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MyTube KW 44/2006
MyTube - Newsletter from LA KW 44 – 2006 (19 Themen auf 12 Seiten)
(1) Internet:
Echte Marktzahlen von einem Kollegen recherchiert, der Marketing für Yahoo.com
macht, aufgezeichnet auf dem weekly meeting der technology-networking group hier –
was die Nutzer wirklich suchen nach Suchbgeriffen im Oktober 2006:
1.8 Mio. suchen den Begriff “movie”
2.4 Mio. suchen den Begriff “games”
2.6 Mio. suchen nach “music”
(2) Internet:
Amazon.com: Wenn man die Titel nach Dopplern und gleichen Inhalten unter variierten
Titeln bereinigt, enthält das Sortiment von Amazon/ USA 64.000 Filmtitel und 265.000
Musiktitel.
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(3) SMS Spiel bei CBS:
Technology and Platforms
CBS offers "CSI" game via SMS
CBS is launching an interactive, text message-based game keyed to episodes of its hit
police procedural show "CSI," scheduled to run Nov. 1, Nov. 8 and Nov. 15. Each
episode will feature a trivia question; viewers who answer via SMS will pay $.99 to enter,
for the chance to win $10,000. Broadcasting & Cable (10/31)
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(4) Hintergrund dazu: Auch die Amerikaner steigen allmählich ins SMS-Schreiben ein,
hierzulande “texting” genannt: 64.5 Mio. SMS wurden allein über das Netz des Carriers
Cingular bei der letzten Folge von American Idol geschickt. Die ersten Abos gibt es, u.a.
kann man für $1.99 beim Sender Bravo für eine Reality Show “Project Runway” so
genannte “in-show”-messages abonnieren, also exclusive Hintergundinfos. Midnight
Money Madness ist ja bekannt, wo es angeblich Spitzen von bis zu 300 Anrufen pro
Sekunde geben soll (mündliche Aussage von Mindmatics hier).
R U Texting?
By Anne Becker -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/25/2006
This season, NBC's hit primetime game show Deal or No Deal is inviting viewers to send
a text message and pick the “lucky” case. Winners will walk away with $100,000 each.
NBC, meanwhile, will likely walk away with several million.
As more Americans get into the habit of communicating via a short-message system
(SMS)—sending text messages through a wireless or instant-messaging service—
television networks are discovering that texting is more than just a promotional tool for
drawing in viewers. It has become a tidy new revenue stream.
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Broadcast and cable networks alike are increasingly incorporating pay-to-text initiatives
into their reality programs. And while the networks emphasize that such interactive
campaigns are primarily meant to engage viewers, they're awakening to the revenue
possibilities as well.
STAGGERING POTENTIAL
“There's really the potential for the networks to generate some money now, and they're
taking it very seriously,” says Russell Kagan, a TV consultant and producer who has
coordinated texting campaigns for ABC and other networks. “It costs them almost
nothing, but the potential's staggering.”
Networks have invited viewers to send SMS text messages for years, charging them
between 49¢ and $2.49 to vote for reality-show contestants, play trivia games or request
digital extras, like screensavers. And viewers have obliged: Some 64.5 million messages
were sent during last season's American Idol on Fox—and that was only on Cingular's
wireless network.
The networks can walk away with 45%-60% of the proceeds after the cellular companies
and their aggregators—which contract with the networks and arrange the call-in codes—
get their share. With roughly 15 million Deal viewers sending SMS messages at 99¢ a
pop last season, NBC potentially cleared upwards of $4 million after splitting its take with
Endemol, Deal's producer—a nice piece of change. But network executives insist that
the dividends come in the form of viewer engagement.
“Let's be clear: There's absolutely a revenue number we're trying to make with wireless
as a whole,” says Salil Dalvi, VP of NBC Universal Wireless. But “it's a winning
proposition to get people more engaged in your shows, whether you're making money
from messaging or the distribution of content or because people are more familiar with
the brands.”
