Ustream Signs Sun & Oracle for Paid Webcasts

With many companies cutting costs everywhere they can, Ustream has managed to infiltrate the corporate webcast market pretty quickly. The Mountain View, Calif.-based startup let us know it has signed Oracle, Duke, Sun, UC Berkeley and Sling as customers for its paid white-label live video service, called Watershed, which launched only a month ago.

Ustream said Sun is already using Watershed for earnings calls and internal webcasts and Oracle plans to is considering live broadcasting from all its some 8,000 worldwide events this year. Meanwhile, university professors are able to stream live and chat with students with just a laptop and webcam.

Ustream had initially launched Watershed as a cheap pay-as-you-go service and is now adding a monthly plan option for customers who have reliable demand. It’s a pretty huge savings. Now, 500 viewer hours per month cost $49, whereas before they were $1 per hour. There are further savings if you commit to more hours.

The company is also adding mobile broadcasting capabilities, which it released to consumer users a few weeks ago. While many broadcasters might be interested in white-label mobile broadcasting, at this point the Ustream/Watershed service is limited to high-end Nokia handsets. Competitors in the consumer space like Qik have moved onto other platforms, such as BlackBerry and Windows Mobile.

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