Mozilla has teamed up with Hollywood rendering company OTOY to create a new codec to stream video and apps from the cloud directly to the browser. Javascript library ORBX can render apps, gaming platforms, or an entire operating system in any HTML5-capable browser. Read more »
Many long-standing legal rules of engagement between publishers and consumers tilted the playing field in unexpected ways in the first quarter. The period also saw a major expansion in the amount and quality of original productions for web-based video platforms and a major move by chipmaker Intel to stake a claim in the digital living room. Read more »
CBS’s new iOS app lets viewers stream episodes of some shows a week after they air. But full episodes from popular shows like “The Mentalist” and “The Big Bang Theory” are missing. Read more at paidContent »
A new streaming video service called HitBliss lets users earn virtual cash by watching targeted ads. They can then redeem their earnings for new movies and TV episodes. Read more at paidContent »
Netflix is partnering with DreamWorks to release its first original children’s show this December. Netflix will also add new DreamWorks films to its streaming lineup. Read more at paidContent »
Amazon announced Friday that by the end of 2013, Prime Instant Video will be the only paid streaming service to offer episodes of Downton Abbey. Hulu Plus and Netflix will lose access. Read more at paidContent »
Amazon Studios has chosen its first five pilots for children’s shows, including offerings from the creators of Blue’s Clues and Rugrats. User feedback will help determine whether the shows go into production. Read more at paidContent »
In the fourth quarter, the traditional pay-TV industry began to show signs of severe internal stresses after having held off the immediate challenge of over-the-top video. Meanwhile the music industry fell into an internal battle over performance royalties. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
AT&T is using the big CES pulpit to talk up its work in services and applications, rather than just unveil its latest handsets. It’s exploring a new universal phone number APIs, expanding its smart home program and launching a new video streaming service. Read more »
FORA.tv’s new paid membership model, Front Row, gives subscribers streaming access to conference and event videos from companies like The New Yorker and The Economist for a flat fee of $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year. Read more at paidContent »
TV broadcasters and programmers must embrace a new set of video-delivery techniques to reach consumers today. Online delivery to so many types of consumer devices means that video programmers must produce multiple internet-streaming formats that use different types of security and different ways of inserting ads. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Book publisher Simon & Schuster is ramping up video distribution, creating content channels and signing with partners like Roku, Blinkx and Taboola. For now, the videos are intended to promote books and authors, not to drive advertising revenue. Read more at paidContent »
Amazon and EPIX have signed a deal to make streaming movies like The Hunger Games, Iron Man 2 and The Avengers free to Amazon Prime members. Previously, Netflix had exclusive rights to EPIX recent releases. Read more »
Amazon Prime Instant Video and NBCUniversal expanded their content licensing agreement to include new shows like “Friday Night Lights,” “Parenthood” and “Battlestar Galactica.” Read more at paidContent »
Whether you spell it “theatre” or “theater,” any fan of classic or contemporary theatrical works ought to check out the full-length productions available through VOD site Digital Theatre. Though, while the pricing is equivalent to iTunes, the user experience is not. Read more »
AOL is hoping that the Huffington Posts’s new streaming video network, HuffPost Live, will set itself apart from competitors because of its focus on user participation, twelve hours of live programming daily from New York and LA, and a varied group of hosts. Read more at paidContent »
Anecdotal evidence suggests over-the-top video is a booming trend. But it takes technical skill, state-of-the-art broadband connections and the willingness to shell out money for both bandwidth and content subscriptions to fully integrate OTT into a household, much less consider trying to use it to cord cut. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
News Corp.’s Jon Miller explained to our Staci D. Kramer in a Q&A at paidContent 2012 that broadcasters actually need business-to-consumer outlets like Hulu in order to survive. That plus News Corp. in China, The Daily and more. Read more at paidContent »
The adoption of tablets, social media and new interfaces and the changing nature of the TV itself mean the digital living room will continue on its path of rapid change, thanks to new ways of creating, viewing, bundling, distributing and selling content. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Hulu should require viewers to have a cable subscription, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes suggested in an investor call following the company’s Q1 2012 earnings report this morning. “We think Hulu authenticating makes sense,” Bewkes said. “We think Hulu is heading in the right direction now.” Read more at paidContent »