Cyriac Roeding, VP, Wireless, CBS Digital Media, similarly stresses the bigger picture.
“We're covering our costs and maybe a little more,” says Roeding, whose division has
created text interaction for CBS' Big Brother and Survivor and is developing campaigns
for corporate sibling The CW. “But the driver for us is not to get rich. The driver is to
increase the loyalty for the programming and increase the engagement and the
involvement of the consumer to the program.”
LEGALIZED GAMBLING?
On cable, Bravo's fashion reality contest Project Runway encourages viewers to pay
$1.99 a month to “adopt a designer” and receive exclusive “in-show” messages from the
contestant each week. GSN launched Playmania, in which users can call, text or go
online to participate.
Last month, TBS debuted Midnight Money Madness, a two-hour game show from
Endemol that runs live Mondays through Thursdays on both coasts and offers viewers
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$150 to $2,500 for answering trivia questions by texting, calling a 900 number or
entering online.
TNT/TBS Executive VP/COO Steve Koonin says the numbers have “far surpassed our
expectations”—more than a million paid entries so far (calls and texts combined), with
texting as the favored mode. Koonin also notes the show's median age is 36, right in the
middle of the advertiser-favored 18-49 demo.
While the networks hesitate to tout texting as a significant revenue engine, Steve Safran,
president of digital consulting company Safran Media Group, doesn't mince words.
“The genius of this is, they figured out a way to legalize gambling,” Safran says. “If
viewers are playing for a $10,000 contest, that's what this is. And it's astonishingly
profitable.”
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(5) Zahlen für user generated content? Wenn man das Geld dazu hat…
Video-Sharing Site Metacafe to Pay Top Producers
Palo Alto, Calif. - Video-sharing site Metacafe on Monday introduced a new program that
pays video creators for bringing traffic to their programming. The Producer Rewards
program will provide $5 for every 1,000 video clip views, in exchange for granting
Metacafe the non-exclusive right to distribute the video on any platform. The company
said that during a month-long trial, Producer Rewards videos were viewed more than 10
million times, earning thirty video creators a combined more than $60,000 for their work.
Palo Alto, Calif.-based Metacafe claims nearly 17 million unique monthly visitors.
http://tinyurl.com/yzlhxn
http://www.metacafe.com
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(6) Wie alt sind die Nutzer der sozialen Netzwerke?
Profiles for Social Networking Sites
ComScore shows visitors to MySpace.com and Friendster.com generally skew older,
with people age 25 and older comprising 68% and 71% of their user bases. Meanwhile,
Xanga.com has a younger user profile, with 20% of its users in the 12-17 age range,
about twice as high as that age segment’s representation within the total Internet
audience. Not surprisingly, Facebook.com, which began as a social networking site for
college students, also draws a younger audience. More than one-third (34%) of visitors
to Facebook.com are 18-24 years old, approximately three times the representation of
that age segment in the general Internet population.
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MySpace.com has the broadest appeal across age ranges, Facebook.com has created
a niche among the college crowd, Friendster.com attracts a higher percentage of adults,
and Xanga.com is most popular among younger teens. There is a misconception that
social networking is the exclusive domain of teenagers, but this analysis confirms that
the appeal of social networking sites is far broader. An analysis of visitors to
MySpace.com shows that as the site has experienced dramatic visitor growth, it has
become more popular among older Internet users. The most significant shift has
occurred among teens 12-17, who accounted for 24.7% of the MySpace audience in
August 2005, but today represent a much lower 11.9% of the site’s total audience.
Conversely, Internet users between the ages of 35-54 now account for 40.6% of the
MySpace visitor base, an 8.2% point increase during the past year.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internet Usage Statistics
10 mln Internet users in Vietnam
17 bln devices to connect to the Internet in 2012
18.6 mln mobile subscribers in Nigeria
20% of Malaysian government staff use Internet for personal activities
20.1 mln African Americans online by 2007
24% of rural Americans are online
3.6 mln Internet users in Mexico
30 mln Americans use My Yahoo!
