Bandwidth Bastards: Amazon/Netflix, VLCPlayer, and (ick) Jon & Kate Plus 8

BANDWIDTH BASTARDS: So many bastards, so little bandwidth...

This Week: Amazon buying Netflix, its a no-brainer, but is it good for Amazon? The new VLCPlayer is sought after by people not just BANDITS! Speaking of Bandits, the results are in--> Bastard of the week: K8 of jon&k8+8

nicoontheweb:Hey A.M. - ready to talk bastards?

Nico McLane

amarnoNYC:bastardsyou say?
nicoontheweb:the bandwidth kind
nicoontheweb:not the people we work with
amarnoNYC:Iwork in the entertainment end of this business - bastards are all Iknow!
amarnoNYC:sowhat's going on in your world this week Nico my dear?
nicoontheweb:First of all, in case you have been sleeping at the wheel, Forbesbreaks it down for us:
nicoontheweb:Forbes - NY,USA Among Robson's insights were that teenagers areconsuming more media than ever before, but refusing to pay for it
amarnoNYC:ha-ha!
nicoontheweb:That explains a lot!
nicoontheweb:This was a revelation based on a report written by an intern
amarnoNYC:Iwas holding my little casio tape recorder up to the radio when I waslike...4
nicoontheweb:gotta love those interns!
nicoontheweb:So, based on this revelation - now that we know teens don't want topay for streaming media, how do you think we can still monetize itknowing that kids don't want to pay for it?
amarnoNYC:honestly- it's been going on for ever, the kiddies now just have better toolsto heist with
amarnoNYC:BRANDIT BABY!
amarnoNYC:onceyou inspire brand loyalty
amarnoNYC:it'sin the bag
nicoontheweb:They'll buy the sneakers the rappers are wearing in the videos
nicoontheweb:all the pimps & hos will want to drive those Mercedes Benz

