While in LA this week, I caught up with Phil Wiser, Sezmi’s president and co-founder and got another good look at the Sezmi service, which just officially launched in the entire LA market with Best Buy. I’ve been covering Sezmi for over 3 years, and from a technical and product standpoint, I continue to be …
Monthly Archive
for: ‘February, 2010’
Why Did Online Video Consumption Spike in 2009?
If you want to get a sense of how significant an inflection year 2009 was for online video, have a look at the chart below. As you can see, according to comScore data, while Jan-Dec growth in 2007 (up 2.8 billion views or 39%) and 2008 (up 4.5 billion views or 46%) were impressive …
Wal-Mart’s Acquisition of Vudu Makes Little Difference
Yesterday’s announcement by retailing giant Wal-Mart that it was acquiring Vudu, the on-demand movie service, generated a flurry of reactions from industry commentators. Some think it gives Wal-Mart the juice it needs to finally be a major digital media player. Others believe that Wal-Mart’s miserable record in digital media suggests that the deal will be …
Online Video Reaches the College Admissions Process
Settling in over breakfast yesterday with the Sunday Boston Globe (yes, I actually still read my hometown newspaper in print), I was intrigued by a story featured prominently on page 1 , detailing how Tufts University, a highly-selective college in the Boston area, has encouraged freshman applicants to submit one-minute “video essays” of themselves. Of …
February Has Been a Red-Hot Month for Online Video Financings
February may be the shortest month of the year, but just less than 3 weeks in, the pace of online video financings has been the hottest since I started tracking this data over a year ago. By my count there have been at least 8 financings announced this month and I suspect I’ve likely missed …
Synacor Delivers NBC Olympics Video to 14 Cable Operators’ 9 Million Subscribers
Overshadowed this week with the launch of HBO Go is that Synacor has been powering access to the subscriber-only portion of NBC’s Olympics video for 14 of its cable operator customers, reaching 9 million subscribers. As Synacor’s CEO Ron Frankel told me earlier this week, this is the most extensive TV Everywhere authenticated access instance …
Apple Approves SlingPlayer Mobile App with 3G; Milestone for Long-Form Mobile Streaming
One other noteworthy tidbit to come out of Mobile World Congress earlier this week was that Sling Media announced it got final approval from Apple to offer its SlingPlayer Mobile App in the App Store. SlingPlayer had been held up due to network concerns, but 2 weeks ago AT&T announced that it would let the …
Demo of Wired Magazine Highlights iPad’s Appeal
As I wrote several weeks ago, I’m skeptical of the new Apple iPad because it seems like an expensive gadget that will be hard to find mainstream buyers given its price points. Nonetheless, I thought it was a really slick device, and this week’s demo of Wired magazine running on it reinforces my belief. The …
VideoNuze Report Podcast #50 – February 19, 2010
Daisy Whitney and I are pleased to present the 50th (woohoo!) edition of the VideoNuze Report podcast, for February 19, 2010. This week Daisy first walks us through a piece she’s writing for AdAge focused on viral video. In reviewing data on which videos have broken out online, Daisy concludes that invariably they are also …
In Trying to Preserve DVD Sales, Studios Are in a Tight Spot
It’s not news that DVD sales – the lifeblood of Hollywood studios’ P&Ls – are in a freefall. In response, the studios are doing all sorts of things to eke out just a little more profitability from the sales of the shiny discs. But as several news items over the last week underscore, the studios …
