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Online Video Trends: The Future Guide To The Best Predictions For 2011

Robin Good — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 04:40:00 PST

If you are looking to identify the key trends that will affect video, the convergence of Internet, social media and television, the role of mobile in video distribution as well as the relevance of video for developing effective marketing strategies, this guide to the best video predictions and anticipations for 2011, covers all of these topics and more.

Photo credit: Kiyoshi Takahase Segundo

In this MasterNewMedia guide you will find my personal selection of the very best articles, reports and blog posts covering the future of video online and more specifically:

Online video in 2011: Connected TVs, social recommendations, and standards wars

Six key 2011 trends in online and mobile video

Let's go to the crystal ball: 2011 online video predictions

Top trends for online video in 2011

Trend watch: Online video forecasts for 2011

eCommerce video trends to watch next year

2010 Internet television in a nutshell and 2011 predictions

2011 online video trends: Are you ready for the storm?

Online video trends 2011: Market developments in focus

If video is in your future, here is what the future of video may look:

Online Video Trends: The Future Guide to the Best Predictions for 2011

1) Online Video in 2011: Connected TVs, Social Recommendations, and Standards Wars

Online video is going through many changes as people begin to connect their TVs to the Internet and social sharing over Facebook and Twitter influence what people watch as much as search. In this article, Jeremy Allaire, founder and CEO of online video platform Brightcove, shares his view of where online video is going next year considering the standards war in mobile video formats.

URL: http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/18/online-video-2011/

2) Six Key 2011 Trends in Online and Mobile Video

In this article Colin Dixon from The Diffusion Group and Will Richmond from VuideoNuze outline six key trends for 2011 in the online and mobile video landscape. Each prediction is very detailed and it also presents the results of a poll conducted by the two analysts about the possibility of that trend becoming true during the year.

URL: http://www.videonuze.com/blogs/?2010-12-16/6-Key-2011-Trends-in-Online-and-Mobile-Video/&id=2845

3) Let's Go To The Crystal Ball: 2011 Online Video Predictions

Social gaming, mobile video advertising, the rise of a possible YouTube competitor and the general growth of online video as the market strives to exit the recession are the major trends in online and mobile video for 2011 foreseen by Tom sacerdoti of Media Post, who also spends some time to go through his 2010 predictions to see what has become true of his predictions.

URL: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=141410

4) Top Trends for Online Video in 2011

Chris Young from MediaPost takes a look at what trends we will see emerge and grow in the coming year. Here is roundup of nine key trends that will make online video more successful than ever in 2011: mobile video, social TV and a specific focus on customer engagement to name just a few.

URL: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=140747

5) Trend Watch: Online Video Forecasts for 2011

YouTube will become more important in 2011, display budgets and video budgets will blur boundaries, and interactive video will continue to disappoint -- but not for long: here a set of very-detailed online video predictions for 2011.

URL: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=141821

6) eCommerce Video Trends to Watch Next Year

Retailers that have tested and proven video and will begin larger deployments, while retailers who have been slower to adopt will face the problem of catching up quickly. Consumers rely on the rich experience of video will start to demand it as part of the shopping experience. These factors will set 2011 to be the year in which eCommerce video becomes a standard on retail sites.

URL: http://www.reelseo.com/ecommerce-video-2011/

7) 2010 Internet Television in a Nutshell and 2011 Predictions

There is general consensus that 2010 was the year of Internet TV emergence. As a matter of fact, there were a lot of things that went right for it during the year and a couple things that did not. So let's take a look in this post at the highlights for 2011 including all the big players in the Internet TV space: Apple TV, Google TV, Hulu and more.

URL: http://www.reelseo.com/2010-2011-internet-tv/

8) 2011 Online Video Trends: Are You Ready for the Storm?

Here a "curated" list of predictions for online video in 2011 that Kevin Nalty, editor of ReelSEO has prepared by sifting through many trends articles on the web to discover what are the exciting news awaiting online video marketers and viewers around the corner.

URL: http://www.reelseo.com/online-video-storm-2011/

9) Online Video Trends 2011: Market Developments in Focus

This research paper from Interlake provides an in-depth look of the online video landscape in 2011 from a marketing perspective. What standards are video providers going to rely on next year? Will iPhone still be king of the hill for mobile video content producers? And is Internet TV finally going to see its long-forecasted breakthrough?

URL: http://www.interlake.net/en/assets/File/InfoDoc_OnlineVideoTrends2011_EN.pdf

Originally prepared by Robin Good, Daniele Bazzano and Elia Lombardi for MasterNewMedia, and first published on February 16th, 2011 as "Online Video Trends: The Future Guide To The Best Predictions For 2011".

Photo credits:
Online Video in 2011: Connected TVs, Social Recommendations, and Standards Wars - Rainer Junker
Six Key 2011 Trends in Online and Mobile Video - Gabriel Moisa
Let's Go To The Crystal Ball: 2011 Online Video Predictions - Hypermania
Top Trends for Online Video in 2011 - SSilver
Trend Watch: Online Video Forecasts for 2011 - Jimmy Lopes
eCommerce Video Trends to Watch Next Year - Pablo631
2010 Internet Television in a Nutshell and 2011 Predictions - Luchschen
2011 Online Video Trends: Are You Ready for the Storm? - Il Web a Portata di Clic
Online Video Trends 2011: Market Developments in Focus - Thomasz Trojanowski

Online Video: The Best 2010 Articles And Reports From MasterNewMedia

Robin Good — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 05:58:00 PST

As eMarketer forecasts that by 2014 77 percent of US internet users will consume online video, it starts to be evident that online video is fast becoming a major opportunity for many publishers.

Photo credit: lepas2004

For brands, online video offers an opportunity to engage and communicate more effectively to their customers. For publishers, online video creates an opportunity to deliver more compelling content in a new enticing format. For advertisers online video is one of the most effective ways to reach a wider segment of their audience.

This MasterNewMedia guide, is a curated digest to the best 2010 articles and reports on online video and it specifically covers:

The latest 2010 online video trends across different regions of the world and media industries.

The controversy between Apple and Adobe on the use of the Flash video encoding format on mobile devices.

A curated guide on the universe of video encoding formats available on the market.

A guide to the best online music marketplaces to find royalty free music tracks for your video productions.

A comparative guide of the best white-label video publishing platforms on the market.

All the details, here below:

Online Video: The Best 2010 Articles and Reports from MasterNewMedia

Online Video Trends: The Complete Media Industry Report - Part 1

In this highly visual and data-rich industry report, you can get a good view of how much online video is presently used across different regions of the world and relative to other established media.

by TubeMogul and Brightcove - December 16th, 2010

Online Video Trends: The Complete Media Industry Report - Part 2

While Part 1 provided a directional snapshot on the emerging 2010 trends in the online video landscape, Part 2 of this report introduces you to hard data regarding the penetration and consumption of online video used for commercial and marketing purposes.

by TubeMogul and Brightcove - December 23rd, 2010

The Online Video Encoding Formats War: Apple vs Flash vs H.264 - Infographic

In this report Enrique Serrano focuses on explaining the technological implications of the Apple-Adobe war over video codecs as well as how this new technology war going to impact your personal online video landscape.

by Enrique Serrano - May 27th, 2010

The Video Encoding Guide: Codes, Formats, Containers And Settings Explained

The MasterNewMedia research team has prepared a comprehensive guide to bring together all of the "fundamentals" you need to master to fully understand the basics of video encoding.

by Robin Good, Daniele Bazzano and Elia Lombardi - August 16th, 2010

Royalty-Free Music: Where To Find Free Music Tracks For Your Video Clips

How can you get a nice background music to place on your videos without infringing the law? The MasterNewMeda research team comes to the rescue with this guide listing all of the best services on the web to get or download open and unrestricted royalty free music.

by Robin Good and Daniele Bazzano - August 31st, 2010

White-Label Video Publishing: Guide To The Best Private Label Video Services

In this guide I have selected, reviewed and compared for you the best white-label video publishing and distribution platforms available out there, while paying particular attention to their key traits, strengths and weaknesses.

by Robin Good and Daniele Bazzano - July 6th, 2010

Originally prepared by Robin Good, Daniele Bazzano and Elia Lombardi for MasterNewMedia, and first published on January 13th, 2011 as "Online Video: The Best 2010 Articles And Reports From MasterNewMedia".

Photo credits:
Online Video Trends: The Complete Media Industry Report - Part 1 and 2 - Michele Piacquadio
The Online Video Encoding Formats War: Apple vs Flash vs H.264 - Infographic - Warezgen
The Video Encoding Guide: Codes, Formats, Containers And Settings Explained - Canon
Royalty-Free Music: Where To Find Free Music Tracks For Your Video Clips - enot-poloskun
White-Label Video Publishing: Guide To The Best Private Label Video Services - Liubomyr Feshchyn and Christophe Testi mashed up by Robin Good - edited by Francesco Caruccio

Online Video Trends: The Complete Media Industry Report - Part 2

TubeMogul and Brightcove — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 02:05:00 PST

This is the second part of a highly visual and data-rich industry report on the latest online video trends emerging around brands and e-commerce websites.

Photo credit: Michele Piacquadio

While Part 1 provided a directional snapshot on the emerging 2010 trends in the online video landscape, Part 2 of this report introduces you to hard data regarding the penetration and consumption of online video used for commercial and marketing purposes.

Here some key 2010 takeaways from the report:

Only 2.6 percent of all brand views occurred through off-site embeds, which is less than all media categories except for broadcasters.

Only 38 percent of viewers is reported watching a completed video.

Plus:

More than 84% percent of brand managers surveyed say they are currently using online video on brand websites for marketing products and services.

MasterNewMedia is republishing this original report, originally authored by Tubemogul and Brightcove with their explicit permission, by presenting a whole new set of redesigned information charts so that you can extract the most value from it, with the minimum effort.

Here Part 2 (Part 1) of the Online Video Industry Media and Trends report:

Brightcove and TubeMogul: Online Video and The Media Industry

by TubeMogul and Brightcove

Brand and E-Commerce On-Site Video Initiatives

The following section focuses on a sample of brands and e-commerce sites (referred to as "brands" below) powered by Brightcove.

Media company averages were not weighted by volume, but rather by type so as not to give any one type (i.e. broadcasters) outsized influence.

Key Findings

Platform Data

Viewers in Q2 watched brand marketing and e-commerce videos an average of 1:04 minutes per stream, compared to 2:00 minutes per stream of online video content from media companies.

2.6 percent of views for brand marketing and e-commerce video content was viewed off-site through embedded video players on third party sites as compared to 6.5 percent of off-site video for media companies.

The average length of brand and e-commerce video views via embedded players on third-party sites in Q2 was 1:42 minutes compared to 1:02 minutes on the brand websites.

By contrast, media companies generated an average of 1:00 minute per view for video content on third-party sites compared to an average of 2:00 minutes per view on the official news and entertainment websites.

Referral traffic from Facebook and Twitter lead to the longest viewing times, while the video views that originate from Yahoo! search and display ads tied for shortest.

Online Video Trends

For the vast majority of brand managers (85 percent), website video is currently part of their marketing mix. More than 60 percent say they plan to invest more in on-site video initiatives in the next 12 months.

Survey respondents indicated that the primary purpose for their on-site video initiatives is branding and awareness (66 percent) followed by direct response / lead generation (21 percent) and e-commerce / sales (12 percent).

Brand managers have embraced blended distribution strategies with 80 percent including video on their own brand sites, as well as YouTube and 90 percent distributing video through Facebook.

While only 21 percent of brand managers indicated that their current mobile app strategy included video, 70 said they plan to add video to their mobile apps over the next 12 months.

Engagement

Completion Rates By Quarters

Viewers watched brand and e-commerce videos an average of 1:04 minutes per stream in the second quarter of 2010, up slightly from 1:02 minutes in the first quarter.

Completion rates also held steady compared to the first quarter of 2010, with around 38 percent watching a completed video.

Discovery

Average Monthly Growth In Referred Video Streams

Overall, the majority of video streams (92.1 percent) were discovered via direct traffic or within a brand’s own site.

From third-party traffic, 40.1 percent of video streams came from Google, 16.8 percent from Yahoo, 13.1 percent from Bing, 7.9 percent from Facebook, 2.7 percent from AOL and 0.9 percent from Twitter.

In terms of growth in streams by discovery source, Facebook and Twitter are growing much faster than the major search engines.

