Author: Ryan Lawler

Netflix expects its DVD-by-mail business to peak in 2013, at which point it believes its Watch Instantly streaming service will be driving its growth. That’s the gist of a slideshow posted on the company’s jobs site that details its plans to transform itself into the leading streaming subscription service for TV shows and movies.

According to the Netflix Business Opportunity slideshow, the company sees streaming as a “huge potential market,” pointing to the 100 million households that have pay-TV subscriptions in the U.S. Netflix had 14 million subscribers by the end of the first quarter, a number it expects will rise to 17 million by the end of the year. And it believes that as both it and the Internet improve, it can get boost that figure even more.

“To have profitable growth in such a huge market, you find a segment in which you can gain and maintain leadership,” the slideshow says. “Netflix [sic] segment is consumer-paid streaming of movies and TV shows.”

With greater adoption of streaming video, Netflix says it can put more money toward building the catalog of content available through its Watch Instantly service. Its cost of goods sold in 2009 was $1.4 billion, of which more than half was spent on postage and handling. But as the company’s DVD-by-mail business peaks — which it expects to happen around 2013 — Netflix will be able to spend more money on licensing content. By 2020, if it can continue to aggressively grow its subscriber base, it expects to be one of the world’s largest licensors of movies and TV shows.

The goal, it says, is to “have content so broad, engaging and affordable that everyone subscribes to Netflix.”

All that said, Netflix has a detailed list of the competitive threats it faces in the online streaming business, which includes cable, satellite and IPTV providers that are bundling on-demand video services through TV Everywhere initiatives; cable programmers like HBO and Epix that could go straight to the consumer with their premium original content; Hulu, which is expected to launch subscription services any day now; and giants like Apple and Amazon, which could launch subscription services of their own.

The company also says it faces potential threats from piracy, $1 DVD rentals, ISPs increasing the price of their broadband services, high CPM-targeted advertising, very cheap pay-per-view services and content producers selling their content directly to consumers.

Despite all these competitive threats, Netflix believes it still has a winning value proposition for leading the subscription streaming business. But at the end of the day, the company boils down its success to one key messag: Its business depends primarily on keeping its customers happy. “It’s pretty simple,” the slideshow says. “If subscribers keep raving about Netflix, we will prosper.”

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The BBC will be one of the first content providers in the UK to have video available on the Apple iPad when it ships across the pond tomorrow, according to Mark Prigg of the Evening Standard. Prigg tweeted yesterday that Erik Huggers, the BBC’s director of future media and technology, said an iPad-ready version of the BBC’s latest iPlayer site would be ready for viewing on the device when it becomes available to users in the UK market.

The news comes just a day after the Beeb launched the latest version of its iPlayer site online, which integrates more social viewing features into the video catchup service. And it follows on the heels of similar high-profile video services from Netflix, ABC and CBS, which were made available during the iPad launch in the U.S.

Unlike Netflix and ABC, which came out with dedicated apps for video playback, the BBC iPlayer will be available through an iPad-optimized browser. And since the BBC currently uses Adobe Flash for its web videos, which isn’t supported on the iPad, the broadcaster will instead rely on HTML5 video encoded in the H.264 video format. That’s the same approach taken by CBS in the U.S., which is working to ensure that all videos available on CBS.com through PC web browsers will also be viewable on the iPad.

While the BBC iPlayer will initially be available in the browser on the new tablet device, it may release an iPad app at some point in the future. The broadcaster is still trying to determine whether it can release free apps of its content on mobile devices such as the iPad or iPhone, or if that action would be considered harmful to its commercial peers. That decision — which would be made by the BBC Trust — has already delayed the release of news and sports iPhone apps in the UK, due to concerns by newspaper rivals that allege such apps would undermine their ability to create commercial services on those devices. In the meantime, Huggers says the broadcaster will make sure its iPlayer videos are playable in the iPad’s Safari browser.

“The BBC Trust has decided that it wants to take a look at the BBC’s plans for applications in general. That is within the gift of the BBC Trust to decide,” Huggers told the Register. “But through the browser we will absolutely make iPlayer available on the iPad.”

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A skunkworks project within Comcast dubbed Tunerfish that’s aimed at using game mechanics to chart the social graph for video was announced at TechCrunch Disrupt today. By enticing users to share what they’re watching with their friends, Tunerfish will create social recommendations while also rewarding those users for their influence in getting others to watch programming.

Like a Foursquare for video, Tunerfish uses game mechanics to entice users to share what they’re watching with other members of their social circle, either through the Tunerfish site or a dedicated iPhone app, giving users badges and other awards for their checkins. Users can also comment on shows they or other are watching and have those comments show up on Twitter and Facebook.

