Very few would argue with the statement that video is hot right now. From the cultural phenomenon of YouTube, through to the rise of live streaming services, money is pouring into startups from content creators through to service providers. Getting into video isn’t as easy as setting up a blog, so here’s some advice of which direction to head in. The basics Obviously you’ll need a camera to get started in video; if you’re a Mac user you might have a cam built in, but if not web cam’s are fairly cheap. Alternatively people like Chris Pirillo stream from a professional video camera, but even a second hand older model can also work, for both live and recorded shows to computer. For camera effects, CamTwist for the Mac is free and fully featured with effects such as text, clocks, image overlays, Picture in Picture, and much more. Fix8 (our coverage here) offers cartoon style overlays if animation or funny faces are more your thing. Recording You’ll have two ways of recording a video: local or to the web. Local could directly on to a camcorder through to Quicktime or something in-between. Quicktime Pro (between $30-$45) does the recording and it’s a quick and easy solution. To the web means recording your video directly to a website; the advantages are that you don’t have to upload it and it’s available immediately, however depending on your internet connection the recording quality can be significantly poorer than recording a video locally and uploading it. YouTube offers the direct recording option and is an obvious candidate, but the Live streaming services also allow you to record to their services and even distribute your video out to sites like YouTube later. I’ve also found that the quality of the live stream services can often be higher in recording than YouTube. Streaming Live Live in the newest sector in online video with venture capital being spread around a range of services. Live offers some advantages over doing recorded video alone (although they are not mutually exclusive); streaming live means you can interact with and network with your audience while creating archive footage than can be distributed later. Companies in this space include Justin.tv, Ustream.tv, Mogulus, BlogTV, Stickam and others. All of the services have strengths and weaknesses and you should explore each one, but if you haven’t got time for that I’d recommend Justin.tv or Ustream.tv. → Read More
Ustream.TV has taken $11.1 million Series A in a round that included Doll Capital Management and existing investor The Band of Angels. Ustream.TV was in the first wave of live broadcast sites that launched in 2007 along with Justin.TV, BlogTV and Mogulus. Ustream.TV took $2 million in angel funding in December and appointed General Wesley Clark to the board. Rumors surface in January that the company was in takeover talks with Microsoft with a $50 million price tag. Ustream.TV has grown from its original launch to become a broadcast hub for Presidential hopefuls, popular entertainers and musicians, technology industry gurus and business executives. The live broadcasting service has been complemented with a depth of tools that allows people like Chris Pirillo to build a video empire. Ustream.TV offers video conversion and download in .FLV, .WMV, .MP4 and .MOV, and users can syndicate videos created from live shows on video sites such as Blip.tv. According to Ustream.TV, their traffic has grown 325% over the last 6 months. Ustream.TV said the funding would be used to accelerate product development and “meet market demand for a live online video broadcasting platform that allows people all over the world to engage in real-time.” CrunchBase Information Ustream Justin.TV Mogulus blogTV Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
It’s been a whole year since the launch of live video streaming site Justin.TV , and there is no shortage of competitors (Ustream, BlogTV, Kyte, Stickam, Mogulus, Yahoo Live, LiveVideo). (See more of our coverage here). But Justin.TV looks like it is holding its own in this still-nascent part of the Web. “So far,,” notes CEO Michael Seibel, “Justin.tv has more than 50 years of video stored in its archives and we have accumulated 10 of those years over the past 30 days.” Here are some more stats provided by the company, both cumulative for the past year and for the past 30 days: 1 Year Statistics: * 87,331,037 pageviews * 24,954,403 unique visitors * 57 years of archives * 28,106 total channels * 356,197 registered users * 73,754 user created video clips Last 30 day stats * 21,409,755 pageviews * 5,963,775 uniques * 11 years of archives * 6,954 new channels * 73,534 registered users * 26,500 user created video clips Peaks: * 3.6 gbps video * 32,000 simultaneous viewers Update 2: Justin.TV reviewed its stats, and believes that its website analytics software, StatCounter, overcounts unique visitors. So it has provided the following data from Google Analytics, which vastly diminishes its unique visitor count in the past 30 days from 6 million to 1.6 million. This is really lame, but at least they fessed up. And this is why I always try to go with comScore—better to undercount than overcount. 