- Encoding.com Now Offering Pre-Configured Mobile Video Encoding Options
Encoding service provider Encoding.com is taking the wraps off "Mobile Made Easy" this morning, a collection of pre-configured encoding settings for mobile devices including iPhone/iPad, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and certain  Samsung and Nokia phones. With the "presets," Encoding.com customers can now also select which mobile devices they want their video prepared and available for and the appropriate encoding process will be triggered.
Jeff Malkin, Encoding.com's president told me yesterday that the company has studied the video requirements for each of these mobile devices and designed the presets accordingly. Until now, the heterogeneous mobile space has meant that video providers interested in going mobile have had to test and optimize for each device, an expensive and time-consuming process which has deterred many. By simplifying the process Jeff sees many more video providers getting involved with mobile. From a pricing standpoint, files outputted for mobile use are counted the same as other files, under Encoding.com's usage based pricing plan.
While mobile video use still lags online use, it is poised to gain rapidly as the universe of video-capable smartphones and tablet computers like the iPad explode. Just yesterday, UBS forecast that the iPad alone could ship 28 million units next year. We've also seen tablets unveiled by Dell, Samsung, Toshiba and others, based on Android, which will add competition. All that means a huge new addressable market that video providers will find irresistible.
What do you think? Post a comment now (no sign-in required).
- New Flash Media Server 4 Targets Enterprise Users
Adobe is releasing Flash Media Server 4 today and an important new addition to the lineup is the Flash Media Enterprise Server, with specific features targeted to the enterprise customer segment.
These features include peer-assisted delivery using Flash's Real Time Media Flow protocol and IP multicast, the first time these have been offered. Both are meant to reduce enterprises' bandwidth expense and they can work in tandem with each other through what Adobe calls "Multicast Fusion." For the peer-assist feature, FMS works with the Flash Player 10.1 to help seed and distribute content. The enterprise focus reflects the growing use of video outside mainstream media business. Pricing wasn't released and is available for quote by Adobe reps.
IP multicast is also available in the Flash Media Interactive Server. It also supports real-time interactive applications like video chat and other social media apps. And it also incorporates HTTP Dynamic Streaming, which was previously announced in May, allowing CDNs and others to leverage their HTTP infrastructure. HTTP streaming has become a key competitive area since Microsoft introduced Smooth Streaming, for adaptive bit rate streaming to Silverlight clients over HTTP. The Flash Media Interactive Server pricing stayed constant at ,500. Pricing for the basic Flash Media Streaming Server also stays at 5.
- JW Player is Now Downloaded 15,000 Times a Day; Being Positioned as "WordPress for Video"
Yesterday I had a chance to catch up with Dave Otten, CEO of LongTail Video, who told me that the company's JW Player is now being downloaded 15,000 times a day, and is live on 1.3 million sites globally. Dave estimates that 7-10 billion video streams are consumed via JW Player monthly, a sizable portion of the approximately 90 billion streams he estimates are delivered globally each month.
If you're not familiar with the JW Player, it is an open source video player that was developed back in 2005 by Jeroen "JW" Wijering and was used by YouTube as its first player. Dave said the player's growth has come purely through viral distribution and he thinks of it as "WordPress for video"  (WordPress is the widely-used open source blogging platform). Dave believes JW Player's fast growth reflects the broadening appeal of online video beyond the traditional media industry. Many downloads are for first-time video users looking for an inexpensive solution to get them started (though few have graduated to other players even as their volume has scaled).
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Key to JW's success has been offering a library of add-ons that make the player more robust and customize the look and feel. Often these have been created by the JW community itself. Some are free and some are paid, with revenue split between he developer and LongTail. The most heavily used are "Viral" which allows easy sharing and "The Grid" which creates a 3D effect for navigating video playlists. Dave said 300,00-400,000 sites using the player now use at least 1 plug-in.
Advertising is central to LongTail's monetization efforts and its ad solution allows JW Player users to insert their own ads, or to receive ads from partners like Google AdSense, ScanScout, AdoTube and YuMe which have been pre-integrated. Formats include pre-roll, post-roll and overlay. The JW Player is a Trojan horse for LongTail, helping it gain free reach for its bundled ad solution. Balancing its open source roots with its revenue objectives in a transparent, trustworthy manner is an important challenge for the company.
LongTail is now also offering Bits on the Run, an entry-level online video platform also developed by Wijering, which merged into LongTail last February. Bits offers a basic set of publishing functionality in a pay-as-you-go model. While it is not targeted to large media companies that have been the focus of larger, well-funded OVPs, Bits does overlap with lower-priced OVP options. Dave thinks that for the basic set of functionality most lower-volume online video providers require, Bits stacks up favorably.
