Business News Holding

Tag: video-streaming

  • Mass Adoption of Web-to-TV Video Will Be "Rapid"


    Millions of viewers already watch Internet video on their TVs but that number is set to climb dramatically, according to In-Stat.

    It forecasts that by 2013 web-to-TV video streaming services will drive nearly USD $3 billion in revenue.

    The under-35 adult population in the US has already adopted Web-to-TV video capability, with over 40 per cent viewing Internet video on the TV at least once per month.

    But within five years, the number of US broadband households viewing Web-to-TV content will grow to 24 million.

    Recent research from the Consumer Electronics Association showed that nearly half of prospective TV buyers in the US intend to purchase an Internet-ready TV in the next year.

    Keith Nissen, In-Stat analyst, said that once Web-to-TV video becomes simple and convenient, mass consumer adoption will follow quite rapidly.

    "Our primary research shows that users want a variety of their consumer devices to enable a web-to-TV video experience," he said.

    Other In-Stat findings include:

    • Already, 29 per cent of US 25-34 year olds with game consoles use the devices to watch streaming video off the Internet
    • In five years, there will be 7.4 million US broadband households that use media center PCs for streaming Web-to-TV content.
    • TV networks and pay TV operators currently view online TV as additive to pay TV services, but Web-to-TV will ultimately force a complete restructuring of today’s video services.
    • Video content will be optimized for broadcast or Web-to-TV based on content type

  • BitGravity To Support Interactive HD Video Applications


    BitGravity has announced the release of an application programming interface (API), capable of supporting cutting-edge interactive video applications.

    The new patent-pending Advanced Progressive API provides extensive control over progressive downloads within Flash.

    According to BitGravity, this enables developers to inject advertising, automatically adjust bitrates, add virtual clips and other additional advanced features into their H.264- and FLV-encoded video.

    Barrett Lyon, Chief Technical Officer (CTO) and co-founder of BitGravity, said its content delivery network (CDN) was engineered to enable a new wave of HD, live and interactive content on the Internet.

    He said the update of the Advanced Progressive API for BitGravity’s Distributed Origin-based content delivery platform unlocked the ability to create affordable and scalable interactive HD video applications for the first time.

    Customers will be able to add a variety of advanced features to FLV- and H.264-encoded video, such as:

    • enabling auto bitrate adjustment between series of encoded videos,
    • seeking to any portion of video by time code without having to download an entire file,
    • showing select scenes from a larger video,
    • creating start and stop points,
    • allowing time-range requests,
    • synchronizing videos from time codes and
    • delivering bandwidth control.

    “From inception, our service was intended for interactive, fast-loading, HD content delivery across the mainstream Internet, and this new release of our Advanced Progressive API with H.264 support is another milestone in keeping with this original vision,” said Lyon.

  • Netflix focuses on video-streaming

    Netflix puts more emphasis on video-streaming with new appointment and partnerships

    Netflix has hired Bill Holmes, a five-year veteran of digital-media company DivX, to help build its video-streaming business.

    Holmes is to head its business-development efforts as it continues to try to boost sales from its video-streaming service.
    His appointment is the latest in various moves by the company to build on its 8.4 million subscriber base with its streaming services.

    It has entered onto a partnership with LG to produce a new Blu-ray Disc Player with direct internet access to the Netflix film catalogue.

    Netflix, the largest U.S. movie-rental service via mail, said that it brought on Holmes to help embed software into more devices that will allow customers to stream content from Netflix.

    Holmes negotiated licensing agreements with companies such as Qualcomm, Matsushita and SanDisk when he was with DivX.

    Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO, said: “Bill Holmes will lead the ever-increasing effort by Netflix to develop more partnerships with great consumer electronics companies as we enter the era of Web-on-TV.”

    The LG Blu-ray Disc player that instantly links to Netflix’s 12,000-title streaming service will go on sale this month.
    The BD300 has firmware and hardware that will enable it to stream movies directly from the Netflix online video rental service.

    Although it has full 1080p high resolution capability on Blu-ray, the Netlflix service will only provide standard definition movie streams initially.

    However, the BD300 does offer 1080p upscaling for standard definition content via the HDMI output connection.
    The BD300 also has the latest Profile 2.0 specification, which allows full access to all interactive and online content that may be available in relation to specific Blu-ray Discs.

    In July, Netflix expanded its partnership with Microsoft that allows customers to stream Netflix’s movies and TV shows through Microsoft’s Xbox 360 videogame console.

    In May, Netflix introduced a set-top box allowing customers to stream from an inventory of about 10 per cent of its 100,000 titles.

    Later that month, Hastings said products such as Netflix Player by Roku, which had to be back-ordered within three weeks of its introduction, would double the company’s subscriber base within a decade.

    Holmes started the DivX Certified program with the San Diego-based company, whose revenue jumped 43 per cent last year to US$84.9 million.

    That program, which tracks all components containing devices either produced or licensed by DivX, encompasses more than 100 million devices made by companies such as Sony, Samsung and Toshiba.

  • NBC uses Olympics to promote HDTV and study viewer habits

    NBC has made no secret of the fact it plans to use the Beijing Olympics as a campaign platform for HDTV.
    Now the US network has announced that the summer games will also act as a research lab to guage how viewers use different media platforms.

    The network hopes its research will reveal how people combine, for example, high def TV coverage of an event with tools such as video streaming, video on demand and mobile phones.
    Alan Wurtzel, NBC’s research chief, said the company would publicly issue a TAMi (Total Audience Measurement Index) for the first time.
    This is designed to measure the full range of cross-platform media consumption of the Olympics throughout the 17 days of coverage.

    NBCU will also conduct the largest research project in its history, taking advantage of the unique scope and duration of the Olympics to further the industry’s understanding of cross-platform media usage.
    “An event of this magnitude requires the biggest and most sophisticated research effort to measure it,” said Wurtzel.
    “The size and duration of the Olympics presents us with extraordinary opportunities to gather data on viewer behaviour.”

    NBC has scheduled 3,600 hours of Olympics programming on its main network, along with Telemundo, USA, Oxygen, MSNBC, CNBC and Bravo.
    In addition, the company is planning to make 2,200 hours of streaming video available on NBCOlympics.com.
    Consumers may also get video on demand via their computer and Olympics content through their mobile phones.
    “Not only will we measure these Games in a way we’ve never done before, but we’ll also be able to gather data that helps us better understand the new media consumer,” said Wurtzel.
    “At the end of the Olympics, no other research entity in the world will have as much knowledge on cross-platform usage as NBC Universal.”