Amazon Expands its Catalog with Viacom

The online retailer has a deal with the media group Viacom that allows it to expand its range of videos available to stream on the internet, and represents the final steps in a plan to launch a subscription service to compete with Netflix.

The online video market, currently dominated by Netflix, should become increasingly competitive in the coming years as large companies are entering this segment.  Netflix currently streams service with nearly 22 million subscribers in the United States.

Subscribers to Amazon Prime, benefiting from both improved delivery times for their free online shipping and web-based video streaming, will have access to a total catalog of 15,000 movies and TV television programs, with the addition of Viacom programs covered by this new deal.

Viacom, which claims MTV, Nickelodeon and Paramount Studios in its conglomerate, will now be available on Amazon’s Prime Instant Video service. Until now, major media companies like CBS, Warner Bros. Time Warner, News Corp Fox, Sony, Comcast, NBC Universal and Walt Disney have licensed programming to Amazon.

The improvement of this catalog also allows Amazon to provide even more attractive content to its multimedia Kindle Fire tablet.  Amazon wants to open its collection of licensed films and television programs as a separate service for clients outside the prime segment, and use it to boost the Kindle Fire tablet.

Analysts estimate that Amazon sold about five million Kindle Fire tablets in the fourth quarter, and the company can sell more than double that in 2012. An essential part of Amazon’s strategy is to have lots of content, including video, music and applications for tablets users.

Blip Raises $12-Million Round of Funding

Online video network Blip.tv announced a $12-million round of funding. The company is also re-branding its name from Blip.tv to simply Blip.

Blip will use the new cash to develop more sophisticated tools and products for web content providers. Blip will also utilize the funding to enrich its advertising and distribution platforms.

The new round of funding includes investment from Bain Capital and Canaan Parters. The company earlier had raised an equal amount of debt funding from Silicon Valley Bank.

Blips currently has more than 13 million unique monthly visitors in the US. The company provides 330 million video views per month to its 30 million users globally, counting one fourth of these are paying subscribers. It also streams video content to a number of other platforms such as iTunes, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Roku, Verizon FiOS, TiVo and Sony TV.

Redbox Acquires Blockbuster Express

Movie and video game rental kiosk provider, Redbox (parent company Coinstar), has entered into an agreement to buy NCR Blockbuster Express kiosks and related assets for $100 million. The acquisition includes the purchase of the DVD kiosks, certain retailer contracts, and DVD inventory from NCR’s entertainment line of business.

The latest move comes just after Redbox entered a deal with Verizon to offer a new movie streaming service similar to Netflix. Redbox, which currently has 35,400 kiosks installed nationwide and roughly 9,000 existing Blockbuster kiosks will rebrand the acquired Blockbuster kiosks with its Redbox label.

“We are very pleased to enter into this agreement with NCR,” said Scott Di Valerio, chief financial officer of Coinstar, Inc. and interim president of Redbox. “As the global self-service solutions leader, NCR has strong technology, manufacturing and servicing capabilities, and we look forward to leveraging their expertise as Coinstar continues to grow its core automated retail businesses and expands its offerings.”

YouTube still leads the online video market.  But the majority of big and small players are now looking to create more video inventory and a range of services around premium content to attract more users and create a new online video advertising ecosystem.

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Obviously, brands and advertisers these days are geared more towards the social aspects of Super Bowl than the actual game itself. Here’s some interesting insight from SiliconAngle founder John Furrier about how social means business for some of the world’s largest brands. Super Bowl, being the biggest game of the year, is also the biggest event for brand and content marketing.

Get Tweetin’

Now, on to the social aspect that focuses directly to the game, Twitter Sentiment Analysis determines people’s impression of the opposing teams’ quarterbacks: New York Giants’ Eli Manning vs. New England Patriots’ Tom Brady. The analysis group analyzed 600,000 tweets and found out Manning has more positive sentiment with 65 percent market share, compared to Brady’s 62 percent.