30% of Internet users go online without any specific reasons
37% of Internet users spend less time reading books and more time online
4 mln MSN Messenger users in Australia
44% of UK population has no Internet access from home
5.39 mln Internet users in Netherlands
52% of Web users are women
61 mln online gamers in China by 2010
713 mln Internet users worldwide in June 2006
77% of Americans are online
82% of engineers use Internet to research required supplies
89% of US small businesses have Internet connections
Americans 18-26 years old spend 12.2 hours online every week
Families with kids spend 15.6-21.1 hours online weekly
Internet usage penetration is at 20% in Mexico
Top countries by time spent online: Israel, Finland, South Korea, Netherlands
US online gaming to generate $3.5 bln in 2009
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(7) Die nächste Welle nach UMTS und WLAN heißt WIMAX (auch nur ein weiteres
Funknetz, aber interessant wegen der zusätzlichen Bandbreite)
NEWSFLASH
The number of worldwide WiMAX users is forecasted to reach
14.9 mln in 2009, creating over $13.8 bln dollars in service
revenues for WiMAX market, Research and Markets reports.
WiMAX is expected to become a predominant portion of the
broadband wireless access market by 2009 because of the
wide support it has achieved from leading equipment vendors.
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(8) Online Rollenspiele – da ist noch viel Luft drin:
Online Role-playing Gaming Firm OGPlanet Gets Funding; Launches
Online role-playing gaming firm OGPlanet has just launched, and has received an
undisclosed amount of funding from some industry veterans. The idea is to bring some
popular Asian games to U.S, offer it for free, and then ask users to pay for the virtual
items (game pieces, clothing and accessories)...the first such is Albatross18, which it
says has already attracted hundreds of thousands of registered users in the States.
Existing games in Asia show an average of $10-$20 per player each month. In the U.S.,
Albatross18 is generating higher revenues of more than $25 per month per player, the
company said. Investors in OGPlanet include: Richard Wolpert, former President of
Disney Online and advisor to RealNetworks and Accel Partners; Mark Surfas, formerly
founder and CEO of GameSpy; Peter Levin, CEO of BellRock Media; and Andrew
Wright, former VP of RealArcade and currently CEO of SmileBox. RealNetworks is also
an investor in this new venture.
http://www.paidcontent.org/email_entry/301106/
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/online-role-playing-gaming-firm-ogplanet-gets-
funding-launches/
Trackback URL for this entry:
http://www.paidcontent.org/trackback/301106/
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(9) Die Werbung auf den mobilen Endgeräten muss ausgeliefert und abgerechnet und
verkauft werden: Gutes Feld für neue Firmen!
Mobile Ad Developer Rhythm NewMedia Raises $18 Million
Mountain View, Calif. - Rhythm NewMedia, a developer of mobile advertising
technology, announced on Monday that it has raised $18 million in a new funding round
led by Carlyle Venture Partners, the venture division of the Washington-based Carlyle
Group. All of the company's previous institutional investors, including Rembrandt
Venture Partners, Lightspeed and Morgenthaler, also participated in Rhythm's second
round. Mountain View, Calif.-based Rhythm's technology is designed to support
advertising on mobile video, mobile search and mobile messaging. Allan Thygesen, a
managing director at Carlyle, has joined the company's board of directors.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/061030/20061030005335.html?.v=1
http://www.rhythmnewmedia.com
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(10) Uralter Hut in Europa – hier in den USA gibt es für smart messaging sogar venture
capital:
Mobile Entertainment Retailer Thumbplay Secures $15 Million
New York - Mobile entertainment retailer Thumbplay announced on Monday that it has
raised $15 million in new funding, through a $10 million third round of venture capital led
by Bain Capital Ventures, and a $5 million load from Silicon Valley Bank. Other investors
in the Series C round included SoftBank Capital and i-Hatch Ventures. New York-based
Thumbplay sells mobile games, ringtones, wallpapers and other content directly to
consumers through a website that supports all major wireless carriers. The company has
partnerships with providers including Sony Pictures and Walt Disney Internet Group, and
offers more than 50,000 pieces of mobile entertainment content. Thumbplay will use the
funds to expand its marketing efforts and its mobile entertainment library.