On the roadmap are the 5.3 version of the JW Player (now in beta), which will offer a single API for HTML5 and Flash, consolidation of all features into 1 "dashboard" and the launch content plug-ins to help syndicate video across sites (a highly requested capability).
Taken together, it is pretty amazing progress for a company that has raised just .6 million in seed money and has only 20 people (14 in NYC and 6 in the Netherlands). It is also further evidence of how broadly adopted online video is becoming, turning organizations across the spectrum into video providers. While Hollywood-produced content will dominate for a long time to come, the sheer range of video providers means consumers will have many more choices.
What do you think? Post a comment now (no sign-in required).
- Webinar Tomorrow: Boosting VOD Revenue and Engagement Through Enhanced Content Discovery
Even as the range of new over-the-top connected devices brings consumers an explosion of new video choices, incumbent pay-TV operators have continued building viewership of their own video-on-demand (VOD) offerings. But, as Colin Dixon, Senior Partner at The Diffusion Group, a digital media research firm, argues in a new white paper, the vast majority of this viewership has been of free content, effectively leaving pay-TV operators out of the burgeoning rental and download markets. A key reason for this has been sub-optimal electronic program guides (EPGs).
In a complimentary webinar tomorrow at 11am PT / 2pm ET titled "The Social TV Guide: Boosting VOD Revenue and Customer Engagement Through Enhanced Content Discovery," Colin will lay out both the opportunity and specific tactics for how providers can improved their VOD offerings. Colin will be joined by Sefy Ariely, VP of Sales and Marketing for Orca Interactive, which makes content navigation software. The data and lessons that Colin will share is applicable not only to pay-TV operators, but to anyone offering online and mobile video options trying to drive higher usage and revenue.
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One key takeaway is that social media, whose use has been proliferating, can impact rental or purchases of TV programs and movies. TDG research indicates that 20% of online users have rented or purchased media based on social recommendations. With Facebook usage rapidly rising along with the number of friends each use has, Facebook alone provides an exciting social marketing opportunity. Small steps like emulating Facebook's "I like this" would add new value to current EPGs.
Another takeaway is that recommending or bundling additional content to interested buyers or rentals can lift usage and revenues. A great example of this is Amazon's familiar "Customers who bought this also bought" prompt. TDG data shows that among adult users, 13% buy products recommended by a web site at least once a month. In addition to driving new revenues, such recommendation tactics can improve customer experiences as well, by enhancing discovery of content people actually want to watch.
Colin goes a step further by modeling what these types of changes could mean for VOD revenue growth and average revenue per user, showing that even small changes can have a big impact. For any pay-TV operator or content provider participating in the increasingly competitive premium video market, this new white paper, along with tomorrow's complimentary webinar, will offer valuable insights.
Click here to register for this complimentary webinar
- 5 News Items of Interest for the Week of Aug 30th
In a week dominated by Apple's new products, there actually was some other interesting online/mobile video industry news this week. Continuing VideoNuze's new Friday feature of highlighting 5-6 stories that we didn't cover this week, below are a collection of items for your weekend reading pleasure.
YouTube Ads Turn Videos Into Revenue
The 800-pound gorilla of the online video industry is reportedly closing in on profitability, based partly on ads running against user-uploaded copyrighted material. By detecting these uploads and offering the underlying rights owners the choice to have their video taken down or leave it up and generate revenue, many are choosing the latter. YouTube continues to evolve from its UGC roots.
Samsung, Toshiba Unveil Google-Based iPad Rivals
The battle line between Apple's "i" devices and those running Google's Android will ramp up, with mobile video set to follow, as Samsung and Toshiba plan to sell tablet computers in the coming months. Though the iPad is of to a strong start, it looks like it won't enjoy the same market dominance as the iPhone did as competitors jump into the tablet market quickly.
Google TV: Up to 0 Price Premium?
The components to enable Google TV could add 0 to the retail price of a television. If accurate this would put Google TV at a big competitive disadvantage given the trend toward lower-priced connected devices such as this week's Apple TV and Roku's price cuts.
A Look Back: Lessons Learned From TV Everywhere a Year After Deployment
Marty Roberts, VP of Sales and Marketing for thePlatform, which has powered a number of TV Everywhere rollouts, offers insights based on the company's experience. Topics include authentication, content ingest, parental controls, discovery and content security. TV Everywhere is still in a nascent stage, but pay-TV providers should be following early lessons and moving quickly.
ShowUHow Scores Million Series A Backing for Video Instruction Guides
A startup site that offers video instruction guides for various types of products that need to be assembled illustrates how valuable video can be for how-to video applications.
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