1 Year Statistics: 85,335,630 pageviews 4,823,411 absolute unique visitors Last 30 day stats: 21,859,147 pageviews 1,560,112 absolute unique visitors Update: Here is a graph from Justin.TV, of only its site’s pageviews, unique visitors, and returning visitors (worldwide): Here are the comScore stats for the site alone. (Justin.TV is the red line). Note that these tell a very different story, with only 293,000 uniques in February (compared to the 6 million—(update) make that 1.6 million— claimed by the company). These are all U.S. stats, but the trends roughly match the worldwide stats from comScore as well. I present them here only to give a sense of how it is doing as a destination site versus some of its competitors. (Here is Alexa and Compete). As a destination site, it looks to be doing better than UStream and BlogTV: But not quite as well as Kyte.TV or StickCam (although the numbers are so low for all of these sites, that it → Read More
http://www.viddler.com/player/b914691e/114.447/ First rumored in January, YouTube is definitely doing live video, and it’s happening this year. Sarah Meyers got the scoop (video above), transcript as follows care of NewTeeVee: Meyers: “When are you guys gonna do live video on YouTube?” Chen: “2008. We’ll do it this year. “Live video is just something that we’ve always wanted to do, we’ve never had the resources to do it correctly, but now with Google, we hope to actually do it this year.” Now for the guessing game: which live video startup will fold first once YouTube dominates the market? YouTube will be last to market, but the same momentum that has seen YouTube dominate video will now be applied to live video. Like video, content creators want to be on the service that gives them the most exposure, no matter how good the alternatives area (after all, YouTube doesn’t offer the best quality video). YouTube already has the user base; live video streamers will flock to YouTube like a moth to a flame. CrunchBase Information YouTube Ustream blogTV Mogulus Justin.TV LiveUniverse Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
LiveVideo.com from MySpace founder Brad Greenspan’s company LiveUniverse is yet another live streaming service, but it combines the best of existing services with Yahoo Live style functionality for a package worth looking at. LiveVideo.com offers the following features: show archiving, so users can record shows to be played back later embedding of live streams chat associated with the stream video conferencing Yahoo Live style, in that users can add other streaming users to their page and interact with them Comment board/ profile page similar to YouTube where users can leave comments Photo gallery, no quite Flickr, but allows users to share photos LiveUniverse is pitching LiveVideo.com as “the first fully interactive, global, live streaming platform;” it’s not, but it is a feature rich offering that may well find favor. CrunchBase Information Mogulus Ustream blogTV Justin.TV LiveUniverse Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
Ustream.tv is said to be in advanced talks with Microsoft to be acquired for $50 million, according to a report from Valleywag. Given it’s very early morning as the post goes live we are unable to put calls in to confirm the deal, but might have more later. Ustream.tv is one of the first wave of live streaming service providers that includes companies such as Justin.tv, Blogtv and Mogulus. Ustream.tv has offered a complete package of streaming and post show videos, and has a strong reputation as a reliable provider of live shows and events. The company announced a deal January 29 to stream the Republican convention, and has also featured other events including shows with Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and Chuck Norris. Ustream.tv is also the home of major league live streamers including Chris Pirillo, and also scored a viral win with Walrus TV. The acquisition, if true, does seem a little strange timing wise given Microsoft’s takeover offer for Yahoo, however Valleywag suggests it’s a pre-emptive pre-Series A deal that will allow Microsoft to showcase Silverlight to a broader audience. CrunchBase Information Ustream Justin.TV blogTV Mogulus Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
Given all the chaos this week surrounding Microsoft’s bid to take over Yahoo, it’s not surprising that a new Yahoo product launch wouldn’t have an abundance of exuberance attached to it. Still, the only word anyone got that Yahoo Live has gone live is a three word post on Bradley Horowitz’s blog: “Live is live” (Horowitz is head of the Technology Development Group at Yahoo). Yahoo Live allows anyone with a webcam to stream live video of themselves to a dedicated site. They call it “a platform for live video.” It is very similar to existing live streaming services like Stickam, Justin.tv and Ustream and Blogtv. Users create a channel, authorize their webcam and start broadcasting to the public. Other people can drop by and watch, or choose to participate via video, sound or