At the Streaming Media East show on Tuesday May 20th, we have a special session entitled "Mergers and Acquisitions: Wall Street’s View". Acquisitions, partnerships, funding, and failures are all making headlines at an increasing rate.

At times it is difficult to understand why these events occur, what drives them, who is involved, and how they affect the rest of the industry. This panel of venture capitalists, equity research analysts, and others will discuss their views on the state of the markets, what gets them excited, what concerns them, and how it could impact the way you do business.

Confirmed speakers include:

• Moderator: Brian Essex, Analyst (formerly at Morgan Stanley)
• Colby Synesael, SVP, Equity Research, Telecom, Merriman Curhan Ford & Co.
• Kevin Ryan, Co-founder, Chairman, Panther Express
• Neil Squeira, Partner, General Catlyst Partners
• Ray Conley, CFA, Palo Alto Investors

Have a topic or question for any of the speakers you want to see
addressed? Submit it in the comments section and we’ll add it to the
Q&A portion of the session.

Registration is still open
and you can see all the various pricing packages, including a one-day
ticket on our website. Six years since we took over the
StreamingMedia.com business and we’ve still managed to keep the
conference very affordable for everyone to attend. A full two-day
conference ticket is only $895.

If you’re a financial analyst tasked with covering the content delivery market, you’ll want to come to the Streaming Media East conference taking place at the Hilton hotel in NYC on May 20th and 21st. On Tuesday, May 20th, I’ll be presenting my latest data on CDN pricing in a presentation entitled "CDN Pricing: The Going Rate For Video Delivery". On Wednesday May 20th, we’ll also have a panel of analysts and investors on a special session entitled "Mergers and Acquisitions: Wall Street’s View".

In addition, we’ll have nearly 20 video delivery companies exhibiting and or speaking at the show including Akamai, AT&T, Abacast, BitTorrent, CDNetworks, Digital Fountain, EdgeCast, Highwinds, Ignite, Internap, Level 3, Limelight, Mirror Image, Move Networks, Panther Express, PowerStream, StreamTheWorld, VeriSign. Contact me if you want a special discount code for financial analysts.

This morning, Vusion, a company formerly known as Jittr Networks officially launched their offering to the market. While most people would compare Vusion to Move Networks, instead of using traditional CDNs like Move does, Vusion is also acting as the CDN and is doing all of the video delivery themselves. While the company is not yet willing to say how much money they raised, they have been in stealth mode for a few years and have taken at least a few million. With the launch, Vusion also announced that Island Def Jam Music Group is using the service, but it’s hard to know if this is a regular paying customer, or more of customer who is getting some free services in exchange for Vusion being able to have content to showcase at launch.

Like Move, Vusion requires users to download software and is primarily going after high-bitrate and HD quality content with what they call their "patented WARP technology". Specifically going after content owners that require high-bitrate and
HD delivery use to be something that newer CDNs in the market were
touting as being a real differentiator. But today, the space is already
quite crowded with numerous companies focusing specifically on high
bitrate delivery. Move Networks, BitGravity, Digital Fountain, Grid Networks and now Vusion all seem to be competing for the same type of customer.

I had a long conversation with the Vusion folks a few weeks back and they came off as being smart and being very focused on the market they want to go after. But that alone won’t guarantee success in today’s  climate and with the continued influx of new providers on the market, it is getting really difficult to distinguish one provider from another. Many are really trying to focus on how the quality of their video is different, but to be honest, I can’t even tell the difference most times. At some point, quality no longer becomes the deciding factor and it will come down to all of the other important elements that go into a quality service offering.

After two successful shows in London, we’ll be back again this year on October 16-17th with our third Streaming Media Europe conference and exhibition. We’ve moved the show to the Novotel London West hotel, which gives us a larger location with more exhibit and meeting space to accommodate the shows growth.

I’m also please to announce that along with the new location, we’ve also added some new employees and some additional help for the Europe show. I will be stepping down from the conference chairman role this year and turning that over to Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen, the editor of StreamingMedia.com. With the success of the U.S. based shows and the amount of time those take to organize, I simply can’t be in so many places at once. I will still be involved in helping shape the conference content, but won’t be the point of contact for speaker proposals.

We are also happy to announce that we have hired Eileen Broch, a veteran conference organizer who is based in London and will be working with Eric to shape the program and selection of speakers. Eileen has spent many years in the conference business including organizing the first two JavaOne conferences ever produced by Sun. She has also held positions at Yahoo! Europe and Skype.

With the program organizers now in place, the call for speakers and papers is open. The deadline is May 15th and the website has all of the details on what we are looking for in the way of papers, speaker requirements and all the other details. If you want to really get involved this year and moderate or organize your own session, contact Eric or Eileen right away.

I do regret that I won’t be able to make it out to Streaming Media Europe this year, but Eric and Eileen will do a great job leading the content focus for the show. Speaking spots go fast, so get your submission in ASAP!

The Streaming Media East conference and exhibition is less than three weeks away and today is the last day for discount registrations. Register today and save $100 off the ticket price.

Six years since we took over the StreamingMedia.com business and we’ve still managed to keep the conference very affordable for everyone to attend. Registering today gets you a full two-day conference ticket for only $795.

