I’ll be honest, I’m not a fan of trademarked terms meant to make something sound better than it is, and MLB’s NextDef is a case in point. But MLB and Swarmcast have created a service that works very well and they should be applauded for it.

No, a 1.2 Mbps stream won’t give you high definition, it’s not going to knock your socks off if attached to a large screen, but it is the highest quality live video currently offered on the internet. In this MLB has succeeded.

Live streaming is a very different beast than delivering on-demand content, and making possible the best experience for so many users with so many different connection speeds is no an easy task. According to the release, “On Opening Day, MLB.TV and Swarmcast delivered over 1.7 million live game streams” Based on that massive number, it’s no wonder there were some opening day issues.

Moreover it speaks to the advantage of having a client-side protocol like Swarmcast’s Autobahn that can measure and adapt to the unique conditions in each users home. While online, every connection is different, Autobahn, ensures that each user receives the best possible experience.

Said Joe Choti, Chief Technology Officer, MLB.com:

“Existing streaming technologies did not have the level of scalability we required and we realized that in order to grow our audience and improve video quality we needed a fundamentally different approach to streaming. Swarmcast presents the only method of delivering high-quality live streaming to hundreds of millions of viewers with the reliability that enables us to grow a business around the Internet as a distribution channel.”

The expansion of Autobahn which had previously been used to power MLB’s Moasiac multi-game viewing option to all games shows that in places where content can be monetized, we are quickly moving toward much higher quality video on the net.

Corey Adds: Not to be a complete hater, I do have to give credit where it is due. While taking the Acela back from Boston last week, I was able to stream the Red Sox game I was leaving behind, nearly uninterrupted. The battle between “lean back” quality and content with any where, any time convenience continues on……

eMarketer points to an Informa Telecoms & Media report projecting $7.9 billion will be spent on “online video and TV services” in 2013, 63% from advertising. The report values the total 2008 market at $4.7 billion.

The Convergence Consulting Group reports: In 2007 “9% of TV viewers had also watched full- episode Broadcast/Cable Network TV online, up from 6% in 2006; we forecast 14% for 2008, 19% for 2009, and 23% for 2010. ABC & NBC were the Broadcast, and Viacom the Cable Network, 2007 online full-episode viewing leaders.” (via YuMe)

ESPN has signed a content syndication deal with AOL. This is ESPN’s first online content syndication deal, and a bit of a break from ABC’s traditional portal strategy. Can ABC / Disney content be far behind? And if they syndicate to AOL, why not Hulu?

Google wants to host your apps. And once they do, they’ll sell ads on them. And once that happens try getting a better deal somewhere else. Scale is the key to monopoly online. Can we start talking about an AT&T style breakup again yet?

.FOX Networks has acquired a majority stake in European ad network utarget. The unit which will be rebranded utarget.Fox reaches 21 million uniques a month across more than 600 UK web properties.

So said Pando Networks CEO Robert Levitan speaking of the collaboration between Pando, Yale researchers and Verizon at the DCIA’s Inaugural Market Conference in New York.

P2P has come a long way since the Napster days. Progress shown by the fact that telcos are now engaging with P2P companies for the mutual benefit of users and business. The need for collaboration was a recurring theme of the conference. Said Eliot Listman of PeerApp:

People think the bandwidth is free…a service provider is providing the bandwidth, content owners are starting to deploy peer-to-peer, however those content owners are now concerned [because the] service provider could block it. All this politics and [talk of] regulation brings to the front that it’s a business relationship that has to grow.

Which is what the P4P Working Group is all about. Back in June of last year, I attended the first New York P2P 2.0 Meetup, organized by Laird Popkin, CTO of Pando Networks and attended by Verizon Senior Technologist Doug Paskin, in which Yale PhD student Haiyong Xie presented his research on the benefit of “Proactive Provider Assistance for P2P.”

The P4P Working Group grew out of the ensuing discussion, a collaboration between ISPs, P2P providers and Technology Researchers to “accelerate distribution of content…and optimize ISP Network resources…to provide the best possible performance to end-user customers.”

Janko Roettgers at NewTeeVee has more on the specifics of the technology, but the short story is that ISPs by implementing a mechanism through which they can communicate with P2P about network status and policies can ultimately benefit from customer use of P2P in a big way.

And the Verizon field trial results are compelling:

• P4P enhanced download rates for FTTH averaged 205% the speed of unmanaged P2P downloads.
• ISP internal data delivery (hop count) feel from and average of 5.5 hops to 0.89 hops.
• Traffic localization within metro locations increased from 6.27% for P2P to 57.98% for P4P enhanced delivery.
• Some FTTH users saw as much as 665% the download speed of unmanaged P2P.

Peer-to-Peer can be done legally, securely and for the mutual benefit of all parties. Thanks to the DCIA and a whole lot of smart people, we are headed toward more intelligent networks that will provide faster performance and a better experience to all users.

As we mentioned last week, lost in the shuffle of the Yahoo! / Microsoft negotiating was Yahoo’s offer for Maven Networks. Today, Yahoo released confirmation that they had, indeed, purchased Maven Networks for $160 million.

The acquisition continues Yahoo’s infrastructure support for delivering and monetizing video. Last week they launched their Lifestream beta, their entry into the personal streaming game.

