FSJ has an interesting post on what the future might hold for the big TV Networks (like NBC's Download service) as they move out of the iTunes way of broadcasting. An excerpt:
So they've all been threatening us with this for years, and we've told them to feel free and go right ahead, and now they're finally going to take the bait and go do it. We're thrilled. They are going to waste hundreds of millions of dollars wading into a quagmire and in two years they'll be looking for a way to back out while saving face.
It sure would be interesting to see another video/audio delivery channel compete with iTunes (in terms of service delivery and content availability). Hope it doesn't take them too long to come back to iTunes... $1.99 deals are the best! Link to FSJ's post
BTW, Steve Jobs (the real one) was subpoenaed over stock option backdating to the tune of $20 million! Reuters report here.
Other blog posts on News Networks starting their online distribution networks:
Asterpix enables a user to create hyperlinks in a video. This is immensely helpful if you're planning to add more information than the video can display - like here in the embedded video below:
This can help education as well as entertainment. If you go to the Asterpix page where this video is displayed, the details show that the source of the video is YouTube. This means the method will also lend itself to a new way of monetizing video content. In the words of the Asterpix team,
Asterpix enables users to easily create hypervideos and share them through websites, blogs and email. Analogous to hypertext, hypervideo provides an interactive experience by allowing viewers to select objects of interest to get more information or navigate the video.
Once you are a registered user, you can even add your own tags within the video and share with your friends. How soon before we have full HyperVideo HV HD movies? I'll be willing to take credit for that term whenever we do!
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Stumble Naturally on merging the power of Stumble with Attention Trust
Cozmo.tv is when YouTube meets StumbleUpon. Using keywords from your settings and the publisher's, Cozmo.tv will stream videos only of your interest. Welcome to the personalized TV2.0. Moreover, it uses RSS feeds for channels. This means your content will always be up-to-date in that particular category.
When logged in, you will also be able to rate content and Cozmo will then decide on your preferences and how people of similar interest rated the videos. The next video you see will be based on some complex computations to ensure it suits your individual taste. Well, that's the whole idea behind it anyway. As of now the site Cozmo.tv is being upgraded.
You can also embed the Cozmo widget into your own website or blog. That way, your visitors can see your custom channel. It's much better than displaying keyword specific YouTube videos. Currently Cozmo.tv will only feature videos from top video sharing sites like YouTube, Google Videos, MySpace, etc. In their own words,
CozmoTV is going to redefine television. Today, people in the US spend an average of almost 5 hours a day watching TV and DVDs. However amazing this number is, what is even more amazing is that most are still not happy with what they are watching. CozmoTV is going to change this by dramatically improving the quality of what you watch when you ‘watch TV’ on our network.
What you need to do is set-up a channel by embedding a YouTube-like player in your website and start broadcasting.
What is also exciting is that you can aggregate channels on your webpage, show what you think your community might be interested in, and rake in the advertising dollars and subscription revenues! This one part definitely sets Cozmo.tv apart from the other video sharing networks which capitalize on your uploaded videos.
The reason why the Cozmo.tv site is not available at this moment is, as reported in their blog, that they are adding 1400 new RSS channels, some celebrity channels, custom networks, Blip.tv support, WordPress upgrade, a new search, and a 'New Server'. I'm always happy whenever a service adds 'new servers' as it means they're planning to cross the chasm from innovators and early adopters to the mass market - always a good sign on where the company is going. From starting in early 2006, the company has come a long way indeed. Hope we are able to dump the tube soon in favor a of tailored broadband Television soon.
Clipshack is owned by RealityDigital, which also offers a white label platform for launching and hosting entire sites.
ClipShack is a community for videophiles; a destination where people can post their video for general public viewing and comment, share clips with friends and family, post video to blogs, share information and feedback with other videophiles and wireless media aficionados and gain industry information relevant to digital video creation. The mission of ClipShack is to be the easiest, most fun site for sharing and playing with video.