A.M. Arno

amarnoNYC :ex-actly
amarnoNYC: the music industry sunk itself because it was too slow to embrace streamingmedia
amarnoNYC: andas a result missed the opportunity to brand it and capitalize on it
amarnoNYC: BIGMISTAKE
nicoontheweb:it's catch up time ...speaking of which, everyone is a chatter aboutAmazon buying up Netflix!
nicoontheweb:I find this to be a very interesting prospect, incorporating the Amazon platform on the backend and the Netflix buiness model in the front for "Movie Sales" - very intereting!
amarnoNYC: wellthere is a great example of a media company NOT afraid to embrace newstreaming media trends...
nicoontheweb:Both Amazon.com and Netflix are already streaming- so it would be interesting to see what that would look like. I believe Netflix may have some issues with their backend CDN's, the architecture is pretty complex, especially as they branch out to support the devices they are targeting over the next few quarters. But the question remains, regardless of what it costs them to "stream" it, are they making money against the cost of licensing....
nicoontheweb: I am concerned for Amazonthough -
amarnoNYC: theyhave been forging ahead in the streaming frontier
nicoontheweb:There is this phenomonen I call the ENRON EFFECT- No matter how rich and powerful you are, you have to play by the rules. Who is really making the rules for this industry?
amarnoNYC: andare willing to take risks?
amarnoNYC:ohyeah- I agree
amarnoNYC: risky
nicoontheweb:When a company over-diversifies and dilutes its core "product", it isat risk of being torn apartby having in effect, teams of "cells" operating independently in their own best interest. You can't be on top of everything all the time...
nicoontheweb:let alone diluting the brand
amarnoNYC: butIS it over diversification??
nicoontheweb:Amazon was books, then their retail platform became a focus becausethey seemed to have a very stable "platform"- It's like that day back in 1999 when I was asked to make a recommendation for a CDN and it was between Akamai and Enron...
I asked to speak with the Sales Engineers on both teams, only one "CDN" actaully had Sales Engineers and guess who won the bid - HINT: The company that actually was in the business of Streaming Media...
amarnoNYC: yeah...
nicoontheweb: so are they selling oil or cloud computing or streaming movies to my home?
nicoontheweb: Who is AMAZON?
amarnoNYC: Furthering your captialist reach is not the same thing as an identity crisis...Nico - to me streaming media is like the Wild West
amarnoNYC: and you never know WHAT we're going to find because so much is unexplored and uncharted
amarnoNYC: Billy the Kid didn't make his name by playing it safe
nicoontheweb: Black hat, I see...
amarnoNYC: I think Amazon as a brand has established it's "face"
and now they want to add depth to the persona
amarnoNYC:
if you will
nicoontheweb: That's good strategically, but don't forget the Civil War!
nicoontheweb: Or, The Alamo!
nicoontheweb: The fact is, I went to Blockbuster last night and rented 3 dvds
nicoontheweb: but I order my books on Amazon, and "Watch Now" on Netflix and Hulu
amarnoNYC: I see - WELL I pretty much watch everything on Netflix instant streaming service
nicoontheweb: And they will offer instant streaming only subscriptions later this year - handheld device support is in the works too!
nicoontheweb: that is doing a lot of good for the "brand" of streaming media as more than just corporate earnings meetings and "New Kids On the block reunion" tours
nicoontheweb: Netflix will be accessible via the Sony BRAVIA and July 14 (Bloomberg) -- Blockbuster Inc., the largest movie- rental chain, agreed to partner with Samsung Electronics America Inc. to deliver films to high-definition TVs, home theater systems and Blu-ray disc players, following a similar deal in March with TiVo Inc.
amarnoNYC: The stock dropped for Amazon recently - I'm assuming investors are scared because of new-ness of long term video downloads
nicoontheweb: Netflix was up
amarnoNYC: Yes! I read that this week - Amazon is like that really attractive but slutty girl in your high school
amarnoNYC: she gets in bed with everyone! Thus her popularity!
nicoontheweb: And just when everyone is chattering about who will win the Netflix/Blockbuster/Hulu/YouTube/MySpace race for domination in the "online video broadcast" space, small agile teams of Open Source activists are declaring anarchy with products that may not be "Enterprise Class" applications, because they are "Open Source" and by their very nature do not have Tier 1 support. However, Enterprise organizations build out their own Operating Systems for their environment and lock everything down and their internal "help desk" resource (often outsourced) becomes the owner of the product.
nicoontheweb: This week the new VLC Player launched
nicoontheweb: VLC 1.0.0 hits 3 million downloads
nicoontheweb: http://www.videolan.org/
nicoontheweb: The VideoLAN project is pleased to announce the release of the first version of the Goldeneye branch of VLC: 1.0.0.This major release introduces many new features, new formats and new codecs to the VLC multimedia framework and fixes a very high number of bugs that were present in the 0.9.x or 0.8.6 versions.
amarnoNYC: I have been using Video LAN on my PC for years
nicoontheweb: It makes one have to question, exactly what is the difference these days between an exciting road tested piece of Open Source software vs. something "ENTERPRISE CLASS" - this is a distinction one should save for the old school star trek fans? They may say there is no difference since most of the people working on the "VLC" project are probably also Star Trek fans AND they probably are the same developers that would be hired to work on a "from scratch" project for a given Enterprise organization
nicoontheweb: lol
amarnoNYC: mostly because it was one of the only streaming players back 5 years ago that would allow you pull jpeg or tiff stills for publicity purposes
nicoontheweb: And, since it is GNU You can use the software in the way you want (within the boundary of law), for personal, educational, research, military, governmental and/or professional purpose.
