Digital Video Consolida...

A double-whammy in the digital video space today: Avail-TVN , a video services provider that works with companies like NBC, Univision, and brands like Mattel, has announced that it has picked up $100 million in financing led by the Carlyle Group , and it is using those funds to make an acquisition outside of the U.S., buying rival video service provider On Demand Group in the UK from its existing owner, SeaChange International, for $27 million. Avail-TVN says that the deal will make it the largest provider of digital video services in the world. The move is a sign of how the digital TV industry is already fairly large in its geographical reach, but in many cases is still only providing incremental revenue on top of more traditional TV revenue streams — and so companies that work in this space, which can be capital intensive, are best suited to bulk up their scale to survive. Carlyle is leading the round that also includes existing investors Columbia Capital, Valhalla Partners, Novak Biddle and Pioneer Ventures. With the round of financing Carlyle, which already has an extensive amount of holdings in the media industry , becomes Avail-TVN’s largest investor. Avail-TVN will also use the funds for product development and for wider international expansion targeting content providers and multichannel video service providers. Avail-TVN already had a customer base extending outside of its U.S. headquarters, but this deal will extend that even further: it will now have customers in 25 countries covering 70 million households. Regions covered will be North America, Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. “Our strategy has been to invest in leading players across the digital media ecosystem and incorporate them into one company to build Avail-TVN into the largest provider of advanced digital video services worldwide,” said Ramu Potarazu, Avail-TVN’s chief executive officer, said in a statement. “The Carlyle Group’s investment supports that vision, and provides the capital and global network to build upon this foundation both domestically and internationally.” Avail-TVN already works with provides to provide enhanced interactive digital TV services: for example, it is powering the multi-platform video coverage that NBC will run during the London 2012 Olympics this summer. Adding ODG to the mix will bump up the kinds of services it can offer to customers: ODG helps broadcasters with a range of things from content acquisition and strategic consulting services, through to powering video-on-demand services for mobile, online and digital TV services. Its customers include Virgin Media in the UK, Disney, Cablevision and others. Its existing CEO, Tony Kelly, will stay on and become a part of the bigger executive management team, and will now report to Avail-TVN’s CEO, Ramu Potarazu. There is also some debt funding involved in this deal from  Silicon Valley Bank, RBS Citizens, N.A. and Bank of America, N.A.

Aiming For Global Expan...

Elemental Technologies, which builds encoding software used by some of the largest video providers in the world, raised $13 million in a Series C round of funding led by Norwest Venture Partners, which also includes existing investors General Catalyst, Voyager Capital, and Steamboat Ventures. The Portland, Ore.-based startup has now raised a total of roughly $30 million. Along with the funding, Elemental has also named Kevin O’Hara as its Chairman of the Board, replacing founder Sam Blackman, who will remain CEO. The funding will be used primarily to promote global expansion, as the encoding vendor extends beyond its home market in the U.S. and attempts to tap into worldwide adoption of online video. Elemental opened a London office last summer to support its growing business in Western Europe, which now accounts for about 20 percent of all sales. It also opened an office in Hong Kong to tackle the Asia-Pacific market. Altogether, Elemental now has 70 employees worldwide. More investment overseas will mean growing those markets, but also opening new offices in places where Elemental doesn’t yet have a presence. That includes regions like Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. That international support will also be necessary as Elemental prepares to support multiple international distributors for their coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, which are about two-and-a-half months away. The London Games will be Elemental’s largest live deployment to date, as its encoding hardware and software will be used by six major broadcasters distributing to 40 countries worldwide. The opportunity is bigger than just supporting Olympics streams — in a phone conversation, Blackman pointed to the multibillion dollar market for traditional video delivery equipment, which will soon be replaced as distribution moves to the Internet and mobile networks. Elemental gear is already used by some of the biggest names in video, including Comcast, HBO and ESPN in the states, as well as Terra, the largest video provider in Latin America. With that in mind, Kevin O’Hara, who has sat on the Elemental board for the last 18 months or so, will be taking over the Chairman role. O’Hara was one of the earliest employees at Metropolitan Fiber Systems (MFS) which sold to Worldcom in 1996, as well as a co-founder and president at Level 3 Communications. At Elemental he’ll help support the startup’s massive expansion overseas.

London Olympics To Visi...

Don’t copy that pole vault! According to the London 2012 Olympic “conditions for ticket holders,” you are not allowed to take pictures or video of the events nor are you allowed to “exploit” any video on social networks. Images, video and sound recordings of the Games taken by a Ticket Holder cannot be used for any purpose other than for private and domestic purposes and a Ticket Holder may not license, broadcast or publish video and/or sound recordings, including on social networking websites and the internet more generally, and may not exploit images, video and/or sound recordings for commercial purposes under any circumstances, whether on the internet or otherwise, or make them available to third parties for commercial purposes. This means no Instagrams, no Tweetpics, no Facebooking (“OMG OLYMPICS!!”), and no nothing. In short, you shouldn’t tell anyone you went to the Olympics. According to Petapixel , UK photographers are already being hassled for taking photos of the Olympic “city” from public places, which suggests perhaps that London should spring for a geodesic dome to cover the proceedings in mystery and smash cameras of errant Tweeters. Perhaps there’s a reason Orwell set 1984 in London. via AmateurPhotographer

Research: Only 6% of UK...