Users logged into the site are met with a list of trending shows, based upon what all Tunerfish users are watching, as well as a list of their friends’ activity. By charting which programs are popular, while also tracking what users are checking in and how they’re finding new types of content, Tunerfish will be able to build a sort of social graph for video viewing. The system will allow Tunerfish to determine the influence of certain users and provide awards as a result.

According to John McCrea, founder of Tunerfish and VP of marketing for Comcast-owned social network Plaxo, the project was created by a team of four Plaxo developers in their spare time, from January through March. Once it got approval from Comcast execs, Tunerfish took on a life of its own.

Tunerfish is currently in private alpha testing, but McCrea expects the site and a dedicated iPhone app to launch in public beta within the next few weeks. The group is also busy working on an Android app that will have all the same functionality.

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Blip.tv has raised a $10.1 million round of financing aimed at rapidly growing its business for the distribution and monetization of web video shows, the company said this morning. The funding round, Blip.tv’s third, was led by Canaan Partners and included existing investors Bain Capital Ventures.

Over the past year, Blip.tv has seen impressive growth in the number of videos it serves as well as the amount of advertising it’s been able to bring in. The company delivers about 90 million streams per month, and monetizes about 85 percent of those views with ads from blue-chip marketers like GM, General Mills, and AT&T. Now it’s looking to accelerate that growth by investing in new product development and audience development to help its content producers reach a wider range of viewers.

“We have a business model that works, and when you have a business model that works, you have to step on the gas and accelerate its growth,” CEO Mike Hudack said in a phone interview. “This [funding] will allow us to offer even more for our show producers, business partners and advertisers.”

Blip.tv recently opened an L.A. office and hired Epic Fu co-creator Steve Woolf to be its West Coast director of content development. It’s also been growing its sales force across the country and internationally. According to Hudack, the company has grown from about 20 employees at the beginning of the year to 27 today, and he expects that number to rise to 30 over the next few months.

This latest funding round is Blip.tv’s largest to date; the web video startup raised a $2.5 million round in June 2007, followed by a second round of financing worth $5.2 million in October 2008.

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Google has agreed to pay $68.2 million in cash to buy Global IP Solutions, which makes technology to deliver voice and video over IP. The deal will enable the search giant to boost call and video quality on various services, and may see it offer video chat through Android mobile phones and other devices.

GIPS offers technology for high-quality, real-time audio and video streaming via IP, which it licenses to companies like AOL, Nortel, Samsung and Yahoo for their voice and video chat offerings. But as paidContent points out, GIPS also recently rolled out what it claims was the first product enabling developers to add video chat to Android devices. With such technology in hand, Google could accelerate plans to offer such services on its own, or make the technology part of its own developer toolset.

Google will pay 13 Norwegian krone ($2.12) in cash per share, or NOK 421 million ($68.2 million). The offer represents a premium of 142 percent over GIPS’ closing price on January 11, the day that GIPS said it had a possible strategic buyer, and a 27.5 percent premium over its share price on May 14, the last trading day before Google made its bid.

The deal remains subject to certain closing conditions, including approval by 90 percent of GIPS shareholders. But based on a recommendation of the GIPS board, Google says it has already gotten commitments from shareholders the represent about half of all outstanding shares, including Kistefos Venture Capital AS and Kistefos Venture Capital II DA.

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YouTube has been doing a lot of celebrating lately — of the 5-year anniversary of the purchase of its URL back in February, then in April, of the first video uploaded to the site. Now the online video site is celebrating the launch of its first beta version in May 2005 with the announcement of some significant milestones.

YouTube streams more than 2 billion videos a day, with a full day’s worth of video — 24 hours — uploaded to the site every minute, according to a post on the YouTube blog today. Meanwhile, its partner ad revenue tripled last year, and it now monetizes over a billion video streams per week worldwide.

All that momentum has gotten YouTube (finally!) on the brink of profitability, with analysts saying they expect the site to actually make money for the first time in 2010. According to research from Citi earlier this year, YouTube is expected to pull in about $945 million in 2010, with revenues forecast at $1.1 billion next year. That’s not bad for a video site that just a few years ago was best known for stupid pet tricks and pirated video.

To celebrate the five-year milestone, YouTube launched a page featuring some of its most successful and recognizable contributors — like Tay Zonday and Ryan Higa — talking about their YouTube experience during the first five years of the site’s existence. YouTube is also asking its users to upload their own videos about how YouTube has affected their lives.

