thePlatform has
been selected to manage and publish online video for the Big Ten Network. Specifically,
thePlatform will provide centralized back-end management support for two major video
initiatives, one aimed at serving international audiences outside the U.S. and Canada,
and the other serving domestic sports fans.

The Big Ten Network, a joint venture between Fox Cable Networks and subsidiaries of
the Big Ten Conference, is the first nationally distributed network dedicated to covering
one of the premier collegiate conferences in the country. For international fans,
the Big Ten Network will utilize thePlatform’s media publishing system to manage the
Big Ten Network’s new international streaming package, the “Big Ten Ticket.” All televised
Big Ten Network football and men’s basketball games will be available live and on-demand
online to viewers living outside of the United States, Canada and the Caribbean on www.BigTenTicket.com.
The Big Ten Network will televise between 35-40 football games and 105 regular season
men’s basketball games, plus three Big Ten Tournament games, in 2009-10.

For North American audiences, thePlatform’s media publishing system will also support
the Big Ten Network’s webcast of a wide-range of other sports video for the fans of
the University of Illinois, Indiana University, University of Iowa, University of
Michigan, Michigan State University, University of Minnesota, Northwestern University,
Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University, and University
of Wisconsin.

thePlatform publishes video, and other media, to PCs, mobile devices, and TV. Media
companies use thePlatform’s media publishing system as their open, central hub for
managing, monetizing and syndicating billions of professionally produced online video
views annually.

View post:
thePlatform Selected to Manage Online Video Efforts for Big Ten Network

Akamai
Technologies announces the Akamai HD Network, its next generation video delivery
offering and the first platform to deliver HD video online to viewers using Adobe
Flash technology, Microsoft Silverlight, and to the iPhone, at broadcast-level audience
scale. The Akamai HD Network is the only solution that supports live and on-demand
HD streaming with a highly-personalized and interactive online experience that matches
and complements HD television.

As a first-of-its-kind streaming platform, the Akamai HD Network is designed as one,
comprehensive HD network reaching multiple playback environments and devices, including
Flash, Silverlight, and the iPhone. Leveraging the global breadth and scale of Akamai’s
globally-distributed EdgePlatform of more than 50,000 servers, the Akamai HD Network
enables content providers to deliver more HD content than previously possible – due
to its wide-scale distribution in 70 countries and increased throughputs in more than
900 networks.

The Akamai HD Network is a streaming platform that leverages the following functionalities:

• Adaptive Bitrate Streaming – Unique network and player streaming process that is designed
  to enable uninterrupted playback at HD bitrates that seamlessly adjusts to fluctuations
  in available bandwidth to provide the best quality possible for each user
• Instant Response – Immediate response to viewer interactions with the video player,
  including sub-second time-shifting (such as pause, rewind, seek and play commands)
  video startup times, and seamless stream switching
• HD Video Player – Open, standards-based video player for faster time to market
• HD Player Authentication – Authenticates player for all three environments ensuring
  only authorized players access content

Akamai has helped pioneer the delivery of HD content online, having worked with leading
entertainment, sports, and news businesses. Two key trends have made it necessary
to now evolve how streaming media is delivered on the Internet. First, online audiences
have grown to broadcast scale. Second, those viewers are demanding higher quality
content. Studies show that when higher quality video content is offered, viewer engagement
time increases. Supporting this level of traffic requires a global network that can
manage millions of simultaneous users streaming very high bitrate content. The Akamai
HD Network was designed for large-scale broadcasters and film distributors looking
to increase audience engagement and to expand revenues by complementing traditional
mediums, such as TV and DVD, with the Internet.

The Akamai HD Network offers adaptive bitrate streaming capabilities across playback
formats that are specifically optimized to work with Akamai’s HD EdgePlatform for
the fastest and most consistent video bitrate switching – enabling an instant and
uninterrupted viewing experience for consumers even at the highest bitrates. Leveraging
Akamai’s entire HTTP footprint, video over Akamai’s HD Network is delivered from servers
closer to audiences around the world. As a result, Akamai can more tightly control
the amount of time the player needs to buffer before switching streams. The shorter
the buffer, the faster the stream can adapt and respond to changing end-user conditions.
The result is intended to create a seamless HD quality video experience – with little
to no buffering.

View original post here:
Akamai Unveils the Akamai HD Network

YouTube and Warner
Music Group announce an agreement to distribute on YouTube the library of music
videos from WMG’s world-renowned roster of artists as well as behind-the-scenes footage,
artist interviews, original programming and other special content. In a first-of-its-kind
arrangement, YouTube users will be able to incorporate music from WMG’s recorded music
catalog into the videos they create and upload onto YouTube.

