itvt

–Round-Up of Recent Veoh News

San Diego-based peer-to-peer broadband TV company, Veoh Networks (note: last year, the company–which claims that traffic to its Web site grew from 4.4 million uniques in February to 18 million in August–secured $12.5 million in Series B venture funding from a group of investors that included former Disney chief Michael Eisner’s Tornante Group and Time Warner; Eisner now sits on its board of directors), said last week that it has formed a strategic partnership with Pixsy Corporation, that will see it using the latter’s search platform to offer enhanced video and image search functionality to users of Veoh.com and VeohTV (for more on the latter, see below). According to Veoh, Pixsy’s technology will allow Veoh users to search a vast index of videos and images on the Web, with content updating to the minute. Pixsy claims that its technology makes it easy for any site to run a branded multimedia search engine with content customized to its own audience. "Pixsy is an ideal media search partner for Veoh because they will allow us to provide even more fresh, up-to-date entertainment content to our millions of viewers," Veoh founder and chief innovation officer, Dmitry Shapiro, said in a prepared statement. "Pixsy’s vast index and ability to organize their breadth of video and image content in a way that maps to our users’ interests will meaningfully enhance the viewing experience on Veoh."

In other Veoh news:

• The company says that two high-profile media-industry figures have invested in its $25 million Series C funding round, which was led by Goldman Sachs, and which closed in August. The new investors are former Viacom and MTV CEO, Tom Freston (through his new company, Firefly3), and former Viacom chairman and CEO, Jonathan Dolgen.
• In August, following what it described as "unreasonable threats" by Universal Music Group (UMG), the company filed a pre-emptive action in federal court in order, it said, to "reinforce its rights as a copyright-compliant company under the safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)." The court action seeks a declaration that "Veoh has not infringed UMG’s copyrights and that, "because Veoh complies with the copyright laws, it is entitled to safe harbor under the DMCA from any claims brought by UMG." The action does not seek any damages from UMG. In a press release announcing its lawsuit, Veoh argued that it respects the rights of copyright holders, and that this is "evidenced by thousands of independent content producers utilizing Veoh to publish video content and relationships with dozens of major media brands." The company also cited its "ongoing, diligent compliance with the DMCA through proactive distribution of automated tools that enable enforcement of DMCA notification and prevent repeat offense publishing" and its work "with industry groups such as the MPAA and content holders to implement state-of-the-art technologies that include filtering and special compliance tools for copyright holders." UMG, meanwhile, has indeed acted on its purported threats against Veoh: it recently sued the company for copyright infringement, accusing it of building "its business on the backs of others’ intellectual property," and promising to hold "Veoh, and those who own, control, and run it…financially responsible."
• In July, the company appointed ex-Yahoo! executive, Steve Mitgang, as CEO. Mitgang, who was previously SVP of a team responsible for defining, creating and marketing Yahoo!’s advertising products, platforms and services, succeeded founding CEO, Dmitry Shapiro, who has been assigned the role of "chief innovation officer," and who is now responsible for advancing the company’s technology platforms and consumer standards. The company also recently appointed Jennifer Betka, an ex-Sirius Satellite Radio executive, as SVP of marketing.
• In June, the company beta-launched an application called VeohTV, which it says is meant to serve as a specialize video browser and DVR for discovering, viewing and managing online video, and which features a patent-pending recommendation engine. According to the company, the new app supports open Internet standards, and thus has access to "virtually all of the content on the Internet." "Unlike Joost, which is a closed system with content from a limited number of sources, VeohTV supports open Internet standards, and has access to virtually all of the video content on the Internet, on-demand," Veoh’s Shapiro said in a prepared statement. "We asked Veoh.com users what they really want in their online video experience and VeohTV is the culmination of that feedback. We believe that it will be the dominant standard for online video consumption moving forward." The app provides end-users with a single interface with which to search, browse and view all the broadband video available on the Internet–ranging from professionally produced content from broadcast networks to amateur content on sites such as YouTube and Veoh’s own Veoh.com site. Veoh bills the app’s interface as being "simple enough to be driven by a remote control, consistent from program to program," and as displaying video content in full-screen mode. Key features of the app include: 1) the ability to browse for content by channel (e.g. CBS, NBC, etc.); 2) keyword search; 3) the ability to subscribe to content from specific shows, channels and producers, and to download and store favorite videos; 4) a recommendation engine that makes suggestions based on viewer preferences and previous viewing habits; and 5) the ability, while viewing videos, to use "widgets" that access services from Amazon, eBay, Gmail, Hotmail, Craigslist, AOL and other companies. When installed on a PC, VeohTV launches into a channel guide similar to a cable EPG, and users can then browse through channels, conduct keyword searches and watch full-screen video-on-demand. The app allows users to stream video directly from the host site or to click a button to download permitted videos to watch later. According to Veoh, the app also allows content owners to serve advertising and measure the audience generated by their content.
• The company has partnered with a number of companies and organizations to launch broadband TV channels on its Web site over the past few months, including the NCAA (which is offering a channel devoted to college football), the National Lacrosse League, and Billboard magazine.

Originally Published: October 12, 2007 in [itvt] Issue 7.39 Part 2A

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