AT&T Kills U-Verse On Xbox

We suppose it was inevitable that AT&T would drop U-verse support for the Xbox 360 sometime after Ericsson’s acquisition of Microsoft Mediaroom due to the complex Microsoft-centric integration. Not to mention, AT&T cites “low customer demand” in their decision to cease service come 12/31. Fortunately, AT&T is doing the right thing in compensating the small subset … Read more

Limelight Networks Interview: Streaming the Olympics

The Olympics aren’t supposed to start until tomorrow, but they officially began online last Tuesday night. Take a trip over to the NBC Olympics site and you’ll see video of early soccer matches, including a full replay of the US women’s defeat at the hands of Norway. Except for the defeat itself, it’s a beautiful thing. Thanks in no small part to Limelight Networks.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should note that I’ve recently started doing contract work for Limelight, a content delivery network (CDN) service provider. So take these thoughts with a few grains of salt. However, when I sat down to interview Limelight SVP Dave Hatfield, I wasn’t interested in Limelight, per se, but the bigger story around the Olympics. Limelight Networks is delivering all of the NBC Olympics video streams (Akamai is supporting delivery of static objects), and I figured the folks there would have some interesting insights into how NBC is going to pull off this monumental task: NBC intends to deliver 3,500 hours of coverage online including 2,200 hours of live streaming video. It’s literally mind-blowing, and certainly unprecedented. Here’s what I learned about how they plan to do it.

The Player

Before getting on the phone with Hatfield I checked out the early videos on the NBC Olympics site. The Microsoft Silverlight player is sweet. You can watch four video streams at once and turn on features like live text commentary. There is also no latency. Zero. Click to any point within a stream and the video instantly switches to that frame. I asked Hatfield about that lack of buffering and about the bandwidth demand created by allowing a single computer to access four streams at once. Regarding the latency, he talked about how the Limelight CDN is structured. The CDN plugs directly into the access networks of ISPs all over the globe, and Limelight’s private fiber network is used to transfer content at the speed of light between massive server hubs whenever necessary. It’s a great story, but the proof is in the application itself. Did I mention the zero latency? I’ll be curious to see how that holds up once the actual Games start.

Regarding the bandwidth, Hatfield didn’t seem to be the least bit concerned. The scale of the Olympics is new, but streamed events are becoming more common, each Web event tending to break the record set by the one before it. Unfortunately, we can’t predict how much bandwidth the four-window application will actually use because we don’t know what bit rate NBC is using on its videos. By using an adaptive bit rate, NBC can transfer video at whatever rate a viewer’s ISP can handle. But as far as I can tell NBC hasn’t disclosed the highest bit rate it’s using for the fastest connections.

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Digital Video Revenues Start to Matter

Silicon Alley Insider noted an interesting tidbit this morning in Disney’s earnings. Apparently Internet revenue helped offset lower broadcast ad revenues last quarter for ABC, lending credence to the reasons behind the writers’ strike last season. From the SEC filing: Broadcasting revenues increased $7 million reflecting higher internet revenues, partially offset by lower advertising revenues … Read more

Watching the Olympics On-Demand with FiOS TV

A short while ago I speculated that Verizon would be offering VOD content around the Olympics. A day later the news came out that NBC U and Verizon had indeed done a deal, with on-demand clips and event replays coming to both FiOS TV and V-CAST. Right now on FiOS TV you can already get … Read more

Netflix on Xbox 360 Confirmed for Fall

Both Engadget and Gizmodo are live-blogging Microsoft’s opening E3 keynote… In addition to a massive Xbox 360 Dashboard UI overhaul (which I alluded to in May), Netflix-on-Xbox video streaming has been confirmed for fall. Sweet! Here’s to hoping Netflix can load up on current Hollywood hits prior to launch. Guess my Netflix Roku box is … Read more

Olympics Web Video & The Long Tail

Rafat’s (paidContent) disappointed with the upcoming Olympics web video, labeling NBC “totalitarian” and heavy handed – his major beefs seem to be that televised content will only be available online post TV broadcast and only viewable at NBCOlympics.com. As I commented Sunday, I’m pleased with any/all online viewing options – especially being able to catch … Read more