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Online Video Watch

Watching the Business of Watching Online

Sling.com: Now Streaming from The Set Top Box to the WebNovember 26

If you don’t have an Xbox, a TiVo, a PS3, a Roku, a Vudu, or a MSO Set Top Box, or even if you do, you may also have a Slingbox. But hey, sometimes you’re not home and you want to watch on the net. There’s Hulu. YouTube. NBC.com. ABC.com. CBS.com. Fox.com, Joost. MLB.com. Nearly every digital property distributes their content online, right?

Above: Reuters Content Syndicated to Sling.com: Britney Spears Feels Old.

Well, on the off-chance they don’t now you can record it on your Slingbox and watch it online, even watch live after you download a plugin. The problem is that any content that’s still not distributed online will be soon. Maybe Sling.com has a unique player, a different and better user experience you say? Well, not so much, most of the licensed content is delivered by Hulu.

I still need to play with this some more, but like the Slingbox, which will be useless once mainstream media distributes content to the three screens on their own, this strikes me as a waste of time and money. Sooner than later Sling will get sued, and they have little to back them up. So enjoy this waste of money while its out there, it won’t be around long.

Sony & Microsoft Battle For Online DistributionNovember 25

Microsoft has acquired exclusive rights to season two of popular web series The Guild according to the Hollywood Reporter. The twelve episode series will debut exclusively on Xbox LIVE, MSN and Zune. After a four week period episodes will move to an embedded MSN video player on watchtheguild.com. Microsoft has lined up Sprint as a sponsor and will sell all advertising on its platforms and on the web.

Meanwhile, Sony’s Crackle is about to launch its next season of original programming. On Monday six new shows will debut, with new episodes released weekly in addition to Rocketboom daily which the digital studio acquired distribution rights to earlier this year.

Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s Playstation have been locked in battle over their competing Trojan horse devices in the living room for years and while these deals aren’t a major source of revenue for either company, digital content distribution is an area consumer electronics companies see as crucial as all content distribution toward IP delivery. Something has to fill the void as DVD and Blu-Ray sales continue to disappoint.

YouTube Goes 16:9November 25

YouTube, which recently rolled out 720P quality has redesigned its pages to include a widescreen player. As more content is created in 16:9 resolution this should put YouTube in greater competition with sites like Vimeo which cater to and have been winning over professional producers.

It should also increase average time viewing and help YouTube to offer more of a lean-back experience for those seeking to deliver more than a dog on a skateboard which would make the site more valuable to advertisers.

Of course YouTube unlike Vimeo still isn’t charging for usage, and as more users upload content for high quality playback the site will continue to be a larger drain on Google’s otherwise stellar margins. So lets hope YouTube’s boatload of cash can last, or that they figure out the whole contextual targeting to sky-high CPM correlation soon.

YouTube LIVE, Worth It?November 23

I’ll just say this. YouTube LIVE reached a reported 700K concurrent. A solid, very respectable viewership number to be sure, but there’s little in the way of innovation that came with it. The event was streamed by CDN Akamai, YouTube paid a substantial amount for that, and it proved that they are miles away from launching their own live streaming service.

So, despite the rumors we’re back to square one. YouTube got publicity, but they likely lost money on the event overall. In a weak economy there’s little incentive for companies to do these types of events.

So what do you think? Was it worth it?

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Weekend OVW Pick: YouTube LIVE @ 5 PSTNovember 22

Tonight at 8PM Eastern YouTube will kick off their first live streaming event. There will be no shortage of online coverage, speculation already abounds as to if and who their partner will be since moving into live streaming as a business model would complicate YouTube’s already cloudy prospects.

Either way it’s a major event for YouTube. Do it well, scale to a cable TV size audience and they go a long way toward proving the value of their portal and live streaming as a TV competitor. Screw it up and everyone’s watching.

Either way, there’s nothing like watching something go down live. Tune in here.

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