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One True Media Ties Up $9M Round for Video Ad Creation
SpotMixer, the new online ad-creation arm of One True Media, has closed a $9 million Series B round, with funding from DAG Ventures, NTT Finance and previous investor Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The company had previously focused on personal video and slideshow creation tools, but it launched SpotMixer as a business-focused version of those tools in April.
We’d already written about this round, after reports of a regulatory filing saying the Redwood City, Calif.-based company had raised $8 million of a would-be $10 million round. One True Media had originally raised $5 million from Kleiner in 2006.
SpotMixer also announced today that Google has made it a Google AdWords reseller; businesses who create video ads on its platform will now be able to distribute them through Google’s massive network. The company clearly has friends at the Goog; SpotMixer is already included in Google’s TV ad creation toolset.
Competitors include Spot Runner and Jivox.
Adobe Continues March Onto Your TV
Adobe and Broadcom Corporation announced today that Flash will be integrated into Broadcom’s latest digital television and set-top box system-on-a-chip platforms. The partnership will make it easier to watch web video on your TV, and comes one day after Adobe announced a similar chip partnership with Intel.
Why the sudden push into chips? Stacey over at GigaOM does a god job of explaining:
Software companies have to port their programs to a variety of processors to keep up with the expansion of heterogeneous computing. Witness Adobe’s efforts to get Flash released on PCs (x 86 chips) and mobiles (ARM architecture) at the same time. And Adobe has to address embedded efforts too, especially since electronics makers want to turn the TV into a web-connected device.
Flash is the dominant video platform on the web, and Adobe wants to keep it that way as more televisions start receiving online video. ABI Research predicts that, thanks to more Net-connected TVs, the number of people watching online video will boom to 941 million in 2013, up from 563 million at the end of 2008. Getting in on the chip level with biggies like Intel and Broadcom is one tactic to ensure Flash’s dominance.
Broadcom’s Flash-supporting chips are expected to be available to manufacturers in the first half of this year.
Update: And the chips just keep comin’. Sigma Designs announced that it will be integrating Flash into Sigma’s system-on-a-chip products for digital televisions, set-top boxes and other devices.
Roku to Add Amazon VOD
Roku announced today that it will be adding Amazon’s Video On Demand streaming service to its set-top box as the company moves beyond just being the Netflix player. The new Amaz-oku service will be available “beginning in early 2009.”
From the press release:
Amazon Video On Demand and the Roku Player will enable customers to:
- Access and add to their virtual library of purchases via Amazon Video On Demand’s Your Video Library, and re‐watch them anytime on the Roku Player or online with a PC, MAC or other compatible device.
- Watch new release movies the same day that they are released on DVD. Hit titles such as “The Dark Knight,” “Hancock,” “Pineapple Express”, “Tropic Thunder” and hundreds more that are not currently available on the Roku Player.
- Enjoy instant playback, no downloading, no waiting and no subscription fee.
- Browse Amazon.com’s huge selection of over 40,000 movies and TV shows for rent or purchase.
- Enjoy Amazon Video On Demand’s high‐quality video through its use of the advanced h.264 codec and an automatic bandwidth detection feature that seamlessly plays back the best quality file at either 300, 600, 900 or 1200 kbps.
- Easily setup their Roku Player using its built‐in Wi‐Fi connection and begin watching videos within minutes.
- Connect their Roku Player to any television set using HDMI, Component Video, Composite Video, S‐Video, Stereo Audio or Optical Audio connections.
This means that Roku users can enjoy both new releases a la carte through Amazon (rental prices range from $0.99 to $3.99), and watch older, library content through their Netflix subscription — all for just $99. And since Roku said last year that it was opening up its box and streaming video from other “big name” providers, you can bet your bippy more content partnerships are on the way.
Intel, Adobe Partner for Web Video on TVs
We’re not even a full week into the new year and a dominant story for 2009 is already starting to take shape: newteevee on your oldteevee set.