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The latest indication that Apple is trying to strong-arm publishers to adopt HTML5 and H.264 came today, as Steve Jobs reportedly claimed by email that a patent pool was being assembled to “go after” Ogg Theora and other open source codecs. That news comes just a few weeks before Google is expected to release its VP8 codec as open source, and could come as a big blow to the search giant’s plans to offer an alternative to H.264.

The whole thing began today after Hugo Roy, an intern at the Free Software Foundation Europe, published an open letter to Steve Jobs. In that letter he responded to Apple CEO’s “Thoughts On Flash,” in which Jobs wrote that the future of web video would be driven by HTML5 and H.264. Roy argued against Apple’s adoption of H.264 because the codec is not open, but covered by patents and licensed by MPEG LA.

Well Jobs wrote back, warning that open source codecs like Ogg Theora may soon be taken to court for infringing on others’ patents:

“All video codecs are covered by patents. A patent pool is being assembled to go after Theora and other “open source” codecs now. Unfortunately, just because something is open source, it doesn’t mean or guarantee that it doesn’t infringe on others patents. An open standard is different from being royalty free or open source.”

The email comes as a fight is brewing between major players over the future of web video. For Apple, that future is driven by HTML5 and H.264 encoding, in contrast to Adobe, which is pushing its proprietary Flash player for video playback. However, while most browser makers agree with HTML5 support, not everyone is fully on board with H.264 encoding.

Apple’s Safari, Microsoft’s IE9 and Google’s Chrome all support H.264 encoding for HTML5 video, but the Firefox and Opera web browsers refuse to get behind it, due to potential licensing issues. Even though H.264 licensing body MPEG LA announced in February that it was extending its royalty-free licensing for web video using H.264 through 2016, that was little consolation for Mozilla and others that are committed to supporting open standards.

Google was hoping to stem that divide by making VP8 open source and thus providing a high-quality and open alternative to existing codecs. Google’s plans to open-source the codec have been widely expected ever since it announced plans to acquire On2 in August 2009, and speculation intensified after the deal closed.

But without Apple and Microsoft on board, Google may have a tough time getting VP8 adopted by media publishers. And now that Apple’s CEO has confirmed plans for patent infringement suits against Ogg Theora and other open source codecs, Google may have even more issues to deal with.

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Samsung may join Sony in building out televisions based on Google’s Android operating system, according to a report in the Korea Herald. An executive at the company, which is the largest manufacturer of TVs worldwide, said that Samsung is “examining the business feasibility of Google TVs” in the latest sign that Android might catch on as the OS of choice for connected consumer electronics (CE) devices.

It was revealed last month that Google is partnering with Sony and Intel on Android-based CE products that might include a dedicated set-top box or come in the form of software that would run on Internet-connected TV sets. The Google TV products would be based on the Intel Atom processor, which is used for smartphones and other mobile Internet devices, and could enable media companies to build dedicated applications that run directly on users’ TV sets.

TV apps are expected to become big business for media companies and CE manufacturers alike; according to recent research from In-Stat, TV-based applications could generate more than $1.7 billion in annual revenue by 2013, driven by an increasing number of broadband-connected devices in the living room. Already, Vudu, Roku and Boxee are looking to enable paid downloads of apps through their connected TV devices. Samsung, too, has already created its own framework for building apps that run on its connected TVs, called Samsung Apps.

The only problem is that developing for each of those different platforms can be a cumbersome enterprise for those that want to roll out video apps and other services directly on the TV. But standardizing on a single OS — like Google Android, for instance — would enable CE manufacturers to create a single development platform for connected devices, while also making it easy for developers to create apps that could potentially run on millions of devices.

While there are certainly advantages for CE makers that might want to use Adroid for future devices, there are also hurdles — for one thing, the cost of manufacturing devices that can run Google’s OS might be prohibitively expensive. Panasonic, for instance, reportedly decided against using Android on its connected TV sets because of costs associated with doing so. That’s because, according to Panasonic EVP Bob Perry, Android would require too much processing power to make it a viable solution. Panasonic also has its own widget/app solution, called VieraCast — but like Boxee, Roku, Vudu and Samsung, that just means one more platform for media companies to develop for.

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YouTube’s first foray into streaming live sports was far more successful than expected, blowing away internal projections and generating five times more views during the 2010 Indian Premier League (IPL) tournament than it initially anticipated.

As part of its first international sports deal, YouTube streamed all 60 matches of the 45-day IPL tournament live on a dedicated YouTube channel at youtube.com/ipl, and on the IPL’s website at www.iplt20.com.

