Streaming Blog: Industry News, Trends & Tips

Powering US Open 2017 Highlights, IBM Watson Impacts Live Broadcasting

Written by Laney Lewis in AI Video Technology on 9 November 2017

When Juan Martin del Potro faced Dominic Thiem on Day 8 of the US Open, die-hard tennis lovers might have been excited, but it didn’t have the hallmarks of a “must see” event for casual fans. Few expected del Potro, ranked 24th, to advance.

But when he staged one of the best comebacks in US Open history, everyone wanted to see how it was done. And within minutes, they were able to, thanks to IBM Watson powering US Open 2017 highlights.

Watson assembled a clip reel within five minutes of the end of every match at this year’s Open, making highlights and key moments available to fans two to 10 hours more quickly than during previous years. The event marked the official launch of IBM Watson Media, a new business unit that leverages Watson’s leading AI capabilities to meet the future needs of broadcasters and their audiences.

Streaming Media Readers’ Choice Awards 2017 Winner

Written by Anthony Romero in Company News on 3 November 2017

Streaming Media Readers' Choice Awards 2017 Winner

Winners for the Streaming Media Readers’ Choice Awards 2017 have now been announced. Representing the online video industry’s shining stars as selected by users, categories ranged from cloud based solutions, like the Live Streaming Platform category, to physical offerings, like Encoding Hardware (Live). This year, IBM took home three awards at the ceremony in the following categories:

– Live Streaming Platform
– End-to-End Workflow Solution
– OTT Platform for MSO and MVPD

For more information on the awards, including our history at them, please read on.

The Future of Streaming Media for Kids

Written by Laney Lewis in Video Trends & Studies on 2 November 2017

For years, creators and distributors of digital content for kids have been looking over their shoulders, worried that yet another major change in consumer technology will upend the marketplace before they can finish developing their offerings for the platforms du jour.

But David Kleeman, senior vice president of global trends at Dubit, a strategy and research consultancy and digital studio based in Leeds, England, says these companies can worry a little less about tech disruption — at least for the next few years.

5 Ways to Use Live Streaming Video to Boost Brand Marketing

Written by Stacy Nawrocki in Tips & Tutorials on 27 October 2017

For brands and retail marketers, live online video can be a powerful hook to grab—and keep—customers’ attention to boost brand marketing efforts. According to industry experts, a prerecorded online video will hold consumers’ attention for about two minutes, but live streaming video can keep audiences engaged for 20 minutes or even longer. The trick is to make those live streams must-see experiences or viewers won’t tune in, let alone stick around to make a purchase.

So what can marketers do to ensure live video events will draw and delight target audiences and, ultimately, help drive revenue? In a recent webcast, Fritz Brumder, CEO and founder of Brandlive, a live interactive video platform for brands and retailers, and Stacy Nawrocki, director of product marketing for IBM Watson Media, offered some savvy advice for marketers large and small.

Content Innovation Awards 2017 Winner: Watson Media

Written by Laney Lewis in Company News on 25 October 2017

The Watson Media team is thrilled to have received the award for Best OTT TV Technology of the Year at the Content Innovation Awards 2017! It was an honor to attend the event hosted by Digital TV Europe and Television Business International, where over 200 industry experts gathered at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes for a night of thoughtful recognition and inspiration. We are humbled to be among other innovative content producers, broadcasters, platform operators and technology companies, and believe the award is a testament to the value of our services.

Footters Use Case Video: Taking Minor League Soccer to Streaming Stardom

Written by Stacy Nawrocki in Customer Stories on 16 October 2017

Viewers worldwide are cancelling their cable TV packages and turning to online broadcasts at a steady rate. In the U.S. alone, nearly 25 million households lacked cable by the end of 2015. More than 1 million American households are expected to cut the cord this year, and they will be joined by millions more households across the globe.

But it’s not just weekday sitcoms, made-for-TV movies and daily news that are migrating online. Sports fans are clamoring to stream their favorite teams—and that’s where Footters, which launched this month, sees an opportunity.