RealityDigital was also in the news some time back (as reported by Mashable) when they raised 2 Million using Clipshack. There has also been speculation that Clipshack may be no more than a smart piece of marketing for RealityDigital. But all that shouldn't stop me from doing an objective review of the service. Here goes -
Clipshack has not been making news of late, but they have been mentioned by PCWorld and CBS4 earlier. TechCrunch calls it 'The Flickr of Video Sharing'. All uploaded files are converted to flash (for ease of viewing across browsers) and so the videos can easily be embedded to any site. Users can also rate and tag videos (which has become a plain vanilla service these days) and create holiday video cards. One added bonus is that you can upload videos from your Cellphone. While the space per user is pegged at 5GB, it should be sufficient for a long time. The site also integrates Google Maps so you can map your content and search by location.
Overall, I would give Clipshack a 2 on our one-to-five scale. If you are a company representative or a die-hard fan of Clipshack, do leave a comment and I can add in the updates.
At a time when Video sharing networks are raising millions from VCs, it's surprising to see Castpost in Alpha testing since 2005! Either that, or they're growing so fast they didn't have time to update their About page. The former case seems more likely, gauging by the mindshare Castpost commands.
In their own words, "Castpost currently includes Castpost Hosting, a popular video hosting services for user-generated content. Castpost Hosting is in Alpha, and people all over the world use Castpost to share their personal video and audio clips with friends and family." Just how popular, we don't know yet.
The good part - you can customize your personal page to have only audio files (as well as a mix). This one is a good example. Tyromaniac is an example of mixed audio and video on a page. But these features don't pack anything special really.
TechCrunch calls such video sharing services The Flickrs of Video and I'm sure the other services mentioned in his post are much better than Castpost at what they set-out to do. It's got the lowest storage space available to users, doesn't convert the format (flv/flash/3gp). You can still share via RSS though, but maybe some more work and the service will be fully baked. Another two years maybe?
Launched in 2003 by Marc Brown, Anthony Batt, Steve Haldane and Kevin Woolery, Buzznet really appeared on the public radar sometime towards the last quarter of 2004. Since then, though, it has grown exponentially into a 6 million user strong "vibrant social media destination representing the next generation of social networking".
Not just a video sharing network, Buzznet is Social Networking service that offers more than profile pages and communication tools (read MySpace, Facebook and Orkut). Buzznet enables users to interact with and create dynamic multimedia communities around the topics they are most passionate about. The demographics (and audience targeted) keeps the topics around music and pop culture. Users connect, discuss, discover and share audio/video media and photos.
There's a reason why this 'video sharing networks' post mentions Buzznet's video sharing platform at the end - a lot of users embed videos from popular video sharing services like YouTube, MySpace and others. Frankly, I think services that offer only Video sharing are plain vanilla. The real chocolate sauce that separates Buzznet from the others is the type of customized pages users can create. A quick look at Jeffrey Star's page will illustrate Buzznet's power of creating social networks. Users can subscribe to communities, tag and rate videos, display information specific to the community and, of course, leave comments.
Overall, for the unique blend of many vanilla services, I would give Buzznet a hearty 4 out of 5. Do you feel different? Leave a comment!
Broadband is at a juncture where the bandwidth almost rivals the data pipe of the good ol' Cable TV. This post earlier on the world's fastest home broadband connection. In what might be a Tipping Point for broadband use in broadcasting media, the entertainment industry is poised for a shift.
The shift will involve not only big networks going the broadband way, but also the millions of YouTube and other video sharing network users who can expand services to the Long Tail of video consumers. As more and more people connect to the internet, there is a bigger and bigger market for niche video. Just as Netflix does business with almost all the titles it carries, the day is not far when we will see a market for a channel for Monk episodes.
Ok - I'm no great Techie, but this is what I had in mind: Instead of making channels for viewers, why not just tag the videos (aren't users doing this already?) and have a service that serves videos of any particular tag at a time? In essence, tags ARE channels! Networks like Blinkx already offer inexing indexing services for videos across platforms. And can you think of a limit to the number of (text) tags a video can have? If each tag were a channel, the number of options available will only be limited to the number of tags available across platforms - a big number indeed!
