For The Record, 13% Surge in U.S’ December Online Video Viewership
Monday, February 16th, 2009 | Internet TV | No Comments
One of the most prominent institutions that show statistical data regarding online viewing within a certain area has recently released its report for the U.S. According to comScore’s report for December 2008, using their Video Metrix technology, the U.S. online viewers posted a record breaking 14.3 billion online video views during the month of December 2008 alone. This was a 13% increase from November last year. The prime domain that led the record number of views is obviously YouTube, which accounts for almost 50% of the percent gain regarding online video viewing against November.
During the same month of December, Google Domains led the pack in terms of total share of the video market. Basing on the total projected 14,318,722,000 Internet video views at U.S. homes, work places and academic institutional zones, Google Sites accounted to about 5.9 billion video views, which is about 41 percent of the total cyber video share. Again, it was YouTube that monopolized this market share with greater than 99% of all the videos seen at the Google properties. Next in rank is Fox Interactive Media posting 445 million online video views (only 3.1% overall market share), third are the Yahoo Domains registering 2.3$ market share with 330 million views and not so far at fourth place is Viacom Digital having 291 million online video views (2%). Similarly Hulu, another online video domain, is fast catching up with 241 million (a 6% increase from their November market share). This ranking does not include networks with video servers.
IPTV in Sao Paulo Soon To Launch With Telefonica
Monday, February 16th, 2009 | Internet TV | 1 Comment
The Brazilian auxiliary arm of the Spanish telco empire Telefonica is set to launch its range of IPTV technologies in Sao Paulo sometime in June 2009, with the help of local cable provider TVA. This is according to Antonio Carlos Valenter, head of the said Brazilian subsidiary.
If broadband access was just for the elite or illustrious group several years back, the aim of the company is now to make it a common technology that is easily made available for a wide array of consumers. Knowing that San Paolo is a very competitive area for the IPTV market, the people from this telco are thinking ahead. In one of his interviews, Mr. Valente claimed that the only thing that will differentiate their services against their competitors in Sao Paolo is how they cluster their applications.
To further its coverage in Brazil, Telefonica also planned to invest more this year. The company is expected to make at least a 20% increase in funds unlike the previous year’s (R$ 2.4 billion) or about (US$ 1.03 billion only. When asked a bout the possibility of many pressures and obstacles coming to the company due to the global economic turmoil, Mr. Valente just commented that he is yet to witness the so-called effects of this phenomenon. In case, it will hit them, he is pretty much confident that they are prepared and equipped to battle it out.
It is said that Brazil is one of the most significant consumers for Telefonica’s businesses which accounts somewhere between 15% and 16% of the company’s worldwide turnover, whereas general Latin America covers about 34%.
ZeeVee, One of the Finalists for CEA’s Mark of Excellence Awardees 2009
Monday, February 16th, 2009 | Internet TV | No Comments
CEA, completely known as the Consumer Electronics Association, hailed ZeeVee as one of the finalists of three major categories for CEA’s Mark of Excellence this year. The award giving body recognizes ZvPro 250 for Best Distributed A/V Category. Secondly, ZvBox Zv100 Bundle made it for the category of Best Media Server and lastly, Zinc was included as one of the Best Software Applications. Yearly, all tech enthusiasts composed of manufacturers and the like vie for these prestigious awards for certain categories. Each of these categories is manned by a set of four judges from various ranks in the technology industry such as system integrators, electronics consultants and associates of the trading press. All of them will help determine who among a limited number of finalists is to rightfully receive the coveted prizes.
Looking back at ZeeVee’s products, ZvPro 250 is a high definition systems allocation that transforms the manner on how high definition video is dispensed on-premise. Using similar technologies utilized by TV networks and cable operators, ZvPro 250 makes it possible to create cost-effective HD television channels and distributes the signal using easy to use COAX wire connections to all HDTVs on-premise.