text chat. We’re still testing it, but for now the service is very unstable and keeps going down. It’s also clearly got a ways to go with features – videos are not archived for playback, for example, meaning once it’s broadcast live, that’s it. Users can set up profiles for themselves and track how many people have watched them stream live, how many broadcasts they have made, and how long total they’ve been on the air. When you’re in a streaming session with others, up to five other people can be shown on your screen at the same time, one of which is the main presenter and four others who are simply in the session. Everyone else can be seen in a chat room associated with the session, and these sessions can also be embedded around the web. Right now it looks as though Yahoo has hired two people – one of which is a girl who will sing songs on request – to help launch the site by providing some ongoing content. Yahoo has also set up a Twitter account that you can follow to see who’s streaming at a given time. Want to pull out information from Yahoo Live and access it elsewhere? There’s also an API available. Update: Yahoo’s Chad Dickerson responds below in the comments about the stability issue. CrunchBase Information Stickam.com Justin.TV Ustream blogTV Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
Live streaming video service BlogTV is now offering its live shows on mobile phones. The new mobile site from BlogTV m.blogtv.com offers live streaming to most mobile phones without the need for a plugin (I’m presuming it’s flash based, because it doesn’t work on my iPhone.) BlogTV claims that their mobile streaming services is the first of its type available for mobile phones. The mobile version includes the host stream, cohost and chat feed, fully replicating the normal BlogTV experience. Mobile services such as this do rely on decent data plans that aren’t always available everywhere, but in the ongoing battle of live streaming supremacy, it’s another positive addition from BlogTV following their ICQ deal January 30. CrunchBase Information blogTV Mogulus Justin.TV Ustream Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
Live video streaming service BlogTV has signed a deal with the AOL owned ICQ that will see BlogTV promoted to ICQ users. The initial stage of the deal will see BlogTV promoted to ICQ users through the ICQ website, and in return ICQ will become the preferred instant messaging platform on BlogTV. The second stage will see ICQ users being able to use their ICQ login details to access and use BlogTV, with any revenue generated from ICQ users using BlogTV to be split between the two companies. The first market the deal will be rolled out to is Russia, which has 8 million active ICQ users. BlogTV will operate a Russian language site customized for local market conditions. Last week, BlogTV celebrated its 100,000th user and has so far shown 50 million viewing minutes since it launched. The arms race to become the dominant leader in the live streaming market continues. Ustream.tv beat competitors to become the exclusive internet streaming provider for the Republican National Convention yesterday, and others including Mogulus (the official streaming partner of the Crunchies) and Justin.tv have continued to explore every opportunity for maximum exposure. Blog.TV’s move into country specific sites in conjunction with ICQ is a positive step for the service, and I’d expect to see similar deals and country specific sites from the other major players as the year progresses. CrunchBase Information blogTV Ustream Mogulus Justin.TV Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
In February the Israel Web Tour rolls into Silicon Valley. Ninety Israeli startups applied to join the tour, and fifteen of them were selected to attend. The tour consists of a week-long conference and cultural exchange between Silicon Valley and Israeli entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. The general public is invited to parts of the show. more information is available on this website, including speakers. Participating startups include 5min, Plymedia, AllofMe, Nuconomy, ClickTale, blogTV, Sportingo, PicScout, Qoof, 8hands, Velingo, Innovid, Semingo, PageOnce and Journeys. I moderated a panel at the event last year. Highlights from that panel and the event in general are in the video below. CrunchBase Information 5min PLYmedia AllofMe ClickTale blogTV Journeys Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
