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Archive for October, 2007

Hulu.com beta

October 30th, 2007 Comments off

If you want to take a look at an NBC/Fox attempt to steal market share from Google/YouTube, you can take a look at the beta here: Hulu.com

It makes sense that some big "me too" ventures would crop up. The smart thing would be for these two networks to promote Hulu.com heavily on their broadcasts. They’ll be able to generate a surprising amount of spike traffic this way.

Interesting counterbalance to Google’s lock on search traffic.

TV still trumps search when it comes to eye balls, but of course the the Internet, the distance from screen to play button is a whole lot shorter.

Categories: Internet TV Tags:

Online TV App Breaks the Mold

October 12th, 2007 No comments

Joost Logo

There have been illegal TV episode viewing sites for years, each getting shut down by the MPAA and similar entities for illegal distribution. You might have visited one of these sites, watched a few episodes of The Simpsons Season 4 and the next day, the site vanished. Apple Inc. in the past year has been making agreements with cinema and television companies in order to provide video content for iTunes and the iPod. Other companies are beginning to follow suit.

An Online TV Application called Joost was recently released to the public. Joost claims to be the first Broadcast Quality Internet Television service. The Online TV Company secured $45 million in financing back in May 2007. Joost has since made agreements with major networks like MTV, CNN, Discovery Channel, WB, and CBS so they can provide over 15,000 shows and several channels at launch.

Joost Interface

Joost is an application that you can download for free for Windows and Mac. You need a broadband connection to use the service. Joost boasts an amazing interface that allows you to browse channels via a grid. You can search for a show you want to watch. There are chat rooms, so you can talk with others watching the same show, similar to watching TV in your own home. There is instant messaging support for gMail and Jabber. Joost supports multiple accounts, so different users can customize the interface to their liking. There are commercial breaks with only one commercial per break.

Look at Joost Press Releases Here.

Download Joost from the Official website to see what the buzz is all about.

Categories: Internet TV Tags:

Microsoft video

October 1st, 2007 Comments off

Microsoft has now launched its online video service out of Beta.

http://video.msn.com

Aside from the fact MSN Video will distribute content for NBC Universal and News Corp, and this video content will include full-length programming, movies and clips from at least a dozen television networks and two major film studios.

Forget the fact that they have years of experience in encoding and distributing video across the Internet, or their robust and scalable content delivery network. 

The real buzz is the other side of the new MSN Video portal.

It’s Microsoft’s "User Generated Content" section called SoapBox on MSN.

There are over 100 websites that offer the ability to upload your videos for the world to view, most notably YouTube and Google Video.

So why would Microsoft’s SoapBox be important?

Three words: "Mass Market Reach".

For the last 24 months Microsoft has really been investing in a collection of integrated services and products called Windows Live.

The most familiar is Windows Live Messenger, the replacement for the market leading MSN Messenger.

So wouldn’t it be a nice idea if Microsoft would let you create a list of videos on MSN Soapbox and then actually watch them with your friends and family in Windows Live Messenger.

Well you can… here is an image of how it looks:

http://www.marctalkstech.com/images/messenger-soapbox.jpg

Now realize that Windows Live Messenger is free to download and is available in 26 languages and is used in more than 60 countries by more than 240 million active accounts each month. And you should start to see the attractive nature of this new video portal.

Can anyone say "Viral Video"? But it does not end there.

Microsoft is adding MSN SoapBox functionality directly within other Windows Live software that can be downloaded free of charge.

Windows Live Writer (Blog posting software for the desktop) and Windows Photo Gallery (desktop photo/video management software) now offer SoapBox support for uploading videos to Microsoft’s portal, and in the case of Live Writer actually posting SoapBox videos you find directly to your blog.

Also don’t forget the Microsoft Search engine "Live.Com" which serves up videos direct from its own MSN Video portal!

After purchasing YouTube, Google always seemed to be unrivaled in terms of online video.

But that may be about to change now Microsoft has entered the arena in a big way and with a sound business model included. Whilst you may argue SoapBox is no YouTube, Microsoft does have a huge user base to tap into – and it is!

Let the battle begin.

Marc Liron
Microsoft MVP
www.marcliron.com

Note from Ken:

P.S. Did you know I’m on the road this fall?

For the first time in three years, I’ll be
offering small group trainings in Internet
marketing.

Here’s where I’ll be and when:

Toronto – October 13
Los Angeles – November 3
San Francisco – November 10
Vancouver – November 17

Details: http://www.SystemIntensive.com

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