The other ZeeVee product termed ZvBox 100 Bundle permits the web users to shift from using their small-screened PCs and uncomfortable desk stools to the better screening experience of their living rooms, not to mention the increased comfort they will get. This is the initial offering from ZeeVee that allows their users to watch online video content to any HD ready TV set. Lastly, Zinc is a web browser software that make your online surfing experience easier. Winners of the CEA Awards will be announced on March 13.
HDMI Transcends HDTVs, Going As Far As Set Top Units, Laptops And Many Others
Monday, February 16th, 2009 | Internet TV | No Comments
In the past HDMIs (High Definition Multimedia Interface) were only limited to the ports that one can usually find at the rear or sides of their high end HDTVs. However nowadays, the new HDMI ports are starting to migrate into a whole new world of electronic gadgets. DVD equipments, STUs or set top units (or boxes) including mobile computers are now adorned with their respective HDMI ports. Truly, high definition uncompressed data is no longer limited to HDTVs. It is even projected that HDMI ready devices will grow at about 23% yearly until 2012, says In-Stat.
Numerous popular electronics are already adopting the HDMI capability. In the not so distant future, we will also see the growth of HDMI enabled video cameras or camcorders as well as mobile media players. Nevertheless, some of these brand new HDMI gadgets has already been made and is now in the manufacturing stage.
Another report made by In-Stat states that 25% of all mobile PCs was already HDMI ready in 2008. Moreover, the popularity of IPTV set top units (STU) will continue to surge especially with the continued hype of the big DTV switch. IPTV boxes will breach to almost 85% of all HD-IPTV ready households and there will be about 17.6 million boxes that are HDMI capable by the year 2012. Moveable HDMI media players will also grow by 10% in the same year. On the contrary, DVI’s fame will slowly depreciate at a yearly rate of about 30% until 2012 because of the mass acceptance of the HDMI ports. Although they are similar to one another in terms of digital standards, DVI will surely lose its juice slowly.
December 2008, Google Domains Went Beyond 100 Million Video Viewers
Monday, February 16th, 2009 | Internet TV | No Comments
A marketing research firm in the U.S named comScore has unveiled their recent data regarding the trend of the American’s usual online video viewing habits. With their report, they managed to concretize some valuable facts.
According to them, 78.5% of the total Internet users in the U.S. watched online videos. Truly, people these days are not just into browsing but also love to watch online video streams. Amazingly, each of the said online web user was estimated to have watched 5 hours of online video content or more than 300 minutes, perhaps greater during December 2008. If all videos viewed will be shared equally per viewer, each one of them is said to average at about 59.2 number of videos viewed per individual. Now, that’s some video viewing.
Millions of viewers did this feat and managed to view 5.9 billion videos coming from one particular site – YouTube. Surprised? Without a doubt, the Google video properties reached more than 100 million online video viewers for the month. They managed to hold two thirds of the entire web audience and made them watch their videos.
About half lesser than the YouTube viewers, 48.7 million online web users viewed some videos on MySpace posting a very descent average of 7.6 video views per individual. It must be made clear however that the average video content was said to last for only 3.2 minutes, although those videos viewed from other web domains, such as Hulu contains videos that are about 10.1 minutes in length. This is significantly greater than any other video property network in comScore’s top ten ranking.
Attitudes of U.K. VOD Users, Now Classified
Thursday, February 12th, 2009 | Internet TV | No Comments
All VOD users share the same goal - they want to view content they love to watch and choose freely when to view them. Nevertheless, the VOD users can also be classified according to their varied set of attitudes. A certain study conducted among U.K. VOD users, group these individuals as follows:
A. The Broadcast Assassins (18%)
A tech know-how user, usually male under 25 years of age, who does not base his TV viewing needs on rigid TV show schedules. These individuals usually are preoccupied with their busy life outdoors and spend most of their time socializing with their peers. However, they also have a need to watch must-see TV shows amidst their hectic social demands. They prefer to watch U.S. produced TV series and classical content. They employ every means possible to watch VOD content even by going to certain illegal download sites. This group of VOD users is just pressured to use the illegal methods because of the weaknesses of legal VOD services.