Attention TV world: consumers, it appears, are not as tech-friendly as you might think. According to a new survey out in the UK, the vast majority of the public is not interested in fancy new 3D or mobile TV services, and even less of them care about TV apps. What they would like are better players to watch on-demand content on their main TVs and better TV guides for discovering what is on where. These conclusions come from Freeview , the UK’s subscription-free digital TV service, which canvassed opinion from some 2,000 UK consumers for its survey. Only 12 percent of consumers said they consider mobile TV an appealing service, and only 19 percent thought the same of 3D TV. And TV apps — something that has become standard among producers and broadcasters — fared worst of all, with only six percent saying these apps were appealing, and only eight percent thinking they were in any way “useful.” But the company also notes that this year could potentially be a watershed for these newer technologies: with the Olympics coming to London this summer, this will be the first year that the games will be broadcast in HD to a mass market in the UK, and Freeview believes that this, plus general interest in the event (especially since most of us UK residents haven’t even been able to get a sniff of a ticket to the actual event… grrr) may drive uptake in some of the newer ways of consuming that content. Freeview found that “players” — either in the form of set-top boxes or something more integrated in a smart TV — were considered to be the most appealing and useful of the wave of new services that have arisen out of the connected TV revolution. This rated at 62 percent and 63 percent among consumers. Freeview notes that the results proved to be largely the same, whether the respondent considered himself a technophile or a technophobe, and regardless of that person’s age and as you can see from the table below the results didn’t change all that much (but did get slightly better for new technologies) when owners of smartphones and tablets were asked the same questions. These conclusions paint a picture of a mass market not as interested in new technology as some might think — in the UK at least — and are a sign that companies that are investing money into developing services like TV apps, mobile TV and 3D technology might not be seeing a lot of return on that investment in the near future. It also is a likely indicator of where Freeview — a disruptive presence in the UK market in that it offers a range of digital TV channels free of charge, against paid offerings from the likes of Sky and Virgin Media — may choose to invest (and disrupt) in the future. That disruption is already coming home to roost: Freeview notes that as of last quarter, it has overtaken Sky TV, its largest competitor and a Pay-TV provider, in terms of number of active users in the UK. Freeview is now being used on the main TV sets of 10.8 million homes, compared to Sky’s 10.1 million active base.

The 5 Most Over-Hyped “...