YouTube’s internal “stretch goals” for the event were 10 million views over the course of the six-week tournament. But interest in the IPL well exceed those expectations, generating more than 51 million views, including this weekend’s championship match between the Mumbai Indians and the Chennai Super Kings. As a result, YouTube says its coverage of the cricket league ranked as the top sports channel worldwide, surpassing global video views of the NBA, NHL, ESPN and UFC. The IPL channel was also the most-viewed and most-subscribed channel in India during that period.

The distribution agreement called for the IPL matches were live-streamed to more than 200 countries worldwide, excluding the U.S. Even so, the U.S. was second only to India in terms of the number of views generated during the event, mainly from on-demand availability of matches after they were aired live. As a result, YouTube opened the semifinal and final matches up to the U.S. audience for live and on-demand viewing.

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A lot of our readers were skeptical when some very early — but very impressive — iPad video viewership data was released by MeFeedia. A little less than a week after the Apple tablet device was released, MeFeedia reported that iPad users watched two and a half times as many videos as typical web users, and watched video three times longer than those users.

Well, it’s now a few weeks into the iPad’s existence, and it turns out that, as early adopters get used to the device and more mainstream users begin buying the tablet, they’re using it for video even more than originally thought. According to new data from MeFeedia, the iPad is now the fifth most popular mobile device for viewing video, surpassing BlackBerry devices. Now the iPad, nearly a million units of which have been sold in less than three weeks, according to some estimates, trails only the iPhone, iPod touch, SymbianOS and Android devices in terms of videos viewed.

iPad video viewership has grown even more when compared to that of typical web video. iPad users now consume three times as many videos as web users, and watch video on the device four times longer. Video viewership on the iPad has increased even more relative to that of iPhone users, with iPad users consuming five times as many videos as iPhone users, up from three times as many in the earlier study.

As before, it’s worth noting that MeFeedia’s internal stats come from a relatively small sample of iPad owners that use MeFeedia and its video search engine to view video on the device. In addition, those numbers only include a limited number of videos that are HTML5-enabled, since the device doesn’t support Flash. Nor do they include viewership data from dedicated iPad apps from companies like ABC and Netflix.

Even so, the numbers from MeFeedia are impressive, especially as they represent a growing number of mainstream users on the device. And they validate our earlier hypothesis (and Apple’s) — that the iPad will change the way that users consume video.

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Hulu is one step closer to rolling out a premium subscription plan, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times. The web video startup is reportedly going to charge users $9.95 a month for access to a larger library of video content than is currently available through its free, ad-supported service, and could begin testing the subscription plan as soon as May 24. But are consumers willing to pay more for content that up until now they’ve been about to view for free?

Hulu has been rumored to be considering a subscription plan for some time now, with the most recent report in the New York Times hinting that it could introduce the service along with an app for the Apple iPad. The introduction of a premium subscription option could bring new revenues to the startup, which reportedly pulled in about $100 million last year. While that number is impressive by most web video standards, Hulu is said to be under pressure by its corporate parents — broadcasters ABC, Fox and NBC — to bring in even more.

And there’s the inevitable question of how many users would actually subscribe. In our own (admittedly unscientific) poll of users last year, the majority (65 percent) said they would not pay for a Hulu subscription service, and 23 percent said they would shell out only $1-$5 for one. Just 9 percent said they would pay between $6 and $10, while another 3 percent said they would pay more than $10.

Of course, it would depend on what content would be available as part of the package. Hulu users can now watch the last five episodes of most current TV shows available on the site, which includes hit series like ABC’s Lost, Fox’s 24 or NBC’s 30 Rock. Hulu’s subscription service, dubbed Hulu Plus, would include a more extensive back catalog, which could include entire seasons of certain programs.

Then there’s the question of how profitable such a service would be. As Peter Kafka points out, TV executives expect that Hulu would have to pay its parents and content partners $1-$1.50 per subscriber, roughly the same price that broadcasters are seeking in retransmission fees from cable operators. That would cut into any profits Hulu could hope to establish from the service, and that’s before it takes into account the costs associated with hosting and streaming that content to users.

Finally, it’s not clear how many users would sign up for a subscription Hulu service when there are already other attractive options for streaming video online. A Hulu service priced at $9.95 would go up against Netflix’s $9-a-month subscription plan, which includes one DVD rental by mail and unlimited streaming. Not only will Netflix have an advantage in terms of the number of videos it has (at last count, more than 17,000 titles), but it’s also available on a growing number of consumer electronics devices, including HDTVs, Blu-ray players, TiVo DVRs, Roku set-top boxes and all three major gaming consoles.

