New Survey Highlights Part of Newspaper-dom’s Problem
Posted on December 1, 2009 |
This afternoon, I wrote about Attributor's retreat from the video fingerprinting business. Instead, it plans to focus on its core market: creating technology that lets newspapers and other text-based media find and get paid for their content, wherever it appears on the Web.
Now, the company has unveiled results of a study that would seem to support that decision. The start-up used its technology to scour the Net for 101,000 articles run by 1,500 publishers in the 30 days ending November 15. In that time, more than 75,000 sites ran some of the content without the publisher's permission. On 112,000 occasions, the site ran at least 80% of the article--essentially, the whole thing. They ran an excerpt 163,000 times, and lifted just a headline 357,000 times.
The publishers involved in the study are all part of something called the Fair Syndication Consortium, a group spearheaded by Attributor that was announced in April. According to CEO Jim Pitkow, many of them are interested in using Attributor's technology to set rules for how they want to monetize their content. They can insist on receiving a percentage of ad revenues generated alongside the content, or insist that those that refuse no longer distribute it. Or the publishers can choose to charge nothing, so as to promote wider distribution.
Clearly, the survey's results are self-serving. But Pitkow insists the firm has seen a big uptick in real interest from publishers, some of which are finding their sea legs about how to make use of the Internet. The trick is to neither keep their content off the Web entirely, or to give it away for nothing. “Many of them are saying 'I’m OK with you using my content, but I need to get my fair share of the value it creates." To the extent that websites agree to support Attributor's technology--a long shot--publishers would automatically be paid every time someone clicked on one of their articles. "Our technology does to syndication, what AdSense did to advertising," claims Pitkow, referring to the Google ad-serving technology used by millions of web-sites and online businesses.
Speaking of Google, Attributor's study claims that 53% of the unlicensed articles had ads served up by Google running alongside. That's revenue the publishers never see. Of course, Google still holds most of the cards, given that most publishers can't do without the traffic that comes via Google's search engine. But given what he insists is rising support from so many newspapers and other publishers, Pitkow says he plans to keep pressing Google and other ad networks to work with Attributor. “We know we have to go back and update the ad networks, to show how many publishers are passionate about this."
Here's the full copy of the press release, below the fold:
Attributor Sells Video Fingerprinting Business to Vobile
Posted on November 30, 2009 |
UPDATE: After this post first went up, an Attributor PR representative contacted me to clarify that the company did not sell all of its video-only business to Vobile. So while the company did not provide details, it evidently still has some customers who are using its video fingerprinting product. Still, my sources confirm that the company sees little opportunity in video, and plans to focus on its text-based business. The PR spokeswoman also says Attributor "has a clear path to profitability in 2010," despite talk that the sale to Vobile is a sign of financial troubles.
One maker of anti-piracy software thinks 1,000 words are worth a lot more than a picture. Or even a movie.
According to three sources, Attributor Corp. is getting out of the market for video fingerprinting technology, which is used by studios to scour the Net to see who is watching pirated clips of their movies and TV shows. While Attributor will retain rights to the underlying technology, it has sold the customer contracts it has signed for a video-based product it began selling eleven months ago. Says one of the sources: "They're retreating from video."
Vobile and Attributor are both small and privately-held, but are movers and shakers in a market that will become far more important if moguls such as Rupert Murdoch get their way. The News Corp chief is reportedly threatening to put all of his content behind a "paywall." That way, News Corp hopes to charge Microsoft for including its newspaper articles in results of searches done with its Bing search engine, while keeping those articles out of all Google searches. To be able to police such an arrangement, he'll need some kind of fingerprinting technology to know who is reading what. “There’s going to be some real showdowns in the first half of 2010," as companies that were kicking the tires of content management systems actually begin to deploy them, says Attributor CEO Jim Pitkow. He would not comment on on the Vobile deal.
While they sell similar technology, these start-ups have very different views of the market. Vobile believes the big money is in protecting content that's worth big money--namely, highly-profitable movies and TV shows, which not only bring in millions of dollars of sales but also cost millions to create. For now, the primary focus of Vobile's customers--a list that includes Disney, Fox and Chinese broadcaster CCTV--is on preventing piracy. The Chinese government, for example, chose Vobile to help CCTV make sure its official broadcast of the 2008 Olympics wasn't pirated.