After raising 59.5 million in their third round of funding in January this year, Brightcove has added more services and media partnerships.
Current Brightcove partners include Reuters, TiVo, Fox Broadcast Net, FX, Speed, CBS, Discovery, MTV Networks, National Geographic, Showtime, Rainbow Media, Buena vista, Dow Jones, BSkyB and NY Times. Website owners can display their own/user generated content as well as content from the partner networks on their webpages. Some partners, like Reuters, need you to fulfill certain requirements like number of page views before you can start displaying their content. If you are a TiVo subscriber, you can watch your content online - a great plus when you are traveling to another country and don't want to miss the latest episodes of your favorite soap.
Monetization - As reported by Mike earlier, the Brightcove Network is the video delivery and monetization channel for small publishers. You get 50% of revenue generation from ads displayed on the viewing page and 70% of revenue each time one of your videos is downloaded from Brightcove. Ads displayed along your video may be pre/post roll or synched banners appearing along your player. Enrol for a premium publisher account if you would like to take control of how the ads appear. You also have reason to cheer if you are the creator of content - with the acquisition of MetaStories, editing your flash based video should be a breeze.
A sample video:
Aside from the usual features associated with video sharing networks, Brightcove stands out in the following:
1. Syndication Marketplace: Here website publishers can use video content from hundreds of uploaded videos. The owner can choose to approve and add ads to the uploaded video. The appended ads will be displayed along with the content on the publisher's webpage.
2. Publish using Brightcove network: Using the Brightcove network, you can publish for free and Brightcove will place and sell ads. While you will earn half the ad revenue on every video display, your earnings go up to 70% if your content is downloaded.
3. Publish using Brightcove platform: Designed for media companies, broadcasters and marketers, this platform gives the user full control over ads displayed on the content. A usage fee is applied, as Brightcove will not have control over your content.
Break isn't exactly a network you could view on a Sunday afternoon with your kids. The content is not tailored for adults per se, but this isn't Cartoon Network either. Unlike networks where adult content is flagged, Break doesn't believe in censoring the content and, with Break Girls, it seems the Break team involves a bunch of naughty guys.
You can rate videos, bookmark 'em and add them to your Stumble or MySpace page. The video controls are good - you can link to related, top rated and most viewed videos from within the video player. Videos are also rated, and the most rated videos feature in the Who's Hot. The page even shows the one-day percentage jump in rank. A jump of over 3000% gets a video in the 'Breakout' category. Other categories for videos include 'Just submitted, most viewed, most discussed, top rated and most shared. Here is a sample video:
Most videos take time to load though, and that is expected when a site has close to 17 million unique monthly visitors and 500 million video plays. The over 3 million (registered) users are spreading quite a word.
It would be nice if we can pause videos before they start playing. That way, a user can open multiple videos in multiple windows and then view them one-by-one after they all load. It would be a better use of the limited bandwidth.
Monetization is what separates Break from most of its competitors. You can get paid for the videos you upload. All original video content that makes it to the Break homepage (with enough votes) gets you $400. Original short films and flash & animated films and games get you $2000 if they feature on the Break homepage. Not only this, Break also advises you on how you can make your uploads popular (posting on Digg, MySpace, asking your friends to view, etc) so that you get to see those green ones sooner. You can even apply for Break Pro if you produce video content as a profession. Break will help you monetize your creation further.
From this post on NewTeeVee.com by Laurie Sullivan, we now know about the future of internet video networks. A lot of new video sharing networks are coming up. Call it video-sharing 2.0, these networks promise to give more professionally generated content to the users and are poised to gather huge audiences.
All this, thanks to (1) the democratization of media and the falling cost of production and distribution on the internet and (2) the increasing connectivity and bandwidth available to the end users. The fastest internet connection, currently serving Sigbritt L öthberg of Sweden, is pegged at 40GBps. Moore's Law dictates that it will not be long (a few 20 month cycles perhaps) before such connections will be the norm and we will be able to download hour long HD videos in about the same time we currently take to download that 3-minute .flv from YouTube.
