Is the market going too fast?

Almost everyone in the online video Industry agrees that its future lays on the monetization of content. So, in the last months we have seen an explosion of new services offering new opportunities for publishers and advertisers.

[note: while I was writing the post when I have seen the last post by Dan Rayburn where he states that advertising is just getting started though the environment is evolving: "more niche competitors, the Viacom lawsuit, the big media companies entering the space (Hulu) and the problem with getting advertisers to spend money around UGC content."]

I think there are two axes of rapidly evolution of online video. Firstly, there is a ride to deliver the highest quality:

• A couple of days ago Brightcove "announced a new service for delivering broadcast-quality Internet TV. Extending their widely adopted Internet TV platform, the new service, Brightcove Show, will give content publishers the ability to deliver instant-on, broadcast-quality streaming video to their viewers".
• Youtube is planning to deliver content bases on the H.264 standard
  
• The players (Silverlight and Adobe) figth is about to begin.
• Etc...

Secondly, new ways to embed or to somehow include ads in videos. Not long ago, Google-Youtube announced they would embed ads, and now they point out their brand new Adsense Video Unit.

My question is, may be advertisers and publishers overwhelmed by such a rapidly growing diversity of solutions and offers? The point is that since the first moment you offer a solution to the potential advertising client, up to the moment you really start developing the project, your solution is already old-fashioned. For most clients this noise is tough to understand, to feel comfortable with your solution and, eventually, get on this roller coaster and enjoy. They are used to "burn the windows of distribution" step by step. That is, they invest for a communication campaign and then they want it to work for a certain period of time.

My concern is that technology capabilities and potentials are going at light speed while advertising and consumers video literacy have a 1.0 speed.

What did it happen to the Yahoo! Current Network?

When redacting my previous post, I dived into the Current TV world, that i consider one of the ever best ideas on iptv. Some time after I discovered Al Gore's Current TV, I got surprised because of the Current TV - Yahoo! partnership, what was called the Yahoo! Current Network.

Current TV is an independent cable and satellite TV cable network broadcasting in the USA, UK and Ireland. Current TV programming is mainly based on content provided by users. The content providing is based on Current TV's website. Users upload their contents which allows other users to rate it. To set up the schedule, Current TV chooses between the top rated contents.

When the Yahoo! Current Network was launched it created a big buzz in the sector. Specially, because not long ago, Current TV was flirting with Google. Google and Current TV looked like the perfect non-mainstream couple. And then, the move towards Yahoo!

It seems that, as every divorced couple, they have spared parts and split their belongings and both follows its own path.

Then I read this message from Current TV:

"As of December 1, 2006, pursuant to the Contest Rules, Current TV, LLC ("Current") has TERMINATED the Yahoo! Current Launch Contests in connection with the Yahoo! Current Network ("Contest"). All Contest entrants will be notified of this termination by Current TV, LLC. All rights related to any Contest entry that Current has not optioned as of December 1, 2006 shall immediately revert to the original owner and Current shall have no rights in or to any such entry. Thank you for supporting the Yahoo! Current Network. We apologize for any inconvenience."

C-Net also echoes this split up: "Current is exploring better opportunities to distribute our content," (Current TV spokesman Alex Dolan).

I donno' if I get the full implication of the business model shift Dolan was refering to. What I see is that between Google and Current TV there is no content sharing, as it was with Yahoo, but a diffusion of Google's content.

Then, surprisingly we come accross Google Current: "Google Current airs every half hour on Current TV and provides a look at what the world is searching for on Google", updated every hour!.







I think it is a very interesting move for the iptv/audiovisual sector, and we would love to know any details you may be aware of. You are welcome to post your comments.

3alacarta VoD, a mirror for IMPlayer and BBC

3alacarta is the IPTV service of TV3 or TVCat, the Catalan public broadcaster. It was launched a couple of years ago through the CCRTV Interactiva, the Internet division of the Catalan Radio and Television Corporation (CCRTV).

Up to now the business model was based on an mixture offer of free and and pay per view content. Always on a Video on Demand scheme. It is to believe that this model was not very successful, though the website was very popular. From now on 3alacarta will show for free all content broadcasted during the last seven days.

But what is "astonishing" is that 3alacarta can be watched worlwide! (People from the BBC, are you writing it down?)

We recommend you the radio internet service from the CCRTV: ICatfm. Enjoy it before copyright nights will stop them webcasting abroad (as it has happened with Pandora).

Pandora lock out: signs of the future

Pandora has been forced to close down (http://www.pandora.com/restricted) since the music industry has alleged Pandora did not have the rights to webcast away from the US.
It is nothing new. BBC radio unplugs non-UK listners when tthey webcast a Premiership match. They only have the rights for the UK territory.
It is to believe that this practice will be increasing in the forthcoming months. I see two very important implication on that:

• a new actor comes up to the undermined net-neutrality scene: the right's holder. Up to now it was feared that internet providers or States would interfere in the traffic content.
• Next step is to shut down all internet radio and "real" radio that are webcasting their signal. In fact they all schedul and broadcast music and other content whose rights belong to a third party. In fact, in this right moment i am listening from Spain to Radio Canada which is broadcasting "Audi Coelum" by Claudio Monteverdi and featured by IAN PARTRIDGE, NIGEL ROGERS, COLIN TILNEY, EUGEN MULLER-DOMBOIS, HEINRICH HAFERLAND, THOMAS BRANDIS. Radio Canada is infringing the copyright as they are broadcasting abroad.

A new post on net-neutrality trap will be coming in the next days: Who does net neutrality really really interest?