Life for NHL fans living away from their home city just got a little better. The NHL recently announced a partnership with IPTV provider NeuLion to offer out-of market games online. The deal brings the NHL one step closer to not needing to deal with broadcasters at all.

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Poking around for new videos to watch, I stumbled across WeDigTV.com, which features interactive game shows like The Price Is Right. They use Flash layovers to create an interactive experience, allowing users to play along.

What I found most interesting on the site, though, was their simple explanation of why they need to serve ads. This has been an argument that I’m tired of having. Greedy consumers want more and more content for free, without any understanding of the costs associated with producing and distributing that content. The good folks at WeDigTV.com ’splained it real good:

Why We Are Running Advertisements.

Our adventures within the world of TV rights and i-show development have taught us one important lesson. That rights, celebrities and development don’t come for free!

If we want to build the most popular broadband entertainment site on the planet we will need to give the small guy a big voice. Essentially this means hugging the big guys from time to time. We hope you understand.

Put simply, we are running advertisements so as to ensure the constant stream of famous i-show formats for you to enjoy.

More hugs = more i-shows = more fun

Hopefully people will start to understand how it is that all this great content finds its way onto any of our screens, and might add a little into the value exchange equation before it becomes financially impossible to be a content producer (see: Music Industry).

All the excitement talent and capital flowing into online video related companies can make it tough to put things in perspective. Following a week of major news and industry events it is a good time to take stock of where we really are now, and where we’re headed.

At PDF2007, Andrew Rasiej and Micah Sifry issued a call to 2008 presidential candidates to endorse six “very specific technology policy goals.” These also work as a great framework for considering the industry issues that exist at this early stage in new media.

As we move toward an age of advanced interactivity and the whatever you want whenever you want it information economy, where are we now, where will we wind up and what is needed to get us there?

The PDF Goals (full version here) along with my thoughts are as follows -

    1. Declare the Internet a public good in the same way we think of water, electricity, highways, or public education.

Thoughts: The internet is valuable to nearly every aspect of life in the developed world. But is the internet a commodity or a universal need, or both? And how do we best serve the needs of the different organizations of people using it?

Declaring the internet a public good would help get the internet into places where it currently is not - spreading information and empowering new groups of individuals who don’t currently have a high speed connection in the home. But to do so would require regulation and a greater level of federal involvement than most people want.

    2. Commit to providing affordable high-speed wireless Internet access nationwide. Do this by creating an Internet Innovation and Investment Fund with a minimal budget of $20 billion (half of what we spend on highways in a single year)

Thoughts: At the Future of Broadband Conference last week I spoke with some folks from the NCTA about the current state of U.S. broadband networks. While we have massive dark fiber networks in some of our major cities, rural areas are lagging behind and it is clear that the U.S. could be doing a lot better.

According to a OECD report, the U.S. now has about 59 million broadband subscribers representing about 19 of every 100 people. While the metric is odd (households is probably a better one and that number is closer to 50%) the study is important because it places the U.S. right in the middle of the pack when it comes to broadband adoption.

Government spending would bring broadband infrastructure to places where major NSPs won’t invest (think of the IIIF as a sort of Tennessee Valley Authority for the 21st century.) This would speed broadband adoption to bring poor parts of the U.S. in line with the rest of the country and the U.S. as a whole in line with the rest of the developed world.

    3. Declare a “Net Neutrality” standard forbidding Internet service providers from discriminating among content based on origin, application or type.

Thoughts: Net Neutrality has a certain fairness appeal to it but internet infrastructure costs money to build and maintain. Businesses have more at stake in the event of network failures, and as we become more internet dependent certain organizations will demand higher-priority access than others.

As we move toward wider use of VOIP, and emergency services become more dependent on IP communication, it is imperative that they not be hindered by net congestion. It is more important that people have access when dialing 911 than it is when watching Fios TV. As networks get smarter, there will be new ways to prioritize efficiently and fairly.

    4. Instead of “No Child Left Behind,” our goal should be “Every Child Connected.” The digital divide in our country is worse than it was 10 years ago before our schools were wired.

Thoughts: When I first heard this my immediate thought was to dismiss it as a throw-away catch phrase replacing another throw-away catch phrase, but the concept is actually right on.