Distribution

Average Minutes Watched Per View

Only 2.6 percent of all brand views occurred through off-site embeds, which is less than all media categories except for broadcasters.

Viewers watching brand and e-commerce videos off-site tend to watch longer than viewers watching on a brand’s own site.

Average Minutes Watched Per View By Source

For brands, viewers coming from Facebook and Twitter lead to the longest viewing times, while Yahoo! searches and display ads tied for shortest. Compared to media companies, brands had shorter viewing-times, partly due to the nature of the content and the fact that they tend to post videos that are shorter in length.

Geography

Top Regions Percentage of Total Views

In terms of geography, nearly 90 percent of brand views came from either the U.S. or Europe.

More than half of all brand / e-commerce views occurred in the U.S.

Brands also had fewer views coming from the Asia-Pacific region or the rest of the world than media companies.

U.S. viewers watched brand videos 20 to 54 seconds more than viewers from other regions, demonstrating more time-spent with brand-related online video content.

Europeans watched news and entertainment video content even longer than U.S. viewers, on average, but spent less time with brand videos than any other region.

Brand Manager Survey Results

Average MInutes Watched Per Region

In Q2 of 2010, Brightcove and TubeMogul conducted a survey of more than 300 brand managers representing major consumer and B2B organizations, including dozens of Fortune 500 companies, about their on-site video initiatives.

The sample included customers across North America and Europe.

Online Video Investment

Do You Currently Use Video On Your Brand Website?

Nearly 85 percent of brand managers surveyed indicated that they are currently using online video on brand websites for marketing products and services.

For those currently not using online video, 75 percent said they plan to add online video to their websites within the next 12 months.

Percentage of Marketing Budgets Used For On-Site Video Initiatives

Added by MasterNewMedia Editors

While brands devote a relatively small portion of their overall marketing budgets to on-site video initiatives (50 percent devote less than 10 percent; 23 percent devote less 25 percent; 22 percent devote between 25 and 50 percent), nearly 60 percent said they plan to spend more on their website video initiatives within the next 12 months.

Online Video Strategy

Online Video Initiatives Primary Purposes

66 percent of brand managers said the primary purpose of their online video initiatives are focused on branding and awareness, 21 percent are using video for direct response and lead generation campaigns, and 12 percent to drive ecommerce and sales initiatives.

Most Important Benefit of The Video Investment

The majority of those using online video to drive e-commerce and sales initiatives have found video to be highly effective at increasing customer engagement and time spent on the brand website (53 percent) and increasing sales conversions (35 percent).

12 percent of respondents noted that video has helped to reduce product returns and customer support calls, while also reducing shopping cart abandonment.

Mobile Video Initiatives

Mobile Video Startegy Currently Adoption

The rapid growth of smartphone adoption throughout the world continues to drive an enormous amount of mobile video consumption amongst consumers.

However, mobile video is still an emerging focus for many of the brand managers that we surveyed.

More than 60 percent said that mobile video is not currently part of their marketing initiatives, though the same 60 percent also said they plan to add mobile video to their marketing mix in the next 12 months.

Mobile Apps Most Common Platforms

When it comes to mobile apps, 42 percent of brand managers indicated that they currently have a mobile app to promote their brand, while 57 percent do not.

Those that do have mobile apps are primarily focused on building apps for Apple iOS devices (100 percent), Android OS (27 percent) and other platforms including Windows, Research in Motion BlackBerry and Symbian (47 percent).

Do You Plan To Add Video Content To Your Brand Mobile Apps?

Of the respondents that do have mobile apps for their brands, only 21 percent indicated their mobile apps include video content.

However, a full 70 percent of brand managers said they plan to add video to their mobile app strategy in the next 12 months.

Distribution and Social Media

VIdeo Distribution: Brand Website vs. YouTube

80 percent of the brand managers surveyed indicated that they use a blended distribution strategy that involves video content on their brand websites, as well as on YouTube.

12 percent distribute video content exclusively on YouTube, while three percent feature video content only on their brand websites.

Brands Currently Distributing Video Through Social Media Channels Like Facebook

Nearly 90 percent of those surveyed distribute video content through social media destinations like Facebook.

Additionally, respondents were split down the middle when it comes to having user-generated content as part of their online video initiatives.

Methodology

The data used for the analysis included in this report was taken from a cross section sample of Brightcove customers representing media industry verticals. While the sample aggregates a sizable data set, it is not intended to be statistically representative of the online video industry as a whole, or of Brightcove’s entire customer base.

Instead, the data analysis is intended to provide a directional snapshot of media trends and inform additional research initiatives focused on the online video industry.

This research report draws on a number of data sources:

Platform data from a sample of Brightcove media customers; and

Consumer engagement reports based on TubeMogul’s online video analytics from this aggregate data set.

In this Q2 research report, Brightcove and TubeMogul have included a special feature focused on brand marketers and on-site video initiatives. This analysis uses:

Platform data from a sample of Brightcove brand marketing and e-commerce customers; and

An anonymous survey of more than 300 senior-level brand managers from leading business-to-business and consumer brands, including dozens of Fortune 500 companies.

End of Part 2

Online Video Trends: The Complete Media Industry Report - Part 1

Originally prepared by TubeMogul and Brightcove, and first published on TubeMogul on September 13th, 2010 as Brightcove & TubeMogul: Online Video & The Media Industry

About TubeMogul

TubeMogul is an online video analytics and advertising platform that processes billions of video streams every month from the Internet’s top publishers. More than 200,000 users rely on TubeMogul’s distribution and analytics, and hundreds of marketing agencies and brand advertisers are among the company’s clients.

About Brightcove

Brightcove is an on-demand software platform that media companies and marketers use to publish and distribute video on the web, mobile devices, and Internet-connected TVs. Brightcove has more than 1,800 customers in 48 countries, which operate video across nearly 10,000 websites, including many of the most popular news and entertainment destinations on the web.

Photo credits:
Graphs - Elia Lombardi
Brand and E-Commerce On-Site Video Initiatives - Microsoft
Platform Data - Michael Osterrieder
Online Video Trends - vpopovic
Methodology - Dmitriy Shironosov

Online Video Trends: The Complete Media Industry Report - Part 1

TubeMogul and Brightcove — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 06:33:00 PST

If you are interested in learning and accessing hard data about the latest online video trends, you have come to the right place. In this highly visual and data-rich industry report, you can get a good view of how much online video is presently used across different regions of the world and relative to other established media.

Photo credit: Michele Piacquadio

As YouTube is removing any time limit on video uploads, more and more people are using online video as an effective means to communicate, learn, entertain themselves, as well as to market, promote and sell their products.

Here some key emerging trends for 2010:

In 2010 online video usage kept on growing as more and more viewers demand and watch video content.

Facebook and Twitter are coming of age as sources of video news. Facebook specifically, is soon meant to be second only to Google in referral traffic to online video content for media companies.

The average length of online video views via embedded players on third-party sites proves to be a powerful attraction for customers and viewers as it sets between 1' 42'' and 2' 00''.

Brand managers plan to allocate more money and resources for online video in their marketing strategy.

This report provides a directional snapshot of video media trends and draws on a number of data sources:

Platform data from a sample of Brightcove media customers; and

Consumer engagement reports based on TubeMogul’s online video analytics from this aggregate data set.

Plus:

Platform data from a sample of Brightcove brand marketing and e-commerce customers; and

An anonymous survey of more than 300 senior-level brand managers from leading business-to-business and consumer brands, including dozens of Fortune 500 companies.

Thanks to Brightcove and TubeMogul permission, MasterNewMedia is republishing this report by presenting a whole new set of redesigned charts, which help you understand better and more easily how key video industry trends are playing out, and by curating the presentation of the remaining information for maximum legibility and with good references.

Here Part 1 (Part 2) of the Online Video Industry Media and Trends report:

Brightcove and TubeMogul: Online Video and The Media Industry

by TubeMogul and Brightcove

Key Findings

Newspaper Online Video Growth Surges

In Q2, broadcast networks and pure-play Web media properties remained in the top two positions among media industry verticals for overall video stream growth.

Online video streams from newspaper websites surged in Q2 by more than 65 percent. This can be attributed to the sustained coverage of the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, which started on April 20th and ran through May and June.

Video stream growth slowed among magazine website properties, as well as music label and artist websites in Q2.

More People Watching More Videos

The volume of unique viewers accessing online video grew across all media verticals in Q2 by an average of 2.8 percent per month compared to .05 percent month-over-month growth in Q1.

Viewers watched 11.8 percent more videos per month in Q2 than last quarter.

In Q2, across media verticals, the average viewing time per video stream was 2:00 minutes.

Broadcast networks and magazine websites saw an increase in the average length of viewing time per video in Q2 by 3.1 percent and 2.1 percent respectively.

The online video content of media companies has an average completion rate of 38 percent per video view. Magazine website and pure-play Web media properties had the highest overall completion rates per video view.

Referral Traffic From Facebook and Twitter Growing Faster Than Search Engines

Google continues to generate the highest volume of traffic to online video content followed by Yahoo!, Facebook, Bing and Twitter.

Referral traffic from Facebook and Twitter is growing faster than traditional search engines as a source of video views.

At current rates, Facebook will surpass Yahoo! within the year to be second only to Google in referral traffic to online video content for media companies.

On-Site Viewing Generates Deeper Engagement Than Syndicated Video Players

Broadcast networks have the smallest percentage of video content viewed through embedded players on third-party websites.

Newspapers, on the other hand, have the highest percentage of off-site viewing.

For the majority of media verticals, viewers watching videos via off-site player embeds tend to watch fewer minutes per stream than on-site viewers.

Facebook and Twitter generate the most engaged viewing audiences for online video content from media companies, followed by Bing, Yahoo!, and Google.

Brightcove Online Video Platform Usage

The following analysis is based on aggregated Brightcove platform data from a sample of more than 200 media companies representing media industry verticals, including:

broadcast networks,

magazine publishers,

music labels,

newspaper publishers,

pure-play Web media properties, and

radio broadcasters.

The data set spans 2008 to 2009, as well as the first half of 2010.

Online Video Stream Trend Data

Broadcast remains top media vertical for online video streams.

In Q2, broadcast networks maintained their top position among media verticals for the ninth consecutive quarter with 406 million online video streams.

Video stream totals for broadcasters in Q2 represent a 25 percent increase compared to the same quarter last year.

Pure-play Web media properties in second place, newspapers gaining.

Pure-play Web media properties continue to show strong growth with nearly 300 million video streams in Q2.

While relatively flat over the past five quarters, online video streams surged in the newspaper vertical more than 65 percent to almost 225 million between Q1 and Q2 of this year as a result of the sustained coverage of the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, which started on April 20th and ran through May and June.

Video stream growth slows for magazine publishers and music labels.

After eight consecutive quarters of growth, online video streams for magazine publishers declined by seven percent between Q1 to Q2 of this year.

Despite the decline, Q2’s 174 million video streams represent a 45 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

In the music sector, Q2 brought a sharper decline of almost 40 percent in video stream volume from artist and label sites with 134 million streams. This significant reduction in overall online video stream volume on music label and artist sites could be attributable to the growing popularity of the VEVO.com music video portal.

Music label and artist stream totals are still up by 13 percent compared to the same quarter last year.

Radio broadcasters continue steady growth in online video streams.

Q2 of 2010 marked the tenth consecutive quarter of growth for the radio broadcast sector with 9 million video streams.

Online Video Publishing Trends

A player load represents the graphics, data and other components rendered on a webpage in order to view a video stream and monetize the content.

Player loads are an important measure for the amount of video content included across website properties.

Newspapers and magazines continue to publish more online video than
any other media vertical.

For the third consecutive quarter, newspaper and magazine websites featured a larger number of videos than any other media vertical.

In Q2, newspaper websites generated 2.3 million player loads, up 12 percent from Q1 and nearly 40 percent compared to Q2 of last year.

Magazine websites generated 1.3 billion player loads in Q2, a similar volume of player loads compared to Q1, but up 38 percent compared to Q2 of last year.

Broadcast networks and pure-play Web media properties increased video
publishing activity.

In Q2, broadcast networks generated 685 million player loads, up four percent compared to Q1.

While slightly up in Q2, the player load number represents a decline of almost 60 percent compared to the same quarter last year. The decline seems to be further indication of a trend toward portal and aggregated video player experiences around longer-form content, as compared to the distributed, contextual and short-form nature of video content in the editorial and website strategies represented by newspapers, magazines and other media industry verticals.