We’ve been following the evolving live streaming space for some time now. The success of recorded social video on the net (read YouTube acquisition) spurred on many more video startups, including a host of video sites hoping to find an equally large demand for live content. There are a bunch of them out there, including Ustream.tv, Stickam, Blogtv.com, Operator11, Mogulus, Veodia, and Justin.tv. Justin.tv, the first mobile lifecasting site, remained closed over the past couple of months as they experimented with the model. Today they’ve finally opened the site to anyone and partnered with On2 technologies for improved video compression. The new codec is supposed to deliver superior performance that yields higher quality video on a lower quality connection. On2′s benchmarks say their codec has a 30% performance improvement over the Sorenson video codec (commonly used in Flash and Quicktime) and it looks like Justin.tv’s streams are benefiting from it. So why the wait? Justin.tv originally started with a rather elaborate lifecasting model where anyone could stream their life on the go with a webcam and a laptop in their backpack. It did a great job of getting them a lot of press and into a great deal of mischief, but the hardware turned out to be too costly for the average user. Since then, the model has switched into kind of a MySpace for video casters. The site features an Apple “coverflow-style” directory of all the casters and list of top clips. Each caster gets an individually-stylized channel page with their own live cast, chat room, profile, twitter, and top highlights. They’ve also started adding professional content, like a behind the scenes cast of “One Tree Hill”. Viewers play judge and jury of the video streams, voting content for the clips they like to the front page of the site and casters seem happy to play along. As I’ve said before, I think the live streaming model has a lot of growing up to do before we see any stand out successes. There are several hurdles to mass consumption of the medium. User generated content is often not of the highest quality. Also, live streaming doesn’t lend itself to the same embeddable distribution model that made YouTube so successful since you don’t know what live content will show up (most sites have since tied in recorded video clips). Live streaming does shine when it comes to user interaction, which → Read More
Israel-based BlogTV will be releasing a Facebook application for sharing amateur video today. The application, which you can get here, lets users stream shows through a widget on their profile pages. You can also browse your friends’ live streams, posted videos, and upcoming shows. Broadcasts can be viewed on a fuller canvas page with chatting capabilities built right in. The company also says that users will also have the ability to promote their shows in their friends’ news feeds. With this integration, BlogTV joins the ranks of uStream and Stickam, who have also created Facebook applications. We recently covered the handful of companies making it easier for people to stream video online. Some statistics provided about BlogTV by the company itself: Average time spent on the BlogTV site is 20 minutes 350 live shows are broadcasted every day The most popular tag for recorded shows is “music” Check out some screenshots below for a preview of BlogTV’s new application: → Read More
The growth of Youtube and its subsequent $1.65 billion buyout left behind a bevy of competing video sites. Since then competitors have been seeking to differentiate themselves by focusing on longer videos, higher (bitrate) quality videos, professional content, and paying their users. However, one of the more unique approaches to differentiation has been streaming live video over the internet. If social live video gets big traction down the road, it’s most likely going to be led by one of these startups: The oldest of the bunch, launching back in February of 2006, Stickam lets you host your own live show stream and chat on their site or embedded in your own. When your show isn’t live, you can show a pictures, audio, or recorded shows on a MySpace-like profile page. The front page of the site features the most recent show and their number of live viewers, which currently is floating around 3,000.Launched back in May, BlogTv also lets you start your own live show and chat. Every show you record is broadcasted live and then archived. You can subscribe to each show on your account, embed, rate, and recommend them. Live shows are shown on the front page, but you can also review the archived footage in their library. They just launched a new live embeddable player that lets you and a co-host stream a show with live chat directly from your blog.Yet to get out of private beta, Mogulus is focused on live video production tools. Using their tools, you can see how many viewers are waiting for your broadcast and storyboard the show you’re about to broadcast on your own Mogulus URL. With storyboarding, you can drop recorded videos into your feed at cue and even overlay graphics such as logos or titles. You can even collaborate with another producer and cooperatively shape the storyboard.The oddest of the bunch, Justin.tvlaunched with a splash and then again when police raided their apartment. The novelty of the site centered around one of the co-founders, Justin Kan, streaming his life 24/7 from a head cam. Justin.tv has yet to launch an open network, and has instead opted to expand slowly by adding a select number of dedicated “lifecasters”. Each caster gets a live feed, video archive, and chat channel. Instead of just featuring what’s live on the front page, they’ve also developed a “tips” service that lets users dig up → Read More
