Last week at the D5 conference, RealNetworks introduced a new RealPlayer that allows users to download videos from any website that aren’t protected by DRM. The player allows many formats of videos to be downloaded including Flash, Windows Media and QuickTime. A premium version of the player for $29.95 allows users to burn that content to a DVD. Now aside from the obvious idea that content owners may revolt at the idea of people being able to save their content whether they want them to or not, I just don’t see the value to RealNetworks in a new player. Why offer it?

RealNetworks has been out of the video format space for some time. They are a major player in the music and audio space with their Rhapsody offering but not for anything that pertains to video. So how does having a new video player help any other aspect of their business? I listened to an audio interview with Rob Glaser at PaidContent.org on this subject and still I don’t see the value. Rafat asked Rob directly what the business model was for this new player but didn’t get an answer that really gave any specific details.

Clearly Real wants consumers to download the player and then hopefully
buy the premium version so they can burn content to DVDs. But isn’t this
the exact same model we saw with the free RealPlayer and the RealPlayer
Plus version years ago? Is it really the right time in the market to be trying to up-sell consumers on the functionality of a media player?

And I think the bigger question is, do we really need more players in the industry? Isn’t it already hard enough for consumers? How many more players and plugins are we going to try and force viewers to have to download? Windows Media Player, Silverlight Plugin, Flash Plugin, Adobe Media Player (later in the year), QuickTime Player, RealPlayer, DivX, BitTorrent etc…. and potentially other plugins depending on what site you are viewing video from. I think it is too many already, without the new player from Real.

RealNetworks Please Note: QuickTime is spelled as one word, capital Q and capital T. It is wrong in your press release.

And the funding deals just keep on coming. Yesterday, Blip.tv and EyeWonder both announced they had received a round of financing.

Blip.tv, best known for sharing advertising revenue 50/50 with content creators, announced yesterday that they have closed a second round, amount not disclosed, led by Ambient Sound Investments (ASI), the venture capital fund established by the four founding engineers of Skype. Blip.tv plans to use the money to develop and offer new advertising options and extend their content distribution network to reach users on multiple devices.

Also yesterday, EyeWonder announced they had received a round of funding from BIA Digital Partners, a private investment firm focusing on mid-to-later stage companies. The amount was not disclosed. EyeWonder plans to use the money to expand in the U.S and abroad.

Limelight Networks is scheduled to price their shares on or about this Thursday and could be trading as early as this Friday. While their prospectus says shares should price between $10-$12, my guess is that they could be priced higher than that simply based on how hot the content delivery market is.

Personally, I think anytime a company in our space goes public it’s good for the entire industry as it brings added exposure to the world of online video. It also allows us to see the real numbers behind the business; although in Limelight’s case, they are one of the few who have been showing their numbers for awhile even before they were raising money.

Based on their S-1 filing of 78.3 million shares out, at $11 a share that’s a market cap of $861 million, minus cash of $127 million plus debt of $20.6 million, that gives them an enterprise value of about $750 million. And that’s with it pricing at $11 a share. So if it prices higher, and
goes up at all upon trading, they will be over the billion dollar mark. That would be a multiple of about 15x revenue.

UPDATE: On many news websites, articles are quoting Jim Cramer as having said on his TV show that MTV and Akamai are suing Limelight Networks. Limelight Networks is NOT being sued by MTV. As their prospectus clearly states, Akamai and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) are in litigation with Limelight, not MTV.

Last month, the largest content delivery network in the China region, ChinaCache, announced it had raised a Series B round of $31.5 million. I’m surprised not to have seen this talked about on a lot of websites considering ChinaCache is considered to be the premier company in their region with little, if no competition.

I don’t know much about ChinaCache as a company but they say they have nodes in 50 major cities across China and did $10 million in revenue for 2006. They also have Yahoo! and Nokia as partners for their CDN service. This is a company to watch. It’s only a matter of time before they see some serious revenue growth in a region that is growing as fast, it not faster, then the U.S. market. I’m surprised that no U.S. based CDN has done any type of integration with them, or if they have, aren’t promoting it heavily. Anyone else have more info on ChinaCache?

If you are going to be in the LA area on June 13th, the LA Content Networking Forum will be a great opportunity to meet folks and learn about the
State-of-the-Internet in the LA area (i.e. Content Delivery,
Networking, Connectivity, Metro, Co-location and Peering).

There will be food, drinks, music and a Q&A session following a panel discussion from executives at Level 3, Equinix, Peak Web Consulting and Panther Express.

For all the details, click on the flyer and make sure to register in advance for the event. Space is limited so if you haven’t already, be sure to RSVP.

Why is it that every time a new means of distributing video content comes out, analysts always immediately predict that it will eat into the current way of doing things? From an article on Yahoo!, "Apple will cannibalize a good chunk of the U.S. $26-billion DVD player market in the next several years, according to Deutsche Bank. One of the primary drivers of this change will be the availability of YouTube content on Apple TV."

Seriously, this is just getting ridiculous. If you want to have the opinion that online video will eat into DVD sales, that’s one thing. But to say the reason Apple TV will do so is because of the availability of user-generated content, well now you’re not even comparing Apples to Apples. (no pun intended)

You can’t compare content on YouTube with professionally produced content on DVDs. And you certainly can’t compare downloading content to your computer and having to transfer it to a device connected to your TV with that of having a portable DVD disc with content. Even online video has not eaten into DVD sales and  online video on multiple devices has way more market share than Apple TV ever will. These analysts are just getting carried away.

Turner Networks currently has an open position for a Technical Director, Video Product Development and Delivery in Atlanta.The Director leads a team of 4-6 software engineers who are responsible
for the development, integration, and ongoing management of video
products for Web and broadband businesses. The teams primary activities
include: Developing video players and supporting frameworks for
advertising and content delivery; Leading overall technical
implementation of consumer-facing video players and applications
through the complete development and product lifecycle; and Working
closely with Turners Web/broadband properties.

For more details, contact John Dailey who is leading the search.

If you are looking for a new position, have taken a new job or are a company that has a job opening, let me know. In many cases I will highlight it here on the blog – free of charge.