Archives

Earlier this year I reported about Beamr’s acquisition of Vanguard Video, the video encoding technology company best known for supplying the HEVC codec SDK that Netflix is using for all their 4k, Dolby Vision, and HDR-10 content. At the same time, they announced raising a funding round of $15M led by Disruptive Growth, with participation from their existing VC’s Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors fund and Marker, LLC. With today’s announcement of Verizon Ventures adding $4M to the company, it seems the company’s momentum is set to expand faster.

Beamr tells me the additional funds are being earmarked for market expansion to capitalize on the opportunities they see in the telco, cable, and satellite sectors. Which is in addition to their existing video optimization business and the H.264 and H.265/HEVC encoder SDK business, which I can assume is healthy given Verizon’s investment.

For those not familiar with Beamr, they are an interesting company, who has grown from being a niche technology provider in the area of video optimization to a video encoding and processing technology vendor. New entrants in the video optimization space seemed to pop up every other month a few years back, yet we’ve since seen most exit the market or change directions since that time. With the acquisition of Vanguard Video and the advancement of their perceptual quality measure technology, the company appears to be adapting quickly to the needs of the market. Netflix, IBM, Imagine Communications, Microsoft, Dolby and dozens of other companies in the space leverage their technology.

As new entertainment experiences are being introduced such as VR, 360 and UHD 4K with HDR, there is a clear need for more advanced video encoding solutions. Which in concert with the consolidation that has hit the encoder market this year, such as the acquisition of Envivio by Ericsson and Elemental by Amazon, I see an opportunity for nimble technology disruptors to grab market share based on their technology and ability to adapt to the needs of the market.

In the piece I wrote earlier this year about Beamr, I suggested it’s becoming more difficult for some companies to do business with certain vendors. For example, does a cable company want to buy encoders from an Amazon-owned company? Potentially not. By combining Beamr’s perceptual optimization technology with their highly lauded H.264 and H.265/HEVC codecs, they are in a good position to capitalize on the industry consolidation and technology inflection point as we transition from H.264 to HEVC (over many years) and from hardware to software based solutions.

Though network investment will continue, capacities are always going to be under pressure. The ratio of data per pixel used for encoding video will need to decrease, even while the video quality remains at the same level. Perhaps this is why Verizon invested in Beamr. Verizon has highly capable video engineering teams, and they have built a world-class network. Yet the one area that no operator can address independently is video encoding due to the highly specialized and academic skill sets and knowledge required to further develop video encoding technology. Beamr has a team of 60 engineers focused solely on codec development, which I have to believe was not lost on Verizon.

When you look at the accelerating trends of video consumption – and consider new formats like VR and 360, it doesn’t surprise me that Verizon thru their investment arm Verizon Ventures, invested in Beamr. As the market has shifted to software, and some current encoder solutions dont’ provide the needs of the market, I can see Beamr rapidly becoming a dominate encoding vendor.

The next streaming media meetup in NYC will take place on Tuesday, December 13th, starting at 6pm at Tavern 29. We’re going to end the year with a great meetup and free drinks and networking thanks to sponsors 3Q SDN, Bitmovin, Level 3 and Highwinds. Tavern 29 is located at on 29th street and Park. We will be on the second floor and they do ask for ID at the door. There is no RSVP list, just show up, bring a friend and spread the word!

These meetups are a great way to network with others tied to the online video ecosystem. We get a great mix of attendees from companies including AOL, NFL, Showtime, Omnicom, NBC, NBA, Time, HBO, Viacom, CBS, Twitter, WPP, Google, Nielsen, Facebook, FOX, R/GA, Twitch, Riot Games, American Express, Comcast, wall street money managers, government agencies, VR production companies and vendors from all facets of the video ecosystem.

I’ll keep organizing these every month so if you want to be notified via email when the next one is taking place, send me an email and I’ll add you to the list.

AT&T’s new streaming service DirecTV Now has been hyped by the company as a “game changer” but after getting most of the details during today’s launch, as I expected, the service has quite a few limitations. For starters, the $35 pricing AT&T has been raving about is a “limited time offer – for which an end date has not yet been announced“. So how long that price will be good for is unknown. The company also said that the streaming service will see pricing increases down the line, as content licensing costs increase, which is the same we all experience with cable TV. AT&T’s press release says, “future reasonable programming price increases applicable to all packages.”

When the service launches on Wednesday, there will be a limit of two simultaneous streams per account, so the service isn’t a good option for those who want to stream from more than two sources at once in the same household. Roku support will come in 2017, but there is no mention at all of support on Xbox One or PS4 in the works, which combined, has sold more devices than any other piece of hardware connected to the TV. So that’s a big missing piece. There is no 4K support, which is fine, that wasn’t expected, but AT&T still hasn’t said what the max bitrate the video is encoded for, so it’s hard to know what the quality is going to be.