Based in Spain, Footters is an online streaming company providing a platform for federated soccer clubs—the semi-professional and even professional players who are part of clubs worldwide that aren’t popular enough to merit the blanket television coverage given to the English Premier League or La Liga, Spain’s top professional soccer association. These minor league clubs might not be powerful enough to ink their own television deals, but they have a large, largely underserved audience. With an estimated 24 million clubs comprising 270 million players around the world, Footters’ potential reach is enormous.

Dynamic Video Playlist: How to Create and Use

Written by Anthony Romero in Product Updates on 11 October 2017

Dynamic Video Playlist: How to Create and Use

Looking for ways to simplify managing your video playlists? Need to create playlists that will update themselves? According to Wainhouse Research, almost one in five (19%) organizations report that they add at least 25 hours of video to their corporate libraries each month. These increasing libraries present challenges to improve methods to manage content in a way that promotes accessibility. A dynamic video playlist is part of the solution for this, giving content owners a way to quickly produce playlists that will automatically update with new content. This is done through creating playlists that populate content based on certain criteria, and then will update that playlist as new videos meet the same conditions. Criteria can range from content found in titles and descriptions, but also through using information found in custom metadata fields as well.

This article describes what is a dynamic video playlist, what are the use cases, the user experience and also how you can create them as well.

Brandlive Surpasses Monumental 8,000 Livestreamed Events and Unveils Partnership with IBM at its Annual Customer Summit

Written by Anthony Romero in Streaming on 4 October 2017

Brandlive, the leading live video platform for brands and retail marketing today announced that it has livestreamed over 8,000 events, as part of a partnership with IBM Watson Media. With this milestone, Brandlive confirms its position as the go-to resource for brands and retailers looking to interact with their audiences for sales enablement, marketing and commerce events.

In today’s saturated digital landscape, brands need an innovative method to cut through the noise and engage with their customers. By leveraging live video, companies can bolster their marketing strategies to more effectively interact with their audiences and foster relationships in real-time.

Brandlive empowers top brands like Adidas, GoPro, eBay, and Cabela’s to better communicate with their audiences by offering customers real-time access to experts, influencers, and executives. With 8,000 livestreamed events, it is clear that brands are harnessing live video and understand its myriad advantages: live video is more engaging, faster to produce, and drives more sales than recorded video.

Streaming Video Success Stories Infographic Featuring 8 Leading Organizations

Written by Stacy Nawrocki in Customer Stories on 4 October 2017

Video moves people. The human brain absorbs video with much less work than it takes to process text. As a result, we’d rather watch than read, and we end up sharing videos more than almost any other type of content on the internet. Leading organizations are recognizing this, and they’re expanding their use of video as a tool for driving better business outcomes.

The streaming video success stories infographic below illustrates eight great results that organizations are achieving using streaming video. Click on the infographic and it will open in PDF format, with each result linking to a two-minute video that explains how it was achieved. Which result is most relevant to your goals?

For the fastest path to results, tell us the type of impact you need from streaming video, and we can coach you on the best practices most relevant to delivering it.

Future of Esports & Its Tie to Streaming Video

Written by Laney Lewis in AI Video Technology on 3 October 2017

If any activity is tailor-made for streaming video, it’s esports. Competitive video game playing (and watching) is poised to be a $1.5 billion industry by 2020, according to market research firm NewZoo.

While online streaming services like Twitch and YouTube built a loyal audience of viewers, the lure of ad dollars has attracted the interest of mainstream broadcasters, too. Several major networks, including ESPN, NBC and TBS, regularly air esports programming. In recent months, tournaments have popped up on The Disney Channel, and Nickelodeon got into the game in June by joining a $15 million investment in esports host Super League Gaming.

It’s setting up what could be an epic battle between old media and new media. The streaming services run by Amazon (Twitch) and Google (YouTube) helped build a following for competitive video games, but now traditional networks want to use their built-in audience to lure gaming companies (and leverage their own digital platforms to lure the audience that’s already addicted to these competitions). What’s more, the audience is already proving larger than traditional sports: the audience for the 2015 League of Legends world finals topped that of the 2016 NBA Finals by 5 million viewers.

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