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 … Read More »
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 »
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 »
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 »
Could Apple spend its $100 billion in cash to create a virtual cable operator to compete with Comcast and the like? Sure. But it would have a really hard time offering a competitively priced service and building a profitable business out of it. Read More »
While cable operators and networks continue to downplay the effect of cord cutting, in Deloitte’s State of the Media Democracy survey, the firm reports that 9 percent of respondents have already canceled their cable subscriptions, with another 11 percent saying they are considering doing so. Read More »
More Must Reads
Netflix announced that members watched more than 2 billion hours of video on its streaming video service in the fourth quarter. That comes out to about 83 hours of video per account during the quarter, or an average of 54 minutes of Netflix video each day. Read More »
VidScale wants to make more efficient use of existing infrastructure, by introducing content delivery network and transparent caching technology into their networks. It’s been chosen by Avail-TVN, which is helping network operators to roll out TV Everywhere services and offer more streaming content to users. Read More »
How about this for localization: Hulu announced a number of new deals for Spanish-language content Tuesday morning, but it’s not about to embark on any Latin American expansion like Netflix. Instead, the site is now targeting Latinos in the U.S. with a dedicated site section. Read More »
Virtual MSOs might start appearing as soon as next year, according to BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield. But any streaming offering that emerges is unlikely to be priced less than $50, which means even if they do launch, the potential market is likely to be limited. Read More »
Frontier Communications is trying to find new ways to provide value to subscribers and is rolling out one of the most comprehensive video portals online. With TumTiki, Frontier is bringing together more than 700,000 video assets from a combination of traditional broadcast TV and online sources. Read More »
It will take more than a five-button remote control to efficiently navigate the new universe of video content now available. That means a new user interface for the video viewing experience is inevitable, and many companies are involved. Here are a few to watch. Read More »
Netflix backtracked on its plans to separate its DVD-by-mail business and re-brand it Qwikster. So far, Wall Street analysts have been largely supportive of the move, although Netflix stock is down modestly in mid-afternoon trading after opening higher this morning. Here’s some of the analysts’ feedback. Read More »
Netflix came under a lot of heat when it announced plans to separating its DVD service and re-brand it Qwikster. But after nearly unanimous disapproval, the company has decided to shelve those plans, and will keep DVD-by-mail a part of the Netflix brand and website. Read More »
The hosts of Diggnation are finally getting off the couch at the end of the year — but what moments were their favorite over the course of the show’s seven-year run? We asked David Prager, Alex Albrecht and Jim Louderback that question. And we found videos! … Read More »
Hulu has worked hard to improve the amount of choice in advertising available to its viewers, and now it’s taking that innovation one step further. Its new Ad Swap product will give its users even more control in deciding which ads they want to see. Read More »
Twitvid has raised a Series B of $6.5 million and plans to use the money to hire more people and build out its infrastructure. The company has managed to stick around while others gave up. But can it compete with a likely video play from Twitter? Read More »
Netflix has angered many of its users by raising its prices and splitting up its DVD-by-mail and streaming businesses. But co-founder Marc Randolph thinks the separation and re-branding of the DVD business as Qwikster is “one of the smartest, most disciplined and bravest moves [he's] ever … Read More »
The latest mobile video sharing app, called Klip, aims to separate itself from the crowd with high-speed adaptive bit-rate technology enabling users to scroll through videos and a new tagging system that lets them set categories to keep track of when new videos are uploaded. Read More »
Cloud video editing startup Magisto is coming to market with a new service that will take raw video files and make them worth sharing with friends and posting on Facebook. The company is also announcing $5.5 million in financing from Horizons Ventures and Magma Venture Partners. Read More »
Netflix announced that its DVD-by-mail operations would soon be rebranded “Qwikster,” and that the service would be separated from the streaming service that it’s been pushing for the last several years. But doing so raises questions about the future viability of a standalone DVD-by-mail operation. Read More »