http://tinyurl.com/y6grbj
http://www.thumbplay.com
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(11) WAP Chat Software auf Virgin Mobile (stammt aus England, war der erste Mobile
Virtual Network Operator)
Virgin Mobile USA Taps Jumbuck for Mobile Chat Services
San Rafael, Calif. - Jumbuck Entertainment, a provider of user-driven wireless
community and social networking services, announced on Monday that virtual mobile
network operator Virgin Mobile USA will use its technology to power WAP and Java-
based mobile chat services. Melbourne, Australia-based Jumbuck's mobile chat service
is available through 40 global carriers.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/061030/sfm089.html?.v=68
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http://www.virginmobileusa.com
http://www.jumbuck.com
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(12) User generated Content ist oft von schlechter Qualität –daher wird Software zur
Bildverbesserung interessant:
Motion DSP is creating a simple web based interface that will significantly enhance low
resolution camera phone video into surprisingly high quality stuff. It started off in 1998 as
a U.S. military funded project at UC Santa Cruz. In January 2005, Professor Peyman
Milanfar, the primary researcher behind the technology, co-founded Motion DSP.
The company compares multiple frames in a video to find and replace lost pixels in a
given frame, significantly enhancing the experience with little increase in overall file size
after compression. The service works best when a video is not moving rapidly or in a
jerking fashion, but tends to improve just about any low quality video. To see a
demonstration, check out this page on the site that contains three different before and
after video shots.
The service will go into consumer beta sometime this year, CEO and co-founder Sean
Varah told us. The service will be free and will allow users to upload a video and
download an enhanced version. But he also stressed that the focus will be on getting
deals done with the large online video sites, such as YouTube, to enhance user-
uploaded videos.
Motion DSP is headquartered in San Mateo, California and outsource large parts of
software development to Serbia. They’ve raised a $500,000 angel round and are
currently pitching a Series A round of financing.
Demos: http://www.motiondsp.com/OnlineVideoDemos2.html
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=motiondsp
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(13) Eine Alternative zum Selberbauen von YouTube, Clipfish und MyVideo: White
Lable Lösung kaufen und selber branden:
vSocial Gets $1.5M
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Tempe, Arizona-based social networking and video sharing site vSocial said Thursday
that it has received $1.5M in angel funding from Silicon Valley angel investors, and
launched its vConnect online video services. The funding came from Consor Capital and
angel investor Ron Conway. The company's new vConnect services allow companies
and others to create their own video channels, micro-sites, and communities. The new
services allow any company to create their own branded video sites. vSocial said that
the firm is leveraging Arizona-based LimeLight Networks for hosting and colocation, and
Akamai for its content delivery network.
posted on Thursday, October 26, 2006 (Link to more information)
Online-Video: Interview mit Mark Sigal CEO of vSocial:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid203719210?bclid=86272812&bctid=2851
00103
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(14) Was DIE so Besonderes haben, hab ich auch noch nicht herausgefunden:
User Video Site GoFish Goes Public, Raises $12 Million
San Francisco - GoFish, a user-generated online video site, said on Tuesday that it has
gone public through a reverse merger, and has raised $12 million in a private placement.