Moreover, Techland Time reported that tweets peaked at 12,233 per second during the game last night. This figure emerged towards the end of the game. The second influx happened sometime during Madonna’s halftime performance with 10,245 tweets per second.  But the figure isn’t even very close to that of a Japanese TV screening of a movie called Castle in the Sky, which earned 25,000 tweets per second. But the largest number of microblogging was claimed by China’s Sina Weibo, which alleged to have peaked at 32,412 during Chinese New Year.

Mobile Made It

The Super Bowl has also given the social mobile world a great deal of traction. A study by mobile marketing company Velti reveals that fans are connecting beyond in-person friends, and expected a third of the spectator to watch the game with device in hand.

Because of mobile’s gaining traction, it has become a good alternative for brands to advertise in place of the insanely pricey $3.5 million 30-second ad slot during the game, focusing on heavy mobile usage and the social presence of fans instead.

We also have some interesting pre-game Super Bowl ad data from Clearspring. Sharing via mobile was up 500 percent from last year and overall sharing was up 143 percent from last year. Shares to and clicks from Twitter were up 116 percent from last year, while Tumblr’s and Facebook’s were up 615 percent and 18 percent respectively from last year. Share-to-click from email were down 16 percent last year, which is the only social sharing aspect to show a decline.

AddThis gave us some post-game data as well. According to the report, most of the country is supporting the New York Giants’ win, and this matches what we are seeing in prognostications and in the sports books. Honda and Priceline both crushed it when it came to awareness of their ad and brand. GoDaddy was completely flat, which indicates that perhaps their ads are getting played out.  VW launched their ad too early, and did not capture the same attention that Honda and Priceline did.

Moreover, InMobi’s Super Bowl XLVI Mobile Consumption Survey and revealed that nearly 40 percent of respondents used mobile devices in response to TV ads, and 45 percent estimated they would spend 30 minutes or more on their mobile devices during the game. Check out InMobi Research for the full report.

How Social, Mobile was Super Bowl 2012? A Brand’s Dream Come True is a post from: SiliconANGLE We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

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As a video host, Facebook can’t hold a candle to YouTube.  While there’s benefits to uploading a clip directly to Facebook, the two sites serve different purposes and deliver different results.  When it comes to Facebook’s ability to monetize video, however, there’s plenty of room for exploration.  The anonymity of YouTube has actually empowered the video-sharing site, whereas Facebook’s solidified social graph certainly makes you think twice about sharing or commenting on a clip.  You’re also unlikely to see video ads on Facebook, and the conglomerate approach to all-things-networking diversifies Facebook’s media capacity far beyond videos, while also making any monetization attempts of this type of content rather noncohesive.

To put this into context, let’s look at a few stats comparing Facebook and its biggest rival in terms of video-hosting:

Facebook Video

- Videos can be up to 20 minutes long.
- You can tag people in the videos.
- People who aren’t fans of your brand can ‘like’ your Facebook page from within the video clip, just by hovering the mouse over the video screen.

Youtube Video

- Clips can be up to 15 minutes long.
- A Youtube tab on Facebook can look much slicker than the Facebook Video tab.
- A Youtube channel can also be used to direct traffic from Youtube to your Facebook page.
- A Youtube clip will more than likely rank higher in Google search results than a Facebook video.
- Youtube tabs can display the number of views a clip receives. Displaying the views can work in favour of popular clips to increase the likelihood others will view them.
- Youtube has online editing features.
- Youtube annotations allow for on-screen menu options that viewers can interact with to bring them to other brand videos.
- Youtube Insights is more detailed than Facebook’s Insights for video.

The ability to achieve publicity and promotion has made YouTube the central point for video-related monetization.  YouTube’s extended its services to a range of ad capabilities, tying in with Google’s existing services and branching out from there.  YouTube also has an advantage when it comes to search.  And search is generally lacking on Facebook when it comes to content.

One opportunity here is Facebook’s relationship with Microsoft Bing, which is leveraging Facebook’s network to add social context to ranked search results.  Another opportunity is Facebook’s “likes,” which gather analytics on the behavior behind shared content, no matter where it resides on the web.

