What’s a year end without a year-end list? After the success of 2006’s rundown of the best and brightest, here’s the 2007 edition, which we hope captures the excitement and rapid change that the industry has experienced over the past 12 months. If you think we missed anyone, probably your company, let us know. We’ll be happy to add it to our upcoming list of
Notable Mentions. In the meantime, enjoy, and happy holidays from the IPTV Evangelist team!

10) Craziest Online Content Idea of the Year: ModMyLife

The Subservient Chicken meets reality TV. The SIMs in real-time. Second Life for the Non-Furry set. There are many ways to describe the not-quite-launched ModMyLife.com, which sets improvisational actors armed with Justin.TV-style minicams loose on the streets of NYC to do the bidding of their keyboard-bound masters. There’s no business plan we could possibly conceive of connected with this property, but for sheer madness and originality and pure interactivity, ModMyLife scores high on all accounts. Ladies and gentleman, this is the future of TV, assuming, of course, the writers’ strike ends sometime soon.

9) Product Launch: Wowza Media Server Pro

Launched in February of 2007, Wowza Media Server Pro has since racked up over 3,700 global licensees and won numerous kudos from the likes of Streaming Media Magazine, while going head-to-head with streaming Goliaths like Adobe and Windows Media Server. On the heels of a recent cost reduction, which prices the software at $995 for the Unlimited package, the Wowza team has not only built a great product, but they have brought it to the people in a way that makes it irresistible to anyone who wants to move into the arena of large-scale Flash streaming.

8) Independent Web Property:
Ask a Ninja

Sure, the Chocolate Rain kid landed a deal with Dr. Pepper and Comedy Central. And, yes, Chad Vader has propelled its creators down the same path of success as fellow Madisonians, The Onion. But, as far as we’re concerned, Ask a Ninja is the upstart Web property with all the answers. Creators Sarine and Nichols have not only inked a six-figure book deal, they’re currently working on a “Ninja” TV show and have been reportedly raking in over $100K a month in advertising and merch. So much for big budgets and product placements. (Bud TV, are you listening?)

7) Best and Worst Scripts for Digital Rights: Major League Baseball and the WGA

If you were a Major League Baseball owner, you would be wishing you could go to the instant replay right about now, because the deal owners made for Digital Rights back in 2000 is going down like a ballpark beer, flat and with an aftertaste. Owners thought that the Internet might be a good vehicle for promotion, but certainly not for watching a game online. OY! Today, the Major League Baseball Advance Media organization (MLBAM) will generate about $360 million from online viewership. Score one for the other team!

In the game-still-in-progress category, we have the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA), who are so steadfast in their call to Studios that they share in the revenues from current and future online sales that they’ve held back our fix of junk TV. The Guild has also employed the very online technology they are fighting about in their Speechless campaign, this to scare the public about the consequences of a protracted strike. In addition, with the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) President Alan Rosenberg piling on with his unions voice of solidarity, the whole mess does not bode well for a happy holiday season, or New Year for studio owners.

6) The Jury Is Still Out Award: Google, Joost, Slingbox, Etc.

The last mile gets longer by the day, and makes the Browser Wars of Web 1.0 look like a pleasant afternoon spent at Gate D of a Jets game. How will we get all the great content from the Web to our fancy new HDTV’s? The choices are endless and still endlessly confusing. At the moment, the battle is being fought between a host of proprietary technologies, none of
whom have succeeded in capturing the excitement of the broader world the way the iPod has done with digital music. And perhaps that’s the problem right there: whether you’re talking about Joost, or Slingbox or Apple TV, or Microsoft’s dreadful LIVE service, it’s still too darn hard to get things going. Are we just a slick commercial away from Digital Entertainment Nirvana? Only time, and money, will tell.

5) Best Re-Birth of a Technology: P2P Pando Networks, Yaron Samid, Co-Founder & CMO

If you thought P2P had gone the way of the sock puppet from Pets.com you’d be wrong. Peer-to-peer is fast-becoming the darling for moving large online video SD and HD content with companies such as Pando Networks’ recent deal with a major network, rumored to be NBC as the engine behind Hulu. Let’s hear it for the Little Guy, while at the same time remaining cautiously optimistic that consumers will be able to take their eyes off YouTube long enough to seek out their favorite content elsewhere.

