streaming

MySpace is going mobile with streaming video.

News Corp.'s social-networking site is expected to offer video clips from members' pages, as well as professionally produced ones, to video-enabled mobile devices starting Wednesday, according to a Reuters report. Professional video will be provided by the likes of celebrity gossip site TMZ, the National Hockey League, and National Geographic magazine.

The service will be free to users--supported by advertising. The move, which will make MySpace the first social network to offer mobile streaming video, is an attempt to tap into the small but growing mobile advertising market.

"These are the … Read more

Last week, we reported that Sling.com, the streaming site of Slingbox maker Sling Media, was moving from the private beta phase and launching to the public. Well, that move is now official, as Sling has sent the site live to the world--though the "beta" moniker remains.

Much has been written about the impending launch of Sling.com. A partial list of partners has been circulating the last few weeks, but Sling's PR reps wanted to use today's announcement to showcase the full list, which naturally is "growing each and every week."

I'd … Read more

The Netflix Player by Roku, which enables owners to watch streaming Web video on their TV sets, has received plenty of applause from pundits and owners since debuting last May. But the box now faces its first major challenge.

Customers from around the country have been "experiencing inexplicable loss of video-streaming quality," for at least three weeks according to Roku's engineers, who have posted comments at the company's Web forums. Device owners have posted complaints to the same forums about receiving less than half of the video quality they've had in the past. One user told CNET that the video stream is now "unwatchable."

Tim Twerdahl, vice president of consumer products at Roku, told CNET News on Monday that the company is still unsure about what exactly triggered the problem, but he said indications are it originated at Netflix. Twerdahl added that the problem likely affects Netflix's other boxes as well as Roku's player.

"All we know is Roku didn't make any changes," Twerdahl said. "This is not a box problem. We know from some reports that this seems to be correlated with a change in Netflix's content distribution network (CDN), and Netflix is trying to figure out what the issue is." … Read more

EarthCam, a company that allows users to search for Webcam content across the world, announced Wednesday that it will stream Thursday's 82nd Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in real-time on its site.

Seven EarthCam cameras will be used to capture the event as balloons and floats pass through Times Square. Only one of the cameras will feature audio, but users can switch back and forth between cameras throughout the event to change their viewing angle.

EarthCam's coverage will begin Thursday at 6 a.m. PST and conclude at 9 a.m. PST.

Highbrow film company The Criterion Collection has launched Criterion.com, an "online cinematheque" for people who want to watch movies, delve into some editorial content, and socialize with other fans.

Perhaps the most notable aspect of the new site is the fact that you can rent many Criterion films (a melange of old and newish, domestic and foreign) for $5 per stream, and that $5 will be deducted if you then choose to purchase the flick on DVD. Kind of a cool model that nobody seems to be using yet.

Criterion has also teamed up with a new … Read more

Sling.com, the streaming site of Slingbox maker Sling Media, has emerged from private beta and is opening up access to its video content to the public.

With the move, which was expected, Sling.com delivers TV episodes, clips, full-length movies, and professionally produced Web videos to a single destination. The free content is provided by the NBC-Fox partnership Hulu, along with CBS (parent company of CBS Interactive, CNET's publisher), PBS, BBC America, and Web video sites like College Humor and Break.com.

Viewers can subscribe to the video feeds of shows currently on the air like The Soup … Read more

Video host Blip.tv has just launched support for iPhones letting mobile users view the entirety of its video collection on the go. Like visiting the site on your computer, you can both browse and search through Blip's videos and get them to play without having to download a special application.

As a result of the upgrade, Blip.tv's embed code can now point iPhone users directly to the .m4v QuickTime stream while still delivering the Flash version to users with it installed. Unfortunately this does not carry over to previously embedded Flash-based Blip.tv videos. Visiting an earlier post … Read more

YouTube gathered up its viral celebrities to stream its first-ever live event on Saturday from San Francisco.

YouTube sold the event as "part concert, part variety show, and part party." Its Live channel featured three different views of the event--from the main stage, backstage, and "off stage."

According to TechCrunch, calculations via Akamai showed that about 700,000 people were watching the live stream at its peak. It wasn't completely clear who actually did the streaming for YouTube, but TechCrunch felt comfortable enough to assert that it was Akamai itself.

YouTube gained its fame through … Read more

Akamai Technologies announced Wednesday that it's cutting 7 percent of its workforce, as the Web content delivery company pares back its costs.

Cambridge, Mass.-based Akamai expects to cut 110 positions in the fourth quarter, a move that is anticipated to result in a $4 million restructuring charge.

"We have not changed our business outlook," J.D. Sherman, Akamai CEO, said in a statement. "However, we want to ensure that we can keep investing for growth even in the current economic climate."

The Web content delivery company also expects to lose approximately $2.5 million … Read more