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Netflix had what could be its best quarter ever, and by all accounts it appears to be a direct result of the company’s Watch Instantly streaming service. Based on the company’s actual results, as well as comments from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings on the company’s first-quarter earnings call, it seems clear that the online video service is contributing positively on a number of fronts, including lower churn and lower subscriber acquisition costs.

Hastings said on the call that Netflix attributes this quarter’s record low churn to an increase in streaming. Moreover, the company’s investment in streaming titles, as well as the availability of the service across multiple devices and an improved user interface, is driving more subscriber additions through word of mouth, therefore lowering Netflix’s cost of adding new subscribers.

Over the last several months, Netflix has been striking deals with Hollywood studios like Warner Bros., Fox, Universal and now HBO, in which it agrees to a 28-day window before it can rent DVD releases by mail, and in return receives discounts on DVDs. The company then pours those savings into licensing more content for its streaming service. Some subscribers have complained about the lack of new releases, but on a whole the strategy appears to be working for the company, as it continues to add new subscribers at record levels.

More tidbits from the earnings call:

• The biggest competitor Netflix sees isn’t Redbox kiosks or on-demand services from Amazon, Vudu or other, but comes from improved service offerings from traditional pay TV distributors. “There are a lot of competitive threats… But cable, satellite, and telcos improving their products is probably the biggest threat,” Hastings said.
• Based on rumors that Hulu could enter the market with a subscription service offering, Hastings said it too could pose competition to Netflix’s streaming service. However, it’s too early to tell how much of a threat Hulu might be. “We’ll see what they do,” Hasting said.
• Netflix isn’t concerned about Redbox potentially entering the streaming market at a much lower price point than its own entry-level $9 a month subscription service: “Redbox does many things incredibly well, but we’re not worried about them as a streaming competitor,” Hastings said.
• The reduction in average revenue per user (ARPU) generally doesn’t come from existing subscriber trading down to lower-priced subscription plans, but rather from the increase of new subscribers that are signing up to Netflix’s $9 a month plan. In fact, Netflix had more existing subscribers trade up during the quarter than it saw trade down, according to Netflix CFO Barry McCarthy.
• For now, Netflix doesn’t see the Apple iPad as a significant contributor to subscriber additions. “In the long term the iPad is a great device that has a lot of potential,” Hastings said. “But in the short term, when you compare it to the 30 million users that have a Wii, it’s not a huge contributor.”
• Despite record additions and an increase in the number of users tuning in to its streaming service, Netflix is still seeing growth in its DVD-by-mail service. “Our DVD shipments continue to increase,” Hastings said. “DVD’s got a lot of legs.”

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Are you a Facebook developer but can’t make it out to tomorrow’s sold-out f8 developers conference in person? Never fear — the social networking site is teaming up with Livestream to allow viewers to watch and even participate in the conference from afar. Beginning Wednesday, April 21 with Mark Zuckerberg’s keynote at 10 a.m. PDT/1 p.m. EDT, Facebook will launch f8 Live, which will stream all sessions from the conference live on the Interwebz, along with a number of interactive features that are designed to let those who can’t attend feel like they are a part of the action.

Facebook will have multiple channels available to online viewers, enabling them to watch the keynote and other sessions, as well as “behind the scenes” live interviews with Facebook executives, f8 launch partners, notable developers and other attendees through the Inside f8 Channel. That channel will be moderated by Randi Zuckerberg, and will allow remote viewers to ask questions and interact with the featured attendees.

In addition to streaming video from the event, f8 Live will have employees live blogging the event, and will allow viewers to watch video of one session live while following the blogging or discussion around a different session. Since Facebook developers are global, chat and discussions will support eight different languages. Finally, f8 Live will have a scrolling ticker to alert viewers when new sessions or interviews are about to begin.

The f8 Live embeddable widget is available here, or you can watch the embedded stream below. A complete schedule of planned events can be found on the Facebook f8 site.

Image courtesy of Flickr user David Berkowitz.

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Good news for cricket fans: YouTube is making the semifinal and final matches of this year’s Indian Premier League cricket tournament available live for all viewers, including those in the U.S. The IPL’s final four matches of the season, which begin on Wednesday and culminate with the championship match on April 25, will be streamed live on YouTube’s IPL channel at youtube.com/ipl.

As part of a multiyear agreement with the IPL that YouTube struck in January, the online video site has been streaming the entire season of IPL cricket matches live — for all markets except the U.S. If cricket fans here wanted to view the action live, they had to sign up for subscription-based online sports site Willow.tv and pay $60 to stream the games in real time.

