Veoh

Veoh

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Veoh

URL http://veoh.com

Type of site Video Distribution

Registration Free

Owner Dmitry Shapiro, Founder and Chief Innovation Officer

Created by Dr. Ted Dunning

Veoh is a San Diego, California-based company which runs an Internet Television service allowing users to find and watch major studio content, independent productions and user-generated material.

The company received media attention^[1] after Michael Eisner (ex-Disney chairman) joined the board. In April 2006, he was one of the investors (along with AOL Time-Warner) in the $12.5 million second round of financing for Veoh and re-affirmed his status in August 2007 as an investor in the company's $25 million Series C financing round.

1 History
2 Viewing options
3 Publishing videos
4 Technology
5 Recommendations
6 Controversy and criticism
7 Availability in different parts of the world
8 References
9 External links

History

Veoh was founded in 2003 by Dmitry Shapiro. The company launched an early version of its distribution technology in September 2005 and debuted its full beta service in March 2006. Veoh officially launched (out of beta) in February 2007. Veoh has raised about $40 million from venture capital and media investors. Time Warner, Michael Eisner’s Tornante Company, Spark Capital, Shelter Capital Partners, Tom Freston's Firefly3 LLC and Jonathan Dolgen (former Chairman of Viacom Entertainment Group) are all major investors.^[2]

In addition to the user generated content that Veoh broadcasts, Veoh has distributed content from major media companies including CBS, Viacom's MTV Networks, FEARNet, Billboard, Ford Models, NCAA Football, US Weekly, TV Guide, and others. Independent creators found on Veoh include NextNewNetworks, 60 Frames, Can We Do That?, Goodnight Burbank, and Dave and Tom.

The domain veoh.com attracted approximately 19 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Quantcast.com study.^[3]

Viewing options

Veoh offers two viewing options. The Veoh.com site, which is currently used by approximately 19 million viewers per month, allows viewers to watch streaming web video from across the Web . Although somewhat like YouTube, Veoh.com offers a broader selection of network television content and allows viewers to watch full episodes of shows up to 30 minutes. Veoh.com hosts a range of programming, from user generated content to studio content.

For viewers who want to watch Veoh content in a "lean back" viewing mode Veoh offers the VeohTV beta. The VeohTV beta is a peer-to-peer based software application that enables viewing in a high-quality^{citation needed}, remote-controllable environment. Viewers can use a media center remote control with the Player, and connect it (through a PC) to their television. The VeohTV beta is similar in concept to a digital video recorder. Videos from any website can be downloaded and saved for later viewing. An Internet connection is not required to watch videos saved to the Player. Viewers can also subscribe to RSS feeds, publishers, or channels, and automatically receive new content delivered directly to the Player.

Publishing videos

Publishers can use their PC to upload videos for distribution. Veoh transcodes the video file so the video is available in the Veoh Player application, on Veoh.com, streamed on the publisher’s own web site, in portable devices like iPods and Sony PSP, and on viral video sites. Publishers are able to customize the presentation of their content, automatically publish via RSS feeds, organize video programming into episodic series or complete channels, and offer content for sale.

A free account upgrade to Pro status allows the publisher to access the syndication system, allowing their uploaded videos to be automatically transferred to Youtube, Google Video, or Myspace. Publishers can also see number of views, downloads, and comments from the other sites on their "My Videos" page.

Technology

Veoh uses both peer-to-peer (for its Player software application) and Adobe Flash-based streaming video (for its website) technologies. Veoh claims its use of peer-to-peer in the Player application enables distribution of longer form video files at a much lower cost. It also means that bandwidth costs will not rise in direct proportion to the number of users.

According to the official website, Veoh is freeware, but it is not free software. You are not allowed to read the source code and modify the program as usually allowed with Free Software.

Recommendations

Veoh's recommendations engine is intended to enable viewers to find content that interests them. The recommendations engine was built by co-founder Dr Ted Dunning, Chief Scientist for Veoh. Veoh recommendations are based on user behavior. As users watch, rate, and download videos, the Veoh recommendation system 'learns' what interests the user and presents more video choices that meet similar criteria.

Controversy and criticism

The Veoh program can delete video files from the user's hard drive. When playing a file, the program checks if the video was pulled from the website for alleged copyright infringement. If so, the program will delete the file without giving the user a choice.

As of February 2008, Veoh changed back to high resolution downloads for those using veoh TV Beta giving the original file in the format it was uploaded in.

Also, the VeohTV program is only available for Windows XP, Vista and Mac OS X, though it is possible to watch VeohTV-videos on every python-capable platform.^[4]

Availability in different parts of the world

In late May 2008, Veoh discontinued service in multiple countries. The company stated that the decision was made in order to focus on the more than 33 markets in which it has the most viewers.^[5]

As of May 31, 2008, upon trying to access the site from a Latvian IP address a screen is displayed,

Veoh is no longer available in Latvia & Mauritius

– www.veoh.com

Trying to do the same from anonymouse.org a similar screen saying "Veoh is no longer available in Anonymous Proxy" is displayed.^[6] It appears that accounts that had specified Latvia in user info have not received any notification through e-mail and any videos that have been uploaded to the site appear inaccessible without any possibility to download them to host elsewhere (that is if there's no backup besides Veoh).

As of June 2008, visitors (IP addresses) in the vast majority of countries, including Asia, portions of Europe, Africa, Central America and South America, as listed below, have reported being blocked, experiencing a similar message for their region.

Dimitri Shapiro talks about recent blocking of countries In a fake interview, Dimitri Shapiro, founder of Veoh talks about the recently implemented new business model that limits its video services to a select group of wealthy countries.

Countless users from said countries are complaining about this decision on their official forums and also the fact that they were blocked out without any prior notice. Gaude Paez, a spokesperson told NewTeeVee.com “The markets we are exiting collectively represent less than 10 percent of our viewer base.” She maintained that the decision was “not about saving resources but rather re-focusing those resources.”^[7] Recently however, the block has been removed from certain territories such as Puerto Rico.

Popular petition site ipetitions.com has posted a petition to stop Veoh and its country block on the grounds that it is racist and unfair.

References

^ ""Eisner Invests in TV Startup".
^ Marshall Kirkpatrick (2007-02-12). "Veoh Relaunches Powerful Video Sharing Service". Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
^ Veoh attracts approximately 19M visitors online yearly
^ ""Blog entry on viewing VeohTV-Videos on Linux using a python-script"".
^ Liz Gannes (2008-06-01). "Veoh Blocks Some International Access". Retrieved on 2008-06-23.
^ Veoh through anonymouse.org
^ Paez to NewTeeVee About Veoh Blocking

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