Tuesday, January 9, 2007

MediaZone Goes Beta: Bandwidth Issues to Follow?

MediaZone announced a beta version of its social TV platform, allowing the creation of "linear" TV channels. MediaZone has delivered more than 2000 sports, entertainment and cultural events each year, including the Wimbledon Championships, the ING New York City Marathon and the FIBA Basketball World Championships. The company has also developed long-term exclusive content partnerships with major media brands including NBC Sports, AOL and the Shanghai Media Group.

MediaZone's latest platform introduces new features surrounding video programming, including chat with others watching the same show, ratings and comments, blog publishing, and other tools to deliver a far more comprehensive interactive platform than current video sites offer. Viewers can share their thoughts and passions while watching Social TV's numerous hard-to-find programming channels.

The platform accommodates TV producers, networks, cable outlets, media libraries and other content partners seeking to build full-time linear internet video channels, the company says.

Aside from the obvious competitive impact on existing media channels, there is a serious issue about how much bandwidth, both in the backbone and in the access network, might be chewed up if streaming video really starts to take off. If a broadband access service limits total usage to 2 Gigabytes a month, then the limit is reached in just 20 hours of standard TV viewing.

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