So while Facebook may not be the premier hub for video-hosting, it’s expertise lies in aggregated social behavior, and the array of analytics that can be derived from its social graph.  Converting this into data that’s then used by apps and services that tap into Facebook to power their own recommendations is Facebook’s true pivot point for monetizing video as a medium.

Where Facebook will need to improve is in its ability to search and filter through content of all sorts, not just video.  This has been a pain point for Facebook from the very beginning, and while the new Timeline format for user profiles centralizes much of an individual’s running content, it does little to extend that access readily out to other users.

contributors: Kristina Farrah

How Can Facebook Better Monetize the Video Sector? is a post from: SiliconANGLE We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

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I’m a huge fan of Steve Jobs and the Apple culture, though I still can’t help but be amused by this rather comical ad.  And to of how Jobs hated Android, referring to it as “shit,” even going so far as to say he’s going to “destroy” it in a “thermonuclear war.” On the other hand, I think that’s also the exact reason why Apple fans are enraged by the ad, calling it “disgusting” and “distasteful.”  The YouTube clip has a string of comments sharing disdain for the ad, and has twice as many dislikes than likes.

Knowing how much Jobs disliked Android, I think we all know for a fact that he will never get chummy-chummy with the anti iOS device, not even in the afterlife.  And that makes this add all the more hilarious.

“Steve Jobs always promoted things that were good for people, Apple products, so his image can also promote other things that are good,” says Action Electronics spokeswoman Chelsea Chen.

The ad received heavy criticisms and dislikes on YouTube. “It’s just an impersonator, not Jobs,” Chen said. “We have no choice but to use Android, we can’t use iOS,” she added, referring to Apple’s mobile device operating system.”

As a celebrated figure in Taiwan for having the country manufacture most of Apple’s products, this isn’t the first time a Taiwanese company used Jobs to promote a merchandise. Last year, a drinks company did the same thing to market a green tea beverage. Taiwanese satirical news video maker Next Media Animation also featured him as the one knocking the helmet off “Darth Vader,” who happens to Microsoft’s Bill Gates, with a light saber and wore it himself to become the ruler of the tech universe.

Android-Loving Steve Jobs Invokes Rage on YouTube [Video] is a post from: SiliconANGLE We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

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The new offering is expected to be available to consumers via YouView; TVs from manufacturer such as Samsung, Sony and LG; iPad etc. Allowing customers to subscribe to Sky Sports, Sky Movies and other  internet TV channels they purchase this year and in the coming years, meaning Sky is splitting its content from its satellite distribution system.

From CEO Jeremy Darroch: “It will give another choice to the 13 million UK households that have chosen not to subscribe to pay-TV. It will be a new way to reach out to consumers who love great content but have no need for the full range of Sky services.”  There will be “no infrastructure investment.”

BSkyB hinted that the upcoming service will offer Sky Movies, Sky Sports and entertainment across a myriad of devices such as tablets, mobile phones, consoles and connected TVs. Sky launched in 1990 and has started offering TV content to mobile devices through apps such as Sky Go and Sky New for the iPad. However, the new offerings were ridiculously priced and they seem to exist just to provide additional value to satellite subscribers.  At the end of the day, the strategy is still geared towards driving users to satellite subscriptions.

The advent of internet TV services from consoles, dedicated boxes, integrated connected TVs that offers a wide array of free on-demand services, as well as the low-priced over-the-top operators such as Netflix and Blinkbox, will surely overturn the current Sky service. In an announcement last Tuesday, Sky announced that their subscription has spiraled down to 40,000 from 140,000 last year. The situation signals Sky to transform its top-tier pay-TV content to pay-TV without satellite. For that, it’s safe assume that Sky is looking to rival Netflix and other streaming services.

“Beyond the near-term slowdown, structural issues are looming,” writes Bernstein analyst Claudio Aspesi in a research note. “The unbundling of pay-TV appears a direct response to the launch of Netflix, but also seems to suggest that additional growth through the old model of bundled pay-TV through satellite is coming to a natural end in its growth.”