WMG thus becomes the first music company to harness YouTube’s leading video entertainment
service to commercially distribute its music video catalog. More importantly, it becomes
the first global media company to broadly embrace the power and creativity of user-generated
content through a wide-ranging agreement with the category leader, enabling its artists
to connect with a vast new audience in an entirely new way. WMG will have the opportunity
to authorize the use of its content by the YouTube community by taking advantage of
YouTube’s advanced content identification and royalty reporting system, set for release
by the end of the year. YouTube and WMG will share revenue from advertising on both
WMG music videos and user uploaded videos that incorporate audio and audiovisual works
from WMG’s catalog. WMG’s music video library and special artist content will be made
available simultaneously with the launch of YouTube’s content identification and royalty
reporting system.

Allowing the Audience to Communicate and Interact with their Favorite Artists

WMG, one of the world’s largest music companies and parent company to record labels
including Atlantic, Warner Bros., Asylum, Bad Boy, Cordless, East West, Nonesuch,
Reprise, Rhino, Rykodisc, Sire and Word, among others, will make available its entire
video catalog cleared for Internet use to YouTube in order for their artists to reach
and interact with a new audience while enhancing the entertainment experience on YouTube.
YouTube and WMG expect artists to embrace this new opportunity to reach a vast new
audience to promote and distribute their music. With this agreement, WMG also enhances
its ability to act responsibly on behalf of its artists and to request the removal
of copyrighted content from YouTube when an artist elects to remove it. However, with
the new content identification and royalty reporting and tracking system, WMG plans
to identify and locate WMG content with the intention of enabling consumers to continue
to interact with and enjoy the works of their favorite artists on YouTube.

YouTube Advanced Content Identification and Reporting Architecture to be Delivered
by End of Year

By the end of the year, professional content creators, including record labels, TV
networks and movie studios, will have the opportunity to authorize the use of their
content within the YouTube community by taking advantage of YouTube’s new content
identification and royalty reporting system.

YouTube has been actively working on the operational details and building the infrastructure
for this innovative new framework which includes royalty tracking and reporting, and
a sophisticated content identification system. This new architecture will offer media
companies the following:

• Sophisticated copyright identification tools to help identify their content on the
  site;
• Automated audio identification technology to locate their works within user videos
  on the site;
• The opportunity to authorize and monetize the use of their works within the user-generated
  content on the site;
• Reporting and tracking systems for royalties, etc.

See original here:
YouTube and WMG Announce Video Distribution and Revenue Partnership

The take-up of triple play services – broadband, telephone and television – by digital TV customers, is continuing to grow, according to Ofcom’s latest ‘Digital TV Progress Report’.
The proportion of BSkyB customers taking three services increased from 11% at the end of 2008 to 16% by the middle of 2009, while Virgin Media gained [...]

Originally posted here:
Take-up of triple-play services continues

The IMS
Research study IPTV: A Global Market Analysis reveals that IPTV deployments globally
are largely attributed to tier 1 telcos. By the end of 2014, IMS Research forecasts
40.1 million TV households will be subscribers of tier 1 telco IPTV services.

Rebecca Kurlak, research analyst and author of the study, states, “Tier 1 telcos have
the advantages of both scalability and the imminent opportunity for solid ROI that
has placed forerunners like AT&T and France Telecom in a very compelling position
in the pay-TV environment.”

Kurlak continues, “Not only will AT&T and France Telecom continue to see uptake
in their acquisition of subscribers, but China Telecom, BBTV, NTT, FREE, Neuf Cegetel,
Telefonica’s Imagenio and BT will also see extraordinary uptake of their IPTV services.”

In regards to smaller telcos she notes, “Tier 2 and 3 telcos will continue to experience
subscriber growth as well. In 2008, tier 2 and tier 3 telcos comprised almost 46%
of subscribers. Throughout the forecast, the larger telcos will essentially be stealing
honey from the smaller telcos’ bee hives by providing more services, deeper discounts
and more compelling content from major studios. Hence the reason why the small telcos
will only garner close to 23 million TV households by the end of 2014, half the potential
of what Tier 1 telcos are anticipated to achieve.”

In addition to television household forecasts (split by picture quality and DVR functionality),
the study provides detailed analysis of IP and IP+DTT STB shipments and revenues for
three major global regions and three sub-regions, with further analysis on 64 individual
countries. Two new features of the report include forecasts for IPTV Households by
Telco Tier and segmentation of IP STB Shipments by MPEG-2 vs. MPEG-4 AVC compressions.
IMS Research is the first to incorporate these segmentations in their reporting.

Go here to read the rest:
Tier 1 Telcos Stealing the IPTV Honey from the Telco 3 Bee Hive