olympics

Faster than the speed of Limelight

Pete Wylie — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 16:46:08 -0400

Limelight Networks announced it can now deliver broadcast quantity streams across its network. Its global content delivery capacity now exceeds two terabits a second, which it says translates to delivering broadcast quality streams to two million users simultaneously.

Advances in content delivery like this announcement highlight the increasing ability for online video to be a major player in breaking news and broadcasting live events to large audiences. Once online video can mimic or surpass the quality achieved by broadcast events, widespread migration to online content delivery could be swift.

Limelight achieves its delivery speeds by positioning huge amounts of content at the edges of nearly 900 last-mile networks, putting content through fewer gateways before it is delivered. It was a major partner in the delivery of millions of online video streams during the Beijing Olympic Games.

For more:
- see the Limelight release here

The invisible (apparently) online video upside

Pete Wylie — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 12:56:09 -0400

comScore released online video metrics today, which report that Americans watched 556 million hours of online video in July. Five. Hundred. Fifty-six. Million. Hours. In case you were wondering, that's 63,400+ years worth of online video consumed in one month!

If that's not enough eye-time to sell some advertising, who knows what is.

But that's exactly the problem that is dogging the industry right now. The most recent figures from eMarketer put online video ad spending at less than $600 million for 2008. Some quick math breaks that down to roughly a dollar per hour of online video content viewed. 30-second TV spots continue to cost into the upper six figures and beyond, so where is the disconnect with online video?

Everyone intimately familiar with the industry has heard the stock answers; fear of ads running alongside questionable user-gen content, viewer distaste for/avoidance of ad formats, and lack of ROI. The lackluster online video ad results for NBC's online Olympic coverage are a perfect example of monumental traffic, coupled with tepid ad sales.

But ad buyers should change their tune quickly as the number of viewers and videos viewed skyrockets. The same comScore figures indicated that more than 140 million Americans watched online videos in July, and, on average, they watched 82 videos each, or roughly four hours of content. YouTube led the way here, with five billion individual videos viewed for an average of 54 videos per user. Most of this content probably ran without ads, which will soon prove to be a major oversight.

For more:
- see the full comScore numbers here

MSNBC.com shatters streaming record

Pete Wylie — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:02:03 -0400

Viewers logging on to politics.msnbc.com last week accessed a record number of live online video streams, watching 5.6 million live video streams Aug. 29, the date of Barack Obama's acceptance speech, and a stunning 16 million over the course of the week.

It's more good news for NBC's online division and online video in general, as it follows the gigantic number of streamed videos from NBC's site during the Beijing Olympics.

MSNBC's Decision08Dashboard feature was wildly successful, generating 67 million page views over the course of the convention week.

There has been no word yet on advertising revenue, if any, MSNBC.com drew from all of the streams. NBC's online video revenue during the Olympics was miniscule, compared to the number of streams viewed, and it must be nice not to play bridesmaid this time around; despite the money NBC paid for the Olympic rights, it finished second to Yahoo! in page views.

MSNBC.com surely is hoping for some sort of repeat this week during the Republican National Convention, which will also be streamed online for the first time.

For more:
- see the marketwatch.com ratings report

Microsoft invests in Move Networks

Pete Wylie — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 09:44:26 -0400

Move Networks continued to rack up funding Tuesday as Microsoft announced plans to invest in the HD online video service. Microsoft and Move began a strategic partnership in March, with Microsoft using Move's video streaming technology in its Silverlight player, which NBC used to provide online video of the Olympics.

Microsoft did not announce the terms of the investment, but it will add to the more than $67 million Move has raised since 2006.

The Microsoft and Move technology partnership is on display this week at the Democratic National Convention, as the DNC enlisted the two companies to stream live online video of the convention. According to the companies, the combined technology allows for uninterrupted video streams that adapt to the end-users connection speed to eliminate lag.

For more:
- CNet reports on Microsoft investment in Move

SPOTLIGHT: Young girls tuning out Olympics

Pete Wylie — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:07:18 -0400

For all the hype about NBC's unprecedented online video coverage of the Olympics, and the massive ratings they have seen so far, there is one major demographic slipping through the cracks.

According to a MediaLife story, fewer girls aged 12 to 17 are tuning in to the 2008 Olympics than tuned in to the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

While overall viewership is up 14 percent from Athens, rating for teenage and tween girls fell 11 percent. It's an interesting point to note for advertisers attempting to reach this choice demographic.

For more:
- MediaLife reports on missing Olympic-watching teenage girls.