Web media properties grew by three percent in Q2 with 788 million player loads, which represents an increase of nearly 40 percent compared to the same period last year.

After four consecutive quarters of growth, radio broadcasters publish
fewer videos.

In Q2, radio broadcast sites generated 90 million video player loads, which represents the first decline after four consecutive quarters of growth.

Despite the decline in Q2, player loads on radio broadcaster websites are up 18 percent compared to the same quarter in 2009.

Online Viewer Behavior

The following section analyzes viewer behavior for a cross-section of media companies (broadcasters, magazines, music labels, newspapers, online media properties and radio).

Engagement

Minutes Watched Per View By Quarter

Overall, the number of unique viewers grew by an average of 2.81 percent per month in Q2, up from 0.05 percent per month in the first quarter.

Not only were more unique viewers watching, but they were watching 11.2 percent more videos per month.

Audience engagement levels across all of the media verticals were fairly consistent between Q1 and Q2, though some verticals saw a decrease in both minutes watched and completion rates.

Between the first quarter and second quarter, average minutes watched held steady across most categories at 2:00 minutes per stream, though growth was achieved by television broadcasters by 3.1 percent to 3:01 minutes and magazines by 2.1 percent to 1:21 minutes.

Radio saw the biggest decline, dropping from 1:32 minutes to 1:13 minutes in Q2.

Completion Rates

Completion rates, which refer to videos that were watched from start to finish, were also steady across most of the media verticals, though broadcasters, newspapers and radio saw a decline from Q1 to Q2.

Newspapers saw the sharpest decrease, dropping from 41 percent in Q1 to 33 percent in Q2.

Discovery

Average Monthly Growth In Referred Video Streams

Overall, 81.9 percent of video streams were discovered via direct traffic or navigation within a publisher’s own site.

From third party referral traffic, 64 percent comes from Google, followed by Yahoo (11.9 percent), Facebook (4.3 percent), Bing (2.6 percent), and Twitter (1.2 percent).

In terms of number of video streams referred per month, Facebook and Twitter are growing much faster than traditional search engines as sources of video views.

At current rates, Facebook will surpass Yahoo! within the year to be second only to Google in referral traffic to online video content for media companies.

Distribution

Percentage of Views: On-Site Vs Embeds

For the first time, this report will include analysis of off-site embeds across media verticals, which varies widely by category.

Broadcasters had the lowest percentage of off-site embeds, which is not surprising given the premium, longform nature of their content.

Newspapers, on the other hand, had the highest percentage of off-site embeds, with 13.6 percent of all video content being embedded on third party sites.

Music videos represent the second highest percentage, followed by radio broadcasters, magazine publishers and pure-play Web media properties.

Minutes Watched Per View: On-Sites Vs. Embeds

Viewers watching videos via off-site embeds tended to watch less minutes per stream than on-site viewers.

Videos were watched for nearly double the amount of time on broadcast sites (3:00 minutes) as they were from off-site embeds (1:59 minutes), but the numbers were less dramatic across the other verticals.

Of note, while pure-play Web media properties had the second lowest percentage of offsite embeds, viewers watched off-site videos nearly 15 seconds longer than onsite video content for this media vertical.

Broadcasters, Music Videos, Online Media, Radio: Minutes Watched Per View

In most of the media verticals, Facebook and Twitter tended to refer more engaged viewers than search engines.

Broadcasters saw the highest engagement levels from Facebook, while Twitter held the top spot in terms of engagement for music videos.

Magazines and Newspapers: Minutes Watched Per View

Google referred the most engaged viewers for the newspaper vertical, while Bing was tops for the magazine and radio industry verticals.

Pure-play Web media was the only vertical where Yahoo! referred more engaged viewers than Twitter, Google and Bing.

Geography

USA: Top Regions By Category

Certain regions have outsized influence in specific categories.

For instance, viewers in the U.S. watched a larger share of videos from pure-play Web media properties.

Music videos and radio content represent the lowest percentages for viewers in the U.S.

Asia, Pacific: Top Regions By Category

65 percent of the total views for radio content came from Asia-Pacific.

Europe: Top Regions By Category

In Europe, music videos represent the largest share of total views, followed closely by broadcast and magazine video content.

Others: Top Regions By Category

USA: Minutes Watched Per View

U.S. viewers watched the greatest amount of content for the longest periods of time across the broadcast, magazine, music video and radio verticals.

Europe: Minutes Watched Per View

Europeans watched more video content on newspaper sites, but were slightly less engaged than the U.S. audience.

Europeans also watched the second highest amount of broadcast video content, but were the least engaged, dropping off after 30 seconds on average.

Asia, Pacific: Minutes Watched Per View

In the Asia-Pacific region, viewers tended to watch more video from pure-play Web media properties than any other category, but were most engaged when it came to radio content.

Others: Minutes Watched Per View

Methodology

Instead, the data analysis is intended to provide a directional snapshot of media trends and inform additional research initiatives focused on the online video industry.

This research report draws on a number of data sources:

Platform data from a sample of Brightcove media customers; and

Consumer engagement reports based on TubeMogul’s online video analytics from this aggregate data set.

In this Q2 research report, Brightcove and TubeMogul have included a special feature focused on brand marketers and on-site video initiatives. This analysis uses:

Platform data from a sample of Brightcove brand marketing and e-commerce customers; and

An anonymous survey of more than 300 senior-level brand managers from leading business-to-business and consumer brands, including dozens of Fortune 500 companies.

End of Part 1

Online Video Trends: The Complete Media Industry Report - Part 2

Originally prepared by TubeMogul and Brightcove, and first published on TubeMogul on September 13th, 2010 as Brightcove & TubeMogul: Online Video & The Media Industry

About TubeMogul

About Brightcove

Photo credits:
Graphs - Elia Lombardi
Newspaper Online Video Growth Surges -Vacuum3d
More People Watching More Videos - Rainer Junker
Online Video Stream Trend Data - SSilver
Brightcove Online Video Platform Usage - Kirsty Pargeter
Online Video Publishing Trends - Weim
Online Viewer Behavior - Dusan Jankovic
Methodology - Dmitriy Shironosov

The Video Encoding Guide: Codecs, Formats, Containers And Settings Explained

Robin Good, Daniele Bazzano and Elia Lombardi — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 06:14:00 PDT

Video encoding is the science of codifying the bits of data that make up a digital video recording into a unified whole according to a set of specific standards and parameters. If it sounds techy, it should. In simpler words, video encoding is the process of taking your original movie, as recorded by your camcorder, mobile phone or webcam, and preparing it for delivery in a digital format according to specific technical standards. This MasterNewMedia guide brings you everything you need to know about the key differences between major video file formats / containers and codecs.

Photo credit: Canon

From .WMV to .MOV and from .AVI to .FLV, this guide presents the best information available online on what you need to know about the use and characteristics of the major video file formats, containers and relative codecs.

When you video encode a clip, you are saving your video into a specific "format" much like you can do with a Word document or a digital image. A Word document can be encoded in .RTF or in .TXT, just like an image can be encoded in .JPG or .BMP formats.

Obviously, different types of encodings are good for different applications and devices.

Broadcasting, live streaming, burning to DVD and archiving all require different video encoding parameters while your computer browser, an iPhone and your gaming console have all different expectations when it comes to playing back video files. And this is why knowing a bit about video encoding, video file formats and containers is quite important if you intend to publish and distribute digital video.

In the video universe it is easy to get lost, as the formats, codecs and file containers generate a universe of possibilities and variables that are initially not easy to understand.

If you want to upload and publish a video on YouTube, for instance, you would have to choose specific encoding settings and file formats, whereas your choice would be different if your video clips are to burned on a DVD.

As an online publisher you may already be familiar with some of these issues, but as new technologies like HTML5 and WebM are starting to make inroads, you are going to need to better understand the key differences and the pros and cons that such different formats entail for you.

To help you achieve this goal, the MasterNewMedia research team has prepared a comprehensive guide to bring together all of the "fundamentals" you need to master to fully understand the basics of video encoding, specifically:

What is video encoding

Video file formats and containers

Comparison of video codecs

Encoding settings for Internet video publishing

Video publishing settings for YouTube

Here is the MasterNewMedia Video Encoding Guide in detail:

1. What Is Video Encoding?

Introduction To Web Video Encoding

How do you encode a video for the web? Which are the best video codecs available to publish your video clips online? What is a video container? Inside this book you can find a comprehensive overview of the world of video encoding.

by Mark Pilgrim - Dive Into HTML5

How To Compress Video For The Web

If you have a huge video file and you want to compress it, there are several options and settings you must evaluate first. Which video compression settings is best for your specific need? In this article you can find the best recommendations to compress your videos.

by LongTail Video Editors - LongTail Video

Internet Video File Formats and Containers

What are the options at stake when publishing videos on the web? Is it best to use a standard file format or go for a video container? Learn to know and understand what video option is right for you and why in this in-depth article from ReelSEO.

by ReelSEO Editors - ReelSEO

Video Encoding: How To Do It Right

The best file format for encoding your videos depends very much on your video source. This article highlights the importance of understanding and analyzing the source file you have and use the proper settings to have smooth playback and better video performance when encoding.

by Digital FAQ Editors - Digital FAQ

Video Encoding From A To Z

What are the most lossy video codecs and audio codecs? Do you want to insert captions inside your video? Here is a set of selected resources to help you with video encoding.

by Mark Pilgrim - Dive Into HTML5

2. What Video Codecs To Use?

Video Codecs Comparison

A comprehensive comparison table on Wikipedia that highlights the differences between each video file format. Check license rights, compression formats, compression methods and benefits of all options you have when it comes to choose the best video codec for you.

by Wikipedia Editors - Wikipedia

Video Codecs: What To Look For

An efficient way to compare video codecs is to balance quality and file size. Depending on your needs, you might go for a bigger file that provides crystal-clear quality or a low-resolution but snappier file that ensures smoother playback. See for yourself how to make this choice.

by 100fps Editors - 100fps

H.264 Versus MPEG-4

What are the pros and cons of using the H.264 encoding video format against MPEG-4? In this in-depth ReelSEO article you will find all about the comparison between H.264 and the MPEG-4 so that you consciously choose the best alternative for your clips.

by Mark R. Robertson - ReelSEO

Google's New WebM Video Format

WebM is a new open-source video format developed by Google that promises to revolutionize the world of Internet video. In this article you will learn how WebM is different from other video encoding solutions and when WebM could be a valuable alternative to use instead of other established video file formats.

by ReelSEO Editors - ReelSEO

Best Selected Resources On Video Encoding

K-Lite Codec Pack

The K-Lite Codec Pack is a free collection of video codecs and tools that you can download on your computer to play all popular movie formats and even less-known video file formats that your standard video player refuses to start playing.

by Codec Guide

The WebM Project

What do you need to watch WebM videos on your computer? How do you publish WebM video content on the Internet? How do you integrate the WebM technology into your video encoding application? Find all the answers to these questions on the official website of the WebM Project.

by WebM Project

3. What Video Container To Use?

Video Container Formats: A Comparison

A comparison chart on Wikipedia of all the most popular video containers formats that highlights all their most important features like subtitle management, metadata, menu support on DVD discs, and more.

by Wikipedia Editors - Wikipedia

Video Encoders Compared

There are lots of software to encode videos, but which one is best? In this chart you can find a thorough comparison of three very popular video encoding software tools: Compressor, Handbrake and Avidemux2.

by Wikipedia Editors - Wikipedia

Best Video Codecs For RAW Video Data

RAW data are data which has not been subjected to processing or manipulation, like for example the footage you record using your camcorder. In this article you will find an overview of the best codecs to manage this type of data: MJPEG, DV and Huffyuv.

by ErMaC and AbsoluteDestiny - AnimeMusicVideos

Video Container Formats and Codecs

If you are new to video encoding methods and definitions, in this article you will find a non-technical explanation of what is a video encoding format, when to use video containers against standard video file formats and what is video compression.

by Mark R. Robertson - ReelSEO

iPhone and iPod Compatible Video Formats

Do you want your videos to play on the iPhone, iPod or iPad? In this article from iLounge you will be presented with the best video formats and settings for making high-quality videos that are fully compatible on Apple devices.

by Jesse David Hollington - iLounge

4. Best Video Encoding Settings When Publishing On The Web

Encoding Video For The Web - ReelSEO Webinar

Encoding Video for the Web - Duration: 85'

