Before I begin I must say a quick hello back to the readers. I haven’t posted a real entry since March 23, well over a month ago. I was really enjoying my blogging but the rigors of a difficult job made it impossible to continue for the past month. I have since started a new job that will afford me my life back, and that means I can return to the blogging I have been enjoying so much.
It’s actually been quite frustrating because I know for a fact tat SO much has been going on that I like to blog about. Well, I guess I might as well get started…
As many of you know I am a huge fan of CTV’s online video project. They are available on all platforms (that
I have tested, Windows, Mac OS & Ubuntu Linux) and use their service a few times a week to enjoy my episodes of The Daily Show…. (You hear that sponsors? I only watch tv online, so start advertising there!) The problem with the CTV portals however has been a limit on their main shows online. CTV has the Canadian broadcasting rights to (among other things) Lost, Desperate Housewives & Greys Anatomy, these shows are CTV’s main staple programs, and until now were not available online. They also had the right to Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which they did show online thanks to a deal with Fox. CTV now boasts over 30 million streams a month.(1) Not bad for a country of 33 million!
“We’re finally up over 130,000 unique visitors a day to our new video players!”
Jonathan Keebler, Technology Manager for CTV Digital (2)
This of course is great news to all who enjoy viewing television online, but bad news to companies like Rogers, Bell & now Cogeco(3) who make money on cable & satellite services. It is no wonder that these companies are actively working against allowing people to view content online and are limiting bandwidth.
More on this next time.
(1) Robertson, Grant. “CTV, ABC strike online drama deal.” globeandmail.com. 25 April 2008. The Globe & Mail (CTV Globe Media). 26 Apr 2008 <http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080425.wr-online26/BNStory/Front/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20080425.wr-online26>.
(2) Keebler, Jonathan. “How our servers are doing.” CTV Digital Media Group. 14 March 2008. CTV Globe Media. 26 Apr 2008 <http://blog.ctvdigital.net/index.php/2008/03/14/how-our-servers-are-doing/>.
(3) Geist, Michael. “Vuze Study Points To P2P Interference From Cogeco.” Michael Geist Blog. 21 April 2008. Michael Geist. 26 Apr 2008 <http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2855/125/>.
technorati tags: television, internet, ctv, abc, linux, ubuntu, cogeco, bell, rogers, throttling, lost, desperate housewives, grey’s anatomy
4 Comments
Your blog entry reminded me that I haven’t posted to the CTV blog since March too. Way too long! I’d better get writing.
As you noticed, we’ve been working hard on the video players. First, we launched an embedded video player on TSN.ca. CTV News liked it so much that it made it’s way onto their local sites too.
Then we got to work on this Disney deal that brought ‘Lost’, ‘Desperate Housewives’, and ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ online thanks to VW and Duracell. Disney actually turned out to be great to work with, and we’re able to bring all the episodes to you DRM-free in Flash Video. Even ABC.com uses a browser-plugin
Thanks for following along with our adventures in online video
We’ve got another player launching on Monday, and 2 more before the summer. And you’re going to see a lot more video being served on CTV.ca.
Happy watching
“(You hear that sponsors? I only watch tv online, so start advertising there!)”
Are you crazy? Don’t tell them to advertize online. No doubt, the network will get around to doing it. There’s no need to urge them to do it sooner. I don’t watch shows for the commercials.
Online content delivery will never become a reality unless it can be monetized, and unless advertisers find their way to the content it will never find its way to us. If you read the Globe article thats linked in the blog you will see that those three shows were only able to come over thanks to a sponsorship deal with Duracell & Volkswagon.
–malocite
I am quite impressed with the changes to the online player for CTV. Light years ahead of Global. I hope more advertisers go this route and support it; I quite enjoy watching shows on MY time and don’t mind the ads that help make this option available. It isn’t like the ads that are there are obtrusive (though it can get annoying seeing the same.ad.over.and.over… but I’ll live)