Cablevision is the latest cable company to see a future in broadband rather than TV. Rutledge said at an investor conference yesterday that streaming services from companies like Netflix and Hulu could help defray the ever-rising content costs that cable companies are forced to pay. Read More »
Netflix shares have fallen 15 percent after the company issued new guidance on domestic subscriber numbers. The company originally expected 25 million users by the end of the quarter but lowered that number by 1 million after a price hike that went into effect this month. Read More »
Fanhattan has integrated with social networks, which will not only provide more interesting content for users to watch but will also allow them to share their interests with friends. Users can now get recommendations from their social graph, including movies and TV shows their friends like. Read More »
Sonic.net could soon be one of the first ISPs to introduce a TV service delivered over its broadband service. With the filing of a video franchise application with California’s Public Utilities Commission, Sonic is on its way to creating its own streaming video service. Read More »
Netflix is coming to Brazil and other Latin American countries this week, where it will be competing with thousands of street vendors peddling unlicensed DVDs. Can the service beat piracy, or will it be too expensive for the average consumer in Brazil and beyond? Read More »
Dish Network could soon take on Netflix in the subscription streaming space, with a new service offered through Blockbuster. The service is expected to roll out next month, as Dish seeks to take advantage of Netflix’s recent price hike and steal angry customers away. Read More »
When we watch YouTube or stream TV through a Boxee, the assumption is that aside from some buffering, the experience will be fine. But add live content and interactive elements to those video streams, and it gets complicated. A new paper shows us how complicated. Read More »
Encoding.com’s Vid.ly universal URL service is now ready for professional users, with features and pricing designed to provide a turnkey solution for video delivery on any device. Vid.ly Pro is rolling out to users today, in an effort to capture more of the cloud-encoding market. Read More »
If you’re a cable provider, what do you do when Fox comes to re-negotiate its retrans deals, asking for more money now that it’s put its shows behind a pay wall? And what do you do when subscribers begin demanding access to Fox content online? Read More »
For Solo creator Jonathan Nail, producing his own web series was an opportunity to create a showcase for his acting. But after two years of hard work and thousands of dollars, he found that the rewards of independent production are not universal. Read More »
Roku has raised another $8 million, according to an SEC filing. The round comes just a few weeks after Roku launched the latest version of its broadband set-top boxes, which in addition to streaming video, also features casual games. Read More »
Farm Aid will have an all-star lineup of musicians performing this weekend to raise money for family farms. But those who can’t make it to Kansas City, Kan., this weekend can stream it live on the web and on a number of mobile devices. Read More »
Hulu is turning Japanese with the launch of a subscription service in the country. The company today announced that it will launch the service before the end of the year, but declined to provide further details. Hulu actively looked for partners in Japan earlier this year. Read More »
Framesocket is the latest in a series of emerging online video platforms with affordable pricing plans. But while most have been focused on capturing small and medium-sized businesses that don’t have a ton of video expertise, Framesocket is hoping to gain interest from third-party developers. Read More »
Would consumers pay to stream live, local TV channels to a Roku or other connected set-top box? And if so, how much? That’s a question that’s on the mind of Sonic.net CEO Dane Jasper, who’s doing a little bit of informal market research on the topic. Read More »
A federal court has issued a preliminary injunction against Zediva, essentially ordering a shutdown of its streaming-DVD-rental service. The decision comes less than six months after the launch of the service, which aimed to avoid licensing fees by renting and streaming DVDs over the Internet. Read More »
Long before TV Everywhere became a reality in the United States, U.K. satellite TV provider BSkyB was allowing viewers to stream live TV to their PCs and Xbox 360 game consoles. Could it provide a model for streaming video services here in the U.S.? Read More »
Netlix recently posted a job opening for a UI designer specialized on kids websites and online games. Does the video giant plan to launch a separate website dedicated to its large library of kids content, or will the entire Netflix UI become a bit more kid-friendly? Read More »
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