Despite this, YouTube saw massive demand for on-demand viewing of the IPL matches in the U.S., as matches became available here 15 minutes after the live streams concluded. Even without the availability of live streams, the U.S. ranked second in the world (behind India) in terms of number of subscribers to the IPL channel, as well as rating, commenting on and favoriting videos. As a result of the enthusiasm by U.S. viewers, YouTube opened up the last four matches for viewing live.

The inaugural season of the IPL on YouTube — the video-sharing site’s first foray into streaming a sporting event live — appears to be a success. Over the first 55 matches of the IPL season, YouTube says it’s received more than 40 million views across the globe, and that’s before the beginning of the playoff matchups. With the availability of live streams in the U.S., we can expect plenty more viewers tuning in for the final four matchups. A schedule is available on the IPL web site here.

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Google will soon make its VP8 video codec open source, we’ve learned from multiple sources. The company is scheduled to officially announce the release at its Google I/O developers conference next month, a source with knowledge of the announcement said. And with that release, Mozilla — maker of the Firefox browser — and Google Chrome are expected to also announce support for HTML5 video playback using the new open codec.

Google has controlled the VP8 codec ever since it finalized the acquisition of video codec maker On2 Technologies in February. When reached for comment as to its plans, a Google spokesperson told us the company had “nothing to announce at this time.”

The move comes as online video publishers are gravitating toward standards-based HTML5 video delivery, bolstered in part by the release of the iPad. However, that acceptance has been slowed by the fact that the industry has yet to agree on a single codec for video playback, with some companies throwing support behind Ogg Theora and others hailing H.264 as the future of web video.

Google’s YouTube, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 and Apple — through its iPad, iPhone and Safari browser — have all thrown their weight behind H.264, which many believe provides superior picture quality and playback to the Ogg Theora codec. However, a few organizations — including Mozilla — refuse to support H.264 due to potential licensing issues. Whereas Ogg Theora is completely open source, the H.264 codec is managed by licensing body MPEG LA. Even though MPEG LA announced in February that it was extending its royalty-free licensing for web video using H.264 through 2016, that was little consolation for Mozilla and others that are committed to supporting open standards.

The result is a divide between which video format can be viewed in which browser. H.264-encoded HTML5 video can be viewed in Apple’s Safari, Google’s Chrome and in the upcoming Internet Explorer 9 browser from Microsoft. Meanwhile, Ogg Theora playback for HTML5 video is supported by Firefox, Chrome and Opera.

Google hopes to stem that divide by making VP8 open source, providing a high-quality and open alternative to existing codecs. On2 first announced VP8 in late 2008, promising more efficient video compression than other available codecs. At launch, On2 went so far as to claim that it could provide “50 percent bandwidth savings compared to leading H.264 implementations.”

Google’s plans to open-source the codec have been widely expected ever since it announced plans to acquire On2 in August 2009, and speculation intensified after the deal closed. The acquisition even led the Free Software Foundation (FSF) to urge Google to kill Flash by open-sourcing the VP8 codec.

While an open-source VP8 could end concerns about H.264’s licensing issues and Theora’s quality, questions still remain about whether Google can provide a video standard on which everyone can agree. Microsoft only recently announced support for H.264 for HTML5 playback, and has never been quick to adopt open standards. And Apple, which has been the driving force behind HTML5 video and H.264 playback on the iPhone and iPad, might not be keen on the idea of switching up its codec support on those devices anytime soon.

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So much for Adobe trying to provide a workaround for Flash developers to create iPhone and iPad applications. Apple today fired its latest salvo in its war against Flash, with an update to its iPhone Developer Program License Agreement that specifically bans the use of third-party compilers for creating apps that will run on the iPhone OS.

As pointed out by Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, the language in the license agreement has become much more aggressive, if not downright antagonistic, against applications not written in Objective-C, C, C++ or Javascript. It states:

3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).

That will come as a big blow to Adobe, which was pinning its hopes on its upcoming Packager for iPhone — an important piece of its Creative Suite 5 that was meant to allow developers to create apps in Flash which could then be re-compiled for use on the iPhone. Since the iPhone and the iPad don’t support Flash, Adobe saw this as a way to keep its developers coding for Flash while still being able to reach Apple’s mobile devices.

We’ve contacted Adobe for their take on the new language in the license agreement, and what it will mean for the future of the Packager for iPhone. We will update this post with any official word from the company as soon as we receive it.

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Good news for online video fans: The first generation of video apps for the iPad have been revealed, and among them are offerings from content distributors Netflix and ABC. The rollout of Netflix’s Watch Instantly service on the soon-to-launched mobile device, as well as a wide selection of content expected from ABC’s broadcast TV lineup, will go a long way toward legitimizing it as a video-viewing machine.

