The one-year-old Hulu.com beat out Yahoo, MySpace and ABC in video streaming audience, according to the latest Nielsen stats. In February, YouTube had 5.2 billion streams, with Hulu at 309 million, and Yahoo at 250 million.
If you look at unique viewers, YouTube had 88 million, Yahoo 24 millon, and Hulu moves way down to fifth place with 9.5 million.
TV.com’s video gallery in super high quality
TV.com, a unit of CBS Corp., has begun beta testing a high-definition video gallery that allows users to watch ad-supported contents in 1080p resolution. This technology is supported by Adobe System’s Flash platform.
Expert say the move is done for competitive reasons as the market for online repurposed content become increasingly cutthroat and territorial.
March Madness on iPhone and iTunes
On the other hand, CBSSports.com has launched an NCAA March Madness on Demand application for the iPhone and iPod Touch that will allow users to watch live streaming video and audio, beginning March 19. The application, $4.99, provides live video of all 63 games as well as access to tournament brackets updated in real-time with up-to-the-minute scores and the ability to click directly from brackets into live video.
CBSSports.com also will provide all games fro $1.99 each on iTunes after thery are completed.
A remote-less, gesture-controlled TV set
This is great. A Silicon Valley start-up called Canesta has invented a 3-D sensor that allows hand gestures to interact with your television set –no remote required. See the video.
Acrross the room you can motion to do things like change the channel, move through menus, play content and mute the volume.
This technology won’t arrive in your home anytime soon. Hitachi has announced a gesture TV set using Canesta at the end of 2010.
This technology can be implemented on laptops and cell phones, too.
Sunnyvale-based Canesta was founded in April 1999, has 30 employees and has raised $58 million to date from investors including Carlyle Venture Partners, Honda Motor Co, Hotung Capital Management, Korea Global IT Fund, Venrock and others.
iVdopia, an iPhone ad network
Vdopia, an Indian American advertising network, has launched new ad formats and sponsorship solutions to the iPhone, the hottest cellular device in the world. This 3G ad platform and network is called iVdopia.
Its founder Kakani Srikanth thinks CPM-style ad units, like pre-roll video ads and persistent logo and banner overlays are a big opportunity. Vdopia’s video ads last 5-10 seconds and make use of the iPhone touchscreen to entice a user to interact further.