And if you are looking for a complete channel lineup, AT&T didn’t send one out with the press materials and as of now, hasn’t provided a list. I guess we’ll all see on Wednesday which channels come in which package, (there is no CBS or Showtime) but it’s odd they talked so much about how good the channel lineup is, but then didn’t provide any details. Also, where local affiliates are involved, many users will only have access to on-demand replays of primetime shows, unless you are in a major city where the network owns the local programming.

Pricing and Packages:

• Live a Little – more than 60 channels for $35/month
• Just Right – more than 80 channels for $50/month
• Go Big – more than 100 channels for $$60/month
• Gotta Have it – more than 120 channels for $70/month

HBO and Cinemax can be added for $5 each per month, which is a good price and shows that AT&T is clearly subsidising some of the cost. Pre-paying for 3 months in advance package will get you an Apple TV for free, and pre-paying for 1 month will get you a free Amazon Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote.

AT&T needs to start somewhere with their new service, but for all the hype they have been giving it over the past nine months, the launch to the market seems half-baked. There is no channel lineup listed as of yet, no cloud DVR features, no Roku/Xbox/PS4/Smart TV support, no details on video quality, promotional pricing with no known end date, no premium sports, and no integration with NFL Sunday Ticket. And yet AT&T’s press release calls this a “Revolution”.

If AT&T was looking to do something to make their service stand out when compared to competing services PlayStation Vue and Sling TV, they didn’t do it. DirecTV Now feels more like a beta version that I’m sure will improve over time, but at what cost to the consumer is unknown.

Also see: AT&T Reserving Capacity To Support About 1M Simultaneous DirecTV Now Subscribers

Thursday at 1pm ET, I’ll be moderating a StreamingMedia.com webinar on the topic of “OTT Best Practices: Strategies that Drive Subscriber Acquisition and Retention“. In the dynamic OTT market, fluctuations in subscriber metrics can make or break your business. To smooth acquisition and retention, leading OTT providers are finding success by combining flexible billing with advanced analytics. In this informative webinar, you’ll discover the proven strategies smart OTT providers are using to accelerate healthy subscriber growth.

Join the subscription management experts from Recurly on Thursday, November 17, 2016 at 10am PT / 1pm ET to learn how to:

• Identify the most profitable bundles – pricing, promotion and channels – for your business with real-time analytics and actionable insights
• Minimize churn – especially involuntary churn – with decline management and dunning strategies
• Optimize revenue with continual testing, hypertargeting and advanced performance metrics

REGISTER NOW to join us for this FREE live web event.

The next streaming media meetup in NYC will take place on Tuesday, December 13th, starting at 6pm at Tavern 29. We’re going to end the year with a great meetup and free drinks and networking thanks to sponsors 3Q SDN, Bitmovin, Level 3 and Highwinds. Tavern 29 is located at on 29th street and Park. We will be on the second floor and they do ask for ID at the door. There is no RSVP list, just show up and spread the word.

These meetups are a great way to network with others tied to the online video ecosystem. We get a great mix of attendees from companies including AOL, NFL, Showtime, Omnicom, NBC, NBA, Time, HBO, Viacom, CBS, Twitter, WPP, Google, Nielsen, Facebook, FOX, R/GA, Twitch, Riot Games, American Express, Comcast, wall street money managers, government agencies, VR production companies and vendors from all facets of the video ecosystem.

I’ll keep organizing these every month so if you want to be notified via email when the next one is taking place, send me an email and I’ll add you to the list.

Building a great Roku channel has never been easier. At the Streaming Media West show, [taking place this week in Huntington Beach, CA] presenters from Streamroot will provide a brief overview of how modern video players work, what broadcasters should look for depending on their technical and business goals, and different open-source tools that are available. The presentation will discuss compatible formats, codecs and supported DRMs, user performance, the ability of each media engine to handle edge cases, and the performance of the ABR algorithms. At the end of the presentation, broadcasters will better understand what tools are right for their needs and be able to evaluate the pros and cons of each solution available.

Register online using the code 200DR for a free “Discovery Pass” and get access to the keynotes, exhibit hall, discovery track sessions, and receptions at #smwest – at no cost – or get $200 off a full conference pass.

At the Streaming Media West show, [taking place this week in Huntington Beach, CA] we have a session that will explore why publishers need a holistic view of consumers’ Quality of Experience (QoE) in today’s open and unpredictable Internet environment. Learn how companies are using data to adapt to the changing entertainment landscape and how correlations can be made across the video delivery spectrum to understand the impact of experience as it pertains to the engagement of your audience. Confirmed speakers include:

• Moderator: Ed Haslam, CMO, Conviva
  
• Joe Friend, VP, Ad Technology Systems, Fox
  
• Perry Weinstein, GM, North America, Accedo
• Jon Mantell, VP, Digital Products and Video, CBSi

Register online using the code 200DR for a free “Discovery Pass” and get access to the keynotes, exhibit hall, discovery track sessions, and receptions at #smwest – at no cost – or get $200 off a full conference pass.