NBC

Snack TV rules online video market

Tom Burton — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 06:59:30 -0500

A new survey has confirmed short-form video continues to dominate online video usage. According to Online Video Content: The New TV Audience, the bulk of video consumed online is snack-able, video-bite-sized entertainment, rather than a complete meal of full TV episodes or full-length movies.

"The most popular online video content, watched by 40 percent or more of the U.S. online video audience, consists of short pieces of five minutes or less: news clips, jokes, movie trailers, music videos, clips from TV shows and entertainment news," says David Hallerman, eMarketer Senior Analyst and author of the report.

News is the most popular form of video with 61 percent of users watching news in any month according to the report's estimates. Jokes and comedy attract 57 percent, movie trailers 51 percent and music videos 49 percent of online video watchers.

Hallerman says as technology problems are solved, the computer-television connection will be more viable and pleasurable for the average consumer; online video content will expand in both length and breadth, and professionally-produced material will account for a large part of the menu."

For more:
- Online video usage Report

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NBC Universal goes for IPTV solution

Tom Burton — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 06:59:40 -0500

Israel has emerged as a development hot house for the IPTV industry with much of the encoding smarts coming from the region. NASDAQ listed Optibase is based in Israel and recently won a big vote of confidence when NBC Universal chose it IPTV solution to support a 200-channel internal video delivery system.

NBC had a traditional analog platform pushing 100 channels to its production facilities, but it was found wanting when MSNBC moved to NBC's 30 Rock New York headquarters. Because the system has been configured for 200 SD and HD channels, an MPEG4 solution was chosen to deliver the multi-cast feeds, which can now be distributed to any PC in the building. Optibase won the contract for the encoding and decoding, along with Amino for the set top boxes and Cisco for the switches. NBC Universal says it can distribute monitoring video services with far greater reach and flexibility than could have been provided by a conventional cable TV system.

For more:
- NBC Universal overhauls its IPTV distribution system Article
- Optibase Release

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SPOTLIGHT: Joost struggling in video portal battle

Tom Burton — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 06:59:00 -0500

The resignation of CTO Dirk-Willem van Gulik, the surge in popularity of major competitor Hulu and with another dozen-plus players seeking prominence as an online TV portal, there is much speculation the online video aggregator may not survive. Primary issue is the lack of quality content partners which is limiting growth. A competitor, Veoh, recently began embedding Hulu clips which to date Hulu's two corporate owners News Corp. and NBC have not stopped. Joost requires a software download which limits its interactivity and leaves it vulnerable to well-funded portals with access to both content and marketing horsepower. NewTeeVee has some suggestions as to how Joost can survive. Report

Convergence kills CES, NAB, CTIA...

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 06:59:55 -0500

Sony brought their stars, so too did NBC. Telco executives were everywhere and a cable guy gave the keynote address. The usual corridors of gadget wizardry were on show but what stood out at CES2008 was that everyone--carriers, MSOs, broadcasters, the big production, gaming and software houses and of course the CE salesmen--was there. Could it be what we are finally watching play out live is the much anticipated convergence?

There may be more devices than ever, but as machines all become IP enabled, behind the scenes the carriers, cable companies and broadcasters that power them are morphing into "digicoms" delivering a variety of digital medias through a variety of digital devices. In time, conferences such as CES, NAB and CTIA are set to be quaint reminders of a time when technologies were hard wired to content and distribution. -Tom

NBC set to use P2P

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 06:59:50 -0500

NBC has officially exited Apple's iTunes and is readying to take its heavily criticized site, NBC Direct out of beta with a much improved interface and back end.

Most significant is the decision to go with New York based P2P network operator, Pando. The idea of a big content brand even touching a peer to peer technology would have been inconceivable a few years ago. P2P was of course the favored technology for sharing/stealing media--a sharing which the content owners vigorously litigated against.

But as demand for video surged and bandwidth availability and cost became problematic the idea of utilizing idle bandwidth has become more and more acceptable. P2P provider Pando is expected to get the nod to be part of the distribution platform NBC goes with when the site moves from its beta phase which will make NBC the first US broadcaster to adopt the technology.

Pando has been playing in the consumer P2P space for a couple of years now, navigating the often tricky bit torrent world which can see very different results depending on flavors of firewalls and country protocols. An indicator of just how much traffic is now moving in the P2P world is that Pando now moves 140 terabytes a day from the 14 million consumers apps which have been downloaded.

With NBC now off iTunes, NBC is under pressure to get NBC Direct up and running. The site has been pilloried for its obvious inadequacies.

Cable giant Comcast has struck recent consumer backlash and a legal writ after admitting it restricted P2P traffic as part of what they called general network management.

A recent study found P2P traffic represented more traffic on the Internet than all other applications combined and that 95 percent of all night time traffic in eastern Europe was coming from P2P networks.

For more:
- The business of video has a report

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NBC Direct launch a dud

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 06:59:40 -0500

NBC copped a panning over the weekend when it launched its NBC Direct site for downloads of programs from the network. The tech press mauled NBC for releasing a proprietary client which only worked in Windows. Firefox and Apple users may still not be a majority but it is a long time since any serious web team would dare release a product which only worked for IE Windows users. Mobile users also were forgotten.

Nor does it do your brand any good to release only for U.S. users --at last count, there were about 1.2 billion global internet users. Of these, approximately 20 percent live in North America. Also upsetting the commentators was the 48-hour restriction on the downloads and that they only were available for seven days after NBC aired the program. Unfortunately for NBC the New York Times correspondent could not get any thing to work other than the ads.

My criticism, for what its worth, is the new video site looks like something the Internal Revenue Service would have bee proud of in 1999. Text, text, text everywhere. Hard to read orange type faces and an information architecture that will win awards NBC will not want to remember. The internet may be over a decade old, but the whole exercise reminds of how far some traditional media cultures have to go before they get the web!

For More:
- NBC Provides Downloadable Shows, Sheer Frustration. Wired Report
- NBC Direct Beta Is Not Quite Ready for Prime-Time NYT Report

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