I'm staying at the Colonnade Hotel in Boston and got this interesting message when I signed in to the hotel's WiFi network, run by Pronto Networks.
PLEASE NOTE: Any PC found to be doing P2P type file sharing activity (Kazaa, eDonkey, LimeWire, Blubster, Piolet, etc.), will be blocked from using the internet from this location due to the fact that this activity severely limits the ability to access the internet by other guests in the hotel.
In addition to running a variety of privately-run hotspots, Pronto also partners with cities in operating municipal Wi-Fi networks.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 10:46 PM | Print | Comments (0)
(Boston, MA) An interesting theme emerged today at The New Video Summit: web-based video isn't that easy or inexpensive to produce. Despite the widespread belief that user-generated content, made on the fly with video-capable cell phones, is synonymous with "web video," production and distribution of Internet video is hard work.
"If you want to make a real business out of it, then it gets expensive," Blip.tv CEO Mike Hudack said. In terms of high-quality shows, web video can start to be as expensive as traditional TV shows. "Once you get SAG actors involved and you’re talking about studios, you’re talking about television-like costs," Hudack said.
"When users are coming to our sites there is a lot of expectation for professional quality video," Peter Clem, VP, Broadband Programming and Production at Scripps Network Interactive said.
On top of the talent and personnel costs, web-based video requires technological expertise that traditional TV does entail. "There's just a tremendous amount of infrastructure that we invest in. There is a lot of content and infrastructure that goes on top of user-gen, which professional content doesn't face," ExpoTV CEO Daphne Kwon said.
Limelight Networks CEO Michael Gordon stressed that viewers don't really care that the Internet is different from traditional TV. "The Internet doesn't get a free pass for the expectations that consumers have," he said.
Spark Capital General Manager Dennis Miller said that he and his partners receive far too many pitches for new online video networks that feature cheap content dominated by "bikinis and extreme sports." These inexpensive, young male-oriented pitches fall flat.
What Miller wants to see is higher quality content produced by talented individuals. "As audiences fragment, if you can build enough of an audience with professionally produced content...you'll see the next wave of these micro-niche audiences developing," he said.
Keynote speaker Herb Scannell, CEO of Next New Networks, said that advertisers now want to see high quality audiences. "My expectation is that advertising will be based on a quality audience."
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 8:22 PM | Print | Comments (0)(Boston, MA) I'm here at The New Video Summit in the joyous city of baseball domination and the conversations are fascinating. I'll blog more later, but one of our speakers early this morning was Peter Naylor, SVP of Digital Media Sales at NBC-Universal.
I asked Peter if NBC-U is elated about the surprisingly positive reactions to its online video joint venture with News Corp., Hulu.com, which debuted in beta testing mode this morning. Cynics of the venture, who believed that two Hollywood studios couldn't effectively collaborate to create a worthy video option, seemed to be silenced, I added.
"The cynics are silenced...for now," he said. Beta testers are going to be playing around with Hulu.com for the next few days and more detailed feedback will start flowing in, he added.
"Hulu is super-distribution," Peter said during his panel discussion, evoking a new term that seems destined to become a buzzword. Super-distribution refers to Hulu's goal of getting partners' video content distributed widely across the web. (As TechCrunch notes, Hulu-powered content is already openly available on AOL today despite the service's invitation-only beta status.)
This focus on wide distribution has prompted some smart observers to proclaim Hulu more a rival to video publishing providers such as Brightcove rather than a rival to YouTube. (Hulu was dubbed a "YouTube killer" when it was first announced last spring.)
Not so, Naylor said. Brightcove is focused less on the advertising aggregation business and more on providing infrastructure, Naylor contended. Hulu, on the other hand, is squarely focused on getting advertisers to support the new web video medium.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 11:42 AM | Print | Comments (0)
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