I’m pleased to announce that the content program for the Streaming Summit, at NAB Show is now live! Check out all the sessions and agenda on the dedicated website at www.nabstreamingsummit.com

Lots of speakers are being placed and we have OTT focused sessions on biz and tech topics including sports, direct-to-consumer, monetization models, video workflows, encoding, packaging, playback and much more. We’ve also got presentations from Amazon Fire TV, CBS Interactive, Comcast, Google, ESL Gaming and others. Here’s a small sample of the topics being covered:

• The Business of Sports Streaming: Challenges & Opportunities
• Free, Subscription and Ad Supported: Hybrid Next-Gen OTT Business Models
• Optimizing Advertising Content Workflows Across TV and Online Video
• Best Practices for Deploying CMAF, DASH and HLS at Scale
• Improving The End-User Experience For Video Advertising
• How Streaming News Services are Disrupting Cable News Networks
• Key Tech Requirements for Building and Managing An OTT Service
• Integrating TV and OTT Into A Single Experience
• Bringing OTT Advertising and Innovation to Local Markets
• Best Practices for Encoding and Packaging for Live Event Streams

Registration for the Streaming Summit (#streamingsummit) is now open (email me for a discount code for 3 or more tickets) and on Monday April 8th, we’re having a big beer garden network event, check out those details here.

Thanks to a great list of Streaming Summit sponsors as including Google, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Brightcove, Verizon Digital Media Services, Qwilt, Limelight Networks, Comcast Technology Solutions, Haivision, Broadpeak, Ciena, Deluxe Entertainment Services Group, Imagine Communications, Penthera.

On Wednesday March 13th, I’ll be hosting another dinner in NYC with Akamai, specifically for those on Wall Street that want to get a better understanding of Akamai’s business in the web performance and security markets. I will be leading a discussion with Rick McConnell, President and GM, Web Division along with Josh Shaul, VP Product, Cloud Security. The discussion will be centered around Akamai’s performance and security solutions detailing customer use cases, how these services are deployed from a technical standpoint, the value they offer to customers and short and long-term trends the company is seeing in the market.

If you are interested in attending the dinner, please reach out to me but note that this dinner is only for those on Wall Street and space is limited.

Back by popular demand the next NYC Streaming Meetup will take place on Tuesday March 19, starting at 6pm at Lillie’s, located in Union Square at 13 East 17th Street (map). There is no RSVP list, just show up and walk to the back of the venue, bring a friend and spread the word! We’ll have free drinks thanks to sponsor Comcast Technology Solutions and I’ll give out some passes to my Streaming Summit, at NAB Show, taking place April 8-9 in Vegas.

[If your company would like to sponsor the meetup and cover $500 of the bar tab, please let me know]

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.

I’m excited to announce the new website and call for speakers for the Streaming Summit, at NAB Show, April 8-9 in Las Vegas. The event is in the North Hall this year with 75 speakers over two days across 30 sessions in addition to 10 fireside chats with key executives in the OTT industry. The focus will be on the business and technology of OTT video and will cover both monetization topics and the video workflow via presentations and round-table panels.

Everything you need to know about packaging content, transcoding, media management, playback, analytics and so much more – all from industry leading experts. Learn how to capitalize on direct-to-consumer (DTC) offerings and hear how some of the largest companies in the world are monetizing their video library and building a brand relationship with their customers.

If you are interested in moderating or speaking, please see the website and reach out to me (917-523-4562) ASAP! Thanks to our first round of sponsors Google, Verizon Digital Media Services, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Qwilt and Haivision. #streamingsummit #NABShow

I am conducting a quick anonymous multi-choice survey of CE manufacturers, Mobile Operators, Content Companies and MSOs on their use of DRM technologies and platforms. One respondent will be randomly chosen and will win an Apple TV.

Here we go again. It seems every year we have a few companies involved in a webcast that are quick to pat themselves on the back calling it a “world record”. The latest is Accenture, who is promoting the Hotstar cricket webcast in 2018 saying it, “established the world record for the highest observed concurrency on a streaming platform, at 10.3 million concurrent views.” Accenture is touting this statement via a case study they have done to highlight their Accenture Video Solutions platform. The problem with their statement is that it’s simply false. On May 20th, 2018, the League Of Legends final peaked at just over 24.5M simultaneous streams. And unlike Accenture’s lower number, the League Of Legends number was verified by a third-party company, ESC. Who was Accenture’s verified by? While the Hotstar webcast was big, calling it a “world record” on a “streaming platform” is simply wrong. It wasn’t and Accenture should know better to advertise it as such. If you really want to impress us Accenture, give us numbers about the quality of the stream, not just how many were connected to it.

A thread was started on LinkedIn with some suggesting that CBS should have enabled low-latency streaming for the Super Bowl and that the stream should not have had a 20-40 second delay. There are so many wrong assumptions being made by people in the industry around low-latency streaming, from both a business and technical level. For starters, what value does CBS get, from a pure ROI standpoint, by reducing the latency of the Super Bowl stream? Do they sell more ads? No. Would more people initiate the stream? No. There is ALWAYS a cost vs. quality tradeoff that takes place with any streaming media service.

Netflix could make the quality of their videos better tomorrow by encoding them at 10Mbps. Why don’t they do it? Because there is no business benefit. The idea that CBS or anyone else should enable certain technology or features, just because they can, doesn’t make good business sense. Next up is the idea that delivering low-latency streaming at scale is easy or cheap to do. It’s not. Any major CDN that delivers live events with multi-million simultaneous streams will tell you it’s not easy to do at scale and many today can’t do it for large audiences. [see: Edge Computing Helps Scale Low-Latency Live Streaming, But Challenges Remain]

Not to mention, most CDNs charge more to deliver low-latency streaming, but broadcasters don’t want to pay more for it, expect in specific use cases. In a recent survey I did of over 100 broadcast and media customers, 80% of them said they wanted ultra-low latency functionality, but were not willing to pay more for it. Many expect the functionality to be part of a standard CDN delivery service, capable of supporting millions of simultaneous viewers. So to justify the extra cost, CBS or anyone else, needs to have a business reason to enable it.