nicoontheweb: The use and distribution of the libdvdcss library is controversial in a few countries such as the United States because of a law called the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). If you are unsure about the legality of using and distributing this library in your country, please consult your lawyer.
nicoontheweb: We have become wrought with bureaucracy
nicoontheweb: VLC media player binaries are distributed with the libdvdcss library included.
amarnoNYC: Nico....my brain is freezing
nicoontheweb: so, you could be considered a criminal for using it for your purposes
nicoontheweb: Are you cold?
amarnoNYC: speak english to me
nicoontheweb: You can easily take something Open source, like the VLCPlayer, and get it in the hands of the right developers and engage a killer QA team (Q. A. = Quality Assurance, the folks who love to bang away at applications and find "unexpected features" and then revert their findings back to the developers for "tweaks" - an Enterprise SLA is only as good as the team that tests the product, accounts for real-world scenarios and sets a realistic level of expectation to the client.
nicoontheweb: they make things go!
nicoontheweb: I'm just saying, the developers who work on Open Source projects like this are brilliant, capable and working outside the confines of a corporate vice on their development path.
nicoontheweb: if we could take something like the VLC project and make online broadcast an "open standards" environment, streaming would work better, more people would have access to it and then, the industry would be able to monetize the content -
nicoontheweb: it would be streaming media heaven on Earth!
nicoontheweb: VLC Player is part player and part streaming media server
nicoontheweb: Because I am a producer, all I can do is work with what I have... using best practices
nicoontheweb: But, if I have a client who wants to use Amazon or Akamai or whoever, then I have to comply
amarnoNYC: Well that is a common game we play in my office - rather than betting on Basketball or football pools...we bet on which younger start up is most likely to get bought up
nicoontheweb: there is a lot of value put in name recognition - but the fact of the matter is, before YouTube was YouTube it was "What??? That'll never work!"
amarnoNYC: media start up I mean
nicoontheweb: exactly... which is why I am a big supporter of Open Source
nicoontheweb: it's a small step, but it will keep CDN's and the big players (Microsoft & Adobe) on their toes....
nicoontheweb: lf you position your marketable messages and call-to-action in any video based media correctly such that its' open distribution enhances the value of your media asset, DRM shouldn't be an issue - if you have content that is highly sensitive, don't make it public; use a separate IP layer for communications on a secure, dedicated line. There are plenty of products made available the the major Telecom's in the U.S. and abroad that provide VPN and MPLS Private IP Networks for that very purpose. However, we are talking about a broadcast medium, how will people feel when they bring home their brand new TV and find that they can't watch CNN because they don't have the right player - or worse yet, because the manufacturer of their new T. V. didn't ink a deal with Blockbuster or Hulu.
nicoontheweb: DRM is really the issue with the open source
amarnoNYC: Like the intellectual property issues with web content? Who thought streaming media would have this much law and order drama attached?!
nicoontheweb: Content can be restricted geographically and made available with registration and any other option available to get valuable insights into who is viewing the content, set top boxes still have IP addresses and MAC ID's and gosh darn it, then broadcasters can monetize content the same way they do traditional broadcast, except the "shelf life" of on-demand marketing assets (in-stream ads, accompanying banner ads, product placement, sponsorship, etc) becomes even more valuable if the content is compelling, it can be accessed as long as the CDN it sits on exists.
amarnoNYC: that can make a preemptive strike out into those waters
amarnoNYC: because they almost HAVE TO
nicoontheweb: I have streaming media content that was originally broadcast in 2003 sitting in a defunct RBN account that is STILL active, it amazes me everyday!
amarnoNYC: but I think streaming media for entertainment is still a laptop medium
amarnoNYC: for the majority of users
nicoontheweb: Ok, at the end of the day it comes down to compelling content
amarnoNYC: yes
amarnoNYC: I agree if they release Twilight to stream media only -it's on
nicoontheweb: Speaking of Compelling content - jon&k8+8
amarnoNYC: yeeeeeeeeah - speaking of Mommy and Daddy.....
nicoontheweb: jon8k8k8h8jon
amarnoNYC: those bastards
amarnoNYC: I can't go ANYWHERE without seeing clips of these people
nicoontheweb: The Media is out of control with it... I think that is why I had to rent DVD's last night
amarnoNYC: He sleeps in the garage and tries to avoid the house completely when Kate is there. And Gawker says Jon is looking for a place to live in Trump Towers in NYC. Oh well la-di-da. Too good for the garage, your majesty?
amarnoNYC: All the media whores always come to our neck of the woods Nico...why?
amarnoNYC: WHY?
nicoontheweb: Just check out the news results: There's more news every hour!
amarnoNYC: I just can't even...did you SEE this fine example of mothering  - even ALLIGATORS provide for their kids - and they usually EAT half of them.
nicoontheweb: Ih8j&k8+8
amarnoNYC: These people have their own WIKI ANSWERS BLOG Nico!! I know they’re not the highest ranking videos this week – but dammit they’re streaming presence is like SLEEPER CELLS – they’re just EVERYWHERE!  I am sure if you totaled all the hits from all the videos they have on the 1000’s of media hosts you’d easily have a number worth of bandwith bastardry. 8 kids 8 million videos on media hosts 18 migraine headaches from trying to figure out HOW they get this kind of distribution – did THEY make a deal with AMAZON too?!
nicoontheweb: I knew there was a reason I didn't like that woman... She eats her children and has a very powerful tail... Oh wait, that's the American Alligator, Alligator mississippiensis, (known colloquially as simply gator).
That makes K8 (not the children themselves)this weeks....BANDWIDTH BASTARD? (Without Jon, cuz he doesn't really say much and I already forgot what he looks like)
amarnoNYC: Indeed it does...