In this ReelSEO webinar and embedded presentation you will learn what are the best strategies to create high-quality videos using the H.264 codec which ensures optimal smoothness and performance when you publish your video on the Internet.

by Mark R. Robertson - ReelSEO

Encode For YouTube

How To Encode and Upload HD Videos

Do you want to upload your videos on YouTube with a top-notch quality? This article will help you understand the best encoding solutions to create an engaging experience for your users using HD videos.

by Cinetech - Squidoo

How To Optimize Your Video Uploads

Learn in this article what are the best audio and video specifications to encode gorgeous-looking HD widescreen videos for YouTube. Stand out from other video publishers like you by refining your video uploading and video encoding skills.

by YouTube Help Editors - YouTube Help

How To Make YouTube Videos Look Professional

This article shares the proper steps to take for optimizing your videos for YouTube and how to avoid the most common mistakes that video publishers make when putting their video clips on the web.

by Cinetech - Squidoo

5. Video Encoding Tools

Video Conversion and Encoding Tools and Services: A Mini-Guide

In this MasterNewMedia guide you can find a comprehensive overview of the best free, commercial and professional video conversion and encoding tools available on the market.

by Michael Pick - MasterNewMedia

Free Video Rippers, Encoders and Converters

If you want to produce gorgeous videos for the web but also stay within a budget, the founding editor of LifeHacker, Gina Trapani, prepared a showcase of the best free software tools to rip, encode and convert your video clips.

by Gina Trapani - Lifehacker

VP8 Encoding Tools For WebM

If you want to experiment and get your hands dirty with Google's new WebM encoding technology, what you will find in this article is a list of the best free and commercial VP8 WebM encoding tools available on the web.

by Christophor Rick - ReelSEO

HTML5 Video Encoding Tools

If you want to learn how to encode your videos to those formats that work with the new HTML5 video tag, inside this article you will find the best tools and services to work with Ogg Theora and H.264 MP4 video codecs.

by Christophor Rick - ReelSEO

Originally prepared by Robin Good, Daniele Bazzano and Elia Lombardi for MasterNewMedia, and first published on August 16th, 2010 as "The Video Encoding Guide: Codecs, Formats, Containers And Settings Explained".

Photo credits:
How To Compress Video For The Web - superdumb
Internet Video File Formats and Containers - CEPro
Video Encoding: How To Do It Right - Squidoo
Video Encoding From A To Z - SSilver
Video Codecs Comparison - Phil Date
H.264 Versus MPEG-4 - Vinicius Tupinanda
Video Encoders Compared - ReelSEO
Best Video Codecs For RAW Video Data - Andrea Danti
Video Container Formats and Codecs - ReelSEO
How To Optimize Your Video Uploads - BoomTaaK Tallaght Youth Band
Video Conversion and Encoding Tools and Services: A Mini-Guide - Kiyoshi Takahase Segundo
Free Video Rippers, Encoders and Converters - pmtavares
HTML5 Video Encoding Tools - WiseCodes

The Online Video Encoding Formats War: Apple Vs Flash Vs H264 - Infographic

Enrique Serrano — Thu, 27 May 2010 03:30:00 PDT

If you haven’t heard the news lately, a new technology war has seen the light, and this time the two main fighters are Apple and Adobe, owner of the almost ubiquitous Flash playback video technology used across the web to play video clips. The key argument is that Apple does not want to support Flash to play video on its devices. Neither now nor ever in the future. Given that smartphones and iPhones make up a growing number of the devices playing back video clips from the Internet and that 50% of mobile traffic in the U.S. comes from iPhones, this refusal to support Flash as the default video-playback technology is definitely no good news for Adobe. In this MasterNewMedia report Enrique Serrano focuses on explaining the technological issues and its implications as well as how this new technology war going to impact your personal online video landscape.

Photo credit: Warezgen

Adobe Flash has been for a very long time the only player in the web-based video playback market. Videos, but also widgets, slideshows and many different types of web applications resort to Flash technology to provide reliability, performance and, why not, stunning graphic effects.

It is worth mentioning that Flash is a proprietary format of Adobe Inc., which means that all the companies wanting to make their products Flash-compatible, need to pay royalties to Adobe as well as having no control over its development, future pricing, and so on.

Flash equal to monopoly.

This was pretty much the scenario until Apple introduced the first iPhone in 2007. In fact, with a surprising move, Apple said that its brand new mobile devices, the iPhone and the iPod Touch, would have no support for the Flash technology.

The reasons of this choice? Flash was considered to be too resource-intensive and believed to slow down the mobile browsing experience, which Apple intended not to compromise about.

Notwithstanding strong pressures from consumers - who have always considered the lack of Flash as one of the biggest drawbacks of Apple’s touch devices - Apple has kept position so far.

Moreover, the introduction of new high-performing web and video standards like H264 and HTML5, strengthened even more the decision of Apple of replacing Flash in favor of open video standards, which users are increasingly embracing.

How this is going to turn out no-one knows, but the blog post from a Platform evangelist at Adobe where he disses Apple and the prompt reply from Steve Jobs himself have shown that the issue is far from being resolved.

What's best for you to do next. Follow the open standards is MasterNewMedia advice while understanding in full what is happening right now and why these two companies are so fiercely fighting.

Immerse yourself in this deluge of visual information created by Enrique Serrano and dissecting in detail the technology war in the video encoding and playback market where Flash, H264, HTML5 and others are fighting to become your future video reference standard.

Here is the in-depth report:

Apple, Flash and H264 - Infographics

by Enrique Serrano

Apple Vs. Adobe: When The War Began

On 12th April 2010 Adobe released the last version of their Flash development suite, CS5, with the capability to export code for iPhone apps.

But four days before this Flash CS5 release, Apple changed its terms of license preventing the Flash-to-iPhone compiler to create iPhone apps.

Additionally, the iPhone and the iPad could never display Flash content.

And according to the latest news from Apple, they will never have Flash support.

So, why doesn't Apple want Flash in their iPhones? And why this is important to understand the market of Internet video and mobile apps?

How Smartphones Have Revolutionized Mobile Browsing

When cell phones and other mobile devices hit the market, they changed our way of communication.

Near the end of the 90's, the first versions of the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) were established.

The improvement in both mobile networks and devices allowed mobile access from everywhere to web pages.

But pages served under WAP weren't standard, full working web pages, as they were usually limited to a short list of links and flat text in a monochrome screen. Nowadays, the recent development of smartphones has changed again our way of mobile browsing.

This new generation of intelligent phones has some distinctive characteristics:

They provide an enhanced browsing experience. Their improved screens and mobile browsers allow to read standard web pages in full color at a reasonable size.

They can run software applications (often called just apps). Their better processors, mobile operating systems, development frameworks, and user interfaces led to a growing catalog of multipurpose apps.

The improvement of mobile networks, together with more affordable flat internet fees offered by mobile telecommunication companies are helping to increase web browsing traffic from these mobile devices.

Why The iPhone Has Disrupted The Mobile Market

Since the release of the first iPhone in 2007, this smartphone became quite popular in the market. In these 3 years more than 40 million of iPhones have been sold.

Apart from a strong marketing campaign, the success of the iPhone is probably due to its innovative tactile screen interface, its wide repertoire of applications and its good web browsing capabilities.

Apple App Store is a growing place where developers publish their apps and where users purchase and download them to their iPhones and iPads. These apps range from music and entertainment to news and business apps and gadgets to increase productivity.

The number of download from the App Store is increasingly growing at a extremely fast pace.

People have downloaded more than 4 billion apps so far since it went online, and the average amount of downloads per day is around 10 million apps. That's around 116 downloads per second.

Without Flash support in their iPhones, people cannot access free online Flash games, so the only choice of iPhone and iPad users is to purchase games and entertainment products in the Apple Store.

Probably the fact that most clearly proves the success and importance of iPhones in Internet browsing is that a 50% of Internet traffic coming from smartphones in the United States is actually coming from iPhones.

Reading traditional web pages in the screen of the iPhone is possible and easy.

Any existing webpage would be quite appropriately rendered in the browser of the iPhone, which behaves nearly like a standard Safari browser.

But it still has an important limitation: The iPhone browser does not have Flash support.

What The iPhone Misses Without Flash

Not having Flash support is a drawback stronger that it might seem at first sight.

Even when Flash it is also used for websites, games and RIAs, its main usage is as an Internet video player.

All Internet video is encoded an decoded following a video encoding standard.

The software applications that perform these video encoding and decoding functions are called codecs.

As most current video standards aren't free, it is necessary to pay royalties to implement a codec.

There's no standard codec for natively playing Internet video in all browsers. This is an objective for the HTML5 standard, but no complete agreement has been reached so far.

Because of this, 75% of Internet video still requires Flash Player to be watched. Adobe Flash Player, installed in web browsers as a third party plug-in, allows the playback of Internet video using several different codecs.

While Adobe currently controls playback of most video online, Apple will probably control a significant part of the mobile web browsing market, as well as a strong market for their mobile phones. That's why both, Adobe and Apple, are so important in shaping the future of the web.

May The H264 Standard Substitute Flash?

While Flash is still the video playback engine of reference, according to the last data, the most actual trends about video encoding aren't using Flash proprietary codecs, but the standard H264 (H264/AVC/MPEG-4 Part 10). This is the same standard used to encode Blu-ray discs.

So Apple states that Flash is no longer necessary, because the latest trend in encoding is H264, which offers superior quality and compression ratios compared to older video codecs.

And iPhones and iPads natively support H264 video through their web browsers, making them capable of playing online video with no need of third party plugins.

Because of its performance and current popularity, H264 has been proposed to be part of the HTML5 standard. If accepted, HTML5 enabled browsers would be able to natively play video without needing third party plugins.

Embedding video in a website would be as easy as using a new "video" tag in HTML.

But it is important to take into account two important details:

H264 is a patented standard (in the countries were patenting software is possible).

The group called MPEG LA holds the patent. And companies such Apple and Microsoft belong to that group.

Flash also supports H264 since 2007. So the success of H264 doesn't imply the demise of Flash.

Flash could still be used to play H264 and other videos, apart from its usages as a software to develop apps, games and websites.

While videos free to end-users don't need to pay H264 royalties (at least, till the end of 2015), developers of HTML5 compatible browsers supporting web video would need to pay royalties for using H264.

According to Mozilla, the developers of the Firefox browser, the estimated costs of having H264 support in Firefox would cost them around $5 millions a year.

Any other developer creating encoding or playing apps would still need to pay royalties to Apple and the other companies holding the patent. And from 2015 on, these terms could change again.

H264 isn't the only possible video codec that could be accepted for the HTML5 standard.

Another Alternative To Flash: Ogg Theora

Ogg Theora is one of the alternatives, with the advantage of being a free, open source video codec.

While the performance of H264 seems to be slightly better, the results of using Ogg Theora are quite similar, while its patent free open standard really makes a difference with H264.

Firefox and Opera natively support only Ogg Theora encoded videos.

On the other hand, Apple Safari and Microsoft Internet Explorer (9) natively support only videos encoded in H264.

Both, Microsoft and Apple, belong to the group handling the patent of H264.

Finally, Google Chrome has native support for both, Theora and H264.

There are other third party plugins that allow playback of other video formats in the previous browsers - as the Flash Player is.

As a side note, while Flash Player remains being an additional plugin, Google has announced that it will be bundled with Google Chrome for better integration, reliability and performance, with automated updates.

So far, an experiment run by Vimeo with the videos in their own site measured that:

The quality of Theora is quite similar to H264: Even when H264 seems slightly better, there is no significant difference.

Most users with web browsers currently capable of watching HTML5 videos have support for Theora - not for H264.

Reasons Why Apple Won't Support Flash

Adobe has been a provider of Apple, and most software from Adobe works in Apple computers.

In fact, a strong part of Adobe's market is composed of Mac users.

Nevertheless, iPhones and iPads have never supported Flash.

And now the official communicates from Apple state that they will never do.

In an official article called "Thoughts on Flash", Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, explained some reasons why they didn't want to include Flash in their products.

His main reasons were as follows:

Flash is 100% proprietary.

While Apple still has many proprietary products, it prefers open source standards for the web related part of their products.

Even when some products of Apple cannot access the "full web" as they don't support Flash, these products are getting still most videos on the web. And while they cannot access Flash games, they have plenty of entertainment products available for purchase in their app store.

Apple aims for a higher level of reliability, security and performance.