CDN BitGravity today launched its BG LiveBroadcast technology and will stream the DEMO 08 conference live Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

BitGravity, which uses advanced technology to deliver on-demand content for more than 50 companies including Vimeo and Revision 3 promises their flash based live streaming technology will make live video on the net ubiquitous through a simplified and more efficient means of live content delivery.

DEMO 08 will showcase more than 70 products/technologies. Watch it here.

If you have some extra time this holiday season, there are some worth watching videos on the TV Mainstream website, in particular check out the CDN panel from Streaming Media West. Interesting to see how these guys are improving delivery of rich media on the net.

Above: P2P and Next-Generation Delivery Networks

More:
Move Networks and the Quality Solution
BitGravity’s NextGen CDN
Grid Networks Delivers E3 on G4TV
Solid State Networks

Will Richmond has a post on the need (or not) for Net Neutrality regulation that I tend to agree with. He recommends a wait-and-see approach to regulation, as “there is no substantive evidence of broadband ISP bias today.”

Net Neutrality has developed into a really touchy subject, but it shouldn’t be. The companies that spent billions to put internet backbone in place own the networks.

While they are out to make a profit, it is in their best interest to make the internet work best for all stakeholders. Until they act unfairly why impose restrictions?

As internet communication becomes more ubiquitous, doesn’t it make sense to consider a top tier emergency communication infrastructure with priority access? As more homes use VOIP, 911 calls and emergency services should have higher priority than bittorrent.

London based The JD Project recently launched WeDigTV, an online video portal aimed at forging what they call TV2, a “whole new genre in visual entertainment.” And near-HD interactive video is nothing to sneeze at.

The JD Project started as an agency called Jaildog, which won a BIMA award for its Who Wants to Be a Millionaire site for AOL back in 2004.

Above: WeDigTV Program Guide

Since rebranding, the company has focused its efforts on becoming a new kind of entertainment company, partnering with content producers including Freemantle and Endemol to create a more engaging video experience for viewers with an understanding of how valuable that can be to advertisers.

The WeDigTV lineup includes 8 channels so far, offering users a chance to compete in games like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and The Price is Right for free ad-supported or for cash prizes by purchasing credits.

Above: Who Wants to be a Millionaire Fullscreen

Because of the engagement this drives, the company has been able to offer what it calls long-play interactive video ads, 40-second mid-roll spots with an interactive component, an example of which can be found here.

The browser based player is very smooth, another in the line of video portals distributed across BitGravity’s CDN. It is very similar in appearance to Joost.

While I’m personally not a big game show fan, the high quality, ease of use and interactivity of WeDigTV did suck me in and it shows the potential of these kinds of applications.

Vimeo is getting a ton of press, including a mention in the New York Post for offering online video content in HD quality. The Post loves it, so do content producers, but do most end-users have the patience to view a bitrate 4x the “industry standard?“

UPDATE: See Jakob’s comment below, the Post column was incorrect to begin with. That said, HD video generally requires more than 4x Vimeo’s standard bitrate of 400k. Vimeo’s HD FAQ recommends a bitrate of 3,000k-5,000k.

On my wireless connection at home the video does look great, but the progressive download takes a bit longer than your average video to progress, and Alley Insider is skeptical of the value proposition, as am I.

This is a gimmick, made possible by IAC’s deep pockets and BitGravity’s next generation CDN.

It’s a cool gimmick to be sure, but don’t expect everyone to jump on the HD bandwagon quite yet. It still costs more money, most people don’t have 2Gbps downstream connections, and until the monetization question is solved it doesn’t make sense to adopt.

Earlier this week BitGravity came out of stealth and officially entered the CDN market. During the past year and a half operating under the radar the company has built a solid a client list of 50+ companies with some very large partners still undisclosed.

In a business full of providers founder, founder Perry Wu said in a phone interview that BitGravity is taking content delivery to the “next level,” creating a platform to enable the next generation of internet applications.

Wu, a Harvard MBA and former VC who started his career as a software engineer at IBM speaks like an engineer. He understands networks because he worked to build them in the eighties and when you combine his experience with the brilliance of co-founder Barrett Lyon, few are as capable of building a Content Delivery Network from the ground up.

They have done so taking a high-end approach, their servers admittedly cost more, but they do more as well. “What takes other companies three racks to do, we do in half a rack,” Wu told Light Reading earlier this week. And their knowledge of network infrastructure has enabled them to create a more efficient system of content delivery not dependent on the caching infrastructure employed by traditional CDNs.

What that means for the end user is as soon as you request content it’s there. Take for example, BitGravity’s Advanced Progressive™ download. Any point on the timeline is immediately available for playback.

Video in its current form is only the tip of the iceberg, BitGravity has its sights set on delivering the really unique content the internet makes possible. ““imagine watching a boxing match with 10 different cameras” said Wu, “In the next 6-12 months you’re gonna see a ton of these things come out and they’re all going to run on our platform because they can’t run anywhere else.”

While BitGravity doesn’t have the international reach of the larger CDNs, they do appear to have created a network more capable of delivering next generation content. Traditional CDNs like Akamai have an advantage in scale, but are burdened by aging servers and have moved into providing additional services and layering new technology on top of aging infrastructure to improve services.

New companies will take the lead in innovation and if they can scale to the levels of traditional CDNs, they will rapidly gain market share. “You have to be able to paint the vision of the content creators.” said Wu. The next generation of online content is rapidly approaching and in this vision the internet is far from dead and boring.