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About year and a half to two years ago, the big money was going into Internet video platform services.  One after another companies hoping to rival YouTube in content aggregation, or IPTV services dreaming of better content delivery, closed venture rounds in excess of ten and twenty million dollars.  Today, the hot zone for massive venture investment may be interactivity. 

In late August, San Mateo based Conviva secured $20m for their interactive live broadcast platform.    Today, UK based Miniweb announced the closing of a $32m round.

Miniweb was founded in 2007, the result of a management buyout (“MBO”) of select interactive assets from British TV service BskyB Click to Read More

If at first you don’t succeed, reinvent and try again.   That’s a mantra known at many an Internet startup.  And according to a new report, it looks like it applies to IPTV startup, Joost.

A couple of years ago, peer to peer IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) was all the rage.  There were content partnerships and huge eight figure financing’s.  High profile execs and even talent agents were hired.  “It’s the next new thing.”  “The TV of the Future” the headlines seemed to read.  Unfortunately there were cracks in an otherwise pretty facade and they’re now starting to show.  

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It was rumored in May, tested in a limited beta in July and now it’s here.  Thursday, Amazon officially opened the door to their new on demand video service.  It’s download free, straight through the pipes, streamed on demand; another Internet TV and movie distribution platform in an already crowded marketplace.

The not so creatively named Amazon Video on Demand is an evolution of Amazon’s prior generation Unbox video service.  Unlike Unbox, Amazon Video on Demand requires no software downloads to view the video streams.  Audiences can instantly watch widescreen format, stereo TV and movie content via the browser on their PC or Mac.  They can also watch the programming via their TV if they have the appropriate hardware extensions (or are able to connect a PC to a computer). Click to Read More

There’s a natural affinity between movies and video games, an overlap apparent in the convergence of story lines and visual techniques.  Like many studios, Paramount has seen this and recognizes the potential games bring for ancillary sales and cross media marketing.  In March, the Viacom owned movie studio formed a division within their interactive department to explore funding the development (and publication) of gaming titles.  In July, the studio partnered with Legacy Interactive to build Internet games around their Pretty in Pink, Clueless and Mean Girls films.   Now, Paramount has opened their checkbook to make their first gaming related purchase too.

Paramount has bought Washington based ScreenLife, the makers of a popular DVD trivia game called “Scene It.”  Click to Read More

TV Guide called Seinfeld the best TV show of all time in 2002.  Debatable as that claim may be, the show did unequivocally define part of the 90s TV landscape and leave a lasting impression with audiences.  But as the story goes, “Seinfeld” almost died in its first year on the air.  TV is a cutthroat business and there’s tremendous pressure for new, or fledgling, shows to build audience and draw advertising dollars fast.  No studio or network wants to carry the “overhead” and red ink of an under-performing show.  That’s especially true today in a time when Internet technologies, gaming and other pastimes are expanding the options and access we have for amusements. Every tool in the marketers arsenal is fair game – even releasing premiers ahead of their formal broadcast debuts.

For Hulu, a video website jointly owned by News Corp (Fox) and NBC (along with ten percent to private equity partner Providence Equity), that’s good news.  Click to Read More

As technology changes and the uses of media evolve into unforeseen territories, questions about legal feasibility and permissible behavior invariable arise.  It’s a battle that often pits content owners against content distributors.  It’s issues of fair usage, of reasonable protection and questions about levels of professional responsibility. 

What can be shown?
What can be copied?
How much effort does a company have to make to police customer behavior? 
What are “reasonable” standards?

It’s the courts’ unenviable job to interpret the often vague, and complex, nuance of law written before the very innovations in question were even contemplated.  It’s their job to figure it all out.

Slowly but surely, judges are working through the process. Click to Read More

Two companies addressing two different aspects of the online video marketplace – live content interactivity and broader, high quality video distribution – both announced financing news Monday.  For San Mateo based Conviva, it was a $20m Series B Financing.  For Utah based Move Networks, it was news that Microsoft was joining prior Series C investors with an undisclosed strategic investment.

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