B. The Schedule Slaves (20%)
Tried VOD, but are not engrossed about the concept of really being hooked with this kind of service. Using the TV schedules, they can easily find time to watch their favorite TV shows. They trust these timeslots like their daily bibles. Moreover, they are just about satisfied with how they are experiencing their services. Generally, this classification is not ultimately saying the bad or the good about VOD services. They are usually a dissimilar group of individuals that has different says about the general concept of video technology.
C. The Willing confused (17%)
They carefully plan their TV viewing ahead of time to avoid skipping their anticipated TV programs. They have tried using VOD services like BBC’s iPlayer but see little benefit from it due to complex user interfaces, highly technical specifications and unfriendly pricing of VOD content. In spite of this, there is still the possibility that they will increase their VOD viewing.
D. The Unengaged (24%)
This unique group of individuals does not like television that much. They only picture the TV set as an object that can wear out and easily go to junk anytime. They are the least likely classification to subscribe to VOD services.
E. The Sky Plussers (21%)
These are the habitual users of Sky+ and VOD content. They still manage to schedule TV viewing even with their very busy lives. Using VOD permits them to view the videos or TV shows that they love to watch. Oftentimes, this group is dominantly composed of parents while their kids use their PCs or netbooks to watch their own set of video clips and films. Some of them are also trying out the good and the bad in file sharing web domains. These individuals are undoubtedly glad even if they pay a little extra to watch quality VOD titles. About 40% of them testified to have bought their own titles from iTunes.
This study result is made available on a request basis from Essential Research. The report first underwent certain consultations from major TV networks or media companies such as BT Vision, BBC, Channel 4, Microsoft UK, ITV, MTV, UKTV, O2, Virgin Media and Warner.
Inconsistent Video On Demand Industry Directs Viewers To Download Illegally
Thursday, February 12th, 2009 | Internet TV | No Comments
Based on a research study conducted on the status of video on demand (VOD) in the United Kingdom, results show that the inconsistent or scrappy VOD delivery along with costly download fees and puzzling law restrictions have driven the legitimate VOD market away to succumb to illegal downloads. This is according to a shared point of view from the perspective of ordinary TV or video viewers. Because of these reasons, viewers do not have any smarter choice than to lessen their legal VOD usage and shift their attention to some illegal downloading in web domains. However, using Essential Research’s study entitled ‘VOD State of Play,’ they discovered that there is still a great need for VOD services and most customers are open to accepting advertising as a means to meet this need.
The said study further claimed that using the joint Q & Q outputs or qualitative and quantitative studies among hundreds of VOD subscribers, there will be an expected transition in how TV should be viewed. At present, 80% of all VOD users seldom use their existing services to view media content and about 24% of them still admitted to watch more television than the usual. There is another 26% who that claimed to have used P2P technology through torrent downloads. 42% of all the presumed illegally downloading VOD users also states that viewing TV or video content that are not originally scheduled in the U.K. is a prime factor as well. Moreover a majority, about 75%, of the VOD users are whining that their VOD charges should cost less.
Blinx Innovates Further
Thursday, February 12th, 2009 | Internet TV | No Comments
In addition to their high-end technology, Blinx allows the identification of the most popular entertainment clips and the hottest news stories from the vastness of cyberspace. This in turn will automatically generate a play list under some shortcut keys for easier access. That’s why all of the content can be delivered as a single channel to the user’s PC with just a single push of a button. For further video exploration, the viewer can also click the ‘more information’ note located at the lowermost right-hand corner of their media player.
By choosing the ‘more information’ option, Blinx unveils the following features to their customers.
A. Speech Tags – Speech recognition couldn’t be any sweeter than this. With the use of Blinx’s one of a kind technology, the speech content of any video can now be represented as tags or keywords. In this connection, the said keywords will be used for an easier video navigation wherein the web viewer can immediately jump to a certain part of a video where the keyword or key phrase has been mentioned. Finding relevant videos bearing the same line or tags will also be easier with this system. The best example for this is probably when a web user will enter a certain keyword that enables him or her to go directly to a specific part from one of Pres. Obama’s public speeches.