Through the deal, GoFish Technologies merged with GoFish Corp., a public company
that has previously been known as Unibio. The company's stock will now be listed on
the Over-The-Counter Bulletin Board. San Francisco-based GoFish said that it plans to
use the funds, from a group of institutional and private investors, to strengthen its
corporate infrastructure and product offerings. Founded in 2004 by current CEO Michael
Downing, GoFish.com is currently visited by more than 2.5 million unique users a month.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/061031/20061031005601.html?.v=1
http://www.gofish.com
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(15) Einer der größten Netzbetreiber will mit Musik aufs Handy auch Geld verdienen
Cingular To Launch Music Service; To Allow Downloads From Napster, Yahoo &
eMusic
So here is how this one goes: Cingular’s PR has been lining journalists up for briefings
on this “big” story (including me...I’m supposed to speak to Jim Ryan this week), and it
looks like something happened in their negotiations with WSJ, or that they forgot to
include the newspaper in it, and the reporters there decided to go around it. Anyway,
the news: Cingular is finally jumping into the mobile music service fray, after sitting on
the sidelines as Sprint and Verizon launched their services to less than enthusiastic
response. The largest mobile operator in U.S. is attacking it in a big way: partnering with
some of the biggest online music services, including Napster, Yahoo Music and eMusic,
the story says...userc can buy music from these online services (from their portable
subscription services, not the normal online subscription service), and then transfer it to
their phones. They will also be able to transfer songs ripped from CDs or downloaded in
the MP3 and Windows Media formats. Next year, Cingular is scheduled to add an over-
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the-air downloading component. I am surprised that Cingular would wait for the OTA
side, not that they’re losing out on much. The service will also have a music recognition
service, which will then send identified songs to the user’s computer/e-mail to
downloading there. Clunky substitute for the impulse OTA buy, if you ask me.
Meanwhile, Sprint says that it sold more than eight million songs from Sprint Music Store
in the past 12 months at $2.50 per download. Verizon Wireless declines to disclose
sales numbers, the story says.
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(16) Die größte TV-Kampagne derzeit ist von AT&T, dem Riesen im Geschäft hier.
“Three Screens are coming together” ist ihr claim:
AT&T Counting On Wireless To Be The Difference With Cable
AT&T’s newest national advertising is all about the multi-screen experience, suggesting
that all you need to do is subscribe to its services in order to seamlessly experience
programming between TV, PC and phone/mobile device. (Nothing about how you might
pay for the same content multiple times or the DRM issues that make it difficult to use
content across platforms but that’s another story.) AT&T sees wireless as the key way of
differentiating its video offering as it rolls out U-verse, especially since major cable
companies are now competing on the wired side. Scott Helbing, AT&T EVP-
entertainment, told USA Today: “We believe (wireless) is a differentiation we should
have for a period of time.” He perceives an edge as major cablers work with Sprint
Nextel to develop wireless products but it should be noted they aren’t all waiting. Once
the merger of AT&T and Bell South—it’s awaiting FCC approval—brings Cingular
completely under AT&T’s control and brand, Helbing also will handle programming
negotiations for wireless. He foresees a changed negotiating environment in five years,
“a totally different conversation” as programming for the various screens merges.
Helbing says that integration is coming within two years, with AT&T planning a suite of
cross-platform services. -- More advertising on cell phones is likely , possibly even
integrated into ringtones. -- According to USAT, AT&T is holding back its U-verse rollout
until new HD set-tops from Motorola are ready; that should start in November.
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(17) Ausstattungen und Upgrades für Online-Spiele werden bei eBay gehandelt.
Eventuell demnächst auch hier:
SaySwap Debuts Social Network for Game Trading
Los Angeles - SaySwap has launched its online social network where users can trade
and talk about video games. The company is backed by LiveUniverse, a firm established
by MySpace co-founder Brad Greenspan. The site asks gamers to create lists of games
they would be willing to trade, and titles are exchanged between members using a
virtual currency that can be purchased in $4.95 tokens, or earned through trading and
interacting with other members. "I had become frustrated with the lack of good titles at
game rental stores and the steep $50+ cost of new games," said SaySwap CEO Mark
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Elfenbein. "Thus, we are excited to offer the gaming world this long-overdue service that
allows players to trade away their old games to acquire the games they want to play."
http://tinyurl.com/y7psro
http://www.sayswap.com
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(18) Da sind wir aber gespannt: YouTube aufs Handy? Wie denn?