4) Most Old New Media of the New New Media and All-Around Swell Guy:
Dan Rayburn, Streaming Media

Dan Rayburn has been in the streaming biz while most of us were debating the benefits of PointCast and getting gushy over blink tags and animated banner ads. A pioneer and a visionary and a dude who has been through it all and seen it all and somehow managed to maintain his integrity, Dan is one this industry’s best advocates and champions, no matter what coast you happen to be on or what platform you prefer. In a business environment that still seems to favor kids who just started shaving; it’s nice to see an old dog rock some new tricks.

3) Best Independent Web Video and Use of Online to Drive Sales: The Tribe,
Tiffany Shlain

A priest and a rabbi walk into B&H Video. The priest says, “I’m going to make a movie and get it sold in Blockbuster video stores.” The rabbi, has a different idea. “I’m going to make a movie and sell it myself and not have to share any of it with anyone else.” Well, this is not exactly how it happened with Tiffany Shlain, and it’s just as good an excuse as any to attempt and priest-and-rabbi joke. But, all the same, Shlain deserves props for not just doing it her way, but also helping to bring the independent film market into the 21st century. iTunes – it’s not just for music anymore. Of course, it helps if your film is excellent and is something people want to watch in the first place. Our panel at Streaming Media West, with Tiffany

2) Analyst of the Year, Who Seems to be Familiar with Pop Culture and Has
Recently Seen the Sunlight: James McQuivey, Forrester Research

In a field populated by people who get their jollies reading the latest page-turner from O’Reilly, or else so divorced from real-life™ that a two-ton anchor is required to keep them from floating away into the Ozonosphere, James McQuivey of Forrester Research is a guy who truly gets the proverbial BIG PICTURE. Anyone who has ever seen him in action, particularly in an interview he did with us back at Streaming Media East, knows that he can switch from the high to the low, from the micro to the macro, from the serious to the absurd, in a moment’s notice, while somehow tying it all to this crazy and exciting and sometimes too-geeky-for-words world of streaming content.

1. Best Imitation of a 14th-Century Monk, William of Ockham

The scientific precept known as Occam’s Razor is often paraphrased as "All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best." The words of William of Ockham, a 14th century Franciscan friar, are not lost on the simplest of truths – namely that market forces coupled with a prudent hand from government will foster growth.

Companies such as Neuf in France have aggressive priced IPTV with a significant uptake in consumers singing up. Regulations have loosen restrictions on Telco’s and what services they can offer and concerns of Net Neutrality regulation have subsided for the time being, offering industry the opportunity to rollout services and content to as wide an audience using bundles and tiered pricing to bring people along such as with Verizon FIOS.

Lastly, consumers are beginning to employ different solutions then simply passive OTA/Cable in their homes with devices such as the Sandisk Sansa TakeTV player and platforms from companies like Ensequence, which recently teamed with Spike TV to offer interactive programming for the 2007 Video Game Awards. Let’s hear it for Choice, even if it’s a matter of figuring out our own choices!!!

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Could the writers strike, now in its second month and with no end in sight become a catalyst for a shift from OTA/Cable to online/IPTV?

There has been a drain in Ad revenues for premium programming and advertisers have been forced to compensate advertisers with cash (verses time). The trend has been one of declining viewership for OTA with a corresponding increase for Cable. In addition, revenue from OTA has been flat. Even if the strike were settled today, it would by some estimates take two or more months too ramp up production and inventory to offset the drain in revenues.

In the meantime, the Internet is not waiting. Shows like “Quarterlife” and sites like “MyDamnChannel,” “Funny or Die” are marching on. Some WGA writers are reportedly in talks with venture capitalists about funding their own online programming, which would bypass the studios model.

On the other hand, the traditional model is far from dead. Couple that with fragmentation from DVR’s, VOD and Place Shifting, i.e. Sling and there exists lot confusion on the part of the public how to make it all work in a lean back environment.

Also see; I'm Not Dead Yet

The sky has been falling on TV for a while now, see Business Week, so I would not short the stock for tradition Television just yet...

(Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

As reported in today’s LA Times,
Striking writers in talks to launch Web start-ups some striking writers plan to by-pass the studio system and produce content directly for the web.

