2008 has now seamlessly morphed into 2009 and we’re all a year older, and maybe even a year wiser. But what happened in the world of Internet television over the past 12 months?

Here are my highlights of 2008 in the world of Web TV, with the two or three most fascinating or biggest stories from each month of the year. I wonder if 2009 will hold equal delights?

January

The year began with speculation as to whether Joost would survive the year. And despite a dodgy economy and bumps along the way, it has managed it. Meanwhile, there was an intriguing story concerning how BitTorrent wasn’t being used just by pirates to swap illegal wares.

February

Blu-ray finally won the battle of the high-definition formats but would it really matter in the end when digital downloads were surely the future? Quarterlife made its NBC TV debut and unfortunately didn’t do very well, proving Web video still has a way to go before mainstream acceptance is guaranteed.

(more…)

Hulu is already a huge player in the burgeoning Web video market but things could be about to get even better for the NBC/Fox site. Global expansion and becoming the new home for music videos is now on the cards.

Hulu Already On The Up

Hulu is a brilliant video-sharing site on the Internet. The joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corp’s Fox has come from nowhere to be the sixth most-viewed online video site in a little over a year. And it’s profitable with it. But things can always improve.

(more…)

The use of the Internet to deliver television and video content is increasing rapidly, but the infrastructure to do so isn’t quite ready to cope with demand. Enter HDi, technology promising high-definition video streaming over existing networks.

Online Video Growth

Online video is big business, and seemingly becoming even bigger every day. But with bandwidth issues and slow Broadband still being the order of the day, is the Web ready for the revolution?

FilmOn.com is a video streaming site just like any other, at least on first sight. But Alki David, its founder and chairman has, along with Rich Crosby, a television engineer from Miami, has developed a technology called HDi which could lift it above its rivals.

(more…)

We may all love watching television and video on the Internet, but the technology allowing us to do so doesn’t come for free. Could we, the consumers, soon have to pay extra in order to watch Web television?

Web video is currently growing, both in quality and popularity, at a faster rate than broadband Internet speeds are increasing. This is creating a problem wherein ISPs (Internet Service Providers) are calling foul on providing the extra bandwidth necessary for these services.

Most ISPs already offer tiered services where the more money you pay, the higher speed and monthly download limits you get. But that may not be enough to offset the cost of delivering high quality video streams.

(more…)

Music videos seem perfectly suited to the Web, being short videos that are easily digestible. But no-one seems to have truly got a handle on their Internet potential yet. Could the big four record companies be about to do so by developing a Hulu for music videos?

Warner Jumps First

At the moment there are many different places to watch music videos on the Web. the biggest source must surely be YouTube where almost every music video ever made can be found.

Or at least that was the case before the Warner Music Group took their ball back and went home, removing all of its music videos from the Google-owned site on their way off the park.

(more…)

Warner Music videos are currently disappearing from YouTube at a rate of knots due to a breakdown in negotiations concerning a new licensing deal. Could this be the first of many companies jumping ship?

Perfect Partners?

YouTube and music videos go hand in hand with each other. They are the perfect partners, offering users a chance to watch their favorite promos on demand. Unfortunately, the content providers don’t always see eye to eye with the video-sharing site.

Google currently has licensing agreements in place with the big four record companies which see music videos appearing on YouTube. Unfortunately, the existing deals are coming to an end, and both sides seem unwilling to budge on the terms they want meeting.

Warner Jumps Ship

The Warner Music Group is the first to have made a move, pulling all of its videos from YouTube. The process started on Saturday morning and is likely to continue for some time due to the sheer number of the company’s videos present on the site.

(more…)

The BBC iPlayer is widely regarded as a magnificent achievement and beacon on how to deliver high quality video streams over the Internet. But until now, there have been a couple of problems, both of which the BBC seems to be in the process of fixing.

iPlayer History

It’s now been over 18 months since the BBC iPlayer originally launched in order to allow BBC viewers to watch programs via the Web up to seven days after they originally air on the public service broadcaster.

When the beta launched in July, 2007, there was widespread condemnation that the service was only available to people running Windows XP, meaning people who use the Mac and Linux operating systems lost out.

After a summer of moaning, the British government stepped in and told the BBC that it would have to offer the service to everyone. So the iPlayer was relaunched in December, 2007, with Adobe Flash support allowing everyone to stream content. However, only Windows users could download programs.

(more…)