. TV

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 06:59:20 -0400

Two TV giants struck an unprecedented streaming deal last week. ABC and Warner Bros. Television Group did a two-year deal that allows ABC the streaming rights to four shows in the Warner Bros. stable--"Men in Trees," "Notes from the Underbelly," "Big Shots" and "Pushing Daisies."

ABC will make episodes of the shows available at ABC.com the day after they premiere on TV, and for up to four weeks afterward. ABC will also retain the revenue generated by online views. Under terms of the agreement, the network can also stream pilot episodes on alternative platforms. Streaming rights go back to Warner Bros. in year No. 2, as well as download and DVD rights.

ABC beta launched an HD media player in July provided by Move Networks in American Fork, Utah. The aspect ratio is 16:9, compared to the typical SD ratio of 4:3 for most players. ABC's online HD player is the first one to market, as far we know here at FierceIPTV, but an HD version of Flash is on its way.

For More:
- Time Warner carries the official announcement here
- Multichannel covers the HD ABC media player beta launch here

Related Article
Hi-def Flash arrives Report