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Last quarter, StreamingMedia.com conducted a survey on the costs of CDN services specific to streaming and video delivery. This report is now available for purchase for only $795 and includes all the raw data and summary charts with answers on
pricing trends, traffic growth, contract terms, formats used, bitrate
growth, P2P interest and the most important factors when choosing a
CDN. All the raw data on over 25 questions is included along with pie
charts on each question. (All end-user customer names and company
info has been removed)

I have already released some of the highlights of the report for free here on the blog and you can see some of them below.

• 52% Have No Commit Contracts, 63% Use One CDN Vendor
• 62% of Customers Surveyed Say Pricing Flat Year Over Year
• Price and Customer Service Ranked Most Important
• Reporting and Analytics Number One Complaint of CDN Customers

Rather than only providing the pie charts like most research houses do, I wanted to make sure we provided all of the raw data as well so that you can parse the numbers based on exactly what you want to know. You can break the numbers down based on a specific industry vertical, size of customer or pricing metric used and we’ve kept the report affordable to be able to get it into the hands of as many folks as possible. Anyone who purchases the report will also have access to me to ask any follow up questions or talk through any of the data with me.

Last week, Motorola announced it had launched a full-length movie store for its mobile phones. God know who’s going to want to watch a full-length movie on their cell phone, but that does not seem to be stopping the carriers and content owners from trying the long-from approach. Last100.com has an article with all the details on the list of titles available, cost of the service and limitations of the technology.

I am happy to announce the keynote lineup for the Streaming Media West show, taking place Sept. 23-25th in San Jose. Confirmed keynotes include: Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon, Jordan Hoffner, Director of Content Partnerships for YouTube, Anthony Wood, CEO of Roku and Albert Cheng, EVP of Digital Media for the Disney ABC Television Group.

At Streaming Media West, all keynotes are free to attend. Registration is now open and you can sign up for your free exhibit hall pass online.

On Thursday, I will be picking one random reader of my blog to give away my Roku Netflix unit to. If you want a free Roku Netflix set top box, go here and leave a comment on the post to enter.

UPDATE: Drawing is now closed. Robert Schumann was selected as the winner using a random number picker website.

Please note that the Roku box does not come with any Netflix service.
So you either need to be a Netflix customer, or need to be willing to
setup a Netflix account.

Federal Judge Rya Zobel made no rulings today on any of the multiple motion and counter motions being argued in court by Akamai and Limelight Networks over their patent infringement suit. No ruling is expected until the end of summer.

With all the craziness that is going on in the CDN space now and as competitive as it has gotten, I see a lot of financial sites, blogs and others using a lot of the content from my blog. There are some in the investment community in particular, who try to twist my words around to make my what I say best reflect the company they are invested in. Or they try the tactic of telling others that I work for the CDN I am writing about or own stock in the company, so I must have a vested interest in what I am saying.

So let me say on the record, again, as I have done on the blog in the past that I don’t work for any CDN company, am not getting paid by any CDN company and don’t hold stock in any CDN company. I don’t get compensated based on the share price of any CDN’s stock and I have never bought, sold or traded any stocks, in any public company, ever. (Yes, I know that is hard for some people to believe, but I have never played the market.) So if someone tells you otherwise, it is because they have a vested interest in a certain company and are invested in them. Ask them to state on the record where their interests lie.

While I refer customers to CDN companies based on customers who call into StreamingMedia.com for free, myself and StreamingMedia.com don’t have any referral deal with any CDN company. StreamingMedia.com passes on leads to many different vendors, in many segments of the market free of charge. That’s our job. We don’t get paid to do that and we don’t get a commission.

Over a dozen CDN vendors have been or are current sponsors of the blog since it started, but those are sold by our sales rep. It’s very clear who is a sponsor of my blog at any time. And the fact that so many CDNs are sponsors of the blog, which I thank them for, shows that they feel I am trying to cover the CDN market fairly.

So if any Wall Street folks, or anyone else for that matter, have any questions about who I work for or read something on another site that supposedly came from me, you can call me at anytime to verify. The whole reason I have my cell phone number listed on my blog is so people can reach me at all times. I answer and return every call, every day. It can’t get any simpler than that.

At 10am EST this morning, Federal Judge Rya Zobel started hearing oral arguments for at least ten motions and counter motions pertaining to the Akamai and Limelight Networks patent infringement case. Clearly, the biggest argument at stake today is whether or not the court will issue a ruling in Akamai’s favor, by granting a permanent injunction against Limelight Networks. While many are saying the judge will make no decisions today, there is a chance that some rulings could be made. I will be updating the blog today as soon as I hear either way. With so many motions being heard today and it being an all day affair, I expect we won’t hear anything either way until after 4pm EST.

The most likely outcome is that the judge needs more time after hearing the arguments and pushes back the ruling date by a few months. However, with at least ten motions and counter motions being heard today, there is a good chance that some rulings will come down. Judge Rya Zobel has been working on this case for two years now, and has also been involved in some of the previous Akamai patent infringement cases (including those against Speedera and Cable & Wireless), so there is the potential that she has enough info after hearing the oral arguments today to make a ruling.

While a lot is up in the air today, here are some potential ways this can play out for both sides:

• The judge issues no ruling on the injunction and pushes the ruling date back to Q4 of this year.
• The judge could rule that the Akamai patent is too broad and throw out the jury’s ruling.
• The judge could narrow the scope of Akamai’s patent and could reduce the damages that the jury awarded.
• The judge grants Akamai’s request for an injunction against Limelight Networks as is, or potentially narrows down the scope of the Akamai claim.
• If an injunction is handed down, Limelight could get a stay on the injunction, which pushes Limelight’s appeal process out to 18-24 months from now, or does not grant Limelight the stay, in which case about 50% of Limelights business is at stake.
• If the judge issues an injunction against Limelight, and the stay is not granted, Limelight could also issue a statement saying they have a work-around to the patent and have reduced their company’s liability.

One other potential outcome, which has a good chance of happening, is that the judge rules that some of the motions around the patent are too broad and that the case should go to a higher court. In many patent cases, this happens quite frequently.

Either way, one thing to remember is that Limelight has known about this suit for two years now and I’m sure has not been sitting around doing nothing. Two years is a long time to be able to come up with a work-around and on the last earnings call, Limelight did say that on their Q3 earnings call, they would give shareholders an update on where they stand in regards to their infrastructure. While they did not come right out and say the word "work-around", that is what they plan on giving an update on at the end of the third quarter.