Video Optimization Company Conviva Raises $15M: Is There Enough Of A Market For These Services?

This morning, California based Conviva, a video quality optimization and analytics platform, announced a series D round of funding totaling $15M, lead by Time Warner Investments. Founded in 2006 as Rinera Networks, the company changed their name to Conviva in 2008 shortly before Darren Feher, former CTO of NBC Universal took over as CEO of the company.

Conviva gets $15M in VC from Time Warner Investments

Conviva, which automates dynamic bit rate adjustment and the management of multiple distribution networks to optimize online video viewing experiences, has landed $15 million in venture funding in a round led by Time Warner Investments. The company said the latest round of funding will be used to accelerate Conviva’s international markets growth and to expand its staff to meet the growing demand for their online video solutions. Conviva said it handles more than a billion video streams a month, helping to guarantee a high quality viewing experience that ultimately results in longer viewing times and increased revenue for content companies. It uses viewer-side statistics to preemptively adjust the video bitrate and stream source before an interruption occurs, and provides statistical insight in real-time to provide an in-depth look into how video is performing

Transparent Caching & CDN Merging: Juniper Licenses BitGravity’s CDN Technology

A few weeks ago Juniper announced they had licensed BitGravity's CDN technology and plans to add the functionality to their transparent caching Media Flow solution. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but I hear that there is a revenue sharing component between Juniper and Tata Communications, which owns BitGravity. Juniper does not plan to re-sell any of Tata Communications…

Apple patents touchscreen TV remote control… is a smart TV up next?

Apple’s inexorable march toward delivering an HD television to the market took another step forward with the report that the company has filed a new patent for a touchscreen remote control designed to reduce the confusion and clutter of traditional remotes. Apple Insider said the patent also shows the remote working with other devices like a television, video players, a stereo, a “smart home” control system and even a Mac. Apple has been rumored to be in the process of developing a smart TV, a play that many analysts believe would turn into a massive business for the company. Article

Rumor: Facebook to file $5 billion IPO today

Facebook’s rumored $10 billion IPO now is rumored to be only $5 billion, according to reports that also said the company was likely to file its S-1 form with the Securities and Exchange Commission today. Reuters

EdgeCast reports doubling revenue, customers in 2011

Content delivery network EdgeCast Networks said it doubled revenue, customer base and employee headcount in 2011, as well as network points of presence in Madrid and Osaka as it continued to expand its footprint. The company said it turned a profit in 2011 and continued to innovate in the space. EdgeCast earlier this year announced it had built a production CDN for a Tier One U.S

Videoplaza lands $12 million in Series B funding round

Ad-management platform Videoplaza has received $12 million in Series B funding to accelerate its global expansion, increase R&D and focus on helping client “build a sustainable business in a fast changing and ever more fragmented world.” The funding came from Qualcomm Ventures and Innovacom, and follows on the heels of what Videoplaza said was a strong 2011, during which it grew its international client base and delivered five times greater ad serving volumes in the last year. The London-based company has opened new offices in Madrid, Berlin and Singapore, and serves a client base across 17 markets worldwide. Videoplaza CEO Sorosh Tavakoli said that while IP-delivered TV presents multiple opportunities for media owners to increase distribution, reach and revenues, device fragmentation and developing monetization policies across multiple platforms present a unique set of challenges that require a technical infrastructure to support them as they implement a device agnostic approach. Videoplaza’s technology platform delivers advertising on all leading devices and services including Flash, Silverlight, HTML5, iOS devices, Android, Sony Playstation, Samsung Smart TVs and closed IPTV environments etc. The company said it expects more than half of its traffic to come from non-PC devices by 2013.

Streaming Media East Program Now Live: Speaker Placement Starts Today

I've been a little behind on blogging lately as I have been hard at work finalizing the advance program for the Streaming Media East show, taking place May 15-16 in NYC. I'm happy to say the program is now done and speaker placement will start today. You can see a PDF of the program here and all sessions in red…

BSkyB launching streaming service to rival Netflix in UK

When Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) rolled out its streaming service in the United Kingdom and Ireland earlier this year, it already was facing some competition. Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN), in the form of LoveFilm, already had a toehold in the U.K., and broadcaster BBC had an established digital platform already in place. Now, satellite-TV operator BSkyB has thrown its hat into the ring and is gearing up to go toe-to-toe with Netflix with its own streaming movie service that also will include its existing Sky Movies, Sky Sports and entertainment portfolio. Unlike Dish Network (Nasdaq: DISH)’s Blockbuster streaming service, BSkyB says it plans to offer the service outside its 10-million subscriber base with no contract and “a wide variety of pricing options.” The move is aimed at reducing the impact over-the-top services like Netflix and Lovefilm are having on BSkyB, which added just 40,000 new subs in the most recent quarter, 19,000 less than analysts had anticipated, and nowhere near the 140,000 new subs it had in the same period a year ago.

Ooyala partners with nuvoTV to deliver viewers multi-platform, social experience

NuvoTV, an English-language cable TV network that target bi-cultural Latinos, is using Ooyala to power its marketing campaign across multiple devices and social TV experiences. Ooyala powers season premiere of nuvoTV’s hit reality show Operation: Osmin on Facebook. (Photo: Business Wire) Earlier this month, nuvoTV delivered the first-ever multi-platform launch of a season premiere both on-air and on Facebook with the first episode of the new season of Operation: Osmin . The network used an interactive Facebook app and embedded player developed by Ooyala, substantially increasing its viewership for the season two premiere of the reality TV show.

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