Webcasting

Foo Fighters Live Concert Webcast Serves 440,000 Streams

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 3, 2009 - 10:28am.
Los Angeles - A live webcast of a performance by the Foo Fighters from their Los Angeles studio drew 440,000 live streams and a total of more than 150,000 viewers from around the world, NewTeeVee reported. The webcast was produced by Livestream, and available online via the band's site, Livestream, Facebook, and the iPhone. A recent live webcast of a U2 concert on YouTube drew a reported near 10 million viewers.

Live U2 Concert on YouTube Serves 10 Million Streams

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 29, 2009 - 9:41am.
San Bruno, Calif. - The live video webcast of U2's concert at the Rose Bowl on Sunday via Google's (NASD: GOOG) YouTube served up nearly 10 million streams, a company spokesperson told NewTeeVee.
tags: Video | Music | Google | YouTube | U2 | Webcasting |

Vivu Raises $3 Million for Video Webcast Platform

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 13, 2009 - 8:41am.
Sunnyvale, Calif. - ViVu, a provider of personal webcasting technology, announced on Tuesday that it has closed on a $3 million first round of funding, led by Inventus Capital Partners.

AEG Acquires Webcast Producer Incited Media

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 5, 2009 - 7:56am.
Los Angeles - AEG, an entertainment and sporting events promoter and venue owner, announced on Monday that it has acquired Incited Media, a provider of webcast management, production and media services.

Live365 Asks Court to Examine Copyright Royalty Board

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 1, 2009 - 8:45am.
Washington - Online radio service Live365 announced on Tuesday that it has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to halt any further webcasting royalty rate-setting proceedings before the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), until the issue of whether the judges on the board were appointed in violation of the Constitution's separation of powers is resolved. The company points to recent opinions by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, including one that stated that the CRB "exercises expansive executive authority ... unsupervised by the Librarian of Congress or by any other Executive Branch official," adding that the "statutory structure raises a serious Constitutional issue."

Web Radio Services Firms Ando Media, Spacial Audio to Merge

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 12, 2009 - 9:32am.
Boston - Ando Media, a provider of real-time audience measurement and advertising management services for the Internet audio market, announced on Tuesday that it has agreed to merge with Spacial Audio, a developer of audio, encoder and ad insertion technology for commercial broadcast and corporate clients.

Ustream Raises $2 Million for Live Webcasting Service

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 11, 2009 - 12:04pm.
Mountain View, Calif. - Ustream, a provider of live Web video streaming services, has raised $2 million in new funding from existing backers including Doll Capital Management, Contentinople reported, citing a regulatory filing.
tags: Deals | VC | Video | Webcasting | DCM | uStream |

Public Radio Stations, SoundExchange Set Webcast Royalties

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 11, 2009 - 11:35am.
Washington - SoundExchange, the recording industry entity set up to collect and distribute digital music royalties, announced on Tuesday that it has reached an agreement with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) on webcasting royalty rates for public radio stations through 2015. Under the deal, CPB will pay SoundExchange a total of $2.4 million for the term 2011-2015, based upon anticipated usage, with additional payments to be made if usage exceeds expectations.

Live365 Decries Webcasting Rate Deal; Submits Own Proposal

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 9, 2009 - 10:42am.
Foster City, Calif. - Live365, a provider of "microwebcasting" services that power Web radio stations from over 5,000 users, said on Thursday that the royalty rate deal announced this week by SoundExchange will have detrimental effects to its business, and submitted its own rate proposal to the agency.

SoundExchange, Pureplay Webcasters Reach Royalty Deal

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 7, 2009 - 9:37am.
Washington - SoundExchange, the firm set up by the major record labels to collect and distribute digital royalties, announced on Monday that it has agreed on new streaming music royalties for "pureplay" commercial webcasters. The "experimental rate agreement" includes revenue sharing for most services, as well as more robust reporting requirements, in exchange for a discount on per stream rates.

Thomson Reuters Acquires Webcasting Firm Streamlogics

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 7, 2009 - 6:02am.
Toronto, Canada - Thomson Reuters, the provider of business information and webcasting services, announced that it has acquired Streamlogics, a provider of webcasting software.

Supreme Court Asked to Overturn RIAA Trial Webcast Ban

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 2, 2009 - 1:56pm.
Boston - Attorneys for accused file-swapper Joel Tenenbaum have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review a case that upheld a ban on the Internet webcast of district court proceedings. The petition is based on the First and Fifth Amendments, and asks whether the ban on webcasting "impermissibly restrict(s) the judicial power vested in federal district court judges by the Constitution and creational statutes." Tenenbaum, who is being represented by Harvard Law professor Charles Nesson, has moved for a stay of all proceedings in the district court, pending the Supreme Court's review.

U.K. Royalty Body PRS for Music Cuts Music Streaming Rates

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 26, 2009 - 9:40am.
London - U.K. royalty collection society PRS for Music announced on Tuesday that it will cut by more than half the rate that websites must pay to stream music online, from $0.0035 to $0.00135 per track.

Live Video Streamer Mogulus Rebrands as Livestream

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 19, 2009 - 10:32am.
New York - Mogulus, the provider of a live video webcasting service, announced on Tuesday that it has changed its name to Livestream, having paid $100,000 for the domain name Livestream.com, according to DomainNews.com.

Event Webcaster Multicast Acquires Video Tagger Veotag

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 12, 2009 - 8:20am.
Atlanta - Multicast, a provider of live online event broadcasting services, announced on Tuesday its acquisition of Veotag, a provider of video tagging technology.

Appeals Court Prohibits RIAA Trial Webcast

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 16, 2009 - 10:35am.
Boston - The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned a trial judge's ruling that would have allowed the trial of a man accused of copyright infringement on file-sharing networks by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to be webcast live on the Internet. Harvard Law professor Charles Neeson, representing accused file-swapper and Boston student Joel Tenenbaum, made the request that the trial be made available online, due to the public interest in such file-sharing litigation.

Live Concert Webcaster Fabchannel to Shut Down

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 6, 2009 - 11:07am.
Amsterdam - Fabchannel.com, a provider of live concert webcasts based in Amsterdam, announced this week that it will shut down after nine years in operation, citing "bad economic prospects within the music and online advertising market."

NAB, SoundExchange Reach Accord on Music Webcast Royalties

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 17, 2009 - 12:48pm.
Washington - Commercial radio stations represented by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) have reached an agreement on music webcasting royalty rates with SoundExchange, the entity set up by major record labels to collect and distribute digital royalties. Under the new deal, which replaces terms set by the Copyright Royalty Board in 2007 that were near-universally decried by webcasters as too high, royalty rates will be lowered by 16% for 2009 and 2010, before gradually increasing through 2015.

The Pirate Bay Trial Gets Live Audio Webcast, Twitter Feed

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 12, 2009 - 1:49pm.
Stockholm, Sweden - Swedish public broadcaster SVT will stream live audio (in Swedish) from the copyright infringement trial of The Pirate Bay, the notorious file-sharing hub, TorrentFreak reported. Additionally, The Pirate Bay has called on supporters to help translate news from the trial into as many languages as possible in real-time on Twitter.

Report: Web Radio Music Listening Up 37.6% in 2008

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 10, 2009 - 12:22pm.
Marina, Calif. - Listening to Web radio music stations increased by 37.6% in 2008, to 6.67 billion hours, and in-stream audio sold against ad-supported cumulative listening hours was up 46% to $74 million, according to a report from AccuStream iMedia Research.