After Losing 100k Paying Users, Sky Splits Pay TV from Satellite is a post from: SiliconANGLE We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

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With rumors of an IPO coming as early as this week, Facebook is, for once, making headlines for something other than mandatory profile updates and privacy concerns.  While there’s fear an IPO could ruin Facebook’s “startup” appeal and slow down innovation, an initial public offering could raise enough capital for Facebook to more aggressively grow its verticals.  Two areas of importance for Facebook moving forward include mobile and social television.  It’s part of a larger “connected device” trend that’s delivering content through more channels, and as this space expands, Facebook will need to monetize the social aspects of these channels as well.

Facebook Mobile

Facebook’s mobile strategy has been pretty limited to apps so far, favoring iOS in terms of launch schedules and feature updates.  And Facebook’s actual apps center around social interaction and accessing account information, doing little to extend their platform’s ecosystem for Facebook apps, particularly games.  This is where Facebook will really need to build out its ecosystem if it hopes to gain ground in the mobile sector, where Google, Apple and even Microsoft are already ahead.

Looking at the latest rumors, Facebook’s plans for mobile include a handset of its own.  This isn’t likely the way to win in the mobile arena–there’s enough devices on the market, and plenty of competing operating systems.  Even Android is diversifying across niche devices like the Kindle Fire, which has a stripped down version of Google’s mobile OS, adding to the fragmentation woes that plague developers, retailers, carriers and consumers alike.

What Facebook needs is a solid mobile extension of its own platform, that will enable better points of integration for the companies building apps for Facebook’s site and/or mobile marketplaces.  Sure, you can tap Facebook contacts for a round of Words with Friends, but this is still a segmented initiative on the part of the game publisher. Unifying a web and mobile presence will be a key software development for Facebook moving forward.

We’re already seeing the necessity of this with Zynga, which is making its appeal to mobile gamers and forced to leave Facebook behind in the process.  Increasing gamers on tablets and smartphones in today’s market means diversifying away from the very platform that brought Zynga to the point of success to launch its own IPO, especially with Facebook imposing a 30 percent tax on revenue made on its website.  In order to retain the value of its ecosystem, Facebook will have to support the mobile transition for its developer community, and possibly better incorporate its offerings with the mobile market mainstays, like Android and iOS.

Facebook already has a budding relationship with Microsoft, one of its high profile investors, which has already integrated Facbook’s social graph into its search results and facilitated deals like Skype’s video calls on the network.  As Microsoft continues to layer up its own platform, tying efforts with Windows 8, Windows Phone and Xbox, Facebook could make room for an easier transition on this front.

Facebook on TV

Facebook is a term associated with nearly all things social, whether online or off.  The worldwide network has set national revolutions in motion, held firm as a platform for religious and political debate and enabled a new sense of globalization as far as culture and access are concerned.  So when we think of TV’s future as being a social one, it’s hard to avert a discussion about Facebook as well.  But even more than mobile, Facebook’s absent from the social TV trend in many regards, though it presents a grand opportunity for extended channel distribution as well.

You don’t have to look further than the first month of 2012 to realize the growing importance of socializing the tube.  The Super Bowl is rank with advertisers seeking ways beyond Facebook Pages and tweets to engage viewers, reeling in participation from General Motors, Coca Cola and Shazam.  These brands in particular are leveraging mobile devices to send viewers directly to a website where they can gain more information about a product, unlock free content and qualify for prizes.  With approximately 60 percent of all Super Bowl viewers expected to be within arm’s reach of a smartphone or tablet, mobility is becoming an important avenue for television to become more interactive and social.

The first week of 2012 also brought a slew of connected device expectations from TV set makers like Sony and LG.  Not only are they building out their own integrated system, but many are looking to Google TV as a platform to extend the newest social TV trends.  At CES this year we saw the future of TV, and it’s a highly social one, with in-screen chats, recommendations, sharing functions and rewards systems.  And Google’s much further ahead on this initiative than Facebook, given its Android platform and default social interactions that are cataloged every time you use a Google-powered app or service.  Apple, too, has demonstrated initiative in this space, though its personal media cloud approach is lacking social capabilities.