At least seven groups, composed of members of the striking Writers Guild of America, are planning to form Internet-based businesses that, if successful, could create an alternative economic model to the one at the heart of the walkout, now in its seventh week.

This brings up all sorts of interesting questions:

Will the WGA sanction writers setting up companies sidestepping not only the studios but also potentially the union?

If the strike is settled, will writers be able to play in both sand boxes?

Will writers be will to work with people, well like us outside the system?

Under the Hollywood system, writers, in most cases, is employed by the studios to create and manage TV shows and movies. The studios own the copyrights and pay writers for the initial use of the material and a small percentage of the licensing fees they collect when the work is rerun or sold on DVD.

In case you did not see our panel as well as other's from Streaming Media West, ScribeMedia has them posted.

Selling Content Online And IPTV

Moderator
Adrian Smith, Executive Producer, IPTVEvangelist.com

Panelists
Antonio Otalvaro, COO, Barrio 305/Taste Digital Media
Miguel Monteverde, Director of Video Programming, AOL
Tiffany Shlain, Filmmaker and Founder, The Webby Awards

There has been rumors of late that Yahoo! will bring back the vision platform to add to their best in class financial portal renamed, TechTicker

Yahoo! FinanceVision was the first ITV platform, which launched back in 2000. I know something about it as my department lent equipment and personnel within the company to assist them.

Despite what has been written, the demise of Finance Vision was not due to its "supremely buggy technology" it was more a combination of factors; the companies internal direction, lack of broadband deployment outside of U.S. offices and almost no advertising for the program. For its day, it was a technological Mount Everest and set new standards for live programming five days a week, all within a customizable browser. See; Do You Remember Yahoo! Finance Vision

Mike McGuire, a media analyst with Gartner Inc., said he thought it would be difficult for TechTicker to distinguish itself. “If they can get an audience aggregated around the site, it can provide an off-ramp to other Yahoo properties,” Mr. McGuire said. “But we have a ton of stuff that’s available on TV and any number of blogs and Web sites that provide close to real-time accounts, so this will be a real challenge for Yahoo.”

Brian Nelson a spokesperson for Yahoo said, “Yahoo Finance already maintains the Internet’s largest finance audience. When we think of developing new products, we’re focused on serving that audience.”

Read on for more about Yahoo! FianceVision, plus behind the scenes video clips

Can Yahoo! make a go of it the second time? I think they can, if they employ the following:

Make the viewer experience within the browser as customizable as possible

Use as much original content as possible, i.e. more in-depth News and Analysis, bring in heavy hitters with draw power

Make sure it works well on mobile platforms and in Podcast formats.

Don't skimp on the production values, this is not YouTube there are certain expectations.

Make it available as both live and on-demand viewing, archive all segments and employ good meta tagging

The first time around it was called an "experiment" by people inside the company, this time commit 100%

Y! Promotional segment, video © Yahoo!

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NY Video 2.0 met last night in the glamour of the Roosevelt Hotel’s Grand Ballroom, this as a courtesy from another trade show that was using the space and gave it to our group.

There were some technical problems which is too be expected however, the hoot of the night was an out of control SMS projected board of “board participants" who started texting all sorts of crazy notes during the presentations, you had to feel bad for the presenters.

The lineup last night included the following companies, which each had about five minutes to give their pitch.

1. Origin Digital - Curt Kendall, VP Product Dev
2. Redlasso - Hanan Gelbendorf, VP Products
3. Aditall - Rodger Wells, SVP Sales & BD
4. SportsBone.tv - Tony Delbusso, Founder & CEO
5. ModMyLife.com - Martin Codyre, Co-Founder

1. Origin Digital - Curt Kendall, VP Product Dev
An interesting set of tools for producing and delivery mixed content the technology was overshadowed by a less then stellar presentation, which also coincided with people sending funny..and yes distruptive SMS messages to the large screen, such as;

- "MTV sucks, This guy's next job...motivational speaker,. give me a job, and of course hot girls".

2. Redlasso - Hanan Gelbendorf, VP Products
The business model seemed rather familiar as Find Internet TV was deployed earlier this year with a robust aggregation engine. Redlasso believes ad sales will drive the company to profitability. If they plan to use video ads, the market is flat… sites are chasing a lack of inventory.

