When it comes to getting paid online video streaming right, no one really matches up to MLB.tv, the online video arm of MLB Advanced Media. And today it is celebrating its 10th birthday. MLB.tv went live on August 26, 2002 when New York Yankees starter Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez threw a pitch against Texas Rangers’ Hollandsworth.
That game was watched by 30,000 baseball fans across the globe. Those 30,000 fans have turned into millions of fans across the world and that little experiment is now a mega-million dollar business. Since its launch, the service has broadcast 1.5 billion live video streams and has accumulated a total of 3.7 million subscribers.
Today in order to succeed, services need to go beyond the web. And ubiquity means being on multiple devices. Like, Netflix, MLB.tv, got that right very early in the game. MLB Advanced Media is one of the more progressive online services as it has evolved with the times, adapting to viewing behavior of its customers. When broadband speeds increased, MLB.tv increased its online video quality. When tablets became popular, it created apps for the iPad and later for Android devices including the Kindle Fire.
As popularity of Roku and Apple TV grew, they made apps for those platforms as well. It is on XBox live and is slowly making its away to all sorts of connected devices. For 2012, MLB.tv is streaming 1.1 million live video streams per day. So far in 2012, MLB.tv has seen 27.3 million mobile live video streams. In the first week of 2012 baseball season, MLB saw 3 million downloads of its At Bat 2012 iPad app. At present there isn’t a professional sports league that holds a candle to MLB’s online arm.
From a personal perspective, during the baseball season, I don’t think I can last a single day without MLB.tv. Being a participant in a fantasy baseball league, I use the service and its advanced features to keep an eye on some of my players. (I am second to last this season, but can’t blame the streaming service for my picks and their injuries.) I can safely say, had it not been for MLB.tv, I wouldn’t have been an early (perhaps earliest) cord cutter. I hope these guys keep making baseball more fun in years to come.



from GigaOM http://gigaom.com/video/happy-10th-birthday-mlb-tv-now-thats-what-i-call-spor...
Ever wonder what happens when MIT students stop being polite and start getting real? MIT OpenCourseWare has announced they’re launching a reality TV series this fall that will follow around 14 MIT freshmen as they’re introduced to hands-on science for, potentially, the first time. (Alright, so maybe we’re not dealing with quite the same amount of drama that we are on Real World: St. Thomas.)
Earlier this year, groups of freshmen were thrown into a four-week course called 5.301 Introductory Lab Techniques. A film crew began rolling, capturing the classmates’ stress and struggles for “ChemLab Boot Camp.” The stakes were high — students who pass the class are guaranteed a job in an MIT research lab. A trailer for ChemLab Boot Camp been unveiled (below), and the first episode will be released on Tuesday, September 18th. From there, one new episode will be published once a week and announced on the ChemLab Boot Camp e-mail list. Each episode is two to five minutes long and is shot in a style the MIT OpenCourseWare team describes as a mix of “the geek fun of open educational resources with the immediacy of reality TV.” Funded by the Dow Chemical Company, the goal is to foster interest in science and engineering careers, as well as highlight a day in the life of an MIT student. MIT Professor John Essigmann admits the chemistry and chemical engineering fields have not been as attractive as they should be, saying in a press release: Dow and MIT have mobilized our collective resources to try to show high school and college students what it is like to be a chemist. We hope to show the human side of our field and to inspire young people to want to become the next generation of chemists.
When asked why MIT OpenCourseWare got involved, Stephen Carson, the platform’s director of external affairs, admits the series is entirely consistent with what OpenCourseWare does. “What we do is really publish the by-products of classroom learning,” Carson says. I will admit, I got a sneak peek of the episodes, and you’re not going to want to miss them. Each student has their own personality and quirk, whether it be they have a nickname like “Smart Weezy,” take Tae Kwon Do classes on the side or like to randomly show up in other students’ classrooms and start singing. The added beauty is that the students chosen weren’t chosen by design, but rather serendipitously. Their backgrounds cover a broad spectrum, making the show accessible to anyone. I’ll also admit I watch the Real World: St. Thomas, and it’s turned into a train wreck almost too unbearable to watch. (Note the emphasis on “almost.”) Although slightly nerdy, ChemLab Boot Camp is much more fun. Just take a look at the trailer and see for yourself.
from BostInno http://bostinno.com/2012/08/24/mit-takes-a-stab-at-reality-tv-follows-around-...