Leave it to apps, and even cable providers to fill in the missing gaps here.  Even Comcast’s jumping on this bandwagon, testing a social TV experience dubbed Xcalibur in Georgia.  It involves a recommendation engine and “friend trends” powered by Facebook.  Companies like GetGlue have also run with the social TV trend, building insight around marketing trends while rewarding viewers all the while.

Facebook’s ads = social monetization

Beyond merely powering existing gaming and TV efforts, Facebook will namely benefit from these extended channels by finding a way to loop things back into its own ecosystem.  Facebook’s true value lies in its ability to access users and their preferences, creating hoards of useful marketing data alongside an audience that can be monetized in a series of socially oriented ways.  It’s true that marketing has become very social, but above all, accessibility matters.  Facebook’s building a presence in the mobile and TV space, but it hasn’t reached a major point of influence for its own monetization or ad distribution.

There’s a new age dawning for socially driven marketing, and TV is a great way to attract the biggest budgets in media to the socially situated.  Social content management provider thismoment recognizes the convergence of connected devices and the future of marketing, a challenge that their new CMO John Bara will take head on.  Thismoment is building the technology for big ad shops, simplifying the transition for brands like Coca Cola, and bridging gaps for the likes of Google.  This all effectively leverages thismoment’s Digital Engagement Channel, a platform where brands and agencies can create, distribute and optimize branded and UGC content across Facebook, YouTube and beyond.

Facebook’s IPO will create jobs for the company, no doubt.  And those jobs will likely further Facebook’s goals around mobile and TV verticals as part of a larger scale approach to new media marketing.  Social is one of many considerations encompassed in new media marketing, and Facebook will have to find away to continuously ad value to its social platform amidst the growing network of associated platforms currently overlapping its space.

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[Thanks, Daisy.]

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“One class of competitors is the other over-the-top pure plays such as Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime,” the letter reads, adding, “We expect Amazon to continue to offer their video service as a free extra with Prime domestically, but also to brand their video subscription offering as a standalone service at a price less than ours.”

Amazon’s Instant Video comes free with a $79 subscription to Amazon Prime though non-subscribers can still buy or rent individual movies and TV episodes on a per-title basis. The New York Post said the new service would be derived from the Netflix’s business model in a way, but spokespeople from both Netflix and Amazon have yet to comment on this speculation. The report also said that Amazon is already working on the matter, but has been having a tough time with licensing.

“The big issue is their bundled media service,” spills the “unnamed digital media executive” to post. “The subscription service, with the goodies being free video, is contractually an issue for the licensers.”

Amazon is not at all new to the streaming content space, as it holds Lovefilm in the UK. The subsidiary successfully offers DVD rentals by mail, and streams content online to subscribers as well.  It has been doing so even before Netflix took up a similar business model with international appeal. Amazon was Lovefilm’s largest shareholder in 2008, until last year when it finally took ownership of the company.

But Netflix doesn’t seem to be that worried about the potential and current competition from Amazon, or Hulu Plus for that matter, as “both Amazon and Hulu Plus’s content is a fraction of our content, and we believe their respective total viewing hours are each less than 10% of ours.”

There’s also the issue of whether or not Amazon can win over the hearts of Netflix users with a price war.  Netflix has recovered quite well from its price hike and product changes last year, as their sales and user base continue to increase. They currently have 220,000 consumers and earned 21.6 million in Q4 2011.

Netflix is Asking for It: Deems Amazon its Nemesis is a post from: SiliconANGLE We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

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“Contour is excited to partner with Recon Instruments, expanding our connectivity offerings,” said Contour CEO, Marc Barros. “Now, Contour and Recon users can use their MOD Live-enabled goggles making it easier than ever to capture epic moments from the mountain. Our continued efforts to merge video, data and Bluetooth connectivity show our ongoing commitment to innovation and to helping people of all skill levels share highlights from their adventures.”

