Comcast

Fierce 15 Online Video Movers and Shakers: Move Networks

Pete Wylie — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:30:30 -0400

Move Networks
Founded: 2006
Location: American Fork, Utah
Investors: Steamboat Ventures, Microsoft, Comcast, Benchmark Capital
www.movenetworks.com

Move Networks offers clients end-to-end delivery of streaming and on-demand video content, complete with encoding, packaging and monitoring of video files. Move's solutions have drawn considerable praise from partners, and Microsoft continues to deepen its strategic relationship with Move as it rolls out its Silverlight player. Move and Microsoft partnered to stream the Democratic National Convention, and handled millions of streams over the four-day event.

A big selling point for Move's solution is a scalable pay structure and delivery architecture for large events, bringing cost per viewer down as total audience increases. Its metrics deliver in-depth information about how a video is being consumed, giving clients many clues into successful monetization of their content.

Move has received more than $67 million in funding to date. It has major deals with ABC, Fox, Discovery, ESPN 360 and Televisia, streaming content from these publishers and many others through its media player.

Next: YuMe

Fierce 15 Online Video Movers and Shakers: Pando Networks

Pete Wylie — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:27:03 -0400

Pando Networks
Founded: Summer 2006
Location: New York City, NY
Investors: Intel Capital, BRM, Wheatley Partners
www.pandonetworks.com

In order to save peer-to-peer (P2P) networking, Pando Networks has been a leader for re-inventing the whole concept with the P4P working group. Traditional P2P architecture just goes and looks for another peer to get data from, regardless of where it resides on the network. P4P takes some general knowledge of an ISPs internal network and marries that with a traditional P2P architecture. P4P looks to keep P2P transfers within the "home" network in order to increase end-user delivery speeds and cut down on network delivery costs.

Results aren't theoretical. Real-world field test demonstrations with Verizon demonstrated faster delivery times of 200 percent while significantly cutting back on the amount of out-of-ISP (and more expensive) traffic with an 80 percent decrease in the distance (hops) that P2P network traveled.

Pando is working with a who's who of Tier 1 ISPs, including AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, and Telefonica to implement its technology and is now moving to work with content and technology players. NBC is implementing a version of Pando's P4P to deliver 720p (HD quality) video to the desktop and Pando is collaborating with Intel to leverage "Remote Wake" technology as an energy-efficient means to deliver content to PCs.

Next: EveryZing

Ballmer or Time Warner? Two Heads of the Video Future

Doug Mohney — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 23:37:43 -0400

I don't know if the future is going to be Steve Ballmer or Time Warner.

Ballmer is predicting that in (more or less) a decade, we're going to get everything through an IP connection, including TV and print media. Of course, this is the same Microsoft CEO who spits on Apple out of impulse and says Vista is the next best thing since XP despite the fact there are a lot of people (including myself) who are Not Impressed.

On the other hand, we have Time Warner's announcement/"experiment" of tiered pricing and Comcast's 250 GB/month bandwidth cap. Bandwidth caps instinctively draw knee-jerk fire from those of use who remember when caps were in MB rather than GB. They left a bad taste in our mouths then and certainly look like a deterrent to online video downloading in the future.

Someone should give Cisco a call and see what impact it thinks bandwidth caps will have on visual networking.

If cable companies meter heavily while telcos meter much less so, the net outcome will be a rush back to unlimited bandwidth (and unlimited video usage). Verizon is supposed to be trenching in FiOS to my neighborhood over the summer and the born-again Clearwire should be available in the D.C. area by the fall, offering WiMAX to keep the DSL providers honest and local cable companies pushing towards 50 and 100 Mbps speeds. And there's always the promise of LTE in a couple of years to keep everyone honest.

One thing is for certain: A number of online video companies are literally betting their futures on the availability of lots of unfettered bandwidth. Expect the fight for (relatively) unlimited broadband to continue over the next 12 months.

- Doug

Comcast Has a Better Eye than CBS

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:45:26 -0400

By Carl Ford

While the world was complaining about the CBS purchase of CNET for $1.8 billion Comcast bought Plaxo for $150 million. This is probably the best purchase yet in social networking.

For those who have not been following the controversy between Rob Scoble and Facebook; Rob Scoble decided to part ways with Facebook for a variety of reasons and wanted to stay connected to his community. Given Rob's presence in the blogosphere when he gets upset, it can form a ground swell of support. So Plaxo enabled a functioning (but not ideal) tool for exporting out of Facebook into Plaxo's Pulse social network. Facebook cried foul and blocked the application. Rob ended up with more support and an offshoot has been the formation of the data portability forum.

The Data Portability Forum has become frenzied with activity and, thanks to folks like Phil Wolfe and others, I expect it to yield some good strategies. (Although I am not sure I would use all of them.) The forum is probably going to yield some agreements in formats and may be a good place to think about your own social network strategies.

From my perspective Plaxo stands to gain a lot from the controversy and the formation. I cannot describe Pulse well. It feels like everyone is posting to a common wall, but I am sure given the two million end users on Plaxo there is some discernment about "my" network. But the point is that Pulse has found a high ground in a world of social hysteria.

So what made Plaxo sell for $150 million now? After all, Facebook and MySpace are valued far higher. Could it be because of the Millenials? After all, I have been using Plaxo for at least four years. It has legitimately about 2,500 of my names (it claimed I had 10,000 but the dedupe killed off a 4-to-1 problem I had in Outlook). If I am part of the demographics so, probably, is the Lawrence Welk fan club.

We can take at face value Comcast (the buyers) investing in the growth opportunity, and the sellers probably have lots of ideas what they can do with the money. But in these days of widgets, is the money that important for development? What about for marketing? Where would you place the money?

