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Veoh to cut workforce by 20 percent

Pete Wylie — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 09:10:37 -0500

Veoh was adamant that it was not cutting back its workforce when rumors of layoffs began to circulate in late October. But Wednesday, the Michael Eisner and Goldman Sachs-backed online video platform start-up reported it would cut 20 percent of its workforce, or about 20 jobs, due to expected downturns in the ad market.

"We know the realities of the market," spokeswoman Gaude Paez told CNET Wednesday. "But no one knows how soft the ad market will get."

Veoh took down $30 million in capital from Intel and Adobe in a second round of funding in June, to bring the total investment in the company to $70 million. Company representatives remained positive about Veoh's future, saying the company is seeing steady revenue growth and has significant cash on hand.

Veoh is still struggling to find a successful, unique model to reach the level of success of its competitors, YouTube and Hulu. Other online video sites could follow Veoh's cost-cutting if they can't differentiate themselves in the midst of a slowing ad market.

For more:
- see the CNET article here

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

Veoh Adds ABC & ESPN

Doug Mohney — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:18:45 -0400

Veoh Networks has announced it will be distributing full episodes from ABC and short-form online video content from ESPN.com.

Coming through ABC's broadband player, free access to full episodes includes such series as Lost, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, Jimmy Kimmel Live and Ugly Betty. Veoh expects to offer short-form programming from ABC later in the year through an embedded player. Sports junkies can get highlights of major sports events, clips from ESPN programs, and SportsCenter Right Now from an embedded ESPN video player.

Enhancements to ABC's online video player will be rolled out this fall, including true full-screen viewing, closed captioning and enhanced navigation and video search capabilities. The deal also enhances ESPN's online reach. In 2007, ESPN.com served up more than 1.2 billion video views and so far in 2008, fans are watching an average of 121 million videos per month.

Observers wonder what took ABC so long to work out a syndication deal with Veoh; CBS and NBC have been aggressively working on syndication for their properties.

Veoh currently lays claim to aggregating more than 100,000 content publishers, including CBS, Lions Gate, PBS, National Lampoon, Road and Track and US Magazine, and more than 28 million viewers as of late June.

Earlier this month, Veoh landed a new round $30 million in financing lead by Adobe and Intel. The company was one of six companies selected in mid-June by Warner Bros. to distribute TheWB.com.

For more
- Veoh adding ABC & ESPN shows announcement

Related articles:
Veoh Gets $30M From Intel, Adobe
Warner Bros. New Age Distribution Plan