The way Vobile sees it, the place not to look for profitable growth is from text-based media companies--most of which haven't been profitable since their newspapers and magazines (including BW) began giving away much of their content online a decade ago in search of advertising dollars.
But that's precisely where Attributor has and will continue to focus. It has long been providing technology to the Associated Press, Reuters and others. Rather than stopping piracy, Attributor is focused on helping media companies get paid for their stuff--regardless of where it appears. Rather than insist that sites stop distributing their articles, media companies could insist on getting a cut on any ad revenues. In April, Attributor announced the Fair Syndication Consortium, which included companies interested in exploring the idea further. Pitkow says more than 80% of US newspapers are members of the consortium, as are 1,500 blogs, lyric sites and other publishers. “They’re all saying 'wow, this is a new way for me to make money on my content,'” he says.
Speaking of making money, news of this sale--which wasn't publicly announced--doesn't inspire confidence in Attributor's financial health. The company has raised plenty of money, but recently had a shake-up when CEO Jim Brock was bumped up to the role of chairman. Now Pitkow, one of the company's founders, is running the company. He says the company is doing just fine, and has 40 customers. And he says video fingerprinting is not the opportunity the company thought it would be when it began calling on studios this past January. He figures the entire market for such technology is less than $15 million, in part because big content companies such as Comcast and Time Warner have opted to try and monetize content on sites such as TV Everywhere rather than let it flow freely around the Web.
On the other hand, he admits that he's "under tremendous pressure to rationalize [the video] business." As a member of the text-media business he's now focusing on, I can relate. This happens to be the day when dozens of my immensely talented colleagues are leaving BW, as a result of layoffs related to our acquisition by Bloomberg (which officially occurs tomorrow). In the long run, I hope Pitkow is right that technology can power profitable new models for media companies.
What’s on the Web Tonight? Clicker Debuts Video Guide
Posted on November 12, 2009 |
How do you find what to watch online? Sites for finding and watching video abound, from search engines such as Blinkx and Truveo to hosted video sites such as YouTube and Hulu.com. And of course there are conventional search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing, the last of which just introduced a new video site.
But there's nothing quite like a TV Guide for mainstream Web video--television shows and movies. (Note: see update below on TV Guide's own offering.) That's what Clicker hopes to create, and more.
The nearly one-year-old Los Angeles-based company launches its Web video programming guide today to the general public after two months in test mode. Clicker has organized more than 400,000 legally available full TV episodes from 1,200 sources around the Web. And it now will index 30,000 movies from Netflix's Instant Streaming and Amazon.com's video on demand, which both charge fees.
What Clicker has done more than other sites is organize the Web's farflung offerings, using a structured database of listings rather like Wikipedia, Yelp, and the Amazon movie site IMDB.com do, into a format that makes it easier to find what kinds of video you're looking for. As with Tivo, you can also set up season passes to shows. "It's no longer about when something is on, it's what's on, wherever it is," says Lanzone.
The company also hopes to spark a social element where people can share their favorites with friends on Facebook and Twitter. "That could be the thing that really makes it different," says Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence.
Not least, Clicker, which has 30 employees, has some formidable backing. CEO Jim Lanzone ran the ASK search engine for six years until January 2008. Sling Media founder Blake Krikorian recently joined the board. Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital and Geoff Yang of Redpoint Ventures are investors in the $8 million round last year.
Lanzone says the goal is to build a big audience before bringing in advertising.
Update: TV Guide, the original, reminds me that it has its own Online Video Guide, which gets 21 million unique visitors a month. It also recently announced Digital Video Recorder-style features to select and organize their favorite TV shows.
More details from Clicker after the jump, starting with the basic features:
Best Buy Taps CinemaNow For Video on Demand
Posted on November 3, 2009 |
Best Buy is stepping up its effort to promote downloadable content by choosing to make Sonic Solution's CinemaNow service a common feature on all types of electronic devices it sells.
The retailer appears to be trying to standardize at least some of the software that electronics makers such as LG, Samsung and Sony install on their devices to let consumers download movies, television shows and other content. Best Buy had already been using CinemaNow for online video downloads.