YouTube Going Mobile… in 14 Months?
Marshall Kirkpatrick
Crunchgear caught an AdAge story today about YouTube founder Chad Hurley telling
attendees at the OgivlyOne Digital Media Summit in New York that YouTube hopes to
be able to deliver user generated short video clips to mobile devices by the end of 2007.
Hurley said figuring out a monetization model on mobiles was a big part of the
challenge, he said he hadn’t seen mobile advertising work yet.
I have a hard time believing that Google won’t roll out a mobile YouTube product in far
less than 14 months. Particularly given this morning’s launch of Gmail for Mobile and the
market imperative, the end of next year seems like too long a wait.
The mobile and Web 2.0 spaces are changing fast enough that some one is liable to
grab the mobile “user generated content” space right out from under Google if launch
takes that long. So it’s possible that those could just be the words of a cautious
executive setting goals he knows he can meet. There’s plenty of video being delivered
to phones now so it’s probably not a technical problem.
In related news, YouTube competitor Revver said today that it became the first video
sharing service to be nominated for an Emmy. Revver is a nominee in the category
“Outstanding Innovation and Achievement in Advanced Media Technology for the Best
Use of On Demand Technology Over the Public (open) Internet.” Revver’s video player
shows short films in Flash then calls back to the Revver server to fetch a current still
frame post-roll advertisement. Send Revver to phones and there will be all the more
reason for high quality publishers to make the switch.
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(19) Demnächst mehr über die neuartige Verteilung von Videos über das existierende
Netz:
Kazaa, Skype, and now "The Venice Project"
Serial entrepreneurs Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis are at it again, this time
with a venture for distributing TV and other video over the Net
Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the entrepreneurs who created the pioneering Web
applications Kazaa and Skype, are working on a new communications venture,
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BusinessWeek.com has learned. The pair plans to develop software for distributing TV
shows and other forms of video over the Web, according to people familiar with the
matter.
Working under the code name "The Venice Project," Zennstrom and Friis have
assembled teams of top software developers in about a half-dozen cities around the
world, including New York, London, and Venice. The teams are currently in negotiations
with TV networks, although it's not clear whether any agreements have been reached. A
formal announcement of the new venture could come as early as this fall. The mortality
rate for tech startups is high, but Zennstrom and Friis have defied the odds with a series
of highly disruptive new businesses that have roiled the communications and media
establishments (see BusinessWeek.com, 9/19/05, "Skype's 'Aha'
Experience"). GOOD TRACK RECORD. They created the Kazaa file-sharing network,
which consumers used for the distribution of music and video. The peer-to-peer
network's system consisted entirely of its users' PCs. The controversial company, which
bypassed the entertainment industry by allowing free distribution of content, was sold to
Sharman Networks. In 2003, Zennstrom and Friis launched a peer-to-peer phone
service called Skype. The software allows users to make free, high-quality calls over the
Internet, bypassing the traditional phone system. Skype was acquired last year by eBay
(EBAY) for $2.6 billion in cash and stock and an additional $1.5 billion in bonuses that
could be paid by 2009 (see BusinessWeek.com, 9/12/05, "Why eBay is Buying
Skype"). An eBay investment in Zennstrom and Friis' new venture is possible, but a
decision has not been reached. If the new network emerges as a platform for the legal
trading of video, it could be a good business for eBay, which has expertise in commerce
among individuals. STILL AT SKYPE. According to Hani Durzy, an eBay
spokesperson, Zennstrom and Friis were always expected to look into new ventures
because that's what they do well. "We have encouraged those guys to explore different
ideas and different concepts that they find interesting," Durzy said. Zennstrom and Friis
will not be leaving Skype or spending less time there than they are now, if only because