3. Aditall - Rodger Wells, SVP Sales & BD
Stock video footage you can clip. Mix and then purchase for your own online campaign. Interesting use of the technology and perhaps a way content creators could generate sushi money however, have been involved with stock photography many years ago it is a difficult proposition. On the content side, you have to have a lot of footage or just that right piece someone is looking for and there is a lot of competition. On the other side, having video ads on your site does not mean your campaign is going to be more successful…but I am interested to see where they take this.

4. SportsBone.tv - Tony Delbusso, Founder & CEO
Call this Uncle Floyd meets sports jocks with bobble heads. A bunch of college friends produce a show without the aid of NFL footage and get creative. There was no indication of their audience size however; it’s pretty well known (as stated last night) that unless you are streaming in the hundreds of thousands per months you are not going to get sufficient cpm to generate revenue.

5. ModMyLife.com - Martin Codyre, Co-Founder
The most interesting presentation technology of the evening. Reality TV meets live user driven storylines. Volunteers, typically actors, according to the presenters, go out into the night with an EVDO enabled live video feed to the site (quality is what you would expect) and are driven to complete tasks set out by the online audience.

There is currently no business model and the site if it generated revenues would be open to copyright infringement, as people on the street become unwitting participants in their mod play. On the other hand, there could be interesting applications for advertisers conducting live focus groups as well as other possibilities.

NY Video 2.0 is the creating of Yaron Samid, Co-Founder and CMO of Pando Networks. Many thanks to him for the time and energy he has put into growing this silicon alley group.

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It has been ten months since we began measuring page view's and reader visits which have trended nicely with over 35,000 page views.

Starting with Wowza Media Systems, we have begun to solicit best in class companies to advertise for our reader's and extend our service offerings. The addition of Google Ads was a harder call as much of what I see online is off message however, one of our programmers knows how to teak it so placements are more in-line with ITV and IPTV products and services. In addition, if you are interested in sponsorship programs, please email us.

Thank you to all our loyal readers who have supported us and offered email and post feedback. We welcome your input for sections and topics for the coming year.

Regards,
Gilbert

Writers and actors in sympathy have employed the very technologies they say is and will impact their future incomes, namely Internet video. The Speechless campaign is an episodic series featuring established actors and sends a very well crafted message in black and white terms. Making use of viral video on YouTube, their own site and over the Brightcove network, the WGA has one-uped the studios with this campaign and makes you wonder about the long term value proposition for studios in this on-line and IPTV age.

As content creators who have been in the space since the mid-nineties when streaming media began we can certainly understand the through line here. On the other side however, as business people we also know that more people are chasing fewer and fewer ad dollars with cpm's for even the best watched shows do not generate much in the way of revenues, so this is really about the potential for future growth if it occurs. Still, this does not mean content creators should not have protection in place for future sales, it's just difficult to formulate revenues on projects that are not making money

While much has been written about the points on both sides, one aspect concerns me from a perspective of an Independent Producer/DP, namely that there exists a social stratification of professionals who are working and mostly making a living and those who have made it, most fall into the former category. That the majority of the writers who work on hit shows enjoy more perks and power (in addition to income) is part of the rewards of success and as it should be in our society. The concern however, is what about the other 70% or more of the people working in their crafts that are not the super-stars, will they share from this new revenue stream and if so in what form?

Its a tough problem and one that will surface many more times I think as mobile and fixed platforms mature.

Other sites:
Deadline Hollywood Daily
United Hollywood Blog

Yaron spoke about his company, Pando Netwoks, what he calls a Peer Assisted Content business model. This allows media companies the ability to offer up too HD quality over IP using P2P based technology. In addition, he spoke to some of the following topics such as
Pando Networks combines classic CDN with a node-based delivery or shortest path. In essence, by the user installing an application that shares a small amount of their bandwidth to assist other peers all benefit from improved quality.

P2P is geared best to deliver of large video files

P2P economies of scale make the most sense for long-tail content that many people view at the same time.

Watch Interview

Who are the movers and shakers in ITV and IPTV? What companies, technologies and individuals have made a significant contribution to the space over the past year?

We are going to highlight our choices for 2007 along with some interviews coming later in December. We look forward to getting your feedback as to our selections