Intel and Adobe announced today that they are collaborating to bring Flash to the Intel CE 3100 Media Processor, a move the two companies say would provide a better, more seamless web video viewing experience on your HDTV. The new Flash-enabled chips are set to roll out before the middle of the year and will be found in CE 3100-based cable set-top boxes, Blu-ray disc players, digital TVs and other AV devices.
Watching web video on your TV set isn’t anything new. Set-top boxes like TiVo and the Apple TV have been offering web video options for a while, but recently we’ve begun to see where it’s heading. YouTube HD streams on an HDTV look pretty sweet, and Netflix, which is already streaming content (some of it in HD) to a host of set-top boxes, will soon be streaming content directly to LG televisions with no external box required.
And it’s not just the web video content that’ll be showing up on oldteevee. Intel is also working with Yahoo to widgetize TV sets, offering weather updates, ticker symbols, Flickr integration and more.
Netflix on LG TVs: No Box Required
Netflix announced today that its streaming service will be embedded directly into broadband-enabled LG HDTVs coming out this spring. This marks the first time that streaming Netflix content to a television set won’t require an external box like the Roku.
While LG is the first television partner for Netflix it isn’t the first manufacturer to offer broadband-connected TVs. Panasonic’s Viera TVs have YouTube video capabilities and Amazon’s Video on Demand streaming service is available on Sony Bravia Internet Link sets.
Now imagine when all those TVs start offering all those video services (and more!). You could watch new release content through a la carte rental, courtesy of Amazon; library titles through your Netflix subscription; and your favorite web video through YouTube — all with the push of a button on your remote (I pity the UI designers tasked with making all that content navigable and searchable).
As Om noted over at GigaOM, this ain’t great news for burgeoning set-top box makers. Broadband-connected TVs don’t spell immediate doom for set-top box manufacturers like Roku and Apple TV (people still have to adopt these new types of sets) — but the writing has got to be on the wall. And as I wrote earlier, the wildcard in this scenario is cable and telcos. They stand to lose big if you trade in your pricey subscription to watch video delivered over the web. Will bandwidth caps and metered access rain on this new TV-set parade?
2008: Set-top Boxes Set Up for a Fight
Think of 2008 as Act I when it comes to set-top boxes, the prelude of what’s to come. Next year will bring the conflict in Act II, and 2010? Hopefully Act III and a resolution.
In 2008, all manner of brand-name and upstart players began vying to be the box that connects to your TV set delivering movies, TV, web video and is basically the center of your digital media universe. Stalwarts like HP and Blockbuster rolled out their devices as newcomers Sezmi and Verismo came on to the scene (while still others, like Vudu, tried everything to get noticed). But the two real newsmakers of the year were Apple and Netflix.
Apple kicked the year off with a bang by rebooting its Apple TV, and it looked like Steve Jobs & Co. were poised to dominate video the same way they dominated music. Throughout the year Apple added all the major studios (even nabbing HBO), got digital releases day-and-date with DVDs and added HD content (heck, it even kissed and made up with NBC).
But it was Netflix who crashed Apple’s set-top party and became the one to watch — literally.
Five Festivus Grievances for Online Video
Festivus, the alternative to Christmas introduced in an episode of Seinfeld more than a decade ago, is still going strong. In keeping with that faux holiday spirit, it’s time for the annual “airing of the grievances,” which according to Wikipedia, “consists of lashing out at others and the world about how one has been disappointed in the past year.”
I’m talking to you, NewTeeVee Industry. Here’s how you’ve let me down.
1. Lack of originality with web series. Thankfully the girl-with-camera-news-craze seems to have slowed, though it looks like everyone is just jumping on the sci-fi series bandwagon instead. And so help me, if read one more pitch that includes the phrase “It’s like ___________ meets The Office,” I’m gonna scream. It’s called “new” media, not “re-hashing old” media.