According to Apple, Flash has a bad security record, is one of the main causes of Mac computers crashing and there is no mobile device performing well with Flash. On top of that, Flash would drain mobile batteries quickly.

Flash doesn't support touch devices like iPhone and iPad as it was designed to work with PC's and mice.

And the most important reason: If Flash is adapted to export cross browser apps, it would add a third-party layer between the platform and developers, probably hindering progress.

(Wrong) Reasons Why Apple Won't Support Flash

Nevertheless, some of these reasons are rather inaccurate, as the community of Flash developers has promptly explained:

Not only Flash is not 100% proprietary, as many of its components are open source (its runtime Tamarin, most of the SWF format, the ECMA Script standard in which ActionScript is based).

And it is possible to fully code Flash apps using open source components.

Flash holds 75% of Internet video, which still is a lot of video, and Flash is actually compatible with H264.

In a PR effort, Apple needed to remove the blue lego block used as an error message every time they stumbled with a non supported Flash video or app because it was becoming way too common.

The performance of Flash depends greatly on the underlying architecture.

Although the iPhone isn't optimized for Flash, that is something possible to do, taking direct advantage of underlying hardware acceleration features. Nevertheless, this performance still needs to be confirmed for devices supporting Flash (probably, Android devices).

Flash can code touch apps: There's a gesture API used for this purpose, and actually, there are more than one hundred of iPhone apps successfully coded using such API.

So it is possible to code apps in Flash and then export them to iPhone with a compiler.

Probably the quality of the resulting apps would speak for itself, giving the developers an additional option about how to develop iPhone apps.

But while exporting Flash apps to iPhone is now technically possible (thanks to Flash CS5), the new Apple license in their SDK forbids this usage. And because of this, Apple is possibly facing an antitrust suit for changing those legal terms in an unfair way to block competition.

Flash is currently present in most Internet enabled desktops.

While the high iPhone sales trend seems to be kept during the next years, there will be a new group of smartphones expected to see the light during later 2010, including Android based devices.

According to the market estimations of Adobe, half of mobile phones will be Flash enabled for 2012, mainly splitting the market between Apple devices and Flash enabled devices.

The Flash Gambit: Is Apple Right?

According to the successful download stats from Apple App Store, it is clear that an iPhone is for more than just calling or browsing.

But it is also true that Flash is for more than video playback.

Flash could be used to develop iPhone apps.

And Apple could face an antitrust suit for changing its license terms preventing the usage of Flash generated apps.

The scope of Flash goes beyond just iPhones and Apple products.

Flash would run in both, PCs and Macs, and its compiler should be able to create cross-platform apps.

Flash IDEs are proprietary and non-free.

Nevertheless, the Flex framework is free and open source, and it can be used with other open source tools (such as Flash Develop) to create Flash apps.

Users cannot upload their apps into the iPhone without a developer license from Apple used to sign these apps. While this is an additional security measure, the cost of this license supposes an additional amount of 99 USD for developers.

Any other tweaking of the iPhone is not possible without canceling the warranty (through a process often referred to as jailbreaking).

While Cocoa, the development environment for iPhone apps by Apple, is distributed for free, it is under a proprietary license and it only runs on Mac.

So developers willing to code apps using Cocoa will still need a Mac, an iPhone and a developer license to deploy their apps.

The hardware manufactured by Apple only represents around a minoritary 5% of the market, and average Mac equipments are around 1000 USD more expensive than their average PC counterparts.

So even using a free development environment, the average cost to develop Apple apps is higher than the equivalent cost to develop cross-platform apps using Adobe products.

Flash Player cannot be fully open source, as it contains other proprietary components whose license is paid by Adobe (amongst them, the H264 codec by Apple).

There are other truly open source Flash Player alternatives (like gnash), although they have some limited support of the features from Flash Player 8 through 10.

Tamarin is the ActionScript 3 runtime engine, given by Adobe to Mozilla, and being the second biggest software donation received by this project. This runtime is a major part of the Flash Player, and would enable developing a high-performance open source implementation of ActionScript 3 including open source compilers and interpreters.

Theora is completely open source, so it will remain open, and now it is distributed as a free alternative for video encoding and playback. Although some rumors started by Apple pointed it as infringing the copyright laws, no lawsuit was filed against the company yet.

H264 is under a software patent held by MPEG LA.

While video that is free for end users is exempt of royalties, these license terms might change at the end of 2015. Any other charges remain in place.

And both web browsers that only support H264 (Safari and Internet Explorer) are owned by companies belonging to this MPEG LA group holding the H264 patent (Apple and Microsoft respectively).

Conclusion

By banning Flash from the iPhone, Apple can:

Fully control the development environment of their iPhone apps. That's a way to foster the usage of their own IDEs as well as their required proprietary hardware infrastructure.

Remove the competition from online Flash games.

With no Flash Player support in their devices, iPhone and iPad users have no other choice that buying entertainment products from Apple App Store.

Impose their H264 video standard as a "de facto" video standard.

If H264 makes its way to the HTML5 standard, the companies holding the patent (including Apple) would be gaining more royalties from the makers of encoding and playing apps.

HTML5 has not chosen a video standard so far.

It is reasonable to think that a fully open standard is preferred (as Theora is), so web browser developers, video encoders (and eventually, end users) won't need to pay related royalties.

The iPhone is a device successfully sold, and the current trend of their iPad seems similar (around 1 million sold in the first month).

The market for iPhone and iPad apps is strongly growing as well.

On the other hand, Flash Player is still important for web video, with a strong presence in Internet enabled devices.

Flash is more than a video player, as it can also create other online and cross-platform apps. In the future, this will lead to split the market between Flash enabled mobile devices and Apple devices.

Infographics and content originally prepared by "Enrique Serrano for Treble Click, and first published on May 5th, 2010 as Apple, Flash and H264 - Infographics. Republished with full permission from the author on MasterNewMedia - May 27th, 2010.

About Enrique Serrano

Enrique Serrano is a freelance programmer and designer. He was IT department director at Hibrida communication studio. During 2005 he developed web portals and management systems for Germinus XXI consulting. Enrique also worked as a researcher and programmer at UPM during 2004. He graduated at the University of Madrid in telecommunication engineering and holds four master courses on design.

Photo credits:
All images by Enrique Serrano

White-Label Video Publishing: Guide To The Best Private Label Video Services

Robin Good — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 01:30:00 PDT

Private label video publishing services allow professional web publishers to move beyond zero-cost video sharing sites like YouTube and onto video distribution services which guarantee faster transcoding, HD video quality, the option to schedule both VOD and scheduled programming, CDN-based distribution, ad management and integration as well as white-labeling and personalization of your video player.

Photo credit: Liubomyr Feshchyn and Christophe Testi mashed up by Robin Good - edited by Francesco Caruccio

If you are looking for solutions that would allow you to set up a professional web TV channel of some kind, one for which you have a budget to spend and hope to sell advertising and sponsorship for, you have no choice but look for a private label video publishing and distribution service.

The traditional free video sharing sites like YouTube, are great for uploading and distributing at zero cost your favorite video clips. Much less exciting is the moment when you want to start controlling the ads that are displayed on your video clips, or you want to set up a day-by-day video programming schedule while monitoring and analyzing traffic, views and clickthroughs.

This is why to move from amateur video sharing to professional video publishing you really need to consider seriously whether you have a budget to support the costs that such pro video distribution services require. The video services I review here have all some kind of monthly or yearly fee that is clearly not within the reach of the typical blogger or independent video-maker.

On the other hand what's the use of publishing tens of video clips and having hundreds of thousands of video views on YouTube if this provides very little return in terms of visibility and revenue for your business or web site?

The times are ripe for serious and economically capable video publishers to step up significantly above the generic, amateur Internet video publisher, and to strengthen their online video presence by providing extra quality, reliability, speed and monetization options which are so critical to their own future survival.

In this MasterNewMedia guide I have selected, reviewed and compared for you the best white-label video publishing and distribution platforms available out there, while paying particular attention to their key traits, strengths and weaknesses.

This is an area that will see fast growth and many new entrants in the near future due to the increasing demand for quality video channels and the need for many video sharing sites to start earning back their rapidly escalating bandwidth and storage costs.

If you are into video publishing or are considering the move from amateur to professional video publishing, this guide can help you get a comprehensive view of this new market and of the traits and features that characterize the first group of providers competing to get your attention.

Professional White-label Video Publishing Platforms Comparison Table

Professional White-label Video Publishing Platforms

Brightcove

Brightcove is an on-demand video platform to distribute and monetize your online video inventory. The web-based Brightcove Studio lets you create branded videos with your logo and monetize your clips trough advertising campaigns. Brightcove players are fully customizable to match the layout of your web pages and also maintain optimal quality whatever device or internet connection video you choose. Videos can be re-distributed and embedded across any website, even using widgets. Videos streamed are encoded with H.264 and VP6 codecs and range from low-quality till HD. You can also program video broadcasting using playlist creation facilities. You keep total control over the ads you show with your videos by choosing ad units, insertion points, frequency, relevance. You can also integrate your ad servers and ad networks to serve ads with your videos. Custom reports are generated by Brightcove to help you track the performance of your clips. To get a price quote (on an annual contract basis) you have to contact Brightcove sales.
http://www.brightcove.com/
Livestream

Livestream is an online video platform that broadcasts live and on-demand videos. The premium account is priced at $350 and allows you to have a white-label channel to deliver videos with your own brand logo or watermark. Using a web-based interface, you can fully customize the size and look of your video player and also configure the redistribution of your videos; allow only specific audiences to view your clips or even disable sharing if you prefer. A list of ready-made templates for your channel is available and the integrated user chat allows broadcasters and their audience to communicate in real-time. Videos are encoded with Sorensen Spark (Flash 7) specifications and HD is supported. You can create a video playlist with the Autopilot feature to broadcast your videos 24/7 automatically. For optimal video encoding Livestream recommends around 700Kbps of upstream bandwidth. Livestream also provides an analytics tool that tracks and reports the performance of your videos. Advertising is supported and your ads are integrated inside channels using overlays that can be either served by you or by integrating ad servers and ad networks into your video production workflow.
http://livestream.com/
Watershed

Watershed is the white-label version of Ustream interactive broadcasting platform. Watershed allows you to publish and distribute ad-free, branded videos to your audience both on web pages or mobile phones. Live streaming broadcasting is also supported. The video player is fully customizable and your videos can be password-protected or limited in number of views from your web-based Administrator control panel. HD videos are supported. You can also interact live with your audience via text chat, real-time polls or co-hosted broadcast feeds. Watershed does not support self-served or third-party-served ads on your videos. Reports are generated to take care of the performance of your clips. No video programming. Two pricing options are available: monthly-based plans starting from $49 and a pay-as-you-go pricing model that charges for monthly or hourly views by a single user. No encoding info provided.
http://watershed.ustream.tv/
Glomera

Glomera is a web TV platform that helps you broadcast live and on-demand videos with your own logo. You can pull video from YouTube to broadcast inside your channel or create niche-targeted compilations to redistribute on third-party websites. With Glomera "Total embed" option, you can also embed the whole Glomera platform on any website and start offering a professional video platform at no cost. Video channels are fully customizable to match the look of any web page. The scheduling feature lets you organize your web TV programs in a daily, weekly, or season-long programming. HD videos are supported and videos are encoded using FLV specifications. Web TV channels you build with Glomera Premium account are ads-free and you cannot serve third-party ads. The reporting feature allows you track the performance of your clips. Glomera Premium account is priced at €199/month. You can also purchase additional interactivity options for your channels like: rating, comments, on-demand video list, guide-programming, and more.
http://www.glomera.com/
Ooyala

Ooyala has developed Backlot, a scalable video platform with content syndication controls and monetization features. Video quality is preserved to match your syndication relationships (web pages, video-sharing sites, mobile devices, or other). Backlot video player supports overlays with our logo / watermarks and is fully customizable. You can arrange your clips in playlists and program the broadcast with no operation needed from your side. Videos are encoded in H.264 format and HD video is supported. A video metrics report is generated to help you monitor the performances of your videos. Backlot manages also ad insertion points, frequency and the different ad units like pre-roll, post-roll, mid-roll and interactive which are served with your clips. Third party ad servers and ad networks are also supported. Prices depend on the campaign; more info contacting Ooyala sales department.
http://www.ooyala.com/
Vmix