CinemaNow competes with Apple's iTunes and, to a lesser extent, Netflix's and Amazon's Unbox online download services.
Apple in particular represents a growing threat to Hollywood and retailers because it controls which movies and other software are funneled to its hardware, including computers, the Apple TV set-top box, iPods and iPhones. Cupertino (Calif.)-based Apple also has its own stores in which to sell products. As its devices grow in popularity, that king-making role is causing growing unease among Apple's rivals.
When the hardware is in place, customers can buy or rent movies and television shows from CinemaNow and watch the same piece of content on any device that offers the service. Sonic and Best Buy said they are working with the studios to offer more content for download on the same day that physical media is released to DVD rental services such as Netflix and Redbox.
Best Buy will be taking a stake in Sonic as part of the pact. CinemaNow makes its money with a one-time fee from device-makers who adds its service, and it takes a cut of every video purchase.
Lifesize’s New Portable VideoConferencing System
Posted on October 5, 2009 |
Last week, Cisco stole the headlines with its $3 billion purchase of Tandberg, the second-largest player in the videoconferencing market Cisco was number three. If the deal closes, Cisco will still trail Polycom, but will be a very strong No. 2 with traditional videoconferencing systems. By traditional, I mean "enterprise"-style videoconferencing systems, which run on pricey special purpose videoconferencing gear, that often run over hard-wired private networks.
But the day before Cisco's deal was announced, I met with Lifesize Communications CEO Craig Malloy, who has a very different view of how videoconferencing will evolve. The best expression of his view was unveiled today: a modem-sized gizmo called the Passport, that is essentially a portable videoconferencing system. It doesn't offer the full 1080p high-definition resolution of higher-end systems. But it seems to be remarkably easy to use. Rather than configure those special video switches and that private network, PassPort (like most of Lifesize's products) works on any plain old Net connection. So once you plug in the ethernet cable, and another cable to your big screen TV or any flat panel monitor with an HDMI connector, you're ready to videoconference. Lifesize's marketing head Colin Beuchler attended the meeting from his office in Austin using a Passport, and the image and sound quality were terrific (though the video was a tad jumpy; Malloy promises some last-minute software tweaks will take care of that).
The PassPort also stands out on price. Cisco's lowest priced offering is $34,000 and Tandberg offers somewhat similar features (in a larger, less portable box) for $7,000. The Passport costs $2500. "Literally, [Cisco's $34,000 TelePresence system] does nothing more than the Passport does--though they'll throw in a 37-inch monitor," says Malloy. Of course, that's not really true. Just for starters, those private networks are more reliable and less finnicky than the open Internet, and those systems offer more ways to bring more sites into conferences. But if you just want basic video-conferencing, he has a point.
That $2,500 is still too much for most people, most of whom can make due with iChat on the Mac, or Skype. But Wainhouse Research analyst Andrew Davis, an expert in this market, says the Passport could catalyze the market for video-conferencing gear among small and medium-sized companies. Then there's telecommuters--a category LifeSize says will grow from 18% of the workforce to 35% over the next few years. Some companies may find it cost-effective to outfit some of those people with a cheap video-conferencing system. And some contract workers may find it worth the money; after all, it would pay for itself just by nixing the need for just a business trip or two.
While LifeSize is still a bit player in terms of market share, products like the PassPort suggest the company is likely to have an outsized impact on the market. It's pushing a more decentralized, democratized vision for videoconferencing. If Cisco's systems are like mainframes, in their cost, power and complexity, LifeSize wants to be the PC -- cheaper, easier to use, and controlled by the user. The company is even in talks with Skype; already, Passport users can type in a Skype address to have audio-only calls with any of the 500 million people who have one. Clearly, the ability to launch video calls with Skype users must be the next step. Then, Passport users could hold Skype calls on most any big-screen TV, rather than have everyone hunch in front of the PC.
So how is LifeSize doing? Malloy says sales have grown 140% in the past 12 months. While he won't share revenue figures, he says the company has 9,000 customers, and is adding 800 new corporate customers every quarter (Cisco has less than 500, for its much pricier gear). My hunch is that the company already has the revenues necessary to go public, but has work to do on the profits side.
Here's an awfully jittery video I did with Malloy; I'm recovering from surgery on my right shoulder, and clearly my left hand has the shakes!