There is real long-term danger to Netflix lurking in the FCC’s current net neutrality rules, but it lies in the rules’ failure to regulate those parts of the Internet the consumer doesn’t see, like peering agreements between last-mile ISPs and content distribution networks (CDNs). While Netflix ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Brightcove used to have significant staff in China, and was looking to expand in the country as late as March 2010 – but left China head over heels later that year. What’s left is Brightcove’s staff, now working for a local competitor, and the question: What happened? Read more »
Google announced Monday that it has reached a deal to bring about 600 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film titles, including such classics as Rocky, The Terminator, Hoosiers, Robocop and Rain Man, to the film-rental catalogs of YouTube and Google Play. Read more at paidContent »
The court poked enough holes in YouTube’s defense that it now has every incentive to try to settle with Viacom as quickly as possible and get on about its business. But on the one issue of law that might have made a difference to Viacom’s business ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The emphasis by Comcast’s critics on the near-term regulatory implications of its Xbox strategy may be misplaced. Rather than challenging net neutrality rules directly, Comcast seems to be playing a long game against its over-the-top competitors based on quality of service and premised on the coming, ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The emergence of the big data phenomenon is fundamentally changing everything from the way companies operate to the way people interact to how the world deals with outbreaks of infectious diseases. Here we highlight 10 case studies illustrating how big data is changing the world. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
With its latest redesign, Vevo takes music video viewing beyond the stop-and-start video experience available on most streaming sites today. With continuous playback of videos and Facebook connectivity, Vevo makes watching music videos online sorta like watching MTV back in its heyday. Read more »
Wal-Mart is looking to use its leverage in Hollywood to accelerate the movie industry’s move to cloud-based storage and digital commerce. In the process, it could steal a march on other providers of cloud-based media lockers like Apple, Google and Amazon, whose platforms to date are ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
This week AT&T floated a plan to enable app developers to pay for the data that subscribers use in their apps. The model might resonate with some developers and subscribers, but it is likely to create more problems than it ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Akamai’s latest product lets operators take over their own content delivery network, using Akamai’s software but not its boxes. This is a huge change in Akamai’s business. The shift and the reasons for it offer clues about the evolution and domestication of the web. Read more »
Now that streaming broadcast startup Aereo is formally launching in New York, the litigation watch is on. From an operational perspective, the closest analogy to what Aereo is doing may be Slingbox’s model. And despite occasional threats, no broadcaster or content owner has ever sued Sling ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
A new platform has emerged to create converged applications between the TV, PCs and mobile devices. Clik, which released a mobile app that can connect to any screen with a browser, is also releasing smart TV platform for developers. Read more »
TV Everywhere is giving people access to content they are not actually paying for. I know, because I’m one of them. The question is whether that is stealing — and if it is, is there anything that cable companies can actually do about it? Read more »
The Netflix streaming app is now available on over 800 different devices, which is nearly double the number of devices that the app was on only six months ago. Yet for all that growth, Netflix is suddenly looking vulnerable in mobile video as new competitors with ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Boxee revealed in a filing with the FCC this week that it’s working on additional products that could be used as alternatives to traditional cable set-top boxes. What does the company have up its sleeve? We can only guess — but, hey, that’s fun too! Read more »
As Amazon adds more content to Prime Instant Video, some expect the company could create a standalone service to compete with Netflix. But Digital Content Acquisition Head Brad Beale said Amazon will stay focused on the Prime bundle, at least in the near future. Read more »
The Nowbox iPad app takes a unique approach to discovering new videos on the iPad. It lets viewers surf through channels of web video on the iPad in the same way they would click through channels on their TVs. Read more »
Flingo has raised $7 million in a Series A funding round led by August Capital. The San Francisco-based startup, which integrates streaming video and interactive advertising into smart TVs, has also added two new board members: August Capital’s David Marquart and Howard Hartenbaum. Read more »
Video discovery startup Taboola has been growing fast, adding top publishing partners like The Washington Post, as well as expanding into the live streaming video vertical. Those new partners have helped drive growth for Taboola, which now reaches more than 100 million uniques a month. Read more »
YouTube isn’t just about cat videos anymore: Educational content has been growing rapidly on the site, with views of educational videos doubling in 2011. Google is investing some of its money to give videos about biology and world history a more professional look and feel. Read more »
