Amazon’s CDN Not A Major Player

Amazon has recently begun offering customers use of their own CDN, titled CloudFront. While many have hailed this release as the beginning fo the end of traditional CDN’s such as Akami and Limelight, not everyone is so quick to jump on the bandwagon. Over on Business of Video, Dan Rayburn has a few words of wisdom on the subject:

This is a great service for smaller customers who have very specific needs but it won’t challenge any of the major CDNs for years to come. Amazon would have to add so much additional functionality to the service that it would take years just to build and deploy it. Too many people are under the wrong assumption that all you have to do is deploy a bunch of boxes and turn them up and then all of a sudden you can then compete with the major CDNs. It takes a lot more than just a ton of boxes and bandwidth to compete with Akamai or Limelight in terms of size, scale and functionality, not to mention revenue. Which is proven by the fact that after Limelight, the next closest company in terms of CDN revenue is doing less than half of Limelight’s total revenue for this year.

So while Amazon is taking a step in the right direction, they are still a long way off from actually becoming a major player in the CDN game. CDN delivery still remains expensive and out of reach for many businesses, and it is companies such as ClickStreamTV that is working within the system to provide the delivery method to small businesses. Amazon’s affordable CDN can serve as a foundation for companies, but without the proper development technicians it doesn’t matter how well content can be streamed. If Amazon wants to up the ante, they would do well in turning their video service into a public product, selling not only content, but a means to display it.

Why Amazon’s CDN Offering Is No Threat To Akamai, Limelight or CDN Pricing [Business of Video]

Smart Video Streaming… Why Does This Sound Familiar?

Jennifer Zaino over at Semantic Web has posted an article discussing the future of online video and makes a special point to discuss how connection speeds effect video quality. 

For example, for a long-form piece of video, it’s possible that the connection degrades during the play time, especially for consumers using WiFi connections which ebb and flow in terms of quality, or for those using cable modems, where increasing neighborhood online traffic may disturb connection quality. “So our system has to be a lot smarter about what bit rate to use in any given time. We need an infrastructure on the back end to create many different versions of a piece of video, splice it up and have the intelligence that says, based on the quality of the connection, what to send down the pipe for a smooth video experience.” 

Now where have I heard this before? Perhaps it is ClickStreamTV, which has a back-end built around detecting system settings and delivering not only the correct file format, but a bit rate that is tailored to fit the speed of the user.

Video producers and video streamers have to realize that every users is essentially on a unique system. Optimizing video content for one setup while ignoring users on older machines or even different operating systems is an easily avoidable mistake. As internet video is pushed into the future, know that not all your viewers are also leaping into the future. HD video and Windows Media delivery may seem professional, but it won’t matter if less than half your audience can actually view the content. 

Sometimes it isn’t a bad idea to look back while you’re moving forward.

The Next Generation of Video [Semantic Web]

Online Video Triumphs Over Poor Economy

The enonomy may be in a nose dive, but that doesn’t mean online video is on the decline. In fact, according to some analysts, online video is benefitting from the current market climate. Business of Video had this to say on the topic:

I think it is also crucial for all facets of the online video industry to keep things in perspective and set expectations properly. For instance, at the beginning of this year it was all about how online video advertising was talking all this money from broadcast and print advertising. The death of every medium except the Internet was being predicted and as a result, people expected more than what was possible. The most aggressive prediction I saw was for online video advertising to be a billion and a half dollars in 2008. Now, at the end of this year, it looks like it will be more along the lines of $500 million. While there is nothing wrong with that number, even if it was a billion and a half dollars this year, that’s less than 3% of the entire TV advertising market, that the industry is predicting such immediate death for. Lets be positive and excited about the growth we have coming, but also be realistic.

Now is a time of growth, not decline. While the online video marketplace may still be in its infancy, this can be viewed as a positive position. We can hope that in the coming years, the shift between television and online becomes even greater, turning online video into the dominant force in the marketplace.

Hard Times Are Good For The Online Video Industry: Don’t Give Into The Scare [Business of Video]

Ads Near Videos, When Will They End?

Every day I read about a new company willing to place ads near videos as a source of income. For some reason, video producers feel they can monetize their content with well placed ads. KeyStream are the latest offenders. According to Wired:

The new feature, called SmartAd, uses an algorithm that automatically identifies and inserts ads into portions of the video stream that aren’t exactly essential to the clip’s digestion. Think: put an ad on every square inch of a race car or baseball infield fence.

Every sqaure inch? That’s seriously bordering on spam. When will companies learn that if content is not popular enough, it will never reach enough viewers to have ads become effective. If a producer is streaming popular content, they are better off offering pay-per-view features. Let users pay a few dollars for content they can’t get anywhere else.

KeyStream Inserts Ads Into Video Blank Spaces [Wired]

Election Night And Online Video

With tomorrow’s presidential election set to be a historical event regardless of the outcome, it has gotten me thinking about how the candidates have used online video in their campaigns and how they could have used streaming media tomorrow night.

From the very first YouTube debate, the Internet, and more specifically video on the Internet has played a vital role in campaigns. Going beyond traditional campaign ads, both presidential candidates have used the web to house a collection of videos aimed at giving voters a clear understanding of their stances.

Barack Obama has dubbed his video portal BarackTV  and has included in it introductary videos on himself, his wife, as well as running mate Joe Biden. Also in the collection are ads, video from his campaign tour, as well as speeches he has given. The advantage Obama has in this market is that he commands the support of many young, tech savy individuals. Rather than hoping supporters and undecided voters catch his appearances on television, or expecting articles in newspapers to drum support, Obama has created a one-stop destination for information about himeself.

McCain on the other hand has taken a different approach to his video content. Located on his official site, the Republican cadidate has chosed to use video to deliver two messages. The first are the standard attack ads that are seen on television. The other, more important message, focuses on McCain’s stances on various issues. Many times, voters can’t find the information they need on a candidate’s policy on a specific issue, and McCain has attempted to remedy this problem with video.

Looking ahead to tomrrow night, how might campaigns use streaming video while voters are at the polls?

One suggestion is to stream live video from rallies and campaign headquarters, giving supporters an inside look at this important night.

Another suggestion is to provide streams of events going on throughout the country such as concerts. Perhaps even charging supporters a small fee that could be used to fund the events or even benefit charity. 

As this election marks the first intensive use of the Internet, tomorrow night could be the first national coming together of video and viewer, with the entire country focused on one single event

Microsoft Uses Ads In Silverlight Player

Following in the footsteps of YouTube, Microsoft hopes to monetize the content in its Silverlight player with the inclusion of advertisements within videos. Initially being tested in a New York Magazine website piece, the video will feature ad integration from companies such as Continental Airlines and Olay. A Wired news story has the following quote:

What does New York magazine get out of it? The opportunity to do a web series with Microsoft footing a big chunk of the bill. Microsoft pays the tech and production costs for the video, and provided a direct line to Redmond (in Washington state, where Microsoft is based) for any technical problems.

Video player providers seems keen to attempt to make advertising work in the same way it has worked on websites in the past. The issue seems to be that advertisements within videos are seen as intrusive, especially in an era where users are shying away from tradition television in favor of ad free content online as well as using DVR to skip though advertisments on TV. Using Pay-per-view content seems to be one way to ensure financial gains, though it relies on the viewer’s willingness to pay for online content that would be free of ads.