Editor’s note: Jeremy Toeman is a founder of  Dijit Media , a startup whose vision is to create the ultimate “hyperpersonalised social TV guide” mobile experience. Jeremy has over 11 years experience in the convergence of digital media, mobile entertainment, social entertainment, social TV and consumer technology working with companies like Sling Media, Mediabolic, Boxee, Clicker, VUDU, and more. Follow him on Twitter @jtoeman . From some of the chatter out there, it seems like the prerequisites to have “deep knowledge” about the TV industry is to have ever watched TV.  Yes, that sounds pretty cynical, but I see post after post espousing wisdom on topics that are so misguided it makes my head shake – involuntarily.  While everyone is certainly entitled to their opinions, there’s just something to be said for a little research, a little fact checking, and deep diving with industry experts.  I think the “future of TV” industry at large would benefit greatly from a little more of the above, and a little less jumping on bandwagons. Accordingly, here are the 5 topics I see on practically a daily basis that are just plain tired, and should be put to rest. 1. The Future of TV is about Voice Control and Gestures In the future, you’ll tell your TV to change to channel 702, ask it when the next Tom Cruise movie is on, and wave your hand to change the channel.  Really?  This is exciting?  First, when it comes to gestures, the *best case scenario* is using gestures for the most simple of functionality, such as channel/volume adjustments.  What’s the “when’s the next Tom Cruise movie on?” gesture (protip: you jump on your couch).  It’s a model that works great for games,  and not much else . And as far as talking to your TV, whether it’s Jack Donaghy’s awesome voice-controlled TV for Kabletown , or this funny commercial, it’s clearly an easy topic to play around with: But is there value in it? Some, definitely.  I do not, in any way, question the fact that a well-executed voice interface to change channels, perform searches, etc, sounds great.  But is that really revolutionary?  Considering that TV watching is primarily done with a second screen (iPad, smart phone, etc) in hand these days, the ability to search without using the awful on-screen interfaces as provided by set-top box makers has already improved dramatically.  Searching for show listings, actors, etc, using a dedicated app or even just google is a marked improvement.  I don’t consider a voice-enabled search “revolutionary” at this stage. 2. The Future of TV is all about Social TV Literally every “big” show event these days has a followup about how it’s the most gigantic moment in the history of #SocialTV ever.  Well, considering this is a fairly new thing, and more people are still signing up to services like Twitter and trying out Social TV apps, that shouldn’t be much of a surprise now, should it?  Of course Game of Thrones broke records, just like how the A merican Idol season finale will later this year.  As will the Olympics, then next year’s Superbowl.  But here’s the thing: other than huge events, app makers and broadcasters alike are  still trying to figure out what Social TV really means . It’s clearly not about check-ins, that’s very 2011 thinking.  And it’s not going to be about measuring real-time tweets (hello West Coast, sorry, your Tweets just don’t count), which is very 2012 thinking.  There’s something happening in the “engagement with TV” space, but it’s probably a much richer experience than what we’re talking about.  Oh, and so we don’t forget to address it – nothing, not a single thing, in the field of social/real-time engagement works particularly well when it comes to “catch up” TV.  Which there will remain plenty of for years and years to come. 3. The Future of TV is all about Cord Cutters Auntie May just cancelled cable and bought a Roku, what the what?  Cable is doomed, it’s like newspapers and the music industry.  Slow down folks, not so fast.  First and foremost, not a single report from any credible source has ever painted a picture that cord cutting is having, nor will have, any impact on the industry.  At an average price of $80/month, cable (and satellite and telco, but I’ll just say cable from this point forward – less typing), is about the best deal in entertainment you can find on a dollars/hour basis.  Most Roku, WDTV, and Apple TV owners still have a paid cable service, as do most Netflix and Hulu subscribers. Additionally, the reason TV != music is about distribution and lockup agreements.  Sure, artists had labels, and labels distributed their music via CDs to retail stores, and there are a lot of analogies to the TV industry.  Except for the lockups, bundles, affiliates, and a dozen or so other participants in the TV production-to-consumption cycle.  TV shows can’t start their own distribution service – because 90% of TV shows are made by the folks who own the distribution side.  And the networks can’t just go direct to consumers, they’d sacrifice huge amounts of money to do so.  Like billions huge.  And for what?  To directly engage with (read: provide customer service for) people who get pissy if their DVR cuts off the end credits one time on a show they don’t even care about. Yeah, sounds great. This is highly related to Death Topic 5 below, so more in a moment. 4. The Future of TV is all about Apps Just imagine a world where instead of browsing channels or searching for things, you can download apps for it all.  ABC? App. NBC? App. Fox? App. Bravo? Part of that NBC App (or maybe it’s own). TBS? App. SyFy? Same as Bravo, maybe.  How about the shows themselves?  Where’s Seinfeld?  Could be it’s own app!  Or, since TBC has syndication rights (well, some of them), it’ll be in their app.  And I’m sure NBC still owns some rights too, so maybe there instead.  Or possibly it’ll get split up amongst each of the stakeholders, on a per-season basis.  This is the future, and it’s awesome. If awesome means terrible. As I’ve said before, TV isn’t about work, it isn’t about search, it isn’t about finding things and effort -  it’s about escape . TV should not work like the Web nor like my smart phone any more than my microwave should work like my smart phone.  Yes, we could use some better paradigms for discovering content, and integrating with second screen apps sounds like a good idea in many ways.  But that doesn’t mean I want an app per channel, show, network, etc. 5. The Future of TV is the Death of the Television Industry As We Know It As I wrote above, TV is dying, it just must be dying!  The kids are watching lots of videos on the YouTubes, and since the Internet by definition is disruptive, it must impact TV.  After all, the TV services business is a $200+ billion dollar a year industry, and if you factor in manufacturing, production, distribution, and other related costs, it easily scales past $500 billion.  And this still doesn’t account for the internal marketplaces within each of the players.  That’s a lot of money for the Internet to kick the snot out of and hand over to the engineers in Silicon Valley! Well, what if it doesn’t?  What if all the brains and the coding and the apps and the investments can’t topple this old school, well-loaded, not technically unsophisticated industry?  What if instead of disruption, the contributions of the Internet and the tech sector simply contribute to more growth?  After all, that’s what happened with cable in the first place, then VCR, then DVD, …  Sure, some of the deal-making might change, and  we should expect to see the players evolve, grow, and of course fade .  Netflix is larger than any US cable operator, maybe they’ll take one of them out?  Or maybe the cable companies will expand into competitive regions?  Maybe the Xbox will be the next generation of set top boxes, with no need for truckrolls?  Lots of potential, lots of Internet contribution, but dying?  I doubt it. In conclusion… Don’t get me wrong, I’m not all doom and gloom for speculation.  I love some good speculation.  But the above topics are worn thin, dried out, and only mildly less entertaining to read about than tech bloggers getting into spats with each other. There’s a ton of innovation on the second screen that goes far beyond Social TV.  Future TV interfaces are coming and changing, and Voice Control will play a role, but what else should we expect?  There’s no real evidence that cord cutting is happening, and sure, it might come, but as with all things, it’ll either be massively slower or faster than all typical predictions, so let’s move past that point.  What else is out there?