Olympics online videos ratings surge

Pete Wylie — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 12:41:08 -0400

NBC has seen encouraging results for its online video coverage of the 2008 Olympic Games, according to Nielsen Online figures released Monday. On Friday, Aug. 8, 436,000 unique U.S. viewers accessed video coverage of the opening ceremonies and the few sports that began competition prior to the festivities. Traffic almost doubled the next day, as nearly 900,000 viewers took in video coverage of the first full day of competition.

Despite some problems with load speeds, initial lag on longer videos and network embargoes of some content, the online presentation of the Olympics appears to be a relatively seamless success so far for NBC, not to mention Microsoft's Silverlight video technology and Limelight Networks' content delivery service.

NBC intends to carry more than 2,000 hours of online video to supplement its live broadcast coverage of the Beijing games. Advertisers and Olympic sponsors are watching closely to see if online coverage will attract and keep fans of sports that don't make it to direct broadcast.

For more:
- Nielsen reports top ten Olympic websites and complete NBC Olympic video stats

Related Articles:
The Online Olympics Open
Olympic Headcounting

NBC Gets Flamed for Vista-Only Olympic Distribution

Doug Mohney — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:40:52 -0400

Critics are lining up as NBC announces its online video tech for distributing Olympic coverage.

NBC Olympics on the Go, from NBC and broadband media company Wavexpress, is a podcast-like service to let users pick their favorite sports and have coverage automatically downloaded after NBC broadcasts each event from China. However, the service is only available for PC users running Windows Vista Ultimate or Home Premium PC. So, pfftp to XP, Mac, and Linux users. There's also a video player to be downloaded and details needed be worked. Reports say event coverage will be available 12 hours after an event and downloaded coverage should be playable for at least the duration of the games.

Microsoft had already cut a deal for its Silverlight environment to be the cornerstone of NBC Olympic distribution, so people shouldn't be too surprised about the Vista-only hook for Olympic footage. However, the move may not go over well in Europe and other places where Microsoft is seen as acting in a monopolist fashion. Goodness knows what the Football/Soccer fans might do.

Mobility plans have not been announced yet, leading to speculation that something might appear in a Zune format since NBC broke off its distribution deal with iTunes.

For more
- Wired reports on NBC Video Distribution for the Beijing Olympics
- Ars Technica Vista-only Olympics piece

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The Olympics, Car Porn, and Online Syndication

Doug Mohney — Tue, 20 May 2008 19:06:11 -0400

Streaming Media East, New York - George Kliavkoff, NBC Universal Chief Digital Officer, said the broadcast giant plans to stream 2,200 live hours of Olympic events via the Internet and mobile phones. NBC's future for making money with online video is by generating and syndicating vertical content. And oh yes, Hulu is great too.

The Olympic effort will be delivered with Microsoft's Silverlight. "We think the video will be really compelling and Silverlight provide interactivity, Microsoft has great history of doing video on line. We're not worried about their development cycle." George wouldn't say how much Microsoft might have coughed up to NBC for use and support of the new software.

Using its successful cable companies as models, NBC is building specifically focused content building and marketing efforts around top vertical markets, "digital cable networks if you will." NBC will syndicate content it and its affiliates create, cutting deals with vertical market websites and selling ads against it. The company has found early success with the auto industry, with one of its properties creating an extensive library of short videos that record "every nook and cranny on every model of car ... it's really like car porn," Kliavkoff stated.

Health care is another opportunity to tap into existing content being generated by NBC affiliates. "They produce in excess of 120 health videos a week, play them once, and then put them off the shelf ... think about all the great health sites that are text based. You can syndicate video to them."

Kliavkoff was an interim CEO at Hulu and still sits on their board, so his feeling for the online video site might be taken with a grain of salt. "If [Hulu] does its job really well, it will have much broader content. I happen to think it is the best experience on the Internet," he said. "You'll see more content, better content, and I think a priority you'll see is to move that to other platforms, get it to TV and mobile platforms." Delivery to connected Internet devices is a priority Hulu will focus on in the future.

Surprisingly, making first-run TV shows free online has actually proved to be helpful for cable operators. Studies indicate a viewer that plays catch up with shows online is more likely to watch the next episode on broadcast television, with serialized dramas gaining significant benefit. "You can catch up on the story and rejoin it next week," Kliavkoff said. Cable operators like driving television viewing and watching back episodes adds value to their broadband offerings.

"The part that is still up in the air, we won't know for four to five years, what effect [online will have] on syndication, our second-run business," he said. "I don't think we know what effect all that content will have on long-term syndication values and we won't know for a while."

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