And, as the buyer, what is the benefit to Comcast in buying into a still-to-be-separate social network.

Don't get me wrong, I can make a case. Comcast has embraced end-user video and one thing that Plaxo can be is a Personal Video Answering machine. It can also be used to build communities around Comcast content. Last year at this time, Comcast integrated Plaxo into their portal for Voice customers. Given the fact that no press release about the acquisition is on the Comcast side, maybe the cost of buying Plaxo was a wash given the payment for the services to their customers.

Meanwhile, imho its clear Comcast has a lively Pulse in Plaxo.

Carl Ford is Strategic Advisor and Community Developer for FierceMarkets. His words of wisdom can be found at www.carlford.net.

Déjà vu and thrills in NYC

Doug Mohney — Thu, 22 May 2008 23:14:59 -0400

I went to some of the first Streaming Media shows waaaay back in the '90s, so it was a sobering reality check to drop in a decade later at Streaming Media East in New York this week to walk the floor and sit in on the presentations.

Hearing P2P (well P4P) being called the potential savior of online video was definitely an eye-opener. Enterprises running their own networks, such as Wachovia and Bank of America don't have to be convinced that P2P is a win for distributing video throughout the company; they're doing it today without breaking a sweat.

Having a Verizon spokesperson talk about dramatic network improvements in hops (from about five to under one) and download speeds just by describing their network architecture in an open fashion at a relatively abstract level to a third-party vendor (Pando Networks) and then adding software is seriously game-changing. Comcast is already working with Pando and also hedging their bets by investing in GridNetworks, so there's definitely more than smoke and mirrors going on here. If Comcast can keep all that P2P traffic in bounds in their network and mange it more efficiently than the "Grab it from wherever" philosophy of some existing P2P schemes, what's not to like?

I'm also sold on the idea of doing short-form video segments. Sometime in the next couple of weeks I'm going to start doing "Two minute drills" in front of my Flip Video camera and uploading them for people to look at. Once I get a couple of weeks posted, then I'm going to start looking for a couple of good product placement deals (Asus EEE PC 900 or HP 2133 Mini Note PC? Coke or Bacardi? Coke and Bacardi?) and see what happens from there.

- Doug

P2P: Friend of Carriers, Savior of Online Video?

Doug Mohney — Thu, 22 May 2008 22:35:57 -0400

Streaming Media East, NYC--Over the past two months, peer-to-peer (P2P) networking has gone from the source of all evil to being a miracle cure for distributing video if a panel of speakers at Streaming Media East are to be believed. It won't be IPTV, but P2PTV, if service providers and P2P companies can cooperate together.

Currently, "closed" P2P networks account for at least three-fourths of upstream bandwidth on the Internet and at least half the downstream bandwidth of service providers, said Marty Lafferty, CEO of the Distributed Computing Industry Association. The problems have resulted from closed P2P schemes working to evade ISP monitoring and network optimization efforts.

Lafferty says the sea change has occurred by combining openness to P2P networking, allowing carriers to see what sort of traffic is going on and enabling them to fine tune network transfers to reduce router hop count--how far you have to move traffic--and keep copying local rather than crossing service provider boundaries.

P4P--Proactive network Provider Participation for P2P--technology has already demonstrated drastic improvements in bandwidth and network utilization. Verizon testing with Pando Networks earlier this year demonstrated bandwidth usage decreasing more than 50 percent. Other benefits included faster download speeds for users and much shorter router hops to move data (from an average of five hops to less than one). Verizon is a believer and says P4P technology can help scale their network and help deliver more video.

Comcast will be triaing Pando's technology later this year and has also invested in Seattle-based GridNetworks, a startup that delivers high-definition video using P2P technology.

For more:
- Lafferty's P2P presentation slides from Streaming Media East

Related articles:
500 GB of Free Content Delivery; Video Local
Service providers embrace P2P solutions
Comcast, Pando work on P2P 'Bill of Rights'

Comcast buys Plaxo for ... video?

Doug Mohney — Thu, 15 May 2008 09:57:18 -0400

Comcast is buying "social contact list" (i.e. Rolodex) company Plaxo, with a purchase price between $150 million and $170 million with the ambition to be the Facebook of video sharing.

In an interview with the New York Times, Comcast executive Samuel Schwartz ties in the acquisition of Plaxo with social media and the company's ambition to make more and more content available to consumers across all platforms (So long as P2P isn't involved ...). If you like an episode of your favorite TV show, you'll be able to (legally) share it with your friends, courtesy of Plaxo's technology and Comcast's video licensing agreements.

Before writing off Comcast as a little nuts, consider Cisco's dive into "visual networking" at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January. Video is the engine of growth that the IP communications industry is betting on to generate more revenue per subscriber--as well as driving the sale of faster hardware and more bandwidth.

If this vision of social media video sharing is to be fully realized, there's likely to be collaboration between Plaxo and thePlatform, another Comcast acquisition. thePlatform is a digital media management company providing tools for posting, monitoring, and monetizing broadband content (i.e. audio and video).

Plaxo will operate largely independently, similar to thePlatform, so it can work with all the potential players as a true arms dealer should. The company had been working with Comcast over the past year on a number of projects, including a universal address book for Comcast's SmartZone communications center to launch later this year.

For more:
- NY Times blogs on the Comcast Plaxo Video deal
- TechCrunch confirms Comcast Buying Plaxo

Related articles:
Big four VoIP players (Including Comcast) win 12 million users
Comcast defends P2P management to FCC
Vuse complains about Comcast throttling