I’ve seen the venture capital due diligence process from both sides of the table and I know how comprehensive and exhaustive it can be (sometimes to the chagrin of the entrepreneur). But it’s a critical part of the process, ensuring that the venture investor is fully bought into the team, product, market, etc. A typical venture capitalist makes only a couple new investments per year, so a mistake is very costly. Entrepreneurs understand the importance of the VC diligence process and they put in the effort to make it go smoothly. But what isn’t discussed nearly as much is that the entrepreneur needs to put the same effort into researching and vetting his/her potential investors. Selecting the wrong investor can be just as catastrophic for an entrepreneur as it is for a VC to invest in the wrong company.
This was the subject of a presentation I gave earlier this month at a 128 Innovation Capital Group meeting. In my talk I shared some thoughts and advice on how to find the optimal investor. A critical first step in this process is to define goals, both for the entrepreneur and for the business. What’s your desired exit strategy? Will you aggressively invest for growth, or grow at a steady pace? Will you be CEO for the life of the company or will you bring someone aboard? The answers to questions like these define the makeup and needs of the company (such as capital requirements, management needs, and preferred governance) and have a tremendous impact on defining what the optimal investor looks like. Once the goals and needs are defined, now the research begins. Before signing a term sheet, entrepreneurs should be absolutely confident their investor:
- Understands their business
- Shares the same goals for their business
- Is a valuable, constructive partner to the entrepreneur
If you’re an entrepreneur and just beginning to research investors, start with the web. Visit VC firm websites and read partner bios, press releases, and blogs. Check out LinkedIn connections and see where VC’s show up in web searches. With this basic research, you will get a good sense of who is investing in your area and who is having success. This will give you a short list of VC partners with whom you will want to meet. Next, once you’re meeting with a particular partner, make sure you get to know them as well as you can. While the bulk of your meeting will be spent talking about your business, make sure to carve out some time to ask your own questions. Ask questions about their goals, investment experience, thoughts on the market, and investment capacity. And perhaps most importantly, before signing a term sheet, ask for references – including from entrepreneurs who had negative outcomes – and diligently check them. If you’re getting close to signing a term sheet, spend some quality time with that investor. Take them out to dinner. Make sure you’re comfortable with their personality and working style. This is critical because taking investment from a VC is almost like getting married – you will spend a lot of time with this person and will be confronted with many challenges that you’ll need to overcome together. All of this effort getting to know your potential investors will be well worth it. We all know how hard it is to build a company. When faced with that challenge, it’s critical to go to battle with the best team possible and that includes your investors – whether they be angels, VC’s, a bank or anyone else. Do your homework and you’ll get the right set of investors – and it will save you many headaches down the road.
from BostInno http://bostinno.com/channels/finding-your-optimal-investor-due-diligence-for-...
Hulu relaunched its website with a bold new look Tuesday night that replaces the traditional show grid with much larger artwork and a focus on personalization as well as popular shows and episodes. The new design will be rolled out to Hulu’s entire user base over the next few days, but can already be previewed at New.Hulu.com.
Hulu’s VP of Product Rob Wong announced the relaunch with a blog post, in which he explained that a key motivation for the new design was the desire to do a better job at surfacing relevant content:
“We’ve started by using larger, more vivid artwork to feature last night’s TV episodes and new additions to Hulu. We’ve also implemented a new tray-style format to make it easy for you to browse and discover content. And for logged-in users, we highlight the “Shows You Watch” to make it super easy to jump directly to the shows you are already enjoying on Hulu.”
Another key feature worth highlighting is the redesigned movie library. Movies have long been the forgotten stepchild of Hulu, but the new movie pages feature bigger cover art as well as infinite scrolling. It almost looks like that other subscription service…
Speaking of other services: Hulu’s new design definitely makes it look like a completely different site. Before, there was a bit of information overload on many pages, with long lists of episodes that looked more like math homework than a fun TV experience. The new layout does away with all of that, and basically replaces it with artwork, which is much more intuitive.
Hulu had relaunched its video player earlier this year. I guess this means that the service’s apps are next?


from GigaOM http://gigaom.com/video/check-it-out-hulus-got-a-slick-new-website/?utm_sourc...
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