Vmix provides web-based video and image publishing solutions to distribute and monetize your content. You can brand your clips, serve ads with your videos and also track the performance of your channels. Videos are encoded in H.264 / FLV and distributed at optimal resolution to websites, mobile phones and portable devices using customizable players, widgets and applications. Vmix has support for HD videos too. A list of ready-made templates is available. Your audience can also interact with your videos using ratings, sharing, or video / text commenting tools. Scheduled playlists are automatically created to operate your video channel without human input. You can customize ad-serving procedures on your videos using different ad units (pre-roll, post-roll, overlays and also animated ad units), insertion points and frequency. You can bring your own ad server / ad network to serve ads inside your video clips. Pricing is subjected to distribution campaign you choose; more info on Vmix corporate website.
http://vmix.com
PermissionTV

PermissionTV offers a web-based solution to manage and monetize your online video inventory. You can choose between different player solutions that are freely customizable and redistributable on any web page. Viewers can interact with your video content by clicking on graphics, surveys or advertisement overlays and pop-ups. You can also create video playlists and deploy niche-targeted channels to your audience. Ad networks integrate with your videos to serve contextual ads using pre-roll, post-roll and mid-roll ad units. No info is provided about the encoding codec used for your videos, but HD is supported. No programming feature available. Pricing details available upon request to PermissionTV sales department.
http://www.permissiontv.com/
Twistage

Hosted video platform Twistage allows you to create customizable video players with your own logo to embed on any website. Twistage integrates with your existing content management system (e.g. a blogging platform) or content delivery network. Videos are delivered to match the internet connection requirements of viewers; the video platform promises "uninterrupted delivery regardless of your site's traffic demands". Videos are encoded using H.264 specifications and HD is supported. Video player is fully customizable to match the look of any web page. You can create a video playlist to broadcast your videos in sequence. Ads on your videos are served using different ad units: pre-roll, post-roll, mid-roll, overlay and in-page banner advertising. You can also bring your ad server or ad network to provide your ads. Analytics reporting allows you to track the earnings and spread of your videos on the web, but also which portions of your videos are the most viewed. No programming features. A free trial is available. Contact Twistage sales department for pricing options.
http://www.twistage.com/
Castfire

Castfire allows white-label video publishing so you can distribute and monetize your own videos using your logo / watermark. You can take control of the video production workflow and customize your player, ad serving procedures, viral redistribution, and much more through a web-based interface. A single video upload automatically generates multiple video formats to match your distribution needs and maintain good quality either on mobile phones, iPods, media box sets, HD-compatible TVs and more. Videos are encoded complying with H.264 specifications. Castfire has partnered with the automated video distribution service TubeMogul and allows you to distribute your clips on multiple video-sharing sites and also track precisely the performance of your video. You can also schedule and broadcast your videos without any user input. Ads can be served by third-party ad networks or ad servers using pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll units. Prices depend on the distribution campaign you choose; contact a Castfire representative for more details.
http://www.castfire.com/
Delve Networks

Delve Networks provides a online video solution to manage, publish, measure, and monetize your video content. With a web-based management tool you can create an embeddable player that matches the look of your website and is freely redistributable over any web page. The player also auto-adjusts the video quality for best results with every internet connection. The codec used to encode videos is H.264 and HD is supported. You can offer your users the ability to search inside your videos for topics of interests; a heatmap shows the portion of video that corresponds to a specific topic. Delve Networks also provides analytics features to track the performance of your clips, but you can also use Google Analytics to monitor your video content. No video programming though you can broadcast video playlists. Advertising capabilities include the integration with ad servers and ad networks. Ad units options you can choose to serve your videos are pre-roll, post-roll and "random". You can also set the frequency your ads are served and specify the ad insertion points. A 30-days trial is available yo test the service. For pricing options, you have to contact the sales department at Delve Networks.
http://www.delvenetworks.com/
VideoBloom

The Premium plan of VideoBloom ($299) allows you to deliver and monetize online videos with your brand logo using a dedicated player. The player is fully customizable and you can also redistribute and embed your videos on any website or social media page. Videos are encoded using MPEG4 specifications, also in HD format. VideoBloom claims that your videos are deployed to match the different internet connection speeds of your viewers while maintaining optimal video quality. Video playlists are available to broadcast niche-targeted compilations. No video programming. You can use different ad units to monetize your videos: pre-roll-post-roll, overlays, skin ads (for your video player) and companion ads. The analytics tool measures the popularity of your video on the web as well as your earnings through a web-based dashboard.
http://www.videobloom.com/
MonetizeMedia

A live streaming and on-demand video publishing platform, Monetize Media allows you to distribute and monetize your video assets. Through a web-based interface you can arrange your video, organize playlists and insert advertising inside your clips. You cannot schedule playlist broadcasting for the time being, but you can pull videos from most popular video sharing sites to add to your custom channels. HD videos are supported. You have a list of ready-made video players at your disposal that you can also customize and scale to match perfectly any web page or mobile device. All video players offer chat, ratings, comments, social network sharing, social media tags, and RSS functionalities. Video players also detect the connection of your viewers to auto-adjust video resolution. You can set your videos for public or private access. Monetize Media supports online ad units such as banner, in-stream, overlay and pre-roll ads. Ad network integration is allowed to serve third-party ads. You can deploy your video on a pay-per-view basis and receive payments using your PayPal account. Performance reports are available to track the popularity and monetization goals of your videos. No encoding info is provided. Gold plan is priced at $1199/month plus a one-time setup charge of $500. A free trial is available to test the service.
http://www.monetizemedia.com/
BitGravity

BitGravity is a content delivery network that provides delivery of on-demand video and live streaming broadcasts. The service takes care of distributing your videos but is not aimed to monetize your video assets with advertising campaigns. Codec used for videos is H.264 and HD is supported. There is no custom video player provided, but customers are free to modify the API of the Flash player to match their production needs. No video programming or analytics features. For further info you have to contact a BitGravity representative.
http://www.bitgravity.com/
GizmoUTube.TV ***DEAD

GizmoUTube.TV is a white-label video platform that allows you to broadcast either on-demand and live streaming shows. GizmoUTube.TV provides a customizable video player which supports HD, interactive video search and redistribution on third-party websites. Videos are encoded in Flash H.264 and VP6 formats. Ad integration is not supported for the time being. For $1999/year you get a .TV domain name and 1GB of storage space per month. Expenses for bandwidth traffic are managed by Bits On The Run and payed separately. No programming available. More info on corporate website.
http://www.gizmovideo.com/gizmoutube.tv/
The FeedRoom

The FeedRoom is an online video platform that helps you create and distribute niche-targeted video channels out of your online video inventory. Different customizable video players are available to help you find the correct matching with the look of your website. Players are also scalable, redistributable and allow user interaction with rating and commenting features. HD videos are supported. Reporting functions tell you who is tuning in, what and how much they are watching, and an understanding of which sources are driving traffic to your site. With The FeedRoom you can also monetize your video assets by offering online subscription, pay-per-view programming or by integrating advertising features. The platform has support for all popular ad formats, including in-stream pre-rolls, post-rolls and banners, as well as contextual targeting ads. You can also rely on ad networks partnered with The FeedRoom to serve third-party ads on your videos. No programming feature and no encoding info is available. You need to contact the company for available pricing solutions.
http://www.feedroom.com/
BestTV

BestTV provides fully customizable Internet TV channels to distribute and monetize your video content. You can either broadcast white-label live streaming shows and on-demand videos on PCs, set-top boxes or mobile phones. You have also the option to create targeted playlists but not schedule a playlist to be broadcast without user input. HD videos are supported. You can monetize your video assets using both subscriptions and advertising options. Regarding advertising, you can employ pre-roll, post-roll and banner ads while setting ads frequency and capping to achieve optimal results. Ad networks can be integrated to serve third-party ads with your video content. Detailed reports are available to track your advertising campaigns and video performances. No encoding info is provided. To get a quote for BestTV solutions contact a company representative.
http://www.best-tv.com/
Kaltura

Kaltura is an open source online video platform that allows you to manage, distribute and monetize your online video inventory using open standards. You can also import third-party video content from other websites or video-sharing sites, add your videos and create custom playlists to engage your audience. You can schedule your playlist for broadcasting without input and also take advantage of advanced features like: remix and annotate your videos, add text slides, translations, and much more. When you have your content ready, your video is encoded using FLV and H.264 codec (HD supported) and then published using a customizable widget player that matches the look of your website. Powered by Gyga, your widget player is freely redistributable on any website or social media sites. Kaltura also has pre-integrated solutions for WordPress, Drupal and MediaWiki sites (free up to 10 GB of streaming & hosting). You can allow viewers to download your video player for offline viewing or broadcast private shows. Kaltura has partnered with ad networks to help you show ads with your video content that comply with IAB standards. Detailed statistics and analytics of your online video offering are also generated for your video campaigns. Contact Kaltura sales department for price quotes or to get a free trial. The company offers also a self-hosted version of the platform that publishers can download for free and host behind their own firewall.
http://corp.kaltura.com/
KIT digital

KIT digital provides solutions manage, publish and monetize your online video assets. Videos can be offered on-demand on websites or mobile devices and you can put your own logo to represent your company. Video players offered by KIT digital can be fully customized, redistributed and shared on any web page. No info on HD support or video encoding. To capitalize on your video inventory you can serve ads with your content, even integrating your ad networks. Ad units accepted are: pre-roll, post roll, companion banners and flash overlay ads. Alternative revenue channels supported are: subscriptions, DTO (download to own), VOD (video on demand), and PPV (pay per view), pay per click and pay-as-you-view (per second / per frame). Detailed reports are generated to track your earnings and the performances of your videos. No video programming. Contact KIT digital for pricing info.
http://www.kitd.com/
SOFTing K.iTV

K.iTV from SOFTing is designed to assist content providers with all key functions associated with managing online video: content uploading, cataloging, tracking and maintenance, advertising, analysis, billing and paying. You can either offer on-demand or live content. Once uploading your content you can take advantage of fully customizable video players that also allow you to create scheduled playlists to broadcast without any input from the user. A list of ready-made templates is available if you do not have specific customization needs. Advertising is supported with most common ad units: pre-roll, post-roll, in-stream, image & flash banners. Third-party ad network integration is not supported. Other monetization strategies include billing and subscriptions. Contact SOFTing support for pricing details.
http://eng.eu-softing.com/
Sorenson Video Delivery Network

Sorenson Video Delivery Network is a white-label video publishing platform that helps you manage and monetize your video assets. Video you upload are encoded using either Spark, VP& or H.264 codec and HD is supported. You can then syndicate your video to any website pasting a piece of HTML code or directly to iPhone models. A custom WordPress plugin is also available. You have multiple players to choose from that you can scale to match your publishing needs. Video players available have all a permalink but do not support playlist creation nor scheduling. Analytics features give you a real-time snapshot of audience engagement. Advertising is not supported for the time being. Pricing starts from $99/month for 1,000 streams and up to 20 minute videos. Free trial available.
http://www.sorensonmedia.com/video-delivery-network/
VideoPublishing

VideoPublishing is a white-label platform that lets you manage and deliver your video content. You can customize a broad range of video players to the colors and style of your firm and website. Videos are encoded using H.264 specifications and are scaled to match their destination (up to HD quality). All videos you manage and deliver can be converted in different formats and monitored to evaluate their performances. Tough VideoPublishing does not offer any ad integration or control, you can freely integrate your third-party ad networks if you want to run ads against your videos. Pricing starts from $49/month and 200 hours of streaming per month. Free trial available.
http://videopublishing.com/
Quick.tv

Quick.tv is a white-label video platform that allows you to manage and monetize your video inventory. The player you get is scalable, fully customizable and allows you to display your company logo, interactive images or promotional banners your viewers can click. Each player is also redistributable using the embed code or via e-mail if you set this option. You can also create niche-targeted playlists to display in a single player window, but not schedule the release of each video. HD is supported. Quick.tv runs ads on your videos using DoubleClick, but you can also bring your own ad network to serve advertisement in the most common formats like pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll. Pricing plans start from $120/month for 750 playout minutes in standard video quality and each video must be up to 5 mins. No info provided on encoding procedures.
http://www.quick.tv/
Vzaar

Vzaar is a video publishing platform that allows you to embed unbranded video players on your site. You can choose among different sizes for your player and either stream your clips in standard quality (FLV, H.263) or HD (MP4, H.264). Other player options include: set borders, set color, display in-stream text and hyperlinks. Vzaar also integrates with eBay so you can post your videos to the popular auction site directly right away. Worth mentioning is the "replace" function whereby you can substitute an embedded video with a new one from your inventory without pasting again the embed code. Different pricing plans are available, but to have an unbranded player you need to start from the Bronze plan. The Bronze plan costs $10/month for 5GB of online storage, advanced player settings and improved ranking inside Google search results. No programming or custom ads control.
http://www.vzaar.com
Magnify.net

Magnify.net is a white-label video publishing platform that allows you to integrate user-generated video, video that you produce, or video that you discover into your own web site. Video players offered by Magnify.net are fully customizable and scalable to your needs. Video players are also redistributable and can be shared on any web page or social media site. Videos are encoded using FLV / VP6 codec. To capitalize on your video inventory, you can serve ads with your content, even by integrating your ad networks (this option is currently reserved to enterprise customers only). The analytics feature allows you to track your earnings and the performances of your videos. No video programming. Pro packages of Magnify.net start from $249/month and allow you to have a customizable branding channel, custom watermarks, a custom graphic package, up to 250 videos you can upload and a 50 / 50 revenue split on ad banners.
http://www.magnify.net/
MultiCast

Multicast is a white-label video distribution platform that broadcasts both live and on-demand videos. Multicast provides 80 customizable video players which supports redistribution on third-party websites and also ad display if you integrate Multicast with third-party ad networks like OpenX or Real Media. The video platform can also be used to distribute videos to mobile devices like the iPhone. All videos deployed are encoded in Flash H.264 format. No programming is available, nor HD videos are supported. For pricing plans you must contact a sales representative. More info on corporate website.