they would be walking away from their share of up to $1.5 billion in additional eBay
payments over the next three years. The Venice venture will get an investment from
Zennstrom, one person familiar with the matter said. But Zennstrom isn't expected to
contribute much work, beyond strategizing at a very high level. Friis is expected to
spend up to 20% of his time on the venture to help develop the business model. But it
appears that he won't be active in an operational sense,and others are being recruited to
run the project on a daily basis. EBay had no immediate comment on the new video
distribution project and whether the project had any direct or indirect relationship with
eBay and Skype. But eBay CEO Meg Whitman said in a recent interview with
BusinessWeek that the Skype founders remained committed to Skype. "They are really
engaged. They were all fired up," she said, after meeting with them during a recent trip
to London. COOPERATIVE APPROACH. Zennstrom and Friis seem intent on avoiding
the legal controversy that dogged earlier filing-sharing companies such as Kazaa (see
BusinessWeek.com, 7/17/06, "Judge: File-Share Case Favors Hollywood"). Despite
its enormous popularity, Kazaa's commercial prospects were crippled by legal battles
with the recording and motion picture industries, which filed suit against Sharman in Los
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Angeles in 2002. That case is pending. This time around, Zennstrom and Friis are
inviting the cooperation of TV producers and networks. While the exact nature of their
business model isn't clear, they are talking to every TV network in town, according to
one person familiar with the matter. The idea is to become a dominant TV distribution
company for the Internet era, just as companies such as Comcast (CMSCA) have
dominated TV distribution in the cable era. And just as Comcast has stretched into the
media-creation business, even attempting to buy Disney (DIS), Zennstrom and Friis
appear to have an interest in creating or packaging content for the
Web. COMPETITION TO COME. The Venice Project may find willing partners in the
TV business. While music and film executives resisted even the legal distribution of their
goods over the Web, TV executives have been much more accepting of the concept.
Perhaps they saw the ultimate futility of resistance. Although the music and film
industries won several legal battles, they failed to stop the consumer embrace of digital
distribution platforms such as Apple Computer's (AAPL) iTunes. And maybe several
years of technological evolution have simply convinced the TV execs that an
economically viable digital-distribution system is at hand. Regardless of the reason,
viewers can now find more than 150 TV shows, from Survivor to 24, on iTunes. CBS's
(CBS) Innertube Web site has eight full episodes of Big Brother: All Stars and other
shows available for free. And NewsCorp.'s (NWS) Fox unit makes shows such as
American Idol and Prison Break available for free at Fox.com's Video Central. There will
be plenty of competition, though. Startups—including Brightcove, Bittorrent, You Tube,
Veoh, and Video Egg—already allow consumers and professionals to distribute video
over the Web. Veoh, which also uses a peer-to-peer model, has attracted major
investors such as Time Warner (TWX) and former Disney (DIS) Chairman Michael
Eisner. Veoh announced a deal this month in which it will help promote Time Warner
unit TNT's newest horror show, Nightmares and Dreamscapes: From the Stories of
Stephen King. With easy access to capital and loads of experience starting successful
new companies, Friis and Zennstrom are bound to make their new venture a contender.
And regardless of which companies win the distribution battle, it appears that the Web is
evolving quickly as a legitimate distribution channel for TV. "I think that as peer-to-peer
can improve the delivery of video to consumers, we're going to see a lot more of it," says
analyst Richard Greenfield of Pali Research. Consumers may balk at the limitations on
viewing and copying digital content, but the ability to watch when and where you want is
a huge draw. The evolution of TV on the Web isn't likely to look like a rerun of the legal
battles over film and music on the Web.
Rosenbush is a senior writer for BusinessWeek Online, based in New York With
Robert D. Hof, BusinessWeek's Silicon Valley bureau chief
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