Live Streaming Grows 648% Over Last Year

Over the past year, the amount of time American audiences spent watching video for the major live video publishers (Justin.tv, USTREAM, Livestream, LiveVideo, and Stickam) has grown 648 percent to more than 1.4 billion minutes.

By comparison, the amount of time American audiences spent watching YouTube and Hulu increased 68 percent and 75 percent, respectively, over the same time period.

Though the amount of time spent watching live video is still only a small fraction of the total time spent watching online video, its sharp growth indicates viewers’ growing comfort with the content.

comScore Voices - The comScore Blog

Android Grows Rapidly as Platform for Mobile Web Browsing

Android devices have gained about 17 or 18 percentage points of market share over the last year in the mobile Web browsing market, says Quantcast.

Apple's iOS has lost share.

Smaller Cable Networks at Risk of Being Squeezed Out?

More small "cable channels" are going to have incentives to seek carriage on Apple TV, Google TV, Amazon or Netflix if cable and telco networks start to bump them off line-ups in favor of more-popular channels.

AT&T allowed its contract with Crown Media to lapse, essentially dropping the Hallmark cable networks when the deal expired at midnight on Sept. 1. According to JP Morgan Chase analyst Imran Khan, “there has been no sign of progress toward reaching a deal,” suggesting that AT&T might not bring those stations back to its U-verse pay TV service.

Content owners ultimately will be the decisive factor in pushing more content to online distribution, and being dropped from multichannel video basic line-ups is the sort of thing that will drive the moves.

Smaller Cable Networks at Risk of Being Squeezed Out?

Angry Birds Lite for Android Now Available

Angry Birds Lite is now available at Android Market. It appears to require Froyo (version 2.2).

Google to Launch Own Music Service

Music industry interests unhappy with Apple's role in distribution might be cheering Google plans for a download store and a digital song locker that would allow its mobile users to play songs wherever they are.

Google's Andy Rubin, the brains behind Google's Android mobile operating system, has been leading conversations with the labels about what a new Google music service would look like, Reuters reports.

Rubin, Google's vice president of engineering, hopes to have the service up and running by Christmas, two of these people said.

Apple and Google to clash in music space by Christmas | Reuters

FCC Wants More Input on Wireless, Managed Services

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline and Wireless Bureaus are seeking further public comment on issues related to specialized or ‘managed services and mobile broadband, at least partially, and perhaps largely, because Verizon and Google have reached their own agreement about how to implement network neutrality on Verizon's fixed networks, but have agreed not to apply the rules to wireless access.

The FCC wants further input on the exemption of new managed services from the "best effort only" Internet access agreement. In essence, Google and Verizon have agreed to what network neutrality advocates have asked for on the fixed networks. That virtually ends discussion about Internet access and network neutrality.

But the mobile network now emerges as the area where policy advocates will focus their energy, and many will not be happy with the exemption for managed services, though the policy foundation for prohibiting such services seems quite weak. Lots of services, such as private network services or cable TV or telco TV routinely use the same physical facilities, but represent different services from "Internet access" and in fact are regulated using entirely different rules.

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Apple Doubles iPad Production: Android is the Reason

Apple is manufacturing two million iPads each month, but production now is scheduled to ramp up to three million a month.

Android tablets may be the reason. Apple wants to make sure people can walk into an Apple store looking for an iPad and walk out purchase in hand.

Apple Doubles iPad Production As Android Tablet Threat Looms