Originally prepared by Robin Good and Daniele Bazzano for MasterNewMedia, and first published on July 6th, 2009 as "Professional White-label Video Publishing Platforms: Guide To The Best Services".

Social Media Meets Online Television: Social TV Brings Television 2.0 To Your TV Set

Richard G. Kastelein — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:10:00 PST

Social television is an emerging new media term used to refer to a new form of television technology that supports and integrates social interaction, recommendations, ratings, reviews and interactive participation among viewers via text chat, audio or even video-conferencing.

Photo credit: Michele Piacquadio

While the social element of TV is not new, the term social TV is relatively new and used to describe a new breed of TV services that integrate other communication services like voice, chat, context awareness, peer ratings and integration with social media on the web, to support an active TV experience rather than a passive one.

This is why Social TV is a revolutionary way to rethink television as we know it. Social television leverages and integrates the power of social networking to create a new type of highly interactive, participative and engaging user-directed experience.

Think how great it would be to be able to watch only television content that truly matches your interests and passions, with a little help (visible and invisible) from your friends!

Comment back on shows, participate in the backchannel and say what you think, chat along with your buddies trying to guess the right answer while Googling around... or receive and read live recommendations on what is hot, review your favorite TV shows... wow, it is like having all of the benefits of YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and instant messaging integrated in your TV experience.

This is why it appears that as relevance, interaction and personalization have been the key factors motivating millions of people to start shifting away from TV and toward social media, it is likely that before the television industry finds itself bankrupt, it will try anything it can to integrate new media technologies (such as P2P) and social media approaches to extend and rejuvenate its value proposition, costs and scalability to its existing audiences.

But social TV is not a revolution just for viewers.

Social TV is also a big marketing opportunity, providing a new way to approach potential customers and build relationships based not on interruption and a lucky probabilistic match, but based on affinity, value-sharing, participation and exchange.

In addition, companies that can access such personalized user preferences can better engage them by utilizing less intrusive and interruptive approaches than present-day TV advertising, by opting to participate and provide valuable relevant content, services, tools or social facilities that, without breaking my personal privacy, match my actual key interests and needs while allowing me to share and have my social world participate and contribute to it.

Richard G. Kastelein is the exploring pioneer on this emerging social media frontier, and here is his new report on Social TV:

Social TV - The Emergence of New TV 2.0 Ecosystem

by Richard G. Kastelein

Watching TV While Browsing The Web?

This work is a summary of "Innovation at the Edge: social TV and Beyond", by Natalie Klym and Marie Jose Montpetit, MIT Communications Futures Program, September 1, 2008.

The transition is happening. Convergence is inevitable. At least I think so.

How much longer will it be (or can we handle) until we move from our passive, numbing, anti-social, traditional TV screens to a more connected and shared, interactive TV space with family, friends, and communities? Not long. There’s too much of a need for this change.

A full 57 percent of US Internet users reported browsing the Internet and watching the TV simultaneously, according to Nielsen Ratings.

On average, Americans spent about 2 hours and 39 minutes per month doing these activities together, with almost a third of their Internet time being spent in front of the TV. "This simultaneous activity is one reason we see continued growth of both Internet and TV consumption," wrote Nielsen. What does that mean?

Are people really paying enough attention to both the Internet and the TV to be able to remember what they see? Probably not. But it can be easily deduced, they are yearning for some kind of union of the two mediums.

What Are The Implications of Social TV?

In the last few years, TV viewers have seen a rise of new systems for delivering TV content to audiences, including digital, IP, and wireless networks and these systems are brushing aside and are considered emerging alternatives to the traditional analogue platforms of over-the-air programming, cable, and satellite.

What are the implications of this new technology and how will this all play out in creating TV 2.0?

There is no certainty of course, who will be the social media superstar of TV 2.0... The Facebook or Twitter of TV, or if even that will occur in the TV space in the foreseeable future.

Convergence may just take the form of existing, popular social media sites will make their mark as leaders in the TV space.

The implications are enormous - not just in terms of the convergence of web based social media and TV, but also will likely revolutionise TV revenue models with the introduction of tCommerce, also known as tRetail and transactional TV.

The most important thrust of these technological developments is the rapid increase and selection of end user devices that connect to these platforms - and each other - including set-top boxes, Digital Video Recorders, PCs, and portable media like mobile phones and PDAs. These devices comprise a dynamic part of the value chain for all new TV systems.

Devices integrate multiple content and value-added services and their respective value chains into the TV ecosystem, expanding its boundaries and creating new opportunities for both network operators and non-network players (3PD developers) to create and capture value while dramatically changing the TV experience for consumers and creating a long tail scenario, somewhat like iPhone has done for the mobile market with its App Store or other Open API scenarios on the web such as Facebook and Twitter.

Social TV Widgets, DVR and Set-Top Boxes Are The New Inbound Channels

Social TV is now looked as an emerging category of interactive television services.

Currently most social TV applications are focused on either integrating Internet widgets into the traditional viewing experience or creating new, TV and web-based, independent communities which centre on peer recommendations (what are my friends watching right now? What are their "favourites"?), the possibility of tCommerce, and chat, message and gift sending.

Due to the recent rise of web-based social networks, and the rise of community video sites online, such as Facebook and its many clones, the lack of similar offerings on TV has resulted in a massive shift from TV to PCs and even mobile and PDAs, where users can experience and share video and customize their user experience with items such as "widgets".

Just as the VCR created a new retail channel for the TV, giving it its first non-broadcast function, the DVR and other emerging set-top-boxes, increasingly connected to the Internet, have also come to serve as an "inbound channel" for online services.

TiVo for example, one of the earliest players in this space and a is a pioneer of the digital video recorder (DVR) can be programmed remotely through Yahoo! TV, integrating Yahoo’s web program listings into the system... but a more significant feature is its ability to connect and to select web content sites such as YouTube... which can then be watched on TV.

More recently, TiVo has integrated other web-based media services like Amazon Unbox, Music Choice Videos and even Rhapsody’s music service.

Tivo’s web video services are one solution to bridging the gap between online content and the TV but it’s not widely used in Europe and is relatively limited to the US market. Though it is now available in Canada, Mexico, Australia, Taiwan, and the UK - it has not been very successful in these markets.

Europe in particular is flush with scores of competitors in the DVR market which makes any kind of consolidation or move to a general standard for social TV in this sector unlikely.

What Is Social TV?

While the social element of TV is not new, the term social TV is relatively new and used to describe a new breed of TV services that integrate other communication services like voice, chat, context awareness, peer ratings and integration with social media on the web, to support an active TV experience rather than a passive one.

Social TV stems from two trends that are linked closely to the TV experience... social interaction and personalization.

TV, once a social experience, akin too and not long after families’ gathered around the hearth (Marshall McLuhan), listening to the radio or talking, was transformed in the latter part of the last century to a solo and less group oriented experience as more families enjoyed more TV’s and different preferences split families up in their own houses.

We have been living in an era of anti-social TV for decades. But the shared TV experience is now returning, as social TV. And the typical 'family room' is being replaced by online virtual communities accessed through personal devices.

Social TV Features

The social TV experience has its roots online and many emerging online video services like Joost, YouTube and Hulu integrate social networking features like program ratings, "favorites" lists, discussion forums, and multi-user chat sessions directly into their offerings.

Meanwhile, web-based social networks like Facebook and MySpace have begun embedding video applications into their sites, thereby becoming video distribution platforms in their own right, where viewing is, by definition, a social experience.

In addition to getting movie and TV recommendations from their peers, subscribers to these social networks can now stream selected content on a personal page for a shared viewing experience with visitors and "friends." In this way, video-oriented social networks essentially become "virtual operators," servicing the user and their group of friends.

While enhancing the user experience by making it more relevant, this also creates tremendous opportunity for targeted advertising, and the ad industry is taking note.

Facebook has changed the way we look at advertising.

Social TV would take targeting to a new level.

Social features in gaming have also risen... now gamers are comfortable with connecting to friends or meet new people using various 3PD or built-in applications. These developments in gaming are certain to influence user expectations vis-a-vis the TV experience, especially as gaming becomes more integrated with TV viewing.

Social TV offerings, today, are on many operators' roadmaps.

Online, sites like Facebook, YouTube and MySpace have been complementing TV operator services with movie recommendations for the last few years, but not very tightly.

Web 2.0 Services Bring Personalization To Social TV

Personalization is also driving the inclusion of Web 2.0 services, future social TV users will be able to download widgets providing anything from weather forecasts and traffic reports to health care information to two-way video conferencing, or ratings and real-time commentary on programs, to complement and customize their TV experience.

Bridging Web 2.0 applications and widgets across all viewing devices stimulates the cross-development of applications that will encourage a more novel approach video consumption.

Note that a recent high profile social TV launch did fail in their attempt: "Fox’s Twitter TV Experiment Tweets Its Way to Epic Failure" when users were driven off and annoyed at the intrusion of the Twitter-based babble taking up precious on-screen real-estate.

Social TV Middleware

According to what was being exhibited at IBC 2009, the world’s largest broadcasting event, it appears there is a race to build the dominant social TV middleware.

Middleware is the set of functionalities that enable the acquisition of content, its conditioning and formatting, its delivery to and rendering on the user end device. However, leaders in this space all were all offering partner SDK’s and some API’s in order to create diversity in the device ecosystem as well as stimulating innovation by third party application developers.

Middleware can support interfaces beyond the operator-provided content itself to include portals, provide conditional access and authentication across content types and have unfettered access to the Internet.

Middleware can also control and define the built-in or operator provider functionality of the rendering device (i.e., the "screen"), and can determine the state of the set-top box via APIs to the provisioning system.

Middleware is driving the development of social TV through SDKs (software development kits) and open APIs that personalize the TV experience by supporting multiple devices as well as third-party applications.

Social TV and Open Source

In the open source space, such as the OCAP (OpenCable Application Platform, recently rebranded as tru2way) and the telcos’ Open IPTV Forum, for example, are opening the set-top box to third party developers who provide the social functions / applications, the same way Google’s Android open platform seeks to open up the cell phone to all networks and application developers.

Ideally creating a single open source standard for the social TV space is the optimal solution. Not only to fuel innovation and creativity as open source does so well, but also provide long tail revenue models throughout the system.

Thanks to many sources online for research, particularly this paper from MIT.

Originally written by Richard Kastelein for Agora Media Group, and first published on September 18th, 2009 as "Social TV - The Emergence of New TV 2.0 Ecosystem".

About Richard G. Kastelein

Richard G. Kastelein, a social media strategist and publisher, is the CEO of Agora Media Group LLC. Kastelein has been building online communities for over a decade and is an open source evangelist. Richard is also an adept team player - a publisher, writer, photographer, marketing director, web developer and graphic designer with more than 20 years experience in the development and operation of newspapers, magazines, web media and marketing of multinational, companies in international settings.