2. Too many cords. This one is more for my wife, who considers the rat’s nest of cables connecting various set-top boxes to our TV set an eyesore. Either consolidate everything into one magic box, or hurry up and pick a wireless standard.
3. More HD streams. I know our Internet infrastructure can’t really handle all HD, all the time yet, but now that I’ve seen Netflix, Hulu and even YouTube in streaming high-definition, I can’t go back to cruddy video quality. Stream everything possible in HD, now.
4. Licensing issues. Ugh. I can understand licensing windows (barely). Studios still want people to watch TV shows on a TV first. OK, fine. But once a show airs, there is no reason why it shouldn’t live online forever. Quit yanking shows off Hulu and littering the web with dead embeds.
5. Bandwidth caps and metered access. They stink, they’ll stifle innovation and the only “winners” will be the greedy cable and telcos.
BBC Rolls Out AIR iPlayer, Ditches Kontiki P2P, Proposes Tiered Broadband Services
The BBC has just rolled out a new desktop version of its popular iPlayer service based on Adobe’s AIR platform. The new client is available for UK residents as part of the BBC iPlayer Labs beta test, and it will be released to the public some time next year. BBC’s iPlayer client previously only offered downloadable content for Windows PCs. The new client will also be available for Mac and Linux users.
The launch of the new client is a big blow for the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based content delivery service startup Kontiki, whose P2P technology powered previous iPlayer versions. Beep Online media exec Anthony Rose cited falling broadband prices as a reason to shift away from P2P. But the move could also be part of a new approach to appease local ISPs that are increasingly voicing concerns about the growing iPlayer bandwidth footprint.
Warner Music and YouTube in a Spat
Videos from Warner Music recording artists (Madonna, Metallica) are being removed from YouTube because of a breakdown in licensing negotiations between the two sides.
There’s been some he said/she said as to who is at fault, with both sides issuing statements. AllThingsD reports that both sides were close to a deal when Warner changed the terms, and in response Google made the decision to pull Warner music videos. According to The New York Times, the deal between YouTube and Warner expired many months ago (YouTube’s deals with other major music labels including Sony, Universal and EMI will be expiring soon). Of course, this is all probably a ploy, as one side tries to wring better terms out of the other (see NBC v. Apple), and neither side appears to be in any rush to yank the content, as Madonna and Metallica’s YouTube channels are still up.
The Times also notes that Warner reported $639 million in digital revenue for the fiscal year that ended in September and less than 1 percent of that was from YouTube’s ads and fees, which would be less than $6.39 million. Earlier this week, Universal Music said that it was making “tens of millions” in revenue from YouTube.
Rainbow Kills Domestic Voom HD
Rainbow Media Holdings is shuttering U.S. operations of its Voom HD service and its package of 15 networks, Multichannel News reports. Rainbow blames the closure on DISH Networks no longer carrying the service and the anticipated lengthy legal battle over that discontinuation.
DISH was the largest distributor of Voom, but let go of the service after a contract dispute back in May. Rainbow filed suit for contract violation and is asking for $1 billion in damages. DISH booting Voom HD to the curb left only Rainbow parent company Cablevision as the sole U.S. distributor. Cablevision will replace the Voom content with new HD programming when Voom shuts down in January.
Pali Research hailed the move, with Richard Greenfield writing in his “Raising 2009 Free Cash Flow Again; We Can Finally Forget About VOOM” note to clients:
We believe Cablevision’s liquidity position has strengthened as the company is finally exiting non-core, money-losing businesses. We are pleased to see CVC management acting in the best interest of shareholders, with Jim Dolan putting the final nail in Voom’s coffin…
…While specific financials for the VOOM networks have never been made available, we know that CVC had been obligated in prior years to spend at least $100 mm annually (with minimal revenue from the channels).
Voom’s closing will result in layoffs, though some of Voom’s staff will stay on to maintain the international business, where Voom reaches 32 million subscribers in 36 countries.
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