Expect more juice in your (free) video downloads in the future. Also, expect detailed reviews here.
This site is an attempt at bringing a lot of independent services together - People profiles, photos, video sharing and forums - in keeping with the site's tagline 'Upload and Share you Life'. For the sake of keeping to my theme though, I will not include a review of the other services at this time.
In their own words, Bolt is "a place where you could store, organize and share all the media you create in the course of your digital life. A place where home movies can attain cult status, where snapshots from your last vacation might inspire a stranger to make the same trip, where the most timid voice can find a listener, and the most obscure subject, an audience.". A pretty nifty idea, I wonder why they're channeling their efforts into WikiYou now. There's a link at the very beginning of the content on every page asking users to check out their new site. I hope the Bolt team isn't losing confidence in their product just yet.
Here is an embed from Bolt:
Quite frankly, I don't see the need for a triple decimal timekeeping in my videos. Instead of the HH.MM.SS.MMM format currently, I'd rather have MM.SS total and MM.SS remaining/elapsed. Better still, make it clickable so the user can choose how he wants to see the time.
You can tag a video or bookmark it to Digg or post it to MySpace. The page format also shows similar videos (same tags) and videos from the same user. If you are planning to leave a comment, try to include a picture of yourself. The blank pic icons look kinda boring.
Overall verdict would be in the 2.5 range, 5 being the highest.
In their own words, Blinkx is the world's largest and most advanced video search engine! Having over 12 million hours of searchable video and 130 media partnerships is quite a feat indeed. Users can search for video content, create personal video playlists, and build customized video walls for their site/blog or MySpace page. Here's the custom video wall I built -
The ease of use is quite evident and the site is neatly organized in a no-clutter, lightweight (read no advertising) frontpage. The ajax based video wall is a great concept. Maybe it would be better to have the videos popping up in the same window, rather than opening a new video every time a user clicks on one.
The content is divided across five broad categories - World News, Entertainment, Business, Sports and User Generated. The content though, is not stored at Blinkx but is streamed from a lot of other video sharing networks (for user generated content) and news/media websites from around the world.
Since videos are not uploaded to Blinkx, users simply submit the Media RSS or RSS 2.0 feeds to the Blinkx index and, from then on, Blinkx processes the feeds at least once daily.
If you are the creator of videos, maybe you post them on YouTube or MySpace or you have a personal blog. Whatever be your hosting method, it makes sense to add your videos to the Blinkx index so you will be able to generate more traffic (and perhaps more revenue, if that's your model) from each video created.
Introduction/About: AtomFilms, a service from MTV Networks, has been around since 1998. Till 2007, AtomFilms only catered to independent creators who wanted to bring their work to a larger audience, and not to the online video sharing community. Post May 2007, a new section (AtomUploads) was added so that users could post and share their videos. Source: Atomfilms - About us
After registration, you can either choose to watch AtomFilms (short films, animations and videos produced by professionals) or AtomUploads (user generated content).
AtomFilms: Good quality films and, if you like it, you can add the film to your custom channel. You also have the option to embed the film to your website/blog and share via email or IM. Currently bookmarking is available only for Digg and StumbleUpon. You can also rate the film, leave comments and check film credits like Director, producer and cast. Also on the list is the awards the film has won and the places it's been screened at. While watching a film though, be prepared to first be presented with a sponsor ad!
Sample Film:
AtomUploads: Choose a channel or tag for the videos and you'll get uploads from that category. videos have a short description, together with the tags attached and channel suggested by the uploader. As with films, you can Embed the video and share it via URL or email. Users can also leave comments and add video to their custom channels and subscribe to other videos from the same uploader.
Sample upload:
Demographics and Traffic
Atom Traffic: Over 6 million monthly unique users
Demographics: AtomFilms Demographics: 75% Male & 25% Female 73% 18-44 years old AtomUploads Demographics: 65% Male & 35% Female 79% 13-24 years old 34% 18-34 years old Source: AtomFilms - About Us
Nice to have: AtomFilms: Running time, instead of just the duration
