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EdgeCast Ready To Take On Akamai, Limelight
Paying less for bandwidth to serve-up streaming media and downloadable video clips on websites could become the bait that hooks the customer. At least that’s what James Segil, co-founder and president of content delivery network EdgeCast Networks, hopes.
On Monday, the Los Angeles-based company plans to introduce a flexible bandwidth pricing model to the CDN business. Most CDN companies charge fixed bandwidth prices along with other services. These are annual contracts, and can cost many hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, and large media sites spend many, many millions, depending on the volume.
Service Quality Takes Front Row
Today, people accept jittery video from poor connections, inadequate bandwidth, and temperamental video players, but as more high-value content moves online, dragging ad revenues along with, advertisers will demand better quality. And so will you.
Brightcove, KickApps, Move Networks, and Maven Networks all get the clear picture. Individually, the companies, who provide video services to content owners, are working to develop standards that deliver high-quality internet TV with quality-of-service levels similar to those offered by the telecommunications industry for traditional broadcast networks.
But for now — as Lifegoggles demonstrated with its comparison of 44 different embeddable vidieo players a while back — ogling at internet television content leaves quality to the eyes of the beholder.
The Professionalization of Internet TV
Next New Networks, ON Networks, Revision3, 60 Frames, Vuguru, Telegraph Ave Productions, WatchMojo — what do these companies have in common? They all use Moore’s Law and low-cost distribution over the Internet to disrupt the studio model, in the process building audiences that can rival a small cable channel. They are professionalizing internet TV.
And this business is going to get bigger. iSuppli, a market research firm, projects that professionally produced video will will bring in nearly $5.9 billion in revenues in 2011, up from $423 million in 2006.
Car Manufactures Drive HD Video Online
Taking a test drive behind the wheel of a car no longer means driving down to the local dealership and sitting in the driver’s seat. DriverTV now “brings the showroom to your livingroom” with high-definition videos and 360-degree virtual tours of many makes and models.
The site features three-minute detailed videos from 30 car manufacturers like Acura, BMW, Ford, and Infiniti. And after viewing some of the videos for a few 2007 cars, such as the $18,000 Honda Accord and the $300,000 Rolls Royce Phantom, it’s easy to understand why Time.com named DriverTV one of 50 Best Websites of 2007
Where to Find Good Video: WeShow
Sometimes you just want to sit back, relax, and have good web video found for you. WeShow is not your typical startup — with a huge employee count, considerable funding, heavyweight backers, and an editorial rather than technological focus — and it’s aiming to do just that.
New York-based WeShow aggregates content from more than 20 video hosting sites, relying on 45 of its 70 employees to scour major video sites to rate, filter, organize and place the best into one of 200 channels. Looking for uniqueness, quality of image and sound, the staff reviews thousands of videos everyday, analyzing content at niche sites and blogs to identify interesting themes for the site.
Startup Watch: Hot Clubs on Video at PerfSpot
Remember Chris Kattan and Will Ferrell trying to get a glimpse of the Roxbury, a hot night club in the 1998 comedy, A Night At The Roxbury? Well, that is how you can feel standing in a line, braving the cold trying to get into hot new club in say Los Angeles, New York or London, before being denied entry by some bouncer. All that time wasted, when you don’t even know if the trip inside is worth a visit. What if you could get a glimpse of what’s going on inside, as a video clip or streaming live video?
Entrepreneur Hart Cunningham, 30, plans to do exactly that. The Claremont Colleges MBA self-funded his startup PerfSpot with $2 million earned from other ventures like computer tech-support service Juvio and marketing and online banner-ad firm Alansis, which supports companies like Bank of America and Wells Fargo.
Cunningham, who launched social networking site PerfSpot in March 2007, plans to add a video service by September that lets you see inside your favorite bars and nightclubs. Meanwhile, a new feature introduced Monday on PerfSpot allows members to upload home videos to the site. Privacy features control who can view the videos.
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