HTML5

In a posting on its corporate blog, Monday, Google announced that it has teamed with writer/director, Chris Milk, and the band, Arcade Fire, to develop a personalizable, interactive music video, entitled "The Wilderness Downtown" (note: the video's soundtrack is the new Arcade Fire single, "We Used to Wait"). The video is designed to showcase Google's Chrome browser, the company's Google Maps service, and--most importantly--the potential of the HTML5 standard and other open Web technologies.

Here are some other interactive TV-related stories we didn't have room for in this issue:

OTT specialist, Roku, and IAC-owned video-sharing company, Vimeo, on Tuesday announced the launch of a Vimeo channel on the Roku platform. Roku is Vimeo's first partner in the home entertainment space, the companies said.

The [itvt] editorial team is on the road this week, so we are covering most stories in round-up/summary form, and we anticipate that there will be some additional interruptions of our regular news publishing schedule beyond that. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience to our readers.

The [itvt] editorial team will be on the road this week and next, so we will be covering most stories in round-up/summary form, and we anticipate that there will be some additional interruptions of our regular news publishing schedule beyond that. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience to our readers.

Web video search engine provider, MeFeedia, contacted [itvt] Wednesday to let us know that it is today launching a free analytics suite for HTML5 video that reports on consumption by device. According to the company, the new analytics offering enables the tracking of video engagement across the Web, mobiles and connected TV platforms--including on the Apple iPad and the forthcoming Google TV platform. "Consumers are increasingly watching video on all screens from laptops to smartphones, desktops to TV's," MeFeedia CEO, Frank Sinton, said in a prepared statement. "With a cross-platform look at what, how and where content is being watched--in real-time--advertisers and publishers can immediately react to the changing demands of consumers and clients."

Clicker Media--the company which last fall 1) launched Clicker.com, a service that it bills as "the first complete programming guide to Internet television" and as "the first truly comprehensive, structured and unbiased resource for navigating all broadcast- and broadcast-quality programming online" (see the article published on itvt.com, November 16th), and 2) revealed that Sling Media co-founder, Blake Krikorian, had invested in it and joined its board (see the article published on itvt.com, November 9th); and which earlier this month (see the article published on itvt.com, May 5th) announced the launch of a service called Clicker Live, which it bills as

Revision3--a company which bills itself as "an actual TV network for the Web," and which produces its own original, broadcast-quality programming--said Monday that it now supports playback of its videos on the Apple iPad, thanks to its decision to embrace the HTML5 spec. "As many of you may be aware, the emergence of the new HTML5 spec allows for much richer video support natively within HTML," the company wrote on its corporate blog. "For the past few weeks we have been investigating and beginning our research and development into how we could utilize HTML5 for use on Revision3. At the same time, this little device that seems to be growing in popularity, the Apple iPad, was released.

In a posting on its corporate blog last week by its VP of product, Eugene Wei, network-backed broadband video service, Hulu, announced a number of updates to its player and to its service in general, and also explained why it is not yet ready to jump on the HTML5 bandwagon.

According to the company, the updates include:

Broadband video platform provider, Brightcove, on Wednesday announced plans to go live by early June with an HTML5 video advertising solution for media companies. According to the company, the solution will build on Brightcove's native support for HTML5 video and will provide turnkey integration with the Monetization Rights Management (MRM) product of its partner, video monetization technology provider, FreeWheel. The solution is designed to enable Brightcove's customers to deliver ad-supported video to such HTML5-compatible devices as the Apple iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.

Here is a round-up of some other recent interactive TV-related stories that we didn't have room for in this issue:

Broadband video platform provider, Brightcove, said Wednesday that it has been tapped by Rogers Digital Media to power a redesigned version of the latter's "Citytv Video Theatre" Web site (http://video.citytv.com).

In time for the April 3rd launch of the Apple iPad, broadband video platform providers, Brightcove and Ooyala, have both announced HTML5-based solutions that support delivery of online video to the new tablet device.

Because the [itvt] editorial team is busy working on The TV of Tomorrow Show (March 3rd-4th in San Francisco) and on our new EBIF Intensive event (March 5th in San Francisco), we are covering a number of stories in this issue in summary form:

In a posting on its corporate blog, Wednesday afternoon, YouTube announced that it is introducing an "experimental version" of an HTML5-based video player. YouTube recently used its blog to canvas users on what kinds of new features they would like to see on its video sharing service, and, according to the company, the "number one request was that YouTube do more with HTML5." HTML5 is "a new Web standard that is gaining popularity rapidly and adds many new features to your Web experience," YouTube's blog posting explains. "Most notably for YouTube users, HTML5 includes support for video and audio playback.