LAS VEGAS--Last week at NAB, Microsoft made a number of announcements for Silverlight, its rich Web plug-in technology. On the show floor, we spoke with David Sayed who told us about  the coming integration of the software into consumer electronics, a new open-source media frame works and the creation of Silverlight video players by Ooyala and Kaltura, 3-D online video streaming, [...]

LOS ANGELES, Calif  -- Twenty years ago, when the YouTube founders were still in short pants, way before anyone used the term "user generated content," America's Funniest Home Videos came onto the scene and remains one of TV's  biggest success stories. On Sunday night (4/18), the ABC show won the ratings for the 7 p.m. hour, besting "60 Minutes" and "Dateline," [...]

LAS VEGAS -- Demand for bandwidth at Akamai reached a new, single-day peak of 3.45 Terabits per second (Tbps) of content served on Friday, April 9th, the company says.  This rate of content served is Akamai's highest in more than ten years in business The record came on a day of the big traffic around the Masters golf tournament and Major League [...]

With a vast amount of international travel halted as a result of the volcanic ash coming from Iceland, video teleconferencing will rise in the days and weeks ahead.   Should the crisis continue, the teleconferencing business could benefit,  Reuters reports today in an overview story of various "scenarios" stemming from the natural disaster. We expect the increased use of video for meetings will [...]

LAS VEGAS -- The much anticipated release of Adobe's CS5, the suite of creative tools for graphics, web design, and video editing, includes some significant improvements in Premiere, the widely used video editing program.  The new version was released yesterday. It is extremely fast at processing of big, HD files like the ones coming from the Red camera.   One Industry reviewer call [...]

Los Angeles-based Demand Media, the fast-growing Web content company, has hired Goldman Sachs to explore an IPO, reports Ken Li of the Financial Times.  Li writes that the IPO could come as early as August. Earlier this year, we spoke with Steven Kydd, Executive VP of Demand Studios.  He explains the system of creating vast amounts of content with a network [...]

Congrats to the team at Kyte for the Editor's Choice Award from StreamingMedia.com.   The San Francisco-based video services company was  recognized as the leading online video platform, quite a recognition in a highly competitive field. In the citation, editor Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen says,   "So what sets it (Kyte) apart from the rest? In a word, vision."I was in San Francisco [...]

LAS VEGAS -- Tom Leighton, co-founder and chief scientist of Akamai, says that television content will delivered primarily over the Internet in rich, interactive forms. But how will the Internet support the enormous demands for bandwidth, asks our Daisy Whitney when she spoke with Leighton on the floor of the NAB conference on Tuesday: He says that files distributed from central data [...]

LAS VEGAS -- ScanScout, the online video ad network and technology platform, is finding that as advertisers shift more budget online, their demands are rising to assure that their ads show up in appropriate videos. At NAB in this week, Daisy caught up with ScanScout's Jason Krebs for this overview of the emerging need and how ScanScout has been at it [...]

While a number of publishers and video service providers are scrambling to create a system to  insert and manage ads around video for the iPad, Kyte has a system in place, according to Gannon Hall, COO. He explained the "workaround" in this interview conducted yesterday at the Beet.TV studios in Manhattan.  Andy Plesser, Executive Producer

Zagat, which has one of the most popular paid iPhone apps, has launched an app for the iPad.  Subscribers to the popular iPhone app can use their guide on the iPad  at no additional cost. The one-time bundled cost for the app  both the iPhone and the iPad is $9.99.  The guide is integrated with Google Maps.  We were give a [...]

Irdeto, the Netherlands-based provider of content authentication services to media companies and others,  made two big announcements at NAB this week. Netflix has licensed Irdeto’s Cloakware Embedded Security as part of its suite of content protection tools for the tens of thousands of TV episodes and movies it streams instantly to its members. The company also announced an alliance with Adobe Systems [...]

NEW YORK -- Today, CNN.com announced a number of developments around digital content, including full integration with Facebook Connect, a blog network across many verticals and expanded coverage of entertainment and technology. These announcements were part of a big CNN industry event.  After the presentations, we spoke with Meredith Artley, managing editor of CNN.com. She said the expanded tech site would launch [...]

V-me, the Spanish language U.S. television network, has selected Kyte as its new online video solution, both companies announced today. Last week, we spoke with Guillermo Sierra, SVP, chief content officer, about the network, the early adoption of technology by Hispanics in the United States, and his selection of Kyte.Andy Plesser, Executive ProducerDisclaimer:   This video was produced as part of a [...]

LAS VEGAS -- At this year's National Association of Broadcasters show, 3-D television continues to be the hot topic both on the show floor and in the hallways, as producers and programmers try to figure out how to convert their shows to the new format. Tomorrow, DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg will address the conference on the topic of 3-D. The [...]

YuMe, the Redwood City-based online video advertising technology company announced today that it will integrate its ad platform with Microsoft Silverlight. This one of the first of the major ad technology/ad serving companies to be integrated into Silverlight.Microsoft's Silverlight, the rich Web-plug in which competes with Adobe Flash, has been picking up some key partners lately in the online video space.  [...]

SAN FRANCISCO -- Comcast's TV Everywhere, an online service for its cable subscribers, is providing DVR-type functionality that is driving consumption of video on its Fancast by a factor 2X, according to Karin GIlford, Senior VP. The Fancast viewed by Comcast subscribers who are logged in is different from the Fancast available on the Internet.We spoke with her in February at [...]

London --The BBC has been surfacing an increasing amount of Web-specific videos and television packages to its giant portal. Last month we visited the BBC Newsroom Television Centre in West London to speak with Mark Barlex, editor for on-demand video for the BBC.   He provides a tour around the U.K. version of the giant news site and explains the way in [...]

SAN FRANCISCO -- The future of television may be pervasively three dimensional, but the technology could be a passing fascination, says CNET senior editor John Falcone.  It is just too early to say.  We caught up with John last week at CNET's San Francisco offices for a demo night of 3-D televisions,  clips and games.Yesterday's telecast of the Master's Tournament in [...]

Kit Digital, the Prague-based video services company, has over 1100 customers around the world. It recently reported $47 million in annual revenue and is growing organically and through acquisitions including the Feedroom and last month's $18 million purchase of Multicast. Last week, we sat down with Kaleil Isaza Tuzman, chairman and CEO for an update.  He calls the company "the biggest [...]