The first evidence of a Netflix app appeared on App Advice, which also has an app store walkthrough highlighting more than 700 apps that will be available at launch. The app appears to extend all the same capabilities of the Netflix web site onto the iPad, including the ability to manage your queue, peruse available titles and rate them, and even to watch videos available through the subscription rental company’s Watch Instantly online streaming service.

We speculated that a Netflix app would be a perfect fit for the iPad when the device was first announced in January. But Netflix is increasingly focused on making its streaming service available on other mobile devices, as well. The release of an iPad app follows the demo of a Netflix streaming app on Windows Phone 7 at Microsoft’s MIX10 developers conference last month. Netflix also recently surveyed users as to whether or not they’d be interested in a free iPhone app that would allow them to stream videos to the mobile device.

ABC, meanwhile, will have its own application for the iPad, which will feature a large number of the broadcaster’s programs, the Wall Street Journal reports. According to that story, the ABC app will have much of the same content that is available on ABC.com. The app will be free to download, but videos will be ad-supported.

Interestingly, the launch of the ABC iPhone app comes just as Apple is reportedly pushing content partners to lower the price of TV episodes in iTunes to 99 cents from $1.99 for standard-def versions, which it argues would make them more attractive to consumers, especially on the iPad. But programmers have been reluctant to do so, choosing instead to roll out and monetize videos on their own through apps. ABC was long thought of as the most likely candidate to test out lower pricing, due to its close ties with Apple and the fact that Steve Jobs is the largest individual shareholder in the media conglomerate — but it, too, appears to be holding out, at least for now.

While Netflix and ABC will be rolling out apps to make their video content available on the iPhone, CBS will be taking a different approach. According to the Journal, CBS will be rolling out videos that will be viewable through the iPad’s Safari browser, confirming earlier reports that the broadcaster was testing out an HTML5 implementation of its web site specifically for displaying videos on the iPad. CBS will reportedly have full episodes of reality TV show Survivor available on an optimized version of the CBS.com web site, as well as promotional clips for other shows, like The Mentalist and How I Met Your Mother.

News of plans by Netflix, ABC and CBS to reach the iPad follow a report in the NY Times that Hulu is working on an iPad app expected to be released later this year and may test a long-expected subscription service for Hulu’s content.

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Online video management firm Brightcove is going after media companies that want to make their videos available on the Apple iPad by adding a whole new feature set to deliver iPad-compatible HTML5 video. The company also has unveiled a road map to eventually bring along features like advertising and advanced analytics support that will make HTML5 video playback more competitive with Adobe Flash video.

As we’ve noted in the past, the iPad doesn’t support Flash, which means that web video publishers — the majority of which use the Flash player for video delivery — will have to find new ways to reach the device. Sure, they could build iPad-specific apps, but many will also want to ensure that their web video experience translates to the new device as well. HTML5 provides one way to do so, and Brightcove hopes to provide services to make it easy to target the device.

While the iPad won’t be on sale until this Saturday, April 3, Brightcove says customers like the New York Times and Time Inc. are already using the “Brightcove Experience for HTML5″ to create web sites that are custom-built to seamlessly deliver video to the device. That begins with device auto-detection, which enables Brightcove to determine what device a user is connecting to the page from, and sending the appropriate video. For desktops and most other mobile devices, that will mean displaying video in Flash, but when an iPad user connects, they will get a custom HTML5 video player.

Brightcove will transcode existing video assets into compatible H.264 videos for playback on the iPad for publishers that wish to enable HTML5 video. The new features will also enable publishers to create multi-title playlists which can be viewed whether a user is connecting from a PC, iPad or other mobile device.

While publishers will be able to display HTML5 video on the iPad, there are still a number of features that are standard for Flash that have yet to be fully fleshed out in HTML5, such as advertising, analytics, digital rights management, and the creation of custom video players and user interfaces. At first Brightcove will support just basic playback on the iPad, with a small amount of player customization. But over the next three to nine months, it will be working to add more features. By the end of three months, Brightcove expects to have more robust player customization as well as support for Apple’s multi-bitrate streaming and some basic advertising and analytics. By the end of 2010, it hopes to have a complete analytics and advertising features for HTML5 video.

Brightcove’s announcement follows similar news from multiple technology companies and publishers seeking to get ready for HTML5 video. Rival Ooyala, for instance, announced that it is also rolling out support for HTML5 video on the iPad. CBS appears to be testing out an HTML5 implementation on CBS.com specifically designed for iPad video. And earlier this year, YouTube and Vimeo both rolled out their own versions of HTML5 video players.

