With online video viewership at an all-time high, questions around monetization and syndication are of the utmost importance for TV and content executives. At next week's Streaming Media West show, executives from FOX, Disney, NBC Universal, MTV, HBO Broadband, EPIX, MLB, YouTube/Google, Turner, CNN Money, Comcast, Associated Press, FUNimation, Mountain Sports International and others will discuss how converging media technologies are redefining traditional distribution methods.

Taking place over three days, the Streaming Media West show has numerous sessions on topics relevant to TV and content executives, including:

• The Impact Of TV Everywhere And Over-The-Top Video
• Successful Content Syndication and Aggregation Strategies
• Monetization And Video Advertising Formats
• Bridging TV And Broadband And Cutting The Cable
• The Impact Of Broadband-Enabled TVs, Gaming Consoles And Devices
• How Old Media Is Embracing Online Video and New Media
• Monetizing Long-Form Video

Come hear from the leading broadcast and content companies on the disruption they see taking place from Web television, TV Everywhere, broadband enabled devices, advertising standards and HD video.

It's not too late to get a pass to the show and readers of my blog can register using my own personal discount code of DRF1, which gets you $200 off the ticket price. You can attend all three days of the SM West show for only $695 or get a FREE exhibits pass which gets you into the show floor, all three keynotes and the networking events.

Make no mistake, the online video platform space is hot right now. So hot that we've been able to gather more than 30 companies in the video platform ecosystem to join us at our new Online Video Platform Summit, taking place during the Streaming Media West show in San Jose next week.

With more than 50 vendors
in the space, there have never been more online video platform solutions on the market. But with so many choices comes confusion, and that's where the summit fits in. Our goal with the summit is to help publishers of all types and size, not just those for whom video is their core business. The real value of a summit is the ability to see these platforms in person, watch live demos and talk to the companies in the market.

We've got a great lineup of speakers over two days covering all kinds of facets of the video platform space and demos by nearly a dozen leading companies. It's not too late to get your pass and if you use my personal discount code of DRF1 when registering, you can attend both days of the summit for only $495.

There's a lot of vendor announcements coming out next week during our Streaming Media West show and we're going to do our best to cover as many of them as possible, even while we're running the show. For those vendors who have not already briefed us, please contact us this week to let us know when your release is hitting the wire. I already know of a dozen or so releases expected next week and we want to make sure we include all of them in the news roundup we'll be doing.

I will be linking to the news on my blog next week, but probably not doing full write-ups of the releases until after the show is over. If you get us your releases this week, under embargo, I'll try to write something up so that's it's ready for next week. I will be Twittering a lot during the show so I can get a bunch of news items out quickly so look for that. We'll be using the hash tags of #smwest09 and #ovps09 on Twitter.

Starting on December 8, Sony plans to make the movie Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs available for streaming, at 720p, a month ahead of the retail release, to those who have broadband-enabled Sony TVs and Blu-ray players. The catch? It will cost users $24.95 for a 24 hour rental, or the same price as buying it on Blu-ray.

While some studios have been experimenting with the idea of "day-and-date" release, this offering by Sony isn't even that. While one could argue that you're streaming the movie a full month before you can even buy it on DVD or Blu-ray, charging $24.95 for a rental simply means that Sony is setting themselves up for failure. It's ironic that for all the noise some studios make about offerings like this, they are never willing to go on-record and give out any details on how many movies were sold. I wonder why.

How Sony can think this is a value to any consumer is beyond me, except for the fact that the studios have been treating customers like this forever. Two years ago, many of the major studios talked about doing day-and-date releases, which is the act of releasing a movie on DVD, VOD and on digital services like iTunes all on the same day. Consumers got excited with the idea, but according to Rentrak, only 30 movies were released last year day-and date on DVD and VOD, not including iTunes. Sadly, none of this comes as any surprise though since according to Rentrak, cable and telco VOD transactions are up 14% year over year. The studios, with their short-sighted vision, are still worried about digital distribution eating into their VOD and DVD profits and would rather fight it, even though consumers are demanding it.

Updated: As if this should surprise anyone, Sony's CEO was quoted in the NYTimes in reference to the $24.95 price saying. "We don’t need a war with Wal-Mart or any other organization, and I don’t think they’re hostile to this." More proof that the studios only care about their DVD revenue.

Related posts:

– MPAA Whines About Piracy And BitTorrent On 60 Minutes, When Will They Learn

– This Is Just Stupid: Digital HD Downloads Still Cost More Than DVDs

Last week, Netflix started mailing out the discs that PS3 users must insert in their console each time they want to stream a movie. While the disc is a temporary measure until there is a dedicated Netflix app for the PS3, the solution is very slow and painful. The disc takes about 20 seconds to load and once a movie is selected, it takes almost 30 seconds before the movie starts streaming. While the quality of the stream is good and looks the same to me when compared to streaming on the Xbox 360, Roku or TiVo, the controls that allow you to do things like fast-forward the video are also very slow.

For those PS3 users who have never streamed Netflix to any other
device, they may not even notice or care. But for anyone like myself
who has used one of the many other Netflix enabled devices for streaming, the
PS3 experience really suffers when it comes to the user experience. I still find it odd that Netflix raised their guidance for the fourth quarter due to the deal with Sony because if you use some assumptions and run the numbers, it's not that much additional revenue. Lets over-estimate and say Netflix ships 500,000 discs to PS3 users in November alone. And lets say that 50% of those users are all new for Netflix and sign up for the $8.99 a month package. That's only an additional $4.4 million in revenue for Netflix in the fourth quarter. So unless Sony is paying Netflix, or there is some other revenue changing hands between the companies, I don't see the reason for Netflix to raise their guidance for this quarter.

Today at 2pm ET I’ll be moderating and participating in a unique open forum Q & A web event sponsored by CDNetworks. Please join us and bring any technical or business-related questions you have about your content delivery needs. Joining me during the webinar will be Rich Day, VP of Product Strategy at CDNetworks, and former founder of Speedera Networks. The webinar is free and you can register here.

Most of the webinar is going to be spent answer your questions and discussing topics you want to hear about. If you have any questions or topics you want us to cover, you can send them in early in the comments section.

Sorenson Media, a sponsor of this blog, just released version 6 of their popular Squeeze encoding software. Jan Ozer over at StreamingMedia.com just did a write up on some of the new features which you can read about here. Sorenson is providing readers of my blog with a special 30-day evaluation serial number so you can get hands-on with the software and try it out for yourself. Just download the Mac or Windows version and use this serial number: 884TQC-GBVG44-UY9Y67-BFADQ5-MSF58D. UPDATED: Where it asks for a company name, type in Rayburn. The serial number is good for the first 100 activations, so you better be quick if you want to make sure you can use it. Thanks to Sorenson for making the code available to readers.

If the code did not work for you the first time, please enter the name Rayburn where it asks for a company name.