The internet is a terrific learning tool - it provides easy access to information not available offline in most places. It has replaced libraries as the place most kids go for information not only because it has more information but because it has made that info more current and simpler to navigate.

One of the greatest arguments for government intervention in facilitating the advancement of the internet is the advancement of education. It is an advantage for any child growing up to have a broadband connection in their home.

This is even more true in the developing world, 60 Minutes on Sunday had a great piece on Nicholas Negroponte’s one laptop per child project which is worth watching. View it here.

    5. Commit to building a Connected Democracy where it becomes commonplace for local as well as national government proceedings to be heard by anyone any time and over time.

Thoughts: The democratization of media is here for good and ease of access to information should be used to make Washington more accessible.

The development of long tail distribution is the result of years of media segmentation since the origination of cable television. Now that the cost of broadcasting to many users has also been diminished we should find ways to use this to our political advantage. While private companies continue to seek the rights to broadcast important government events and proceedings, the government should not give up its rights to online distribution.

It remains to be seen how many people will actually engage in politics no matter how local the process is made. The explosion of online video and web 2.0 is driving self-sustaining communities that hold huge potential in creating new political discourse. This discourse needs to be supported in every way possible by the government.

    6. Create a National Tech Corps, because as our country becomes more reliant on 21st century communications to maintain and build our economy we need to protect our communications infrastructure.

Thoughts: There will no doubt be a greater need for technically skilled individuals in emergency response but do we really need a national corps of them? It is an interesting idea, but we already have specialized technically skilled people in every emergency response organization.

A new governmental organization would create an unneeded layer of bureaucracy. Creating guidelines and standards for unified operation in the event of an emergency is where government can make the biggest impact.

Conclusions: Internet technology will move from the computer to other screens in the next few years. The development of IPTV and Rich Internet Applications will make it possible to do everything done online on a mobile device or on the TV in your living room, while turning it into a two-way experience.

Internet technology will start to even the playing field between the poor and the wealthy and between the west and developing nations by providing new educational and revenue opportunities for them.

The role of Governments should be limited to facilitating development of international standards, speeding broadband adoption and making technology more widely available in the places it is not.

Funny story about Streaming Media East - Almost everyone had a big screen TV playing video in flash or windows media, but no one was actually streaming anything. Windows media and flash usually look great when played from the hard drive.

There were a ton of CDNs but there really weren’t too many other service providers. Aside from player builders like Maven, the Content Management companies like The Platform and a few others it was a pretty small group of exhibitors.

Notably missing were the rich media advertising agencies. The Search Engine Strategies conference had 3 exhibit halls full of vendors and search is clearly where companies continue to focus most of their online advertising dollars.

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The Future of Broadband conference yesterday had the same essential message shared by everyone in online space - online video is changing everything. Broadband video truly is taxing existing networks.

One of the most interesting moments was a debate among panelists on network neutrality and in particular whether policy controls are in opposition to net neutrality.

Rich Cardone of DSL Forum made the argument that from a market perspective classes of service make sense. Enterprise users will have higher bandwidth requirements and will pay more to know that network service will be uninterrupted.

Susie Kim Riley of Camiant followed up on this by saying that Google has proven this argument by partnering with third party network suppliers to ensure high Quality of Service.

The best argument for network policy controls is that as we move toward increased use of VOIP and communication occurs more frequently over IP networks, priority of access to emergency services is becomes essential.

We aren’t there yet but networks are moving toward smart gateways and routers that will personalize the digital media experience for each user across platforms and standards.

The future is a universal cross-platform personalized media experience allowing users to consume content on any device combined with relevant advertising based on their history.

This was taken directly from Joost’s FAQ:

How much bandwidth does the application use?

IMPORTANT NOTICE for users with limits on their internet usage

Joost is a streaming video application, and so uses a relatively high amount of bandwidth per hour. In one hour of viewing, approximately 320Mb data will be downloaded and 105Mb uploaded, which means that it will exhaust a 1Gb cap in 10 hours.

If enough people are consistently uploading 1GB per day — which is what Joost wants because it will lead to improved quality for other users — it will be taxing to network providers.

