Business News Holding

Tag: online-video

  • Online Video Viewing Rates "Grossly Overstated"


    The amount of time US viewers spend watching online video and mobile video is growing rapidly – but still accounts for a small fraction of total video content viewing.

    That’s the conclusion of a study into how people spend their time consuming media, including live TV programming, time-shifted television, DVDs, video games.

    Another key finding was that households buying a new HDTV viewed more live TV – up to double – initially, but that over time, this increased usage began to subside.

    Jim Spaeth, of Sequent Partners, which collaborated with Ball State University’s Center for Media Design on the Video Consumer Mapping Study on behalf of the Nielsen-funded Council for Research Excellence, said the results showed that the amount of time Americans spend watching online video is vastly overstated.

    He told MediaPost that the new findings indicate that even the relatively small amount of time Americans spend watching online video has been, on average, grossly overstated by conventional forms of media research and audience measurement.

    "This may be the first study to document the dramatic overstatement of online video and mobile video," he said.

    The project, which cost USD $3.5 million to field, directly observed how people spent their day using media.

    Conversely, Spaeth said traditional TV viewing has been "pretty drastically under-reported" by research that asks people how they consume video.

  • Vista Users Gain As Microsoft Extends Netflix Partnership


    Microsoft Vista users can now stream films from Netflix through the Windows Media Center.

    The development comes after Microsoft announced that it has expanded its partnership with the movie service.

    Vista users can also stream Netflix movies on PCs by going to the Netflix site.

    The arrangement is part of Microsoft’s plans to develop its Media Center as an online video hub.

    Microsoft offers Media Center with the Vista operating system.

    By selecting the new Netflix tab in "TV+Movies" Vista users can start streaming films immediately.

    They will also be able to search and watch programs from Netflix’s online library of 12,000 movies and TV shows.

    Microsoft’s partnership with Netflix began last year when it began offering the movie service’s streaming movies through the Xbox 360 game console.

  • VUDU Partners Brightcove For Ad-Supported STB content


    VUDU has agreed a partnership with online video platform Brightcove that will allow its customers to distribute their content directly to the living room television via VUDU.

    The first feature available in the VUDU Labs area of the VUDU service will be the MyPlay application, which offers current Sony Music videos through Sony Music’s MyPlay Video Network affiliate program.

    Edward Lichty, executive vice president of strategy and content for VUDU, said that for the first time, content owners can make all of their online video available on the television without changing their monetization strategy.

    He said the partnership supports multiple advertising platforms, allowing Brightcove customers to maintain their existing online video monetization strategy and infrastructure while expanding their distribution reach to the television.

    VUDU is the first partner to support Brightcove-powered, ad-supported content distribution on a set-top-box.

    "Through our integration with Brightcove’s online video platform, we are combining the selection and control of the online video experience with the visual richness and lean-back satisfaction of the television experience," he said.

    Chris Johnston, director of technology partnership at Brightcove, said it had been challenging to expand online video distribution beyond websites to the living room.

    "The partnership announced today with VUDU is a significant step forward for media businesses that want to centrally manage distribution and monetization across the Web while also taking advantage of the high-quality TV experience VUDU enables," he said.

    The integration with Brightcove utilizes VUDU’s Rich Internet Applications (RIA) platform to add on-demand video to the VUDU service by enabling ad-supported content.

    RIA enables VUDU to support dynamic ad logic and live ad calls to content owners’ existing advertising platforms.

    Content owners retain complete control over their advertising inventory.