Photo credits:
Watching TV While Browsing The Web? - MIT Communications Futures Program
What Are The Implications of Social TV? - madmaxer
Social TV Widgets, DVR and Set-Top Boxes Are The New Inbound Channels - chaoss
What Is Social TV? - picpics
Social TV Features - Natalia Lukiyanova
Web 2.0 Services Bring Personalization To Social TV - gibsonff
Social TV Middleware - mipan

Video Marketing: The Best 2009 Articles And Reports From MasterNewMedia

Robin Good — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 08:00:00 PST

Video marketing is increasingly considered by online marketers and web publishers one of the most powerful and effective marketing approaches. But how do you actually go about creating video clips that can boost your visibility, marketing and conversions?

Photo credit dedek

If you look back at 2009, last year was definitely the time when online video boomed, showing a considerable growth worldwide. Just consider these two examples

In Q3 time spent watching online video in the U.S. grew up 34.9 percent, according to the latest Three Screen Report from Nielsen.

In April 2009, comScore reports that U.S. viewers watched over 16.8 billion videos online.

Video marketing is definitely a key business strategy for Internet companies and professionals wanting to communicate effectively, in a direct, impactful and engaging way. There is nothing else that comes close to the effectiveness of a persuasive video message.

But please, do not buy into the story that a cool five-minute video clip on your website will double-up your conversion rate or tremendously boost your sales only by itself. When using online video there is indeed more strategy behind than just merely slamming some video content up on your web pages.

If you want to know how to effectively integrate online video with your marketing strategy, here is a special set of MasterNewMedia best 2009 articles and reports covering these topics

How to use video for business considering the return on your marketing spend,

How to use online video to optimize your website conversion rate,

A two-parted video interview with Brightcove CEO Jeremy Allaire on the ongoing and future trends in the online video industry,

Two video interviews with online video marketer Lasse Rouhiainen with basic tips and advice for the novice video publishers.

Video Marketing: The Best 2009 Articles And Reports From MasterNewMedia

Guide To Online Video For Business

Choosing which kind of video you want to produce depends on how you measure the return on your marketing spend. But while there are risks and rewards for each kind of video, you can take for granted the big impact that video has on your viewers and customers.

by EyeView Team - October 2nd, 2009

Online Video Marketing: How To Optimize Your Web Site Conversion Rates Through Video

How can you optimize your web site conversion rates by using online video? Sure enough, there are several things you can do to make your web published videos help you increase your web site conversion rates. Whether you want more ad clicks, more time on your site or more downloads of your latest PDF, video can greatly help. The key is knowing which are the variables that make a difference when adding video to your content. How do you find out?

by EyeView Team - September 2nd, 2009

Professional Video Publishing Trends: A Video Interview With Jeremy Allaire - Part 1

What is the difference between uploading your video to typical video-sharing sites like YouTube or using instead one of the paid white-label video distribution services springing up here and there? Free video-sharing sites like YouTube, Viddler, DailyMotion and others have the advantage to be a no-brainer for anyone getting her hands dirty in video publishing.

by Robin Good - October 14th, 2009

Online Video Advertising For The Professional Publisher: A Video Interview With Jeremy Allaire - Part 2

What are the key trends impacting the fast moving world of online video advertising? What should professional web publishers expect when it comes to monetizing their online video assets? In this exclusive video interview with Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Brightcove, Robin Good attempts to find out the key trends emerging from the rapid growth of white label video publishing services.

by Robin Good - October 21st, 2009

Online Video Marketing: Basic Tips And Advice From A Video Marketing Evangelist - Lasse Rouhiainen - Part 1

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If you are struggling to understand the fundamentals of online video publishing, as well as how to use videos to do marketing, this video article with Lasse Rouhiainen gives you some good basic information on how to get started.

by Robin Good - January 8th, 20099

Online Video Marketing: Basic Tips And Advice From A Video Marketing Evangelist - Lasse Rouhiainen - Part 2

How do you go about distributing your videos online in an effective fashion? How do you choose the right keywords to title your clips? If you are just starting up with online video marketing, these are probably some of your most pressing concerns. In this second interview (here part 1) I asked Lasse Rouhiainen to share some basic tips and advice for those like you who are beginners in this field, and want to know more.

by Robin Good - January 15th, 2009

Originally prepared by Robin Good for MasterNewMedia, and first published on January 5th, 2010 as "Video Marketing: The Best 2009 Articles And Reports From MasterNewMedia".

Photo credits:
Guide To Online Video For Business - picpics
Online Video Marketing: How To Optimize Your Web Site Conversion Rates - Ruben Sarkisyan
Professional Video Publishing Trends: A Video Interview With Jeremy Allaire - Part 1 - Robin Good
Professional Video Publishing Trends: A Video Interview With Jeremy Allaire - Part 2 - Robin Good
Online Video Marketing: Basic Tips And Advice From A Video Marketing Evangelist - Lasse Rouhiainen - Part 1 - Robin Good
Online Video Marketing: Basic Tips And Advice From A Video Marketing Evangelist - Lasse Rouhiainen - Part 2 - Robin Good

Top Internet Trends 2010: A Guide To The Best Predictions From The Web - Part 2

Robin Good — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 01:55:00 PST

If you are looking for the top internet 2010 predictions, anticipations and trends from the top bloggers, the tech thought leaders and the top new media sites out there, you have landed in the right place. In part 2 of this MasterNewMedia guide to the top Internet trends for 2010 (Part 1), you will find indeed some of the most interesting and provocative anticipations about new media, and about the future of online marketing and communications on the Internet.

Photo credit: Katrina Brown

Here some of the top 2010 trends and highlights emerging from this Internet predictions roundup:

Content formats: One of the main difficulties of the web is being able to really track a story as it develops and creating engaging formats for long-form articles. In 2010, news organizations and publishers will design stories that are more suited to the way readers consume online content. As a result, other formats that are either engaging and eye-catching will gain momentum in 2010, like the blogozine.

Content nesting: In 2010 your own content will spread on multiple locations more rapidly than you can imagine. That is why your website content needs to be nested in as many content aggregation sites as possible. Social media, RSS / blog directories and influential websites should be your main target. Why is this really important? Picture this: If you have a video on your website that is not on YouTube, people on YouTube will not bother searching for your website, because they simply do not need to go elsewhere. For them, YouTube already represents the total number of videos available on their topic of interest. Got it?

Social media marketing: A survey by VerticalResponse, Inc. shows that 68% of small businesses plan to increase social media marketing. Social media will indeed continue to be a great way for marketers and brands to create conversations with customers. So, be sure to make 2010 your year to test content that attracts repeat and referral business. Customers are more likely to respond to social media marketing because they already know you and trust you based on feedback from other people or their prior purchases.

Online reputation: With more and more consumers making decisions based on what they find online, small business owners will have to pay greater attention to track the buzz around their brands. As consumers prove to be highly influenced by online reviews and comments, business owners that do not monitor their brand mentions may have a hard time to prevent negative word of mouth. In 2010 expect those that will invest time protecting their online identities to succeed, and others to fail.

Paid / free content: A recent Forrester report stated that 80% of U.S. consumers will not pay for online content. Another survey by BCG showed that most people will pay a maximum of $3 per month for online paid subscriptions. What this means is that brands of 2010 are going to be built through a different model, based on consumer demand, the endless supply of content and the free distribution systems we all have.

Online video: In 2010, online video will keep growing, keeping pace with the good trends of this year. Online video is interactive, memorable, widely accessible, cheap to create and highly shareable, that is why entrepreneurs and business owners are willing to invest even more on video. It is crucial though, that you do not overlook your text content for video. As powerful as video can be, it can be more cumbersome than text because you cannot scan a video as quickly as you can scan a page of headlines, links and text to quickly find the exact information you need.

Online video advertising: Pre-roll ads will continue to dominate online video advertising. No innovation from Hulu, YouTube or Vivaki will prove as effective as a 0:15 or 0:30 coupled with a companion ad (here IAB video ad formats). YouTube only gains massive market share with its abundance of pre-roll and unless a brand new alternative is developed in the coming months, expect pre-roll to stay.

Business models: Expect new business models to emerge clearly in 2010. While alternative monetization opportunities have already sprung in 2009, it is next year that new business models will reach maturity and become a serious option for Internet entrepreneurs. Whatever you may choose, your main goal should be to increase, extend and diversify the range of your revenue-making channels. Entrepreneurs that have bet all their horses on a single business model may find unpleasant surprises, so start acting now.

Hyper niches: As already written, in 2010 content will be more and more ubiquitous and accessible. Those that will have the best content next year will float to the top, while everyone else will make less money and have fewer opportunities. It will be much harder to compete with big brands, which means next year the focus will be on niches and what John Arnold of Entrepreneur defines "hyper-niches." People will have to really narrow down their market niche in order to stand out and succeed.

SEO: Conversion rate optimization will dominate SEO next year. Still the most under-utilized and highest ROI activities in the marketing department, conversion rate optimization will reach more awareness and brands will focus on improving conversion over time. Online businesses can generate so much revenue from this, yet few invest. 2010 will establish this trend.

In part 2 (part 1) of this guide to the top Internet predictions and trends for 2010, you can have a peek at what these coming months may indeed have in store for you.

If you are into exploring what's coming up next before it hits you unprepared this is a perfect place to start.

Top Internet Trends 2010 - Part 2

10 News Media Content Trends To Watch In 2010

In 2010, news organizations will look to approach monetization and content experimentation that is focused on looking at the web in a new way. News in 2010 will blur the lines between audience and creator more than ever in an era of social media. Vadim Lavrusik looks at several trends in content distribution and presentation that the Mashable team will likely see more of in 2010.

by Vadim Lavrusik - Mashable - December 24th, 2009

10 Online Marketing Trends For 2010

Since your trend-marketing returns are only as good as your ability to make educated guesses, John Arnold from Enterpreneur shares some advice to help you avoid turning educated guesses into marketing messes. In this article you will find the top 10 internet marketing trends for 2010 so that you will know whether to invest, test or let it rest.

by John Arnold - Enterpreneur - December 24th, 2009

2010 in Online Video: Are You Ready For Some Surprises?

Inside this article, Eric Franchi, senior vice president of business development at Undertone Networks, writes a list of potential online video trends that 2010 may hold for video makers and video marketers. You may find yourself in complete disagreement with some or all of them, but the close future looks indeed promising for online video.

by Eric Franchi - MediaPost - December 24th, 2009

Talking Back - Top Five Advertising Trends

The overall advertising environment in 2009 was fairly gloomy with slashed budgets and revised strategies to address the new reality. However, that did not stop the industry from evolving, and the lessons learned will likely pay-off in the year ahead. Here is the prediction from Nielsen editors on 2010 top advertising trends.

by Nielsen Editors - Nielsen - December 17th, 2009

Personal Branding Trends For 2010

Personal branding is not a new concept, but it is something that small business owners and marketers will have to consider significantly through 2010. Your brand is your clear differentiator and your competitive advantage. It is also the first impression you have with potential customers and the source of attachment you create with your current customers. So, without further ado, here are some personal branding trends to watch out for in 2010 by Dan Schawbel.

by Dan Schawbel - Small Business Trends - December 27th, 2009

10 Crucial Consumer Trends For 2010

It is going to be another interesting year. Has the global recession really, officially ended? And if so, will the aftermath cause pains for years to come? Whatever the outcome, you and I are going to spot more recession-proof opportunities than ever before. To help you out the guys at Trendwatching have put up a great list of 10 niche-targeted consumer trends that will likely shape the web market in the coming months. Enjoy.

by Trendwatching Editors - Trendwatching - December, 2009

8 Predictions For SEO In 2010

Rand Fishkin, CEO of SEOmoz tries to tackle a lot of the recent trends that he and his team have been observing from the engines and shares his personal predictions of what SEO experts might see coming over the next 12 months.

by Rand Fishkin - SEOmoz - December 16th, 2009

10 Branding and Marketing Trends for 2010

The editors at Branding Strategy Insider offer online marketers and entrepreneurs their 10 branding and marketing trends for 2010. From the way your brand is positioned in the market, to consumer expectations and how to engage your audience if you want to keep pace with your competitors, Derrick Daye and Brad VanAuken got you covered.

by Derrick Daye and Brad VanAuken - Branding Strategy Insider - October 1st, 2009

Originally prepared by Robin Good and Daniele Bazzano for MasterNewMedia, and first published on December 31st, 2009 as "Top Internet Trends 2010: A Guide To The Best Predictions From The Web - Part 2".