That’s the question we’re looking to answer at the Streaming Media West show next week with a panel entitled "Consumer Generated Video Sites: Can They Be Monetized?"

We’ve got a great lineup of speakers including:

• Dan Rayburn, Executive Vice President, StreamingMedia.com (moderator)
• Chris Carvalho, Director of Business Development, Lucasfilm
• Joel Sanders, Sr. Director of Site and Operations, AtomFilms, MTV Networks
• David Eckoff, VP, New Product Development and Innovation, Turner Broadcasting
• Steve Rosenbaum, CEO and Founder, Magnify.net

With nearly a hundred video portals or service offerings all based on user-generated video, and more launching each day, can any of them survive? What business models need to be put in place for these companies to make it in the long run? Will advertising ever provide the revenue they need or even help them cover their bandwidth bills? With so many sites that seemingly do all the same thing, how will these sites distinguish themselves from one another? Come hear directly from some of these UGC sites and learn what they are doing to try and lead the charge to profitability.

It’s not too late to register. While the early registration discount period has now passed, if you have not yet registered and want a discount code, let me know.

The day before the start of Streaming Media West, we have a full day of pre-conference workshops. On Monday Nov. 5th, Microsoft will be teaching a 3 hour afternoon workshop entitled "Publishing Media for Microsoft’s Silverlight Platform".

The Microsoft workshop will teach attendees how to use Expression Media Encoder to publish live and on-demand content to Microsoft Silverlight. You’ll also learn techniques for getting the most out of the VC-1 codec over the Web and get expert advice on how to update your existing Windows Media site to a Silverlight experience.

While the early registration discount has expired, anyone who is interested can contact me to get a discount code that lets you go to the morning AND afternoon workshops for only $195. We’ve kept it very affordable so everyone can attend and get 6 hours of hands-on training.

At the end of the first day of the Streaming Media West show, Adobe is having an Adobe Partner Showcase event at their headquarters in San Jose on Tuesday Nov. 6th. Their will be hands-on demos and some of Adobe’s partners including Maven, Brightcove, blip.tv, Limelight Networks and Akamai will be in attendence.

RSVP is required. I don’t know how many RSVPs they have left open so I suggest you register right away if you are interested. Just before the Adobe event, we have the Streaming Media West show reception as well. Come to the exhibit hall at 5pm for some drinks and networking and then head over with us to the Adobe event afterwards. All you need to do is register for a free exhibit halls pass. While the early registration period is over, you can still register here for free by using promo code HALL.

StreamingMedia.com is willing to help cover some or all of the expenses
of anyone who is able to help Beet.TV or last100.com out. Both Beet.TV and last100.com are looking for anyone who wants to attend the Streaming Media West show next week in San Jose to help them do some online coverage of the show. Andy at Beet.TV is looking for someone who wants to shoot some short interviews and Steve is looking for coverage via blogging.

This is a great opportunity for you to get some exposure on sites that get a lot of traffic. Let me know if you are interested and I’ll put you in touch with them.

Earlier this week, the domain webcasting.com sold for $150k. The original owner registered it in 1994 and had a small webcasting company before retiring from the industry a few years ago. A new company in the webcasting business took over the domain this week. Wonder what this domain would have gone for back in the 2000 era?

At Streaming Media West next month, I will be presenting a session entitled "CDN Pricing: Costs for Outsourced Video Delivery". It’s a session I have done for the past 3 shows and usually gets a large crowd. I also do a lot of Q&A with the attendees and last show, they had some great feedback for the CDNs on what they wanted, which I covered in a post entitled "Customers Tell Content Delivery Networks What They Want At Streaming Media East Session"

The pricing I will be presenting will primarily be all the data I have collected from contracts, RFPs and customers directly as well as from some CDN and P2P vendors who have sent me their entire pricing worksheets. I will be presenting the data based on the high, low and average price amongst all of the vendors combined, splitting out CDN from P2P.

That being said, this is an open opportunity for any CDN or P2P vendor to provide me with any pricing data they wish. While I plan to combine all the data and publish "averages", if any vendor wants me to specifically publish their pricing stand alone, outside of the combined industry average, I will do this. I see that some vendors are already publishing pricing in the open market so if you want the exposure, and want to give out the data, with ranges based on commit levels, I’ll do it for you. Otherwise, all of the numbers I present will be like I have done it in the past, which you can now easily find at www.CDNPricing.com

I am posting info about this session on my blog so that every CDN and P2P provider has the ability to have their data included if they want it. While I have already collected lots of pricing data and continue to do so from the major players, I don’t have as much from some of the new players who don’t have as many RFPs out in the market. This is your chance if you want to be included. I’m giving all vendors a level playing field to be included, if they want, so afterwards no one can say they were kept out of it.

PLEASE NOTE: I am making an exception for this session and will allow anyone
who works for any CDN or P2P provider to attend the session for free.
This one session will not require a conference pass. It will require
you to register for a free exhibit pass, so if you are interested,
contact me and I will give you a code.

I’ll be moderating a panel at the Streaming Media West show in two weeks asking analysts how Wall Street looks at the online video sector, how it values companies in our space, where they think the industry is heading and what they are most excited about. The list of panelists includes:

• Dan Rayburn, Executive Vice President, StreamingMedia.com (Moderator)
• Colby Synesael, SVP, Equity Research, Telecom Services, Merriman Curhan Ford & Co.
• Katherine Egbert, Software Research Analyst, Jefferies and Company
• David Eller, Principal, Primary Research, Reuters
• Aaron Kessler, Senior Research Analyst, PiperJaffray & Co.

It’s not too late to register. While the early registration discount period has now passed, if you have not yet registered and want a discount code, let me know.