And if business clients feel this slowdown those network providers will take measures to protect their more important clients, even if that means taking a more aggressive stance toward capping bandwidth and angering individual users.

One consistent theme at the IAB forum today has been online video inventory or the lack thereof.

While Goole controls about 50% market share for online video, the industry is still young and user posted content is fragmented. The chart below shows just how true this is. After Google and MySpace, the list drops off. And for agencies looking to buy online video advertising, options are limited.

The number thrown around for the value of online advertising spending is $16Billion per year. Online video’s share of that is expected to be about $775 million this year. Compare that with more than $70 Billion for television according to the New York Times. While online advertising offers more specific targeting options and as a result offers a potentially greater ROI, targeting for online video still has a long way to go. As Adam Gerber of Brightcove said, “we’re still in the first inning.”

At the same time, IPTV technology is rapidly advancing and the billions of dollars being spent on broadband infrastructure means it is only a matter of time before IP Television delivery becomes widely available.

Gerber also made an important distinction between online video and digital video - all video will be digital in the next 10 years and equally accessible on “the three screens”.

When that happens there will be more opportunities for specific targeting of ads in more valuable ways for marketers. Eventually we will shift from the traditional television advertising workflow to an entirely automated digital workflow.

This will allow ads to be more specifically geodemographically targeted allowing advertisers to get more local and increase engagement whether the viewer is watching on the 70 inch plasma in their living room or on the 2.5 inch LCD on their cell phone.

Joost, the P2P broadband television service, announced more content deals today, as well as expanding their beta program.

“We’re enabling our viewers to share Joost with their friends and family, and we’re working collaboratively with the world’s leading advertisers and agencies to design a new ad model for the next generation of television,” noted David Clarke, executive vice president of global advertising, in a press release.

Current Joost Beta testers are now able to invite friends and family into the Beta test, similar to the way Google rolled out its Gmail service.

Joost announced new content from Time Warner Inc.’s Turner Broadcasting System, including episodes of “Aqua Teen Hunger Force,” “Robot Chicken,” “Larry King Live,” and other CNN programming.

Joost also introduced additional content providers to the platform including episides of Starsky & Hutch, Charlie’s Angels from Sony, content from Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit issue, classic NHL games, and Hasbro’s G.I. Joe and Transformers cartoons.

In full disclosure:

MediaPost has made videos from the various sessions of their Outfront conference available online.

Watch Jeremy Allaire’s keynote address, where he introduced some new variations on an advertising revenue model, and some passionate debate between Brightcove’s Adam Gerber and Broadband Enterprises‘ Matt Wasserlauf during the Broadband TV session. Rounding out the panel was Starcom’s Jeff Marshal, Jeff Meyer from Scripps Networks, and Yahoo’s Rebecca Paoletti.

Peer-to-peer has finally reached a critical mass to the point where large players can no longer ignore it as a valuable distribution method.

Over the past year, those on the forefront of online video have been buying up P2P companies. Most of these acquisitions have been low-key, with little explanation of how they would be integrated into existing infrastructure.The sensitivity of the content industry to the lack of control and ease of transfer of copyrighted material continues to threaten media organizations that had previously controlled distribution.

Many of these networks now exist as a back-door solution for data-transfer that eliminates the need for traditional CDNs. Most rights holders previously took a position of brute opposition to the mere existence of P2P file transfers due to its subversion of traditional media control. But their efficiency and widespread use among end-users cannot be questioned.

Here are some of the major acquisitions and initiatives that have occurred in the past year

• Kontiki (Verisign - March ‘06)
• Grouper (Sony Pictures - August ‘06)
• Amicina, Antepo (Adobe - January ‘07)
• Wurld Media (Roo - February ‘07)
• Red Swoosh (Akamai - April ‘07)
• LiveStation (Microsoft-Skinkers Partnership)

There is a good deal of speculation that we will see more widespread use of a P2P-CDN Hybrid Architecture of content delivery in the future. These developments will play a big role in the future of online distribution and should be watched closely.

Here’s a head to head comparison of Brightcove’s encoding and delivery vs. YouTube. Noticeable difference.

Ed. Note: removed at the request of copyright holder. New comparison material coming shortly.