The synergistic effect is demonstrated when users download the Contour Camera Connectivity app see MOD Live’s virtual 14-inch display via a remote control that uses Bluetooth technology to connect contour+ or ContourGPS camera to MOD Live. With just a tap, MOD Live can wirelessly tether to Contour Bluetooth-enabled cameras for easy accessibility to changing camera settings, starting/stopping the camera from up to 10 yards away, and viewing battery life remotely.

Contour’s been on a tear lately, rounding up key partnerships to extend its services into more devices.  We saw one of their latest at the At the recent Consumer Electronic Show, where Cerevo “LiveShell,” dubbed the world’s smallest and cheapest portable live-streaming video solution, debuted. Real-time video broadcasting by the service to UStream was made possible by connecting Contour’s Contour+ Camera to Cerevo’s Live Shell via an HDMI cable.

Record and Stream from Goggles – Contour’s Latest Connected Device is a post from: SiliconANGLE We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

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Vimeo

One of the leading online video brands, Vimeo has revealed a slew of changes that would pave the way for the rollout of the new site. The redesign aims to attract more users by means of an enhanced streaming experience. Some of the improvements include a double-sized, full-width player, allowing users to play videos from their personal homepage, better navigation, tighter account security options and a host of new sharing and discovery features. Vimeo CEO Dae Mellencamp says this is spruce up is original, and that they would like to start a new trend within the online video space.

Mellencamp also shares how their commitment to their avid users drove them to reinvent their site:

“Vimeo’s growth [approx. 65M Monthly uniques in Dec. 2011] and dedication to maximizing the user experience was the catalyst for this redesign. The result protects the essence of Vimeo while allowing for future growth of audience and features in a simple, intuitive environment.”

Youtube

Following a much discussed Obama hangout, Google’s other video prodigy has proudly announced the milestone of 4 billion daily video views.  YouTube has achieved a 25% increase in video streaming in the past eight months. The leap was attributed to the viral videos in its shelf, the mobility boom, the social networking craze and jumping outside personal computers to internet TV and smartphones.  Moreover, around 60 hours worth of video is being downloaded every minute on Youtube.com. In December, we reported 1 trillion playbacks for the site, noting their biggest videos of the year.

Although Hulu is surpassing them in the online video advertising race, YouTube remains a staple go-to for video streaming, according to a recent comScore study. VEVO is hailed as the site’s strongest partner. It has also undergone some massive website revamps before 2011 ended. Just a week ago, the video streaming hub has announced a new film competition in partnership with no less than the Venice Film Festival and Ridley Scott. This online film fest hopes to epitomize YouTube as the low-cost entertainment center.

With all these developments, Google is still lucky to have acquired YouTube in 2006—a good catch, a good buy, indeed.

Boxee

Following the launch of Netflix in the United Kingdom, Boxee has promised to bring forth its services to customers via the online streaming giant.  And following the “reinvention” trend, the company is no longer just a plain and simple media streamer, with the release of Boxee Live TV. The app, which they introduced during the recently-concluded CES event, is the option for users to share what they are watching on Facebook and Twitter. Aside from this, they have also brought the SOPA protest to living rooms, joining an internet movement against the proposed legislation.

Online Video Ads

Internet TV and streaming are greatly influencing the rise of online video ads.  A recent report notes how consumers rely on digital content, especially online video marketing campaigns, before purchasing a product.

Providing more solutions to publishers, Tremor Video acquires InPlay, video analytics solutions. With this, videohub publishers will be given better picture and real-time data on user engagement, viewership and performance ratings.

User engagement and management is going to play a crucial role in the mounting online video competition. With several options budding from every direction and strong growth on European soil, loyalty and innovation will keep the business alive. It will be quite interesting to see who will win the battle for the broadcast of the future.

Video Vogue: Vimeo Reinvents Itself, Boxee Goes Live TV is a post from: SiliconANGLE We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

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