StreamingMedia.com is also giving away an All Star Prize package to one conference attendee at this year’s show. To qualify, you must come to the show and subscribe/renew for free to Streaming Media magazine at Booth #410.

Register now and visit the SM booth for your chance to win. The prize package, which is sponsored by Ripcode includes:

– Two (2) tickets to the 2008 All Star Game at Yankee Stadium
– Two (2) tickets to the 2008 Home Run Derby at Yankee Stadium
– Three (3) night hotel accommodations at the Courtyard New York Manhattan
– Subway Passes for the week

Starting on Monday, I will be posting a lot of details on the conference, speakers, networking events and other activities leading up to the show.

In the past year and a half, more than 15 video delivery vendors, including P2P based providers, have raised almost $300 million in capital. CDNetworks, EdgeCast, Panther Express, Grid Networks, Highwinds, Velocix, Itiva, Move Networks, Pando Networks, Rinera, BitTorrent, ChinaCache, Rawflow and Oversi combined raised $282.85 million in 07′ and 08′. And that number does not take into account other CDNs who have already raised money but have not yet announced details. In addition, there are also at least four providers, some new, some not, who are out in the market raising a new round.

When all is said and done, at the end of this year, I expect we’ll have over $400 million raised by CDN vendors for 2007 and 2008. And with the market size for video delivery services in the U.S. being around $450 million in 2007, that’s a lot of money raised as compared to the size of the market. I’m afraid that many investors are going to need the CDN market to grow a lot faster than it can in order for them to see the kinds of returns they are probably expecting.

Anyone who reads my blog knows that I have been saying for some time now that CDNs need to do a better job of delivering a clear, concise message to the market of who they are, what they offer and how they are different from other CDNs in the industry. With nearly 40 CDNs now in the space, it’s never been more crucial for CDNs to stand apart from one another. Yet, with more new entrants, and more vendors all vying for much of the same business, few CDNs are really delivering any clear message at all. And don’t take my word for it, ask customers. They still don’t know the differences between vendors and in many cases, I don’t think the vendors do either.

For starters, this whole sales/marketing pitch of "we’re cheaper than Akamai" is pointless. Can someone please show me who isn’t cheaper than Akamai? Enough already. If all it took was a CDN to say they are cheaper than Akamai to get business, then Akamai would be losing a lot of CDN business right now, which they aren’t. So when nearly every CDN in the space is all saying the same thing, "we’re cheaper than Akamai", how is that a marketing message? I hear so many CDNs lead with that and I get so many e-mails from CDNs highlighting that. Ok, great to mention to a customer, but when every other CDN is saying the same thing to that customer, how is that making you stand out? It’s not. At this point, it would be unique if a CDN said we are more expensive than Akamai.

Why aren’t CDNs leading with propositions that customers want to hear? I keep saying that customers are complaining that they want better reporting and better customer service, and while some CDNs do highlight that as part of their offering, they are still not leading with that as the message. I challenge every CDN, especially the new entrants over the past 12+ months to write down what their marketing message is. Then compare that to what you read on your competitors websites and in their press releases and don’t be surprised when it’s nearly identical or is extremely vague and uses all the same marketing buzz words. This is really easy, yet many companies are simply falling in with the crowd getting lost in buzz words and bad marketing speak.

For instance. Simply by operating a CDN you are NOT helping customers monetize content. CDNs keep saying they are helping customers monetize their content yet then when I ask them if they have any of the offerings that truly enable the monetization of content like transcoding, authentication, meta data management, syndication tools, custom APIs, analytics tied into advertising etc…. most of the CDNs don’t offer any of these services as of yet. Simply delivering bits is not enabling monetization. Anyone can deliver bits. It’s all of the other pieces of the content ecosystem that really drives the monetization of content. Some CDNs have a few of those pieces, but the majority of them don’t.

Also, the marketing message that some CDNs are leading with calling themselves the third largest, or top-three CDN etc… is pointless. Who cares. Customers don’t. You are not going to win business simply by saying that to a customer. And quite frankly, what is it based on? CDNetworks says they are a "top-three global CDN", with us all assuming that Akamai and Limelight are the number one and two. But Panther Express says they are the industry’s third largest CDN and if we are basing this on revenue, then isn’t Level 3 the third largest CDN considering they said they did $100 million in CDN revenue for Q1 of this year?  The bottom line, it does not matter who is number three or number four. None of that matters. Think about this. Do you want to be known as the number three CDN in the industry, or do you want to be known by customers as the number one CDN in the industry when it comes to customer service and reporting. It’s a no brainer. We all know that in any industry, simply calling yourself a large player does not guarantee you success, long term viability or customers. Enron anyone? Size does not equal longevity.

When I started this blog it was to write about all things online video related and it seems all I have been doing is writing about CDNs for the past six months. I don’t call out CDNs in any post to make them look bad and don’t let my harsh criticisms of the CDN market suggest anything other than my love for wanting the CDN market to grow stronger and learn from its mistakes. We read a lot of great things about the CDN players but it’s also important that as an industry, we don’t allow ourselves to get to caught up in them and stay focused on what can be improved upon. Right now, I would say that the majority of CDN players really need to improve upon the story they tell of who they are, what they offer and how they are different from others in the market.