B. Facial Recognition – With the use of Blinx’s visual examination processes, the system can instantaneously group or archive certain web videos between recognizable facial attributes within the videos. As an example, if ever there was an interview between the press and Obama, then the web users can select Obama’s face to jump at the content that focuses on his lines of conversation.
C. Scene Change – With this feature, Blinx amazingly spots out any changes from scene to scene and compares a video with other videos with matching visual characteristics. A good example is during the inauguration of Pres. Obama when the event was being broadcasted by many TV networks. In this regard, Blinx’s system can classify these related videos altogether and cluster them as related results. Moreover, the scenes within an entire video are displayed as a storyboard (like when you are editing a video in a standard movie maker software). Each scene will seem to be spliced or separated from other scenes for easier tracking by the viewer. With this feature, any viewer can find a scene that they want to see at a faster rate than usual. They can even regard this storyboard as chapter divisions wherein a single click to one chapter will bring the web user to that particular selection.
Overall by using these features wisely, the Blinx users can now enjoy better browsing choices, experience the most effectual or appealing way to browse, and uncover the benefits of watching online video in the best way possible. Whether you want to watch news, entertainments shows and even your anticipated TV series, you can grab all of these in just a single domain.
Blinx’s Addition Includes The ‘Inform Me’ And ‘Entertain Me’ Selections
Thursday, February 12th, 2009 | Internet TV | No Comments
Blinx, a leader in Internet media, revealed a brand new function that places all of their innovative systems comfortably at the fingertips of their consumers. These technologies will altogether unveil newer ways for them to browse or search media on the Internet. As the masses witnessed the positive development of the Internet media content over the past years, both the quality and complexity of media content have also grown considerably. With the aid of a speedier and improved Internet accessibility, the people’s experience in viewing online video is becoming more enjoyable each day to the point that it may compete with the quality of TV viewing. This is most especially true because people are now becoming more eager in hunting for quality video content over the Internet while being laid back and comfortably watching at their own convenience.
With regards to the development of the consumer’s viewing behavior, Blinkx is showing its users a new face of their homepage that features an “Entertain Me,” “Inform Me,” and “Give Me My Own Channel” keys offering them with an improved surfing experience. This is actually just a bonus coupled with Blinx’s most technologically advanced video search capabilities.
The updated Blinx web domain also permits its users to click the ‘inform me’ option to view the news stories that are making the headlines and the ‘entertain me’ option as well for the most entertaining web video around. Moreover, the ‘give me’ option enables the users to make a customized channel to suit their personal needs.
Recession Will Not Stop IPTV Services In Europe
Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 | Internet TV | No Comments
The IPTV services in Europe, amidst the continued recession in the global economy, are seen to be more competitive and stronger than ever. The total number of homes in Europe that will be using IPTV services is expected to grow by 26% in 2009 alone. This report is according to the latest study conducted by London-based research entity Screen Digest and they are saying that the IPTV industry will also continue to be the speediest pay TV mode across the entire continent in spite of the entire ruckus made by the worldwide crises.
Sometimes, the closure of minor telcos is necessary for the IPTV market to grow better, most especially in times of economic troubles. An example of such a company is Tiscali’s IPTV in Italy. On the other hand, the financial confidence established by partnering with big telcos made it possible for other new companies to grow in a battlefield that is often regarded as giving a ‘lower’ chance for new players in the game. Some European telcos like BT, Telefonica and Deutsche Telekom is at a greater advantage compared to some small and private companies because of these so-called ‘partnerships.’
Similarly, certain studies have been conducted and showed good vibes with the entertainment sector. It is because entertainment has become a need to the basic unit of the society. And to meet such a need, consumers will try their best to seek out for the cheapest way to experience entertainment. Hence, some companies will really remain stable despite the recession. Mr. Richard Broughton, a senior analyst of Screen Digest states that like VOD and DVD rentals, IPTV is another operation that will rise with the public’s continued demand for entertainment.