For Brightcove, supporting video on the iPad just expands the number of devices that it can reach. Earlier this year, the white-label video platform announced support for Flash 10.1 to deliver video on BlackBerry, Google Android, Palm, Symbian and Windows Mobile devices. It also previously announced the ability to reach multiple Internet-connected TV platforms, such as Boxee, Roku, Vudu, and Yahoo TV Widgets.

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When Apple first introduced the iPad to the world, there was more than a bit of consternation around the fact that the new device, which finally ships next week, wouldn’t support Adobe Flash. While limiting access to a whole range of Flash-based games and web sites that rely on the plugin for their user interface, lack of Flash support would also mean that iPad owners wouldn’t be able to watch a lot of web video that is delivered via Flash.

We first theorized that video publishers would turn to creating iPad apps and selling shows and movies through iTunes as a way to get around the device’s lack of Flash support. But now it looks like growing support for HTML5 video will alleviate some of those issues, as publishers and technology vendors alike move to support the web standard.

An early test on CBS.com shows how some publishers might approach the problem, by creating HTML5 video pages specifically designed for video playback on the iPad’s Safari browser. By using device auto-detect measures, those publishers can deliver the appropriate HTML5 videos when a user drops by with a device that doesn’t support Flash, but revert back to the Flash player when connecting from a desktop machine.

As a result of publisher interest, some technology vendors are already moving to support these measures. White-label video platform provider Ooyala, for instance, already announced support for H.264-based HTML5 video delivery on the iPad, and more are sure to follow in the lead-up to the release of the device.

But HTML5 video could expand beyond just the iPad, especially since they will already be encoding and delivering video to meet the needs of the device. There’s no reason, for instance, that publishers couldn’t auto-detect supporting browsers and use HTML5 and H.264 encoding when available, while using the Flash player as a fallback on the desktop.

Of course, this assumes that the same analytics and advertising features that are already available on Flash will soon be enabled through HTML5 video players. Without a good way to measure or monetize video delivered through HTML5, the use of the web standard will be limited to niche applications or devices where there isn’t a better solution already available. Given the opportunity that the iPad presents, however, we can expect publishers and technology providers to work hard to enable those features as quickly as possible.

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Google has long been a proponent of net neutrality, but it appears the company may have unknowingly allowed an advertising partner in India to promote preferential treatment for certain video streams on YouTube. A reader in India tipped us off that YouTube advertiser Bharti Airtel, a major ISP in India, was promising its subscribers faster Internet access when they tuned in to YouTube’s Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket coverage.

The Indian ISP recently ran an ad on YouTube saying its subscribers would get preferred access to live cricket matches streamed from the YouTube IPL site. “TV QUALITY VIDEO WITHOUT BUFFERING,” the advertisement promised. “Airtel Broadband gifts all its customers 2Mbps SPEED UPGRADE for youtube.com/ipl.” Here’s a screenshot of the offering provided by our India-based reader:

The offer is only open to Airtel Boadband subscribers, and only extends to IPL videos. For other pieces of content, subscribers would suffer through their usual broadband plan speeds, which are typically lower than 2Mbps. In that way, the offer is kind of like Comcast promising guaranteed video quality or better broadband speeds for video streams from NBC.com, a practice that would most likely be criticized by competing broadcasters ABC, CBS and Fox — and possibly even by Google itself.

YouTube’s coverage of the Indian Premier League marks its first live sports deal, which gives it exclusive rights to live streams of the cricket matches worldwide (except in the U.S.).

Google has been very vocal about net neutrality in the U.S., where it has argued that all Internet content should be treated equally. In a filing sent to the FCC after the commission sought comment on net neutrality proposals, Google asked that it establish a non-discrimination policy to “prevent a broadband provider from using its control over the network to favor or disadvantage particular sources of content or applications” — which is exactly what Airtel is doing with IPL streams.

A source close to the situation says that Google didn’t see the ad before it appeared on the YouTube IPL site, but once it did, the company objected to it and asked Bharti Airtel to revise it. The ad has since disappeared from YouTube, according to our reader, but Airtel is still promoting the offer on its own web site. Even so, in the weeks since the ad first appeared, Google has benefited not only from revenues associated with it, but also from Bharti subscribers that have taken advantage of increased broadband speeds when viewing cricket matches.

Google has disavowed any association with Bharti’s preferential treatment of YouTube streams, issuing the following statement on the matter:

“We do not have any commercial arrangement with Airtel for preferential access to YouTube or to the IPL’s channel. We did not ask for nor did we approve of giving YouTube any preferential treatment. This is independent of their sponsorship arrangement with us and is not a component of it.”

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